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 ^nlYJSSn.U'.'.?*' ""^ French troops in Africa 
 
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FROM THE BRONZE ON THE MONUMENT TO THE FIRST 
 NEW JERSEY BRIGADE AT GETTYSBURG. 
 
SERVICE 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 FRENCH TROOPS 
 
 AFRICA 
 
 BY AN OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY 
 
 NEW YORK : 1844 
 
'Cornell 
 
 W> ^ y '■. . ..... t *. k r-' U it I , , 
 
 XJ / 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Service with the French Troops in Africa . . i 
 By AN Officer in the U. S. Army. 
 
 Philip Kearny : A Biographical Sketch . . 6i 
 
 By Maj.-Gen. John Watts De Peyster. 
 
 Kearny at Seven Pines : A Poem . . . .83 
 By E. C. Stedman. 
 
 A Dashing Dragoon 87 
 
 By Captain Mayne Keid. 
 
 Correspondence 99 
 
 iii 
 
§o\in ^attsi At §tpUt, WW' i- 
 
 1887. 
 
 Master of Arts, Columbia College of New York, 1872. — Hon. Mem. Clarendon Hist. Soc, 
 Edinburgh, Scotland ; of the New Brunswick Hist. Soc, St. John, Canada; of the 
 Hist. Soc. of Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey ; of the Military Order of the Loyal 
 Legion of the. U. S.,&c.; of the N. Y. Burns' Club,&c.; Cor. Mem. of the Quebec Lit. 
 and Hist. Soc, Canada, &c. ; Life Mem. Royal Hist. Soc. of Great Britain, London, 
 Eng. ; Mem. Maatschappij Nederlandsche Letterkunde, Leyden, Holland. — First Hon. 
 Mem. Third Army Corps (A. of the P.) Union ; Hon. Mem. Third Army Corps Gettys- 
 burg Battlefield Reunion and Mem. of the Honorary Committee ; Mem. Amer, Hist. 
 Association, U. S. A.; of the Holland Society, N. Y. ; Associate Mem. Military In- 
 stitution of the U. S., &c., &c. ; Member, Life, Honoj^ary and Corresponding Member 
 of over forty State and Local Historical, Scientific and Literary Societies and Associa- 
 tions, &c,, at hoijie and abroad. — Colonel N. Y. S. L, 1846, assigned for "meritorious 
 conduct" to command of 2zd Regimental District, M. F. S. N. Y., 1849; Brig.-General 
 for "important service" [first appointment in N. Y. State to that rank, hitherto 
 elective], 1851, M. F. S. N. Y. ; Military Agent S. N. Y,, in Europe, 1851-53, author- 
 ized and endorsed by U. S. A., 1851-3 ; assisted in organizationof present Police, N. Y,, 
 and first reported iiTfavor of Paid Fire Department with Fire Escapes and Steam En- 
 gines, 1852-3 ; Adjutant-General S. N. Y., 1S55 ; Brevet Major-General S. N. Y. for 
 ''meritorious services," by " Special Act" or ''Concurrent Resolution," N. Y. State 
 Legislature, April, 1866, [first and only General officer receiving such an honor (the 
 highest) from S. N. Y., and the only officer iAus brevetted (Major-General) in the 
 United States]. 
 
AFRICA: 
 
 SERVICE WITH THE FRENCH TROOPS. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840— EXPEDITION 
 AGAINST MILIANAH. 
 
 In the province of Algiers, the peace (of the Tafra) that 
 had been made with the Arabs continued unbroken for 
 the space of two years, when, with the suddenness of our 
 own Indians, the first signal of war was given by the 
 massacre of an entire detachment at Oued-Ie-leg, in Octo- 
 ber, 1839.' And it was then the French found that the 
 power they had consolidated in the hands of Abd-el- 
 Kader, for the purpose of establishing a united people of 
 the scattered tribes of Arabs, had been intrusted to one 
 who knew how to wield it for his own aggrandizement. 
 Owing to this same short-sighted policy, which furnished 
 French ofiScers as instructors to discipline his wild people, 
 and provided artillery, arms, and all the munitions of 
 war — to this, rather than to the assistance of his powerful 
 coadjutor, the king (i) of Tunis, Abd-el-Kader found him- 
 self indebted for being at the head of a disciplined army of 
 some thousands,* besides the countless Bedouin cavalry of 
 the plains, and indomitable Kabyles of the mountains ; all 
 urged on, and united by, religious fanaticism against the 
 
 * Abd-el-Kader's anny was rated at about five or six thousand regular 
 troops, being infantry, and some two thousand Spahis, or regular cavaby, 
 officered very much, by deserters from the French camp. 
 
 I 
 
2 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 French. Their chief, who was, moreover, the head of their 
 religion, by birth the Grand Marabout, had appealed to 
 this never-failing tocsin of Mahomedanism 
 
 About this same time the Due d'Orleans, at the head of 
 an army, by an unexpected movement, deceived the Arabs 
 as to his real point of attack, and passed the impregnable 
 and immemoriably celebrated defile of the Bibans, or 
 Gates-of-Iron. This pass, the late masters of the country, 
 the Turks, had never entered without paying tribute to 
 its unconquerable mountain-defenders, the Kabyles,* and 
 through this the Romans, who overran the whole country 
 to the ocean, tradition bespeaks never to have ventured ; 
 and here alone, throughout this region, they have left no 
 vestige of their dominion. As for results, this expedition 
 was productive of none, excepting the temporary aston- 
 ishment excited by its rashness, for it was accomplished 
 without meeting a foe. 
 
 From the want of troops and sufficient means, this out- 
 break of Abd-el-Kader was followed by no immediate 
 grand expedition on the part of the French against the 
 Arabs, and the war was confined to continued skirmishing 
 of single corps". As for the colonists f of the Metidjah, they 
 had been at once swept from the plains, flying for refuge 
 to the towns, the troops themselves scarce venturing out 
 of their strong-holds. One affair, however, is too brilliant 
 
 * Kabyles is a general name for the inhabitants of the ranges of the Atlas 
 mountains. They are very poor, but fierce ; good marksmen, and skilled 
 in partisan vrar. 
 
 f The French are too local in their attachments to make good colonists, 
 and the population of the French African possessions are principally Ger- 
 mans and Spaniards. Still, the richness of the fair plain of the Metidjah 
 had tempted many, and had it not been for this unexpected invasion of the 
 Arabs, the French authorities had considered this embryo settlement as 
 having attained a permanency. The plain of the Metidjah is thirty leagues 
 or more in length, averaging some ten to fifteen in width, bounded by the 
 first range of the Atlas and the high hilly region on the sea, stretching out 
 in a semi-circular direction, commencing just beyond the " Maison Carree,'' 
 four leagues east of Algiers, and running west till it again meets the sea in 
 the region of Churchell ; it is well watered, its streams skirted with the 
 orange grove, and, withal, unrivalled by any European soil for richness. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAff. 3 
 
 to be passed over : it was where a corps, headed by Mar- 
 shal Valee in person, came unexpectedly on a part of Abd- 
 el-Kader's regular army. It was a conflict of short but 
 desperate duration, and was decided by Colonel Bojolli, 
 (Pays de Bojolli,) with his 1st Chasseurs d' Afrique, 
 charging and breaking in upon the enemy's regular in- 
 fantry. It was a lesson they never got over, for, in the 
 subsequent operations of the spring, they never once ven- 
 tured within striking distance of the cavalry, however 
 ready to contest desperately the mountain defiles with 
 the infantry. Early in January a grand expedition was 
 talked of, then put off till February, and still further post- 
 poned till April, nor actually taking place till the 26th of 
 that month. These delays were principally owing to the 
 tardiness with which requisite means were forthcoming ; a 
 constant, if not decided opposition to it having been al- 
 ways made in the Chamber of Deputies, until at length 
 the opposition yielded on coming into power, and the 
 president, Thiers, declared, though not till the month of 
 May, their determination to support with vigor the affairs 
 of Africa. 
 
 This expedition, which set out on the 26th of April, 
 [1840] had for its objects the taking of the towns of Medeah 
 and Milianah. The first had formerly been besieged and 
 taken by Marechal Clausel when governor-general, but had 
 subsequently been given up, as being too distant to have a 
 bearing on the colonization of the Metidjah. Still, the way 
 to it was known. Milianah, on the other hand, lay beyond 
 the range of the " Smaller Atlas," in the plain of the 
 Cheliff, a region where no European * had ever trod (2). 
 Previous to the commencing the main operations of the 
 spring, Cherchell, (the ancient Julia Cesarea,) a small place 
 
 * I have omitted two exceptions : the one was that of a French surgeon, 
 who, during the peace, had ingratiated himself with Abd-el-Kader ; the 
 otlier was a French captain of chasseurs, who, having been sent as envoy, 
 was conducted blindfolded, until, being unbandaged, on opening his eyes 
 he found himself in the splendid palace of the Dey of Milianah. The 
 European workmen of his armories were deserters in his own army, or those 
 who, having been allowed him during peace, he afterwards detained. 
 
4, THE. CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 some seveateen leagues froati Algiers west, bad been 
 seized by a small column of infantry, accompanied by an 
 expedition by sea, and occupied without resistance by the 
 Due d'Aumale. The principal object was to make it one 
 of, the places constituting the basis of operations. The 
 army intended for the spring campaign amounted to 
 about thirteen or fourteen thousand men of all corps, at- 
 tended by a numerous convoy. Thisy it may be added, 
 is the chief obstacle to all movements in this country ; 
 for the French are obliged to carry with them their entire 
 subsistence for themselves, and the cavalry rations for the 
 horse. , 
 
 As the Arabs were in large force in the plain, (some 
 eight thousand,) the troops were engaged almost the mo- 
 ment they commenced their advance. The days of the 
 27th, 28th, and 30th, their "tirailleurs" (skirmishers) had 
 constant partial engagements with the enemy, which, at 
 times, became general and severe. On the 27th, a general 
 charge of all the cavalry (about two thousand in all) took 
 place, but was attended with no particular results, as the 
 Arabs fled in all directions, not waiting to receive it. Sub- 
 sequently, for some days, the army remained in the plain 
 of the Metidjah, manoeuvring in vain to bring the Arabs 
 to an engagement, marching to Cherchell to deposit their 
 wounded, receive anew another, provisionment, as well as 
 to relieve it from a large force of Arabs, who were laying 
 desperate siege to it ; * after that, by a movement to the 
 
 * It was here, at this time, that some of the hardest and most desperate 
 fighting took place during the whole year. It was defended by the cele- 
 brated Colonel Cavaignac, then chSf de battalion of Zouaves — the company, 
 commanded by a Corsican, (I met him afterwards, but forget his name) of 
 sixty men, had but seventeen left alive ; and of them, all but three were 
 badly wounded, himself of the number. I believe that it belonged to the 
 " Foreign Legion," {Legion Etrangire.) It was at this time that the writer 
 arrived in Africa, and had I have had a proper authorization from the 
 French government, I could at once have been permitted to join the army, 
 for officers who came over in the "Acheron" with me did so. But mere pri- 
 vate letters from our minister had not sufficient weight, as great secrecy was 
 kept up in relation to the movements of the army in the field ; and though 
 the commandant of Algiers, the Colonel de Marengo, was a friend of our 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 5 
 
 left, returning towards Blida to the Col de Teneah, a 
 difficult gorge in the mountains, and which it was neces- 
 sary for them to force as the only known approach to 
 Medeah.* It was accordingly attacked the morning of 
 the 1 2th of May; the infantry being formed in three col- 
 umns or divisions, supported by artillery. The cavalry 
 were left at the Houish de Moussaiah (Ferme de Mous- 
 saiah) to protect the convoy, and watch the movements 
 of the Arab horse, who were still in great numbers in the 
 plain of the Metidjah.f This was a brilliant affair, perhaps 
 the most so of the spring, and in it the Zouaves, and I2th 
 and 17th light infantry, were most particularly distin- 
 guished. The action, owing to the length of the passes 
 and height to be attained, continued for seven or eight 
 hours' hard fighting ; and the peal of the musketry was 
 augmented to a heavy roar by the resonation of the 
 mountains. The killed and wounded in this action 
 amounted to some sixty killed, and four hundred wounded. 
 The height, however, once occupied, the entire army 
 crossed without annoyance the chain, and proceeded with- 
 out further opposition to Medeah, which was abandoned 
 by the Arabs on their approach. After a rest here for 
 some few days to recruit the force of the army, a garrison 
 of two thousand men were left, under the command of the 
 veteran and aged General Duvivier, celebrated as an 
 
 consul, and would have befriended me, he did not dare to direct me to go to 
 Cherchell. I have always looked back on this with great regret ; for, though 
 the taking of Medeah was a very secondary thing, nor the campaign so des- 
 perate as when, a montli later, the heats of June scattered sickness through 
 the army, still the presence of the Princes d'Orleans and d'Aumale gave an 
 eclat to this, which the other, with the distant public, did not possess. 
 
 * Medeah lay on the other side of the first range of the Atlas, in a very 
 rugged and almost mountainous region of country, which gradually opened 
 out, and, as it proved to be, at the western extremity of the plain of the 
 Cheliff. 
 
 f It was a remarkable fact, proving that another and better pass must 
 exist near, that the entire Bedouin cavalry evacuated one plain and passed 
 over to the other in some very few hours, less than half a day, which a single 
 unmolested horseman could not have accomplished by the pass of the Col de 
 Teneah. 
 
6 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 engineer officer. It was here, at this time, from want of 
 sufficient subsistence with the convoy to provision the 
 army for the required-period, since much time had been 
 wasted, that Marshal Valee deemed it expedient, most 
 especially as the situation of Milianah was reported very 
 strong, and the approaches to it by the plain of the Chelifl 
 were unknown, to make a retrograde motion on Algiers, 
 and leave this the undertaking of an immediately subse- 
 quent expedition. The army, in its march back, had 
 another serious engagement on the 20th of May; the 
 Arabs attacking and attempting to cut off their rear-guard 
 and the cavalry in the intricacies of the mountains. The 
 army re-entered Algiers on the 23d of May. * 
 
 * I have before stated that I arrived in Africa on the 7th May, that I had 
 been kindly received by Colonel Sacroux, an old imperial officer, and novf 
 the commander of the National Guard of Algiers, (which he had organized,) 
 and the protector of American interests, holding the consulship. He pre- 
 sented me to Colonel de Marengo, the then commanding officer of the place, 
 and channel of communication between the marshal and France. But my 
 letters were insufficient, as government authorization would alone have 
 sufficed ; and I was obliged to give up all hopes of joining the main army, 
 which, had I been properly provided, I might have done, as before shown, 
 at Cherchell. My time, however, was spent in visiting the forts and fortified 
 camps around Algiers. A week was thus passed, not wholly without excite- 
 ment, for a party of Arabs made a roving attack within two leagues of 
 Algiers. On the 14th May, General Corbin, the commander of the district 
 of Algiers, arrived there. I was presented to him by Colonel de Marengo. 
 He received me remarkably politely, said I had no hopes of joining the 
 army, but advised my visiting the different posts, to give me an idea of gar- 
 rison service in time of war. He gave me letters, and I visited the cele- 
 brated camp at Douera on the 17th May, where there are barracks and 
 accommodations for five thousand men and two thousand cavalry. I remained 
 here that day and the l8th, minutely examining its works, the disposition of 
 its buildings, the plans of the stables, the duties of the guards, the wakeful- 
 ness of the pickets, its advanced posts, mode of communicating intelligence 
 from the distant videttes, points of look-out, &c. The camp of Douera was 
 garrisoned by the 3d light infantry, a regiment newly arrived in Africa, and 
 one which had not as yet seen the fire of a fight. On the 19th, a moveable 
 column under General Rostolan was sent out to convoy provisions to the 
 Houish de Moussaiah, and to bring back the survivors of the four hundred 
 wounded of the late affair of the 12th. I obtained permission to accompany 
 them, and did so. That night we marched to Boufarick, in the plains, and 
 the next day reached the point of destination. The column consisted, in all. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH, 7 
 
 The taking of Milianah, and the occupation of the 
 plain of the Cheliff had been proposed for this late expe- 
 dition on its setting out ; and, with the natural excitability 
 of their temperament, the French looked to this with 
 hopeful expectation, for it was something new. Medeah 
 had not for them the same interest, as it had on a previous 
 occasion come under their power. This excitement was 
 kept up till the very last ; all communication, other than 
 by telegraph, being cut off the moment an army emerges 
 on the plain. The army itself, in this its unexpected 
 return, was the first to bring the news of the contrary ; 
 then, in a moment, expectation gave way to disappoint- 
 ment. Disgust was loudly murmured around, and the 
 marshal's recall was momentarily expected.* The 
 
 of about two thousand men ; two hundred horse, being the broken detach- 
 ments of invalided men who had been left behind by the cavalry regiments, 
 in the advance. The 20th of May we set out on our return. We were 
 under arms at four o'clock, or early day-break ; three hours were ocpupied 
 in putting the sick into wagons and other hospital conveyances, but after 
 that, the march was a forced one. The column had been attacked the pre- 
 ceding day by some five hundred Arabs, but the skirmishing was very slight, 
 and every now and then "obusiers-de-montagne " (mountain-howitzers) would 
 be wheeled up into position, and scatter their main body right and left, and 
 intimidate for the while their skirmishing. Friday, we were again attacked 
 by a somewhat smaller body of the tribe of the Hadjouts, who followed us 
 up the first part of the morning, until we had crossed the river Chifia. Be- 
 fore leaving the Houish de Moussaiah, we beheld, on the summit of the Col 
 de Teneah, a heavy cloud of dust, which was supposed to be that of a divi- 
 sion of the army of Marshal Valee, presumed to have been sent after the 
 provisions we had convoyed. The surprise of all was very great, when, on 
 the day following, it was ascertained to have been the whole army itself, 
 thus unexpectedly returning. This day's march was a handsomely forced 
 one, for by eight o'clock in the evening (just about twilight) we reached 
 Douera, a distance of tliirteen leagues, (thirty-nine miles,) one hour's stop- 
 ping being made in all, and half an hour the longest time. Thus had I been 
 unexpectedly initiated into service. I marched on foot entirely. However, 
 this forced marching was only for the 3d lights and the cavalry, the other 
 regiments halting at Boufarick, or moving to the Ferme ModMe, and other 
 nearer posts in the neighborhood. 
 
 * It was vulgarly reported that the marshal, on the day of his departure, 
 a week afterwards, for his second expedition, forbade a steamer to land, 
 for fear that she might have brought the authority of his withdrawal. The 
 marshal was distrusted as a general. All granted him to be an artillery 
 
8 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 princes * left the 24th, the absence of the Due d'Orleans 
 having been limited by the French authorities before he left 
 Paris, which time was now nearly expired. This, and the 
 heats of the advancing season, no troops having ever been 
 kept so late as June in the field, seemed to embarrass any 
 further movements, but the marshal saw that the little he 
 had accomplished with the immense means that had been 
 placed at his' disposition would not justify him to his king 
 and the French people; and that the disgust openly 
 shown at Algiers by citizens and military alike, was but a 
 prototype and precursor of the heavy indignation that 
 would burst forth at home on the news of his inactivity 
 or incapability transpiring there. All this, then, deter- 
 mined to a second expedition, which accordingly opened 
 the 1st of June, 1840. 
 
 On Monday, the 1st of June, the troops f were put in 
 
 officer of no common talents, for he had distinguished himself in conduct- 
 ing one of the principal sieges on the Rhine in times of the emperor, and 
 had subsequently modified materially the French system of artillery. But 
 this is looked on as a speciality, and mere accident alone placed him at the 
 head of the army. It was that, at the siege of Constantine, as chief of 
 artillery, he was second in rank to General Dauremont, and on his death 
 was of course the one to succeed. Constantine was taken, and though the 
 appointment was distrusted, he was created marshal, and continued gov- 
 ernor-general. 
 
 * The prince had volunteered for Africa, much in the bravery and gal- 
 lantry of all that family ; more, however, as a means of popularity with 
 the French people, and much to enable Louis Philippe to proudly say : 
 " J^ai etmoyd mon fib aind." Their real service in Africa must not, how- 
 ever, be exaggerated. The Due d'Orleans commanded a. division, and 
 fought it bravely in the affair of the Col de Teneah, of the 12th. The 
 Due d'Aumale (about twenty) had acted as his aid, (officier d'ordannance,) 
 but the Marshal Valee was much opposed to their serving with him, and all 
 allowed that their presence was detrimental, they not acting subservient to 
 the plans of the commanding general, but causing all the army to act in 
 relation to thein, watching to secure their safety. 
 
 f General Schramm, with much difficulty, from my want of an authorisa- 
 tion from the French government, and from the dislike and sourness of the 
 marshal to foreigners in general, (there were two Danish and seventeen 
 Belgian officers, and a Russian traveller and officer, the Count d'Oelsen,) 
 obtained permission for me to join the army. I was accordingly attached, 
 just the day before we set out, to the 1st Chasseurs d'Af rique, under Colonel 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. g 
 
 motion, and debouching from their different cantonments 
 in the vicinity of Algiers, and their posts in the highlands 
 next the sea, concentrated at Bouffarick and Blida, the 
 days of the 2d, 3d, and 4th. 
 
