  Introduction—Artillery previous to 1756—Destruction of 1st Company in Black Hole—Recapture of Calcutta—Plassey—Re-formation of 1st Company; 2nd Company and 3rd Company raised—Campaigns of Colonel Calliaud, Major Adams, &c.—Massacre at Patna—4th Company raised—Major Munro’s Campaigns—Artillery attached to Brigades—Artillery Companies formed into a Battalion—Board of Ordnance—Practice-ground near Dum-Dum—Three Companies of Artillery raised for Nawab of Oude—Transferred to the Establishment—Artillery formed into a Brigade. Adepts in natural history, from a few fossil bones and teeth, are able to delineate the animal to which they belonged, and from comparing the analogy of the parts, to clothe their skeleton with appropriate covering, thus making, as it were, the animal kingdom of by-gone ages pass in review before the present generation. Much difficulty besets the undertaking; and, though we are conscious of our want of ability to do full justice to the present task, yet, as we believe that a good deal of information not generally known, and collected from sources inaccessible to the majority, is contained in the following pages, and which will be acceptable for its own sake, without reference to the form in which it appears, we have been induced to give publicity to our rough notes. The first company of Bengal Artillery was raised in 1749; the orders were received, it is believed, from Bombay, then the chief presidency. A company was ordered, at the same time, at each presidency, in the Court of Directors’ general letter of 17th June, 1748. A copy of the warrant for that Admiral Boscawen was requested to supply such aid in raising the companies as he could spare from the fleet, for gunners; and the master gunner was appointed to the Bombay company. The companies were to be completed as early as possible, and all the gun-room’s crew, who were qualified, were to be included. The “gun-room’s crew” appears to have been the denomination given to a certain number of men set apart for the duties of the artillery; their officers were called gunners, gunners’ mates, &c., and combined the magazine duties with the more properly-called duties of artillerymen. The new company was to consist of one captain, one second captain, one captain-lieutenant, and three lieutenant-fireworkers; four serjeants, four
The want of artillery during the wars on the coast from 1746 to 1754, and the impossibility of forming a sufficient number on the spot, induced the Court of Directors to obtain and send out two companies of Royal Artillery to Bombay; and, when the war broke out in 1756, three companies more were sent, with the reinforcements under Clive, to Bombay, and were afterwards distributed among the presidencies. With Colonel Aldercron’s regiment (39th Foot,—“primus in Indis”) at Madras, there were also forty artillerymen, on its arrival in 1754; these he considered part of his regiment, and they were most At Madras, attention seems to have been earlier paid to the military establishment than in Bengal. A field train had been organized in 1755, to which Lieutenant Jennings was appointed adjutant (this officer was afterwards transferred to the Bengal presidency), but in Bengal in 1756, on the war with France breaking out, the whole force amounted to only 300 European troops, including the company of artillery raised in 1749. In 1756 the company of artillery was commanded by Captain Witherington, and stationed in Fort William, with detachments at the smaller factories, such as Dacca, Balasore, Cossimbazar, Patna, &c. On the siege of Fort William by Sooraj-ul-Dowlah, only forty-five artillerymen were in the garrison, and these, with their commanding officer, perished in the Black Hole. The character of Capt. Witherington is sketched in Mr. Holwell’s interesting “Narrative” as “a laborious active officer, but confused. There would have been few objections to his character, diligence, or conduct, had he been fortunate in having any commander-in-chief to have a proper eye over him, An instance of devotion highly honourable is also recorded by Mr. Holwell of a man named Leech, an artificer, most probably of the artillery, “and clerk of the parish, who had made his escape when the Moors entered the fort, and returned just as it was dark to tell me he had provided a boat, and would insure my escape if I would follow him through a passage few were acquainted with, and by which he had entered. I thanked him in the best terms I could, but told him it was a step I could not prevail on myself to take, as I thereby should very ill repay the attachment the gentlemen and garrison had shewn me; that I was resolved to share their fate, be it what it would, but pressed him to secure his escape without loss of time, to which he gallantly replied that ‘then he was resolved to share mine, and would not leave me.’” The expedition reached Fultah on the 20th December, 1756, and met with but little opposition (a night attack on the troops landed near Fort Marlborough being the chief) in the progress to Calcutta, which was retaken, after a short cannonade from the shipping, on the 2nd January, 1757. To protect Calcutta from the incursions of the On the 3rd February the Nawab’s army passed along the Dum-Dum road, leaving it near the turning at the Puckah-bridges, and spreading irregularly over the plain to the eastward of the Mahratta ditch, the Nawab’s own camp being pitched in Omichund’s garden, the ground now called “Nunden Bagh.” Surrounded by so numerous an enemy, Clive would soon have been straitened for provisions. To prevent this inconvenience, and to alarm a timorous This expedition, though ill-planned, produced the desired effect on the Nawab, who eagerly desired to enter into terms of accommodation with the British, whose activity he feared. In March, the reinforcements arrived from Bombay, and an attack on the French settlement of Chandernagore was resolved on; it was attacked both by land and from the river, the chief attack being made by the ships of war; the artillery had but a comparatively small part to play. The political events which followed, and the intrigues which led to our subsequent hostilities with Sooraj-ul-Dowlah, it is not our province to detail. We purpose only to relate events with which the corps is connected, and accordingly we next join Clive on the 21st June at Cutwah. With his little army, we find 100 artillerymen, eight 6–pounder guns, and two howitzers, commanded by Captain Jennings. In the council of war which sat, Captain Jennings’s vote was given for an The next day the battle took place; it was chiefly a distant cannonade. The guns were placed three on each flank of the Europeans, and the remainder about 200 yards in advance of the left division of sipahis, sheltered by some brick-kilns, to check the fire of the enemy’s guns, manned by the French party, and posted at a tank in front. The shot from the British guns which missed those opposed to them, took effect on the bodies of cavalry and infantry in the rear. The cannonade was sustained till noon, when rain falling damaged the enemy’s ammunition, and forced them to slacken their fire. The English fire continued, and Major Kirkpatrick, advancing with a party, drove the Meer Jaffier, with his troops, at this time advanced, intending to join the British, but was opposed and driven back by a party and the fire of a field-gun, under Mr. Johnston, a volunteer. The whole of the guns now cannonaded the enemy’s camp from the high banks of the tank; the enemy came out, and Clive advanced, posting half his troops and guns at a smaller tank in advance, and the rest on a rising ground about 200 yards to their left; the French field-pieces renewed their fire, and the enemy’s cavalry prepared to charge, but were always driven back by the quick firing of the English field artillery; the enemy beginning to draw off, the whole British army advanced, and driving them from a redoubt and mound, part of the intrenchment of their camp, about five in the afternoon completed the victory which laid the foundation of our Eastern empire. The volunteer, Mr. Johnston, above noticed, was one of the fugitives collected at Fultah. His name is mentioned among those saved at Dacca; he not improbably belonged to the artillery, and was employed as a clerk in some confidential office, A detachment was sent forwards towards Patna, under Major Coote, consisting of 230 Europeans, 300 sipahis, 50 lascars, and two 6–pounders, but much delay occurred in starting, owing to the debaucheries ensuing on the plunder gained at Plassey. It was protracted by a mutinous spirit on the way, so that the French party had, by the time they arrived, rendered their position at Patna too strong, and the detachment returned to Cossimbazaar in September. The remainder of the army was removed to Chandernagore. Towards the close of the year 1757, a second advance, with a stronger party, and Clive at its head, was made, and an arrangement satisfactory to His first care was to organize the army, and in doing this, the coast army was taken as a model; a company of artillery was raised in Fort William, 29th June, from the men who had served at Plassey. Lieutenant Jennings was promoted to its captaincy, and this may be considered as the first company of the present establishment, and bears at present, after many changes of numbers in the successive formations of the regiment, the denomination of 1st company, 4th battalion. A second company was raised at Cossimbazaar on the 19th September, the party mentioned above as being left there most probably having been incorporated in it: Captain Broadbridge or Broadburn, from the Royal Artillery, was its captain. The company of Royal Artillery In 1759, a combination having been entered into against the British, the English troops, aided by Meer Jaffier, marched towards Patna, against the Shahzadah; Patna was taken, a garrison left, and Clive returned to Calcutta, Colonel Calliaud having joined him first at Berhampoor, with 300 Europeans, 1,000 sipahis, 50 artillerymen, and 6 guns. The artillerymen, there is reason to suppose, belonged to the 2nd company. The battalion of sipahis left at Patna with two 6–pounders and 70 Europeans, under Lieutenant Cochrane, was defeated in an engagement into which they were forced, in assisting our ally Ramnarain against the Emperor’s forces, in January, 1760. The conduct of the European troops is spoken of as highly creditable. The European officers of the sipahis all fell, and the sipahis were cut to pieces or dispersed. The English who remained fought their way back to the city under Doctor Fullerton. Lieutenant Buck, of the artillery, was killed in this action. Calliaud’s advance having been delayed by his allies, he did not engage the enemy till the 22nd February, near Sooraj, and the same cause prevented his following up the advantage. The 50 artillerymen of the 2nd company were engaged in this action, and the carriages of four of their guns broke down during the engagement, causing some delay in repairing them. To secure Patna, a detachment of 200 Europeans, a battalion of sipahis, and four field-pieces, marched from Moorshedabad, under Captain Knox, in May, 1760, and, marching with the utmost rapidity, reached it in thirteen days. Crossing the river, this little band attacked and defeated the army of the Naib of Purneah, who had come to the Emperor’s assistance, near Mozufferpore, on the 27th May. A third company of artillery was formed on the 26th May, 1760, The 2nd company of artillery, under Captain Broadbridge and Captain-Lieutenant Kinch, shared in these transactions, and remained as part of the garrison of Patna. It forms no part of our plan to enter into the history of such occurrences as those which led to the dismissal of the members of council from the Company’s service, and placed Mr. Ellis in charge of the factory at Patna; or to examine whether our subsequent misfortunes are attributable to his mismanagement. For information on such points we must refer the reader to the histories of the times. Many points of difference arose with the Nawab, Meer Cossim, which led to various misunderstandings; they were brought to a crisis by the British, on Mr. Ellis’s order, surprising and seizing Patna, on the 26th June, 1763. Mr. Amyatt was attacked and killed near Moorshedabad, by order of Cossim Ali, whom he had left only two days before, having The energy shewn at first was, however, suffered to die away, and the troops in Patna dispersing for plunder, the late governor of the city rallied his men, and, being joined by a reinforcement from Monghyr, attacked and drove out the British, who, spiking their guns, retired to Bankipore, and afterwards fled in boats to their factory at Manjee, near Chuprah; where the whole, and among them the company of artillery, were taken prisoners. The prisoners taken were sent to Monghyr, and there confined with others captured at Cossimbazar, which factory was plundered about the same time. On the news of these disasters, the English army, under Major Adams, moved from their cantonments at Ghyrettee early in July. The first company of artillery was with this force, under the command of Captain Jennings. In the present day it would scarcely be deemed possible to march a force at the season in which this army moved through Bengal—in the middle of the rains, when the whole land is a swamp, and every stream full to overflowing; yet, in spite of the difficulties presented, this gallant band, about A severe action was fought, lasting nearly four hours, and at one time two of the British guns were taken possession of by the enemy; victory at length decided in favour of the British. The artillery lost one officer, killed during the action, Lieutenant Kaylor. Undaunted by his defeat, Meer Cossim again disputed the advance of the British at the pass of Oudenullah, a little to the south of Rajmahl, where the road is confined between the river and spurs of hills. This pass had been intrenched with walls and towers at short distances, and several strong posts raised on eminences along its front. The army was detained before these intrenchments for nearly a month. At length, by an attack on the hill forming the right of the lines, and a feint on the river end, they were carried with severe loss on 5th September, Captain-Lieutenant Green, of the artillery, acting as field engineer. Meer Cossim left his troops the next night, and retired to Monghyr in haste, thence carrying his prisoners with him to Patna. In October Monghyr was invested, breached, and capitulated. Meer Cossim, driven into a paroxysm of rage by this event, directed the massacre of all his English prisoners. In this horrid act he found a ready tool in Sumroo, the German, Whether Captain Kinch and his subalterns perished in the attack on Patna or in this massacre we are unable to say, but in one or other he fell. The bodies of all were thrown into a large well, over which a tomb has been since built, but no record of the names of those who perished exists