Part 6

From Bar le Duc, DOUGLAS' Regiment marched a distance of nine miles, to _Ligny_, a town situate on the river Ornain, and was engaged in the siege of the castle. A mine being ready, on the 21st of December, "Marshal Turenne commanded the regiments of York and DOUGLAS to prepare for the attack at the springing of the mine, and ordered his own regiment to be in readiness to second them. All things being prepared in this manner, fire was given to the mine, and in the midst of the smoke, before it could be discerned what effect the mine had produced, the Count d'Estrées, who commanded the attack, ordered it to be instantly made. Accordingly, they fell on, passing over the ditch, which was very broad, upon the ice. But when they came to the ditch, they perceived that the mine had failed their expectation, and there was no possibility of mounting the breach. Upon this there was a necessity of making a retreat; the ice broke under the men, and most of them fell into the ditch, which gave leisure to the enemy to do execution on them. Thus, for want of a little patience to see what effect the mine had wrought; the regiment of York lost four captains, some lieutenants and ensigns, and about a hundred men, slain outright, and the regiment of DOUGLAS two captains and near fifty private soldiers; besides many officers and soldiers hurt."[47] Immediately after this failure another mine was commenced, and the garrison surrendered on the 22nd of December.

[Sidenote: 1653]

A garrison having been placed in Ligny, the army proceeded to _Château Portien_, a small town of the Ardennes, situate on the right bank of the river Aisne; and while on this march the weather was so severe, that several of the soldiers were frozen to death on the road. The siege of this place was commenced in the beginning of January, 1653, and the town was delivered up in less than ten days.

Having completed this conquest, the troops proceeded through a difficult tract of country, and besieged _Vervins_. The weather continued inclement, the men were suffering from the want of food, and great difficulties had to be overcome; yet the attacks were made with such spirit and determination, that possession was gained of this town on the 28th of January.

The troops were now exhausted, and DOUGLAS' Regiment was sent into quarters of refreshment. It again took the field in June following; but the enemy had so great a superiority of numbers, that the greater part of the year was passed in defensive operations.

[Sidenote: 1654]

[Sidenote: 1655]

The regiment appears to have passed the year 1654 in garrison. In 1655 it was employed in the Netherlands; its Colonel, Lieutenant-General Lord James Douglas, commanded a flying camp between Douay and Arras; several skirmishes occurred, and on one occasion LORD JAMES DOUGLAS was killed; he was succeeded in the Colonelcy by his brother, LORD GEORGE DOUGLAS, afterwards EARL OF DUMBARTON. This change in its Colonel did not alter the title of the corps, as it continued to be distinguished by the title of DOUGLAS' REGIMENT.

This year (1655) the King of France concluded a treaty with Cromwell, who was at the head of the British nation with the title of Lord Protector; and it was stipulated that a body of Cromwell's forces should proceed to Flanders to co-operate with the French against the Spaniards.

[Sidenote: 1656]

[Sidenote: 1657]

[Sidenote: 1658]

This treaty occasioned King Charles II. to unite his interests with those of Spain; the Duke of York quitted France, and obtained a command in the Spanish army; and a great part of the Royal British troops, which had escaped from England and entered the French army, transferred their services from the crown of France to that of Spain. The cavalier gentlemen, who thus transferred their services to the crown of Spain, were formed into a troop of Horse Guards, of which Charles Berkeley (afterwards Earl of Falmouth) was appointed Captain and Colonel; and the remainder were formed into six regiments of foot--one English, one Scots, and four Irish.[48] The determination thus manifested, by the British troops in the service of France to preserve their loyalty to King Charles II., appears to have occasioned measures to be adopted by the French commanders to prevent DOUGLAS', and the other old Scots regiments, from following this example; and these corps appear to have been placed in remote garrisons, as they are not mentioned in the histories of the military transactions in the Netherlands in 1657 and 1658, in which years the French army and Cromwell's forces captured St. Venant and Mardyk, defeated the Spanish army, and afterwards took Dunkirk, Ypres, Bruges, Dixmude, Furnes, Gravelines, Oudenarde, and Menin; and Dunkirk was occupied by the English.

