THE ROYAL IRISH ARTILLERY.
THE Ordnance Department in Ireland was independent of that in England
until the year 1674, when Charles II., availing himself of the vacancy
created by the death of the then Irish Master-General—Sir Robert Byron—
merged the appointment in that of the Master-General of England; and the
combined duties were first performed by Sir Thomas Chicheley. This
officer appointed, as his deputies in Ireland, Sir James Cuff and
Francis Cuff, Esq. The Masters-General of the Irish Ordnance, whom we
find mentioned after this date, were subordinate to the English Masters-
General, in a way which had never previously been recognized.
Even after the amalgamation, however, the accounts of the Irish and
British Departments of the Ordnance were kept perfectly distinct. When
ships were fitted out for service in the Irish seas, their guns and
stores were furnished from the Irish branch of the Ordnance. All
gunpowder for use in Ireland was issued by the English officials to the
Irish Board on payment; and the lack of funds, which was chronic at the
Tower during the reigns of the Stuarts, was not unfrequently remedied by
calling in the assistance of the Irish Board. Tenders for the
manufacture of gunpowder having been received, and the orders then given
having been complied with, it was no unusual thing to pay the merchants
with Ordnance Debentures, and to ship the powder to Ireland in exchange
for a money payment. The correspondence between the two Boards throws
light upon the way in which money was found for the English
fortifications, and also gives us the value of gunpowder at various
times. For example, in August, 1684, one thousand barrels were shipped
to Ireland; and the sum received in payment—2500_l._—was ordered to be
spent on the fortifications at Portsmouth.
Some of the debentures issued to the creditors of the English Ordnance,
in lieu of money, were on security of the grounds in the City of London,
called the Artillery Grounds, and carried interest at the rate of two
per cent.: others were merely promissory notes issued by the Board,
which bore no very high reputation, nor were they easily convertible
into money. From certain correspondence in the Tower Library, during the
reigns of Charles II. and James II., it would appear that the Board
could not be sued before the Law Courts for the amount of their debts;—
the letter-books of that period teeming with piteous appeals from the
defrauded creditors.
One unhappy man writes that in consequence of the inability of the Board
to meet his claims, he "had undergone extreme hardships, even to
imprisonment, loss of employment, and reputation." Another in the same
year, 1682, writes, that "he is in a very necessitous and indigent
condition, having not wherewithal to supply his want and necessity; and
he doth in all humility tender his miserable condition to your Honours'
consideration."
During periods of actual or expected disturbance in Ireland, stores for
that country were often accumulated in Chester, and on the Welsh coast,
ready for shipment; from which it may be inferred, that the arrangements
in Ireland for their safe keeping were inadequate.
The formation of a battalion of Artillery on the Irish establishment was
not contemplated until the year 1755, when, on the requisition of the
Lord-Lieutenant, a party of twenty-four non-commissioned officers and
men of the Royal Artillery, under the command of a First Lieutenant,
left Woolwich for Dublin, for that purpose. This detachment, having
received considerable augmentation and a special organization, was in
the following year styled "The Artillery Company in Ireland," the
commissions of the officers being dated the 1st of April, 1756. The
company consisted of a Major, a Captain, one First and one Second
Lieutenant, three Lieutenant-Fireworkers, five Sergeants, five
Corporals, one hundred and six Bombardiers, thirty-four Gunners, one
hundred and two Matrosses, and two Drummers. The large number of
Bombardiers suggests a special service, probably in the bomb-vessels,
for which this class was employed. Major Brownrigg, the commandant of
the corps, was replaced in 1758, by Major D. Chevenix, from the 11th
Dragoons. Two years later, the company was considerably increased, and
was styled the "Regiment of Royal Irish Artillery." It had now a
Colonel-in-Chief, and another _en seconde_, a Lieutenant-Colonel
commandant, a Major, four Captains, four First and four Second
Lieutenants, and four Lieutenant-Fireworkers. The Masters-General of the
Irish Ordnance were _ex officio_ Colonels-in-Chief of the Irish
Artillery. The following is a list of those who held this appointment
during the existence of the corps: James, Marquis of Kildare, Richard,
Earl of Shannon, Charles, Marquis of Drogheda, Henry, Earl of
Carhampton, and the Hon. Thomas Pakenham.
Reductions were made in the Regiment at the conclusion of peace in 1763,
and again in 1766; but they were chiefly confined to weeding the
Regiment of undersized men. In 1774, the rank of Lieutenant-Fireworker
was abolished, three years later than the same change had been made in
England. In 1778, the Regiment was augmented from four to six companies,
the total of the establishment being raised from 228 to 534; and from
that date the senior first lieutenant received the rank of Captain-
Lieutenant. A further addition of seventy-eight gunners raised the total
to 612, and caused an increase in the number of officers, four Second
Lieutenants being added in 1782.
