THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL
Sir Harry Smith
BART., G.C.B.
| First Edition (2 vols.) | December, 1901. |
| Reprinted | January, 1902. |
| Reprinted | February, 1902. |
| Reprinted | April, 1902. |
| One Vol. Edition | September, 1903. |
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL
Sir Harry Smith
BARONET OF ALIWAL ON THE SUTLEJ
G.C.B.
EDITED
WITH THE ADDITION OF SOME SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS
By G. C. MOORE SMITH, M.A.
WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1903
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BECCLES.
PREFACE.
The Life of Sir Harry Smith here offered to thepublic consists of an Autobiography covering theperiod 1787 to 1846 (illustrated by notes andappendices), and some supplementary chapterscontributed by myself on the last period of SirHarry’s life (1846-1860). Chapter XXXI. carriesthe reader to the year 1829. This, it is interestingto remark, is a true turning point in the life of thegreat soldier. Till then he had seen warfare onlyon two continents, Europe and America (thePeninsula, France, the Netherlands, Monte Video,Buenos Ayres, Washington, New Orleans); fromthat date onwards the scene of his active servicewas Africa and Asia. Till 1829 his responsibilitywas small; after 1829 he had a large or paramountshare in directing the operations in which he wasengaged. This difference naturally affects the toneof his narrative in the two periods.
The Autobiography (called by its author “VariousAnecdotes and Events of my Life”) was begun bySir Harry Smith, then Lieutenant-Colonel Smith,[vi]at Glasgow in 1824. At that time it was only continuedas far as page 15 of the present volume. On11th August, 1844, when he had won his K.C.B.,and was Adjutant-General of Her Majesty’s Forcesin India, he resumed his task at Simla. He thenwrote with such speed that on 15th October he wasable to tell his sister that he had carried his narrativeto the end of the campaign of Gwalior, thatis, to 1844 (p. 490). Finally, on 7th September,1846, when at Cawnpore in command of a Division,he began to add to what he had previously writtenan account of the campaign of the Sutlej, whichhad brought him fresh hono