[20] ‘Life of Sir C. J. Napier,’ i. 19.
[21] Lieutenant-General Sir T. Sidney Beckwith, K.C.B., died January 19, 1831.
[22] Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart’s Despatch, ‘Cumloden Papers,’ 41.
[23] ‘Cumloden Papers,’ 50, 51, 52. This service seems to have established a friendship between Stewart and Nelson, which terminated only with the great admiral’s life. Several letters from him, written in very affectionate terms, to Stewart, are printed in the ‘Cumloden Papers;’ the last dated only thirteen days before his death off Trafalgar. Stewart also mentions incidentally that his son Horatio (who served in the Regiment) bore that name ‘by the express wish of that great man who fell off Trafalgar.’ He must have wished him to call his first son after him, for Horatio Stewart was not born till after Nelson’s death.
[24] ‘Life of Sir Charles Napier,’ i. 58, 59.
[25] ‘Military Lectures delivered to the officers of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment, at Shorn-Cliff Barracks, Kent, during the Spring of 1803.’ By Coote Manningham, Colonel of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment. Octavo, London, 1803, pp. 70. And see [p. 7].
In the same year appeared ‘Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry in the Field,’ octavo, pp. 70, with diagrams and two pages of bugle sounds. What share, if any, Manningham or Stewart had in these books, I am unable to trace. A preface (signed by the Adjutant-General) states that it is founded on a work written by a German officer of distinction.
[26] Hamlet Wade was one of the original members of the Regiment, having been promoted to a majority on its formation, from captain in the 25th Foot. He was an extraordinary, gallant, dashing Irishman (he was one of the Wades of Clonabraney, County Meath), and anecdotes of him were still rife when I was in the Regiment. Surtees mentions Wade’s praise and his rewards to him for his good shooting, when he joined as a volunteer. He was an admirable shot with the rifle himself. He and a private of the name of Smeaton used to hold a target for each other at 150 yards; and it is said (Smith’s ‘List of Officers,’ 58) that he and John Spurry, a private in the Regiment, held the target for each other at 200 yards: a wonderful feat, while the Baker rifle was still in use. There used to be a story of him at an inspection by the old Earl of Chatham, who expressed a wish to see some practice with the rifle; and having made some remark on the danger of the markers, Wade said: ‘There is no danger;’ and calling one of the men (no doubt Smeaton or Spurry), bade him hold a target, and he himself taking a rifle fired and hit it. Lord Chatham’s horror at this was extreme, on which Wade said: ‘Oh, we all do it.’ And bidding the other to take a loaded rifle, he ran out himself and held the target for the soldier’s fire. Probably no other men in the Regiment but themselves could have done this. Colonel Wade, C.B., died February 13, 1821, having retired from the army.
[27] Surtees gives the story at length, 53-55.
[28] Major-General Sir Amos G. R. Norcott, K.C.H., died January 8, 1838.