It involved the purchase of camels, horses and bullocks, but most importantly the securing of supplies of water.25 Baird sent out advance parties to dig new wells along the route and provided for each detachment to carry with it a large quantity of water sacks (mussacks), though these ultimately proved problematic as a number leaked.
The first corps ordered to begin the ‘perilous march’, being the 88th Regiment and the Bombay sepoys, was that commanded by Beresford, which set off to Moilah where there was water and provisions. However, the wells built at various points proved insufficient and Baird was forced to delay sending the second body of men while the camels carried further water supplies to Beresford and his men.26 Ultimately the entire force, less three who had died on the way, reached Ghennah (via Legeta), which Baird reported on 24 June was to be the intermediate destination of the 88th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), but not before Baird had been forced by the conditions to send his cannon back to Kosseir.27 The troops suffered from dysentery, and Baird was perhaps fortunate to lose only three men on a journey which had been described some twenty-five years earlier, by the explorer James Bruce, in the following terms:
Our road was all the way on an open plain, bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel, perfectly hard, and not perceptible above the level of the plain country of Egypt. About twelve miles distant there is a ridge of mountains, of no considerable height, perhaps the most barren in the world – between them our road lay, through plains near three miles broad, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs; there are not even the traces of any living creatures, neither serpent nor lizard, antelope nor ostrich, the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts; there is no sort of water on the surface, brackish or sweet; even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential, not having seen one of any kind so much as flying over. The sun was burning hot, and upon rubbing two sticks together, in half a minute they flamed.28
Once at Ghennah, Baird prepared to move his force by boat down the Nile with Cairo as his objective. Unbeknownst to Baird, Cairo had surrendered to the British on 27 June, as Baird’s army was crossing the desert. Baird’s army embarked on 31 July, leaving Colonel Murray and a detachment to garrison Ghennah. Baird travelled via Gizeh (which he left Colonel Ramsey to garrison). He reached the island of Rhouda just outside Cairo on 27 August and by 30 August had arrived at Rosetta. Baird’s force arrived at Alexandria just as a truce had been arranged and this was followed by the surrender of the French on 2 September 1801, which meant Beresford played no part in the siege of that city. He was, however, subsequently appointed Commandant of Alexandria and he remained in Egypt until the British forces were withdrawn in 1803.29
The march by Baird’s force from Kosseir on the Red Sea across 130 miles of desert in nine days and then down the Nile to Cairo caught the public imagination at home. Beresford shared in the fame generated by these events. Perhaps even more importantly he had witnessed the vital necessity of good organisation and planning for military operations, as demonstrated by Baird’s thorough preparations prior to crossing the desert.
On his return home from Alexandria in 1803, Beresford spent time in Ireland, one of the few occasions during the French wars that he was able to do so. Ireland had just witnessed the suppression of a further rebellion following that of 1798; for in 1803 Robert Emmet had sought to raise the flag of republicanism again; with the difference that now the Act of Union joining Ireland with England had been adopted (1801), the target was no longer the Irish parliament in Dublin but the British administration ruling in the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The rebellion commenced in Dublin and County Wicklow on 23 July but was short lived. A number of those involved managed to avoid the government forces for some time. While back in Ireland in late 1803, Beresford was engaged in the search for some of Emmet’s supporters hiding out in the Wicklow mountains. Beresford’s appearance in Wicklow at this time probably resulted from the burning of the Beresford family property at Hollywood in County Wicklow in the 1798 rebellion. Michael Dwyer and Martin Burke were two prominent participants of the 1803 rising being sought by the militia. When Martin Burke was captured on 13 December, Beresford expressed the view that he merited mercy, as he had never been a murderer, and indeed he said he did not think Burke had been responsible for any particular crime since 23 July. However, he was prepared to use Burke to capture Dwyer. Dwyer in fact surrendered the next day, followed afterwards by a number of others who had been supporters of Emmet.30 These leaders of the Wicklow-based insurrection were detained in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin before being sent to New South Wales in late 1805 as free men.
This short interlude in Wicklow also demonstrated a side of Beresford’s character with which all were to become familiar in the Peninsula. A yeoman was caught plundering property during a search, whereupon Beresford sought instructions as to whether he could court martial him using the form of trial used for soldiers or whether he was required to use some other form? While the response from his superiors has not been located, the request is evidence of Beresford, the strict disciplinarian.31
The year 1804 remains a blank sheet in the life of William Carr Beresford. There is a family tradition that at some stage he sought the hand of his cousin Louisa, daughter of the Archbishop of Tuam; but that this union was prevented by the family.32 No documentary evidence has been located to support this story, but the two were supposedly close. In 1806, Louisa, who was a renowned beauty and friend of the Irish authoress Maria Edgeworth, married Thomas Hope, the interior designer, author and collector. With him she had a family, but following his death in 1831 she was to marry William in 1832 and they then spent the next twenty years together.33 They were both mature persons at that time, with William having secured fame, titles and financial security. Nobody would then have been in a position to prevent their marriage at that stage in their lives. If there is substance to family tradition, then the period of 1804 and early 1805 is the only time when Beresford would have had the opportunity to get to know Louisa as an adult prior to her marriage.34
2 THE CAPTURE OF THE CAPE COLONY AND THE RIO DE LA PLATA EXPEDITION OF 1806–1807
‘It grieved me to see my country subjugated in this manner, but I shall always admire the gallantry of the brave and honourable Beresford in so daring an enterprise.’1
Until the armistice of October 1801, which led to the Peace of Amiens in March 1802, Britain had been at war with not just France, but also with Spain and other French allies. War with France broke out again in 1803, and in 1804 Spain entered the war on the side of France following an attack on its treasure fleet by a squadron of the Royal Navy off Cape Santa Maria on 5 October without any declaration of war.2 Britain’s links with its colonies and trading partners were once again threatened, and the government developed a number of strategies to safeguard its position.
Possession of the Cape Colony, or at least the presence there of a friendly power, was a substantial asset to those interested in securing the sea route to India and the East Indies in the days of sail at a time prior to the construction of the Suez Canal. Lord Castlereagh, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, expressed it thus:
‘ the true value of the Cape to Great Britain is its being considered and treated at all times as an outpost subservient to the protection and security of our Indian possessions.’3 The British had conquered the Cape in 1795 but returned it to the Dutch (then the Batavian Republic) in 1803 pursuant to the Treaty of Amiens.4
French sea power, particularly when combined with that of Spain, remained a real threat to Britain in 1805 prior to the battle of Trafalgar in October of that year. Only two years previously, Napoleon had threatened an invasion of England by a massive force based around Boulogne and Calais.5 Against this background the British government determined to seek to recapture the Cape Colony. An expedition under the command of Sir David Baird was dispatched, comprising some 6,000 soldiers divided into two brigades. The first brigade, led by Beresford, was made up of the 24th, 38th and 83rd regiments. The second brigade, the Highland Brigade, was made up of the 71st, 72nd and 93rd regiments
