famous irish regiments & Irish military history
Wellesley soon rose to prominence as a General during the early Napoleonic Wars. In the Peninsular Campaign he fought many hard battles but eventually led the Allied forces to victory against the French and after the Battle of Victoria in 1813, was granted a Dukedom and promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. The defeat of the French forces led the way to the invasion of France itself, and saw Wellesley serving as an ambassador to France following the exile of Napoleon. He returned to fight Napoleons forces during the Hundred Days. This culminated in his greatest and most well know victory at the Battle of Waterloo, which saw the defeat of the French Emperor and a decisive coalition victory. An opponent of parliamentary reform, he was given the epithet the " Iron Duke " because of the Iron shutters he had fixed to his windows to stop the pro-reform mob from breaking them. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under the Tory party and oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829 in 1829. He continued continued as Prime Minister until 1830 and again served briefly in 1834. Although unable to prevent the passage of the Reform Act of 1832 he continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement. He remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.
Arthur Wellesley had a reputation as a very harsh commander, one who did not give much thought to his men. Yet This was a military commander who wept when the long casualty list was read to him after his victory at Waterloo. Lady Butler recounts how her father told her Wellington's memorable words on the loss of so many of his friends: " A defeat is the only thing sadder than a victory "
For the common Irish soldiers, Wellington had been taught from childhood to feel all the reserve of his ascendany class when it came to the peasantry, and he was never personally sentimental about the men in the ranks. Nor were the Irish any more sentimental about their gifted yet aloof military commander in whom they put so much trust. Georger Bell of the 34th Foot, the Border regiment, records how the Irish, who formed a large part of the regiment, expressed this trust with inimitable humour. An exchange between two Irish was overheard as they approached Toulouse at the end of the war in 1814:
Arthur Wellesley had a reputation as a very harsh commander, one who did not give much thought to his men. Yet This was a military commander who wept when the long casualty list was read to him after his victory at Waterloo. Lady Butler recounts how her father told her Wellington's memorable words on the loss of so many of his friends: " A defeat is the only thing sadder than a victory "
For the common Irish soldiers, Wellington had been taught from childhood to feel all the reserve of his ascendany class when it came to the peasantry, and he was never personally sentimental about the men in the ranks. Nor were the Irish any more sentimental about their gifted yet aloof military commander in whom they put so much trust. Georger Bell of the 34th Foot, the Border regiment, records how the Irish, who formed a large part of the regiment, expressed this trust with inimitable humour. An exchange between two Irish was overheard as they approached Toulouse at the end of the war in 1814:
" How the devil are we to get over that big sthrame av a river to
leather them vagabones out o' that, " says Paddy Muldoon. " O
niver mind, " says another old cripple who lost an eye on the Nile,
" that country man av yours wid the long nose will show ye the way
when he's riddy. "
leather them vagabones out o' that, " says Paddy Muldoon. " O
niver mind, " says another old cripple who lost an eye on the Nile,
" that country man av yours wid the long nose will show ye the way
when he's riddy. "
In Wellington's address to the House of Lords at the passing of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 he admitted publicly his understanding of and gratitude for his Catholic Irish soldiers during his several campaigns:
Of the troops which our gracious Sovereign did me honour to entrust to my command....at least one half were Roman Catholics....without Catholic blood and Catholic valour, no victory could ever have been obtained....It is mainly to the irish Catholics that we all owe our preeminence in our military career....I glory, my lords, in the name of Ireland...united with the rest of my kindred in the grateful task of closing the wounds which seven centuries of misgovernment have inflicted upon that unfortunate land.
Tribute - giving of this order, however politically motivated, was not typical for Wellington; more often was his understated remark of how his soldiers got him out of a scrape more than once. Wellington, writes Elizabeth Longford, ' was deeply and emotionally committed to Ireland. The strength of this feeling was shown by the amount of time he gave throughout his life to research and writing on possible solutions for her problems. '
Wellington's monument still dominates the centre of Trim , Co Meath
Major General Sir Charles Napier GCB ( August 10th 1782-August 29th 1853 )
Conqueror of Sind, India.
During the Peninsula War, there was an incident involving Charles Napier, then a Major of the 50th Foot. After being wounded several times at Corunna he tried to limp back to his own lines, with a shattered ankle and was taken prisoner. Stabbed in the back, he was saved by a French soldier who intervened when other French soldiers robbed and nearly clubbed him to death. Napier was nearly killed again by a ' wild and rude Irishman ' in his regiment named Hennessy. This obstinate soldier rushed at Napier's captors brandishing his musket, but when Napier shouted that they surrender as he was wounded and a prisoner Private Hennessy shouted back in his less than intelligible brogue;
" Surrender! Why should i surrender ? '....' Because there are at lest twenty men
Conqueror of Sind, India.
During the Peninsula War, there was an incident involving Charles Napier, then a Major of the 50th Foot. After being wounded several times at Corunna he tried to limp back to his own lines, with a shattered ankle and was taken prisoner. Stabbed in the back, he was saved by a French soldier who intervened when other French soldiers robbed and nearly clubbed him to death. Napier was nearly killed again by a ' wild and rude Irishman ' in his regiment named Hennessy. This obstinate soldier rushed at Napier's captors brandishing his musket, but when Napier shouted that they surrender as he was wounded and a prisoner Private Hennessy shouted back in his less than intelligible brogue;
" Surrender! Why should i surrender ? '....' Because there are at lest twenty men
upon you. ' ' Well, if i must surrender, there! There's my firelock for you...Stand away ye bloody spalpeens, ' he roared at them...' I'll carry him myself. Bad luck to the whole bloody lot of ye '. And so still cursing, private Hennessy helped the suffering Napier to a farm house where he was imprisoned. Napier survived with the help of a French officer and was paroled in 1809, he was soon back in the Peninsula.
