under the Transport Board, and was entrusted with the charge and direction of a division of transports sent on an expedition to the Elbe and Weser, under the command of Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart[1]. His conduct as principal agent at the reduction of Alexandria, in 1807[2], was warmly spoken of by Major-General Fraser, and Captain (now Sir Benjamin) Hallowell; the former declaring him “entitled to praise, for his activity in landing the troops, and for the exertions he afterwards made for supplying them with provisions;” the latter describing the debarkation as “a most arduous service, from the great distance the boats had to row, and the surf they had to encounter on the beach.”
At the close of 1807, Captain Withers returned home with a body of troops under Sir John Moore; and in Feb. 1808, he embarked another division, commanded by Sir George Prevost. After landing that officer and his corps at Halifax, he proceeded to the river St. Lawrence; but returned from thence in Oct. following, for the purpose of superintending the equipment of the shipping intended to convey four chosen regiments from Nova Scotia to Barbadoes, where a grand expedition was then preparing for the attack of the French West India islands.
On his arrival in Carlisle bay, Captain Withers received the sole charge of all the transports attached to that expedition; nnd Captain Philip Beaver, who superintended the landing of the main body of the army in Bay Robert, Martinique, acknowledged receiving from him “all that assistance in the various arrangements he had to make, which could be expected from an officer of great zeal and clear comprehension.”
After the landing of the troops to windward, some delay occurred in getting the heavy artillery into position, owing to the nature of the roads along which it had to pass; and as the naval detachment serving on shore under Captain Beaver was fully employed, Captain Withers, having first completed the watering of the transports, volunteered to land with 100 picked men from them. This offer was gladly accepted by Lieutenant-General Beckwith, who expressed great satisfaction at
