in his twenty-second year, on the 8th of February, 1793, he obtained an
ensigncy in the 26th, or Cameronian Regiment, commanded by Sir William
Erskine. He never joined that corps; but on raising a sufficient number
of men in Locheil, procured a lieutenantcy in an independent Highland
company then being formed by Capt. A. Campbell, of Ardchattan. He was
gazetted on the 3rd of April; but this company was either disbanded
or incorporated with the old 93rd Regiment, to which he was appointed
lieutenant on the 30th of October in the same year. He did not join
this regiment either, but busied himself in raising a company to
procure the rank of captain in a corps of Highlanders, which, in
obedience to a _letter of service_, dated 10th February, 1794, the Duke
of Gordon was raising for his son, the young Marquis of Huntly, then
a captain in the Scottish Regiment of Guards. This battalion was to
consist of 46 officers, 64 staff, and 1000 rank and file, to be raised
among the clan of Gordon.
From the lands of Fassifern and Locheil Cameron drew a company,
principally of his own name and kindred, all hardy and handsome young
Highlanders, among whom were his foster-brother, Ewen M'Millan, who
never left him; three Camerons, Ewen, Alaster, and Angus, whom he made
sergeants; Ewen Kennedy, for whom he procured an ensigncy, and another,
who died a lieutenant. With these, all clad in their native tartans, he
marched from the Braes of Lochaber to Castle Gordon, in Strathspey,
where he was introduced to Alexander, Duke of Gordon, the _Cock o' the
North_, by his uncle, the Rev. Dr. Ross, of Kilmanivaig, the worthy
author of the statistical account of that parish. He at once received
a company in the duke's own regiment, to which he was appointed on the
13th of February, 1794, and with which he attended the grand muster of
the whole at Aberdeen on the 24th of June, when the corps was named the
_Gordon Highlanders_, or 100th Regiment, afterwards and now the 92nd.
The uniform coats and vests were scarlet, faced with yellow, and laced
with silver to suit the epaulettes. The kilts and plaids were in one
piece, each containing twelve yards of Gordon tartan; the claymores,
dirks, buckles, and sporrans were mounted with silver; the bonnets
were plumed with black ostrich feathers, and encircled by the old fess
checque of the House of Stuart. The men were all Highlanders; scarcely
one of them, and but very few of the officers, could speak English; the
enthusiasm was so great in Badenoch that, in some instances, fathers
and sons joined its ranks together.
At that time, when the French Revolution menaced Europe with anarchy,
and the Convention declared war against Britain and Holland, the number
of Highlanders in our service is almost incredible. During a period of
fifty years the clans furnished _eighty-six_ battalions of infantry,
some of which were twelve hundred strong.[3]
How many could the Highlands raise now? Centralization, corruption,
and local tyranny of the most infamous description have turned their
beautiful glens into a silent wilderness, and the very place where
Cameron raised his company of soldiers is now desolate and bare. "I
can point," says the author of a letter to the Marquis of Breadalbane,
on his late ruthless _clearings_, "to a place where thirty recruits
that manned the 92nd in Egypt came from--men before whom Napoleon's
Invincibles bit the dust--and now only _two_ families reside there
together. I was lately informed by a grazier that on his form a hundred
swordsmen could be gathered at their country's call, and now there are
only himself and _two_ shepherds." The brave Gael, who crowded in tens
of thousands to the British ranks, saw not the reward that was coming;
evictions and wholesale clearings of the Scottish poor were then
unknown. God gave the land to the people--they believed it was theirs
but the feudal charters have decided otherwise, and the clans have
been swept from Lochness to Locheil, and from Locheil to the shores of
Lochlomond. The hills and the valleys are there, but the tribes have
departed, and who can restore them?
Cameron of Fassifern embarked with his regiment at Fort George, in
Ardersier, for Southampton, where, as kilted corps were unusual then
in England, its arrival created a great sensation. From thence the
battalion sailed for Gibraltar, under the command of Huntly, its
colonel commandant, and disembarked at the Rock on the 27th of October.
It was on this occasion that Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, composed her now
popular song, "The Blue Bells of Scotland."
At Gibraltar a coolness ensued between Cameron and the marquis, and
from that hour they never were friends. The former having had a
dispute at the mess with a Captain M'Pherson on some point of Highland
etiquette, high words and a duel followed. Captain, afterwards Colonel
Mitchel, C.B., and Knight of St. Anne of Russia, was Cameron's second.
