After peace had been established between Britain and France, the 92nd returned home, disembarking at Monkstown, Ireland, on the 29th of July, and proceeding to Fermoy Barracks, at which the thanks of Parliament were communicated to the regiment for “the meritorious and eminent services it had rendered to the King and country during the course of the war.”
On the 24th of October 1814, the second battalion was disbanded at Edinburgh, and 12 sergeants, 13 drummers, and 161 rank and file were transferred to the first battalion.
The 92nd, however, had not long to rest at home, being called again into active service, to take part in the grand concluding act of the drama enacted by Napoleon for so many years on the theatre of Europe. The regiment sailed from the Cove of Cork on the 1st May 1815, and arrived at Ostend on the 9th. On the 11th the regiment went to Ghent, where it stayed till the 28th, when it removed to Brussels, the men being billeted throughout the city. Here they were served with four days’ bread, and supplied with camp-kettles, bill-hooks, and everything necessary for a campaign, which, according to all accounts, was fast approaching. The inhabitants of Brussels like those of Ghent treated the Highlanders with great kindness, the latter, by their civility and good behaviour, making themselves great favourites.
On the evening of the 15th of June the alarm was sounded in Brussels, and hasty preparations were made to go out to meet the enemy. Col. Cameron, who had that day been invested with the order of the Bath, and who was present at the famous ball given by the Duke of Wellington when the alarm was given, was quickly at the head of the regiment. The march was commenced at daybreak on the 16th by the Namur gate. Lt.-General Sir Thomas Picton’s division, to which the 92nd belonged, came under fire about two o’clock in front of Genappe, at Quatre Bras, where the main road from Charleroi to Brussels is crossed by another from Nivelles to Namur, and which served as the British communication with the Prussians on the left. The 92nd was formed in front of Quatre Bras farm-house on the road, lining a ditch, with its rear to the walls of the building and garden, its right resting on the crossroads, and its left extending down the front. Shortly after the 92nd was thus formed, the Duke of Wellington and his staff came and dismounted in the rear of the centre of the regiment. The enemy poured a very hot fire of artillery on this post, and his cavalry charged it, but was received by a well-directed volley from the regiment, and forced to retire with great loss of men and horses. Immediately after this the French infantry attacked the position on the right and in front, and the Gordon Highlanders, who had been standing impatiently eager for action, were now ordered to charge the advancing enemy: “92nd, you must charge these fellows,” the Duke said, and with one bound the regiment was over the ditch advancing at full speed, and making the French give way on all sides. The 92nd continued to pursue the enemy, and was hotly engaged till nightfall, when the action ceased. It was very much cut up both in officers and men, as it was among the first to go into action, and, along with the other Highland regiments, had for a long time to resist the attack of the entire French army. Undoubtedly its greatest loss on this hot day was the brave and high-minded Col. Cameron, concerning whom we give a few details below.[565]
Colonel John Cameron.
From Original Painting in possession of
Mrs Cameron Campbell of Monzie.
Besides their colonel, the 92nd lost in the action Captain William Little, Lt. J. J. Chisholm, Ensigns Abel Becker and John M. R. Macpherson, 2 sergeants, and 33 rank and file. The wounded officers were Major James Mitchell (afterwards lieutenant-colonel); Captains G. W. Holmes, Dugald Campbell, W. C. Grant (who died of his wounds); Lts. Thomas Hobbs, Thomas Mackintosh, Robert Winchester, Ronald Macdonnell, James Kerr Ross, George Logan, John Mackinlay, George Mackie, Alexander Macpherson, Ewen Ross, Hector M’Innes; Ensigns John Barnwell, Robert Logan, Angus Macdonald, Robert Hewit, and Assistant-Surgeon John Stewart; also 13 sergeants, 1 drummer, and 212 rank and file.
On the morning of the 17th Lord Wellington had collected the whole of his army in the position of Waterloo, and was combining his measures to attack the enemy; but having received information that Marshal Blucher had been obliged, after the battle of Ligny, to abandon his position at Sombref, and to fall back upon Wavre, his lordship found it necessary to make a corresponding movement. He accordingly retired upon Genappe, and thence upon Waterloo. Although the march took place in the middle of the day the enemy made no attempt to molest the rear, except by following, with a large body of cavalry brought from his right, the cavalry under the Earl of Uxbridge. On the former debouching from the village of Genappe, the earl made a gallant charge with the Life Guards, and repulsed the enemy’s cavalry.