“He assembled his men on the Rialto, and in spite of official expostulation, the men were marched up to the Minister’s four abreast—and they marched fairly well, making a good show. The War Minister was taken by storm, and at once granted everything. It has raised the English colonel’s popularity with his men to fever heat.”
This from the Times, London:
“Our Belgrade correspondent telegraphs last night:
“‘There is here at present a gentleman named MacIver. He came from England to offer himself and his sword to the Servians. The Servian Minister of War gave him a colonel’s commission. This morning I saw him drilling about one hundred and fifty remarkably fine-looking fellows, all clad in a good serviceable cavalry uniform, and he has horses.”’
Later we find that:
“Colonel MacIver’s Legion of Cavalry, organizing here, now numbers over two hundred men.”
And again:
“Prince Nica, a Roumanian cousin of the Princess Natalie of Servia, has joined Colonel MacIver’s cavalry corps.”
Later, in the Court Journal, October 28, 1876, we read:
“Colonel MacIver, who a few years ago was very well known in military circles in Dublin, now is making his mark with the Servian army. In the war against the Turks, he commands about one thousand Russo-Servian cavalry.”