Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Small Army Gold Medal for Orthes 1814 awarded to Major the Hon. Edward Mullens, 28th Foot, who fought in fifteen battles in the Peninsula between 1809 and 1814, commanded a Light Battalion at Orthes, and was one of the heroes of the Battle of Barossa, where he was severely wounded while leading the elite Grenadier Company in a desperate attack on an entire French Division - ‘Of all the army the severest loss sustained was by the grenadiers and light bobs of the 28th Regiment; two-thirds of the men and all the officers lay on the battlefield’

Field Officer’s Gold Medal 1808-14, for Orthes (Major Honble. Edwd. Mullens, 28th Foot.) fitted with three-pronged gold ribbon bar, sometime gilded and with replacement lunettes, otherwise good very fine; together with a fine colour portrait miniature of the recipient on ivory, in a silver-gilt and gilt metal glazed oval frame, the reverse engraved ‘Major The Honble Edward Mullens. 28th Regt.’ (2) £18,000-£22,000

Provenance: Spink, 21 April 2011

The Honourable Edward Mullens (sometimes spelt as Mullins), was born in 1777, the fifth son of Sir Thomas Mullens, 1st Baron Ventry. Frederick William Mullens (d. 1712), an English Colonel who claimed descent from the Norman de Moleyns, established this branch of the family in co. Kerry, settling at Burnham House near Dingle around 1666. His great-grandson, Sir Thomas Mullens (1736-1824), one of three major electoral patrons in Kerry, was created Baron Ventry in the Irish peerage on 31 July 1800, as a reward for his family’s support for the Union with Britain and the abolition of the Irish Parliament.

In September 1795, Mullens was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Foot, a proud and well-respected regiment known as ‘The Slashers’, following an incident in Montreal in 1764 when, after considerable provocations, men from the regiment attacked a prominent citizen and slashed off his ear. Mullins joined just before the regiment was sent out to the West Indies. During the trans-Atlantic voyage, a severe storm separated the transport ships, and only four companies completed the journey. The ships carrying the remaining six companies landed them at Gibraltar. The battalion was not reunited until the four ‘Caribbean’ companies arrived in Gibraltar from the West Indies in 1797.

With ‘the old Slashers’
The 28th Foot took part in the capture of Minorca in November 1798 and then in the attack on the French Army of the Orient in March 1801. It landed at Aboukir Bay in Egypt and fought its way west along the coast towards Alexandria. During the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, 28th Foot belonged to the Reserve Division commanded by Major-General Sir John Moore. French cavalry broke through the British battle line and formed up behind the 28th, preparing to charge it. The 28th Foot was drawn up in an extended line, two ranks deep, and was heavily engaged with French Infantry to their front. There was insufficient time and space for the line to be formed into a square, which was the standard way for infantry to defend themselves against a cavalry attack. The order ‘Rear Rank, 28th! Right About Face’ was given. Standing back-to-back, the regiment successfully defended itself against both infantry and cavalry attacks. After this famous incident, the 28th Foot began a custom of wearing their regimental badge on the back as well as the front of their headdress. This unique distinction was eventually granted official authorisation in 1830.
Mullens was promoted to Brevet Captain in the Army on 13 November 1801, probably in recognition of his contribution during the Egyptian campaign. He did not become a Captain in the 28th Foot until a vacancy arose in May 1803. Meanwhile, in October 1802, the 28th Foot left Egypt for four years of home service, mostly spent in Fermoy, co. Cork, apart from a brief and abortive expedition which attempted, without success, to defend the Electorate of Hanover from a French invasion. The 28th was sent to Denmark, where it took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in August and September 1807, and to Portugal in July 1808, for service in the Peninsular, where it was once again under the command of Sir John Moore, becoming one of his most reliable regiments.

The retreat to Corunna, under the eyes of Sir John Moore
The main published memoirs dealing with the lives and adventures of those serving in the 28th Foot during the remainder of Mullens’s career are The Diary of a Veteran, Sergeant Peter Facey, 28th (North Gloucester) Regiment of Foot 1803-19 (edited by Gareth Glover) an account of the regiment and (until 1809) its Grenadier Company, which Mullens served in for several years; A Boy in The Peninsular War, by Robert Blakeney; The Slashers: The Campaigns of the 28th Regiment of Foot During the Napoleonic Wars by a Serving Officer (Charles Cadell).

