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NOTES:
29. Martha Gil-Montero, 'The Marchioness and the
Marshall', p. 12; Martha Gil-Montero, 'The Liberator's Noble Match',
p. 17.
30. Martha Gil-Montero, 'The Marchioness and the
Marshall', pp. 12-13.
31. The decisive Battle of Ayacucho liberated Peru and effectively
capped the defeat of Spanish forces in South America. See Lambert, 'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 144.
32. Eric Lambert, 'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 146:
'He and the Rifles must have covered some 22,000 miles [35,000
kilometres] on the march and the incredible number of 25,000 men and
officers passed though the battalion's ranks during the thirteen years
of its existence.'
33. Lambert, op. cit, p. 145, has Sandes as 'governor
of the department of Azuay at Cuenca.' Ecuadorean
historian Dr. Ricardo Marquez Tapia, in his 'General Arturo Sandes:
Datos Biográficos' (n.d.; n.p.), p. 165, writes 'más tarde en el año
1830 se instaló (Sandes) en la ciudad de Cuenca, y por este tiempo se
hizo cargo del alto cargo de Prefecto General de los Departamentos del
Azuay y Loja.'
34. Lambert, 'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 146; Eric
Lambert, 'Voluntarios Británicos y Irlandeses en la Gesta Bolívariana',
Tomo III (Caracas: Ministerio de Defensa; 1993), pp. 449-450. A 1971
Bolivian commemorative stamp depicts O'Connor in the uniform of his
adoptive country.
35. Obituary notice in the Limerick Chronicle, 15 June
1833: 'In the city of Cuenca, Colombia (sic), after a tedious illness,
which terminated in dropsy, General Arthur Sandes of the Service of
the Republic, son of the late John Sandes, Esq., of Listowel, in the
county of Kerry. ... In the battles of Pantano de Vargas, Boyacá,
Carabobo and Ayacucho, he displayed the genius of an accomplished
soldier, combined with a chivalrous valour, which reflected honour on
his country. In the first-mentioned of these bloody affairs which took
place on the 25th of July, 1819 [Bolívar's birthday,] he received two
severe wounds at the head of the victorious regiment, the Rifles,
while commanding that Corps as Major, and finally his horse being shot
under him-unable to stand from loss of blood, he supported himself
leaning against the carcase (sic) of the dying animal, and could not
be prevailed on to quit the field until victory was proclaimed, and at
Ayacucho he was named General on the field of battle.'
36. Lambert, 'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 145: 'As far
as the writer knows, Sandes did not marry.' Also letter dated 3 June 1993 from
Rosaura García Alominia de Polit Molestina of Quito to Guillermo
McLoughlin Breard of Buenos Aires: 'He consultado a los más conocidos
especialistas de las ciudades en donde vivió Sandes y llegamos a la
conclusión de que él no dejó descendencia alguna en el Ecuador.' I am
indebted to Dr. MacLoughlin Breard for sharing this correspondence
with me. Unverified reports that Sandes left descendants in Venezuela
can be found in Hasbrouck, op. cit., pp. 318, 447, and also in Cyril
Hamshere, 'The British in the Caribbean' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1972), p. 182. Hasbrouck cites an article by Carlos
Schoffer titled 'Germans in Venezuela: Conquerors and Warriors' that
appeared in El Universal, Caracas, dated June 12, 1911: 'There
are not enough records to make it possible to follow the history of
Col. Sandes much beyond this period (1830), but some of his
descendants were said to be living in Venezuela as recently as 1911';
Hamshere erroneously claims that Sandes settled in Venezuela after his
regiment was disbanded in 1830, and 'left his name in the country.' In
light of what later historians, such as Eric Lambert, have learned
about Sandes' postwar settlement and career in Ecuador,
the above reports should be treated with caution if not scepticism.
37. The version of this letter reproduced in Maurice
R. O'Connell (ed.) 'The Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell' (New York:
Barnes & Noble Books, 1973), Vol. II, Letter 980, p. 410, is
incomplete, omitting the references to the deaths of Capt.
Featherstonehaugh, Maj. Peacocke and Drs. MacDavitt and O'Reilly.
According to the Dr. O'Connell, this was due to the publisher's
pressure to 'keep the publication as short as reasonably possible'
(personal correspondence from Maurice R. O'Connell, Dublin, to Dr.
