Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers
With the fierce native daring which instils
The stirring memory of a thousand years;
And Evan’s, Donald’s fame rings in each clansman’s ears!”
In the subsequent battle of Waterloo, it was included in the fifth division under Sir Thomas Picton, and in the fifth brigade of the army under Sir James Kempt. Here it was associated with the Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Ninety-fifth (Rifles) regiments, and posted in defence of a hedge which the Belgian troops had abandoned early in the fight. Against this position three powerful columns of the enemy advanced. “At this moment General Picton was killed, and General Kempt severely wounded; but the latter never left the field. Like his old commander, Sir Ralph Abercromby, he allowed no personal consideration to interfere with his duty; and although unable to sit on horseback from the severity of the wound, he would not allow himself to be carried away from his soldiers, whose situation, pressed by a brave and powerful enemy, required every assistance from his presence and talents. The enemy, anxious to gain the position behind the hedge, repeated their attempts, but every attempt was repulsed.” The honourable conduct of the regiment on this occasion, as a matter of history, has been justly celebrated.
Occupying France for a while, the Seventy-ninth returned to Britain in 1818, and has long been peacefully employed.
In 1854, when the aggressions of Russia called upon the nations “to defend the right,” the Seventy-ninth, with the Forty-second Royal Highlanders and the Ninety-third Sutherland Highlanders, formed the original Highland Brigade in the army of the Crimea.
At the battle of the Alma, co-operating with the Guards, this brigade, under Sir Colin Campbell, won a great renown. It was selected, with the other Highland regiments, under Sir Colin Campbell, to renew the attack upon the Redan. Fortunately, the retirement of the garrison to the other side of the harbour afforded a bloodless victory. The regiment was engaged in the successful expedition against Kertch.
Released by the conclusion of peace from the toils of war on the distant plains of the Crimea, the regiment returned home. Shortly thereafter, the outbreak of the Indian mutiny required its presence in that far-off province of our empire. Accordingly, embarked, it arrived there in 1858, and joined the army marching upon Lucknow. On the suppression of the revolt, it was retained in India; and we doubt not the presence of such staunch defenders of the British constitution will command peace—the military fire of “auld langsyne” still burning in the bosom of the Cameron.