INTRODUCTION.

There is no Fame so liable to decay as that which has been acquired by the subordinate Soldier. The admiration and applause too, which follow military deeds, however brilliant, are but fickle passions, as they successively transfer their affections to every new conqueror, and all are too often buried in the same grave, after the trumpet of war has ceased to sound.

To drag from the land of forgetfulness, actions, long lain in oblivion; to place the revolutions and the achievements of a corps, endeared to its Country by a train of loyalty and valour, in one connected and analysed point of view, were the leading motives which urged the Author to essay a history of its origin and progress. Whilst he laments that the undertaking has not been allotted to superior talents, at the same time he will venture to affirm that it could not have been prosecuted with a stronger zeal.

Never was military prowess more loudly called for, than at the present crisis.—Ardour should be raised in every rank. It is a plant, which, by fostering attention flourishes and grows; but if neglected, soon droops and dies. Courage is the natural birth-right of an Englishman, and it needs only a directing hand, under Providence, to give it an invincible aim.

It is policy then, as well as justice, to stamp upon record the feats of the meanest, anxiously to search for worthy examples in every walk, and to proclaim them to their brethren, and to the world, as merited tributes, and powerful incentives to achievement.

The Author regrets that his range has been so limited, and that, in many instances, the adduced anecdotes have not been more specific; but the foundation stone is laid, upon which a structure may yet be reared. He trusts, therefore, that the following request may not be unavailing, which is,—That his brother Officers will have the goodness to preserve, in written memorial, the names of those gallant fellows who may hereafter distinguish themselves, as well as a minute description of the circumstances.

As error is a bye path to knowledge, he anticipates from the members of his own household, corrections of the many defects which have unavoidably crept into a work of such miscellaneous detail.

A Soldier from his infancy, he begs that the public, and those who controul its opinions, may be tender with the lash! It would be a pity to bring a veteran, for his first offence, to the halberts, and that too for grammatical inaccuracies.—He has taken up the pen merely to be useful, not in the pursuit of literary fame.

The arrangement of his subject will appear classed under distinct chapters, which engross the events of each separate year, excepting such as comprehend the intervals of peace; a season that yields little interesting matter, and what is uniformly comprized in one division.

An Appendix is added, which contains the essence of every Act of Parliament now in force, so far as they affect the interests of the families, the widows, or representatives of the forlorn orphans of Seamen and Marines. A reference to it, will enable the Clergyman or private Gentleman, to become the immediate and solid friend of these meritorious and destitute objects, as the regular mode of transaction and correspondence is clearly pointed out, by which, to realize their little properties.

The Author takes this public method of tendering his warmest thanks to the many respectable characters in this loyal spot, who have befriended his labours, and to that wide circle of Royalty, Nobility, and Gentry, who, although strangers to him, have yet deigned to countenance the humble individual, from affection to his Corps.

Birmingham, 15th Nov. 1803.