I.

1800-1854.

Curious method of raising the regiment--Character of the men --Guernsey--Ireland--Cape of Good Hope--Battle of Blauw-Berg--High character of the regiment--A regimental church formed--Its benevolence--England--America--New Orleans--Dreadful carnage --Ireland--West Indies--Canterbury--Presentation of New Colours by the Duke of Wellington--Weedon--The northern district--Ireland --Canada--Stirling--Edinburgh--Glasgow--Aberdeen--Portsmouth --Chobham--Devonport--War with Russia.

[Illustration:

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. ALMA. BALAKLAVA. SEVASTOPOL. LUCKNOW.]

This, perhaps the most Highland of the Highland regiments, was raised in the year 1800, letters of service having been granted for that purpose to Major-General Wemyss of Wemyss,[568] who had previously raised the Sutherland Fencibles, many of the men from which joined the new regiment. The strength at first fixed upon was 600 men, which number was in a short time raised, 460 being obtained from Sutherland, and the remainder from Ross-shire and the adjoining counties. The regiment was however, soon augmented to 1000 men, with officers in proportion; and in 1811 it numbered 1049 officers and men, of whom 1014 were Highlanders and Lowlanders, 17 Irish, and 18 English.

One striking peculiarity in the constitution of the 93rd consists in its having probably furnished the last instance of the exercise of the clan influence on a large scale in the Highlands. The original levy was completed not by the ordinary modes of recruiting, but by a process of conscription. A census having been made of the disposable population on the extensive estates of the Countess of Sutherland, her agents lost no time in requesting a certain proportion of the able-bodied sons of the numerous tenantry to join the ranks of the Sutherland regiment, as a test at once of duty to their chief and their sovereign. The appeal was well responded to; and though there was a little grumbling among the parents, the young men themselves seem never to have questioned the right thus assumed over their military services by their chief. In a very few months the regiment was completed to its establishment.

As a crucial proof of the high character of the first levy for the 93rd it may be stated, that until the final inspection of the corps the recruits were never collected together. They were freely permitted, after enrolling their names, to pursue their callings at home, until it was announced in the various parish churches that their presence was required, when a body of 600 men was assembled, and marched, without a single absentee, to Inverness, where the regiment was inspected by Major-General Leith Hay in August 1800.

During the sojourn of the regiment at Inverness there was no place of confinement in connection with it, nor were any guards mounted, the usual precautions necessary with soldiers being quite inapplicable to the high-principled, self-respecting men of Sutherland. Many of the non-commissioned officers and men were the children of respectable farmers, and almost all of them of reputable parentage, the officers being mostly well-known gentlemen connected with Ross and Sutherland. Indeed, the regiment might be regarded as one large family, and a healthy rivalry, and stimulus to the best behaviour was introduced by classifying the different companies according to parishes. While the characteristics referred to seem to have strongly marked the Sutherland Highlanders, our readers will have seen that to a greater or less degree they belonged to the original levies of all the Highland regiments.

In Sept. 1800 the 93rd embarked at Fort George for Guernsey, where it was for the first time armed and fully equipped, and where it made rapid progress in military training.[569]

In February 1803 the 93rd was removed to Ireland, where it continued till July 1805. While in Dublin, like most of the other Highland regiments at one time or another in Ireland, it had to assist in quelling an attempted insurrection, performing the disagreeable duty kindly, but firmly and effectually.

In July 1805 the 93rd joined the armament against the Cape of Good Hope, under Major-General Sir David Baird, referred to already in connection with the 71st and 72nd, which took part in the expedition.

The expedition sailed early in August, and, after a boisterous voyage, arrived and anchored in Table Bay on Jan. 4th, 1806. The troops formed two brigades, one of which, consisting of the 24th, 38th, and 83rd regiments, was under the command of Brigadier-General Beresford; the other, called the Highland brigade, comprehending the 71st, 72nd, and 93rd regiments, was commanded by Brigadier-General Ronald C. Ferguson. On the 5th, General Beresford, who had been detached to Saldanha Bay, in consequence of the violence of the surf in Table Bay, effected a landing there without opposition; and on the 6th the Highland brigade landed in Lospard Bay, after a slight resistance from a small body of light troops stationed on the adjoining heights. In landing, 35 men of the 93rd were drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surf, and Lt.-Colonel Pack of the 71st, and a few men, were wounded.

