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Part III
Military Annals of
the Highland Regiments
Preliminary Observations
Military Character—National
Corps advantageous, especially in the Case of Highlanders—Character of
Officers fitted to command a Highland Corps.
In the preceding pages, I
have attempted to delineate a sketch of the general character of the
Scottish Highlanders, and to assign some of the causes which may have
contributed to its formation.
It was a saying of Marshal
Turenne, that "Providence for the most part declares in favour of the most
numerous battalions." The success of the British arms has often refuted
this observation, and proved that moral force, unyielding fortitude, and
regular discipline, frequently make up for inferiority of numbers.
Military character depends both on moral and on physical causes, arising
from the various circumstances and situations in which men are placed.
Every change in these circumstances tends either to improve or deteriorate
that character; and hence we find, that nations which were once
distinguished as the bravest in Europe, have sunk into weakness and
insignificance, while others have been advancing to power and
pre-eminence. The importance of preserving this character is evident.
Unless a people be brave, high-spirited, and independent in mind and in
principles, they must, in time, yield to their more powerful neighbours.
To show how the Highlanders supported their character, both in their
native country and when acting abroad, is the principal object which I
have now in view.
In forming his military
character, the Highlander was not more favoured by nature than by the
social system under which he lived. Nursed in poverty, he acquired a
hardihood which enabled him to sustain severe privations. As the
simplicity of his life gave vigour to his body, so it fortified his mind.
Possessing a frame and constitution thus hardened, he was taught to
consider courage as the most honourable virtue, cowardice the most
disgraceful failing; to venerate and obey his chief, and to devote himself
for his native country and clan; and thus prepared to be a soldier, he was
ready to follow wherever honour and duty called him. With such principles,
and regarding any disgrace he might bring on his clan and district as the
most cruel misfortune, the Highland private soldier had a peculiar motive
to exertion. The common soldier of many other countries has scarcely any
other stimulus to the performance of his duty than the fear of
chastisement, or the habit of mechanical obedience to command, produced
by the discipline in which he has been trained. With a Highland soldier it
is otherwise. When in a national or district corps, he is surrounded by
the companions of his youth, and the rivals of his early achievements; he
feels the impulse of emulation strengthened by the consciousness that
every proof which he displays, either of bravery or cowardice, will find
its way to his native home. He thus learns to appreciate the value of a
good name; and it is thus, that in a Highland regiment, consisting of men
from the same country, whose kindred and connexions are mutually known,
every individual feels that his conduct is the subject of observation, and
that, independently of his duty, as a member of a systematic whole, he has
to sustain a separate and individual reputation, which will be reflected
on his family and district or glen. Hence he requires no artificial
excitements. He acts from motives within himself; his point is fixed, and
his aim must terminate either in victory or death. The German soldier
considers himself as a part of the military machine and duty marked out in
the orders of the day. He moves onward to his destination with a
well-trained pace, and with as phlegmatic indifference to the result, as a
labourer who works for his daily hire. The courage of the French soldier
is supported in the hour of trial, by his high notions of the point of
honour; but this display of spirit is not always steady: neither French
nor German is confident in himself, if an enemy gain his flank or rear. A
Highland soldier faces his enemy, whether in front, rear, or flank; and if
he has confidence in his commander, it may be predicted with certainty
that he will be victorious, or die on the ground which he maintains. He
goes into the field resolved not to disgrace his name. A striking
characteristic of the Highlander is, that all his actions seem to flow
from sentiment. His endurance of privation and fatigue, his resistance of
hostile opposition, his solicitude for the good opinion of his superiors,
all originate in this source, whence also proceeds his obedience, which is
always most conspicuous when exhibited wider kind treatment. Hence arises
the difference observable between the conduct of one regiment of
Highlanders and that of another, and frequently even of the same regiment
at different times, and under different management. A Highland regiment,
to be orderly and well-disciplined, ought to be commanded by men who are
capable of appreciating their character, directing their passions and
prejudices, and acquiring their entire confidence and affection. The
officer to whom the command of Highlanders is entrusted, must endeavour to
acquire their confidence and good opinion. With this view, he must watch
over the propriety of his own conduct. [In some instances, when the
misconduct of officers, particularly in the field, was not publicly
censured, the soldiers who served under them made regular representations
that they could not and would not remain longer under their command, and
that, if they were not relieved from the disgrace of being so commanded,
they would lay their complaints before the highest authority. In like
manner, when any of the soldiers showed a backwardness in facing an enemy,
their comrades brought them forward, calling for punishment on the
poltroons, who were a disgrace to their country, their name, and their
kindred. With such checks to disgraceful, and such incitements to an
honourable line of conduct, the best results might be anticipated, as
indeed experience has proved.] He must observe the strictest justice and
fidelity in his promises to his men, conciliate them by an attention to
their dispositions and prejudices, and, at the same time, by preserving a
firm and steady authority, without which, he will not be respected.