In 1808-09, Captain Mullens and his men endured the forced marches, lack of sleep, torrential rains, blizzards, hunger, privations and other hardships of the arduous mid-winter retreat through the Galician mountains, with Napoleon himself, and later Marshal Soult, snapping at their heels. The 28th Foot formed part of the rear-guard from 1 January 1809, conducting a fighting withdrawal directly monitored by Sir John Moore. This involved many engagements with French cavalry and light troops. According to Sergeant Facey, the French cavalrymen often carried a rifleman behind the rider as a kind of mounted infantry (Facey Diary refers.) The 28th was the last regiment, and its Grenadier Company the last company, to reach the British supply base at the port of Corunna on 11 January 1809. The 28th Foot fought in the Battle of Corunna on 16 January 1809, once again as part of the Reserve Division. The Reserve was tasked to cover a valley on the left of the main French assault. The 28th Foot and the 95th Rifles distinguished themselves by jointly defeating flanking attacks that aimed to break through to the British evacuation points around the port. By nightfall, both sides held much the same ground as they had at dawn. The following day, the British army was evacuated by sea.

Mullens and the 1/28th were sent out to the Netherlands as part of the brief but totally disastrous Walcheren Campaign from June until September 1809. As usual, the 28th Foot was part of the elite Reserve Division. The campaign involved little fighting (only 106 men died in combat) but after ‘about 10 days the troops began to fall sick, taking the ague [a form of malaria, dubbed Walcheren Fever] on account of the low marshy land and bad water. We then received orders that no man was to expose himself to the air in the morning without eating or drinking spirits, or smoking tobacco. Captain Charles Cadell claims that he was the only officer on the expedition who did not smoke, and that he was the only one to escape the fever.’ (Facey Diary refers.)

Cadell was likely exaggerating somewhat to enhance his anecdote, but Facey’s diary makes it clear that the 28th was hard hit, with well over 67% of the regiment affected by the ague. Out of a total of 40,000 British troops sent to Holland, 4,000 died, and almost 12,000 were still ill in February 1810. Many thousands were permanently weakened and subject to recurring bouts of fever. While 1/28th returned to Spain in March 1810, Mullens did not re-join his unit in the field at Tarifa until December 1810. He was most probably on sick certificate, like Lieutenant-Colonel Belson, who commanded 1/28th and who did not return until February 1811. Other possibilities to account for this gap in regimental service are leave of absence or a temporary detached duty.

Mullens next saw action during sorties out of Tarifa, aimed at French garrisons in the region. They were a prelude to the Battle of Barossa on 5 March 1811, where Mullens was a senior Captain of the elite Flank Companies of the 28th Foot, in his case, the Grenadier Company. This Company took the position of honour as the right-hand Company of the regimental line. It was made up of hand-picked, experienced soldiers, the most reliable men in the regiment, because the Grenadiers were used as assault troops. Transfer from one of the six or more Centre Companies to the Grenadier Company generally brought enhanced status and sometimes higher rates of subsistence allowance. The Flank Companies of the 28th, the 9th and 2/82nd Foot were detached from their centre companies at Tarifa and ‘brigaded’ as an independent composite battalion ‘composed entirely of selected men’, reporting direct to the senior British general. Its command was entrusted to John Fredrick Browne, a larger-than-life character who was a senior Major in the 28th Foot and a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army. It was generally referred to as ‘Colonel Browne’s Battalion’, although its existence as a military unit was always strictly temporary.

‘Now cheer up my brave lads! ‘Tis to Glory We Steer…’
The Battle of Barossa took place during an ultimately unsuccessful joint Spanish-British manoeuvre intended to break the French siege of the port-city of Cadiz, where Spain’s anti-Bonaparte government was based. The French commander, Marshal Victor, intended to trap the Allied army on the coast as it advanced towards Cadiz and destroy it in detail. Colonel Browne’s Battalion was posted as rear-guard on Barossa Hill, supported by five Spanish infantry regiments, artillery and Spanish and British cavalry. These supports melted away as soon as the French army came into sight, and Browne reluctantly ordered his men down off Barossa Hill, to avoid being encircled by the French pincer movements and to stay in touch with the main British force, who were split up, trying to make their way through a pine forest.

