1804
A second battalion was formed in 1804, and a statement of its services is given at the end of this record.
1805
In 1805, the regiment being then quartered in East Bourne barracks, together with the Derby Militia and a detachment of the Tenth Hussars, the whole under the command of Lieut.-Colonel the Honourable Alexander Duff, of the Eighty-Eighth, a quarrel unfortunately occurred between the soldiers of the two corps, which might have led to very serious results; but which that officer, with a degree of tact and knowledge of the nature and feelings of a British soldier that were highly creditable to him, not only rendered innoxious, but converted into a source of eventual benefit to the regiment.
The result of this conduct on the part of the commanding officer was the making of the two regiments such attached friends, that when, a short time after, the Derby Militia was permitted to furnish three hundred and fifty men to regiments of the line, more than two hundred of the number volunteered for the “Connaught Rangers,” although they were beset by the officers and recruiting-parties of many English regiments, who naturally, but vainly, hoped to gain the preference over a corps then exclusively Irish. The volunteers from the Derby Militia proved as good and gallant soldiers as any in the army, and a very large portion of them were killed in the various actions in which the regiment was afterwards engaged.
1806
It was about this period that His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief ordered Sir John Moore’s improved system of drill to be adopted throughout the army: under the active superintendence of Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, the Eighty-Eighth was quickly perfected in the new system, and was, in all respects, in the highest state of discipline. The commander of the district, Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, was reviewing Major-General Sir Brent Spencer’s brigade, to which the Eighty-Eighth belonged, in Crowhurst Park, near Hastings, when he received an express for the regiment to march on the following day to Portsmouth, and join the expedition under Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd. When the review was over, Sir Arthur made known the orders he had received, and addressed the regiment in very flattering terms, concluding a short and animated speech with these words:—“I wish to God I was going with you!—I am sure you will do your duty—ay—and distinguish yourselves too.” He then took leave amidst the loud cheers of the corps.
1807
The expedition[1] sailed from Falmouth on the 12th of November, 1806, and, after remaining at St. Jago, in the Cape de Verde Islands, from the 14th of December, 1806, to the 11th of January, 1807, arrived in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 22nd of March following. Here the Eighty-Eighth landed in marching order, and was for the first time inspected by Brigadier-General Craufurd, who expressed himself in terms of approbation of its general appearance. From the Cape the expedition sailed again on the 6th of April; called at St. Helena on the 21st, to complete its stock of water and provisions; and, quitting that island on the 26th, arrived on the 14th of June at Monte Video, then occupied by the British troops under Lieutenant-General Whitelocke, who had arrived there in May, preceding, and now assumed the command of the whole British force in South America.
On the 26th of June the army arrived off Ensenada da Baragon, a port on the river Plata, about thirty-two miles distant from Buenos Ayres, and landed on the 28th without firing a shot. The Thirty-Sixth and Eighty-Eighth regiments were brigaded together under the orders of Brigadier-General the Honourable W. Lumley. On the 29th the troops moved forward; the light brigade, composed of the rifle corps and nine light infantry companies, formed the advance, which was supported by Brigadier-General Lumley’s brigade, and followed by the other corps in succession. On the 1st of July the army was concentrated near the village of Reduction, about seven miles from Buenos Ayres, from whence it again advanced on the following day, crossed the Chuelo, a rivulet, by a ford called the Chico, and traversed the low ground on the opposite bank, at the extremity of which stands the city of Buenos Ayres.