Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/420

 followed, and he retained his seat until elevated to the peerage. Wellington prepared his final advance in the spring of 1813. Hill's corps formed the right of the allied army, and had a prominent share in the subsequent successes, which led the allies victorious from the Tagus to the Garonne. Hill commanded the right of the army at the great battle of Vittoria, 21 June 1813, which began with an attack by one of Hill's brigades on the height of La Puebla, and ended with the utter rout of the French armies under Jourdan and Joseph Bonaparte (, vi. 539–43). He was entrusted with the blockade of Pampeluna, and for months withstood the determined attempts of the enemy to dislodge him from his Pyrenean fastnesses (Well. Suppl. Desp. vol. viii. passim;, vi. 557 to end of vol., vii. to p. 346). When the allied army was reorganised on French soil, in three army corps under Hill, Beresford, and Hope, the right was assigned to Hill, with the second and fourth British and a Portuguese division and Mina's and Murillo's corps of Spaniards attached. Hill rendered important services at the battle of Nivelle, 10 Nov. 1813, when Soult's triple line of defences was stormed, and in the operations on the Nive in the following month. On 13 Dec. 1813, the last day of the fighting at the Nive, the French attacked him in great force from the entrenched camp before Bayonne. Hill, unaided, gave them what Wellington, in characteristic phrase, declared to be the soundest thrashing they ever had. He rendered valuable service at the battle of Orthez, by the passage of the Gave and capture of the town of Aire, 3 March 1814 (, vii. 346), and at the final battle on 10–11 April 1814 before Toulouse (ib. vii. 430–7), where he was left in command after Wellington went to Paris. After the close of the war Hill, like his comrades Beresford, Stapleton Cotton, Graham, and Hope, was raised to the peerage. On 17 May 1814 he was created Baron Hill of Almaraz and Hawkstone, afterwards changed to Almaraz and Hardwicke, Hardwicke Grange being a small property near Shrewsbury left him by his uncle, Sir Richard Hill, second baronet of Hawkstone [q. v.] He was awarded a pension of 2,000l. a year. Wellington recommended him for the governorship of Gibraltar, which Beresford had refused (ib. vii. 465). There was also an idea of putting him at the head of a projected expedition to America, which was abandoned. Consulted by Lord Bathurst on the point the Duke of Wellington recommended Sir John Hope in the first place; but in case of Hope's probable refusal he nominated Hill as ‘the most eligible, but I am not quite sure that he does not shrink from responsibility’ (Well. Suppl. Desp. viii. 547). Hill returned from France, and met with an enthusiastic reception in London and in his native county. He received the thanks of parliament and the freedom of the city of London. A memorial, known as Lord Hill's column, a Doric column 133 feet high surmounted by a statue, was erected beside the London Road, Shrewsbury, by county subscription, at a cost of 6,000l. Hill was offered the command in Scotland, which he declined. When the news came of the return from Elba, Hill was on a visit to London with one of his sisters, and was despatched by the cabinet at a few hours' notice to urge upon the Prince of Orange to keep his troops (which included a British contingent) out of harm's way until larger forces could be massed on the frontier. Hill arrived in Brussels on 1 April 1815, and was followed by Wellington three days afterwards. The troops in the Netherlands were rapidly formed in two large army corps, the command of one being given to the Prince of Orange, and that of the second to Lord Hill (ib. x. 63). Hill's command included the 2nd and 4th British divisions, with the artillery attached, a cavalry brigade of the king's German legion, the Dutch-Indian contingent, and a Dutch-Belgian division of all arms under Prince Frederick of the Netherlands. Some Hanoverian landwehr brigades were added. Hill's headquarters were at Grammont. He was with his command on the night of the famous ball at Brussels. The movements of his troops on the days of the fighting at Quatre Bras and Ligny are detailed by Gurwood, ‘Wellington Despatches,’ viii. 142–4. At Waterloo Hill's corps was posted on the right of the Nivelle road, about Merke Braine, the brigades actually engaged being Adam's light brigade (52nd, 71st, and rifles), near which Hill was during the greater part of the day, Mitchell's (14th, 23rd, and 51st), and Duplat's brigade of the king's German legion and some Hanoverian landwehr brigades. According to the account of Sir Digby Mackworth, one of his aides-de-camp (Life of Hill, p. 307 et seq.), when the imperial guards made their last onset, and before the famous charge of Adam's brigade, led by the 52nd under Sir John Colborne, afterwards Lord Seaton [q. v.], who succeeded to the brigade when Adam was wounded, Hill placed himself at the head of the brigade, which was lying down on the ridge exchanging volleys at half-pistol shot with the imperial guard, but had his horse shot under him and was knocked over and badly contused. For more than half an hour he was lost in the mêlée and believed by his staff to be killed. His horse was afterwards