Eileen A. Sullivan, St. Augustine, FL, 7 October 1996. I am indebted
to Dr. Sullivan for sharing this correspondence). The missing names
are included in the version of Sandes' letter reproduced in Lambert,
'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 143. The original letter is on deposit in
the collections of University College,
Dublin: O'Connell MSS, N° 729, Sandes to Daniel O'Connell, Quito, 10 September 1822.
38. Major Richard Rudd from Co. Wexford, a veteran of Waterloo where
he saw action as a Lieutenant in the 40th Foot; in South America, he served as a Major in Sandes' Rifles. See Lambert,
'Voluntarios', II, p. 281.
39. Thomas Charles Wright from Drogheda, Co. Louth. An
officer in Sandes' Rifles; Hasbrouck, op. cit. p. 261 n. 1; Lambert, 'Voluntarios',
III, p, 418-419. Commended for bravery at the Battle of Bombana,
Wright later settled in Ecuador, where he is regarded as a founding
father of that nation's Navy; see Eric Lambert, 'Irish Soldiers in
South America', op. cit., pp. 31, 34. For a summary of Wright's career
both before and during his South American service, see Hasbrouck, op.
cit., pp. 321-322.
40. Sgt. Maj. William Peacocke, from Garryowen, Co. Limerick. Said
to be 'the handsomest man in the west of Ireland.'
After sustaining wounds in the capture of Santa Marta, as a member of
Sandes' Rifles Battalion, he later died from dysentery; see Lambert,
'Arthur Sandes of Kerry', p. 142; Hasbrouck, p. 224. See also Lambert,
'Voluntarios Británicos y Irlandeses en la Gesta Bolívariana', Tomo
II, p. 433, where the cause of death for Peacocke and Dr. Michael
O'Reilly is given as yellow fever.
41. In the Battle of Bombana, 1822, where the
Royalists lost 300 killed, wounded and captured, the Patriot forces
lost 341 wounded and 116 killed. Of the Rifles Battalion, five
officers and fifty men were killed, including Capt. George
Featherstonhaugh, who fell 'transfixed by a bayonet, while he was
slashing his way through the enemy with his sabre'; Hasbrouck, p.
276-77. See also Lambert, 'Voluntarios', Tomo III, p. 421, 442; and
Lambert, 'Irish Soldiers in South America' in The Irish Sword, Vol. XVI, N° 62, p. 31.
42. Dr. Michael O'Reilly from Thomas Street, Dublin
came to Venezuela in September 1819 with Colonel William Aylmer, a
former leader of the United Irishmen from Painstown, Co. Kildare. Aylmer was wounded at the Battle of Rio Hacha on 25 May 1820 and died
in Jamaica
on 20 June 1820. See Martin Tierney, 'William Aylmer 1772-1820' in
The Irish Sword, Vol. VI, N° 23 (Winter 1963), p. 107; Maurice R.
O'Connell, 'Correspondence', II, p. 263; Eric Lambert, 'Voluntarios',
Tomo II, pp. 28, 302-303, 310, 327 n. 61. After Aylmer's evacuation to
Jamaica, Dr. O'Reilly joined Sandes' Rifles Battalion. He survived
gunshot wounds sustained at the Battle of Turbaco in September 1820,
but died of yellow fever in 1821. See Lambert, 'Voluntarios', Vol. II,
p. 433; idem., 'Voluntarios', III, p. 264; and Maurice R. O'Connell,
'Correspondence', II, pp. 278-79.
43. Dr. Stephen
MacDavitt was an Irish surgeon on the staff of John Devereux, an
adventurer from Co. Wexford who organized The Irish Legion for Bolívar.
Devereux avoided service himself while collecting fees for those he
dispatched to their deaths; Lambert, 'Voluntarios', Tomo II, p. 370.
The doctors fell victims to the same ailments they were treating in
the troops: see Lambert, 'Irish Soldiers in South America, 1818-1830',
p. 33: 'Despite the magnificent efforts of the hundred or so British
and Irish doctors and a fair number of locals, little could be done
owing to the state of medical knowledge in those days and particularly
the lack of drugs and instruments. Malaria, yellow fever, cholera,
dysentery, typhoid, typhus and tropical ulcers carried off hundreds.
Hospitals were set up in the towns and military bases, but little or
nothing could, of course, be done on the long marches and men left
behind had little hope of survival.' |
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