The next target was the significantly smaller colony of St Lucia, thought to be defended by little more than a thousand men, a mixture of regulars, mulattoes and local whites. Grey was to repeat the strategy which had served him well on Martinique, landing his forces at several points on the island. Leaving a garrison at the new possession, his remaining force, 4,800 strong, departed Fort Royal on 30 March. It was composed as follows:
…the Brigade of Grenadiers, commanded by his Highness Prince Edward; the Brigade of Light Infantry, by Major-General Dundas; and the 6th, 9th and 43rd Regiments by Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, with Engineers, & c. under Colonel Durnford and a Detachment of the Royal Artillery with some Light Ordnance under Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson…
Reaching St Lucia on 1 April, troops were landed at Anse du Cap, Anse du Choc, Anse Latoc and at Marigot (see map 5). There was no resistance and, with Jervis’s fleet safely anchored in Cul de Sac Bay, British forces were soon closing in on their ultimate goal, the fort of Morne Fortune, which dominated the port of Castries and which was under the command of General Ricard. This fortress was vulnerable with the works incomplete and a garrison of only a few hundred. Poyen describes the defenders as ‘sick and deprived of everything’. Under the circumstances, Grey was confident enough to take the offensive immediately. On the evening of the 2nd, four companies of Coote’s 1st Light Infantry Battalion surprised a redoubt and two batteries, bayoneting 32 men and spiking six cannon. According to Johnston Abercromby of the 3rd Battalion of Grenadiers this ‘terrified’ the defenders in the fort and the reverse was enough to induce Ricard to surrender under the same terms agreed at Martinique. The small garrison marched out on 4 April to be replaced by the 6th and 9th Regiments. Grey wrote to Dundas that the name of the fort had been changed to Charlotte and that the conquest of the island had been achieved without the loss of a man.11
After returning to Martinique, the British general turned his eyes towards Guadeloupe, made up of the islands of Basse Terre (often referred to as Guadeloupe) and Grande Terre (see map 6). These islands were separated by a narrow arm of the sea, called La Rivière Salée, which was navigable for vessels of 50 tons. Grande Terre is mainly low lying and Basse Terre more rugged and mountainous. Together, these islands were larger in both size and population than Martinique. Grey had just over 4,000 men at his disposal, whilst the number of Republican troops on the colony was uncertain. One estimate was that there were as many as 7−8,000 regulars in addition to sailors, mulatto and black contingents, but this is at odds with the local French commander General Collot’s later assertion that, because of disease, he had only 120 regular soldiers to oppose the English invasion.
Grey and Jervis sent a squadron ahead to capture the small islands called the Saints; these could be used as a supply base and anchorage. The main force sailed on 8 April with the intent to seize Guadeloupe’s main town, Point-à-Pitre, and the nearby fort of Fleur d’Épée on the south coast of Grande Terre. The fleet was dispersed by adverse winds and when the first ships arrived off Gozier to the east of Point-à-Pitre on 10 April other vessels, including many of the troop transports, were still two days away. It was an awkward situation which Grey tackled in typically aggressive style, choosing to put ashore a scratch force of two grenadier battalions, one company of the 43rd Regiment, fifty marines, and 400 seamen to defend the beaches until other troops arrived. The general was determined not to give his adversary time to reinforce potential landing sites. The disembarkation was assisted by the fire of the 32-gun frigate Winchelsea, which silenced the enemy’s guns. The vessel’s commander, Lord Garlies, was the only man wounded in the operation.12
By the following day, the 12th, the remaining transports had appeared, more troops were disembarked and Grey resolved to attack the Republican forces on Morne Mascotte and in Fort Fleur d’Épée. The latter was the most formidable of the enemy defences but it was controlled by Morne Mascotte, a hill only a musket shot to the rear of it. This fact determined Grey’s plan of attack. A detachment under Prince Edward was to attack the Morne, a second under Thomas Dundas to assault Fleur d’Épée from the rear, and a third under Colonel Symes to follow the road along the coast to cooperate with Dundas. Grey ordered his men ‘not to fire but to execute every Thing with the Bayonet’. At five o’clock, a signal of the firing of a gun was given from Jervis’s flagship, the Boyne, and the troops swarmed towards the fort. Willyams relates the dénouement.
