Historical Records of the 79Th Cameron Highlanders
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%. Z-. W ^ 1 "V X*"* t-' HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE 79-m QUEEN'S OWN CAMERON HIGHLANDERS antr (Kiritsft 1m CAPTAIN T. A. MACKENZIE, LIEUTENANT AND ADJUTANT J. S. EWART, AND LIEUTENANT C. FINDLAY, FROM THE ORDERLY ROOM RECORDS. HAMILTON, ADAMS & Co., 32 PATERNOSTER Row. JDebonport \ A. H. 111 112 FOUE ,STRSET. SWISS, & ; 1887. Ms PRINTED AT THE " " BREMNER PRINTING WORKS, DEVOXPORT. HENRY MORSE STETHEMS ILLUSTRATIONS. THE PHOTOGRAVURES are by the London Typographic Etching Company, from Photographs and Engravings kindly lent by the Officers' and Sergeants' Messes and various Officers of the Regiment. The Photogravure of the Uniform Levee Dress, 1835, is from a Photograph of Lieutenant Lumsden, dressed in the uniform belonging to the late Major W. A. Riach. CONTENTS. PAGK PREFACE vii 1793 RAISING THE REGIMENT 1 1801 EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN 16 1808 PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN .. 27 1815 WATERLOO CAMPAIGN .. 54 1840 GIBRALTAR 96 1848 CANADA 98 1854 CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN 103 1857 INDIAN MUTINY 128 1872 HOME 150 1879 GIBRALTAR ... ... .. ... 161 1882 EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN 166 1884 NILE EXPEDITION ... .'. ... 181 1885 SOUDAN CAMPAIGN 183 SERVICES OF THE OFFICERS 203 SERVICES OF THE WARRANT OFFICERS ETC. .... 291 APPENDIX 307 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, SIR JOHN DOUGLAS Frontispiece REGIMENTAL COLOUR To face SIR NEIL DOUGLAS To face 56 LA BELLE ALLIANCE : WHERE THE REGIMENT BIVOUACKED AFTER THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO .. ,, 58 SIR RONALD FERGUSON ,, 86 ILLUSTRATION OF LEVEE DRESS ,, 94 SIR RICHARD TAYLOR ,, 130 COLOURS PRESENTED BY THE QUEEN ,, 152 GENERAL MILLER ,, 154 COLONEL CUMING ,, 160 COLONEL LEITH , 172 KOSHEH FORT ,, 186 REPRESENTATIVE GROUP OF CAMERON HIGHLANDERS 196 PREFACE. WANT has long been felt in the Regiment for some complete history of the 79th Cameron Highlanders down to the present time, and, at the request of Lieutenant-Colonel Everett, D-S.O., and the officers of the Regiment a committee, con- Lieutenant and sisting of Captain T. A. Mackenzie, S. and Lieutenant C. Adjutant J. Ewart, Findlay, undertook to complete Captain Jameson's Historical Record down to the present date. The Committee, fully sensible of their own short- comings and unfitness for the task, have attempted very little original composition, but have merely endeavoured to string together, into a consecutive narrative, the various books and manuscripts in possession of the Orderly Room. The Records, as far as the close of the Crimean War, are, with a few slight additions, copied entirely from Captain Jameson's book, which is the foundation of the present work. The Officers of the Regiment are much indebted to Mr. Mackenzie for his kindness in permitting them to use the valuable information contained in his " History of the Camerons" from which most of the details of the early life of Sir Alan Cameron are taken, PREFACE. The List of Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Men who fought at the battle of Waterloo is taken from the old Waterloo Medal Roll, which is still in possession of the Regiment. The manuscript Records kept during the Indian Mutiny are extremely meagre, and the Committee have to thank Quarter-Master Sergeant Mackenzie, late paymaster-sergeant of the regiment, for the details which they have been able to publish. The account of the Campaign in Egpyt in 1882 is " copied from Major Baynes' Narrative of the part taken by the jqth in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882'' The Services of the Officers are taken from the " record of service books in the Orderly Room, Hart's " Army Lists" and from Smith's List of Officers of the jqth" and are probably nearly complete, but it is a subject of great regret that the services of so few of the many distinguished non-commissioned officers who have been in the regiment are procurable. The Committee are well aware that in a work of this description there must be many errors and inac- curacies, but they feel sure that all members of the regiment, past and present, will regard their efforts leniently. The publication of the book has been undertaken by Mr. A. H. Swiss, of Devonport, who has spared no pains to meet the wishes of the officers and to produce a book worthy of the regiment. HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE 79th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS. 1793. |HE 79th Regiment of Foot (or Cameron Highlanders) bears on its colours the following inscriptions and device " in commemoration of its services : Egmont-op-Zee," " "Egypt," with the Sphinx, Fuentes d'Onor," "Salamanca," " " " " " " " " " " Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Toulouse, Peninsula, " 'Waterloo," "Alma," "Sevastopol," Lucknow," "Egypt, 1882," " Tel-el-Kebir," "Nile, 1884-5." At a time so highly fraught with momentous events as the early part of