I
'S ann as an tir's 'eachdraidh a chineas spiorad
cogail
The military spirit comes out of the land and its history
Ever since the first disbanded Highland soldiery and
displaced crofters settled on Canada's shores two hundred years ago, in
the 1760s and 1770s, Scottish Canadians have borne their full share of
the burden of Canada's defence. Soldiers and regiments bearing Scottish
names and wearing the bonnet, kilt and feather form a mighty array in
our history; they have fought in the snows of Canada, in the mud of
Flanders, in the mountains of Italy; they have inspired Canadians with
the military traditions of old Scotland, bravery and devotion, fortitude
in distress. Today there are over 2,000,000 people of Scottish descent
in Canada, although through intermarriage the Scottish blood flows in
the veins of many more Canadians than the census returns would suggest.
It is, indeed, sufficiently widespread that, despite dilution, it has
encouraged that mystic sympathy of Canada for Scotland which unites the
two lands in the unity of understanding. The Canadian soldier in World
War II was well aware of it, if only because
he seemed to feel more at home in Scotland than in the land of the
Southrons. Perhaps that understanding derives, in part at least, from
the fact that Canadian and Scot live in northern lands, to the south of
which there is a powerful, and too often dominating nation. Each knows
that his nation has always to be on the watch lest it lose its freedom
and its own distinctive nationality.
The Scottish military tradition is generally
associated with the Highlands, the country of the chief, clan and
cateran. This does not mean that the Lowlands were bare of men of
military virtue, of men ready and able to wield a spear or broadsword in
defence of their faith and their possession - the achievements of the
Cameronians contradicts that - but rather that the Highlands, by the
very nature of the countryside and the tribal feudalism
it nourished, tended to develop and perpetuate the military
characteristics of independence and combativeness more than did the land
and society of the Lowlands.
The country north and west of the Highland Line was,
and still is, in many respects, a wild, harsh, forbidding land of
violent tempests and uncertain climate. It is not a rich luxuriant land,
but one of bare mountains, bleak hills, heathered moors, coniferous
forests, lakes, streams and fens. There are only isolated and
disconnected patches of arable soil1
located in the sequestered straths, glens and islands which favoured the
settlement of family groups under their natural leaders or ceann-cinnidh.
Such a land was not of the nature to sustain a large and prosperous
agricultural population. The men who lived in the Highlands were the
sons of Esau. They lived on the fish they caught in the lochs, the deer
they hunted in the hills, and the herds they tended on their thin
mountain pastures or reaved from their Lowland neighbours. Only the
bold, the strong, the hardy and the independent survived in such a land,
men nursed in poverty, men whose needs were simple and basic. Geography
made the Scottish Highlander, and it made him good soldier material,
because it demanded those qualities which make men good soldiers;
hardihood, courage, endurance, self-reliance and loyalty to one's leader
and one's comrades.2
The history of the country, too, added its strength
to reinforce the fighting spirit of the men of Scotland. From the day
when Calgacus fell at the head of the Pictish host to the Roman,
Agricola, at Mons Graupius in 84 A.D., to the flight of Charles Edward
Stewart from the field of Culloden in 1746, Scottish history has been
one long, bloody brawl. But Culloden was the end - the end of seventeen
centuries of strife between warring tribes, warring religions, warring
nations. Did anything of value emerge from it beyond an unpopular union
with England bought with English gold? Does anything emerge from
Scottish history other than bloodshed and violence and sticky sentiment?
Beneath the surface will be found virtues as heroic as they sometimes
appear irrational, the virtues of independence, devotion and valour.
These are the saving virtues of the Scottish story and the backbone of
the Scottish military tradition.
