The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

FIELD-MARSHAL LORD CLYDE.

On the 20th of October, 1792, there was born in
Glasgow, or close by that city, then almost as quiet
as in the days of Baillie Nicol Jarvie, a child in
*whose veins the gentle blood of the Highland lady
commingled with that of the Lowland mechanic. No
ray of hope or fortune illuminated his humble cradle;
but by his own right hand, and by the exhibition
of qualities which have raised nameless lads to for-
tune before now, that child came to fill a place
among the foremost soldiers and highest dignitaries
of the day. At a very early age he was taken from
Scotland and put to school abroad and in England,
and for many years he never revisited his native
land. He came by his mother's side of a martial
race, and in 1808, before he was 16 years of age, one
of his maternal relatives sent for him to come to
London from a military school at Gosport, to enter
the army. The boy's uncle was well known to the
Duke of York, and his request for a commission for
his sister's son was at once complied with.
Celia Campbell, now ensign in the East Nor-
folk Regiment, was at once taken to a military
outfitter's--aa pigtail was attached to the lank of his
head, a tight-fitting, epauletteei, short-waisted, red
coat covered with lace, a pair of leather knee-
breeches, and betasseled Hessian bouts were also
duly provided for him, and he was sent off the
same evening to Canterbury to join the 9th Regi-
ment of Foot, which may be said to have com-
menced its military career with the arrival of
the young officer, as its colours, then virgin,
svere only about to be decorated with the names
of the battles in which he first saw fire. He
had no time to enjoy the pleasure of his fine uni-
form, for the regiment marched the next day to em-
bark for the Peninsula ; and Lord Clyde was wont,
when a war-seasoned veteran, to recall the miseries
of his first march to Margate in his leather tights
and Hessians, and to declare that he endured more
pain in the unaccustomed, and it may be added un-
suitable, attire on that occasion than he ever knew
in his long afterlife of march-making. The young
soldier's apprenticeship to his trade was ready,
rough, and rude—no holiday, no play-time—for in
three weeks from the time when he had quitted the
schoolboy's desk at Gosport he saw the French in-
fantry cresting the hill-sides of Vimiera, and took
part in the opening actions of that series of cam-
paigns which after many checks and some reverses,
led to the liberation of thankless Spain from the yoke
of Bonaparte. That the fortune of war is even more
capricious than the blind goddess who regulates the
ordinary matters of life, he might, no doubt, have
felt after our early successes, when, with unwilling
steps, he was obliged to trudge with his regiment
before the columns of Soult to Corunna, where the
lion turned to bay and rent his pursuer. That she
is sometimes constant in her animosities he must
have been assured when, scarce landed from the
transport which carried him from the shores of
Spain, he was ordered off to participate in the shame,
suffering, and disasters of the Walcheren expedition
in 1809. The fever struck into his body so keenly
that, until he went to China 30 years afterwards,
4, Walcheren," as he said, " was with me every sea-
son." From Walcheren he returned to Spain in
1810, where, with better fortune and guidance, he
shared in the battle of Barossa in March, 1811, and
the defence of Tarifa in January 5, 1812 ; and in
1812 he was transferred to a corps of the Spanish
army, with which he was actually employed against
the French in a long series of harassing skirmishes
and operations, which are known to the Spaniards,
but not to us, as important actions. In this year he
also took part in the unsucceasful movement against
the French at Tarragona. Frcm his experience of
their qualities in the field Lord Clyde gave a higher
place than was generally accorded at the time to
our Spanish allies, and was particularly struck with
their powers of marching, their great sobriety and
frugality. In 1813 he joined the Duke of Welling-
ton's army again, and plunged into the thickest of
the hard fighting which took place in that memor-
able year. He had in his first year's service reached
the grade of lieutenant ; and now, at the age of 21,
he had made a name for activity, courage, and de-
termination, which began to be heard throughout
the army. He passed unscathed through Vittoria,
the greatest of our victories after Waterloo, in that
quarter of the century ; but in the breach of St.
Sebastian he war not so fortunate. He led a for-
lorn hope which rushed to the aid of the neglected
stormers, and he received two wounds in that des

