PEKIN.
On the 28th of February, 1860, the 2nd Battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Palmer,[[36]] embarked at Calcutta to join the Franco-British Expedition to China under General Sir Hope Grant. Six months later the Battalion took a vigorous part in the assault and capture of the Taku Forts on the Peiho River (August the 21st), and thence marched to and occupied Pekin on the 13th of September.
In September, 1861, the Battalion returned to England.
VI.
1861–1870.—North America. Red River.
1861, TRENT AFFAIR.
In 1861 the 4th Battalion was hurriedly despatched to Canada at the time of the Trent affair, when war with the Northern States of America seemed imminent, and Fenian raids were threatened. This Battalion—commanded for fourteen years (1860–1873) by Lieutenant-Colonel Hawley,[[37]] an officer of commanding personality and ability—achieved at this period and later the highest reputation for its system of light drill and of organisation then far in advance of the age, a system which has gradually been adopted by the whole Army. The Regiment, both individually and collectively, is deeply indebted to Hawley. Sir Redvers Buller[[38]] and Lord Grenfell[[39]] owed their early training to his tuition; and there are few Riflemen of our generation who have achieved distinction who do not directly or indirectly owe their success to his inspiration and teaching, and his influence is still generally acknowledged in the Regiment to-day.
In 1869 the 4th Battalion returned to England, and was quartered at Aldershot, where its high state of efficiency was universally acknowledged.
Upon the death of Lord Gough, on the 3rd of March, 1869, Field-Marshal H.R.H. George Duke of Cambridge,[[40]] the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, was appointed Colonel-in-Chief.
1870, RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
In 1867 the 1st Battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Feilden,[[41]] was moved from the Mediterranean to Canada, and on the outbreak of Riel’s Rebellion in 1870 was selected by Colonel Wolseley[[42]] to take part in the Red River Expedition. The force, numbering 1200, consisted of two guns, R.A., the 1st Battalion 60th Rifles, and two specially raised battalions of Canadian Militia. After a journey of 600 miles by land and lake, it reached Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior. Leaving Lake Shebandowah, fifty miles from Lake Superior, on the 16th of July, the Expedition then traversed in boats 600 miles of a region of rivers, lakes, and forest, practically unexplored and trackless, and after six weeks of incessant toil, on the 24th of August reached Fort Garry (now the city of Winnipeg), the headquarters of the rebel forces under Louis Riel. Wolseley, by a brilliant coup de main, pushed on with the 1st Battalion in fifty boats, and took Riel and his followers completely by surprise. Hurriedly the insurgent leader abandoned Fort Garry, and the rebellion collapsed.