Charles Napier's father Colonel the Honourable George Napier, reputed to be the strongest and handsomest man in the army, was the penniless son of the fifth Lord Napier, partly Irish through his mother. Charles's mather, Sarah Lennox, was the daughter of the Irish Earl Cadogan, one of Marlborough's staff officers. he and his siblings grew up in genteel poverty at the village of Celbridge, County Kildare, amidst affluent Anglo-Irish relations: his Aunt Emily Lennox at nearby Castletown House, was the wife of the Irish Thomas Conolly, heir and grand-nephew of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. Charles's attitudes to subject peoples were conditioned, by his memories of Ireland. Charles and two of his brothers, William and George, were taught military engineering, swordsmanship and a sense of duty and honour by their father, who greatly influenced them. All three would become Generals in the British Army, William becoming the noted historian of the Peninsular War. At a very young age Charles was commissioned in the 33rd Foot, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, whom he greatly admired. He served in the Peninsular War and brifely in the War of 1812. During the Peninsular War he fought at the Battle of Coa, where he had two horses shot out from under him, and at Bussaco, Fuentes de Onoro, and the Second siege of Badajoz in Castile, where he was Lieutenat-Colonel of the 102nd Regiment. from 1822 he happily spent several years as resident of the Greek Island of Cephalonia.
When nearly sixty Napier accepted, in 1841, command in the Bombay Presidency, along the way having been promoted Major General. In August 1842 he was ordered by Lord Ellenborough, the new Governor General to command troops in the Baluchi province of Sind, then a British protectorate. New stringent treaties demanded by Ellenborough with the amirs, tribal rulers of Sind, provoked conflict and when Baluchi warriors stormed the British Residency at Hyderbad in January 1843, Napier decided it was time to take up the sword. A great believer in the British Empire, he wrote in his journal: ' We have no right to seize Scinde, yet we shall do so '. Napier's views were ' merely reflecting the beliefs of his age , for most Victorians were convinced that the benefits of British rule justified all interference with existing rights'. In February, at Miani, Napier achieved a bloody defeat of the Baluchi Army. In the battle the Irish Lieutenant Colonel John Lysacht Pennyfather, colourful son of a Tipperary Parson, led his 22nd Foot ' composed entirely of Irishmen ' and the only Crown regiment in the battle. Though greatly outnumbered, the impetuous soldiers' of the 22nd Foot, together with irregular cavalry and native infantry, met the Baluchis with the bayonet and sent them back in a bloody encounter. In the three hour fight Pennefather was seriously wounded, the british lost under 250 killed and wounded, the Baluchis an estimated 5,000.
Charles Napier's father Colonel the Honourable George Napier, reputed to be the strongest and handsomest man in the army, was the penniless son of the fifth Lord Napier, partly Irish through his mother. Charles's mather, Sarah Lennox, was the daughter of the Irish Earl Cadogan, one of Marlborough's staff officers. he and his siblings grew up in genteel poverty at the village of Celbridge, County Kildare, amidst affluent Anglo-Irish relations: his Aunt Emily Lennox at nearby Castletown House, was the wife of the Irish Thomas Conolly, heir and grand-nephew of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. Charles's attitudes to subject peoples were conditioned, by his memories of Ireland. Charles and two of his brothers, William and George, were taught military engineering, swordsmanship and a sense of duty and honour by their father, who greatly influenced them. All three would become Generals in the British Army, William becoming the noted historian of the Peninsular War. At a very young age Charles was commissioned in the 33rd Foot, commanded by Arthur Wellesley, whom he greatly admired. He served in the Peninsular War and brifely in the War of 1812. During the Peninsular War he fought at the Battle of Coa, where he had two horses shot out from under him, and at Bussaco, Fuentes de Onoro, and the Second siege of Badajoz in Castile, where he was Lieutenat-Colonel of the 102nd Regiment. from 1822 he happily spent several years as resident of the Greek Island of Cephalonia.
When nearly sixty Napier accepted, in 1841, command in the Bombay Presidency, along the way having been promoted Major General. In August 1842 he was ordered by Lord Ellenborough, the new Governor General to command troops in the Baluchi province of Sind, then a British protectorate. New stringent treaties demanded by Ellenborough with the amirs, tribal rulers of Sind, provoked conflict and when Baluchi warriors stormed the British Residency at Hyderbad in January 1843, Napier decided it was time to take up the sword. A great believer in the British Empire, he wrote in his journal: ' We have no right to seize Scinde, yet we shall do so '. Napier's views were ' merely reflecting the beliefs of his age , for most Victorians were convinced that the benefits of British rule justified all interference with existing rights'. In February, at Miani, Napier achieved a bloody defeat of the Baluchi Army. In the battle the Irish Lieutenant Colonel John Lysacht Pennyfather, colourful son of a Tipperary Parson, led his 22nd Foot ' composed entirely of Irishmen ' and the only Crown regiment in the battle. Though greatly outnumbered, the impetuous soldiers' of the 22nd Foot, together with irregular cavalry and native infantry, met the Baluchis with the bayonet and sent them back in a bloody encounter. In the three hour fight Pennefather was seriously wounded, the british lost under 250 killed and wounded, the Baluchis an estimated 5,000.
