THE BRITISH RETREAT, 1795

out of the Dutch Republic, to the German coast

by Geert van Uythoven

Source: Robert Brown, “An Impartial Journal of a Detachment from the Brigade of Foot Guards, commencing 25th February, 1793, and ending 9th May, 1795” (London 1795)

Robert Brown, who was a soldier in the Coldstream Guards, experienced all the hardships of the retreat to the German coast. He wrote the following about the British retreat, the hardships and misery of the soldiers, and the breakdown of discipline:

6 October 1794: “A very singular circumstance happened this day, the particulars are as follow: A few miles before we arrived at our place of destination, from some obstruction in the front among the wagons, the column made a halt for a few minutes, during which time a young lad, a driver, went to a house near the road, and whether he had taken away any thing without paying for it, or from what other cause we knew not, but he was shut out of the house, fired at from the windows, and slightly wounded; several other shots were fired from the windows, and a man of the name of Street, belonging to the 1st regiment, was much wounded and fell. This soon alarmed those who were near, and a crowd of the grenadier battalion assembling round the house, Serjeant Malpas, the drill serjeant of the battalion, was ordered by an officer to go and examine into the matter. He accordingly went, and in forcing the door open broke his sword in half, and following a man up stairs received a stab with a sword in the left breast, upon which he came down, and taking a firelock from a soldier, was going up stairs again, when the man or men above shot him dead on the spot: he fell backwards, and was taken out of the house by those present.

This so enraged the soldiers, that they instantly set fire to the house, which being thatched, in a few minutes was all in a blaze. In the mean time every one was watching to see who should come out of the house. Two men jumped out a window, one of which soon disappeared, the other they seized and instantly hung upon a tree while his house was in flames, and after shooting at, and otherwise mangling him, left him hanging, as a dreadful example to his villainous countrymen.

Two women, one of which had a child in her arms, came out of the house after it was set on fire, and were suffered to go unmolested; the woman who had the child was wounded in the thigh and bled very much.

(…)

30 November: The number of sick has increased of late in such an extraordinary manner, that above half the number of some battalions are now in the several hospitals.

8 December: The sickness still continues among our troops; numbers are sent to the hospitals every day. The general hospital for the British, which has been at Rhenen for five or six months past, is now crowded, and thirty or forty dying every day.

(…)

22 December: Sickness still increases.

25 December: Frost continues severe, with a fall of snow. Meat, and every other article of living is very scarce here, on account of the bridge being broke down at Arnheim by the ice.

(…)

2 January: Frost continues excessive severe. Every arrangement is made for a retreat across the Leck; the sick are removing from the general hospital at Rhenen, and every thing indicates a speedy movement; but where we are to make a stand next time, God only knows.

3 January: Frost still continues, and our sick increase. Duty is, and has been, very hard, and fuel and provisions are very scarce.

(…)

7 January: Rhenen: Part of the church, and a large building resembling a monastry adjoining, has been converted into a hospital since August last, for the whole of the British army. The hospital, as well as every other place, are filled with soldiers, and no trade of any kind appears. Several large temporary hospitals have been erected in the fields adjoining.

The great mortality which has lately pervaded this army, added to the shameful abuse and neglect in several of the hospital departments, has made it a perfect Golgotha. Upwards of four thousand men having been buried here within the last three months.

At this time near half the army are sick, and the other half much fatigued with hard duty. This is now the tenth day since any of us has had a night’s rest, or had time to undress.

(…)

10 January: Frost excessive severe.

(…)

11 January: The sick are removing from hospital as fast as possible.

(…)

13 January: Frost still continues.

The manner of burying the dead soldiers here is adapted to the circumstances of the times: in a field appointed for that purpose, a large hole is dug in the ground, from twelve to twenty feet square, more or less, and twelve or fourteen feet deep; here the coffins are piled regularly one above another, from the bottom to within a foot or two of the surface; then they begin another row, complete that to the top, and so on till the hole is full, when they cover the whole over with earth, and then dig another. They are not many days in filling a hole, and the excessive severity of the frost prevents any smell from arising, which otherwise would be intolerable.

(…)

16 January: The brigade of Guards, and Colonel Strutt’s brigade of the line were ordered to march at four o’clock and assemble at Lunteron [Lunteren], and await the orders of Major-general de Burgh: we accordingly marched at the appointed hour, and after a very tedious journey, about three o’clock in the afternoon reached the verge of an immense desart, called the Welaw [Veluwe]; when, instead of having gained a resting place for the night as we expected, were informed that we had fifteen miles further to go.

Upon this information many began to be much dejected, and not without reason; for several of us, besides suffering the severity of the weather and fatigue of the march, had neither eat or drank any thing except water that day.

For the first three or four miles such a dismal prospect appeared as none of us was ever witness to before; a bare sandy desart with a tuft of withered grass, or solitary shrub, here and there: the wind was excessive high, and drifted the snow and sand together so strong, that we could hardly wrestle against it; to which was added, a severity of cold almost insufferable. The frost was so intense, that the water which came from our eyes, freezing as it fell, hung in icicles to our eyelashes, and our breath freezing as soon as emitted, lodged in heaps of ice about our faces, and on the blankets or coats that were wrapped round our heads.

Night fast approaching, a great number, both men and women, began to linger behind, their spirits being quite exhausted, and without hopes of reaching their destination; and if they once lost sight of the column of march, though but a few minutes, it being dark, and no track to follow, there was no chance of finding it again. In this state numbers were induced to sit down, or creep under the shelter of bushes; where, weary, spiritless, and without hope, a few moments consigned them to sleep: but alas! whoever slept awaked no more; their blood almost instantly congealed in their veins, the spring of life soon dried up; and if ever they opened their eyes, it was only to be sensible of the last agonies of their miserable existence.

