No. 18

MAJOR-GENERAL

SIR FREDERICK PONSONBY, K. C. B. (*) Ir is with no ordinary feelings of respect and regret that we proceed to record the services, and do justice to the character, of one alike admirable as a soldier, and amiable as a man.

The Honorable Frederick Ponsonby was appointed to a Cornetcy in the 10th Dragoons in 1800; and was promoted to a Lieutenancy in that regiment on the 20th of June of the same year. On the 20th of August, 1803, he was promoted to a company, and appointed to the 60th Regiment, 3rd April, 1806. On the 25th of June, 1807, he became Major in the Army; and on the 6th of August following, obtained a Majority in the 23rd Light Dragoons.

At the Battle of Talavera, Major Ponsonby was present with this regiment, by the extraordinary charge of which, although eventually destroyed in the effort, the whole attack of the French upon the flank of the British completely failed. The divisions of Villatte and Ruffin were in full march to accomplish this manœuvre, when Sir A. Wellesley sent orders to General Anson's brigade (23rd Light Dragoons and 1st German Hussars) to charge the heads of these colunins. They promptly obeyed the order; but in the middle of their career they came upon the hollow bed of a rivulet which had not been before perceived. Opposite the 1st Hussars, who were the left regiment, it was impassible, and Colonel Arentshild had no alternative but to halt. Though less deep opposite to the 23rd, it was sufficiently bad to produce total disorder in scrambling through. Nevertheless, they continued

We extract the following account of the Military career of the late Governor Sir F. C. Ponsonby

from the United Service Journal.

[Price 1d.

to rush onward, led by Major Ponsonby, tained sufficient force, disordered as they Colonel Seymour being wounded, and rewere, to break through Villatte's column and penetrate to a brigade of chasseurs à cheval, who were following in support of the attack. These fresh troops, with some Polish Lancers and Westphalian Light Dragoons, overwhelmed the devoted 23rd; but it will always be remembered to the honour of that regiment, that they completely succeeced in the service on which they were employed, though, from the accident of the ground alluded to, they were so unfortunately overmatched and destroyed.

It will be in the recollection of the readers of Colonel Napier's History that General Ponsonby, in a letter to that author, corrected his account of the affair, (which correction has here been followed,) and with his usual modesty disclaimed the merit justly attributed to him for his gallantry

on the occasion.

At the close of the Battle of Barrosa, in March, 1811, Colonel Ponsonby made a brilliant and well-timed attack with two squadrons of the German Legion upon the French cavalry, as they were covering the retreat of the infantry, in which he succeeded in capturing two guns, and increased the disorder of their defeat as much as could possibly be done by so small a force as that under his direction.

On the 11th of June, 1811, Major Ponsonby was promoted to the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the 12th Light Dragoons; in the command of which corps he continued to serve in the Peninsula.

On the evening of the 10th of April, 1812, Sir S. Cotton had received intelligence that General Peyreymont's brigade of cavalry was between Villa Garcia and Usagre; and he immediately conceived a plan of cutting it off. To effect this, he moved

General Anson's brigade, consisting of the 12th, 14th, and 16th, then commanded by Colonel F. Ponsonby, from Villa Franca upon Usagre, at a very early hour next day; and at the same time caused General Le Marchant's brigade to march from Los Santos upon Benvenida, to intercept Peyreymont's retreat on Llerena.

Colonel Ponsonby having commenced the action, fell back gradually before the French, as if only making a reconnoissance; and some heights skirting the Llerena road prevented them from seeing that General Le Marchant was drawing up his brigade behind that concealment ready to fall upon their flank. Meantime Colonel Ponsonby kept the enemy's attention engaged by skirmishing with his squadrons, until General Le Marchant, having gained his position, directed a charge of the 5th Dragoon Guards against their flank, through an opening in the range of hills, and the next moment Ponsonby charged them in front with such impetuosity that they gave way in disorder, and being pursued for four miles, left several officers and 128 men prisoners, besides a heavy loss in killed and wounded. The loss of the British was only fifty-six men and officers, of whom forty-five were of the 5th Dragoon Guards. The French cavalry did not rally till they gained the protection of their infantry, which had not yet left Llerena.

