CHAPTER XLII.
“And, oh! loved warriors of the minstrel’s land!
Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave!
The rugged form may mark the mountain band,
And harsher features, and a mien more grave.
But ne’er in battle throbbed a heart so brave,
As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid;
And when the pibroch bids the battle rave,
And level for the charge your arms are laid,
Where lives the desperate foe that for such onset staid?”
WALCHEREN—PENINSULA—WATERLOO—1809–1862.
In 1809 the Ninety-second was engaged under the Earl of Chatham in the unfortunate expedition to Walcheren, wherein a splendid army in a few weeks was discomfited by the poisoned breath of the pestilence. Of 1000 men comprised in the Gordon Highlanders, only 300 returned effective to England.
In 1810 the regiment embarked for the Peninsula, and joined the army of Viscount Wellington in the lines of Torres Vedras. Brigaded with the Fiftieth and Seventy-first regiments, under Major-General Howard, it advanced with the army in pursuit of the French under Marshal Messena, shared the glories of “Fuentes d’Onor,” accomplishing the fall of Almeida.
The brigade was afterwards detached as part of the second division of the army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Hill, which covered the operations of the grand army under Wellington against the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. This division, pursuing the enemy towards Merida, overtook and surprised the bronzed veterans of the fifth French corps, under General Gerard, when about to decamp from Arroyo del Molinos. The honour of this feat of arms is mainly due to the Seventy-first and Ninety-second Highlanders, who, during the raging of a fearful tempest, and screened by a thick mist, charged into the village. In the confusion the loss of the enemy was immense; of 3000 only 600 escaped to tell the tale of the catastrophe. It is said the enemy was first made aware of his danger by the scream of the bagpipes as they appropriately played—
“Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin’ yet?”
Driven out at the point of the bayonet, the French were utterly broken and dispersed. Few events reflect greater credit upon the Gordon Highlanders than this exploit.
It was the business of Lieut.-Gen. Hill so to engage the attention of Marshal Soult, that he should be prevented assisting the army of Marshal Marmont, opposed to Wellington. By the capture of Forts Napoleon and Ragusa at “Almaraz,” gallantly accomplished by the brigade, the separation of the two Marshals was effected, and each forced to follow his own line of retreat, at every step widening the breach.
The battle of Salamanca having cleared the way, the British advanced to Madrid; and, whilst Wellington proceeded against Burgos, Lord Hill occupied the capital. Tho concentration of the French armies for the relief of Burgos occasioned the abandonment of that enterprise, and, for the last time, compelled our army to retire towards Portugal, evacuating Madrid. “From the 27th October to the 20th November, we were exposed,” says Lieut.-Col. Cameron, “to greater hardships than I thought the human frame could bear. In most inclement weather, with the canopy of heaven for our covering, wet, cold, and hungry, we were generally marching day and night. Fifteen poor fellows of the Ninety-second fell down, and were lost. My heart bled for them.”
On reaching Alba de Tormes, an old Roman town, defended by a ruined wall, it was deemed necessary to make a stand against the pursuing enemy, who, urged forward by the vigorous Soult, sorely pressed our army. Here the brigade, entrusted with the honourable yet difficult duty of maintaining the rear guard, behaved with extraordinary gallantry. The scene is thus described by Lieut.-Col. Cameron:—“We did what we could to improve our situation during the short time left us. I threw an old door across the place where the gate once had been, and barricaded it with sticks and stones.... We had not a single piece of ordnance. Just as the clock of Alba struck two, the French columns moved to the attack, and, from that time until night, we sustained a hurricane of shot and shell from twenty pieces of cannon! Their riflemen threw themselves into ditches and ravines round the walls, but their masses never forsook the protection of their artillery, which was most dastardly for Soult, with ten thousand men!”
“It is said, that on the 8th, a French officer of high rank approached so close to the position of the Ninety-second that several muskets were levelled at him, when Cameron, disdaining to take such an advantage, promptly forbade the firing of a shot. It was Soult who was thus saved.”
Thus arrested, the French did not again disturb the retreat. Both armies going into winter quarters, the campaign of 1812 terminated.
