Not One in Ten Thousand Know Your Name: the Officers
of the British 1st Battalion of Detachments in 1809 -- Lieutenant Thomas Munro 42nd
Foot
Also spelled Munroe.
Little is known of Thomas Munro’s life outside of the military. This
might be because he had the same name as Sir Thomas Munro, who was
a contemporary. Sir Thomas was a general and eventually became
the governor of Madras, India.
Thomas Munro was commissioned as an ensign without purchase in the
42nd Foot on 26 July 1804.[1]
He was initially stationed in Weely Barracks, Kent. On 8 August
1805, he was promoted to lieutenant without purchase.[2] In October 1805, the 1st Battalion
42nd Foot was transferred to the garrison at Gibraltar.[3]
It is unclear whether Lieutenant Munro was in the 1st Battalion
at that time, however he would eventually serve there with them within
a few years.[4]
The 42nd Foot arrived in Portugal in September 1808, too late
to participate in the battles of Roliça and Vimeiro.[5]
Lieutenant Munro did not march into Spain with his regiment in November
1808. He would stay behind in Portugal and be attached to the
1st Battalion of Detachments. By April he would command
the 1st Rifle Company, which consisted of “. . . seven
Sergeants, three Corporals, and forty-two Riflemen.”[6]
He would lead them during the Douro Campaign. At Grijo, the 1st Rifle
Company was part of the advanced guard of the army. There they
would fight along side companies from the 43rd and 52nd Foot
who were also in the 1st Battalion of Detachments, and the Light
Company of the 29th Foot, all under the command of Major Way
of the 29th Foot. After a hard fight, they succeeded in
throwing the 21eme Légere off the ridge and forcing the
French to retreat across the Douro. Two days later, the 1st Battalion
of Detachments would be part of the daring attack that involved crossing
the Douro on four large barges and kicking the French out of Oporto.[7]
The performance of Lieutenant Munro’s company was recognized
in the General Orders of 12 May 1809:
“In the course of this short expedition the Commander of the
Forces has had repeated opportunities of witnessing and applauding
the gallantry of the officers and the troops, the activity and conduct
of the 95th, and of the Light Infantry of the 29th the
43rd and 52nd.”[8]
At Talavera, Lieutenant Munro and his riflemen would be in the thick
of things. They would be with the 1st Battalion of Detachments
when it led the attack on the Medellin de Cerro on 27 July. The
next morning, his company would be part of the light infantry force
that would screen the army. The screen was pushed back when Victor
made his main attack against the British center.[9]
The 1st Battalion of Detachments came under heavy cannon fire
and the battalion would take over 200 casualties. Lieutenant
Munro would be slightly wounded on 29 July, the second day of the battle.[10]
In 1814, Benjamin Haydon, the noted painter, shared the top of a coach
with a 95th Rifleman, who was also wounded at Talavera under
the command of Lieutenant Munro. His portrait of the tough old
veteran is quite colorful:
“While I was at Hastings, a Martello Tower at Bopeep was full
of wounded soldiers from Spain. Returning to town outside the
coach, I had one of the 95th, a desperate rifleman, by my side. He
had yards of flannel wrapped round him. He was spare, pale, haggard,
keen, and talked all the way. He had been wounded at Talavera
when Cuesta ran away, and the Duke was obliged to cross the Tagus,
and the French entered. This fellow, and a corporal of the guards,
hobbled out of the town, both wounded, bloody, and lame. A man
and two mules passed; they begged for help, but he disregarded them. ‘I
say, rifleman, is your rifle loaded?’ said the guardsman. ‘I
have never looked since the battle.’ ‘Touch up that
fellow, if it will go off.’
‘Good God.’ Said a horror-stricken Cockney on the other
side, ‘what did you do?’ ‘Do! Why, clapped up my
rifle, to be sure; she never missed; down came my gentleman! We
were too lame to mount, so led the mules till we came back to a ditch,
and then slipped off the dike on their backs, and, what’s more,
found three hundred dollars in the saddle-bags!’ ‘My
God,’ said the Cockney, ‘you wretch!’
‘That may be,’ said the 95th man, ‘but why
did not he help us, the rascal, wounded for his d—d country?
We got gloriously safe to Elvas, and many good drinks we had of the
three hundred dollars.”
