A general rule for the conduct of a good Soldier.—The beginning of
Sailors.—The origin of the British Army.—The oldest regiment in the
service.—Description of the Life Guards.—British Soldiers and
Sailors the best in the world.—The Flemish brig and the Deal
galley.—The French sloop and the British fisherman.—The Black
Trumpeter and the bold Soldier.—A Soldier should attend to his own
duty.
“Bear in mind, boys, that I shall tell you of many places where I have
never been, and of battles that I have never seen. Much have I talked
with old soldiers and sailors in my time and much have they told me. It
may happen that in speaking of ships I may be, now and then, ‘out of my
reckoning,’ and a little ‘disorderly’ at times, in describing things
belonging to the army, for we are all of us liable to commit mistakes,
and no doubt I make as many as other people.”
“The more you tell us of the army and navy the better.”
“Well, I will do my best for you. Let me here give you one of my general
rules for the conduct of a good soldier. The _advanced guard_ should
_fall back_ from every dishonourable action, and every _rear-rank_ man
should set a bold _front_ against insubordination.”
“Yes, that is a capital rule. Please now to tell us what was the very
beginning of soldiers and sailors?”
“That would puzzle the horse-guards and the Admiralty to tell you.
Sailors I suppose began with ships; and father Noah, who commanded the
good ship the Ark, was the first sailor that I ever heard of. As to
soldiers, we must confine ourselves to our own country, for we know very
little about the soldiers of the earliest nations of the world.”
“Please to tell us, then, the beginning of English soldiers?”
“We must go back to the time when the Romans invaded England. The
British soldier was then rude in discipline and dress, but intrepidity
marked his every action, as it does now. As the Roman soldiers descended
from their ships the undaunted Britons rushed into the sea to attack
them, and the flower of Cæsar’s troops were astonished and fear-struck
by their fierce and dauntless bearing.”
“Had they red coats and guns, as they have now?”
“No! no! their dress was of a very different kind: and the trade of gun-
making was unknown among them. Their arms were clubs, short swords, and
spears. Their cavalry had chariots, to the axles of which were fastened
sharp pieces of iron, resembling scythe-blades; and their infantry went
to war in long vehicles much like our waggons, from which they alighted
and fought on foot, jumping into them again, and driving off, when it
suited their purpose.”
“Had we any sailors at that time?”
“I fancy not: if we had they must have been very different to what
British sailors are now, or they would have met their invaders on the
deep, and not have allowed them to set their feet on the shores of old
England unmolested. Offa, one of the Saxon kings, had a fleet, and King
Alfred invited over from abroad ship-builders, to build vessels, and
mariners to man them. The ships were, however, comparatively small. In
the time of Henry VIII., and especially in that of Elizabeth, the
British navy became formidable.”
“And when did soldiers begin to dress as they do now, and to have guns,
and pistols, and cannon?”
“These things were brought about by degrees. I have read that the
soldiers of the Anglo-Saxons were mostly foot-soldiers, though some of
them fought on horseback; but when William the Conqueror came, soldiers
were mostly cavalry. Under the feudal system, if a man held land to a
certain amount, called a ‘knight’s fee,’ he was obliged to serve the
crown a period of forty days every year at his own expense, finding a
horse, a helmet, a coat of mail, a shield, and a lance. After that,
spear-men, battle-axe men, cross-bow men, and archers made their
appearance; but when gunpowder was found out, it made a wonderful
difference in the army.”
“No doubt it did. Bows and arrows would not do against guns and cannon.”
“At first fire-arms were very imperfectly made, and then British bowmen,
being strong, brave, and skilful, were very formidable; but the bravest
archers that ever drew an arrow to the head would make a poor stand now
against British soldiers. The Artillery Company of London had once a
company of bowmen attached to them, but they have long since put down
the bow, and taken up the musket.”
“All boys remember about Robin Hood, and his merry men in Nottingham
Forest; and about William Tell, the Swiss archer, shooting the apple off
his son’s head.”
“No doubt they do. At the battle of Cressy, in France, two thousand
British bowmen drew their shafts against as many French bowmen. But now
for the beginning of the British army.”