As they advanced to the first piquet the alarm was given; the outposts were driven in or put to death: and in an instant the sides of the hill on which the fort was situated were covered by our people, who scrambled up, under a most tremendous discharge of grape shot and musketry: some sailors jump into the embrasures, driving the enemy before: the soldiers, who had reached the gates, at length succeeded in forcing them open: the enemy still continuing to make a stout resistance were put to the sword in great numbers; at length, as many as could escape through the gates and embrasures, or by leaping over the walls, fled with the utmost precipitation towards the town of Point-à-Pitre.
Both sides suffered significant losses in this hard fought affair; the British 15 killed and 60 wounded (including 15 sailors) and the enemy 67 killed, 55 wounded and 110 taken prisoner. Of the prisoners, 78 were black, 18 mulatto, and 14 white, reflecting the mixed nature of the Republican force. The number of enemy captives casts doubt on Poyen’s accusation that the victorious troops showed little mercy to the garrison.13
Grey now had effective control of Grande Terre. Leaving the 43rd Regiment to garrison Point-à-Pitre and Fort Prince Of Wales (the late Fort Fleur d’Épée) he embarked the 1st and 2nd Grenadiers and the 1st Light Infantry at twelve o’clock on the 14th and landed five hours later across the bay at Petit Bourg on Basse Terre. Here he was greeted with ‘great demonstrations of joy’ by local French planters. Grey now moved south along the coast road to Trois Rivières where he could see two enemy redoubts and the strong post of Palmiste near the town of Basseterre, where Collot and the bulk of his forces awaited the British attack. This was to be two-pronged as Dundas had sailed from Point-à-Pitre and landed with the 3rd Battalion of Grenadiers and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of Light Infantry at Vieux Habitants and was approaching the town from the north. On the 21st, the two forces made their junction having turned the enemy out of the key defences of Palmiste and the Morne Houelle.
Collot’s hold on Basseterre was weakened by insurrection. During the nights of the 17th and 18th, large parts of the town, including the hospital, were set alight. A council of war was assembled and it was concluded that the number of regular troops in the garrison was insufficient to defend the fort; at least 1,000 would be needed. Collot capitulated, surrendering Guadeloupe and all its dependencies including the islands of Marie Galante, Desiderata and the Saints. The terms were the same as were agreed with Rochambeau at Martinique and Ricard at St Lucia. At 8 o’clock on the 22nd, the French garrison of 55 regulars of the Regiments of Guadeloupe and the 14th ligne and over 800 National Guards and others marched out of Basseterre’s Fort Saint Charles (Matilda). Grey had lost only 11 men, killed, wounded or missing. The whole campaign was, in Fortescue’s opinion, ‘an extraordinary example of the power of a small and efficient army working in perfect harmony with a small and efficient squadron upon a fortified coast’.14
Grey wrote to Dundas of his latest triumph, emphasising the ‘unanimity and extraordinary exertions of the Navy and Army’ and listing the islands he had added to the British Empire. He was, however, running out of men. There was no question of a new offensive against Saint Domingue. Indeed, with a growing number of soldiers on the sick list, it was no easy task to defend his conquests. The general, no doubt believing his capture of the main military prize in the Caribbean, Martinique, to be a sufficient gain, was planning to return home in July. Modestly attributing his successes to ‘good fortune’, he informed Dundas that he was exhausted, ‘…my continuing here would reduce and weaken me to that degree that I am persuaded would p
revent me being able to execute, to my own satisfaction, any service on which I might be employed in Autumn’. Grey’s and Jervis’s enjoyment of their West Indian triumphs – they were hailed as heroes at home where the canons in St James’s Park and the Tower of London fired salutes – was to be compromised by accusations that they had illegally enriched themselves with prize money. Grey admitted that, as a military man, many administrative matters were beyond him. He was undoubtedly guilty of greed and nepotism.
