Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
History
Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.
Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
Amazons; Women -- Biography; Women soldiers
The tyranny of Davis soon became unbearable; and, to make matters
worse, a carpenter from Worcester, who had lodged in the house of
Hannah's brother-in-law, enlisted in the regiment, and she was in
constant terror lest he should recognise and betray her. To get away
without the discovery of her sex was now the great object of her
thoughts. She borrowed a small sum of money from the girl in Carlisle,
deserted, and set off on foot for Portsmouth. About a mile from
Carlisle she saw several men and women picking peas; their clothes
lay about, at a short distance, and Hannah very speedily exchanged her
soldier's coat for an old jacket.
At Liverpool she entered a small public-house; and, by affecting to
make love to the landlady, made the landlord so jealous that a match of
"fisticuffs" ensued. Boniface, however, got the worst of it, and was
compelled to keep his bed all next day. Hannah borrowed some money of
the landlady, and made the best of her way to Chester, where she took
genteel lodgings in a private house.
It chanced that a pretty young mantua-maker lodged in the same house.
Hannah contrived to make the acquaintance of the girl, and speedily
won her heart, together with five guineas. The handsome young suitor
levanted to Winchester, where, in an attempt on the heart of a widow,
she met her match. She speedily quitted the town, with only a few
shillings in her pocket.
In about a month from the day she left Carlisle, Hannah reached
Portsmouth, where she enlisted in Colonel Fraser's Regiment of Marines.
With others of her regiment, she embarked, three weeks later, for the
East Indies. The "Swallow" formed part of Admiral Boscawen's fleet.
Hannah soon earned the praises of the officers for her dexterity in
washing, mending, and cooking. Mr. Wyegate, Lieutenant of Marines, was
so greatly interested in the young private, that he invited her to
become one at the officers' mess.
The "Swallow" suffered from some terrible storms, which destroyed
almost all her rigging, and reduced the vessel almost to the condition
of a wreck. It was refitted at Gibraltar; proceeding thence by the Cape
of Good Hope to the Mauritius, which Admiral Boscawen unsuccessfully
attacked. Thence the fleet sailed to Fort St. David on the Coromandel
coast; where the marines being disbanded, joined the British force
encamped before Areacoping. The place surrendered after a siege of
ten days. During the siege Hannah displayed so much courage that she
received the commendations of all her officers.
The British next laid siege to Pondicherry; but after suffering
terrible hardships, they were forced by the rainy season to raise the
siege in eleven weeks. Hannah was one of the first body of British
soldiers who forded the river, breast high, under an incessant fire
from the French batteries. She was also for seven nights successively
on duty in the picket-ground, and worked exceedingly hard for upwards
of fourteen days in the trenches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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