In this post I introduce extracts from nineteen recently discovered letters in my possession which relate to the withdrawal of Russian
troops from France in the summer of 1817. All are written in English by Admiral
Roman Crown, commanding the squadron on which the troops will depart to Cronstadt or by
Count Mikhail Vorontsov, commander of Russian troops in France. They are
addressed to the Royal Navy’s Transport Agent in Calais, Captain John Hill.
*
Introduction
After their victory at Waterloo, the Allies
installed in northern France what we would now call either an army of
occupation or a stabilisation force, designed to guarantee the future of the
newly-returned Louis XVIII against ultra-Royalists and unrepentant
Bonapartists. This occupation has attracted considerable recent attention from
academic historians, notably Christine Haynes in Our Friends The Enemies (2018)
and Beatrice de Graaf in Fighting Terror After Napoleon (2020).
The army had an initial strength of 150 000 men and
each ally contributed a contingent assigned to its own zone. Britain occupied
the Channel ports and their Pas de Calais hinterland and established
headquarters at Cambrai from where the Duke of Wellington acted as overall
commander of the occupation forces. The zone immediately to the east was
assigned to Russia with Count Vorontsov in command at Maubeuge.
In 1817 Wellington agreed (and not reluctantly) to
French requests to reduce the size of the occupation force by 30 000 men of
which 7 000 would be withdrawn back to Russia. They would not return on foot;
rather they would sail from Channel ports and, in consequence, their
repatriation would require British co-operation.
This recently-discovered correspondence casts
interesting light on what that meant in terms of day-to-day logistic
management.
Overall responsibility was in the hands of three
men. Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov (1782 – 1856) had to get his troops on
the road to the coast and go there himself to liaise with the British. In one
important respect that would pose no problem: he had grown up in London as son
of the Russian ambassador Semyon Vorontsov (1744 – 1832) and spoke and wrote
English fluently. Arriving with a naval
squadron from Cronstadt, Admiral Roman Crown (1754 – 1841) would first have to
unload supplies for those Russian troops remaining in France and then embark
seven thousand men. As was quite generally true at the time, his ships would
not dock in port but rest at anchor some way off with smaller boats doing the
work of ferrying materiel and men. He would surely require the local
co-operation of the British for such an enormous undertaking but he already had
experience of the Channel and its ports from the campaigns against Napoleon and
in 1814 he had carried Louis XVIII back to France on board his Russian flagship. It was an advantage that the admiral had
started life as Robert Cronin, a Scotsman from Perth who had joined the
Imperial Russian Navy after being reduced to Royal Navy half-pay at the end of
the American War of Independence - not the only British sailor to make that
move. No doubt he had a Scots accent, but he spoke English and wrote it too,
though handicapped by having to do so aboard a frequently wind-tossed ship.
Then there was the essential British link man,
Captain John Hill (c. 1774 – 1855), agent in Calais for the Royal Navy
Transport Board and already very familiar with moving large numbers of British
troops in and out of the Low Countries and France during the Duke of
Wellington’s campaigns.
To co-ordinate and achieve their mission, these
three men had at their disposal small boats, messengers, flags – and hand-written
letters.
The Extracts
Admiral Crown dropped anchor in the Calais Road -
the stretch of sea lane immediately outside Calais - a day or so before 21 June
1817 (New Style) and immediately wrote a despatch to Count Vorontsov which was taken
ashore and entrusted to Captain Hill for forwarding. Vorontsov writes back to Hill on the 26th:
“I’ve just received your letter and the
letter you were so kind as to send me from the Admiral. It is a great pity that
the thing cannot be done at Dunkirk but it can’t be helped and the troops will
be directed upon Calais so as to embark the first column on the 29 and the last
on the 3 July – If we had known earlier that the fleet was to leave Cronstadt [two
weeks earlier than anticipated] the troops would have been at the sea shore
much sooner. I purpose ….to be at Calais at latest Thursday morning. Believe my
dear Sir ever your M Worontzow”
On the same day Admiral Crown writes to John Hill asking
for help in unloading his ships:
“My dear Captain, Being desirous to send
the stores for the Army as soon as possible on shore – and they are
considerable in quantity – therefore I must beg your aid by assisting me with
launches, eight if you have so many and if convenient pray let me know how many
men it will take to man them and I will send the number on shore immediately. I
have the honor to be faithfully yours, Robert Crown”
Captain Hill is more than obliging; he offers to
send a larger boat – a transport – to assist and the Admiral writes on the 27th
to express his thanks:
“I will accept with sincere thanks the
aid of your transport – have sent my Adjutant to secure her immediately as no
time ought to be lost in sending the stores on shore now the weather is
favourable….”