In early May, battalion companies of the 22nd, 35th, and 41st Regiments from Ireland reached Grey at Martinique. He was warned by the British Consul that a French fleet was in Hampton Roads and that the Americans were threatening war; the 35th were retained but the remaining reinforcements were sent on to Jamaica with General Whyte and, as has been related, were subsequently employed in Saint Domingue. Grey now considered an expedition against the French colony of Cayenne, but this scheme was abandoned when it was learnt that there was a strong force on the island. The army’s mounting number of sick remained a disincentive to active operations. Flank companies of the 22nd, 23rd, 35th and 41st were sent to rejoin their battalion companies in Saint Domingue.
At the end of the month, as the Government basked in the glory of Caribbean triumphs, peace seemed to have broken out in the region. However, the British hold on Guadeloupe and St Lucia was not as tight as it appeared. Only the larger towns and fortifications were secured; much of the interior of both islands was held only because of the goodwill of the colonists, which was being eroded by the perception that British commanders and soldiers were rapacious. French residents believed that they had ‘changed one set of oppressors for another’. Grey thought that any French counter-attack could not begin before the autumn, the sickly season now starting, but he and Jervis were about to be unpleasantly surprised.
On 2 June 1794, nine French ships approached Point-à-Pitre. Aboard was a force of around 1,100 men comprised of a battalion of light infantry, a strong company of infantry of the line, and 150 canons arranged into two batteries. This expedition, which had departed from Rochefort 40 days earlier, was under the command of two civil commissioners, Pierre Chrétien and Victor Hugues. The approach of the force was noted by Lieutenant Colonel James Drummond, the commander of Grande Terre. This officer made hurried preparations but his regiment, the 43rd, was reduced to less than 200 men by sickness and the British response was also compromised by the death of the colony’s governor, Major General Thomas Dundas, of yellow fever on the same day as the French arrival. Dundas’s successor made belated efforts to help Drummond in Fort Fleur d’Épée but it was too late.
The Republicans came ashore near the village of Gozier on the 2nd and 3rd. Drummond had been reinforced by the merchants of Point-à-Pitre and French Royalists, bringing the strength of the garrison to around 300 men. A sortie by the Royalists on the 4th achieved little beyond disturbing the Republican pickets and they quickly retreated to the fort. At one o’clock on the morning of Friday the 6th, the Republicans attacked the fort with between 1,200 and 1,500 men. Drummond relates the outcome;
…the advanced Piquet came into the Fort and we then distinctly heard the Approach of the enemy along the road leading from the Village. We instantly commenced a Fire of Grape Shot from One Twenty-four-Pounder and Two Field-Pieces, which threw them into great Confusion and must have been attended with considerable Effect. The enemy halted for Two or Three Minutes, and then, at the Persuasion of their Officers, marched on to the Foot of the Hill, and began to Storm the Work. We kept up a very heavy Fire of Musketry for about Fifteen minutes; The Enemy were evidently repulsed, and I am persuaded that had the Royalists acted with Resolution at that moment, we might have maintained our Ground; but, on the firing ceasing, Numbers of them concluded the Place lost, and, abandoning their Posts, ran in Crowds towards the Gate. It was in vain for the Soldiers of the 43rd Regiment to Oppose their Progress; the Gates were laid open and nearly One Half of the whole Body deserted the Town. The Gates were again closed as soon as possible, and the small Body of the 43rd Regiment, which I had kept in Reserve, moved on to the Attack. They opposed the Entrance of the enemy for some Time, but one side of the Work having been abandoned, and left entirely defenceless, we found ourselves nearly surrounded, and I then ordered the Soldiers I had with me to charge with their Bayonets, and retire a few Paces to a Spot where we might be better able to defend ourselves. Here we halted, and received a Volley of musketry from a Number of the enemy that had formed themselves in a Body in our Front. The Crowd of People that now came rushing from every Quarter toward the Gate rendered every effort by the Soldiers ineffectual: Overpowered as they were, they found themselves dispersed and obliged to retire.