[Sidenote: 1659]

In September, 1658, Cromwell died; and in 1659 the Prince of Condé disbanded his forces, and having tendered his submission to the crown of France, he was received into the favour of Louis XIV. At the same time a treaty of peace, called the Peace of the Pyrenees, was concluded between France and Spain, and Dunkirk was ceded to England.

[Sidenote: 1660]

After this treaty was concluded the strength of the French army was decreased, and DOUGLAS' Regiment was reduced to eight companies. These events were followed by the restoration of King Charles II. to the throne of Great Britain; when the British troops which had been in the service of Spain were placed in garrison at Dunkirk; and DOUGLAS' Regiment, in the French service, was in garrison at Avennes.

[Sidenote: 1661]

Soon after the restoration, King Charles II. disbanded the army of the Commonwealth, which he found in England at his return. It was, however, deemed necessary to have a regular force established, for in January, 1661, a number of religious fanatics, called millenarians, or fifth monarchy-men, took arms against the government, and, although this insurrection was suppressed in a few days, yet it was deemed necessary to send for the Duke of York's troop of Guards from Dunkirk, and afterwards for DOUGLAS' veteran Scots regiment from Flanders.

The regiment having arrived in England in the spring of 1661, it obtained rank in the British army from that date. It appears, however, to have had rank in the Swedish army from about the year 1625, and in the French army from 1633. No instance has been met with of its having been distinguished by any other title than the name of its Colonel, except during part of the time it was in the Swedish service, when it was designated, together with three other Scots regiments of which it is now the representative, the GREEN BRIGADE.

Soon after its arrival in England the establishment of the regiment was augmented, and its presence at this particular period was of great service to King Charles II.[49] But his Majesty having (after disbanding the whole of the army of the Commonwealth) established three troops of Life Guards, a regiment of Horse Guards, and two regiments of Foot Guards, in England; and a troop of Life Guards, and a regiment of Foot Guards in Scotland; it was not deemed necessary to detain DOUGLAS' veteran corps in England, and it was, accordingly, sent back to France in 1662.

[Sidenote: 1662]

At the same time, General Andrew Rutherford, who commanded the battalion of Scots Guards in the French service, having been appointed Governor of Dunkirk by King Charles II., his battalion was incorporated in DOUGLAS' Regiment. There was also another battalion of Scots Foot in the service of France, commanded by Lord James Douglas, and this battalion was likewise incorporated into DOUGLAS' veteran regiment, which now consisted of twenty-three companies of one hundred men each, and its established numbers, including officers and non-commissioned officers, were upwards of 2500.

[Sidenote: 1663]

The King of France having, after the treaty of the Pyrenees, placed his army upon a peace establishment, the strength of DOUGLAS' Regiment was reduced to eight companies of one hundred men each.

[Sidenote: 1665]

[Sidenote: 1666]

Three years after its return to France, a war broke out between England and Holland; and in the succeeding year Louis XIV. took part with the Dutch against England, when DOUGLAS' regiment was again ordered to quit the French service, and to return to England: it accordingly landed at Rye, in Sussex, on the 12th of June, 1666, and mustered eight hundred men.[50]

The Roman Catholics in several counties in Ireland were, at this period, in a state of insurrection; and in a short time after the arrival of the regiment from France, it was ordered to proceed to Ireland, where it appears to have remained upwards of twelve months.

[Sidenote: 1668]

[Sidenote: 1670]

After the conclusion of the peace of Breda in 1668, the insurrections in Ireland having been suppressed, the regiment was again sent to France; and in an order issued by Louis XIV. in 1670, respecting the rank of regiments, it appears one of the first.[51]

[Sidenote: 1672]

