History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army

by Archibald K. Murray

CHAPTER IX.

... “He lifts on high

The dauntless brow and spirit-speaking eye,

Hails in his heart the triumphs yet to come,

And hears thy stormy music in the drum!”

FRENCH CAMPAIGNS—TANGIER—CIVIL WARS—CONTINENTAL\

WARS—1660–1757.

The regiment, now commanded by Lord George Douglas, afterwards the Earl of Dumbarton, returned to France in 1662, where it was largely recruited by the incorporation of General Rutherford’s (Earl of Teviot) regiment of Scots Guards, and another old Scots regiment, also known as a “Douglas Regiment,” from its colonel, Lord James Douglas. The muster-roll thus presented a force of more than 2500 men and officers, embraced in twenty-three companies. In 1666, it was recalled to suppress a threatened rebellion in Ireland; but soon returning, with other British troops, was engaged in the wars with Holland and the German Empire. Under the great Turenne they acquired new glory. After his death, in 1675, the foe advanced upon Treves, where the French troops—dispirited by the loss of their favourite chief, and discouraged by the retreat which had since been forced upon them, when his great name was no longer present to infuse courage in the evil hour and inspire a wholesome terror in the ranks of the enemy—mutinying, insisted that their commander, Marshal de Crequi, should deliver up the fortress to the enemy. But the regiment of Douglas, with characteristic fidelity, sustained the gallant Marshal in his resolution to exhaust every means of defence before submitting to the dire necessity of surrender. Although the issues of the siege were disastrous, despite the desperate valour which defended the city—which at length capitulated—still our countrymen, although prisoners liberated on condition that they should not again serve in the war for three months, preserved that priceless jewel, their honour, which, out of the fiery trial, shone forth only the more conspicuously, both to friend and foe. Their conduct on this occasion received the thanks of the King. For a little while, about this period, the regiment was privileged to serve under another of France’s great captains—the Marshal Luxembourg. In 1678 the regiment was finally recalled from the French service, and shortly thereafter sent out to reinforce the garrison of Tangier, in Africa, the profitless marriage dowry of the Princess Catherina of Portugal, who had become the Queen of Charles II. This earliest of our foreign possessions had involved the nation in an expensive and cruel war, which it was very difficult adequately to sustain in those days, when the transport-service was one of imminent cost and danger; and moreover, news travelling slowly, we could not, as in the present instance, learn the straitened circumstances of our armies abroad, so as to afford that prompt assistance which they urgently needed. Assailed fiercely by the Moors, who evinced great bravery and resolution, the contest proved one of uncommon severity, requiring every effort of our garrison to maintain even their own. We extract the following announcement of the arrival of the Douglas, or, as it was then called, Dumbarton’s Regiment, on this new and distant scene of conflict, from Ross’ “Tangier’s Rescue:”—“After this landed the valorous Major Hackett with the renowned regiment of the Earl of Dumbarton; all of them men of approved valour, fame having echoed the sound of their glorious actions and achievements in France and other nations; having left behind them a report of their glorious victories wherever they came; every place witnessing and giving large testimony of their renown: so that the arrival of this illustrious regiment more and more increased the resolutions and united the courage of the inhabitants, and added confidence to their valour.” Also, as further interesting, we record, from the same author, the stirring address which the Lieut.-Governor, Sir Palmes Fairborne, is reported to have made to Dumbarton’s Scots on the eve of battle:—“Countrymen and fellow-soldiers, let not your approved valour and fame in foreign nations be derogated at this time, neither degenerate from your ancient and former glory abroad; and as you are looked upon here to be brave and experienced soldiers (constant and successive victories having attended your conquering swords hitherto), do not come short of the great hopes we have in you, and the propitious procedures we expect from you at this time. For the glory of your nation, if you cannot surpass, you may imitate the bravest, and be emulous of their praises and renown.”

The excessive cost of maintaining this distant and profitless possession at length induced King Charles to abandon it; accordingly the troops were withdrawn and the fortress destroyed. The “Royal Scots” landed at Gravesend in 1683. Nothing of importance falls to be narrated during the interval of peace which followed—the first, and until our day almost the only, rest which this veteran regiment has been permitted to enjoy at home. The accession of the Duke of York, as James II., to the throne, on the death of his brother Charles, awakened the well-grounded alarm of the Protestants, stirred up discontents, which were quickened into rebellion by the landing of the Marquis of Argyll in the West Highlands, and of a powerful rival—the Duke of Monmouth—in the South of England. Favoured by a considerable rising of the people, and encouraged by the fair promises of many of the old Puritan nobility and gentry—who undertook to join his standard with their followers, enamoured more of the cause speciously set forth upon his banner—“Fear none but God”—than of the man, Monmouth had advanced at the head of a considerable force to Bridgewater. His vacillating policy ruined his cause, as it gave time for the assembling of the King’s forces, under the Earl of Feversham and Lord Churchill, afterwards so celebrated as the Duke of Marlborough. Amongst these forces were five companies of the “Royal Scots.” At the battle of Sedgemoor which ensued, the rebels, deeming to surprise the royal camp in the night, suddenly descended in great force, but, arrested by a ditch immediately in front of the position occupied by the companies of our “Royal Scots,” which attempting to cross, they were so hotly received, although they fought with great fury, that they were driven back in confusion, and ultimately dispersed or destroyed by the royal cavalry in the morning. Thus the glory of the fight belongs chiefly to our countrymen, whose firmness proved the salvation of the royal army, and, in the end, the destruction of the rebels and the overthrow of their cause—completed in the after execution of their leaders, the Duke of Monmouth in England, and his fellow-conspirator, the Marquis of Argyll, in Scotland. So highly did James esteem the services of the “Royal Scots” on this perilous occasion, that, by special warrant, he ordered that the sum of £397 should be distributed among the wounded of the regiment. Sergeant Weems was particularly distinguished in the action, and received accordingly a gratuity of “Forty pounds for good service in the action of Sedgemoor, in firing the great guns against the rebels.”