 June 4th. — The army having been united, the whole 
 
 Pays de Bojolli. At eight o'clock on Monday morning we left their forti- 
 fied cantonment near Algiers, and by a by-path proceeded directly up the 
 high hill surrounding the city, regaining the main road some seven miles 
 back. We passed by Douera, leaving it somewhat to the right, descended 
 into the plain of the Metidjah, and entered Bonfarick that afternoon. 
 About the same time the celebrated Zouaves arrived from their large post 
 to the west of Douera. I was attached to the fourth squadron of this regi- 
 ment of chasseurs, commanded by the veteran Captain Assena, an old im- 
 perial officer of cavalry. No regiment can be long in Africa, especially 
 those formed particularly for this war, that does not present some striking 
 characters. Of those who were with us, not above a half of the full com- 
 plement of officers, for many were absent on sick leave in P'rance ; many 
 were always retained as requisite at the depot of the regiment, and many 
 were hors du combat from the late preceding campaign ; but take these as 
 they were. Colonel Bojolli had been aid to Marshal Bessiires, and was at 
 his side when killed, in 1814. Captain Assena had entered the army at 
 sixteen, and with five brothers made the campaign of Wagram. He had 
 served in the hussars, and had been engaged in an actual shock of cavalry 
 " charging," it being in defence of the emperor's person. He had a year 
 or so before been with his squadron attacked by a superior number of Arabs 
 and been surrounded, cutting his way out. An interesting circumstance about 
 him was, that three of his brothers had been killed in the imperial wars and 
 circumstances prevented the other two meeting until this very year, when 
 he arrived in Africa as captain of a fresh regiment of infantry. A young 
 Captain Desbrow, of this regiment, had nearly been killed and taken, when 
 he was rescued by the then Colonel (now General) Lamoricier. He had 
 headed with his section a small charge of cavalry en fourageur, (skirmish- 
 ing,) and his platoon was beaten back ; an Arab in the melee shot his 
 horse, the ball passing through both his own thighs, and through and through 
 the horse. The Arabs seeing him down, all made a rush at him, but it be- 
 ing in a thin wood, by a wonderful chance he eluded all their blows ; at 
 last, an Arab seized him by the neck with one hand, and was just about 
 piercing him with his yategan, when Colonel Lamoricier, who was com- 
 manding the rear guard, seeing his men returning without him, and observ- 
 ing all the Arabs rushing to the spot, feared something of the kind, ordered 
 a rescue, and himself spurred foremost, just arriving in time to bring the 
 Arab to the ground ere the fatal blow was given. Colonel Lamoricier then 
 helped to raise him on his horse, and returned in safety. Desbrow's wound 
 was a very severe one, but he completely recovered. One of the lieutenants 
 of the regiment was remarkable from, perhaps, the heaviest scar of a sabre- 
 
10 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 was put in movement about mid-day of the morning of 
 the 4th. The light cavalry brigade, composed of two 
 regiments of march, being the six squadrons of ist Chas- 
 seurs d'Afrique,* as many squadrons of hussars and chas- 
 seurs, (arrived that year from France,) amounting in all to 
 
 cut that ever seamed a soldier's face without taking life ; it had been a hori- 
 zontal blow, cutting right down through the nose, which was hollowed 
 nearly even to his face and ridged up with a ghastly seam nearly equally 
 either cheek. It was done many years previously near Douera, whilst with 
 a party of unarmed chasseurs, taking their horses to a watering-place, in 
 very sight of the garrison. In a moment they were surrounded ; but two 
 men succeeded in forcing their horses through, one badly wounded ; the 
 picket guard galloped out to their rescue. One man unhorsed, the only 
 one armed, being the " lieutenant of the week," was still, though wounded, 
 keeping them at bay ; all the rest had been massacred on the spot. This 
 one, then a sergeant, was taken up lifeless, and unrecognizable from blood 
 and dirt. Another, Dumont, had been in the French expedition to the 
 Morea, when Ibraham Pacha, the same who now figures so largely as son 
 of Mehemet Ali, was ravaging Greece. It was one of the captains of this 
 regiment, and now present with the expedition, who had been conveyed as 
 emissary, blindfolded, to Milianah. One of the Chefs d'Escadron, Com- 
 mandant Maurice, was distinguished from having, in a melee which took 
 place whilst acting with his squadron as skirmishers, personally grappled 
 with three Arabs, two of whom he killed ; the third, however, a wiry, 
 powerful man, had succeeded in prostrating the commandant and might have 
 killed him, as Maurice's sword had been broken, but for the chasseurs, who 
 galloped to the rescue. He had been very intimate with our Mrs. Bryant, 
 and the rest of General Reibell's family, and spoke English. But of all 
 striking characters, was the Commandant Boscarin, chief of the two squad- 
 rons of Spahis attached to our regiment. He had been bom in the French 
 West India Islands, and spoke English somewhat. He was truly the per- 
 sonification of a gallant looking Arab. The Spahis are troops partly com- 
 posed of natives, uniformed in the Arab costume, red vests, blue Turkish 
 pants. Bedouin boots, and the Arab "bournous." The commandant had 
 become a complete Arab ; thus, in mounting his horse, instead of throwing 
 the leg over the croup, he stepped over his Turkish saddle. In tent, he 
 always sat cross-legged ; was always smoking his hookah, and sipping his 
 sherbet ; like the Arabs, his head was shaved bare, and polished, when 
 uncovered of his " fessee" (Arab cap,) around which they bind the turban. 
 The commandant's moustache, too, was truly Turkish, thin, long, and 
 drooping. He was, withal, a very polished man and amusing, and had 
 much interest at court. 
 
 * The Chasseurs d'Afrique were mounted on Arab horses about fourteen 
 hands to fourteen and a half high, bony, and generally ewe-necked, being 
 the barb horse, not the Arab breed of the desert, but nearly equally valua- 
 ble in his great qualities of endurance. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. II 
 
 about twelve hundred horse, inclusive of two squadrons 
 of Spahis under the Commandant Boscarin, which gener- 
 ally encamped with us, though rarely joined with us in 
 column of route ; the whole were commanded by Gen- 
 eral Blancford, and on this day's march formed the column 
 of the right. We were flanked by a line of infantry 
 tirailleurs (or skirmishers) at some fifty paces distance, 
 ourselves marching in column of squadrons. The centre 
 column was composed of the convoy itself, being the 
 provisionment, transported in the heavy wagons (pro- 
 longes *) of the train d'equipage, and by the bat-mules — 
 the " ambulances " f (or flying hospitals) in the centre, 
 distinguished by the red flag — and the artillery train in 
 the order of their weight, i2-pounders, 6-pounders, and 
 mountain howitzers (obus de montagne ^ with accompa- 
 nying caissons. The guards immediately in escort were 
 the soldiers of the wagon and hospital train, the artiller- 
 
 *The "prolonges" of the train d^ equipages (wagon-train) were somewhat 
 larger than the common wagon used by our ist dragoons, with deeper 
 sides, and a rounded wooden lid, bound with iron hoops ; when used to 
 transport the sick or wounded, the lid was fastened up. The bat-mules 
 were also under the guidance of the soldiers of the wagon-train. I never 
 saw mules packed in such a perfect manner. I studied this subject on the 
 campaign, it being the one that throws so many obstacles in our way of em- 
 ploying pack-mules, and I do not remember to have seen scarcely a single 
 pack to turn. I have obtained the model, and it is now ready for the War 
 Department. 
 
 \ The ambulances are composed of the ckarret d" ambulance, or " hospital 
 cart," an easy cart on springs, for the worst cases among the officers and 
 men, and the mules with the litters, the same as the models I have pre- 
 sented the department. The hospital attendants are a regular corps by 
 itself, being soldiers who have arms, but attend solely to the hospitals in 
 garrison, and guard, besides assisting at the flying hospitals in campaign. 
 The litters (" caracoli ") are attached on each side of the mule, and carry 
 two wounded or sick men. As the French are obliged to take great care 
 to prevent their wounded falling into the hands of the Arabs, there are al- 
 ways several of those caracoli's in attendance whenever the rear guard or 
 flanks are engaged, and nothing can exceed the coolness and reckless cour- 
 age of these men standing fire, in coming right up in the thickest of it, as if 
 desirous of displaying as much courage as those more immediately engaged. 
 
 X The obusier-de-moniagne is generally drawn by a mule in shafts, and 
 leader, but the leader is fltted with a saddle, on which, in mountainous 
 parts, the piece, when taken off its wheels, can be packed on the mules' 
 
12 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 ists, and the corps du Genie, which marched at the head 
 to prepare the routes in relation to this column particu- 
 larly, as the movements of the rest of the army depended 
 on the progress of this. The gendarmes too, (about one 
 hundred) were charged with the immediate police of this 
 body, they being charged with everything which, in the 
 English and our own service, comes under the provost 
 marshal's department. The convoy, the provisionment 
 part of it, was moreover increased by some five hundred 
 beefs, driven on the hoof. There were battalions at the 
 head, rear, and, by intervals, immediately on the flanks of 
 the column of the convoy. 
 
 The rest of the infantry marched by brigades in two 
 columns (of platoons) on the right and on the left of the 
 centre column ; and the space covered by the columns, 
 marching as we were in the full plain of the Metidjah, 
 measured about a league and a half from the one on the 
 extreme right to that on the extreme left. There was the 
 rear guard, and an advance guard, with which were the 
 native cavalry. The " Gendarmes Maures " * and the 
 Spahis, (about a hundred and fifty in all,) were the ha- 
 bitual leaders of the advance. The march was not 
 hurried, we made about a league an hour, with the excep- 
 tion of the passing of the ChifTa ; for the river, though 
 small and shallow, being in the bottom of deep banks, we 
 were obliged to wait till the convoy slowly filed by. We 
 ourselves were obliged to " break by platoon," and then 
 again " by file," to pass down the single track. On 
 
 back. They proved very useful and efficient, and I should think them use- 
 ful to be attached to cavalry regiments with us. The reason for heavy 
 pieces of artillery came from the Marshal's expecting very possibly to find 
 Milianah regularly defended like Constantine, and only to be attacked by 
 regular approaches. 
 
 * The gendarmes Maures were in their complete Bedouin dress, uniform 
 only in their wearing a blue "boumou." They were composed and of- 
 ficered entirely of natives, under the charge of a French staff officer. 
 Their duties in the cities was ordinary police, and they were said to be 
 efficient. In campaign they acted solely as light cavalry. A black sergeant 
 in this corps struck me as the finest modelled large man I had ever seen. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 1 3 
 
 having passed the defile and descended into the bottom, 
 the order was, " form squadrons," coming by files in each 
 squadron " front into line ; " and effected by thus wait- 
 ing, till the rearmost squadron had filed through and 
 formed up. The other side was not so difficult, and after 
 watering our horses in the Chiffa, and receiving the order 
 to move on, we arrived at the " Houish de Moussaiah " 
 about six o'clock, or an hour or so of dark. It was the 
 first grand encampment that we made, the whole force 
 under arms amounting to twelve thousand men. In 
 Africa, where the enemy is an irregular foe, and masters 
 of a partisan warfare, the order of European encamping, 
 (where one's rear is always secured,) has to be remodelled 
 through the necessity of being equally defended on all 
 sides. From this reason, the troops are always drawn up 
 in a square, or oblong, facing outward. On this occasion, 
 however, the fort of Moussaiah, an entrenched work, 
 formed the rear. The infantry * bivouacked in line on the 
 other three outer sides. Within, and at the distance of a 
 hundred yards from them, the cavalry brigade was pick- 
 eted, and artillery parked on the left ; whilst towards the 
 right, and additionally protected, were arranged the pro- 
 visionment, and " ambulances." Interior of all was a 
 large clear quadrangular space of some six hundred 
 yards, large enough to manoeuvre easily, had there been 
 occasion. After we were encamped, the colonel f com- 
 
 * There was not a single tent with the army excepting those of the hos- 
 pitals, those of general officers, and one allowed the officers of squadron, 
 and a demi-battalion of infantry. The luxury was not as great as it 
 seemed, it seldom coming up until extremely late. The place for the lead- 
 horses, and servants, and officers' baggage was with the main body of the 
 convoy. 
 
 f There was an instance to-day of even the oldest officers being at times 
 bothered. Our first direction was to rest fronting to the left, with two 
 squadrons thrown back " en potence,'' facing to the front, and we were 
 coming up perpendicular to the left flank. We had already formed the 
 potence by the two first squadrons coming on " right into line ; " and two 
 more had formed up front into line, when a staff officer galloped up, direct- 
 ing the colonel to take ground considerably to the left immediately. Without 
 thinking, he faced the two squadrons, formed front into line, and ordered 
 
14 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 manded half the men of each squadron to go and collect 
 forage for the horses from some grain fields in the neigh- 
 borhood of the camp. The captain, " adjutant major," 
 of the day was in charge of the whole, and each squadron 
 under the lieutenant of the day, (In garrison, those tours 
 are for the entire week, and they are styled " ofiSciers 
 de semaine.") And it is generally that the foragers are 
 only accompanied by these officers. There was also a 
 small escort. In campaign, there is a reaping knife to 
 every four or five men, carried in front outside the 
 " musettes," (bags for the curry-comb, &c.), and strapped 
 tight into place by the same straps. The men, having 
 collected the forage, returned with it, bound up into 
 trusses with the forage straps, and fastened behind their 
 saddles. 
 
 June 5th. — Reveille sounded at half past four o'clock, 
 but we did not commence our march until about seven 
 o'clock, having thus had time to breakfast comfortably. 
 The order of the march was the same as yesterday, only 
 more precaution, if possible, for Moussaiah was the last 
 post in the plain, and all the country west of the Chififa 
 had generally this spring been the war-ground of the 
 Arabs, particularly the Hadjouts. However, this day 
 there were no Arabs seen, excepting some Bedouins, whose 
 figures stood in bold relief on the distant heights, easily 
 distinguished through our field-glasses.* The Moorish 
 
 by platoons "left wheel trot," and marcheil them rapidly, halting them, 
 and forming them into line at the extreme end of the ground allotted to 
 him. In the meanwhile the Sth and 6th squadrons came up into line in the 
 space thus left ; those ' ' en potence " standing fast ; these then followed the 
 movement, and those " en potence," by a left turn, after wheeling into col- 
 umn of platoons, succeeded to their place, so that we stood in line com- 
 mencing on the left, as 4th, 3d, 6th, 5th, 2d, 1st. The colonel did not at 
 first perceive it, but when he did, it piqued him exceedingly, and his haste 
 and mistakes afterwards, in trying to remedy the order of things, only pro- 
 duced confusion worse confounded, until the matter righted itself. His 
 pride was on the alert, as this faux pas was in the presence of the French 
 squadrons, who were following us in column. 
 
 * Every officer carried a glass, not that they were required to, but its 
 utility, and the interest it afforded, former experience had strongly proved. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 1 5 
 
 gendarmes, who were in the advance, and to the extreme 
 left, pursued some of their videttes, who were stationed 
 in the plain. The march of the army continued in the 
 plain of the Metidjah, its direction westerly, and as if its 
 bearing was to Cherchell. The plain is here intersected 
 by many ravines, and the delay of one column produced 
 that of the whole. The cavalry marched by column of 
 platoons ; our regiment, the right one of the brigade, was 
 the leading one, having habitually at its head General 
 Blancford and Colonel BojoUi. At every halt, occasioned 
 by waiting for other columns, or whilst we ourselves were 
 passing defiles, the brigade was formed into close column 
 of squadrons ; ourselves, in passing defiles, first formed 
 close column of squadrons, the leading squadron, and the 
 rest successively would then break first " by platoons;" 
 (" par pelotons romper I'escadrons,") then by fours, and 
 as the defile narrowed, by files ; the files so broken 
 generally passing rapidly through at a trot. As each 
 squadron emerged from the defile, it was ordered, " by 
 squadron, front into line." The captain adjutant-major 
 being charged with the execution of the order, each 
 captain commanding a squadron giving it by usage, from 
 seeing the squadrons before him so formed. Towards 
 the afternoon, by a change of direction in the march, we 
 turned towards the left, and entered at once into a region 
 unknown to the French, and soon commenced winding 
 among the gorges of the mountains, which were to lead 
 us across to the plains of the Cheliff, and its capital city, 
 Milianah, the object of our destination. Towards sunset 
 it commenced raining, and our bivouac at Karrombet-el- 
 ousseri was taken up, during, perhaps, the most violent 
 rain-storm I ever experienced, such indeed as could alone 
 occur in that far southern latitude. The encampment 
 was in a small opening, surrounded by steep hills, the 
 cavalry, artillery, and convoy being crowded into an 
 almost solid mass in the small valley, with brigades of 
 infantry occupying the sides and summits of the heights, 
 . and forming with their pickets and outposts one con- 
 
l6 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 tinuous line all around the camp. From the manner in 
 which the campment ground was allotted, not a little 
 confusion took place, from the crossing of different col- 
 umns, as they intersected the march of others, all hurrying 
 to get themselves settled before the intense darkness of 
 the night, which was fast thickening upon us. Thus, we, 
 improperly taking advantage of somewhat too large an 
 interval in the column of artillery that was passing, con- 
 tinued our march through them, keeping an immense 
 column in their rear halted, until they in their turn found 
 an opportunity of making a dash through us, cutting off 
 a part of our squadrons, which did not get a chance of 
 coming up for full an hour ; presenting one of the in- 
 stances of trouble from the non-observance of a salutary 
 regulation, that general, or high field officers, or superior 
 staff officers be posted at such points, to make divisions, 
 pass rapidly, by alternate platoons, through each other. 
 But it was a terribly stormy night, and generals and all 
 were for taking care of themselves, and trusting all to 
 themselves. The first chasseurs, encamped in column of 
 double squadron, occupying the entire breadth of the valley. 
 When, thus encamped, the rear-rank is reined back about 
 twelve paces (rearward from the heads of horses in the 
 front rank) somewhat more than open order; and the 
 space between the stacks of arms and row of saddles 
 which is at the head of the front rank, to the horses of 
 the rear rank of the preceding column, is at the disposition 
 of the men and officers ; the officers, however, having the 
 choice of any part of it — poor consolation indeed, to be 
 entitled to twelve * feet or so of mud in a rain storm, and 
 without tents.f 
 
 * I find a disagreement between my short hand notes in 197 camp journal, 
 and the original draft of a Report on the " Interior of Cavalry Regiment in 
 campaign." I should think, however, that my notes must be correct, as the 
 other might have been an error corrected in the copy, but I never paced off 
 either, but set down the distances from my eye. I know, too, it varied much, 
 depending how we were crowded by other regiments ; the opening of ranks, 
 however, agrees in both cases. 
 
 f If there is room, the officers are also permitted to bivouac immediately 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. \J 
 
 June 6th. — At an early hour the next morning we were 
 under arms, and the pieces that were continually being 
 discharged betokened the expectation of an engagement, 
 for our guides had informed us of the vicinity of several 
 Arab villages, and it was certain that if our movement 
 through these passes were suspected by the enemy, that 
 the Kabyles would meet us in large force. I could not 
 help being struck by the impropriety of this random firing, 
 so expressly in violation of all regulations, for it must 
 have been a signal to any enemy lying near that we were 
 on the move, and as some several pieces would happen to 
 be fired rapidly at the same time in the direction of the 
 pickets, one could scarcely refrain from grasping his arms, 
 and looking towards his horse. We now entered in ear- 
 nest amongst the mountains, now scaling difificult heights, 
 now following narrow ridges, and then again plunging 
 down fearful precipices into some isolated valley. This 
 way, known as the " Pass of the Robbers," had been but 
 lately betrayed to the French, and was a route scarce ever 
 travelled by the Arabs themselves, as it was infested by a 
 bandit population hostile to the inhabitants of either 
 plain ; but now that a third enemy was in question, and a 
 common religion united them all, we were liable to a fear- 
 ful resistance in these fastnesses. It was no place for 
 cavalry, and we now became as part of the convoy — whilst 
 the flanks of the march were guarded by strong columns of 
 infantry, not marching in mass by brigade, but by regi- ' 
 ments, in succession at long intervals, connected by bat- 
 talions, in light order, as tirailleurs, so as to cover the 
 convoy, which, owing to the narrowness of the ways, had 
 lengthened out their column to near two leagues. For 
 the convoy proper the best paths were reserved, whilst 
 the cavalry brigade, keeping close by its side, were some- 
 times pushed up here, or down there, along the side hills, 
 
 on the flank of their squadron, but within some very few feet of it. The 
 tents belonging to the officers did not come up till long after it was pitch 
 dark. Our tent was pitched in mud, ankle deep, which we made barely 
 tenable by laying grass and bushes over it. 
 
1 8 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 on the margin of difficult water courses, now on the right, 
 now on the left, anywhere where we could possibly find 
 footing, to enable the dangerous lengthening of the col- 
 umn to be curtailed. As often as the ridge was of suffi- 
 cient width, or the slope of the hill side not too abrupt, 
 the men, habitually broken up in files, were made, without 
 loss of time, to form twos, fours, even platoons, and at 
 every halt occasioned by some accident to the convoy, 
 or delay in the strong working parties hewing out the 
 road, we were jammed and crowded up into close column 
 of squadrons. On the Arabs the moral effect of cavalry, 
 (they, like other wild or oriental people, attaching greater 
 importance and bravery to the individual who is mounted,) 
 is perhaps even greater than it deserves ; moreover this 
 feeling of respect for this arm had been greatly increased 
 by the fortunate charges of the chasseurs and French 
 squadrons in preceding wars, and during the past winter 
 and early spring. All this better reconciled us to the idea 
 of the inaction to which, in case of an attack, we would 
 be condemned, entangled as the army was in the moun- 
 tains; besides, we consoled ourselves with the expecta- 
 tion of having our affair after debouching into the plain 
 of the Cheliff. 
 
 The events of the morning proved true to our forebod- 
 ing, for after proceeding a short distance a solitary dis- 
 charge from an out-flanker, and then a more general dis- 
 charge from the line of "tirailleurs," which warmed at 
 times into a spirited engagement, took place, first on our 
 right, and then commenced soon afterwards, though less 
 briskly, on our left. The columns were generally at a 
 quarter of a league from the convoy, but the course of the 
 combats was easily marked by the line of smoke and fire, 
 especially when the inequalities of the ground we might 
 then be passing, gave us a command of the prospect. We 
 were, in especial, witnesses of one affair, an episode in the 
 fighting of the day. We had just formed up in a narrow 
 ridge, which terminated a chain of heights ; a valley of 
 moderate width lay on either side of us, joining just in 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 19 
 
 front of where we were halted, and then running way off 
 to the eastward, gradually narrowing until it lost itself in 
 between two mountains, on the side of one of which, in 
 the extreme distance, was observable, by its glittering 
 white, an Arab marabout, or sacred temple of worship. 
 We had just dismounted to await the convoy, as it drew 
 its slow length along, and with our glasses were watching 
 the progress of the columns, which we had in complete 
 view on either side, with their skirmishers actively en- 
 gaged. But the object of our interest was a body of 
 "Tirailleurs de Vincennes " on the hill side to the right, 
 as they emerged from a wood and prepared, in face of a 
 determined fire from the Arabs, to pass over a bare space 
 and possess themselves of a group of farm-houses on their 
 route. They " advanced firing " in a close line of skirm- 
 ishers ; they passed over most of the distance, and had 
 nearly attained the object of their attack, when, seeming- 
 ly staggered by the desperate fire, they ceased to move on, 
 though their fire rolled more rapidly than ever. At this 
 moment the rest of the battalion issued from the woods, 
 and a mounted officer, distinguishable from wearing a 
 straw hat, * a Spanish custom introduced by the " Legion 
 Etrang^re " dashed forward into the smoke of the com- 
 batants. A general charge was perceived, they advanced 
 at a run ; the farm-houses were seized. But when the 
 smoke had somewhat cleared away, we perceived a group 
 returning slowly to the main body, and by our glasses dis- 
 tinguished that it carried as its burden the young officer, 
 who but an instant before had so gallantly led on, known 
 to us by that mark which had proved so fatal for him, 
 the straw hat carried by a soldier of the party. I have 
 never known a moment of such intense excitement, and I 
 believe every one of us was affected the same, as this real 
 panorama was acting in the presence of us inactive spec- 
 
 * It had seemed to me exceedingly strange, when I had noticed on the 
 previous day's marches that many of the officers wore straw hats ; but the 
 fate of this young officer proved that if a luxury, il was also a reckless and 
 dangerous bravado in a fight. 
 
