1863 Beds & Herts Commemorative Plate

[garys39]

1863 Beds & Herts Pewter Commemorative Plate, picked this up today, at the local carboot sale, hard to read but after a clean with soap and water I could make out the following :-

Presented
to Captain Davis
in Commeration of the
storming at the Megg (or possibly Hegg) Feb (7th possibly) 1863
On this memorable occasion Cap tn
Davis in command of the Beds
and Herts Voluteers by the
skilful disposition of his
forces put all the enemy to
flight and remained
Master of the Field

I can't find anything on the web, any ideas anyone ?
Regards
Gary

[Dave Alexander]

Both battalions of the 16th (Bedfordshire) Regt of Foot were stationed in Canada between 1861 and 1865. There were no hostilities at that time. The reason they were there was because the American Civil War was being fought and there was some concern about Britain becoming involved. The engraving on the plate "Beds and Herts Volunteers" sounds like local militia engaged in war games and after a weekend of playing soldiers they passed the hat around and bought the Captain a keepsake.