Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/373

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Moore
367
Moore

on honourable terms, after a long siege, on 22 May. The siege of Calvi followed, in which Moore took a prominent part. He stormed the Mozzello fort, a regular casemated work, at the head of the grenadiers, and received his first wound from a fragment of shell. Calvi, which was the only remaining French stronghold in the island, fell on 10 Aug. 1794, after fifty- one days' siege. Stuart had by this time learned Moore's character, and appointed him adjutant-general.

Although Stuart was an admirable officer, there appears to have been much want of harmony between the military and naval forces. Nelson, who thought his services at Calvi, as senior sea-officer on shore, had been slighted by the military authorities, seems to have had a special prejudice against Moore. Writing to Lord Hood, during the siege of Calvi, he expressed the hope that 'the general, who seems to be a good officer and an amiable man, will not be led wrong, but Colonel Moore is his great friend' (Nelson, Desp. i. 445). Elliot, the new viceroy, quarrelled with Stuart and Paoli, and through the latter with Moore. Elliot professed that he only wished Moore to be promoted out of the island, as he thought he was meddling too much in politics, which appears to have been a groundless charge. The result of his representations to the 13 Like of Portland [see Bentinck, William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland] was that Moore received orders from home to quit the island within forty-eight hours. Moore's letter to Paoli, dated Corte, 6 Oct. 1795, in which he avows his consciousness of having done nothing deserving reproach, is in the British Museum (Add. MS. 22688, ff. 114-15). He arrived in England at the end of November. He was well received by Pitt and the Duke of York, who assured him that his military character was in no wise affected. His reception appears to have caused Elliot much annoyance (see Life and Letters of the 1st Earl of Minto, vol. ii.)

Moore had become a brevet-colonel 21 Aug. 1795. On 9 Sept. following he had been appointed, with the local rank of brigadier-general in the West Indies, to command a brigade, consisting of the Choiseul hussars and of two other French emigrant regiments, which had been preparing in the Isle of Wight for San Domingo. While awaiting embarkation he was ordered, on 25 Feb. 1796, to take charge of Major-general Perryn's brigade, forming part of the armament proceeding to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Through some mistake Perryn had sailed without his brigade ; Moore sailed with it at a few hours' notice, and arrived on 13 April at Barbados, where he had his first interview with Sir Ralph Abercromby. He commanded a brigade under Abercromby at the attack on Lucia, and with the 27th Inniskillings formed the lodgment at La Vigie on 24 May 1796, which led to the immediate surrender of the fortress of Morne Fortunee. Abercromby left Moore in command of the island, where he was engaged for some time, under difficulties of every description, in warring with the negro brigands, who swarmed in the woods. He re-established order and security. An officer who was present describes him as indefatigable in his exertions, visiting every post in the island, living on salt pork and biscuit like the men, and sleeping in the open (Stewart, Scottish Highlanders, i. 419). The second of two attacks of yellow fever sent him home in the summer of 1797. In November Abercromby was appointed to the chief command in Ireland and asked for the services of Moore, who arrived with him in Dublin on 2 Dec. On 1 Jan. 1798 he became a major-general and was made colonel of the 9th West India regiment. His command consisted of a force of three thousand men, regulars and militia, including several battalions of light companies, which had its headquarters at Bandon, and was regarded as the advanced corps of the army in the south. He was present with Sir Henry Johnson [q.v.] at the battle of New Ross (5 June 1798), after which he marched on Wexford, defeating seven thousand rebels, led by Father Roche, who attacked him on the way at Taghmone. He arrived at Wexford on 21 June in time to prevent a continuation of the outrages of the previous day (see Lecky, viii. 163). Lake, with the main body of the army, reached Wexford next morning. Moore continued on the staff in Ireland until June 1799, when he was ordered to England to command a brigade in the force proceeding to the Helder under Sir Ralph Abercromby. These troops, forming the advance of the Duke of York's army, left the Downs on 13 Aug., and landed near the Helder fort on 27 Aug. 1799. Abercromby, moving southwards, defeated the French and Dutch on 9 Sept., when Moore's brigade formed the advance, and was hotly engaged. Moore was wounded in the right hand, his spy-glass preventing the bullet from entering his body. The force was augmented by the arrival of more British troops and a Russian contingent, and the Duke of York assumed the command-in-chief. In the battle of 2 Oct. 1799 between Egmont and Bergen, known officially as the battle of Egmont-op-Zee, Moore's brigade had several hours' fighting among the sand-dunes,