20 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 tators. This was one of the two officers and many men 
 killed during the day. That evening we encamped at 
 " Oued Guerr," or the " Six Arabs," so called from six 
 Bedouin chiefs, who, approaching as nearly as they dared, 
 seemed reconnoitering our forces. In the fore part of the 
 day the country had been difficult in the extreme, but 
 towards evening the mountains opened out into longer 
 and broader valleys, and our encampment was on a rivu- 
 let's side, whose course we had been following down for 
 some miles. I had been surprised, too, to find that, in 
 such a rugged region, Arab villages (generally composed 
 of wretched hovels) were of such frequent occurrence, and 
 every single acre that could be cultivated, either on the 
 mountain tops or in the narrow valley, was planted, and 
 then teeming with a rich crop, as indicative of a numerous 
 native population. The marabout too, or sacred house 
 of Arab worship, with its solemn mystic air and its ac- 
 companying palm, as seen peering in the distance, strikes 
 one, as does the sculptured Sphinx of Egypt, wherever 
 you may meet it, a symbol untranslatable of the solemn 
 mystery and genius of Africa. We were encamped in 
 two lines of three squadrons, as were also the French 
 squadrons in our rear. We had been kept in column full 
 three-quarters of an hour after arriving on the ground of 
 encampment, where the advance guard had been ordered 
 to halt, from there not being a staff officer sent to inform 
 us in what quarter of the camp we would bivouac. We 
 arrived a little after the sun had set, which it did most 
 serenely. 
 
 June 7th. — The march of the 7th of June was much the 
 same as that of the preceding day, excepting that the 
 mountains changed into less difficult ascents, and opened 
 into more extensive valleys ; we, the cavalry, took up a 
 position for the offensive, as in case of an attack on the 
 convoy, though we again were covered by a small force 
 of infantry to our right. The skirmishing commenced 
 occasionally during the march, but by no means with the 
 determined pertinacity of the preceding day. The Spahis, 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 21 
 
 who, towards the middle of the day, were once again 
 placed in the advance, pursued some Arabs, killed several, 
 and took a horse or two. Towards noon we entered a 
 tolerably easy country ; the stretches of the valley run- 
 ning in the direction of our march, and what mountains 
 we passed over were gradual slopes and easy of ascent; but 
 the heat was terriiic, reflected as the sun was from the 
 burning soil ; and not a hundred yards could be passed 
 over without seeing some unhappy wretch rolling in con- 
 vulsions on the ground, or crying like a child in the de- 
 moralization of a violent brain fever. There they were, 
 alone and unbefriended ; for the march being a forced 
 one this day, they were left as they grew sick, first to loi- 
 ter behind, and then, as they became more helpless, their 
 regiments would be out of reach. The others that might 
 be passing, pressed as they were themselves, whispered 
 down any pity that might arise for them, as that it was 
 not their duty, and that the rear guard (some hours be- 
 hind) would certainly have them conveyed to the surgeons, 
 or that the ambulances, (already painfully crowded by 
 even these few days' fatigue, and more especially the rain 
 storm of the night of the 8th,) might pass in that direc- 
 tion and take them too. The superior ofificers, I presume, 
 were, from long service, steeled to such scenes ; and as 
 for the other officers, they might utter an oath of anger 
 at the oversight of those who had control, but, like others 
 before them, had to pass by unheedingly the dying as the 
 dead. From the numbers whom we passed exhausted 
 and at death's door towards the noon of that day, the 
 hospitals must have been increased some two or three 
 hundred, together with the dead. War is a theatre of 
 contrasts, and one, a foreigner like myself, could not but 
 be struck with it ; exhibiting in the same moment with 
 the preceding scene of misery, the gay vivandiere of each 
 regiment, who, flauntingly dressed in the manly uniform 
 coat of some regiment, with the skirts of her own sex, pro- 
 tected by a broad sombrero, would jauntily march by with 
 her loaded mule, the pride and solicitude of her whole 
 
22 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 corps. The engagements were not many to-day, but 
 groups of Arabs were seen every here and there, as if 
 watching with dismay the swell of war rolling in the direc- 
 tion of their proud city. On the other hand, our excite- 
 ment became more aroused, for one lofty peak, which 
 towered alone in the distant range that verged the hori- 
 zon, was now pointed out to us as being the mountain 
 from which jutted out the so estimated impregnable site 
 of Milianah. The sun was fast sinking in the west, and 
 we were now mounting the slope of the last mountain. 
 Our regiment was on the right, and rather in the advance, 
 the Spahis having been despatched to watch the movement 
 of some Arab horse, to the left. A detachment of the 
 far-famed Zouaves, whom, however, I had not seen in 
 action as yet, were now acting as our advance tirailleurs. 
 Apparently no foe was near us, when suddenly the wild 
 figures of some hundred Arabs, who had been concealed 
 by the break of the ground and behind some rocks, sud- 
 denly rose up before us, and at only half pistol shot 
 poured in a rattling volley in the faces of the Zouaves 
 and in direction of our column. They were staggered, 
 covered themselves behind obstacles, and continued thus 
 firing for a moment, without pretending to advance, when 
 suddenly one of their number, waving his musket over 
 his head, and with a shout of defiance, made a dash out 
 of his cover, and thus rushed forward, making a sole indi- 
 vidual charge, apparently leaping right down in the midst 
 of them. A general shout of applause burst forth from 
 all the troops in sight, whilst his comrades, infected by 
 the example, enthusiastically followed. The Arabs, the 
 next moment, were seen winding around the hill, running 
 off in great confusion, and closely pursued by the Spahis, 
 who at the first alarm, had come up in full gallop, turning 
 their position to intercept their retreat. It was this, per- 
 haps, which saved the bold Zouave ; who, otherwise, must 
 have been massacred before his comrades had followed 
 to his assistance. We were now on the summit of Mount 
 Al-Cantara, from which we viewed, stretching out below 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 23 
 
 us, the whole plain of the Cheliff, bounded in the distance 
 by the " higher " or " second range of the Atlas," arising 
 as a wall in a marked line precipitately and abrupt. A 
 cry of unbounded enthusiasm burst from the troops, as 
 for the first time they beheld that unknown region, the 
 long talked of object of French wishes, the end and des- 
 tination of our campaign — the seat of Milianah. But as it 
 there lay before us, though yellpw from the ripe crops of 
 grain, and in reputation richer than the plains of the Me- 
 tidjah, its appearance was solemn and forbidding, from 
 the absence of all verdure and of water, save where the 
 river, that gives it its name, rolled sullenly in the centre, 
 embedded and nearly hidden in its deep muddy banks. 
 Instead of the wild-fig, and the olive, and the deep green 
 groves of the orange-tree, which are continually found in 
 the plain of the Metidjah, skirting the many little streams, 
 or thriving, in spite of the heats of the climate, in the 
 vicinity of springs — here, not a single shrub or stunted 
 tree occurred to break the vast monotony. The sun at 
 this moment was just retreating over the hills towards 
 Oran. A little later it had ceased to be reflected in the 
 skies, and it was late twilight ere we took up our position 
 in bivouac as an outpost at the foot of the mountain. 
 The morrow, we were to reach Milianah. 
 
 June 8th. — The grey of dawn had no sooner cleared 
 away before we were in full march, but, to our disappoint- 
 ment, as we entered the plain, turning to the westward, 
 the clouds of dense smoke that arose high above the hills 
 to the right, where we knew Milianah to be situated, told 
 too plainly that the town had been fired. Our march was 
 now doubly quickened, the Spahis of the advance pushing 
 on at a trot, and the infantry nearly at 2,. pas de cours, we 
 reached the entrance of the gorge that formed the sole 
 and a difficult approach to the city. The marshal. General 
 Schramm, and the general staff of th'e army, at once galloped 
 up, with a strong escort, to the summit of the height at 
 the right of the entrance to the gorge, to get a coup d'ceil 
 of the ground, and determine on measures for the attack. 
 
24 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 There the city was before us, perched on a plateau that 
 jutted from the side of a mountain, that arose perpen- 
 dicularly behind it. The smoke now curled high up in 
 wreaths, while the lurid glare of the fire shone at every 
 crevice, or burst forth forking from the roofs. Whilst in 
 the midst of this scene of confusion, by the aid of our 
 glasses, from the height on which the marshal and his 
 staff were assembled, the dark uniforms of the regular 
 infantry of Abd-el-Kader might be distinguished, as they 
 were seen driving out before them the reluctant inhabi- 
 tants of the place. The city, like all Moorish towns, was 
 beautiful in the extreme, for nothing can be more pictu- 
 resque than the irregular outline of their houses, as of 
 masses grouped together in the very soul of variety, with 
 their low tiled roofs reminding one of scenes in Italy ; 
 minarets, seen shooting up from the mass, or peering from 
 the midst of the cypress and the myrtle, told of times 
 when the Saracen, proud as his own crescent, had made 
 his history the interest of all nations. The city was 
 enveloped in flames, their own act ; but an Arab was 
 never known to yield a mountain retreat without blood- 
 shed, and a fight to avenge. Measures were therefore 
 instantly taken. The principal part of the infantry, 
 formed into two heavy columns of attack, were marched 
 over heights to the right and left of the gorge, whilst 
 another portion was left at its mouth, to repel the Arabs 
 who had molested our rear-guard, whilst breaking up from 
 camp, but who more particularly now were appearing in 
 great numbers from the direction of Oran. They already 
 showed themselves to be the principal force of the Bedouin 
 cavalry coming up, and might now, taking all in sight, 
 amount to some six or seven thousand. The cavalry, 
 artillery, and convoy, in the meanwhile filed through, and 
 all concentrated again in closely packed colums, and by 
 crowded divisions, on a'plateau just beneath that of the 
 town, awaiting and holding themselves ready for the 
 signal of the onset. At the same time, some batteries of 
 artillery were placed in position on a height that arose 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 2$ 
 
 somewhat to the left, to bear upon some pieces of the 
 enemy which commenced firing* on us from two different 
 points, and to cover the advance of two heavy columns of 
 attack, which commenced scaling the heights.f Nothing 
 could have been more beautiful than the advance of the 
 infantry ; the right column directed its course about 
 half a mile or more to the right, attacking the town di- 
 rectly in front, but it was more hidden from our view by 
 the gardens, and groves, and vineyards ; that of the left 
 was the whole time immediately in sight. They advanced 
 with arms sur Vepaule-droite, (" right shoulder shift arms," 
 or, " arms at will,") a company or two were thrown out in 
 skirmishing order just before them. But for the scatter- 
 ing fire from them and some Arabs under cover of the oc- 
 casional underwood, and from behind rocks, and the burst- 
 ing of the shells, which, directed with wonderful precision, 
 seemed always thrown just immediately before the head 
 of the column, one might well have supposed, from the 
 quiet demeanor of the soldiery, that they were on an or- 
 dinary march. Such is the character of the French sol- 
 dier; and this perfect nonchalance, more, perhaps, than 
 even their excitability when aroused, makes them the best 
 service troops in Europe. Taken as a whole, the scene 
 
 * The fire of these pieces was without particular effect. Two of their 
 balls fell suiiiciently near to us ; one being between the cavalry, who were 
 in close column of squadrons, and the ambulances with the sick and 
 wounded, the space between us being but some fifteen yards ; falling in 
 the mud of a spring there, it did not ricochet. The other ball fell in the 
 very centre of the marshal's staff, but bounded again over their heads with- 
 out killing or wounding one. They were on a small rise close behind us. 
 
 f The distance from the foot of the height to its summit, the plateau on 
 which the town was situated, was from half a mile to three quarters. We 
 were, as we now stood, scarcely higher than at the entrance of the gorge, 
 but the columns of infantry had mounted and descended considerable 
 heights before they all united on this lower plateau. The length of the 
 goige through which the convoy had defiled, must have been near a mile ; 
 and the distance from the height on which the staff first stood, to the town, 
 the height being nearly equally high, must also have been just about a 
 mile ; the ordinary Arab dress, with the white bournous, is so different 
 from the dark uniform of their regular infantry, that they are easily dis- 
 tinguished. 
 
26 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 was spirit-stirring in the extreme, for, though bloodshed 
 had not commenced, there was all the preparation for war 
 and battle, as if rivers of blood were soon to follow. 
 Here were parked, under charge of some regiments of re- 
 serve, the defenceless portion of the army, the convoy of 
 subsistence, the hospitals of sick and wounded, the pieces 
 of heavy ordnance, all breathless with expectation. Near 
 them, and on the road-side, in column of squadrons, stood 
 the cavalry brigade, holding themselves in reserve to, at 
 the proper juncture, rush forth, and by ascending the 
 height by the road, take part in the fighting on the upper 
 plateau. Some half a mile to the left and more advanced, 
 were placed, actively manoeuvring their pieces,* and firing 
 incessantly, the batteries of cover for the attack, not the 
 least animating part of the scene, as, by the ricochet of 
 their shots, or the bursting of the shells, one traced the 
 execution they were doing. Forming part of this great 
 living panorama were the divisions that were now actively 
 ascending to storm the heights, and it was on this that 
 all of our attention became concentrated. When they had 
 nearly reached the crest, the drums beat ; arms flashed in 
 the sunbeams, as they were shifted for the attack, and the 
 men, in a solid body, rushed forward to the charge. It 
 was truly a sight worth years of peace. They disappeared 
 over the hill, a momentary silence ensued, the artillery no 
 longer firing. In some few moments a desultory firing 
 that arose, though both parties were out of sight, proved 
 to us that the opposition had been but weak, and that the 
 enemy were now firing, fighting in retreat. The column 
 of the right, which, though more hidden from view, had 
 not been less active, had also gained the town, and their 
 firing, heard off to the right, proved that the Arabs were 
 retiring in that quarter from the town. At this moment 
 a staff officer came at full speed across the plain, and rid- 
 ing up to General Blancford, at the head of the column, 
 
 * There were some eight pieces in battery ; one of them, by some mis- 
 management or other, recoiling, whilst firing, rolled off the edge of the 
 height, and came rumbling to the bottom. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 2/ 
 
 delivered orders which set us, too, in full motion ; and at 
 a gallop we overcame the short distance to where the 
 path wound up the hill. Squadrons were at once broken 
 into fours, and at a full trot, which soon became a gallop, 
 increasing in briskness with the excitement of the general 
 and our colonel, who were leading us, we forced our horses 
 over the rocky and broken road. As we reached the sum- 
 mit, and rapidly formed line to the left, the rearmost 
 horsemen of the column were bringing up at a full run. 
 The colonel's* orders, in the plan of the battle, had been 
 to advance, and, forming upon the plateau, charge to the 
 right or left, as might suit the occasion, to cut off the re- 
 treat of the Arabs. But to our great chagrin, when we 
 arrived and formed up, though firing was going on with- 
 in less than a quarter of a mile from us, the ground was 
 such as to preclude the utter possibility of cavalry move- 
 ments.f This was the last move of the day, the retreat- 
 ing Arabs were soon driven out of reach, and though the 
 convoy did not all get up till late, the army was encamped 
 as fast as the different corps came into position. As for 
 ourselves, we were made to bivouac in an Arab grave- 
 yard, bristling with tomb-stones, (not only head and foot 
 stones, but long side ones to boot ;) still any place was a 
 rest, and the excitement of the day needed it. 
 
 June 9th, loth, and nth. — The ninth, tenth, and 
 eleventh were spent at Milianah, and afforded us the op- 
 portunity of examining an Arab town in its true original 
 state, for though in most parts every thing destructible, 
 and all wood work, was burnt, still the thick stone walls 
 and roofs of many of the houses were left standing, and 
 some edifices, particularly the Dey's were almost as per- 
 fect as if fire had been set to it but in mockery. And so 
 
 * I belonged to the 4th squadron, but at the moment of advance, and by 
 samewhat bolder riding, and knowing my powerful gray, I had placed my- 
 self close to the colonel at the head. 
 
 f As an incident not worth mentioning, but that it now occurs to me, 
 the colonel, seeing some three or four Arabs retiring rather leisurely, sent 
 a corporal and four or five men to quicken their movements. Young 
 Duegme, though not ordered, went with them, more as a frolic. 
 
28 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 it was suspected, for, whilst the Dey's and some other 
 principal houses were thus entire, in the quarter of the 
 Jews' bazaar not a stone seemed to be left upon another, 
 and the streets in this quarter were piled with ashes, with 
 now and then just sufficient left of some particular article 
 to give a clue to the business of the vender. As the grave- 
 yard in which the 1st chasseurs were encamped was just 
 outside the town, several of us, after seeing our horses 
 tended to, strolled into the city ; the sentinels at the gate 
 (it was like Medeah, a walled town, and with some defen- 
 ces) beirig authorized to admit officers, but them only. 
 But our curiosity was hazardous for ourselves, for as we 
 passed in some quarters, we were continually exposed to 
 the falling of burning rafters or heated walls ; and once or 
 twice escaped imminent danger as if by a miracle, for the 
 streets, to make it worse, were very narrow. An impor- 
 tant and interesting fact was now discovered, hitherto un- 
 known, that Milianah had been formerly the site of a 
 Roman town, and its proof was continually finding, on the 
 large stones with which the houses were built, Roman in- 
 scriptions, much defaced, expressed much in their usual 
 difficult abbreviations, but withal a word here and there 
 sufficiently plain to be easily defined by the casual observer 
 acquainted with the Latin. As I had visited all the dif- 
 ferent quarters in Algiers, the palaces of some former 
 rich Turks, the bazaar where yet lingered the avaricious 
 Jew, the casbar of the Dey, and their old-timed forts in 
 the harbor, and had moreover accurately studied Blida, 
 though there, too, it was a mass of ruins, (the work of 
 the French,) I was more quick to catch at and fill out such 
 parts of the city as were incomplete. As I mentioned 
 above, some few edifices were still perfect, as if fired 
 merely to comply with the order of general destruction in 
 form, that against the return of the owners, should they, 
 as in the case of Cherchill and Medeah, be invited back, 
 they might be found available. Perhaps it was hurry, or 
 the accidental sufferance of the flames, no doubt the atten- 
 tion of the regular soldiers of Abd-el-Kader might have 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 29 
 
 been first turned to the Jews, the objects of suspicion, 
 possessing small articles of value that might be seized 
 with impunity to their own use, though accounted for as 
 consumed. 
 
 To him who has perused the poetic pages of the Alham- 
 bra, — what subject is there that its beautiful author does 
 not convert by the beauty of his imagery and his glowing 
 description, from the every day monotony of prose to the 
 enthusiasm of poetry, though he equally adheres rigidly 
 to facts. Whoever, then, has read of that proud monu- 
 ment of Moorish splendor, and has followed out those 
 delineations as pictured by the English pencil, in that 
 splendid work, " Sketches from the Alhambra," may trace 
 for themselves an idea of what Milianah, a city renowned 
 for its riches and splendors in these parts, must have pre- 
 sented ere consumed by the suicidal act of its inhabitants, 
 and still exhibited in these few edifices which yet remained 
 entire. Take we the " Palace of the Dey." After wind- 
 ing amidst smoking ruins, and the crash of falling walls, 
 and conducted by our guide, one of the exploring party 
 which had first entered on the place being carried, we 
 came to an avenue, small, as all the Arab streets are, but 
 still notable from its superior size and straight course, 
 instead of the winding and zigzag of the usual thorough- 
 fares, seeming as if but one object were its purpose, the 
 access to the abode of its chief dignitary. There it stood, 
 at the head of this avenue, superior in the elevation of its 
 broad towers to the rest, though elsewhere it \vould not 
 have struck you for its size. Like all Moorish buildings, 
 even the rich Casbar* of the late Dey of Algiers, in its 
 exterior, displayed no particular embellishments of archi- 
 tecture. The heats of the climate induce them to limit 
 all exterior openings beside the porch to narrow loop- 
 holes. The effect of the edifices here, and of those 
 
 * Casbar is the general name for " palace.'' That of the Dey of Algiers, 
 contained immense treasures, valued at some twenty millions of dollars, 
 though he stipulated for but five millions. Much of this,, as did all the 
 riches of the city, fell a booty to the French soldiers in 1830. 
 
30 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 thousand Moorish country-seats which stud the heights in 
 the bay and around the city of Algiers, is not produced 
 so much by the richness of gothic execution, with its 
 heavy buttresses terminating in worked pinnacles and 
 other external ornaments peculiar to that style, as by the 
 picturesqueness derived from the irregularly massing 
 together the various parts ; some differing in height, all 
 thrown up, as if in defiance of precision's dull rules, giving 
 thus that same appearance of tower and keep ; the grandeur 
 of the whole augmented by the massive stones of which 
 the structure is composed. What most especially gives 
 character to this style, is the dead white color with which 
 each building of any note is painted, and thus Algiers 
 stands forth a whole city glittering in glory ; though, per- 
 haps, many may complain that this uniform color, and the 
 want of all apertures other than the casual loop-holes, 
 most produce a sensation of monotony when viewed at a 
 distance as a whole. Certainly this, as a part of their 
 architecture, is the striking feature of Afric's soil on this 
 part of the Mediterranean. As adding to the lustre of 
 the isolated structure, it does so with a most enchanting 
 effect ; it then becomes softened and relieved, as taken in 
 one " ensemble " with the deep verdure of the hills of the 
 coast, the groups of this tropic's rich foliage, the myrtle, 
 the cypress, or the lone palm rising in startling and mystic 
 grandeur. But to return to the Dey's house in the once 
 fair city of Milianah : its sole particular embellishment, 
 besides the irregularity of its towered outlines, was an 
 arabesque fretwork in stone, running parallel with and 
 just below the battlements. The entrance was a large 
 portal, with broad pilasters supporting the half circle arch, 
 the feature strictly and solely of the Roman, and occur- 
 ring here and at Algiers, but only in employ for the small 
 arch of an entrance ; in other respects the arch is ever the 
 Moorish or Saracen. Before entering here, we must 
 remark the long range of stabling immediately joining the 
 main building on either side, like wings. The effect of 
 the exterior, critically examined, was far from rich ; but 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH, 3 1 
 
 how different the scene which bursts on one as he enters 
 that threshold ; flights of marble stairs, mosaic pavements, 
 arabesques, glowing in color and beautiful in design, 
 covering the walls, whilst bars of gilded iron and brass, 
 carved cedar and rich woods, occupied windows, doors, 
 and recesses. A quadrangle in the centre, of some fifty 
 feet or more, gave room for the flowing fountain 
 and marble basin, the orange-trees surrounding it, 
 the grass parterre, and faced by the two successive 
 ranges of galleries, with their arcades formed by the 
 double horse shoe arch of the Alhambra; out on 
 this opened the large folding doors and wide windows 
 of the Dey's most retired apartments. All and one pre- 
 sented a whole that realized to us Eastern luxury, and 
 animal enjoyment ; the Moor, the preserver, to present 
 European generations, of the light and civilization of the 
 ancients, near extinguished in the dark ages, has once 
 more retired to his primitive barbarism, and has but his 
 Mohamedanism as food for mental reflection. This in- 
 terior was a scene of true magnificence ; and though the 
 despoiler had been here, he had done his work but lightly, 
 and fire seemed to have forgotten its all devouring ele- 
 ment. When we had passed beyond this court, and 
 through the farther portion of the buildings, issuing 
 through another stone portal, we found ourselves on a 
 terrace formed by the projecting rock, ornamented with 
 shrubbery, and arches formed by the vine. Bending over 
 the terrace wall, you either looked down the precipice 
 some hundreds of feet below, where dashed wildly along a 
 foaming torrent, edged, where the mountain side would 
 permit, with gardens rich and inviting to the eye; or, 
 directing the eye towards the west, you beheld the valley * 
 beyond, and through the long vista of the gorge, walled 
 in by high peaks, saw in the distance the wide stretching 
 plain of the Cheliff. Is this description too glowing for a 
 
 * The plateau whence we had attacked the place, and whence indeed the 
 Dey's house had attracted our attention. 
 
