David Rooney - Surrender at New Orleans: General Sir Harry Smith in the Peninsula and America

David Rooney served in the Queens Royal Regiment in India and West Africa at the end of the Second World War. After leaving the Army he read history at Oxford, and his career in education took him to Ulster, Germany and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as a Senior Lecturer. His published works include Burma Victory , Wingate and the Chindits , Military Mavericks , Guerrilla and Mad Mike , the biography of the late Brigadier Michael Calvert DSO, which is in print with Pen & Sword.

Michael Scott was commissioned into the Scots Guards in 1960. After worldwide regimental service, he commanded 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in the Falklands War and was awarded the DSO. He subsequently commanded a brigade in Northern Ireland and, as a Major General, became GOC Scotland and Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1993. On leaving the Army, he was appointed Complaints Commissioner to the Bar Council. His great-great-grandfather, Captain Archie Stewart, fought throughout the Peninsula Campaign and at Waterloo in Harry Smiths Rifle Brigade. His second book Scapegoats Thirteen Victims of Military Injustice was published in March 2013.

First published in Great Britain in 2008 as In Love and War
and reprinted in this format in 2014 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright David Rooney and Michael Scott, 2008, 2014

ISBN 978 1 78383 120 3
eISBN 9781473838512

The right of David Rooney and Michael Scott to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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List of Maps

Acknowledgements

In writing this book, we have not attempted to indulge in a detailed military history of the times but rather to use that history as a backcloth to the love story of Harry and Juana. Purists might therefore blame us for skating over the detail, say, of Waterloo or many of the Peninsula War battles. While these were, of course, important we have only been more specific in the battles vital to the story, such as Badajoz and Aliwal. We have tried to use primary sources, where possible, at the National Archives at Kew, the National Army Museum and, of course, Christopher Robinsons memorabilia, but have, with gratitude, leant on many of the outstanding books listed in the Bibliography.

We must thank Charles Messenger for suggesting our meeting and his support and guidance with the project.

The Museums at Whittlesey and the Rifles at Winchester have been invaluable we could not have done this without Maureen Watson at the former and Ken Gray at the latter. We are indebted to the Trustees of the Rifles Museum for permission to publish Harrys portrait and to Maureen for the various photographs and documents from Whittlesey. We also thank Geoff Oldfield and his wife, Margaret, for allowing us into St Marys Church and directing us to Harry and Juanas grave. The Curator of the Queens Royal Lancers Museum, Captain Holtby, and David Nalson helped us with the exploits of the outstanding 16th Lancers at Aliwal. Photographs have all been taken by Louisa Scott (www.louisascottphotography.com), except where differently noted. Maps are sketched from those in Fortescues History of the British Army published in 1920, with the exception of Aliwal which hangs on the wall of the new Hero of Aliwal pub in Whittlesey. The landlady was tickled with the idea of our book and gladly gave us permission to publish it!

Christopher Robinson, Harrys great-great-nephew, was exceptionally helpful in allowing us complete access to all his papers, plus Harrys and Juanas medals, portraits and busts. This was the golden nugget of our research and we are eternally grateful to him for permission to use as much as we wanted in the book.

Finally, as the artist relies on the gallery owner, we could not have done this without the help and encouragement of Kathy Rooney, our agent, Henry Wilson, our publisher, and Keyth Rooney and Jim Gracey for technical advice, to whom we owe much thanks.

David Rooney and Michael Scott

Cambridge and London

Chronology

Introduction to 2014 Edition

Five years ago, In Love and War was published. The book told the story of the extraordinary lives of Sir Harry and Lady Smith and their abiding love, which sustained them through so many adventures.

It seems fitting, to mark the 200th anniversary of the momentous year of 1814, which saw the end of the war between Britain and America, that the book should be brought out again in this new format. The battle of New Orleans, although taking place in early 1815 because the news of the Treaty of Ghent had not been received, was the most significant American success of the war. For Harry, ever the professional soldier, this was the nadir of his achievement to date but, nevertheless, it was his advice to General Lambert to call it a day which, ultimately, saved many lives on both sides. Harry himself conveyed the British surrender terms to General Jackson who received him with utmost civility.

Although Harry returned to Juana in the deepest gloom, their lives were to be crowned with many successes at Waterloo, South Africa and India, gaining the admiration of both Wellington and Queen Victoria.

Chapter 1

Badajoz

April 1812

O n 7 April 1812, Badajoz, the proud and elegant Spanish city, which dominated the route from southern Portugal into Spain, lay in smoking ruins. Wellingtons army had besieged the town for three weeks and during the final assault which started at 10.00pm the previous evening, they had lost over 2,000 men killed and wounded. At that time, when a city was besieged, it was the convention that on its capture, the attacking troops were given a free hand. The infuriated British soldiers, who had suffered weeks of privation and hardship in the siege and who had seen hundreds of their comrades killed in the attack, went berserk. Wellington himself could not stop them. Although he erected a gallows in the town, not a man was hanged. This is astonishing given Wellingtons reputation as a hard disciplinarian. Maybe it was that he understood so well what his men had been through. Indeed, he wrote, The storming of Badajoz affords as strong an instance of the gallantry of our troops as has ever been displayed. But I greatly hope that I shall never again be the instrument of putting them to such a test as that to which they were put last night.