The Maclaine Family Medals
“They plied us so fast with shell,” continues Donaldson, “that I saw six or eight in the air over us at once.” Then “the French soon acquired a fatal precision with their shot, sending them in through our embrasures, killing and wounding men at every volley.” Of Captain Maclaine, Donaldson says: “The commandant was moving from place to place giving orders and exposing himself to every danger. No one could doubt that he was brave. The carnage now became dreadful but our men's spirits and enthusiasm seemed to rise with the danger. The artillery officer stood on the platform and when he reported any of our shot taking effect, a cheer followed and ‘At it again, my heroes,’ was the exclamation from every mouth. When any of our comrades fell it excited no visible feeling but revenge. ‘Now for a retaliating shot,’ was the word; every nerve was strained to lay the gun with precision and if it took effect it was considered that full justice was done to their memory.
"”The action was kept up the whole of that day, during which we lost the best and bravest of our men. Our guns had been well directed at first but, towards evening, the most of the artillery who had commanded them were either killed or wounded and the direction of them was then taken by men who knew little about it. The consequence was that much ammunition was used to little purpose”.
Throughout the day, from morning to night, the house roofs of Cadiz were crowded with people with telescopes, anxiously watching the progress of the fight, as were the tops and mastheads of the men of war and shipping in the outer harbour. At nightfall the enemy suspended firing and the fort in turn ceased to reply. All now turned-to to try and repair the destroyed parapet and ramparts as they best might. Reinforcements to make good casualties were brought over after dark from the British troops in Cadiz, among them men from the 2nd Battalion of the 88th, as well as some from the 87th. General Graham also sent a message to Captain Maclaine thanking him for the day's stand and offering to relieve the
94th.The offer was declined with thanks - they would fight it out to the end.
“The whole of the night of the 21st and morning of the 22nd,” says Captain Maclaine in his report to General Graham, “I employed in endeavouring to repair the parapet of the south-east face, composed of sandbags, which, from the very heavy fire of twenty-one pieces of cannon (most of them 32-pounders) the enemy had totally demolished, so that the men at the guns were completely exposed. We continued to replace the sandbags and fill up the breach so as to put ourselves in a tolerable state of defence: and at daybreak in the morning (April 22nd) the enemy opened with a salvo from all his batteries. We returned the fire with the same spirit and success as yesterday, but the fort soon became a complete ruin and nowhere afforded any shelter for the reliefs.” Four of the seven guns were now disabled and put out of action, and the bomb-proof casemate in which the magazine was lodged was blown in, entirely exposing the powder barrels.
General Stewart came over from General Graham during the early morning to report on the state of the garrison. On his return the evacuation of the fort was ordered and a naval officer, Captain Stacpole, was sent with boats from the British squadron to bring off the garrison. The defenders’ casualties at the end of the thirty hours’ bombardment numbered eighty-three out of the 147 who had originally formed Captain Maclaine’s command. The 94th had had four killed and twenty-eight wounded and the 2/88th party two killed. The gunners R.A. had ten casualties, the Marines twenty, the Navy nineteen.
Donaldson, who was one of the last to leave the fort according to his own account, says that the French, when they saw the evacuation taking place, attempted to gain possession and were beaten off. He had gone down, he relates, into a half-destroyed bomb-proof to look for his coat and “on coming up to the ramparts found that all the men had left the fort with the exception of three or four and the commandant, who was watching the motions of a strong party of French, evidently coming down to take the place. Our ammunition was expended, but he ordered all the loose powder, grape, and ball cartridge to be collected, and having stuffed three guns (all we had left fit for service) to the muzzle with them, we watched the enemy until within about 200 yards of the battery, when the guns were fired into the very middle of their column and laid the half of them prostrate on the earth; the rest wheeled to the right about and left us to embark at leisure.”
