Brave British soldiers and the Victoria Cross / a general account of the regiments and men of the British Army, and stories of the brave deeds which won the prize "for valour"

by Unknown

This same regiment took part in the unfortunate expedition under General Whitelock, which, in 1806, attempted to seize Buenos Ayres. It was owing to no lack of bravery on the part of our soldiers that their efforts were not crowned with success, but no amount of courage could compensate for the incapacity or treachery of the officer in command. Our army had to capitulate to the Spaniards, and remained in their power till peace was concluded. During this interval the Spaniards began to tamper with the Highlanders, and to hold out inducements to them to desert. These allurements were not without their effect upon those of them who happened to belong to the same religion. No less than thirty-five were induced to go over to the enemy. An incident occurred on this occasion which proves in the most striking manner the influence that home associations still continue to exercise over the minds of the Highlanders. A soldier named Donald Macdonald had almost yielded to the solicitations of the Spaniards to remain at Buenos Ayres, and while he was still wavering a comrade attempted to dissuade him from his purpose. Using no argument, he appealed to his heart by singing that touching Highland melody, “Lochaber no more.” The song awoke a thousand memories of home and country. The tears started into poor Donald’s eyes, and as he wiped them away he exclaimed, “Na, na! I canna stay! I’d maybe return to Lochaber nae mair.”

We know that a considerable mind has given forth his decision that if he had the making of a people’s songs, he cared not who made their laws; and the case of this Highlander, brought back to a sense of duty by one of the songs of his infancy, proves that in certain natures an appeal to the feelings is far more powerful than any appeal to the intellect. Nor has “Lochaber no more” lost its magic power over the Highland heart. We have seen many proofs of the contrary, one of which may be given. There is—or at least there was recently—in the Scots Fusilier Guards a soldier of the name of Roderick Ross, a native of Inverness-shire. Roderick had the build of a giant, but the heart of a child; he stood six feet four inches in his stockings, but was as soft and tender-hearted as a young maiden. He was respected as a brave soldier who had done his duty well all through the Crimea, but his friends the pipers of the regiment could not always resist the temptation to amuse themselves by reviving, or rather eliciting, his ardent love of country. The bagpipes begin to utter the wailing notes of “Lochaber no more,” Roderick’s huge frame is agitated like a mountain ash in a storm; tears spring to his eyes, and, unable to control his emotion, he rushes from the room exclaiming, “I canna stand ‘Lochaber no more;’ it aye gars (makes) me think o’ deserting.”

To get back to Macleod’s Highlanders at Buenos Ayres. While a few went over to the Spaniards, the regiment as a whole remained faithful to their colours, and their fidelity called forth the warm approval of the authorities. On their return home they were stationed at Cork, where General Floyd, a veteran officer who had often witnessed their gallantry in India, presented them with new colours, and referred in his address to the temptations they had overcome. “You now stand on this parade,” he said, “in defiance of the allurements held out to base desertion. You are endeared to the army and to your country. You insure the esteem of all true soldiers and good men.” The 42nd Highlanders were still more distinguished for their attachment to their colours. Many of the privates were gentlemen of birth and education, who preferred the profession of arms to every other, and were possessed of as fine a sense of honour as the officers under whom they served. In the war of American Independence they were brought frequently into contact with the insurgents, and exposed to those temptations to desert which many of our soldiers formerly belonging to regiments now stationed in Canada have not been able to resist. The 42nd passed through five campaigns with their honour pure and unsullied; they had to endure many privations; their ranks were thinned by the bullets of the enemy; they had no prospect of promotion in the British service; they might have risen to the highest rank in that of the insurgents. And yet not one of their number deserted; the regiment remained free from this stain till it received a draft of an inferior class of men from the 26th Regiment, a few of whom went over to the enemy. These men, however, did not strictly belong to the 42nd, and never possessed that esprit de corps by which the Highlanders were animated. We question whether it can be said of any other regiment at the present day that it has passed through five campaigns without losing a single man by desertion. Macdonald’s Highlanders, then known as the 76th Regiment, could lay claim to the same honourable distinction; they passed through the whole of the American campaign, and, though often tempted by the insurgents to renounce their allegiance, they all remained true to their colours. The same might be said of the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment, which was raised among the sons of the Gael in Canada in 1778, and took an active part in the defence of Quebec against General Arnold. Even in cases where a Highlander was tempted to desert his colours there seems often to have remained a feeling of remorse which we should look for in vain at the present day among those bounty-lifters who live by defrauding their country, and esteem perjury to be the most venial of offences. This feeling of remorse manifested its presence and its power in an effort to atone for the past offence such as can leave no doubt regarding its sincerity, for their worst enemies will admit that when a Highlander consents to part with his money, it may be taken for granted that he is thoroughly in earnest. A soldier of the 91st or Argyleshire Highlanders was tempted to desert. He embarked for America, and became a settler there. Fortune smiled upon him in the land of his adoption, but there was a weight upon his conscience he could not shake off. In the midst of all his prosperity he never ceased to remember that he was a perjured man, a deserter from the British army. He had not the moral courage to return to his duty, and to submit to the punishment which his offence merited, but some years after his desertion he sent home a letter with a considerable sum of money to procure one or two men to enlist in his former regiment, “as the only recompense he could make for breaking his oath to his God and his allegiance to his king, which preyed on his conscience in such a way that he had no rest night nor day.”

This anecdote leads us to notice another trait in the character of our Highland soldiers; they were emphatically religious men, and they were prepared to make any sacrifice for their faith. They were little versed in theology, but, like Cromwell’s Ironsides at Dunbar, they put their trust in God and kept their powder dry. The great mass of them were Presbyterians, and in foreign and far-distant lands they continued to worship as their fathers had worshipped. Soldiers at that period were the most irreligious of men; they “swore terribly in Flanders” and elsewhere. We may form some idea of their morals from Hogarth’s well-known “March to Finchley.” Any display of religious feeling on the part of a soldier excited such surprise as to prove its extreme rarity, especially in the case of the Highlanders, who were esteemed at first to be little better than savages. When the 42nd Regiment first visited the metropolis, the Londoners were surprised to observe that officers and men never sat down to table without first saying grace—a religious observance which should be honoured, but which has become obsolete in our mess-rooms at the present day. An English historian shows how surprised his countrymen were “to see these savages, from the officer to the commonest man, first stand up and pull off their bonnets, and then lift up their eyes in the most solemn and devout manner, and mutter something in their own gibberish, by way, I suppose, of saying grace, as if they had been so many Christians.” Of course, in the eyes of this wiseacre, they could not have been Christians, because they expressed their devotion in a gibberish which, as he charitably implies, was as unintelligible to the Deity as it was to himself; but we know how to judge these things by a different standard, and we condemn the man who could write so narrowly. At first a chaplain was attached to every regiment, and Dr. Carlisle, of Inveresk, mentions in his memoirs, that one of these chaplains, during an engagement in America, freely exposed himself to the fire of the enemy, in order to encourage the young soldiers by his example. We question whether such a display of clerical courage would meet with the approval of the authorities at the War Office at the present day; certain facts have come under our notice that would tend rather to an opposite conclusion. These regimental chaplains had to mess with the officers, and it was imagined that the presence of a clergyman would have an elevating influence upon the latter; experience, however, soon proved that the chaplains, instead of elevating the officers, were, through daily contact, brought down to the same moral level, and it is a significant fact that Burns, although his national spirit was great, considered them fair game for his satire. About the commencement of the present century chaplains were attached to brigades and not to regiments, and this continued to be the case during the Peninsular war. It thus occasionally happened that certain of our Highland regiments, when serving at remote stations, had no provision made for their religious wants, and were left entirely to their own resources. Some idea of their attachment to their faith may be formed from the efforts they made to secure the services of ministers of their own creed. “The Sutherland men, or 93rd Highlanders,” says General Stewart, “were so well grounded in moral duties and religious principles, that, when stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, and anxious to enjoy the advantages of religious instruction agreeably to the tenets of their national Church, and there being no religious service in the garrison, except the customary one of reading prayers to the soldiers on parade, the men of the 93rd formed themselves into a congregation, engaged and paid a stipend (collected from the soldiers) to a clergyman of the Church of Scotland (who had gone out with the intention of teaching and preaching to the Caffres), and had divine service performed conformably to the ritual of the Established Church. Their expenses were so well regulated that, while contributing to the support of their clergyman from the savings of their pay, they were enabled to promote that social cheerfulness which is the true attribute of pure religion and of a well-spent life.” There are few regiments in the service now that would be prepared to make the same sacrifice, and if our chaplains were dependent entirely on voluntary contributions they would soon be reduced to a state of starvation, as church parade is usually the most distasteful of all duties to a soldier. It deserves to be mentioned to the honour of the 93rd Highlanders that they have always displayed the same religious fervour and readiness to contribute to the support of a clergyman of their own church. About twenty years ago the regiment was stationed in a remote part of Canada, where they had no opportunity of enjoying the instruction of one of their own ministers. To meet this want they formed themselves into a congregation, and contributed a sum sufficient for the support of a minister, who continued to labour among them till they were ordered home. Many of our Highland regiments are at present stationed in India, and it is satisfactory to add that acting-chaplains, who are liberally paid by the Indian government, are attached to each of them.

