Who the hell was "McGill"?
This, at least, is what some sources say about him. The story we will tell is largely from those sources. There is another, much shorter story, in which no-one knows the truth of McGill's tale, or what his name really was. In this other story, nothing is known of his upbringing, although he's said to have told someone he was at West Point under a different name, of which he gave the initials (ARB).
But no-one was at West Point under a name with those initials in the requisite years. Oh, nor under the name James McGill. A couple of blokes called James McGill, from New York, were possibilities, and one was in the militia and later headed for California. But no-one knows anything else for sure. In fact, according to this story, no-one knows anything about him for sure. Anyway, we'll have a look at the other story as well.
Part of it is a vague claim he was sent to Australia on a mission for the US government. The purpose is unknown, but the tale claims it was possibly to report on the treatment of Americans in Australia. The same story says he arrived with £30,000 in his kick. Even at the lower end of cash comparison possibilities, this is in the order of over $A3 million.
McGill's Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade was a good size, considering the numbers of rebels overall. Some 200 mounted men, armed, obviously, with revolvers and what were called "Mexican knives" or "Mexican machetes", what the Americans usually call a bowie (pronounced "booie") knife after one of the silly nationalistic buggers killed by the Mexicans at the Alamo.
Because of Vere's refusal to take a role as deputy to Lalor, or to provide much in the way of military advice, apart from sulking along to give his "expert" advice on the construction of the stockade (!), Lalor turned to McGill for military advice and assistance, and appointed him as his deputy. As a result of his "experience", McGill was designated to do something actually quite useful, set up the sentry detail and provide training in rifle use for those men who needed it and were lucky enough to have a rifle.
But as far as rifle training was concerned there were still far too few rifles. Most, and probably all, of the ones used by miners at Eureka were older muzzle loaded rifles, not the repeating ones seen in many western movies. Although various repeaters were marketed from the 17th century, fully effective and well-priced ones didn't become available for a few years after Eureka. While significantly more accurate than the muskets used by the British army, the muzzle loaded rifles were also much slower to load, especially in the hands of men not trained to the loading speeds of the professional soldiers they would be facing.
So how did McGill handle these tasks? Frankly, McGill's placement of warning sentries appears to have been appalling, presuming they existed at all. However, some sources say that the sentries he did place either took off to the bars and brothels, or somehow weren't where they should have been at 3am on Sunday morning. The marching training also appears to have been McGill, and one source says he appeared to know little about teaching soldiers how to march, apart from the basics. A bit surprising if he was, as he said, a recently graduated West Pointer. However, on the surface McGill seems to have had plenty to do to keep him around the stockade. Or did he?
The 200 members of the Revolver Brigade would probably have been armed with various types of early revolver, but the most likely would be one of the Colt six-guns. These were six-shot revolvers, earlier versions of the type commonly seen in the western or cowboy movies mostly set a couple of decades later. McGill apparently had an 1848 model. If he was a US agent, with huge sums of moolah, how come he didn't have the latest? Maybe it was a bit like electric guitars, with an early 1960s Gibson worth much more than most modern guitars (yeah, okay, that was an attempt at a joke).
These early weapons used by McGill and his men were very inclined to jam, and their accuracy over any more than about a metre or three was appalling. Forget those old westerns where cowboys bang away wildly at rampaging native Americans, popping the poor buggers off with great abandon. It's all bollocks. Still, 200 of them in close combat as the British made their way over the stockade "wall" would in at least theory have been deadly, very deadly indeed. So deadly, in fact, that they might very well have turned the battle in a completely different direction. Many questions were asked then, and are still asked now, as to why the greater proportion of them, including McGill, weren't there.
Mind you, with hindsight it's just as well they weren't, as goodness knows what would have happened if the miners had won. Artillery and hundreds of troops were on their way, and the revengeful devastation they might have wrought on all the inhabitants of the mining town's tents doesn't really bear thinking about.
But no-one was at West Point under a name with those initials in the requisite years. Oh, nor under the name James McGill. A couple of blokes called James McGill, from New York, were possibilities, and one was in the militia and later headed for California. But no-one knows anything else for sure. In fact, according to this story, no-one knows anything about him for sure. Anyway, we'll have a look at the other story as well.
Part of it is a vague claim he was sent to Australia on a mission for the US government. The purpose is unknown, but the tale claims it was possibly to report on the treatment of Americans in Australia. The same story says he arrived with £30,000 in his kick. Even at the lower end of cash comparison possibilities, this is in the order of over $A3 million.
McGill's Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade was a good size, considering the numbers of rebels overall. Some 200 mounted men, armed, obviously, with revolvers and what were called "Mexican knives" or "Mexican machetes", what the Americans usually call a bowie (pronounced "booie") knife after one of the silly nationalistic buggers killed by the Mexicans at the Alamo.
Because of Vere's refusal to take a role as deputy to Lalor, or to provide much in the way of military advice, apart from sulking along to give his "expert" advice on the construction of the stockade (!), Lalor turned to McGill for military advice and assistance, and appointed him as his deputy. As a result of his "experience", McGill was designated to do something actually quite useful, set up the sentry detail and provide training in rifle use for those men who needed it and were lucky enough to have a rifle.
But as far as rifle training was concerned there were still far too few rifles. Most, and probably all, of the ones used by miners at Eureka were older muzzle loaded rifles, not the repeating ones seen in many western movies. Although various repeaters were marketed from the 17th century, fully effective and well-priced ones didn't become available for a few years after Eureka. While significantly more accurate than the muskets used by the British army, the muzzle loaded rifles were also much slower to load, especially in the hands of men not trained to the loading speeds of the professional soldiers they would be facing.
So how did McGill handle these tasks? Frankly, McGill's placement of warning sentries appears to have been appalling, presuming they existed at all. However, some sources say that the sentries he did place either took off to the bars and brothels, or somehow weren't where they should have been at 3am on Sunday morning. The marching training also appears to have been McGill, and one source says he appeared to know little about teaching soldiers how to march, apart from the basics. A bit surprising if he was, as he said, a recently graduated West Pointer. However, on the surface McGill seems to have had plenty to do to keep him around the stockade. Or did he?
The 200 members of the Revolver Brigade would probably have been armed with various types of early revolver, but the most likely would be one of the Colt six-guns. These were six-shot revolvers, earlier versions of the type commonly seen in the western or cowboy movies mostly set a couple of decades later. McGill apparently had an 1848 model. If he was a US agent, with huge sums of moolah, how come he didn't have the latest? Maybe it was a bit like electric guitars, with an early 1960s Gibson worth much more than most modern guitars (yeah, okay, that was an attempt at a joke).
These early weapons used by McGill and his men were very inclined to jam, and their accuracy over any more than about a metre or three was appalling. Forget those old westerns where cowboys bang away wildly at rampaging native Americans, popping the poor buggers off with great abandon. It's all bollocks. Still, 200 of them in close combat as the British made their way over the stockade "wall" would in at least theory have been deadly, very deadly indeed. So deadly, in fact, that they might very well have turned the battle in a completely different direction. Many questions were asked then, and are still asked now, as to why the greater proportion of them, including McGill, weren't there.
Mind you, with hindsight it's just as well they weren't, as goodness knows what would have happened if the miners had won. Artillery and hundreds of troops were on their way, and the revengeful devastation they might have wrought on all the inhabitants of the mining town's tents doesn't really bear thinking about.