THE GREATEST WAR
(1914- )
Thus only should it come, if come it must;
Not with a riot of flags or a mob-born cry,
But with a noble faith, a conscience high
And pure and proud as heaven, wherein we trust,
We who have fought for peace, have dared the thrust
Of calumny for peace, and watched her die,
Her scutcheons rent from sky to outraged sky
By felon hands, and trampled into the dust.
We fought for peace, and we have seen the law
Cancelled, not once, nor twice, by felon hands,
But shattered, again, again, and yet again.
We fought for peace. Now, in God’s name, we draw
The sword, not with a riot of flags and bands,
But silence, and a mustering of men.
ALFRED NOYES.
Some day when the smoke has lifted from the battlefields of Europe and
the tramp of feet has died away down the avenues of Time—when even such
a war as this is falling into perspective, and order is disentangled
from chaos—then will the story of the Highland regiments be told, and
the great part they played in the cause of freedom and liberty become an
inspiration for the years to come.
It would be a commonplace to repeat that there is something new and
terrible about this conflict—that it resembles in no way the struggles
of our earlier chapters. It is not merely the greatest war—the war of
nations instead of armies,—it is the most inhuman war. In it none of the
laws of the game have been practised. From the sack of Louvain to the
wreck of the _Lusitania_ the policy that has controlled the army and
navy of the enemy has bowed neither to pity nor to good faith. In this
colossal war, regiments, brigades, armies, even nations have been
swallowed up into the dense confusion of ceaseless battle. Upon every
frontier, every mountain pass, upon the water, under the water, and in
the pure air of heaven the grim struggle is waged night and day. When
great peoples sway to and fro in their millions the time has passed for
speaking of individual battalions.
We have followed the fortunes of the Highland regiments in the days when
war was the profession of soldiers. We have recorded the brilliant deeds
of one regiment or another, or, on occasions, of one man. But all that
has gone. Each regiment has taken to its colours a dozen or two dozen
comrade regiments bearing its ancient name, and carrying on, unseen, its
proud prestige. To-day the soldier belongs to no particular calling.
From the clerk to the dock-labourer—all have become soldiers _pro bono
publico_ and _pro patria_. Every day, in some part of the far-flung
battle line, deeds are being performed that we would have proudly
recorded in those earlier chapters; day by day, death has been met by
amateur soldiers with the unbroken steadiness of veteran troops.
All this is familiar. I only mention it to clear the way for what I am
about to say. It is not yet possible to write in any detail concerning
the Highland regiments, but at the same time, through the night of
conflict some ray of light occasionally pierces—some incident, some
letter, some fallen word, or act of bravery so splendid, shows like the
faint tracing of feet upon the sand, the way that the Army has passed.
Never in the history of our nation has war been declared with such
unanimity of opinion and such absence of idle demonstration. The honour
of England was at stake. The neutrality of Belgium had been violated,
and her people looked to England, whose word has ever been her bond. War
was never less welcome, never less foreseen, but in a moment, once the
inevitable burden was accepted, England laid down the things of peace to
take up the business of war.
And in that hour of suspense a remarkable thing happened.
In the bitter humiliation of the South African War the Empire had not
deserted the Motherland, but all had not been satisfied that the cause
was good; in the grave struggle that was about to be opened with the
greatest military tyranny in history, every freeman became a bondman in
chains of patriotism to an ideal.
From Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the most
isolated outposts of our great Empire, arose like the vast stirring of a
sea, the salutation of the Colonies and Dependencies. Germany had relied
upon conspiracy in India, instead of which the Princes and Chiefs were
amongst the first to offer their services and their wealth. The
following remarkable letter, written by an old Indian soldier to a young
soldier at the front, was published in an English newspaper: “Praise be
to the Guru. Your father Sundar Singh here writes a word to his dear son
Sampuran Singh. It is meet for a young man to be in the battle, and on
this account I am not taking thought. I am well and happy, and I pray to
the Guru for your welfare and happiness. When you receive this letter
answer it and relate to me the full conditions of the war.... Take no
thought for your life in the battle, for it is right to fight for the
King, and great glory will come to Hindustan, and the Sikhs, and fame to
the regiment.”
Germany had valued at nothing our amateur Colonial soldiery until their
baffled forces reeled back before the charge of the Canadians at Ypres.
In our own country, impoverished though many districts have been by
emigration, the answer to Britain’s summons was epic. In our Highlands
and to those who know their history, it was such as to bring a lump to
the throat. Long ago Sir Walter Scott wrote: “In too many instances the
Highlands have been drained, not of their superfluity of population, but
of the whole mass of the inhabitants, dispossessed by an unrelenting
avarice which will one day be found to have been as short-sighted as it
is selfish and unjust. Meantime, the Highlands may become the fairy
ground for romance and poetry, or the subject of experiment for the
professors of speculation, historical and economical. But, if the hour
of need should come, the pibroch may sound through the deserted region,
but the summons will remain unanswered.”
The summons has not remained unanswered. The Highland regiments have
been doubled and quadrupled, while from over the seas the Highlanders
have come back under Canadian Colours. There is not a man with the old
Celtic fire who has not, if he were able, delivered a blow for the sake
of the women and children of Belgium. Why did they come? “Me no muckle
to fight for?” said Edie Ochiltree, the old beggar. “Isna there the
country to fight for, and the burn-sides that I gang daundering beside,
and the hearths o’ the gudewives that gie me my bit bread, and the bits
o’ weans that come toddling to play wi’ me when I come about a landward
town?”
