SECTION III.

Return of the Highland regiment-Exempted from the service of fighting against their countrymen, who were in arms for Prince Charles-Three new companies raised—These did not join immediately, but were employed in Scotland during the Rebellion Battle of Prestonpans-Taken prisoners by the rebels -Faithful to their oath-Employed after the Rebellion, to burn the houses and lay waste the lands of their own countrymen—-Examples of this-Descent on the coast of France-Unsuccessful attack upon L'Orient--Highlanders arrive at Cork—Soon after embark for Flanders-Operations there-Highlanders remain in South Beveland-In the year 1749, the number of the regiment changed from 43d to 42d, which it still retains-Morals of the regiment at this period.

THIS regiment being one of eleven ordered for England in October 1745, in consequence of the Rebellion, they arrived in the River Thames on the 4th of November, and joined a division of the army assembled on the coast of Kent, to repel a threatened invasion, while the other regiments which had arrived from Flanders were ordered to Scotland, under the command of General Hawley.

The Highlanders were exempted from this northern service. Without attempting to throw any doubt on their loyalty, a duty that would have called men to oppose their brothers and nearest connections and friends in the field of battle, would have occasioned a struggle, between affection and duty, more severe than any in which they could have been employed against the most resolute enemy. How painful such a struggle must have been may be judged from this circumstance, that, on a minute inquiry, in different parts of the country, I have good reason to believe that more than three hundred of the soldiers had brothers and relations engaged in the Rebellion.

Early in the year 1745 three new companies were raised and added to the regiment. The command of these was given to the gentlemen who recruited the men,-the Laird of Mackintosh, Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre, and Campbell of Inveraw. The subalterns were James Farquharson, the younger of Invercauld, John Campbell, the younger of Glenlyon,* and Dougal Campbell, and Ensigns Allan Grant, son of Glenmoriston, John Campbell, son of Glenfalloch, and Allan Campbell, son of Glenure.

These

* This gentleman's younger brother joined the rebels, and fought in all their battles. He was quite a youth, and was sent by his father to encourage his men, being at the same time under the control and guidance of an adherent and descendant of the family, a man of judgment and mature years. Old Glenlyon, who commanded Lord Breadalbane's men, had joined the Rebellion of 1715, and still retained his attachments and principles so strongly, that he never forgave his eldest son for entering the army. When the young man came to visit him in his last sickness, in the year 1746, he refused to see him. After his father's death, in the autumn of that year, he was ordered, with a party of men, to garrison his own house, and to perform the usual duties of seizing rebels, of whom numbers were in concealment in the woods and caves in the neighbourhood. His brother was, in this situation, hid in a deep den above Glenlyon House, and supplied with provisions and necessaries by his sisters and friends. On one occasion, owing to some interruption, he had not seen his sisters for two nights, and leaving his hiding-place rather too early in the evening of the third night, in the hope of seeing some of them, he was observed by his brother and some English officers, who were walking out. His brother, afraid of a discovery, pretending to give the alarm, directed the officers to call out the soldiers immediately, while he would keep the rebel in sight. He ran after him, and called out to his brother in Gaelic to run for his life, and to take to the mountains. When the party made their appearance, no rebel could be seen, and the unfortunate outlaw was more careful in future. Ten years afterwards he was appointed to Fraser's Highland regiment, along with several others who had been engaged in the Rebellion, and was shot through the body at the battle of Quebec.

*He was father of John Campbell, the soldier of the Highland Watch, who, along with Gregor Macgregor, was presented to King George II., promoted to an Ensigncy for his conduct at the recent battle of Fontenoy, and afterwards killed at Ticonderago, being among the first of the resolute men who forced their way into the work.

companies were recruited in different parts of the Highlands, but, owing to the influence of Sir Patrick Murray, through the Atholl family, and that of the other gentlemen of Perthshire, Invercauld, Glenlyon, and Glenfalloch, a greater portion of the new levy consisted of men from the districts of Athole, Breadalbane, and Braemar, than was to be found in the original composition of the regiment. The privates of these companies, though of the best character, did not occupy that rank in society for which so many individuals of the independent companies had been distinguished. These companies did not join the regiment immediately, but were employed in Scotland during the Rebellion. One of them was at the battle of Prestonpans, where all the officers, Sir Patrick Murray, Lieutenant Farquharson, and Ensign Allan Campbell, and the whole of the men, were either killed or taken prisoners.