Drummond now consulted with two or three of his fellow officers and, judging the fort untenable, he abandoned Fleur d’Épée, retiring to Fort Louis. Here he decided that prolonged resistance was futile and he embarked his remaining force and escaped across the bay to Basse Terre. When Lieutenant Colonel Blundell belatedly arrived with reinforcements on the 6th, the Republican flag was flying over the fort. Drummond was unsure of his number of killed and wounded, whilst Hugues estimated his losses as 90 men and believed his enemy to have suffered more than double this number of casualties. He had taken some French Royalist and British prisoners.16
In Duffy’s words, the Caribbean war was suddenly ‘more serious and deadly’. The Republican forces were struck by yellow fever, with the death of many senior civil and military officers. This meant that the command role devolved to the capable but merciless Hugues. In addition to strengthening his land defences, Hugues took radical steps to enlarge his army, summoning all Republicans and disseminating the contents of the decrees of the French Convention of 4 February 1794, legislation which emancipated the slaves. Now the blacks had equal rights to the whites and the Convention planned to rally the whole black population to their own cause, a threat not just to Guadeloupe, but also to other British islands.
Reports of the slaughter of the sick and wives of the 43rd Regiment at the hospital at Point-à-Pitre underlined the prevailing mood and the need for quick retaliation. Grey was determined to retake the initiative, writing to Sir Evan Nepean, Undersecretary for War, that he had no doubt of ‘doing the business’, even with his reduced forces, and that he believed it only a matter of ‘being more alert and striking harder’ than the enemy. He was prepared to resort to ‘every means’ to obtain his objective. The general and admiral boarded the Boyne and sailed for Guadeloupe, dropping anchor off Point-à-Pitre. British troops had been driven from Grande Terre to Basse Terre; the men were incensed at reports of Republican atrocities and were swearing revenge, emotions which their commander did not discourage. Jervis’s fleet blockaded the French ships in Point-à-Pitre.
Whilst awaiting reinforcements from the other islands, Grey was given the opportunity to gain a morale-boosting victory. On the night of 13 June, the French carelessly sent a modest detachment across the Salée to occupy Point St Jean, a headland on Basse Terre. They had been there only 48 hours when a British force, composed of the 39th Regiment and light infantry under the command of Colonel Francis Dundas, fell upon them with the bayonet killing 200 and causing others to flee into the waters of the harbour. The enemy’s camp, colours, baggage and cannon were captured with only nine wounded and not a man killed. Grey praised his soldiers in General Orders promising that those who had particularly distinguished themselves would be commended to the King.17
By the morning of the 19th, sufficient reinforcements, including a number of flank companies, had arrived to allow the opening of operations against Hugues on Grande Terre. A landing was made ‘without loss or opposition’ on the beach of Anse Canot under the cover of two frigates. Once ashore, the grenadiers and light infantry moved on Gozier, which the enemy abandoned, burning some of the houses. Grey began to throw up batteries against Fleur d’Épée and there commenced several days desperate fighting around the fort. The British had 3−4,000 men and the Republi
cans perhaps around 3,000. Having seized St Ann’s, seven miles to the east, Grey next ordered Lieutenant Colonel Gerrit Fisher to clear the road from Gozier to Fleur d’Épée, a task he performed with aplomb. This left the enemy still in possession of high and wooded country in front of Morne Mascotte and, on the 27th, they were forced back into Fleur d’Épée by grenadiers and light infantry under Brigadier General Richard Symes. Undeterred by this reverse, the enemy responded by ‘arming Blacks, Mulattos, and Coloureds’ and launching an attack against that part of the Morne held by Fisher and his men. Republican fire raked the top of the hill such that the grenadiers had to lay flat on their faces. When the enemy were within a few yards, the British sprang up and drove them back down the hill with the bayonet. Two days later, around a thousand mulatto and black troops, described by Grey as being clothed in the ‘National Uniform’ attacked the same post. On this occasion they had the support of round and grape-shot from the fort and a field piece on the right enfilading the grenadiers but the outcome was the same, the Republican assault repulsed with heavy losses by grenadiers and light infantry using their well-tested bayonets.
He had so far prevailed, but the incessant and intense fighting took its toll on Grey’s men. In his later dispatch, the general explained his situation.
The Rainy Season being already set in and this being the last month for acting before the Hurricane Season, at the same time that the Troops were exposed alternately to heavy Rains and a vertical sun, together with the circumstances of the great Slaughter recently suffered by the Enemy in the Two Attacks they made on Morne Mascot determined me to make an effort for finishing the Campaign at once…18
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