History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Vol. 1. Duncan Francis

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ requisite staff, and a number of artificers. Each company consisted of a captain, a lieutenant, a gentleman of the Ordnance, six non-commissioned officers, twenty-five gunners, and an equal number of matrosses. At this time the fireworkers and bombardiers were not on the strength of the companies as was afterwards the case. Two fireworkers and eight bombardiers accompanied this train.

      The pioneers were twenty in number, with two sergeants, and there was the same number of pontoon men, with two corporals, the whole being under a Bridge-master. The staff of the train consisted of a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, a major, a comptroller, a paymaster with his assistant, an adjutant, a quartermaster, a chaplain, a commissary of horse, a surgeon and assistant-surgeon, and a provost-marshal. The kettledrummer and his coachman accompanied the train. There were also present with this train a commissary of stores with an assistant, two clerks, twelve conductors, eight carpenters, four wheelwrights, three smiths, and two tinmen.

      The rates of pay of the various attendants are again worthy of note. The master carpenter, smith, and wheelwright got a shilling daily more than the assistant-surgeon, who had to be happy on 3s. per diem; the provost-marshal and the tinman each got 2s. 6d.; the clerks and the gentlemen of the Ordnance were equally paid 4s.; the chaplain, adjutant, and quartermaster received 6s. each; a lieutenant received the same, and a fireworker 2s. less. The pay of the higher ranks was as follows: – Colonel, 1l. 5s.; lieutenant-colonel and comptroller, each 1l.; major, 15s.; and paymaster, 10s. The gunners received 1s. 6d.; matrosses, pioneers, and pontoon-men, each, 1s..

      It was the month of June, 1702, before this train landed in Holland, and on the 30th of that month it joined the Allied Army at Grevenbrouck, having had an addition made to it of four guns before leaving England. The pay of the train amounted to 9289l. 5s. per annum; and the ammunition with which they commenced the campaign consisted of 3600 rounds, of which 3000 were round shot, and 600 canister or case. They also carried 31 boxes of small hand-grenades, and 754 grenades of a larger description. The conduct in the field of this train was admirable. During the whole campaign of 1702, their fire is described as having been carried on with "as much order, despatch, and success as ever before was seen."

      And then, in the luxurious way in which war was made in those days, the army went into winter quarters.

      For the campaign of 1703, it was decided to augment the train of Artillery, and a warrant to that effect was issued to the Ordnance on the 8th February, 1703. The only difference in the personnel of the train was the addition of five gunners to each company, they now outnumbering the matrosses for the first time. The addition to the guns consisted of six demi-culverins.

      In March of this year, the Board of Ordnance was also called upon to fit out two bomb-vessels for service in the Channel; and as the bomb-service remained long after the Regiment existed, it may be interesting to the reader to learn the armament of these vessels. It consisted of three 13-inch brass sea-service mortars, one vessel carrying two. For ammunition they carried 1200 shells and 40 carcasses, – besides 248 barrels of powder. The Artillerymen on board were represented by three fireworkers, six bombardiers, and two artificers; but as provision was made for ten, not eleven, "small flock bedds, bolsters, ruggs, and blankets," it is to be presumed either that one of the number was above the necessity of sleep, or that a certain socialism existed in the matter of beds, which admitted of the individual on duty adjourning to the bed vacated by the man who relieved him.

      In a later warrant of the same year, when a larger number of these vessels was ordered to the Mediterranean, a Firemaster at 8s. per diem was placed over the fireworkers, and a few conductors of stores were added.

      A further addition was made in 1704 to the train in Holland, showing the increased appreciation of the services of the Artillery. It consisted of six brass culverins and four 3-pounders, with two gentlemen of the Ordnance, sixteen gunners, and sixty of their assistants, the matrosses. Two more artificers were also added.

      An idea of the Artillery train under Marlborough's own command can be obtained from the above dry details, and when compared with the proportions of Artillery in the armies of more recent times, Marlborough's train excites a smile. The value of Artillery in the field had not yet been learned, while the cumbrous nature of its equipment was painfully present to every General. Not until Napoleon came on the scene did Artillery assume its proper place in European armies; not until the Franco-German War of 1870 did it assume its proper place in European opinion.

      But equally interesting with the details of the train which Marlborough commanded are those of the trains, which, as Master-General of the Ordnance, he prepared for expeditions and services under other commanders, in the stormy time which was hushed to rest by the Peace of Utrecht.

      When the expedition to Portugal, ordered in 1703, but which did not take place till the following year, was decided on, the armament selected consisted merely of five brass sakers, and one 5¼-pounder.

      For this small battery, a somewhat eccentric detail of attendants was ordered, characterized by the marked absence of Artillery officers. They were as follows: – One commander, styled commander-in-chief, with a daily pay of 1l.; six engineers, with 10s. each; a commissary of stores, five bombardiers, twenty gunners, and ten miners. The absence of matrosses in this detail is also remarkable. The deficiencies in this train soon became apparent, for in 1705 we find it was reinforced by a captain, a lieutenant, a fireworker, a surgeon, and forty-two matrosses, with a proportion of non-commissioned officers. And with the reinforcement came six mountain 3-pounders – guns, which from this time and for many years were familiarly known as grasshoppers.

      Among the other musty warrants of this time, calling upon "our entirely-beloved Master-General of the Ordnance, John Duke of Marlborough," to furnish various trains and necessaries, one short one on the 3rd October, 1704, has a peculiar interest. Intelligence had just been received of the capture of Gibraltar by Sir George Rooke, and it became necessary to send, for the better protection of the Rock, a few guns, and some men familiar with their use. In this year, 1872, seven Batteries of Artillery, each numbering 160 men when complete, are considered necessary, the lesson not having yet been forgotten, which was taught by the great siege, when five weak companies were all the Artillery in the garrison, and gunners had to be improvised out of the ranks of the Infantry. But the force during the great siege was lavish compared with that deemed sufficient at first "for the better defence of y^e said place." One chief engineer, Talbot Edwards by name, a storekeeper and his clerk, two fireworkers, six bombardiers, and fifty-five gunners, were at first deemed sufficient Artillery force for the defence of a place whose chief means of protection lay in its guns. Half-a-dozen brass 13-inch mortars, and four-and-twenty guns on ship carriages, varying from 6-pounders to 24-pounders, constituted the armament sent from England.

      In April of the following year the Master-General was called upon to furnish a train for that romantic expedition to Spain under the brilliant Earl of Peterborough, the services of which afterwards at the capture of Barcelona called forth such commendation. It was a very small one. In a corps of 5000 men the following was the proportion of Artillery: – One colonel, one adjutant, two engineers, a commissary, a paymaster, four conductors, one master-gunner, four sergeants, four corporals, ten gunners, one firemaster, one fireworker, two bombardiers, two carpenters, three wheelwrights, two smiths, and a collar-maker. Mortars on travelling carriages were used by this train, and a considerable number of sets of men-harness which accompanied it suggests the idea that the services of the other troops, or the peasantry, were enlisted, when necessary, to move the train from place to place.

      In May, 1706, 11,000 men under the command of Earl Rivers were ordered to sail from Plymouth on a wild and futile scheme for the invasion of France. The following was the proportion of Artillery considered necessary for this force by the Board over which Marlborough presided. The guns were forty-six in number, including twenty 24-pounders, six culverins, four 12-pounders, four demi-culverins, and six sakers. There were also sixty small coehorn mortars.

      To СКАЧАТЬ