eighth regiment posted in it. While this was passing on the right of our line, general Rampon's division made an attack on the centre, extending as far towards the left as the ninety-second*. It attempted to turn the left of the brigade of guards, which was a little advanced; but was received with so warm and well kept up a fire from the third regiment of guards, whose left was thrown back, and from the royals, as to be forced, after a sharp contest, to retreat with great loss. General Destin, with his division, penetrated through the hollow, leaving the redoubt on his left, and endeavoured to reach the old ruins. He was there warmly received by the forty-second, and attempted to withdraw his troops; but a battalion of the twenty-first demi-brigade having advanced too far, was surrounded, and obliged to lay down its arms, and surrender to the forty-second and fifty-eighth regi ments. Repulsed in every quarter with the same obstinate resolution, and finding it impossible to penetrate through any part of our line, the French infantry, at length, gave way, and dispersed, in all directions, behind the sand hills. At this juncture, the French general in chief, Menou, foiled in all his attempts, determined to make one last desperate effort at carrying our position. For this purpose, he ordered the main body of the cavalry, under brigadier-general Roize, to charge; and general Regnier, at the head of the divisions Lanusse, Rampon, Friant, and the eightyfifth demi-brigade, to support it. General Roize, convinced, at once, of the inutility and hazard of the attempt, twice remonstrated; and it was only at the third peremptory order that he obeyed. Accordingly, the third and fourteenth dragoons, under general Boussart, came up with all the impetuous fury of men certain of being sacri. ficed, and charged through the forty-second regiment, reaching as far as the tents. Here, however, they were effectually stopped; the horses,. entangled in the cords, were, for the most part, killed +, and many of the men were obliged to seek their safety on foot. At this juncture, the Minorca regiment came to sup-port the forty-second, and drew up. in the vacant space between the redoubt and the guards. The second line of French cavalry, composed of, the fifteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth dragoons, with general Roize at their head, made another desperate charge apon these regiments.. As it would have been impossible to withstand the shock, they opened with the most deliberate composure a to let them pass; then, facing about, they poured upon them such volleys, as brought numbers, both of men and horses, to the ground. The.. cavalry When the firing commenced in the morning, the ninety-second was on its march to Aboukir, and already two miles from the camp. As soon as the firing was heard, it returned, under the command of major Napier, rejoined major-general Coote's brigade, and behaved with its usual gallantry. A circumstance, as fortunate as it was unexpected, contributed also very materially to the overthrow of the French cavalry. The ground, in the rear of the fortysecond, was full of holes, between three and four feet deep. These excavations had been made by the twenty-eighth regiment, as conveniences to sleep in, previous to the landing of the camp equipage. The enemy's cavalry, charging over these, was completely broken and routed. cavalry then endeavoured to force its way back, but this they were unable to effcct, and the greater part were killed or wounded in the attempt, general Roize, himself, falling on the spot. A standard, covered with the military exploits of the corps to which it belonged, according to general Regnier, a battalion of the twenty-first demi-brigade, fell into the hands of the Minorca or Queen's German regiment. It was taken by a private, named Anthony Lutz, for which he received a certificate from the adjutantgeneral, and the sum of twenty dollars. This man never having learned to write or read, was incapable of being made a serjeant, to which post he would otherwise have been advanced. In the early part of the action, a standard had been wrested from the French by the 42d regiment, which was, however, unfortunately retaken from them, at the moment of the impetuous charge of the enemy's cavalry. The French infantry, unable to give any assistance, and exposed to the fire of our guns, lost a great number of men. General Beaudot was mortally wounded; and, when the broken remains of the cavalry formed again in the rear of their infantry, not one fourth of those who had charged could be collected. It must have been at this period, that the gallant veteran, sir Ralph Ambercromby, received the unfortunate wound, which deprived the army of a distinguished and beloved commander. It is impossible to ascertain the exact moment, as he never complained, or revealed the circumstance of his being wounded to any one, till it was perceived by those about him. No entreaty could even then prevail on him to leave the field, till convinced, by his own eyes, of the enemy's retreat. During this, the right of the French army continued motionless opposite to our left; but a warm cannonade was maintained on either side, and the riflemen and sharpshooters, scattered along the fronts, kept up an incessant fire. After the last effort of the cavalry, the French army remained drawn up in order of battle, contenting itself with keeping up a heavy cannonade, which we warmly returned. By this cannonade our second line suffered very considerably, because, great part of the first line being disposed along a height, the French were obliged to give great elevation to their guns, so that the balls, clearing the height, fell in among the ranks of the second line posted behind it. The enemy seemed wavering and uncertain, whether to attempt another attack; and, in this debate between prudence and courage, their troops lay completely under the fire of our guns, which caused a dreadful havock among them. Presently, however, two of their ammunition waggons blew up, with a dreadful explosion, and their fire began considerably to slacken, most probably from a want of ammunition. Things remained in this state till about half after nine, when the cnemy, losing numbers to no purpose, and not daring to renew the attack, began their retreat under the fire of all our artillery. At ten o'clock the firing totally ceased on both sides; and thus ended the glorious and ever momorable action of the 21st of March. Our loss being one thousand four hundred and sixty-four, in killed, wounded, and missing, was certainly very considerable; though slight, when compared with that of the enemy, which, at a very moderate calculation, must have amounted to four thousand men ; for no less than one thousand one hundred and sixty were counted by the provost marshall, left dead upon the field of battle, exclusive of those within the French vedettes, which, of course, he could not reckon, and of which there were certainly many. Generals Lanusse, Roize, and Beaudot were killed, and generals Desten, Sylly, Eppler, and several other of ficers of rank, wounded. In the pocket-book of general Roize were found some interesting papers. We took in this engagement two hundred and fifty prisoners, two pieces of cannon, and one standard. On our side, the commander in chief was mortally wounded; major general Moore, brigadier-general Hope, adjutant-general to the army, and brigadiers-general Oakes and Lawson were likewise wounded*. The gun-boats on the right, ander the command of captain Mait land, of the royal navy, were of the most essential service, and did very great execution among the French troops posted behind the sand hills. At one time, during the engagement, we were in the greatest dis tress imaginable, for want of ammu-^ nition; several guns were left with scarcely one round, and many regiments were in a similar situation. This circumstance was owing to the want of means of conveyance. Had it not been for this temporary deficiency, the loss of the enemy would have been much more considerable. As general Menou built his chief hopes of success upon the sudden overthrow of our right wing, and the consequent consternation of the army, he had preferred making his approach while favoured by the night, that he might arrive close to our position unperceived, and thus avoid the destructive fire of our entrenchments, and of the gun-boats. In fact, the attack was as sudden as it was unexpected; and had general Lanusse waited a little longer for the effect produced by the false alarm on our left, the consequence might have been very serious, as the Minorca regiment, and the rest of general Stuart's brigade, afterward of such very essential service on the right, were actually on their march to the threatened quarter. The five hundred Turks remained in the rear during the whole action. When the danger was over, they pa raded on a small hill in our front, with their numerous flags flying.— About *The effective force of the British ariny, in the field on this memorable day, was under twelve thousand men; that of the French, from the most exact computations that could be made, cannot have been less than twelve or thirteen thousand able and experienced soldiers, exclusive of artillery. Our effective strength on the 7th of March, as appears by the official returns at the end of the Appendix, was 14697 rank and file. Subtracting from the number.. 666 our loss on the 8th of March. 520 strength of the marines left before Aboukir castle. About 600 sick or convalescents. 2938 Reduces our force actually in the field, on the 21st of March, to 11759. About two hundred Bedoween Arabs, mounted on horseback, came in to us, across the ancient bed of Lake Mareotis, before the firing had entirely ceased, and expressed their joy at the defeat of the French. The ground in our front, and even between our lines, was strewed with the bodies of the enemy's slain, which the Turks and Arabs were very desirous to strip and plunder, had they been allowed by us. Before night, almost all the dead within our vedettes had been buried; but within the French lines it was very different,-for numbers of men, horses, and camels, were there left to rot, and infect the air with their noisome exhalations. When sir Ralph Abercrombie had seen the enemy retreat, he attempted to get on horseback; but his wound, which was probed and dressed in the field by an assistant surgeon of the guards, having become extremely stiff and painful, he could not mount, and reluctantly suffered himself to be placed upon a litter, from which he was removed into a boat, and carried on board the Foudroy ant. Here lord Keith received him with all possible affection, and every care and attention which his state required were early paid him. This misfortune befalling our illustrious commander, of whom it threatened to deprive us, combined, with the reflection on the many valuable lives that had been lost, to damp the joy and triumph we should otherwise have felt on obtaining such a brilliant victory. There being some reason to apprehend that the enemy intended to repeat their attack during the night, our troops remained under arms, and at their alarm pests, till morning. Had the French again tried 1 our strength, however, they would have met even a warmer reception than they had received this morning. Two additional twenty-four-pounders had been brought up, and placed on a commanding ground in the rear of the third regiment of guards; great abundance of ammunition of all kinds had been also conveyed from the depôt to the lines, which had been strengthened by trous de loup, trenches, &c." The following passage does so much credit to the feelings and character of the author, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of its insertion. "On the morning of the 29th of March, arrived the melancholy tidings of sir Ralph Abercrombie's decease. At eleven, the preceding night, death snatched from us this beloved commander. The wound which he received on the 21st, bringing on fever and mortification, occasioned this lamented event, and our valiant general was lost to us at the moment when we stood most in need of his assistance. The ball had entered the thigh very high up, and, taking a direction towards the groin, had lodged in the bone, whence it could not be extracted. In the action of the 13th of March, he had suffered a contusion in the thigh, from a musket-ball, and had a horse killed under him. On the 21st, at the time when he received his death wound, he was in the very midst of the enemy, and personally engaged with an officer of dragoons, who was at that moment, shot by a corporal of the forty-second. Sir Ralph retained the officer's sword, which had passed between his arm and his side the instant before the officer fell. During the seven days which elapsed elapsed from the period of his being wounded till his death, the anguish and torture he endured must have been extreme. Yet not a groan, not a complaint escaped his lips, and he continued to the last a bright example of patience and fortitude. He thought and talked of nothing else, to all around him, but of the bravery and heroic conduct of the army, which he said he could not sufficiently admire. A man who had served his 'country in every quarter of the globe; who, as a commander, devotes to his troops an attention almost parental; as a soldier, shares in all their hardships and all their dangers; who, at an age when he might retire from the field crowned with glory, comes forth, at the call of his country, a veteran in experience, youthful in ardour; whose life is a public blessing, his death an universal misfortune, is beyond the hackneyed phrase of panegyric.— Such a man was Sir Ralph Abercrombie. Dead to his country, his name will ever live in her recollection. Through his exertions, seconded by the co-operation of those he commanded, a nation, long oppressed by a sanguinary war, caught the first glimpse of an honourable peace; and while a grateful people bent over the grave of their departed hero, they beheld the yet timid olive, sheltering itself in the laurels which encircled his tomb.The command of the army now devolved upon major-general Hutchinson." CONTENTS |