“’Twas a soldier who spoke—but his voice now is gone,
And lowly the hero is lying;
No sound meets the ear, save the crocodile’s moan,
Or the breeze through the palm-tree sighing.
But lone though he rests where the camel is seen,
By the wilderness heavily pacing;
His grave in our bosoms shall ever be green,
And his monument ne’er know defacing.”
GIBRALTAR—SICILY—MAIDA—EGYPT—WALCHEREN—FLANDERS—1804–1817.
Although borrowing a good idea in pursuing a similar plan, we esteem
ourselves excused, and not guilty of too slavish an imitation of General
Stewart’s account of the Seventy-eighth, in his excellent memoirs of the
Highland regiments. Thus, having followed so far the history of the
first battalion, we now devote a chapter to the annals of the second
battalion, in which the distinguished officer above-named served with
honour, exceedingly beloved by the soldiers; and to whom, as an author,
we are largely indebted, having, by the vigour of his pen, rescued from
the shades of oblivion and the crumbling ravages of time the history of
our regiments and the peculiar characteristics of our clans, and so
preserved ever fresh these endeared records of our brave clansmen and
soldiers. Scotland had already largely contributed to the noble army of
defenders which in 1804, during the momentous crisis in our national
history of which that year was the scene, had gathered round the
constitution and challenged the would-be invader. Of the genuine
Highlanders enlisted at this period, the following is a correct record:—
For the army of reserve, 1651
Militia—Inverness, Ross, Argyle, Perth, &c., &c., 2599
Supplementary Ditto, 870
Canadian Fencibles, 850
Second Battalion of the Seventy-eighth Regiment, 714
Second Battalion of the Seventy-ninth Regiment, 618
Highlanders as substitutes in Militia regiments, 963
Recruits enlisted by the parties of the line, not 350
exactly known, but estimated at,
———
Total, 8,615
The present battalion was the fourth raised by the family of Seaforth
within twenty-five years. It contained many Islesmen, especially from
the island of Lewis. Although to all appearance little else than a
regiment of boys of very tender years, still they had within them the
soul of the man, as after events abundantly proved. Embodied at Fort
George in the winter of 1804–5 with a strength of 850, it was by request
of Major-General Moore placed under his command for purposes of
instruction in the new system of light infantry drill. This was a
fortunate circumstance, and no doubt helped the battalion, not merely in
the acquirement of a thorough military knowledge, but more especially
served to instil a due confidence, which gave it that steadiness in
action for which it was afterwards remarkable. The urgent requirements
of the service having occasioned the removal of the battalion to
reinforce the garrison of Gibraltar, it was early deprived of the
benefits flowing from such an excellent course of training under so able
a master of the science of war. Nevertheless, it had so improved the
advantage which for a brief period it enjoyed, as made it a valuable
addition to the garrison.
From Gibraltar it proceeded to Sicily, to join the armament, under Sir
John Stuart, destined for a descent upon the mainland of Calabria, in
favour of the exiled monarch of Naples and the patriots of Italy. The
expedition, which sailed from Melazzo in June, 1805, included the
Twenty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Seventy-eighth, Eighty-first, and
Watteville’s Swiss Regiment, afterwards reinforced by the Twentieth
Regiment. Landing successfully in the bay of St Euphemia, the British
General strove to anticipate the attack of the French under General
Regnier, who, with a force lately augmented to nearly 8000, stood
opposed to the British, who could scarce muster 4000 men, unsustained,
moreover, by cavalry. The enemy occupied a very strong position in the
vicinity of the village of Maida. Affecting to despise the handful of
British who had ventured to challenge the assault, Regnier, forsaking
his strong position, descended to the plains, boasting he should drive
the British into the sea. The two armies advanced in hostile array in
parallel lines across the plain, halting when within a few hundred
yards, and pouring in a deadly volley upon each other. The precision of
the British fire so shattered the first line of the enemy, that, broken,
it retired in confusion upon the second line, and there struggled to
maintain itself against the attack of our first brigade, comprising the
Seventy-eighth and Eighty-first regiments under Brigadier-General
Acland. A Swiss regiment bearing the name of its commanding officer,
Watteville, at this crisis of the fight advanced against the
Seventy-eighth, and mistaken, from its similarity of uniform, for the
corps of the same name, family, and nation in the British service, which
held post in reserve, our Highlanders ceased firing, lest they should
injure their supposed friends. When undeceived, a vigorous fire warmly
hailed the enemy, and drove back the Swiss with great slaughter. Beaten
thus in every quarter, General Regnier proposed, as a last resource, to
try the effect of a flank attack upon the Twenty-seventh regiment.
