Sir Charles James Napier, G.C.B.
Appointed 21st November, 1843.
The following Regimental Order was issued by Major-General Sir Charles Napier, upon his appointment by Her Majesty to the Colonelcy of the TWENTY-SECOND Regiment.
"TWENTY-SECOND!
Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to place me at your head, and I shall end my military career wearing the uniform of the Regiment. Your Glory must be my Glory, and well I know it will increase, when you have again an opportunity to use your Arms! Never were the Musket and Bayonet wielded by stronger men, nor were the Royal Colours of England ever confided to more intrepid Soldiers!
"Many General Officers have been made Colonels of Regiments that they had formerly commanded, and with whose glory their own fame is associated; but old Comrades have passed away,—to the new men, they are strangers,—and nought remains to bind them to their Regiments, but Memory and Renown! My good fortune has been greater, for while I rejoice in the past and present honors of my old Corps, the Fiftieth Regiment, I am, as Colonel of the TWENTY-SECOND, placed among men at whose head I have so lately fought, and to whose valour I owe so much!!
"Soldiers, we are not men without feeling as pseudo Philosophers pretend! Obedience, Discipline, War, they deprive us not of Manly sentiments. I shall always have the strongest attachment to the corps with whom I have served, and among the honors won for me by the Army of Scinde, the greatest is that of being your Colonel!!
(Signed) "C. J. Napier, Major-General,
"Colonel 22nd Regiment.
"Kurrachee, 23rd January, 1844."
The following Postscript to the Official letter to Major-General Sir Charles Napier, announcing his appointment as Colonel of the TWENTY-SECOND Regiment, was in the Duke of Wellington's own hand-writing:—