7. General Sir Thomas Blomefield will receive more detailed notice when the story of the Copenhagen expedition, in 1807, comes to be written in these pages. His services during the American War are thus summarised by Kane's List: "In 1776, Captain Blomefield proceeded to America as Brigade-Major to Brigadier Phillips. Among his services at this period was the construction of floating batteries upon the Canadian Lakes; and he was actively engaged with the army under General Burgoyne until the action which preceded the unfortunate convention of Saratoga, when he was severely wounded by a musket-shot in the head. In 1780 Captain Blomefield was appointed Inspector of Artillery, and of the Brass Foundry.... From this period (1783) dates the high character of British cast-iron and brass ordnance. Major-General Blomefield was selected, in 1807, to command the Artillery in the expedition to Copenhagen, and received for his services on this occasion the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and a baronetcy." He died as a Colonel-Commandant on 24th August, 1822.
8. Major-General Robert Douglas has already been mentioned for his gallantry as a subaltern during the American War. In 1795 he was appointed Commandant of the Driver Corps, an office which he held until 1817. He died at Woolwich, in 1827, as a Colonel-Commandant of a Battalion.
9. Lieutenant-General Sir John Macleod has already been mentioned in connection with the Battle of Guildford, and will receive more detailed notice in the next volume, his own history and that of his Regiment being indissolubly woven together. It may here be mentioned, however, that, "on his return from America, he was placed on the Staff of the Master-General; and from this time till his death he was employed in the important duties of the organization of the Regiment, and of the arrangement and equipment of the Artillery for all the expeditions (of which there were no fewer than eleven) during this period. He held successively the appointments of Chief of the Ordnance Staff, Deputy-Adjutant-General, and Director-General of Artillery. He commanded the Royal Artillery during the expedition to Walcheren in 1809. In 1820 George IV., desirous of marking his sense of his long and important services, conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and invested him with the Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order."[[50]] The whole of his official letter-books, during the time he was Deputy-Adjutant-General of Artillery, are deposited in the Royal Artillery Record Office, and afford a priceless historical mine to the student. His letters are distinguished by rare ability and punctilious courtesy.
10. General Sir John Smith, who had been in Canada since 1773, was taken prisoner by the rebels, at St. John's, in November, 1775. In 1777 he was exchanged, served under Sir William Howe, and was present at Brandywine Creek, Germantown, the Siege of Charlestown, and at Yorktown. He commanded the Artillery under Sir Ralph Abercromby in the West Indies in 1795; accompanied the Duke of York to Holland in 1799; and served at Gibraltar from 1804 to 1814, being Governor of the place at the conclusion of his service. He died as Colonel-Commandant in July, 1837.
Lastly may be mentioned Lieut.-General Sir Edward Howorth, one of the officers taken prisoner at Saratoga. He commanded the Royal Artillery in later years at the battles of Talavera, Busaco, and Fuentes d'Onore. He died as Colonel-Commandant of a Battalion in 1821.
The reader will now enter upon a region of statistics, which, at the date of the publication of the present work, possess a peculiar interest.
Quickened as promotion had been by the extensive active service, and proportionate number of casualties in the Regiment, between 1775 and 1782, it was still unsatisfactory; and with a future of peace, it was certain to become more so. It was necessary to introduce some remedy, and, in doing so, the Board of Ordnance adopted wisely the principle pursued in later times by the late Secretary of State for War, Mr. Cardwell, and made an organic change in the proportions of the various ranks, instead of accelerating promotion in a temporary, spasmodic way, by encouraging unnecessary, impolitic, and costly retirements. Mr. Cardwell, in 1872, when shadowing forth his views on this subject to the House of Commons, was unconsciously maturing the scheme commenced by the Ordnance in 1782—commenced, but never completed—for the Temple of Janus was not long shut after 1783; and war postponed for many years the necessity of accelerating a promotion which had ceased to be stagnant. The dullness which followed 1815 was relieved periodically by augmentations to the Regiment in the form of other battalions; but the relief was only temporary, and a darker shadow than ever loomed on the Regimental horizon, when Mr. Cardwell took office. His remedy was complex; but included, in a marked manner, the idea, born in 1782, of reducing the number of officers in subordinate positions, and increasing the proportion of field officers.
By a Royal Warrant, dated 31st October, 1782, His Majesty was pleased on the recommendation of the Board of Ordnance to declare that "the present establishment of our Royal Regiment of Artillery is in respect to promotion extremely disadvantageous to the officers belonging thereto, and that the small number of field officers does not bear a due proportion to that of officers of inferior rank." With a view to "giving encouragement suitable to the utility of the said corps, and to the merits of the officers who compose it," His Majesty decided that on the 30th of the following month the existing establishment should cease, and another be substituted, of which the two prominent features were—as will be seen by the annexed tables—a very considerable increase in the number of field officers, and the reduction of one second lieutenant in each company. It was also decided that the second lieutenants remaining over and above the number fixed for the new establishment should be borne as supernumeraries until absorbed, and that stoppages should be made in the following manner to meet the expenses of their pay, viz.:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From each of the two junior Second Colonels, 4s. | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| From each of the two junior Second Lieutenant-Colonels, 2s. | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| From each of the two junior Second Majors, 5s. | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| From each of the six junior Captains, 4s. | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| From each of the six junior Captain-Lieutenants, 1s. 4d. | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| From each of the six junior First Lieutenants, 8d. | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| —— | —— | —— | |
| £2 | 18 | 0 | |
| —— | —— | —— |
The annual total of this stoppage—amounting to 1058l. 10s.—was in the first instance applied to the payment of the supernumerary second lieutenants, and any surplus that might remain was ordered to be divided annually on the 31st December (in proportion to their pay) among the several officers who were at the time contributing towards it; and it was directed that as soon as the number of second lieutenants should be reduced to one per company, the stoppages should cease to be made.