The judgement displayed by Colonel Ponsonby in the part allotted him in this action, which was one of the most brilliant cavalry affairs of the war, was universally acknowledged and admired.

On the 20th of July, of the same year, during the parallel movement of the two armies previous to the Battle of Salamanca, Colonel Ponsonby repeatedly charged the heads of the enemy's columns which attempted to press upon the line of march of the British, and always with decided effect.

The glorious victory of the 22nd was a fresh occasion for Colonel Ponsonby to distinguish himself; where at the close of evening he gallantly led a squadron of his regiment against about 450 French infantry, who attempting to resist in front of a wood at

some distance behind the chain of the Arapiles, were overthrown by him after some desperate attacks. Ou this occasion his sword was broken close to the hilt, and his horse bore the marks of several bayonet wounds. The French infantry more than once lay down when charged, and rising up fired in a destructive manner upon the British cavalry after they had passed them.

During the whole of the retrograde movement of the Army from the Douro, near Tordesillas, up to the Battle of Salamanca, Colonel Ponsonby was constantly with the outpost, and seldom a day passed without his being more or less engaged with the advance. His penetration and ready judgment in discovering their objects, and his quickness, resource, and resolution in defeating their endeavours, were equally remarkable.

On the retreat from Burgos, he received a wound while engaged in these arduous duties, near Monasterio, on the 13th October, which for some time deprived the Army of services the more valuable at the time, from his being known to have accurately acquainted himself with the feature of that line of country-especially the ground about Cellada Canino, where the cavalry action took place on the 23rd of October. So highly did the Duke of Wellington value this excellent officer, that after his wound he had him brought to his own quarters, and made him travel in his carriage until sufficiently recovered to ride.

Colonel Ponsonby resumed his active duties with his regiment on the retreat near Salamanca, where the French pressed heavily upon the rear with a large force of cavalry. On this, as on all occasions Colonel Ponsonby showed the greatest discretion in sparing his men all needless hardships, by his personal activity in examining the neighbourhood of his outposts, to ascertain what. vigilance was really required, what number of piquets would suffice, and to what extent there might be security in the foraging. So well had he inculcated his knowledge of the outpost duty into the officers and men of the 12th, that during the whole war the French never surprised either post or piquet of that distinguished regiment.

amiable author of the "Pleasures of Memory." giving a narrative of the description he received from Colonel Ponsonby's own lips of the part he took in this great victory, and his extraordinary preservation whilst lying exposed on the field, and desperately wounded.

In the action at Tolosa, when the enemy had retired behind the stockade which formed one of the defences of the town, the gate was secured by them so strongly as to defy any assault but blowing it open with a gun. Colonel Ponsonby, the moment this was know, dashed forward with a gun under protection of his advanced squadron, and in spite of a heavy fire from the enemy, it was unlimbered, and the gate blown open in such a manner that the French instantly fled and abandoned the defences.

But even at such a desperate crisis his humanity was as conspicuous as his bravery, for advancing to the gate of Tolosa he perceived a French officer lying on the side of the road bleeding profusely from a wound in his thigh: he immediately sent a dragoon off at a gallop to fetch the Assistant-Surgeon of his regiment, and no doubt saved the officer's life by this prompt assistance.

At the storming of St. Sebastian, August 13, 1813, Colonel Ponsonby, who was present as a spectator, observed that the column which had the right of the attack was deviating from its proper direction for the ford of the Urumea, on which, regardless of a tremendous fire from the ramparts he galloped up and set them right.

1814, June 4, Lieut.-Colonel Ponsonby became a Colonel in the Army and Aid-decamp to the King.

