“O! to see his tartan trews,
Bonnet blue, and laigh-heel’d shoes,
Philabeg aboon his knee!
That’s the lad that I’ll gang wi’.”
THE HIGHLANDS—FRENCH REVOLUTION—FLANDERS—GERMANY—WEST
INDIES—GIBRALTAR—MINORCA—EGYPT—EDINBURGH—1789–1803.
The honourable bearing of the Royal Highlanders throughout the war had
been so conspicuous as to win for them the hearty esteem of their
countrymen. Hence their return was welcomed by all classes, and their
progress northward was little else than a triumphal march. At Glasgow,
the joy of the people was unbounded.
Whilst stationed in Scotland, the regiment was called to fulfil a most
painful duty, in the suppression of the riots which had arisen in the
Highlands from the expulsion of the poorer peasantry from the haunts and
homes of “auld langsyne.” From a long and quiet possession, they had
come to consider such as their own, and therefore were disposed to
resist the right of the legal proprietor, who desired to disencumber his
estates of the unproductive poor, and render these lands remunerative,
rather than, as hitherto, a barren burden.
To curb the furious passions which the evil genii of the French
Revolution had let loose, wherewith to plague Christendom, the might of
Britain was called to the rescue. The Forty-second, largely recruited,
was accordingly embarked at Hull, and joined the British army fighting
under the Duke of York in Flanders. Soon, however, the regiment was
recalled, to form part of a meditated enterprise against the French West
Indian Islands. This scheme being abandoned for the present, it was
engaged in a vain attempt to aid, by a descent on the French coast, the
Vendean royalists, who yet dared manfully, but, alas! ineffectually, to
struggle against the sanguinary tyranny of the Revolution, for liberty
and righteousness. Returning to Flanders, the regiment was doomed to
share the retrograde movement which had been necessitated by the
overwhelming superiority of the enemy, and the listless indifference,
nay, even hate, of the Dutch, whose cause we had assumed to espouse.
Retreating through Germany to Bremen, the sufferings of the army were
severe, but endured with a fortitude which well commanded the admiration
of friend and foe. Never were the capabilities of the Highland soldier
more thoroughly tested, and more triumphantly apparent, than in the
midst of the fatigues of an incessant warfare, the severities of a
bitter winter, and the discouraging prospects of retreat. Under these
cruel circumstances, whilst other regiments counted their losses by
hundreds, the Forty-second only lost twenty-five men.
Returning to England, the regiment was once more included in the
long-contemplated West Indian expedition. A vast armament had been
assembled in 1795, and sailed at first prosperously, only to be
dispersed and driven back with heavy loss by a furious tempest which
almost immediately arose. A second attempt, promising as favourably,
encountered a like catastrophe, but not so fatal. Although dispersed,
some of the transports continued the voyage, others returned to port,
and some few became the prey of the enemy’s privateers. Providence
seemed to be adverse to the expedition, or in friendly warning indicated
the coming struggle—when hearths and homes, menaced by a relentless,
dangerous foe, needed that a large portion of this ill-omened expedition
should be retained for the defence of our own shores, and play a more
important part in the exciting events of the Revolutionary War. Five
companies of the Royal Highlanders were thus detained at home, and soon
afterwards removed for service to Gibraltar. The other five companies of
the regiment, embarked in the “Middlesex,” East Indiaman, battling the
tempest, completed the voyage, and rendezvoused at Barbadoes, whence
they proceeded, with what remained of the vast armament, against the
French island of St Lucia, which, after some sharp fighting, was wrested
from the Republicans. In the subsequent attack upon the island of St
Vincent, the Highlanders were praised for the “heroic ardour” they
always displayed, but especially illustrated in the attack upon the post
of New Vigie, on the 10th June, 1796, on which occasion Major-General
David Stewart relates the following episode of the wife of a soldier of
our Royal Highlanders:—“I directed her husband, who was in my company,
to remain behind in charge of the men’s knapsacks, which they had thrown
off to be light for the advance up the hill. He obeyed his orders; but
his wife, believing, I suppose, that she was not included in these
injunctions, pushed forward in the assault. When the enemy had been
driven from the third redoubt, I was standing giving some directions to
the men, and preparing to push on to the fourth and last redoubt, when I
found myself tapped on the shoulder, and turning round, I saw my
Amazonian friend standing with her clothes tucked up to the knees, and
seizing my arm, ‘Well done, my Highland lads!’ she exclaimed, ‘see how
the brigands scamper like so many deer!’ ‘Come,’ added she, ‘let us
drive them from yonder hill.’ On inquiry, I found she had been in the
hottest fire, cheering and animating the men, and when the action was
over, she was as active as any of the surgeons in assisting the
wounded.”
