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
Guadaloupe really consists of two islands, separated from each other by
a narrow arm of the sea, called La Riviere Salee, which is navigable for
vessels of fifty tons. The eastern island, or division, which is flat
and low-lying, is called Grandeterre; while the western, which is rugged
and mountainous, is named Basseterre.
On the 8th of April, the troops, with the remaining company of the
Carolina Corps, sailed from Fort Royal, Martinique; and, about one
o'clock in the morning of the 11th, a landing was effected at Grosier
Bay. Before daybreak on the 12th, the fort of La Fleur d'Epee was
carried by assault, and the greater part of the garrison put to the
sword. Fort St. Louis, the town of Point a Pitre, and a new battery upon
Islet a Cochon being afterwards abandoned, the possession of Grandeterre
was complete. The reduction of Basseterre was effected on the 21st of
the same month; and the company of the Carolina Corps, with other
troops, being left in garrison in Guadaloupe, the general returned to
Martinique.
The British, however, were not permitted to remain long in peaceable
possession of their most recent conquest; for on the 3rd of June, a
considerable French armament arrived off Point a Pitre. Fort Fleur
d'Epee was taken by storm, and the place not being tenable after this
loss, the British crossed over to Basseterre. Several prisoners were
taken by the French, and amongst them were some of the Carolina Corps,
for in the return of that corps for February, 1795, dated March 1st,
there is the following note: "Some of the corps are prisoners at Point a
Pitre, but their number cannot be ascertained." In a later return,
however, we find that they consisted of one sergeant and eight rank and
file.
On the 2nd of July, the British made an ineffectual attempt to recover
Point a Pitre, and soon after established their head-quarters at
Berville, in Basseterre. The camp at Berville was invested in September,
and on the 6th of October it was compelled to capitulate. Thus the whole
of Guadaloupe, with the exception of Fort Matilda, situated above the
town of Basseterre, and which was still held by a British garrison, was
recovered by the French. At the surrender of Berville, 300 French
Royalists, who were in the British camp, were massacred by the orders of
Victor Hugues, the French commander.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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