1ST BATT. WILTS VOLUNTEERS. THE HISTORY OF THE 1ST BATT. WILTS VOLUNTEERS, FROM 1861 TO 1885. BY ROBERT DWARRIS GIBNEY, MAJOR, INDIAN ARMY (_Retired_), _Late Adjutant 1st Battalion Wiltshire Volunteers_. LONDON: W.H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL, S.W. 1888. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. WITH THE CONSENT OF HIS LORDSHIP, AND WITH THE HEARTY CONCURRENCE OF THE MAJORITY OF OFFICERS AND MEN, PAST AND PRESENT, COMPOSING THE 1ST WILTS RIFLE VOLUNTEERS, I HAVE MUCH PLEASURE IN Dedicating this Work TO THE EARL PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY, COMMANDING THE BATTALION. ROBERT DWARRIS GIBNEY, MAJOR, INDIAN ARMY (_Retired_), _Late Adjutant 1st Battalion Wiltshire Volunteers_. PREFACE. It may be asked, What can be the history of a battalion of infantry not thirty years old, which has never seen a shot fired in earnest or done garrison duty? None, would be the reply, were the said battalion raised, officered, instructed, and regulated for, as are all its predecessors; but when this battalion is one of many created suddenly, without any well-arranged system for its continuance, and left at a time of great emergency to make its own arrangements, and sink or swim as it might, it must have a history, and the history of it is the history of every corps or company of which it is composed. Rifle corps were raised anywhere, everywhere, anyhow, and nohow. War was imminent; the country was unprepared, terribly vulnerable, and the army and navy far too weak to afford protection. Influential gentlemen proposed rifle clubs, others were for arming keepers, and not a few anxiously inquired into the system pursued by the Victoria and Devonshire Rifles. To arm the people was a leap in the dark, and yet it had to be faced; and by May, 1859, the Government saw the "propriety of permitting the formation of rifle volunteer corps," and issued a circular accordingly. Beyond this sanction no assistance was offered, and according to the patronage of people of influence, or the length of their subscription list, so did these rifle volunteer corps get into existence and continue to live. Arms, accoutrements, ammunition, uniform, drill sheds, practice grounds, armouries, magazines, &c., &c., everything had to be found by the corps, and to country corps, those afterwards forming part of an administrative battalion, the expense was ruinous; far more expensive than to companies raised in large town or cities. There they could hire sheds, &c., and men attending drills could do so without losing a day's work and perhaps having to hire a trap. At the end of some months arms were furnished by the Government, and as no harm had yet been done by this show of confidence, at the end of the year the little independent corps were further favoured by being made part of volunteer battalions, an attendance at the