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

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СКАЧАТЬ man the train, the following was the detail: a colonel, four engineers, two sub-engineers, a paymaster, a surgeon, with an assistant, a captain, a lieutenant, two gentlemen of the Ordnance, three sergeants, three corporals, thirty-two gunners, and sixty-four matrosses, a lieutenant of miners, and seventeen men, a firemaster, three fireworkers, and twelve bombardiers, a commissary, clerk of the stores, twelve conductors, three smiths, three wheelwrights, five carpenters, two coopers, a collar-maker, two farriers, and fifteen carters. In this train the lieutenant of miners and the chief carpenter, received each 4s. a day, while the assistant-surgeon with his 3s. remains ranked with the farriers, cooper's mate, and collar-maker.

      The list of stores is too long for reproduction here. But it included 200 sets of single harness for men, and four sets of harness for fifty men to each set. Tumbrils and waggons innumerable were ordered; 400 wheelbarrows, 2000 palisadoes, 1600 horseshoes, tents, single and double beds, and an assortment of artificers' tools such as would enrich a colony. Altogether it was an appalling catalogue. The ammunition for the train included 22,000 round shot, 2400 mortar-bombs, 800 case-shot, and 3000 barrels of powder. For the Infantry 46 tons of musket-shot were carried, and 100,000 flints.

      In 1707, it was resolved to reduce the trains formerly under the directions of Lords Galway, Peterborough, and Rivers, into one field train for service in Spain, and as the Board of Ordnance reported that they had no money for the subsistence of the train, the commissioners of the Treasury were ordered to pay the cost out of the 500,000l. voted by Parliament with a view to "strengthening the Army of the Duke of Savoy for making good our alliances with the King of Portugal, and for the more effectual carrying on the war of the recovery of the Spanish monarchy to the house of Austria." Tempora mutantur: what ministerial eloquence would be able to charm money out of a House of Commons now for such a purpose? The following was the detail of the combined train: – one colonel, and one lieutenant-colonel, receiving the same pay, 1l. 5s. per diem; one major, at 15s.; one comptroller, at 1l.; one paymaster, at 8s. and an assistant at 3s. 6d.; an adjutant, quartermaster, commissary of horse, and waggon-master, each at 6s.; a surgeon, at 5s., and two assistants, at 3s.; two captains, two lieutenants, two gentlemen of the Ordnance, six sergeants, six corporals, forty gunners, eighty matrosses, four drummers, ten engineers, a fireworker, two bombardiers, twelve conductors, and twenty-one artificers. There was also a provost-marshal with two assistants.

      Only one more train requires to be mentioned. After the legislative union between Scotland and England, it was decided by the Board of Ordnance to establish a small permanent train, called the train for North Britain, at Edinburgh, Stirling, and Fort William. As mentioned in the first chapter of this book, the last-named place did not derive the benefit that was contemplated at the formation of this train. From the nature of the Ordnance sent to Scotland, the absence of conductors and matrosses, and the presence of storekeepers and gunsmiths, it is evident that a field train, in the sense of one for service in the field, was not contemplated. The defence of the fortresses at the three places named was all that was intended, combined with the supervision of the Ordnance Stores which might be deposited in them.

      The capture of Minorca during the war involved a small train for Port Mahon in that Island; and another was required for Annapolis in 1710.

      After the Peace of Utrecht, the Ordnance Board found that in addition to its small peace establishment in England there were four trains to keep up permanently, whether in peace or war, which were not required before. These were the trains of North Britain, Gibraltar, Port Mahon, and a joint train for service in Placentia and Annapolis.

      The raison d'être of the trains at the first three of these places has already been given. To explain the circumstances under which the other places became a charge on the Ordnance will require another chapter.

      CHAPTER VI.

      Annapolis

      On the Nova Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy, immediately opposite the City of St. John, New Brunswick, there is a narrow inlet of the sea, walled by perpendicular and densely wooded hills. A few scattered cottages, belonging to fishermen, speck the deep green of the forest, as the traveller passes up this narrow channel, known by the uneuphonious name of Digby Gut. Digby is a small picturesque village, immediately inside the channel, which here opens out into a wide basin, large enough to float mighty navies, and beyond description beautiful. In the spring of 1604, a French Protestant, M. de Monts, first discovered this harbour of safety, and one of his comrades, Potrincourt by name, was so enchanted by its beauties, that he applied to the French monarch for a grant of the surrounding district. At the end of the basin, furthest from the entrance and at the mouth of a river, now called the Cornwallis river, he built a Fort and a village, to which he gave the name of Port Royal. The history of this little village has been one of marvellous interest; and until the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was written in letters of blood. Since it finally became the property of England, its existence has been a peaceful one; and now, alas, the mouldering ramparts, the tumbling, grass-grown walls of the old fort, and the windowless, stairless barrack, proclaim in unmistakable language the advent of a new colonial epoch, and the retreat of British troops before that new enemy – expense. The train required for its defence, after its final capture, was one of the arguments used in favour of creating a permanent force of Artillery in England; and for more than a century this village of Port Royal, or Annapolis, has been entwined in the history of the Royal Artillery.

      If all historical researches were pursued in such beautiful localities, the historian would be the veriest sybarite of literature. By the tumbling fortifications now stands one of the loveliest villages on the face of this world. The river, at whose mouth it is built, wanders through a valley, which, in summer, is like a dream of beauty. Rich intervalle land on either bank, covered with heavy crops of every kind; fields and gardens studded with apple-trees, planted by the old French inhabitants; grapes in heavy clusters growing and ripening in the open air, and clean, white churches and cottages studding the landscape for miles; all unite in forming a picture, like the Utopia which haunts the dreamer's mind. The garden of Canada – an Artilleryman may well rejoice that so lovely a spot had a share in the birth of the corps to which he belongs.

      The early history of the place may be summed up in a few words. In 1606, an addition to the little colony was made of more French emigrants; cultivation of the soil, and the breeding of cattle occupied the peaceful inhabitants; and they lived in perfect amity with the surrounding Indians. Difficulties having arisen about the original charter, Potrincourt went to France, and secured from the King the grant of the territory: subject, however, to a distasteful condition, that he should take two Jesuit priests with him on his return. He did so; but made them as uncomfortable as he could, and in 1613, they left him to join a settlement, also near the Bay of Fundy, vowing vengeance against him in their hearts. Although England and France were at peace, a sea rover from Virginia, named Argoll, came with his ship, and pillaged the Jesuits' new home, killing one, and making the other prisoner. Fired by his success, and urged and guided by the revengeful priest, he next fitted out an expedition against Port Royal, and succeeded in destroying the fort, and scattering the settlers, some of whom joined the neighbouring Indian tribes. During the next few years, more French immigrants settled in a scattered, unmethodical way, over the province of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, as it was called; and some coming to Port Royal, the little colony commenced to revive.

      But in 1627, Kirke's fleet sailed from England to destroy the French settlements in Nova Scotia; and among others, he ravaged unhappy Port Royal. And from this time dates the struggle in America between France and England, which lasted a hundred years. In 1629, it may be said, that we had added Nova Scotia to our possessions; but in 1632, we gave it back to France; Charles I. having been in treaty with the French King, even while our expedition in America was at work, and having consented to let the French have Quebec and all our recent American conquests back again. In 1655, Cromwell recovered Port Royal, by means of an expedition he sent for that purpose, under one Major Sedgwick. The fort had by this time been strengthened and armed; but it had to surrender СКАЧАТЬ