The History of the First West India RegimentEllis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon)
History
The History of the First West India Regiment
Ellis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon)
Great Britain. Army. West India regiment, 1st
Major-General L.S. O'Connor, commanding the troops in Jamaica, was
inspecting the left wing of the 1st West India Regiment, under Major
Anton, at Up Park Camp, on the morning of the 11th of October, when the
news of the riot at Stony Gut on the 10th arrived, with a requisition
from Governor Eyre for 100 men in aid of the civil power. In less than
an hour Captain Ross's company paraded and marched to Kingston, where
they embarked in H.M.S. _Wolverine_. Unfortunately, it not being
supposed that there was any necessity for urgency, the _Wolverine_ did
not leave Port Royal for Morant Bay until daybreak on the 12th. At about
noon on the 12th the news of the massacre of the magistrates reached
Port Royal, where Major-General O'Connor was inspecting the detachment
of the 1st West India Regiment, under Captain Luke. In two hours from
the receipt of the intelligence, the company embarked on board H.M.S.
_Onyx_, and landed at Morant Bay on the morning of the 13th.
Captain Ross, on arriving at Morant Bay, had found the town deserted by
all the Europeans, except Mr. Georges, who was severely wounded with
three musket balls in his leg. The bodies of the unfortunate
magistrates, many of which were barbarously mutilated, were buried by
this company. This duty performed, the men patrolled the roads in the
neighbourhood, and many ladies, whose husbands had been murdered or
taken prisoners, and who had fled with their children, on the approach
of the rioters, to bamboo thickets or other shelter, hearing the sound
of the bugles, came in for protection. Numbers of them had passed the
night in copses, from which, trembling with terror, they had seen their
houses pillaged.
On the 12th of October, large parties of the rebels, armed with guns and
cutlasses, marched in military order through Bath and other contiguous
districts. Stores were pillaged, and property taken or destroyed. Blue
Mountain Valley Estate, Amity Hall, Monklands, which is sixteen miles
from Morant Bay, and Hordley Estate, were all attacked by the
insurgents, the occupiers barely escaping with their lives. At Blue
Mountain Valley and Amity Hall, barbarous murders were perpetrated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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