AN ACCOUNT OF THE MILITARY CAREER OF COLONEL W. O. FERGUSON.
{Contributed by Miss D. M. A. Paterson, Dublin.)
William Owens Ferguson, born 1800, the eldest son of John Ferguson, Esq. of co. Antrim, was a high-spirited youth, impatient of control, and with a longing for adventure.
When only sixteen he volunteered for military service under General Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of the Spanish States in South America.
His chief, recognising the force of character and daring spirit of his young officer, soon promoted him, making him one of his personal aides-de-camp, and he rapidly rose to the rank of Colonel.
Ferguson was successful in many expeditions requiring energy and military genius, one of the most remarkable being his forced march from Lima to Caracas. Bolivar, in great straits by the insurrection of the Northern Provinces under one of his subordinates. General Paez, sent Ferguson with a band of one hundred and twenty men as advance-guard to influence the surrounding country till he could
come up with his army then in Peru.
Ferguson describes his adventures, on this forced march across the Andes, in a journal which is greatly prized by his family.
He took ship from Lima to Guayaquil, and there found his battalion to be a mere band of recruits, badly armed and shoeless.
When near one of the largest disaffected towns he found his troop
so completely knocked up by fatigue he was
compelled to leave them to rest. Ferguson rode on alone,
and went boldly to the governor's house. He found this
functionary sitting over his wine surrounded by his staff;
and, to Ferguson's astonishment, he informed him he was
to consider himself a prisoner.
Colonel Ferguson assumed
a most important
air,
informed them that his forces Avere
but a few leagues distant ;
he reminded them that Paez
would only make them his dupes, and let fall, as if by
accident, that Bolivar was following him close with an army
5000 strong. He advised them to throw oft' all connection
with Paez, and read to them General Bolivar's proclamation,
and they finally w^ere Avon over. During a subsequent con-
versation he learned, to his dismay, that at daybreak the
following morning there was to be a revicAv of troops in
Barquisemeto, a toAvn live leagues to the north, and that
Paez Avas then to be publicly acknowledged as leader ;
also
that all the ammunition Avas there.
Ferguson persuaded tAventy-iive ofticers to accompany him,
and rode all night, only halting once to refresh the horses
and get breakfast.
Early next day they dashed into the market-place at Bar-
quisemeto. There Avas there assembled a group of gentlemen
unarmed, Avhom by their bearing he guessed to be men of
importance, and he at once proclaimed them prisoners.
He found they AA^ere the ofticers in command of the troops
to be revicAved that day.
The toAvn's-folk, as Ferguson expected, ran aAvay, and he
guessed they Avould make for the magazine, but Avhere it
Avas he did not knoAv.
He galloped after them, leaving
tAvelve of his force guarding the prisoners.
He found the
people had dragged one of the big guns into the gatCAvay of
the barracks, but being unprepared to
tire,
they gave Avay
at once before the
band of armed
otiicers.
Having
left
some of his troop as guard over the guns,
etc..
Colonel Ferguson next rode to the market-place, proclaimed
Bolivar, and ordered the mayor to provide rations and
quarters for three squadrons of hussars.
All this took place before the levies from the surrounding
country had arrived for the review.
It so overawed the populace, who saw Ferguson's com-
panions were all officers, that they took them for the
reconnoitring party of a large army, though a tired troop of
120 men was the only army within sixty leagues.
When Colonel Ferguson proposed that they should save
themselves by signing Bolivar's manifesto, they comj^lied
Avithout a
murmur.
At the end of an hour the whole town was compromised.
To quote his own journal: 'The bells rang a merry peal,
and having published a proclamation with all due formality,
the battalion volunteered, the artillery was got in readiness,
a squadron of well-mounted volunteers presented
itself,
and
deputations went off full tilt to every town in the neighbour-
hood to give the news. At ten o'clock I had 1000 infantry
and 200 cavalry, with four field-pieces in complete order, and
a magazine with arms and ammunition sufficient to equip
an army.'
He subsequently effected a junction with Bolivar at Cara-
cas, where he received his warm thanks for the services he
had rendered.
Colonel Ferguson lost his life on the 28th September 1829,
aged twenty-nine, heroically defending his chief in a military
revolt at Boo'ata.
Beinof mistaken for Bolivar, whose staff-
uniform he wore, the soldiers fired on him, and he fell mortally
wounded. After his death the people honoured him with a
public funeral, and buried him in their cathedral (an unusual
honour to a Protestant), and erected a handsome monument,
Avhich bears'a grateful inscription to
â '
Colonel
Guillermo
Fergusson.'