on it. After avenging the fate of their comrades by the reduction of Patna, the army followed Meer Cossim, who threw himself on the protection of the Nawab of Oude, as far as the banks of the Carumnassa. Here Major Adams left them, and the command devolved on Major Jennings, of the artillery. The force was cantoned on the frontier of the Nawab’s territories, in the expectation that he would give up Meer Cossim, and also to watch the Emperor’s troops, which, under the pretence of preparing an expedition against the Boondelas, remained in the vicinity of Allahabad. In February, 1764, an alarming state of dissatisfaction shewed itself in the English army, still in its cantonments at Sant. The troops were dissatisfied with the rewards bestowed upon them for having regained the provinces from Meer Cossim. The English battalion seized the park and marched towards the Carumnassa. The sipahis were also in motion; but by the exertions of Major Jennings and the other officers, the English and sipahis were nearly all induced to return. The French and foreigners, to the number of 150, went off, under Serjeant Delamar, to Allahabad. Few of the artillery joined in this affair. The seeds of this mutinous disposition still remained when Major Carnac arrived in March and assumed the command. Provisions were scarce; and though the Government instructions were to carry the war into the Nawab’s territories (whose hostility was now open), he agreed with his officers, that, in the then temper of the troops, it would not be safe to proceed. On the enemy’s forces crossing the river, the A detachment, under Colonel Munro (whose army had joined Major Carnac’s at Patna), marched after one of the sipahi battalions, which had deserted, with four guns. Colonel Munro sent on 100 Europeans, one sipahi battalion, and two guns. This force overtook them at Chuprah, and coming on them while asleep, took them all prisoners. Colonel Munro, on receiving them, considered that strong measures were necessary to check the spirit of insubordination which had arisen, and accordingly selected fifty of the worst for execution. Twenty-four were blown from the guns at Patna and other stations. On this occasion it was that the grenadiers claimed precedence in death—an anecdote familiar to all acquainted with the early history of our Indian army. The whole army now advanced towards the At Buxar, on the 22nd October, they came up with the enemy, and on the following morning, about 8 o’clock, the enemy marched out to attack them. The British were drawn up in line with their guns, twenty field-pieces and seventy-one artillerymen of the 1st company, on the flanks of battalions. The enemy were repulsed, and about 12 o’clock they retired slowly, blowing up their tumbrils of ammunition. One hundred and thirty-three pieces of artillery, mostly with English carriages, and among them twenty-seven which had been lost the previous year at Patna, were the trophies on this occasion. In the acknowledgment of this victory, written by Mr. Vansittart and his council, 16th November, 1764, to Munro, he was requested “to return Captain Winwood and Lieutenant Duff of the artillery are mentioned “as meriting particular notice, and having gained great honour.” A detachment of two battalions failed in November, in an attempt to take the fortress of Chunar; in January, 1765, however, Sir Robert Fletcher succeeded in gaining possession of it, and in February he breached Allahabad, when the garrison evacuated it. On the 3rd May a battle was fought near Korah, The army was this year (1765) divided into three brigades, and the companies of artillery attached
In addition to the guns with the park, each battalion of infantry was equipped with two six-pounders or three-pounders, worked by the men of the regiment, assisted by native officers and lascars from the artillery. In 1766 the alarming mutiny on the part of the officers of the army, caused by the reduction of allowances, broke out, and was only suppressed by the firmness and decision of Lord Clive and Colonel Smith. The part taken in this by artillery officers cannot now be fully traced; but Captain Duff, Captain-Lieutenant Clifton, and Lieutenant Black, appear to have taken prominent parts. Many, we learn from the army-list, were dismissed about that time, most probably on account of the mutiny; others resigned. Nearly all, in every branch of the army, were, however, restored to the service, and placed in the position they would have held, had they remained in it. Insubordinate as the conduct of a large portion of the officers of the army was on this occasion, and deservedly as it has been stigmatized, yet it must be borne in mind that they failed of success by conscientiously not admitting the soldiery to a knowledge of or participation in the measures they had taken to secure the batta, though solicited by the latter to accept of their support, as soon as it In 1768 a lieutenant-colonel and a major were added to the regiment, and, in consequence of the