“This fellow was a complete rascal. He told stories that
made one’s flesh creep, and boasted of villainies as evidence
of talent in a way that was dreadful. He had brought off, he
said, fifty-six men, prisoners, safe to Lisbon, and then by the Duke’s
order, got a dollar a man. They had under-mined a wall, and the
exploit, I remembered, was in the papers at the time. He was
a keen dog, who evidently advised his officer if he knew better, but
shrunk from command. He gave us a description of the adventures
of the advance – most entertaining. He said one Irish regiment
took off all their buttons, and passed them for shillings. They
had changed clothes so often with the dead, enemies and English,
that, on meeting the Duke once, he did not know what regiment they
were.”[11]
After the battle, the 1st Battalion of Detachments began to
be disbanded with the arrival of the Light Brigade. The men of
Lieutenant Munro’s company joined the 1st Battalion 95th Foot.[12]
Lieutenant Munro would return to England in late 1809. The 42nd Foot
had taken heavy losses during the Walcheren Campaign and Lieutenant
Munro would be on recruiting duty during 1810.[13]
He and the other recruiters were not too successful in finding enough
Highland volunteers to fill the ranks. The regiment had to accept
150 men from the Irish militia.[14] In
1811, Lieutenant Munro was back with the 1st Battalion and was
stationed at Musselburgh, Scotland. In August 1811, the 1st Battalion
moved to Lewes Barracks in Sussex.[15]
In the Spring of 1812, the 1st Battalion 42nd Foot was
ordered to the Peninsula, to replaced the 2nd Battalion 42nd Foot,
which had become so reduced in strength, that it was ineffective.[16]
Lieutenant Munro would fight with the 1st Battalion during 1812
and 1814, including Salamanca, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes,
and Toulouse.
The 42nd Foot was heavily engaged at Toulouse on 10 April 1814
and it would be Lieutenant Munro’s last battle. Ensign John Malcolm
wrote a particularly vivid sketch of the 42nd Highlanders in
the battle:
". .. our division (the 6th) approached the foot of the
ridge of heights, on the enemy's right, and moved in a direction
parallel to them, until we reached the point of attack. We advanced
advanced along the foot of the ridge, under a heavy cannonade, from
some redoubts on the heights. At one part of the ground over which we passed,
many of the shot took affect, and a soldier, immediately before me,
was struck by a cannon-ball, about the middle of the body, and fell
a frightful and shapeless mass, scarcely retaining a trace of humanity. We
arrived, at last, immediately in front of a redoubt which protected
the right of the enemy's position, where we were formed in two lines—the
first consisting of some Portuguese regiments, and the reserve, at
this point, of the Highland Brigade. Darkening the whole
hill, flanked by clouds of cavalry, and covered by the fire of their
redoubt, the enemy came down on us like a torrent; their generals
and field-officers riding in front and waving their hats amidst the
shouts of the multitude, resembling the roar of
an ocean. Our Highlanders, as if actuated with one instinctive impulse,
took off their bonnets, and waving them in the air returned the greeting
with three cheers. A death-like silence ensued for some moments,
and we could perceive a visible pause in the advance of the enemy.
At that moment the light company of the 42nd Regiment, by a well-directed
fire brought down some of the French officers of distinction as they
rode in front of their respective corps. The enemy immediately fired
a volley into our lines, and advanced upon us amidst a deafening roar
of musketry and artillery. Our troops only answered their fire only
once, and unappalled by their furious onset, advanced up the hill and
met them at the charge. Our bayonets, however, pierced nothing but
wreaths of smoke; for, our foes having suddenly changed their minds,
were charging in the opposite direction: and just such a glimpse did
we obtain them, vanishing over the ridge of the hill, as did Geoffrey
Crayon of the ‘stout gentleman.’ Upon reaching
the summit of the ridge of heights, the redoubt which had covered
their advance fell into our possession; but they still retained four
others with their connecting lines of entrenchments upon the level
of the same heights on which we were now established, and into which
they had retired.”
“Here our brigade remained a considerable time, until Marshal Beresford’s
artillery, which, in consequence of the badness of the roads, had
been left in the village of Mont Blanc, could be brought up, and
until the Spaniards under Don Manuel Freyre could be re-formed, and
brought back to the attack.”