With the first dawn of spring Wellington was again on the move. Having re-organised his army, and been strengthened by considerable reinforcements from home, with 78,000 excellent troops, he proceeded to drive the enemy before him. The French, on the other hand, discouraged by evil news from Russia, and denied that assistance they needed, because of the more urgent necessities of the Grand Army, could not be expected to act with the same energy as heretofore, yet did they exceed these anticipations.
At “Vittoria” King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan having gathered together their utmost disposable force, ventured to try the fate of battle, hoping to check the progress of the British, or at least secure a safe retreat, laden, as they were, with the spoil of the Peninsula. But the battle of Vittoria fatally disappointed them, and rescued the treasures of Spain from their avaricious grasp. In this battle, the Ninety-second Highlanders, having been ordered to seize the heights whereon the village of Puebla was perched, and hold the position to the last, with persevering valour overcame a determined resistance, pressed up the sides of the mountain, entered the village with an impetuous charge, and, after a fierce struggle, drove the enemy out.
Having gained this great victory, the British now addressed themselves to the Herculean task of forcing a passage through the defiles of the “Pyrenees” into France. Notwithstanding the stupendous efforts of Marshal Soult to retrieve the losses of Vittoria and defend these natural barriers of his country, the British still pressed “forward.” On the 20th July, 1813, whilst the brigade was threading its way through the pass of Maya, it was vigorously attacked by a corps of 15,000 French, who, forcing back that “fierce and formidable old regiment, the Fiftieth,” upon the Seventy-first and Ninety-second Highlanders, very nearly drove them out of the pass. These, however, for ten hours stood the shock of this formidable assault. “So dreadful was the slaughter, especially of the Ninety-second, that it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped by the heaped mass of dead and dying. Never did soldiers fight better—seldom so well. The stern valour of the Ninety-second would have graced Thermopylae.” Of 750 Gordon Highlanders who were engaged, only 400 survived it scatheless, but these returned in the truest sense “conquering heroes,” having, when every cartridge was expended, and in presence of succour, decided the victory as their own by a desperate charge. Throughout the many conflicts which it needed to clear a passage through the Pyrenees, and thereafter drive so terrible a foe successively across the “Nivelle” and the “Nive,” the Ninety-second always displayed the same desperate resolution and valour.
At the sanguinary action of St Pierre, which raged with exceeding fury for three hours, cumbering a little space of one mile with more than 5000 dead and dying, the Ninety-second impetuously charged and destroyed two regiments of the enemy. Pressing onwards, the Highlanders were arrested by a fearful storm of artillery, and forced to retreat upon their comrades of the Seventy-first; who likewise yielding to the iron tempest, both found shelter and rallied behind their brethren in brigade of the Fiftieth. “Then its gallant colonel (Cameron) once more led it down the road, with colours flying and music playing, resolved to give the shock to whatever stood in the way. A small force was the Ninety-second compared with the heavy mass in its front, but that mass faced about and retired across the valley. How gloriously did that regiment come forth again to charge, with their colours flying and their national music playing as if going to a review! This was to understand war. The man who in that moment, and immediately after a repulse, thought of such military pomp, was by nature a soldier.”
Excepting at the battle of Toulouse, the Ninety-second was daily engaged with the enemy, and always with equal credit.
The abdication and exile of Napoleon spread the calm of peace over the face of Europe. Alas! that it should have been but as some sweet vision of the night, doomed to be dissipated by the dawn of the morrow, when the sterner realities of life, its toils and its wars, anew presented themselves. The night which had shrouded the destiny of imperial France was succeeded by a new day happily; but, as a brief winter’s day, when for a moment a glimpse of sunshine shone upon the spirit of the old empire, as it seemed to revive beneath the influence of the great Magician, who was wont to conjure up kingdoms and dynasties by the mere fiat of his will. Soon we shall find the day-dream of ambition eclipsed in a darker night. Already, we can almost read the mysterious writing, prophetically pointing to Waterloo, as more surely sealing the fate of imperial France.
In 1815 the rude blast of war once more summoned the Ninety-second to the field, as the gathering hosts of France and the Allies accepted the dread arbitration of war on the chivalric field of Flanders.
