THE ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS
The threat against Britain by the French Republic in 1794 led to the
raising of the 1st battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,
the battalion having been formed in that year by the then Duke of
Argyll, under the title of the 91st Regiment of Foot. The present 2nd
battalion was raised by the Earl of Sutherland six years later, and
numbered the "93rd Foot." These two battalions were united under their
present title in 1881.
Active service was first seen by the 2nd battalion at the Cape, where
its men played a prominent part in the defeat of the Dutch army of
5,000 men engaged in the defence of Capetown. The turn of the 1st
battalion came during the Peninsular campaign, when the Argylls formed
the rearguard at Corunna and were seven times engaged with the enemy.
Later, they joined Wellington in Spain, and were conspicuously engaged
at the Nivelle, at the crossing of the Nive, and on to the siege of
Toulouse. The 2nd battalion formed part of the force that courted
disaster at New Orleans in 1814, and no less than 520 officers and men
fell in that fatal attack--futile as fatal.
Missing Waterloo, the regiment next won distinction in the Kaffir wars
at the Cape, where it underwent five years of active service. There were
"91st" men on the _Birkenhead_ in 1852, and though the name of the
ill-fated vessel is not borne on the colours of any regiment it might
well be inscribed on those of the Argylls. Their next active service
was in the Crimean campaign, where the 2nd battalion formed part of Sir
Colin Campbell's Highland Brigade, and took the heights beyond the Alma
under as destructive fire as a British regiment has ever faced. At
Balaclava the Highlanders were in deadly peril, but their coolness saved
them for work in the trenches before Sevastopol, and for a share in the
final assault.
Still under Sir Colin Campbell, their chief in the Crimea, the
Highlanders took part in the suppression of the Mutiny, and marched to
the relief of Lucknow, avenging the tragedy of Cawnpur at the action of
Secundra Bagh, where with the loyal Sikhs they piled up a heap of 2,000
dead sepoys. On the same day the regiment took a hand in the capture of
the Shah Nujjif, a strong building that was taken by desperate
hand-to-hand fighting. From the top of the building the regimental
colour of the Highlanders, waving, announced to the sorely pressed
Lucknow garrison that relief was approaching--and the rest of the story
of the relief is an oft-told one.
Zululand and frontier work in India next claimed the attention of the
regiment, and then in 1899 the 1st battalion sailed for South Africa, to
join Lord Methuen's force and take part in the battle of the Modder
River, at which the Argyll and Sutherland men lost heavily. Joining
General Wauchope's Highland Brigade, the battalion marched on to
Magersfontein, where the commanding officer was among the killed. With
the rest of the brigade the Argylls moved on to Paardeberg and the
capture of Cronje and his force; and from that time onward to the end of
the war the record of the battalion is one continuous story of marching,
fighting, and the general work of the campaign, up to the time of the
signing of peace at Vereeniging. The total of marching accomplished by
the battalion during the course of the war was not less than 3,500
miles. Seven Victoria Crosses had been won by members of the regiment up
to 1902.
The deeds of the regiment are rather scantily told by its men in France.
The personal accounts begin with an appreciation of the bravery of the
Hon. R. Bruce, Master of Burleigh, in the retreat from Mons. "He was too
brave for anything," says a private who saw him at that time. "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."
The next account concerns the battle of Soissons, on the Aisne--a place
variously pronounced by the troops, many of whom gave it the name of
"Scissors," as being a near thing to the real method of pronunciation.
"For about a week," says the narrator, "it rained night and day. You may
imagine us marching all day, from daylight in the morning till dark at
night, and then having to lie down in a field on the wet ground--nothing
to cover ourselves with and nothing underneath us--and living on
biscuits and corned beef. I feel sorry for the poor French people, and
you may be thankful you are living in England. We passed through village
after village on the march, and there was not a living soul in the
houses; doors and windows were smashed open, and everything was broken
in the way of furniture and fittings. We passed one house where the two
women who lived in it had just returned after the Germans had passed. As
we went by they gave us a drink of water--it was the only thing the
Germans had left them."
Another man of the regiment, speaking of the earlier engagements,
remarks--"You would think you were in hell." He tells of the adventures
of Lieutenant Campbell of the Argyll and Sutherlands, who went out with
eleven men to reconnoitre in the early days of the campaign. As none of
the dozen returned, and careful searches failed to reveal any traces of
the party, they were given up as captured. To the surprise of their
comrades, however, they all turned up safe and sound some eleven days
later. It seemed that the party had unwittingly penetrated through the
German lines, and, managing to escape notice, had eventually found their
way out again. This story is supplemented by one which tells of a trick
played by the French during the German retreat from Paris. The Argylls
were located about thirty miles away from Paris, and in rear of them a
large body of the enemy were encamped in a wood. During the night,
according to this account, the French crept up to the wood without being
observed by the German sentries, and placed bundles of straw among the
trees, setting fire to the straw before they retired. The timber in the
wood was very dry, and the trees caught fire, causing a fierce blaze in
the course of a few minutes. The enemy were thrown into confusion, which
was completed by the artillery fire searching the wood and making rout
of the German retreat.
There is one letter concerning the doings of the Argyll and Sutherland
men which is worthy of quotation, and calls for some question. The
writer says: "We have distinguished ourselves a good many times since we
commenced operations here, and we have lost heavily, an occurrence much
to our sorrow. It is not my place to speak of the honour that has been
conferred upon us as a Scottish regiment for our bravery, and at one
time we saved the British Army from defeat. We are fortunate to have any
one left to relate the experience. The kindly eye of Providence has
overlooked me, and I am thankful. I don't know yet how I escaped. Once I
was lying in a line of sixteen men, eight of whom were killed or
severely wounded by the shell fire of the enemy."
This letter comes undated, with the place of origin suppressed. It is
curious, if the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders--either or both
battalions--"saved the British Army from defeat," that there should be
only this one account of the affair--which must have been tremendous.
British soldiers, as a rule, are very quick to acknowledge the bravery
of their comrades, and it is strange that no man of any other regiment
has yet recognised that the whole of the British Army has been saved
from defeat by this one regiment--or possibly by one battalion of this
regiment. On the whole, one is tempted to regard the letter as a hoax,
though its solemn tone would go far to dispel that idea.
One other letter there is, worthy in a different sense of full
quotation, for it tells of individual bravery and resourcefulness on the
part of a member of the regiment. "We had worked our way up to within
eighty yards of the German trenches," says the writer, "and then got the
order to charge, which we did with effect. One fellow belonging to the
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders made a lunge with his bayonet at an
opponent, and his intended victim promptly warded off the blow, but,
much to the German's astonishment, the canny Scot brought the butt end
of the rifle to the jaw like a flash, and, felling him like a bullock,
finished the job with the bayonet. It was the work of a moment, done
without hesitation, and is typical of the bravery and resource of the
Highlanders generally."
These few records of the men of the regiment go to prove that the Argyll
and Sutherland men went down from Mons to the Aisne, fought at
Soissons--and that is all. Of their presence in Flanders there is no
evidence so far, and at the time of writing they may still be living the
life of cave-dwellers down where the old German front is still
maintained against the thinned Franco-British line, or they may be round
Arras, in those fierce struggles whence the wounded come back by the
hundred and many men come back no more. Not till the "fog of war" has
cleared utterly away will all their story be told, but we may rest
assured that the story will not be one of which the Argyll and
Sutherland Highlanders need be ashamed.