“Then our sodgers were drest in their kilts and short hose,
Wi’ their bonnets and belts which their dress did compose,
And a bag of oatmeal on their backs to make brose.
O! the kail brose o’ auld Scotland,
And O the Scottish kail brose.”
1780–1862—CAPE OF GOOD HOPE—INDIA—MANGALORE—SERINGAPATAM—NEW SOUTH
WALES—GERMANY—WATERLOO—CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
The immense and increasing territory which circumstances had placed
under British protection, and in the end consigned to our possession in
India, occasioned a considerable increase of our army in order to
maintain these new gotten provinces against the incursions of
neighbouring and powerful tribes. Thus, in 1780, a second battalion was
raised for the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, which was ultimately
constituted independently the Seventy-third regiment. The battalion was
embodied at Perth, under Lord John Murray as Colonel, and Macleod, of
Macleod, as Lieut.-Colonel. Amongst its early officers, Lieutenant
Oswald was distinguished as the subject of a strange speculation which
at this time so tickled the brilliant imaginings of our “literati,” as
to call forth from the pen of a learned doctor an elaborate
disquisition, intended to prove that Napoleon the Great was none else
than Lieutenant Oswald, who, imbibing republican ideas, had passed over
to France, and by a chain of circumstances been elevated from the
command of a republican regiment to be the great captain and ruler of
France. Such marvellous transformations were by no means uncommon in the
then disordered state of French society. Virtue as well as vice was
ofttimes the idol for a time, to be exalted and adored. But the life and
adventures of Lieutenant Oswald, however notorious, did not attain such
a grand ideal. With his two sons, he fell fighting at the head of his
regiment in La Vendee in 1793.
Scarce had the battalion been completed ere it was shipped for foreign
service. Intended to prosecute an attack upon the colony of the Cape of
Good Hope, the aim of the expedition was frustrated by the promptitude
of Admiral Sufferin, who commanded the French fleet, and arriving first
at the colony, prevented a landing being successfully effected. The
expedition thus interrupted sailed for India, in the passage making a
valuable capture of richly laden Dutch Indiamen. In the division of the
spoil arising, after much disputing, the soldiers shared. One hundred
and twenty officers and men of the regiment fell a prey to the scurvy
and fever on the voyage, which, from the ignorance and incapacity of the
commanders of the transports, was protracted to twelve months. The
“Myrtle,” without maps or charts, separated from the fleet in a tempest,
was only saved by the cool resolution of Captain Dalyell, who, amid many
perils, succeeded in navigating the vessel to St Helena, and so rescuing
many valuable lives who otherwise would probably have been lost. Arrived
at Madras, the battalion was immediately advanced into the interior,
where the critical position of British affairs, assailed by the numerous
black legions of Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo Saib, aided by a French
force under General Lally, rendered the presence of every bayonet of
importance. The utmost efforts of Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Frederick
Mackenzie Humberston could only muster a British force of 2500 men, of
whom 2200 were Sepoys. Nevertheless, with these he advanced to check the
progress of the enemy, who had an army of 10,000 cavalry and 14,000
infantry. Notwithstanding this immense superiority in numbers on the
part of the enemy, nothing could daunt our troops; bravely they held
their own, defying the most desperate attempts of the foe to drive them
back. The general order thus records the action that ensued: “This
little army, attacked on ground not nearly fortified, by very superior
numbers, skilfully disposed and regularly led on; they had nothing to
depend on but their native valour, their discipline, and the conduct of
the officers. These were nobly exerted, and the event has been
answerable. The intrepidity with which Major Campbell and the
Highlanders repeatedly charged the enemy was most honourable to their
character.”
More effectually to strike at the power of the Sultan by cutting him off
from the source whence he had hitherto drawn his supplies, a
considerable force was ordered to assemble in the Bombay Presidency,
and, under Brigadier-General Matthews, assail Beddinore. To join this
army the battalion was embarked and sailed for Bombay, whence, advancing
into the country, it effected a junction with the army near Cundapore.
The Highlanders were particularly distinguished in the attack and
capture of a series of forts which impeded the march, and especially so
in the taking of a strong fortress which lay in the way, named, because
of its strength, Hyder Gurr. The enemy was so impressed by the spirit
evinced in these assaults, that, dreading a further attack, they
evacuated Beddinore without an attempt to defend it, which was
immediately occupied by the British in January, 1783. This battalion was
not of the army which soon after was surrendered to the enemy by General
Matthews, who foolishly deemed himself too weak to withstand the
imposing force which had surrounded him in Beddinore.
