Manchester Regiment

“ Word was immediately brought to the Prince, that a number of men were at his service; and to please and content the Town, it was thought necessary, that what men were raised at Manchester—vizt., the English Regiment—should be called the Manchester Regiment, and [Pg 172] all inferior Officers displaced as not being sufficiently Manchesterfied. ”

“ The rebel forces met with little encouragement in the town, and the next day, after having searched Adlington Hall and some other houses of note in the neighbourhood, and taken what arms they could find, they continued their march by way of Congleton and Leek to Derby, which town was reached on December 4th, having, incredible as it [Pg 411] may appear, met with little or no opposition on the way. Of the subsequent movements of the Manchester Regiment we need not say much; the record of its doings is part of the country's history. ”

“ The Scottish chiefs, I know, refused to march further than Derby, but if they had been forced to fight, their conduct would have been totally different. Even if the prince had been worsted—had he fallen—he would have left a glorious name behind him! Had my own brave sons died sword in hand, I should have been reconciled to their loss, but to think that they have been compelled to retreat ingloriously, without striking a blow, because their leaders lost heart, enrages me, and sharpens my affliction. Then I consider that the Manchester Regiment has been wantonly sacrificed. ”

“ About an hour afterwards, the gates being thrown open, Brigadier Bligh entered the town with a troop of horse, and rode to the market-place, where, in front of the guard-room, he found Colonel Hamilton, Captain Abernethy, Colonel Townley, and the officers of the Manchester Regiment, a French officer, and half a dozen Irish officers. ”

“ The Territorial's thoughts turn to home far more often than do those of the Regular, for to him the family has always been more important [Pg 53] than the regiment. H.C. Franklin, who took P.H. Creagh's place as our Adjutant at the end of August, and was an old Regular soldier of the Manchester Regiment, often said that the week's mail of a Territorial battalion is as large as six months' mails for a unit of the old Army. ”

“ The sergeant then proceeded to the library to ascertain whether Captain Legh had made any change in his plans.
"No," replied Atherton, "I must return to Manchester to-night, in order to explain matters to the prince. If his royal highness can dispense with my services, I shall retire from the Manchester Regiment. If not, I must go on. That is my fixed determination."
"'Tis the resolve of a man of honour," replied the sergeant. ”

“ I was as credulous as they: but was much surprised to see the next day those men whom I had brought from behind Preston, and on the road thence to that place, enrolled for the most part in the Manchester Regiment, and thus Manchesterised, if it may be said so: and much troubled I was to see many of those men who had followed me, had been paid out of my own pocket and been under my care till our arrival in Manchester, disposed of, nay taken away from me in that manner. ”

“ For the present I shall remain Atherton Legh. I trust your highness will approve of the course I intend to pursue?"
"I do approve of it," replied Charles, earnestly. "The resolution you have taken does you honour. Since you are determined to join me, it shall not be as a mere officer in the Manchester Regiment, but as one of my aides-de-camp. All needful explanation shall be given to Colonel Townley. I shall march at an early hour in the morning. But no matter. You can follow. You must see Constance before you leave, and if you are detained by any unforeseen cause, I will excuse you. ”

“ It received a very heavy cross fire from big guns, {27} field guns, machine guns, and musketry, and was put to confusion, the artillery and the cavalry having some difficulty in extricating themselves. General White took the Manchester Regiment and the Gordon Highlanders from Hamilton's Brigade to cover the retirement, and his force came back into Ladysmith fired into with wonderful accuracy, at a range of about 7000 yards, by the big gun on Pepworth. ”

“ When the Boers thought they had sufficiently demoralised our defensive forces by artillery "preparation," a brisk attack by riflemen began to develop against Maiden's Castle, Cæsar's Camp, and Waggon Hill, a continuous range forming the southern key to our position, and held by the Manchester Regiment. Brigadier-General Hamilton and his staff were there from the outset, ready, if need be, to call up the Gordons in support. ”

