History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army

by Archibald K. Murray

Battle’s my business, and my guerdon bread;

And with the sworded Switzer I can say,

‘The best of causes is the best of pay.’”

AMERICAN WARS—WEST INDIES—FRENCH REVOLUTION—1755–1804.

The ancient rivalries subsisting between Britain and France, and which had begotten so many fierce and sanguinary wars upon the European continent, were now about to be displayed with even a more exceeding bitterness among the colonists of the two nations in the New World of America. Disputes arising as to the boundary line of what they severally claimed as their territory, the might of France assumed to decide the right. To maintain and defend British interests, an army, comprising the second battalion of the Royals, and the two newly-raised regiments of Fraser’s and Montgomery’s Highlanders, was sent across the Atlantic in 1757. The first attack of this expedition was made upon the French island of Cape Breton, which, with its capital, Louisburg, was speedily reduced. In the following year the Royals were engaged upon the American continent in a series of actions around the shores of Lake Champlain, which resulted in the capture of the strong forts of Ticonderago, Crown Point, and ultimately the Isle aux Noix. Several of the Indian tribes taking advantage of our apparent embarrassments at this period, instigated by, and in some cases allied with, the French, threw off the British yoke, strove to recover their fatherland, or were encouraged, by hope of plunder, to assail our colonial settlements. Against the most powerful of these foes—the Cherokees—a few companies of the Royals, with Montgomery’s Highlanders and other corps, were detached from the army, and proceeded to South Carolina. After repeated incursions into the country of the Cherokees, in which the foe was rarely seen, or when the Indian army of sable warriors did appear, our troops achieved an easy and ofttimes a bloodless victory. Still was our advance characterised by cruel and uncalled-for severities, and marked by the melancholy spectacle of burning villages, in which lay “the little all” of these poor creatures. Unable to withstand our onset, with ruined homesteads, and threatened with all the miseries of want, their necessities impelled the Cherokees to sue for peace, which was readily granted.

The conquest of French Canada having been completed in the surrender of Montreal, several detachments of the Royals were employed in various expeditions against the French West Indian Islands, especially Dominica and Martinique, in which our efforts were successful. But the crowning achievement of these expeditions was the capture of the Havannah from the Spaniards, with immense spoil, on the 30th July, 1762. Meanwhile two companies of the Royals, which had remained on the American continent, contributed by their gallantry to repulse a new attempt of the French to recover their lost footing in these provinces.

In 1763 the second battalion returning home, the regiment was afterwards employed garrisoning our Mediterranean possessions, Minorca and Gibraltar. During the American Rebellion a secret treaty having been discovered between the rebels and Holland, France and Spain, promising aid to, and otherwise abetting the colonists in their rebellion, the Royals, with other troops, in 1781, were sent out to assail the West Indian possessions of these several States. Having possessed themselves of the island of St Christopher, they were here attacked by a powerful French expeditionary force which had landed from the fleet for the recovery of the island. Stationed on Brimstone Hill with scarce 500 men, without the adequate matériel to make good the defence, these brave men nevertheless resisted for nearly a month the repeated assaults of 8000 French, aided by a powerful artillery, which played continually and effectually upon the crumbling defences and the worn-out defenders. It was not until every means of resistance had been destroyed, and every hope of relief exhausted, that our gallant Royals were compelled to surrender.

In 1782, both battalions were at home, and the Duke of Argyll having been removed to the Colonelcy of the Third, or Scots Foot Guards, the Colonelcy of the First Royal Regiment, or Royal Scots, was conferred upon Lord Adam Gordon.

