She enlisted in Captain Tichborne's company of foot as Christopher Welch. In a skirmish before the battle of Landen she was wounded, and in the next year—1694—taken prisoner by the French, but exchanged.
At her own wish she was now allowed to join the Greys, and continued so until after the peace of Ryswick. On the renewal of war in 1701 she went back to Holland and re-enlisted in the Greys. She fought at Niuwegen, Venloo, Bonn, and in most of the engagements of the campaign, till at the battle of Donauwerth she received a ball in the hip, which caused a temporary retirement into hospital. The ball was never extracted, but Christian was again under arms in time to share in the spoil after Blenheim. While forming one of a guard to some prisoners taken in that battle, she again saw her husband after a separation of thirteen years. She lost no time in revealing her identity to him; but so enamoured was she of camp life that she extracted a promise from Welsh that he would pass himself off as her brother. After Ramillies she, of course, had to cease to be a trooper, but she still continued to live in camp, and accompanied her husband as his acknowledged wife. In 1709 Richard Welsh was killed at Malplaquet. Christian herself found his body, and her lamentations were so extravagant as to excite the open commiseration of a Captain Ross, whence it is said she gained the sobriquet of Mother Ross, by which she was known for the rest of her days. Although grieving so that for a whole week she refused to touch food, she married Hugh Jones, a grenadier, within three months. In 1710 Jones was killed at the siege of Saint-Venant. In 1712 she returned to England, was presented to Queen Anne, and awarded a life pension of a shilling a day. She afterwards went to Dublin and married a soldier named Davies. She died on July 7th, 1739, and, at her own request, her body was interred among the pensioners in Chelsea burying ground, and three grand volleys were fired over her grave.
After this great victory at Ramillies, on Whit Sunday, May 23rd, 1705, the Greys were occupied in covering the successful sieges of several fortified towns in Flanders, and in the autumn the British troops went into quarters in Flanders, excepting the Royal Scots Greys and Irish Dragoons, who proceeded to Holland.
Early in the spring of 1707 the Greys went to Spanish Brabant, and encamped near the banks of the little river Sienne. In this year the Acts of Parliament were passed for the Union of the crowns of England and Scotland, and from that time the Greys were designated "The Royal Regiment of North British Dragoons."
The army was assembled at Brussels, and afterwards encamped near Weldert. The year passed off very quietly; but Richard Cannon found some record of a sharp fight between twenty-five troopers of the Greys sent out to cut forage and thirty French musketeers, the result alleged being fourteen Frenchmen killed and the rest taken.
On July 11th, 1708, the Greys were engaged in the important battle of Oudenarde, and this battle, with the story of the events preceding it, is full of interest, but would be out of place in this record of one particular regiment.
After this the Regiment formed part of the covering army, and was employed in escorting provisions and ammunition to the troops laying siege to Lisle, the capital of French Flanders. After Lisle had fallen to the Allies, the Greys were sent into winter quarters in Flanders. The winter proved extremely severe, and a considerable number of men and horses are said to have been frozen to death.
In 1709 the Greys formed part of the troops covering the siege and fall of Tournay; but the event of the year was the battle of Malplaquet, fought on September 11th, 1709. The Greys were brigaded with the Royal Irish Dragoons, under Brigadier-General Sybourg. They were posted near the centre of the Allied Army to sustain the attacks of the infantry and protect the artillery, and for some time were only spectators of the fierce storm of battle which raged on all sides; at length, however, they were ordered to file through a wood in their front, and charge. Scarcely had the brigade emerged from among the trees before it encountered a line of French cavalry; these squadrons were, however, soon dispersed, but they were instantly succeeded by a new line of champions, consisting of a number of squadrons of the French household cavalry, clad in armour, and advancing in firm array. Richard Cannon has described how the Greys and Irish Dragoons met these foaming squadrons with signal bravery, but were driven from their ground by superior numbers. The two regiments soon rallied, and being joined by several corps of horse, returned to the charge; yet such was the resolution displayed by the French troopers that it was not until the third charge that they were driven from the field. The two victorious regiments were specially thanked by the Duke of Marlborough. The Greys lost about thirty killed and wounded.
The regiment was afterwards employed in covering the siege of Mons, the capital of Hainault, and after the surrender of Mons marched into winter quarters at the little town of Tiel.
Malplaquet was a desperately hard-fought battle. Not for the first or last time in our history, an important battle was nearly lost through the imbecile action of the authorities at home in failing to support an able general abroad.