The Battle of
Howe’s Landing
On July 6th Lord Howe with a
detachment of light troops consisting of the rangers and the 80th
Regiment were the first to land, followed closely by the grenadiers of the
army.[i] According to one of the light infantry
captains, upon landing they secured the landing place and “form’d
in the Skirt of the wood in a scatter’d Rank &
file.”[ii]
The whole of the army had landed safely by
ten in the morning, they started their march in four columns towards the saw
mills and the fort, the 55th was in the center column. Lord Howe took command of the forth column
made up of mostly provincial units, they followed a trail that ran parallel to
the Trout Brook. It was at this time
that they came upon a small reconnoitering party of the French.[iii] A “warm little Skirmish” ensued.[iv] Lord Howe rushed up to the action with the
light infantry so that the march would not be slowed, and in the opening
moments of the fire-fight he was shot in the lung. Captain Alexander Moneypenny
of the 55th, was near Howe when it happened wrote;
“[Lord Howe] had just
gained the top of a hill, where the firing was, when he was killed. Never ball had more deadly direction. It entered his breast on the left side, and
(as the surgeons say) pierced his lungs, and heart, and shattered his
backbone. I was about six yards from
him, he fell on his back and never moved, only his hand quivered an instant.”[v]
The engagement ended with British victory, the French were routed and many made prisoner, but the loss of Lord Howe would prove to be graver, for the British. Robert Rogers wrote of Howe’s death, that “This noble and brave officer being universally beloved by both officers and soldiers of the army, his fall was not only most sincerely lamented, but seemed to produce an almost general consternation and languor through the whole.”[vi] Thomas Mante, soldier and historian of the war, wrote, “In Lord Howe, the soul of General Abercromby’s army seemed to expire.” “From the unhappy moment the General was deprived of his advice, neither order nor discipline was observed in the army….”[vii]