Aerate encounter. On Nov. 9, 1813, he became a
captain by brevet, and in that position the hero of
St. Sebastian, who had now added to his wounds a
bullet path through the thigh, received at the pas-
sage of the Bidassoa, remained for 12 long years.
It was not his habit to speak of small scratches,
flesh wounds, skin scars, and the like, but it is be-
lieved that by the time he left France and proceeded
to America, to serve against the Federal Govern-

meat in 1814, he bore as many marks as the body
of the saint who gave to the fortress where Sir
Colin's wounds spoke for and returned themselves

against his will; for an actual sabre slice, a

thorough bayonet stab, and an ingoing bullet put
all modesty to shame and insisted on mention in the
despatches.
He had now been transferred to the 60th Rifles,
and when the brief war was over in which we

drove the President out of Washington after the
" Races of Bladensburg," and were beaten at New
Orleans, Sir Colin Campbell was left on the same

rung of the ladder of promotion, and he sturdily but
not contentedly hung on it till he was 33 years of
age—a captain still—seeing younger men with less

_ _ ...
service and longer purses shoved or pulled up over
his head. Captain Campbell had no command of

the means which, well employed, might then have
secured him a juster reward for his cervices ; but he

had ample opportunity of testing every variety of
climate and of seeing all kinds of service. In 1823

he served as Brigade-Major of the force employed
in reducing the blacks in Demerara, where he re-
vived the dormant venom of his Walcheren fever.

From that period the state of the world, so far as

Great Britain was concerned, gave him no opportu-
nity of active work against an enemy, and for many
Years he was employed on a duty which he often
spoke of as most disgusting to a soldier ; he was
obliged to protect by military force the ejections
and s
ales for the recovery of tithe, then so common
14 Ireland.
Although he was never the advocate
of the purchase system, he was much struck with
hthe advantage antage of a judicious outlay of money, and
eare4eare(l toto1:.1 attribute the ultimate success of his
hsobtaining a sum which enabled him to
purchase is
angry, i Lieutenant-Colonelcy. • Soured and
power an the v'e
ability,
of life and full consciousness of
to the career of aL he had almost resigned himself
on half-pay, when the oppor-
tunity occurred, and with ith doubt and hesitation he
availed himself of it.
fewi hundred pounds made all
the difference between h
Worl:ying an obscure veteran,
and his rise in the
the Field-Marshal of
Great Britain whose breast hais
name was in every one's r blaze with orders, whose
descendants of Marl-
borough and Wellington
honoured by his Sovereign and heisliohse of Peers,
When the interests of commerce Country'
made it necessary for Great Britain to civilisation
against China in 1842, Colin Campbell,d
h°eel"e war
been gazetted as Lieutenant-Colonel 10 y: ha
before'
went out in command of the 98th, and for 11
Months
his regiment was packed aboard a man-of-war, with
a neglect of all consideration for health and comfort,
which cruelly avenged itself upon officers and men.
From China to India is a common step, though it
is not attended with benefit to the Constitution.
Col. Campbell had a short repose in Hindostan, but
it was broken by the outbreak of the Sikh war. In
virtue of his seniority he was appointed to the com-
mand of the Third Division of the army of the Pun-
jab, and he soon flamed out on the field with more
than the old Peninsular fire, and led his wen with
such skill that in all the great battled in which we
stood foot to foot with the sternest foe we ever met
or are likely to meet in India, his soldiers appeared
in the very crisis of the fight. At Ramnuggur, at
Chillianwallah, where, in directing a most
impor-
tant and timely
movement, he was again wounded,
1

and at Goojerat, he earned the name of an able

general in addition to that of the thorough soldier
which be had won and erjoyed so long ; but there

