The day arrived when they were to take ship from Tetuan to Gibraltar. To the very last his pecuniary difficulties haunted him. They were directed to attend at a notary's office to receive their pay. A sum far inferior to what he considered his due was offered him. "I informed them," he writes, "that that was not near the sum that was due to us; but was given to understand that if I did not accept that, I might possibly get none; and rather than run that hazard, as I knew them capable of any meanness, I took what was offered, and gave a receipt in part payment. We were likewise out of this short payment obliged to pay our interpreter; but this I did with less reluctance, as I had been informed by Mr. Rodway, Master-Wheeler, of Gibraltar, that whenever he went to Mequinez by order of Government, he always paid his interpreter himself, but that the money was always returned to him at Gibraltar." The exquisite delicacy of the hint at repayment, embodied in an official report, cannot be surpassed.
In days long after John Turner's career was finished, the spectacle has been witnessed of an invaded country straining every nerve, and practising every self-denial, to procure the withdrawal from its occupied districts of the enemy's troops. It is questionable, however, whether its eagerness was equal to that which must have been felt on all sides when that memorable event occurred which it has been attempted to describe,—the invasion of Morocco by a bombardier.
In the year 1770, the Regiment suffered from two evils: one, the chronic slowness of promotion which has always afflicted it; the other, an inability to carry out the foreign reliefs with so small a number of companies at home. To meet these evils a remedy was devised, which shall be treated in the next chapter—the formation of another Battalion.
[24]. Cleaveland's MSS.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Fourth Battalion.—The History and Present
Designation of the Companies.
This Battalion was formed on the 1st January, 1771, by drafting six companies from the Battalions already in existence, which were thus reduced from ten to eight companies, and by the formation, in addition, of two new companies. At the same date, eight companies of invalids were formed from the men on out-pension, two of which were attached to each Battalion, but were not borne upon the effective strength. These eight companies were consolidated in 1779 in one invalid battalion, with a regular staff, and effective companies were raised for the other battalions, in their stead.
On its first formation, the companies of the 4th Battalion were very weak, consisting each of 1 Captain, 1 Captain-Lieutenant, 2 First Lieutenants, 2 Second Lieutenants, 2 Sergeants, 2 Corporals, 4 bombardiers, 8 gunners, 52 matrosses, and 2 drummers. The staff of the Battalion consisted of a Colonel-Commandant, a Lieutenant-Colonel, a Major, an Adjutant, a Quartermaster, and a Chaplain. Colonel Ord, the first Colonel-Commandant, had greatly distinguished himself in North America in 1759 and 1760; and it was a happy coincidence that he should receive the command of a battalion whose services in that country were destined to be so brilliant. These services will receive more appropriate mention in the chapters connected with the American War of Independence, and with the gallant officer who commanded it during that war, General James Pattison.
But two of the companies received special marks of distinction which deserve to be mentioned. One, No. 1 Company, now No. 4 Battery, 7th Brigade, was singled out after the battle of Vaux, in 1794, for its gallant conduct during the day, and the whole Army was formed up to see it march past the Duke on the field of battle. Another company, No. 10, received a special mark of distinction for its gallantry during the second American War, and more especially at the capture of Fort Niagara. By General Order of 7th October, 1816, it was permitted to wear on its appointments "in addition to any badges or devices which may have been hitherto granted to the Royal Regiment of Artillery" the word "Niagara." This company subsequently fell a victim to change and reduction. It was reduced in January, 1819, after a service of forty years, having been one of the two companies formed in 1779 to replace the invalid companies of the Battalion. It was reformed at Woolwich on the 16th August, 1848; and on the 3rd November in that year it became No. 6 Company of the 12th Battalion. In 1859, when the Brigade system was introduced, it became No. 9 Battery of the 6th Brigade; on the 1st April, 1865, it was transferred to the 12th Brigade as No. 8 Battery; and on the 1st February, 1871, by reduction, it ceased to exist as such. It is a matter of regret that the pruning-knife should be applied to the companies which have a distinctive history.
The 4th Battalion afforded a precedent—although not a happy one—for the Brigade system as applied to the Royal Artillery. It was the only battalion which ever went on service with its head-quarter staff. Experience soon proved that it would have been better to leave that appendage—as was customary—at Woolwich. The Battalion letter-books teem with complaints as to clothing, recruiting, and pay, which might have been obviated by having at home the usual battalion officials, whose duties were connected with these details. With the companies detached over the American continent, and the head-quarters virtually imprisoned in New York, the confusion was endless, and the natural results excite a smile as the student reads of them. For the officials at the Board of Ordnance exercised the same paternal interference over the distant staff, as if they had been in Woolwich. The time occupied by correspondence across the Atlantic, rendered necessary by the stupidity and the curiosity of the Ordnance officials, told heavily against the comfort of the companies, and the peace of mind of their Captains. The circumlocution between London and New York, New York and all the stations on the continent where detachments of the Battalion were stationed, and back again to the Tower, was at once ludicrous and irritating. And the trouble caused by the absence from England of those who would have interested themselves in procuring suitable and creditable recruits cannot be realized save by those who have waded through the letter-books of the period. The companies were fettered to a beleaguered head-quarters, which in its turn was tied and bound to a distant department, nor was allowed the slightest independence of action. The result may easily be imagined. Questions which could have been decided in a few minutes, if those interested could have met, grew every day more complicated and unwieldy by the correspondence at long and uncertain intervals in which the Board of Ordnance revelled.