Others, sensible of the danger of sitting down, but having lost the column, wandered up and down the pathless waste, surrounded with darkness and despair; no found to comfort their ears but the bleak whistling wind; no sight to bless their eyes but the wide, trackless desart, and “shapeless drift;” far from human help, far from pity, down they sink to rife no more!

About half past ten o’clock at night we reached Bickborge [Beekbergen], when, to add to our misfortunes, we could hardly find room to shelter ourselves from the weather; every house being already filled with Hessian infantry, who are in no respects friendly to the English.

(…)

17 January: We halted this day, and in the morning wagons were sent out with a number of men to search for those who were left behind. A great number were found dead near the route of the column, but a greater number who had straggled farther off, were never heard of more. In one place seven men, one woman, and a child were found dead; in another, a man, a woman, and two children; in another, a man, a woman, and one child; and an unhappy woman being taken in labour, she, with here husband and infant were all found lifeless. One or two men were found alive, but their hands and feet were frozen to such a degree as to be dropping off by the wrists and ankles.

(…)

19 January: Perhaps never did a British army experience such distress as our’s does at this time. Not a village nor house but what bears witness to our misery, in containing some dead and others dying; some are daily found who have crawled into houses singly; other houses contain five, six, or seven together, some dead, and others dying, or unable to walk, and as for those that are able, it is no easy matter for them to find their way, for the country is one continued desart, without roads, and every track filled up with the drifting and falling snow. Add to all this, the inhabitants are our most inveterate enemies, and where opportunity offers, will rather murder a poor, lost, distressed Englishman, than direct him the right way, several instances of which we have already known. It is reported that in the several columns of the army about 700 are missing, since we left the river Leck.

20 January: Frost continues very severe.

21 January: Our numerous hospitals, which were lately so crowded, are for the present considerably thinned. Removing the sick in wagons, without cloathing sufficient to keep them warm in this rigorous season, has sent some hundreds to their eternal home; and the shameful neglect that prevails through all that department, makes our hospitals mere slaughter-houses. Without covering, without attendance, and even without clean straw, and sufficient shelter from the weather, they are thrown together in heaps, unpitied, and unprotected, to perish by contagion; while legions of vultures, down to the stewards, nurses, and their numberless dependants, pamper their bodies and fill their coffers with the nation’s treasure, and like beasts of prey fatten on the blood and carcases of their unhappy fellow creatures; who of the number that are unhappily doomed to the shades of death, not one in a hundred returns, but perishes under the infernal claws of those harpies, still thirsting for more blood, and rioting in the jaws of death.

For the truth of what I say, I appeal to every man in the army who has only for a few hours observed with an attentive eye the general rule of conduct in our hospitals of late, and witness here the scene before me while I now write. A number of men laying on a scanty allowance of dirty wet straw, which from the heat of their bodies, sends up a visible steam; unable to help themselves; and though a sufficient number of men are liberally paid for their attendance, none has been near for several hours, even to help them to a drink of water. Five carcases, covered only with the rags they wore when they were alive, are piled one upon another in the yard, on pretence that the ground is too hard to bury them until a thaw comes.

(…)

22 January: Frost continues severe.

(…)

26 January: Deventer is a large handsome town, the houses generally commodious, and some elegant. A great number of our stragglers are come in, and many of them having taken the advantage of their absence, have plundered and committed many acts of outrage among the inhabitants in the country through which they have passed. The Dutch and us were no great friends before, but those skulking villains, for whom no punishment is too severe, has given them more cause of hatred and discontent than ever they had before; hence they shut up their shops and deny every thing at our approach, and behold us with a kind of scornful disdain, while they receive the French armies on their approach with acclamations of joy, as their only protectors; for under them their persons are safe, and if their property is taken for the public good, it is punctually paid for with paper.

(…)

31 January: To Oldenzaal, one of the Dutch frontier towns towards Germany. This town is exceedingly distressed on account of so many troops marching through it for two months past, particularly for fuel in this severe season. Their common fuel in this country is peat, which they bring to this town from fifteen or twenty miles distant for the use of the troops. The poor natives are almost starved.

2 February: Frost, with a heavy fall of snow.

(…)

4 February: Frost still continues, with frequent falls of snow. The inhabitants, as well as the soldiers, are greatly distressed for want of fuel.

(…)

17 February: Frost very severe. Notwithstanding the kindness of the inhabitants [German], outrages and depredations have been already committed here; a proof that no treatment, however kind, will prevent irregularities in the army, if the reins of discipline are slackened. A woman has been ravished and almost murdered by four of our men, who are discovered and in confinement.

(…)

8 March: Frost, and a heavy fall of snow. We have miserable quarters here [Hasclunne], the people are in general poor, and fuel is very scarce; I saw six Dutch guilders paid for a quantity of peat, not much exceeding a hundred weight.

(…)

20 March: This day two of the inhabitants were robbed by some of our soldiers, and one of them shot through the belly with a pistol. The ball was extracted from his back, but his life is in much danger. A reward of ten guineas is offered by our commanding officers to whoever will bring the guilty to conviction.”

(…)

Note:

Fortesque states that the British alone lost over 6,000 men since they started their retreat from the Leck. Looking at the above account, this seems very possible indeed!

© Geert van Uythoven