The swift progress of the German advance guard upon Belgium, the fall of
Liége and Namur, and the horrors that befell the Belgian peasantry,
brought one thing home to us very painfully, and that was the need for a
large army. What was done was done quickly. Lord Kitchener was given a
free hand to raise new armies, and until these should be trained he
relied upon our Regulars, Territorials, and the drafts of troops from
Canada and India to withstand the German arms. It was more than a
handful of men should have been asked to do. What concerns us is how
they did it. The German advance came on swiftly, relentlessly; and in
the darkness of a summer night, without confusion, without a qualm, our
little advance guard crossed the Channel.
It is certain that amongst the first to cross to France were the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders, the Black Watch, the Camerons, the
Seaforths, and the Gordons. An eye-witness of those early days has
written: “Hurrying into Boulogne, I was in time to see the Argyll and
Sutherlands marching through the streets of the town to the camps which
had been prepared for them upon the neighbouring hills. The population
of Boulogne rushed to the unaccustomed sound of the bagpipes, and it was
through lines of the old Boulonnais fishwives, who had that morning bade
tearful farewell to their fisher-sons off to the depot, that our men
stepped gaily along, with a cheery grin and a smile for the words of
welcome shouted out to them.”[13]
The Highland regiments took part in the retreat from Mons, the most
terrible in history, and throughout that awful action, when officers
could not ride their horses for fear of sleeping and falling to the
ground, when fighting never ceased for days on end, and our soldiers
held at bay a German force many times their superior in numbers—the
Highlanders fought sternly, heroically, giving way with an utter disdain
for their own safety, and a longing for the day when the retreat would
end.
The unconquerable British Infantry have never displayed the qualities of
dogged endurance so finely as in that eventful rearguard action. The
Germans could neither outflank, pierce, nor crush the thin khaki line.
It was the supreme test of a veteran regular army. It is of interest to
recall that, on his return from the march to Kandahar, Lord Roberts, at
the Mansion House, stated that he would never have undertaken the risk
of covering 300 miles of country unless he had been accompanied by
veteran troops. “The characteristics of young soldiers,” he said, “are
to win a winning game; to attack with dash where success seems probable;
or even to stand up to superior forces where courage has not been damped
by previous reverses and faith in their leader remains unimpaired. Under
such conditions they may even surpass their older comrades. But in times
of danger and panic, when the bugle sounds the Retire, when everything
seems to be going against us, and when danger can only be avoided by
order and presence of mind; then it is that the old soldier element
becomes of incalculable value; without it a commander would indeed be
badly off.”
[Illustration: THE ARGYLL AND SUTHERLANDS ENTERING BOULOGNE AUGUST 1914]
During the retreat from Mons the Highland regiments lost very heavily in
officers and men, and amongst them there fell the Master of Burleigh, a
very gallant and popular officer in the Argyll and Sutherlands. “He was
too brave for anything,” related a Highlander, “he simply wanted to be
at ’em, and at ’em he went. I don’t know where his sword was, but he
hadn’t it when I saw him—he had a rifle with the bayonet fixed, just
like the rest of us. I saw him at the time he was wounded, and he just
fought on gamely till he and his party of brave fellows were cut off and
surrounded.”
We learn that the Camerons were in close touch with the Black Watch at
Mons, and at one point in the retreat when the 42nd were in danger of
being surrounded, the 17th Battery R.F.A. and the Camerons staved off an
outflanking movement of the Germans.
The 1st battalion of the Gordons were practically annihilated in their
first battle. For long they had the melancholy reputation of being the
most badly hit regiment in the Army, until Neuve Chapelle and the losses
of the Cameronians and the Seaforths, while in the first week in
February 1915 the Black Watch fared no better.
The battle of the Aisne inflicted heavy casualties on the Highlanders,
particularly the Black Watch, losses which after the battle of the Marne
brought the following unforgettable tribute from Sir John French: “The
Black Watch—a name we know so well—have always played a distinguished
part in the battles of our country. You have many well-known honours on
your colours, of which you are naturally proud, but you will feel as
proud of the honours which will be added to your colours after this
campaign. At the battle of the Marne you distinguished yourselves. They
say that the Jaegers of the German Guard ceased to exist after that
battle. I expect they did. You have followed your officers, and stuck to
the line against treble your numbers in a manner deserving the highest
praise. I, as Commander-in-Chief of this Force, thank you, but that is a
small matter—your country thanks you and is proud of you. The Russians
have won great victories, but you, by holding back the Germans, have won
great victories as well, as if you had not done this the Russians could
not have achieved their successes. I am very glad of this opportunity of
addressing you, and thanking you personally for your splendid work.”
One member of the battalion has written: “We lost heavily in taking up
position, and the men were saddened by the loss of so many officers....
Then later, the men had to deplore the loss of their commanding officer,
Colonel Grant Duff—one of the bravest and best officers the regiment
ever had. He died bravely. He was hard pressed, and doing execution with
one of his men’s rifles when he fell with a mortal wound.”
The melancholy fate of one battalion of the Gordons has yet to be
revealed, but from various accounts there is little doubt that in the
confusion of the swift retreat, and the overwhelming force of the
Germans, the message for a withdrawal did not reach them, and acting up
to the gallantry of their records, they and their distinguished Colonel
remained at their posts until surrender was the only course left to
them.
The battles of the Marne and the Aisne were the turning of the scales
before the German retirement. On September 13 Colonel Bradford of the
Seaforths was killed. One account of his end runs: “It was in the battle
of the Aisne, when the Seaforths had taken up a position near a wood,
that the Germans began a heavy fire. The Colonel was standing with two
other officers surveying the field of operations, when he was struck by
a shell and killed instantly.”
