MS. Return to B. of Ord. dated Paris, 10 Dec. 1815.
| Strength. | Horses. | R. A. Drivers attached. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lieut.-Colonel Sir R. Gardiner’s troop | 179 | of all ranks. | 198 | 22 |
| Lieut.-Colonel Webber Smith’s troop | 176 | ” | 197 | 20 |
| Lieut.-Colonel Sir H. D. Ross’s troop | 189 | ” | 219 | 30 |
| Major Whinyates’s troop | 223 | ” | 219 | nil. |
| Captain Mercer’s (late Beane’s) troop | 176 | ” | 196 | 26 |
| Detachment R. H. A. | 59 | ” | 156 | 83 |
Orders for the shipment of the battering-train also arrived in the end of 1815, with a view to its return to England; and, as Sir Alexander Dickson’s active duties on the continent then ceased, it seems but justice to the memory of one whose name has occupied so prominent a place in these pages, to quote a passage from a letter written by Sir George Wood, proving that his exceptional Peninsular honours had To D.-A.-G., R.A., dated Cambray, 2 April, 1816. not unfitted him for serving, when required, in a subordinate position:—“You may expect Sir A. Dickson in the course of the next week at Woolwich. I have found him the same good officer and man, as you well know him.”
The reductions, which followed the battle of Waterloo have been frequently alluded to in these volumes. They would furnish but a gloomy topic for the historian, for the pruning-knife was used without regard to sentiment, and some of the best companies in the regiment were the victims.
It is more pleasant to close this story in 1815, when the Corps was at the greatest strength attained since its birth,—a hundred years before. Suffice it to say that from 114 Kane’s List. troops and companies in that year, it fell to 79 before 1819, and even these were mere ghosts or skeletons of their former selves. For nearly thirty years, after 1819, the history of the Regiment was almost a blank page, and hopelessness and depression weighed heavily on its members.
But 1815 is the year in which this narrative ends; nor is it meant to close it with any gloomy foreshadowing of the years of inaction and despondency, which rolled on with dismal monotony, until the Regimental firmament was lit by the lurid fires of the Crimean struggle. In 1815 the military reputation of England was at a maximum. She possessed an army which had graduated with honours in the sternest school, and a General to whose words the Sovereigns of Europe listened with deference. Determination, single-mindedness, and an exalted sense of duty were the qualities which had animated the Duke of Wellington through his whole career. Their reward was found in his successes; and his successes were crowned in Paris. Imperfections exist in the most able, and even in the most conscientious; and England’s greatest General was certainly no exception to this rule. But, if we allow for the irritation caused by frequent and injudicious interference,—and for occasional hastiness, which led him to speak without always testing the accuracy of his information,—we must admit the Duke of Wellington to have been the most perfect type of an English soldier ever presented in the pages of our history. When, however, the Artilleryman seeks for something that is genial and lovable in the soldiers of that victorious age,—he turns from the cold and undemonstrative Chief, and dwells fondly on the men who had by their exertions raised Artillery, as a science, to an unprecedented point, and had elevated with it the Corps Hime. they loved. The researches of a recent writer have brought to light words spoken by a chivalrous enemy, which should be emblazoned in the records of every battery, and impressed General Foy. on the mind of every Artilleryman:—“Les canonniers Anglais se distinguent entre les autres soldats par le bon esprit qui les anime. En bataille leur activité est judicieuse, leur coup d’œil parfait, et leur bravoure stoïque.” Of the latter three qualities, two may be ensured by diligence in peace, and the third is tested by the difficulties and dangers of war: but the history of the great and the good in the Corps must indeed have been feebly written, if it do not strengthen among its living members that which exists now, as of old, “le bon esprit qui les anime.”
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
The Duke of Wellington, and the Artillery at Waterloo.
Jones’s Sieges, vol. i., p. 222.
In the first volume of Sir J. T. Jones’s ‘Sieges in Spain,’ edited by Lieutenant-Colonel H. D. Jones, the following passage occurs: “It becomes the duty of the Editor to remove the very injurious and unmerited censure cast upon the officers of Engineers who were employed at the Siege of Badajoz, and which is contained in a letter from the Earl of Wellington to Major-General G. Murray, a copy of which is published in the collection of the Despatches of the Duke of Wellington.”