Colonel William Rafter

Colonel William Rafter (1791-1819)

A professional Napoleonic veteran. Rafter was commander of the 1st Rifles Husares Regiment during General Mac Gregor's failed expedition to Porto Bello, and one of the deceited troops left behind at that port in April 1819 when Mac Gregor abandoned him and troops to their fate as Spaniards swathed the city from the mainland, ousting the invaders out. They however were stranded at the beach and had no place to escape to, nor any means by which to do so.

Rafter was ordered to hold his position only after he had himself contacted Mac Gregor on the Hero,(the brigantine that had carried them there). Rafter, in the fort with 200 men, kept up a steady barrage and waited for his commander to fire on the royalists from the ships—but to the Colonel's astonishment Mac Gregor instead ordered his fleet to turn about and made for the high seas. Abandoned, Colonel William Rafter and the remnants of Mac Gregor's army had no choice but to surrender; most of the surviving officers and troops entered miserable existences in captivity. Colonel William Rafter was ultimately shot by the Spaniards with 11 other officers for conspiring to escape.

text by P.L. Baldo D. April 26th, 2019