C.
BARRELL'S REGIMENT.
(Vol. ix., pp. 63. 159.)
Your correspondent H. B. C. is undoubtedly correct in his statement that "Ten times a day whip the Barrels," is a regimental parody on the song "He that has the best Wife," sung in Charles Coffey's musical farce of The Devil to Pay, published in 1731. Popular songs have been made the subject of political or personal parodies from time immemorial; and no more fruitful locality for parodies can be found than a barrack, where the individual traits of character are so fully developed, and afford so full a scope to the talents of a satirist. Indeed, I knew an officer, who has recently retired from the service, who seized on every popular ballad, and parodied it, in connexion with regimental affairs, to the delight of his brother officers; and in many instances his parodies were far more witty than the original comic songs whence they were taken.
As regards the regiment known as Barrell's, at the period assigned as the date of the song relative to that corps, i. e. circa 1747, there can be no doubt as to what corps is alluded to. Barrell's regiment, now the 4th, or King's Own, regiment of infantry, is the only corps that was ever known in the British army as Barrell's; for although Colonel William Barrell was colonel of the present 28th regiment from Sept. 27, 1715, to August 25, 1730, and of the present 22nd regiment from the latter date to August 8, 1734, yet neither of these regiments appears to have seen any war-service during the periods that they were commanded by him, or to have been known in military history as Barrell's regiments. He was appointed to the 4th regiment of infantry August 8, 1734, and retained the command of that distinguished corps exactly fifteen years, for he died August 9, 1749. While he commanded the regiment it embarked for Flanders, and served the campaign of 1744, under Field-Marshal Wade. It remained in Flanders until the rebellion broke out in Scotland, when it returned to England, and marched from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Scotland in January, 1746, arriving on the 10th of that month at Edinburgh. The regiment was engaged at the battle of Falkirk, Jan. 17, 1746, where its conduct is thus noticed in the General Advertiser: "The regiments which distinguished themselves were Barrell's (King's Own), and Ligonier's foot." Ligonier's regiment is now the glorious 48th regiment, of Albuera fame.
At the battle of Culloden Barrell's regiment gained the greatest reputation imaginable; the battle was so desperate that the soldiers' bayonets were stained with blood to the muzzles of their muskets; there was scarce an officer or soldier of the regiment, and of that part of Munro's (now 37th regiment) which engaged the rebels, that did not kill one or two men each with their bayonets. (Particulars of the Battle, published 1746.) Now it will be remembered that your correspondent E. H., Vol. ix., p. 159., represents a drummer of the regiment interceding with the colonel for the prisoner, by stating that "he behaved well at Culloden." And this leads me to the question, Who was the colonel against whom this caricature was directed? It is proved ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 242.) that regiments were known by the names of their colonels, whether commanded personally by the colonel or not, until July 1, 1751, and indeed for several subsequent years.
Now the reference to Culloden renders it probable that the colonel appealed to was present at that battle, and perhaps an eye-witness of the personal bravery on that occasion of the soldier who was subsequently flogged. But although Colonel Barrell retained the colonelcy of the 4th Infantry until August, 1749, yet he was promoted to major-general in 1735, after which time he would have commanded a division, not a regiment. In 1739 he was farther promoted to lieut.-general, and appointed the same year Governor of Pendennis Castle, which office would necessarily remove him from the personal command of his regiment. He was not present at the battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746, where his regiment was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Robert
Rich, who was wounded on that occasion. As to the epithet of "Colonel," used by the drummer, that term is always used in conversation when addressing a lieutenant-colonel, or even a brevet lieutenant-colonel, and its use only proves, therefore, that the officer in command of the parade held a higher rank than major. After Culloden, the 4th regiment moved to the Highlands, and in 1747 returned to Stirling. In 1749 General Barrell died, and the colonelcy of the regiment was given to Lieut.-Colonel Rich, whom I suspect to be the officer alluded to in the caricature. I have searched the military records of the 4th regiment, but can find no mention of the places at which it was stationed from 1747 to 1754, in the spring of which year it embarked from Great Britain for the Mediterranean, just as it is now doing in the spring of 1854. I am inclined to fix the date of the print as 1749 (not 1747), when "Old Scourge" returned to his regiment as colonel, at the decease of General Barrell. Colonel Rich was not promoted to major-general until Jan. 17, 1758, and his commission as colonel is dated Aug. 22, 1749, the day on which he became colonel of the 4th regiment. He died in 1785, but retired from the service between the years 1771 and 1776: he succeeded his father as a baronet in 1768.
G. L. S.