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 Baillia 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 sohool 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.
Colin Campbell, now ensign in the East Nor-
folk Regiment, was at once taken to a military
outfitter's—a pigtail was attached to the back of his
head, a tight-fitting, epauletted, short-waisted, red
coat covered with lace, a pair of leather knee-
breeches, and betasseled Hessian boots 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,
were 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 creating the hill-sides of Virciera, 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, whore the
lion turned to bay and rent his pursuer. That she
is sGmwinit-4 constant in her animosities he must
hsv, bean acsured wh“l, scarce landed from the
transport which carried him from the shores of
Spain, he c as ordered off to participate in the shame,
I.nd disasters of the Walcheren expedition
in 18;9. The fever struck into his body so keenly
that, until he went to China 30 years afterwards,
Walcheren," as he said, " was with me every sea-
son." From Walcheren he returned to Spain in
1810, where, with better fortune and g.uidance, he
shared in the battle of B Trossa 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 unsuccessful 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-
tora's army again, and plunges 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 geade 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-
perate 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-
ment 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 at d 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
4. Raoeg 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 contentejly 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 services ; 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 sales for the recovery of tithe, then so common
in Ireland. Although he was never the advocate
of the purchase system, he was much struck with
the advantage of a judicious outlay of money, and
he used
to attribute the ultimate success of his
career to his obtaining a sum which enabled him to
purchase his Lieutenant-Colonelcy. Soared and
angry, •
y. In the prime of life and full consciousness of
power
and. ability, he had almost resigned himself
to the career of
occurred,
f it, a major on half-pay, when the oppor-
tunityand with doubt and hesitation he
availed himself 0A few hundred pounds made all
the difference between his dying an obscure veteran,
and his rise in the
world as the Field-Marshal of
Great Britain whosebr :
list blazed with orders, whose
".
name was in every 0
and who sate byPtshin the days of trial and
danger,
Marl-
borough and Wellington in
descendantsthe Rouse of Peers,
of
honoured by his Sovereign and his country.
When the interests of eetemeree
an
made it necessary for Great Britain to
against China in 1842, Colin Campbell, declare war
been gazetted as Lieutenant-Colonel 10 yeavrho had
went out in command of the 98th, and for Ira before,
11 mouths
.his regiment was packed aboard a man-of-war, with
neglect of all consideration for health and
a comfort,
which cruelly avenged itself upon officers and men.
From China to India is a common step, though it
is nit attended with benefit to the Constitution.
Col. Campbell had a short p
re ose in Hindostan, but
te Sikh
it was broken by the outbreak of h
s appointed to thewar. In
cora-
virtue of his seniority he wa
meted of the 'third I tivision of the of the Pun-
.
army
the fitA with more
jab, and Foln fl aned out on
than the old Peninsular fire, and led his rren with
such skill that in all the great battles in which we
m
stood foot to foot with the sternest foe we everar et
peed
or are likely to meet in India, his soldiers ap
in the very crisis of the fight. At Ran3suggur, at
Chillianwallah, where, in directing a most impor-
tant and timely movement, he was again wounded,
and at Goojerat, he earned the nazne of an able
general in addition to that of the thorough soldier
which he had won and enjoyed so long ; but there
were not wanting critics in India then as afterwards
accused him of over-caution. Now, of all men

Colin Campbell was most fervent and passionate in
battle—his impulse ever was to rush into the
very focus of the fight and kindle those around
him ; but his sense of duty, his care f,r his men's
lives, his warm attachment to those w ,o followed
him dominated the bent of his i !ration, 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, h►e displayed
his asual 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 h
path, and, though he knewit not,
his star te
wasup ris-
ingward
rapidly in the ascendant. The sfrhip ofom htehredSeotaktse
drifted into the Russian war, and ,
in
nhrleBe ks4ilted marched
and plumedthe
Glasgowregiments,
in
ibeonyt
s at
wt
hh
iee
h, head
fortu-
nate o f
wh
intheir
littlechief loss
and
the Am
theirn
l a, place,
and almost wonmuch
honour a
s
ofara
much ra
lals
oonn.e
the of tfha ammo
nws adsay cone
uitthatinoon,
inceurnehedr,ewp
g93l adn ,w ta was
lions ss
Balaclava,opposed
to we
hhee
nn
ntshsei
atnh iena
vr eadl
ryl n e
Loofr
dt hßea
whom Sir Colin Campbell was notthmaut chheknwoawsneenxe-
°ept by report, knew, however,
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 divibion 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

be returned to the Crimea to take a command which

would no doubt worthily have employed him had
not peace abruptly terminated the campaign. He
hid 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 Napierisn, 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-

ion, the offspring of mutiny, withered and died.
[t is beyond our limits to describe his work. The

