In July 1805 the 93rd joined the armament against the Cape of Good Hope, under Major-General Sir David Baird, referred to already in connection with the 71st and 72nd, which took part in the expedition.
The expedition sailed early in August, and, after a boisterous voyage, arrived and anchored in Table Bay on Jan. 4th, 1806. The troops formed two brigades, one of which, consisting of the 24th, 38th, and 83rd regiments, was under the command of Brigadier-General Beresford; the other, called the Highland brigade, comprehending the 71st, 72nd, and 93rd regiments, was commanded by Brigadier-General Ronald C. Ferguson. On the 5th, General Beresford, who had been detached to Saldanha Bay, in consequence of the violence of the surf in Table Bay, effected a landing there without opposition; and on the 6th the Highland brigade landed in Lospard Bay, after a slight resistance from a small body of light troops stationed on the adjoining heights. In landing, 35 men of the 93rd were drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surf, and Lt.-Colonel Pack of the 71st, and a few men, were wounded.
Having landed his stores on the 7th, General Baird moved forward the following day, and ascending the summit of the Blauw-Berg (Blue Mountain), he found the enemy, to the number of about 5000 men, drawn up in two lines on a plain, with twenty-three pieces of cannon. Forming his troops quickly in two columns, he thereupon directed Lt.-Colonel Joseph Baird, who commanded the first brigade, to move with that brigade towards the right, while the Highland brigade, which was thrown forward upon the high road, advanced against the enemy. Apparently resolved to retain their position, the enemy opened a heavy fire of grape, round shot, and musketry, which was kept up warmly as the British approached, till General Ferguson gave the word to charge. This order was obeyed with the accustomed alacrity of the Highlanders, who rushed upon the enemy with such impetuosity as at once to strike them with terror. After discharging the last volley without aim or effect, the enemy turned and fled in great confusion, leaving upwards of 600 men killed and wounded. The loss of the British was only 16 men killed and 191 wounded. The 93rd had only 2 soldiers killed, and Lt.-Col. Honyman, Lts. Scobie and Strachan, Ensigns Hedderick and Craig, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, and 51 rank and file wounded. After this victory the colony surrendered.
The Sutherland Highlanders remained in garrison at the Cape till 1814, when they embarked for England. During this long period nothing occurred to vary the quiet and regular life of the regiment. This life was, indeed, remarkably regular, even for a Scottish regiment, and, we fear, would find no parallel in any corps of the present time. The men, who were mostly actuated by genuine religious principle, such principle as is the result of being brought up in a pious Scottish family, conducted themselves in so sedate and orderly a fashion, that during their stay at the Cape severe punishments in their case were unnecessary, and so rare was the commission of crime, that twelve and even fifteen months have been known to elapse without a single court-martial being assembled for the trial of any soldier of the 93rd. Moreover, as an emphatic compliment to the steadiness of the men, their presence was generally dispensed with when the other troops of the garrison were commanded to witness the infliction of corporal punishment.
But the most remarkable proof of the intensity and genuineness of the religious feeling in the regiment, as well as of its love of all that was peculiar to their native land, remains to be told. There being no divine service in the garrison except the customary one of reading prayers to the troops on parade, these Sutherland men, in addition to their stated meetings for reading the Bible and for prayer, in 1808 formed a church among themselves, appointed elders and other office-bearers, engaged and paid a stipend to a minister of the Church of Scotland, and had divine service regularly performed according to the forms of the Presbyterian Church. As a memorial of this institution there still remains in possession of the sergeants’ mess the plate used in the communion service, and until recently there existed among the regimental records the regulations intended for the government of its members. This establishment had an excellent effect, not only on its immediate members, who numbered several hundreds, but also upon those who made no pretence of being guided by religious principle.
Such men were not likely to forget the claims of relationship and benevolence, and indeed such was their frugality, that in addition to their contributing to the support of their minister and to the charitable funds formed in the regiment, the men were in the habit of lodging in a trusted officer’s hands savings amounting to from £5 to £50, until an opportunity occurred of forwarding the money to their relatives at home; upon one occasion, in particular, £500 were remitted to Sutherland, exclusive of many minor sums sent home through the post-office.
In the month of April 1814, the 93rd embarked for Europe, amid, as may easily be believed, the general regret of the colony; it landed at Plymouth on August 15th of the same year. Of the 1018 non-commissioned officers and men who disembarked, 977 were Scotch.
The regiment had not been many weeks at home when it was again ordered on foreign service, this time, alas, of a much more disastrous kind than that which it performed during its long stay at the Cape. Although it had not the good fortune to take part in the stormy events which were shortly to take place on the field of Europe, and share in the glory accruing therefrom, yet the work it was called upon to perform, so far as bravery, endurance, and suffering are concerned, deserved as great a meed of praise as if it had been performed on the field of Quatre Bras or Waterloo.
Early in September 1814,[570] the 93rd had received orders to hold itself in readiness for immediate embarkation, and on the 16th it embarked in three divisions as part of the armament under Major-General Sir John Keane, destined to operate in North America; for at this time, unfortunately, Britain was at war with the United States. The fleet sailed on the 18th, and on November 23rd, joined, at Jamaica, the squadron under Vice-Admiral the Honourable Alexander Cochrane.
The united forces, the command of which was now assumed by General Keane, amounted to 5400 men. With this force he sailed from Jamaica on the 27th of November, and on December 13th landed near Cat Island, at the entrance of a chain of lakes leading to New Orleans. On the 23rd the troops landed without opposition at the head of the Bayonne; but were attacked on the following night by a large body of infantry, supported by a strong corps of artillery. After a spirited contest the enemy were repulsed with loss. On the 27th, Major-General the Honourable Sir Edward Pakenham, who had arrived and assumed the command of the army on the 25th, moved the troops forward in two columns, and took up a position within six miles of New Orleans, in front of the enemy’s lines. The position of the Americans was particularly favourable, having a morass and a thick wood on their left, the Mississippi on their right, and a deep and broad ditch in front, bounded by a parapet and breast-works, extending in a direct line about a thousand yards, and mounted with artillery, and a flanking battery on the right bank of the river.