Reminiscences : Army Medical Service / by W.T. Black.

  • Black, William Thomas, 1824-1909.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reminiscences : Army Medical Service / by W.T. Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    student constitution was supplemented by new con- ditions of body; fatigue was not experienced and marches by day and night were unfelt, and the senses became improved, and particularly the eyesight, which becomes more acute by its varying from mountain-tops to plains, instead of across the street only. I served in the Caffir Wars with the Rifle Brigade, Cape Mounted Rifles, 2nd Queen’s, and 91st Regiments chiefly, which entered into the composition of the columns on the line of march or patrol. I was stationed at several forts, or outposts, during peace time intervening, where I had to visit other neighbouring posts for medical casualties as they occurred, and was always welcomed by the officers for any news and given a “shake-down” and dinner for the night. Some regiments got into splendid condition for march- ing and camp life, as the 91st and 73rd Regiments, who could go up hill and down dale with any Highlander, but they were all handicapped by the want of good shooting guns to pot their foes on the hills and in the kloofs, or in the krantzes. The Rifle Brigade was the only regiment that had so-called rifles, and these were only of the belted ball type, which had no long range, being only true within that limit, as the bullet was still spherical and had no snout, but only a ridge round it, which would entail friction in its passage through the air. A few officers had received rifles, with conical bullets and grooved barrels, and they astonished the Caffirs when they got a pop at them up in some crag, or krantz, across a valley. The Minie Rifle was just then coming into use by private people, but more folly in the Crimean War as the military arm for infantry—as in the Guards.