Court of Directors being desirous of obtaining, not only cadets but officers from Woolwich, Major Pearse was nominated to command the corps, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was, however, superseded by Captain Martin, to whom the command was given by the Indian Government, and again by Major Kindersley, whose commission as major was antedated by the local government, on the vacancy being caused by Captain Fleming’s removal to the engineers, from which he came. On the death, however, of Major Kindersley, which occurred in 1769, he succeeded to the command of the regiment. The application for a supply of officers and cadets from the Royal Artillery originated in a difficulty of finding candidates, the artillery service being neither so lucrative, nor holding out the same prospects, as the infantry. In the Secret Committee’s letter of 30th September, 1765, to the Court of Directors, it is stated that “it would be of the On the death of Major Kindersley, 28th October, 1769, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearse succeeded to the command of the regiment, and, as its organization is much indebted to that officer, it is fortunate that we are able to quote from letters to his early friends his record of the state in which he found it:— “When I first came into command of the corps I was astonished at the ignorance of all who composed it. It was a common practice to make any midshipman who was discontented with the India ships an officer of artillery, from a strange idea that a knowledge of navigation would perfect an officer of that corps in the knowledge of artillery. They The strange idea above referred to appears to have affected the Home Government at a still earlier period, as, on the first formation of artillery companies, “such assistance as the fleet could spare” was given. To this idea are we indebted for many terms which have hung about the corps till the present day: our tindals, lascars, serangs, cossibs, all came from the naval nomenclature, and their etymology would most probably be found in the Portuguese dialect, which has retained its influence on shipboard; from the same fountain of “English (not) undefiled” must have been drawn the “bankshall,” a name by which our gun-sheds are known throughout the regiment, but a term of considerable mystification to the uninitiated. In March, 1770, a fifth company of artillery was raised in Fort William, and in May the companies were formed into a battalion, to which an adjutant was allowed. In September the lascars were divided into 28 companies, of which seven (consisting of 2 serangs, 2 tindals, and 100 lascars each) were The embodying the companies of artillery into one battalion must have increased the efficiency of the army, by introducing uniformity of system into their management, and a more effectual supervision than could have existed in their scattered state. The regiment at this time, supposing no change had occurred in the strength of companies, would have consisted of—
Of the officers of the corps a description was given in Colonel Pearse’s letter, above quoted. It was written in 1775, and refers to the period now described. An extract from one written in 1772 “To be a gentleman you must learn to drink by all means—a man is honoured in proportion to the number of bottles he can drink: keep a dozen dogs, but in particular if you have not the least use for them and hate hunting and shooting. Four horses may barely suffice; but if you have eight, and seven of them are too vicious for the syce to feed, it will be much better. “By no means let the horses be paid for; and have a palanquin covered with silver trappings—get 10,000 rupees in debt, but 20,000 would make you an honester man, especially if you are convinced that you will never have the power to pay. Endeavour to forget whatever you have learnt—ridicule learning of all sorts—despise all military knowledge—call duty a bore—encourage your men to laugh at orders—obey such as you like—make a joke of your commanding officer for giving those orders you do not like, and, if you obey them, let it be seen that it is merely to serve yourself. “These few rules will make you an officer and a gentleman, and they are the first lessons which young men take when they arrive in this country.” The lascars were employed in dragging and assisting the Europeans to work the guns; a detail also was detached with each infantry regiment, to assist in working the guns attached to it, for two 6–pounders formed part of the equipment of each battalion, and thirty sipahis were set apart for their service. These duties, with those of the park, would account for the number of lascars being so large in comparison with the establishment of the present day. They were in many respects native artillerymen, and in the subsequent successive changes from lascars to golundaz and back again, the change was often rather in name, and increase and decrease of pay, than of the men themselves. They were a most efficient and useful