CHAPTER XXXIX.
“There’s many a man of the Cameron clan
That has follow’d his chief to the field;
He has sworn to support him, or die by his side,
For a Cameron never can yield.
“Oh! proudly they walk, but each Cameron knows
He may tread on the heather no more;
But boldly he follows his chief to the field,
Where his laurels were gathered before.”
There is perhaps do name so deeply interesting in the annals of the Highlanders as that of Cameron; no clan so truly the exponent of all that is brave and noble, and none whose chief has been so largely the exemplar in his life of all the god-like qualities of the man, the patriot, and the hero, and whose memory is so fondly cherished and so highly revered. Such was the illustrious leader of the clan, Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel—
“The crested Lochiel, the peerless in might.”
SIR EWEN CAMERON OF LOCHEIL.
THE SEVENTY-NINTH, “OR CAMERON HIGHLANDERS.”
The Camerons by their conspicuous patriotism, marching under the banner of the Lord of the Isles at the battle of Bannockburn, contributed to illumine the page of our ancient glory.
“Bruce, with the pilot’s wary eye,
The slackening of the storm could spy.
‘One effort more, and Scotland’s free!
Lord of the Isles, my trust in thee
Is firm as Ailsa Rock;
Rush on with Highland sword and targe,
I, with my Carrick spearmen, charge;
Now, forward to the shock!’
At once the spears were forward thrown,
Against the sun the broadswords shone;
The pibroch lent its maddening tone,
And loud King Robert’s voice was known—
‘Carrick, press on—they fail, they fail!
Press on, brave sons of Innisgail,
The foe is fainting fast!
Each strike for parent, child, and wife,
For Scotland, liberty, and life—
The battle cannot last!’”
But the clan attained even a greater reputation from its devoted loyalty to the Stuarts, and its gallant efforts in their cause, especially when led by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel.
This chief was born in 1629, and educated at Inverary Castle by his foster-father, the Marquis of Argyll. Fascinated by the chivalrous bearing of Montrose, at the early age of eighteen he deserted his early patron, mustered his clansmen, and proceeded to join the rebel army. Ere he could accomplish his intention, the tide of war had turned against the Royalists, and swept away the army of Montrose. Retaining his clansmen in arms around him, he most effectually protected his estates from the incursions of the soldiers of Cromwell.
In 1652, the Earl of Glencairn, setting up the Royal standard, received the ready co-operation of Lochiel against the Republicans. Jealousy and distrust estranging the Royalist chiefs, creeping into and distracting their counsels, breaking the bond of union otherwise so mighty an agent to success—Lochiel, keeping aloof from these troubles at head-quarters, acting independently, effectively shielded the Royal army in its consequent weakness, delaying the ruin which ultimately overtook this unfortunate attempt to restore the kingdom to Charles II. His exploits savour of the marvellous and romantic; nevertheless, they in truth displayed the heroism of his character and the genius of a master-mind in the business of war. On one occasion a party of 300 soldiers had been sent to ravage his estates around Inverlochy. Hastily collecting thirty-eight of his clan, with a fearlessness amounting almost to rashness, despite the remonstrances of the sager veterans of his little band, to whose experiences he replied, “If every man kills his man, I will answer for the rest,” he descended upon the unsuspecting troops with the utmost fury, when a desperate and bloody struggle ensued. But nothing, not even superior numbers, could withstand so furious an attack by the Camerons. Steadily fighting, the soldiers slowly retreated to the boats from which they had landed, leaving 138 of their comrades dead on the shore, whilst the loss of the Highlanders only amounted to seven men.
By many such deeds of daring, in which he always displayed prodigies of valour, to his foes he appeared a dread avenger, but to his friends he was known as a sure protector. When all other opposition to its rule had been overcome by a victorious Protectorate, Lochiel remained in arms for his King, uncouquered, and seemingly unconquerable. Bribery could not purchase the submission of so noble a spirit, and persuasion failed to gain over the allegiance of so faithful an adherent of the exiled monarch. Fortunately, the good policy of Cromwell effected an honourable compromise, consistent with the dignity of this brave yet haughty chieftain, which put an end to the cruel war which had already exhausted the resources, and if persevered in, must have exterminated the gallant Camerons. Unable to win his alliance, the Protector wisely contented himself with a simple peace.
