This corps was engaged in the very hottest of the contest, especially in and around Savannah and Charleston. One only instance, illustrative of the excellence of the regiment, we have space to quote:—At Stone Ferry, assailed by 2000 Americans, Captain Campbell, with 59 men and officers, heroically maintained his post, until only seven soldiers were left standing—the rest being either killed or wounded. To most of the men this was their first encounter with the enemy; “they had not yet learned to retreat,” nor had they forgotten what had been always inculcated in their native country, that “to retreat was disgraceful.” When Captain Campbell fell, he desired such of his men as were able to make the best of their way to the redoubt, but they refused to obey, as it would bring lasting disgrace upon them all to leave their officers in the field with none to carry them back. The seven men retired carrying their wounded officers with them, and accompanied by those of the soldiers who were able to walk. Fraser’s Highlanders closed a brilliant career as part of the unfortunate garrison of Yorktown, who were obliged to capitulate, and so, as prisoners of war, only restored to their liberty and country on the conclusion of the war, when they were disbanded. In this last disaster, Fraser’s Highlanders became associated with another body of Highlanders,
The Seventy-Sixth, or MʻDonald’s Highlanders,
which had been engaged in the war, although at first on a different field.
The Seventy-Fourth, or Argyllshire Highlanders
served at the same period with the British army of the north on the frontiers of Canada. Acting with these were two battalions of Highland emigrants, mostly veterans of the previous war, who, serving in the Highland brigade of that time, had thereafter accepted the bounty of Government and settled in America, known as the
Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment.
Besides these, the wars of the time induced the formation of the
Atholl Highlanders and Aberdeenshire Highlanders;
and, when the French Revolution further enveloped the world in the flames of war,
The Ninety-Seventh, or Strathspey Highlanders; and