and 12 matrosses.
| Captain. | Lieutenant. | Non-commissioned Officers. | Miners. | Gunners. | Matrosses. | Fifers. | Drummers. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miners' Front Guard: consisting of | 1 | 3 | 5 | 40 | .. | .. | 2 | 2 |
| Front Guard | 1 | 2 | 5 | .. | .. | 45 | 2 | 2 |
| Eleven 24-pounders | 1 | 2 | 4 | .. | 11 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| Fourteen 12-pounders | 1 | 2 | 4 | .. | 14 | 14 | .. | 1 |
| Twenty 6-pounders | 1 | 3 | 8 | .. | 20 | 20 | .. | 1 |
| Six 3-pounders | 1 | 1 | 2 | .. | 6 | 6 | .. | .. |
| Six Royal Howitzers | 1 | 1 | 8 | .. | 6 | .. | .. | .. |
| Forty-three Ammunition Waggons | 1 | 2 | 6 | .. | .. | 86 | .. | 1 |
| Twenty-two Ammunition Carts | 1 | 2 | 4 | .. | .. | 44 | .. | 1 |
| Two spare Carriages, and one Forge Cart | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 6 | .. | .. |
| Four Waggons, Intrenching Tools, Triangle Gyn | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 8 | .. | .. |
| Twenty-seven Baggage-Waggons | .. | 1 | 6 | .. | .. | 54 | .. | 1 |
| Ten Pontoons, and one spare Carriage | .. | .. | 5 | 40 | .. | .. | .. | 1 |
| Rear Guard | .. | 1 | 2 | .. | .. | 24 | 2 | 1 |
Giving a total of 29 officers, 61 non-commissioned officers, 57 gunners, 330 matrosses, 80 miners, 7 fifers, and 12 drummers.
This train of Artillery left the Tower in July, and remained in Byfleet until October, practising experiments in mining, and the usual exercises of Ordnance, under the immediate eye of the Master-General himself, the Duke of Marlborough, who marched at the head of the train, and encamped with it. An interesting allusion to a custom long extinct appears in the orders relative to the camp. We find certain artificers detailed for the flag-gun and the flag-waggon. The former was always one of the heaviest in the field; and the custom is mentioned in 1722, 1747, and in India in 1750. Colonel Miller, in alluding to this custom in his valuable pamphlet, expresses his opinion that the flag on the gun corresponded to the Queen's colour, and that on the waggon to the Regimental colour, the latter probably bearing the Ordnance Arms. The guns had been divided into Brigades, corresponding to the modern Batteries. Four 24-pounders, five 12-pounders, five 6-pounders, and six 3-pounders, respectively, constituted a Brigade. The howitzers were in Brigades of three. The discipline insisted upon was very strict. Lights were not allowed even in the sutler's tents after ten o'clock; no man was allowed to go more than a mile from camp without a pass; officers were not allowed to appear in plain clothes upon any occasion; strong guards were mounted in every direction, with most voluminous orders to obey,—orders which seem occasionally unreasonable. The Captain of the Guard had to see the evening gun fired, and was made "answerable for any accident that might happen"—a somewhat heavy responsibility, as accidents are not always within the sphere of control, where the executive officer's duties are placed. Whenever the weather was fine, all the powder was carefully aired, and all articles of equipment requiring repair were laid out for inspection. The powers of the commanding officers of companies in granting indulgences to their men were curtailed. No artificer was allowed to be employed at any time on any service but His Majesty's, without the leave of the Duke of Marlborough himself, or the commandant in the camp; and should any officer excuse a man from parade he was to be put in arrest for disobedience of orders.
Colonel Belford revelled in the discipline of the camp. It brought back to his mind the old days in Flanders when he worked so hard to imbue his men with a strict military spirit, and, with the Master-General by his side, he felt renewed vigour and keenness. The Regiment was attracting greater attention every year; augmentations were continuous. The year before the Byfleet camp was formed, six companies had been added: this year there were three more; and in 1757, four additional companies were to be raised. The King had reviewed the Regiment, and the Duke of Cumberland came to Woolwich every year to inspect and encourage. Who can tell whether the new organization of 1757, which divided the Regiment into Battalions and accelerated the stagnant promotion, did not come from the long days of intercourse at Byfleet between Colonel Belford and the Master-General? The opportunities offered by such a meeting must have been priceless to a man who was so fond of his Regiment. Nothing is so infectious as enthusiasm; and we learn from Colonel Belford's orders and letters that he was an enthusiastic gunner. The early History of the Regiment is marked by the presence in its ranks of men eminent in their own way, and perfectly distinct in character, yet whose talents all worked in the same direction, the welfare of their corps. Who could be more unlike than Borgard and his successor, Colonel Belford? And yet a greater difference is found between the scientific Desaguliers, and the diplomatic and statesmanlike Pattison, the model of a liberal-minded, high-spirited soldier. These four men are the milestones along the road of the Regiment's story from 1716 to 1783. They mark the stages of continuous progress; but there the parallel fails. For they were no stationary emblems. Their whole life was engrossed in their Regiment. To one, discipline was dear; to another, military science; to another, gunnery, and the laboratory; and they drew along with them in the pursuits they loved all those whose privilege it was to serve under them. It was in a small and distinct way a representation of what the Regiment in its present gigantic proportions would be, if the suggestions quoted in the commencement of this volume were heartily adopted by all who belong to it. Out of the faded pages and musty volumes which line the walls of the Regimental Record Office, there seems to come a voice from these grand old masters, "Be worthy of us!" To them, their corps was everything; to its advancement every taste or talent they possessed was devoted. With its increased proportions, there has now come an increased variety of tastes, of learning, and of accomplishments; and the lives of our great predecessors in the corps read like a prayer over the intervening years, beseeching us all to work together for the Regiment's good.
If variety of taste is to produce opposition in working, or dissipation of strength and talent, what a cruel answer the Present gives to the Past! But, if it is to raise the Regiment in the eyes, not merely of military critics, but of that other world of science, across whose threshold not a few Artillerymen have passed with honour, then the variety of tastes working together, and yet independently—conducing to the one great end—is the noblest response that can be made to those who showed us in the Regiment's earliest days how to forget self in a noble esprit de corps.
[13]. Macbean's MSS.
CHAPTER XIII.
To 1755.
A number of interesting events can be compressed into a chapter, covering the period between the end of the war in Flanders and the year 1755.