It will no doubt be in the recollection of our readers, that in the appendix to Captain Batty's account of the battle of Water

The general accuracy of that statement, and the interesting manner in which Mr. Rogers relates it, induce us here to insert as much of it as our limits will permit; for, in a deserved tribute paid to Sir F. Ponsonby in the number of this Journal for May 1836, on the occasion of his appointment to the Colonelcy of the Royal Dragoons, we largely quoted from Mr. Roger's letter. But it will be necessary to preface it by the following remarks to elucidate and explain what the extreme modesty of Colonel Ponsonby (observed upon by Mr. Rogers) led him to suppress, for fear of arrogating praise, which he was as reluctant to accept, as all, who knew the truth, were anxious to offer him.

In the first place, the resolution to charge the French Column, which he rather represents as taken in common with others was exclusively his own, and formed upon a hasty or rash impulse, but the result of conviction from his experience, that if these gained more ground it would be too late to stop them. His commanding officer, General Vandeleur, having a few minutes before led the 16th Light Dragoons forward, after the charge of the Greys, Royals, and Enniskillens, the officer whom he sent to him for leave to charge, could not find him. There was not an instant to lose; he rapidly counted the French column, at which he had a peculiar facility, and rating them at about thousand, exclaimed, "They must not be allowed to come further," and with his well-known, "Come on, 12th,' dashed down the field followed by his men.

The squadron taken for Belgians by Colonel P., as he lay on the ground wounded, were no doubt French, and such was afterwards his own opinion. General Muffling, who was on this part of the field on the lookout for the arrival of the Prussians, had a

full view of this charge, and was ever afterwards eager to bear his testimony to its complete effect.

We should gladly incorporate with this memoir the whole of the sketch, which, has already appeared in this Journal, of Colonel Ponsonby's heroic conduct and wonderful escape at Waterloo; but our space restricts us to the following extract from Mr. Rogers's relation, which, as we have observed, embodies the description received from Colonel Ponsonby himself:

"In the mélée I was almost instantly disabled in both of my arms losing first my sword, and then my rein, and followed by a few of my men, who were presently cut down, no quarter being asked or given, I was carried along by my horse, till, receiving a blow from a sabre, I fell senseless on my face to the ground.

"Recovering, I raised myself a little to look round, being at that time, I believe, in a condition to get up and run away, when a lancer passing by, cried out, 'Tu n'es pas mort, coquin?' and struck his lance through my back. My head dropped; the blood gushed into my mouth; a difficulty of breathing came on; and I thought all was over.

"Not long afterwards (it was then impossible to measure time, but I must have fallen in less than ten minutes after the onset) a tirailleur stopped to plunder me, threatening my life. I directed him to a small sidepocket, in which he found three dollars; all I had. But he continued to threaten, and I said he might search me. This he did immediately, unloosing my stock, and tearing open my waistcoat, and leaving me in a very uneasy posture.

"But he was no sooner gone than an officer, bringing up some troops to whichprobably the tirailleur belonged, and happening to halt where I lay, stooped down and addressed me, saying he feared I was badly wounded, I answered, that I was, and expressed a wish to be removed into the rear. He said it was against their orders to move even their own men: but that, if they gained the day (and he understood that the Duke of Wellington was killed, and that six of our battalions had surrendered)

every attention in his power should be shown to me. I complained of thirst, and he held his brandy bottle to my lips, directing one of the soldiers to lay me straight on my side, and placed a knapsack under my head. He then passed on into action, soon perhaps to want, though not to receive, the same assistance, and I shall never know to whose generosity I was indebted, as I believe, for my life.

"By-and-by, another tirailleur came up, a fine young man, full of ardour. He knelt down and fired over me, loading and firing many times, and conversing with me very gaily all the while: at last he ran off, saying 'Vous serez bien aise d'apprendre que nous allons nous retirer. Bon jour, mon ami!'

"It was dusk when two squadrons of Prussian cavalry, each of them two deep, came across the valley, and passed me in full trot, lifting me from the ground, and tumbling me about cruelly. The clatter of their approach, and the apprehensions they excited, may easlily be imagined. A gun taking that direction must have destroyed me.

