Corsica; an object which I know you had much at heart, and which has been protracted beyond all bounds of calculation. Captain Hallowell, I am sorry to say, is very unwell, and much reduced. If Doctor Harness? is on board, I wish he would come and look at Hallowell: I think, poor fellow, he would like it.8 I am, &c., HORATIO NELSON. My Lord, TO ADMIRAL LORD HOOD. Camp, August 8th, 1794. Having transmitted my Journal of what the Seamen have been employed upon during the whole Siege, I have now only to acquaint your Lordship of the highly meritorious con of June, Parliament had voted its Thanks to the Officers, Seamen, Marines, and Soldiers, who had been employed in the different operátions against the Enemy in Corsica. 7 Doctor John Harness, the Physician to the Fleet, and afterwards Chairman of the Board for Sick and Wounded Seamen. To this zealous and intelligent Officer the Navy is under the highest obligations. His extensive and successful application of Citric Acid in the year 1793, induced the authorities at Home, in 1795, to cause that article to form a necessary part of Medical Stores, and to which the eradication of that fearful scourge, the scurvy, is to be attributed. It was mainly through his exertions that the situation of the Naval Medical Officers has been so much improved. Dr. Harness died on the 3rd of January 1823. A Memoir of his Services will be found in the "Naval Chronicle," vol. xxxv. Lord Hood's reply was written on the same day, at 5 P. M.;— "My dear Nelson,-I am grieved to hear Hallowell is not well, as I also am that Colonel Wemyss is in the same state. I wish both would come to the Victory this evening or to-morrow morning. Doctor Harness is not here, but I expect to see him to-morrow. In the morning early I shall send Captain Inglefield, or Captain Knight to the General on the subject of Transports. Much caution is necessary, from the perfidious conduct of the Enemy: may the Transports go within reach of the guns of Calvi? I am in perfect ignorance how matters stand. The Boreas and Jamaica, that carried the last sick to Bastia, may be expected here to-morrow. You must undoubtedly take off all you put on shore unexpected; so must the Victory, and every other Ship, which you will prepare for. I can only add, at present, that I am ever and truly, your faithful humble servant, Hoop."-Copy, certified by Nelson, in the Hood Papers. duct of every Officer and Seaman landed under my command; to express my sincere acknowledgments for the very effectual support and assistance I have received from the ability, zeal, and activity of Captain Hallowell; and that Lieutenants Edmonds, Morgan, and Ferrier were constantly with the Seamen, fighting the batteries; to which were joined, on the last batteries, Lieutenants Hoy, Moutray, and Suckling. I must not also omit to acquaint your Lordship that Seamen being wanted for this service, the Agents for Transports raised 110 Volunteers from the Transports; and that Lieutenant Harrison, one of the Agents, and Mr. William Harrington, Master of the Willington, came on shore, and served with great credit during the whole Siege. Herewith I transmit a list of killed and wounded Seamen. HORATIO NELSON. TO ADMIRAL LORD HOOD. [From a Copy, in the Nelson Papers.] My dear Lord, Camp, August 9th, 1794. It was so dark when I got to Camp, and received your Lordship's letters from Mr. Hamilton, that I would not detain him for an answer, telling him that the Transports might anchor in perfect security in the Bay under our Camp. Sir James St. Clair, the Commissary, and Captain Stephens, with Mr. Bains, who is to be Town-Major, were all day in the Town, taking an account of Stores of every kind. The cannon, I find, are not very good-the iron particularly. They have only 217 barrels of powder, but plenty of shot and shells: one Coudrier mortar, which luckily for us was split by their putting thirty pounds of powder in it to fire at one of our Frigates. The place is a heap of ruins, the works much damaged; but it is the fashion to say it would have been difficult to make a breach. They went on board the Melpomene and Mignonne. All the latter's guns are landed, and all but two of the former, but the greater part lay on the wharf. There is also a Gun-boat. I have got the davit-casts ready to move the Agamemnon's guns, if we have strength enough, but I dread the getting liquor, after the Town is in our possession, which will completely kill our people. What we do must be as expeditious as possible. I have only two eighteen-pounders and one twenty-four-pounder to get on board Agamemnon, the other two twenty-four-pounders being disabled. One eighteen-pounder from the rear battery I got down to the landing-place this evening the others we cannot move till Sunday morning. I had intended, when our troops took possession, to have sent Captain Hallowell, with an Officer and two or three careful men, to take possession of the Frigates and Gun-boat to prevent embezzlement, till your Lordship's arrival. You will now take possession in the way your Lordship judges most proper, but everybody at Bastia plundered La Flêche. Hallowell I hope is a little better, but I believe he will not be persuaded to go off till this business is closed. I send you, as a curiosity, an account of what Stores we have expended, and what has been landed, and what now remains. I am, with truest esteem, Your Lordship's most faithful, HORATIO NELSON. If I am not absolutely correct to a single shot and shell, I am within a dozen, except the 5, which is a guess, but I believe pretty near. JOURNAL C. August 10th, at nine o'clock, about three hundred Troops, a party of Seamen, some Royal Louis, and some Corsicans, were drawn up opposite the great gate to receive the Garrison of Calvi, who at ten o'clock marched out with two pieces of cannon, and the Honours of War; amounting in the whole to three hundred Troops, and two hundred and forty-seven armed Corsicans. I immediately