By that dread name we wave the sword on high,
And swear for her to live, with her to die!”
Amongst the many means adopted to secure an effectual national defence, the increase of our army was deservedly the chief. From the youth of the counties of Renfrew and Ayr a second battalion was raised for our Fusiliers in December 1804; but it was not until 1806 called to an active part in the terrible contest which then shook Europe to its base. The defence of Sicily for the legitimate sovereignty of Naples, to which the Twenty-first was called, although a duty but of minor importance when compared with the mighty events which were being enacted on the vaster theatre of Europe, still the result, redundant with glory, served to give hope to liberty when the threatened night of tyranny had elsewhere descended to cloud the nationalities of Christendom; whilst our British soldiers, if aught dare aspire to the title, proved themselves to be the real “invincibles”—when all else had been borne down by the legions of France, they alone remained unconquered. Under Major-General Alexander Mackenzie Fraser, the first battalion was engaged in the expedition to Egypt against the Turks; who, in an evil hour, when French power seemed omnipotent, and French influences in consequence triumphed, had been pressed into the service of the Emperor, against their better judgment and truer interests. A single campaign successfully terminated the war, when our first battalion returned to Sicily.
In 1809, with the expedition under Sir John Stuart, the Twenty-first attacked and captured from Murat, vicegerent[*typo for viceregent?] of Napoleon, styled King of Naples, the islands Ischia and Procida, containing immense material of war. An attack upon the castle of Scylla in Calabria failed, and an attempt to defend the town of Valmi resulted in serious loss to our gallant Fusiliers—no fewer than 80 officers and men falling into the hands of the enemy. Imbued, like his great master, with an insatiate appetite for conquest, and a restless ambition, Murat vehemently longed for an opportunity to expel the British from Sicily, and so unite that valuable island to his new kingdom. Having concentrated a powerful army, and prepared an immense flotilla of gunboats and transports on the shores of Calabria, he, on a dark night in September, 1810, attempted a descent. As the morning dawned it revealed the enemy to the British, and so interrupted their further transport and landing. Those who had come over in the night were so fiercely assailed by the Twenty-first and other regiments, that, with the sea behind and a powerful enemy around, without the prospect of relief or any chance of escape, the French surrendered. The ill success of this well-concerted expedition, induced Murat to abandon for the present the idea of extending his territory beyond the mainland. But our troops were not always thus successful. In 1812 the grenadiers of the Twenty-first sustained a severe disaster as part of the British expedition which failed in an attempted descent upon the Spanish coast at Alicante. In the expiring agonies of “the empire of Napoleon,” our Fusiliers, although not seriously exposed to the stern shock of battle, yet helped materially, by their presence in Italy, and their advance from Leghorn to Genoa, to drive out the relics of the French “army of Italy,” and so restore freedom to the oppressed who peopled those lovely plains. At Genoa the regiment encountered the enemy and prevailed.
Meanwhile our Government, concentrating the whole energies of the nation, and labouring to hold together the discordant materials which composed the Grand Alliance, strove, by one gigantic, persevering effort, to crush out the usurped dominion of France—the empire—to dethrone the tyrant, and liberate Europe. Accordingly, a British force had been sent to the Netherlands, including the second battalion of the Twenty-first. It took part in the unfortunate attack upon Bergen-op-Zoom, where, miscalculating the strength and resolution of the enemy, who was strongly posted in a vast citadel of powerful works, the battalion suffered severely; encompassed by a numerous foe, many were taken prisoners. The abdication of Napoleon having conferred peace upon Europe, the second battalion returned with the army to Britain, whilst the first battalion was embarked for service in the West Indies.
The innate pride of the Yankee being hurt by our sovereignty of the seas, determined to dispute our generally acknowledged title thereto. America in consequence became involved in war with us. To chasten them for repeated insults which they sought to heap upon our flag, a British expedition, including the first battalion of the Twenty-first, with the Twenty-ninth and Sixty-second regiments, landed in the Bay of Chesapeake. Advancing up the river Patuxent to Upper Marlborough, our army destroyed a numerous fleet of gunboats which had molested our commercial interests in these waters. Within sixteen miles of Washington, the troops, encouraged by the promise of so rich a prize, ventured still further to advance. Encountering and defeating the American army at Bladensburg, they entered Washington in triumph. The Twenty-first, as the van of the British, was the first to set foot in this haughty metropolis of the New World. By the hard decrees of war, not only the arsenals, but much of that which claimed, as public edifices, etc., to beautify and ornament this splendid city, were given over to destruction; and having thus avenged the indignities of the past, our army retired to the fleet at St Benedict. An expedition was afterwards undertaken against Baltimore; but, although success crowned our arms whenever or wherever the enemy encountered our soldiers on any thing like equal terms, especially in the action which ensued at Godly Wood, still was it impossible for such a handful of brave men, amidst increasing difficulties and numerous enemies, to do more; and hence, when our troops had drawn near to Baltimore, they found that opulent and populous city so strongly defended by an American army of 15,000, and deprived, moreover, by circumstances of the assistance of the fleet, it was considered impossible to prosecute the attack with any prospect of success. Retiring, therefore, our army embarked, well satisfied with the results their valour had already achieved. This battalion of the Fusiliers was stationed at Jamaica for a time, until a new expedition was set on foot. The prize in view was the reduction of the great maritime city of New Orleans, situated below the level of the Mississippi which flows by to the sea. The Americans, learning wisdom from the past, and appreciating the value and importance of this city, had laboured to strengthen its means of defence, by the construction of vast and formidable entrenchments which shielded it effectually from assault on the land side. To make good these defences, a powerful army of 12,000 men was thrown into the city, commanded by an able officer—General Jackson. The Britishers who dared to assail such a powerfully defended city did not exceed 6000 men, comprising the Fourth, the Seventh, the first battalion of the Twenty-first, the Forty-third, the Forty-fourth, the Eighty-fifth, the Ninety-third Highlanders, and the Ninety-fifth or Rifle Brigade, with a body of seamen from the fleet. Notwithstanding the disparity in numbers, all might have gone well in the assault, but for the culpable negligence of those in charge, who had forgotten to bring up the scaling-ladders, and ere they could be brought up, our men, unprotected from the deadly discharge of the enemy’s numerous artillery, helpless to defend themselves, were mowed down like grass; and yet their front, though sadly contracted by the loss of upwards of 2000 men, remained firm as ever. Sir Edward Pakenham, the British commander, and his generals of division, Gibbs and Keane, had fallen. Major-General Gibbs died of his wounds, but Major-General Keane became afterwards Lord Keane. These sore disasters negatived Colonel Thornton’s success against the battery on the right, and rendered retreat an absolute necessity, which was ably conducted by Major-General Sir John Lambert, although in presence of a vastly superior and victorious enemy. The relics of this gallant little army, who had dared to assail such strength and numbers, were embarked in the fleet on the 27th January, 1815. The total loss of the Twenty-first on this occasion was 451 officers and men, which serves to show how dreadful was the carnage throughout, and how desperate the valour that sustained it without once flinching from duty. Ere peace was concluded, which happened shortly thereafter, the expedition succeeded in the capture of Fort Bowyer, near Mobile.
