CHAPTER V.
Reorganization in 1796 of the army—Successive additions to artillery companies—Ceylon—Seringapatam—Introduction of horse artillery—Egypt—Deficiency of artillery—Organization of 1801–2—Composition of the regiment—Foreign service—Sieges of Sarsnee, Bidgygurh, and Cutchwarah.
The supercession which the officers of the Indian army suffered by those of H.M.’s service; the slowness of promotion; the absence of any furlough regulations enabling them from time to time to visit their native country without giving up their profession; the want of a provision on which to retire, together with other disabilities, had engendered much discontent[[36]] in the army, and rendered it absolutely necessary that the defects in its constitution should be remedied, lest the whole machine should be rendered unfit for the duties required from it; and with this view, Lord Cornwallis prepared a plan on his voyage to England, and submitted it to the Home Government; previously, however, many representations had been made by the armies of the three presidencies, and they selected from their own officers in England agents to superintend their interests, and urge on H. M.’s ministers and the Court of Directors their claims to be placed on a liberal footing.
Captain Burnett on this occasion represented the Bengal Artillery, and in the Committee combated the views of Lord Cornwallis and Mr. Dundas, of uniting the artillery of the three presidencies into one corps, and then incorporating it with the Royal Artillery.
In the remarks on Lord Cornwallis’s propositions by Sir Henry Crosby (president of the Home Committee), we find that the Bengal Artillery officers declared that “an union of the army of the three presidencies promises no advantage to the service in general, nor any fair one to the respective officers of each presidency in particular: it would but render the officers less acquainted with the language, manners, religion, and customs of the natives of their respective corps (lascars), who, in Bengal and on the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, are scarce less different from each other than all are from Europeans, and in the adjustment of individual rank would create, perhaps, insurmountable difficulties.
“Every officer now in the Company’s service commenced his career at a particular presidency, and took, as was reasonable and inevitable, his chance of quick or slow promotion, according to the casualties of his own establishment. These casualties of natural death, of actual service, and of increased or diminished establishments, have made such an alteration in the general proportion of promotion, that he who went with General Goddard an old lieutenant to Bombay, would, in the event of an union of the three presidencies, find himself superseded by one whom he left a cadet on that establishment: the Bengal officers therefore could never agree, nor would the liberality of the officers of the other presidencies wish that all should be melted into one mass mutually interchangeable, without first equalizing the rank of the officers of each establishment by a reference to their original appointments as cadets; and the difficulties of such a reference, with its consequent effects, need not be pointed out.
“They have likewise declared that an incorporation with the King’s artillery will be a sacrifice of their dearest interests.” But that in “the event of a general transfer of the Bengal army to the King’s service, the three battalions of artillery on that establishment should be completed, agreeably to seniority, to a full complement of officers of all ranks above that of lieutenant-fireworker, and established to the same number of battalions of artillery, supposing each battalion in the two services to contain the same number of companies, if not in proportion to the number of companies in the King’s service in the time of war; and, being thus completed, that they may be then transferred, and always remain independent; that the officers in the battalions do afterwards rise by regular gradation, as vacancies occur in either battalion, agreeably to the present practice, without being, in either case, subject to removal to other corps, or to exchange with, or supercession from, officers in any other corps whatsoever; and that these three battalions, so transferred, be not relieved from Europe or any other quarter, at this present, or any future time, or in any manner whatsoever, but be stationed in Bengal as heretofore.”
It was also urged that an incorporation of the artillery would tend to augment the mutual discontents, which had so long subsisted between the King’s and Company’s troops in India, in this branch, in proportion as the evil was removed from the other branches of the service; for as the incorporation would certainly be directly contrary to the wishes of all the Company’s artillery officers, so it was believed that those of H.M.’s service would not be less averse to it, seeing that they were to admit strangers to a participation of their rights in return for a very distant and precarious advantage. Each would therefore consider the other as an intruder, jealousies and animosities would be the inevitable consequence of such a contest of opposite interests and inclinations, while the public service could not fail of being deeply injured by the constant operation of such destructive passions.
The contemplated transfer of the artillery (and European infantry) to the King’s army was looked upon as highly prejudicial, not only to the interests of that branch, but to the Company’s army at large, as tending to lower the respectability of the portion left, and on this account was strongly opposed by the whole of the agents from the armies of the three presidencies, and eventually their exertions were successful; the whole army was left with the Directors (perhaps more from the Ministry not being strong enough to carry the point, or sufficiently at leisure to organize the details immediately necessary), its organization was however considerably altered, and the service of the East-India Company materially improved; furlough and retiring rules were introduced, a larger proportion of field-officers given, and a general code of regulations made.
It is only necessary here to notice these as they affected the artillery. The organization detailed at the conclusion of the last chapter took place, and many officers[[37]] obtained brevet rank to equalize their ranks with the rest of the army, and a very fair proportion of officers was given to each company; viz. a captain, captain-lieutenant, two lieutenants, and a lieutenant-fireworker. Seventy-four non-commissioned officers and gunners are not sufficient when they are liable to be much detached, and when vacancies cannot be filled by ready-trained men.