sent Lieutenant Moutray and a party of Seamen, to take possession of the Frigates, Gun-boats, and Merchant vessels in the harbour, and I also ordered six Transports to come in; and was employed all the day embarking the Garrison, the sick, and such inhabitants as chose to return to France. Out of their armed men the Enemy had three hundred and thirteen sick in their hospital. We have had six killed, six wounded, and two are missing. We expended 11,275 shot, and 2,751 shells.9 • In General Stuart's Dispatch, dated on the 10th of August, announcing the surrender of Calvi on that day, he detailed very fully the proceedings of the Siege. The following are the passages in which he mentions Captain Nelson: "Captain Nelson of his Majesty's Ship Agamemnon, consented, in Lord Hood's absence, to proceed to Port Agro, where a landing was effected on the 19th of June." "It is with sincere regret that I have to mention the loss of Captain Serocold of the Navy, who was killed by a cannon shot when actively employed on the batteries. The assistance and co-operation of Captain Nelson, the activity of Captain Hallowell, and the exertions of the Navy, have greatly contributed to the success of these movements."-London Gazette. Lord Hood's Dispatches were dated on the 5th and 9th of August. In the former, after describing his pursuit of the French Fleet, he stated : "Victory, Martello Bay, August 5th, 1794. My letter of the 15th of June would inform you that having forced the French Ships on the 11th, which sailed from Toulon on the 5th, to seek their safety within the shoals in the Bay of Gourjean, and under the protection of the batteries of the Islands of St. Honora and St. Margaretta, and on Cape Garoupe, that I had left Admiral Hotham to watch them, and that I was returning to Corsica to join Lieutenant-General Stuart for the Reduction of Calvi, which I have the honour to acquaint you is now, I believe, on the point of surrendering to the arms of his Majesty. "Upon my junction with Vice-Admiral Hotham off this Port on the 9th, I detached Captain Nelson in the Agamemnon to Bastia, with orders to embark the troops, and proceed with them to Martello Bay, where Lieutenant-General Stuart embarked on the 15th, and expressing a wish to proceed to the attack of Calvi immediately, Captain Nelson complied with it, and on the 19th all the troops were landed under the direction of Captain Cooke, in a small cove about three miles from Calvi. I anchored in Martello Bay on the 19th, and so soon as I had embarked the ordnance and other stores the General had desired, which the boisterous weather for some days prevented, and had forced the Agamemnon and several of the Transports from their anchors, but his Majesty's smaller Ships, and the rest of the Transports which were close under the land, and had not room to get under sail, very fortunately rode the gale out without an accident to either, the wind not blowing home to the shore with so much violence. "On the 26th 1 sailed, having previously sent Captain Hallowell and Captain Serocold, (who were eager volunteers for the Service, as were also the Lieutenants Ferriers and Morgan,) with as many able Seamen as the Victory could then spare, to assist in dragging up the ordnance and serving the batteries. The Journal I herewith transmit from Captain Nelson, who had the com TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR GILBERT ELLIOT. My dear Sir, [Autograph, in the Minto Papers.] Calvi, August 10th, 1794. As the Corsican cannot enter the Town with me, I shall give him this letter the moment we get possession of the gates. The Garrison will lay down their arms at the waterside, and before night I hope to have them all embarked. The business is certainly done, and high time it is. We are all sick. Our Transports are in the harbour; and I have an Officer and men ready to go on board the Frigates. The Enemy are said to have lost eighty killed and wounded,the Town and Works much damaged. Believe me, dear Sir, Your very obedient Servant, Your letter of the 7th I sent on board Lord Hood the 8th, in the evening. mand of the Seamen, will show the daily occurrences of the Siege, and whose unremitting zeal and exertion, I cannot sufficiently express, or of that of Captain Hallowell, who took it by turns to command in the advanced battery twenty-four hours at a time, and I flatter myself they, as well as the other Officers and Seamen, will have full justice done them by the General: it is therefore unnecessary for me to say more upon the subject. But I have to lament, and which I do most sincerely, the loss of a very able and valuable Officer, Captain Serocold, who was killed by a grape-shot whilst getting the last gun in its place soon after the Enemy had discovered our battery. The King has not a more meritorious young Captain in his Majesty's Navy. He commanded the floating-battery which was burnt by red-hot shot before Bastia, and afterwards served with infinite reputation at the batteries on shore. Independent of my regard and esteem for him, I feel his loss to be a public one. "Much credit is due to Captains Wolseley, Hood, Sir Charles Hamilton, Sir Harry Burrard, Cunningham, Macnamara, and Robinson, for their vigilance in keeping succours out by a steady perseverance in preserving their respective stations under manifest difficulties, and I ought not to omit to mention my tribute of praise to Mr. Gibson, commanding the Fox hired Cutter, of whom all the Captains speak in the handsomest manner for his diligence and punctual obedience to orders. For near two months they did not receive at Calvi any intelligence from the Continent until the night of the 29th, when four boats got in, the Port not being then so well and closely guarded, having been obliged to send three Frigates to Naples, and other places for stores, which the General pressed for, and the night's being dark. "On the 27th I arrived off Calvi, and have kept close off the Port ever 10 |