[445] Napier’s Peninsular War.
[446] The two opposing armies were encamped for some time on the opposite side of the Douro, and parties of the officers and men of both armies used to meet daily, bathing in the river, and became so familiar and friendly that the practice was forbidden in a general order.
[447] Napier.
[448] This officer was present with the 74th during the whole of its service in the Peninsula, and kept an accurate daily journal of all the events in which he was concerned. He was afterwards Major of the depôt battalion in the Isle of Wight.
[449] Napier.
[450] This brave officer, who died only quite recently, and who had been made a Military Knight of Windsor only a few months before his death, was severely wounded through the lungs. He had been in almost every battle fought during the Peninsular War, and seldom came out without a wound, yet he became Major of his regiment only in 1830, though for his conduct in the Peninsula he received the silver war medal with nine clasps. For some years he was barrack-master at Dundee and Perth. In 1835, as a recognition of his meritorious services in the Peninsula, he was made a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. The following incident in which he was concerned at Toulouse is worth narrating:—When left for dead on the field, and his regiment had moved on, a soldier, his foster-brother, named John Gillanders, whom he had taken with him from his native parish as a recruit, missed his captain, and hurried back through a heavy fire, searched for and found him, and carried him to the rear. There were few places for shelter, and the faithful soldier, loaded with his almost insensible burden, pushed his way into a house which was filled with officers, and called out for a bed. In the room there was a bed, and on it lay a wounded officer. He heard the entreaty of the soldier, and saw the desperate condition of the officer he carried, and at once exclaimed, “That poor fellow needs the bed more than I do,” and rose and gave it up. That officer was the gallant Sir Thomas Brisbane.
[451] Napier.
[452] On its arrival in South Africa, the 74th, with the exception of about 80, mainly Irishmen, consisted of men raised in the northern counties of Scotland.
[453] Captain Thackeray, who is intimately acquainted with the history of his old regiment, and to whom we are greatly indebted for having carefully revised this history of the 74th Highlanders, and otherwise lent us valuable assistance and advice.
[454] We regret very much that, after making all possible inquiries, we have been unable to obtain a portrait of this distinguished officer; indeed, his brother, General Fordyce, informs us that no good portrait of the Colonel exists.