“The imperfection now stated necessarily attaches to regiments composed of different nations mixed promiscuously. It even attaches, in some degree, to regiments which are formed indiscriminately from the population of all the districts or counties of an extensive kingdom. This assumption, anticipated by reasoning, is confirmed by experience in the military history of semi-barbarous tribes, which are often observed, without the aid of tactic, as taught in modern schools, to stick together in danger and to achieve acts of heroism beyond the comprehension of those who have no knowledge of man but as part of a mechanical instrument of war. The fact has numerous proofs in the history of nations; but it has not a more decisive one than that which occurred in the late Seventy-first Regiment in the revolutionary war of America. In the summer of the year 1779, a party of the Seventy-first Regiment, consisting of fifty-six men and five officers, was detached from a redoubt at Stoneferry, in South Carolina, for the purpose of reconnoitring the enemy, which was supposed to be advancing in force to attack the post. The instructions given to the officer who commanded went no further than to reconnoitre and retire upon the redoubt. The troops were new troops,—ardent as Highlanders usually are. They fell in with a strong column of the enemy (upwards of two thousand) within a short distance of the post; and, instead of retiring according to instruction, they thought proper to attack, with an instinctive view, it was supposed, to retard progress, and thereby to give time to those who were in the redoubt to make better preparations for defence. This they did; but they were themselves nearly destroyed. All the officers and non-commissioned officers were killed or wounded, and seven of the privates only remained on their legs at the end of the combat. The commanding officer fell, and, in falling, desired the few who still resisted to make the best of their way to the redoubt. They did not obey. The national sympathies were warm. National honour did not permit them to leave their officers in the field; and they actually persisted in covering their fallen comrades until a reinforcement arriving from head quarters, which was at some distance, induced the enemy to retire.”
In the narratives which follow, we have confined ourselves strictly to those regiments which are at the present day officially recognised as Highland. Many existing regiments were originally raised in Highland districts, and formerly wore the Highland dress, which, as our readers will see, had ultimately to be changed into ordinary line regiments, from the difficulty of finding Highlanders willing to enlist; the history of such regiments we have followed only so long as they were recognised as Highland. In this way the existing strictly Highland regiments are reduced to eight—The Black Watch or 42d, the 71st, 72d, 74th, 78th, 79th, 92d, 93d.
FOOTNOTES:
[254] Stewart’s Sketches.
[255] Jackson’s View of the Formation, &c., of Armies, 1824.
[256] “The Isle of Skye has, within the last forty years, furnished for the public service, twenty-one lieutenant-generals and major-generals; forty-five lieutenant-colonels; six hundred majors, captains, lieutenants, and subalterns; ten thousand foot soldiers; one hundred and twenty pipers; four governors of British colonies; one governor-general; one adjutant-general; one chief-baron of England; and one judge of the Supreme Court of Scotland. The generals may be classed thus:—eight Macdonalds, six Macleods, two Macallisters, two Macaskills, one Mackinnon, one Elder, and one Macqueen. The Isle of Skye is forty-five miles long, and about fifteen in mean breadth. Truly the inhabitants are a wonderous people. It may be mentioned that this island is the birth-place of Cuthullin, the celebrated hero mentioned in Ossian’s Poems.”—Inverness Journal.
[42d ROYAL HIGHLAND REGIMENT.]
AM FREICEADAN DUBH—
“THE BLACK WATCH.”
I.
1726–1775.
Embodying the Black Watch—March for England—Mutiny—Fontenoy—Embarks for the French coast—Flanders—Battle of Lafeldt—Return of the regiment to Ireland—Number changed from the 43d to the 42d—Embarks for New York—Louisbourg—Ticonderoga—The West Indies—Ticonderoga and Crown Point—Surrender of Montreal—Martinique—Havannah—Bushy Run—Fort Pitt—Ireland—Return of the 42d to Scotland.