The advantages of religious instruction were manifest in the absence of crime and of most of those vices which have now become deeply rooted in the British army. These gallant veterans devoted to religious purposes the money which is now too often spent in dissipation, and the advantages of the course were evident in the high moral tone which existed among them. They knew the value of money, but they would not retain a sixpence they did not consider to be their own. We find, for example, in the case of a Highland regiment, that on landing in Ireland they marched to Waterford the same day, where they received billet-money on their entrance into the town. The same evening they received orders to proceed at once to New Ross. Any other soldiers would have retained their billet-money as their perquisite, but the Highlanders, with a simple honesty which most men would be more disposed to admire than to imitate, returned it to the billet-master. So correct was the conduct of the men that in some regiments corporal punishment was almost unknown. In the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment only one man was brought to the halberts during the time they were embodied. For the lengthened period of forty years there were few courts-martial and no cases of flogging in the 42nd Regiment. The value of this fact will be appreciated by all who are familiar with the statistics of punishment in the British army during the prevalence of war. It was only when a foreign element was introduced in the shape of a draft from another regiment that crime and its consequences became more frequent. The old soldiers refused to associate with those who had been brought to the halberts; they looked upon the latter as disgraced, whereas at the present day a soldier suffers nothing in the estimation of his comrades though he may have been guilty of almost every crime. Would that one could revive that high moral tone among our soldiers which led the 42nd Highlanders to raise money sufficient to purchase the discharge of those ruffians whom they esteemed to be a disgrace to the regiment. The presence of such men carried contamination with it, and soldiers who were proud of their regiment and jealous of its honour were ready to make any sacrifice to get quit of them. The remedy, as might have been expected, proved insufficient. The infusion of the criminal element was too powerful to be eliminated by any such means. The offering of a premium for vice tended only to increase the evil which it was intended to remove, but such a fact places in the most favourable light the high sense of honour by which the men of the 42nd were influenced.

