Fenn, George Manville: Fix Bay'nets. V1. 28 Sep 2011
 

George Manville Fenn (January 3, 1831, Pimlico - August 26, 1909, Isleworth) was a British writer.
He worked as a teacher in Lincolnshire, until he became printer, editor and publisher of various magazines. He had two sons and six daughters with his wife Susanna Leake, whom he had married in 1855.
He was editor and proprietor of Once a Week from 1873 until its demise in 1879 and then was entirely engaged in writing fiction. Most of his work consists of adventure stories for young readers, featuring Explorers, Smugglers, young Adventurers and Seamen. His adult novels offer critical social commentary on Victorian England, especially reconsidering economic questions.

Excerpt
TRRT—TRRT—TRRT. Just that little sound, as the sticks flirted with the drumheads to keep the men in step; for Her Majesty’s 404th Fusiliers were marching “easy.” So it was called; and it meant with the men smoking, and carrying their rifles as they pleased—shouldered, at the trail, slung muzzle up or muzzle down. But, all the same, it was a miserable fiction to call it marching easy, for it was impossible to make that march anything but hard. Why? Because of the road