Cape of Good Hope.
Alma.
Balaklava.
Sevastopol.
This, perhaps the most Highland of the Highland regiments, was raised in the year 1800, letters of service having been granted for that purpose to Major-General Wemyss of Wemyss,[568] who had previously raised the Sutherland Fencibles, many of the men from which joined the new regiment. The strength at first fixed upon was 600 men, which number was in a short time raised, 460 being obtained from Sutherland, and the remainder from Ross-shire and the adjoining counties. The regiment was however, soon augmented to 1000 men, with officers in proportion; and in 1811 it numbered 1049 officers and men, of whom 1014 were Highlanders and Lowlanders, 17 Irish, and 18 English.
One striking peculiarity in the constitution of the 93rd consists in its having probably furnished the last instance of the exercise of the clan influence on a large scale in the Highlands. The original levy was completed not by the ordinary modes of recruiting, but by a process of conscription. A census having been made of the disposable population on the extensive estates of the Countess of Sutherland, her agents lost no time in requesting a certain proportion of the able-bodied sons of the numerous tenantry to join the ranks of the Sutherland regiment, as a test at once of duty to their chief and their sovereign. The appeal was well responded to; and though there was a little grumbling among the parents, the young men themselves seem never to have questioned the right thus assumed over their military services by their chief. In a very few months the regiment was completed to its establishment.
As a crucial proof of the high character of the first levy for the 93rd it may be stated, that until the final inspection of the corps the recruits were never collected together. They were freely permitted, after enrolling their names, to pursue their callings at home, until it was announced in the various parish churches that their presence was required, when a body of 600 men was assembled, and marched, without a single absentee, to Inverness, where the regiment was inspected by Major-General Leith Hay in August 1800.
During the sojourn of the regiment at Inverness there was no place of confinement in connection with it, nor were any guards mounted, the usual precautions necessary with soldiers being quite inapplicable to the high-principled, self-respecting men of Sutherland. Many of the non-commissioned officers and men were the children of respectable farmers, and almost all of them of reputable parentage, the officers being mostly well-known gentlemen connected with Ross and Sutherland. Indeed, the regiment might be regarded as one large family, and a healthy rivalry, and stimulus to the best behaviour was introduced by classifying the different companies according to parishes. While the characteristics referred to seem to have strongly marked the Sutherland Highlanders, our readers will have seen that to a greater or less degree they belonged to the original levies of all the Highland regiments.
In Sept. 1800 the 93rd embarked at Fort George for Guernsey, where it was for the first time armed and fully equipped, and where it made rapid progress in military training.[569]
In February 1803 the 93rd was removed to Ireland, where it continued till July 1805. While in Dublin, like most of the other Highland regiments at one time or another in Ireland, it had to assist in quelling an attempted insurrection, performing the disagreeable duty kindly, but firmly and effectually.