In this campaign the Ninety-second was brigaded with the First Royal Scots, the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, and the Forty-fourth Foot, under Major-General Sir Denis Pack, and placed in the famous fifth division of Lieut.-General Sir T. Picton. The same tide of imperial power, which rose upon the Prussians at Ligny, rolled along towards Quatre Bras, and dashed its stormy billows in foaming wrath upon the living rocks of British valour there. As the Gordon Highlanders encountered the furious onset of the corps of Marshal Ney, Wellington himself was in their midst, and beheld their splendid valour. Concealed in a ditch by the road-side, they waited the charge of the French cavalry, as it ventured to sweep past them in pursuit of the Brunswickers. Here, however, the pursuit was stayed by a fatal volley from the Highlanders. At length the Duke gave the word, as he observed the enemy pushing along the Charleroi Road, “Now, Cameron,” said he, “now is your time; you must charge these fellows, and take care of that road.” Soon the massive columns of the foe were broken and hurled back in confusion, as the Ninety-second emerged from the awful conflict a bleeding yet victorious remnant, having lost its brave commander, Lieut.-Colonel Cameron, and nearly 300 comrades. Colonel Cameron was deeply lamented by the regiment, and the whole army. Temporarily buried in the vicinity of the field of his latest glory, his remains were afterwards removed, by his family, to the churchyard of Kilmallie, where his sacred dust now reposes beside the chieftains of Lochiel. No funeral in the Highlands was ever so honoured—the great, the noble, the brave, and upwards of 3000 Highlanders were there to pay the last tribute of respect to the beloved soldier, now no more.
FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
But the great event of these “hundred days” was at hand, as the 18th of June dawned upon the plains of Waterloo.
It was late in the day ere the Gordon Highlanders were brought into action to recover the farm-house of La Haye Sainte, lost by the Belgians, and which the First Royal Scots and Forty-fourth regiments had failed to regain, from a column of 3000 French. At this critical moment Major-General Sir Denis Pack said, “Ninety-second, you must charge, for all the troops to your right and left have given way.” Although mustering scarce 300 men, with characteristic dauntlessness, the Highlanders rushed impetuously to the attack, and in another moment seemed lost amid the dark masses of the foe. As if moved to help their countrymen, the Scots Greys came to their aid, or rather to witness and complete the victory the Highlanders had already won. Together, shouting “Scotland for ever,” these splendid corps renewed the assault, which utterly ruined the column of the enemy, the survivors being only too glad to seek refuge in flight. Sir Denis Pack having witnessed this magnificent charge and its glorious effects, commending the Ninety-second, said, “You have saved the day, Highlanders.” Meanwhile, beholding with unfeigned regret the discomfiture of his troops, the Emperor, at the same time, felt constrained to admire the valour of the Highlanders, which had so signally triumphed, exclaiming, “the brave Scots.”
And on the plains of Waterloo
The world confess’d the bravest few
Were kilted men frae Scotland.
Pursuing the enemy, the allies entered Paris in triumph, and thence, on the surrender of Napoleon, dictated peace.
Returning to England, the regiment was employed in various home garrisons, until the year 1819, when it was removed to the West Indies. During its sojourn there it was almost destroyed by the dreadful ravages of fever among its soldiers, and returned to England a mere skeleton in 1827. In 1834 it was removed to Gibraltar, and thence, in 1836, to Malta. Whilst stationed at Malta, it was reviewed by Prince Maximilian of Bavaria, and further honoured in furnishing a Guard to Her Majesty the Queen Dowager whilst resident in the island. In 1841 it was removed to the West Indies, and two years later returned home. In 1851 it proceeded to Corfu. Removed to Gibraltar in 1853, it embarked thence to the Crimea, arriving a few days after the fall of Sebastopol. Returning to Gibraltar in 1856, in 1858 it was despatched, via overland route, to Bombay. In the suppression of the Indian mutiny it was engaged at Rajghpur, Mongrowlie, and Sindwah. It still remains in India.
THE NINETY-THIRD SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS.
MONUMENT IN GLASGOW CATHEDRAL TO ITS “CRIMEAN HEROES.”