"The battle was now at an end, or removed to a distance. The shouts and imprecations, the outcries of 'Vive l'Empereur! the discharges of musketry and cannon were over, and the groans of the wounded all around me became every instant more and more audible. I thought the night would never end!

"Much about this time I found a soldier lying across my legs. He had probably crawled thither in his agony, and his weight, his convulsive motions, his noises, and the air issuing through a wound in his side, distressed me greatly; the last circumstances most of all, as I had a wound of the same. nature myself.

"It was not a dark night, and the Prussians were wandering about to plunder. The scene in Ferdinand Count Fathom came into my mind. though no woman appeared. Several stragglers looked at me as they passed by, one after another, and at last one of them stopped to examine me. I told him as well as I was able-for I spoke German very imperfectly—that I was a British offi

cer, and had been plundered already; he did not desist, however, and pulled me about roughly.

"An hour before midnight I saw a man in an English uniform walking towards me: he was, I suspect, on the same errand, and he came and looked me in the face. I spoke instantly, telling him who I was, and assuring him of a reward if he would remain by me. He said he belonged to the 40th, and had missed his regiment: he released me from the dying soldier, and, being unarmed, took up a sword from the ground, and stood over me as a sentinel, pacing backwards and forwards.

"Day broke, and at six o'clock in the morning some English were seen at a distance. He ran to them. A messenger being sent to Hervey, a cart came for me, and I was placed in it, and carried to the village of Waterloo, a mile and a half off, and laid in the bed from which Gordon, as I understood afterwards, had been just before carried out. I had received seven wounds. A surgeon slept in my room, and was saved by excessive bleeding.'

99

On the 26th August, 1820, Colonel Ponsonby exchanged to half-pay of the 22nd Dragoons; on the 28th January, 1824, was appointed Inspecting Field Officer in the lonian Islands; became Major-General 27th May, 1825; Colonel of the 6th Regiment, 4th December, 1835; and Colonel of the Royal Dragoons, 31st March, 1836.

Were it desirable to expatiate on the career and character of an officer so universally admired and beloved, the ample testimonials and materials at our command would render the task easy. Sufficient, however, has been said to show the nature and extent of his professional services, and from the many tributes paid to his memory by personal friends we select the following passage, forming part of a letter written by an early and intimate companion, to prove how far the individual qualities of Sir Frederick Ponsonby were calculated to endear him to his associates:

"In former days we lived much together. I have seen him in sickness, in danger, in difficulty, In prosperity, in society, alone,

with myself-I may say in every situation in which man can be placed, and I never knew his beautiful disposition vary from that perfect state in which his gentle and noble mind had fixed it. He was without guile or any of the bad passions so common to other men. He was devoid of one particle of selfishness-he was gentle as he was brave, and brave as he was gentle-he blended the two to perfection-he was a proof that modesty is the handmaid of valour-his judgment was sound, his head clear, his heart the best that ever beat-but I shall never end praising him."

We must now bring this brief chronicle to a close and cannot better eonclude it than by a faithful summary of the character of its lamented subject.

Acknowledged to be one of the brightest ornaments of the Army, no man was a more general favourite with all ranks than Sir F. Ponsonby. The honours conferred on him were not only seen without envy, but applauded by all, as the well-earned rewards of his eminent services.

To the most chivalrous bravery he united military talents of no ordinary cast which were guided by a remarkable calmness of judgement and coolness of decision. He had carefully studied and thoroughly understood the habits and qualities of the British soldier, and so well knew how to turn that knowledge to the best advantage before the enemy, that the confidence and devotion of all who served under him were unbounded. During the period of his most active life in the field, he never neglected the acquisition of knowledge upon every subject of his profession. No lesson of experience was ever lost upon him, and it was by reasoning upon facts connected with the important, scenes of the Peninsular war, in which he was himself a conspicuous actor, that he formed those sound opinions upon military matters, which rendered him as prudent in design as he was brilliant in action. In the latter years of his life he devoted much of his time to reading, and few men had a better acquaintance with historical and military subjects. His authority in matter of his profession, particularly the Cavalry service