WHAT IS WAR?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11872, 25 January 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

WHAT IS WAR?

HOW IT WAS CARRIED ON UNDER THE IRON DUKE. H A BOOK has just been issued entitled " Re- ' miniseences Under Wellington," It is by Captain Claude Hay, a veteran of the Penin- !§■ sula and Waterloo, and is now published by his daughter. ; Hay was only sixteen years old when he joined his regiment, the 52nd Light Infantry. Shortly after joining young Hay : sailed to find his comrades, who were then in the Peninsula with Wellington. He reported himself to his colonel two days after the battle of Busaco. Followed thereon the famous retreat to Torres Vedras. Here are some extracts from his notes: —

"Ihad certainly heard much of soldiering, campaigning, fighting, etc., but I little dreamed what it really was. The weather was vet and cold, and the roads in the most dreadful state, and I shall never forget the shock to my nervous system on seeing the carehss way the bodies of dead men were trodefen on as we passed them lying in the muddp roads!' But I soon became accustomed to such sights. On our march we were for several days pressed by the advance guards of the French, and when we encamped for the night our pickets and theirs were vithin a few paces of each other." AN" EXCITING PURSUIT.

In March, 1811, the French retreated from the lines they .could not storm, and the British sprang after them in pursuit, moving " al day and night, with frequently nothing to eat." At the engagement at Fez de Aroice he writes: — "At the latter place a sight astonished Me: about 500 donkeys were sitting and lying in the muddy road all hamstrung by , their bntal masters, the French, rather than allow them to fall into our hands." Terrible were the scenes in the retreat from Bu-gos, which even at that time was celebratel for its hardships. With the French cavalry in full pursuit oui stolid • infantry marched on in the pouring rain across tie muddy plains. Starving, ex- - hausted, ret without thought of surrender, they retrcited for a day and a night. ; Captair Hay had by this time been given a commisaon in a cavalry regiment, the 12th Light Dngoons, and he was in the rear covering tie retreat. " It- wai truly one of the most painful and sickening sights I ever before or afterwards witnessed The roads were strewn with

dead and dying men dropped from exhaustion and fatigue; I, one morning, counted thirteen len dead round one fire —I should ! say starvd to death—but whatever opinion I, individally, may have formed, as to the proceeding on the ' Retreat from Burgos' it would b presumption for me to give; but I ferventy hope such another misfortune may nevf again fall to the lot of a British army." i In 1811 we find him with his regiment in the Watrloo campaign, and with the influence c that great battle upon him his pen becoies brighter and more picturesque. The nigh before Quartre Bras it was as if the sbaow of death lay upon our army. They fel that upon the battles that were to comelepended the peace and prosperity of their oimtry. Was Europe to be plunged into furaer years of struggle against the ambition of Napoleon, or were his claws to be cut dee and lor all? Here i a picture of the morning of Waterloo whia is well worth quoting: — ' 'The ay of the ground on which we were drawn v> was a slight incline descending towards te great plain in our front; on the encloses and broken woodland, through which he roads mentioned ran, the lines rested. ; The morning had been sultry and black, nd heavy clouds indicated a thunderstorm.

" Fern where we stood to the extreme boundry of the forest that surrounded the plain nay have been about two miles. Throuli that forest three great avenues, or main roads, ran, coming from different point/towards the open, as it appeared. At a gr&t distance in the wood, on each side of t'ose roads, clouds of dust began to spred over the trees. That dust approached ticker and thicker, and dead silence pervade! our ranks; I thought even the horses wet more still than usual, no champing of biti no clattering of swords. Every eye wai directed anxiously to what was passing in he front. APPEARANCE OF THE ENEMY. '