But the weather is changeable; as historians have
noted, bad weather in the summer of 1817 seriously affected the harvest in
northern France. Admiral Crown writes
just two days later on the 28th with his anxieties:
“The unwelcome weather which I dreaded
is now arrived and obliges me, fearing some of our ships may break adrift, to
endeavour to place on each a Pilot, and I wish if possible to obtain English
ones as I shall be more easy while the ships are under their care, therefore
should it prove convenient to you to assist …. you may rely that I shall have a
proper feeling for these obligations. We cannot receive any troops on board while
the wind blows so strong. I mean should the gale continue to send the Cutter to
the Downs [farther out from Calais to avoid the
ship being driven on shore] until fine weather. God grant we may be enabled
to ride out ….”
But the very next day things change for the better:
“Thanking the Almighty I am again enabled
to send…my boats on shore for troops. I have sent my flag Captain Tittoff to
regulate the embarkation …. we should be able to receive the whole of this days
party on board”
He then sets out how his signalling flags will work:
“the signal….to send me off troops will
be a white flag at the Main topmost head of my ship .…
I cannot send my boats on shore, the
same flag at the fore
Send me off immediate aid, the same flag
at the mizen
Pray excuse my scrawls for I hardly give
myself time to correct them”
It doesn’t quite work out as intended and the next
day, the 30th, he writes his apologies and, once again, his
anxieties:
“I am sorry the transports were not
dispatched from our ships with more expedition….I am in a continual war with
them to accelerate the duty of His Imperial Majesty but I kick against the
pricks, and I might as well endeavour to move this globe beyond its orbit, poor
things they are as well as they can and I feel for them …. Our long boat has
been on shore all night for what purpose I know not. I trust everyone
endeavours to do their duty. I continually pray that we move fairly off this
dangerous beach….
I shall send those who have already
troops on board to the North foreland and wait for me this will save at least
some of those should it blow harder….The wind blows already so hard that I
despair of getting any troops on board today ….
To complicate matters, Count Vorontsov has had an
idea which he thinks will speed things up but Admiral Crown doesn’t like it, as
is clear from a letter to Captain Hill also sent on the 30th June:
“I received a verbal message by one of
our officers from Count Woronzow to place a light at the mast head of each ship
that are next to receive the troops on board. This is saying they are meant to
be sent in the dark …. this would probably be attended with some difficulty and
some danger …. more especially should the wind blow strong …. the troops are
open to casualties not being used to jump on board &c &c when it is
most likely they are sea sick. I should be glad of a line from you on the
subject. I have advised 2 lights at the mizen mast of each ship”.
In other words, the Count will get his lights but is
unlikely to get night movements. The next day writing as usual from Calais Road
Admiral Crown reviews the overall situation:
“I expected at the commencement of the
expedition to have been able to land our troops at Cronstadt upon this day, now
I am become callous to the delays of this service with an additional anxiety
now the troops are finally on board for their safety and that of H I M ships in
this wild roadsted. I submit to the will of merciful Providence and to your
friendly aid for a happy termination of the Embarkation….”
He goes on to ask that in preparation for an
imminent departure, the bearer of this letter (“who can speak English”) be
handed the belongings and purchases the Admiral has made “that I may not
have anything on shore”. Either before or more likely after this letter the
Admiral’s spirits rise and he dictates a separate note to Captain Hill:
“Sir, His Excellency
Admiral Crown sends his compliments to Captain Hill and desires him to buy for
his Excellency a hind quarter of beef and to receive money for it from M.
Pigault [ “Pigault &
Maubaillarcq & Co, Calais, Agents & Bankers to his Excellency the
English Ambassador” but also now holding Russian funds] and bring it off
yourself before we sail. I have the honour to be your most humble and Obedient
servant Alexander E…. [surname not legible].
