Early in 1817 this Battalion was removed from Sir Manley Power’s to the 3rd Brigade under the command of Sir Thomas Brisbane; and marched to join that brigade through Auberchicourt, Gavrelle, Aubigny to St. Pol; where it was cantoned with detachments in fourteen surrounding villages.
On July 4 it marched from these cantonments, and encamped at Helfaut near St. Omer, where it remained till August 31, when it marched to Valenciennes, and encamped on the glacis of that place; but on October 4 went into barracks at Valenciennes for half-yearly inspection. On the 8th it moved to camp at Denain, which however broke up on the 16th when the Battalion marched to St. Pol, where it arrived on the 20th and resumed its quarters there and in the neighbourhood.
On May 31, 1818, the Battalion was again encamped at Helfaut till August 15, when it marched to and encamped near Valenciennes. On October 17 it marched to Neuville near Bouchain, preparatory to a grand review by the Duke of Wellington in the presence of the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia and other Sovereigns and Princes; which took place on the 23rd.
The Army of Occupation being now to leave France, the Battalion marched on the 25th to Auberchicourt, and thence through Lens, Lillers, Blendecques, Peuplingue, near Ardres, whence they marched at two o’clock in the morning of the 30th to Calais, where they arrived and embarked at ten o’clock, and sailing immediately arrived at Dover in the night. On the 31st they disembarked and marched to Shorncliffe.
The 1st Battalion also moved into camp and changed its cantonments during the time it formed part of the Army of Occupation; but I am not able to give its movements with equal minuteness, as the regimental Record for that period has not been kept with the same accuracy as that of the 2nd Battalion. It was moved into the 7th Brigade under the command of Major-General Sir W. O’Callaghan; and I find that on September 27, 1818, it was encamped near Cambrai.[176] It marched to Calais, where it embarked on October 31, and sailing on the same day arrived at Dover and marched to Shorncliffe on November 1.
I have now to trace the movements of the 3rd Battalion, which had returned to Shorncliffe in December 1815. Soon afterwards it was ordered to Dublin, where it was quartered for two years and three months. Whilst the Battalion was in Dublin a melancholy event took place, on August 16, 1817: the death of Lieutenant Amphlett from hydrophobia, resulting from the bite of his dog. The details of this sad case are very fully related by Dr. Ridgway, Surgeon of the Battalion, in the United Service Journal, vol. i. part i. p. 577. The Battalion afterwards proceeded to Birr; and at the end of 1818, a diminution of the army having been resolved upon, this Battalion was reduced. The junior officers of each rank, who thereby became non-effective, were placed on half pay on December 25, 1818; but the actual disbanding of the Battalion did not take place till towards the end of January 1819; when some of the men were drafted into the 1st and 2nd Battalions and the remainder were discharged. Its strength when disbanded was 810 men.[177]
Plate III
RIFLE BRIGADE,
TO 1833