1799The regiment joined the Anglo-Russian army, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, in time to take a distinguished part in the attack of the enemy’s positions on the 19th of September. On this occasion the first operations of the several columns were successful; but the hopes, which a brilliant commencement afforded, of a general and decisive victory, were destroyed by the hasty valour, and the want of that precaution which the art of war prescribes, on the part of the Russians under General Hermann, who were repulsed by an enemy inferior to themselves in numbers and valour, but superior in science and prudence. This disaster rendered it necessary for the army to resume its position. The Fifty-sixth Regiment had thirty rank and file killed on this occasion; Captains King and Gilman, Lieutenant Prater, thirty-three rank and file, wounded; one serjeant, one drummer, and fifty-seven rank and file, missing. The Duke of York stated in his public despatch,—“The gallantry displayed by the troops engaged—the spirit with which they overcame every obstacle which nature and art opposed to them, and the cheerfulness with which they maintained the fatigues of an action which lasted, without intermission, from half-past three o’clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, are beyond my powers to describe. Their exertions fully entitle them to the admiration and gratitude of their king and country.”
On the 2nd of October a successful attack was made on the enemy’s positions between Bergen and Egmont-op-Zee; and the action “was[1] sustained by the British columns under those highly-distinguished officers, General Sir Ralph Abercromby and Lieut.-General
- ↑ The Duke of York’s despatch.