By the 3rd
of July, the Admiral is ready to sail home:
“My dear Captain, I
have discharged the bearer [of this letter] A Pilot who has been six days on
board the Mironosits [the Admiral’s flagship] and have agreed to pay the said
Pilot George Telfor nine shillings per diem. Shall send all the others on shore
so soon as the troops are on board and must trouble His Excellence Count
Woronzow to order them to be paid as I have no cash of the Country to discharge
them, pray acquaint the Count the necessity of his attention. I hope to see you
before I go from here. I am now at single anchor and shall proceed to the Downs
should there be any appearance again of bad weather as I cannot and nor would
not run the risk of losing the Squadron I have chose for Kingdoms. [May] God
ever bless you my dear Hill. I am yours in haste Robert Crown”
*
The letters from Admiral Crown end there on 3rd July. The narrative continues on 17th July in a letter to Captain Hill from Count Vorontsov who has returned from Calais to Maubeuge; life is getting back to normal:
“…..I rejoice every day
at having been able thanks to you and entirely to you to get our troops
on board in such good time the weather since would have been as bad for us as
it is good for the fleet now….you dispatched him on the 3rd and he
was off on the 4th….. Be so kind as to present my best compliments
to Mrs Hill and accept a little box I send you with a dozen of champagne 6 of
Sparkling and 6 of dry Sillery of the famous vintage of 1811 and pray let me
know how the wine will have arrived and which you like best – both (especially
the Sillery) ought to be a little iced or at least put in a very cold place an
hour before used….Be so kind as to remember me to Lady Oxford and her charming
daughters, we have been continually talking of their delightful musical
talents…adieu dear Sir believe me to remain with the most heartfelt esteem and
regard Your very faithful servant M. Worontzow”
But a more significant
gift was being prepared, announced in a letter from Vorontsov to Hill dated 26
October 1817 [New Style still]:
“My dear Captain Hill,
It has been a great while I have not written to you and I shall now tell you
the reason of my silence. The really most useful and hearty assistance you had
rendered us at Calais had made it incumbent both on me and Admiral Crown to
represent fully to the Emperor [Alexander the First] how
much we are indebted to you and demand for you the cross of one of our orders
of knighthood. Reckoning the time wanted for an answer I waited for it in order
to apprise you of the result…..Admiral Crown writes to me however …that his
Imperial Majesty had immediately acceded to our demand and named you Knight of
the order of St Wladimir. I expect every day official intelligence about it and
will then immediately write to you…. Ever your M Worontzow.”
Sometime previously Vorontsov
also wrote to Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for War in London, and Hill
learnt of this from a brief note sent on 15 August from Cambrai written by
Ulysses Burgh, aide de camp to Wellington:
“I am directed by the
Duke of Wellington to transmit to you the enclosed Copy of a letter He has
received from Lord Bathurst respecting a
Communication made by Comte Woronzow in your favour”.
Hill was anxious about
his future: what was he going to do once Allied troops were entirely withdrawn
from France and his job as Transport Agent in Calais came to an end? He had clearly
broached the subject with Vorontsov who writes to him over a year later on 26
October 1818 when the full withdrawal is underway:
“By what the Duke of
Wellington has told me in answer to my question about you with regard to your
future service, I can assure you that he is most resolved to do all he can for
you and make no doubt that you will be placed as you desire. I hope to see you
soon either at Calais or in England”
Captain Hill was indeed
favoured. He became Captain-Superintendent of Deptford Victualling Yard in 1820
and remained there for most of the time until his retirement. But in the 1830s
he was also deployed by the government in both Ireland and Scotland to
investigate food shortages, famine conditions, and the organisation of relief
efforts and for his service in Ireland (where he had to deal with hostile
landowners) he was knighted. He spent a short period at Sheerness Dockyard from
1838 to 1841, where he prepared a ship made famous in a painting by J M W
Turner - the fighting Temeraire - for the breaker’s yard before
returning to Deptford. He was promoted Rear-Admiral in 1851 and retired to
Walmer on the Kent coast where Wellington spent part of each year in his
capacity as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
Dr
John MacAskill kindly provided detail for Captain John Hill and is the author
of the entry on Sir John Hill (1774-1855) in the Dictionary of National
Biography.
Haynes,
Christine Our Friends the Enemies (2018)
de
Graaf, Beatrice Fighting Terror
After Napoleon (2020)
Wikipedia:
Roman (formerly Robert) Vasilievich Crown (formerly Cronin) born 21
December 1753 [Old Style], near Perth Scotland – died 21 April [Old Style]
1841, St. Petersburg a navy officer in British and Russian service.
Wikipedia:
Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov 30 May [Old Style] 1782 –
18 November [Old Style] 1856) was a Russian nobleman and field-marshal,
renowned for his success in the Napoleonic Wars.
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