In August, 1783, an invalid company was added, consisting of a captain,
first and second lieutenant, one sergeant, two corporals, one drummer,
three bombardiers, four gunners, and thirty-nine matrosses, and with a
few additions to the marching companies raised the establishment to 701.
But in three months, a most serious reduction can be traced, not in the
cadres, nor among the higher commissioned ranks, but among the
subalterns, and the rank and file, and the total fell to 386.
By the monthly returns for October, 1783, we find that the title of
matross, although retained in the invalid company, was otherwise
abolished; the private soldiers being now all designated gunners. From
1783 to 1789, the establishment remained at 386; and in 1791, it was the
same. The returns for the intermediate year have been lost.
In 1793, recruiting on a large scale can be traced, and we find, that in
October, 1794, by successive augmentations, the establishment had
reached a total of no less than 2069 of all ranks, organized into one
invalid and twenty marching companies. By a King's letter, dated 20th
May, 1795, these were constituted into two Battalions, the company of
invalids remaining distinct. This gave an addition of thirteen Field and
Staff Officers, and three Staff Sergeants, raising the total
establishment from 2069 to 2085. Each company consisted of 100 of all
ranks—except the invalid company, which remained at a total of fifty-
three, until 1st October, 1800, when it was raised to 100—and the
strength of the Regiment reached its maximum, 2132.
This establishment continued, until the 1st of March, 1801, when, in
anticipation of the amalgamation with the Royal Artillery, eight
companies, with a proportion of Field Officers, were reduced, followed
next month by a reduction of two more.
On the 1st April, 1801, the remaining ten marching companies, with Field
and Staff Officers, were incorporated with the Royal Artillery, and
numbered as the 7th Battalion of that corps. By General Order of 17th
September, 1801, the invalid company was transferred to the battalion of
invalids on the British establishment.
It was a singular coincidence that the officer of the Royal Artillery,
who forty-six years before had left Woolwich to organize the first
company of the Royal Irish Artillery, should, on the amalgamation, have
been the Colonel commandant of the new Battalion. Lieutenant-General
Straton had proceeded, in May, 1755, to Ireland, for the former purpose,
and he rejoined the Royal Artillery on the 1st April, 1801, as Colonel
commandant of the 7th Battalion. He died in Dublin on the 16th May,
1803, after a service of sixty-one years.
At the time of the amalgamation, six of the companies were stationed in
Ireland, and four in the West Indies. The Irish Artillery was not exempt
from foreign service, and the conduct of the men abroad was as excellent
as it always was during the times of even the greatest civil commotion.
When, however, they left Ireland on service, their pay became a charge
on the English Office of Ordnance; and in the Returns from their own
head-quarters we find that any men who might be in England, pending
embarkation, were shown as "on foreign service."
The first employment of the Irish Artillery abroad was during the
American war. In March, 1777, seventy men embarked, under the command of
an officer of the Royal Artillery, and did duty with that corps in a
manner which called forth the highest commendations from the officers
under whom they served. The Master-General of the Ordnance, Lord
Townsend, in a letter to the officer commanding the Irish Artillery,
dated 23rd of December, 1777, alludes to these men in the following
terms: "I am informed that none among the gallant troops behaved so
nobly as the Irish Artillery, who are now exchanged, and are to return.
I am sorry they have suffered so much, but it is the lot of brave men,
who, so situated, prefer glorious discharge of their duty to an
unavailing desertion of it."
The conduct of the Irish Artillery, both in America and in the darkest
period of their service, in the West Indies, contrasts so strongly with
that of the men enlisted in Ireland for the Royal Artillery at the same
time, that evidently the recruiting for the latter corps must have been
grossly mismanaged, or, what is more probable, the national corps
obtained with ease the best men, while the refuse of the country was
left to the recruiting sergeants of the Royal Artillery. In the
correspondence of General Pattison, who at one period of the American
war commanded the Royal Artillery on that continent, the language
employed in describing the recruits enlisted in Ireland, and sent to
join the 3rd and 4th Battalions in America, would be strong in any one,
but is doubly so, coming from an officer always most courteous in his
language, and by no means given to exaggeration.
Three companies of the Irish Artillery embarked for the Continent in
1794, and served in Flanders and the Netherlands, under the Duke of
York. But, as has already been hinted, the most severe foreign service
undergone by the corps was in the West Indies. In 1793, three companies
embarked for these islands, and took honourable part during the
following year, in the capture of Martinique, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucia,
as well as in the more general operations.
Their strength, on embarkation, had been 15 Officers and 288 non-
commissioned officers and men. In less than two years, only forty-three
of the men were alive, and of the officers, only four returned to
Europe. It accordingly became necessary to reinforce the companies by
drafts from Ireland; and in addition to these, two other companies
sailed in the winter of 1795; thus bringing the total strength serving
in the West Indies to 500 of all ranks. In less than two years, a
further reinforcement of 176 officers, non-commissioned officers, and
men, was found necessary to repair the ravages of the climate upon the
troops; and apparently further drafts in the following year were only
avoided, by transferring the head-quarters of one of the companies to
the home establishment, and absorbing the men in the others. Four of the
companies were still in the West Indies, when the amalgamation took
place.
