A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be

by James Campbell

In order to show what little effect executing men for desertion had upon others, I shall take the liberty of mentioning what took place upon one occasion at St. Johns. My General being absent at Montreal, as Brigade-Major attached to the troops, most of the melancholy duty of superintending such executions fell to my share. A private of De Meuron's regiment was at this time to be shot. The troops were formed in three sides of a square, at the other side towards the forest the grave was dug, and the coffin for the criminal to kneel upon, was placed, as usual upon such occasions, beside it. The Provost, with the firing party escorting the prisoner, and with the band of the regiment at their head playing the Dead march, entered the square—when, to my surprise, there proudly marched the prisoner—coolly smoking a cigar. Seeing at once the bad effects likely to result from such evident contempt of death, painful as it was to me, I called the Provost, and ordered him to take away the cigar from him. On approaching the grave, the prisoner walked quietly, but steadily forward, looked into it, and turning round to me, said, in French, "it will do." But still more to my surprise, yet with equal calmness, he walked up to his coffin, and before I was aware of what he was about, with his middle finger and thumb he measured its length, and turning round again to me, he said, in French, which his corps generally spoke, "it will do also." This was so far beyond any thing I had ever before witnessed, that I found it necessary to direct the Provost to proceed with the execution as quickly as possible; he therefore went up to the prisoner with a handkerchief, and, as is customary, offered to bind up his eyes. He however, pushed the Provost aside, exclaiming, in French, "I am a brave soldier, and have often looked death in the face, and shall not shrink from it now." The Provost then desired him, or rather made signs to him, to kneel upon his coffin, but he replied, "I prefer standing, and shall do so firmly." "Vive L'Empereur, vive Napoleon," were his last words. The party fired, and in an instant he ceased to exist.

He was a Frenchman, and had been a prisoner of war for a considerable time in England, but had been very improperly allowed to enlist into De Meuron's regiment; which he had, no doubt, entered with the intention of deserting the first opportunity which should present itself.

I have yet to mention our North American possessions; but it would appear, that it is now in contemplation, to employ corps of veterans upon the Canadian and our other North American frontiers. It is, however, evident that whoever can have suggested such a scheme, must have altogether overlooked, or be ignorant of the rigorous nature of a Canadian winter, and must likewise have forgotten, that almost all our veterans have spent a great portion of their lives in tropical climates, which cannot be supposed to have prepared their constitutions to bear up against such cold as is quite unknown in any part of Great Britain, as indicated by registers of the thermometer kept during a residence there; where it ranges from zero to 10, 20 and even 35 degrees below it; and should a strong wind prevail along with such cold, any one exposed to it is very likely to be frost-bitten. It may also be supposed, that the proposers of such a plan, are not aware of its being often necessary during winter in Canada, to have sentries relieved, or at least visited every half hour; for if they be unfortunately overcome by the severity of the cold, and in consequence fall asleep, it is certain death. Are worn-out men, many of them already martyrs to rheumatism, or must soon become so, fit for service in such a country, and to which they may be sent from their homes, probably reckoned upon as permanent, contrary perhaps to their wishes, and very likely only to suit the economical notions of penny-wise theorist and grumblers, who grudge old soldiers and sailors, even the pittance their services entitle them to, whilst they would handsomely reward the author of a mischievous pamphlet? But are these poor veterans, I again ask, fit to guard such an extensive frontier, constantly menaced by hardy and restless men, inured to a North American climate?

I have no doubt but that prejudiced men, and such as are always ready to cavil at any change proposed, be it good or bad, will at first be inclined to look upon what I have suggested for keeping up our army, as not only a wild and visionary, but also as an impracticable scheme; yet all I request is a full and fair consideration of what I have said and brought forward; and it ought now, I think, to be obvious, that our regiments must be composed of a superior description of men, if the country is to be served as it ought to be in our future wars, as will, I trust, more fully appear as I proceed.

I shall now beg to remind officers, in general, of the numbers of soldiers who arrived in Portugal and Spain, who went into hospitals before we had many weeks carried on military operations in those countries, many of whom, as might have been expected from their early debilitating habits, never rejoined their regiments; and throughout the war when fresh battalions arrived from England, nearly the same thing invariably occurred, and with detachments of recruits for corps already in the field, it was still worse, so much so, that we could never calculate upon one-third of the new comers remaining fit for duty with their regiments, even for a short time after their first arrival; some of them, however, as they became more habituated to campaigning, turned out to be good soldiers. Now many of these were men who had been probably raised, according to our present system of recruiting, in London, or in our manufacturing districts, and thus the country was put to an enormous but useless expense.