Another affecting passage runs: “We laid him with two other officers to
rest on their field of honour, on a hill-side overlooking a valley of
the river. It was a sad but glorious moment for us to stand and hear the
padre tell us that they had not shrunk from their duty, and had fallen
for the sake of their comrades. The next day I found some Scotch
thistles growing close by, and I plucked the blooms to form a cross over
the dead chieftain’s grave.”
A doctor who was appointed to the Seaforths has recorded: “At present
(on the Aisne) we are entrenched. Our first day in this place, where we
have been for five days, was awful, for we were under fire the whole of
the day, with practically no protection, and our total of killed and
wounded amounted to seventy. The men never wavered, and gaps were always
filled. Grand are the Highland men, and grander still will be the
account they will render; I am lucky to be with such men.”
What simple words, and yet what a tale of sacrifice and heroism lies
behind them. Well might General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien write from the
front to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families Association: “Never has an
army been called on to engage in such desperate fighting as is of daily
occurrence in the present war, and never have any troops behaved so
magnificently as our soldiers in this war. The stories of the battle of
Mons and Le Cateau are only beginning to be known, but at them a British
force not only held its own against a German army four times its own
size, but it hit the enemy so hard that never were they able to do more
than follow it up. Of course our troops had to fall back before them, an
operation which would demoralise most armies. Not so with ours, however;
though they naturally did not like retiring for twelve successive days,
they merely fell sullenly back, striking hard whenever attacked, and the
moment the order came to go forward there were smiling faces everywhere.
Then followed the battles of the Marne and the Aisne. Tell the women
that all these great battles have, day by day, witnessed countless feats
of heroism and brave fighting. Large numbers will be given Victoria
Crosses and Distinguished Conduct Medals, but many more have earned
them, for it has been impossible to bring every case to notice. Tell the
women that proud as I am to have such soldiers under my command, they
should be prouder still to be near and dear relations to such men.”
About this time the 2nd Highland Light Infantry lost a gallant young
officer in Sir Archibald Gibson-Craig. He bravely offered to lead his
platoon against a German machine gun that was doing considerable damage
amongst our men. At the head of his Highlanders he fell, but the gun was
taken, and another hero added to the long list of those who counted
death less than life. Upon the same day Private Wilson of the same
battalion won the V.C. for capturing, single-handed, a German machine
gun and killing six of the enemy. Very fortunate have the 2nd H.L.I.
been, and very richly have they deserved such honours. Upon November 11,
for relieving a dangerous situation, Captain Brodie of the same regiment
was awarded the V.C.
In October Lieutenant Brooke of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders was awarded
the Victoria Cross for gallantry, and Drummer Kenny of the 2nd Gordons
the V.C. for rescuing wounded men under fire.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has truly said that “from October 25 to the
second week in November Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig were like
engineers holding up a dam of water visibly giving way.” The great
German advance towards Calais established the most critical situation of
the war, and the ultimate success of our troops at the battle of Ypres,
when 150,000 British and Indians withstood 600,000 Germans, will some
day be proclaimed as the most brilliant achievement in our military
history.
In the first great battle at Ypres the Highland regiments were supported
by their comrade battalions of the Territorials. In this desperate rush
for Calais, when the Germans came flocking onwards like ants upon the
side of a hill, when opposed to them was an army vastly inferior in
numbers, things looked desperate indeed. The headquarters of General
Haig were blown up, and when General French reached the British lines a
retirement of four miles had taken place. He motored from one spot to
another, propping up, as it were, this heroic handful of men. The
British fought doggedly, watching their regiments rent to tatters,
calling up every man, even the cooks, to take a hand. Cavalry and
infantry, officers and men fought till they could fight no more. But the
tide was turning, and when night fell upon the 31st of October the grand
attack was beaten off. Of the losses of our soldiers and our brave
Highlanders some estimate may be made by the casualties of individual
regiments, one of which entered the battle with 1100 men and came out
with only 73, and another which numbered 1350 returned only 300 strong.
On November 15 the Prussian Guard, the finest body of men in the German
army, advanced under the eyes of the Kaiser to wrench the road to Calais
from the British. They were met by the English Guards, by the
hard-fighting Highlanders, by the English fine regiments, by Irishmen,
Welshmen, and our gallant Indian soldiers—and they were held until their
dead lay eight deep.
These actions at Ypres were costly in casualties—50,000 out of 120,000;
they were beyond all price in glory and honour.
The coming of winter, and the construction of trenches, brought with it
a state of stalemate that was to last without a decisive offensive until
the spring of 1915.
During those long dreary months we were not idle. Our new armies were in
hard training, our war manufactories were making equipment, but
unfortunately not enough shells, and our Navy was carrying on its
imperishable vigil upon the sea, and under the sea, without which our
Empire would cease to exist and our Army would be cut off by twenty
miles of water.
The Highland regiments settled down with their customary fortitude to
the weary months of trench warfare, months that brought daily losses in
officers and men, bitter cold, and ceaseless rain, while overhead
screamed and broke the German shell fire.
Never have troops been called upon to endure such a prolonged strain. On
land and on sea, in patience and good temper, our soldiers and sailors
held on without a murmur.
Of the actual fighting there is little to tell, for little is known. The
monotony of trench warfare was broken by occasional frays and night
attacks. A Seaforth writes on October 20: “We were digging trenches when
we heard a volley of rifle fire come right over us, and we got the order
to stand to arms and advance. Their trenches were situated in a row on a
rise in a field, and we could not get our range on them. In a minute the
signal to charge went, and we all scrambled up the hill to get at them.