A war commenced in 1672 between the French monarch and the States General of Holland; King Charles II. of England also declared war against the Dutch; and a British force, commanded by the Duke of Monmouth, was sent to France to co-operate with the army of Louis XIV. in an attack upon Holland. DOUGLAS' Regiment had, in the meantime, been augmented to sixteen companies, and when the army took the field, it formed two battalions; and was in the division of the army commanded by Marshal Turenne. Several fortified towns were captured by the main army; and in June, DOUGLAS' Regiment, being encamped in the vicinity of Nimeguen, was detached with several other corps under the Comte de Chamilly to besiege _Grave_. The attack on the town commenced towards the end of June, and in the early part of July the governor surrendered. A number of the subjects of the British crown, who had entered the service of Holland, being found in garrison, they were permitted to engage in the service of Louis XIV., and were received as recruits in DOUGLAS' Regiment.[52] In August the regiment was withdrawn from the vicinity of Grave, and ordered to join the forces under Marshal Turenne.

[Sidenote: 1673]

In 1673 eight thousand British troops served with the French army, and were engaged in the siege of _Maestricht_, in which service they evinced signal gallantly; and in repulsing a sally of part of the garrison, the Duke of Monmouth, Captain Churchill (afterwards the great Duke of Marlborough), and twelve private men of the English Life Guards (a squadron of which corps was serving with the French army), highly distinguished themselves.[53] The town surrendered on the 2nd of July.

[Sidenote: 1674]

Before the following year King Charles II. concluded a treaty of peace with the Dutch Republic; but his Majesty did not withdraw the whole of his troops from France; and during the campaign of 1674 DOUGLAS' Regiment, with the Scots regiment of Hamilton, and the English regiments of Monmouth and Churchill, served with the French army on the Rhine, commanded by Marshal Turenne. In the early part of June, DOUGLAS' Regiment was encamped near Philipsburg,[54] a town in the west of Germany about half a mile from the Rhine, and was formed in brigade with the French regiments of Plessis and La Ferté, with a battalion of detachments, commanded by Brigadier-General the Marquis of Douglas.[55]

The opposing armies having taken the field, DOUGLAS' Regiment was suddenly withdrawn from the vicinity of Philipsburg, and, after crossing the Rhine, advanced towards the ancient city of _Heidelberg_, to prevent the junction of the forces under the Duke of Lorraine and the army commanded by the Duke of Bournonville. This movement brought on several skirmishes, in which the regiment took part; it was also engaged in a sharp action on the 16th of June, when the Imperialists were defeated; and in the accounts of this action published at the time, the conduct of the regiment is spoken of in terms of commendation.

After chasing the enemy out of the Palatinate, the regiment retired with the army across the Rhine, to join the reinforcements from Alsace and other places; and after the arrival of these troops, the army re-passed the Rhine, and DOUGLAS' and two other regiments were detached to the vicinity of Landau, and ordered to encamp within a league of the town. The regiment was subsequently detached towards Manheim, and, after taking part in several operations, in the beginning of October it was encamped at Lavantzenaw, in Alsace.

Information having been received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and advanced to _Molsheim_, the French and British troops quitted their camp about an hour after midnight on the 3rd of October, and after a march of several hours, arrived at the enemy's camp, and attacked them with great spirit. The conflict took place amongst woods and broken grounds, and the British troops displayed signal gallantry, fighting with a spirit and resolution which the enemy could not withstand. Many officers and men fell, yet the conflict was continued, and Lord Duras (afterwards Earl of Feversham) had three horses killed under him. Eventually the enemy were driven from the field, with the loss of ten pieces of cannon, thirty standards and colours, and several prisoners.[56]

The Germans were subsequently reinforced by a number of fresh troops, when Marshal Turenne retired with the French and British forces, and took up a position near Saverne in Alsace, by which he prevented the Imperialists deriving much advantage from their superiority of numbers.

[Sidenote: 1675]

During the depth of the winter, when the Germans had retreated, DOUGLAS' Regiment[57] was placed, with several other corps, under the orders of the Marquis of Vaubrun, and engaged in the siege of _Dachstein_, a town in the department of the Lower Rhine. The trenches were opened during the night of the 25th of January, 1675; and during the night of the 28th, DOUGLAS' veterans were engaged in storming the works, and lost several officers and men. Amongst the killed was the Major of the regiment, who is stated by the French historians to have been an officer of great merit. On the following day the governor surrendered the town, when the regiment was sent into quarters.

