The NINETY-SECOND regiment was ordered to line a ditch in the front of this latter road, to the left of the farm-houses, and the Duke of Wellington took his station with it. The enemy poured a very hot fire of artillery on this post, and his cavalry charged it, but was received by a well-directed volley from the regiment, and forced to retire with great loss of men and horses. His cannonade still continued, and his cavalry again charged, and were repulsed as before. In the meantime the French infantry had been forming under cover of their cavalry attacks, assisted by their artillery, and now advanced upon the regiment, when the Duke of Wellington said, “NINETY-SECOND, you must charge these fellows!” These words were scarcely uttered, when every man of the regiment sprang over the ditch, and his orders were fully and literally obeyed. The enemy was not only driven from the houses and gardens about Quatre Bras, but chased for half a mile beyond it, until the regiment was recalled about nightfall, and the action ceased.
On this occasion the regiment had to lament the loss of its commanding officer, Colonel Cameron,[16] an officer who had led the NINETY-SECOND in many a sanguinary field. He fell as he had lived, with honor; and the Duke of Wellington thus expressed himself in his despatch to Earl Bathurst of the 29th of June, transmitting lists of the killed and wounded:—
“Your Lordship will see in the enclosed lists the names of some most valuable officers lost to His Majesty’s service. Among them I cannot avoid to mention Colonel Cameron, of the NINETY-SECOND, and Colonel Sir Henry Ellis, of the twenty-third regiments, to whose conduct I have frequently drawn your Lordship’s attention, and who at last fell distinguishing themselves at the head of the brave troops which they commanded.
“Notwithstanding the glory of the occasion, it is impossible not to lament such men, both on account of the public, and as friends.”
The Duke of Wellington particularly mentioned the twenty-eighth, forty-second, seventy-ninth, and NINETY-SECOND regiments in his account of the action at Quatre Bras.
The NINETY-SECOND regiment during the action was successively commanded by Colonel Cameron, Lieut.-Colonel James Mitchell, and Major Donald Macdonald. Colonel Cameron, Captain William Little, Lieutenant James John Chisholm, Ensigns Abel Becher, and John Ross McPherson were killed. Lieut.-Colonel James Mitchell, Captains George W. Holmes, Dugald Campbell, and William Charles Grant; Lieutenants Robert Winchester, Thomas Hobbs, Thomas McIntosh, James Ker Ross, Ronald McDonald, Hector Munro Innes, George Logan, John McKinlay, George Mackie, Alexander McPherson, Ewen Ross, Ensigns John Branwell, Robert Logan, Angus McDonald, Robert Hewitt, and assistant-surgeon John Stewart were wounded. Thirty-five rank and file were killed, and two hundred and forty-five were wounded.
The following is a copy of Major McDonald’s report of the action, written on the spot, to Major-General Sir Denis Pack, K.C.B.—
“Sir,
“Colonel Cameron and Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell having been both severely wounded, I have the honor to report, for your information, (not having been under your eye during the whole of the day,) that the NINETY-SECOND regiment repulsed repeated attacks of cavalry, and by a rapid movement charged a column of the enemy, and drove them to the extremity of the wood on our right.