THE SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
The 1st battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders originally bore the number
subsequently allotted to the 2nd battalion, for in 1778 the 1st
battalion was raised as the 78th infantry of the line by the Earl of
Seaforth, and with that as its official number it went to Jersey to
defend the island against a French attack, and subsequently to India.
The voyage to India occupied ten months, and cost the life of the Earl
of Seaforth and 200 men of the regiment; the remainder landed safely,
and underwent the campaign which ended in the overthrow of Tippoo Sahib:
the Seaforths led the attack on the fortifications of Bangalore, and
assisted in the taking of Seringapatam. Then the Seaforths took Ceylon
from the Dutch.
In 1786 the 1st battalion (as it is at present known) was renumbered
"72nd," and in 1793 the present 2nd battalion of the regiment was formed
as the "78th Foot." After work in Holland and at the Cape, the 78th went
to India to fight under the future Duke of Wellington in the Mahratta
War. For valour at Assaye the 78th was granted the Elephant, inscribed
"Assaye," as a special badge, and also a third colour to bear. These
distinctions were well earned, for the 78th defeated a force ten times
as strong as itself in the course of the battle.
The warlike quality of the material from which the Seaforths were
obtained may be estimated from the fact that two "second battalions"
were formed in succession and sent out to join the original 78th raised
in 1793. In the second expedition to Egypt in 1807, and in the
disastrous Walcheren expedition, the battalion took part, losing heavily
in officers and men in both cases--three companies were practically
annihilated at El Hamet in the Egyptian campaign. After Walcheren, the
Seaforths had little chance of winning distinction in the Napoleonic
wars, but in 1819 and 1835 the regiment was engaged at the Cape in
Kaffir wars, and the next incident of note in the history of the
Seaforths was their work in the Mutiny, when they served under Havelock,
marching from Allahabad to the relief of Cawnpur and Lucknow. Four
battles were fought and won before the force reached Cawnpur--too late;
and they went on to Lucknow. Tennyson has told how the sound of Highland
music gave intimation of relief to the sorely pressed Lucknow garrison,
and, regarding the work of the regiment at that time, their commander
told them--"I have been forty years in the service, I have been engaged
in actions seven-and-twenty times, but in the whole of my career I have
never seen any regiment behave so well as the 78th Highlanders. I am
proud of you."
The 72nd, the present 1st battalion of the Seaforths, was also engaged
in the suppression of the Mutiny, though not with Havelock, and they
helped largely in suppressing the final flames of rebellion throughout
India. Then followed nearly twenty years of peace service for the
regiment, after which it took part in the campaign in Afghanistan, and
shared in the memorable march from Kabul to Kandahar. The bravery of the
regiment in this campaign is attested by the fact that no less than five
names connected with the two years of fighting are emblazoned on the
regimental colours.
The Seaforths were in the charge at Tel-el-Kebir, and in the second
Egyptian campaign of 1898 the first battalion was engaged both at
Atbara and Khartoum. In between these two wars the regiment saw much
service in the two Hazara wars and the campaign of Chitral. In South
Africa the Seaforths formed part of the Highland Brigade at
Magersfontein, and lost no less than 212 officers and men killed and
wounded in that disastrous action. Magersfontein was avenged at
Paardeberg, where the Seaforths took part in the rounding up and capture
of Cronje, following up this with the action at Poplar Grove and that of
Driefontein. In the next great capture of the war, that of Prinsloo in
the Wittebergen, the Seaforths played an active part, and from then on
to the end of hostilities the regiment was actively engaged, both in
blockhouse work and in the rounding up of the Boer forces. Up to 1902,
the regiment had won no less than eleven Victoria Crosses, while its
distinguished-conduct medals are too numerous to count.
For the campaign in France and Belgium, the Seaforths were brigaded with
the Irish Fusiliers, the Dublin Fusiliers, and the Warwickshire
Regiment, under command of Brigadier-General J. A. L. Haldane, D.S.O.,
who made a memorable escape from Pretoria during the last Boer war. That
the regiment is keeping up its traditions is instanced by the case of
one man who was found retiring to the rear, wounded in nine different
places. He wanted no sympathy, and asked for no help; all he wanted to
know was--who had won the St. Leger! One of his comrades, wounded also,
remarked that the Seaforths had "fairly made the Germans hop out of
their trenches when they charged with the bayonet." The enemy had no
idea that the British were so close on them till the Seaforths marched
out of a farmyard right into the firing line, and then the Germans did
not wait, but ran like cattle chased by dogs. "After marching for four
days, during which time we did not know where we were, we got into motor
cars and were taken to a position right under the very noses of the
Germans, who got the surprise of their lives when they saw the 'ladies
from hell,' as they called us on account of our kilts, advancing on
them."
Further, a man of the Dublin Fusiliers bears testimony to the fighting
qualities of the Seaforths. "It keeps up your spirit to be fighting with
such fellows," he says, "and they have fairly put fear into the Germans
with their bayonet charges. When there was any close fighting, and it
came to using the cold steel, the Germans ran from them like hares. Most
of the 'Jocks' now have beards, and with their kilts flying when they
charge they are a wild-looking lot." The writer of this adds his
evidence to the testimony that the Germans have no liking for bayonet
work. "They are big chaps, most of them, but have not got the heart for
it," he observes.
The actual route taken by the regiment, in the moves made by the British
forces since the war began, can be traced pretty accurately by means of
various personal accounts. The first of these accounts states that the
Seaforths were first engaged at Agincourt, where an advance party of
Germans took the regiment by surprise, and they were hotly engaged. The
Germans lost heavily, but were in very strong force, and at night the
Seaforths drew back to get a rest. Two days later, at Guise, the German
cavalry tried to break through the column which included the Seaforths,
but they were met with fixed bayonets and driven back, though the
British suffered heavy casualties.
Then "at La-Musa we had a stiff engagement with the German Crown
Prince's army on the right wing, and by the aid of their aeroplanes the
German gunners found our trenches, on which they kept up a heavy
cannonading for almost three hours. An attack was made by the German
cavalry, but our artillery mowed them down like hay--the slaughter was
something awful. We had to retire, however, and for twenty-eight miles
we marched without food before we got out of range of the enemy's guns.
After three hours' rest we advanced in an opposite direction to our line
of retreat, and proceeded to La Ferte, with the German cavalry in
pursuit. Crossing the river there we had a thrilling time, and just
crossed the bridge in time for the Royal Engineers to blow it up and
prevent the Germans crossing--a number of the Engineers were killed in
the explosion.
"We afterwards marched to Mons, having several skirmishes on the way,
and managed to capture a number of Germans and a field hospital. We saw
many signs of German barbarism on our march, and one sight I shall never
forget was that of a father and mother with a baby about two months old,
lying stabbed to death by bayonets on their doorstep. Frequently we took
women and children into the trenches for safety, and always they had a
terrible dread of the Uhlans. We Seaforths were on the right flank at
Mons, and one morning the Germans suddenly opened fire on us at three
o'clock. We fixed bayonets, and followed the Guards in skirmishing
order, passing over heaps of dead, and capturing German guns. But we
could not keep our positions, for the Germans were entrenched in masses
farther on, and we had to retire."
This account is rather muddled, for the writer speaks of days of
fighting and marching with skirmishes before the action at Mons. One
must sort out the various engagements mentioned and compare them with
the official account of the first engagements in order to arrive at an
estimate of the position in which the Seaforths began their fighting. On
the whole, however, the writer conveys a very good idea of the work of
those first few days--he was wounded in the retirement from Mons, and
thus his narrative ceases there.