“Ay, now for the British army!”
“The army began with the guards that attended the king, though their
weapons and uniform were very different to those that the household
troops now use and wear. Whatever armed attendants monarchs may have had
around their persons from the earliest times, there was no regular body
of armed men appointed as guards till the reign of Richard the First.
Richard instituted a body of twenty-four archers, and called them the
‘sergeants-at-arms.’ Their duty was to keep watch round the tent of the
king, clad in complete armour with a bow, arrows, and a sword. Henry
VII. established, in 1485, a band of fifty archers, all chosen men, to
attend him; they were called ‘Yeomen of the Guard.’ This body still
forms part of the royal establishment.”
“The yeomen of the guard hardly look like soldiers.”
“True: the commencement of the present regular army may be said to be
the corps of life-guards established by King Charles II. at the
Restoration. To these he added a regiment of horse-guards, with two
regiments of foot-guards. A regiment of foot-guards was raised also in
Scotland. These corps are what are usually called the British household
troops; and the additions of horse and foot soldiers since made,
constitute the British army as it exists at the present day.”
“The guards, then, are the oldest regiment of any soldiers we have?”
“They are. In the year 1679 the corps of life-guards were thus
described:—‘The guards of horse—which the Spaniards call _guardes de á
caballo_; the French, _guardes du corps_; the Germans, _leibguarde_; and
we, life-guards, that is the guards of the King’s body—do consist of six
hundred horsemen, well armed and equipped; and are, for the most part,
reformed officers, and young gentlemen of very considerable families,
who are there made fit for military commands. They are divided into
three troops, viz. the King’s troops, distinguished by their blue
ribbons and carbine belts, their red hooses and houlster caps,
embroidered with his Majesty’s cypher and crown. The Queen’s troop, by
green ribbons, carbine belts covered with green velvet and gold lace;
also green hooses and houlster caps, embroidered with the same cypher
and crown. And the duke’s troop, by yellow ribbons and carbine belts,
and yellow hooses, embroidered as the others. In each of which troops
are two hundred gentlemen, besides officers. There are four gentlemen
who command as officers, but have no commissions, viz. sub-corporals or
sub-brigadiers.’ The ranks of the life-guards are not at the present
time recruited with sons of the higher classes, aspiring to commissions,
but with men of good repute, generally sons of persons in a respectable
sphere of life.”
“The life-guards are fine looking fellows!”
[Illustration]
“In 1716, when George I. visited Hanover, the Prince of Wales, who was
then left guardian of the kingdom, reviewed the brigade of life and
horse-grenadier-guards, in Hyde Park, November 21st, when he declared
them to be one of the finest bodies of men in person, appearance, and
exercise that the world had ever produced. A life-guardsman, as he is
seen at the Horse Guards at the present time, is indeed an imposing
sight. We must not, however, be led astray by the size of men, nor by
their gay regimentals. Many a foot-soldier in his coarse grey great-
coat, and his knapsack on his back, has a heart in his bosom as brave as
that of a life-guardsman!”
“Ay! a little man may be quite as brave as a big man.”
“I have somewhere heard the remark that ‘all great men are little men,’
but there is not much truth in it, though many great military commanders
have been of small stature: Alexander the Great, and Napoleon Buonaparte
among them. The body, after all, let its stature be what it may, is of
little value compared to the mind. The one is the leathern scabbard, the
other the finely tempered sword. The poet has well expressed himself:
‘Were I so tall to reach the pole,
Or grasp the ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul;—
The mind’s the standard of the man!’
“In a military paper that I have seen, the regulation given by King
Charles II. runs thus:—‘Each horseman to have for his defensive arms,
back, breast, and pot; and for his offensive arms, a sword, and a case
of pistolls, the barrels whereof are not to be under foorteen inches in
length; and each trooper of our guards to have a carbine, besides the
aforesaid arms. And the foote do haue each souldier a sword, and each
pikeman a pike of sixteen foote long, and not under; and each
musquetteer a musquet, with a collar of bandaliers, the barrels of which
musquet to be about foor foote long, and to conteine a bullet, foorteen
of which shall weigh a pound weight.’”
