Of old Clan-Alpine to the fight,”
but in all the great battles fought and won by Highlanders since 1689 the pipes have not been used in the actual charge. There is an impression that the regimental piper keeps in front of, or alongside, his men, and actually plays them into the enemy’s ranks, and this idea has been largely fostered by the pictures that have appeared of such incidents as that of Dargai. As a matter of fact such a method is totally impracticable. In a regiment in line advancing, the pipe band is formed up in the centre, behind the reserves. When a charge is about to take place, the word of command, “Prepare to Charge,” is given, and every soldier knows what this means. When the word, “Prepare to Charge,” is given, the front rank comes to the charge, while the rear rank remains at the slope. Meantime the line section, or whatever the party may be, steadily advances. Simultaneously the pipers strike up the charge in marching time, and all ranks anxiously await the command, “Charge.” When this comes the pipers and drummers instantly change from marching to double time. With the music and the cheers and shouts of the Highlanders, the charge is pressed home, being generally made at a distance of from fifty to sixty yards from the enemy, the piper closely following up his regiment, company, or section, playing the charge and thus cheering the troops onward. All then is confusion and wild excitement, and after that the battle is either lost or won. To rally the regiments the “assembly” is sounded, preceded by the regimental call, to distinguish what regiment should respond. After the melee every battalion forms up at lightning speed on their markers, and are again under the control of their officers for the furtherance of any other movement. Such is the position of a pipe band when a charge is made in line. There is another way while troops are manœuvring, and when the pipers may be ordered to rejoin their companies. Their position then would be behind the centre of their companies, with the buglers, at various points. It is then quite possible for the piper or pipers to act precisely in the same way behind their companies as the combined band would do behind the battalion if they were in line. Under extraordinary circumstances, where troops are detached outside of military rule, one cannot easily define where the piper might be placed—he might be anywhere. We read that in former wars, such as the Peninsular, where a breach was made by the troops, pipers sometimes got inside the breach, and, standing on the ramparts, played their hardest to encourage the troops; but under ordinary circumstances the piper’s position is behind his party; and if he is professionally unemployed, he occupies himself in attending to his fallen comrades or performing any other duty that may be assigned to him. It is hardly possible, considering the methods of modern warfare, to think of circumstances in which a piper should lead a charge in front of his company.
Although we must sweep away this cherished idea and consign it to the region of muzzle-loading guns and frontal attacks, this does not in the least reduce the military value of the instrument. There is no music half so good for marching purposes as that of the pipes and drums. It gives the soldiers a quick swinging step, taking them over the ground without a drag. This cannot be said of the brass or fife band. The pipers carry no cumbrous accoutrements, and when their bags are full they can keep up the music for two or three miles; in fact, on one occasion in India the Black Watch pipers played for over four miles. During the Indian Mutiny the marching of the British soldier was a wonder to all who knew the climate, the more so, as much of it had to be done with a hot sun beating down upon the feather bonnets and red coats as their wearers toiled across a country of sand, with camels, elephants, bullocks, and camp followers by the thousand, often marching close upon the column. The swing and go of a Highland regiment is something peculiar to itself, and is due in great measure to the pipes. It is something born of the music, and it has often proved its value in actual warfare, where marching was conjoined with fighting, as, for instance, with the 93rd at Balaclava, where
“That thin red line of Gaelic rock,
Just tipped with shining steel,
Answered with long and steady stride
Their own loved pipes’ appeal.”
CHAPTER IX.
The Piper as a Hero.
“Never in battlefield throbbed heart so brave
As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid,