Raise the Colours High! the Capture of Guadeloupe, August 1815By Steve BrownThe French Leeward Island colony of Guadeloupe had been captured by the British in 1794 and 1810, but had been returned to the new regime in France following Napoleon's first abdication in April 1814. Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois had been appointed by King Louis XVIII as Governor in 1814, but news of Napoleon's return from exile in Elba in February 1815 forced him to reconsider his political stance; Linois vacillated, but then declared his support for Napoleon on - ironically - 18 June 1815. Peninsula hero Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith, commander of British forces in the West Indies, promptly despatched an expeditionary force made up of regiments then available in the Leeward Islands, with naval support under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Charles Durham. The French garrison on Guadeloupe comprised a single overseas service battalion of 62e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne under the command of Colonel Baron Eugène Édouard Boyer de Peyreleau, which had arrived on the island in Janaury 1815, and a company of the 6e Régiment d'Artillerie a Pied under Captain Delfontaine. The British expeditionary force landed on 8 August - the day after Napoleon set sail for St Helena - and within 48 hours secured a complete capitulation over this last bastion of support for Napoleon, with relatively few casualties. Six weeks after Waterloo, the Emperor's last battle was over. Leith then handed the island back to the representative of the the French King. France rewarded Leith with the Order of Military Merit.
Placed on the Napoleon Series: March 2015 |
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