‘As the Flank Companies formed an extended line in front of the pine forest at the foot of the hill, the British commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham, joined them, saying “Browne, did I not give you orders to defend Barossa Hill?”
“Yes, Sir”, said Browne, “but you would not have me fight the whole French army with four hundred and seventy men?”
“Had you not,” replied the general, “five Spanish battalions, together with artillery and cavalry?”
“Oh!” said Browne, “They all ran away long before the enemy came within cannon-shot.”
The general coolly replied, “It is a bad business, Browne; you must instantly turn around and attack.”
“Very well,” said the colonel.’ (Blakeney refers).

Browne re-formed his men into compact battalion, rode to the front and taking off his hat, shouted “Gentlemen, I am happy to be the bearer of good news: General Graham has done you the honour of being the first to attack those fellows. Now follow me, you rascals!” He then broke into song “Now, cheer up my brave lads! ’Tis to glory we steer…”
As they advanced deliberately up Barossa Hill, once Browne had completed all the verses of “Hearts of Oak”, he concluded his exhortations: “There they are, you rascals, if you don’t kill them, they will kill you; so fire away!” Blakeney states: ‘Thus we moved forward with four hundred and sixty-eight men and twenty-one officers to attack the position, upon which but three-quarters of an hour previously we had stood in proud defiance of the advancing foe, but which was now defended by two thousand five hundred infantry and eight pieces of artillery, together with some cavalry…[and] two battalions of chosen grenadiers commanded by General Rousseau, the whole under the orders of General of Division Rufin.’ (ibid).

Blakeney was one of those who assaulted Barossa Hill with the Flank Companies: ‘As soon as we crossed the ravine close to the base of the hill and formed on the opposite side, a most tremendous roar of cannon and musketry was all at once opened, Rufin’s whole division pointing at us with muskets, and eight pieces of cannon sending forth their grape, firing as one salvo. Nearly two hundred of our men and more than half the officers went down by this first volley.’

Fifty more soldiers and most of the remaining officers became casualties before Browne’s men drove the French off Barossa Hill at the point of the bayonet, supported by the Guards Brigade which General Graham rushed forward at the double to reinforce the attack which, when it began, ‘had not the slightest prospect of success, still it was absolutely necessary for the safety of the British army’.

Casualties among 28th Foot’s Flank Companies were reported by Blakeney: ‘Two-thirds of the men and all the officers lay on the battlefield: one alone of the latter was enabled to resume his legs, for he had no bone broken; he continued through the fight, - ‘twas the system of the old Slashers.’ Out of seven officers, two died and four were officially reported as casualties. Captain Mullens was classified as severely wounded; if Blakeney’s remarks were meant literally, he was a stretcher case, and was admitted to hospital in Cadiz, where he was treated, cared for and then convalesced, despite frequent French bombardments.

Mullens was back with his regiment in Lisbon by the end of July 1811, in good time to participate in 1/28th Foot’s next fight, which took place at the end of October 1811. This was the brilliant little battle of Arroyo dos Molinos, where Sir Rowland Hill, after a series of forced marches in terrible weather, destroyed an entire French Division and a brigade of cavalry. In May 1812 Mullens joined in General Hill’s audacious raid that resulted in the destruction of the French pontoon bridge across the River Tagus at Almaraz. This protected Wellington’s southern flank by preventing Soult’s army from moving north, and thus enabled the British victory at Salamanca and the liberation of Madrid. Mullens fought at the disastrous siege of the castle of Burgos in September-October 1812 and the subsequent retreat to Portugal, where the exhausted allied army went into winter quarters in November.

In December 1812 Mullens left his regiment, probably returning home on sick certificate or six months leave, until the start of the 1813 campaigning season. He re-joined in May 1813 and his promotion to Brevet Major in the army was published on 4 June. After 18 years of military service, he was now officially eligible to command a composite unit of temporarily ‘brigaded’ Flank Companies. His first battle of 1813 was at Maya in the Pyrenees mountains in July 1813, where the 28th was surprised early on Sunday 25 July. Facey recorded in his Diary ‘We all immediately stood to our arms marching as fast as possible to the top of the mountains where the enemy was advancing, and at that time actually engaged with our outposts. We sooner [sic] arrived at the top of the hills than we commenced firing, and the enemy at the same time making a rapid advance up the mountains, and cheering, we repulsed them three times, but they being so superior in number, and we at the same time, lost some men, we were at last obliged to give way.’ A series of successful counter-attacks by the 28th Foot over the following days restored British ascendancy.