were not wanting critics in India then es afterwards

why accused himL of over-caution. Now, of all men

Colin Campbell was most fervent and passionate in
battle—his impulse ever was to rush into tile
very focus of the fight and kindle those around
him ; but his sense of duty, his care for his men's
lives, his warm attachment to those who followed
him dominated the bent of his iJclination, and
forced even his stern will to submi- to the exi-
gencies of command. His critics were not disposed
to be more favourable to him because he did not
conceal his ill opinion of the Indian army, and consi-
dered the Sepoys as the mere bamboo of the lance,
which was valueless unless it were tipped with the
steel of British infantry. In his conduct of opera-
tions against the Hill Tribes in 1881-2, he displayed
his usual activity, but his relations with the Indian
authorities were affected by an incompatibility of
views and temper. Colonel Campbell felt the diffi-
culty which Sir Charles Napier could not overcome
in dealing with the great civilians in India. His
spirit was principally moved by the indignities,
which he thought undeserved, inflicted by them on
the Indian princes. But it was not on these grounds
that his command on the frontier was terminated.
He was not regarded with favour by Indian autho-
rities.

Colin Campbell was now, however, on the upward
path, and, though he knew it not, his star
w her
di nr f
treadp iidn ltyo i
tnh te hite
ua
ss
sc
ieannd awnat
r. Ta
nh
de s
fhr iopmo f theadsSe ctris
i
ak tse,
in
three
1854,
kiltedmarched
a, thelri p
lu mGe
dl a s
regiments,
boy
wthhe ie
hh, efad of
or t u
n honoura te in
with theirlittlechief
loasnsdatinthteheAirlmpal,aacnedwaolnmomstucahs
ttha t ino
on ,
lions
ss o
at f a ra
lal s
oonn etof fe tfha ammo
uws ads a cyo no
f-
cmeurnehedr,ewp
Balaclava, when the thienreadlry. Lordlineo
ftitheag9l3adn,wtaos
opposed to the Russian cavalry.
whom Sir Colin Campbell was not much known ex-
cept by report, knew, however, that he was one
whose eye never closed and whose hand never re-
laxed, and thererore he covered up the right flank
of his army with the Highland Brigade, and gave
their General the charge of Balaclava and all its
works. There he had, indeed, little of the glory of
battle, but much wearying anxiety and incessant
vigilance. On the retirement of Sir James Simp-
son from the command of the army of the Crimea,
which had " devolved" upon him after Lord Rag-
lan's death, it was supposed that unlucky officer
would have been succeeded by Sir Colin Campbell ;
but, to the astonishment of those capable of being
astonished by anything " down there," a guardsman,
who had never seen a shot fired by an enemy till he
led up his division at the Alma after the fashion of
Mr. Kinglake's British generals, was appointed
over the head of one who had earned a soldier's name
more than 40 years ago, and was known as a good
general in the field long before Codrington had got
his bloodless colonelcy. It is not to be wondered at
that the soldier, now fairly to be described as old
more in respect of services than of years, felt this
" accident" more than he could be fairly called on
to tolerate. He went to England, and it was only
at the request of one whose wish was his law that
he returned to the Crimea to take a command which
would no doubt worthily have employed him had
not peace abruptly terminated the campaign, He
had been gazetted:a Major-General in 1854. In the
October of the same year he was appointed to the
colonelcy of the 67th Regiment. On the 4th of
June, 1856, he was made Lieutenant-General, and
in that rank he fairly settled down, almost surprised
at his late honours, if not quite satisfied at the part
he had played in the great war wherein they were
bestowed.
But his opus magnum was yet to be accomplished.
One :may count on his fingers the years of peace
and rest which Colin Campbell passed in his long
life, but his years of active service almost comprised
the half-century in which were chronicled the great
and little wars in which the British standard had
been lifted from the beginning of the Peninsula
campaigns till the present time. When we were
startled by the Indian mutiny, it was not a favourite
in high places or a dilettante soldier who was
selected to save our tottering empire. There
was a sigh of satisfaction and content through-
out the country when we were told that Sir Colin
Campbell had at a moment's notice, and with ala-
crity best described, perhaps, as Napieristt, started
off to take command of the forces engaged in putting
down that which history will call the Great
Mutiny. And history will tell how it was put
down. From the time that Sir Colin Campbell
took the field and set his columns in motion, rebel-
lion, the offspring of mutiny, withered and died.
It is beyond our limits to deecribe his work. The
impatient and ignorant civilians and their crea-
tures have best described the nature of it in the
nickname they applied to him of " Kuberdar," or

