Of this, the first affair in which the Regiment was engaged, it may be observed that it has the high honour of having shed its first blood before its actual embodiment, and while it consisted only of detachments experimentally assembled for instruction. It was the only corps engaged on the day of disembarkation, and (with the exception of one officer of the 52nd) the only officers wounded were attached to it. August 25, the day on which it was first engaged, was the date of the commissions of its first officers when it was formally embodied.
The expedition then proceeded to Malta; and an order was issued by the Commander-in-Chief for all officers and men of the Rifle Corps, whose regiments formed part of the expedition, to rejoin them, and for those whose regiments were not so employed to be attached to corps serving with the expedition.
Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, Captain Travers, and Lieutenant Edmonston returned to England.
The Rifle Corps was immediately re-formed, principally from detachments of fencible regiments serving in Ireland, and I presume also, on the return of the expedition, from the men originally selected as Riflemen. These detachments began to assemble at Blatchington in Sussex, near Lewes, about the end of August, and continued to join during the autumn. The whole of the officers who had been attached to the experimental corps were appointed to it; their commissions being ante-dated, as I have observed, to August 25, the anniversary of which has been since observed as the foundation-day of the Regiment. A second lieutenant-colonel and two majors were appointed, and some others were added to complete the Corps to eight companies, with a captain and two subalterns to each. The establishment was, therefore, on December 25, returned as follows:
| Colonel | 1 |
| Lieut.-Colonels | 2 |
| Majors | 2 |
| Captains | 8 |
| First Lieutenants | 8 |
| Second Lieutenants | 8 |
| Paymaster | 1 |
| Adjutant | 1 |
| Quarter-Master | 1 |
| Surgeon | 1 |
| Assistant Surgeon | 1 |
| Staff-Sergeants | 5 |
| Sergeants | 40 |
| Buglers | 18 |
| Corporals | 40 |
| Privates | 760 |
The officers on its formation were:
Colonel.
Coote Manningham.
Lieutenant-Colonels.
The Honourable William Stewart. Alexander Houston.
Majors.
George Callander. Hamlet Wade.
Captains.
| Robert Travers. | Thomas Sidney Beckwith. |
| Cornelius Cuyler. | Timothy Hamilton. |
| Thomas Christopher Gardner. | Alexander Stewart. |
| Henry Shepherd. |
| Blois Lynch. | John Ross. |
| J. A. Grant. | Edward Bedwell Law. |
| John Stuart. | Henry Powell. |
| Peter O’Hare. | William Cotter. |
| Thomas Stirling Edmonston. | John Cameron. |
| Robert Duncan. | —— Douglas. |
| Alexander Clarke. | L. H. Bennet. |
| Niel Campbell. |