The conduct of Major Campbell, who commanded this battalion in the
defence of Mangalore, stands forth in brilliant contrast to the errors
which led General Matthews to surrender an equally brave army into the
cruel hands of the Mysore tyrant. With 250 Highlanders and 1500 Sepoys,
Major Campbell, although assailed by an army of 100,000 men, aided by a
powerful artillery, defended Mangalore for nine months. Throughout the
siege the defenders behaved with the most heroic constancy and
gallantry, although experiencing the pinchings of famine, and exposed to
the most cruel disappointments. Even the Sepoys, emulating the
Highlanders, so distinguished themselves, that, in compliment to their
bravery, our countrymen dubbed one of their regiments their own third
battalion. Truly it was a new and strange thing to have within the Royal
Highland Regiment a cohort of “brave blacks;” yet it displays a generous
sentiment which reflects honour upon the regiment. Three times did a
British squadron enter the bay, having on board stores and
reinforcements, yet as often did this needed and expected aid retire
without helping these perishing, exhausted brave—out of respect to the
armistice of a faithless foe, which for a time existed and apparently
terminated the siege. Their perfidy in one instance, scorning the
sacredness of treaties, exploded a mine, which blew into the air the
flag of truce then waving from the British ramparts. Reduced to the last
extremities, shut up to a dark despair, indignant for the seeming
neglect of friends, and dreading the relentless wrath of the enemy, the
brave garrison accepted the only hope of life which yet remained, by
surrender; and, be it said to the honour of the Indian character—with
the generosity which becomes the conquering soldier in the presence of a
brave yet vanquished foe—the terms imposed were such as enabled the
exhausted remnant of the garrison to retire with all the honours of war.
Scarce 500 effective men could be mustered to march out of the fortress,
and these so feeble as to be hardly able to bear the weight of their
muskets. Colonel Fullarton, in his interesting volume upon British
India, thus writes: “Colonel Campbell has made a defence which has
seldom been equalled and never surpassed.” The memorial of this service
is still borne alone upon the colours and appointments of the
Seventy-third. So redundant with honour had been the services of this
second battalion of the Forty-second Royal Highlanders, that when the
army, in 1786, was being reduced, by the disbanding of second
battalions, the representations of the officers of the regiment were so
favourably received by the Government, that this battalion was retained
as an independent corps, under the command of Sir George Osborn, Bart.,
thereafter known as the Seventy-third Regiment. In the division of
Major-General Robert Abercromby, the regiment joined the army of Lord
Cornwallis, which, in 1792, advanced upon Seringapatam; the attack was
only arrested by the proposals of a treaty of peace. In the brigade of
Lieutenant-Colonel David Baird, the Seventy-third was engaged in the
reduction of the French colony of Pondicherry, and, in 1795, in the army
of Major-General James Stuart, assailed and occupied the valuable island
of Ceylon. At length the arm of vengeance—vengeance for the murdered
brave who had fallen victims to the cruelty of Hyder Ali in the
pestilential dungeons of Seringapatam—so often threatened, yet always
averted, descended to consume the guilty city and destroy its merciless
ruler. Seringapatam fell before the arms of our troops, including the
Seventy-third Regiment, in 1799. The history of the regiment at this
period is associated with the early achievements of the “Great Duke,”
then the Honourable Colonel Arthur Wellesley.
[Illustration:
ASSAULT ON THE
ENTRENCHED CAMP
OF
SERINGAPATAM
on the night of the 6^{th} of Febr.
1792
]
Returning home in 1805, the regiment proceeded to Scotland to recruit,
and in 1809, despoiled of its Highland character, laid aside “the garb
of old Gaul” and the designation it had hitherto enjoyed. Increased by
the addition of a second battalion, the first battalion was sent to New
South Wales; whilst the second, remaining at home, was, in 1813,
employed as the solitary representative of the British army in the north
of Germany.
The Annual Register gives the following account of the battle of Gorde,
where it fought with honour:—“After landing at Stralsund, and assisting
in completing the works of that town, Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, with
the Seventy-third, was detached into the interior of the country, to
feel for the enemy, and also to get into communication with
Lieutenant-General Count Wallmoden, which dangerous service he
successfully effected, though he had with great care and caution to
creep with his small force between the large _corps d’armée_ of Davoust
and other French Generals at that time stationed in Pomerania,
Mecklenburg, and Hanover. Having joined Count Wallmoden, the
Seventy-third contributed greatly to the victory that General gained
over the French on the plains of Gorde, in Hanover, where
Lieutenant-Colonel Harris, at the head of his battalion, declining any
aid, and at the moment when the German hussars had been routed, charged
up a steep hill, took a battery of French artillery, and unfurling the
British colours, at once spread terror amongst that gallant enemy which
feared no others; a panic struck them, and they fled.”
This battalion was also hotly engaged at the desperate conflict of
Quatre Bras, and the decisive victory of Waterloo, in 1815. In the
Kaffir Wars, which desolated South Africa from 1846–47, and 1850–53, the
Seventy-third bore an important part. It was also present in India
during the recent Sepoy Mutiny. Having abandoned its national character
since 1809, it does not fall within the scope of this work further to
follow the narrative of those achievements that have never failed
worthily to sustain the excellence which—whilst our own—belonged to it.
We are sure that, whoever they be that now represent the Seventy-third,
the perusal of this imperfect sketch will not make them ashamed of its
Highland origin, but rather incite them to emulate those brave deeds,
the glory of which they are privileged to inherit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SEVENTY-FIFTH FOOT;
ORIGINALLY
HIGHLANDERS.
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