“How very particularly they are described!”
“When the war with Holland broke out in 1672, a regiment of dragoons was
raised, when the soldiers therein were ordered to carry halbards,
pistolls with holsters, matchlock, musquet, a collar of bandaliers, and
one bayonet or ‘great knife.’ The arms of dragoons in 1687, (James II.’s
reign,) were, snap-hanse-musquets, strapt with bright barrels of three
foote eight inches long, cartouch boxes, bayonets, granado pouches,
buckets, and hammer-hatchets.”
“They called a bayonet, then, a great knife?”
“They did. Since then, regiment has been added to regiment, till the
army has arrived at its present state. It is now, perhaps, about a
hundred and twenty thousand strong, and is spread over Great Britain,
Ireland, and our possessions in other quarters of the Globe—undoubtedly
the first soldiers in the world.”
“Then we have got the best soldiers and the best sailors?”
“Indeed we have! I believe there are neither sailors nor soldiers in any
quarter of the world that would be a match for an equal number of
British blue-jackets and red-coats. If ever you should go on board a
King’s ship you will be surprised at the order and discipline that
prevail, from the figure-head to the rudder, from the main-mast head to
the hold. Discipline is everything in the army and navy, and I shall
give you, by and by, some striking instances that set forth its use and
abuse.”
“What daring fellows sailors are!”
“If British sailors are daring in battle, they are equally so in braving
all dangers to save the lives of others. A Flemish brig in a heavy gale
struck on a shoal, to windward of Ostend harbour, and the crew clung to
the rigging for safety, as the vessel was fast going to pieces. Several
Flemish boats attempted to get to the wreck in vain, and the crew seemed
doomed to destruction. It happened, however, that a Deal galley was in
the harbour, and the little band of daring tars aboard her were somewhat
more accustomed to such scenes. They launched their light bark, and
though every sea hid them from view, and every breaker covered them with
foam, they persevered, undiscouraged by repeated failures, until they
reached the wreck, and saved every man that was found in her.”
“Noble! noble! It is pleasant to hear of such things! It makes us think
better of sailors.”
“Some time ago a French sloop was stranded near the port of Dover, when
some English fishermen, who are half sailors, directly put off for the
sloop and rendered effectual service. ‘Your opposite neighbours, the
French,’ said a spectator afterwards, ‘are not quite so ready to help
you.’ ‘Maybe not,’ replied the fisherman; ‘maybe not; but we do our duty
to the unfortunate without troubling ourselves about that matter. An
English seaman don’t learn his manners on the deck of a French ship.’”
“Well done, fisherman!”
“Presence of mind and intrepidity are qualities very common among
British soldiers and sailors. I will give you an anecdote that I read
the other day, of a soldier. ‘When Buonaparte was preparing his
flotillas, and his soldiers, to invade Old England, we expected every
day to hear of his being at sea, so we all kept ready at the barracks,
to act at a moment’s warning. One night, when we were snugly tucked up
in bed, news came suddenly, that the French had landed. One of our
trumpeters was a black, a tall strapping fellow, more than six feet
high, and he was so frightened that when he took up his trumpet to sound
an alarm, he let it fall from his hand and fainted away. A bold fellow,
who happened at the time to be at his elbow, snatched up the trumpet
from the ground, and blew a blast that made the barracks and the
barrack-yard ring again. Up we jumped, hurried on our clothes, ran to
the stables, leaped on our horses, and in eight minutes and a half every
man of us was drawn up in the barrack-yard ready for action.’”
“The poor black must have been half frightened out of his senses.”
“He certainly was; and it was all very well that, being unable to do his
duty, another was ready to do it for him. On common occasions, however,
a soldier should attend to his own duty, and not intermeddle with that
of his comrades. A _gunner_ may prove himself a good _swordsman_, a
_riding-master_ may be a capital _walker_, and a _foot-soldier_ may know
how to manage a _horse_, but let each keep to his own duty. It would be
bad indeed for a _drummer_ to be his own _trumpeter_, and still worse
for a _fifer_ to be _drummed_ out of his regiment for bad conduct.”
[Illustration]