The brigade had, in the meantime, formed on the Balma road across the height, the light companies were recalled, and final arrangements completed for an attack on the two centre redoubts of the enemy’s position, designated respectively La Colombette and Le Tour des Augustins. The attack of the former or most advanced redoubt was assigned to the 42nd, and the latter to the 79th, the 91st and 12th Portuguese being in reserve. Both these redoubts were carried at a run, in the most gallant style, in the face of a terrific fire of round shot, grape, and musketry, by which a very severe loss was sustained. About 100 men of the 79th, headed by several officers, now left the captured work to encounter the enemy on the ridge of the plateau; but, suddenly perceiving a discharge of musketry in the redoubt captured by the 42nd in their rear, and also seeing it again in possession of the enemy, they immediately fell back on the Redoubt des Augustins. The Colombette had been suddenly attacked and entered by a fresh and numerous column of the enemy, when the 42nd was compelled to give way and, continuing to retire by a narrow and deep road leading through the redoubt occupied by the 79th (closely pursued by an overwhelming force of the enemy), the alarm communicated itself from one regiment to the other, and both, for a moment, quitted the works.[522]
At this critical juncture, Lt.-Colonel Douglas having succeeded in rallying the 79th, the regiment again advanced, and in a few minutes succeeded in retaking, not only its own former position, but also the redoubt from which the 42nd had been driven. For this service, Lt.-Colonel Douglas received on the field the thanks of Generals Clinton and Pack, commanding the division and brigade; and the regiments in reserve having by this time come up, the brigade was moved to the right, for the purpose of carrying, in conjunction with the Spaniards, the two remaining redoubts on the left of the position. While, however, the necessary preparations were making for this attack, the enemy was observed to be in the act of abandoning them, thus leaving the British army in complete possession of the plateau and its works. The 79th occupied the Redoubt Colombette during the night of the 10th of April 1814.[523]
The importance of the positions captured by the 42nd and the 79th was so great, and the behaviour of these regiments so intrepid and gallant, that they won special commendation from Wellington, being two of the four regiments particularly mentioned in his despatch of the 12th of April 1814.
The 79th lost Captains Patrick Purves and John Cameron, Lt. Duncan Cameron, and 16 rank and file killed; the wounded were Captains Thomas Mylne, Peter Innes, James Campbell, and William Marshall; Lts. William M’Barnet, Donald Cameron, James Fraser, Ewen Cameron (1st), John Kynock, Ewen Cameron (2nd), Duncan Macpherson, Charles M’Arthur, and Allan Macdonald; Ensign Allan Maclean, Adjutant and Lt. Kenneth Cameron, 12 sergeants, 2 drummers, and 182 rank and file. Of those wounded, Lts. M’Barnet, Ewen Cameron (2nd), and 23 men died of their wounds. Of the 494 officers and men of the 79th who went into action at Toulouse, only 263 came out unwounded.
Lt.-Colonel Neil Douglas received the decoration of a gold cross for this action, in substitution of all his former distinctions; Major Duncan Cameron received the brevet rank of Lt.-Colonel in the army; and the 79th was permitted by royal authority to bear on its colours and appointments the word Toulouse, in addition to its other inscriptions. As a proof, likewise, of the distinction earned by it during the successive campaigns in the Peninsula, it was subsequently authorised to have the word Peninsula inscribed on its colours and appointments.
Napoleon Buonaparte’s abdication having put an end to further hostilities, the regiment, after remaining a few weeks in the south of France, embarked in July 1814, arriving at Cork on the 26th, and taking up its quarters in the barracks there. While here, in December, its ranks were filled up by a large draft from the 2nd battalion, and in the beginning of Feb. 1815, it set sail, along with several other regiments, for North America, but was driven back by contrary winds; the same happened to the expedition when attempting to sail again on the 1st of March. On the 3rd, the expedition was countermanded; and on the 17th the 79th sailed for the north of Ireland, to take up its quarters at Belfast, where it remained till May, when, with all the other available forces of Britain, it was called upon to take part in that final and fierce struggle with the great disturber of the peace of Europe, and assist in putting an end to his bloody machinations against the peace of civilised nations. The 79th, having joined Wellington’s army at Brussels, was brigaded with the 28th, 32nd, and 95th Regiments, under the command of Major-General Sir James Kempt, the three regiments forming the first brigade of the fifth, or Sir Thomas Picton’s division, the Royal Scots, 42nd, 44th, and 92nd regiments forming the other brigade under Major-General Pack.
The events from the night of the 15th to the 18th of June 1815 are so well known, and so many details are given in connection with the 42nd and 92nd Regiments, that it will be sufficient here to indicate the part taken in them by the 79th. The alarm having been rapidly spread of the approach of the French on the night of the 15th—the night of the famous ball well known to all readers of Byron,—preparations were immediately made for marching out, and by four o’clock on the morning of the 16th, the regiment, with its division, provisioned for three days, was on the road to Charleroi. In the passage of Childe Harold where Byron’s famous description of the episode preceding Quatre Bras occurs, the poet thus refers to the Cameron Highlanders:—
“And wild and high the ‘Cameron’s Gathering’ rose,
The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn’s hills
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes:—