Happily nothing serious resulted; and next day at the mess Lord Huntly
drank wine with them all, begging that in future no more such quarrels
might occur, and concluded by saying--
"I may be pardoned in requiring this, as, I believe, all the gentlemen
here are the tenants of my father."
"No, marquis," said Fassifern, loftily; "by Heaven, here is one who is
no tenant of the house of Gordon."
The young marquis frowned; he did not reply, but never forgot the
haughty retort.
In sentiments and character, even in manner, Fassifern belonged to
a past age--to a period of time beyond our own; for the stern pride,
the Spartan spirit of clanship, with all the wild associations of the
Gael, deeply imbued his mind, and gave a decision to his manner and a
freshness to his enthusiasm. Proud and fiery, like all his race, he
had the defect of being quick and hasty in his speech; but he never
called aloud the name of an officer on parade, though more than one
was reprehended by him in terms of severity, which, when the gust of
passion was past, his generous spirit told him had been too great. He
was a rigid disciplinarian, strict even to a fault, and yet withal he
possessed a charm which won him the affection and respect of all his
regiment. To English officers who did not understand him, to Wellington
in particular, his pride seemed perhaps mere petulance, and his
Highland chivalry (the result of his education) eccentricity: but of
these more anon.
After receiving its colours on Windmill Hill, the regiment embarked for
Corsica, and on the 11th of July, 1795, landed at Bastia, where, under
the influence of Paoli, the allies had landed in the preceding year,
and united the birthplace of Bonaparte to the British dominions. After
suppressing a rebellion in Corte, a town in the centre of the isle, and
forming the secret expedition under their major, Alexander Napier, of
Blackstone, to reduce Porto Ferrajo in Elba, the Highlanders returned
to Gibraltar, where General de Burgh publicly testified his approbation
of their conduct.
Cameron who was now, by the death of Major Donald M'Donald, of
Boisdale, senior captain, accompanied the regiment to Portsmouth, where
it landed in May, and from whence it went to Dublin in June, 1798.
Here he became attached to a young lady possessed of great personal
attractions, and announced to his father his intention of marrying. But
old Ewen Cameron had imbibed some curious prejudices against the Irish,
for a false rumour had gained credence in the Highlands that Prince
Charles had been betrayed at Culloden by his two Irish followers,
Sullivan and Sheridan. There was great consternation in Fassifern and
the Braes of Lochaber when it was announced that the young laird was
about to wed a stranger; and however absurd this prejudice may appear,
old Fassifern set all his wits to work, and contrived to have the
engagement broken off completely. A quarrel ensued between the lovers;
rumour speaks of another duel with some one; but from that time to the
hour of his death, Cameron was never known to form another serious
attachment.
At this time the Irish were in arms; Vinegar Hill was valiantly fought
and lost by them; the Highlanders were kept incessantly on the march,
and their belts were never off. During these operations, when encamped
near Moat, they were re-numbered as the 92nd Regiment of the line.
After being quartered in Athlone, on the 15th June, 1799, Cameron
embarked with the regiment for the camp at Barham Downs, where the
troops destined for the expedition to Holland were assembling under
Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The Gordon Highlanders were
brigaded with the 1st Royal Scots, 25th, or Scots Borderers; the 49th
and Cameron Highlanders, under Brigadier Sir John Moore. The troops
sailed from Ramsgate, landed near the Helder, and on that evening the
Gordon Highlanders, after having fifteen men drowned, fought bravely
at the battle of the Sandhills. Here they and Cameron first saw the
French, for whom he felt an hereditary abhorrence, having been reared
to believe, like every Highlander, that they had trifled, forty years
before, with the best interests of Scotland, and betrayed Prince
Charles and the clans to England.
He served at the head of his company in all the operations under
the gallant Moore--during the advance to Oude Sluys, the action
at Crabhenden, where Captain Ramsay of Dalhousie was wounded; the
engagement with General Brune; the attack on Alkmaar; the retreat to
Zuype; and the battle of Egmont-op-Zee, where it is probable that his
French antipathy received an additional incentive, by the infliction
of a severe wound. In that decisive charge, by which twenty pieces of
cannon were retaken from the enemy, a ball struck one of his knees;
and as he was falling, the arm of the faithful M'Millan was the first
to support him. Here the Marquis of Huntly was wounded in the shoulder;
and neither he nor Cameron ever fully recovered the effect of these
bullets. In this affair the Highlanders had 288 officers and men killed
and wounded.