"During this pause, we were ordered to sit down along the sides
of the road, the embankments of which afforded us protection from
the point-blank shot of the redoubts and fortified houses into which
the enemy had retired, but not from their shells, which they threw
among us with great precision, and by which we lost a good many men;
and latterly they moved round some guns to a position, from which
the line of the road was completely raked by their fire. During this period,
General Pack sat on horseback in the middle of the road, showing an
example of the most undaunted bravery to the troops. I think
I see him now, as he then appeared, perfectly calm and unmoved, and
with a placid smile upon his face amidst a perfect storm of shot and
shells. His aid-de-camp, Le Strange, who was afterwards killed at Waterloo,
had his horse shot under him, and both came down together. A
few minutes afterwards, I observed General Pack suddenly turn pale,
and seem as if going to faint. This was occasioned by a ball
which had passed through his leg. He rode slowly to the rear,
where he had his wound dressed, and in a few minutes returned again.”
"Marshal Beresford's artillery having at length arrived, and
the Spanish troops being once more brought forward, General Pack rode
up to the front of our brigade, and made the following announcement:
' I have just now been with General Clinton, and he has been pleased
to grant my request, that in the charge we are now about to make upon
the enemy's redoubts, the 42nd shall have the honour of leading the
attack: -- the 42nd will advance!' This order was immediately
passed along the troops, and I could hear the last words dying away
in the distance along our lines.”
"We immediately began to form for the charge upon the redoubts, which were about two or three hundred yards distant,
and to which we had to pass over some ploughed fields. The grenadiers
of the 42nd, followed by the other companies, led the way, and began
to ascend from the road; but no sooner were the feathers of their
bonnets seen rising over the embankment, than such a tremendous fire
was opened from the redoubts and intrenchments as in a very short
time would have annihilated them. The right wing, therefore, hastily
formed into line, and without waiting for the left, which was ascending
by companies from the road, rushed upon the batteries, which vomited
forth a storm of fire, grape-shot, and musketry, the most incessant,
furious and terrific, I ever witnessed.”
“Amidst the clouds of smoke in which they
were curtained, the whole line of redoubts would every now and then
start into view amidst the wild and frightful blaze, and then vanish
again into utter darkness. Our men were mown down by sections. I
saw six of the company to which I belonged fall together, as if swept
away by the discharge of one gun; and the whole ground over which
we rushed was covered with the dead. The redoubts were erected along
the side of a road, and were defended by broad ditches full of water.
Just before our troops reached the obstruction, however, the enemy
deserted them, and fled in all directions, leaving their last line
of strongholds in our possession; but they still possessed two fortified
houses close by, from which they kept up a galling and destructive
fire.” [17]
The regimental history states that “four officers, three sergeants,
and forty-seven rank and file killed; and twenty-one officers, fourteen
sergeants, one drummer, and 231 rank and file wounded.”[18]
Among those severely wounded was Lieutenant Munro.[19]
Thomas Munro was one of the senior lieutenants in the regiment before
the battle of Toulouse.[20] The
heavy casualties among officers of the regiment at Toulouse – including
two captains who were killed or died of wounds[21] – permitted him to be promoted to
captain without purchase on 19 May 1814. He would be assigned
to the 2nd Battalion 42nd Foot in Aberdeen.[22] On
25 October, the 2nd Battalion was disbanded and Captain Munro
went on half-pay. He was allowed to remain in the regiment on
full pay until 24 December.[23]
Captain Munro would stay on half-pay until 8 June 1826, when he was
brought into the 3rd Foot.[24] He retired by the sale of his commission
30 December 1826.[25] Thomas Munro never received
the Army General Service Medal, which was authorized in 1846. The
most likely reason was that he had died by then.
Notes:
[1] London Gazette:
31 July 1804
[2] Army
List: June 1808; London Gazette: 14 August 1805.
[3] Forbes:
p. 207
[4] Challis
[5] Forbes: p.
209
[6] Verner:
Part II, p. 52
[7] Ibid:
p. 53 - 56
[8] Ibid:
p. 56
[9] Ibid:
p. 64
[10] London Gazette:
15 August 1809
[11] Haydon;
pp. 255 - 256
[12] Verner:
p. 52
[13] Army
List: July 1810
[14] Forbes:
p. 230
[15] Ibid:
p. 231
[16] Ibid:
p. 231
[17] Malcolm:
pp. 293 - 298
[18] Forbes:
254
[19] London Gazette:
26 April 1814
[20] Army
List: November 1813
[21] London Gazette:
26 April 1814
[22] London Gazette:
28 May 1814; Forbes: p. 260
[23] Army
List: December 1814
[24] London Gazette:
23 June 1826
[25] London Gaxette:
18 January 1827
Placed on the Napoleon Series: April 2009
[ Not
One in Ten Thousand Know Your Name: the Officers of the British
1st Battalion of Detachments in 1809 ] |