Having landed his stores on the 7th, General Baird moved forward the following day, and ascending the summit of the Blauw-Berg (Blue Mountain), he found the enemy, to the number of about 5000 men, drawn up in two lines on a plain, with twenty-three pieces of cannon. Forming his troops quickly in two columns, he thereupon directed Lt.-Colonel Joseph Baird, who commanded the first brigade, to move with that brigade towards the right, while the Highland brigade, which was thrown forward upon the high road, advanced against the enemy. Apparently resolved to retain their position, the enemy opened a heavy fire of grape, round shot, and musketry, which was kept up warmly as the British approached, till General Ferguson gave the word to charge. This order was obeyed with the accustomed alacrity of the Highlanders, who rushed upon the enemy with such impetuosity as at once to strike them with terror. After discharging the last volley without aim or effect, the enemy turned and fled in great confusion, leaving upwards of 600 men killed and wounded. The loss of the British was only 16 men killed and 191 wounded. The 93rd had only 2 soldiers killed, and Lt.-Col. Honyman, Lts. Scobie and Strachan, Ensigns Hedderick and Craig, 1 sergeant, 1 drummer, and 51 rank and file wounded. After this victory the colony surrendered.

The Sutherland Highlanders remained in garrison at the Cape till 1814, when they embarked for England. During this long period nothing occurred to vary the quiet and regular life of the regiment. This life was, indeed, remarkably regular, even for a Scottish regiment, and, we fear, would find no parallel in any corps of the present time. The men, who were mostly actuated by genuine religious principle, such principle as is the result of being brought up in a pious Scottish family, conducted themselves in so sedate and orderly a fashion, that during their stay at the Cape severe punishments in their case were unnecessary, and so rare was the commission of crime, that twelve and even fifteen months have been known to elapse without a single court-martial being assembled for the trial of any soldier of the 93rd. Moreover, as an emphatic compliment to the steadiness of the men, their presence was generally dispensed with when the other troops of the garrison were commanded to witness the infliction of corporal punishment.

But the most remarkable proof of the intensity and genuineness of the religious feeling in the regiment, as well as of its love of all that was peculiar to their native land, remains to be told. There being no divine service in the garrison except the customary one of reading prayers to the troops on parade, these Sutherland men, in addition to their stated meetings for reading the Bible and for prayer, in 1808 formed a church among themselves, appointed elders and other office-bearers, engaged and paid a stipend to a minister of the Church of Scotland, and had divine service regularly performed according to the forms of the Presbyterian Church. As a memorial of this institution there still remains in possession of the sergeants’ mess the plate used in the communion service, and until recently there existed among the regimental records the regulations intended for the government of its members. This establishment had an excellent effect, not only on its immediate members, who numbered several hundreds, but also upon those who made no pretence of being guided by religious principle.

Such men were not likely to forget the claims of relationship and benevolence, and indeed such was their frugality, that in addition to their contributing to the support of their minister and to the charitable funds formed in the regiment, the men were in the habit of lodging in a trusted officer’s hands savings amounting to from £5 to £50, until an opportunity occurred of forwarding the money to their relatives at home; upon one occasion, in particular, £500 were remitted to Sutherland, exclusive of many minor sums sent home through the post-office.

In the month of April 1814, the 93rd embarked for Europe, amid, as may easily be believed, the general regret of the colony; it landed at Plymouth on August 15th of the same year. Of the 1018 non-commissioned officers and men who disembarked, 977 were Scotch.

The regiment had not been many weeks at home when it was again ordered on foreign service, this time, alas, of a much more disastrous kind than that which it performed during its long stay at the Cape. Although it had not the good fortune to take part in the stormy events which were shortly to take place on the field of Europe, and share in the glory accruing therefrom, yet the work it was called upon to perform, so far as bravery, endurance, and suffering are concerned, deserved as great a meed of praise as if it had been performed on the field of Quatre Bras or Waterloo.

