The Black Watch at Ticonderoga and Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe

by Frederick B. Richards

The uniform of this period was a “scarlet jacket and waistcoat, with buff facings and white lace, tartan plaid of twelve yards plaited round the middle of the body, the upper part being fixed on the left shoulder, ready to be thrown loose and wrapped over both shoulders and firelock in rainy weather. At night, the plaid served the purpose of a blanket, and was a sufficient covering for the Highlanders. These were called belted plaids, from being kept tight to the body by a belt, and were worn on guards, reviews, and on all occasions when the men were in full dress. On this belt hung the pistols and dirk when worn. In the barracks, and when not on duty, the little kilt or philibeg was worn, a blue bonnet with a border of white, red, and green, arranged in small squares to resemble, as is said, the fess cheque in the arms of the different branches of the Stewart family, and a tuft of feathers, or sometimes, from economy or necessity, a small piece of black bearskin. The arms were a musket, a bayonet, and a large basket-hilted broadsword. These were furnished by Government; such of the men as chose to supply themselves with pistols and dirks were allowed to carry them, and targets after the fashion of the country. The sword-belt was of black leather, and the cartouch-box was carried in front, supported by a narrow belt round the middle.”[5]

“While the companies acted independently, each commander assumed the tartan of his own Clan. When embodied, no clan having a superior claim to offer an uniform plaid to the whole, and Lord Crawford, the colonel, being a Lowlander, a new pattern was assumed, and which has ever since been known as the 42d, or Black Watch tartan, being distinct from all others.[6] Lord John Murray gave the Athole tartan for the philibeg. The difference was only a stripe of scarlet, to distinguish it from that of the belted plaid. The pipers wore a red tartan of very bright colours, (of the pattern known by the name of the Stewart or Royal Tartan), so that they could be more clearly seen at a distance. When a band of music was added, plaids of the pipers’ pattern were given to them.”[7]

Having given briefly the origin of the Regiment, we will pass to the period which is the subject of our article.

May, 1756, war having been formally declared between France and England, a body of troops, the Highlanders forming a part, were embarked under the command of Lieut. General James Abercrombie and landed at New York, June, 1756. These were soon followed by more troops under the Earl of Loudon who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army of America.

The official name of the Regiment at this time was the 42d Regiment of Foot, but they are often spoken of in dispatches simply as the Highlanders, because they were the only Highland Regiment then in this section, or as Lord John Murray’s Highlanders from the custom of the times of calling a Regiment by the name of its Honorary Colonel. The commander of the Black Watch at this time was Lieut. Col. Francis Grant, son of the Laird of Grant, who had served in the Regiment from the time he had received his commission as Ensign, October 25, 1739. He was made Lieutenant Colonel December 17, 1755 and was in command of the Regiment all through the American campaign. The only other officer who had served continuously from the formation of the Regiment in 1739 was Gordon Graham of Drainie, who in 1756 was senior captain.

The record of the Regiment from the landing in June, 1756, until the battle of July, 1758, is exceedingly meagre. In fact nothing of importance was done by the whole army. As one author puts it “Loudon was so engrossed in schemes for improving the condition of his men that he seemed to have no time for employing them against the enemy.” The following extract from a letter from the Earl of Loudon to William Pitt dated New York, March 10th, 1757, will illustrate the method of quartering troops of that period.

“In the end of your letter you have acquainted me, that words shall be inserted, in the mutiny act to take away every doubt about the Right of Quartering extending to America.

When I writ on that subject, I was but just arrived, and the troops were mostly encamped. Since that I have had disputes to settle, all over this Continent, in settling the winter quarters for the Troops from whence I find, that the manner of quartering in England, as in time of peace, on Publick Houses only, will in no shape answer the intent in this country, for there are few Publick Houses and most of them sell nothing but spirits, where they possess only one room in which they sell the liquor, where men cannot be quartered.

Whilst the war lasts, necessity will justify exceeding that rule, as Troops must be under cover, in the places where it is necessary to post them, for the security of the country and carrying on the service, but as soon as a peace comes, it will, by the English rule, be impossible to quarter any number of Troops, in this country, without a new regulation, and the only remedy that occurs to me at present, is adopting the method of quartering in Scotland, where for the same reason of there not being Publick Houses sufficient for the reception of Troops they are by law quartered on private houses.