body—a A large body of artificers was also at this time attached to the corps; these, with the quartermaster’s establishment, completed the regiment as to its personnel. The matÉriel appears to have been as bad as possible. At this time Colonel Pearse complains that “the fuzees burnt from nineteen to forty-eight seconds, though of the same nature; the portfires were continually going out; the tubes would not burn; the powder was infamous; the cartridges were made conical, and, when necessary to prime with loose powder, a great quantity was required to fill the vacant cavity round the cartridge; the carriages flew to pieces with common firing in a week.” The contractor who furnished the carriages, It was under such circumstances that Colonel Pearse took command, and set himself to work to improve the state of the regiment. To weed the inefficient from the officers; to teach the remainder and the new-comers their duty; to introduce an efficient internal economy and discipline into the ranks, and to obtain a proper control over the matÉriel of the regiment, were his first duties. That his endeavours were in some degree successful may be gathered from his correspondence, for in 1772 he writes,—“Now I have got all the laboratory implements with me at practice, and am going to teach my officers what they never saw.” Steadily he pursued his object through difficulties and disappointments, and was rewarded, ere his death, by seeing the corps raised to a high state of discipline and efficiency. At a review of it by General Clavering in November, 1774, he expressed himself as delighted The years 1771–2 afforded leisure to attend to the discipline of the corps, for it seems not to have been called on for any field service. In 1773 the expedition under Captain Jones proceeded against the hill fort of Delamcotta, situated on the pass by which the Durla river, which runs into the Teestah, emerges from the mountains, and not far from the present sanatarium, Darjeeling. Lieutenant R. Bruce, of the artillery, was present at the attack, but with what portion of the corps is unknown. This year the army was again called into the field to check the Mahrattas, but after a cannonade across the Jumna at Ramghat, near Delhi, they retired, and our army went into cantonments at Sultanpoor, Oude. In 1774 a portion of the army under Colonel Champion was sent to assist the vizier in his attack on the Rohillas. An action was fought on the 23rd April, in which the 2nd company of The action was followed by much severe marching and exposure in the hot and rainy season, in the jungles of the Pillibeet district. While encamped near Pillibeet, a report reached Colonel Champion of four crores of rupees being concealed in the fort; and in a letter to Government he suggests “the propriety of examining into the truth of the report, in duty both to the Company and to the army:” a naÏve suggestion, which, considering the British were there as allies of the vizier, the Government negatived. However, as a compensation to the army, the vizier granted a donation of 10½ lacs, which was divided among the 2nd brigade in August, 1779, agreeably to a scale laid down by a committee of officers. This scale gave a sipahi two-thirds of a European soldier’s share,—a proportion
In 1775 an alteration took place in the arrangements for the matÉriel of the army; a Board of Ordnance was formed, and magazines established, at the principal fixed stations of the army. The Board consisted of the “Governor-General as president, the Commander of the Forces, the members of the Supreme Council, the Commissary-General of Comptrol; the Commandant of Artillery; the Chief Engineer; the Commissary of Stores, and the Military Store-keeper, as members; with a secretary, and such assistants as might be found necessary.” Magazines were established at the fixed stations of Berhampore, Dinapore, and Chunar; a commissary, a deputy-commissary, and two conductors were appointed to them, and placed under the control of the Board; they were to be paid by the Board-office, and receive instructions for carrying on their duties and office from the Board, independent of any other control but that consistent with the general regulations of the army, which required that they should be subordinate to the commanding officer in the field or fixed stations, and the commanding officer of the artillery under whose immediate control they were placed. To the commissaries were intrusted the ordnance stores, camp equipage, &c., for the use of corps; and an officer of the department was to accompany the Carriages for the ordnance were to be constructed in Fort William by the military storekeeper. No repairs of magnitude involving large contingent bills were to be made in the field, but the articles required supplied on indent. The establishments for the magazines were furnished by a reduction of the artificers and lascars attached to the artillery; the lascars were reduced to a small number, and the surplus applied to the magazines.