The first to get up was one company officer, and he was hit. We all
dived into their trenches at the point of their rifles, shooting and
stabbing, and then came the onslaught. Some of them were too terrified
to get out, whilst others rushed out and were shot down, and the
remainder sought refuge in a house.... About fifty surrendered. I am
proud to say that we were only one company. I shall never forget that
charge as long as I live. The General said, ‘Bravo, Seaforths! It was a
grand charge.’”
A Frenchman has recorded his impressions of a Highland regiment taking
part in an advance. “Resolutely,” he writes, “they crossed what had
seemed impossible ground. They seemed to do it, too, without sustaining
very much loss, and fixing bayonets, they made straight for the German
gunners. They charged to the shrill sound of the bagpipes. They charged
like heroes of Walter Scott, with their ribboned bonnets and their
dancers’ skirts. Neither ditch nor barbed wire could stop them. Their
dash carried them right into the midst of the Prussian batteries.
Shooting the gunners at their posts, they rendered the guns
unserviceable, and having completed their daring mission, prepared to
retire.”
The French _Nord de la France_ is no less emphatic in its praise. “The
British soldier,” it says, speaking of an advance of the Highlanders
under a murderous fire, “is wonderful. He is a slave to duty. For him to
retreat he must be ordered to do so, and these Scotsmen were prepared to
give their lives to the last man.”
Speaking of a charge in December a Gordon Highlander has written: “I
reckon it was one of the fiercest fights that the ‘Gay Gordons’ took
part in, and as usual the good old regiment covered itself with glory. A
certain General and officers who had witnessed the famous Dargai charge
told us it was ridiculous compared with that of December 14.”
From January 25 to February 7 the actions at Givenchy and La Bassée took
place, and were followed by a brief lull, with an outbreak of fighting
at Ypres upon February 14.
On March 10 the operations that were to develop into the battle of Neuve
Chapelle and St. Eloi commenced. It was the beginning of the great
offensive, which, so long looked for, was to fail so dismally owing to
the need for shells, and the German use of poisonous gases. It resulted
in the taking of two miles of German trenches, and the killing and
capture of 8000 of the enemy. In this action our soldiers drove the
enemy from their trenches, and after heavy losses resisted all attempts
to evict them.
All through the preceding night our troops had marched to their
positions, and with the breaking of day our artillery began to bombard
the German trenches. A hundred heavy guns spoke with one prolonged roar,
the field guns joined in, the whole British artillery was concentrated
upon the enemy. No trenches could stand such a destructive fire.
Forty minutes later the advance began and the village of Neuve Chapelle
was carried at the point of the bayonet.
It was in the rush upon the trenches that the Middlesex, faced by
unbroken barbed wire, were mown down in scores and hundreds. Helplessly
they tore at the entanglement—in silence they died rather than retreat.
Following that came the attack upon the German position, and in this
advance were the 2nd Gordon Highlanders and their Territorial battalion
the 6th. It was in this action that Lieutenant-Colonel Maclean of the
6th Gordons lost his life. To a subaltern who went to his assistance he
said, “Thank you, and now, my boy, your place is not here. Go about your
duty.”
The battle of Neuve Chapelle was finely conceived, and more finely
carried out. Most unfortunately, owing to the lack of reserves at the
height of the engagement, the full force of the attack was spent too
soon.
The story of how the Canadians fought and died at the second battle of
Ypres upon April 22, and how the comrade regiment of the Royal
Highlanders brought immortal honour to the North, is a tale of four
days’ heroism against unnatural and horrible odds.
Mr. J. Huntley Skrine has written somewhere:
Sons in my gates of the West,
Where the long tides foam in the dark of the pine,
And the cornlands crowd to the dim sky-line,
And wide as the air are the meadows of kine,
What cheer from my gates of the West?
What indeed! Nothing less than death rather than defeat. Whatever the
Canadians might be, they were not veteran soldiers. The Canadian
Division numbered doctors, lawyers, farmers, with a sprinkling of men
who had seen service in the South African War. Let us see how they faced
the German onslaught.
The use of asphyxiating gas compelled the French, who held the left of
the Canadians, to retire. In consequence of this the Canadian left flank
was moved southward. During the night the Canadians carried a wood in
the teeth of heavy machine-gun fire, continuing the conflict till dawn.
In the morning, to relieve their left they launched a counter attack
upon the German trenches. Over the open space the Canadian battalions
rushed. Colonel Burchill, the commanding officer, fell at the head of
his men, and with a shout of rage they reached the trenches, and drove
the enemy out. Our Colonials had not merely preserved their left—they
had pierced the German line.
Upon the same day a new cloud of gas reached the Canadian Highlanders.
It is recorded that they remained unshaken. But their very bravery
sealed their fate. The Germans slipped across their left and isolated
the wood from St. Julien. In this wood the remnants of the Canadian
battalions, disdaining surrender, fought to the last round and the last
man. The gallantry of the officers of the Royal Highlanders of Montreal
was wonderful—so magnificent as to call forth the highest praise. The
name of Canada rang throughout the Empire. In a moment of awful peril
she had sacrificed her bravest for the sake of Britain.
In the Canadian retreat not a gun was lost.
Upon May 9 it is recorded that the 1st Black Watch got the order to
advance upon the German trenches. Already several attempts to carry them
had failed. The English soldiers helped them upon the parapets of our
trenches and wished them good luck. Bayonets were already fixed, the
pipers struck up the famous tune, ‘Highland Laddie.’ That was the first
time in the war in which the 42nd had charged with their pipes. There
was only 300 yards to go, but it is said that ere that distance was
covered the sound of the pipes was hushed in death. The grand old
regiment cleared the Germans out of their trenches, and held them for
long in the face of a heavy artillery attack, only withdrawing upon an
order from the General. The following extracts are taken from the
enemy’s Press: The _Frankfurter Zeitung_, after describing the French
attack on May 9, says: “Then the British came into action with
tremendous fierceness. They would break through, cost what it might.
They attacked in three lines. The front regiment was mowed down by our
fearful fire, and the following regiment, under a terrible hail from the
guns, was unable to advance. Then the British sent one of their best
Highland regiments to the front, the best they have anywhere. The Black
Watch advanced. The gallant Scots came on, but even their really heroic
bravery was in vain, for they were not able to turn the fate of the
day.”
The _Deutsche Tageszeitung_ says: “The British advanced with
extraordinary force. They had in action about a division, and called
upon them to advance in three lines. After the first line had been
thrown back with fearful losses, the second line could not advance. The
_élite_ regiment, the Scottish Black Watch, was called forward, and bled
to death without having obtained anything. Two men actually reached our
breastworks, and had to lie in front of them from five in the evening
until six the next morning before we could look after them.”
Between May and July there was no sustained activity upon the Western
Front, but on many other parts of the Allies’ vast campaign the
ceaseless struggle proceeded. Italy was pressing onwards towards the
Austrian line while Sir Ian Hamilton was endeavouring to retrieve the
initial blunder at the Dardanelles. Russia was fighting tooth and nail
her amazing rearguard action, retreating victoriously, relinquishing at
a terrible cost territory already stripped and barren. It was the
beginning of the great retreat. Warsaw fell upon August 5, and a month
later the Czar took over the supreme command, and the Grand Duke
Nicholas left for the Caucasus.
In July came the news of our first great British victory, a victory the
more welcome as it was won by General Botha, whose strategical skill and
courage we had learned to admire in the Boer War. Despite the plotting
of De Wet and Beyers, Kemp and Maritz, Botha had overcome disloyalty
amongst the dissatisfied burghers, and followed it up by the complete
rout of the Germans in South-West Africa.
With the month of August one year of bloodshed was reached, and looking
over the wide field of hostilities there were those who asked what had
been accomplished in return for precious lives lost upon a hundred
fields of strife. Our casualties numbered 330,000, while the loss of
life amongst our brave Allies had been enormous. Russia was no nearer
Berlin than at the commencement of the war, France was no nearer the
frontier of Belgium, England had not stormed the Dardanelles.
On the other hand, the Allied Armies were growing stronger, and the
German armies weaker; the scales were turning. Time was upon the side of
the Allies, and the greatest victory of the past year was won by no
array of arms, but by the sleepless vigilance of the British Navy. It
was a struggle between an invincible Army and an invincible Navy, and
unless some unforeseen catastrophe overwhelmed the Allied Armies the
issue lay in the hands of Great Britain.
To return to the Highland regiments, there were many individual acts of
heroism during those summer months that should be recorded.
On May 9 the Black Watch won two V.C.’s for magnificent bravery under
fire—Private John Lynn working a machine gun until he was overcome by
gas poisoning, to which he fell a victim, and Corporal John Bridley
leading a few Highlanders against the enemy’s trenches, and maintaining
his position.
Upon June 12 at Givenchy, Lance-Corporal William Angus of the Highland
Light Infantry won the V.C. for rescuing a wounded officer under heavy
fire, sustaining some forty wounds from bombs.
In the middle of June at Hooge, the Liverpool Scottish, a Territorial
battalion second to none, advanced against the German trenches,
supported by the H.A.C. The plan of attack was that the Scottish should
take the first line of German trenches, and leaving the H.A.C. to hold
them should advance upon the second line. Following the cannonade of our
guns, the Scottish leapt over the parapets and charged into the curtain
of smoke. The first trench was carried without a halt, the second fell
immediately after, and pausing to take a breath the battalion captured
the third after severe fighting, and faced the fourth. This, too, was
carried. What need for comment when words are blinded by achievement!
Many gallant men fell, including Captain Graham, the great amateur
golfer. Unhappily a sorrowful toll of lives must ever be the fruit of
bravery and self-sacrifice.
It is difficult where heroism has become a commonplace, and courage
inseparable from the nature of the task that lies behind us and in the
future, to conclude this chapter and this book upon a note at once
comprehensive and mature, a note that will not sound dim when other
tales are told, nor sufficiently local to be overshadowed by some vast
offensive.
With the battle of Festubert certainly one, and perhaps two stories of
Scottish heroism will, in my opinion, be for ever sacred in Scottish
hearts.
Nothing could be more forlorn, more Celtic in tragedy than the tale of
the 4th Cameron Highlanders, whose night attack was checked by a deep
ditch full of water. Some swam across, many sank never to rise again,
but the battalion passed on. In the black darkness they struggled on,
undaunted. A desolating fire raked their ranks. One company was
annihilated, another was hopelessly lost, a third took a German trench.
But the battalion was cut off. No machine guns could cross the stream to
their support, and in the grey dawn the situation for the Gaelic remnant
grew intolerable. The company in the German trench were forced to retire
under a heavy fire. Colonel Fraser and twelve other officers had fallen.
But that single company of Camerons were unbroken. Sergeant-Major Ross
it was who gathered the remnants to him and brought them safely across
the zone of fire. Never has a more hopeless withdrawal faced a British
force. Never has a finer fortitude awaited it.
Again, in the British advance a detachment of the Scots Guards lost
touch with the main body, and were surrounded. Admirably has Mr. John
Buchan spoken of their end. “For them,” he says, “as for the steel
circle around the King at Flodden, there could be no retreat. When, some
days later, we took the place we found the Guards lying on the field of
honour with swaths of the enemy’s dead around them. The history of war
can show no more noble ending.”
It is with such pictures as these that I would close this chapter,
pictures of courage and self-sacrifice unsurpassed in the story of our
regiments. Whatever the future may hold, one thing is certain—victory
must always greet men inspired by a cause that is at once noble and
just.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look the land is bright.
Footnote 13:
_Behind the Scenes at the Front_ (Chatto & Windus), by George Adams.
INDEX
Abercrombie, General Sir James, 17, 20, 22, 25
Abercromby, General Sir Ralph, 66, 72, 74
Aboukir, 71, 213
Abraham, Plains of, 28, 31
Abu Hamid, 226
Acre, 71
Aisne, battle of the, 295, 297, 298
Alexandria, 73, 78
Alison, General Sir Archibald, 44, 180, 182, 184, 214
Allan, Captain, 284
Alliance, La Belle, 123
Alma, battle of the, 133.
_See_ Chapter XIV.
Almeida, fortress of, 93
Alost, 66
Alumbagh, the, 167
Amherst, General, 25, 28, 31
Amiens, Peace of, 79
Angus, Lance-Corporal William, 309
Anson, General, 146
Arabi Bey, 212, 216
Arcot, 57
Assaye, 61
Atbara, River, 229, 231
Austerlitz, 82
Austrian Succession, War of, 10
Badajoz, 95
Baines, Major-General, 111
Baird, Sir David, 84, 88
Baird, Major-General, 59
Baker, General, 195, 196, 198, 222
Baker, Sir Samuel, 218
Balaclava, 137
Bareilly, 175, 176
Barnard, General, 146
Becke, Captain, 115
Benson, Major, 256
Beresford, General, 91, 99, 101
Bergen-op-Zoom, 16
Berlin Treaty, 189
Bidassoa, River, 98
_Birkenhead_, the, 205, 206
Bloemfontein, 268, 269, 274, 277, 278
Blücher, Marshal, 10, 107, 112, 113
Boquet, Colonel Henry, 38, 40
Botha, General, 244, 284, 307
Boulogne, 80, 293
Bradford, Colonel, 297
Brandy Wine River, 52
Branston, Major, 165
Brest, 81
Bridley, Corporal John, 308
Brodie, Captain, 299
Brooke, Lieutenant, 299
Bruce, Captain, 259
Buchan, John, 310
Bugeaud, Marshal, 115
Buller, General Sir Redvers, 180, 264, 266, 268, 271, 273, 284
Burchill, Colonel, 305
Burgos, battle of, 97
Burgoyne, General, 53, 54
Burgoyne, Captain, 174
Burleigh, Master of, 294
Burrows, General, 200
Busaco, 92
Cadogan, Colonel, 93, 98
Calcutta, Black Hole of, 57
Cambridge, Duke of, 172
Cameron, Major-General Alan, 92
Cameron, Colonel John, 108, 109, 111, 176
Campbell, Sir Colin, 44, 97, 127-134;
at Balaclava, 135-141;
Lucknow, 159-177
Canning, Lord, 172
Cape Colony (added to British Empire), 205
Carnatic, Nawab of the, 61
Castile, fortress of, 95
Cato Street Conspiracy, 126
Cavagnari, Major, 193, 194, 196, 202
Cawnpore, massacre of, 150;
taken by British, 155;
relief of, 172
Cecil, Lord, 231
Cetewayo, 207
Chamberlain, Sir Neville, 189
Champlain, Samuel de, 20
Charasiah, 194;
battle won, 196
Charles Edward, Prince, 3, 9, 182
Charlestown, 54
Cherokee Indians, 34, 35, 36, 38
Chieveley Camp, 266
Chitral, _see_ Chapter XXIII.
Churchill, Winston, 280
Ciudad Rodrigo, 95
Clinton, General Sir Henry, 101
Clive, Robert (Lord), 56, 142
Colenso, battle of, 266
Colley, General Sir George, 208, 209, 210
Colville, General, 95, 276
Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur, 251, 252, 257, 272, 274, 299
Coomassie, 178, 180, 183, 185
Cornwallis, General (Lord), 52, 54, 57
Corunna, 87
Cotton, Sidney, 144
Craufurd, General, 87
Crimean War, the, _see_ Chapters XIV. and XV.
Cronje, General, 251, 252, 269
Culloden, 3, 16
Cumberland, William Augustus, Duke of, 3, 11, 16
Dardanelles, 73, 307
Dargai, _see_ Chapter XXIII.