It would appear that the Highland soldiers, in this engagement, had not the same good fortune, and probably did not manifest the same steady conduct as at Fontenoy, or in the different battles which they afterwards fought. In proof of this it may be mentioned, that the Honourable Captains Mackay and Stuart, brothers of Lord Reay and the Earl of Moray, Munro of Allan, and Macnab of Macnab, with all the subalterns, and the men of four companies of Lord Loudon's Highlanders, shared the same fate with those of Lord John Murray's Highlanders; whereas, at Fontenoy, when the latter made more impetuous attacks, and resisted more violent charges, the loss was trifling in comparison. The difference of result has been accounted for, and, perhaps, with justice, from the different character of the troops to whom they were opposed.

In this latter battle, their antagonists were their former friends and countrymen, and their defence may consequently be supposed to have been less obstinate and determined. The royal army, to whom no suspicion of disloyalty could attach, suffered in the same manner as they did, and it would be doing the Highlanders injustice to believe them

possessed of less loyalty or courage than those who experienced the same discomfiture and rout. Indeed, their loyalty and fidelity to the oath which they had taken was soon put to a severer proof than in the field of battle, for, while they were prisoners, all entreaties, offers, and arguments, were used, and the whole influence of promises and threats employed to prevail upon them to forsake their colours, and join a cause in which so many of their kindred and countrymen had engaged. All these attempts to shake their allegiance proved unavailing; not one of them forgot his loyalty, or abjured his oath. In this respect, the con

duct of the Black Watch formed a contrast to that of Loudon's men, of whom a considerable number joined the rebels. This difference of conduct in men, whose sentiments and feelings were supposed to be congenial, and who were placed in similar circumstances, was variously accounted for at the time; the prevailing opinion was, that Lord John Murray's men, having sworn to serve as a regular regiment, which had been several years embodied, felt more the obligations implied in the terms of their enlistment, than those of Lord Loudon's regiment, who had, very recently, entered into what they supposed only a kind of local and temporary service, on conditions of engagement which they considered as far less binding than those of a permanent regiment. Besides, in the case of Loudon's, the men had the example of their officers, several of whom joined the rebels, a circumstance of great importance at that time, when the system of clanship, confidence, and attachment, remained unbroken.

The complete overthrow of well disciplined and well арpointed troops by a body of men, half armed, strangers to war and discipline, and who, till that day, had never met an enemy, may be ascribed to the rapidity and vigour with which the latter made their attacks, driving the front line of their adversaries on the second, and throwing both into such irretrievable confusion, that the second line was over

powered when mixed with the first, which attempted to retreat through its broken ranks.

The company of this regiment taken at Preston remained prisoners and inactive during the Rebellion, but the other two companies were employed in different parts of the Highlands, during the autumn and winter of 1745 and 1746, on those duties for which they were so strongly recommended by the Lord President. *

After the suppression of the Rebellion, they were employed on a service which ought to have been assigned to other agents. This was to execute a barbarous order, to burn the houses, and lay waste the lands and property of the rebels. It may easily be imagined, that in a country where rebellion had been so general, many cases would occur, in which the loyal officer, superintending the execution of his orders, would be led to devastate the estates of his neighbours and friends, and would find his allegiance at terrible variance with his feelings. + Instances of this oc

* In the periodical publications of the day they are frequently mentioned. The Caledonian Mercury, of the 26th August 1745, states, " that Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Patrick Halket of Pitferran had been detached at the head of three companies of the Honourable Colonel Lee's regiment, preceded by the companies of Highlanders under the Lairds of Mackintosh and Inveraw, in order to advance up to the Highlands, and to obtain a proper account of what was passing there. And in September the Laird of Inveraw, with his company of Highlanders, marched from Perthshire to Inverlochy." In this manner they were employed for the season, but none of them was ever actually engaged with the enemy except the company at Prestonpans.

† One of these duties fell to the lot of Captain John Menzies, father of Lady Abercromby. Castle Menzies was then the head-quarters of the troops in that district. Information had been received that several gentlemen who were concealed in the woods and fastnesses, after the suppression of the Rebellion, were to assemble, on a certain night, in the house of Faskally, the proprietor of which, Mr Robertson, being one of the number" in hiding," and all of them friends and relations of Captain Menzies. He was ordered to march at ten o'clock at night, and cross the mountains by an unfrequented route. The secrecy of the march, and the darkness of the night, prevented the usual communication of the movements of the military to those to whom such information was so ne