were the number retained with the regiment. The appointment of this Board appears to have interfered with the control which the commandant of artillery had previously exercised over his department, and Colonel Pearse attributed its formation to a personal motive, on the part of General Clavering, to lower him. In writing to an old friend, after other complaints he goes on to say: Of the working of the cumbrous machinery of the Board of Ordnance, in its original formation and in the successive changes which have been made from time to time, in the vain attempts to obtain energy and celerity from a body of men without individual power or responsibility, it will often, in the course of these pages, be necessary to speak, for to the want of arrangement on their part must be attributed, in many instances, the inefficient state of the siege-trains with the armies. The hours for parades, and, in fact, for every thing, were early: parades were before gun-fire in the cold season; dinners were in the middle of the day, not only in private houses, but on public occasions; and invitations were given on a scale of hospitality only practicable in a small society. The orderly book was the common channel of invitation used by the Governor-General and officer commanding the garrison. Many such entries as the Or, “Lieutenant-Colonel Wilding presents his compliments to all the officers in Fort William, staff of the garrison, and surgeons, and requests their company to breakfast, and dinner at half-past two o’clock.” A good account of the manners and habits of the people at this period would be interesting, and probably materials for the purpose could be found, were a qualified person to undertake the task: This year a number of memorials were presented to the Board by artillery officers, as to the relative rank of cadets; and it was decided that those appointed expressly to the artillery should have the full benefit of the Court of Directors’ order, that all cadets appointed in India were to rank below those of the same year appointed in England, but that the time of service was to date from arrival in Bengal; and all those who were in the infantry, and entered as cadets in the artillery, were to rank above all who were cadets in the artillery at the same time. This, and the circumstance of several who resigned in the mutiny of 1766 being allowed to return to their original standing, will partly account for the supersessions which will appear on consulting the gradation list. At the conclusion of the year 1775 three companies of artillery, to be commanded by European officers, were ordered to be raised for the Nawab of Oude and attached to the brigade of disciplined troops raised for his service; officers were nominated to them, and struck off the strength of the regiment; but whether the companies were ever The artillery, in 1775, appear first to have used Dum-Dum as a practice-ground, and to have been encamped there, when, their tents being wanted for the use of a brigade marching to Patna, they were ordered into Fort William, and their practice cut short with one fortnight instead of two months. In the following year, however, in December, they marched out with their tents and stores, and began the practice (as the orders record) by firing “a royal salute, and after that one of 19 guns, for the Company.” It is not easy to ascertain what Dum-Dum was previous to its occupation by the artillery. The first mention made of it is by Orme, in the account of At the practice season the officers inhabited the house, and the men’s tents were pitched in the compound, and the natives in the “Montague lines,” the ground now occupied by the Nya Bazaar, called after Lieutenant Montague, the adjutant who marked them out. The name is known to the present day. It was not until 1783 that the cantonment was marked out by Colonel Duff, who is said to have Many villages were scattered over the ground occupied by the cantonment; their sites were purchased up, from time to time, by Government; the last, that of Deiglah, in 1820. From 1775 to 1778 the corps does not appear to have been called into the field, and Colonel Pearse occupied himself in improving its internal economy. A regimental school for the instruction of the native officers and gunners was established in 1775—an institution which, with all the faults which still exist in it, has been of much use, both in teaching the elements of knowledge and affording a rational employment to some of the many hours which hang heavily on the soldier. That the corps had attained a respectable proficiency in its peculiar duties we may believe from an extract of one of his letters, dated March, 1777: “I have had my corps reviewed twice; first by the governor, who was excessively pleased, and thanked In May, 1778, General Leslie’s force marched from Culpee, on its expedition to assist the Bombay Government; it consisted of six infantry and one cavalry corps, some European artillery, and the 1st company of golundaz, raised for the Nawab’s service. A short account of this detachment will be given when we come to speak of its return, in 1784. The formation of the three native or golundaz Hitherto, as want dictated, company after company of artillery had been added to the establishment; but the artillery was now formed into an independent brigade of one European regiment and three native battalions. The European consisted of seven field and one mounted, or garrison, company, and the native battalions of eight companies each: the former was to be completed by drafts of fifty men from each of the three European infantry regiments (and possibly the Oude companies), and the latter by all fit for the service who might volunteer from the two native companies, with the temporary (Oude) brigade and their lascars, from the lascars of European companies and with the guns of infantry regiments, and from the eight companies of lascars at the Presidency. The lascars were all reduced. The European regiment, exclusive of garrison company, consisted of seven companies:—
The three golundaz battalions consisted of eight companies each, in all—
The European commissioned officers of the artillery brigade were—
The staff and artificers of the field-train will be referred to shortly, when another formation of the corps renders it necessary to advert to the subject. In the above formation we find the great error which has pervaded the service ever since—the supposition The officers of a company of artillery should be proportioned to the number of guns it is intended to man. No officer can do justice to more than two pieces; and as the companies were then adapted to eight field-pieces, four officers, with a fifth to command the whole, is the number which ought to have been present in the field. On this subject, however, it will be necessary to dwell more, as the successive changes pass under review. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