Among the latter was the henchman Ewen, who lost an ear. Rendered
furious by the wound, regardless of Cameron's orders, he rushed among
the French, and drove his bayonet, with a ball at the same moment,
through the body of the soldier who had wounded him. Returning to his
company, he said in Gaelic, to Cameron--
"You see what yonder son of the devil has done to me," and pointed to
his ear, which was dripping with blood.
"He served you rightly," said Cameron, in the same language; "why did
you skirmish so far in front?"
"_Dioul!_" muttered Ewen; "he won't take my other ear."
Here Sir John Moore was severely wounded, and Cameron desired two
Highlanders to carry him to the rear. Moore afterwards offered 20_l._
to the soldiers who carried him off. The reward was proffered to the
regiment on parade, and it is a noble trait of it, that _no man_
ever stepped forward to claim the fee. On being created a K.B., and
requiring supporters for his arms, Moore addressed the following
interesting letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Napier, then commanding the
regiment:--
"Richmond, 17th Nov. 1804.
"MY DEAR NAPIER,--I have been for some days on leave in London,
and received your letters there. I am here with my mother for a
day, and return this night to Sandgate. My reason for troubling you
for a drawing is, that, as a Knight of the Bath, I am entitled to
supporters. I have chosen a light-infantry soldier for one, being
colonel of the 1st Light Infantry regiment; and a Highland soldier
for the other, in gratitude to, and in commemoration of, two soldiers
of the 92nd, who, in the action of the 2nd October, raised me from
the ground, when I was lying on my face, wounded and stunned (they
must have thought me _dead_), and helped me out of the field. As my
senses were returning, I heard one of them say, '_Here is the general;
let us take him away_,' upon which they stooped and raised me by the
arm. I never could discover who they were, and therefore concluded
they must have been _killed_. I hope the 92nd will not have any
objection (as I have commanded them, and as they rendered me such a
service) to my taking one of the corps as a supporter. I do not care
for the drawing being elegant; all I want is the correct uniform and
appointments. Any person who can draw a figure tolerably, but will
dress him correctly, with arms, accoutrements, and in parade order,
will answer every purpose, as I want it for a model only, from which
a painter may draw another. If you are at a loss for a person to do
this, I dare say Lieutenant-Colonel Birch would do it, or get one of
the officers of the department to do so, if you sent a man properly
dressed to Colchester; but I think your own quarters will produce some
one sufficiently expert. I received your letter by Captain (Peter)
Grant, before I left Sandgate: he seems a very gentlemanly young man.
I do not think I can recommend a proper adjutant to you at present.
Remember me kindly to my friends of the 92nd, and believe me, my dear
Napier, sincerely, &c.,
"John Moore.[4]
"Lieut.-Col. Napier, of Blackstone."
After the convention at Alkmaar, and the cessation of hostilities, the
regiment embarked near the Helder, and landed at Yarmouth on the 29th
October. Though still suffering from his wound, Cameron obtained the
temporary command of a light infantry corps under Lord Hopeton. This
provisional battalion was exercised on Barham Downs, where he won the
reputation of a zealous and able officer. He came home on leave to his
native glen, kindly bringing with him Ewen M'Millan, who had a craving
to visit his old mother by the shore of Locharkaig.
They rejoined the Highlanders soon after, and the next scene of
Cameron's service was in Egypt. Before embarking, his regiment was
supplied with _yellow_ knapsacks, having a red thistle painted on the
backs of them.
Fassifern accompanied his regiment on General Maitland's futile
expedition to the Isle de Houat, from whence, with other regiments
destined for the Mediterranean, they embarked under Lord Dalhousie's
orders; and after touching at Port-Mahon in Minorca, passed on to the
attack of Cadiz, which was abandoned, in consequence of a pestilence
that infected the coast. The expedition then sailed for Malta; and from
thence to the Bay of Marmora, on the coast of Asiatic Turkey, where
Abercrombie had concentrated 15,000 men to expel the French from Egypt.
He had six regiments of dragoons, and forty battalions of infantry,
seven of which were foreign.