the long and sanguinary wars of the French Revolution, the British Ministry found itself imperatively called upon to make a large increase to the standing army of the country with the view of repelling the aggressions of revolutionised and republican France. Along with many other levies made about the same time, a letter of service, dated 17th August, 1793, was granted to Alan Cameron, Esq., of Erracht, in the county of Inverness, for the purpose of raising a Highland regiment of foot, to be numbered 79, and " designated the Cameronian Volunteers." This designation was " " " subsequently changed to Cameron Highlanders," Cameronian being a name applied to a religious sect of Lowlanders. Mr. Cameron received the commission of major in the corps about to be raised, together with the local rank of commandant thereof; and from B 4 HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE the of the repeal of the statute prohibiting wearing Highland dress, which had been in force since 1745. On the 17th August, 1793, in answer to several applications he had made, he received the following letter of service to raise a Highland regiment 0f zttbitt f0r raising tlj* lUgitrant. " War Office, 17th August, 1793. " SIR, " I am commanded to acquaint you that His Majesty approves of your raising a Highland Regiment of foot, without any allowance of levy money, to be completed within three months, upon the following terms, viz : " The corps is to consist of one company of Grenadiers, one of light infantry, and eight battalion companies. "The Grenadier company is to consist of one captain, two lieutenants, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, two pipers, the of one and fifty-seven private men ; light infantry company captain, two lieutenants, three sergeants, three corporals, two drum- and each battalion mers, and fifty-seven private men ; company of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and fifty-seven private men, together with the usual staff officers, and with a sergeant-major and quarter-master- sergeant, exclusive of the sergeants above specified. " The captain-lieutenant is, as usual, included in the number of lieutenants above mentioned. " The corps is to have one major with a company, and is to be under your command as major with a company. " The pay of the officers is to commence from the dates of their commissions, and that of the non-commissioned officers from the dates of their attestations. " All the officers, the ensigns and staff officers excepted, are to be from the half to their ranks and appointed pay, according present ; you will be pleased to transmit to Lord Amherst the names of the gentlemen whose appointment to your regiment you conceive will 79TH CAMERON HIGHLANDERS. 5 essentially conduce to the more speedy completion of the corps, taking care, however, to recommend such officers only as have not taken any difference on their being placed on half pay, and that the gentlemen recommended for ensigncies are upwards of sixteen years of age. " In case the corps should be reduced after it has been once established, the officers will be entitled to half pay. " No man is to be enlisted above thirty-five years of age, nor under five feet five inches high. Well made growing lads between sixteen and eighteen years of age may be taken at five feet four inches. " The recruits are to be engaged without limitation as to the period or place of their service, but they are not to be drafted into any other regiment, and whenever the reduction is to take place they shall be marched into their own country in a corps, and disembodied therein. " The non-commissioned officers and privates are to be inspected by a general officer, who will reject all such as are unfit for service or not enlisted in conformity to the terms of this letter. " When established the regiment is to be called the Seventy-Ninth, or Cameronian Volunteers. " In the execution of this service I take leave to assure you of every assistance which my office can afford. " I have the honour to be, " Sir, " Your most obedient servant, " (Signed) GEORGE YONGE." " To Alan Cameron, Esq." On receipt of this communication Major Cameron at once wrote to his father-in-law, Mr. Phillips, and was assured by him that the necessary funds could be placed at his disposal. This relieved him from his principal difficulty. The next consideration was how far it would be prudent to make the recruiting ground his own native district of Lochaber, remembering how he had left it as a fugitive from the vengeance of a considerable portion of its inhabitants. He decided to send several copies of the London Gazette, containing his authority to raise a Highland Regiment, to his brother Ewen, who was 6 HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE " in a letter to been living in Lochaber, stating him, having favoured with the honour of embodying a Highland Regiment for His Majesty's service, where could I go but to my own native Lochaber, and with that desire I have decided on appealing to their forgiveness of byegone events, and their loyalty to the Sovereign in his present exigencies.