The story is taken on by a man of the regiment who was captured during
the fighting on the Oise, and was sentenced by the enemy to be shot, but
managed to escape. Having lost his regiment, he attached himself to a
French unit, and kept with them for three weeks, in which time he saw
only three Englishmen, all lost like himself, and they commiserated
each other on not knowing the French language, and consequently being
unable to converse with their comrades in the firing line. In the town
from which the writer posted his letter, the Germans had looted all the
shops previous to the French reoccupation, while the British had blown
up a bridge, and the Germans in turn had sunk a number of French boats
in the canal to form a temporary bridge. The writer adds his evidence on
the subject of German cruelty.
Concerning an engagement on the Aisne, on the 13th of September, one of
the Seaforths who participated tells how his company had been resting
for the night in a farmhouse after having been on the move for seven or
eight days, and in the morning they went forward a march of three or
four miles, which brought them into range of the enemy's position, a
mile to the front. The regiment was ordered to take the German
position, and advanced in extended order across a clear field of fire,
when, fortunately for the attackers, the enemy's fire was so bad that
the losses were very slight. The advance was steadily maintained, until
at 300 yards' distance from the position the order was given to fix
bayonets. At that, "the Germans did not wait to say 'Good night,' but
simply ran, as they won't face the cold steel at any price." Still, a
number of the Seaforths were put out of action in the business, in which
the regiment gained all that they had been ordered to take. "It was a
great charge," says the man who tells of it. "No wonder so much is
thought of the Highland regiments, for it would have done your heart
good to hear the cheer that went up when the order was given to charge,
and the Germans did run. All I can say is that if we had been in their
position we should have waited for them to come upon us, and none of
them would ever have reached us, as I think our rifle fire is good
enough to stop any charge that might be made."
The same man tells of "a low, dirty trick" that the Germans played in
the course of this fight. Some of them put up a white flag, and when
about fifty of the Warwickshires went out to take the surrendered men
they opened fire with a machine gun and slaughtered the Warwicks. "That
is the kind of warfare the Germans like to carry on."
Thus runs the account of the 13th of September, and on the following
day, according to several accounts received, the colonel of the
regiment, Colonel Sir Evelyn Bradford, was killed--he has since been
mentioned in dispatches. The most circumstantial account is as follows:
"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. A lieutenant of the
Gordons, who was attached to the battalion, was killed, and a number of
the men were struck and wounded--in all, there were about thirty wounded
by the one explosion. They attempted to bury the colonel the same night,
but were prevented from their task by the heavy and continuous
shell-fire from the enemy." At about nine in the evening, however, a
burial party set out to lay the dead commander to rest up on the face of
a hill, near a large farmhouse which was the headquarters of the force
for the time. "Poor Colonel Bradford!" comments a member of the party;
"I cannot tell you how great our loss is. He was a brave commander, and
was killed while trying to safeguard his regiment. We could not fetch
his body in while daylight lasted, but at midnight 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 thistle growing close by, and I plucked the blooms
to form a cross over the dead chieftain's grave."
Concerning this action of the 14th of September, another participant
tells that the British troops were steadily driving the Germans back,
and the company of the Seaforths to which he belonged had crossed the
river two days before, and were holding a ridge, though the enemy had a
great advantage in point of numbers. This man sent home a transcript of
a German officer's diary, which makes very interesting reading.
"_July 20._--At last the day! To have lived to see it! We are ready, let
come who may. The world race is destined to be German.
"_August 5._--Our losses to-day [before Liége] have been frightful.
Never mind, it is all allowed for. Besides, the fallen are only Polish
beginners, the spilling of whose blood will spread the war lust at
home--a necessary factor.
"_August 11._--And now for the English, used to fighting farmers. [A
reference to the Boer War.] To-night Wilhelm the Greater has given us
beautiful advice. You think each day of your Emperor, and do not forget
God. [Note the order in which the two are mentioned.] His Majesty should
remember that in thinking of him we think of God, for is not he the
Almighty's instrument in this glorious fight for right?
"_August 12._--This is clearly to be an artillery war, as we foresaw.
Infantry counts for nothing.
"_August 20._--The conceited English have ranged themselves up against
us at absurd odds, our airmen say. [This, it must be remembered, was
written concerning the time of the great retreat, when the German forces
were in overwhelming numerical superiority.]
"_August 25._--An English shell burst on a Red Cross wagon to-day--full
of English. Ha-ha! Serve the swine right. Still, they fight well. I
salute the officer who kept on swearing at Germany and her Emperor in
his agony--and then to ask calmly for a bath! These English! We have
scarcely time enough to bury our dead, so they are being weighted in the
river."
The writer of this diary was captured, so his entries extend no farther.
The way in which his views of "the conceited English" altered as time
went on is worthy of note.
A R.A.M.C. officer attached to the Seaforths gives an idea of the way in
which the regiment conducted its daily business. Each morning the
regiment would "stand to arms" at about three o'clock, and at four or
five o'clock the men would move on, either with or without
breakfast--which consisted of tea and biscuits, and bacon if there were
time to cook it. Sleeping accommodation varied in quality and extent
from night to night, ranging from a ploughed field or an orchard to the
floor of a deserted house. Often the men were so sleepy that they lay in
the road--quite contentedly, since they were allowed to lie.
"I am doing less than the men," adds the writer. "Just think of them:
march, march, march, and then when we sleep it falls to the lot of many
to guard the outposts with no chance of shelter, and then go on
marching through the next day, wet, and hoping to dry as they go. Only
the highest praise can be given to these men.
"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."
These various accounts of the work of the regiment form a fairly
detailed description of the work at the Aisne. Of how the regiment was
moved up to the Flanders front there is no account to hand, but the work
done on the new front has been fairly fully described. First of all
comes the account of Captain Methven's death, which took place in the
fighting round Lille, where Captain Methven and his company were set to
drive the Germans from their trenches with the bayonet. The German
trenches were at the top of a steep little hill, and up this hill
Captain Methven rushed, with his men following. He paused at the edge of
the enemy's trenches and turned to wave the men on--they saw him
silhouetted against the skyline for a second, and then he fell, shot
through the heart at what must have been point-blank range. But the
trenches were won, the small force of Germans who had been holding them
surrendered--Captain Methven had not died in vain. "I had read about
this single-handed taking of a position," writes a spectator, "but until
I saw Captain Methven's action I thought these things only happened in
story-books."
A little later the brigade of which the 2nd Seaforths formed a part was
engaged in the storming of a position, an action in which they drove
back the enemy for several miles. For the greater part of the day the
British position had been commanded by the fire of the enemy, who held a
position on a hill in the neighbourhood and maintained a steady fire on
the British brigade. The brigade commander saw that if the enemy were
given time to bring up heavy artillery they would render their own
position impregnable and that of the British force untenable--the height
had to be taken that day, if at all. So the "Charge!" was sounded, and
the brigade advanced across the intervening ground, with the men
cheering and shouting as they rushed forward--and above all the rest of
the cries rose the "Caber-feidh," the rallying-cry of the Seaforths. The
German position was taken in about a quarter of an hour--and in rear
were a fleet of motor vehicles, in which the retreating Germans
decamped. Pursuit was out of the question, and there was only
snap-shooting at the flying enemy by way of consolation.
Beyond this the records of the regiment do not take us at present. There
remains, however, one record of "B" Company of the 2nd Battalion and its
work on the night of the 13th of October, a statement that may well be
included in this record of the doings of the Seaforths. It tells how the
company had to charge the enemy out of his trenches at the bayonet
point, which was done with some considerable loss of killed and wounded,
and the writer comments--"There was not a coward among us."
"But that was nothing to what we had last Tuesday [Oct. 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 our
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, while others
rushed out and were shot down, and the remainder sought refuge in a
house. They showed the white flag in a doorway, but we got the order not
to take any notice of it until some of their officers came out, and we
waved them in. 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.'"
Which forms a fitting final word as far as the Seaforths are concerned.