Shortly after the return of the regiment to England, it obtained a considerable accession of recruits raised from several Scotch militia regiments, chiefly from that of Perthshire, by Major David Stewart, who, in consequence of a wound received at Maida, had been obliged to return to Scotland. A detachment of 400 men, including 350 of the newly-raised men (of whom 280 were six feet in height and upwards, and of a proportionate strength of limb and person), was drafted to reinforce the second battalion in India. The remainder of the second battalion was then removed from Little Hampton, in Sussex, where they had been for a short time quartered, to the Isle of Wight, where they remained till August 1809, when a detachment of 370 men, with officers and non-commissioned officers, was sent on the unfortunate expedition to Walcheren, being incorporated with a battalion commanded by the Honourable Lieutenant-Colonel Cochrane. The men suffered greatly from fever and ague, which affected the rest of the troops, and were so emaciated that they did not recover their usual strength till the following year. Another draft of all the men fit for service in India was made in 1810, and joined the first battalion at Goa on the eve of the departure of the expedition against Batavia in 1811.
Lieut.-General Mackenzie-Fraser had had the command of a division in the Walcheren expedition, but the fever spared neither rank nor age, and the gallant and veteran colonel of the Ross-shire Buffs was struck down, and expired, to the inexpressible grief of the regiment, with which he had been connected since it was first raised. “’Twas now that we were doomed to sustain a loss, which was keenly felt by every rank, in the death of Lieut.-General Mackenzie-Fraser, adored in our first battalion, to whom his virtues were more particularly known; the same manifest qualities could not fail to have endeared him to every member of the second, and to draw from it a genuine tribute of heart-felt regret, whilst it mingles with the public voice its filial homage to the memory of such uncommon worth. Individually we lament the departure of a father and a friend—as a regiment we would weep over the ashes of the most beloved of colonels! Although the undeviating advocate of discipline and good order, never did the star of rank impose a humiliating deference upon those whose affection and esteem he never failed to secure by his boundless benevolence and gentle manners. To indulge in this heart-felt eulogy is not peculiarly our province—his country has already weighed his value—and in its acknowledgments he has amply received what was ever the proudest meed of his soul.”[494]
Lieut.-General Sir James Craig succeeded to the command of the regiment on the 15th of September 1809, and on his death, about eighteen months afterwards, the colonelcy was conferred on Sir Samuel Auchmuty.
On the 10th of January, the same day that it landed, the 78th marched to Oudenbosch, the head-quarters of Sir Thomas Graham,[495] and his force of 8000 men, and the following day proceeded to Rosendaal, and thence to Calmpthout. General Bülow had established his headquarters at Breda, and the object of the allied commanders was the investiture and reduction of Antwerp, and the destruction of the docks and shipping. On the 12th Colonel Macleod was ordered to march, so as to come up with the division of Major-General Kenneth Mackenzie, then moving upon Capelle, and arrived just before dark, when, notwithstanding a most fatiguing day’s march, it was found that only three men had fallen out. On the 13th the division was under arms an hour before daylight, and on the arrival of Sir Thomas Graham, Colonel John Macleod was appointed to the command of a brigade, consisting of the 25th (2nd battalion), 33rd, 56th, and 78th, when the command of the latter regiment devolved on Lieut.-Colonel Lindsay. The divisions of Majors-General Kenneth Mackenzie and Cooke, with their guns, were put in motion about 8 o’clock, on the road to Eeckeren, with the intention of feeling the environs of Antwerp, and reconnoitring the position of the enemy’s fleet, in conjunction with the advance of General Bülow’s corps. It was deemed necessary for this purpose to dispossess the enemy of the village of Merxem, within a few hundred yards of the outworks, and this service was confided by Major-General Mackenzie to Colonel Macleod.
