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    A Sketch of Life and Death of the Late Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, Bart.
    A Sketch of Life and Death of the Late Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, Bart.
    A Sketch of Life and Death of the Late Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, Bart.
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    A Sketch of Life and Death of the Late Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, Bart.

    By Major the Right Honourable Sir Francis Head, Bt.

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    Sir Francis Head took up the challenge of writing a short biography of one of the most esteemed members of his parent corps, the Royal Engineers, Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne. Dubbed the “Moltke” of England by the Emperor, Napoleon III, his military career was a long and glorious.
    Sir John’s career began during the Napoleonic Wars, where he was involved heavily in the fighting from 1809 to its close, but mostly particularly during the sieges that dominated the strategic movements of the Allied armies under Wellington. Even at the relatively junior rank of Lieut.-Colonel, he was the most senior engineer officer with the army during parts of the Peninsular War, and his opinion was valued and often sought by the great Duke himself. His excellent memoranda on the sieges of Badajoz and St. Sebastian are included in this book.
    After much peace-time work, during which he attempted vigorously to enact some change in the army to bring it to a state of readiness to take the field, he was defeated by the inertia of the establishment and political needs. He was forced to witness the ironic denouement of the failure of the government to heed his calls for change in the army when he was posted to the Crimea. However, he stuck to his task, visiting the siege lines at Sebastopol frequently, keeping the spirits of the men up, and attempting to assuage the massive defects which he had identified earlier.Author — Major the Right Honourable Sir Francis Head, Bt. (1793-1875)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWagram Press
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9781908902511
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      Book preview

      A Sketch of Life and Death of the Late Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, Bart. - Major the Right Honourable Sir Francis Head, Bt.

      A SKETCH

      OF

      THE LIFE AND DEATH

      OF THE LATE FIELD-MARSHAL SIR JOHN BURGOYNE, BART., &C. AC. AC.

      BY MAJOR THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

      SIR FRANCIS HEAD, BT.

      LATE CAPTAIN ROYAL ENGINEERS.

      AN HONEST MAN'S THE NOBLEST WORK OF GOD.

      POPE'S ESSAY ON MAN

       This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING

      Text originally published in 1872 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2011, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      PREFACE.

      SHORTLY after the death of the late Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, his family with the approval of the Royal Engineers' Literary Committee resolved,—that a Memoir of his life and services should be prepared for The Corps Papers, and that I should be requested to write it.

      To compile a history—especially in a few pages of services—not only seventy-three years in length, but which, in breadth, extended during that period over nearly the whole of England's campaigns in Africa, Europe, and America, was, I felt, more than at my advanced age I had strength to undertake, and therefore, without hesitation, I declined the task.

      However, on the request being repeated, assisted by ‘Hart's Army List,’ by the family, and by others whose names are acknowledged, I completed in type, before the end of last year, the required 'Memoir,' to which, from private letters and documents in my own possession, I have now made some very important additions, which the limits of the Corps Paper could not have contained.

      As far as regards my own writing I have nothing to say in its behalf, but, with great confidence, I submit to the public a portrait of public services and of private virtues, which, I believe, conjointly have seldom been equalled, and which, I fear, will never be excelled.

      CROYDON, June 1, 1872.

      P.S. Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable G. Wrottesley, K.E., son-in-law and late aide-de-camp to the deceased, is editing two invaluable volumes of his Journals and Correspondence, which will, no doubt, be read by all classes with the attention they so highly deserve.

      Contents

      PREFACE 2

      A SKETCH. 4

      SCENE I. 5

      SCENE II. 15

      SCENE III. 16

      APPENDIX I. 21

      APPENDIX II. 23

      APPENDIX III. 24

      LAST SCENE. 29

      HIS FUNERAL. 33

      BURGOYNE. 36

      MEMORANDUM BY LIEUT.–COL. BURGOYNE, R.E. ASSAULT OF BADAJOZ 6th April, 1812. 37

      MEMORANDUM BY LIEUT COL BURGOYNE, R.E. 39

      ASSAULT OF ST. SEBASTIAN. 39

      CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF THE MILITARY CAREER OF F.M. SIR JOHN BURGOYNE 41

      A SKETCH.

      Nor many months ago, at a dinner party in London, an old officer exclaimed loudly and emphatically to a much older one,

      "You have done more under fire, than any soldier in Europe!"

      Well, replied the accused, in a tone of mild apology, "but remember, I have been a long time about it"

      The truth of his defence will be demonstrated in the following very brief outline of his life and services.

      Field-Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne, Bart., G.C.B., K.C.T.S., F.E.S., D.C.L., Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honour, First Class of the Turkish Order of Nishid-Medjidie, Constable of the Tower of London, Lord-Lieutenant and Custos-Rotulorum of the Tower Hamlets, and Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers born in London on the 24th of July, 1782 was the son of General the Eight Hon. John Burgoyne, and godson of the statesman Charles James Fox, who stood sponsor to him at his baptism.

      Shakspere tells us that

      "One man in his time plays many parts,

      His acts being seven ages."

      Fortune divided Burgoyne's "ages" into four.

      SCENE I.

      On the death of young Burgoyne's father, his old friend Edward, Lord Derby, the twelfth Earl, nobly undertook the entire charge of the little boy's maintenance and education; and, accordingly, at the age of ten he was removed to The Oaks, which had been purchased from General Burgoyne by Lord Derby, who sent him to Eton, where he was the contemporary and fag of Hallam the historian.

      After imbibing at that school, in about equal parts, its ordinary doses of bitter and sweet—denominated in its pharmacopoeia, Latin Greek and Arithmetic, boating football and cricket—he was sent by Lord Derby to reside for a short time with a private tutor at Cambridge, until, in compliance with his lordship's application, on the 19th of October, 1796—as a recruit—aged 14 he was denuded of civil attire, and in lieu thereof clad in the tight ready-made military uniform and stiff black leather stock of Woolwich Cadet, No. 734. The ancient volumes of the Academy record, that on the 20th of February, 1797, he was promoted into the second Academy; on the following 9th of August, into the upper one, where he rose to be the uppermost; and on the 14th of July, 1798, to the rank of Assistant-Engineer.

      In what was then termed the black book of the Royal Military Academy, the following solitary sin remains recorded against him:

      "OVERSTAID THE VACATION ONE DAY.—EXCUSED.—See Orders 9th January, 1797."

      The Accusing Spirit which flew up to Heaven's Chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the Recording Angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear on the word, and blotted it out for ever.—Sterne.

      On the 29th of August, 1798, he was gazetted a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers, and thus, at the age of sixteen years and one month, the beardless boy grasped the lowest round of a ladder, which, hand over hand and step above step, regardless of climates—of extreme heat—of intense cold—of the fire of musketry, cannon, and mortars,—of wounds and sickness during a period of seventy-three years' service, he slowly but steadily ascended, until, at an age far beyond the Scriptural limit of the life of man, he reached that summit of his professional career which, in a published letter, dated Wilhelmshohe, October 29th, 1870, earned for him, from the French Emperor Napoleon III., the designation of—

      "LE MOLTKE DE L'ANGLETERRE."

      During this period of service, so devoted was his heart to his country, to the British

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