Historical Record of the Seventy-Third Regiment: Containing an account of the formation of the Regiment from the period of its being raised as the Second Battalion of the Forty-Second Royal Highlanders in 1780 and of its subsequent services to 1851Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Seventy-Third Regiment: Containing an account of the formation of the Regiment from the period of its being raised as the Second Battalion of the Forty-Second Royal Highlanders in 1780 and of its subsequent services to 1851
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 73rd -- History
The officers wounded were Lieut.-Colonel William George Harris
(Colonel) commanding the battalion, severely; Major Archibald
John Maclean, who died of his wounds; Captains Henry Coane,
William Wharton, and John Garland, all severely. Lieutenants
John McConnell, Thomas Reynolds, and Donald Browne all severely;
Lieutenant Browne afterwards died of his wounds. Ensigns William
McBean, Charles Bedford Eastwood, and George Dondridge Bridge
(severely), and Ensign and Adjutant Patrick Hay severely.
Three serjeants, one drummer, and forty-three rank and file were
killed, and thirteen serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and
sixty rank and file were wounded; twenty-four of the above number
died of their wounds; forty-one rank and file were missing.
In acknowledgment of the services which the army performed in the
battle of Waterloo, and the actions immediately preceding it, each
subaltern officer and soldier present were permitted to count two
years additional service, and silver medals were conferred on all
ranks, bearing on the one side an impression of His Royal Highness
the Prince Regent, and on the reverse the figure of Victory,
holding the palm in the right hand, and the olive branch in the
left, with the word “_Wellington_” over its head, and “WATERLOO,”
18th June, 1815, at its feet.
The thanks of both Houses of Parliament were voted to the army
with the greatest enthusiasm, “for its distinguished valour at
Waterloo;” and the SEVENTY-THIRD and other regiments engaged,
were permitted to bear the word “WATERLOO” on their colours and
appointments, in commemoration of their distinguished services on
the 18th of June, 1815.
After the battle of Waterloo, the battalion, which was reduced to
a complete skeleton, advanced with the army to Paris, where it
arrived in the first week in July, and encamped in the Bois de
Boulogne until November, when it was placed in cantonments in the
vicinity of that metropolis.
Meanwhile Louis XVIII. had entered Paris, and was again reinstated
on the throne of his ancestors. Napoleon Bonaparte had surrendered
himself to Captain Maitland, commanding the “Bellerophon” British
ship of war, and the island of St. Helena having been fixed for
his residence, he was conveyed thither, with a few of his zealous
adherents.
When the allied forces retired from Paris in December, 1815, with
the exception of the “_Army of Occupation_” left in France, the
second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment was ordered to
return to England; it embarked at Calais on the 23rd of December,
and landed on the same day at Ramsgate; from Ramsgate it marched to
Colchester to join the depôt, which continued in that town during
the absence of the battalion on foreign service.
[Sidenote: 1816]
The battalion afterwards marched to Nottingham, where it arrived on
the 12th of February, 1816.
[Sidenote: 1817]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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