MACDONALD’S MANUAL OF MILITARY MANOEUVRES
MACDONALD, Alexander.
‘Instructions and regulations for the formations and movements of horse artillery by Captain A: Macdonald 1809’.
[England, 1827.]
Manuscript on paper (watermarked ‘John Hall 1827’), in English, 4to (230 x 190 mm), pp. [8, blank], [8, title and index], 190, [6, blank]; neatly written in dark brown ink in a single hand, up to 15 lines per page; illustrated with 25 coloured diagrams; creasing to fore-edge of pp. 177–8 and 183–4; very good in contemporary dark green straight-grained morocco, covers roll-tooled in blind and gilt to a panel design, spine gilt in compartments lettered ‘Horse artillery exercise’ and dated ‘1827’, gilt board edges and turn-ins, edges gilt, marbled endpapers; some wear to extremities and small abrasions to covers.
Added to your basket:
‘Instructions and regulations for the formations and movements of horse artillery by Captain A: Macdonald 1809’.
Scarce manuscript of an unpublished work on the formations and movements of horse artillery by the distinguished soldier and Waterloo veteran Major-General Alexander Macdonald CB (1776–1840), illustrated with twenty-five coloured diagrams.
Following training at Woolwich, Macdonald joined the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant in 1794. He saw action in the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby, in the Egyptian campaign against Napoleon (where he first commanded a brigade of horse artillery), at the Cape of Good Hope, at Buenos Aires (where he was wounded), and in the Peninsular War, rising steadily through the ranks along the way.
‘He obtained a distinguished reputation in the service as a brave and excellent officer, with the esteem of all who knew him … In the campaign of 1815 he commanded the troops of Horse Artillery attached to the Cavalry; on the 17th June covered the retiring movement of the Cavalry from Quatre Bras; and on the 18th bore his share of the arduous struggle at Waterloo, where he received a severe contusion, but did not quit the field, or allow himself to be returned wounded … [he] commanded the Horse Artillery of the British contingent in France, during the time of the occupation. While in command of a troop, and after much experience in the movements of Cavalry, he introduced into the service, a system, highly approved of, for the movements of Horse Artillery, different in many respects from any before practised, and had the satisfaction of knowing, that his system had been productive of the most advantageous results to the service’ (Skinner, Sketch of the military services of Lieutenant-General Skinner and his sons (1863), p. 70).
Composed in 1809, Macdonald’s Instructions cover the disposition of men, horses, and guns; the posting of officers, sergeant majors, and trumpeters; manoeuvres and commands; columns, lines, and flanks; retreat; and bugle soundings. The numerous diagrams are prefaced with a helpful key and accompanied by tables giving ‘words of command’.
Macdonald’s text does not seem to have made it into print. It clearly circulated in manuscript for some time after its composition. The only other manuscript copy we have traced is listed in A catalogue of the library of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich (1825) p. 74).
