PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
Among the uneducated, discipline is created by fear, and confirmed by habit. Among the educated, the agency at work is more complicated. Sympathy with the machine of which the individual finds himself a part, and a reasoning apprehension of the necessity of discipline, are mingled with a strong feeling of responsibility; and, as in the former case, habit steps in to cement the whole. Of all these agents, the noblest is undoubtedly the sense of responsibility, and the highest duty of a military commander is to awaken this sense where it does not exist, and to confirm and strengthen it where it does.
Two means may be employed to ensure this end. First: let the importance of his duty be impressed on the individual, and let the value in a military sense of what might seem at first sight trivial be carefully demonstrated. Let it be explained that neglect of some seemingly slight duty may disarrange the whole machine; and that for this reason no duty, in a soldier's eyes, should appear slight or trivial. Second: let an esprit de corps be fostered, such as shall make a man feel it a shame to be negligent or unworthy.
History has a power to awaken this esprit, which it is impossible to overrate. Its power reaches the educated and the uneducated alike; it begets a sympathy with the past, which is a sure agent in creating cohesion in the present; for the interest which binds us to our predecessors binds us also to one another. In this cohesion and sympathy is to be found the most sublime form of true discipline.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
| Page | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preface | [v] | ||
| Introductory Chapter | [1] | ||
| Chapter | |||
| I. | —The Masters-General of the Ordnance, and their Honourable Board | [9] | |
| II. | —The Infancy of Artillery in England | [35] | |
| III. | —The Restoration, and the Revolution of 1688 | [45] | |
| IV. | —Landmarks | [60] | |
| V. | —Marlborough's Trains | [63] | |
| VI. | —Annapolis | [71] | |
| VII. | —The Birth of the Regiment | [79] | |
| VIII. | —Albert Borgard | [83] | |
| IX. | —Twenty Years | [101] | |
| X. | —Foundation of the Royal Military Academy | [108] | |
| XI. | —A Sterner School | [122] | |
| XII. | —Woolwich in the Olden Time | [140] | |
| XIII. | —To 1755 | [154] | |
| XIV. | —The Royal Irish Artillery | [160] | |
| XV. | —The First Battalion.—History of the Companies, their Succession of Captains, and Present Designation | [169] | |
| XVI. | —The Second Battalion.—History of the Companies, their Succession of Captains, and Present Designation | [178] | |
| XVII. | —During the Seven Years' War | [184] | |
| XVIII. | —The Siege of Louisbourg | [194] | |
| XIX. | —Minden,—and after Minden | [206] | |
| XX. | —The Third Battalion.—History of the Companies, their Succession of Captains, and Present Designation | [218] | |
| XXI. | —The Siege of Belleisle | [227] | |
| XXII. | —Peace | [241] | |
| XXIII. | —The Fourth Battalion—History of the Companies, their Succession of Captains, and Present Designation | [251] | |
| XXIV. | —The Journal of a Few Years | [264] | |
| XXV. | —The Great Siege of Gibraltar | [271] | |
| XXVI. | —Port Mahon | [291] | |
| XXVII. | —The American War of Independence | [297] | |
| XXVIII. | —The Gunner who Governed New York | [325] | |
| XXIX. | —Conclusion of the War | [348] | |
| XXX. | —History, Succession of Captains, and Present Designation of the Troops and Companies Belonging to the— | ||
| Royal Horse Artillery, | |||
| Fifth Battalion, | |||
| Sixth Battalion, | |||
| Seventh Battalion | [393] | ||
| Appendices | [426] | ||
HISTORY
Of THE