Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/316

 guns when crossing the bridge, he was no sooner over than, spreading out his front, he advanced most gallantly to the attack. He was severely wounded, and, the enemy being completely defeated, he was left at Bladensburg when the British army advanced to Washington. The raid on Washington and the destruction of its public buildings having been successfully accomplished, Ross returned to the ships, leaving his wounded at Bladensburg under charge of Commodore Burney of the American navy, who had been wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Bladensburg, and who was given his parole. It was arranged with Burney that Thornton and the rest of the wounded should be considered prisoners of war to the Americans, and exchanged as soon as they were fit to travel. Early in October Burney himself escorted Thornton and the other prisoners in a schooner to join the British fleet in the James river, where the British army, after the failure at Baltimore and the death of Ross, had embarked.

Thornton sailed with the army on board the fleet to Jamaica, where Major-general Keane, having arrived from England with reinforcements, took command. The expedition sailed on 26 Nov. for New Orleans, which was reached on 10 Dec.; but it was the 21st before all the troops were landed on Pine Island in Lake Borgne. An advanced guard, consisting of the 4th, 85th, and 95th regiments, was formed under Thornton's command, and, embarking in boats, proceeded up the creek Bayo de Catiline by night to within a few miles of New Orleans on its northern side, where they landed and established themselves. After repulsing a night attack with considerable loss, the advanced guard was reinforced gradually by the arrival in detachments of the main body, and the whole army was in position by 25 Dec., when Sir [q. v.] arrived from England and took command. After an ineffectual attack on the 27th, Thornton was busy cutting a canal across the neck of land between Bayo de Catiline and the river. This was completed on 6 Jan. 1815, when he embarked the 85th and other details, amounting to under four hundred men, crossed the river on the night of the 7th, and took a most gallant part in the attack of 8 Jan., gaining on his side of the river a complete success. Storming the intrenchments, he put the enemy to flight, capturing eighteen guns and the camp of that position. In this attack he was severely wounded, and learning in the moment of his victory of the death of Pakenham and the disastrous failure of the main attack, he retired to his boats, recrossed the river, and joined the main body. The reunited army made the best of their way back to the fleet and re-embarked. Thornton was sent to England, where he arrived in March 1815. He was made a companion of the order of the Bath, military division.

On 12 Aug. 1819 Thornton was appointed deputy adjutant-general in Ireland. He was promoted to be major-general on 27 May 1825. He was made a knight commander of the Bath in September 1836, promoted to be lieutenant-general on 28 June 1838, and appointed colonel of the 96th foot on 10 Oct. 1834. On the death of Sir [q. v.] he was transferred to the colonelcy of his old regiment, the 85th light infantry, on 9 April 1839. For the last few years of his life he resided in the village of Greenford, near Hanwell, Middlesex. He became subject to delusions, and shot himself on 6 April 1840 at his residence, Stanhope Lodge, Greenford. He was buried in Greenford churchyard. He was unmarried. The order announcing the death of their colonel to the 85th light infantry observed that it was ‘to his unremitted zeal and noble example the regiment is principally indebted for that high character which it has ever since maintained.’



THORNTON, WILLIAM THOMAS (1813–1880), author, born at Burnham, Buckinghamshire, on 14 Feb. 1813, was the youngest son of (d. 1814) [q. v.], and of Sophie Zohrab, daughter of a Greek merchant. Having been educated at the Moravian settlement at Ockbrook in Derbyshire, he passed three years in Malta with his cousin, Sir William Henry Thornton, the auditor-general. From 1830 to 1835 he was at Constantinople with Consul-general Cartwright. In August 1836 he obtained a clerkship in the East India House. Twenty years later he was given charge of the public works department, and in 1858 became first secretary for public works to the India office. In 1873 he was created C.B. on the recommendation of the Duke of Argyll. In spite of weak health, he devoted the greater part