DUKE OF SCHOMBERG, COLONEL OF THE FIRST ROYALS.

When the Revolution of 1688 promised the downfall of the house of Stuart, whose power had been so long built upon the suppressed liberty of the people, the exclusion of James II.—the degenerate representative of an ancient and once beloved race—from the throne, as the minion of the Papacy and the dawn of a better state of things, under the more healthy rule of the Prince of Orange, the champion of Protestantism, as monarch of these realms, it might have been deemed excusable had our “Royal Scots,” from their antecedents on behalf of the Protestant cause, sided with the Prince. The result, however, was far otherwise, and affords us another splendid illustration of the firm fidelity of the soldier in the sterling devotion of this regiment. The “Royal Scots” had been James’s favourite regiment, and well they merited that monarch’s trust. Whilst other troops exhibited a shameful defection, the “Royal Scots,” with unshaken constancy, adhered to the desperate fortunes of their infatuated King. Nor when all else had submitted, save Claverhouse’s Dragoons, and resistance had been rendered fruitless by the pusillanimous flight of James, did they see it their duty to exchange into the service of the new Sovereign. The term “mutiny” is wrongly applied when given to express their conduct on this trying occasion. By lenient measures the 500 men and officers who had refused to tender their submission were at length induced to make their peace with the new king, who, appreciating their ancient name for valour, could admire their unshaken fidelity to one who was even forsaken by his own children; and therefore gladly retained the regiment to grace our military annals. Their conduct was at the same time most exemplary in those days of military license and excess; faithfully they remained at the post of duty, when other regiments, breaking from their ranks, shamefully disgraced themselves by the riot and disorder they everywhere committed. The Earl of Dumbarton, following King James into France, the vacant colonelcy was conferred on one of the oldest, ablest, and most distinguished officers of the age—the veteran Marshal Frederick de Schomberg.

The arrival of the dethroned James at the Court of France, whilst it awakened mingled feelings of commiseration and contempt in the mind of the crafty Louis, the bitterness of disappointed ambition roused a spirit of revenge, and was to be regarded as the signal for war. Accordingly, a powerful army was advanced towards the frontier, ostensibly to co-operate in the cause of the exiled monarch, but really to take advantage of the absence of the Stadtholder, for the annexation, by way of compensation for his increased power elsewhere, of his continental dominions in Holland. To divide attention, and direct the efforts of William away from his own more immediate designs, the French King, by paltry succours, helped to bolster up James in his ricketty Irish kingdom. To meet this combined assault, William, whilst himself was present with his army in the reduction of Ireland, sent the Earl of Marlborough with a British army, including the “Royals,” to co-operate with the Dutch in the defence of their fatherland. In 1692 he joined the allied army, and himself assumed the command. In an attempt to surprise the powerful fortress of Mons, Sir Robert Douglas, who, on the death of the Duke de Schomberg at the battle of the Boyne, had been promoted to the colonelcy of the “Royals,” was taken prisoner by the French cavalry. Released, on payment of the regulated ransom, he was reserved for a sadder but more glorious fate at the battle of Steenkirk, where he fell at the head of his regiment, gallantly fighting for and defending the colours he had rescued from the foe. General Cannon writes:—“Sir Robert Douglas, seeing the colour on the other side of the hedge, leaped through a gap, slew the French officer who bore the colour, and cast it over the hedge to his own men; but this act of gallantry cost him his life, a French marksman having shot him dead on the spot while in the act of repassing the hedge.” The able dispositions of the French commander, the Marshal de Luxembourg, sustained by the valour of his troops, compelled the retreat of the Allied army. Still pressed by the French at Neer-Landen, notwithstanding the most desperate resistance of our Infantry, especially the Royals, and Second, or Queen’s Royals, our army continued to retire. These disasters were somewhat redeemed by the successes of subsequent campaigns, crowned in the siege and fall of Namur, a powerful fortress, long and bravely defended by Marshal Boufflers. The peace of Ryswick, subscribed in 1697, put an end to the war, and our army in consequence returned home.

