The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-05
REGIMENTAL MECHANICS.

How the "Die- Hards," "Nannygoats,
'Steelbacks'' and Others Earned
| Such Queer Applications.
TO mere civilian it may not seem 6
| wears his sword belt. provided it keeps
the weapon in its proper place. But
well-regulated Eighth Hussar would
scorn to wear his round his waist as
other cavalrymen do, knowing that he
! alone has the proud privilege of wear
ing 1t over his right shoulder. This has
| been allowed ever since 1868, as re-
ward for the valor shown by his regi-
| ment at the battle of Saragossa, where,
| among other things, it captured the
belts of the Spanish cavalry opposed to
| 1T. Here its nickname of the Cross
| Belts.
! Then the Northumberland Fusilers
and the Scots Greys both prize their
bearskins all the more highly that the
right to wear them was conferred as a
recognition of special acts of valor.
The former defeated a division of
French Grenadier Guards at Wilhelms-
tail in 1852, and the latter captured the
colors in Of the Regiment du Roi at the
battle of Families in 1706.And it III not
on record that the Black Watch
have ever petitioned the war office for
leave to discard their kilts-even when
the French called them "Scotch saw
ages" and asserted that they ran about
naked on their native hills.
One of the most honorable titles in the
army is that borne by the Nriddlesex
regiment-"the Orchards" 1t has
chung to them ever since the battle of
Albuhera, when the old Fiftyseventh,
as 1t was then called, was almost ami
hilated having lost twenty-five officers
out of twenty-five, and four hundred
and twenty-five men out of five hundred
and seventy The colonel kept crying
out, ode hard, my men, die hard!'' and
it has never been forgotten. Indeed, at
the battle of Inkerman their leader
saved the situation al critical moment
by shouting, "Die-hards, remember AL
buhera!"
By the way, it might be "a trife risky
If an officer of the Royal Welsh Fusi-
Tiers, for instance, strove to rally his
men in the thick of a fight by crying,
Nanny Goats, remember Mindeo!" Tor
it was by an act of deliberate disobedi-
ence that they succeeded so brilliantly
on that memorable day Luckily for
them, they Jared no worse than did Mel
son at Cope2hagen.
Truly poetical soul was he who first
dubbed the Northampton regiment
1.-THE Steelbacks," from the heroic way
they bore their floggings in the old
days; and, having got the name, they
have nobly upheld it on more than one
occasion. The most notable instance of
late years perhaps, was that of Lieu
tenant Hill, who earned his " G. by
saving here man and there a man I'M
der fire at Laing's Mex, in Natal in
1881.
Talking of nicknames, a good story is
told Of "The Old Stubborns' (the Sher-
wood Foresters.) Fer long time the
colonel tried to have the Forty-fifth
called by its present title of the 'Sher-
wood Foresters," but only got nearly
strangled to death in red tape for his
pains. AT last, ore day, hearing the two
regiments on either side of him on the
parade ground addressed by their full
titles as Princes Irish and Con
naught Rangers he turned to his own
men, and in a fit of evaporation shout
ed, Nottingham hosers, attention."
But, after all. Nottingham hosers"
sounds quite as high-class as 1.-THE Rag |
ged Brigade" and yet this latter title
was only won after years of hard fight
ing. 1t was bestowed by grateful |
country on the Thirteenth Hussars at
the close of their thirty second action in
the Peninsula war, when it appears that
the state of their uniforms left a few |
trif1es 80 be desired. On the other hand, |
we may imagine how dazzling must |
nave been the appearance of the Eigh-
ty-fifth after it was remodeled in 1913,
with officers chosen from other regi-
nents when we read that they were
Known to fame as the Elegant Ex-
racts." To military ears the words
'Connaught Rangers and "The Devils
own" are synonymous terms; and SO
ire 1.-The Old Toughs" and 1.-THE Dublin
Fusilisrs'' And who would enlist in the
Seventeenth Lancers if they ceased to
De known as 1.-The Death or Glory
3oys?" But the finest and most in
piring name in the whole range of the
British army is that of the Royal Irish
Tusiliers"-The Faugh-a-Ballagh Lads,
md nobly they sustained it as they
Cleared the Way with the Old
'oughs at Glencoe on October Colon
lon Globe.