32 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 mere narrative of facts? It may seem so to one who saw 
 it not as we did, but not to an individual of us who was at 
 Milianah on that occasion. All felt as I did, at a scene 
 thus new to us, and thus calmly rich, forming a respite 
 amidst the horrors of war, of sickness, and the severe 
 hardships of that burning clime. How well do I remember 
 our bivouac in the grave-yard ; our tent was pitched on a 
 low ledge of rocks some ten feet high, forming a sort of 
 upper plateau, which ran along the flank of our encamp- 
 ment, and here, beneath the shade of a wild almond, we 
 passed the hours, making a luxurious feast of our camp 
 fare by an additional bottle of eau de vie, or claret, or the 
 refreshing absinth. Here, we were so situated as not only 
 to embrace at the same view, the walls of the town, the 
 roofs of the houses, the crescent, left with a Frenchman's 
 indifference to religion, still pointing forth from the top 
 of some tall minaret. How different Moslem with Chris- 
 tian cross. But to, in a word, embrace the most notable 
 objects of the town, after those rich private dwellings, 
 which all partook much of the character of the Dey's 
 house, with less splendor, I must single out the descrip- 
 tion of the main fort, the stronghold of the place, and 
 now turned over to the French artillery to repair and 
 strengthen still farther ; then to a visit to some principal 
 mosque, of which one or two in a great measure were en- 
 tire, and to a description of the many fountains, public 
 baths, cleared and purified by running water ; not omit- 
 ting, though now a heap of ashes, to revive the bazaar, 
 the large conduit of trade, where inhabited that merchant 
 of all nations, yet an alien to them all, the Jew. As to 
 these first mentioned conveniences, truly may that be 
 called a city of luxury, where they were so numerous as 
 to be at the reach of the poor Jew and mendicant as well 
 as the rich despots of the land. As an institution show- 
 ing the individuality of character in the people, these 
 baths certainly would have struck a philosophic mind 
 as the first and chiefest, and recalled the days of the 
 Roman. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 33 
 
 The mosques of the place by no means compared with 
 the one re-constructed by the French in Algiers. As re- 
 constructed, for in their toleration of, or rather indiffer- 
 ence to religion, both real, and in policy assumed, they 
 had out of the many mosques in the place, taking the 
 handsomest portion of each, erected one most beautiful 
 edifice. Here the Mahomedan religion was kept up in its 
 strictest forms, the princes themselves being obliged to 
 enter it barefooted ; and thus in Algiers was presented 
 the anomalous spectacle of the Catholic, Protestant, and 
 Mahomedan religions all in the same place. The mosque 
 consists of one general apartment for the worshippers, a 
 more holy place, (called the marabout) for the priests 
 of the religion, a sort of pulpit whence they perform 
 part of their ceremony, and the tower constituting 
 the lofty minaret, which renders an Arab town so pic- 
 turesque. The half moon, too, as overtopping all, and 
 above alluded to, must not be forgotten. One of 
 these mosques seemed to be a Jewish sanctuary, the 
 building being different from the others, but also so 
 much in ruins that it could not be ascertained posi- 
 tively. 
 
 The bazaar, or thoroughfare of merchants, is a sight 
 peculiar to the thickly peopled cities of Africa and the 
 East, and is a narrow street containing small apartments 
 or shops closely crowded together on either side, elevated 
 some three or four feet generally above the street, scarcely 
 high enough for the occupant to stand erect in, whilst 
 with outstretched arms they could touch either side, its 
 length being scarcely more, though it opens into a longer 
 one behind, the residence of the family. These stores 
 are crowded to overflowing with all articles of Arab dress, 
 the rich gold tissue turban contrasting with the coarse 
 linen garment of a kabayle, and the rich brilliant white of 
 some most richly fine " bournous " in juxtaposition with 
 the shaggy "caban." Some shops again are specially 
 those of the tobacco merchants, where pipes of all forms 
 and materials, with stems from the rich velvet covered 
 
34 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 wood with amber mouth pieces, or the flexible silken 
 hookar, to the plain cherry with its bark left on. 
 These again differ in variety and size from those of six 
 inches to six feet. The bowls are generally stone, or a 
 peculiar red clay, or of a hard wood, gilt, and lined with 
 some metal, the generality of the common pipes resem- 
 bling much our Indian ones. Other shops are shoe 
 stores , common shoes are perfectly like European coarse 
 ones, differing most widely from that characteristic of the 
 Moorish chief, the fine red morocco boots coming to the 
 knee, richly worked in gold, and often bound around the 
 leg with some silk and gold or silver wire, with the silk of 
 as brilliant a hue ; this boot again being protected by an 
 over-shoe, when the precincts of his dwelling are left. 
 Here, also, is the vegetable market, with fruits of every 
 variety strewn about. But in this quarter, the chief 
 object that would strike the stranger would be the 
 peculiar manner of the venders. Unless when engaged 
 in showing off their goods to their customers, they seem 
 like so many automatons. Apparently lost to the world 
 in the fumes of their pipes, or in the calculation of 
 their accounts, in which they seem all absorbed, their 
 forms move not, their eyes are fixed intent for hours 
 in one direction, and they are rather as so many signs 
 of their trade than actual living bodies. Such are the 
 bazaars in the old part of Algiers, and such were they 
 at Blidah, where one street of this kind had been 
 left entire, and such my fancy easily made out these of 
 Milianah. 
 
 Whilst on the characteristics of a Moorish town, I must 
 not omit a monument of Abd-el-Kader's genius, an intro- 
 duction from the European. It was the small, but 
 perfectly finished foundry and iron works, for the manu- 
 facturing of his arms. It was erected by European 
 workmen, hired during the preceding peace at high 
 rewards, and since then carried on by the numerous Euro- 
 pean deserters, under the guidance of one who had been 
 a sergeant-major in the Corps du Genie. This foundry 
 
EXPEDITION^ AGAINST MILIANAH. 35 
 
 was supplied with water by that rushing torrent mentioned 
 in the descriptions of the Dey's residence ; but its descrip- 
 tion does not strictly belong here, as it stood outside the 
 town. Like the Dey's house, perched on a rock jutting 
 out from, and forming an angle in the wall of rock on the 
 left side of the town ; so the citadel, or casbar, was at 
 another extreme point of the city, and formed an acute 
 angle, whence branched off the precipice to the right and 
 left, giving a rather triangular form to the city. It was a 
 strong place, pierced with port holes and with bastions, 
 but not of much utility ; for, though it swept some peaks 
 in the vicinity, it was on the opposite side from the 
 plateau on which the town is placed, could not bring a 
 gun to bear in case of an attack on that quarter, and was 
 infinitely too high above the lower plateau to fire down 
 on it with any effect. It contained an inner work, whose 
 walls commanded the outer ones, as they did the town. 
 It was now in possession of the French artillery, and had 
 guns already mounted. The very first day of our arrival 
 here, the one or two mosques in best preservation had 
 been cleared out for hospitals for the sick and wounded ; 
 and, by a heavy detail from the infantry battalions, the 
 defences of the place were increased on the side towards 
 the plateau by a deep ditch outside the walls, and by 
 throwing up a heavy redoubt, or rather redan, to the 
 main work. 
 
 Such are the hardships of the infantry — fatiguing 
 marches, and no rest, even at a halt ; whilst we, the cav- 
 alry, idled away the time in the various little nothings, 
 that kill time and care at an encampment. From our 
 tent, perched on a broad flat rock, which served as ban- 
 queting room and parlor, we surveyed the whole camp, 
 and looked but on one spot with envy ; it was a beauti- 
 fully shaded garden, green with grass and vines, in which 
 we had " at first " been on the point of taking up our 
 bivouac, when displaced by the Marshal, who thought 
 that we had reason in the selection of it, as being the 
 most inviting, and therefore took it for himself and staff, 
 
36 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 leaving us to go to the devil, or the next place — the grave- 
 yard. Still, never were there happier days than passed 
 during our halt at Milianah. Though we had but our 
 one kindly shading tree, we beheld around and near us 
 the cypress and myrtle, and felt its romance. The long 
 twilight of summer was enhanced by the continued music 
 of the splendid band of the " Legion Etrangire" which 
 played till a late hour of night ; and certainly some of 
 the richest strains of music I ever listened to were here, 
 in the far interior of Africa. 
 
 June I2th. — We parted from Milianah, leaving a garri- 
 son of some thirteen hundred men of the 3d light infantry, 
 and a battalion of the " legion," and our sick and wounded, 
 who were numerous. There had been a move the after- 
 noon of the nth, preparatory to getting the army under 
 way again, the cavalry and some infantry having been 
 moved forward and encamped, after descending the 
 mountain, on arriving at the plateau below. Our route 
 was now to ascend the plain of the Cheliff, cut off the 
 resources of the country by destroying the crops and 
 villages far and near, and after returning to Mousaiah by 
 the noted pass of the Col de Teneah for supplies to 
 re-provision Medeah, and then re-establish a communica- 
 tion between these two lately taken cities. 
 
 On leaving the defile of Milianah and returning once 
 more into the plain, we found the army of Abd-el-Kader, 
 its numbers making some seven thousand. A skirmishing 
 soon took place, but was confined to the rear-guard. As 
 we emerged into the plain, marching in several strong 
 columns, the artillery and convoy in order of some three 
 or four wagons abreast kept on the road, though as far as 
 a dead level could make it, one part of the plain was as 
 another. The day was deadly hot, no water was on 
 the line of march, and the suffering of the army was 
 extreme ; * whilst the whole plain, from the troops 
 
 * It is strange as true, that there was in the course of the campaign one 
 third of the officers left behind, sick ; one third constantly sick on march. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 37 
 
 firing the grain, farm-houses, and villages, where they 
 passed, had the appearance of a burning prairie of the 
 far west. There were several small charges of cavalry, 
 but only of single squadrons, there being two supporting 
 the rear-guard, and the Spahis and " gend'armes Mores " 
 leading, as usual, the advance. The rest of the cav- 
 alry brigade was in column on the right. An instance 
 of the beautiful combination of rapid manoeuvering re- 
 quired in this country, occurred about the middle of the 
 day. The left column of the French nearly touched on 
 the base of the mountains, and was somewhat felt by the 
 Arab skirmishers, whilst every now and then some party 
 of them would engage the Spahis on the advance and to 
 the left. The rear-guard was steadily though not warmly 
 engaged. The main body of the Arabs, at some half can- 
 non shot or more distant, kept hanging on our right, and 
 rather off to the rear, their regular cavalry marching as 
 was our brigade in column of platoons, whilst the Bedouins, 
 like clouds, clustered sometimes here, and there, as they 
 kept up the march. I presume the distance from the 
 advance guard of the left column to the place where 
 we were, was about a mile and a half. Of a sudden, the 
 leading platoons of the brigade, from the listless walk at 
 which we had been going, dashed off at full gallop, with- 
 out command, but squadron following on squadron, and 
 platoon on platoon. This is always done, the presumption 
 being that commands had been given to the head of the 
 column ; so on we followed, the whole brigade on a full 
 stretch. It was not for some few moments that the cause 
 was known, though it was presumed that there was to be 
 a general charge. Our attention was directed to the 
 
 and myself the only one of the squadron officers not affected, though this 
 day I was near fainting at times from want of water, and but for some few 
 drops of brandy which I took into my mouth at times, the only liquid that 
 could be procured, I certainly would have lost all strength. I can only 
 
 account for this circumstance of my not being sick in one way. Dr. R 
 
 had told me that it was a great hazard, and yet that possibly my previous 
 course of medicine might prepare me for the climate. In sickness, we some- 
 times escape by weakness itself. 
 
38 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 Arabs. To a man they were moving like a swift cloud 
 over the plain, and at once the mystery was understood, 
 and it was presumed that their object was to cut off some 
 portion of the army that had exposed itself to Abd-el- 
 Kader's quick eye. On we kept, and for more than a 
 mile presented the singular and interesting appearance of 
 two large masses of horse, moving in nearly parallel direc- 
 tions at full speed. We then saw them draw up, and the 
 brigade was similarly brought to a halt, when a staff ofificer 
 of General Blancford riding up, said, " Well, we saved the 
 Spahis." It appeared that they, over excited in pursuit, 
 supposing the main body of Arab horse out of reach, had 
 followed too far, and had been detected by the Arabs 
 nearly to their cost, and would have certainly been cut off 
 but for this prompt movement on the part of troops more 
 than a mile off, and who, but for the coup d'ceil of the 
 general, would have been of no service, as out of support- 
 ing distance. This was one of the many instances of the 
 peculiar service in Africa, and proves the great necessity 
 and value of the most perfect coup d'ceil on the part of 
 leaders, particularly in the cavalry. All were disappointed 
 in its not resulting in a grand charge ; but the French 
 cavalry, from its successes during the past fall and winter 
 in some one or two brilliant skirmishes, were too much 
 dreaded, to be opposed by a regular hand-to-hand attack ; 
 nor did they ever during the whole spring's campaign, 
 come in actual contact,* further than to sabre the wounded 
 and badly mounted. But then, again, the fear of being 
 enveloped by immense odds, prevented the French cavalry 
 from ever leaving their infantry far out of distance of sup- 
 port. Towards late in the afternoon we crossed the Cheliff, 
 or rather, one of its main branches, which here comes in 
 with a bold bend from the northward. Our encampment 
 this night, whilst it afforded what we could rarely count 
 
 * Indeed, an actual shock of line to line, without either wavering, is nearly 
 as rare in cavalry as in infantry ; the Imperial officers with whom I have con- 
 versed, and English officers who served in the Peninsular War, agreeing that 
 an instance scarcely ever occurs during a whole campaign. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 39 
 
 upon, the luxury of plentiful water, left us deprived of 
 the means of cooking, from the absence of wood or brush. 
 During all this day we had espied at times a heavy column 
 of the enemy's infantry moving along the mountains on 
 our left, by a prompt march in a similar direction with 
 ourselves. 
 
 June 13th. — This day, as bending our course towards 
 the north and east, we left the plain, which stretched more 
 off to the south, and entered a broken country, consisting 
 of undulating sweeps of hills, interrupted by ravines, 
 ridges, and rocky grounds. 
 
 There were, as usual, constant skirmishes between our 
 rear-guard and the Arabs, and at times a firing on the 
 flanks. The cavalry brigade continued marching in col- 
 umn on the right, excepting two squadrons which re- 
 mained in support of the rear-guard. It was about the 
 middle of the day, when their services were particularly 
 called upon, for from the nature of the ground, it several 
 times became necessary for the rear-guard to maintain a 
 position until so far left behind as to be exposed to being 
 cut off by the whole force of the Arabs, whose courage is 
 of a nature to dare anything, when accident seems to 
 throw the slightest favor into their hands. Thus the rear- 
 guard was always obliged to hold a ridge or other height, 
 from whence the Arabs might obtain a downward fire on 
 the columns of march, particularly the convoy with the 
 sick, wounded, and provisionment. And, in turn, parts of 
 these troops of the rear-guard would be more particularly 
 subject to risk. Indeed, the handsomest manceuvering of 
 the whole campaign took place on this day. Nothing 
 could exceed .the great excitement felt by every one not 
 immediately engaged, as we thus often beheld company 
 after company, enveloped by Arab horsemen, successively 
 disengaging itself, and (if the Arabs abated but an instant 
 their fierce attack,) their skirmishers as if by magic as in- 
 stantly running out, taking ground, loading, firing, and 
 marching on, until beaten in again, at a full run, by some 
 other onset of the charging Arabs. It was on one of 
 
40 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 these occasions that the 4th * squadron of the Chasseurs 
 d'Afrique extricated, by a prompt and bold charge, a com- 
 
 * I well remember this affair, as it was the most decided and decisive 
 charge which the squadron to which I was attached made during the cam- 
 paign. There was a succession of heights, which the rear guard was obliged 
 to maintain as usual. The several columns of the army, with the convoy in 
 the centre, moving in parallel order, were hurrying down a long sweeping 
 descent of a high hill, which would have exposed them to a plunging fire, 
 but for the manful resistance of the rear guard on the crest of the height. 
 The main part of the rear guard were now put in retreat. There was the 
 infantry in column of demi-battalion on full march, and the two squadrons 
 in column of platoons a little in advance, and also a very little on their right ; 
 whilst a company of the legion was itself again waiting with demeanor of de- 
 termined resolution to give us something of a start ere the horde of Arabs 
 should crown the ground that we had evacuated, and thus take us at a disad- 
 vantage. It was a dangerous post for them, but the late repetition of the 
 same manoeuvre once or twice, and the hazardous escape of a demi-battalion 
 a moment before, who were left to defend one ridge whilst the main body 
 of the rear guard established themselves on another nearly as high, across a 
 narrow valley of some two hundred and fifty yards or so, emboldened them. 
 This last demi-battalion had held its position longer than was intended. 
 The Arabs advanced upon them, but were beaten back by their fire, but still 
 seemed intent on succeeding in the charge. The demi-battalion now be- 
 came fearful of rejoining us, and seemed as if dreading an overwhelming 
 charge the moment they should be deprived of their commanding situation. 
 Signs were made to them by the colonel commanding the rear-guard ; the 
 assembled trumpeters sounded the recall, and still they did not move ; 
 whilst, on the other hand, the commanding officer of the rear-guard scarcely 
 dared to advance to their assistance, as the army had already got so far on 
 their march as to even then render us rather out of distance of support. And 
 though, no doubt, a charge both with the bayonet and with the horse would 
 have been ordered, at all hazards, to their rescue, still it was a thing to hesi- 
 tate about. Our infantry stood drawn up, and the cavalry squadron all 
 ready for a charge ; a most rapid firing kept up all this while, by the party 
 exposed. At last they checked for an instant the Arabs, and rejoined us in 
 order, (that is, in a solid body,) but at a "pas de cours." After that, we held 
 our position a little longer, and were then put in march, as I stated before, 
 the infantry by demi-battalion, and the two squadrons in column of platoon. 
 It was one of the companies of this same lately exposed demi-battalion, that 
 was again acting a little in rear, covering the main rear-guard. Before we 
 renewed our retrograde movement, the Arabs had somewhat drawn off from 
 the fight ; and we were all as little expecting to be called on to act, as we 
 had been disappointed before at not being sent to the assistance of the late 
 exposed demi-battalion, when, of a sudden, the officer of the rear-guard 
 dashed up breathless to the Commandant Meurice, (3) (the chef d' escadron, in 
 command of the squadrons) and hallooed out, in the no very tactical terms 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 41 
 
 pany, (the part of a demi-battalion of the Legion Etran- 
 g^re,) which, in such a situation, as they had expended all 
 
 of, " Save the infantry, or they are lost ; save them, save them at once." 
 In an instant the commandant gave the commands, ' ' Escadrons, par paloton, 
 demi tour, au trot — marche en avant au gallop — au charge.^' The 3d squad- 
 ron had been at the bead ; but, as in a moment, all vrere on the qui vive, 
 and we came wheeling about by platoons at full trot. It left the 4th squad- 
 ron leading. I galloped up to the side of Captain Assena, as he led on the 
 charge ; and, sure enough, there was little time to be lost. The company of 
 infantry acting as skirmishers had been beaten in, and already had the ad- 
 vanced Arabs pierced their line, cutting many down ; whilst the residue, 
 rallying in its support, were trying to show a good face. The consumption 
 of all their cartridges left them entirely at the mercy of the foe, at this most 
 untimely moment. As we came up on the flank, in a slanting direction, I cast 
 a rapid glance, so as to embrace them all. They were what the French term 
 ' ' demoralise ; " that is, not afraid exactly, but ticklish. There stood the men, 
 their pieces now mute from want of powder, standing up a little stiffer than 
 ever on a parade, with their sergeant-major hallooing out, "dress on me,'' 
 " dress up," " tlte a droite," &c., &c., with a very peculiar voice ; all which 
 contrasted with the neglige manner exhibited by the French soldiers in ti- 
 railluer fighting, where each man fires, marches on, loads, turns round and 
 fires, and then on again, for all the world as if they were the most uncon- 
 cerned actors in the whole army, notwithstanding the many ugly looking 
 fellows riding close up and popping away at them, and ready to make a 
 dash in at any spot where carelessness, or the dead or wounded, make a gap. 
 If this peculiar, stiff, martinet manner was the mode of showing that they 
 were " demoralisi," the picture of their only officer commanding the com- 
 pany seemed more in accordance with a man who expected to have a head- 
 less company in some few minutes, for whether as an outcry to the colonel 
 to bring up help, or to encourage us who were coming up to hurry along, 
 there he stood, throwing up his two arms, and making violent gestures, ex- 
 claiming, ' ' We are lost, we are lost, we are without cartridges, we are lost, 
 we are lost, &c." Poor fellow, he was not blamed ; for he and his whole 
 company had exhibited great courage, and a dashing bearing, during all the 
 skirmishing of that day. On we dashed ; at the command charge, we were 
 nearly upon them ; but the moment that we had been descried coming to 
 the attack, they had gathered their horses, and turning about, got out of our 
 reach. We were halted after we had dashed on some two hundred yards or 
 so and driven the Arabs pell mell. At a command, a platoon trotted out as 
 skirmishers, and on slinging their muskets (always carried over the shoulder 
 by all the light cavalry in Africa) as they took space, commenced an active 
 fire, the platoon being commanded by Lieutenant Thomas. The Arabs 
 the moment we drew rein, turned about, and were already forming in large 
 bodies on either flank. So the squadrons commenced their return at a slow 
 trot, the skirmishers firing and doing the same. On our return, we found 
 order re-established among the infantry, and as cartridges had been dis- 
 
42 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 their cartridges, would have been inevitably cut to pieces 
 by a large force of the Arabs, who, in a sudden rush, had 
 already ridden down their skirmishers. 
 
