Authors: John Sugden
38
. Nelson to Paoli, 6/3/1794, Add. MSS 22688; Nelson to Fanny, 4/3/1794, Monmouth MSS, E810.
39
. Nelson to Hood, 18/3/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 358; Elliot to Henry Dundas, 5/4/1794, FO 20/2.
40
. Log of the
Romney
, ADM 51/1143.
41
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Hood to D’Aubant, 12 and 14/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/9 and HO 28/15.
42
. Report of Moore and Koehler, 18/3/1794, HO 28/15: 191; Hood to Henry Dundas, 18 and 19/3/1794, HO 28/15.
43
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 150.
44
. Report of the council of war, 20/3/1794, HO 28/15: 187; Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, 1, pp. 72–7; Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 150; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Elliot and Hood to D’Aubant, 14/3/1794, FO 20/2.
45
. Hood to D’Aubant, 21/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; Hood to Villettes and Brereton, 22/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162.
46
. Hood to D’Aubant, 24/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/9.
47
. Hood to Dundas, 27/5/1794, HO 28/15; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; David Dundas memorandum, 30/1/1794, HO 50/456: 80.
48
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Elliot to his wife, 7/4/1794, Minto,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, p. 237; Elliot to Dundas, 5/4/1794, FO 20/2. The correspondence about the Light Dragoons is in FO 20/2, HO 28/15 and NMM: ELL/149.
49
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Hood to Hamilton, 15, 24, 25/3/1794, NMM: CRK/7; Nelson to Hamilton, 27/3/1794, Add. MSS 34902; list of equipment and stores requested from Naples, 26/3/1794, NMM: CRK/14. Not all the supplies from Naples arrived in time, and Hood particularly felt the want of mortar and gunboats (Hood to Hamilton, 21/4/1794, 6/5/1794, NMM: CRK/7).
50
. Nelson to Fanny, 22/3/1794, Monmouth MSS, E811; Nelson to Hamilton, 27/3/1794, Add. MSS 34902.
51
. Elliot to his wife, 7/4/1794, Minto,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, p. 237; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162. The true opinion of Villettes is unknown. He supported the Moore–Koehler report of 18 March, but perhaps out of mere loyalty to the army and his superior officer. Later he also dutifully landed at Bastia, and joined Nelson in directing a siege under Hood’s orders. Captain Fremantle said that Villettes was in favour of an attack upon Bastia: Fremantle to William Fremantle, 13/4/1794, CBS, D-FR/45/2.
52
. D’Aubant to Henry Dundas, 2/4/1794, HO 50/456; Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, 1, pp. 74–6, 80, 82, 85; Elliot’s journal, 21 and 23/3/1794, NMM: ELL/162.
53
. Thrasher,
Paoli
, pp. 285–6.
54
. Nelson to Hoste, 3/5/1794, and Nelson to Hamilton, 19/12/1794, Alfred Morrison,
Hamilton and Nelson Papers
, 1, pp. 190, 197. Villettes subsequently became the governor of Bastia and lieutenant governor and commander-in-chief of Jamaica. He died in Jamaica in 1808. See ‘Anecdotes of the Late Lieutenant-General Villettes’ in
Gentleman’s Magazine
.
55
. Nelson to Suckling, 7/2/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 4; Hood to Nelson, 16/3/1794, Add. MSS 34937.
56
. Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, p. 80.
57
. Nelson to William, 26/3/1794, Add. MSS 34988.
58
. For the ships see Hood to Dundas, 5/4/1794, HO 28/15. Nelson’s journals for the siege of Bastia, from which quotations in the following pages have been taken, are published in
D&L
, vol. 1, and more satisfactorily in
NLTHW
, p. 154 following.
59
.
Scout
log, ADM 51/836; Hood to Stephens, 24/5/1794, ADM 1/392; Hood to Wolseley, 28/4/1794, NMM: Hoo/9.
60
. Nelson to Hood, 24, 25/4/1794, Add. MSS 34902; Nelson to Suckling, 6/4/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 381.
61
. Hood had offered Villettes five or six hundred seamen to support his soldiers, haul guns and fight batteries (Hood to Villettes, 24/4/1794, NMM: Hoo/9). The fact that Villettes accepted half that number suggests his relative sense of security.
62
. Elliot to Henry Dundas, 5/4/1794, FO 20/2; Hood to Alexander Hood, 5/4/1794, Add. MSS 35194.
63
. Nelson to Fanny, 22/4/1794, Monmouth MSS, E814.
64
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 155. Vice Admiral Hotham’s nephew, who gave an account of the siege long afterwards, seems to have erred in saying that Hood was ashore when the British batteries opened. He remembered that the French were ‘not a little astonished’ at the number of guns Nelson and Villettes brought to bear (A. M. W. Stirling, ed.,
Pages and Portraits
, 1, pp. 59–60). See also Hood to Henry Dundas, 14/4/1794, NMM: Hoo/9. For Corsican tactics see the journal of George Mundy of the
Juno
, NMM: 85/015.
65
. Hood to Stephens, 14/4/1794, ADM 1/392.
66
. I have modified some of Nelson’s details by reference to the map of the siege in HO 28/15: 313.
67
. Elliot to Paoli, 22/4/1794, Add. MSS 22688.
68
. Returns of losses enclosed in ADM 1/392, no. 34; Fremantle,
Wynne Diaries
, p. 252; Hood to Nelson, 20/4/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Stirling,
Pages and Portraits
, 1, p. 60.
69
. Hood to Henry Dundas, 25/4/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; Nelson to Hood, 3/5/1794, Add. MSS 34937.
70
. Fremantle,
Wynne Diaries
, p. 252; Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 156; Hood to Stephens, 25/4/1794, ADM 1/392; Hood to Henry Dundas, 25/4/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; Hood to Nelson, 20/4/1794 and 13/5/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Nelson journal,
D&L
, 1, p. 398. The British were directing most of their fire at military targets, but the damage suggests some indiscriminate bombardment of the town with consequent civilian casualties.
71
. Hood to Nelson, 10, 16/4/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Nelson to Hood, 18/3/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 373; Elliot to his wife, 30/5/1794, Minto,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, p. 253; log of the
Meleager
, ADM 51/1210. Hood’s emphasis on the blockade runs through his correspondence in the Paoli papers (Add. MSS 22688).
72
. Nelson journal,
D&L
, 1, p. 388; Udny to Wyndham, 26/3/1794, FO 79/10; Thrasher,
Paoli
, pp. 286–7.
73
. Nelson to Hood, 26/4/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 388; Nelson to Hoste, 3/5/1794, Morrison,
Hamilton and Nelson Papers
, 1, p. 190. Hoste’s letter to his father, 7/5/1794 (Harriet Hoste, ed.,
Hoste
, 1, p. 26), also reflects the increasing doubts in Nelson’s camp. It refers to the inadequacy of their force, the relative inefficacy of their bombardment and the resistance of Bastia’s stone buildings to fire. Hoste believed they were no nearer taking Bastia on 7 May than in April. The establishment of the new batteries on 8 May can also be taken as a comment on the inadequacy of the earlier batteries.
74
. Hood to Nelson, 21/4/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Hood to Dundas, 25/4/1794, HO 28/15; Elliot to Dundas, 5/4/1794, FO 20/2. According to the contemporary British map (HO 28/15: 313) the French had six hundred and fifty men scattered between eight hill forts or redoubts to the rear of Bastia. The lower hill forts were manned by between twenty-six and sixty-four men each, and the upper camps by between twenty and two hundred men each.
75
. Elliot to Dundas, 5/4/1794, FO 20/2; Dundas to Elliot, 25/4/1794, FO 20/2.
76
. Hood and Elliot to Dundas, 18/4/1794, FO 20/2.
77
. Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, p. 82; D’Aubant to Hood and Elliot, 23/4/1794, FO 20/2; Hood to D’Aubant, 1/5/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; D’Aubant to Hood, 2/5/1794, NMM: ELL/140.
78
. Hood to Nelson, 13/5/1794, Godfrey, ‘Corsica, 1794’, p. 395; Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 157.
79
. Nelson to Suckling, 6/4/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 381; James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 246–7.
XIX A Long and Hazardous Service (pp. 494–519)
1
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 158.
2
. In addition to Nelson’s journals see Nelson to William, 30/5/1794, Add. MSS 34988, and several documents in NMM: Hoo/9, including casualty returns; Hood to Nelson, 17/5/1794 and Hood to Stuart, 29/5/1794. Udny reported three thousand six hundred prisoners being shipped to Toulon, but may have excluded Corsican allies of the French (Udny to Drake, 26/5/1794, Add. MSS 46826).
3
. Hood to Boyd, 25/5/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; documents referring to the reserves of powder at Gibraltar, especially Rainsford to Henry Dundas, 26/6/1794, in WO 1/288.
4
. J. F. Maurice, ed.,
Diary of Moore
, 1, p. 89.
5
. D’Aubant to Dundas, 23/5/1794, HO 50/456; Hood to d’Aubant, 21/5/1794 (two letters), NMM: Hoo/9.
6
. Nelson to Fanny, 20/5/1794, Monmouth MSS, E816. Nelson’s tendency to underrate opposition would be noticed again, and Moore’s caution earned him some criticism during his later campaign in the Spanish peninsula. Both seem to have been embedded as much in personality as in professional evaluations of particular situations.
7
. Nelson to Suckling, 16/7/1794, Monmouth MSS, E44; Hood to Stephens, 24/5/1794, ADM 1/392; Nelson to Fanny, 8/7/1794, Monmouth MSS, E822; Fremantle to William Fremantle, 13/4/1794, CBS, D-FR/45/2. The same injustice was done to Nelson in Hood to Dundas, 24/5/1794, NMM: Hoo/9.
8
. Nelson to Fanny, 1 to 4/5/1794, Monmouth MSS, E815; Nelson to Suckling, 16/7/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 441.
9
. J. H. Godfrey, ed., ‘Corsica, 1794’, p. 400.
10
. Desmond Gregory,
Unconquerable Rock
, p. 89.
11
. Nelson to Fanny, 7/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E818; Hood to Hippersley, 15/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E25; Hood to Stephens, 15/6/1794, ADM 1/392; Nelson to Elliot, 1794, NMM: ELL/138; Hood to Dundas, 15/6/1794, WO 1/302.
12
. Stuart to Elliot, 14/6/1794, NMM: ELL/149; Villettes to Nelson, 10/5/1795, Add. MSS 34904; logs of the
Lutine
(Captain James Macnamara) and
Gorgon
, ADM 51/1103 and ADM 51/1152. I have used the manuscript copies of Nelson’s Calvi journal in ADM 1/2224; ADM 1/392; and WO 1/302, and the published version,
NLTHW
, p. 160 following, taken from the Monmouth manuscripts. There are minor but significant differences between some of these copies. Nelson’s journal gives the figure of fourteen hundred and fifty officers and men embarked. A return of 30/5/1794 (NMM: Hoo/3) lists the number as 1,392. It included detachments of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers and men of the 50th and 51st regiments of foot.
13
. A plan in NMM: Hoo/3 shows the
Agamemnon
eventually found an anchorage in Alusa Bay, south of Port Agro. For a French account of the siege of Calvi see Maurice Jollivet,
Anglais dans La Mediterranée
, pp. 53–60, but see also the letter of Barthelemi Arna, 8/8/1794, in
Gazette Nationale
, 24/8/1794.
14
. Nelson to the agents of victuallers and transports, 17/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E33. Accounts informed by personal inspection of the ground include J. D. Spinney, ‘Nelson at Port Agro’; Tom Pocock,
Horatio Nelson
, chap. 5; and David Shannon, ‘Nelson at Calvi’. Among additional logs that illuminate the doings offshore is that of
L’Aigle
(ADM 51/1103).
15
. Nelson to Fanny, 27/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E820. Nelson’s journal says that two hundred and fifty seamen were landed on 19 June, but army officers speak of one hundred and fifty. See also Hood to Nelson, 21/6/1794, NMM: Hoo/3.
16
. Diary of Hudson Lowe, 19 and 20/6/1794, Add. MSS 20107.
17
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 165.
18
. Stuart to Hood, 28/6/1794, NMM: Hoo/3; Stuart to Elliot, 25/6/1794, NMM: ELL/149; Hood to Elliot, 23/6/1794, NMM: ELL/140; Hood to Dundas, 5/8/1794, WO 1/302.
19
. Stuart to Elliot, 25/6/1794, NMM: ELL/149.
20
. Hood to Nelson, 23 and 30/6/1794, NMM: Hoo/3; Hood to Stephens, 14/3/1794, 3/5/1794, ADM 1/392; Elliot to Stuart, 30/6/1794, NMM: ELL/152; Fremantle to William Fremantle, 17/5/1794, CBS, D-FR/45/2.
21
. Nelson’s journal, ADM 1/2224; Nelson to Hood, 11/7/1794, NMM: Hoo/3.
22
. A. M. W. Stirling, ed.,
Pages and Portraits
, 1, p. 240.
23
. Nelson to Hood, 18, 20/7/1794,
D&L
1, pp. 448, 451. Compare Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, pp. 103, 110, and Stuart to Elliot, 25/6/1794, NMM: ELL/149.
24
. Stuart to Elliot, 25/6/1794, NMM: ELL/149; Hood to Elliot, 3/7/1794, NMM: ELL/140; Hood to Nelson, 16, 17/7/1794, NMM: Hoo/3 and Hoo/4; Nelson to Hood, 16/7/1794, NMM: Hoo/3; Nelson to Hood, July 1794, Add. MSS 34937; Hood to Nepean, 17/8/1794, WO1/302.
25
. Nelson to Hood, 20/7/1794, Add. MSS 34904; Hood to Stephens, 5/8/1794, ADM 1/392.
26
. Hood to Nelson, 24/7/1794, 28/12/1796, Add. MSS 34937; Stuart to Nelson, 25/6/1794, Add. MSS 34903.
27
. Nelson’s journal, ADM 1/2224; Lowe diary, Add. MSS 20107.
28
. Stuart’s dispatch of 10/8/1794,
The Times
, 3/9/1794.
29
. Hood to Nelson, 11/7/1794, NMM: Hoo/3;
D&L
, 2, p. 178;
The Times
, 3/9/1794.
30
. Nelson to Hood, 8/7/1794, NMM: Hoo/3.
31
. Nelson to Fanny, 18/8/1794, 1/9/1794, Monmouth MSS, E826, E828; Hood to Stephens, 27/8/1794, ADM 1/392. Moutray’s promotion to second lieutenant indirectly owed something to Nelson. Boyle, who created the vacancy aboard the
Speedy
, was recalled to England to serve on the
Egmont
at the express wish of the Duke of Clarence. Clarence had met Boyle in the West Indies when both served under Nelson’s command. In the
Speedy
, Moutray had also met another graduate of Nelson’s
Boreas
, Lieutenant William Tatham.