Allied with the Caribbee Indians, the Republicans, driven from the open
plain and the regular strongholds of the island, found a refuge in the
woods, where, screened by the luxuriant foliage of the forest, or
perched in unassailable positions, they maintained a guerilla warfare,
which to our troops proved of the most trying and harassing kind,
similar in character to that sustained by our Highlanders in the
backwoods during the American war. Mr Cannon, in his valuable official
records of the regiment, gives the following description illustrative of
the general character of the contest:—
“The out-posts being frequently alarmed by parties of the enemy firing
at the sentries in the night, a serjeant and twelve Highlanders, under
Lieutenant David Stewart, penetrated the woods at nine o’clock in the
evening, with short swords to cut their way through the underwood, to
discover the post or camp from whence these nightly alarms came. After
traversing the woods all night, an open spot, with a sentry, was
discovered; this man fired his musket at a dog which accompanied the
soldiers, and then plunged into the wood, as the Serjeant rushed forward
to cut him down. The soldiers were on the edge of a perpendicular
precipice of great depth, at the bottom of which was seen a small valley
crowded with huts, from whence issued swarms of people on hearing the
report of their sentry’s musket. Having made this discovery, the
soldiers commenced their journey back; but, when about half way, they
were assailed by a fire of musketry on both flanks, and in the rear. The
Caribbees were expert climbers; every tree appeared to be manned in an
instant; the wood was in a blaze, but not a man could be seen—the enemy
being concealed by the thick and luxuriant foliage. As the Highlanders
retreated, firing from time to time at the spot from whence the enemy’s
fire proceeded, the Caribbees followed with as much rapidity as if they
had sprung from tree to tree like monkeys. In this manner the retreat
was continued, until the men got clear of the woods.”
The reduction of the island being at length completed, the five
companies of the Forty-second were employed in an ineffectual attack
upon Porto Rico. In 1797, from Martinique the companies returned home,
and, on reaching Portsmouth, presented a clean bill of health—somewhat
extraordinary in the circumstances, yet silently but unmistakeably
testifying to the good conduct of the corps, and the completeness of its
economy. In 1798 the several companies were united at Gibraltar, whence
the regiment proceeded, with other troops, under Lieut.-General the
Honourable Sir Charles Stewart, against the Spanish island of Minorca,
which, with its capital, Ciudadella, was speedily surrendered, although
the defending force exceeded in number the attacking force; the
Spaniards, by the admirable dispositions of the British, being deceived
as to our actual strength. This achievement was but the presage to a
more glorious enterprise. The ambition of Napoleon had pictured for
himself an Eastern Empire; and to work out the realisation of his dream,
he had transported the veterans of Italy into Egypt, as the basis of his
operations. Already had the burning sands of the dreary desert wasted
the strength of this “Army of the East,” and his conquering legions been
arrested in their triumphal career by the stern decrees of Nature’s God,
when our island-might dared to challenge the boasted “Invincibles” of
France. The Forty-second was included in the expedition which, under Sir
Ralph Abercromby, was so long detained and tossed upon the treacherous
waves of the Mediterranean, the slave of a cruel uncertainty as to its
destination. At length the fleet cast anchor in Aboukir Bay, and despite
the proud array of horse, foot, and artillery which lined the beach and
manned the hills environing the bay—each of which contributed its
deadliest thunder to daunt or destroy our gallant army—the British
successfully effected a landing in March, 1801, gained a victory which,
apart from the honour accruing to our arms, served to revive the
fainting spirit of Europe, and gave a glimpse of hope to the enthralled
who had been crushed by the military tyranny of France.
[Illustration: SIR RALPH ABERCROMBY.]
Passing over the action of Mandora, we arrive at the battle of
Alexandria, wherein the valour of the Royal Highlanders, associated with
the Twenty-eighth regiment, has never been excelled. Posted amid the
ruins of an old Roman palace, and looking down upon the classic
memorials of a by-gone age, the Forty-second, on the morning of the 21st
March, 1801, awaited with portentous silence the approach of the foe,
who, concealed by a thick mist, advanced, purposing to surprise our
position. The assault was conducted with the wonted impetuosity of the
French, and the defence maintained with characteristic firmness by the
British. Amid the confusion of the fight, the uncertain light of the
morning, and whilst our troops were hotly engaged at all points, the
famed “Invincible Legion” of Napoleon crept silently and unnoticed to
the rear of our Highlanders, cutting the wings of the regiment asunder.
