Historical Record of the Seventy-first Regiment, Highland Light Infantry: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1777, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1852Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Seventy-first Regiment, Highland Light Infantry: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1777, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1852
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 71st (Highland Light Infantry)
The flank companies of the fortieth regiment having been allowed
to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain
Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of
the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer),
and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March
1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the fortieth were
on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the
gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately
where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of
the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the
army, in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French
attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General
Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain
Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish
battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was
present in an action at Rhamanie, and followed the French to Grand
Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated; and returned as
escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they
had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre
Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria, on the 2d of
September 1801, terminated the campaign, for his services in which
he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the
several officers employed.
Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed aide-de-camp to
Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt
with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea
counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and
subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as aide-de-camp
to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed
to the command of the troops at Madras, and while on the passage,
namely, the 3d of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of major
in the fortieth regiment.
On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of
lieut.-colonel, upon being appointed deputy quartermaster-general
to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was
appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, governor-general
of India, and accompanied his lordship from Madras to Bengal,
with whom he remained until his lordship’s decease, at Ghazepore,
in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras
immediately afterwards, and was appointed military secretary to the
Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the commander-in-chief at that
presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806
as deputy adjutant-general in India, in which country he remained
until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John
Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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