The Diary of
Colonel N.L. Hoevenaar
by Geert van Uythoven, The Netherlands
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Doing research for my book on the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799, I came across a hand-written diary of Colonel N.L. Hoevenaar. The original is now in possession of the Dutch army section of military history in The Hague, but for about two hundred years it was not noticed by even the greatest Dutch military historians.
Colonel Hoevenaar participated in the Holland campaign as a 1st Lieutenant with the Batavian Regiment Dragoons. His diary contains a lot of interesting information. Not only does he shed some light on some obscure and disputed facts of the campaign, but he also gives some vivid accounts of events that he was an eyewitness to. In doing this he gives us the chance to taste something of his life and the times he lived in.
I will now tell the story of the invasion as 1st Lieutenant Hoevenaar experienced it. In order for everyone to understand it, I will frequently explain parts of it.
After being in garrison at Zutphen (A city in the east of the Batavian Republic), and also in Deventer (idem), the Regiment Dragoons was on 18 August ordered to go to North Holland, where it arrived on the 26th in the evening at the village Schagerbrug. There we stayed to 1.00am, after we were ordered to advance to the village Calandsoog, to be present when the British Army landed on the 28th [1] . Because it was clear that the cavalry was of no use in the dunes (The horses sank into the sand up to their belly), the squadrons marched to the Koegras (Marshy grasslands at the east side of the Holland peninsula), Not far from Den Helder (The biggest Batavian marine harbour, although it had no defences on the land-side), to the right of the village Groote Keten.
From there we saw the British, who had taken up position in the dunes after the landing, where the were attacked fruitlessly by the Batavian jägers and infantry. In these attacks we lost on our side many officers and men, among them the brave Colonel of the jägers [2] .
While the Regiment Dragoons was in position in the Koegras, they had to their right a clear view on Den Helder, and in the afternoon they saw the retreat of the Dutch (Batavian) fleet, commanded by Admiral Story, from the roads of Texel to the Vlieter. After this had happened the garrison of Den Helder received orders to retreat, which it did in the evening of the 28th (27th!), behind the Dragoon Regiment, and reached safely the Division of Lieutenant--General Daendels.
Batavian Army
The Batavian army consisted of two infantry Divisions, the 1st Division commanded by Lieutenant-General Daendels, the 2nd Division by Lieutenant-General Dumonceau [3] . The cavalry was commanded by Major General Philip Julius van Zuijlen van Nijevelt.
On the 28th (27th!) a dragoon squadron was send into the dunes, to support the infantry and horse artillery placed there. The other squadrons were positioned near the village Groote Keten. But in the evening of the same day the army retreated, and the dragoons made bivouac near the Burgerbrug (Burger-bridge), with picquets on the road to the villages Petten and St. Pancras.
Because our army was not strong enough to fight the enemy with the hope of good results, the Divisions had to take up a more concentrated position further back, to await further reinforcements. Reason why the Division of Lieutenant-General Daendels with the cavalry regiments and some artillery, including the Dragoon Regiment, took up a new position at the Langendijk (a dike). The Division of Lieutenant-General Dumonceau took up positions near the village Koedijk, to wait and see, whose side the chance of war would favour.
The English in the meanwhile had become master of Den Helder, and now had a good harbour to unload their ships with supplies and cavalry, and to occupy positions in our front.
Before the French Army Corps (Division) was united with our army, the English tried from time to time to attack and push back our outposts. But every time they were well received and beaten back with loss.
In the meanwhile on 10 September, we attacked the enemy on there whole line. In the preceding night from 9 - 10 September 1st Lieutenant Hoevenaar (he means himself!), received orders to move with a detachment of dragoons to the outposts at the Langendijk, and to put himself under the orders of Colonel Crass [4] , to form the advance guard together with a jäger battalion [5] , commanded by Colonel Chassè.
The advance guard advanced the same night to the enemy, and arrived in front of the village St. Maarten. At daybreak the English spotted our picquets, put the mill in front of the village on fire, and opened fire on us with their artillery.
