Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/20

 2 MEMOIR OF SIR ISAAC BROCK.

defence of Baton Rouge, on the Mississippi, in the first American war. The subject of this memoir pur- chased an ensigncy in the 8th regiment shortly after the termination of that war, and at the age of twenty- one he obtained an independent company, by raising the requisite number of men to complete it. Ex- changing immediately after into the 49th, he proceeded with his regiment to Jamaica, but was compelled to return to England very suddenly, having nearly fallen a victim to the pestilential effects of the climate, and an immediate embarkation being pronounced his only chance of recovery. Another near relative, Lieute- nant Brock, who was ill with him, died of the fever, and the survivor always thought that he was indebted for his life to the affectionate attentions of his servant, whom he afterwards ever treated with the kindness of a brother, until he died in his service, shortly before himself, in Canada. Having purchased the succeed- ing steps with unusual rapidity, he became lieutenant- colonel commanding the 49th regiment, on the 25th October, 1797, just after he had completed his twenty- eighth year. Owing to gross mismanagement and peculation on the part of his predecessor, who was in consequence recommended privately to sell out if he did not wish to stand the ordeal of a court martial, the regiment was sadly disorganised ; but the late Duke of York was heard to declare that Lieut. - Colonel Brock, from one of the worst, had made the 49th one of the best regiments in the service. During the campaign in Holland, in 1799, he distinguished himself at the head of his regiment ; a horse was shot under him, and his life was in all probability pre- served in action, on a very cold day, by his wearing several black silk cravats, which were all perforated

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