It again took the field in the month of May, and was encamped for a short time near Strasburg; at the same time the Germans, under the Count de Montecuculi, menaced the city of Philipsburg with a siege; but the French and British forces passed the Rhine on the 7th of June, when the Germans changed their position, and the two armies confronted each other, and manœuvred for several days in the territory bordering on the Rhine. DOUGLAS' Regiment, having been on a detached service for some time, was suddenly ordered to join the main army, from whence it was afterwards sent to _Treves_ to reinforce the garrison. Several sharp skirmishes occurred; and on the 27th of July, as Marshal Turenne was reconnoitring the enemy, he was killed by a cannon-ball. After the death of this celebrated veteran, the army was commanded _ad interim_ by the Count de Lorge, who retreated across the _Rhine_. The Germans attacked their adversaries while making this retrograde movement, when the gallant conduct of two battalions of veteran Scots saved the main army from a severe loss. _Treves_ was afterwards besieged by the Germans, and DOUGLAS' Regiment highly distinguished itself in the defence of this ancient city, under the command of Marshal de Crequi. The French troops mutinied, and endeavoured to compel the governor to surrender, but DOUGLAS' Scots stood by the Marshal in the desperate defence of the town, and were thanked for their conduct by Louis XIV. Treves was surrendered on the 5th of September, and the regiment was bound by the articles not to serve for three months, either in the field or in the defence of any town.

[Sidenote: 1676]

The French monarch having employed the greater part of his forces in making conquests in the Netherlands, a small army, of which DOUGLAS' and Hamilton's Scots regiments formed part, was employed on the Rhine during the campaign of 1676, under the orders of Marshal Luxembourg. The imperial army, commanded by the Duke of Lorraine, had great superiority of numbers. In the beginning of June, the two armies were manœuvring and skirmishing in Alsace; and on the 5th of that month, while the French were retiring through the mountains near _Saverne_, the Germans attacked the rear-guard with great fury, and, having forced a defile, put several French squadrons into confusion. But as the German horsemen galloped between the mountains in pursuit, two battalions of Scots foot having taken post on some high ground beyond the defile, the musketeers opened so tremendous a fire that the pursuing squadrons were checked and forced to retire, when a regiment of German horse, and several squadrons of Lorraine dragoons, were nearly destroyed. In this rencontre Sir George Hamilton and several other officers of distinction were killed. The French army subsequently formed an entrenched camp near Saverne; and the Germans besieged Philipsburg, which was surrendered on the 15th of September.

[Sidenote: 1677]

During the campaign of 1677, the French army on the Rhine was commanded by Marshal de Crequi. The British troops with this army consisted this year of two squadrons of Royal English horse, and two battalions of DOUGLAS' and a battalion of Monmouth's regiments.[58] The opposing armies took the field, and after much manœuvring and skirmishing, the Prince of Saxe-Eysenach, who commanded a division of Germans, having been driven into an island on the Rhine, was forced to capitulate. A sharp skirmish afterwards took place at _Kochersberg_, in Alsace, when the Imperialists were defeated, and sustained great loss. _Fribourg_ was subsequently besieged by a detachment from the French army, and the garrison surrendered on the 16th of November, when DOUGLAS' regiment proceeded into winter quarters.

[Sidenote: 1678]

At length the conquests effected by France occasioned the English Court and Parliament to become sensible of the necessity of restraining the ambition of Louis XIV.; and King Charles II., having concluded a treaty with the Dutch, gave orders for the British troops in the French service to return to England; at the same time, his Majesty issued commissions for an augmentation of about twenty thousand men to the English army, and declared his determination of engaging in the war with France. DUMBARTON'S Regiment, as it was now designated, accordingly received orders in the early part of the year 1678 to quit the service of the French monarch, and from this period it has been permanently on the British establishment.

