The fresh outbreak of the Kaffirs and the accounts which reached England from the Cape having necessitated the despatch of reinforcements to that colony, the 1st Battalion which remained at Dover was, by letter from the Adjutant-General dated December 17, 1851, directed to be formed into Service and Depôt companies; and the former were desired to hold themselves in readiness for immediate service. Accordingly one Major (Horsford), 6 Captains, 6 First, and 6 Second Lieutenants, with the usual Staff, 30 sergeants, 24 corporals, 11 buglers and 614 privates were detailed for embarkation under the command of Colonel Buller; and were on December 29 inspected by Major-General Brown, Adjutant-General of the Forces, on the Western heights, who expressed his satisfaction at their appearance.
The 2nd Battalion remained during the whole of this year stationed at Kingston, Upper Canada.
On the morning of January 2, 1852, the Service companies of the 1st Battalion were conveyed, in three small steamers, on board H.M.S. ‘Megæra;’ which in the evening proceeded to, and anchored in the Downs.
Nothing could exceed the discomfort of this wretched ship. The men were crowded; but Buller had wished his whole Battalion to go out together; and, no doubt, eventually this saved many lives. For the fate of the ‘Birkenhead,’ which took out detachments of other regiments, and would probably have taken Riflemen had not all been pushed into the ‘Megæra,’ is well known.
The ‘Megæra’ steamed from the Downs on the morning of the 3rd and off Beachy Head and the back of the Isle of Wight encountered a heavy gale, which much damaged her. She caught fire twice, but it was each time happily extinguished, and on the 5th she put into Plymouth harbour utterly disabled.
Here intelligence reached the Riflemen of the disastrous fight of November 6, 1851, when Colonel Fordyce of the 74th was killed and his regiment severely handled by the Kaffirs. And the ‘Megæra,’ hardly refitted, was desired to put to sea immediately. Stores were incomplete; but the only reply to all such representations was the repetition, by telegraph, of the order ‘Put to sea.’
So on January 7, at ten at night, the ‘Megæra’ again started; and arrived at Madeira on the 24th. After coaling, and taking in supplies here, she left on the 27th and arrived at Sierra Leone on February 6. She steamed from this at midnight on the 7th and after some severe gales, and being on fire again more than once, this unhappy ship at last reached Simon’s bay on the night of March 24 having taken nearly two months to make the passage.
After coaling here, and landing women and children and six sick men, who were sent to Cape Town in charge of a sergeant, the ‘Megæra’ again put to sea on the 27th and anchored in Algoa bay on the 30th.
The Riflemen were immediately landed, by means of surf boats and the help of Fingoes, as they had been at the same place six years before. As soon as they were ashore they marched by companies to the hill above Port Elizabeth where they were encamped; each company pitching tents for that following it, so that the men were at once under canvass as soon as they reached the ground. At the back of the camp was a sort of ravine, through which flowed a stream, in which the men washed everything, great-coats, clothing kits, in order to cleanse them from the smoke and dirt of the ‘Megæra.’ On April 2 about two in the afternoon, camp was struck, and the Battalion commenced its march for the frontier; halting that night at the Swart Kop river.