The History of the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own) Formerly the 95thCope, William Henry
History
The History of the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own) Formerly the 95th
Cope, William Henry
Great Britain. Army. Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own)
Of the wounded Lieutenant Johnston had been brought with Simmons to
the farmhouse of Mont St. Jean, a little in rear of the position of
the Battalion. Some Riflemen procured two horses, which had belonged
to French cavalry soldiers, on which they set these officers to take
them to Brussels; and as they were turning out of the gate a cannon
shot, many of which were bounding along the road, struck Johnston and
killed him on the spot.
Of Worsley, Kincaid relates that he had at Badajos received a shot
in his ear, which came out at the back of the neck, which on his
recovery had the effect of turning his head to the right; and that
now he received exactly a similar wound in the left ear, the ball
coming out near the exit of the former, which restored his head to
its original position.[163]
M’Cullock had been wounded in the shoulder on Massena’s retreat from
Portugal in March 1811, and this wound deprived him of the use of the
arm. At Waterloo, by a shot fired very late in the day, he lost the
other arm. He was promoted, ‘having no longer an arm to wield for his
country,’ as he told the Duke of Wellington, ‘but being anxious to
serve it,’ to a majority in the 2nd Garrison Battalion in Dec. 1815,
and died in London in 1818.
Charles Beckwith had his left leg shattered by grape-shot shortly
before the end of the battle. It was amputated a few days afterwards.
He exchanged to half-pay in 1820; and some years subsequently, having
had his attention directed to the Waldenses, he, after frequent
visits to the Pignerolo valleys, eventually settled in that country.
Here his career was one of great usefulness. He found the people
in a state of great depression, poverty and ignorance; and by
untiring devotion to their interests, temporal as well as spiritual,
conferred on them inestimable benefits. He established schools for
primary education, and seminaries for more advanced instruction.
And he taught the people self-reliance, and led them to join in and
contribute to the good works he originated for them. After a career
of great usefulness he died (having then the rank of Major-General)
at Torre, on the 19th July, 1862, attended to the grave by the love
and lamentations of the people for whom he had done so much.[164]
Lieutenant Allen Stewart was stabbed through the left arm by a French
officer ‘whom he finished in an instant;’[165] he was subsequently
wounded by a musket-ball which lodged in the shoulder. After long
suffering at Brussels, where he experienced, as did many other
Riflemen, very great attention and kindness from the inhabitants on
whom they were billeted, he returned to England[166] with George
Simmons, who had also long been detained at Brussels by his dangerous
wounds.[167]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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