Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan. With an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica онлайн

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Thomas Morgan had fought in the wars of the Low Countries and Germany, at one time under the French flag, and at another in the army of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. On his return to England he took the side of the Parliament. He first commanded a regiment of foot but in 1661 was transferred to command a regiment of dragoons. He became Monck's chief subordinate in the subjugation of Scotland and gained his esteem for sound military judgment and trustworthiness. He was considered an expert in the employment of artillery and the conduct of siege operations. Having attained the rank of major-general and second in command in Scotland he was recalled by Cromwell to act as second in command of the expedition to Flanders, in which the "little, shrill-voiced, choleric man," is admitted to have acted a more important part than his nominal chief. He was wounded in the siege of Saint Venant and again in the successful assault of Ypres, when he commanded all the English troops. Having once more greatly distinguished himself in the battle of the Dunes near Dunkirk, he was knighted by Richard Cromwell in November, 1658, when he was described as "being esteemed in the army next to the general, [Monck], a person of the best conduct then in arms in the three nations, having been nearly forty years and present in the greatest battles and sieges of Christendom for a great part of that time." After the restoration he was retained in the army and, in 1663, appointed governor of the island of Jersey, then menaced with an invasion by the French.[4]