'11l a moment-, as if by magic, debouched frm the dark green foliage, which had hiherto kept them from our sight, by the tfcee roads, the gorgeous uniforms of the Feiich cavalry, composed of the cuirassiers, 1 fleers, and -i braSs-helmeted dragoons. Oil hey came at a gallop, those from the rightland road forming on the plain to their Ift, the centre to their front, and the left o their right, until three lines fronting our jbt, -were drawn up. There were now in front of us, waiting, twenty-two thousand (22,000) cavalrydouble our number—and these supported by fifty guns of artillery, all ready for action." After; the first charge against the French Lancers and Light Dragoons, the 12th retired behind the British squares and watched that "noble sight," the onslaught, "like a torrent, sweeping everything before them," of /he Union Brigade. His own regiment ha<? been terribly cut up already. As he writes: — •

' When ,we entered the field there were thne squadrons, numbering fifty-four, fiftyth- 38, and forty-eight files each. All that w»;e left were formed into two, one of tvjnty-four. the other of twenty-three files —a sad havoc indeed! And, excited as the feelings of ail must have been at the monent from the occurrences around us, it caused a gloom and melancholy over those who remained, not easily shaken off; nor was it lessened when it was made known that our most gallant and -esteemed colonel was among them. "For my own part I never felt so much depressed in my life; nor could I. during the rest of the day, rouse my spirits when I for a moment reflected how truly dearly that short morning's work had cost the 12th."

THE STAND 01" THE SQUARES. Watching the battle through the clouds cf smoke, ho witnessed the stand of the British square against the gallant onslaught of the French cavalry—a stand that will be .. for ever famous in the annals of our country. "I have no-language to express what I felt for the situation of our most gallant infantry. Their squares had been so diminished that they appeared like little- specks, surrounded by the hosts of French cavalry constantly attacking them, and standing their ground under the most murderous fire of artillery." iThere is no space to follow Captain Hay through bis adventures on that day of days. .His description of the advance of the Imperial Guard, the dying effort of Napoleon's army, is admirable work. When decimated by the fire oil front and flank they retreated, the remains of the cavalry were let loose upon them. " We actually rode over the flying masses, who had nearly all thrown down their arms, the difficulty being how to get our horses over the heaps of dying and dead. ".I had seen many sights on the field after a battle, but this threw all before into complete shade. As to resistance, there was no attempt; and our men, too brave to kill disarmed men, merely rode over them, passing up to their artillery, who still continued to pour fen us a heavy fire; but these we charged and took one battery after another, cutting the men down, in many instances, while employed in putting the match to the touch-hole of the gun." ! THE HOST IS FLIGHT.

"Men in thousands running without arms, officers and privates struggling who should he first in the flight, were all I saw of the mighty host to which we had been opposed." As we know, the losses on both sides were enormous. Returning over the battlefield netx day he writes: — " Although prepared from what I had already beheld the evening before to wit- •» ness a shocking sight I v was struck with 4 horror at the actual masses of dead men and horses ; heaped together on a space of about a few hundred yards. " The day was extremely hot, and the dead bodies, already offensive, were shocking to look at. Many wounded were among them, so disabled as not to have the power to extricate themselves. " On gaining the road it was with diffi- * culty my horse could pick his way or keep bis footing, with hundreds of the worst and „ m ° desperate characters from Brussels and other'places, bent on plundering the dead ana wounded still left on the field of battle."

_ "By jostling and working my way, sometimes by the aides and sometimes by the roads, I reached the extreme end of the village of Waterloo, where I still found the wounded in hundreds, without any covering from the strong sun, lying on every spare space of ground. There the medical men were attending," After a short visit to Brussels he returned, and though it was three full days after the battle there was yet to he seen : — "Countless numbers of men lay stretched ill death, and among them some thousands of wounded, still unattended. Groups of peasants were parading all over the plain in search of plunder. Most of the bodies were stripped. It was a sight I cannot, even at this distance of time,"let my mind rest on without horror.

"On the ground were several patrols of Prussians shooting their own and the French wounded soldiers, who were beyond recovery."; Such was war not a hundred years ago!