Nor count him as a stranger:
Remember he’s his country’s stay,
In day and hour o’ danger.”
MARTINIQUE—HAVANNAH—BUSHYRUN—ILLINOIS—AMERICAN
REVOLUTION—HALIFAX—CAPE BRETON—1762–1769.
Its sobriety, abstemious habits, great activity, and capability of bearing the vicissitudes of the West Indian climate, had commended the selection of the Forty-second as part of an expedition then assembling at Barbadoes for a renewal of the attack upon the valuable island of Martinique, which, after some severe fighting, was surrendered, in 1762, by the French governor to the British commander, Major-General the Honourable Robert Monckton. Scarcely had the rude tempest of war subsided in its wrath, and the genial calm of peace asserted its blessed influence over the nation, ere that tranquillity was again disturbed by the malignant passions which unhappily prevailed, and launched our country into antagonism with Spain. Reinforced by fresh troops from home—including our Highlanders—the British army of the West Indies, under the Earl of Albemarle, embarking, effected a landing on the Spanish island of Cuba, and gloriously captured its wealthy metropolis, acquiring therein prize-money to the enormous extent of three millions sterling. After achieving this very successful result, the regiment, embraced in one battalion, returned to the continent of America, where it was employed in most harassing duty, checking and punishing the depredatory incursions of the Indians, who were ever on the alert to avenge themselves on the white men of the colony, whom they could not help regarding, and not altogether unreasonably, as their spoilers, and hence their natural enemies. At Bushyrun the Forty-second encountered the army of red warriors, and inflicted a severe defeat, which so sorely distressed them, that, tendering their submission, a favourable peace was thereupon secured. Thereafter a party of a hundred men, detached from the regiment, under Captain, afterwards General Sir Thomas Stirling, was engaged in an exploring expedition, journeying 3000 miles in ten months, as far as Fort Charteris on the Illinois; and notwithstanding all the difficulties and dangers encountered in the way, returning to head-quarters safe and sound. At length, after these many faithful and arduous services, the regiment received the order to return home. Enjoying the esteem of the colonists, its departure was most deeply regretted. The regiment reached Cork in October, 1767, and remained on duty in Ireland for about twelve years, whence it was removed to Scotland in 1775, to be recruited. Scarcely had its establishment been completed when the American Revolution, involving our country in a new war, occasioned its recall to that continent. On the eve of its departure from Greenock, the regiment comprised 931 Highlanders, 74 Lowlanders, 5 Englishmen (in the band), 1 Welshman, and 2 Irishmen—ample evidence of its genuine Highland character. In the passage outwards the fleet was separated in a tempest, and a company of the Forty-second, which had been quartered on board the “Oxford” transport, was so unfortunate as to be captured by an American privateer. Retained as prisoners on board the “Oxford,” the soldiers succeeded in overpowering the crew, and, assuming the command of the vessel, navigated it to the Bay of Chesapeake, unwittingly to find themselves in the enemy’s grasp, who held possession of the bay. As captives, our Highlanders were removed into the interior of the continent, where every attempt was made to seduce them from their allegiance, and tempt them to enter the American service, but, “true to their colours,” without avail. Meanwhile, the rest of the regiment had joined the British army in Staten Island, under General the Honourable Sir William Howe.
During the whole course of the war which followed, it may with truth be averred that no one regiment was more constantly employed, serving chiefly with one or other of the flank corps, and that no regiment was more exposed to danger, underwent more fatigue, or suffered more from both.
The events of the war are so much a matter of history, that we forbear to detain the reader with more than a mere enumeration of those in which the Forty-second bore a conspicuous part. Having, through the battle of Brooklyn, achieved the capture of Long Island, landing with the British army on the mainland, the Highlanders were present with distinction at the siege of Fort Washington, the capture of Fort Lee, the re-taking of Trenton, but especially in the affair of Pisquata, where, assailed by overwhelming numbers, the gallantry of the regiment was beyond all compliment. The Forty-second was also present, although in a subordinate position, at the battle of Brandywine, where General Washington was defeated. On the 20th September, 1777, it was detached with the first battalion of Light Infantry and the Forty-fourth regiment, to surprise a strong force of Americans which lay concealed in the recesses of the forest in the neighbourhood of the British camp, purposing to annoy the army and cut off stragglers. The surprise—effected with scarcely any loss—favoured by the darkness of the night, was successful. The enemy, wholly unsuspecting, was utterly dispersed with great slaughter. The regiment was further engaged in the attack upon Billingspoint and the defence of Germanstown.
At length allied with France, the Americans were so helped and encouraged that it became necessary to concentrate the British army, and, in consequence, relinquishing many of their more distant conquests, our troops retired to the sea coast to oppose the threatened debarkation of a French force from their fleet which cruised off the coast. Dispersed by a storm, this armament failed to afford that assistance which had been anticipated, compelling General Sullivan, who commanded an auxiliary army of Americans, to abandon the siege of Nieuport, in Rhode Island, and beat a precipitate retreat to the mainland. Meanwhile, the Forty-second, with the Thirty-third, Forty-sixth, and Sixty-fourth regiments, successfully accomplished the destruction of the arsenals and dockyards of Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard. At Stoneypoint and Vereplanks, after a desperate struggle, the persevering efforts of the Royal Highlanders were rewarded with complete success. Under General Sir Henry Clinton, the regiment formed a part of the expedition which undertook and achieved the siege of Charlestown. The increasing force and daring of the enemy, inspired and sustained by the genius of Washington, glorying in the disaster of Yorktown, where a British army was forced to surrender, induced peace, which, concluded in 1782, put an end to further hostilities. The regiment served for a while thereafter in Halifax, and, ere it returned home in 1789, garrisoned the island of Cape Breton. Whilst in Nova Scotia, in 1785, Major-General John Campbell, in presenting a new set of colours to the regiment, thus ably addressed it—an address which, in its excellence, lives to encourage our army, and than which we are convinced no better epitome of a soldier’s duty exists:—
“I congratulate you on the service you have done your country, and the honour you have procured yourselves, by protecting your old colours, and defending them from your enemies in different engagements during the late unnatural rebellion.