Historical record of the Eighty-eighth Regiment of Foot, or Connaught Rangers : $b containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1793, and of its subsequent services to 1837.Cannon, Richard
History
Historical record of the Eighty-eighth Regiment of Foot, or Connaught Rangers : $b containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1793, and of its subsequent services to 1837.
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 88th (Connaught Rangers)
The expedition[1] sailed from Falmouth on the 12th of November, 1806,
and, after remaining at St. Jago, in the Cape de Verde Islands, from
the 14th of December, 1806, to the 11th of January, 1807, arrived
in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 22nd of March following.
Here the EIGHTY-EIGHTH landed in marching order, and was for the
first time inspected by Brigadier-General Craufurd, who expressed
himself in terms of approbation of its general appearance. From
the Cape the expedition sailed again on the 6th of April; called
at St. Helena on the 21st, to complete its stock of water and
provisions; and, quitting that island on the 26th, arrived on the
14th of June at _Monte Video_, then occupied by the British troops
under Lieutenant-General Whitelocke, who had arrived there in May,
preceding, and now assumed the command of the whole British force in
South America.
On the 26th of June the army arrived off Ensenada da Baragon, a
port on the river Plata, about thirty-two miles distant from Buenos
Ayres, and landed on the 28th without firing a shot. The Thirty-Sixth
and EIGHTY-EIGHTH regiments were brigaded together under the orders
of Brigadier-General the Honourable W. Lumley. On the 29th the
troops moved forward; the light brigade, composed of the rifle
corps and nine light infantry companies, formed the advance, which
was supported by Brigadier-General Lumley’s brigade, and followed
by the other corps in succession. On the 1st of July the army was
concentrated near the village of Reduction, about seven miles from
Buenos Ayres, from whence it again advanced on the following day,
crossed the Chuelo, a rivulet, by a ford called the Chico, and
traversed the low ground on the opposite bank, at the extremity of
which stands the city of _Buenos Ayres_.
Hitherto the enemy had offered only a very feeble resistance, which
the discharge of a few round shot was sufficient to overcome; but
when the right column, commanded by Major-General Leveson Gower,
arrived near the Coral de Miserere, the Spaniards displayed a
formidable body of infantry and cavalry, supported by a brigade of
guns, with others in reserve. Brigadier-General Craufurd, placing
himself at the head of his brigade, consisting of the Ninety-Fifth
Rifles and light battalion, immediately made a vigorous charge; drove
the enemy back in confusion; captured nine guns and a howitzer;
and, profiting by the panic which had seized his opponents, pursued
them into the very suburbs of the city, where his career of victory
terminated, and Major-General Leveson Gower ordered the troops, first
to halt, and then to take up a position for the night about a mile in
the rear, near the principal slaughtering-place of the town. During
the advance into the town, Captain William Parker Carroll, with his
company, took a tilted waggon loaded with bread, and an eight-pounder
brass gun, on which EIGHTY-EIGHTH was immediately scored with the
point of a soldier’s bayonet, to mark it as a regimental prize.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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