 We encamped this night at the " Zouave's Grave," so 
 called from its being the last resting place of a fine young 
 sergeant of that corps, mortally wounded during the day. 
 When in the heat of action, the fated ball finds its mark, 
 it adds but to the excitement of the scene, for the whist- 
 ling of the balls tells you that there are more, and self 
 prompts you to be proud and thankful to your own pre- 
 serving star ; and one's feelings are aroused with the 
 spirit of immediate revenge. All are then occupied ; the 
 surrounding plain is re-echoing with the Arab war-cry of, 
 "Aerouka — Aerouka — Aerouka," intermingled with and 
 interrupted by the loud call of " Carcolet," " Carcolet," 
 as often as a comrade sees his friend fall dead or wounded 
 by his side. The dead bodies are equally with the 
 wounded carried off the field, to prevent the Arabs 
 decapitating them, and carrying them off in triumph.) 
 The report of the musketry, the smoke wreathing up 
 around you, the uniforms of the French, the wild cos- 
 tume of the Arabs all conjure up such a scene of excite- 
 ment as none in this life realize, but the gambler and 
 engaged soldier. How different when the heat of combat 
 is over, and accident throws the line of your march along- 
 side of the hospital train, or as you casually ride by them, 
 and behold the long line of sick and wounded ; and every 
 
 tributed, and they were somewhat strengthened, they looked as calm as if 
 nothing had ever been the matter — that is, they resumed their matter-of-fact 
 skirmishing deportment. And now, one word as to charging in order or 
 disorder. I gave a glance back just as the troops were about commencing 
 the full gallop of the charge. We were charging in platoon, as time did not 
 admit other formation ; the order seemed better than a bad charge on a drill 
 ground, and not as even as a good one ; there was none of that uneven scat- 
 tering and loosening out on the flanks ; on the contrary, they all seemed to 
 crowd up towards the centre, and the rear platoons I believe crowded into 
 the leading one. But, for rapidity of execution, from the moment of the 
 breathless command of the half frightened commander of the rear-guard, to 
 the moment of our return, nothing could have been more brilliant in the way 
 of rapid cavalry manceuvering. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MIUANAH. 43 
 
 now and then witness a litter halted from out the line, 
 whilst the surgeon is administering, with a look of soldierly 
 solicitude, to the wants of some poor man, whose wan 
 and ghastly cheeks mark him so shortly to be death's own. 
 You then reflect that this very day he was in the pride of 
 his strength and courage, performing a soldier's duty with 
 a soldier's gallantry. You see how altered he looks now 
 and find it is impossible to regard it with altogether a 
 stoic's eye. The frequency of the scene, and one's own 
 continual risk, prevents a thing of this kind long weighing 
 on one's mind ; but few can pass such a sight without an 
 involuntary sigh. And often have I in curiosity watched 
 the countenances of the occupant of the litter on the 
 (mules) other side. Seldom is it one of firm determina- 
 tion, still one far from womanly weakness, but a some- 
 thing of anxiety, I know not what ; a something I fancy, 
 unknown to the reckless being who enlists for money, or 
 the one who enters his country's ranks from youthful 
 enthusiasm and ardor of patriotism, but one peculiar 
 alone to the young conscript of France, who, plucked 
 from home, recurs to his friends, when, as demoralized by 
 the effect of the burning climate on his wound, he fears 
 never to return. These reflections may appear to have 
 been out of place, and indeed it is probable in a war of 
 my own country or under any other circumstances, they 
 would never have occurred ; but here I was a traveller 
 militant on the soil of Africa. Our encampment was on 
 some hills overlooking a narrow valley, with heights which 
 commanded it in the neighborhood, and as through some 
 unaccountable neglect, these were not occupied by any 
 sort of guard, it came to pass, what we predicted. It 
 sure enough did not escape the vigilance of some prowling 
 Arabs, and as our regiment was encamped on the side hill 
 nearest, it had some few men and horses wounded as the 
 consequence.* 
 
 June 14th. — This day we were less molested, but the 
 
 * It was here that the hospital train was obliged to give place to the 
 Marshal's suite, although previously installed. 
 
44 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840 : 
 
 hills at times presented great difficulties ; and, as usual, 
 we were always obliged to await the preparing of 3. route 
 for the artillery, I was here more particularly than on 
 any other day struck with the want of management of the 
 French with their horses. They never dismounted from 
 their horses whilst ascending the steep hills, which they 
 might easily have done, as there were strong infantry sup- 
 ports to the skirmishers on the flanks, and these were 
 scarcely engaged. So, too, we would move on, perhaps 
 only some hundred yards, and halt, remaining mounted 
 perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, before ordered to dis- 
 mount ; the signal for the advance or halt being sounded 
 by the trumpets attached to the general staff. In our 
 cavalry regiments the horses would have been saved to 
 the utmost ; but the French are deficient in this purely 
 national innate love of the horse, God's noblest work 
 after man. This night we encamped at the " bois d'oliv- 
 iers," (wood of olives,) a beautiful grove, nearly a mile 
 long, and half as wide, at the foot of the Col de Teneah. 
 On the farther edge of the grove coursed a noble clear 
 spring, and then beyond extended a strip of meadow to 
 where the ragged sides of the mountains arose precipi- 
 tately, studded with rock and covered with underbrush. 
 When within half a league we found signs of what we 
 were to expect on the morrow, by seeing drawn out be- 
 low us, on a plateau to the left, at the foot of the moun- 
 tain, the whole body of Abd-el-Kader's infantry. And 
 so steady had been their appearance'when seen drawn up 
 in line, that they were at first taken by the officers of the 
 advance guard of cavalry for the division of General Ros- 
 tolan, as we presumed that he had been ordered to seize 
 on the pass, and await us. It was not until one of the 
 marshal's staff came up, that we were undeceived, for the 
 aforesaid division was not expected. Our glasses deceived 
 us, inasmuch as the grey surtout (capote) of the French 
 soldier might look thus dark to us from the peculiar haze. 
 At least so we thought ; and I really believe, that their 
 regular appearance had such an effect on us, that color of 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 45 
 
 dress alone would, had they been near, have been sooner 
 overlooked, than we credit that an Arab force could make 
 such an appearance. The fact was, that they, notwith- 
 standing their more circuitous route, had outmarched us, 
 and showed themselves thus in bravado ; and fortunate 
 for us that they did, for it thus put it in the Marshal's 
 power to take measures accordingly. 
 
 The regiment encamped as usual, but from the prox- 
 imity of the foe, in a country where he could act, and 
 where he had shown himself thus in force, guards were 
 doubled and on the alert with increased vigilance. At 
 dusk, private orders had been borne to all the officers to 
 be in readiness with the rest of the army by twelve o'clock. 
 At midnight, (June iSth,) accordingly the whole camp was 
 noiselessly got under arms. Regiments of infantry stole 
 up the heights, and occupied the passes and commanding 
 points. At two o'clock the cavalry was on the saddle, 
 and commenced ascending the height by the narrow and 
 difficult path ; and as our movement had by this time 
 become known to the Arabs, orders from the rear were 
 forwarded by mouth from man to man, for the head of 
 the column to quicken the pace. Ragged as was the 
 pathway, sometimes obliging the men to file by singly, 
 we were hurried from a walk to a trot, and to a gallop ; 
 the object being to get the way clear for the convoy, 
 which, harnessed up and parked in a solid mass, still 
 waited in the " bois d^oliviers." On arriving at the point 
 designated, the "plateau de la croix" one half of the 
 cavalry were dismounted. But from the press and haste, 
 there seemed to have been more confusion than as a mili- 
 tary man I could have well preconceived. The position 
 assigned us was one of the several "plateaux" or spurs 
 of table land projecting out from the steep sides of the 
 mountain, much covered with rock. Instead of form- 
 ing up by half squadron, as we could have done, and then 
 dismounting the designated men and causing the others 
 with the led horses to file off again, and so with each 
 squadron successively, the platoons as we came up at a 
 
46 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 gallop, were each one halted at the point aforesaid, and as 
 they stood in columns of " twos " the number " twos " (hav- 
 ing before starting been advertised of it) threw themselves 
 from their horses, which were as instantly led off at a full 
 pace. The men who dismounted, then formed line and 
 were disposed in this their place in the general line of bat- 
 tle. The ''plateau de la croix" * where we found ourselves 
 placed, was the extreme right of this day's fight. During 
 the preceding month, on the return of the army from 
 Mediah on its way back to Algiers, the cavalry, as the 
 army was crossing at mid-day, narrowly escaped being cut 
 off at this point, from its having been neglected. This 
 time the Marshal's experience dictated our being placed 
 here, to prevent the Arabs seizing so important a key, 
 even should they make the attempt. It was a place 
 naturally strong ; so that the dismounted cavalry were 
 fully competent to its defence. By this time the skirmish 
 in the woods, which had commenced by a light firing, had 
 now thickened into a serious affair ; it gradually extended 
 on the right and left of it, and by 5 o'clock, A. M., the 
 line of fight extended in a semi-circle for near half a 
 league, and the while the dismounted cavalry on the 
 plateau were felt (but not warmly) by the Kabyles with 
 the Arab infantry. Indeed, the fight itself, though fought 
 by the Bedouins dismounted, by the Arab infantry, and 
 the mountaineers or Kabyles, owed its pertinacity to the 
 unflinching courage and native skill of these latter. On 
 ail points where practicable, and it could be brought to 
 bear, pieces of our artillery had been put in position, and 
 with their deep roar added to the general resonation of 
 the infantry fire. This, aided by the echoes of the moun- 
 tains, sounded as one mighty host, executing unceasing 
 " fire by battalions." 
 
 * So named from a cross cut on the rocks above a bubbling spring on the 
 right of the road. Tradition gives no account of its origin, though it testi- 
 fies to its having been there time immemorially. The " Tombeau de la 
 Chretienne " on the heights between the sea and plain of the Metidja, is 
 another vestige of the Christian in this land of the Moslem. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 47 
 
 The point where the Arabs had encamped was the great 
 plateau, lying immediately below, and extending for some 
 distance to our right, the ground where we had first seen 
 their infantry the preceding evening. It was from here that 
 by a flank movement they had moved around in great force 
 and attacked the " bois d'oliviers" on all points, which up 
 to this time was the seat of the severest fighting. The 
 contest was in defence of the helpless convoy parked 
 there ; though at each moment, as the battle lulled, they 
 were pushed up the road. The main mass of it, as yet, 
 remained there. It was, though not in our view, suffi- 
 ciently evident to us, from seeing the artillery in battery 
 on several points somewhat lower down, throwing their 
 shells heavily and constantly into the ravines skirting the 
 sides at the bottom of our part of the mountain, that a 
 large body of the enemy must be there in waiting ; but 
 it was not until after six, and near seven o'clock, that we 
 were fully aware of the real numbers that were there. At 
 this moment, a large column of abbut one thousand of 
 Abd-el-Kader's regulars, at quick step, and aligned in the 
 most perfect order, left their place of cover, and advanced 
 desperately up the sides of the "plateau de la mine de 
 cuivre." On this, a bare piece of ground, they unmasked ; 
 and, in face of a raging fire of artillery, and battalions of 
 infantry, (that, from the nature of the ground, took them 
 in front and flank,) they dauntlessly drove from their posi- 
 tion the " Tirailleurs de Vincennes," who occupied a nar- 
 row ledge crowning the plateau, and threw them back on 
 their reserves. This was in full view of us, it being only some 
 three hundred and fifty yards or so to the right, and lower 
 down. By the aid of our glasses, it was easy to distin- 
 guish individual combats, as the " Tirailleurs," having 
 been rallied and reinforced, charged in turn to regain their 
 lost ground. They were a second time forced back ; until, 
 by a last desperate * charge, precipitating themselves on 
 
 * In this last charge, a private of tirailleurs distinguished himself by kill- 
 ing three Arabs continuously ; he bayoneted one, shot the other, and as in 
 the act of killing the third, with his bayonet just entering his side, received 
 
48 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 the Arabs, they finally possessed themselves of the point 
 in contest, the veritable key of the whole battle-ground. 
 The loss of the Arabs was tremendous, and they retired 
 in confusion, throwing themselves into the underwood of 
 the adjoining ravines. This had been the crisis of the 
 fight. Similar attacks, but less daring and obstinate, 
 having met with repulse by the other regiments on the 
 centre and left, the enemy commenced drawing off, and 
 at about mid-day not a gun was heard, and the subsequent 
 stillness and silence of the place was most striking. All 
 the regiments obtained the Marshal's applause on that day ; 
 but the Tirailleurs Zouaves, " Troisieme Leger," and 3d 
 light infantry, suffered the most heavily. The killed and 
 wounded, in this day's affair, amounted to some three 
 hundred. General Schramm, chief of the staff, and sec- 
 ond in command, was struck by a spent ball, in the same 
 spot and manner that happened to him at Wagram, but 
 not seriously. The wounded having been taken up the 
 pass, and then the convoy having been likewise sent 
 through, the troops which had been engaged commenced 
 evacuating their position, and took up their line of march 
 successively. The whole army was concentrated on the . 
 summit* of the mountain, late in the afternoon. In relation 
 
 from the Arab a pistol shot (the muzzle touching his face,) which blew off 
 a part of his jaw, and left him senseless on the field, but not dead. 
 
 * The table land on the peak of the Teneah, could not have been more 
 than a couple of acres. It was soon literally choked up with wounded. Our 
 chasseurs stood dismounted in column beside their horses. Some three or 
 four hospital-marquees were the only tents pitched. Regiments of infantry 
 were resting on the declivities adjoining. In one place stood the grey- 
 headed marshal issuing his directions in person. In another, and nearer 
 to us, the bodies of the slain officers were laid out in a row. Continued 
 screams arose from the hospital-tents, where they were performing the am- 
 putations. Ghastly countenances of the badly wounded, propped up on the 
 bare ground, exposed to the searching wind of the summit, already thick- 
 ened into immediate contact with ourselves, and horses. The scene was 
 an unusual one, even amidst war. However, at such times it often happens, 
 that associations endows some incidents with a preponderating influence. 
 For me, it was connected with the "Tirailleurs de Vincennes. " Since 
 arriving in France, I had seen them in far varied situations. Firstly, at 
 the camp of Fontainbleau, as one of the three American officers invited to 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 49 
 
 to this affair of the Col de Teneah, the Marshal was by some 
 very much blamed for not having followed up the repulse 
 of the enemy after their attack on the plateau " de la mine 
 de cuivre," by a charge on them with the troops of the 
 right wing. The enemy were then in a highly critical 
 situation, and would have suffered a terrible loss. This 
 was particularly evident to us from our particular position, 
 for we had observed for the last two hours or so, the 
 wounded of the enemy being carried to their depot for 
 the wounded, off to the right (in respect to us) extremity 
 of the plateau, (where they had encamped) in such great 
 numbers, in men's arms, in litters, on camels, and on 
 horses, that as they came off of the field of battle in 
 two directions, it showed like two very heavy columns ; 
 and were subject occasionally to much confusion from the 
 fall of some lucky long-ranging shell. The loss of the 
 Arabs must have been tremendous, from the report of all 
 the officers engaged, and from this proof before our eyes 
 of their numerous wounded. And yet, in the policy of 
 their chief, they exhibited after all firing had ceased, the 
 bravado of their regiments of regular Spahis, resplendent 
 in their " red bournous," parading in line just outside of 
 the "wood of olives," and going through with all the 
 evolutions of a drill as if in defiance of us, and to mark 
 their unconquered spirit. Still, the subsequent events of 
 the campaign showed that this affair had thrown a dis- 
 relish into the Arabs to come to close quarters again, or 
 shirmish with their usual alacrity. The killed and wounded 
 
 Louis Philippe's suite, we had regarded with admiration this chosen and 
 newly-raised corps. All eyes were then upon them. They were sent to 
 Africa shortly after. I arrived in spring. It was at Bouffarick, where the 
 army corps was being concentrated, that their bugles and dark green dress, 
 once more interested me. We were acquaintances. This evening closed 
 the drama. During the day they were particularly exposed. And now, 
 at this moment, a detail, in those dark uniforms, came silently to that heap 
 of slain. They sought there their leader ; the third that had fallen since 
 we met at Fontainbleau. I well remember the stalwart corse, as the bugles 
 sounded a few notes, it was borne off in solemn silence to its mountain 
 grave. The army said that in him, they had lost a " beau Sabreur." 
 
so THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840: 
 
 in this affair amounted to three hundred ; twenty only 
 were reported killed. This would seem incredible, but it 
 is a generally known fact, that where cannon are not em- 
 ployed, few hits kill dead. Besides, those mortally wounded 
 were reported merely as wounded, to satisfy the marshal's 
 conscience ;* which loss was surpassed only by the bat- 
 tle of the 1 2th of May; but, as the French officers say, 
 there were full fifty killed and missing. Such of the 
 wounded as could be transported, the cavalry and some 
 few regiments of infantry as an escort, were, late in the 
 afternoon, sent down to the foot of the mountain, to the 
 " Ferme de Moussaiah." It was about half past seven 
 that we took up our line of march from the summit, (the 
 afternoon and night were felt chilly as we were on the 
 elevated summit) and it was about two o'clock A. M., when 
 we reached our encamping ground. As an instance of 
 the trj'ing fatigues of war, our horses had remained sad- 
 dled and bridled, without food and without water, all this 
 time, being twenty-six hours. Nor was this the only 
 occasion, ere this campaign was finished ; it occurred sev- 
 eral times. It happened twice within this very week. 
 
 June i6th. — This day we remained at Moussaiah. The 
 army was occupied in transporting below more convoys 
 of the wounded, and occupying the most important points 
 of the mountains, as well as in mending and where pos- 
 sible, widening the route. 
 
 June 17th. — General Blancford with the cavalry brigade, 
 and some two thousand infantry, was sent to Blidah with 
 a large convoy of such wounded as could be moved, for 
 the entire interior of the fortified camp of Moussaiah was 
 taken up with tents and brush cabins of the wounded ; 
 
 * The Marshal reported only twenty killed to three hundred wounded. 
 This statement was true of such as were shot down dead. But a man 
 though mortally wounded, even though he survived not to reach the hos- 
 pital, was returned merely wounded. This impolitic policy of the Marshal, 
 who wished to be thought as gaining bloodless victories, so unjust to the 
 troops, who suffered, created universal disgust ; and when I reached Tou- 
 lon, there was an express (an officer) sent to inquire into this and other 
 accounts. There were twelve officers alone killed. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIAMAH. $1 
 
 for huts constructed of brush, from the insufficiency of 
 tents, had to be the best and only covering for scores of 
 dying and maimed heroes of the preceding day, in a cli- 
 mate, too, where a wound is almost certain death. The 
 other all-important object of General Blancford's column 
 was to bring up to the main army the supplies that might 
 have been collected at this place (Blidah) for it was now 
 fully known that the Marshal's plan was to re-provision 
 Mediah, which had received but a two month's supply. 
 The tribe of the Hadjotes, whose acquaintance I had 
 formed whilst with the detached brigade of General Ros- 
 tolan the past month, followed us, skirmishing* slightly 
 till we had passed Chiffa, beyond which they seldom or 
 never venture. 
 
 June i8th. — The next day, towards the afternoon, we 
 
 * Though half fearing to seem an egotist, I must here mention a little 
 anecdote. Just this side the Chiffa, the army was halted whilst the centre 
 bat-train and wagons were crossing and ascending the narrow pathway up the 
 opposite side. There being some inviting grain-fields just a little to the left, 
 the colonel of the French regiment (chasseurs and hussars) ventured thought- 
 lessly beyond the infantry line of skirmishers and the regiment commenced 
 collecting forage. I left my regiment to pay a visit to the Danish officer 
 attached to their regiment. They had omitted to post videttes : presently 
 from the bushes that were within one hundred yards, some leading Arabs 
 commenced deliberately firing on us ; and as the Dane and myself were 
 behind the regiment, three balls in succession whistled past us, making 
 my horse dodge his ears and snort. In an instant, to saddle was ordered, 
 forage was abandoned, and the regiment rode off pell mell, getting through 
 by different debouches the brush skirting the river bank. One officer, a 
 lieutenant of hussars, and some twelve men, had been hurriedly ordered 
 ' 'en tirailleur " to cover the movement, but strange to say, after making 
 show of galloping out, and hollowing to his men who seemed as little to 
 relish it as himself, to take ground, he also disappeared through the bushes. 
 My friend and myself were doing the same, when the balls thickening, the 
 hussars came galloping along ; but I was struck to see how, even amidst 
 their fear (for their hurried manner betrayed that,) they could not overcome 
 their discipline as to respect for rank, for they seemed to recover them- 
 selves, and looked as if necessary to be resigned. My feelings at that 
 moment made me feel that Africa should be no exception to my determina- 
 tion as a cavalry officer, to ever cover the retreat of my comrades. So I 
 ordered them to precede, and myself was last in sight of my friends, the 
 Hadjouts. This tribe is sworn to defend its own territory, but never 
 advances beyond, nor has ever fully joined in allegiance to Abd-el-Kader. 
 
52 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O : 
 
 returned to Moussaiah, leaving the French regiment of 
 horse behind to recruit at Blidah and Bouffarick. At 
 midnight we were noiselessly got to horse, as the whole 
 camp were under arms ; at such times not a signal of 
 course is heard, but staff officers in an under tonB pass 
 rapidly from officer to officer along the ranks, issuing the 
 directions as required. The faul^ of the Marshal was his 
 ill combination of the essential time for each part of the 
 army to move ; and thus as we were to be concentrated 
 a mile or so from camp, our regiment awaited full mor6 
 than an hour the coming up of the entire corps. It was 
 with some impatience that we awaited ; at length the 
 muffled, but timed tread of the infantry, as battalion 
 after battalion, in the dead darkness of the night, came 
 up, was heard approaching us, and then, as they formed 
 up in close column at our side, the darker form of their 
 schakos was just discernible against the horizon ; and 
 occasionally, commingling with their measured tramp, 
 was heard the rumbling of some piece of artillery 
 or wagon of the baggage train, as it stole cautiously 
 along ; still, so quiet was the whole movement, that an 
 army watching our actions, could not have become aware 
 that our camp had been deserted. With us this precaution 
 was most necessary, to avoid awaking the Arab guerillas 
 of the mountain. We were also safer, in darkness, from 
 their deadly aim. We soon commenced the ascent. The 
 gray light of coming day gradually gained on the retreat- 
 ing darkness of the night. The sun came forth in cdl his 
 glory, and each peak seemed gilded with a blaze of glory, 
 as, with the rising of the sun, we attained the summit of 
 the Col de Teneah. This we found in a more organized 
 condition than the scene of the numerous wounded, hud- 
 dled together as they could find room, presented at the 
 time that we quitted it. 
 
