The Life of a Regimental Officer During the Great War, 1793-1815Mockler-Ferryman, A. F. (Augustus Ferryman)
History
The Life of a Regimental Officer During the Great War, 1793-1815
Mockler-Ferryman, A. F. (Augustus Ferryman)
Great Britain -- History -- 1789-1820; Rice, Samuel, 1775-1840
To return to the development of light troops in the British army. In
1782 the light companies of nine regiments were assembled in camp at
Coxheath, Kent, and, together with two battalions of infantry and two
regiments of light dragoons, were practised in what was termed the
"Dundas Exercises," which were being tried for the first time. A year
or two later, Dundas visited the Prussian manœuvres, obtained some
fresh ideas, and then published his monumental work, which eventually
became the first drill-book authorised to be used in the British
army. Dundas, however, had very little new to say about light troops,
and his exercises were practically on the Continental model. In 1794
Sir Thomas Graham[43] (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) raised a regiment
(which was numbered the 90th), and had it equipped and drilled as a
light infantry corps, though it was not recognised officially as such
for another eleven years. It was in the above year that Moore was
working with Corsican troops in the field, and he always considered
the Corsicans the best light infantrymen in the world, although he
acknowledged that they lacked the discipline necessary for holding
their own against highly-trained troops. In 1798 Howe[44] again came
to the front, and superintended the training of a brigade of all
arms, assembled on the Essex coast, in his light drill. Lastly, in
1800, H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief ordered the assembly at Horsham
of a temporary corps, for the purpose of training a body of men in
the use of the rifle, fourteen regiments being called upon to furnish
thirty privates and a proportion of officers and non-commissioned
officers. After the summer training, these men were moved to
Blatchington, and were then formed into the Rifle Corps (95th),[45]
for whom Colonel Coote Manningham and Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon.
W. Stewart drew up the famous 'Regulations for the Rifle Corps,'
published in 1801. The methods of training these riflemen were very
similar to those employed in training temporary light infantry corps
composed of the light companies of regiments, except in so far as the
superior range and accuracy of the rifle over the flintlock musket
altered the conditions of the attack and defence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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