[14] The force under Captain Caillaud, of the Company’s service, consisted of one hundred and fifty Europeans, including artillery, five hundred Sepoys, and two field-pieces.
[15] These men belonged to “The Soldier Artificer Company,” and were commanded by the officers of Royal Engineers.
[16] The proceedings of the Spanish Government were somewhat sudden; and it is stated by Colonel John Drinkwater, of the late Seventy-second regiment, or Royal Manchester Volunteers, in his popular History of the Siege of Gibraltar, that “those officers whose curiosity had led them into the interior parts of the country were positively refused liberty to return to the garrison; they were therefore conducted to Cadiz, and had passports granted them to leave the kingdom by other routes. Brevet-Colonel Charles Ross and Captain John Vignoles, of the Thirty-ninth, with Captain Henry Lefanue, of the Fifty-sixth regiment, nevertheless contrived to join their corps, by assuming disguises, and risking the passage in a row-boat from Faro (a port in Portugal) to Gibraltar: others also attempted, but unfortunately were intercepted in their voyage.”
[17] The flank companies of the Thirty-ninth formed part of the centre column under Lieut.-Colonel Dachenhausen; the grenadier company consisted of three officers, three serjeants, and fifty-seven rank and file; the light infantry company was composed of a like number.
[18] In Colonel Drinkwater’s History of the Siege of Gibraltar, it is stated, “that in the forenoon of the 6th of September 1782, Lieut.-General Boyd, the colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment, and Lieut.-Governor of Gibraltar, recommended, by letter, to the Governor, the immediate use of red-hot shot against the land-batteries of the besiegers. General Eliott acquiesced in the proposal, and immediately ordered Major Lewis, the commandant of the artillery, to wait on Lieut.-General Boyd for his instructions and commands, submitting entirely to him the execution of the attack which he had projected. In consequence of the Governor’s assent, preparations were instantly made; and in a short time everything was properly arranged for the service.”
[19] Calpé, in the south of Spain, and Abyla, on the opposite coast of Africa (about eighteen miles distant), were celebrated as the Pillars of Hercules; and, according to heathen mythology, these two mountains were united, until that hero separated them, and made a communication between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Calpé received the present designation of Gibraltar from the Arabic “Gib-el-Tarif,” or “Mountain of Tarif,” being the spot where that Moorish chieftain landed on his invasion of Spain in the year 711. The device of the “Castle and Key,” the present arms of Gibraltar, was given by Henry IV., King of Castile, upon his capturing the place from the King of Granada in 1462, in allusion to its being considered as the key to the Mediterranean.
[20] Major Henry Magan was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 17th of August 1794, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel Fremantle, deceased.
[21] Return of the troops at Guadeloupe on the 1st of September 1794:
| Corps. | Rank and File. | ||
| Fit for Duty. | Sick. | Total. | |
| Grenadier battalion | 152 | 208 | 360 |
| Light Infantry battalion | 33 | 382 | 415 |
| 35th regiment | 47 | 116 | 163 |
| 39th ditto | 24 | 284 | 308 |
| 43rd ditto | 23 | 176 | 199 |
| 56th ditto, three companies | 67 | — | 67 |
| 65th ditto | 43 | 209 | 252 |
| General total | 389 | 1,375 | 1,764 |
The Grenadier and Light Infantry battalions were composed of the flank companies of the 8th, 12th, 17th, 31st, 33rd, 34th, 38th, 40th, 44th, and 55th regiments.