Fassifern served with distinction in all the operations of the Egyptian
campaign, including the landing effected under a desperate cannonade on
the shore of Aboukir; the bloody contest round the Tower of Mandora,
where his company occupied a conspicuous position in front of the
line, as skirmishers, and where his colonel, Erskine of Cardross,
received a mortal wound, and of his comrades there were 109 officers
and men killed and wounded. The intrepid conduct of his regiment was
particularly mentioned in the dispatches of Abercrombie, whose guard of
honour was daily furnished from its ranks. Cameron was at the battle of
Alexandria, where, on the 21st March, 1801, he received a wound under
the left eye, and saw the brave Abercrombie receive his death shot.
The troops then advanced to Rosetta; and by the time when the Gordon
Highlanders entered Grand Cairo--"the Queen of Cities"--the capital of
Moaz El Kehira, their shoes were completely worn away. Quarter-master
Wallace was ordered to procure an immediate supply; but there was one
gigantic grenadier from Speyside, for whom a suitable pair of brogues
could not be found in all Grand Cairo.
For his services in Egypt, Cameron received a gold medal from
the Grand Seignior; and on the promotion of Major Napier to the
lieutenant-colonelcy, he obtained the majority on the 5th April, 1801;
and seven months afterwards, on the conclusion of that convention, by
which Grand Cairo was surrendered, the Highlanders were ordered home to
Scotland, and were quartered in Glasgow.
About this time a dispute occurred among the officers. Some of them,
who were Lowlanders, insisted that the Gaelic, which was generally
spoken at the mess, should be abolished there. It was put to the vote,
and by an overwhelming majority, the Celts secured its retention; but
in those days, there were in the regiment twelve gentlemen of the clan
Donald, all kinsmen, who invariably voted together in everything, and
could carry any point they pleased. These factions were known as the
national and anti-national parties.
After the short peace of Amiens, war was declared again; and when the
army was increased, the Gordon Highlanders were strengthened by the
addition of a second battalion, and Major Cameron marched with it to
Weely in England, to join the force mustered to oppose the expected
invasion by Napoleon. The invasion ended in smoke; but the battalion
remained cantoned in England until 1807, and in the preceding year
lined the streets of London during the funeral of Nelson. Fassifern
embarked with them at Harwich on the Danish expedition, under Lord
Cathcart; and, for the first time, served under Wellington--then Sir
Arthur Wellesley--at the attack on Kioge, where Lieutenant-Colonel
Napier, at the head of the Highlanders, charged the Danes, who were
routed with the loss of their artillery.
After the bombardment of Copenhagen, and the return of the troops to
Britain, Major Cameron, in consideration, of his services, received
a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy on the 25th April, 1808; a full
lieutenant-colonelcy on the 23rd June following; and was shortly
afterwards ordered on the Swedish expedition under Sir John Moore, who
led 10,000 men to assist Gustavus Adolphus IV., a gallant but fiery
and intractable prince, against whom Russia and France had united
their arms. The violent temper of the Swedish monarch rendered this
undertaking completely futile, and, without achieving anything, the
expedition returned to Britain.
As junior lieutenant-colonel, Cameron now remained with the second
battalion at home; while the first, under Lieutenant-Colonel Napier,
accompanied Sir John Moore a third time on that fatal service, from
which he never returned. In 1809, the gallant Napier fell with his
leader at Corunna, and then Fassifern obtained the command of the
first battalion, committing the second, in February, to the care
of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamond, of Lamond. Thus, at the early age of
thirty-seven, and after only fifteen years' service, he found himself
at the head of one of the finest Scottish regiments in the service of
his country.
In July, with the right wing of the first battalion, he embarked
on board H.M.S. _Superb_, 74, at Harwich, on the great expedition
under the Earl of Chatham, in Sir William Erskine's brigade. He was
at the landing on Breesand in Walcheren, and the occupation of Ter
Goes on South Beveland. He landed with 998 Highlanders; but so fatal
was the Dutch pestilence, that in October only 250 of them were on
parade; and the grenadier company, which was entirely recruited from
Aberdeenshire, was reduced to _two_ sergeants and _three_ privates.
Cameron deeply regretted the loss of his men. The first who died was a
fine young clansman, whom he had brought with him from Lochaber, and
he attended his funeral in the churchyard of a neighbouring village.
After addressing the soldiers on the merits of the deceased, "Cover him
up with the greenest sods," said he, "for he was a brave lad, a good
soldier, and true Highlander!"
