Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1917 — Battles Which Made the World [ARTICLE]

Battles Which Made the World

TRAFALGAR The See Fisht Which Coet Britain Her Great Admiral, hat Whtcl Wrecked the Plan of Napoleon for the Invasion of England.

By CAPT. ROLAND F. ANDREWS

(Copyright, 1917, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate)

Napoleon ever believed that Trafalgar cost him England. Not until the day of his death on St. Helena did he cease to berate the unfortunate Admiral Villeneuve, who lost the day, lost his fleet and in losing the latter lost for Napoleon all chance of transporting safely across the channel the great French army which lay at Boulogne ready for the crossing in flatboats the moment the menace of the British navy couldberemoved. Nelsdh, having chased the allied Frenchrand Spanish fleet to the West Indies and back, was doing watchdog duty off Cadiz wherein lay the French and the-Spaniards, 34 sail of the line and 7 frigates. Velleneuve was distrustful of the skill of his crews and the equipment of his vessels. Napoleon was in a rage at Villeneuve, whom he denounced for “excessive pusillanimity” and to replace whom he started Rosily for Cadiz. Villeneuve, hearing of his intended successor’s approach and possessing certain discretionary orders which directed him to proceed to Naples, fighting the English should he encounter them in Inferior number, put to sea, leaving one of his ships behind him. Thereupon Nelson, with 27 sail of the line and four frigates, sprang at his throat. The action was fought on the twen-ty-first of October, 1805. Nelson, coming on deck at daylight, could see the enemy in line of battle 12 miles to leeward. Ills captains already possessed his memorandum of battle which called for attack in two columns, one led by Collingwood in the Royql Sovereign and one by Nelson himself In the Victory. Nelson, however, was far too able a man to expect rigid ndharonre to any rule of 'thumb pro-’ gram. His memorandum made broad provisions. “No captain,” he wrote, “can do wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.” To jneet the attack Villeneuve formed in double column, his line curving: something after the fashion of a. crescent. Nelson observed- this-dispo? sitloh'wfflCapproval. Attack at once, he directed, and hoisted his famous last signal: “England expects every man to do his duty.” To cut the enemy’s escape, Nelson’s column was headed about two points farther north than was Collingwood’s. In consequence it was this latter officer in his fast-sailing flagship who first came into action. The Royal Sovereign plunged into the enemy line just astern of the Spanish Admiral Alava’s craft, the big three decker, Santa Anna, which caught the Sovereign's starboard broadside. Collingwood was in his element. “What would Nelson give to be here!” he cried to Rotherham, his captain. Nelson for his part called Collingwood a “noble fellow,” as the Victory, flying every battle ensign her flag locker would yield, plunged into the fighting. The admiral headed for his old acquaintance, the Santissima Trinidad, a huge craft of no less than four decks, which greeted him withja_terriflc_b.last from her tiers of cannon. Scott, the admiral’s secretary, fell at the first fire. A double-headed shot mowed eight? marines, drawn up with the guard close by the Admiral's side. Another shot whizzed between Nelson and Hardy, the Victory’s commander. “Warm work,” said Nelson; “Too warm to last long.” In the tops of the enemy’s ships soldier rifleman were busily at work. To them Nelson, in his admiral’s uniform, with four stars of the orders with which he was invested' on his left breast, was a shining mark. Beatty, the Victory’s surgeon, and Scott, her chaplain, begged him to remove these decorations, but Nelson answered : “In honor I gained them and in honor I will, die with them. No less than 50 men aboard the Victory had been killed before she fired a gun. Then she was laid along side the Redoubtable, her guns touching the French ship through the timber of which their shot went crashing. Her larboard battery, meanwhile, was busily engaged with the Bucentaure, Villeneuve’s flagship, and the Santissima Trinidad. Harvey, who saw her thus engaged from the Temeraire, 1 declared afterward that she seemed to belch fire. All the other British ships were similarly occupied. The cannonade was terriffic, the slaughter dreadful. The French and Spanish, who for the most part had gone into action without flags, were now producing them in order to surrender. Villeneuve’s fleet was being knocked to pieces about him. Twice Nelson gave the order to cease , firing upon the Redoubtable, believing jshe had struck, but it was from this vessel that he received his''death. An Infantryman in her mizzen top took careful. aim at the gallant figure on the Victory’s quarterdeck and sent a musket ball through the epaulet on his left shoulder. He fell upon his face in the pool of blood left by Scott, his dead secretary. Adair and his marines sprang to the stricken admiral’s side. “They have done for me at last, Hardy,” he said. “My backbone is shot 'through.*” And as they were carrying him below he gave orders that the severed tiller ropes be replaced, the while he

covered his face and his stars with his handkerchief that neither the enemy nor his own gallant seamen might know who it was that was dying. ~— In the cocKplt, where he waved* away the surgeon, declaring that time spent on him was but wasted, when it might save the life of some other man, the admiral could hear the crew of the Victory cheering as ship after ship in the enemy line hauled down her colors. “I hope,” said the dying leader, “no English ship has struck.” "No fear,” answered Hardy. “Then I am satisfied,” whispered Nelson. “Thank God I have done my duty.” A little later he asked the sorrowing Hardy to kiss him. Afterward he commended to the care of his nation Lady Hamilton and his daughter, Horatia. Then three hours after he had sustained his wound and with the splendid triumph, wrought by his skill and brayery all about him, he died. Of the allied fleet no less than 18 — Nelson had predicted 20 —surrendered to the English. Four of the van who escaped subsequently fell victims to the squadron of Sir Richard Strachan. Only 11 craft of the squadron limped hack Into Cadiz where they lay quiescent under Rosily until forced to surrender to the Spaniards by the outbreak of the Peninsular war. Napoleon’s plan for the invasion of England could no longer possess existence.