The Carmarthenshire Militia, later the Royal Carmarthen Fusiliers, was an auxiliary regiment reorganised from earlier precursor units in the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire during the 18th Century. Primarily intended for home defence, it served in Britain and Ireland through all Britain's major wars. It was converted into garrison artillery in 1861 and continued until it was disbanded in 1909.
Carmarthen Trained Bands
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and was extended to Wales.Fissel, pp. 178–80, 218.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke & Cardigan, pp. 11–4. King Henry VIII called a 'Great Muster' in 1539, which showed 3865 men available for service in the County of Carmarthenshire, of whom 753 had 'harness' (armour), and 184 had 'nags' (horses).Hay, p. 84.Hay, p. 196.
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2). The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace (JPs). The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised Militia of England and Wales.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissel, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125. Hay, pp. 11–17.Hay, p. 88. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands, who were mustered for regular training.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Fissel, pp. 178–87.
During the Armada crisis of 1588 Carmarthenshire had 300 trained foot in bands under captains, and 404 untrained (of whom 300 served as 'pioneers'), together with 15 light horse and 30 'petronel's (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm).Hay, pp. 94, 96.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than send the trained bandsmen. Between 1585 and 1602 Carmarthenshire supplied 960 men for service in Ireland and 30 for the Netherlands. The men were given three days' 'conduct money' to get to Chester or Bristol, the main ports of embarkation for Ireland. Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–7, 61–2, 66, 92, 126; Appendix 2.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. The Carmarthen Trained Bands of 1638 consisted of 550 men, 220 armed with muskets and 330 'Corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen). They also mustered 35 horse.Carmarthen TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Carmarthenshire was ordered to send 250 men overland to Newcastle upon Tyne for the Second Bishops' War of 1640. However, substitution was rife and many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements.Fissel, pp. 208, 262–3.
Civil Wars Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Most of Wales was under Royalist control for much of the war, and was a recruiting ground for the King's armies.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Wedgwood, pp. 28, 38, 41, 65–8, 95., 114, 119–20 In October and November 1642 the Earl of Carbery and his Vaughan relatives seized the Carmarthenshire Trained Bands arms for the Royalists and levied 15 shillings from each trained bandsmen to pay for volunteer foot for the Royalist forces.
Once Parliament had established full control in 1648 it passed new Militia Acts that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. At the same time the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.Hay, pp. 99–104. By 1651 the militias of the South Welsh counties appear to have been combined, with the 'South Wales Militia' being ordered to rendezvous at Gloucester to hold the city during the Worcester campaign.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
Carmarthenshire Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Militia was re-established by The King's Sole Right over the Militia Act 1661 under the control of the king's lords lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6.
The militia forces in the Welsh counties were small, and were grouped together under the direction of the Lord President of the Council of Wales.Western, pp. 10, 19, 37. As Lord President, the Duke of Beaufort carried out a tour of inspection of the Welsh militia in 1684, when the Cardiganshire Militia consisted of one Troop of horse and a Regiment of Foot commanded by Colonel Sir Rice Williams.Scott, Table 3.1.4. The 1697 militia returns showed the Regiment of Foot as 341 strong under Col Rowland Groyn and the Troop of Horse as 40 men under Captain Thomas Cornwallis.British Library, Egerton MSS 1626, summarised in Hay; Illustrated Naval & Military Magazine, Vol VI, January–June 1887, pp. 317–8; and Camden Miscellany, 1953, Vol 20, pp. 8–10.Hay, p. 134.
Generally the militia declined in the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.Western, pp. 73–4. Jacobites were numerous amongst the Welsh Militia, but they did not show their hands during the Risings of 1715 and 1745, and bloodshed was avoided.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 12.
1757 reforms
Seven Years' War Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Carmarthenshire was given a quota of 200 men to raise. Some of the Welsh counties were slow to complete their regiments: the problem was less with the other ranks raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties. Nevertheless, the Carmarthenshire regiment was the first to be formed in Wales, receiving its arms on 3 July 1759 and assembling at Llandeilo for a short training period. It was embodied for permanent service on 8 December that year under the command of Col George Rice, of Llandeilo fawr, MP and Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire.Frederick, pp. 163, 981.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan, pp. 19–22.Western, Appendices A & B.Burke's: 'Dynevor'.
The regiment was first posted to neighbouring Pembrokeshire, where detachments were stationed at Pembroke Town and Tenby. On 26 May 1761 it moved to north Devon, where from its headquarters (HQ) at Bideford it was employed with other militia regiments in guarding and escorting French prisoners-of-war. On 24 October it marched back from Torrington to Carmarthen, where it stayed until June 1762. On 12 June it marched to Haverfordwest, with detachments across Pembrokeshire until it returned to Carmarthen at the end of November. The war was now ending and on 3 December 1762 the regiment was dispersed, with detachments marching home to the main balloting centres such as Llandeilo and Llanelli to be disembodied. The regiment was kept up to strength by means of the ballot over subsequent years, but it was rarely assembled for training.
American War of Independence The American War of Independence broke out in 1775, and by 1778 Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. The militia were embodied, and the Carmarthens were called out on 27 March. They mustered by companies at the main balloting centres, then concentrated at Carmarthen before marching off to Hereford on 17 and 19 June. A company was detached to Swansea on 31 July, then the whole regiment marched to join the Bristol garrison in August 1778. In December 1779 the regiment moved to Monmouth where it was reinforced by a draft of freshly-balloted men. Three months later it was increased by the arrival of a company of volunteers, recruited by means of a bounty paid for by public subscription. This brought the full strength of the regiment up to 360. In February 1780 the main body of the regiment moved to Chepstow, leaving a detachment at Monmouth.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan, pp. 23–5.
Following the death of Col Rice in 1779, Thomas Johnes of Hafod, MP, was appointed colonel commandant of the Carmarthen Militia on 1 March 1780, with Capt John Ravenscroft promoted to lieutenant-colonel and second-in-command. In June 1780 the regiment crossed the River Severn, marching via Bristol to join the garrison of Plymouth. In October it moved to Falmouth, Cornwall, but was immediately recalled to Hereford where it spent the winter. In February 1781 it was reinforced to 320 strong by a further draft from Carmarthen and the following month began a march via Tiverton, Devon to east Cornwall where it spent the summer as part of a militia brigade camped on Maker heights overlooking Plymouth Sound. While there the Carmarthens provided men to assist the gunners in the Maker Batteries then under construction. In October the regiment marched to Barnstaple in north Devon where it took up winter quarters, with detachments at Bideford and other places. In February 1782, men who had completed their five-year terms of service were released and replaced by men freshly balloted or their paid substitutes. In June the regiment returned to Plymouth for a short period of duty before moving into Dorset. By November it was quartered for the winter with detachments at Poole, Wimborne, and later at Christchurch in Hampshire. Here it was reinforced by a draft of recruits for the volunteer company. The Treaty of Paris ended hostilities in 1783, and the militia was stood down in February. The regiment marched back to Carmarthen where it was disembodied in March.Haarmann.
From 1784 to 1792 the militia ballot was used to keep up the numbers and the regiments were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.
French Revolutionary War The militia was already being embodied when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. The Carmarthen Militia was assembled at Carmarthen under Col Johnes on 11 January. The strength of the regiment had reverted to its establishment of 200 men in three companies, which was considered a major's command; however, in common with a number of other militia colonels, Johnes was commissioned as a Brevet Colonel in the Army on 18 March 1794.Owen, Carmarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan, pp. 25–31.London Gazette, 22 March 1794.