Soon after the arrival of the regiment from France, a number of men, who each carried a large pouch filled with HAND-GRENADES, were added to the establishment, and formed into a company, under the command of Captain Robert Hodges. These men were instructed to ignite the fuses, and to cast the grenades into forts, trenches, or amidst the ranks of their enemies, where the explosion was calculated to produce much execution; and the men, deriving their designation from the combustibles with which they were armed, were styled GRENADIERS. Their duties were considered more arduous than those of the pikemen or musketeers; and the strongest and most active men were selected for the grenadier company. And although the hand-grenades have long been laid aside, yet one company, which is designated the "Grenadier Company," continues to form part of every battalion.

[Sidenote: 1679]

In 1679, DUMBARTON'S Regiment, which consisted at this period of twenty-one companies, was stationed in Ireland. In the autumn of this year, Tangier, in Africa (which had been ceded by Portugal to Charles II., in 1662, as part of the marriage-portion of his consort, Donna Catherina, Infanta of Portugal), was besieged by the Moors, who destroyed two forts at a short distance from the town, and then retired.

[Sidenote: 1680]

They, however, again appeared before the town in the spring of 1680, when four companies of DUMBARTON'S Regiment were ordered to reinforce the garrison; and these companies having embarked at Kinsale in the James and Swan frigates, landed at Tangier on the 4th of April.

Fort Henrietta, which stood at a short distance from the town, was at this time besieged by the Moors, and two breaches having been made, and the works undermined, the garrison could not maintain the place; consequently a sally from the city was resolved upon, to give the garrison an opportunity of blowing up the fort, and of cutting their passage through the Moorish army to the town; and Captain Hume, Lieutenant Pierson, Lieutenant Bayley, four serjeants, and 80 private men, of DUMBARTON'S Regiment, were selected to form the forlorn-hope in the sally. Accordingly, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th of May, DUMBARTON'S veterans issued from the town, and made a gallant attack on the Moorish army; at the same time the garrison in the fort blew up the building, and rushed forward, sword in hand, to cut their passage through the barbarians. The conflict was sharp: the Moors came running forward in crowds to cut off this devoted band; yet these resolute Britons forced the first trench, and gained the second. This was, however, twelve feet deep; and while struggling to overcome the difficulty, Captain Trelawny and 120 men were killed by the Moors; and only forty-four officers and men succeeded in joining Captain Hume and his party of veteran Scots. This party was also attacked by several bodies of Moorish horsemen, who were all expert lancers; but the barbarians were repulsed. One Moorish chieftain rode over Captain Hume; but his horse fell, and the barbarian was immediately killed. The men continued skirmishing, and retiring in good order until they arrived under the protection of the guns of the fortress. The companies of DUMBARTON'S Regiment lost on this occasion fifteen men killed, and Captain Hume[59] and several men wounded.

In a few days after this action a cessation of hostilities was agreed upon with the Moors for four months; and during the summer twelve additional companies of DUMBARTON'S Regiment arrived at Tangier, from Ireland, under the command of Major Sir James Hackett. The arrival of these celebrated veterans is thus announced in one of the publications of that period:--"After this landed the valorous Major Hackett with the renowned regiment of the Earl of Dumbarton; all of them men of approved valour, fame having echoed the sound of their glorious

## actions and achievements in France and other nations; having left

behind them a report of their glorious victories wherever they came; every place witnessing and giving large testimony of their renown: so that the arrival of this illustrious regiment more and more increased the resolutions and united the courage of the inhabitants, and added confidence to their valour."[60]

Hostilities again commenced in September, when the garrison quitted the town, and encamped under the walls; and the Lieut.-Governor, Sir Palmes Fairborne, is reported to have made the following speech to DUMBARTON's Scots:--"Countrymen and fellow-soldiers, let not your approved valour and fame in foreign nations be derogated at this time, neither degenerate from your ancient and former glory abroad; and as you are looked upon here to be brave and experienced soldiers (constant and successive victories having attended your conquering swords hitherto), do not come short of the great hopes we have in you, and the propitious procedures we expect from you at this time. For the glory of your nation, if you cannot surpass, you may imitate the bravest, and be emulous of their praises and renown."[61]