On its return from this disastrous service, his battalion occupied
Woodbridge Barracks in England. At this time an Englishman obtained
an ensigncy in the corps, which Cameron considered an innovation; for
while, on one hand, he disliked the French, from old associations, on
the other, he was not, for the same reason, over partial to Englishmen,
and was wont to affirm, "that a Southern in the kilt reminded him of
a hog in armour." Unfortunately for himself, Ensign Mudge (for such
was the name of the new acquisition) had no particular love for the
kilt, at which he railed on all occasions, in very coarse terms, and
once particularly at an Artillery hall in Woolwich, which so roused
Cameron's Highland ire, that he vowed, "if such remarks were ever made
again by Ensign Mudge, he would bring him to a general court-martial!"
At this time, the officers of the 42nd wore the kilt constantly by
their own desire.
Undeterred by Cameron's threat, Mudge wrote to the Commander-in-Chief,
stating that his health would not permit him to wear a dress so
unchristian and uncivilized. Sir David Dundas addressed an answer, not
to him, but to Fassifern, stating that his Majesty had no further use
for the services of poor Mr. Mudge, on whom this result, which Cameron
and his Highlanders hailed with satisfaction, fell like a thunderclap.
While at Woodbridge, he invited to the mess Dr. Moore (the venerable
father of the hero of Corunna), who afterwards addressed to him a
letter, expressing his high sense "of the kind and social reception"
he had met with from him and his officers. After this, in July, 1810,
the battalion marched to Canterbury, previous to embarkation for Spain;
Cameron obtained a short leave of absence, and so much had he become
attached to the corps, that he wept when he left it even temporarily.
On revisiting his native glen, his aged father, then in his seventieth
year (the old laird was born in 1740), expressed great reluctance to
part with him again, for, like a true Highlander, he had some dark
forebodings of the future.
His three sisters were married: Mary, to M'Donald of Glencoe; Jean,
to Roderick M'Neill of Barra; and Catherine, to Cluny M'Pherson; his
eldest brother Duncan was practising as a writer to the signet, in the
capital; and Peter, the second, was away to India in command of the
Balcarras. The old laird was almost alone at Fassifern; he represented
to the colonel, that, though he was only thirty-nine years of age, he
had received two wounds, from one of which he still suffered; that he
had been many times engaged with the enemy, and had seen enough of
war. He urged him to settle at home and to marry; offering him his
second estate of Arthurstone, in Angus; but the love of his profession
was too strong in the heroic heart of Cameron, and he rejoined his
battalion, then under the command of Major Archibald M'Donell (of the
family of Keppoch), at the far-famed _Lines_ of Torres Vedras.
To make his regiment as efficient as possible, he ordered that no
officer who had been less than ten years in the service should ride on
the march; this diminished the number of useless horses which every
regiment then possessed; while to increase the number of bayonets,
he turned the whole of the band into the ranks; thus, throughout the
whole Peninsular War, he retained only the bagpipes, drums, and fifes.
His regiment belonged to the 1st Brigade, or General Howard's, in the
2nd Division of Infantry, or Lord Hill's, with the 50th, under Colonel
Stuart, and the 71st Highlanders, under Colonel Cadogan, with both of
whom his fiery temper and jealousy on points of etiquette soon involved
him in a coolness that lasted till they were both removed by death. The
Highlanders entered Spain by the way of Albergaria, and their peculiar
garb soon changed the constant cry of "_Live the English_," to "_Viva
los Escotos! Viva Don Juan Cameron, y sus valiante Escotos! Viva!_"
This was when following up the retreating Massena. Notwithstanding all
efforts of that general to restore the barbarities of ancient warfare,
much good feeling prevailed between the French and British when out of
the field. Of this, one anecdote will suffice.
A French picket in front of Cameron's regiment, were about to slay
a bullock for their dinner, when the animal broke loose, and dashed
across the neutral ground, where a Highlander killed it by a single
ball, and his comrades proceeded immediately to cut up their prize in
view of the hungry and disappointed foe, who sent over two soldiers,
waving white handkerchiefs. Under these extempore flags of truce, they
brought a message from their officer, saying that he was "sure Scottish
soldiers were too generous to deprive his men of the only provisions
they had seen for some days." The Highlanders sent them back with half
the beef, several loaves of bread, and a bottle of rum. After this,
they became so familiar that some of our pickets went over and drank
with those of the enemy, until Wellington's order forbade it as unsafe
and improper.