" Take Care." He did " take care"—took care so
well that no surprise of a single detachment, no
capture of one solitary post stationed by him, ever
took place; took care that when once his army was

in motion it flowed over the land as regularly as
the tide covers the beach, and that there was no
ebb thenceforth ; took care that the British sway
advanced with his van, and never, where he had
drawn the line of its march, was described on any
other tracing, till at last he stood on the banks of
the Raptoe, and, looking over the wide expanse of
Hindustan, could feel that he had made safe the
supremacy of the Queen he served. He fully en-

tered into the spirit of Lord Canning's just and
generous sentiments, and he did full justice to the
inspirations which accorded so fully with the dic-
tates of his own heart and the counsels of his head.

The sobriquet of " Clemency," attached with allic•
terative propriety to the name of " Canning," and
meant to be a sharp insult, is not disgraced by that
of " Kuberdar," associated with the name of Camp-
bell.

When his labours in the field were over, and he
had returned home to receive the acknowledgments
of the whole country, the thanks of Parliament,
the approbation of his Sovereign, and the honours
he so valued as a soldier, he was not permitted to
rest quietly on the laurels he had gathered. The
amalgamation of the great armies of the East and
of the West was going on—the reconstructive pro-
cess was commenced, and the old soldier was
harrassed with reports, references, suggestions, in-
terviews, councils, and memoranda on all the intri-
cate business relating to the judicious mixture of the
silver and quicksilver of the two bodies. He had
had no rest, and his frame showed that he needed

rest. He sought it at Vichy with his old brother in

arms of the days of Balaclava, General Vinoy. 11-1
one of his hot gallops in India his horse had fallen

with him, and at times he complained unwillingly
of a pain which must have come from some mis-

chief in the chest. At the review of the Volunteers
at Brighton he took the command at the request of
the higher powers ; but after it was over he said it

was his last day in the field, and he shaved off his

moustache as a sign that he had retired from ac-

Live service. A few months ago he had a severe
illness, in which the lungs and heart were impli-
cated, but the old shot-and-steel-rent body resisted

the attack of the great entmy, and to the delight of
his friends he seemed to become nearly as well as
ever he had been of latter years, and no one Was
more firm and vigorous for his years. Still he had
causes of annoyance, which were, perhaps, unduly
aggrandised by failings of nature. Appointed
colonel of the Coldstream Guards in 1860, Field-
Marshal in 1862, Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, had
attained heights far beyond the flights of his highest
ambition. But he had the impossible ambition of
being " left alone in his glory." It was with pain he
Cg rr iema
great
as not 1 :
did not attempt to conceal that he found himself
made the hero of a great episode in the history of the
book hadaraign• " I wish with all my heart that
,e,r been written—it has caused me
his old age, but to
let;There were other sourees of irrita-
tion, too, which somewhat. embittered the days of
shrewd yet
genial,
abruptlong, yet courtierlike friend
hoef wNsh.iocuhldhebdaievde,
abpustas in his young days
sought to
lidaestirpeed, At last came the illness
would have surely
pass
in his old age he
the ay—amid the
tender cares and subdued sorrolawssofawt who loved
him well, and not the less that he hadhobseehn.
com-
rade of the soldier whose family stood b
We have thus endeavoured to trace iyn very feeble
outline the incidents in the life of a man- whoseee--
career affords a remarkable illustration of the value
of high character in the profession of arms, and of
strength of mind and physical constitution to
eaable him to wait tali opportunity and its golden