Soon after this the battalion furnished detachments for the Fish River line, from Trompeter’s Drift to Fort-Brown; and, after the second advance of the 2nd division into the enemy’s country, performed a very considerable amount of escort duty in guarding convoys of supplies for the Kei river and other camps.
During the remainder of the stay of the 1st battalion at the Cape, we have no record of its being engaged in any expedition. On January 12th, 1848, it marched from Grahamstown to Algoa Bay, and thence proceeded to Cape Town, where headquarters and three companies embarked for home on the 23rd of February, followed on the 10th of March by the other three companies, arriving at Gosport on the 28th of April and 11th of May respectively. The dépôt was consolidated with the battalion on the 1st of May.
By a memorandum, dated “Horse Guards, 5th May 1846,” a second lieut.-colonel was appointed to the 91st, as well as to all the regiments having reserve battalions; he was to have the command of the reserve battalion.
II.
1842–1857.
The reserve battalion—Captain Bertie Gordon cures desertion—Grahamstown—Fort Beaufort—Kaffir War—Amatola Mountains—The Tyumie River—A daring deed—Trompeter’s Hill—Amatola and Tabindoda Mountains—“Weel done, Sodger!”—The Kei River—The Rebel Boers—Grahamstown—The Second Kaffir War—Fort Hare—The Yellow Woods—Amatola Mountains—Fort Hare attacked—Kumnegana Heights—The Waterkloof—The Kumnegana again—Amatola Mountains and the Tyumie—The Waterkloof—The Waterkloof again—Patrol work—The Waterkloof again—Eland’s Post—The Kei—The Waterkloof again—Blinkwater and other posts—From Beaufort to Port Elizabeth—The battalion receives an ovation—Home—Redistribution of regiment—Aldershot—The Queen visits the lines of the 91st—“The Queen’s Hut”—Duke of Cambridge compliments the regiment—Second visit of the Queen—Berwick—Preston—Final absorption of the second battalion.
To return to the reserve battalion. During Oct. and Nov. 1842 desertions had taken place among the young soldiers of the reserve battalion, then at Cape Town, to an unusual extent. At length, when eighteen soldiers had deserted in less than six weeks, and every night was adding to the number, Captain Bertie Gordon volunteered his services to the Major commanding, offering to set off on the same day on a patrolling expedition, to endeavour to apprehend and bring the deserters back. Captain Gordon only stipulated to be allowed the help of one brother officer and of a Cape Corps soldier as an interpreter, with a Colonial Office Order addressed to all field-coronets, directing them to give him such assistance, in the way of furnishing horses for his party and conveyances for his prisoners, as he might require. Captain Gordon’s offer was accepted.
Captain Gordon had not the slightest trace or information of the track of a single deserter to guide his course over the wide districts through which his duty might lead his patrol. In taking leave of his commanding officer before riding off, Major Ducat said to him,—“Gordon, if you do not bring them back we are a ruined battalion.” The patrol was absent from headquarters for eight days, during which Captain Gordon rode over 600 miles; and when, on the evening of the 16th of Nov., his tired party rode into the barracks of Cape Town, just before sunset, after a ride of 80 miles in 13 hours, 16 out of 18 deserters had been already lodged in the regimental guard-room as the result of his exertions. Two more deserters, hearing that Captain Gordon was out, had come in of their own accord, and thus all were satisfactorily accounted for. The desertions in the reserve battalion from that period ceased.
The battalion embarked on the morning of Feb. 22nd, 1842, for Algoa Bay, but the ship did not sail till the 27th, anchoring in Algoa Bay on March 4th, the battalion disembarking at Port Elizabeth on the 5th. On the 7th the reserve battalion set out for Grahamstown, which it reached on the 13th, and took up quarters at Fort England with the 1st battalion of the regiment.
In the beginning of Jan. 1844 the reserve battalion left Grahamstown for Fort Beaufort, which became its headquarters for the next four years, detachments being constantly sent out to occupy the many posts which were established, and keep the turbulent Kaffirs in check.