Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cadogan, Henry
CADOGAN, HENRY (1780–1813), colonel, was one of the children of Charles Sloane, third baron Cadogan and first earl (second creation, 1800), by his second wife, and was born on 26 Feb. 1780. His granduncle was William, earl Cadogan [q. v.] He was educated at Eton, and on 9 Aug. 1797 became ensign, by purchase, in the 18th royal Irish foot, which corps he joined at Gibraltar after its return from Tuscany, and obtained his lieutenancy therein in 1798. In 1799, having purchased a company in the 60th, he exchanged as lieutenant and captain to the Coldstream guards, and served therein until promoted to a majority in the 53rd foot in 1804. On 22 Aug. 1805 he became lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd battalion (afterwards disbanded) of his old corps, the 18th royal Irish, having purchased every step. After serving with the battalion in Scotland and the Channel Islands, he left it when it proceeded to the island of Curaçoa, and exchanged, in 1808, to the 71st Highlanders at home. During the early part of the Peninsular war, Cadogan served as aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur Wellesley, and after the passage of the Douro was selected by him to proceed to the headquarters of the Spanish general, Cuesta, to make arrangements for the co-operation of the English and Spanish armies in the forthcoming campaign on the Tagus. He was afterwards present at the battle of Talavera. When the 71st Highlanders, then recently transformed into a light infantry corps, arrived out in Portugal in the summer of 1810, Cadogan joined it at Mafra and assumed command in succession to Colonel Peacocke. At its head he distinguished himself on various occasions during the subsequent campaigns, particularly at Fuentes de Onoro, 5 May 1811, when he succeeded to the command of a brigade consisting of the 24th, 71st, and 79th regiments (Gurwood, iv. 797–8), at Arroyo dos Molinos 28 Oct. 1811 (ib. v. 13, 354–6), and at Vittoria, 21 June 1813, where he fell. On the latter occasion the 71st was ordered to storm the heights above the village of Puebla, whereon rested the French left. While advancing to the charge at the head of his men Cadogan was mortally wounded. At his request he was carried to a neighbouring eminence, whence he witnessed the success of the charge before he expired. The incident is represented on the public monument by Chantry, erected to the memory of Cadogan in St. Paul's, for which the House of Commons voted the sum of 1,575l. Monuments were also erected to him in Chelsea parish church and in Glasgow cathedral. Cadogan, who was in his thirty-fourth year and unmarried, was much esteemed both in private life and professionally, and Lord Wellington, although an intimate personal friend, simply expressed the general feeling of the army when he wrote of his great merit and tried gallantry in his Vittoria despatch (ib. vi. 539, 545–6).
[Burke's Peerage; Army Lists and War Office Muster-Rolls; Hildyard's Hist. Rec. 71st High. Light Inf. (London, 1877); Gurwood's Wellington Despatches, iii. iv. v. vi.]