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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PUBLIC LIFE OF THE LATE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL

SIR GEORGE PREVOST, BART.

PARTICULARLY OF HIS SERVICES

IN

THE CANADAS;

INCLUDING

A REPLY TO THE STRICTURES ON HIS MILITARY CHARACTER,

CONTAINED

IN AN ARTICLE IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW FOR OCTOBER, 1822.

     "Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking; the
     very stream of his life, and the business he hath
     helmed, must upon a warranted need give him a better
     proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own
     bringings forth, and he shall appear a statesman and a
     soldier. Therefore you speak unskilfully; or if your
     knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice."

                                    MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND;

AND

T. EGERTON, WHITEHALL.

1823.


J. M'Creery, Printer,
Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.




SOME ACCOUNT

OF

THE PUBLIC LIFE OF THE LATE LIEUT.-GENERAL

SIR GEORGE PREVOST, BART.

_&c. &c._


The character and conduct of individuals in high and responsible
situations, will naturally and necessarily be the subject of free and open
discussion. The conduct of a soldier is more particularly exposed to this
scrutiny. His success or his failure is a matter of such powerful interest
to his country, that he generally receives even more than his full measure
of approbation or of blame. Notwithstanding all the difficulties of forming
a correct judgment on the merits of military operations, there is perhaps
no subject upon which public opinion expresses itself so quickly and so
decidedly. Disappointed in the sanguine hopes which they had entertained,
and mortified by the consciousness of defeat, the public too frequently
imagine cause for censure, and without a competent knowledge of the facts
necessary to enable them to form a sound and satisfactory judgment,
unhesitatingly condemn those who have perhaps passed in their service a
long life of anxiety and labour. But while, in the moment of irritation,
they are thus disposed to impugn the conduct of their military servants,
they are no less ready, on more deliberate inquiry, and a fuller
understanding of the facts, to grant them a candid and generous acquittal.
These observations are peculiarly applicable to the case of the late
Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, who, after having devoted to his
country thirty-five of the best years of his life; after having
distinguished himself in many gallant actions; and after having preserved
to the crown of Great Britain some of its most valuable foreign
possessions, was called upon, at the close of his honourable career, to
answer charges which vitally affected his reputation, and which he was
prevented by death from fully and clearly refuting.

Painful as it was to the friends of Sir George Prevost to allow a single
stain to rest upon the memory of so brave and distinguished a soldier, more
especially when they possessed the means of removing every doubt as to his
conduct, they yet considered an appeal to the candour and justice of his
country as unnecessary. The violent prejudices which at one period existed
against the late Commander of the Forces in the Canadas were gradually
wearing away; his memory had been honored by a just tribute of his
Sovereign's regret and approbation; and the scenes in which he had been so
conspicuous an actor, had ceased to be a matter of general interest. Under
these circumstances, the relatives of Sir George Prevost would confidently
have entrusted his reputation to the unprejudiced judgment of posterity,
had they not seen, with equal regret and indignation, a late attempt to
revive the almost exploded calumnies and misrepresentations of which he had
been the victim. That the Quarterly Review[1] should have lent its pages to
an attack like this, will, upon the perusal of the present volume, excite
the surprise of every candid person; and it is chiefly for the purpose of
correcting the mis-statements into which the Reviewer has been led, that
the following pages are presented to the public.

Before entering more particularly upon the subject of Sir George Prevost's
conduct, so wantonly attacked in the article above alluded to, it may not
be thought improper briefly to advert to his father's services and to his
own early history. From his military career, previous to his appointment to
the chief command in British North America, it will clearly appear that he
was not without reason selected by his Majesty's Government for the
discharge of that important trust.

Major-General Augustin Prevost, the father of the late Sir George Prevost,
was by birth a citizen of Geneva: he entered the British service as a
Cornet in the Earl of Albemarle's regiment of Horse Guards, and was present
at the battle of Fontenoy, where he was wounded.

Having attained the rank of Major in the 60th regiment in 1759, he had the
honor of serving under General Wolfe, and received a severe wound in the
head, whilst gallantly forcing a landing, twenty miles above Quebec, under
the immediate command of General Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester. Upon
the reduction of Canada, Major Prevost was promoted to the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel, and served with reputation at the capture of Martinique
and the Havannah. In 1775, he was appointed to the command in East Florida,
and, in 1778, he eminently distinguished himself by his defence of
Savannah, against the attack of a very superior force of French and
Americans, under the Comte d'Estaing and General Lincoln. The garrison
consisted of only 2,300 men, while the force of the besiegers amounted to
8,000, supported by a fleet of twenty-two sail of the line. Such, however,
was the determined energy of Major-General Prevost, and of the British
soldiers and sailors under his command, that the enemy were compelled to
abandon the enterprize, after thirty-three days' close siege.[2]

In 1780, Major-General Prevost, after having served twenty-two years in
North America and the West Indies, returned to England, to enjoy the
pleasing consciousness of having always discharged his duty with zeal and
effect. His health was much impaired by a long residence in climates
unfavorable to an European constitution, and, on the 6th May, 1786, he
died, at Greenhill Grove, near Barnet, in the sixty-third year of his age.