From the Invincible the 94th Matagorda detachment were landed late in the day at Cadiz and marched for the night to a casemate bomb-proof under the city ramparts. “Half naked and blackened with the smoke of gunpowder,” remarks Donaldson, “we looked more like chimney sweeps than soldiers.” They proceeded to the battalion camp in the lines at Isla next morning. “Our comrades turned out to receive us, and our hearts thrilled with exultation at the encomiums passed on our bravery. The poor fellows flew with alacrity to procure wine to treat us... Next day we were called out. The regiment formed square and the remains of our party were marched into it. We were then addressed by our commanding officer in terms of the highest eulogy and held out to the regiment as a pattern.”
Captain Maclaine's report, in addition to bringing before General Graham for distinguished conduct the names of Ensigns Cannon and Scott of the grenadier company of the 94th, and officers of other corps serving under his orders, specially recommended “Hospital-mate Bennet, attached to the 94th, who was the surgeon attending the garrison.” General Graham, in forwarding it to the Secretary at War in England, specially mentioned Captain Maclaine himself and the two Ensigns of the 94th together with Lieutenants Brereton and Wright R.A., Major Lefebre R.E. (the last man killed on the ramparts of Matagorda at the moment of final withdrawal), and Midshipman Dobson. He added this: “The defence of Matagorda has been witnessed by everybody with admiration and I should not have been justified in allowing it to be continued so long but from the expectation of the possibility of some diversion being made in its favour, which however was found to be impracticable.” This last was a reference to the backwardness of the Spanish Governor of Cadiz in regard to permitting British gun boats to enter the Trocadero Channel so as to take the French batteries in rear.
General Graham further issued a special Order of the Day dated “Isla April 23rd 1810.” In addition to offering his “best thanks” to every one of the Matagorda garrison “for the steadiness and bravery by which so severe and unequal a contest was so long maintained,” and naming the officers mentioned in his official despatch just referred to, he said this of Captain Maclaine: “The troops having witnessed the gallant defence of the little redoubt of Matagorda against the powerful efforts of the enemy, it is unnecessary to hold up the conduct of Captain Maclaine of the 94th Regiment as a noble example of fortitude and patience.” Maclaine was ever afterwards known among his acquaintances and among old Army officers as “the Hero of Matagorda.”
In a despatch to Lord Liverpool, General Graham wrote this of Captain Maclaine in connection with the defence of Matagorda: “It would be an injustice to the Service not to recommend him in the warmest manner to your Lordship's notice.” The result was the promotion “without purchase” of Captain Maclaine to the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers on 4 October 1810. Although, by all accounts, Major Maclaine was much admired and liked by the officers in the 2/87th, there can be no doubt that there would have been a great deal of resentment that the promotion had not been from within the regiment. With his new regiment he took part in the battle of Barrosa in 1811, where he was severely wounded for the sixth time in his career and had his horse shot under him.
In the London Gazette of 12 October 1816, it was announced that ‘His Royal Highness the Prince Regent had been pleased, in the name and on behalf of His Majesty, to grant unto Archibald Maclaine, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, and Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, His Majesty’s royal licence and permission that he may accept and wear the supernumerary cross of the royal and distinguished Spanish Order of Charles the Third, which his Catholic Majesty Ferdinand the Seventh, King of Spain, has been pleased to confer upon that Officer, in testimony of the high sense which that Sovereign entertains of the highly distinguished intrepidity displayed by him in the arduous defence of Fort Matagorda, in 1810, - in the memorable Battle of Barrosa, in 1811, - and of the capture of Seville, in 1812.’
Maclaine was one of a small handful of officers to be appointed as Supernumerary Knights of the Order of Charles the Third for services during the Peninsula war. The Knights of the Order being limited to 200, ‘who enjoy a Pension of 375 gulden each,’ the Supernumerary Knights, such as Maclaine, did not receive pensions and formed a Class by themselves. It is understood that General Maclaine was raised to a Grand Cross in the Order in his later life, but the authority for this promotion has not yet been found.
Major Maclaine was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1813. He became a Major-General in 1841, and was appointed Colonel of the 52nd Foot (now the 2nd Bn. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) in 1847, was promoted Lieutenant-General in 1851, and General in 1855. His death took place in London on 9 March 1861, in his 89th year. There is a low monument to his memory, suitably inscribed, in Highgate Cemetery, London.
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