Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/135

 the emperor on 4 Sept. Having satisfactorily completed all the affairs entrusted to him, and received the thanks of Liston and of Lord Cathcart, British ambassador at St. Petersburg, he proceeded on the 15th, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Baron Brinken, and by Lord Tyrconnel, to join the Russian army at Krasnoi Pakra, near Moscow, as British commissioner, with instructions to keep both Lord Cathcart and Liston informed of the progress of events.

Wilson took part in the successful attack on Murat at Winkowo on 18 Oct., in the battles of Malo-Jaroslawitz on the 24th, of Wiasma on 3 Nov., of Krasnoi on 17 Nov., and in all the affairs to the cessation of the pursuit of the French. He exchanged into the 22nd light dragoons on 10 Dec. 1812. Early in 1813 he marched across Poland to Kalish, and thence to Berlin, where he arrived on 31 March. On 8 April he proceeded by Dessau and Leipzig to Dresden. On 2 May he took a prominent part in the battle of Lützen, where, aided by Colonel Campbell, he rallied the Prussians, carried the village of Gros Gorschen, which he held until night, and subsequently drove the enemy back on Lützen. He further distinguished himself at the battle of Bautzen on 20 and 21 May, and at the action of Reichenbach on the 22nd. During a review of the troops near Jauer on the 27th the emperor of Russia decorated Wilson in front of the imperial guard with the cross of the third class or knight commander of the order of St. George, taking it from his own neck and making a most complimentary speech, in which he stated his desire to mark his esteem for Wilson's courage, zeal, talent, and fidelity throughout the war.

Wilson was promoted to be major-general on 4 June 1813. During the armistice he travelled about the country inspecting the fortresses. When Austria joined the alliance against Buonaparte and hostilities were resumed, Wilson was conspicuous in the attack upon Dresden on 26 Aug., when he took part in storming the grand redoubt, and was the first to mount the parapet, followed by Captain Charles. On this occasion he lost his cross of the order of Maria Theresa in the mélée, and the emperor of Austria presented him with another, which was sent to him with a complimentary letter from Count Metternich (dated Töplitz, 24 Sept. 1813). In the battle of 27 Aug. Wilson was with the emperor of Russia and General Moreau when the latter was mortally wounded. He was also present at the battles of Kulm and Kraupen on the 29th and 30th, and charged repeatedly with the Austrian cavalry on the 30th.

On 7 Sept. Wilson joined the Austrian army at Leitmeritz as British commissioner, having been transferred from the Russian army. On the 27th he received from the king of Prussia the grand cross of the order of the Red Eagle, of which order he had received the fourth class in the last war. He was with the staff of Marshal Prince Schwartzenberg, commanding the allied armies, at the battles of Leipzig on 16 and 18 Oct., and at the capture of the city on the 19th. Schwartzenberg wrote to Lord Aberdeen, the British ambassador, attributing the success at Leipzig on the 16th chiefly to Wilson's intelligence and able dispositions.

Shortly after the battles of Leipzig Lord Castlereagh appointed Lord Burghersh to be British commissioner with Schwartzenberg, and transferred Wilson to the Austrian army in Italy. Both the emperors and also the king of Prussia desired to retain Wilson with them. Metternich wrote to Aberdeen that he was commanded by the emperor to express his sense of Wilson's great services, and his wish that he should remain with the army, and Schwartzenberg told him that conspicuous as were Wilson's services in the field, they fell short of those he had rendered out of the field. Aberdeen wrote to Castlereagh (Despatch, 11 Nov. 1813): ‘From his intimate knowledge of the Russian and Prussian armies, and the great respect invariably shown him by the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia, he is able to do a thousand things which no one else could do. He was the means of making up a difference between the king and Schwartzenberg which was of the utmost importance.’ Castlereagh was, however, firm; he deemed the applications of the foreign sovereigns an unwarrantable interference, and observed that if Wilson had the confidence of all other governments he lacked that of his own. Party politics alone account for the fact that, although loaded with distinctions by allied foreign sovereigns, he received none from his own. In November the emperor of Russia bestowed upon him the Moscow medal for the campaign of 1812.

On 22 Dec. 1813 Wilson went to Basle by Aberdeen's direction to join the allied commission, but on the 25th his instructions arrived from Castlereagh to join the Austrian army in Italy, and to report direct to him, keeping the British ambassador to Austria informed. Before leaving, the emperor of Russia presented him with the first class or grand cross of the order of St. Anne at Freiburg on 24 Dec., and the emperor of Austria promoted him to be knight commander of the order of Maria Theresa on