United States or Montserrat ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Castle was garrisoned by but twelve men, and of these six were invalids and matrosses; but the other six were tall and sturdy veterans, who had been indeed of Oliver's Life-guard, and were now confirmed in their places, and with the pay, not of common soldiers, but of private gentlemen, by the King's own order.
They were attended by "a captain of the British army, a sergeant, and six matrosses, provided with fixed ammunition, suited to the calibre of two field pieces, which had been taken from General St. Clair, and deposited in a creek near the scene of his defeat in 1791."
She could but hold her in discourse of how the Invalid Matrosses had the rheumatism and the ague; how the Life-guard men in their room diced and drank and quarrelled, both over their dice and their drink; how the rumour ran that the poverty-stricken habitants of the adjoining village had, from long dwelling among the fens, become as web-footed as the wild-fowl they hunted; and how her Father, who had been for many years a widower, was harsh and stern with her, and would not suffer her to read the romances and play-books, some half-dozen of which the Sergeant of the Guard had with him.
Six battalions of land troops, with a detachment of matrosses and bombardiers, were embarked in thirty transports, under the conduct of lieutenant-general Sinclair; and the whole fleet set sail from Plymouth on the fourteenth day of September. On the twentieth the troops were landed in Quimperlay-bay, at the distance of ten miles from Port L'Orient.
Besides his Captain-Lieutenant, and first, second, and third Lieutenants, he had three sergeants, three corporals, six bombardiers, three gunners, two drummers, two fifers, a barber, and seventy-one matrosses, or assistant gunners.
That love-vows were interchanged between this Bride and Bridegroom of Sorrow and a Dark Dungeon almost, I know not; but their liking for each other's society he imparting to her some of his studies, and she playing music, with implements of which she was well provided, to him of an afternoon had become so apparent both to the soldiers on guard and servants, even to the poor Invalid Matrosses wheezing and shivering in their buff-coats, that Colonel Glover, in a very flurry of uncertainty, sent post haste to Whitehall to know what he was to do whether to chamber up Mrs.
Meanwhile, the American cavalry under Major Call, had been ordered round by Salkehatchie bridge, to join with the militia collected in that quarter for the purpose of striking at the enemy. With a howitzer, some matrosses and fifty infantry, Laurens moved down the river, and on the evening of the 26th reached the place of Mrs.
The train was immediately cut off, and the magazine secured. The nails with which they had spiked up their cannon were drilled out by the matrosses; and in the meantime the British colours were hoisted on the parapet. Part of the troops took possession of an advantageous post on an eminence, and part entered the town, Which still continued burning with great violence.
Word Of The Day