The 78th, previously the left centre battalion of the brigade, was now brought to the front, by the special order of Sir Thomas Graham; and its light company, together with that of the 95th (rifle regiment), commenced skirmishing with the enemy among the hedges and thick underwood in advance, and to the left of the road. The regiment then moved forward in oblique échelon through the fields on the right, and formed line on the leading division. In advancing it became exposed to the fire of the enemy’s sharp-shooters, who were firing from behind the hedges in front, the light companies of the 78th and 95th, having uncovered to the left when the line moved forward. It, however, wisely reserved its fire, as it would have had but little effect from the formation of the ground, which was completely intersected with hedges and frozen ditches; but a full view of the enemy was shortly after obtained in a small field close to the village. They appeared to be numerous, but retired before the fire of the 78th, which now opened and appeared to gall them very much. Colonel Macleod, seeing the necessity of an immediate assault, ordered up the Highlanders, who, without a moment’s hesitation, rushed forward at the charge, and falling upon the enemy, drove them through and beyond the village. The light company had crossed the Breda Chaussée (which intersected the advance of the battalion, and forms the principle street of the village), and making a detour round that part of the village beyond it, swept everything before it, and came up on the flank of the battalion, which had arrived on the Antwerp side. “Every appearance at the time, and subsequent accounts from sources likely to be correct, give reason to believe that there were upwards of 3000 men (the French themselves admit of 4 battalions), put to the most shameful flight by the 78th, not quite 300 men, and about 40 riflemen; and it may be assumed that the panic struck that day into the garrison of Antwerp prevented any subsequent sortie from the garrison till the day it was given up.”
In their determined and steady onslaught, the 78th was exposed on both flanks to the fire of the enemy who were posted in houses commanding the entrance to the village, and had the regiment hesitated in its movements, their loss must have been very severe; but the rapidity with which they carried out their orders ensured success with a comparatively small loss. The enemy left a large number of killed and wounded in the street, and the regiment took 25 prisoners. Among the dead was found the body of the French Général-de-division, Avy, said to have been an excellent officer. The loss of the regiment in killed was Ensign James Ormsby, who carried the regimental colour, with nine rank and file left on the field; Lieutenant William Mackenzie, who was mortally wounded through the body, and died next morning upon the waggons, going to Calmpthout. Colonel Macleod was very severely wounded in the arm; and Captain Sime and Lieutenants Bath and Chisholm were also severely wounded. Lieutenant Mackenzie was extremely regretted by his brother officers, as he was a young man of a clear and strong mind, and a most promising officer.
His Excellency Sir Thomas Graham, in a general order of January 13th, spoke of the conduct of the 78th and other regiments engaged in the highest terms. “No veteran troops,” he said, “ever behaved better than these men, who met the enemy the first time, and whose discipline and gallantry reflect great credit on themselves and their officers.”
This was the only enterprise in which the Highlanders were engaged in the Netherlands. Their duties, until the return of the battalion to Scotland in 1816, were confined to the ordinary details of garrison duty at Brussels, Nieuwpoort, and other places.
In the month of March 1815, when in daily expectation of returning to England, accounts were received of the change of affairs in France. Napoleon had returned from Elba, the Bourbons had fled, and the hundred days had commenced. Orders were therefore issued immediately for the army to be in readiness to take the field.
Nieuwpoort, a garrison town, nine miles from Ostend, and regarded as a frontier fortress, had been suffered to fall into a state of dilapidation when in the hands of the French, and since it had come into the possession of the government of the Netherlands, they had done nothing towards placing it in an efficient state for defence. A company of German artillery, with some guns and stores, was sent there on the 19th of March, and the 2nd battalion of the 78th, mustering about 250 effective men, followed on the 22nd, when the garrison was placed under the command of Colonel Macleod. Little respite from duty or labour was to be expected until the place was put out of all danger of being taken by a coup-de-main. On the 24th the garrison was augmented by a Hanoverian battalion, of between 500 and 600 men, and the works progressed so quickly, that they were completed and inspected by His Grace the Duke of Wellington on the 17th of April. At this time the battalion was the least effective British regiment in the Netherlands in point of numbers, and when the army commenced its operations, it was so much further reduced by the unhealthiness of its station, as to have 70, 80, and finally 100 men totally disabled by ague. It was therefore, unhappily, condemned to the daily routine of garrison duty and labour, and did not share in that glorious campaign which culminated in the victory of Waterloo.