240 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
were now to be assigned to the staff—Captain James Pattison, as 
A.-D.-C. to the Commander-in-Chief, and Captain Joseph Brome as 
A.-D.-C. to Lord George Sackville; 1 2 and the command of the artillery 
was given to Colonel Desaguliers, R.A. Case shot now replaced round 
shot for covering the debarkation. 3 As the Rochfort failure was mainly 
due to the difficulties of rapid lauding of troops and artillery by long 
boats, flat-bottom boats were for the first time constructed and em¬ 
ployed—after the designs of the French invasion flotilla—these could 
convey 63 men each, drew two feet of water, were to be rowed by 24 
soldiers ; 3 and, subsequently, in America and in Germany, these super¬ 
seded the old pattern pontoons. The army consisted of 17 battalions, 
9 regiments of horse; the R.A. of four companies of 431 men, viz.:— 
Captain Joseph Brome’s 2nd battalion (broken up February 1st, 1819). 
,, Abra. Tovey’s ,, (broken up December, 1758). 
,, Thomas James’s ,, (broken up December, 1770). 
,, Thomas Smith’s ,, (now 6th Field Battery, R.A.) 
and two Bombs with two Tenders, commanded by Lieutenants Samuel 
Tovey, D. Price, James Garton, and Captain Gregory. The battering 
train consisted of 15 24-prs., 15 12-prs. (heavy), 28 mortars, 13", 10", 
and 4|"; the field'train, of 6 12-prs. (light), 6*8" and 6 5|" howitzers; 
and 28 light 6-prs. as battalion guns were assigned to regiments. 4 
Elaborate details of the daily operations are given in the annals of 
1758, and in Lord George Sackville*s able account in “Hist. MSS. 
Commission/* 9th Report (III.), 71-4; but the story may be shortly 
summarised. Leaving Spithead on 28th May, the transports arrived in 
Cancalle Bay on 5th June, and on same evening Lord Sackville and 
Captain Brome, R.A. effected the landing of the 1st brigade, with 10 
field pieces, by means of the new pattern flat-bottom boats; next day 
the 2nd brigade, under Lord Ancram, likewise landed ; and the 3rd 
brigade followed, with the mortars and heavy artillery, and encamped 
at Cancalle. The surprise was complete. The 1st brigade took the 
great road to St. Malo, sustaining the fire of the fort en route (which 
only knocked over a few artillery horses); and the 2nd brigade took 
the country road for same destination. Being provided by the artillery 
with carcasses and combustibles, and aided by the Bombs, the army at 
once set to work and set fire to upwards of 100 privateer and merchant 
ships, the magazines and naval stores of the port, “presenting the most 
grand yet dreadful scene that imagination can paint.** 5 It was magnifi¬ 
cent, but it was not war. 
The extraordinary success of the four new Bomb-ships at the siege 
of St. Malo, 1693, under Admiral Benbow, had ensured the permanency 
of this type of artillery floating batteries, 6 and the explosion of the 
1 “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1758, p. 297. London Gazette, 1758. 
2 Case shot, by the Austrians, had proved decisive in the battles of Lobositz, 1756, and Prag, 
1757 (Carlyle’s “ Frederick the Great,” Yol. 7, pp. 65,125); but established itself with the British 
in the Expedition against Cherbourg, 1758, under General Bligh. 
3 “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1758, p. 242. “ Naval and Military Memoirs,” Yol. II., p. 74. 
4 Ordnance J Royal Warrant of 13th April, 1758. “ Muster-Rolls,” R.A., 1758. 
5 “Annual Register,” 1758. “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1768, p. 299. 
6 See Chapter IY. “Proceedings” R.A.I., Yol. XXI., No. 1, p. 31. 