When punishment was inflicted upon the Highlanders themselves, it was usually for insubordination. While devotedly attached to those officers who treated them with justice and kindness, they were ever ready, as we have shown, to resist any attempt to deprive them of their rights. It unfortunately happened that they were sometimes placed under the command of officers ignorant of their character and feelings, who tried to carry matters with a high hand and to rule them by terror more than by affection. In such cases the most lamentable consequences followed: a spirit of insubordination sprang up, which the severest punishment failed to repress. We find, for example, that the 75th Regiment, on landing in India in 1780, was placed under the command of an officer whose great ambition it was to introduce the Prussian system of discipline, the nature of which may be learned from Carlyle’s “Life of Frederick the Great.” Such a system may have been well adapted to the gigantic foot-soldiers whom Frederick William delighted to see around him, but it was subversive of all discipline when applied to a Highland regiment. The proud spirit of the mountaineers refused to be smothered with pipeclay or be shackled with red tape, and a mutiny would probably have ensued if the martinet had not been removed to make place for another officer, who, uniting firmness with due regard to the feelings of the men, soon regained for the regiment its former high character. A striking contrast to the temporary demoralisation produced in the 75th by the folly of the commanding officer was presented by the 78th or Ross-shire Highlanders, who were stationed in India about the same time under the command of Colonel Mackenzie of Suddie, one of their clansmen. During six years spent in different parts of the Bengal Presidency their conduct was so exemplary as to call forth the warm approval of the authorities and to produce a desire to imitate in other regiments the system which had produced such excellent results.

What more striking proof can there be of the hallowing influence of home associations on the mind of the Highlander? When serving in foreign lands he never forgets his native village, his father’s home, and the good name bequeathed to him as his only inheritance. His great ambition is to do nothing to disgrace that name or to forfeit the good opinion of the little community to which he expects some day to return. “What will they say at home?” is the first thought that occurs to him after a hard-fought field; and a feeling of honest pride springs up in his heart as he thinks that the deeds of himself and his comrades will be talked of in the circle he lived in before he became a soldier. Lord Clyde and other generals knew how to turn this feeling to the best account, and no man will ever make a good soldier who has no social ties and no regard for public opinion. It is pleasing to add that the same honourable feeling still subsists in the 78th, and that such men as Havelock and Outram have borne testimony to the good effects produced by it. It deterred the regiment, when first raised, from the commission of crime, and thus saved them from the disgrace of corporal punishment. For many years flogging was unknown; it was not till 1799 that an offence meriting this punishment occurred. The miserable offender was at once tabooed by his comrades, who felt themselves disgraced by his conduct, and avoided him as if he had the plague-spot; so that, driven to despair, he might have been tempted to lay violent hands on himself if the colonel had not interposed in his behalf. Knowing that no change could be effected in the feelings of the men, he deemed it best to send him home to England, where his crime would be unknown, and he might thus have an opportunity of retrieving his character. It happened as he expected: the man justified the colonel’s decision and turned out an excellent soldier, whereas if he had been allowed to remain in the regiment he would have been lost. Thus justice tempered with mercy was the saving of this soldier, as it had been of many others. Would that all commanding officers displayed the same humane and considerate spirit in the treatment of those under their command! The entries in the defaulters’ book would be fewer in number, and the morale of the British army higher than it is at the present day.

We have already alluded to the excellent character of the 93rd Highlanders, who enjoyed the same immunity from punishment as the 78th. While other regiments became partially demoralised through the admixture of improper characters, the Sutherland Highlanders remained uncontaminated, and preserved a uniform line of good conduct. Punishment is usually more frequent in the light infantry companies, because the men are selected on account of their physical appearance without reference to moral character. For a period of nineteen years no case of punishment occurred in this or any other company of the 93rd, and this regiment still retains that esprit de corps which has been handed down in the ranks, and is as powerful for good as the inheritance of a noble name or the pride of ancestry. The Sutherland men, instead of spending their leisure hours in drunkenness and debauchery, have devoted them to those athletic sports which muscular Christianity has revived among other classes. Every one will admit that it is better to brace the physical frame by running, leaping, dancing, and tossing the kaber (manly exercises in which the 93rd are still proficient), than to weaken it by vicious indulgence. Wherever they have been stationed, at home or abroad, their exemplary conduct has earned for them the confidence of those among whom they lived, and procured for them admission into circles from which the majority of soldiers are excluded. Colonel Cameron of Fassiefern bears honourable testimony to the good conduct of the 92nd Highlanders. In writing to his father during the Peninsular war he thus alludes to his own clansmen who had followed him to the field:—“Not one of the poor fellows who came with me has ever behaved ill; none of them is even a questionable character.”