Certain details connected with the organization of the Irish Artillery,
immediately prior to their incorporation with the Royal Artillery,
remain to be mentioned. On the 19th September, 1798, Lord Carhampton,
then Master-General of the Irish Ordnance, notified to the officer
commanding the corps, that the formation of the Artillery in Ireland
into _Brigades_ had been decided upon; the Brigades to be distinguished
as heavy and light. The establishment of a Heavy Brigade was to include
four medium 12-pounders, and two 5½-inch howitzers:—of a Light Brigade,
four light 6-pounder Battalion guns. The former was to be manned by
forty-eight non-commissioned officers and men, the latter by thirty-
seven—of the Regiment; while the guns and waggons were to be horsed and
driven by the Driver Corps. This improved organization superseded the
system of Battalion guns; for while, in September, 1798, one hundred of
the Irish Artillery were returned as being attached to these, in
November only thirty-seven were so employed; in the following January,
only four; and in March, 1799, all were finally withdrawn. The
additional gunners from the Militia, who had, at the date of the new
organization, been 213 in number, were gradually reduced by its
operation, and in the monthly return for September, 1799, they disappear
altogether.
It was at first proposed that the 12-pounders and the howitzers of the
Heavy Brigades should be drawn by four horses, and the 6-pounders of the
Light Brigades by three; but subsequently a 4½-inch howitzer having been
added to each Light Brigade, the number of horses to each gun was
apparently increased from three to four, and the total number of horses
to each Heavy Brigade was seventy-three;—to each Light Brigade, fifty-
one. The "two leading horses were ridden by Artillerymen, and the gun
was driven by a driver."[16] This arrangement applied also to the
ammunition waggons. The harness-maker, wheeler, and smith, each rode a
spare horse with harness on.
While the guns had four horses, the howitzers in Heavy Brigades had but
three, and in Light Brigades only a pair. The Driver Corps furnished to
each Heavy Brigade 1 officer, 1 quartermaster, 3 non-commissioned
officers, and 26 privates; to each Light Brigade, 5 non-commissioned
officers and 14 privates. For the information of the general reader, it
may be stated that the Brigades of the Irish Artillery were analogous to
the present Field Batteries; the modern Brigade of Artillery meaning a
number of Batteries linked together for administrative purposes.
In January, 1799, there were twenty-five Brigades in Ireland, and at
this point they remained until the amalgamation with the Royal
Artillery. Although it is not probable that they were all horsed at that
date, there were no less than 1027 officers and men at the appointed
stations of the Brigades, and in the language of an old document in the
Royal Artillery Record Office, "the New Irish Field Artillery had not
only form, but consistency."
In addition to these Brigades of Field Artillery, the Regiment was
divided into detachments—generally eight in number,—stationed in the
chief harbours, garrisons, and forts, for service with heavy ordnance.
The invalid company was scattered over the country, many of the non-
commissioned officers and men being totally unfit for service. The
Regiment was actively employed in the field during the Rebellion; "and
it must be recorded to the honour of the Royal Irish Regiment of
Artillery, that though exposed to every machination of the disaffected,
and to the strongest temptations, they preserved throughout an unsullied
character, and manifested on all occasions a true spirit of loyalty,
zeal, and fidelity to His Majesty's service and Government."[17]
The dress of the Royal Irish Artillery was as follows:—Blue coat with
scarlet facings, cuff and collar gold embroidered; yellow worsted lace
being used for all beneath the rank of corporal; gold-laced cocked hat,
black leather cockade, white cloth breeches, with short gaiters and
white stockings in summer, and long gaiters in winter. The non-
commissioned officers and men wore their hair powdered and clubbed. In
1798 jackets were introduced according to the pattern adopted for the
Army; and the gold lace was removed from the cocked hats.
At the date of the amalgamation the Regiment was armed with cavalry
carbines,—the bayonet and pouch, containing from sixteen to eighteen
rounds, being carried on the same belt. A cross belt was also worn to
which the great-coat was suspended, resting on the left hip. At an
earlier period, the Regiment had been armed with long Queen Anne's
fusils, which were replaced, when worn out, by arms of various patterns,
until at length the cavalry carbine was adopted.
One cannot but be struck—in studying the history of this national corps
of Artillery—with the rapidity of its formation, and its attainment of
high discipline and professional knowledge,—keeping pace in its career
of half a century with the constant changes, with which even in those
days this arm was harassed; nor can one read without pride and interest
those pages of loyalty at home, gallantry on service abroad, and patient
endurance under suffering and disease in the West Indies,—at once as
fatal as active war, and yet destitute of the excitement which in war
enables the soldier willingly to undergo any hardship.
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Footnote 16:
MS in Royal Artillery Record Office.
Footnote 17:
MS. in Royal Artillery Record Office.