Britain, ever recognised as the guardian of true liberty, had viewed, with mingled feelings of horror, pity, and alarm, the crimes which alike stained and inaugurated the French Revolution. Our Government, unhappily, mistaking the real nature and critical importance of the contest, granted a feeble and tardy aid to the few remaining friends of order, chiefly represented in the Royalists, who still struggled for existence in France. Had these succours been commensurate with the ability of the nation, and afforded promptly and liberally, France might have been saved from many of those dire calamities which, like the judgments of Heaven, gathering in her political horizon, were so soon to visit her in the fury of the tempest, to cast a blight upon her people and a curse upon her fair plains. Europe, moreover, might have escaped the military tyranny of Napoleon, with all its accompanying evils. Toulon, the principal station for the French Navy on the shores of the Mediterranean, possessed of large arsenals and extensive dockyards, and strongly fortified—its citizens had hitherto regarded with aversion the excesses of blood and rapine in which the Revolutionists had indulged, and fully sensible of the evils which must arise from the rule of the democracy, resolved to declare for the restoration of the old monarchy. In the impending contest in which they were soon involved by their resistance to the iron will of the Committee of Public Salvation, who then assumed to rule France, they invoked, and not altogether in vain, the aid of the constitutional Governments around. Accordingly, a mixed force of British, Spaniards, and Italians, was thrown into the city for its defence. The second battalion of the Royals formed part of the British contingent on this occasion. Lieutenant-General O’Hara commanding, with 12,000 men, for awhile succeeded in making good the defence, and had well nigh baffled the utmost efforts of the besiegers, who, under General Dugommier, had assembled an army of nearly 40,000 Revolutionists. But the appearance of a young officer in the ranks of the enemy speedily changed the aspect of affairs. As chief of the artillery, by a series of bold and judicious movements, effecting the reduction of the city, he early displayed that aptness for military combination which revealed the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte. Dugommier, writing to the Convention, said—“Reward and promote that young man, for, if you are ungrateful towards him, he will raise himself alone.” The following incident, narrated by Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., in his interesting account of the siege, introduces us to another of those great military chiefs who were so soon to glitter in the firmament of the Empire: “Napoleon asked him what he could do for him. ‘Everything,’ replied the young private, blushing with emotion, and touching his left shoulder with his hand—‘you can turn this worsted into an epaulet.’ A few days after, Napoleon sent for the same soldier to order him to reconnoitre in the enemy’s trenches, and recommended that he should disguise himself, for fear of his being discovered. ‘Never,’ replied he. ‘Do you take me for a spy? I will go in my uniform, though I should never return.’ And, in effect, he set out instantly, dressed as he was, and had the good fortune to come back unhurt. Napoleon immediately recommended him for promotion, and never lost sight of his courageous secretary. He was Junot, afterwards Marshal of France, and Duke of Abrantes.” Notwithstanding the utmost bravery on the part of the defenders, and of the Royals in particular, the fortress had become no longer tenable from the alarming successes of the enemy. Accordingly, on the night of the 19th December, 1794, the army, with as many of the citizens as could be crowded into the fleet, were embarked, all that might be useful to the foe was destroyed or committed to the flames, and the city abandoned. The scene which ensued is one of the most touchingly interesting and afflicting in the dark story of the Revolution, especially when considered in the light of the cruel fate which awaited the unfortunates who could not find room in the fleet, and who, left behind, must meet the merciless wrath of the Parisian demagogues. Alison thus pictures the sad episode:—

“No words can do justice to the horrors of the scene which ensued, when the last columns of the allied troops commenced their embarkation. Cries, screams, and lamentations arose in every quarter; the frantic clamour, heard even across the harbour, announced to the soldiers in the Republican camp that the last hope of the Royalists was giving way. The sad remnant of those who had favoured the royal cause, and who had neglected to go off in the first embarkation, came flying to the beach, and invoked, with tears and prayers, the aid of their British friends. Mothers, clasping their babes to their bosoms, helpless children, and decrepid old men, might be seen stretching their hands towards the harbour, shuddering at every sound behind them, and even rushing into the waves to escape the less merciful death which awaited them from their countrymen. Some had the generosity to throw themselves into the sea, to save, by their self-sacrifice, the lives of their parents, in danger of being swamped in the boats. Vast numbers perished from falling into the sea, or by the swamping of boats, into which multitudes crowded, loaded with their most valuable effects, or bearing their parents or children on their shoulders. Such as could seize upon boats, rushed into them with frantic vehemence, pushed from the beach without oars, and directed their unsteady and dangerous course towards their former protectors. The scene resembled those mournful catastrophes recorded by the historians of antiquity, when the inhabitants of whole cities in Asia Minor or Greece fled to the sea at the approach of their enemies, and steered away by the light of their burning habitations. Sir Sidney Smith, with a degree of humanity worthy of his high character, suspended his retreat till not a single individual who claimed his assistance remained on the strand, though the total number borne away amounted to fourteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.”