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with Harrichts love

MEMOIR

OF

FIELD-MARSHAL

SIR HEW DALRYMPLE ROSS, G.C.B.,

ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY.

WOOLWICH:

PRINTED AT THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION.

M.DCCC.LXXI.

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MEMOIR

OF

FIELD-MARSHAL SIR HEW DALRYMPLE ROSS, G.C.B.

FIELD MARSHAL SIR HEW DALRYMPLE ROSs, G.C.B., third son of Major John Ross, of Balkail, in the County of Galloway, and Jane, daughter of George Buchan, of Leatham in East Lothian, was born on the 5th July, 1779; entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a Cadet in 1793, and obtained his commission in sixteen months, March 6th, 1795, before he had attained the age of sixteen. He was sent in the following year, 1796, to Gibraltar, and returned to England in April, 1797, on appointment to the Horse Artillery. He served with his battery in Ireland, during the Rebellion of 1798, and remained there until 1803, when he was promoted to Captain-Lieutenant, and appointed Adjutant to the 5th Battalion at Woolwich, having been given his choice of an Adjutancy, or of a re-appointment to the Horse Artillery. Earlier in that year an application had been made for his appointment as Aide-de-Camp to General Sir Hew Dalrymple, then commanding in the Channel Islands, but without success. He was again posted to the Horse Artillery, in May, 1806, and in July of that year was promoted to Captain, and appointed to the command of the "A" Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery, which he rendered famous in the history of the Peninsular War as the well-known "Chestnut Troop." This battery was then in Suffolk, under the command of the Earl of Uxbridge, afterwards Marquis of Anglesey. Upon his Lordship's return from the army in Portugal, in 1808, he requested the Earl of Chatham, then Master-General of the Ordnance, to place Captain Ross's troop again under his command, and in consequence of this application, it was ordered to embark at Portsmouth in November, 1808, to join Sir John Moore's army in Spain. Being detained by contrary winds, the result of that campaign became known in England before the transports had sailed, and it was disembarked, and marched to Chatham.

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In June, 1809, Captain Ross had "the good fortune" (quoting from a statement in his own words), to be again named for the service of the Peninsula," and embarked with his battery at Ramsgate in that month, landed at Lisbon in July, and after a severe forced march, joined the army of the Duke of Wellington two days after the battle of Talavera.

The details of the embarkation and sailing of his battery are of interest in contrast with the corresponding arrangements carried out under his own orders, fiftyfive years afterwards, on the embarkation of the Royal Artillery for the Crimea, when each battery and each division was embarked, in every case, with its full complement of officers and men, horses, carriages, and stores, and the employment of steam power enabled the transports to proceed to their destination almost independently of weather. The following are extracts from a private journal kept during his active service :

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