 June 19th. — The fore part of the day was spent on the 
 height, awaiting the concentrating of the convoy, and 
 re-organizing the troops after their severe losses by sick- 
 ness and battle. For a march to Medeah was known to 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 53 
 
 be our immediate object, and a- rumor was spreading in 
 the camp, that a march was proposed to Milianah. The 
 army, however, was moving down the defile from morning 
 to about mid-day. By the afternoon, our turn came to 
 take our place in the line of march. The giving way of 
 a part of the narrow route, and the rolling of a piece of 
 artillery, with its horses, into the deep ravine below, 
 created some confusion and delay. The night set in dark 
 and heavy, but towards eleven o'clock the clouds broke 
 away, and nothing could be lovelier than the " wood of 
 olives," as seen lying immediately before us — its dark 
 masses of shade in strong contrast with the bright 
 moonlight that pierced it, where the trees were more 
 open. As we neared it, and entered by them, all pleas- 
 urable sensation was repelled by the stench of the putri- 
 fying corses of the late fight ; still, so much is there in a 
 good appetite, after a day of fatigue, that we found the 
 corps that had preceeded us, heartily engaged at supper, 
 where the smell was most intolerable, absolutely reeking 
 in our nostrils ; an example, however, we hastened to fol- 
 low, on arriving at our designated place of bivouac, at 
 half past eleven. This made the second time that our 
 horses had remained the full twenty-four hours saddled, 
 bridled, unwatered, unfed. 
 
 June 20th. — By an easy march, this day we arrived at 
 Medeah. The Arabs showed themselves in some force to 
 our right, but at a great distance, sending some very few 
 horsemen to skirmish with us. They were evidently dis- 
 heartened. Some few miles from the pass of Teneah, and 
 in the nearest direction to Medeah, rises abruptly a de- 
 tached spur of the mountains. On this had been estab- 
 lished an Arab redoubt, supplied with a piece of artillery. 
 It would have been an affair of many lives to have 
 attacked and forced it ; but its height rendered its fire so 
 ineffectual that the columns were passing for a full hour 
 within its range, its balls falling everywhere in amongst 
 us, but not a soldier killed. We were, that is, our 
 particular regiment, far more annoyed by the audacity of 
 
54 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 some Kabyles on our left, who, covered by some broken 
 ground, approached quite near to us, whilst halted, and un- 
 protected by the infantry " tirailleurs " who had continued 
 their march unobservant of us, and thus left us exposed. 
 A few balls whistled among the platoons, and Captain 
 Assenais' horse was hit. I thanked my stars that it was 
 neither himself nor me, for I was at his side.* 
 
 Medeah, without being as picturesquely situated as 
 Milianah, has beautiful environs. Its site is on a mod- 
 erate rise, which slopes off gently in every direction, 
 excepting towards the east. Numerous Moorish country- 
 seats are studded around, universally accompanied by that 
 chief charm of Moorish civilization, a swdet garden spot. 
 How far the Easterns excel us in that respect. With 
 them, none so poor, none so rich, but what his first care 
 is to turn the immediate spot around him into a paradise 
 of a garden. There is here one of the finest of Moorish 
 aqueducts, of some miles length, nearly grand as the 
 Roman must have been, but more pleasing to the eye 
 from its lighter and more picturesque Saracen arch. 
 Medeah, though unprovided with the same vast necrop- 
 olis, proving its former crowded generations, is now 
 about the size of Milianah. It was rich, but by no means 
 of the vast importance of the latter city, whose king [Bey] 
 is conspicuously marked as the reckless and avaricious 
 servant and abettor of the Marabout chief, Abd-el-Kader. 
 And it was in Milianah, more particularly, that they had 
 celebrated their orgies, where heads of massacred French 
 caused a fete of the direst kind. Both, however, were 
 rich, both had been Roman sites, and the savans of 
 the French army, who had examined, said that they 
 
 * As for our soldiers dodging, I remember this, as one of two instances, 
 where men who were habitually indifferent under an actual fire, displayed 
 this physical nervousness when unexpectant of a shot. The other was with 
 a company of voltigeurs. They had been hard fighting five minutes before, 
 with some loss, and had just gained a little respite under a hill side where I 
 was standing with the chasseurs, when, by their skirmishers coming in un- 
 expectedly, the Arabs crowned the height and fired, whilst our attention 
 was drawn to watching the effect of some charges on another party. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 55 
 
 depicted the usual monumental inscriptions of the 
 Romans. This place had once before been taken and 
 held by the French under Marshal Clausel, but had been 
 given up as too salient, and cut off from their proposed 
 line of colonization frontier. The place was found garri- 
 soned by some two hundred men, and already showing a 
 scientific design engrafted on its Arab curtain of fortifica- 
 tions. 
 
 June 2ist. — This was Sunday, and it seemed indeed a 
 day of heavenly rest, as bivouacked amidst the gardens of 
 the town, under the shade of the myrtle, and on the banks 
 of a rippling stream we gave way to our longings after 
 luxury and repose, and forgot that war was near and 
 around us. 
 
 June 22d. — It was now determined by the marshal to 
 victual Milianah with a sufficiently heavy convoy to fur- 
 nish supplies for the use of an army in the fall, operating 
 in the plain of the Cheliff. Accordingly the distinguished 
 Colonel Changarnier,* some four or five old generals hav- 
 ing been passed over for that purpose (as General Schramm, 
 General D***, (of the staff,) General Blancford,) was en- 
 trusted with a select corps of five thousand men. All the 
 artillery, excepting some few pieces of mountain howitz- 
 ers, were left behind, and as few hindrances to mobility, 
 independent of the heavy convoy of provisions itself, as 
 were possible. The squadrons of hussars and chasseurs, 
 who had composed the second regiment of march, had re- 
 mained the other side of the mountains ; so that ours the 
 first chasseurs d'Afrique, to be beforehand with our friends 
 the Arabs, we marched at 3 o'clock in the morning, and 
 for Africa and with a convoy, at a slapping pace. We 
 halted about 1 1 o'clock, for an hour, to prepare breakfast, 
 and for the men and cattle to breathe ; and by a rapid 
 
 * Colonel Changarnier proved his complete generalship by his thoughtful- 
 ness of all corps. We never were halted, even for ten minutes, but that 
 beforehand an orderly dragoon would be despatched to inform our com- 
 mander what he might do, whether dismount, or when to commence opera- 
 tions, or forage an^ fueling for the night's bivouac. 
 
56 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 184O: 
 
 push we reached the plain of the Cheliff, crossing that 
 river where we had first come to it, on our march from 
 Milianah at half past 7 o'clock. We had scarcely been 
 fired on by a single Arab all this day, but towards evening 
 we discovered the Arabs at some leagues distance to our 
 right, and in truly formidable numbers, seeming far more 
 numerous than we had ever encountered them, when our 
 army was embodied and together. Their cavalry extended 
 over the plains, and the woods swarming with their infan- 
 try ; their regular battalions being distinguishable as usual 
 by their compactness and dark uniforms, (all other Arabs 
 wearing the flowing white bournous.) 
 
 June 23d. — As our object was to avoid an engagement, 
 we were got together at 2 o'clock, and on full march for 
 Milianah. We arrived at the marabout, (or Moslem d'Or- 
 mitage, a Chapel) at about mid-day. There had been the 
 usual light skirmishing all the way. The heights on either 
 side were occupied. The garrison came out to meet us. 
 But, when most at our ease, one of those dashes for which 
 the Arabs are noted, had nearly resulted to our cost. The 
 convoy had passed, and the cavalry were already entered 
 in the defile, when the whole mass of Arabs made a gen- 
 eral attack, charging the rear guard and advancing by a 
 pass (that had been overlooked) to the right, to cut it (the 
 rear-guard) off from the main body, whilst thus entangled 
 in the mountains. This bold manoeuvre was near suc- 
 ceeding, and would have done so most probably, but that 
 the direct attack on the rear-guard at the mouth of the 
 gorge, was commenced too soon, and the regiments 
 hurrying back to the support of the rear-guard, by good 
 fortune and the merest chance, found themselves in posi- 
 tion, just as the Arabs were advancing up this neglected 
 pass (that intersected at midway the main one.) As it 
 was, they, the Arabs, were driven back on all points. 
 This was, perhaps, the most brilliant affair, for the hand- 
 ful of men engaged, that occurred during the campaign. 
 On this occasion, as had happened several times before, 
 the men were addressed in French by the deserters in the 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 57 
 
 ranks of the enemy, in terms too opprobrious for decency 
 to repeat. The army, excepting a small escort to the pro- 
 vision convoy, did not ascend to the city of Milianah, but 
 remained encamped in the beautiful plateau at its base, 
 until evening, when it returned, and encamped in a square 
 on the plain near the marabout, so often mentioned. 
 
 June 24th. — By an easy march, the next day, we re- 
 turned on our steps, and encamped on the Chelifl, at the 
 usual place of crossing, on the farther side, interposing the 
 stream between us, and the Bedouins. The skirmishing 
 continued, as usual, and the " obusiers de montagne " did 
 their full share of mischief. The enemy had about io,cxx) 
 horsemen in the plain, of which only some i ,000 engaged. 
 A heavy column of the enemy's infantry were observed 
 progressing through the mountains and wood, making a 
 parallel move with us, they very properly feared to trust 
 to their discipline to withstand a charge of our self-same 
 chasseurs, who had treated them so unceremoniously once 
 before near Blidah. This body of infantry had a force 
 with them, which they occasionally directed at us. It is 
 impossible in this country, unless present, to understand 
 the immense moral effect that the French cavalry has, 
 though so seldom actually engaged, and how truly help- 
 less the infantry would be without its aid. Still the merit 
 of the war lies decidedly with the foot. 
 
 June 25th. — The next day we continued the same 
 route (the one we had passed in coming,) with occasional 
 sharp encounters, and encamped at the Fountains. Once 
 or twice during the day, the Arabs charged and entered 
 the line of skirmishers, cutting them down with their yat- 
 agans, and receiving bayonet wounds in exchange. This 
 always occurs, when, owing to the nature of the ground, 
 the rear-guard is obliged to remain in position, too long — 
 as sometimes necessitated to prevent a plunging fire from 
 the heights on the convoy, and masses of the columns ; or, 
 in the heat of combatting, when individual soldiers expose 
 themselves by not preserving their intervals, or advancing 
 beyond the line ; or, when it so happens, from a gap in 
 
58 THE CAMPAIGN OF JUNE, 1840 : 
 
 the line being made by many of the killed and wounded 
 falling together. In such cases, you will see the whole 
 body of Arabs, from all quarters, in the most excited man- 
 ner, precipitate themselves on that one point, pouring in 
 their fire, and brandishing their yatagans, unless as imme- 
 diately met and repulsed by the infantry or cavalry re- 
 serves. 
 
 In this march, as usual, the column destroyed villages 
 and crops, wherever they passed. 
 
 June 26th. — We were on march again at 2 o'clock in 
 the morning, but were not annoyed nor followed by the 
 Arabs. Towards 9 o'clock, our regiment of chasseurs 
 were sent to Medeah to communicate with the marshal. 
 At noon, the division that had remained at Medeah, the 
 artillery, wagons, and animals of the train were put in 
 motion to form their junction with the corps under 
 Colonel Changarnier. This being effected about midway 
 to the mountains, we marched to and encamped amidst 
 our old bowers in the Bois d'Oliviers at 6 o'clock. There 
 was some firing towards the close of the march, and the 
 Arabs were discovered to the left, but not in very large 
 numbers. They certainly had had enough of fighting in 
 this region before. An hour after camping, we were 
 quietly warned " to horse," and artillery, convoy, and 
 cavalry, commenced ascending the pass in the obscurity 
 of the twilight, some few guns were heard, (seemingly 
 chance discharges in the enemy's camp ;) and this proved 
 the last molestation the French army was destined to suf- 
 fer in the spring campaign of 1840. Our regiment got 
 into position on the summit of the mountain in some few 
 hours. We had had our supper before starting; our tents 
 it is true were elsewhere, but the officers, like the men, 
 were happy to seize a tranquil slumber on the ground 
 beside their picketed horses. During the night the army 
 continued concentrating on the summit of the heights of 
 Teneah. 
 
 June 27th. — At mid-day we commenced defiling on 
 Moussaiah, where we arrived towards sun-down. 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST MILIANAH. 59 
 
 June 28th. — The day following, the 28th, General Blanc- 
 ford was sent with the cavalry to Blidah, with the inten- 
 tion of bringing up the provisions that had been left 
 in depot there, by the movable column from the in- 
 terior ; for the provisions convoyed to Milianah from the 
 stores of the Medeah, had to be replaced at this latter 
 place, so that both towns might be provisioned beyond 
 all hazard until the coming October. No sooner had 
 we arrived at Blidah, and formed up on the ground des- 
 tined for our bivouac, and were on the point of dismount- 
 ing, than an order was then for the first time received by 
 our colonel, to march us on to Bouffarick, and to order up 
 to the main army, the hussar and chasseur squadrons of 
 France, (the late 2d regiment of march) which had not 
 re-crossed the mountains a second time, to replace us. 
 A timely order, for our horses were literally worn out. 
 
 The French army, afterwards, on receiving a new appro- 
 visionment, returned to Medeah, and entered Algiers, on 
 the 5th of July, after destroying by a " raziah " the vil- 
 lages of several tribes, within striking distance of Blidah, 
 which had, however, hitherto been overlooked — a punish- 
 ment brought on themselves for past offences. 
 
 Arrive at Bouffarick that day. Next day, the colonel, 
 myself, several ofiScers, and escort, proceed to and arrive 
 in Algiers. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (i). Tunis was certainly not governed by a king but by a ^«an'-elected 
 Bey, sometimes styled Dey. 
 
 (2). This remark must refer to very recent times, for there is no spot to 
 which the French had penetrated that they did not find vestiges of Roman 
 and Byzantine civilization. 
 
 (3). This officer, afterwards " the General commanding the Cavalry 
 Division of the Imperial Guard " at Solferino, was named Morris, and the 
 name in the text was doubtlessly written phonetically, as pronounced, not 
 written. 
 
PHILIP KEARNY, 
 
 MAJOR GENERAL, U. S. V. 
 BY HIS COUSIN, 
 
 JOHN WATTS DE fgYSTER, 
 
 BREV.-MAJ.-GEN., NEW YOEK. 
 
 6l 
 
 '•ggsaja^gSjjpHBggigysss 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V. 
 BY HIS COUSIN, 
 
 JOHN WATTS DE PEYSTER, 
 
 BREV.-MAJ.-GEN., NEW YORE. 
 
 Philip Kearny was a born soldier. His military in- 
 stincts were hereditary through his mother's line, whom 
 he resembled. They furnished to the British Crown a 
 number of gallant and able officers, from brigadier-general 
 down to cornet or ensign, who upheld the royal authority : 
 one dying Quarter-Master-General of the British army 
 beside Wellington, at Waterloo. An uncle was Major- 
 General Stephen Watts Kearny, than whom no grander 
 specimen of an American officer ever maintained the glory 
 of the country. Another, George Watts, of the U. S. 
 Dragoons, as aide-de-camp to General Scott, saved the life 
 of his chief by his coolness and decision just before Chip- 
 pewa, as that general related to the writer and others. 
 A third, a great-uncle, Stephen Watts, displayed unusual 
 dash, as second in command to his brother-in-law. Sir John 
 Johnson, Bart., in the bloodiest conflict of the Revolution 
 at the north, where he lost his leg, and was otherwise 
 almost mortally wounded, and these references might be 
 greatly extended. 
 
 Philip Kearny was originally intended for the church. 
 He was brought up like a brother with the writer in the 
 home of one of the noblest men who ever lived, their 
 common grandfather, Hon. John Watts, founder and 
 endower of the Leake and Watts Orphan House. How 
 the idea of a religious career for young Kearny could ever 
 have entered mortal brain now seems inexplicable, because 
 ffom his boyhood all his thoughts seemed to run on 
 
 63 
 
64 PfflLIP KEARNY. 
 
 soldiers. Every fibre seemed to be continually vibrating 
 with the hopes of eventually getting into the army, of 
 tasting the fruit forbidden him by those that controlled him. 
 
 So soon as his grandfather died, and left him very 
 wealthy for those times, and as soon as he could obtain a 
 commission, he joined the ist U. S. Dragoons, command- 
 ed by his uncle, Stephen Watts Kearny, and having been 
 appointed second lieutenant March 8, 1837, he at once 
 displayed the chivalrous spirit which continued to distin- 
 guish him throughout Hfe. In July, 1839, he was pro- 
 moted to first lieutenant, and acted as aid to Brigadier- 
 General Atkinson. 
 
 Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, having determined to 
 send out three officers to study and observe the cavalry 
 tactics prescribed for the French army, and their applica- 
 tion in the field, Philip Kearny was selected to act as one 
 of the commission. The three sailed from New York in 
 August, 1839, and on the 8th of October were at the cav- 
 alry school at Saumur. Very soon, however, Kearny — 
 after doing honor to the country by his elegant liberality, 
 and giving a grand ball, which at that time was thought 
 so unusually fine as to be considered worthy of commem- 
 oration in an oil painting by a French artist — obtained 
 leave of absence to accompany the Duke of Orleans, eldest 
 son of the king of the French, to witness and participate 
 in real war in Algiers.* There he had a full opportunity 
 
 * There is a seeming contradiction in the narratives of General Kearny's 
 services in Africa in (1839 ^ ^'^^ 1B40, as one appears in my detailed life of 
 him, and another in the pamphlet to which this sketch serves as an intro- 
 duction. This discrepancy is thus susceptible of explanation. Philip 
 Kearny, like most men of his temperament, was subject to the most con- 
 tradictory moods. Sometimes he was very taciturn or reticent, especially as 
 to his military services ; at others he was just as talkative — always, how- 
 ever, he wanted to tell his story in his own way, and when he did so few 
 could narrate or describe better than he did. Still he so blended what he 
 had heard, and which often served as an introduction to what he saw, 
 with what he actually witnessed, it was impossible, after a lapse of many 
 years, to discriminate between the narrative of what he credited to others 
 and what belonged to himself. This confusion was still farther augmented 
 by the statement of the Prince de Joinville, that Kearny was in Africa with 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 65 
 
 to realize that the lot of a soldier is to suffer as well as 
 to fight, for he underwent the severest suffering and took 
 part in fearful fighting, considering the dangers to which a 
 handful of troops — in comparison to the huge armies with 
 which he was afterwards associated — was exposed from 
 swarms of fearless and often intangible foes. It was almost 
 a repetition of the invasion of the Scythians by Cyrus ; of 
 
 the elder brother of the Prince, the Duke of Orleans, which was corroborated 
 by General de Trobriand in his " Military History (in French) of the Four 
 Years' Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac," in which he explicitly 
 states " he [Kearny] subsequently visited Algeria, where he was permitted 
 to accompany the Duke of Orleans as honorary aide-de-camp during the 
 campaign of the Gates of Iron." Of this operation nothing appears in 
 Kearny's own pamphlet. If he was with the Duke, he has left no record 
 of a circumstance which was sufSciently remarkable to make an indelible 
 impression. At all events, he must have talked upon the subject — which 
 was on the lips of all who were in Africa about i839-'40 — in such a manner 
 as to convey the idea that he was with the Duke of Orleans, or else how 
 could de Trobriand have set it down, as he has done, as an undoubted fact, 
 because Kearny was constantly thrown in contact with him for nearly a 
 year of service, so to speak, as at Williamsburg, almost side by side. 
 
 In December, 1851, the writer was detained at Toulon in consequence of 
 hostilities which occurred in the territory between that fortress and the con- 
 fines of Italy. Toulon is the naval port from which are despatched the military 
 expeditions to Africa. The landlord of the principal hotel instantly recog- 
 nized the family likeness between the writer and Kearny, whom he remem- 
 bered perfectly well, was pleased to talk about him, and repeated several 
 characteristic anecdotes. The memory of these conversations influenced the 
 chapters of the biography so far as concerns the connection of Kearny with 
 the operations in Algeria, in which the Duke of Orleans participated. 
 
 Long after the biography had been published and distributed, a single 
 copy of Kearny's own pamphlet was sent anonymously to the writer, but 
 it was then too late to make use of it, because all control of the book had 
 passed out of his hands. 
 
 Memory is a curious thing, and utterly untrustworthy in the majority of 
 cases after an interval of years, so much so that the writer, who has pub- 
 lished u number of works connected with the history of the War of the 
 Rebellion, scarcely recalls a single instance where the reminiscences of one 
 who served in the war were identical with the diary or memoranda of the 
 same person made and kept at the time. Nor should the anecdote be for- 
 gotten which is told of the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV. , who is 
 said to have heard and talked so much of Waterloo, that it was reported, 
 half in earnest and half in jest, that the Prince had actually worked himself 
 tip into the belief that he was present in that battle, and absolutely related 
 what had been told to him as things that he had actually seen. 
 
66 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 the Parthians by Crassus ; or of the Everglades, held by 
 the Seminoles, by successive United States commanders. 
 
 As the narrative of what Kearny saw in Algiers consti- 
 tutes the body of the volume, to which this sketch serves 
 as an introduction, there is no necessity to dwell upon the 
 theme. Suffice it to say that when the writer, ten years 
 later, was in Algiers he was recognized from a strong fam- 
 ily resemblance, and heard from private and officer the 
 highest praise of the dashing American, who shunned no 
 hardship, and still, as an exemplar, lived in the brightest 
 memories of the corps with which he served. 
 
 One anecdote upon which he used to dwell demonstrates 
 one of the ugliest features of Algerian war. Marshal 
 Valine — whatever may have been his capacity — ^was cer- 
 tainly noted for the severity of his discipline and his lack 
 of sympathy for his troops. On one occasion, after a hot 
 day of march and skirmish, the surgeons had established 
 their arrangements for the night, and pitched the hospital 
 tents in the most salubrious situation to take advantage 
 of the slightest zephyr of a torrid African night. 
 
 When Valine rode up he thought that there was just 
 the nicest spot for his own marquee, and hustled off the 
 sick and wounded to a locality which, as it turned out, 
 was most exposed to the onfall of a foe cunning as wild 
 beasts in their thirst for blood. Amid the darkness the 
 Arabs or Kabyles surprised the surgeons' quarters, mas- 
 sacred some if not all of the invalids, and, according to 
 custom, cut off as many heads as possible to bear off as 
 trophies. Our American soldiers would scarcely have 
 stood the rough usage to which the French were subjected. 
 The writer returned from Algiers in a steamer which car- 
 ried a deck-load of wounded and convalescents, who were 
 exposed without shelter to the rain, the bitter cold, and the 
 heavy seas which swept the vessel from stem to stern. It 
 was a very protracted, circuitous, and tempestuous pas- 
 sage. Twice the steamer was driven by a fierce mistral 
 into the Spanish port of Palamos, and throughout, in full 
 sight, the Pyrenees were plainly visible, so completely 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. ' (>7 
 
 covered with snow, from base to summit, that they resem- 
 bled nothing else than Titanic loaves of white sugar. It 
 is a great mistake to imagirie that an expedition into the 
 Atlas has the slightest resemblance to Sherman's picnick- 
 ing through Georgia or his " holiday " " march to the sea." 
 Amid the Atlas supreme heat and extreme cold alternate ; 
 the rain beats down with a violence that, to use a prover- 
 bial expression, the huge drops falling they sound upon 
 the tents as if these were thrashed with rods. The snow- 
 fall is likewise tremendous, so that the French retreat, 
 from their first attempt upon Constantine in the late fall of 
 1836, was attended, upon a smaller scale, with many of the 
 horrors of Napoleon's return from Moscow. This is 
 mentioned to show the " bitter-sweet " of Kearny's first 
 experience of campaigning. 
 