Providentially, the Twentieth regiment arriving on the field at this
moment, hastened to sustain their comrades, and by their unexpected
appearance so discouraged the foe, that the attack, languidly
undertaken, was speedily given over. The French now gave way at all
points, and retreated precipitately, so swiftly, that without cavalry
they could not be overtaken—General Regnier falling a prisoner into our
hands.
General Stuart had at first been grievously disappointed in the boyish
appearance of the Seventy-eighth, 600 of whom were under twenty-one
years of age; but now felt constrained to confess their gallant conduct
unsurpassed; having vanquished the veteran troops of France, although
fighting under great disadvantages in the front line of this their
maiden engagement. Unfortunately, the British, unsupported, were unable
to do more than destroy the enemy’s arsenals and magazines at Monte
Leon, ere prudence counselled their return to Sicily.
Insignificant in itself, the result of the battle of Maida exerted an
important influence over Europe. Although the numbers respectively
engaged were small, still—occurring at a time and in circumstances when
European liberty groaned in chains, and all the blessings which belonged
to it seemed to be eclipsed in the dark night of tyranny, and when the
sovereigns of the Continent had submitted to the imperious yoke of
Bounaparte, when the friendly light of hope, flickering, seemed to die
out—the battle and the victory of Maida revived the drooping spirit of
Freedom, restored to new life the palsied pulse of Europe, and bade her
many peoples awake from the stupor of terror which the shackles of an
iron despotism and the cruel spoilings of rapacious might had imposed!
It required years of sore suffering and desperate struggling ere the
monster which so preyed upon the vitals of liberty could be shaken off;
and, emancipated from the oppressor’s grasp, the nations one by one once
more breathed somewhat of the blessed air of freedom.
Against their better feelings and judgment the Turks had been cajoled
into an alliance with France, and unwillingly as our enemies, their
territory in Egypt became the theatre of strife, whereon a British army
should again act. Accordingly, in 1807, Lieutenant-General Sir John
Moore arrived in Sicily from England, and assumed the command of the
enterprise. In the army which set sail from Sicily for Egypt, the second
battalion of the Seventy-eighth Highlanders was included. Landed, the
expedition, flattered by various successes, continued to advance towards
Alexandria; but the Turks, in their peculiar mode of warfare, and their
aptness in taking advantage of every favourable circumstance in defence,
proved more terrible enemies than even the French, inflicting severe and
heavy losses upon the British. In an attempt to gain possession of the
town of Rosetta, the Thirty-first Regiment was nearly annihilated by the
fire of the enemy from loop-holed houses in the narrow streets, who
could not be dislodged. This attack in consequence failed; and the
troops had to mourn the loss of its leader, Major-General Wauchope,
whilst his second in command, Brigadier-General Meade, was wounded.