Delagoa Bay, 282
Delhi, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149
Dettingen, 13, 27
De Wet, General, 244, 278, 282, 285, 307
Dick-Cunyngham, Colonel, 197, 272
Dingaan, 206
Dingwall, Lieutenant, 239
Dongola Expedition, the, 228
Duff, Grant-, Colonel, 296
Dundas, General, 67
Dundas, Henry (Viscount Melville), 72
Dundonald, Lord, 273
Dupleix, Joseph, 142
Duquesne, Fort, 24, 25
Earle, Major-General, 225, 226
East India Company, 56, 142
Elandslaagte, 248
Elba, Isle of, 104, 105
El-Teb, 222
Ewart, Colonel, 165
Farquhar, Lieutenant, 60
Festubert, battle of, 310
Findlater, Piper, 239
Fitchett, W. H., 86, 102, 124, 146
Fontenoy, 11, 22
Forbes, Archibald, 67
Forbes, Brigadier-General John, 24
Fortescue, Hon. John, 59, 68, 168
_Foudroyant_, the, 77
Fraser, Colonel, 310
Fraser, General Simon, 53
French, General Sir John, 248, 269, 281, 284, 295, 299, 300
Fuentes de Oñoro, 91, 92
Gardyne, Colonel, 239
Gatacre, General, 229, 230, 264, 265, 266
George III., 45
Gibson-Craig, Sir Archibald, 298
Givenchy, 303, 309
Gladstone, William E., 225
Goodall, Captain, 60
Gordon, General Charles, 219, 220, 224, 226
Gordon, Captain, 284
Graham, General, 97
Graham, Sir Gerald, 222, 225
Graham, Captain John, 276, 309
Grant, General Hope, 171
Grant, Lieutenant, 22
Grant, Major James, 24, 47
Granville, Lord, 225
Graspan, 251
Green, Colonel, 226
Grouchy, Marshal, 114, 115, 120
Haig, General Sir Douglas, 299, 300
Hamilton, General Sir Ian, 209, 271, 272, 278, 281, 307
Hamilton, Colonel, 154
Hamley, General, 216, 217
Hardinge, Captain, 88, 89
Hastings, Warren, 57, 61
Havelock, General Sir Henry, 150-167
Hay, Lord Charles, 12
Hicks, Colonel, 219
Hills, General, 200
Honours, Battle—Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 177;
Black Watch, 7;
Cameron Highlanders, 104;
Gordon Highlanders, 113;
Highland Light Infantry, 62;
Seaforth Highlanders, 203
Hooge, 309
Hope, Brigadier Adrian, death of, 176
Hope, General Sir John, 84, 88
Hougoumont, 117, 119
Howe, General, 50, 51, 52, 53
Hunter, General Sir Archibald, 229
Hutchinson, General, 78
Importation Act, 46
Independence, Declaration of, 47
Indian Mutiny, _see_ Chapters XVI. and XVII.
Inglis, General Sir John, 159
Isandhlwana, 207
Jacobite Rebellion, 9
Jameson, Dr., 242
Jardyne, Colonel, 239
Jenkins’ Ear, battle of, 9
Jones, Brigadier-General John, 176
Joubert, General, 207, 244
Kabul, 188, 192, 193, 194;
Roberts’ entry into, 196;
re-entry, 200
Kandahar, 189, 200
Kassassin, 213
Kavanagh, 164
Kenny, Drummer, 299
Khalifa, city of the, 228
Khartoum, 225
Khyber Pass, 189
Kimberley, 250, 264, 268, 269, 276
Kinglake, Alexander, 129, 131, 140
Kipling, Rudyard, 192
Kirbekan, 225
Kitchener of Khartoum, Horatio Herbert (Lord), 213, 220, 227, 231, 245,
267, 286, 292
Knyphausen, General, 52
Koffi Calcalli, 179, 181, 183
Kruger, Paul, 207, 211, 242, 244, 246, 280, 282, 284
La Bassée, 303
Ladysmith, 250, 264, 266, 268, 270, 271, 272, 273
Laing’s Nek, 207
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 147, 149;
death of, 152
Liége, 292
Ligny, battle of, 112
Lockhart, Sir William, 237, 240
Loudon, Fort, 36, 38
Louis XV., 9
Louis XVIII., 104, 106
Louisburg, 24, 27
Louvain, 289
Lovat, Lord, 34
Low, General Sir Robert, 235, 236
Lucknow, capture of, 175
_Lusitania_, wreck of the, 289
Lynn, Private John, 308
Lytton, Lord, 188, 189
M’Bean, Colonel, 210
Macbean, Major, 239
M’Carthy, Sir Charles, 179
M’Donald, Donald, 49
Macdonald, Flora, 50
Macdonald, General Sir Hector, 232, 274, 285
Macdonald, John, 220
Maclean, Lieutenant-Colonel, 304
Macpherson, Major, of Cluny, 181
Macpherson, General, 198
Maestricht, 16, 112
Mafeking, 250, 264
Magersfontein, 254, 261, 262, 266
Mahdi (_see_ Mohammed Ahmed), 219, 221, 227
Mahmoud, 229, 230
Mahon, Lord, 53
Maiwand, 200
Majuba Hill, 205, 207, 208, 209
Malakand Pass, 236
Marne, battle of the, 295, 297, 298
Martello towers, 80
Massena, General, 92, 93, 94
Mathias, Colonel, 239
Maubeuge, 124
_Mayflower_, the, 10
Meerut, 144, 145
Meiklejohn, Captain, 248, 249
Methuen, Lord, 250, 251, 254, 255, 262, 263, 266
Middelburg, 284
Milner, Sir Alfred (Lord), 243
Modder River, battle of, 251, 254
Mohammed Ahmed (_see also_ Mahdi), 219
Moira, Lord, 66
Mons, 124, 293, 294
Montcalm, Marquis de, 18, 21, 29, 30
Montgomery, Colonel, 34, 35, 38
Mont St. Jean, 116, 117
Moore, General Sir John, 73, 84, 87, 88, 89