 Such was his gallantry during the campaign which he 
 described, that it was the desire of the French king to con- 
 fer upon him the Cross of the Legion of Honor ; but he 
 was compelled to refuse the coveted distinction, because 
 our government, much more strict with her officers in 
 those days of comparatively pure republicanism, would 
 not permit its representatives to accept foreign decorations 
 or gifts. Nowadays they are accepted and worn openly, 
 and apparently without interference or question. 
 
 On his return from Europe, in the fall of 1840, Kearny was 
 appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General Macomb, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the United States Army, and remained 
 with him until the latter's death, 2Sth of June, 1841. From 
 October to December of that year he was on duty at the 
 United States cavalry barracks at Carlisle, Pa. Thence 
 he returned to Washington as aide-de-camp to Major- 
 General Winfield Scott, next Commander-in-Chief of the 
 United States Army. With him Kearny remained — " dis- 
 pensing elegant hospitality" — from December, 1 841, to 
 April, 1844, when he was relieved and ordered to join his 
 company. On the 12th of May, 1844, he was with his 
 regiment at Fort Leavenworth, and was enabled by his 
 experience in Africa to prepare his immediate command 
 
68 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 for efficient service against the Indians, and the projected 
 display of our military strength upon the plains. 
 
 From May, 1845, commanding his company, Kearny 
 served under his uncle and colonel, on an expedition to the 
 South Pass at the summit of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 On his return, tired of the apparent endless prospects 
 of mere routine service after having tasted the " joys of 
 battle," he resigned his commission, 6th April, 1846, 
 Scarcely had he done so, when it became manifest that 
 the country was to be engaged in a war with Mexico, and 
 he applied to be reinstated. His application was granted 
 15 th April, 1846, and he was sent west to complete his 
 model company of dragoons, one which never had a 
 superior, if an equal, in the service, as to men, horses 
 (grays), and equipment. While recruiting and mounting his 
 troops, expending his own money freely to secure hand- 
 somer and better animals, he encountered Mr. Lincoln, 
 who when he became President, at once, with pleasure, 
 .recognized in the New Jersey Brigadier the " Mr. Kerny," 
 as he always called him, who had so impressed him 
 fifteen years previously. In December, 1846, he received 
 his commission as captain, and his crack company became 
 the body-guard of Major-General Scott. Doing his duty 
 to the letter, Kearny, nevertheless, had no opportunity to 
 make a mark until he made his way across the Pedregal — 
 a vast field of lava near the City of Mexico, — ^which sep- 
 arated the two wings of the American army. According 
 to the usual mode of crediting every remarkable deed to 
 an especial favorite, the successful traversing on horseback 
 of this lava-bed — hitherto considered impracticable for 
 mounted men — was passed to the credit of Robert E. 
 Lee, afterwards the most prominent rebel commander. 
 It was a reconnoissance necessary to learn the possibility of 
 establishing communications between the disunited grand 
 divisions. The writer understood at the time that Kearny 
 was the first who made the transit, and Kearny himself 
 always dwelt upon this act as one of the most difficult 
 feats he had ever performed. Kearny, if not the first, 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 69 
 
 was certainly one of the first who was able to do it. It 
 was wonderful how he succeeded in accomplishing the 
 passage, for he made his way over at night — moonlight, 
 however, it is true — leaping his horse over the clefts, which 
 nobody but a fearless rider like himself would ever have 
 dreamed of attempting. Always having so much to say 
 on a subject near to the heart and ever denied sufificient 
 space to express it, except in dry and concise language 
 forbidding all attempts to present a vivid word-picture, it 
 is necessary to omit many details and pass at once to the 
 " Charge of the One Hundred," which, in some respects, 
 was as worthy of commemoration as the " Charge of the 
 Six Hundred," sung by the Poet Laureate of Britain. 
 
 Previous to the battle of Churubusco, Kearny had 
 solicited from his friendly chief permission, for the time 
 being, to intermit his services at head-quarters and partici- 
 pate in the impending battle. The request was granted, 
 and if Kearny had been allowed to complete his charge 
 that day and he had been supported in it, the Americans 
 would have entered the Mexican capital on the i8th 
 August, and that triumph would not have been postponed 
 until the 14th of September, with all the intervening use- 
 less slaughter and uncertainty. 
 
 But let it never be forgotten that the first man who had 
 entered sword in hand the gate of that capital was 
 Captain Philip Kearny. 
 
 There are very few people who are sufficiently level- 
 headed to judge for themselves, and even fewer possess 
 the courage to resist the influence of men in high 
 position, who too often owe it to any cause but merit; 
 therefore, it is hardly worth while to argue with the stupid 
 masses, but simply necessary to state that some of the 
 wisest critics on war consider that the trinity of qualities 
 which command success are audacity or energy, judgment 
 of locality, and appreciation of time. The expression of 
 horse jockeys, that time is a hard horse to beat about sum- 
 marizes the whole matter. General Latrille, one of the 
 officers produced by the great French Revolution, adopted 
 
70 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 as the motto for his work, " Reflections on Modern War," 
 published in the winter of 1801, a work which soon became 
 scarce, remarks : " In war audacity is almost always pru- 
 dence." In chapter XIV he cites Marshal Saxe, who, he 
 says, struck out a great idea when he predicted that the 
 great secret of battles would one day be found to consist 
 in a combination of rapidity and order. There are crises 
 in battles and in campaigns, when scarcely any sacrifice is 
 too great for the gain or the utilization of time. Such a 
 crisis occurred when Kearny made his charge at Churu- 
 busco, and the mistake made in not following up and sup- 
 porting it was inexcusable. On the heels of Kearny the 
 American army could have gone into Mexico, and all the 
 loss of life and time, which occurred subsequently and pre- 
 vious to the occupation of the Mexican capital, was simple 
 waste, and worse — the risk of losing all that an apprecia- 
 tion of the circumstances would have insured. James 
 Walker, the greatest military painter that this country has 
 ever produced — perhaps, in very truth, the only one, — 
 executed in oil two exquisite representations of the begin- 
 ning, with about 100 men, and the end of this charge, 
 with about a dozen. They belong to the writer, and any 
 one who examines them cannot fail to recognize in these 
 perfect cabinet pictures the course and conclusion of that 
 cavalry charge, which is worthy to rank with the charge 
 of the British cavalry, 15th Light Dragoons, at Villiers-en- 
 Couche, towards Cambray, a most marvellous operation, 
 24th April, 1794, and that of the Polish Lancers of Na- 
 poleon's Imperial Guard in the Pass of Somo-Sierra, in 
 1808, or that of the " British Light Brigade," at Balaclava, 
 in 1855. 
 
 No mean romantic prose-poet, Mayne Reid, has like- 
 wise celebrated Kearny's achievements. Reid, then a cap- 
 tain of the New York Volunteers in the United States 
 service, who, like Walker, the painter, witnessed the charge, 
 commemorated in his magazine "Onward" the glorious 
 feat of arms, of which, as a fellow-soldier, and having seen 
 it, he appreciated the gallantry and grandeur. When 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 71 
 
 SO much has got to be told in a very few pages, the prin- 
 cipal events in a grand career must serve simply as step- 
 ping-stones to carry the reader across the broad current 
 of many years. 
 
 In the summer of 185 1, Kearny was ordered to Califor- 
 nia, again to take command of his company. He had 
 scarcely been transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 coast, when he demonstrated the truth of what has so often 
 been claimed for him, that he seemed destined to shine in 
 whatever he undertook. His summer campaign of 1851, 
 against the Rogue River Indians, was one of the most tell- 
 ing blows ever delivered by our army in this harassing 
 warfare. These savages, at that period, were the most 
 wicked, most warlike, and most difficult to subdue of all 
 the tribes on our Pacific coast. What rendered them more 
 formidable was the fact that they occupied a district 
 which intercepted all intercourse between Oregon and 
 California ; they were scattered along and across the direct 
 road, north and south, on the banks of the Rogue River, 
 which drains a rugged, mountainous wilderness, and 
 flows, as a general thing, west, and perpendicular to the 
 coast, emptying into the Pacific, twenty miles south of 
 Port Orford, and fifty miles north of Crescent City. 
 
 Major-General Rufus Ingalls told me : " This handsome 
 campaign opened that country " ; and Governor Joseph 
 Lane wrote to me, in 1868 : 
 
 "During the summer of 185 1, Major Phil. Kearny re- 
 ceived orders to proceed, with two companies of United 
 States Dragoons, Captains Stewart and Walker, from 
 Oregon, to some point in California. En route, he was 
 informed of a recent attack of the Rogue River Indians, 
 in which they succeeded in killing quite a number of 
 miners, and doing other mischief. These Indians were at 
 that time the most warlike and formidable tribe on the 
 Pacific coast. Never having known defeat, they were ex- 
 ceedingly bold in their depredations upon the miners and 
 settlers, and were the terror of all. Major Kearny deter- 
 mined, if possible, to give them battle, and finally found 
 
72 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 them, three hundred braves strong, in the occupation of 
 an excellent position. He ordered an attack, and, after a 
 sharp engagement, succeeded in dislodging them, killing, 
 wounding, and capturing fifty or more. It was here that 
 the lamented, brave, and brilliant Stewart fell. The In- 
 dians retreated across Rogue River, and feeling that they 
 had not been sufficiently chastised, the Major concluded 
 to pursue them, and, whilst in the prosecution of this 
 purpose, I joined him. He followed until the Indians 
 made a stand, quite favorable to themselves, on Evans 
 Creek, about thirty miles distant from the scene of their 
 late disaster. Here he again attacked them, killed and 
 wounded a few, and captured about forty, among the lat- 
 ter a very important prisoner in the person of the Great 
 Chief's favorite wife. By means of this capture, and 
 these successes, an advantageous peace was obtained. 
 Being an eye-witness, in part, of Kearny's movements 
 and action, I can, with great truth, and do with no less 
 pleasure, bear testimony to his gallantry as a soldier and 
 his ability as an ofiScer. I was then, and still am, sensible 
 of the great good secured to Oregon by his achievements 
 at that particular time." 
 
 On the 9th October, 1851, Major Kearny again resigned 
 from the army, and sailing from San Francisco, made a 
 voyage round the world. What he saw — and he visited a 
 great many places whither, at that time, our people seldom 
 went — he described with vigor and effect, but on that it is 
 not permitted here to enter. In 1853 he was in Paris, and 
 thence returned home, recalled by urgent business. Then 
 it was that he met with a very severe accident, which 
 served as a " bitter spring " to influence his after life, and 
 doubtless prevented him from proceeding to the Crimea. 
 In 1856, he was present in Moscow at the coronation of 
 Alexander II., then visited Spain and returned to Paris, 
 where he was living when the war was determined upon 
 with the Austrians, in Italy. Sufficient be it to say that 
 he behaved so well there, especially at Solferino, that, 
 upon the recommendation of the French cavalry general, 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 73 
 
 Morris, to whose command he was immediately attached, 
 he received the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Here, in 
 spite of restricted space, his judgment upon the final 
 battle of the campaign must be admitted. He always 
 agreed with the opinion, expressed so often, century after 
 century, that it has almost passed into a proverb : " No 
 Austrian army ever fought a battle out." This is about 
 equivalent to the erroneous judgment upon which Grant 
 determined, after being made Lieutenant-General, to stay 
 with the Army of the Potomac and see that it did this, 
 and it must be admitted he fought it to pieces. Kearny 
 said : " Had the Austrians fought at Solferino as the 
 English at Inkerman — 'a soldier's fight,' as the English 
 commander admits, — the French would not have had the 
 ghost of a chance." 
 
 It was conceded by those who had the best opportunity 
 of judging, even by rebel agents and advocates, that 
 Major Kearny rendered important services to the loyal 
 North in Paris when the ominous clouds were gathering 
 together which broke in the tempest of Rebellion in 
 1861. And then, when the storm had burst upon the 
 country, he hastened to do with his single hand what he 
 had hitherto done with his equally trenchant tongue. 
 In the prime of life, highly cultivated in the theory of 
 his profession, as well as practically acquainted with the 
 working of it, with the experience of 46 years, he had 
 a right to suppose that his claims for a brigadier-general- 
 ship would have been graciously received and promptly 
 granted by his native State, New York. Backed by the 
 testimonials of Scott and others, he would have done 
 better in going' direct to Lincoln, who would have under- 
 stood and appreciated the man, the " Mr. Kerny " he so 
 admired for his soldiership and liberality and energy in 
 1846. Instead Kearny presented himself to the solid 
 (sarcastic) war committee of his native State as a son 
 offering his primal services to a parent who is entitled to 
 it. With a stolidity of which the case of Kearny was by 
 no means the only example, they ignored the claims 
 
74 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 of his generous heart, his full brain, and his empty sleeve. 
 They also rejected the services of others capable of 
 returning a hundred-fold for the commission demanded, 
 but none more able or brave than Phil Kearny. The 
 writer as of first knowledge knows this. Then with a feel- 
 ing such as was evinced when " Paul and Barnabas waxed 
 bold " and said, rejected by the Jews, " Now we turn to the 
 Gentiles," Kearny turned to the gallant little State of New 
 Jersey. With a sense that was totally wanting in the old 
 fogies, the hackneyed politicians, and the big wigs of New 
 York, who could see virtue in bullies and bummers and 
 braggarts and beats, while they were blind to real merit 
 and the distinction of position and power of mind. New 
 Jersey gladly accepted the services of Major Philip 
 Kearny, gave him a brigade and have never been forget- 
 ful of the return service that he rendered, except when 
 there was at her head one who is said to have committed 
 " posthumous harL-kiri " or suicide, showing who, however 
 severe has been the judgment of any writer upon him while 
 living, by a very poetical as well as practical justice, him- 
 self proved by what he left behind that Kearny's condem- 
 nation was not too severe." " A model brigade and a pat- 
 tern brigade commander reported to General Scott at 
 Washington, three regiments, on the 29th June, 1861, 
 and a fourth regiment, with a battery of six pieces, on the 
 2 1st August following. It was on time, in time, and at 
 the nick of time. The first battle of Bull Run was fought 
 and lost on the 21st July. In the Tohu-Bohu succeeding 
 that military disaster, such a general as Kearny and 
 such a force as the First New Jersey Brigade was the one 
 thing needed. On the 29th September, Kearny made the 
 first important demonstration which occurred since the 
 loss of Bull Run. During that terrible fall and winter of 
 inertion, disgraceful to the chief upon whom the guilt 
 must rest, although he alone was not guilty, because he 
 had plenty of backers who knew better, Kearny, who cd- 
 though in one sense compulsorily idle through others, was 
 very industrious in every direction which depended upon 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 7$ 
 
 himself alone. With the first days of spring, 1862, the 
 second advance to Manassas was permitted. The word 
 permitted is italicized because McClellan hobbled ahead 
 while Kearny flew. On Sunday, 9th March, Kearny's 
 troops were at Sangster's R. R. station between 3 and 4 
 P. M., over eleven miles in advance of any other part of 
 the army moving in that direction, and sent the enemy fly- 
 ing. On Monday by 1 1 A. M. he was in Centreville. As 
 it was, Kearny did enough to show what he might have 
 done had he been let loose instead of being pulled to and 
 fro by see-saw orders. His report of what he did do, was 
 not only suppressed but must have been destroyed, be- 
 cause it was not and has never been found, unless it has 
 turned up when too late after Colonel Scott took charge 
 of the chaos of military documents long after the war. 
 New Jersey, however, highly appreciated what her mili- 
 tary representative in the field had done. 
 
 Then, after Manassas, was the time to have gone ahead. 
 A bold " forward " then would have carried the Army 
 of the Potomac, on the heels of the flying or retreating 
 enemy, into Richmond. No directing mind seemed to 
 recognize that "a victorious army is insensible to fatigue," 
 and that, as Marshal Saxe said, " a beaten enemy can be 
 pursued with the rattling of peas in bladders." 
 
 After this the armed colossus relapsed into paralysis. 
 
 " The Affair of Rivers " was decided on, and in March and 
 in April was carried into execution. Kearny sailed with 
 the rest on the 17th April, and remained cooped up on the 
 transports until the 30th. Meanwhile a vacancy occurred 
 in the command of the third division — which became the 
 first on the 3d August following — of the third army corps, 
 and it was given to Kearny. He left his New Jersey bri- 
 gade with sorrow and pain, and his troops saw him go with 
 tears and grief. The miscalled siege of Yorktown, of 
 which the defence was a bluff on the part of the rebels 
 and a disgrace to the general before their works, ended 
 on the night of the 3d May. Jameson, " general of the 
 trenches " one of Kearny's new brigadiers, was the first 
 
76 PHILIP KEARNY 
 
 to enter the rebel works at 6 A. M., 4th May. While other 
 troops marched off in pursuit of the retreating enemy, 
 Kearny was left behind, so that when Hooker overtook 
 the rebels at Williamsburgh, Kearny had been left far in 
 the rear. Hooker, by afternoon, had fought as stiff a 
 fight as was ever fought by any portion of the Army of 
 the Potomac and was about fought out, having, as he said, 
 been left to take care of himself with thirty thousand good 
 soldiers standing by like spectators without rendering any 
 support. This is not as strong as Hooker put it in his re- 
 port. When, " faint but pursuing," Hooker looked around 
 for the help at hand, which did not stretch out a hand to 
 help him, all at once help did come that could have been 
 least expected to arrive, and Kearny thrust himself in be- 
 tween Hooker and the horror of the situation. Kearny, 
 whose division was the last to leave the lines at York- 
 town, was the first to come up and save Hooker, plowing 
 through the ocean of mud, through obstacles natural and 
 unnatural, through the dilatory, the malingerers, the 
 exhausted, unwilling, and mishandled. Kearny saved 
 Hooker, as Stevenson testifies, in every sense of the word. 
 At what time Kearny got upon the ground has been dis- 
 cussed until the subject is threadbare. He himself says 2 
 P. M. One of his aides-de-camp, in a letter from the bat- 
 tlefield, fixes 2:30 P. M. Subsequently, in conversation, 
 the same aide stated that Kearny ordered him to keep the 
 time, and he did so ; that the actual record was lost, but 
 that he knew that Kearny got up at 2:30 P. M., and that 
 his regiments were engaged at 3 P. M. Heintzelman tes- 
 tifies to the earlier hour of 2:30 P. M., and the Evening 
 Post's war correspondent corroborates Kearny's own opin- 
 ion of 2 P. M. 
 
 The battle of Williamsburgh, Monday, 5th May, 1862, 
 cannot be fought over again here, although it was the 
 first stand-up and stick-to-it fight of the Army of the Poto- 
 mac which had always had fight enough in it if he at the 
 head had let it get out. It was the crimson aurora of the 
 magnificent day illumined by the glory of " the old fight- 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 77 
 
 ing third corps as WE understand it," of which the badge, 
 the diamond, was instituted by Kearny, upon which the 
 brilliant sunset at Appomattox Court House of 9th April, 
 1865, closed in upon the few veteran remnants of organiza- 
 tions that witnessed the day-spring about three years and 
 eleven months previously. 
 
 O that space would permit an adequate development 
 of all that the writer knew, knows, and has learned since ! 
 In 1869 he published his " Personal and Military History 
 of Philip Kearny": alas for, him styled by General 
 Scott " the bravest man I ever knew, and the most per- 
 fect soldier," the pen must travel on with giant strides in 
 seven-league boots ! Of the Peninsula campaign from 
 Williamsburgh to Malvern Hill, Kearny expressed his 
 opinion in language more just than agreeable. He fore- 
 saw every thing, and, like all trustworthy prophets, he had 
 no hearing, and the disaster which he felt must come, fell 
 upon the army like shocks of an earthquake. Never did 
 man do his duty better. His conduct at Seven Pines 
 evoked the ringing verses of Stedman, all sufficient to 
 crown him as a poet if he had never written any thing 
 else. At Fair Oaks or Seven Pines Kearny and Hooker 
 could have gone into Richmond, supported by the bull- 
 dog Sumner, if they had been permitted ; again, at Fair 
 Oaks, second, (Oak-Grove or the Orchard), the first of 
 those grand and never-to-be-forgotten contests called " the 
 Seven Days of Battle." That he was all himself at Sav- 
 age Station and in White Oak Swamp or at Glendale, 
 Fraser or Nelson's farm or Newmarket Cross-roads. There 
 can be no denial that in the latter he was magnificent. 
 The story has been told by an officer and eye-witness 
 in tones that rang like blasts of the "air-shattering 
 trumpet." 
 
 Glendale resulted in a victory for the Union forces. 
 " The rebel troops became a mob, and fled in terror tow- 
 ard Richmond." "A mournful wail was heard from Glen- 
 dale during that long dismal night, lit up by the red glare 
 of torches flitting to and fro as the rebels gathered up 
 
78 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 thejr wounded. On this occasion Kearny held about the 
 centre of our line." 
 
 During the Six Days' Retreat and the Seven Days' 
 Fighting, Kearny seems to have been the only general 
 whose foresight is demonstrated by recorded words ; who 
 perceived that the danger arose from moral feebleness in 
 the direction which could be only met by extra exertion 
 and prevision on the part of the subordinates. 
 
 Tuesday, 1st July, 1862, our "Boys in Blue" were 
 drawn up on the pleasant estate of Dr. Carter, known as 
 Malvern Hill, and there the Army of the Potomac won a 
 Hohenlinden victory which, under any other general, 
 would have been improved, and resulted in the capture of 
 Richmond. 
 
 Kearny occupied the centre of the line. However well 
 the loyal troops fought, no part of the result was due to the 
 Commander-in-Chief. It has been a matter of question if 
 he was on the field ; he certainly did not post his army. 
 After the final clinch on the bloody slope of Malvern 
 Hill, when the enemy recoiled, bleeding and crushed, 
 from the unbroken and defiant Union line, Kearny felt, 
 through every fibre of his spirit, that a swift advance 
 would have crushed the exhausted rebel force, and, by 
 the seizure of its capital, dealt a death-blow to the Rebel 
 Government. The failure to seize any of these opportu- 
 nities extorted from " the brave and chivalrous Kearny," 
 the memorable condemnation attributed to him in more 
 than one popular history, which was uttered in the pres- 
 ence of several officers, and recorded in a number of 
 letters and narratives. 
 
 The administration having determined to withdraw 
 McClellan's army from Harrison's Landing, where he had 
 " packed it like herrings in a box," Kearny's division 
 marched thence on the 15th August, reached Yorktown 
 on the 20th, embarked on transports, landed at Alexan- 
 dria, and at 1:30 P.M. of the next day was at Burke's Sta- 
 tion. On the 23d succeeding that " night of darkness and 
 storm," " that terrible night of the 22d,'.' Colonel Paine's 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 79 
 
 " darkest night he ever knew," " Kearny's division and 
 Meade's Pennsylvania Reserves were the first troops from 
 the Army of the Potomac to re-inforce — that is, effect- 
 ively, in face of the enemy — the Army of Virginia." 
 
