They were raised and equipped in thirty days, and embarked immediately, the Board giving permission to Major Chalmers, who was in command, to fill up any vacancies which might occur, by promoting the senior on the spot. These companies were in the pay of the East India Company, and formed part of the expedition under Clive and Admiral Watson. One of the companies was lost on the passage, only three men being saved. It was Captain Hislop's company, but that officer had been promoted while serving in the East Indies, and it was commanded on the voyage by the Captain-Lieutenant, N. Jones. As soon as the disaster was known in England, another company was raised, and on its arrival in India Captain Hislop assumed the command. This officer had gone out with five officers, sixty men, and twelve cadets, and a small train of Artillery, attached to the 39th Regiment, under Colonel Aldercon. His new company was the last of the Royal Artillery which served in Bengal, until the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny.[[15]]
The expedition to America was the ill-fated one commanded by General Braddock. The detachment of Royal Artillery was only fifty strong; it left England under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Robert Hind, with two Lieutenants, three Fireworkers, and one cadet; and on its arrival in America was joined by Captain Ord, who assumed the command. This officer had been quartered with his company at Newfoundland; but at the request of the Duke of Cumberland he was chosen to command the Artillery on this expedition. The guns which accompanied the train were ten in number, all light brass guns—four being 12-pounders, and six 6-pounders. The civil attendants of the train were twenty-one in number, including conductors and artificers; and there were attached to the train—attendants not generally found in such lists—"ten servants, and six necessary women." There were also five Engineers, and practitioner Engineers.
The melancholy fate of this expedition is well known. The detachment of Artillery was cut to pieces at Fort du Quesne, on that ghastly July day in 1755; the whole ten guns were taken; but Captain Ord himself survived to do good service years after, on the American continent. It will be remembered by the reader that George Washington fought on this occasion on the English side, and displayed the same marvellous coolness and courage, as he did on every subsequent occasion.
But events were ripening at Woolwich for great Regimental changes. A small subaltern's detachment left for Dublin, which was to be the parent of the Royal Irish Artillery, a corps which will form the subject of the next chapter. In 1756, a company of miners was formed for service in Minorca, which, on its return to Woolwich, was incorporated into the Regiment, and two other companies having been raised in the same year, and four additional in 1757, there was a total, including the companies of miners and cadets, of twenty-four companies. The largely increased number of company officers, in proportion to the limited number of those in the higher grades, made the prospects of promotion so dismal, that the Regiment was divided into two Battalions, each of which will receive notice in subsequent chapters.
[14]. Cleaveland's MSS. Macbean's MSS.
[15]. Brown.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Royal Irish Artillery.
The Ordnance Department in Ireland was independent of that in England until the year 1674, when Charles II., availing himself of the vacancy created by the death of the then Irish Master-General—Sir Robert Byron—merged the appointment in that of the Master-General of England; and the combined duties were first performed by Sir Thomas Chicheley. This officer appointed, as his deputies in Ireland, Sir James Cuff and Francis Cuff, Esq. The Masters-General of the Irish Ordnance, whom we find mentioned after this date, were subordinate to the English Masters-General, in a way which had never previously been recognized.
Even after the amalgamation, however, the accounts of the Irish and British Departments of the Ordnance were kept perfectly distinct. When ships were fitted out for service in the Irish seas, their guns and stores were furnished from the Irish branch of the Ordnance. All gunpowder for use in Ireland was issued by the English officials to the Irish Board on payment; and the lack of funds, which was chronic at the Tower during the reigns of the Stuarts, was not unfrequently remedied by calling in the assistance of the Irish Board. Tenders for the manufacture of gunpowder having been received, and the orders then given having been complied with, it was no unusual thing to pay the merchants with Ordnance Debentures, and to ship the powder to Ireland in exchange for a money payment. The correspondence between the two Boards throws light upon the way in which money was found for the English fortifications, and also gives us the value of gunpowder at various times. For example, in August, 1684, one thousand barrels were shipped to Ireland; and the sum received in payment—2500l.—was ordered to be spent on the fortifications at Portsmouth.