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.”