“That all the Captains were wounded, less or more, excepting
Captains McNeil and Allan Campbell, that Major Campbell got his
right arm wounded, but not dangerous and his son, Lieutenant
Alexander Campbell had his arm broke betwixt the elbow and
shoulder, but he was in a good way.”
Parkman states that Lt. Alexander Campbell was severely wounded but
reached Scotland alive and died in Glasgow.[28]
Abercrombie reports to Pitt from Lake George, Aug. 19, 1758;
“Major Duncan Campbell of the 42nd who was wounded in the arm at
the battle on the 8th was obliged to have it cut off and died
soon thereafter.”[29]
It would seem therefore that the wounds of Major Campbell and his
son were not necessarily fatal and that modern surgery would have
cured them. The following however, taken from Garneau’s L’Histoire
du Canada might explain the unexpected mortality. “Scarcely any of
the wounded Highlanders ever recovered and even those sent home as
invalids; their sores cankered, owing to the broken glass, ragged
bits of metal, etc., used by the Canadians instead of shot.”[30]
Or this extract from letter of Brig. General James Wolfe to Lord
George Sackville:
Halifax 24″ May 1758.
“Some of the Regiments of this Army have 300 or 400 men eat up
with the Scurvey. All of them that are wounded or hurt by any
accident run great risks of their lives from the corrupted state
of the blood.
“The curious part of the barbarity is that the scoundrels
of Contractors can afford the fresh meat in many places and
circumstances as cheap as the salt.”
[Illustration: Original headstone at Grave of Major Duncan Campbell
of Inverawe.
(Jane McCrea lot in Union Cemetery, between Fort Edward and Hudson
Falls.)]
Abercrombie states in his report of July 12, 1758,
“I sent the wounded officers and the men that could be moved to
Fort Edward and Albany.”
Major Campbell was sent to Fort Edward and upon his death nine days
after the battle he was buried in the family lot of the Gilchrists,
in the old cemetery at Fort Edward. The body was moved to the
Gilchrist lot in the new Union cemetery between Sandy Hill and Fort
Edward in 1871, and in 1920 was moved again to the Jane McCrea lot
in the same cemetery. The original stone may still be seen and
bears the inscription: “Here Lyes the body of Duncan Campbell of
Inversaw, Esqr Major to The old Highland Regt. Aged 55 Years. Who
died The 17th July, 1758, of wounds he received in the attack of
the retrenchments of Ticonderoga or Carillon, 8th July, 1758.”
Stewart of Garth says,
“The old Highland Regiment having suffered so severely * * * they
were not employed again that year.”
In the N. Y. Colonial Records, however, we find that some regulars
of the 42nd and 6th Regts. amounting to 155 men (probably one
company of each) were with Bradstreet in his exposition against
Fort Frontenac.[31]
In Abercrombie’s report of Aug. 19, 1758, he states that part of
the additional companies of the 42nd were sent to reinforce Brig.
General Provost at Fort Edward and that one company of the 42nd
and some of the recovering men were stationed at Albany. From this
it might be inferred that the only part of the Black Watch fit for
duty were the three additional companies which had not been in
the battle of July 8th and it is possible that the one company of
the 42nd that had been blown out of its course to Antigua and had
not arrived at New York until June did not get further north than
Albany. The winter quarters of the 42nd for 1758 were at New York.
(Abercrombie to Pitt, No. 25, 1758.)[32]
The official title is now changed to the “42nd or Royal Regiment
of foot,” and the regiment is commonly called the Royal
Highlanders. It has erroneously been stated that the Black Watch
was granted this honor of being a “Royal” regiment because of its
gallantry at Ticonderoga, but it is all the more to its credit that
it had earned this distinction before the battle at Ticonderoga.
The title was granted by special warrant dated July 22, 1758, while
the news of the defeat did not reach London until the arrival of
Abercrombie’s aide de camp with dispatches Aug. 20, 1758.
A copy of the warrant is as follows: