Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/20/246

Letter from Charles Napier to John Dickenson

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Vitoria 23d June 1813



Dear Sir
      I suppose by this time you
look upon me as you did upon Francis
[f]or not writing sooner after promisig
 ---  do it but although I did not write
I did not forget any of you. Nothing
perticuler has happened scince my
arrival in the country with regard to
myself or my Regt till the 21st of this month
which day was a dreadfull day for the
71st which you must have seen by this
time in the papers certainely it was a
glorious day for the British nation but
purchased at a very dear rate our poor


Regt lost 388 out of which 16 officers Col
Cadogan sold himself by too much
rashneʃs he was killed in the commenc
ment of the action. We were the first
RBritish Regiment engaged and I flatter
myself they did their duty and show
ed an example to the rest of the army
out of the company to which I belong we
left 48 lying on one spot we lost 52 out
of 91 which we began with I am now left in t[his]
place for the purpose of collecting the
wounded and prisoners which I would
not be surprised if I was to see Egland
with them This busineʃs will most probably
finish the Spanish war Joseph has lost all
his plunder their is a report here to day he
was taken last night the people are all on
the look out to see him brought in their is also
a mention of another action which I partly
beleave Let me hear sometime from you for
a letter is a great treat in this country a little
scandall from one of my Friends I would like very
much but it is better not to mention Names.
Give my love to Mrs and Miʃs Dickinson
                             And believe
                             me to be your
                             affectionate friend
                                                         Charles Napier[1]


6-2-6
4-10 --
1-2-6
10-15 --
                             Charles Napier
                             71st. Regt-
                             after Vittoria


John Dickinson Esqr[2]
      No 32 Devonshire Place
            London
            England

[3]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. The closer is written to the right of the final lines of the letter, cramped into the remaining space.
 2. A large manuscript ‘2/6’ is written above the name, denoting postage due.
 3. Two postmarks, split by unfolding: one round postmark ‘FOREIGN July 27 1813’ in brown ink; one delivery stamp, in red ink, dated 12 o'clock (noon), 27 July.

Normalised Text


                                                         Vitoria 23d June 1813



Dear Sir
      I suppose by this time you
look upon me as you did upon Francis
for not writing sooner after promising
 ---  do it but although I did not write
I did not forget any of you. Nothing
particular has happened since my
arrival in the country with regard to
myself or my Regiment till the 21st of this month
which day was a dreadful day for the
71st which you must have seen by this
time in the papers certainly it was a
glorious day for the British nation but
purchased at a very dear rate our poor


Regiment lost 388 out of which 16 officers Col
Cadogan sold himself by too much
rashness he was killed in the commencement
 of the action. We were the first
British Regiment engaged and I flatter
myself they did their duty and showed
 an example to the rest of the army
out of the company to which I belong we
left 48 lying on one spot we lost 52 out
of 91 which we began with I am now left in this
place for the purpose of collecting the
wounded and prisoners which I would
not be surprised if I was to see England
with them This business will most probably
finish the Spanish war Joseph has lost all
his plunder there is a report here to day he
was taken last night the people are all on
the look out to see him brought in there is also
a mention of another action which I partly
believe Let me hear sometime from you for
a letter is a great treat in this country a little
scandal from one of my Friends I would like very
much but it is better not to mention Names.
Give my love to Mrs and Miss Dickinson
                             And believe
                             me to be your
                             affectionate friend
                                                         Charles Napier



                            


John Dickinson Esqr
      No 32 Devonshire Place
            London
            England

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quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. The closer is written to the right of the final lines of the letter, cramped into the remaining space.
 2. A large manuscript ‘2/6’ is written above the name, denoting postage due.
 3. Two postmarks, split by unfolding: one round postmark ‘FOREIGN July 27 1813’ in brown ink; one delivery stamp, in red ink, dated 12 o'clock (noon), 27 July.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Charles Napier to John Dickenson

Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/246

Correspondence Details

Sender: Charles Napier

Place sent: Vitoria

Addressee: John Dickenson

Place received: London

Date sent: 23 June 1813

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Charles Napier (1794-1874) to John Dickenson, concerning the Battle of Vitoria [on 21 June 1813].
    Napier writes of the battle which he says that Dickenson would have read about in the papers. He describes it as a ‘glorious day for the British’ but it came at a price. There was a loss of 16 officers and that ‘Colonel Cadogan [Henry Cadogan (1780–1813), army officer] sold himself by too much rashness he was killed in the commencement of the action’. He writes that his was the first British regiment engaged and he writes that they did their duty. He lists the large number of losses. In his own company they left 48 men ‘lying on one spot’. Napier writes of the wounded and prisoners being collected and notes that he would not be surprised if he were to see England with them. He believes that this ‘business will probably finish the Spanish war. Joseph has lost all his plunder their [sic] is a report here today he was taken last night’ and everyone is on the ‘lookout to see him brought in’.
    The letter ends with Napier requesting letters from home, noting that letters are a treat and he would like to hear a little ‘scandal’ of his friends but asks that no names are used. He sends his love to Mr and Mrs Dickenson.
    Dated at Vitoria [Spain].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 324 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).

All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.

Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 11 January 2022)

Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library

Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 18 March 2022

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