 Justice has never been done to Pope, but every kind of 
 injustice. If the same kind of justice had been done to 
 those deserving it, one would have been spared the oppor- 
 tunity of furnishing materials for a book by which he 
 is said to have committed " post-mortem hari-kiri." Had 
 Pope been supported as Humphreys said Hancock always 
 supported his brother corps-commanders, and as Hum- 
 phreys himself ever lent assistance to those who needed 
 it, the Army of Northern Virginia would not have sur- 
 vived to fight a drawn battle at Antietam, nor would 
 those who succeeded Pope have had other chances to 
 display incapacity or whatever else characterized the 
 doings which read so painfully in the history of the Army 
 of the Potomac. 
 
 Kearny seemed to feel none of that unwillingness to 
 serve under Pope which actuated so many of his rank in 
 the Army of the Potomac. He appeared to comprehend 
 the whole case. 
 
 " How do they expect Pope," he wrote, under date of 
 August 4, 1862, "to beat, with a very inferior force, the 
 veterans of Ewell and Jackson ? Get me and my ' fighting 
 division' with Pope" and in the same letter, "With 
 Pope's army I would breathe again." 
 
 O that opportunity was afforded to renew in this con- 
 nection the bitter grief which fills the writer's heart at 
 recalling the events which preceded and led up to the 
 engagement at Chantilly, which was undoubtedly one of 
 the subordinately but immediately decisive conflicts of 
 the war ! 
 
 Count Tolstoi in his " War and Peace " — a novel, a ser- 
 mon, a history, and a criticism combined, — but more de- 
 cidedly in his " Napoleon and the Russian Campaign," 
 has shown how little men, popularly rated as great, have 
 to do with the circumstances over which to the masses 
 
80 PHILIP KEARNY. 
 
 they appear to exercise control. Still if McClellan and 
 those that he influenced had done by Pope a small share of 
 what Kearny did for Hooker at Williamsburgh, Lee would 
 have been defeated, crushed, ruined, and, if human testi- 
 mony without corroborating contemporary, documents is 
 trustworthy, Kearny, not McClellan again, would have 
 been at the head of the Army of the Potomac ; but it was 
 not so to be. . 
 
 In presenting the character of General Kearny it is 
 an extremely difficult task to convey a correct impression, 
 or, rather, to do justice to him. The veteran General 
 Scott summed him up as " the bravest man I ever knew, 
 and the most perfect soldier." " No officer living," said the 
 great William III., of Orange, "who has seen so little ser- 
 vice as my Lord Marlborough [who, after Wellington, was 
 the first of English generals] is so fit for great commands." 
 Perhaps no equal number of words could be selected to 
 express more justly Phil Kearny's capabilities for a 
 " great captain." Again, the memorial of the famous 
 Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe characterizes its 
 subject as " Ein Mann voll stiller Grosse." This, likewise, 
 is appropriate to Kearny. It is said that no first- 
 class general neglects to keep a reserve in hand for 
 the crisis. Whatever exertion Kearny was called upon 
 to make, there was always in him an immense power 
 in reserve, which seemed incapable of being exhausted. 
 Whatever had been the drafts made upon his brain- 
 force, there seemed to be something still left behind 
 for an emergency. He did not fall short in any re- 
 quisite of a great general : first-class in organization, 
 administration, and command, he exerted a marvellous 
 electrifying effect in action, and perhaps no man had a 
 clearer apprehension of topography, one of the most 
 necessary qualities of a commander, he seemed to carry 
 a case of maps in his hand. It is related that during the 
 Seven Days' Retreat he rode up to the house of an old 
 settler to obtain a corroboration of his explorations, of the 
 lay of the land and of the run of the roads and the streams. 
 
PHILIP KEARNY. 8 1 
 
 An officer present stated that his questions demonstrated 
 he had discovered and knew by personal reconnoitring all 
 the details which the old settler had acquired through a 
 lifelong residence in the same district. 
 
 There is no use, however, in adding praise to praise, 
 and the following verses by Edmund Clarence Stedman, 
 the broker-poet, will serve as a summary. Moltke, in a 
 speech after the great Prusso-French war, observed that, 
 do what the soldier might to win renown, his posthumous 
 fame, after all, was made by the historian, or his biogra- 
 pher, or the poet, especially the latter. In this brief 
 sketch an attempt has been made to present in the space 
 accorded some idea of the life and services of a hero ; let 
 the poet do the rest. 
 
KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES. 
 
 EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. 
 
 83 
 
KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. 
 
 So that soldierly legend is still on its journey, — 
 That story of Kearny who knew not to yield ! 
 'T was the day when with Jameson, fierce Berry, and 
 Birney, 
 Against twenty thousand he rallied the field. 
 Where the red volleys poured, where the clamor rose 
 highest, 
 Where the dead lay in clumps through the dwarf oak 
 and pine ; 
 Where the aim from the thicket was surest and nighest — 
 No charge like Phil Kearny's along the whole line. 
 
 When the battle went ill, and the bravest were solemn, 
 
 Near the dark Seven Pines, where we still held our 
 ground, 
 He rode down the length of the withering column. 
 
 And his heart at our war-cry leapt up with a bound ; 
 He snuffed, like his charger, the wind of the powder, — 
 
 His sword waved us on, and we answered the sign : 
 Loud our cheer as we rushed, but his laugh rang the louder, 
 
 "There's the devil's own fun, boys, along the whole 
 line ! " 
 
 How he strode his brown steed ! How we saw his blade 
 brighten 
 In the one hand still left, — and the reins in his teeth ! 
 He laughed like a boy when the holidays heighten. 
 But a soldier's glance shot from his visor beneath. 
 
 85 
 
86 KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES. 
 
 Up came the reserves to the mel^e infernal, 
 Asking where to go in — through the clearing or pine ? 
 
 " Oh, anywhere ! Forward ! 'T is all the same. Colonel : 
 You '11 find lovely fighting along the whole line ! " 
 
 Oh, veil the black shroud of night at Chantilly, 
 
 That hid him from sight of his brave men and tried ! 
 Foul, foul sped the bullet that clipped the white lily, 
 
 The flower of our knighthood, the whole army's pride ! 
 Yet we dream that he still — in that shadowy region. 
 
 Where the dead form their ranks at the wan drummer's 
 sign- 
 Rides on, as of old, down the length of his legion. 
 
 And the word still is Forward ! along the whole line. 
 
A DASHING DRAGOON. 
 THE MURAT OF THE AMERICAN ARMY. 
 
 87 
 
 T'' I'i!.. r' 
 
A DASHING DRAGOON. 
 
 THE MURAT OF THE AMERICAN ARMY. 
 
 (From " Onward," January, 1869, vol. I., p. 25.) 
 (In the single copy preserved by Gen. de Peyster.) 
 
 There is a name among the military heroes of Amer- 
 ica not so often spoken as it should be ; but which, when 
 spoken, never fails to strike upon the ear with an interest 
 almost romantic. In it the soldier recognizes the ring of 
 the true metal ; and its mention calls up the image of as 
 line a dragoon officer as ever drew sabre or set foot in a 
 stirrup. 
 
 This officer was Philip Kearny. 
 
 Was ! How sad an old comrade feels in penning the 
 past tense ! Would I could say is ! 
 
 Alas ! it cannot be. His life-blood, of which he was so 
 daringly regardless, has fertilized the sod of Chantilly; his 
 ashes rest in the tomb of his ancestors ; and his heroic 
 soul has passed to a more peaceful world. But for that 
 fatal shot that made him a corpse in the saddle, his name 
 would now have been louder upon the lips of his country- 
 men. For the man who cried " Cowardice or treason ! " 
 when Malvern Hill was so basely abandoned to the foe, 
 would have led to victory had he lived; and this man was 
 General Philip Kearny. 
 
 To say this is no disparagement to the successful lead- 
 ers who survived him. I don't think there is one among 
 them will deny that, had Phil Kearny not met premature 
 death, he would have achieved rank second to none, as 
 second to none has he won reputation. And it is a repu- 
 tation that will, year after year, and day after day, grow 
 
 89 
 
go A DA SWING DRAGOON. 
 
 brighter ; as, under the calm retrospect of peace, his deeds 
 of warlike daring — of high chivalric heroism — ^become 
 better known. 
 
 It is not my purpose to write the biography of General 
 Philip Kearny. There are other pens better fitted for the 
 task ; and some one of them will no doubt perform this 
 national duty. It should be a labor of love for any pa- 
 triot to write the story of such a life ; and there is no pa- 
 triot who should not read it. I am incapable : for while 
 Kearny was engaged in that grand struggle, that gave the 
 latest proofs, alike of his gallantry as devotion to his coun- 
 try's cause, I was far away in a distant quarter of the globe. 
 
 In the lesser strife, that by something more than a dec- 
 ade preceded it — the second conquest of Mexico, — I was 
 by his side, and saw him do a deed that fixed him in my 
 mind forever after as a " dashing dragoon." 
 
 It is of this deed, too little known, I desire to make 
 record ; so that it may assist the future biographer of the 
 gallant Kearny, as also the historian of that spirited Mex- 
 ican expedition — still but feebly chronicled. Partly for 
 these reasons, and partly that the eye-witnesses of those 
 far-distant events — in their day thought stirring, and still 
 picturesque — are gradually growing less in number.* 
 
 Alas, that from among us Phil Kearny is missing ! But 
 his memory is with us ; and now for a chapter that will 
 not only recall him to the thoughts of his old comrades, 
 but his countrymen, in all the dash, the daring, the un- 
 paralleled picturesqueness of his character. 
 
 It was the battlefield, known in history as Churubusco ; 
 so called from a stream of the name, with a village upon 
 its *banks — a cluster of huts and churches, with a grand 
 convent rising massively in their midst. It is on the 
 famed National Road, leading south towards Acapulco 
 from the City of Mexico, and about five miles from the 
 suburb of the latter city — the garita of San Antonio de 
 Abad. 
 
 * The singular manner of Phil Kearny's death is not generally known ; 
 but to describe it is a task too painful for a friend. 
 
A DASHING DRAGOON. 91 
 
 The crossing of the stream was defended by a battery 
 on the tite de pont, by flanking works along the banks on 
 both sides, and by a strong body of troops that occupied 
 the convent of Churubusco, for the time transformed into 
 a fortress. 
 
 It cost the American army a deadly struggle to take 
 these works ; all the deadlier that they were defended by 
 two hundred brave Irishmen, who, as is too often the 
 case, were fighting on the wrong side. They were desert- 
 ers, and fought in despair — with the prospect of a halter if 
 taken.* The tete de pont, although desperately defended, 
 was at length carried ; the sooner that a brigade of gal- 
 lant volunteers, sent round by the left flank, pressed the 
 enemy at the Hacienda Los Portales. But for this, it is 
 a question whether Churubusco would have been carried 
 so soon. 
 
 This brigade, sent as above-mentioned to the left, on 
 its own side, had enough work to do. It consisted of the 
 New York and South Carolina regiments. 
 
 As we stood side by side that day, our flags swayed by 
 the same breeze, our muzzles pointed in the same direc- 
 tion, who could have thought that those standards should 
 ever be seen in opposing ranks, or those bayonets ever 
 clash in the conflict of internecine strife ? Surely not one 
 of us. 
 
 No ; we had enough to think of without that, as our 
 men fell, side by side, or one upon the other, mingling 
 their life-blood together — the best of the North, as of the 
 South. 
 
 And both flowed equally, as freely ! In those days 
 men used to talk of Waterloo and its terrible carnage. 
 Man for man, there was more blood spilled at Churubusco. 
 
 * They were taken, and fifty of them hanged in one morning — the 
 morning on which Chapultepec was stormed. Twenty-eight were hanged 
 at one place. Simultaneously, and by tap of drum, were they launched 
 into eternity. It was a terrible retribution, but could not well be avoided. 
 On that day the fate of the American army hung suspended as on a thread, 
 and the example was one of stern necessity. 
 
92 A DASHING DRAGOON: 
 
 The writer of this sketch was in command of sixty volun- 
 teer soldiers. When the action was over, he counted 
 thirty-two of them lying on the grass, nearly a dozen of 
 them dead ! After this it is not necessary to say they 
 were brave. And it needed all their courage to carry the 
 defences of Los Portales. There was a time when they 
 wavered. What troops would not have done so under a 
 shower of leaden hail that, in addition to half their num- 
 bers, laid low nearly every field-officer in the brigade ? It 
 would have been no cowardice had they at that time 
 retreated. 
 
 But they did not. A young officer, belonging to the 
 New York regiment,* sprang forth, and called upon them 
 to follow him to the charge. The Irish drummer, Murphy, 
 dashed out after ; gave a soul-stirring tap to his drum, and, 
 as if keeping time to its quick rolling. Empires and Pal- 
 mettos rushed forward at bayonet charge. 
 
 The coming of the cold steel was a warning to the 
 Mexican troops. A squadron of their cavalry, threaten- 
 ing a charge on our left, wheeled their horses quick about, 
 and went off at a hand gallop for the city ; while the foot 
 defenders of Los Portales and the causeway of the 
 Acapulco road flung down their discharged escopettes, and 
 scattered off through swamp and chaparral. Still led by 
 the New York officer, the remnants of the half-slaughtered 
 brigade plunged breast-deep into the slimy zanca, clam- 
 bered up the causeway, and continued the pursuit along 
 the level road. 
 
 Exhausted by the long-continued struggle, saturated 
 with water from sole to waist, laden with sink-mud, they 
 made but slow progress. 
 
 But at that moment there appeared, coming along the 
 causeway, a troop going quicker, that promised to take 
 the pursuit off their hands. It was a troop [a squadron] 
 of horsemen, with horses all of light iron gray color.f 
 
 * Mayne Reid, the writer himself. 
 
 f Kearny took great pride in his dragoons, and had their horses in 
 
A DASHING DRAGOON. 93 
 
 Emerging from the smoke-cloud of Churubusco, they 
 looked like a band of angels with Gabriel at their head ! 
 It was Kearny with his squadron of cavalry. Before the 
 fatigued foot had time to congratulate themselves on the 
 relief, the dragoons came sweeping past. They were 
 going at full gallop in half sections of twos, the men with 
 sloped sabres, the horses with snorting nostrils, each 
 buried in the spread tail of that preceding him ; the hoofs 
 of all striking simultaneously on the firm crown of the 
 causeway, as if they were galloping to set music ! 
 
 At their head rode a man of slight stature, with light- 
 colored hair, and a complexion to correspond. A long 
 tawny moustache became the classical type of face, and 
 somewhat aquiline nose that surmounted it. They were 
 features belonging to a natural-born commander, and 
 looked in their place at the head of a charging troop. 
 They were the features of Phil Kearny. 
 
 The young New York officer, recognizing them as those 
 of his gallant friend, cried out to his tired comrades: 
 " Now, boys ; three cheers for Phil Kearny ! You 've still 
 breath enough for that ? " The shout that responded 
 showed he had not mistaken their strength. Most of 
 them were New Yorkers, and knew that Kearny was of 
 their kind. 
 
 The dragoons had scarce passed when an aide-de-camp 
 rode up, bearing a message from the Commander-in-Chief. 
 It was an order to stay the pursuit ! It was given to a lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, the only field officer upon the ground. 
 The order came upon the men like a bomb-shell, projected 
 from the rear. Stop the pursuit ! What did it mean ? 
 They had put the enemy to flight ; and they knew he 
 would not again make stand to oppose them that side the 
 city — nor even in the city ; for the scare upon his scat- 
 tered troops would be sure to carry them clear through 
 it, especially when chased by Kearny. Stop the pur- 
 
 uniform — a beautiful dapple gray. This had been eiTected, at considerable 
 expense to himself, by exchanging the regulation horse for a handsomer and 
 better. 
 
94 -4 DASHING DRAGOON. 
 
 suit ! What could it mean ? The lieutenant-colonel 
 could not tf 11. He could only beg of them to obey. 
 They laughed at him, for he had not led them ; and. only 
 looked to the lieutenant who had. The latter listened 
 to the order from the aide-de-camp, for it was at length 
 directed to him, as the only one who had the power to 
 enforce obedience to it. " 'T is a fatal mistake," said he, 
 " and General Scott will fiJid it out in time. We have 
 the city in our power ; and it will cost more blood to get 
 it so again," " The orders are for you to halt ! " shouted 
 the aide-de-camp, who, accompanied by a cavalry bugler, 
 galloped on after the dragoons. " Halt ! " cried the New 
 York lieutenant, flinging himself in front of the pursuers, 
 and raising his sword with an air of determination. It 
 was a command that came only from a sense of military 
 duty, and the word faltered upon his lips, as he pro- 
 nounced it. " Halt did yez say, liftinant ? " " Halt ! " 
 repeated the officer, in a firmer tone. " If you say halt, 
 begorrah, we '11 do it ; but not for any other officer in the 
 Amirekean army ! " With the sword held at point, the 
 lieutenant stood determinedly pointing them; and the 
 men came reluctantly to a stand. They had scarce done 
 so, when a spectacle commenced passing before their eyes 
 that made everyman of them sad — almost mad. Back along 
 the road came riding the squadron [troop] of Kearny, not 
 as they had passed before, at full gallop, in the flush 
 of a vigorous charge ; but slow and dejected as if return- 
 ing from a reverse. And in the rear rode their leader, 
 his left a,rm no longer grasping the reins, but hanging by 
 his side, like the sling jacket of a hussar ! 
 
 The tale was soon told. Some half-mile beyond the 
 spot where the aide-de-camp halted us, the enemy had cut 
 the Acapulco road and thrown a parapet across it, with 
 the usual fosse outside. Here a few of their bravest men 
 had determined on making a last stand. But Kearny, 
 braver than they, riding at wild gallop, had leaped his 
 horse into the work — with one spring, clearing both ditch 
 and parapet ! His faithful sergeant had followed him ; 
 
A DASHING DRAGOON. 95 
 
 both, as soon as they alighted, plying their sabres upon the 
 enemy inside ! At that moment sounded the recall bugle 
 of the orderly accompanying Scott's aide-de-camp ; and the 
 American dragoons, trained to the signal, pulled short up 
 outside. 
 
 It was a terrible predicament ! Aloi^^ within the en- 
 trenchment, surrounded by a score of assailants, Kearny 
 and his sergeant had no other alternative but retreat; 
 and, wheeling right about, both headed their horses to 
 releap the ditch. Their gallant grays carried them across 
 — the sergeant safe ; but the best cavalry ofificer in the 
 American army received a [canister] shot in his left arm 
 that caused him instantaneously to let go his bridle rein. 
 It pained me to see it hanging loose, as he and his 
 squadron filed past, going back along the Acapulco 
 road. But the cheer that saluted his return was far more 
 sympathetic and not less enthusiastic than that sent 
 after him in his impetuous charge. In the battle of 
 Churubusco, as on other Mexican fields, the writer of this 
 sketch commanded a corps of men — who were a strange 
 conglomeration of veterans and vieux sabreurs. They 
 had seen service on almost every European field, as also 
 in Asia and Africa. They had been organized in New 
 York City, under the aegis of an old Napoleonic ofificer — 
 the Count de Bongars. By the incidence of campaign life 
 they came under my command shortly after the battle of 
 Cerro Gordo, and so continued till peace was sealed by 
 the treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo. Among them were 
 many cavalry men, who had been trained in the first 
 schools, and taken part in celebrated charges. One and 
 all confessed to me they had never witnessed a charge so 
 perfect, so compact, so dashing, as that led by Phil 
 Kearny along the causeway of San Antonio de Abad. 
 To convince me of this, I did not need their testimony : 
 for I too had seen something of cavalry service — enough 
 to know that, if there be any dispute as to who is the 
 Murat of the American army, it must be between two 
 men of similar Christian names — two Philips: in short, 
 between Kearny and Sheridan. 
 
 Mayne Reid. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Head-quarters, ist Brigade, 
 
 Camp three miles from Bull's Run, 
 
 March 9, 1862, Z-J- P.M. 
 
 Captain Purdy, A. A.-G. : 
 
 Sir: — On information of my scout, I felt justified in 
 malting, this day, a reconnoissance to Sangster's Station. 
 We have done this with caution, and forced in their 
 pickets, which were in some force at Sangster's. 
 
 Col. Taylor commanded the advance. Col. Simpson 
 with uncommon judgment echeloned our supports and 
 guarded us from attacks from our right. 
 
 A cavalry charge, unrivaled in brilliancy, headed by 
 Lieut. Hidden, Lincoln Horse, broke them, captured 
 them, annihilated them. It was paid for with his life. 
 A lieutenant and many foot are in our hands. 
 
 The Lincoln Horse has distinguished itself, also, in our 
 patrols, which report the ox-road and further country 
 safe. The 3d Reg., N. J. Vols., has been, so far, in the 
 advance, the 2d supporting it ; Col. Simpson holding 
 Fairfax Station and intermediate country ; ist Reg. at 
 Burkes. 
 
 The country has been safely covered at all points. 
 The enemy evidently is disheartened and retiring. Their 
 cars are continually running to Manassas. 
 
 Sir, I await further orders, my original ones being to 
 remain at Burkes. 
 
 Respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 P. Kearny. 
 
 99 
 
lOO CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Head-quarters, New Jersey Brigade, 
 Camp Seminary, March 19, 1862. 
 
 Dear Madame: — A sad duty makes me intrude on 
 the hallowed nature of your sorrow. Whilst you lament 
 the son, as commander and present where he proved the 
 hero, I ask to sympathize with you in his glory. 
 
 As far as that son, citizen, and soldier belonged to his 
 country, I have done him justice in my report of the en- 
 gagement. His brilliant victory and daring courage have 
 been made history. But here, Madame, my hopes of 
 consolation for you end. With whatever fortitude you 
 may alleviate your sorrows, for you, as mother, there can 
 be no diminishing by his public glory the anguish of the 
 parent ; as far as comrades in arms of that son, in my 
 own name and for them all, I beg to assure you of our 
 sympathies. 
 
 With great respect, yours most sincerely, 
 
 P. Kearny, Brig.-Getieral. 
 
 Mrs. Hidden, New York. 
 
 Head-quarters, New Jersey Erigade, 
 Camp, November 8, 1861. 
 
 Sir: — Dr. Hamilton requests to purchase fresh beef. 
 I am not aware of any objections in a single or a few cases, 
 if so ordered by Gen. Franklin. 
 
 But officers cannot have choice pieces ; they must take 
 it as it comes. 
 
 I enforce this most rigidly in my own case. 
 Respectfully, 
 
 P. Kearny, M.-G. 
 Capt. Purdy, a. A.-Gen. Div. Head-quar. 
 
^SS^'--'*"'