The Sun.
London, England, 1813-11-06 00:00:00

INIMICAL BIOGRAPHY.

Much having been said of late. respectine-
that worthy character„ General trANDAMNIE.,
4„, .
Count of ,uoeb?urt; And as some persons con-
sider he has been harshly treated hr the tin,-.,.
newt' of ltussrt, In biting sent „to Sibefii;,' the
foll Owing statement (which maybe' relied on),
Imay not be uninteresting to ottr readerS2i—• "
Ge4ral Vil4DAltmE is
,about 54 years of
,age,
5, feet.lo inches high, and stout made; he. is a mi-
,tive of Notilit Cassel, where his father Wai-ti petty
' ripotlietary; the whole contents of liii house
and situp not worth More than honi fifteen to
tweet!, pounds ; Vandamtne being in his youth,
what he tins since Continued,- a Worthless sublect
without education. At the age of Is be entered,
liS pIiYA.I:C into the Pretich sery.ice, and after
committing Yarions depredations; lie was con-
deinned•fo be hung for a robbery, btit by the- in-
tercession of the late Mons. Longl6 de Scoubeck,
the. Lord of' the Manor, &c. of Mount Cassel, it
was at most humane character, that Senteke Was
mitigated, and he was marked on the back, and
sent to the ;;allies, from which he was liberated
by the revolutiOn ; and hating returned home, he
became the terror of all the well-dispOsed inhabi-
tants in that neighbourhood, and as a mark of his
.gratitude to that benefactor, Who had saved his
life, in February, 1793, he denounced Mons.
Longle de, Bcoubeck, as well a - many others, who,
with their Ninnies, perished in consequence. Hav-
ing by his violent and atriicious conduct rendered .
h nre-elf conspieous, he was appointed Captain of the
Ilitle Corps of Mount Cassel, and the French hav-
ing in.vad-.1 \Vest Flanders in May following, lie
put to ileaol with his own hands (and-of which he
boasted), a near relation of his own, I believe his
mother's brother, wlto was one of the unfortunate
priests who had taken refuge in that 'country.—
Duanuerque being besieged by the British army,
and the corps which be cotnnianded having been
considerably augmented by the incorporation of
several others, on the , sth -of ,September, he
was appointed Colonel, from which time it was -
called the Rifle Corps •of randananie, and by
their crimes and cruelties during the war, ren7
tiered themselves truly worthy of that name, as
they spared neither age or sew. Or the sane
day, which was three days previous to the me-
morable battle of l-locidtschoote, he Was ap-
pointed by the late General llouchard Co the com-
mand of a brigade of that army which hettitnmand-
ed, and in gratitude for that favour, he denounced
'that Genefal for not having (as he was pleased to
say), driven'the Duke of York and his army into
the sea, and he was guiflotined in consequence.
Manbrnge being besieged by the main.body of the -
A t•ttriati army, with die view of causing a diver-
simt, on the 6th of October, West Flanders was
:alai i .vaded by the. French, in three coluiuns,
an 1 Vaiannme having represented to the National
Directory the great benefits they might derive by
the pillaging of t.ose countries, he was appointed
to the command .of the left wing of that army ;
and having taken `Without difficulty the town
A' Fernes, he wrote a pompous letter to the
'Directory
.(which must still be in the recol-
lection of many of your readers), in which he
stated that he had that day taken Forties, and that
he should be the next day at Nienport, and that
on the day following lie should address them from
Ostend; but Isl,euport being well defended by the
late Captain IVilson, of the British Artillery, and
the 'regiment of the Count de la Chartre, and
some I!;itglish gun-boats, which raked his columns
and killed many of his Melt, he was at length
C01111')C11Cd to retreat, leaving the whole of his heavy
artillery behind. Uxasperated at this disappoint-
- meet, having calculated as he had done, on the
(pielteititi;ll:r.teliceoiblicitiughl obtain at Ostend, lie put to
emigrants of to his own .acknowledgment, 20
the regiment of La Chartre, who
had been made prisoners, and two Of them being
of high rank (the one a 11.1arquis), he boasted
of haying shot them. With his own hands. - The
town and 'neighbOurhood of Fumes was plundered
of every thing, and every crime committed on the
unfortunate inhabitants, even too shocking to re-
late ; and when the Magistrates appealed to his
humanity, looking at theta with the ferocity of a
tiger, be told them lie would leaYe nothing except
.the hare walls and their eyes to cry out of. Hav-
ing pillaged the town, and laid waste the sur-
rounding conntry, he returned with his blood:-
hounds to Thiliquerque, where lie was,,suspentled
from WS command by order of thePirectory, not
for the crimes, he had coMmitted, but because
he had nut gone to . Ostend, as he bad pro-
posed,
and had undertaken to do ; however, '
on representing to the Directory the honourable
manner in which lie had executed their, inten-
tions, and the plunder he had sent into France, and
above all that he had put to death so many enemies
of the French Republic, two of the principals
with his own hands, he was considered worthy of
.their confidence, and in as few days reinstated.—
On the same, day Gen. Vandanime entered the
town of Forties ; the towns of Menin and Coutray
(the fenner of which was then'the head-quarters
of the British army) were attacked by the right
wing of that plundering army, under the command
of Oetimls Davesnies and lloche, and after a
Most gallant resistance during several days, both
these towns were taken, and were, as well as the
surrounding country, pillaged, hut without any of
that cruelty or rigour with which Pones had been
treateed.,'r he centre Column, conunanded bythe late
Gen Ilona lid ovas on tileSlitlli day to have blockaded
the fortress of YypreS on the hOilth and west side, to
keep the garristin in check , to cover the pillage of the
town of Poperingue, and the adjoining country ;
but- that column 'having been obliged to support
the right wing, poperingue was not taken till the
lOti., and Gt neral Moreau, by whom it was taken,
and Geueral Rolland, tinder whom he command-
`ed, being iiminane characters, whose object wigs,
even in those .lays of terror, to tin alln the good in
their power, anti prevent every evil,' General Mm-
damme was sent to•iillage that town and neigh-
bourhood; in the smne in.t.iicrly manatee he had ,
done at Forties, and three hundred waggons,
sent from France, were laden with the plunder of
that town ; . even the . bells from the churches
were taken, a's ivell as cattle and horses of every
description, -and sever=al of the surrounding vil-
lages wantonly reduced to ashes, mid the most
brutal cruelties, too shocking to relate, were com-

H

Il

I

0

. , . .
. .
mittecl under his sanction Lon tli. nufortnnate in- i'
ktabitants:•several men, women, and even 'eh A,ll-n 1
vvere.absolntely hoc 'hied ; and be ti
ing sane,,n!•;t ,d'.
hy the. Directory in these acts of :.:•uelty, he ‘v,IS u it
i
abuilutely the &cud of all the of .ter Generals.— !'
General Morean, who was 'only Colonel, but hav- , i i'
.
ing greatly, distjtnrnished himself at the battle of - i h
ill
llondtschoote, and tin various toilet- oecasio.o: as 1111 •
able officer, was at that tune appointed, o,:ticral , q
. . ,
of Brigade; and Although he continued to coin- - A
ma»tt 'the. troops in the same low!' - w heti these ! ,
,
depredations were eounnitied hy.Vand.dome, he ili
had no .communication with him whatever. . In t,i
i
May, 1794, that part of the Netherlauds bein4 ; I
again invaded by the Frenelr, and
.the fortress ;1
of Ypres being besieged.
.by..the late General
Clairfait, who
.conimatided the army opposed to
''them, having a very inferior
.force, the -Bth and 1
14th regiments of light dragoons, which then I.ifid-
.ed at Ostend, were ordered to joie hits with a . 1
small brigade of British infantry, under the late 1,
General White; anti General Clairfuit having
beaten the French on the 18th, Gen, Yonduinme,
commanded the siege of Ypres, was taken prisoner
by the
_tit h light'di•agoons, who, as well as the I.lth,
greatly distinguished themselves on that iiii ; who,
II
while ptirsuing the enemy, left hint in charge of two
men of thejortner regiment, wiso, not knowing the
country, and a detachment of French cavalry corn-
in g in sight, they were hailed by yandamme,
%those first object on being liberated, was to have
those nun who had spared his life most brutally cut -
~
to pieces in cold blood, of which bespoke as a me-
ritorious act. The allied army 14.11.ing,finatir re- ~
ttAated oat of those coutities a short time after,
Gen. Vandamme appointed his own father, and a ,
roan of the name of Heron, to attend him, to
I
receive and forward to France the plunder I
of the conquered countries, by which they
all enriched themselves to a considerable extent ;
il
but the Government of France having becothe
more moderate, and being a man of no abili- l
ties as an officer, on General Moreau succeeding
General Pichegru in the command of the army
of the North, in July, 1795, when that. Gene-
ral took the comnaolid of the army of the Rhine,
General Vandamme was dismissed the service in
consequence of his cruelties and rapaCions conduct :
he then returned to Mount Celssrl, where by his
plunder he was enabled to purchase the whole of
•the extensive property and noble mansion' which
belonged to the late Mons. Lougl6 de semtheck,
as well, as other property in that neighbourhood,
all of Which he now possesses, and where he .re-
mained, deteited by all Well-disposed persons,
until Boonaparte became First Consid of France,
When, on enumerating his serviJes,, s.liich conhl
only be the crimes he had cOtinnitted, he was, to
the astonishment of every ode, apoidted Gover-
nor of Lisle, anti the Department of the North.
These facts come under the knowledge of
.th*
writer of this sketch, and a Britkh subject,