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 OFOFFICERS AND MEN, PAST AND PRESENT, COMPOSINGTHE 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 infantrynot thirty years old, which has never seen a shot fired in earnest ordone garrison duty? None, would be the reply, were the said battalionraised, officered, instructed, and regulated for, as are all itspredecessors; but when this battalion is one of many created suddenly,without any well-arranged system for its continuance, and left at atime of great emergency to make its own arrangements, and sink or swimas it might, it must have a history, and the history of it is thehistory of every corps or company of which it is composed.
Rifle corps were raised anywhere, everywhere, anyhow, and nohow. Warwas imminent; the country was unprepared, terribly vulnerable, andthe army and navy far too weak to afford protection. Influentialgentlemen proposed rifle clubs, others were for arming keepers, and nota few anxiously inquired into the system pursued by the Victoria andDevonshire Rifles. To arm the people was a leap in the dark, and yet ithad to be faced; and by May, 1859, the Government saw the "proprietyof permitting the formation of rifle volunteer corps," and issued acircular accordingly. Beyond this sanction no assistance was offered,and according to the patronage of people of influence, or the lengthof their subscription list, so did these rifle volunteer corps getinto 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, thoseafterwards forming part of an administrative battalion, the expensewas ruinous; far more expensive than to companies raised in large townor cities. There they could hire sheds, &c., and men attending drillscould do so without losing a day's work and perhaps having to hire atrap. 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 theend of the year the little independent corps were further favouredby being made part of volunteer battalions, an attendance at theheadquarters of these battalions for so many drills in the yearbeing directed, and a travelling allowance, most mean and unjustlyarranged, being offered