MARLBOROUGH'S TRAINS.
ALTHOUGH the description of campaigns which occurred before the
regimental birth of the Royal Artillery is beyond the purpose and
province of this history, yet so many of the officers and men who fought
under the great Duke of Marlborough, or served in the various trains
equipped by his orders for Gibraltar, Minorca, and Nova Scotia,
afterwards were embodied in the regiment, that the reader must greet
with pleasure any notice of the constitution of these Trains, as being
in all probability typical of what the early companies of the Regiment
would be when attached to Ordnance for service in the field.
The Duke of Marlborough was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance
almost immediately after the accession of Queen Anne, and until the day
of his death he evinced the warmest and most intelligent interest in
everything connected with the Artillery Service.
The reader will remember that one of the first acts of Queen Anne was to
declare war against France, with her allies the Emperor of Germany and
the States-General. The declaration of war was not formally made until
the 4th May, 1702, but preparations had been going on for a couple of
months before with a view to commencing hostilities. On the 14th March,
1702, the warrant for the Train of Artillery required for the opening
campaign was issued to the Earl of Romney, then Master-General. The
number of pieces of Ordnance required was fixed at 34, including 14
sakers, 16 3-pounders, and 4 howitzers: and the _personnel_ considered
adequate to the management of these guns consisted of two companies of
gunners, one of pioneers, and one of pontoon men, in addition to the
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 3_s._ per diem; the
provost-marshal and the tinman each got 2_s._ 6_d._; the clerks and the
gentlemen of the Ordnance were equally paid 4_s._; the chaplain,
adjutant, and quartermaster received 6_s._ each; a lieutenant received
the same, and a fireworker 2_s._ less. The pay of the higher ranks was
as follows:—Colonel, 1_l._ 5_s._; lieutenant-colonel and comptroller,
each 1_l._; major, 15_s._; and paymaster, 10_s._ The gunners received
1_s._ 6_d._; matrosses, pioneers, and pontoon-men, each, 1_s._.
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 9289_l._ 5_s._ 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 8_s._ 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 1_l._; six engineers, with 10_s._ 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 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
4_s._ a day, while the assistant-surgeon with his 3_s._ 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 500,000_l._ 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, 1_l._ 5_s._
per diem; one major, at 15_s._; one comptroller, at 1_l._; one
paymaster, at 8_s._ and an assistant at 3_s._ 6_d._; an adjutant,
quartermaster, commissary of horse, and waggon-master, each at 6_s._; a
surgeon, at 5_s._, and two assistants, at 3_s._; 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.