'inpatient and ignorant civilians and their ere&

I -
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
Hindostan, 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 alli-
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. In
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-
tive 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 enemy, 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
did not attempt to conceal that he found himself
made the hero of a great episode in the history of the
Crimean campaign. " I wish with all my heart that
book had never been written—it has caused me
great anxiety." There were other eourees of irrita-
tion, too, which somewhat embittered the days of
his old age, but to his friends he was ever the
same
shrewd yet genial, abrupt yet courtierlike friend
hey had known so long.
At
last
came
the
illness
of which he died, not
he would have
Perhaps as in his young days
desired, but as in his old age he
would have surely sought to
pass away—amid the
tender cares and subdued sorrow of those who loved
him well, and not the less that he had beenybisthpeileloomw:•
rade of the soldier whose family stood by
We have thus endeavoured to trace •
la very feeble
outline the incidents in the life of a man
whose
career affords a remarkable illustration of the
vaolu
se
of high character in the profession of arms, and oet
strength of mind and physical constitution to
enable him to wait till opportunity and its golden

moment arrives. If such a man live long enough it
must arrive ; for there is a time in the existence of
every nation when she throws aside the frivolous
courtiers who have amused her leisure, and seizes
instinctively the strong arm which can avert the
threatening danger. Lord Clyde's early fortune
led him to the West when the Waterloo campaign
was about to ennoble its heroes, and to consign the
Peninsular soldiers who were not present with them
to a long oblivion and obscurity. But he was
known even to those who stood in his way as a
master of his profession, and he loved it so well
that slight and the sense of wrong could not force
him to neglect his duty. Duty was to him a sen-
tient, warm-blooded principle, not a cold, pas-
sionless, brutish idol, and her first rule was in
his mind, "obedience" The struggle to obey left
some traces of its influence on his spirit. lie could
not help at times long ago comparing his position
and his services with those of men above him,
though he rarely spoke of himself, and there was a
loftier independence in his words when he thought
of these things, which might have been mistaken
for anger. The more he was neglected the greater
became his attachment to the soldier. No man
ever studied so thoroughly and knew so intimately
the character, the virtues, and the failings of that
strange human aggregate which is to so many offi-
cers a mere locomotive creature, to be drilled and
wheeled, and reviewed, to be paraded, and black-
celled, and be-striped, to be "kept in his proper
place "—to be cursed at on occasion too—as Lord
Clyde. His rugged brow knitted fiercely and his eye
flashed no doubtful fire if he heard a word spoken
to the soldier's disparagement, or detected any ac-
tion to his detriment. Though he did not call them
his children, they were dear to the childless old
chief, and, if he addressed them, his words flowed
with an eloquence and sympathetic charm which de-
serted his lips when he had to speak to less congenial
audience. When in India the authorities determined
on transferring the European soldiers of the Company
to the army of the Crown, without seeking their
consent, he pointed out to them the injustice and
the consequences of the step, and resisted it by every
means in his power; but when the Government had
resolved to adhere to its policy he repressed the in-
subordinate outbreaks he had prophesied with
vigour and determination. A nature like his must
be earnest in love and in hate, and he dwelt little
on the neutral ground which lies between them.
But his affections were ineradicable by anything
but ingratitude, and that stung him like a serpent's
tooth. If he was gratified with the honours he had
learned, he felt their value was for him well nigh
buried in the graves of those for whose sakes he
would have exulted to have won them. They had
come too late for full fruition.

In person Lord Clyde was well knit, symmetrical,
and graceful; but of late years his shoulders became
somewhat bowed, though he lost little of the acti-
vity which was remarkable in so old a man. To the
last his teeth remained full and firm in the great
square jaws, and his eye pierced the distance with
all the force of his youthful vision. His crisp, grey
locks still stood close and thick, curling over the
head and above the wrinkled brow, and there were
few external signs of the decay of nature which
wes, no doubt, going on within, accelerated by so
many wounds, such fevers, such relentless, exacting
service. When he so willed it, he could throw into
his manner and conversation such a wondrous charm
of simplicity and vivacity as fascinated those oser
whom it was exerted, and women admired and men
were delighted with the courteous, polishes, gallant
old soldier. In the other mood he could be quite
as effective.

The nation will, doubtless, accord to his remains
the mark of respect and gratitude due to their most
faithful servants, No better soldier has ever been
borne within the sacred walls of our Christian
Pantheon. When England needs one to defend her
flag, to vindicate her honour, and to uphold the
renown of her arms, may she ever find a champion
as trusty, as pure, and as true as Colin Campbell
Lord Clyde ! Times.