History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army

by Archibald K. Murray

“Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;

For ’tis a throne where honour may be crowned

Sole monarch of the universal earth.”

PENINSULA—AMERICA—WEST INDIES—CANADA—“THE WRECK

OF THE BIRKENHEAD”—1806–1862.

As soon as the Seventy-fourth had returned, the business of recruiting occupied the earnest attention of its officers. Removed to Scotland for this purpose, it failed to complete its establishment, and, in consequence, was transferred to Ireland to receive its complement by volunteers from the militia. In 1810 it received orders to prepare for foreign service; and, accordingly, embarked from Cork for Portugal, under Lieut.-Colonel the Honourable Robert De Poer Trench, with a total strength of 730 effectives. Arrived in the Tagus and disembarked, it was advanced to Viseu. Its junction with the allied army of Lord Wellington was hailed with delight by that chief, who ever felt a warm interest in its history, as the “Assaye regiment” whose heroes had won for him his first great victory. Complimenting Colonel Trench, he said: “If the Seventy-fourth would behave in that country as they had done in India, he ought to be proud to command such a regiment.” Included in the third or well-known “Fighting Division” of Major-General Picton, the Seventy-fourth was brigaded with the first battalion of the Forty-fifth, the Eighty-eighth, and three companies of the fifth battalion of the Sixtieth Regiment. From the concentrated and overwhelming military might of Napoleon, Marshal Massena was detached at the head of 75,000 veterans, styled the “Army of Portugal,” charged with the destruction of the British who had dared to dispute the claims of his master to the dominion of the Peninsula. In presence of such a superior foe, as regards numbers, Wellington resolved on retreat; and, accordingly, withdrawing to his own defences, induced the enemy to draw off in pursuit. Taking advantage of every position which by natural or artificial strength afforded an opportunity to check or impede the pursuit of the French, Lord Wellington frequently severely punished the temerity of the foe. Thus, in the battle of Busaco, where the Seventy-fourth for awhile withstood the attack of an entire French column, until sustained by the Ninth and Thirty-eighth regiments, it drove the enemy down the hill.

Finally arrested by the formidable lines of Torres Vedras, the French, vainly endeavouring to blockade the position, fatally suffered from disease and want, whilst our troops enjoyed every comfort in abundance and in safety within the entrenchments. Convinced of the futility of any attempt to surmount the defences of the position, Marshal Massena was constrained in turn to retreat, closely pursued along the banks of the Mondego by the British. With the third division, in the van of the army, the Seventy-fourth was almost incessantly engaged driving the enemy from post to post. For the relief of Almeida, Marshal Massena, considerably reinforced, once more ventured to advance. Encountering the light companies of the first, third, and fifth divisions, and the second battalion of the Eighty-third Regiment, in occupation of the village of Fuentes d’Onor, the French laboured to expel them. Reinforced by the Twenty-fourth, Seventy-first, and Seventy-ninth regiments, and ultimately supported by the Forty-fifth, Seventy-fourth, and Eighty-eighth regiments, the whole of the enemy’s sixth corps was routed and driven from the village it had at first won. Interrupted in the siege of Badajoz by the approach of the combined armies of Marmont and Soult, the British temporarily retired. A similar diversion by the army of Marshal Marmont in favour of Ciudad Rodrigo, in like manner disturbed its blockade. Whilst quartered in this vicinity, the third division of our army, threatened by an attack from a very powerful corps of French, which, taking advantage of the immediate presence of Marshal Marmont, had undertaken a sortie from the fortress, retreated. Under command of General Montbrun, the enemy so severely pressed the British division, that, in retiring, the Seventy-fourth became separated from the rest, and was generally believed to have been captured. A long detour, under the friendly shield of night, enabled the regiment to escape the danger and rejoin the division in its camp at Guinaldo. Overjoyed in their safe return, Major-General Picton uttered these memorable words, expressive of his faith in the valour of our Highlanders, saying, “he thought he must have heard more firing before the Seventy-fourth could be taken.”

On the retirement of the French, returning to the duties of the siege, the regiment, on the 19th of January, was included in the storming party which, despite the most strenuous resistance of the foe, won Ciudad Rodrigo. This achievement was immediately followed by the re-investment of Badajoz; a fortress esteemed impregnable, the more so as it was defended by some of the choicest troops of France. The progress had been so satisfactory, and the breaches in the ramparts deemed so far practicable, that by the 6th April, 1812, the assault was ordered, and the Herculean duty of storming the defences of the castle committed to the third division; accomplished, nevertheless, after “a combat so furiously fought, so terribly won, so dreadful in all its circumstances, that posterity can scarcely be expected to credit the tale.” Lieutenant Alexander Grant of the Seventy-fourth, leading the advance, entered the castle, but fell in the moment of victory. “Foremost in the escalade was John MʻLauchlan, the regimental piper, who, the instant he mounted the castle wall, began playing on his pipes the regimental quick step, ‘The Campbells are coming,’ at the head of the advance along the ramparts, as coolly as if on a common parade, until his music was stopped by a shot through the bag; he was afterwards seen by an officer of the regiment seated on a gun-carriage, quietly repairing the damage, regardless of the shot flying about him, and presently recommenced his animating tune.” Although the other assaults were not so successful, still the triumph of the third and fifth divisions at their several points of attack so turned the defences of the place, that resistance appearing hopeless, the fortress was surrendered.

Various manœuvres at length brought about the battle of Salamanca, where the French, under Marshal Marmont, were totally defeated, driven “as it were before a mighty wind without help or stay.” The brunt of the action was sustained by the French division of General Thomières, originally 7000 strong, but which, notwithstanding the most splendid illustration of heroism, was utterly cut to pieces or dispersed. In this great battle the third division figured conspicuously. Lord Londonderry writes: “The attack of the third division was not only the most spirited, but the most perfect thing of the kind that modern times have witnessed. Regardless alike of a charge of cavalry and of the murderous fire which the enemy’s batteries opened, on went these fearless warriors, horse and foot, without check or pause, until they won the ridge, and then the infantry giving their volley, and the cavalry falling on sword in hand, the French were pierced, broken, and discomfited. So close, indeed, was the struggle, that in several instances the British colours were seen waving over the heads of the enemy’s battalions;” whilst the advance in unbroken line of the Seventy-fourth, for upwards of three miles, testified to its efficiency, and drew forth the plaudits of Major-General Pakenham, then commanding the division, who vehemently exclaimed, “Beautifully done, Seventy-fourth! beautiful, Seventy-fourth!”

The glorious results immediately flowing from this great victory, were crowned in the capitulation and occupation of Madrid. Whilst stationed in the capital, the gaieties of which agreeably relieved the hardships of the camp, our officers at the same time beheld the splendid misery the tyrant-extortionating rule of France had entailed upon the citizens, many of whom, once great and opulent, now reduced to abject beggary, gratefully accepted the assistance of their deliverers. In these deeds of charity the officers of the Seventy-fourth were not wanting, but, with those of the Forty-fifth, daily fed about two hundred of the starving grandees.