After such severe service, having returned home and been somewhat recruited by drafts from the second battalion, although too late to share the glories of the Waterloo campaign, the battalion was sent to the Netherlands, and thence, advancing into France, formed part of the “army of occupation” which remained in that kingdom until peace had not merely been restored but secured. In 1816 the second battalion was disbanded at Stirling; and a year later, the first battalion, returning home, was variously stationed in England. In 1819 the regiment was sent on foreign service to the West Indies, where it was successively stationed in Barbadoes, Tobago, Demerara, St Vincent, and Grenada. Whilst in Demerara a rebellion of the negroes occurred. The good conduct of the regiment in suppressing the revolt elicited the commendation of the King; the Duke of York, commander-in-chief; Sir Henry Ward, K.C.B., commanding in these islands; and the Court of Policy of the colony. These were accompanied by more substantial rewards. “The Court of Policy voted, as a special and permanent mark of the high estimation in which the inhabitants of the colony held the services of Lieut.-Colonel Leahy, the officers, and soldiers, ‘Five Hundred Guineas to be laid out in the purchase of Plate for the regimental mess,’ and Two Hundred Guineas for the purchase of a sword for Lieut.-Colonel Leahy; also Fifty Guineas for the purchase of a sword for Lieutenant Brady, who commanded a detachment at Mahaica, and whose cool, steady, and intrepid conduct, aided by the courage and discipline of his men, gave an early and effectual check to the progress of revolt in that quarter.” Returning home in 1828, the regiment was honoured in doing duty at Windsor Castle, the residence of royalty. In these times of comparative peace little of interest falls to be narrated. We find the regiment employed in various garrisons throughout the kingdom, until, in 1832 and 1833, it was sent out in charge of convicts to New South Wales, and stationed in the colonies of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. In 1839 it was removed to the East Indies, and was stationed successively at Chuiswiah, Calcutta, Dinapore, Kamptee, Agra, Cawnpore, and Calcutta, returning to England in 1848.
In 1854 Russian aggressions had so stirred the nations in defence of the right, that Turkey in her weakness found ready sympathisers. Foremost of these, France and England, side by side, had sent forth powerful armaments, which, landing upon the Crimean peninsula, created a helpful, and, as the long-expected result proved, a successful diversion in favour of the oppressed empire of the Sultan. Amongst the brave, composing the 26,800 British, that landed at Old Fort, were our gallant Fusiliers, the Twenty-first. In the Fourth Division, brigaded with the Twentieth, Fifty-seventh, and Sixty-eighth, they were present in reserve at the Alma, and in action at Inkermann. It is needless to repeat the details of the war, seeing especially we must take occasion so frequently to recur to incidents connected with it; besides, the general events must be still so fresh in the memories of most of our readers as to need no repetition here. Enough be it to say of the conduct of the Twenty-first Royal North British Fusiliers, that it displayed the same excellence as of old. Since the return of the regiment to the beloved shores of Old England, it has enjoyed the peace which its own gallantry had well contributed to achieve.
As the glory of the sun shining through a humid atmosphere is even more resplendent and more to be admired in the heaven-bespangled, many-coloured robe of the rainbow than when he appears in the full strength of noon-day, so valour—true, genuine valour, the valour of our gallant Twenty-first—is the more illustrious and meritorious that it is to be found emerging from amid many vicissitudes and adversities. It is usually the bravest of the brave that fall. Alas! that so many who gave fair promise to ornament and illustrate the British soldier as the hero, should have fallen—buds nipped by the frost of death. Let it be borne very encouragingly in mind, that adversity is the furnace wherein the gold of true valour is purified—is the schoolmaster which teaches how to win prosperity. The greatest glory which rests upon the departed genius of Sir John Moore, is that which pictures him in adversity in retreat—his lion spirit unsubdued, his towering abilities shining forth. And so, in closing our record, we would do justice, not merely to valour gilded by brilliant victories, but especially testify to true valour incarnated in the man—the hero ever struggling, not always winning, yet always worthy, the reward.