Henry Wise
Contents
Background
Henry Christopher Wise
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
Captain Henry Wise was with the 40th Regiment that came up from Geelong. "On 27 November in Melbourne two officers and 50 men of the 40th Regiment proceeded by the one o'clock steamer to Geelong, to reinforce the detachment there to 100. Their orders were to proceed to Ballarat at once." They marched through the diggings with muskets loaded and bayonets fixed. This was a full show of force by the military. "They were hooted by the populace, and stones were thrown at them.....Soon after Lieut Gardyne with the mounted troops from Melbourne and Gisborne reached the Camp, and met with the same reception....Lieut Hall, with the mounted men from Castlemaine, and the police from Sawpit Gully arrived without molestation, having come by Creswick's Creek." [1]
Henry Christopher Wise, Captain of the 40th Regiment, and only 26 years of age, died eighteen days the Eureka Stockade battle and is interred at the Ballaarat Old Cemetery. In eyewitness accounts he is portrayed as gallantly leading his command in the attack on the Stockade and being shot in the leg. He continued his assault and was then fatally wounded. Colonel Edward Macarthur, Deputy Adjutant General, issued a General Order on 22 December 1854 - "The Major General has deep regret in announcing to the Troops within the Australian Command, the Death, at Ballaarat Camp, yesterday morning, the 21st Instant, of Captain Henry Christopher Wise of the 40th Regiment. He died from the effect of Wounds received on the 3rd Instant, while bravely leading his Company, in storming the "Eureka" Stockade, which a numerous band of Foreign Anarchists and Armed Ruffians had converted into a stronghold. His name will long be held in Honour by the Troops, whose good fortune it was to bear testimony to his gallantry; and Sir Robert Nickle has heartfelt satisfaction, in recording in General Orders, the Name of an Officer, who has thus worthily distinguished himself. His Remains are to be buried with the Honours due to his rank in the Graveyard at Ballaarat Gold Fields, beside those of the three other meritorious Soldiers which lie there interred." [2]
- RELIC OF EUREKA. - CAPTAIN WISE'S SWORD. - BALLARAT Thursday.
- Mr. H. Barnett, of Ballarat East, has presented to the Fine Art Gallery, the sword said to have been carried by Captain Wise, who led the military forces in the attack on the Eureka Stockade on the morning of Sunday, December 3, 1854, and who was fatally wounded during the progress of hostilities.
- It is stated that a digger saw the sword fall from Captain Wise's hand when he was wounded. This man secured the weapon and hid it. The sword was found by John Bentley, a digger, who died recently at Ballarat North. Before his death Bentley presented the sword on to Mr. Barnett, who has now passed it on to the trustees of the Art Gallery, where it will display alongside the tattered flag said to have been hoisted over the stockade by the diggers on the memorable occasion of the riots. [3]
![](/images/a/a8/Wise_memorial_Leek_Wooton_py_CG-wiki.jpg)
"Sacred to the memory of Henry Christopher Wise Esq, captain in H.M. 40th 2nd Somerset Regiment. Eldest son of Henry Christopher and Harriett Wise of Woodcote, who died on the 21st of December 1854 at Mt Ballarat, Victoria, South Australia, of wounds received on the third of the same month, while gallantly leading his company to the assembly of the rebel stockade at Eureka, Ballarat. This tablet is erected by the officers of the 40th Regiment."
- The Eureka Anniversary. It went without much in tile way of celebration, but the 3rd December was one of the historic anniversaries of the colony. The following abbreviated account of the storming of the Eureka Stockade, on the 3rd December, 1854 - one of the best yet published-is taken from "The Early Days of Victoria" in the current number of the "Australian Journal." After describing the events of the week previous and the reasons why Captain Thomas of the 40th, then in command, resolved to attack the stockade early on Sunday morning, the writer goes on to say : in pursuance of this determination Captain Thomas, who was ably assisted by Captain Pasley, R.E., and Captain Wise, had the whole force at his disposal under arms by 2 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, 3rd December. Mr Commissioner Amos, who was intimately acquainted with the locality, acted as guide, and led the troops to within a quarter of a mile of the Stockade. The force consisted of 30 picked men of the 40th Regiment; mounted, under the command of Lieutenants Hall and Gardyne; 87 men of the same regiment, under Captain Wise and Lieutenants Bowdler and Richards; 65 men of the 12th Regiment, under Captain Queade and Lieutenant Paul; 70 mounted police, under Sub-inspectors Furnell, Langley, Chomley and Lieutenant Cossack; 24 foot police, under Sub-Inspector Carter. Total, 100 mounted and 176 foot. The troops reached the ground just as the morning began to dawn, and when about 300 yards from the Stockade the detachments of the 12th and 40th Regiments ex tended in skirmishing order. The mounted men moved to the left, and threatened the flank and rear of the insurgents. As the advance in this order was being made, a sentry within the Stockade gave the alarm by firing his piece. Upon hearing the shot Captain Thomas said "We are seen. Forward, and steady, men ! Don't fire ; let 'the insurgents fire first. You wait for the sound of the bugle." Within the Stockade were about 150 men, and when the