Early in September 1814,[570] the 93rd had received orders to hold itself in readiness for immediate embarkation, and on the 16th it embarked in three divisions as part of the armament under Major-General Sir John Keane, destined to operate in North America; for at this time, unfortunately, Britain was at war with the United States. The fleet sailed on the 18th, and on November 23rd, joined, at Jamaica, the squadron under Vice-Admiral the Honourable Alexander Cochrane.

The united forces, the command of which was now assumed by General Keane, amounted to 5400 men. With this force he sailed from Jamaica on the 27th of November, and on December 13th landed near Cat Island, at the entrance of a chain of lakes leading to New Orleans. On the 23rd the troops landed without opposition at the head of the Bayonne; but were attacked on the following night by a large body of infantry, supported by a strong corps of artillery. After a spirited contest the enemy were repulsed with loss. On the 27th, Major-General the Honourable Sir Edward Pakenham, who had arrived and assumed the command of the army on the 25th, moved the troops forward in two columns, and took up a position within six miles of New Orleans, in front of the enemy’s lines. The position of the Americans was

## particularly favourable, having a morass and a thick wood on their

left, the Mississippi on their right, and a deep and broad ditch in front, bounded by a parapet and breast-works, extending in a direct line about a thousand yards, and mounted with artillery, and a flanking battery on the right bank of the river.

For several hours on the 28th, the force was kept in front of these works, under insufficient shelter, and, allowed neither to advance nor retire, suffered considerable loss from the storm of shot and shell poured upon it; the 93rd lost 3 men killed and several were wounded. On the three following days, the 93rd, as did every other corps, lost several men in their encampment, from the guns of the enemy, which were placed in battery on the right bank of the Mississippi. We shall give the rest of this narrative in the words of the well-kept Record-Book of the regiment, which, we believe, quotes from the journal kept by Captain Charles Gordon, one of the early officers of the 93rd.

On the 1st of January 1815, long before daybreak, the army was in motion, and placed in position similar, but closer to the American lines than on the 28th of December. Forming in close column of regiments, the troops were ordered to lie down and wait for the favourable issue of the British batteries against the enemy’s works, the former opening with a brisk fire at daylight, but unfortunately all in vain. After a cannonade of several hours, the greater part of the guns were silenced and dismounted, and after a harassing day, the army was ordered to retire to its former bivouac. The 93rd lost 1 subaltern, 1 sergeant, and 6 rank and file killed, and several wounded.

Nothing was done for the next few days, though the army underwent great fatigue in the carriage of guns, stores, &c., and were continually annoyed by the batteries of the enemy on the opposite side of the Mississippi. On the afternoon of the 7th, the army had its hopes again raised by the orders issued for a general attack on the following morning, but, in the words of Captain Gordon, “as this expedition commenced, so did it terminate, in disappointment--utter disappointment and calamity.”

On the 8th of January the main body of the 93rd, flushed with the hope of measuring bayonets with their hitherto concealed opponents, advanced in compact close column towards the centre of the American lines, from which poured a tremendous fire of grape and musketry (including buckshot); but its patience and discipline were again put to the test when within about 80 yards of the enemy’s breastworks, by an order to halt. In this unenviable position, without permission or even power to fire with any effect whatever, with nothing visible but the murderous muzzles of thousands of American rifles, only the tops of the men’s caps being seen as they loaded and fired resting upon their parapets, a staff-officer was heard to exclaim as he hurriedly came up and rode away,--“93rd, have a little patience and you shall have your revenge.” But, alas! it was decreed otherwise; the regiment continued in its fatal position without receiving any further orders, officers and men being mowed down in all directions, until Sir John Lambert, the senior surviving general officer, thought it advisable to order the army to retire. In this most disastrous affair, action it could not well be termed, the regiment was dreadfully cut up.