Officers who are accustomed
to command Highland soldiers, find it easy to guide and control them when
their full confidence has been obtained; but when distrust prevails,
severity ensues, with a consequent neglect of duty, and, by a continuance
of this unhappy misunderstanding, the men become stubborn, disobedient,
and, in the end, mutinous. [See Appendix GG.] The spirit of a Highland
soldier revolts at any unnecessary severity; though he may be led to the
mouth of a cannon if properly directed, and will rather die than be
unfaithful to his trust. But if, instead of leading, his officers attempt
to drive him, he may fail in the discharge of the most common duties. A
learned and ingenious author, who, though himself a Lowlander, had ample
opportunity, while serving in many campaigns with Highland regiments, of
becoming intimately acquainted with their character, thus develops their
conduct in the field: "The character of ardour belongs to the Highlander;
he acts from an internal sentiment, and possesses a pride of honour, which
does not permit him to retire from danger with a confession of
inferiority. This is a property of his nature, and as it is so, it becomes
the business of officers who command Highland troops to estimate the
national character correctly, that they may not,
through ignorance, misapply their means, and
thereby concert their own ruin.
"If ardour be the
characteristic of Highlanders, it is evident that they are not
calculated for mechanical manoeuvres, nor for demonstrations and
encounters with a view to diversion; for unless the purpose be
previously explained and understood in its full extent, the Highlander
darts on the enemy with impetuosity, rushing into close action, where it
was only intended to amuse. He does not brook disappointment, sustain a
galling distant fire with coolness, or retire from an enterprise with
temper. He may be trusted to cover the most dangerous retreat assigned
to him as a duty; a retreat in consequence of his own failure is likely
to degenerate into a rout. In action, the Highlander requires to see his
object fully: he then feels the impression of his duty, and acts
animately and consistently, more from impression and sentiment than from
external impulse of command; for, when an enemy is before the
Highlander,
the authority of the officer may be said to cease. Different nations
have different excellencies or defects in war. Some excel in the use of
missile weapons: the power of the Highlander lies in close combat. Close
charge was his ancient mode of attack; and it is probably from
impression, ingrafted in his nature in consequence of the national mode
of war, that he still sustains the approaching point of a naked weapon
with a steadier eye than any other man in Europe. Some nations turn with
fear from the countenance of an enraged enemy: the Highlander rushes
towards it with ardour; and if he can grasp his foe, as man with man,
his courage is secure."
I shall subjoin one other
quotation from the same author. After describing their social meetings,
at which the enterprises of war were the frequent and usual themes of
conversation, he proceeds:—"The Highlanders, in this manner, looking
daily on war, and the enterprise of war, with interest and animation,
acquire radical ideas of the military art. Without design, or formal
intention, this germ of military education, planted in the first years
of life, assumes a fair growth among these northern Scots; for, as
objects of war, and warlike enterprise, command more than other objects
the exertions of the thinking faculty, the Highlanders, formed with
sound minds, and susceptible of good impressions, discover more natural
sagacity than any other class of people in the kingdom, perhaps than any
other people in Europe. The Highlanders, in relation with their southern
neighbours, were considered as freebooters, barbarians, given to spoil
and plunder. In former times, the charge had some appearance of truth;
for the Lowlanders were considered as a hostile or strange people. But
though they drove the cattle of a hostile tribe, or ravaged a Lowland
district, with which they had no connexion or bond of amity, their
conduct in the year 1745 proves that they are neither a ferocious nor a
cruel people; for no troops probably ever traversed a country which
might be esteemed hostile with fewer traces of outrage. They are now
better known: their character is conspicuous for honesty and fidelity.
They possess the most exalted notions of honour, the warmest
friendships, and the highest portion of mental pride, of any people
perhaps in Europe. Their ideas are few, but their sentiments are strong;
their virtues, principles in their nature." [Jackson's Systematic View
of the Formation, Discipline, and Economy of European Armies]
Having thus briefly
described the military character of the Highlander, and his disposition
and aptitude for war, [See Appendix HH.] and noticed the line of conduct
necessary on the part of his superior officer to render his courage and
capacity effective, I now proceed to give an account of the first corps
of Highlanders embodied for the service of Government, and afterwards
formed into a regiment of the regular army. |