soldiers had approached to the distance of about 150 yards they fired a volley, which wounded Captain Wise, Lieutenant Paul, and three men of the 12th Regiment, and killed two and wounded one man of the 40th. Then the bugle sounded the order to fire, and a general discharge brought down all the insurgents who were visible above the enclosure; nine were killed by this volley. Then the order, "On, 40th! Forward!" was heard, and the soldiers cheered, and notwithstanding scattered shots fired at them, rushed at the enclosure with fixed bayonets, followed by the foot police. The hastily arranged face of the enclosure did not impede the troops an instant, and, breaking through it, a series of combats ensued between brave diggers armed with pikes for their ammunition was spent and the soldiers, who had loaded muskets and bayonets fixed. Some, as the swarm of police joined the soldiers, took refuge in the shallow holes and smithy, and, as one of the military officers wrote, many were put to death in the first heat of the conflict, either by bullet or bayonet thrusts." In less than ten minutes the resistance and slaughter were over. Nine soldiers were wounded, one fatally, in the hand-to-hand combats within the Stockade. Vern, with a number of his companions, did not wait to exchange blows with the troops, but escaped by the rear of the Stockade. Lalor, when the troops fired their first volley, was standing upon the top of a logged-up hole close to the barricade, and was shot in the left shoulder as he was in the act of signing to the defenders to retire to the rifle pits. When wounded he fell under a stack of slabs, some of which, in falling, partially covered him, and when the soldiers charged by the spot he was left for dead. While, the soldiers were busy among the tents making prisoners, three non-combatants, whose curiosity brought them to the spot, saw him, and carried him a short distance down the Eureka Lead to a hollow pile of slabs, into which they lifted him. When the resistance was over, fifteen of the diggers lay dead, sight were fatally wounded,and thirty to forty others were more or less severely wounded, some of whom subsequently died. The Southern Cross flag had been torn down by one of the police at an early stage of the combat, and was carried off to the camp. The troops set fire to all the tents In the enclosure and the immediate vicinity, and collecting all the prisoners, to the number of 125, marched back to the camp. Captain Henry Wise died of his wounds before the week ended. [4]
Diary of Charles Evans
Friday Dec 22nd
Captain Wise of the 40th was buried today with military honours. It was an ignoble cause for a British Officer to fall in and there is no doubt the recollection of the horrible scene added some bitterness to his dying moments -He was highly respected by his brother officers & almost idolized by his men.[5]
In the News
![](/images/e/ed/IMGP6012-wiki.jpg)
- THE EUREKA STOCKADE. GATHERING. AT KALGOORLIE. ... 'Mr. J. O'Brien, a sturdily-built man from Kanowna, made a decided hit with the crowd. He gave his recollection of the mass meeting at Bakery Hill. Apparently the advocates of peaceful measures for obtaining the redress of wrongs had not had his sympathy, for he joined with the party he believed in the now historical words of one of the speakers on Bakery Hill "Moral persuasion is all a humbug, there's nothing convinces like a lick in the lug.' He gave a good description of the arms of the diggers. He showed how companies were formed which elected their own officers, including sergeants. There was the rifle company, the musket company, the pistol company, and the pike company. The true heroes of the stockade in his opinion were the men who were armed with pikes only - the men who stood patiently awaiting the advance of the soldiers who kept pouring in musketry fire upon those diggers who were not in a position to fire back. Mr. O'Brien paid a tribute of praise to Captain Wise; who climbed the stockade and shouted to his men, only to fall "among the pistols." Mr O'Brien believed Captain Wise was to gallant a soldier to fall in such "a squabble". The speaker got rounds of applause from the spectators on account of his displays with his walking-stick of the use of "the pike and improvised bayonets of the diggers. [6]
- RELIC OF EUREKA. - CAPTAIN WISE'S SWORD. BALLARAT Thursday - Mr. H. Barnett, of Ballarat East, has presented to the Fine Art Gallery, the sword said to have been carried by Captain Wise, who led the military forces in the attack on the Eureka Stockade on the morning of Sunday, December 3, 1854, and who was fatally wounded during the progress of hostilities. It is stated that a digger saw the sword fall from Captain Wise's hand when he was wounded. This man secured the weapon and hid it. The sword was found by John Bentley, a digger, who died recently at Ballarat North. Before his death Bentley presented the sword on to Mr. Barnett, who has now passed it on to the trustees of the Art Gallery, where it will display alongside the tattered flag said to have been hoisted over the stockade by the diggers on the memorable occasion of the riots. [7]
See also
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
References
- ↑ McFarlane, Ian, "Eureka from the Official Records", Public Record Office Victoria, 1995.
- ↑ Dorothy Wickham, Deaths at Eureka, 1996.
- ↑ The Argus, 22 December 1911.
- ↑ Oakleigh Leader, 15 December 1894.
- ↑ Diary of Charles Evans, State Library of Victoria, MS13518.
- ↑ Kalgoorlie Western Argus, 6 December 1904.
- ↑ The Argus, 22 December 1911.