A desperate and deadly fight ensued, when these redoubtable troops
discovered and encountered each other. The French, entering the ruins of
the palace, displayed a valour worthy the title they bore, and which, in
other circumstances, might have won that better success which such
heroic bravery merited as its reward. Exhausted and overpowered, with
650 fallen, the relics of the “Invincibles,” of whom there remained but
250, surrendered to our Highlanders. Scarce had the regiment achieved
this splendid result, ere it was anew assailed by a fresh and more
powerful, but not braver column of the enemy. At length these repeated
and resolute attacks of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, broke the
array of the Forty-second. To all appearance flight seemed the only
refuge, and prudence might have urged the same as being the better part
of valour. The French cavalry at this critical moment charged the
regiment, deeming an easy conquest at hand, but nothing daunted, grouped
into small detached parties, the Highlanders faced about and fearlessly
encountered the foe. Sir Ralph Abercromby, witnessing the gallant
behaviour of his countrymen in such a crisis, unable to reinforce them
with troops, hastened to the spot to encourage, by his presence, these
brave men, exclaiming, with patriotic fervour, “My brave Highlanders,
remember your country, remember your forefathers!” Thus nerved to
resistance, and cheered to know that so beloved a commander beheld with
pride and grateful affection their efforts, the result was soon
gloriously evident in the retreat, flight, and ruin of the cavalry, who
imagined they would have annihilated the broken, bleeding remnant.
During the fight, Sir Ralph Abercromby was furiously assailed by two
dragoons. “In this unequal conquest he received a blow on the breast;
but with the vigour and strength of arm for which he was distinguished,
he seized on the sabre of one of those who struggled with him, and
forced it out of his hand. At this moment a corporal of the
Forty-second, seeing his situation, ran up to his assistance, and shot
one of the assailants, on which the other retired.
“The French cavalry charged _en masse_, and overwhelmed the
Forty-second; yet, though broken, this gallant corps was not defeated;
individually it resisted, and the conduct of each man exalted still more
the high character of the regiment.”
Towards the close of the battle the Highlanders, having expended their
last cartridge, were on the point of being annihilated—although still
resolutely resisting with the bayonet—when the French, repulsed
everywhere, relaxed their efforts, and gradually retired. The loss of
the regiment, in killed and wounded, exceeded 300 men; but the most
grievous loss of all, felt by every rank, was the fall and subsequent
death of Sir Ralph Abercromby.
It is unnecessary here further to detail the various events which marked
the progress of the British arms in Egypt—crowned in the conquest of its
two capitals, Cairo and Alexandria, accomplishing the extinction of the
French dominion in the land, and for ever dissipating the dream of
Napoleon, which had promised an Eastern Empire—an idea early and fondly
nurtured, but, like the toy of a child, as quickly cast away when it
failed to please, and, by that despot, abandoned when circumstances
presented an easier path and more glorious results to his ambition in
the crown of France.
On the return of the Royal Highlanders, every compliment was lavished
upon the regiment by a grateful country. Whilst at Edinburgh in 1802,
Lieutenant-General Vyse, in presenting a new set of colours, thus closed
his address to the regiment:—“Remember that the standards which you have
this day received are not only revered by an admiring world, as the
honourable monuments and trophies of your former heroism, but are
likewise regarded by a grateful country as the sacred pledges of that
security which, under the protection of heaven, it may expect from your
future services.
“May you long, very long, live to enjoy that reputation and those
honours which you have so highly and so justly merited; may you long
participate and share in all the blessings of that tranquillity and
peace which your labours and your arms have restored to your native
country; but should the restless ambition of an envious and daring enemy
again call you to the field, think then that you behold the spirit of
those brave comrades who so nobly, in their country’s cause, fell upon
the plains of Egypt, hovering round these standards—think that you see
the venerable shade of the immortal Abercromby leading you again to
action, and pointing to that presumptuous band whose arrogance has been
humbled, and whose vanity has been compelled, by your intrepidity and
courage, to confess that _no human force has been ‘invincible’ against
British valour_, when directed by wisdom, conducted by discipline, and
inspired by virtue.”
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