The soldiers we could chiefly depend upon, were those who originally belonged to the corps, or had come to us from many of the militia regiments, and particularly those who had been brought up to early habits of labour in our agricultural districts. I am aware that many of the men we got as volunteers from the militia, had been called out from our manufacturing population, but their habits and health had been much improved by being obliged to relinquish debilitating practices, by good feeding, and regular military exercises for a length of time before we got them. A long peace has probably brought into our corps a more robust description of men, than we had often to make the best we could of during the late wars, and many of whom were frequently most wretched creatures, so much so, that it was unfair to expect that British officers, however zealous they might be, could always be successful in battle against the finest men of France, which the conscription brought into the French ranks; but if an immediate increase of the army, to any considerable extent, should become requisite, and if the present system of recruiting is to be still pursued, the same generally unprofitable and expensive materials must be resorted to, for augmenting or completing the respective establishments of our old, and also of any new corps which it might be necessary to form, and many of whom must be again found to sink under the fatigues and hardships of war, and the weight of their knapsacks. I must, however, declare that none of the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland are deficient in courage. But let us reflect upon the state into which Sir John Moore's army (which almost set him distracted) had got in the retreat to Corunna. Almost all the corps had become completely disorganized in every respect, and had nearly lost the appearance of regular troops. An opportunity of fighting presented itself, and in a moment steady and well disciplined British battalions appeared in the field. Such were the strange beings British officers had to manage as well as they could.

It would appear that a new plan is about to be adopted for re-organizing and training the militia, and that the men are in future to be raised at a small bounty to serve for a period of five years; and that the whole are to be formed into battalions, of one thousand strong each. The training to take place annually, in portions of two companies at a time, for 28 days, under the adjutant, or permanent staff; which in future is to consist of an adjutant, a serjeant-major, eleven serjeants, one drum-major, and five drummers: one Serjeant to do the duty of quarter-master-serjeant; and it is intended to allow a part of the men to volunteer annually for the line.

This appears to me an exceedingly bad plan. In the first place, the corps of militia must hereafter be composed of a very inferior description of men to what they were of old; and flogging must, as a matter of course, be persevered in; but why in these times are the militia to be embodied and badly trained at a considerable and unnecessary expense to the country; for it is quite time enough to think of calling out this force when the country may be threatened by an enemy with invasion; for with the fine regular army I have in view, the tranquillity of the United Kingdom can be completely secured; and such militia corps, as those that seem to be in contemplation, must be the very worst description of troops which could possibly be employed in case of commotions. I must sincerely hope that the old and constitutional mode of calling out the good and true men of the nation to serve in the militia regiments will never be abandoned, and I yet trust to seeing it extended, as I have proposed, to the Guards and regular army. Surely I have shewn plainly enough the evils of our present recruiting system to dissipate the notion of extending it to the militia. I have long entertained a dislike to the plan of enlistment, unless every possible inquiry were made into the characters of the men who offered themselves as recruits; and I endeavoured to act in this manner some years ago, when commanding a depot at Glasgow. I had an old friend in that city, who had been one of its magistrates, and could look back to the period when only herring boats could come up to the Broomilaw, and who knew every body. I never took a recruit without the approbation of my friend the Bailie; but he rejected so many, who were instantly taken by other depots, of which there were several at the time in Scotland, that I was at last called upon to say why I did not get on quicker with the enlistment of men for the regiment. I gave as my reason, that I was anxious to take only men who could prove that they were respectable in character; but this was not deemed satisfactory, and I had no longer any thing for it but to take such as presented themselves; and then I certainly got on fast enough with recruiting.

Not very long after this, the Bailie came to see me, and I happened at the time to be superintending the drill of several strong squads of my newly enlisted recruits. The Bailie looked closely at them all, and I could not help fancying that I read alarm in the countenances of many of my prizes. "Well, Colonel," said the Bailie, "the city of Glasgow is infinitely indebted to you, for you have freed it of many deserving characters;" but observing that I became rather chop-fallen, he added, "Never mind, man—they'll fight—they'll fight like devils. Was there ever a better fighting regiment in the world than the ——, and they were nearly all raised in Glasgow, which was, to my certain knowledge, very peaceable for many a day after they were gone from it."

I am at this moment reminded, by what occurred upon the retreat to Corunna, of the state into which many of our men were brought upon that and other occasions from want of shoes. I may venture to say, that we had seldom taken the field a fortnight—and our armies had even more than once to halt on this account—when the greater part of the soldier's shoes had gone to pieces, and others could not always be got to replace them. This destruction of shoes was in a great measure occasioned by the previous injudicious practice of highly polishing them with injurious kinds of blacking, which I suppose must continue to be the fashion in these quiet times; and I hope I may be allowed to say, that whenever a corps of infantry is ordered upon service, this practice should be positively forbidden. Two good pairs of boots—not such clumsy concerns as some of the Russian soldiers wore in France—should be properly prepared for every man—that is, well saturated with the water-proof stuff, now so much used by sports-men, and they should never after have anything else put upon them but some of this composition, which not only softens, but also tends to preserve them for a considerable time. Such boots will certainly not look so well as those now in general use; yet for grand occasions, the soldier might be made to carry another finer polished pair; but with the boots I want, and good stockings, every soldier should be furnished, or he cannot march as he ought to do, and is, therefore, so far unfit for service. Some people may consider this trifling, but experienced soldiers will think otherwise.