The loss of the regiment on the day of the assault, and in the various operations during the siege, was 17 rank and file killed, Lt. D. H. M’Barnet, Assistant-Surgeon Edward Louis Lundy, 3 sergeants, 1 drummer, and 39 rank and file wounded. While recording the losses of the regiment, honourable mention ought to be made of Dr Richard James Mackenzie, who gave up a lucrative practice in Edinburgh in order to join the British army in the east. He was appointed to the 79th while the regiment was stationed at Varna, and until his death on September 25th 1854, shortly after “Alma,” he rendered to the regiment and the army generally services of the highest importance. He followed the army on foot, undergoing much fatigue and many privations, which, with the arduous labours he took upon himself after the battle, no doubt hastened his much lamented death. After the battle of the Alma, it is said, he performed no fewer than twenty-seven capital operations with his own hand. “So highly were his services appreciated by the 79th, that, after the battle of the Alma, on his coming up to the regiment from attendance on the wounded, several of the men called out, ‘Three cheers for Dr Mackenzie!’ which was promptly and warmly responded to.”
The regiment, after the notification of peace, erected to his memory a neat tombstone, with an appropriate inscription, fenced in by a stone wall, on the heights of Belbek, near his resting-place.
His heroic and humane deeds on the battle-field of the Alma were thoroughly appreciated by the 79th, and have been recorded by others. We may, however, faintly gather something of them from his letter to his brother Kenneth—the last he ever wrote. It was written on the day after the battle. In this letter he says: “We” (Dr Scott and himself) “were shaking hands with all our friends, when, to my no small surprise and gratification, as you may believe, a voice shouted out from the column as they stood in the ranks—‘Three cheers for Mr Mackenzie,’ and though I say it who shouldn’t, I never heard three better cheers. You will laugh, my dear fellow, when you read this, but I can tell you I could scarcely refrain from doing t’other thing. All I could do was to wave my Glengarry in thanks.” As to Dr Mackenzie’s coolness under fire, the quartermaster of the 79th wrote: “During the height of the action I was in conversation with him when a round shot struck the ground, and rebounding over our regiment, flew over our heads and killed an artillery horse a few yards in our rear.” Mackenzie quietly remarked, “That is a narrow escape.”
The regiment continued in the Crimea till June 1856, on the 15th of which month it embarked at Balaklava, and disembarked at Portsmouth on the 5th of July, proceeding immediately by rail to the camp at Aldershot.[534]
Dr Richard James Mackenzie, M.D., F.R.C.S.
From photograph in 1854, in possession of
Kenneth Mackenzie, Esq.
After being stationed for a short time at Shorncliffe, and for some months at Canterbury, and having been present at the distribution of the Victoria Cross by Her Majesty in Hyde Park on June 26th 1857, the 79th proceeded to Dublin, where it landed on the 28th. Here, however, it remained but a short time, as on account of the Sepoy revolt in India, it was again ordered to prepare for active service. The regiment was rapidly completed to 1000 rank and file, and set sail in the beginning of August, arriving at Madras Roads early in November, when it received orders to proceed to Calcutta, where it disembarked on the 28th of November and occupied Fort-William. After remaining there for a few days, the 79th, on Dec. 2nd, proceeded by rail to Raneegunge, under the command of Lt.-Colonel John Douglas. Towards the end of the month the regiment left Raneegunge for Allahabad, where it halted till the 5th of Jan. 1858, a day memorable in the history of the 79th for its having marched upwards of 48 miles, and gained its first victory in the East, viz., that of Secundragunge, in which happily it had no casualties.
The regiment left Allahabad for Lucknow on the 18th of Jan., and on the 28th of Feb. it joined the force under Sir Colin Campbell at Camp Bunterah. The regiment was then commanded by Lt.-Colonel Taylor, Lt.-Colonel Douglas having been appointed to the command of the 5th Infantry Brigade. After passing the Goomtee, the 79th joined the force under Sir James Outram, and was brigaded with the 1st battalion of the 23rd Fusiliers and the 1st Bengal Fusiliers, under the command of Brigadier General Douglas. The regiment was present, and performed its part bravely during the siege and capture of Lucknow, from the 2nd to the 16th of March 1858, its loss being 7 non-commissioned officers and privates killed, and 2 officers, Brevet-Major Miller and Ensign Haine, and 21 non-commissioned officers and privates wounded.[535]
After the capture of Lucknow the 79th joined the division under the command of Major-General Walpole, in the advance towards Allahgunge, Shahjehanpoor, and Bareilly. Its next engagement was the action of Boodaoon, where the regiment had only 1 man wounded, who afterwards died of his wounds. On the 22nd of April the 79th was present at the action of Allahgunge, where it had no casualties. On the 27th, Sir Colin Campbell assumed command of the force and marched on Bareilly, the 79th, along with the 42nd and 93rd, forming the Highland brigade. On the 5th of May the 79th was formed in line of battle before Bareilly, when it helped to gain another glorious victory, with a loss of only 2 men killed and 2 wounded. The regiment received the special thanks of Sir Colin Campbell.