With hopes of facilitating and securing the friendly and promised aid of
the Mamelukes, a detachment of 720 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Macleod, was advanced on the 20th of April to an important outpost of
the army at El Hamet, on the Nile. The detachment, consisting of a party
from De Rolle’s Regiment, two companies of the Thirty-fifth, and five
companies of the Seventy-eighth, was divided into three divisions, and
stationed accordingly. On the morning of the 21st, about seventy large
boats filled with armed men were seen descending the Nile, whilst
several corps of horsemen gathered around the detachment, and at once
assailed the right of the three divisions, at the same time so
surrounding the others as to prevent them rendering any assistance to
one another, or drawing together into one. The right division,
comprising the Highland Grenadiers and a company of the Thirty-fifth,
fought with the fury of lions at bay, and was utterly cut to pieces,
along with its gallant commander, who, whenever he had perceived the
peril of the post, hastened to rescue it or die with the brave. The
little phalanx of heroes, reduced to eleven, attempted to break through
the host of foes which beleaguered them, and so join their comrades in
the centre division. Unfortunately, most of them perished in the
attempt. Captain Mackay, the only surviving officer, was struck to the
ground by a blow on the neck from the scimitar of an Arab horseman in
pursuit. The blow failing to kill, by a miracle of mercy he was saved,
and carried in by his serjeant. The remaining divisions, conscious how
unavailing any resistance would be, surrendered, and after being
brutally plundered, were conducted in triumph prisoners to Cairo, where
the vanity and the hatred of the people were gratified in the parade of
the captives through the principal streets of the city for seven hours;
exposed, moreover, to indignities of the grossest kind—“These,” said
they, “are our British _friends_, who came from their ships to kill us
and our children.” The Pacha, however, sincerely sympathising, behaved
with great kindness, and did his utmost to screen the prisoners from the
blind wrath of the public, expressing his deep regret that Britain
should have become so involved in war with his Government, which had
been long accustomed to regard the British as friends and allies—never
as foes.
In consequence of the disaster at El Hamet, the siege of Rosetta was
abandoned, and our army, retreating to Alexandria, thence negotiated for
the release of the prisoners, and agreeing to evacuate Egypt, returned
to Sicily. Of the captives thus released, a _drummer_ of the
Seventy-eighth, by name Macleod, who had occasionally assisted the
surgeon of the regiment in applying poultices, etc., choosing to remain
behind in Cairo, by a somewhat extraordinary metamorphosis, set up for a
_physician_, and by consummate assurance attained a large practice and
acquired a larger fortune. From Sicily the battalion was removed to
Lisbon, and thereafter ordered home to England, where it arrived in
1808. Subsequently transferred to Scotland to recruit, it forwarded
large detachments of very superior volunteers from its ranks to the
first battalion, then fighting in India.
In 1809 a corps of 370 men was battalionized under the Hon.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cochrane, and embarked for Zealand, where it shared
the disasters of the Walcheren expedition, afterward returning to the
Isle of Wight.
In 1813, as a small corps of 400 Highlanders, the second battalion of
the Seventy-eighth joined the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas
Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, which endeavoured to expel the French
from Holland. On the 13th January, with the second battalion of the
Twenty-fifth and the Thirty-third regiments, it encountered the enemy at
Merexem, where it behaved with signal gallantry—an immediate charge with
the bayonet by the Seventy-eighth, ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel
Lindsay, decided the contest. The enemy was beaten with great slaughter.
At this period the juvenility of the battalion was as remarkable as its
valour—only 43 of its soldiers exceeding twenty-two years of age. The
battalion remained in the Netherlands until after the battle of
Waterloo, but stationed at Nieuport, was deprived of the privilege of
being present on that memorable and glorious field. Nevertheless, it
added to its good name by its excellent conduct, becoming peculiarly
endeared to the Belgians, who spoke of the Highlanders as being “kind,
as well as brave;” “Enfans de la famille;” “Lions in the field and lambs
in the house”—so much so, that the citizens of Brussels petitioned the
mayor to request the General-in-Chief to allow the Seventy-eighth to
remain in garrison in that capital.
Returning to Scotland in 1816, the battalion was subsequently
incorporated with the first battalion as one regiment on its return from
India—conveying, with its few remaining soldiers, a character for
firmness truly remarkable in such young soldiers, and adding the glories
of Maida and Egypt to those of Assaye and Java, acquired by the first
battalion, and now one in the Seventy-eighth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------