{"id":24184,"date":"2019-07-04T18:16:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24184"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:16:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:16:36","slug":"time-travellers-diary-life-in-the-brigade-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/time-travellers-diary-life-in-the-brigade-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"TIME TRAVELLER’S DIARY: Life in the Brigade Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jeremy Hood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By chance, the time machine dropped me right into the\nmiddle of Holland Landing, on the first day of Brigade Camp for the 2nd\nMilitary Division, the 29th of September, 1874 – the first year all the\nbattalions in the division had been brought together to one location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was rainy and cold that week, but rations were\nplentiful and the men were cheerful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found myself among the York Rangers, the 12th Battalion\nof Infantry, alongside the 31st, 34th, 35th and 36th Battalions, as well as\nseveral Cavalry and Artillery units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned from the Quartermaster that Holland Landing had\nbeen selected in particular because of its location, which had been cleared of\ntrees for the Brigade and authorized for use by the Township, featured over 50\nacres available for drills, and accommodation for nine rifle ranges.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of particular importance to the infantry battalions was\ntarget practice at these ranges, still referred to as \u201cmusketry,\u201d despite the\nrifles only superficially resembling muskets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Snider-Enfield rifle had been introduced in 1866 as a\nbreech-loading conversion of the existing 1853 Enfield muzzle-loading rifle,\nand permitted more than triple the firing rate of the older system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ammunition used for the Snider-Enfield rifle was a\nridged soft lead slug, .577\u201d (14.5mm) in diameter, hollow on the backside and\nwith a wooden plug in the tip; both features allowed it to expand into the\nrifle\u2019s barrel for more efficient performance.  Slugs that hit their targets would be greatly\ndeformed, those that did not would remain relatively intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(You can see an example of these slugs pictured in our\nWeekly Spot on page 5.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of rounds given to an infantryman for target\npractice had varied year to year, with 40 being the standard in 1873, although\nthe recommendation was made in 1875 to further reduce the number.  Captain Joseph White, the Musketry Instructor,\nmentioned that he believed more relevant instruction could be imparted and real\nbenefit derived from ten rounds being fired, rather than twenty, as under the\npresent system the men are often rushed to complete their target practice.  Some of the men have shared this enthusiasm,\nbut for a different reason\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A legend about the musketry drills was created that year,\nand I can attest to the other infantrymen\u2019s attitude toward our target\npractice.  The cherished ration of beer\nwould only be provided once shooting drills had been completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end, men would rapidly fire their rounds to\nfinish the drill, and so move on to the refreshment.  This attitude was also noted by Capt. White,\nwho told me that men take so little interest in rifle shooting because it\nlacked, at the time, any prize or trophy, and that they feel relieved when they\ncan get rid of their ammunition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my brief time with the York Rangers before the time\nmachine pulled me back, I was among those who rushed, and gladly joined my\ncomrades in the mess tent! <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeremy Hood By chance, the time machine dropped me right into the middle of Holland Landing, on the first day of Brigade Camp for the 2nd Military Division, the 29th of September, 1874 – the first year all the battalions in the division had been brought together to one location. It was rainy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6i4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 01:06:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}