During the war of the Spanish Succession, which commenced in 1701, the Royals were destined to play an important part. They were present under the great Marlborough at the several victories of Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde, Wynendale, and Malplaquet, which, distinguishing the war, we have elsewhere already alluded to. In many of these battles their gallant colonel, Lord George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, who had succeeded Sir Robert Douglas, was present, and led the regiment to the fight. Their conduct at Wynendale was specially remarkable, where, in defence of a large and important train of stores, etc., a British front of 8000 men resisted the combined and repeated efforts of 22,000 French to capture the stores and treasure. The war was terminated by the peace of Utrecht, in 1713.

During the thirty succeeding years the regiment was employed garrisoning various towns, etc., at home, except in 1742, when the second battalion was sent to do duty in the West Indies. In the following year, disputes arising as to the Austrian Succession, and our country inclining to the side of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, whilst France, on the other hand, had, for political reasons, espoused the cause of its old ally, the Elector of Bavaria, an appeal was made to arms. A British force, under our own chivalric King, George II., had already appeared in Germany, and achieved the signal victory of Dettingen, when the Royals joined the army in time to share the disasters of Fontenoy. The rebellion of Prince Charles Edward subsequently occasioned their recall. Whilst the first battalion remained in camp under Marshal Wade, in the south of England, prepared to defend our shores from the threatened invasion and co-operation of France, the second battalion, stationed at York, proceeded in pursuit of the rebels, who, after having penetrated to Derby, finding that the expected aid from England was not realised, returned to Scotland, where, joined by a body of recruits, they undertook the siege of Stirling Castle. In this they were interrupted by the advance of the King’s army, towards Falkirk, under Lieut.-General Hawley. Encountering the enemy in the vicinity, a sanguinary battle ensued, but devoid of any decisive result, both parties claiming the victory. Whilst some of the King’s troops were broken by the combined assaults of the elements and the enemy, the Royals stood fast. The dissensions which had but lately prevailed to distract the counsels of the rebels had been hushed by the preponderating eminence of a coming struggle, and the promise of plunder as the reward of victory. Now that the excitement of battle had ceased, the Royal army retired, and the hopes of booty disappointed, these evil feelings, more fatal than the sword, burst forth with renewed virulence, to ruin the interests of the Jacobites, occasioning the retreat of their broken-hearted Prince, with a diminished, and disspirited, yet brave and faithful army. Meanwhile the King’s forces, greatly strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops, a second time advanced upon the enemy. Led by the Duke of Cumberland, the advance soon assumed the character of a pursuit. At length the rebels, overtaken and driven to bay, made a stand in the neighbourhood of Inverness, on Culloden Moor, where, notwithstanding the fiery valour of the clans, they sustained a total defeat, and were never afterwards able to rally.

“For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight;

And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight.

They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown:

Woe, woe, to the riders that trample them down!

. . . . . . . . . .

’Tis finish’d. Their thunders are hushed on the moors!

Culloden is lost, and my country deplores.

. . . . . . . . . .

Culloden that reeks with the blood of the brave.”

Their Prince—

“Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn,”

for long lurked a wandering fugitive amongst our Western Islands, until, through many dangers, he effected his escape to France. The Duke of Cumberland, visiting with a cruel revenge the rebellious clans, nay, in some cases, with barbarous heedlessness, mingling the innocent with the guilty in a common ruin, tarnished the lustre of his success, and left behind a most unenviable memory in these northern provinces.

The Rebellion being thus at an end, several of the regiments which had been withdrawn from the Continent for its suppression now returned, whilst the first battalion of the Royals was employed in several descents upon the French coast with various success. At L’Orient the attempt proved fruitless; but at Quiberon, sustained by the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, the destruction of the enemy’s arsenal, stores, and shipping, was attained. Subsequently the battalion joined the British army in the Netherlands, and, in 1747, was greatly distinguished in the heroic defence of Fort Sandberg. The attack on the part of the French, was made late in the evening, with more than their wonted impetuosity. The Dutch garrison, unable to withstand the shock, was signally routed, and the conquest seemed complete, when the progress of the enemy was unexpectedly arrested by the Royals, who, with unflinching obstinacy, maintained the conflict, which proved of the most sanguinary and desperate character. The horrors of the fight were deepened by the sable pall of night. “The morning light had already dawned upon this scene of conflict and carnage,—between three and four hundred officers and men of the Royals were hors de combat; yet the survivors,—though standing amidst the dying and the dead, and being unable to take one step without treading on a killed or wounded man,—maintained their ground with resolution, and continued to pour their fatal volleys upon their opponents, who had sustained an equal or greater loss, until five o’clock, when the Royals were relieved by the Highlanders; and the French, dismayed by the sanguinary tenacity of the defence, retreated.” Ultimately the fort, rendered untenable, was abandoned. In 1749, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war, when the battalion returning home, was stationed in Ireland.