The following is a list of the killed and wounded in this sadly mismanaged affair, in which the gallant 93rd probably lost more officers and men in a few hours than it did throughout the whole of the Indian Mutiny campaign, in which, as will be seen, it had perhaps hotter work to do than ever fell to the lot of any single regiment. The killed were Lt.-Col. Dale, commanding the 93rd, Captains Hitchins and Muirhead, Lieutenants Munro and Phaup (both prisoners, who died of their wounds), Volunteer Johnston, 4 sergeants, 1 drummer, and 115 rank and file, including those who died next day of their wounds. There were wounded, Captains Ryan, Boulger, M’Kenzie, and Ellis; Lieuts. John M’Donald, Gordon, Hay, Graves, M’Lean, Spark, and D. M’Pherson, Volunteer John Wilson, 17 sergeants, 3 drummers, and 348 rank and file. It is sad to think that neither gain nor glory resulted from this dreadful carnage.

The army having re-embarked, the fleet weighed anchor again on the 7th of February, and made for the mouth of the Bay of Mobile, where the greater part of the army disembarked on the Dauphin Isle. Preparations were here being made to attack the fortified town of Mobile, when news arrived that preliminaries of peace had been signed between Great Britain and the United States. After being encamped about six weeks, the army was ordered to embark for Europe. The 93rd, at least the fragment left of it, arrived at Spithead on the 15th of May 1815, and being in too weak a state to take part in the stirring events taking place on the Continent, it was ordered to Ireland, disembarking at Cork on the 28th of May, and proceeding to Birr Barracks.

The second battalion having been disbanded at Sunderland, the ranks of the first battalion were filled up by a large draft of non-commissioned officers and privates from the former. As the history of the regiment is comparatively uneventful up to the time of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny, we shall rapidly run over its movements previous to these stirring periods.

The 93rd appears to have moved about successively from Birr to Athlone, Nenagh, and Limerick, sending out numerous detachments, and in June 1818, to have proceeded to Dublin, where it remained till the following May (1819). On leaving Dublin, it was again detached to the southern counties, where it was frequently called upon to perform the most delicate and harassing duties.

Between the 3rd and 8th of November 1823, the regiment embarked at the Cove of Cork in four transports for the West Indies, without having lost a single man by desertion. It may be taken as a proof of the continued good conduct of the regiment during the eight years it was stationed in Ireland, that Lieutenant-General Lord Combermere, in his general order issued on its departure, stated that

“No regiment in the service stands in greater estimation, or has been more conspicuous for its discipline and soldier-like conduct, than the 93rd.”

Only one detachment proceeded to Demerara, the others being landed at Barbados in December 1823; the former, however, shortly afterwards joined the latter. The regiment remained in garrison at Barbados till the month of February 1826, when it was removed to Antigua and St Christopher, sending a detachment from the former island to Montserrat. These stations the 93rd occupied till February 1830, when it was removed to St Lucia and Dominica, where it remained till January 1832, when all the service companies were again collected together at Barbados, where they were stationed for upwards of two years longer. After having spent ten and a half years in the Windward and Leeward Island, the regiment embarked for England in two detachments on the 26th of March and the 3rd of April 1834, leaving behind it 117 of its men as volunteers to other regiments. On its arrival at Spithead on the 6th of May, the strength of the regiment was only 371, having been thus reduced by death, the discharge of invalids, and volunteers to other corps. The proportions of deaths in the regiment, however, while stationed in the West Indies, was considerably below that of other regiments.

It was originally intended that the regiment should proceed at once to Scotland, where it had not been quartered since its first formation; but on account of the serious demonstrations that were made by the populace in London about the period of the regiment’s return to England, it was deemed expedient to draw as many troops as possible around the capital. The 93rd was consequently sent to Canterbury, where it arrived on the 8th of May 1834, and where it was shortly afterwards joined by the depôt companies from Scotland.