In 1765, Major-General Prevost married, at Lausanne, a daughter of M.
Grand, of that place;[3] and, on her husband's departure to America, Mrs.
Prevost accompanied him thither. George, their eldest son, was born while
General Prevost was stationed in the province of New Jersey, on the 19th
May, 1767. Being designed by his father for the military profession, he
was placed with that view at Lochee's academy, at Chelsea, and his
education was finished at Colmar, on the continent. He obtained his first
commission in the 60th regiment, and being removed upon promotion to the
28th foot, he joined that corps at Gibraltar in 1784. He obtained his
majority in 1790, and early in 1791, he took the command of the 3d
battalion of the 60th regiment at Antigua. In March, 1794, he was promoted
to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the 60th, and, in 1795, he proceeded to
Demerara, and from thence to St. Vincent's, at that time attacked by the
French. He was there actively employed in suppressing the Carib
insurrection, and in resisting the French invasion, and at the storming of
the Vigie he commanded a column. In October, 1795, he was ordered to
Dominica, to relieve Lieutenant-Colonel Madden in the command of the troops
in that island; but in January, 1796, he resumed the command of the 3d
battalion of the 60th regiment at St. Vincent's, where he was twice
severely wounded in successfully resisting the enemy's progress towards the
capital of the colony, after the defeat of Major-General Stewart at
Colonary. In consequence of his wounds, Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost obtained
leave to return to England. The sense which the inhabitants of St.
Vincent's entertained of his services was warmly expressed in an address
from the Council and House of Representatives in that island.[4]

On his arrival in England, Lieutenant-Colonel Provost was appointed
Inspecting Field Officer. In January, 1798, he obtained the rank of
Colonel, and proceeded in the same year to the West Indies as
Brigadier-General. In 1798, he was removed from the command of the troops
at Barbadoes to St. Lucie, as Commandant, where he was afterwards appointed
Lieutenant-Governor, in compliance with a request from the inhabitants.[5]

Brigadier-General Prevost continued to perform the duties of Governor of
St. Lucie until the peace of 1802, when that colony was restored to the
French. The address which he received from the inhabitants of the island on
his departure, fully evinces the popularity which he had acquired;[6] while
the letters addressed to him, and to Colonel Brownrigg, Secretary to H.R.H.
the Commander in Chief, by Sir Thomas Trigge, at that time Commander of the
Forces in the West Indies, satisfactorily prove that he merited the
confidence reposed in him by Government.[7]

In July, Brigadier-General Prevost arrived in England, when the government
of Dominica was immediately offered to him by Lord Hobart. Having accepted
the appointment, he embarked for that island in the following November, and
landed there on the 25th of December, 1802.

In the following year, he volunteered his services on the expedition
against St. Lucie and Tobago, and served as second in command under
Lieutenant-General Grenfield, who in his general order, after the capture
of Morne Fortunee, thus mentions his conduct upon that occasion:--

"To the cool and determined conduct of Brigadier-general Prevost and
Brigadier-General Brereton, who led the two columns of attack, may be
attributed the success of the action; but to Brigadier-General Prevost it
must be acknowledged, that to his counsel and arrangements the Commander of
the forces attributes the glory of the day."[8]

The important services of Brigadier-General Prevost upon this expedition,
received numerous tributes of approbation from distinguished military
characters;[9] and even the French Commander could not refrain from
expressing the esteem and admiration with which he regarded his generous
enemy.[10] Upon the successful termination of this affair,
Brigadier-General Prevost returned to his Government at Dominica, where
nothing worthy of notice occurred until the 22d February, 1805, when an
unexpected attack was made by a French squadron from Rochefort. The result
of that attack was highly creditable to the valour and military talents of
the Governor, who after having, with the few troops under his command,
disputed inch by inch the landing of the French force, amounting to 4,000
men, and covered by an overwhelming fire from the ships, succeeded in
effecting a retreat to the fort of Prince Rupert. The French Commander in
Chief, after vainly summoning him to surrender, reimbarked the whole of his
troops, and sailed to Guadaloupe.[11]

The terms in which H. R. H. the Commander in Chief was pleased to express
his sense of General Prevost's conduct upon this occasion, were highly
gratifying to his feelings.[12] In consequence of his gallant and
successful defence of the Colony, General Prevost received a communication
from the Speaker of the House of Assembly,[13] conveying to him the thanks
of that body, and informing him that a Thousand Guineas had been voted by
them for the purchase of a sword and a service of plate, to be presented to
him in testimony of their gratitude and approbation.[14] A similar
testimonial to the conduct of General Prevost upon this occasion was given
by