| Colonel | Richard Phillips |
| Lieut.-Colonel | ——— |
| Major | Alexander Cosby |
| Captain | John Caulfield |
| ” | Lawrence Armstrong |
| ” | Paul Mascarene |
| ” | Christopher Aldridge |
| ” | John Williams |
| Lieutenant | James Campbell |
| ” | John Jephson |
| ” | Edward Bradstreet |
| Ensign | James Erskine |
| ” | John Keeling. |
The officers named above, with the single exception of Captain Paul Mascarene, belonged to the independent companies serving at Annapolis Royal, the strength of which was originally one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and eighty private men per company.
A word must here be said of the order of formation of a battalion at this time, which was in six ranks, the men standing with their heels a little apart, with loose files. Pikes had been discontinued, and the men were armed with large, clumsy muskets, throwing a ball about the same weight as that in use in the Peninsular war, and broad heavy buff leather cross belts, unpipeclayed. The field officers carried half-pikes; company officers, espontoons—a light kind of halberd; sergeants, halberds. All wore swords. Each battalion had three colours; the first, or principal colour, being the Union; and each had a quota of drummers. There were no fifers, and, except in the Guards and a few other regiments, no hautbois players (band).
The names of the officers of the four independent companies at Placentia have not been discovered.[1]
- ↑ The following memorial from an officer of one of these companies is preserved in Treasury Papers, vol. ccvii., and appears worth quoting:
“Paper 14. Supposed date, about May, 1717.
“The Humble Petition of Francis Fox, lieutenant in one of the Independent Companies at Placentia, Newfoundland, now composed into a regiment and commanded by Coll. Philips, most humbly sheweth:
“That Yr Petitioner was preferred to a Lieutenant’s post by the Rt. Honble. the Earl of Gallway, and served at the battle of Almanza, in Spain.
“ That in 1710 he was at the reduction of Annapolis Royal. That in 1711 he was detached with a party and taken prisoner by the Indians, where he suffered inexpressible miseries at the hands of those Savages, being shipwrecked and for four months together had not bread to eate, only for sustenance clam fish and sealoyle, travelling though the woods—1800 miles—naked, and nearly escaped being roasted alive. The truth of which appears by the annexed certificates.
“That by these, his sufferings his Family, consisting of an aged mother, a wife and two small children, one a cripple, are reduced to the greatest extremities.
“That the Earl of Gallway has been pleased in compassion to his unfortunate circumstances to recommend him to the Rt. Honble. Lord Viscount Stanhope to promote him to a company.
“Your Petitioner most humbly prays that in consideration of his services and sufferings, not to be paralled by any living officer except those taken with him. Your Majesty will be pleased to grant him a company in any part of your Majesty’s Dominions.
“And Yr Petitioner will ever pray.”