During the stay of the Sutherland Highlanders in Canterbury, the most notable incident in its history was the presentation of new colours to the regiment by his Grace the Duke of Wellington, an event which seems even now to be looked back upon as marking a red-letter day in the calendar of the 93rd. The presentation took place on the 7th of October 1834, and immense preparations were made for the ceremony. The day fortunately turned out particularly favourable, and not fewer than 10,000 persons must have turned out to witness the presentation, including many of the nobility and gentry of the county. We regret that space forbids us entering into details, or giving at length the wise and stirring address of the “Great Duke.” Suffice it to say, that after referring to the past achievements of the 93rd, and of the soldier-like appearance and orderly conduct of individuals of the regiment who had attracted his attention in passing through the town, he urged upon officers and men, as the result of his long and valuable experience, the inestimable value of discipline in maintaining the efficiency of a regiment, without which no amount of personal valour would be of avail.

“I have passed,” the Duke said, “the best years of my life in the barracks and the camps of the troops. The necessities of the service and my duty have compelled me to study the dispositions and the wants of the soldiers, and to provide for them. And again I repeat to you, enforce the observance of the rules of discipline, subordination, and good order, if you mean to be efficient, to render service to the public, to be respectable in the eyes of the military world as a military body, to be respected by the community, to be comfortable and happy among yourselves, and, above all, if you mean to defend to the last your colours which I have presented to you, the person of your sovereign, and the institutions, dominions, and rights of your country, and to promote its glory (as your predecessors have in this same regiment), by your actions.”

Lt.-Col. M’Gregor having replied in feeling and most appropriate terms, the regiment performed several evolutions before the Duke, who expressed his approbation of the soldier-like appearance of the men, and of their steadiness under arms. The rest of the day, both by officers and men, was given up to festivity and rejoicing. The officers entertained the Duke and upwards of 200 guests at a magnificent banquet in the mess-room, which had been ingeniously enlarged for the occasion. On the opposite side of the barrack-yard tables were laid for nearly 700, including the non-commissioned officers, privates, their wives and children, who enjoyed an excellent dinner of roast beef and plum-pudding, with an allowance of beer, given by the amiable and benevolent lady of Col. M’Gregor. It was altogether a proud day for the Sutherland Highlanders. The whole terminated with the greatest good humour and conviviality. The soldiers continued to enjoy themselves to a late hour, dancing their native dances to their national music.

[Illustration: Lieutenant-Colonel (now General) Sir Duncan M’Gregor, K.C.B.

From a painting in possession of the 93rd.]

A few days after this memorable occasion, the regiment left Canterbury for Weedon, in Northamptonshire, where it was stationed till the spring of the following year (1835), detaching three companies to Newcastle-under-Lyme. In the end of May 1835, the 93rd left Weedon for the northern district of England, headquarters being stationed at Blackburn, and detachments at Bolton, Rochdale, Burnley, and Nottingham. In the following September headquarters was removed to Liverpool, and the other companies to Haydock Lodge, Wigan, and Chester Castle. The whole regiment was collected at Liverpool in October, on the 27th and 29th of which month it embarked in two detachments for Dublin. Here the 93rd remained till October 1836, when it was removed to Newry; after being stationed at which town for upwards of a year, it was removed, in the end of November and beginning of December 1837, to Cork, preparatory to its embarkation for Canada, to quell the serious insurrection which was threatening the British power in that colony.

The 93rd in two divisions, under Lt.-Col. M’Gregor and Major Arthur, sailed from Cork on the 6th and 23d of January 1838 respectively. The division under Major Arthur reached Halifax on the 29th of January; but that under Lt.-Col. M’Gregor met with so boisterous a passage, that it did not reach its destination till the 5th of March. On the following day the two divisions were reunited at Halifax. It is unnecessary to follow the various and complicated movements of the regiment during the suppression of the Canadian rebellion, more especially as it never had a chance of coming into contact with the rebels, except at Prescott, on the 16th of November 1838, when it was present at the attack and capture of the brigands in the Windmill, in which affair it suffered no casualties. The 93rd, in the performance of its duties at this period, was often much divided, and frequently had to endure great hardships in its movements about the country. No. 4 company was, throughout the whole rebellion, in the Lower Provinces, attached to the 71st Highland Light Infantry.