The exemplary conduct of the Highlanders is to be attributed partly to the admirable arrangements connected with the internal economy of the different regiments. Their messes were managed by the non-commissioned officers, or old soldiers who had charge of the barrack-room; it was so arranged that those who belonged to the same glen or district, or were connected by the ties of friendship or blood, should occupy the same room and be seated at the same table. Such distinctions are ignored at the present day, so that the man of education and refinement who has been forced into the army by poverty or misconduct is obliged to associate by day and by night with the vilest of his species, and to have his sense of propriety outraged by their conduct and conversation. Need we wonder that he should soon be brought down to the moral level of those around him? In the Highland regiments this evil was avoided; every barrack-room was like a large family establishment, the occupants of which spoke the same language, wore the same dress, belonged to the same clan, and cherished the hope of returning to the same glen. Public opinion was as powerful for good in such a community as in civil life; all had an equal interest in sustaining the good fame of the mess to which they belonged. After defraying all the necessary expenses for breakfast, dinner, and other necessaries during the week, the surplus pay was placed in a stock purse and carefully guarded. When it reached a certain amount it was lent out at interest; the system of savings-banks had not yet been introduced into the army. When a soldier left the regiment he had usually sufficient money to establish himself in some kind of business, the profits of which, added to his pension, enabled him to spend the remainder of his days in comfort. So long as he remained in the regiment he had always enough to procure the usual necessaries, and to remit something to his friends in the old country, when they stood in need of such assistance. Large sums of money thus reached the North, and must have been acceptable in every way to those who received them. We have already shown how the Sutherland men, while stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, supported a minister of their own religion from their limited pay. While attentive to the duties of religion, they were not deaf to the voice of nature. They remembered those who had first taught them to respect religion, and acknowledged the obligation by ministering to their wants. All remitted something to the old folks at home—in several cases individual soldiers sent as much as £20 each. When the regiment landed at Plymouth in 1814, after eight years’ service at the Cape, upwards of £500 were deposited in one bank to be remitted to Sutherlandshire; this was exclusive of sums forwarded through the post-office and through officers proceeding to the North. Before the Poor Law was introduced into Scotland, it was the great ambition of the poorest of the peasantry to accept no public relief; this feeling was common to all, and the greatest sacrifices were made by sons and daughters to prevent parents from coming on the board—i.e., from accepting assistance from the offertories made at the different churches for the benefit of the indigent. This feeling accompanied the Highland soldier to distant lands, and led him to submit to many privations in order to save money for the support of his parents, who were thus enabled to retain their self-esteem and to enjoy the respect of the community in which they lived.

On examining the papers of the late Sir Ewen Cameron of Fassiefern, the father of Colonel Cameron of the 92nd Highlanders, it was found that large sums of money had been remitted from different parts of the world by soldiers for the support of their parents. Writing from Alexandria, 24th August, 1801, to his father, Colonel Cameron thus alludes to this trait in the character of his men:—“I wrote you before leaving Newport, inclosing a bill on Charles Erskine for money belonging to Ewen dubh Taillear (black Hugh the Tailor), and from Marmorice Bay, a letter with money for Ewen dubh Coul (black Hugh of Coul); also money for the two Macphies.” Writing on the 14th December, 1809, after his return from the disastrous expedition to Walcheren, Colonel Cameron says—“The Bo-man’s (cattle-herd’s) son has begged of me to forward you (inclosed) one half of ten-pound note to assist his father’s family. The other half he will forward to his brother by next post. He is a very siccer (steady) lad.”