Military General Service 1793-1814, 7 clasps, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, St. Sebastian, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse (Daniel Lewen, 95th Foot.) suspension rod replaced, otherwise good very fine £1,800-£2,200

Provenance: Tombs Collection, Glendining’s, April 1918; Glendining’s, September 1930; Spink, December 1949.

Unique combination of clasps to the regiment and one of only 9 in total.

Daniel Lewen joined the 3rd Battalion, 95th Foot, on 6 May 1812, after enlisting for limited service for a bounty of five guineas. He was one of the 55 men of the battalion who volunteered for the storming of St Sebastian on 31 August 1813. He returned home to Plymouth from the Peninsula on 17 July 1814, and after a short stay in the Regimental Hospital during August and the early part of September, embarked for America with his Company on 18 September 1814, as part of the expedition to North America, the Rifles sailing on the Fox and Dover frigates. They reached Madeira on 8 October, Barbados early in November, and anchored in Negril Bay, Jamaica, on 25 November. Here they were joined by four line regiments and two West Indian regiments and, setting sail on the 29th, arrived off the American coast, near Mobile, on 10 December.

The men of the 95th landed from longboats on 19 December at Ile au Poix, from where they went up the creek known as Bayou Catalan, in Lake Borgne, and then left the boats. There were a couple of small skirmishes but no major action until the night of 23 December, the affair of Mallen’s Picquet. In the Pay-List and Muster Roll for the end of 1814, Lewen is recorded as missing from the 23rd (one of 39 that were missing) in the last muster and then noted as being Prisoner of War, his Company officer at this time being Captain Gray. On 15 March 1815, Lewen is shown in the Pay-List as ‘Rejoined from P.O.W.’ Lewen was discharged on 26 November 1818, his period of limited service being over. Sold with detailed notes compiled from Pay and Muster Lists.

Taken POW at New Orleans 1814. See revised footnote