Mullens received his regimental promotion to Major in the 28th Foot on 9 September 1813, a much shorter wait after obtaining his brevet than the one for his captaincy ten years earlier. The fighting had created more vacancies, but there is no doubt that, if Mullens had accepted to transfer to another, less prestigious regiment, his career would have progressed far quicker. Slow promotion was the price for doggedly staying with a beloved and much sought-after regiment.

Soon after Mullens was promoted, Wellington invaded France, with a masterly crossing of the Bidassoa river. His next task was to move all of his army out of the Pyrenees mountains and into the plains of France before the full force of winter struck. The 28th Foot were soon encamped in knee-deep snow and suffering losses from exposure and frostbite. In November 1813, Wellington successfully conducted the battle of Nivelle, followed by that of Nive, during which the 28th made an opposed river crossing at the ford of Halsa. Wellington took enough ground for his army to winter comfortably.

Senior Major
There was only a short break in the fighting over the winter of 1813-14, as the allied governments believed that Napoleon would not be able to fight for much longer, and must not be given time to rebuild his armies. On 2 February 1814, Wellington began to break out of his bridge-head in the south-western extremity of France. At the battle of Garris on 15 February 1814, a force under the direct command of Wellington attacked and routed a French Division who were defending a ridge line. Late in the afternoon, the 28th Foot, at the head of Wellington’s troops, approached the French position but simply deployed its skirmishers, as the men were tired from a long march and the colonel expected an order to make camp. Suddenly a galloper arrived, bearing Wellington’s order ‘Take that hill before dark.’ The companies quickly formed up in open column and advanced, fighting their way up the steep slopes to the crest, where they beat off a counterattack; the French fled in disarray towards the bridge over the river Bidouze.

At the battle of Orthes on 27 February 1814, Mullens commanded a brigaded battalion made up of all the Light Companies of Colonel O’Callaghan’s Brigade, those of the 28th, 34th, and 39th Foot, plus a Company of 5th Battalion 60th Rifles. His mission was to seize and hold the ford over the Gave de Pau river at Souars, a mile upstream from Orthes, to enable General Hill’s Second Division to cross, followed by Portuguese and British cavalry. This mission, which was successfully accomplished, was rewarded by the grant of an Army Gold Medal for field officers.

Soult retreated towards Toulouse, and Mullens was involved in the battle at Aire-sur-l’Adour on 2 March. His final battle took place at Toulouse on Easter Sunday 10 April; news of Napoleon’s abdication and the end of hostilities arrived the next day. On 3 July 1814 the regiment embarked at Pauillac on the Gironde, bound for Cork. A new commanding officer had just been appointed, and the 28th Foot expected to be sent to North America to serve in the Second American War (orders for this were issued, changed and then cancelled in 1815 due to the news of a peace treaty with the United States). In the later part of 1814 Mullens retired on half-pay for the remainder of his service, a decision probably prompted by continuing health issues from ague and dwindling prospects of commanding his beloved 28th Foot in the foreseeable future.

Now permanently based in his native Ireland, Mullens became a Justice of the Peace. In 1823 Daniel O’Connell began to campaign for repeal of the Act of Union. He established the Catholic Association, to help liberal Protestants who sympathised with his cause to win seats at Westminster in the general election of 1826 and then to press for Repeal and Catholic emancipation. During the 1826 election there was not one fixed single day when all polling had to take place. Once each local returning officer received the election writ, he drew up and published a voting timetable for the constituencies for which he was responsible. The election took place over several weeks and as a result, there was great unrest in many parts of Ireland as news spread of seat gains by the Catholic Association’s candidates.

Mullens was one of the magistrates who authorised troops to fire on unruly crowds, causing many casualties (Freeman’s Journal 20 June, Dublin Evening Post 27, 29 June, 1,13,18 July 1826 refers). Edward Mullens’s eldest surviving brother had succeeded their father as Baron Ventry in 1824, but then died in 1827. The title passed to Edward’s nephew, and it was rumoured that he would put Edward forward as candidate for one of the Kerry seats in Parliament. It was not to be, as the family’s political patronage was greatly weakened by the electoral franchise changes enacted in 1829, which reduced the electorate of the county constituencies by over 80%.

The Honourable Edward Mullens, a gallant, loyal and modest warrior, died in his sixty-third year, on 31 July 1841.