THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR, 4.59 
November, 1781 and was succeeded by Major Lewis.! 
The strength of the artillery was 25 officers, and 460 non-commis- 
sioned officers and men who had to work the following armament which 
was mounted by the end of the siege :-— 
Guns. Mortars. Howitzers. 
77 32 pounders. 29 18 inch. 19 10 inch. 
122 24 and 26 pounders. 110 inch. 9 8 inch, 
70 12 pounders. 6 8 inch. 
16 9 pounders. 34 smaller natures. 
25 6 pounders. 
38 3 and 4 pounders. 
348 Guus. 70 Mortars. 28 Howitzers. 
A total of 446 pieces of ordnance, or nearly as many guns, we. as there 
were gunners. 
The expenditure of ammunition between September 1779 and Feb- 
ruary 1783 was 57,163 shot, 129,151 shell, 12,681 grape, 926 carcasses, 
679 light balls—or 200,600 rounds and about 8000 barrels of powder. 
The enemy’s expenditure from April 12th 1781, to February 2nd 
1783,—the period of their greatest activity—is said to have been 
175,741 shot, and 68,363 shell, or 244,104 rounds in all, “ agreeable to 
the laboratory accounts,” as Drinkwater says, while the Spanish gun- 
boats threw 4283 projectiles to the 4728 from our gun-boats. 
The artillery losses were—killed 23, died of wounds 8, totally disabled 
13, wounded 116, died of sickness 36 = 196, a percentage of 40 on the 
total strength. 
The original garrison of the Rock numbered 5382 men, consisting of 
Artillery, Engineers, a company of Artificers, the 12th, 39th, 56th, 
and 58th Regiments of the Tine, and a Hanoverian Brigade, com- 
prising Hardenberg’s, Reden’s, and De la Motte’s regiments. They 
were reinforced in 1780 by the 73rd Highlanders (over 1000 strong), 
in 1781 by 700 of the 97th Regiment, and in 1782 by 1600 men of the 
25th and 59th Regiments. 
We now come to the diary itself, on the fly-leaf of which, written in 
the neat running hand which characterises the whole contents, is the 
following :— 
“CapraIn JOHN SPILSBURY’S JOURNAL OF THE Great SrEcE.” 
“This Journal was kept by Captain Jno. Spilsbury, 12th Regiment 
Foot, who remained in Gibraltar from lst March, 1776, to i0th 
November, 1783.” - 
The first entry in the diary is dated June 21st, 1779, and the last 
November 10th, 1788. The very first entry runs thus :— 
“ 21st June, 1779.—This day the communication is shut with Spain, 
the Guards are reinforced and Grand Battery made a Captain’s Night 
Guard, the Picquets are ordered to lie accoutred, with their arms 
loaded. No one to pass at Landport but Workmen, Engineers, &c., 
1 Kane’s List, No. 176, : = 