Consistent with his ancient loyalty, when the Revolution of 1688 had expatriated the last and degenerate representative of the unfortunate race of Stuart, and set up a new and a better order of things in the State by the installation of the family of Orange on the British throne, Lochiel joined the party of King James, and resolutely determined to uphold his standard as unfurled in rebellion in 1689. Unsullied by the baser motives of ambition and revenge which had driven Viscount Dundee into rebellion, Lochiel devoted his sword to what he esteemed the righteous cause of his rightful sovereign, who had been set aside by the claims of a usurper. In the battle of Killiecrankie, the charge of the Camerons and Highlanders led by Lochiel was irresistible, and contributed largely to the attainment of the victory. It so happened (not uncommon in those civil wars) on this occasion that the second son of Lochiel commanded a company in the opposing army of King William. Attached to the staff of General Mackay, that commander, on viewing the array and position of the Highlanders, remarked to the young Lochiel—“There,” said he, “is your father with his wild savages; how would you like to be with him?” “It signifies little,” replied the other, “what I would like; but I recommend it to you to be prepared, or perhaps my father and his wild savages may be nearer to you before night than you would like.” And so it happened. Dundee delayed his attack “till,” according to an eye-witness, “the sun’s going down, when the Highlandmen advanced on us like madmen, without shoes or stockings, covering themselves from our fire with their targets. At last they cast away their muskets, drew their broadswords, and advanced furiously upon us, broke us, and obliged us to retreat; some fled to the water, some another way.”
This great chief died at the ripe age of eighty-nine in 1718, universally regretted.
His grandson participating in the rebellion of 1745, occasioned the ruin of his family, and to a large extent destroyed the military strength of the clan. Nevertheless, in 1775 we find the Camerons represented by a company in Fraser’s Highlanders, and as “Lochiel’s men” combatting with distinction in America, on the side of that Government which a few years earlier they had conspired to overturn.
In addition to the Seventy-ninth Regiment, now the only living representative of the clan in the British army, the Camerons contributed, in 1799, a corps of fencible militia—the “Lochaber” Regiment.
The menacing aspect of affairs abroad, the political wrongs perpetrated by revolutionary France, and the dark cloud which threatened to envelope our own land in 1794, occasioned the augmentation of our army; and, in consequence, the Seventy-eighth (Mackenzie), Seventy-ninth (Cameron), Ninety-second (Gordon), and Ninety-third (Sutherland) Highlanders sprung into being about this period.
Immediately upon the completion of the Seventy-ninth it was hurried into action, and on the plains of Flanders made its début in arms. It was with the army of the Duke of York which vainly strove to arrest the victorious career of the armies of republican France, led by these famous soldiers, Pichegru, Moreau, Jourdan, and Vandamme.
Returning home in 1795, it was thence removed to the West Indies, and for two years was stationed in Martinique. After contributing variously to recruit other corps, especially the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, it returned home a mere skeleton, around which, as a nucleus, the officers succeeded, after many and persevering efforts, in raising a new Highland corps, under the old designation.
On attaining a strength of 780 men, chiefly by the zealous exertions of its original colonel, Allan Cameron of Errach, it was ordered on foreign service, and so, in 1799, joined the expedition destined to act against the enemy in Holland. There, placed in the fourth brigade under Major-General afterwards Sir John Moore, it was associated with the second battalion of the First Royals, the Twenty-fifth King’s Own Borderers, the Forty-ninth Foot, and the Ninety-second Gordon Highlanders. In all the actions which marked this brief and ineffectual campaign, the Seventy-ninth was worthily distinguished, and won the memorial thereof now borne upon its colours—“Egmont-op-Zee.”
In the Egyptian expedition of 1800, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, the Seventy-ninth was brigaded with the Second or Queen’s and the Fiftieth Regiments, commanded by the Earl of Cavan.
Having helped to the deliverance of Egypt from the yoke of France, it returned to England in 1801. Whilst at home it was increased by a second battalion raised in 1804, when the vindictive wrath of Napoleon, roused into madness by the defeat of his armies by the British in Egypt, had gathered a countless host around Boulogne, whence, looking across, he longed but once to set foot upon our shores, and then he hoped to blot us out from the map as a nation, and so satisfy the bitter hatred of years. Whilst the tempest of human passion stood arrayed in portentous awfulness on the other side of the Channel, the Seventy-ninth was with our troops who anxiously waited the result. Suddenly the spirit of the imperial dream was changed, and the armed multitude, melting away, reappeared with a real terror upon the devoted plains of Germany.
Allied with Napoleon, the Danes, in 1807, once more were pressed into a quarrel with Britain. A British armament appeared upon the coasts of Denmark. Our army, under Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart, consisting of the first battalions of the 2d (Coldstream) and 3d (Scots Fusileers) Foot Guards; first battalions of the 4th, 7th, 8th, 23d, 28th, 32d, 43d, 50th, 52d (second battalion), 79th (Cameron), 82d, 92d (Gordon), and five companies of the first and second battalions of the 95th (Rifles), and several regiments of the King’s German Legion, comprising a total of 28,000, of which 17,000 were British, advanced upon Copenhagen, overcame all opposition, occupied the capital, arrested the enemy’s fleet, and having achieved this almost bloodless victory, baffled the deep-laid schemes of Napoleon, charged with our destruction.