and marines of Sir Josias Rowley’s squadron. the progress thus made by the small naval force under that excellent officer rendering the co-operation of the fleet unnecessary, Captain Coghlan’s orders to land at the head of a detachment of seamen were countermanded, and in the evening of the same day the besieged fortress surrendered.
We next find Captain Coghlan assisting at the occupation of Corsica, and in establishing Major-General Montresor as provisional governor of that island[1]. During the war with Murat, in 1815, he was sent to the bay of Naples, under the orders of Captain Robert Campbell, by whose authority he negociated with the then existing government for the surrender of the naval arsenal and two line-of-battle ships, the Joachim and the Capri, then lying in the mole.
On the 20th May, 1815, the squadron off Naples was joined by Lord Exmouth, who had made arrangements to cooperate with an Anglo-Sicilian army, under the command of Lieutenant-General Macfarlane: on the following day, however, a military convention was negociated at Teano, by which the imperialists and their allies were to have been placed in possession of the Neapolitan capital on the 23d; but the popular feeling had by that time so strongly manifested itself against Murat, that he fled from the city in disguise, leaving the government in the hands of his wife, and of the General-in-chief, Baron de Carascosa: the former sought the security which had been assured her on board a British man-of-war; and the latter sent to the Austrian commander, requesting that he would prevent the misfortunes with which the capital was menaced, by entering it immediately.
In consequence of the disturbances which broke out at this period. Captain Coghlan landed at the head of about 500 marines, marched to a square where the rioters were drawn up, and was on the point of charging them with the bayonet when they thought proper to submit. He then took possession of all the forts, established himself in the castle of St. Elmo, and assisted the civic guard in preserving tolerable tranquillity until the 2dd, when Prince Leopold, of Sicily
