216 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
drivers on foot, hired for the occasion, dressed in white smocks with blue 
collars and cuffs, and armed with long carters* whips of the ordinary farm 
pattern. When this formidable array had been reviewed,- the Commandant, 
General Lloyd, and the Garrison Adjutant, expressed their joint opinion that 
field artillery movements could not be performed quicker I 1 2 
Matters had not mended in the year 1800; and Sir Eobert Gardiner’s 
description of the field batteries of that time is by no means overcoloured. 
“ Picture to yourself/’ he says, “ a few guns advancing against a strongly- 
posted enemy, drawn by horses in single file, driven by a civilian on foot, 
wielding a carter’s whip, the carriage of the gun receiving its direction 
from a trail-truck, traversed by a handspike. We were an absolute encum¬ 
brance to the army, and often a source of embarrassment to its movements.” 3 
The Egyptian expedition, under Sir Ealph Abercrombie, sailed from 
Malta on the 21st Dec. 1800, without horses, and put into MarmoriceBay, 
in Asia Minor, on the 1st Jan. 1801, to take on board horses for the artillery 
and cavalry, and the Turkish Contingent that was to accompany it. When 
the horses, which had been bought at Constantinople, arrived, the dragoons 
were given the first choice, those rejected by the cavalry being “ turned over 
to the artillery.” 3 The horses chosen by the cavalry “ were naturally bad, 
and in such a shocking state as to make the dragoons feel humiliated in 
being ordered to take charge of them.” 4 When such was the state of the 
best horses, selected by the cavalry, the condition of those “turned over” to 
the artillery may be more easily imagined than described. “ Such poor, 
undersized animals as they were, rendered it absolutely necessary not only 
to take the harness entirely to pieces in order to bring it anything near 
fitting them, but also to lay aside all the heavy parts—such as neck-collars, 
chain-traces, kurb-bits, &c.—and to replace them with light leather breast- 
collars, rope traces, and pads formed out of the wagon harness.” 5 The 
cavalry took 200 of these beasts, the artillery about 130, and “ the remainder 
were shot, or sold for a dollar apiece.” 6 The fitting of the harness was only 
one of the many serious difficulties which the artillery officers had to sur¬ 
mount; for not only were the horses low-bred, in bad condition, and 
deficient in numbers, but they were unbroken, unteamed, untrained to 
artillery manoeuvres, and unaccustomed to the sound of guns. “ Drivers 
were also very much wanted, several of those which came out originally with 
the battering train having, with their officer, returned in a very unaccountable 
manner to England;” 7 the garrison gunners had to be instructed in field 
artillery drill; and guns had to be organised on the off-horse system to 
support the cavalry, which was much inferior to the Erench. Under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances there would not have been time to carry out changes 
- “Aide-Memoire to the Military Sciences.” Art, “Ordnance.” 
2 “ Observations, &c., on the Royal Artillery.” 1856, p. 9. 
3 “ The Expedition to Egypt.” MS., by General Lawson, It.A., in the ltoyal Artillery Library, 
"Woolwich, p. 1. 
4 Sir Robert Wilson’s “Expedition to Egypt.” 1803. p* 7. 
5 General Lawson’s MS. 
6 Sir Robert Wilson’s “Expedition to Egypt,” 
7 General Lawson’s MS. The expedition, before sailing for Egypt, had made an unsuccessful 
attack on Cadiz, and from there had made for Lisbon, where the drivers and their officer 
disappeared. 