“ The Liverpool Regiment, 18th Hussars, and one battery left Ladysmith by road for Colenso on October 18th, the Manchester Regiment, the Devons, and Natal mounted troops covering their march from the direction of Vanreenen's Pass. Refugees continually coming through into Ladysmith from Acton Holmes during the day, reported fighting going on between Boers and Natal Carbineers. ”

“ He came to inform the prince that the Manchester Regiment was now embodied, and would be paraded on the morrow.
"The deficiency in men, of which I complained to your royal highness, has been made good by Colonel Johnstone, who has delivered over to me all the recruits raised for him in this town by Sergeant Dickson."
"You have done well, colonel," remarked the prince, approvingly, to Johnstone. "How many men has Sergeant Dickson enlisted?"
"Nearly two hundred," was the reply. "They are all fine fellows, and will make excellent soldiers." ”

“ His father, John Drinkwater, formerly a surgeon in the navy, was at the time of his birth a medical practitioner at Salford, then a suburb of Manchester. At the age of fifteen he joined as an ensign a regiment of volunteers raised by a subscription in Manchester, at a time of indignant excitement produced by the news of General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. The Manchester regiment, as it was called, more properly the 72nd regiment of the line, or Royal Manchester Volunteers, was not, however, sent to America, but to Gibraltar. ”

“ He marched about the streets recruiting, and managed to raise some score of recruits. In Manchester society there was a certain Jacobite element; on Sunday the church showed a crowd of ladies in tartan cloaks and white cockades, and a nonjuring clergyman preached in favour of the Prince's cause. Among the officers who commanded the handful of men calling itself the Manchester Regiment, were three brothers of the name of Deacon, whose father, a nonjuring clergyman, devoted them all gladly to the cause. ”

“ The military force stationed in Manchester consisted of six troops of the 15th Hussars, under the command of Colonel Dalrymple; one troop of horse artillery, with two guns, under Major Dyneley; nearly the whole of the 31st regiment, under Colonel Guy L'Estrange (who commanded the whole force as senior officer) . Some companies of the 88th regiment, and the Cheshire yeomanry, had also been brought into the town, in anticipation of disturbances which might result from the expected meeting ”

“ I will tell you one thing, Miss Rawcliffe, and you too, Miss Byrom; the Duke of Cumberland feels that a severe example ought to be made of the officers of the Manchester Regiment. They are double-dyed rebels and traitors. ”

“ Unfortunately, the “splash” which used to be worn on the buttons of this regiment to commemorate the action of the men in firing away buttons torn from their tunics on an occasion when all the ammunition was spent, is not immortalised on the colours.
The Manchester Regiment.—Facings, white, except for the 6th battalion, which are yellow.
R.C.—The Sphinx, superscribed “Egypt,” placed below the union wreath.
The battle honours are: Guadaloupe, 1759, 1810; Egmont-op-Zee; Martinique, 1809; Peninsula; Alma; Inkerman; Sevastopol; New Zealand; Afghanistan, 1879–80; Egypt, 1882 ”

“ Charles returned to his former residence at the top of Market Street Lane; the Duke of Perth, Lord Tullibardine, Lord George Murray, Lord Pitsligo, and the other Scottish nobles and chiefs repaired to the houses they had previously occupied; and the men billeted themselves in their old quarters. But so unfriendly were the inhabitants to the Manchester Regiment that it was with difficulty that the officers and men could find quarters. ”

“ Our columns, objects of intense curiosity to sway crowds of women and children, white and black, with swarthy, gray clothed veterans peeping grimly from out of the background at the men they had never before been so near except in armed violence. We arrived at Manchester, opposite Richmond, the 25th of April, where we camped for the night. The 26th we entered the city and were received by the occupying troops, troops of the Army of the James, the city having surrendered to General Weitzel's advance from the north side, on the morning of April 3d. ”

“ Feeling certain we have no chance whatever of success, we decline to throw away our lives. We have now reached the very heart of England, and our march has been unopposed, but we have obtained none of the large reinforcements promised us, and only a single regiment at Manchester. Scarcely any person of distinction has joined us—and very few have sent us funds. Since we left Manchester we have been everywhere coldly received—and here, at Derby, we are regarded with unmistakable aversion. The populace are only held in check by our numbers. ”

“ In June the regiment marched to Weedon, where it was inspected on the 8th of August by General Lord Hill, Commanding-in-Chief, who expressed to Lieut.-Colonel Sir Michael Creagh, in front of the regiment, his approbation of the highly efficient state of the corps, after so long a service in the West Indies.
After the inspection, the regiment marched into Lancashire, and occupied Salford-barracks, Manchester, detaching one company to the Isle of Man. ”

“ On the termination of his half-year's engagement with Manchester, Rosworme was induced to execute a new contract by which in return for a yearly salary of 60l., to be paid quarterly, during the life of himself and his wife, he bound himself to finish the fortifications of Manchester and to carry out all military affairs for the safety of the town on all occasions. He further agreed to forego his position as lieutenant-colonel in Ashton's regiment, and to accept instead the command of a foot company of the garrison of Manchester. ”

“ The Sixty-sixth Division advanced with the 197th Brigade on the right of the Ypres-Roulers railway. It consisted entirely of battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a regiment which from Minden onwards has been in the van of England's battles. Upon their left was the 198th Brigade, consisting half of East Lancs and half of Manchester battalions. So covered with mud were the troops after their long night march that the enemy may well have wondered whether our native soldiers were not once more in the line. ”

“ In December detachments were employed in supporting the civil power at Halifax and Bradford against persons resisting the poor-laws.
1838
The regiment took part, with the royal artillery, 98th foot, and magistrates, clergy, &c., in a solemn procession in honour of Her Majesty's birth-day at Manchester on the 17th of May. During the following month it marched to the vicinity of London, and was quartered at Islington and Clerkenwell; and on the 28th of June two squadrons occupied stations near Westminster Abbey during the ceremonial of Her Majesty's coronation. ”

“ While engaged in this service many men were badly knocked about, and Captain Werge, who had escaped without injury from such deadly marksmen as the Maroons, narrowly escaped death at the hands of his own countrymen, receiving a shot through his helmet. 1801.Two troops having been added to the establishment, the regiment paraded in its greatest recorded strength at Manchester in the following year—upwards of 1000 non-commissioned officers and men, and nearly 1000 horses, being present. ”

“ Every piece of leather, every piece of brass and steel, was burnished as bright as time could make it. Never saw I the old regiment turn out in such fine shape. All the remnants of the old bands we had were revived, as far as possible. New sheepskin was in great demand. I cannot now tell whether the wheezy old band that General Hazen had at Manchester was in existence at that time, or whether it had been sacrificed for the good of the service and given harps, as it should have been, long before. The column for review was formed in divisions of regiments, that is, two companies to the division. ”

“ During all our Eastern experiences we used the long rifle only. It was, however, a real advantage to have had nearly sixty years' record as a Volunteer unit behind us, with all sorts of Regimental traditions, which lie at the roots of comradeship and ensure happy relations between officers and men. Another distinctive virtue of the Territorial system about Manchester was that all ranks, from Brigadier-General to private, came from one neighbourhood, and viewed life from much the same angle. ”

“ It is impossible to imagine men more worn by sleeplessness and sickness than the jaded Manchester Territorials at the end of a fortnight in the front line. On a moving day Gully Ravine was littered with men who had fallen out of the ranks of a dozen regiments as they trudged, heavily laden, along the winding and dust-swept track.
Sir Ian Hamilton wrote of our men early in August: "The —— Manchesters are a really good Battalion. Indeed, the whole of that Brigade have proved themselves equal to veteran Regulars. ”