At this place, were the dragoon detachment had to stand fast, we were greeted by the enemy with fire from a howitzer, which killed four horses. A dragoon became a fire in his cartridge-box, and because of this his clothes took fire. Only his presence of mind saved him, because he jumped quickly into a ditch filled with water, and the fire was extinguished. In the meanwhile the 1st Lieutenant Hoevenaar ordered his dragoons to close up, and the detachment was hit by a 12pdr cannon ball, which wounded badly a horse: the horse lost his complete forehead between the eyes and the nose, and it was necessary to shoot the animal. After this had taken place, two field guns from the horse artillery arrived, commanded by Captain Dangeron. [6]
They took up position in front of the dragoons, and the accompanying caisson took up the place of the dragoons; the dragoons had no other choice as to take up a new position, left of the road, near the caisson and a little house, because there was not enough room for them left.
After a short while a shell from a howitzer fell between the four-in-hand horses from the caisson and three of them were instantly killed. Because we were so close near the caisson, it was lucky the exploding shell didn't hit the caisson, because if this was happened, surely the whole dragoon detachment and every other near it would have been killed. It is commonly known that the terrain, where we fight on in Holland, has small roads and is intersected by many ditches and canals, which makes fighting very difficult.
Retreat
After having been in contact with the enemy for a long time, the result was positive for neither side [7] . The Division retreated with the utmost order back to their positions; leaving behind a rear-guard consisting of the jägers of the 2nd Jäger Battalion, two guns from the horse artillery and the detachment dragoons, commanded by Captain Dangeron, to cover the retreat. The enemy didn't gave us much time, but followed suit. We were just in time to retreat and occupy the bridge at Haringkarspel, to set it on fire and to deploy the artillery. The English were greeted with canister, and they halted their pursuit. Without trouble we reached our bivouacs. The Dragoon Regiment stayed in the farmhouse to the left of Camp St. Pancras.
The dragoon detachment had hardly been dismissed, to rest from the efforts of that day, or at 6.00pm the alarm was sounded. Although already having had a weary day, the 1st Lieutenant Hoevenaar mounted his horse, and was surprised to see the rout of all kinds of troops. Trying to stop the fugitives, it was to no avail; the were all panicking, and calling to him: 'Don't go forward! The dragoons are already been beaten'. At the same moment he again heard the trumpet, and saw the Dragoon Regiment in order of battle in front of the village St. Pancras. Immediately he moved there. Arriving there, he was ordered by Colonel Broux [8] , to move with part of the dragoon to the Head Quarters of Lieutenant-General Daendels. Arriving there he received from Daendels the order to advance along the Langendijk to the outposts, to discover the reason of the panic.
Arriving at the outposts, he discovered the reason of the confusion: An infantry battalion of the 1st Halve Brigade (2nd battalion), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Achenbach, was posted during the battle near the Zijperdijk. They received the order to retreat much to late, and arrived with his battalion at his own outposts at a time no friendly troops were expected anymore. The uniform of the battalion was blue with red lapels and cuffs. The sergeant commanding the outpost were the battalion arrived, was deceived by the red, and retreated immediately to his supports, with the message that the English advanced and had forced him to retreat. This report, transferred to the commander of the outposts, was heard by two sutlers, who stood ready to move to Alkmaar with a wagon. These spread rumours to all the troops along the Langedijk, 'that the English had taken the outposts and that all was lost'.
As one can imagine, after discovering the reason of the confusion, the troops were collected again and brought back to their positions. The consequences of this were fatal for the sergeant of the outpost, who left his position without reconnoitring the enemy, and, if it really was the enemy to fall back on his supports skirmishing. This did the sergeant cost his life, and, in the presence of the whole Division, he was put before a firing squad at Camp St. Pancras.
After finding out the real cause of the panic, 1st Lieutenant Hoevenaar retreated and moved to the Head Quarters of General Daendels to report what he found out. After doing the same to his Colonel, he moved to his farmhouse. He had been in the saddle this day for nearly 24 hours.
[1] Here Hoevenaar makes a mistake. The landing took place on 27 August 1799. The Russians were not present yet, and the landing was made by about 12,000 British, commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby.
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