Morgan, Colonel, 53
Müffling, von, General, 115
Munro, Captain John, 13
Munro, Sir Robert (of Fowlis), 14, 15
Murray, General, 31
Murray, Major, 50
Mysore, 58
Mysore, Tiger of (_see_ Tippoo Sahib), 57
Nana Sahib, 149, 153, 167
Namur, 292
Napier, Sir William, 85, 89, 96, 116
Napoleon I., Emperor of the French, 57, 70, 72, 80, 81, 85;
at Isle of Elba, 104;
leaves Elba, 106;
at Waterloo, 115;
at St. Helena, 125
Natal, 247, 250
Nelson, Horatio (Lord), 71, 81
Neuve Chapelle, 295, 303, 304
Newbolt, Sir Henry, 194
Ney, Marshal, 109, 110, 114, 122
Nicholas, Grand Duke, 307
Nicholson, John, 65, 144, 147;
death of, 148
Nicholson’s Nek, battle of, 250
Nieuport, 66
Nightingale, Florence, 136
Nile, battle of the, 71
Nimeguen, 66
Nivelle, River, 99
Noyes, Alfred, 288
Ohio Indians, 41
Ontario, Fort, 18
Orleans, Isle of, 27
Orthez, 99
Outram, General Sir James, 151, 159, 162, 166, 175
Pack, Sir Denis, 100, 101, 119, 120
Paris, Treaty of, 41
Paton, Sergeant John, V.C., 166
Peace Congress (at Vienna), 105
Peiwar Kotal, 192, 202
Persian Campaign, 151
Picton, General Sir Thomas, 95, 101, 118
Pieter’s Hill, 273
Pitt, William, the Elder, 3, 7, 9, 47
Pitt, William, the Younger, 71, 82
Pittsburg, 25
Plassey, battle of, 57
Pondicherry, 56
Pretoria, 206, 242, 278, 282
Prideaux, General, 25
Primrose, General, 200
Prinsloo, capture of, 286
Ptolemies, palace of the, 75
Pyrenees, campaign of the, 98
Quatre Bras, battle of, 90, 103, 111, 117
Raglan, Lord, 133
Reform Bill, the, 126
Roberts, Frederick Sleigh (Lord), 32, 144, 168;
at Afghanistan, 189, 193, 195, 197, 201, 267, 268, 270, 274, 278,
284, 286
Rorke’s Drift, 207
Ross, Sergeant-Major, 310
Russell, Dr., 173
St. Eloi, 303
St. Helena, 125
Salamanca, 96
Salisbury, Lord, 188
San Michael, 96, 97
San Sebastian, 98
Saratoga, Springs of, 53;
Heights of, 54
Saxe, Marshal, 11, 12, 14, 16
Schiel, Colonel, 248, 249
Scott, Sir Walter, 156, 291, 302
Scottish, Liverpool, 309
Seaforth, Earl of, 44
Secundrabagh, 163, 164, 165
Seringapatam, 58, 60
Sevastopol, 133;
siege of, 135;
fall of, 141
Shere Ali, 187, 188;
death of, 192
Sherpur, 199
Skrine, J. Huntley, 304
Smith, Sir Sydney, 71
Smith-Dorrien, General Sir H., 283, 298
Soignes, Forest of, 110, 117
Soult, Marshal, 84, 85, 99, 100, 103
Spion Kop, 268
Stamp Act, 46
Stanley, Sir Henry, 180, 181, 184
Steevens, G. W., 229, 233
Stewart, Colonel, 75
Stewart, General, of Garth, 5, 36
Stormberg, 264, 265
Strange, Major Bland, 235
Suakin, 222
Sullivan, General, 52
Symons, General Penn, 246
Tait, Lieutenant F. G., 259, 260, 274, 275
Talana Hill, 247
Tamai, battle of, 222
Tel-el-Kebir, 213;
battle won, 216
Theresa, Maria, 10
Ticonderoga, 20, 25
Tippoo Sahib, 57, 58, 60
Torres Vedras, 92
Toulon, 81
Toulouse, battle of, 99, 100, 103
Towse, Captain, 279, 280
Trafalgar, battle of, 80, 81
Trevelyan, G. O., 143, 150, 154
Tugela River, 266, 268
Ulm, 82
Ulundi, battle of, 207
Umra Khan, 235, 236
Uxbridge, Duke of, 113
Vergennes, French Ambassador, 41
Victoria, Queen, 127, 172, 231, 243
Vimiera, 127
Vittoria, 97
Wade, Marshal, 11
Walcheren Expedition, the, 127
Walpole, General, 175, 176
Warsaw, 307
Washington, George, 24, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53
Washington, Fort, 50
Waterloo, battle of, 90, 103, 124
Wauchope, General, 254, 256, 258, 259
Wellesley, Arthur (Duke of Wellington), 58, 83
Wellington, Duke of, 91, 96, 97, 100, 107, 109, 111;
at Waterloo, 116, 117, 125
Wheeler, Major-General Sir Hugh, 150, 169
White, General Sir George, 178, 195, 246, 270, 273
William Henry, Fort, 18
Wilson, Sir Charles, 225
Wilson, Sir Robert, 74
Wilson, Private, 299
Wolfe, General, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Wolseley, Garnet Joseph (Lord), 139, 165, 178, 180, 183, 185, 212, 213,
216, 225
Wood, General Sir Evelyn, 180, 208, 211
Yakub Khan, 193
York, Duke of, 66
Yorktown, 54
Younger, Captain, death of, 284
Ypres, 121, 291, 299, 300, 304
Yusef Pasha, 219
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
MUCKLE JOHN
CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY ALLAN STEWART
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Transcriber’s note:
Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
Typographical errors were silently corrected.
Spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant form
was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed.