Sir Ralph Abercromby (British General) led the way in restoring professionalism to the British army during the latter years of the eighteenth century and in training officers and men who achieved victory in the Napoleonic Wars. His personal bravery and integrity, combined with his care and affection for the common soldier, endeared him to the army as well as the civilian population. Without Abercromby, the British army might have been incapable of defeating the French and establishing Great Britain as the dominant military force of the century.
After his birth in Menstry, Scodand, on October 7, 1734, to a prominent family of landowners, Abercromby attended Rugby before reading for the law at Edinburgh and Leipzig. Bored with the legal profession, the highly educated Abercromby convinced his father in 1756 to purchase a commission for him in the Third Dragoon Guards. Two years later, Abercromby saw his first combat in Germany during the Seven Years’ War. He served there until the war’s end, in 1763, learning much from both his commanders and the Prussians, whom he admired for their disciplined units.
After the signing of the Treaty of Hubertusburg, Abercromby returned home for duty in Ireland. In 1773 family pressures convinced him to leave the military and stand election for Parliament. Abercromby won a parliamentary seat but forfeited political influence by favoring the independence movement in the American colonies. Although Abercromby had one brother killed and another decorated for bravery in the American Revolutionary War, he continued to oppose British suppression of the colonies.
Disgusted with politics, Abercromby resigned from Parliament in 1780 and reentered the army in time to join the duke of York’s expedition to the Netherlands. In 1793, Abercromby, now a major general, led a brigade into Flanders against the French. There he gained distinction for his brave leadership at the Batdes of Furnes and Valenciennes. Commanding the rear guard when the army withdrew from Holland in the winter of 1794-95, Abercromby was one of the few British generals to emerge from the campaign with his reputation intact.
The defeat in America and the forced withdrawal from mainland Europe so adversely affected the British army’s morale and efficiency that observers described the once proud “redcoat” officers as “graybeards” and the soldiers as “witless boys.” For the rest of his career Abercromby dedicated himself to restoring discipline in the ranks and professionalism in the officer corps.
In 1795, Abercromby assumed command of the West Indies Expedition and sailed to the Caribbean to capture the French- occupied islands. During a two-year campaign, Abercromby relieved the besieged English force at St. Vincent; captured St. Lucia, Demerara, and Trinidad; and reorganized the British defenses on Grenada. Along with his military victories, Abercromby restored discipline within the ranks and purged his force of dishonest and inefficient officers. He rewarded his command by adopting lightweight tropical cotton uniforms to replace the traditional woolen ones. Abercromby also* encouraged field sanitation and hygiene.
In 1797, Abercromby commanded all British forces in Ireland before leaving in 1799 to participate in the Anglo-Russian campaign in Holland. In 1800, he took command of British forces in the Mediterranean and captured Minorca. Then, after conducting extensive training in water operations, Abercromby landed fourteen thousand infantrymen, one thousand cavalry, and six hundred artillery pieces at Abukir, in North Africa, on March 8, 1801, in the most efficient amphibious operations yet conducted.
Abercromby met a strong, determined French force outside Alexandria on March 21, but the well-disciplined British proved triumphant. Frequently at the lead of his army during batde, Abercromby, despite his advancing age and failing eyesight, constandy exposed himself to fire as he rallied his men. Near the end of the fight a musket ball struck him in the thigh, a wound inflicting complications from which he would not recover. He died at age sixty-six aboard the HMS Foudroyant on March 28, 1801 and was buried on Malta.
Perhaps the most telling example of Abercromby’s character occurred while being treated on the battlefield after suffering his mortal wound. He questioned an aide, “What is it you have placed under my head?” Told that the pillow was “only a soldier’s blanket,” the old general indignantly replied, “Only a soldier’s blanket? Make haste and return it to him at once.”
It would be more than a decade after his death before the British army fully acknowledged Abercromby’s true accomplishments of changing a corrupt, inefficient, and poorly trained army into the one that could defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. Many of the English officers during the Napoleonic War were Abercromby’s proteges, and they had trained and disciplined the ranks that stood against the French according to the standards established by their mentor. Wellington [22] won the Battle of Waterloo with an army which Abercromby had taken from “graybeards” and “witless boys” and which became the world’s finest force.
Throughout his career, Abercromby applied his intelligence and vision in a manner unusual for officers of his time. His forthrightness earned him the respect of his superiors, and his treatment of subordinates won him the love of his soldiers.
Serving long and honorably during minor conflicts and skirmishes, Abercromby never achieved the fame of officers who served in more “historic” times. Yet it was Abercromby’s dedication and the professionalism he instilled in the British army that set the stage for Wellington and others to take their place in history.