The regiment was re-united at Toronto on the 28th of November, and the women, children, and baggage arrived on the 13th of December, just before the closing of the navigation. On the 4th of the latter month Lt.-Col. Spark arrived at Toronto, and assumed the command of the regiment, in succession to Lt.-Col. M’Gregor.

The 93d remained at Toronto till the 17th of June 1843, with the exception of one year--from May 1840 till May 1841--when it was stationed at Drummondsville, Falls of Niagara. It is scarcely necessary to say that, during this time, as always indeed, the Sutherland Highlanders received the unqualified approbation of the officers whose duty it was to inspect it.

“This fine regiment still continues,” to use the words of an order issuing from the Horse Guards, in December 1842, “to maintain its character for comparative sobriety and good order amidst the dissipation with which it appears to be surrounded; and that it is as remarkable for its splendid appearance in the field, and the correctness of its evolutions, as for the quiet and orderly habits of its men in their quarters.”

On leaving Toronto, in May 1845, the 93rd went to Montreal, a wing which was sent to Kingston in the previous June joining headquarters there. On this wing leaving Canada West, Major-General Sir Richard Armstrong issued an order, in which he spoke of the appearance (“superb,” he called it) and conduct of the regiment in the highest possible terms.

The 93rd continued for other four years in Canada, leaving Montreal in July 1846--the same month that the regiment received its first supply of percussion muskets--for Quebec, where it remained till August 1, 1848, when it embarked for home, after an absence of more than ten years. On the arrival of the “Resistance” at Portsmouth, it was ordered to proceed to Leith, where it arrived on the 30th of August. The regiment disembarked next day, and proceeded to Stirling Castle, where, in a few weeks, it was joined by the dépôt companies. During its stay at Stirling detachments were sent to Perth and Dundee, and the regiment was twice selected to furnish a guard of honour for her Majesty the Queen,--in the summer of 1849, during her stay at Balmoral, and in August of the same year, when Her Majesty paid a visit to Glasgow.

The 93rd remained at Stirling till April 5, 1850, when it was removed to Edinburgh, where it was stationed for only one year, during which it again furnished a guard of honour to Ballater, as well as to Holyrood, during her Majesty’s stay at that historical palace. From Edinburgh the regiment went to Glasgow, on the 15th of April 1851, and on the 23rd of the following February removed to Weedon. The 93rd remained at Weedon for only six months, proceeding, on the 11th of August and two following days, to Portsmouth, where it occupied the Anglesea Barracks. After a stay at Portsmouth of about ten months, the 93rd, on June 14, 1853, proceeded to Chobham Common, to form part of a force which was encamped there under the command of General Lord Seaton, C.B., for the purpose of manœuvring. On leaving Cobham, on July 15, the regiment proceeded to Devonport, part of it being stationed at Dartmoor Prison, and another part at Millbay, Plymouth.

We should mention here that, on Nov. 30, 1852, died Lt.-General William Wemyss, who for two years had been colonel of the regiment, and who from infancy had been associated with it, his father having been Major-General Wemyss, who raised the Sutherland Highlanders. Lt.-General Wemyss had all along taken an intense interest in the regiment, in which he had been almost born. He was succeeded in the colonelcy by Major-General Edward Parkinson, C.B.

Once more had the war-trumpet sounded, calling the nations of Europe to take sides and do battle with each other, after a long, long rest. The Sutherland Highlanders were destined to have their own share in the struggle, being one of the first Highland regiments selected to meet the Russians in the East. In connection with the 42nd and 79th, the other two regiments of the famous Highland Brigade, we have given some general details of the movements of the army in the East, and especially in the Crimea, that we shall confine ourselves here strictly to the work of the 93rd, more especially so as, before it could again lay down its arms and take breath, it had harder, if not bloodier, work to perform than has fallen to its lot since it was first embodied. In the Indian mutiny the Sutherland Highlanders had a magnificent opportunity (perhaps their first real one) of showing what sort of stuff they were made of. How gloriously they came out of their trial will be seen in the sequel.