II
Na Sassunaich a ghadhail cothrom air spiorad cogail na
Ghaidhail
The Southrons exploit the Scottish military spirit
The immediate British reaction to the Jacobite rising
of 1745-46 was an effort to break the spirit of the men who had served
the Jacobite cause. Rapine, slaughter and torture, all were used with
relentless vindictiveness by the king's son who commanded the British
government forces.3 Quarter was given
to no straggler or fugitive, except to the select few reserved for the
spectacle of a public execution. For the wounded who lay on the field of battle there was no compassion,
only the bullet and the bayonet when they were discovered. All men
suspected of rebel sympathies were herded into gaols, prison ships,
cellars or lofts, and left without food or water, or clothes to hide
their nakedness; even the doctor had his lancet taken from him lest he
be moved to blood some of the wounded in order to save their lives. To
His Grace of Newcastle, Lord Chesterfield wrote, "Starve the country by
your ships, put a price on the heads of the chiefs, and let the Duke put
all to the fire and sword."4 That was
exactly what "Bloody Butcher" Cumberland did. Through the glens and over
the hills, his patrols laid waste the land, plundered the houses, burned
the crofts, killed suspected Jacobites, raped the women and drove the
Highlanders' cattle to the military posts. When starving creatures
sought a handful of oatmeal they were driven away with the butts of
muskets; should any soldier or his wife show a little humanity, well,
Cumberland had said "they shall be first whipped severely . . . and then
put on meal and water in the Provost for a fortnight."5
Heartless and abhorrent as these reprisals were, the Duke considered
them inadequate. To Newcastle he wrote, three months after the battle of
Culloden, "I am sorry to leave this country in the condition it is in;
for all the good that we have done is a little blood letting, which has
only weakened the madness, but not at all cured it; and I tremble for
fear that this vile spot may still be the ruin of this island and of our
family."6
Such methods were not without results; but even more
effective in throttling the Highland spirit were the legislative
enactments, the laws that destroyed the clan system, that made the
playing of the old music and the wearing of the kilt and tartan criminal
offences. Every Highlander was required to surrender his arms. Failure
to do so might mean transportation for seven years. Restrictions too
were imposed upon the Episcopal Church, regarded by the authorities as
only slightly less ardent than the Roman Catholics in their support of
the House of Stewart. Most effective of all was the Act abolishing the
hereditary jurisdictions. For generations the inhabitants of the
Highlands had looked to their chiefs for direction and protection. Now
there were no more chiefs. Those who had supported the Jacobites in 1745
were, in some instances, executed, in others, outlawed, and in all
instances obliged to forfeit their estates. Those who had not been out
in '45 were ready to sell out, salvage what they could in golden
guineas, as compensation for what they had lost in giving up their
rights of "pit and gallows." They moved to Edinburgh and acquired an
English veneer. Thus, when he needed him most, the Highland clansman had
no chief. He was leaderless in a hostile world.
Two choices were open to him if he were to avoid
starvation. He could emigrate, leave the land of his forefathers and
find a new home elsewhere, or he could accept German Geordie's shilling
and serve in the army of the Hanoverian king. Both were unpalatable. But
the will to survive is stronger even than love of home or pride of
ancestry.7
Poverty was nothing new to the Highlander. Neither
was serving in the armies of foreign monarchs. He had
been doing it since the days of the Crusades. During the sixteenth
century licences had been granted to individuals to raise men in
Scotland for service in Denmark, Sweden and the Low Countries, a traffic
which increased during the seventeenth century. Donald MacKay raised
3600 men for Christian IV, and Gustavus Adol-pus
is said to have had 10,000 Scots under his command during the Thirty
Years' War. Others served the King of France as Archers of the Guard. At
a later date refugees from the forces of Dundee, Mar and Charles Edward
fought in the armies of France. The son of a Scottish Jacobite
schoolteacher became a marshal of France under Napoleon,
Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, Duke of Taranto.
There was precedent too for serving King George. In
1725 the British government had raised a number of independent companies
to keep watch on the Highland clans and discourage the popular
activities of cattle lifting and blackmailing. These independent
companies were clad in a black, green and blue government tartan to
distinguish them from the regular troops and were known as the
Freiceadan Dubh, or Black Watch. Several years later, in the hope of
discouraging the growth of Jacobitism, the Lord President Duncan Forbes
of Culloden suggested to the British authorities that greater scope
might be given the natural military attributes of the Highlanders were
they to be recruited into several regiments commanded by English or
Scottish officers "of undoubted loyalty" and officered by chiefs and
chieftains "of the disaffected clans." "If Government pre-engage the
Highlanders in the manner I propose," he wrote, "they will not only
serve well against the enemy abroad, but will be hostages for the good
behaviour of their relatives at home, and I am persuaded it will be
absolutely impossible to raise a rebellion in the Highlands."8
Forbes's advice was followed only in
part. Not several but one regiment only was formed, and this by bringing
together the various independent companies of the Watch. In 1740 the new
regiment, numbered the 43rd (changed in 1749 to the 42nd) but still
bearing the name Black Watch, was embodied under the command of Sir
Robert Munro of Foulis, and officered by Highland gentlemen, a number of
whom were from the clans Munro, Grant and Campbell, whose Whig
sympathies met with the approval of the British government.9
In 1743 the Black Watch was ordered to England. It
was not a popular order, nor a popular move; the Highlanders had no wish
to serve so far from their own glens. However, they were told that the
move was simply to satisfy the curiosity of the German lairdie who sat
on England's throne and who had never seen a Highland regiment. When
they arrived in London the soldiers of the Black Watch learned that the
king had gone to Hanover and heard rumours that they were to be sent to
America. Regarding such deception as intolerable - many of those even in
private rank were gentlemen - they set out on their own for Scotland.
Overtaken at Northampton by a larger British force, the Scots
surrendered and were disarmed. A number of the so-called mutineers were
tried; three of them (all sons of Clan Chattan) were executed. Then the
expected blow fell, two hundred of the Watch were sent to the West
Indies; the remainder joined Cumberland's forces in Flanders, to
contribute their decisive strength to the victory of Fontenoy. During
the Jacobite rising of 1745-46 the Black Watch warmed their heels on the
shores of Kent; to send them north against their blood relatives in the
Highland host would hardly have been a politic act. After Culloden, they
went to Ireland on garrison duty where they remained, with one short
tour in Flanders, until the outbreak of the Seven Years' War against
France in 1756.
The bravery of the Watch at Fontenoy had made its
impression upon the British authorities. They therefore decided to
repeat the experiment of employing Highlanders in the British service.
In 1745 Campbell, the Earl of Loudoun, was commissioned to raise another
Highland unit.10 The time, however, was
critical, and the devotion of the recruits to the Hanoverian monarchy
suspect. There were desertions to the Jacobites, but for the most part
the officers and men remained true to their engagement. Nevertheless the
regiment did not see service as a unit. Three companies were at
Prestonpans only to surrender to Prince Edward when Cope's army was put
to flight. Some men of Loudoun's regiment were victims of the Rout of
Moy. Three companies were at Culloden. After a brief tour in the Low
Countries the regiment was disbanded in 1748.
It was the outbreak of the Seven Years' War with
France in 1756 that led to the policy which drained the Highlands by
sending Scotsmen to fight England's wars in Europe and North America.
William Pitt adopted Duncan Forbes's ideas with enthusiasm, and during
the period of the Seven Years' War no fewer than ten line regiments, the
77th (Montgomery's), 78th (Fraser's), 87th (Keith's), 88th (Campbell's)
89th (Gordon's), 100th, 101st (Johnstone's), 105th (Queen's), 113th
(Royal Highland Volunteers), and MacLean's, and two fencible regiments
(regiments for the internal defence), Argyll Fencibles and Sutherland
Fenci-bles, were recruited in the British interest.11 From
Britain's point of view it was sound military strategy to make the best
use of the Scottish military tradition, and good politics to get so many
sullen and resentful unemployed men out of their mountain fastness. It
was a policy which lesser men than Pitt were glad to continue when later
wars broke out in 1775 and 1793. The regiments raised during the
American Revolutionary War included 71st (Fraser's), 73rd (MacLeod's),
74th (Argyll Highlanders), 76th (Macdonald's), 77th (Atholl
Highlanders), 78th (Seaforths), 81st (Aberdeenshire Regiment), 2nd
Battalion, Black Watch. Additional regiments were raised on the outbreak
of the French Revolutionary War in 1793. The depopulation of the
Highlands may have been largely the result of the Highland clearances
and the emigration of the clansmen; but it was the result, too, of the
military exploitation of Scotland's human resources for the sake of
Britain's imperial ambitions. Of Britain's new Highland
regiments, three saw service in North America during the French war, the
42nd (Black Watch), the 77th (Montgomery's), and the 78th (Fraser's).
The two latter were raised in 1757 from the Jacobite clans, Frasers,
Macdonalds, Camerons, MacLeans and Macphersons in particular. The 77th
was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Montgomery, afterwards
Lord Eglinton, and the 78th by Simon Fraser, son of the Lord Lovat who
had lost his head after Culloden for supporting Prince Charles.
The 42nd was the first Highland regiment ever to come
to North America. It arrived in New York in 1756 and promptly moved to
Albany. During the winter of 1756-57 it underwent serious training in
bush fighting in the Canadian manner. It was a kind of training much
needed by the Scots, for their traditional tactic of firing a volley and
then rushing forward with targe and broadsword to engage the enemy
hand-to-hand was of limited value against an elusive foe who knew how to
make good use of cover. Early in the summer of 1757, the regiment moved
to Halifax as part of the large force assembled for an attack upon
Louisbourg. Here it was joined by the 77th and the 78th. The Louisbourg
assault was not carried through in 1757. The delay in the arrival of the
naval component, the lateness of the season, and the arrival of
reinforcements in Louisbourg convinced Loudoun that the assault would
have to be postponed to a more opportune occasion and, leaving a number
of his troops at Halifax, he returned to New York with his three
regiments of Highlanders.
All three regiments played notable roles during the
campaign of 1758, albeit in three separate theatres of operations.12
In the spring, Fraser's Highlanders
joined Amherst's force for the postponed assault upon Louisbourg,
forming part of the brigade commanded by Brigadier-General Wolfe, who,
incidentally, had fought at Culloden and had shared in the ruthless and
unsavoury "pacification" of the Highlands. But Wolfe, who had formerly
distrusted the Highlanders, now recognized their worth, and used them
along with the light infantry in every action calling for the employment
of shock troops. After a siege of seven weeks the fortress surrendered.
The impatient Wolfe would have continued on to Quebec, but he was
compelled to limit his military activities to attacking Acadian
communities along the Atlantic shore.
On the far western front, Montgomery's Highlanders
pushed their way slowly towards Fort Duquesne as the main regular
component of Brigadier General Forbes's corps. At Loyalhanna, about 40
miles from their destination, the Highlanders' weakness in bush fighting
became all too apparent when a detachment of the 77th, under Major James
Grant, was badly cut to pieces by the French and the Indians. But the
French at Fort Duquesne, outnumbered and in no position to offer a
prolonged resistance to Forbes's men, in November blew up their defences
and withdrew. In honour of William Pitt, Forbes renamed the smoking ruin
Pittsburgh. Here the 77th spent the winter. In the following May it
moved to the central theatre of operations to join the 42nd on Lake
Champlain for a second attack upon Carillon (Ticonderoga).
The first assault upon the French position at
Carillon had ended in disaster for the Black Watch. With every
confidence in the world, the Highlanders had joined the mighty array
which was intended to strike north to the St. Lawrence - 16,000 men,
regulars, provincials, rangers and boatmen. What was there to halt them?
Only a poor stone fort on Lake Champlain manned by a force considerably
inferior in numbers. The British commander, James Abercromby, had all
the tools necessary for siege or open warfare. A quick look at the
French defences convinced him that Carillon could be carried by storm,
and, with a singular lack of imagination, he decided upon a frontal
attack. On the morning of July 8 the British assault troops, led by the
Grenadiers, deployed in the open area in front of the French defences;
four battalions, with the 42nd in support. When the Grenadiers failed to
penetrate the thick abbatis in front of the French breastworks, the
Scots impetuously rushed forward and began hacking their way through the
tangled branches. Safe behind their defences the French infantry cut
them to pieces with well-directed musketry. Time and again the brave
Highlanders surged forward, only to fall back in the face of a murderous
fire. A few men did succeed in reaching the French breastworks, but they
had no scaling ladders and when, after great exertion, Captain John
Campbell and several others forced their way over the French works, they
were stabbed to death by French bayonets. For four hours Abercromby kept
it up; then, finally, he gave the order to retreat. Despite their
losses, the Highlanders still sought vengeance for the death of their
comrades, and Abercromby was obliged to repeat his orders three times
before he could prevail upon the stubborn Scots to obey. The 42nd,
indeed, paid dearly for its intrepidity: 314 officers and men were
killed and 333 wounded in the battle, over half the strength of the
regiment. Despite its shattered condition Abercromby gave The Black
Watch the honour of covering the retirement, although in its weakened
state it is questionable whether the regiment could have beaten back a
determined attack had Montcalm been disposed to pursue the retreating
British. Abercromby may not have been a brilliant tactician, but at
least he knew how to humour the spirit of his Highlanders.
1759 was the decisive year of the war, and to the
British success in that year the Highlanders made a notable
contribution. The Black Watch, reinforced by a strong infusion of new
recruits, and Montgomery's Highlanders formed part of the army Jeffrey
Amherst led, methodically and laboriously, through the Lake George-Lake
Champlain entrance to Canada. Carillon and Fort St. Frederic (Crown
Point) were occupied without a battle. Had Amherst been less concerned
with rebuilding what the French had destroyed, he might have reached
Montreal and the St. Lawrence. As it was he got no further than Crown
Point before going into winter quarters. Thus it was Fraser's
Highlanders, not the 42nd or the 77th, which played the major role in
the reduction of Canada.
Occupying a position made formidable by nature and by
military engineering, Quebec was the key to Canada. Montcalm realized it
and chose to remain on the defensive. Let the British come to him. They
did, in the spring of 1759, under James Wolfe. But weeks went by and
Wolfe made little or no progress. Fraser's men shared in the ill-fated
attack on the French and Canadian position at Beauport in July, and in
the terrorist raids carried on by General Wolfe during the month of
August. Finally, almost as a last resort, Wolfe sought to gain a
lodgement to the west of the city on the Plains of Abraham. Fraser's
Highlanders were on the heels of the Light Infantry who first climbed
the cliff of Quebec in the early hours of September 13. A
French-speaking Highlander, Captain Donald Macdonald, a brother of
Clanranald, whose men had been out in '45, lulled the suspicions of the
French sentry and made possible the seizure of the plains. When the
British drew up their battle array, Fraser's were in the front rank.
After exchanging shots with the French, the Highlanders reverted to
their traditional tactics; they threw away their muskets, drew their
broad swords and swept forward, halting only when they reached the walls
of the city. Led by Brigadier-General Murray, they returned to the woods
on the left flank to oust the Canadians holding up the other pursuing
troops. Watching the whole thing with great interest was Montcalm's
aide-de-camp, the Chevalier Johnstone.13 He, too, had been out in '45, fighting alongside the
Glengarry Macdonells at Culloden. He would have recognized the names if
not the features of those who were killed or wounded at Quebec, such as
McNeil of Barra, Macdonell of Lochgarry, Macdonell of Keppoch, Fraser of
Inverlochy and Campbell of Barcaldine.
Fraser's Highlanders witnessed the surrender of
Quebec on September 18 by de Ramezay, a Frenchman of Scottish descent,
and then spent the winter in the ruined city. It was dreadfully cold,
cold enough to cause Malcolm Fraser to admit that "the Philibeg is not
at all calculated for this terrible climate."14 Canada was colder even than Scotland. In the spring the
78th marched out with Murray to face the French and Canadian army, led
by the Chevalier de Levis. Murray was defeated at Ste. Foye, a mishap
which elicited from Charles Stewart, who had served at Culloden, "from
April battles and Murray generals, good Lord deliver me!`15
Only the walls of Quebec and the timely arrival of British ships of war
saved Murray from surrendering in 1760 the fortress Wolfe had gained in
1759.
Following the capitulation of Canada in September,
1760, the Black Watch and the 77th were sent to the West Indies.
Subsequently they returned to assist in the suppression of the Indian
rising led by Pontiac. Meanwhile, the 78th contributed a detachment to
Colonel William Amherst's force, sent to recover St. John's,
Newfoundland, from the French in 1762. In 1763 the war was over and the
peace was signed. The Watch remained on the regular establishment, but
the 77th and 78th were ordered to be disbanded, the officers and men
being given the opportunity of settling in British North America if they
wished to do so. Rather than face sad memories and unemployment in
Scotland, many chose to remain in Canada, where each officer and man
received a grant of land according to his rank. Thus the disbanded
solidiery of Montgomery's and Fraser's Highlanders became the first
Scots to form an integral part of Canadian life and history. And they
were not the last. Others soon arrived in North America; destitute but
proud men, who settled in Prince Edward Island through the initiative of
John Macdonald, Eighth of Glenaladale; in Pictou, Nova Scotia, through
the inducements of a Lowland promoter; and the Mohawk Valley, through
the leadership of three Macdonell lairds, Aberchalder, Leek and
Collachie. By far the greater number of them were Jacobites: "ged chaidh
an sgadpdth air gach taobh, cha chaochail iad an gnaths," sang the
Gaelic bard.16 "Although they were scattered in every
direction, they did not change their ways."
III
Spiorad
cogail na Ghadhail a
tighinn do Chanada
The Scottish military spirit comes to Canada
Vergennes, the astute French ambassador to
Constantinople, is said to have predicted that England would quickly
repent having insisted upon the cession of Canada by France, if only
because it removed the American colonies' greatest inducement to remain
within the British Empire, the threat of French invasion. Peter Kalm had
said much the same thing twelve years before. Within another twelve
years, history proved both good prophets. By 1775 British soldiers and
American minutemen were exchanging shots at Lexington and a British
garrison was being besieged at Boston by 20,000 angry American militia.
In 1776 the American colonies declared their independence.
Once more the British government looked to the Scots
for help. More regiments were raised in Great Britain and old ones, like
Fraser's, were revived. More significantly, the practice of employing
Scotsmen as soldiers was extended to the British possessions in North
America. On June 12, 1775, General Thomas Gage issued orders to
Lieutenant-Colonel Allan Maclean, son of Maclean of Torloisk, Mull, to
raise a regiment consisting of two battalions, each of ten companies, to
be clothed, armed and accoutred like The Black Watch17 and "to be called the Royal Highland Emigrants."18
Maclean was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the regiment, as
well as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, with Donald Macdonald
as his major, while Major John Small, formerly of the 42nd, was placed
in charge of the 2nd battalion.
The idea was that The Emigrants should find their
recruits among former soldiers who had served in the 42nd, the 77th and
the 78th, and in the several Scottish settlements in America. As
inducements to enlist, each man was promised a grant of land at the
expiration of hostilities, and one guinea levy-money on joining. Even
so, recruits came in slowly. The recruiting parties of the 1st Battalion
found it difficult to get recruits safely and quietly out of the Mohawk
Valley without arousing the suspicions of Americans, and
it was some time before The Emigrants were brought up to strength. To
fill the gaps in the ranks, recourse was had to enlisting Irishmen from
Newfoundland and prisoners of war who were willing and ready to change
sides. Few of these latter were Scots, and few of them made reliable
soldiers.19 Initially,
detachments of The Emigrants were posted along the St. Lawrence and in
the Richelieu Valley and, under Maclean's command planned to relieve the
besieged Fort Saint Jean. With the defeat of Guy Carleton's co-operating
force from Montreal, Maclean hurried his Emigrants back to an almost
defenceless Quebec where they furnished the bulk of the "regular" (if
they could be called that) army of the garrison. During the siege of
Quebec by Montgomery and Arnold, The Emigrants played a notable part.
Captain Malcolm Fraser, formerly of the 78th, was the first to observe
the American signals on the night of December 31, 1775, indicating that
an attack was in the offing. Allan Maclean commanded the defenders under
Carleton and was, in large measure, responsible for the defeat of the
Americans.20 When General Burgoyne organized his
counter-attack force in 1777, Maclean's Emigrants were posted along the
line of communications and provided the garrison for Fort Ticonderoga.
As an indication of his satisfaction with their services, George III
instructed Sir Frederick Haldimand in 1779 to place The Emigrants upon
the regular establishment of the British army and to number them the
84th among the British line regiments.21 During its career
the 1st Battalion in Canada was plagued with desertions, mostly among
the Americans and Irish who had joined the regiment; it is worth noting
that not one native Highlander deserted, and only one man was brought to
the halberts during the time the regiment was embodied.22
In Nova Scotia, Major Small had less trouble
obtaining recruits than Maclean in Canada. The 2nd Battalion was not,
however, employed as a unit. Instead, it was broken up into detachments
and sent to garrison such posts as Annapolis, Cumberland, Saint John,
Windsor and Halifax, where American raiders might be expected to land.
The rest of the battalion, five companies, was sent to join Cornwallis
in the southern colonies where they fought with distinction at Eataw
Springs. The troops, however, resented being used piecemeal. It was with
disgust that Captain Alexander Macdonald wrote, "We have absolutely been
worse used than any one Regiment in America and have done more duty and
drudgery of all kinds than any other Battalion in America, these three
Years past, and it is but reasonable, Just and Equitable that we should
now be Suffered to Join together at least as early as possible in the
Spring and let some Other Regiment relieve the different posts we at
present Occupy."23
Both battalions of The Royal Highland Emigrants were
disbanded at the end of hostilities. Some of the officers and men
returned to Scotland, but the greater number took up their promised land
grants, the 1st Battalion in Canada and the 2nd in Nova Scotia, and
remained in British North America.
There were other Scotsmen who served the King in
British North America during the Revolutionary War besides those
commissioned or enlisted in the Royal Highland Emigrants. A considerable
number of Highlanders from Glengarry, Glen Urquhart and Strathglass had
emigrated during 1773 to the Mohawk Valley and settled on the lands of
Sir William Johnson, the Irish baronet, whose name was so closely
associated with the league of the Six Nations. Johnson liked the
Highlanders, cultivated them, and encouraged them to maintain their
customs. The tradition of the clan and the chief was still very much
alive among the Highlanders, and it was hardly surprising that Johnson
assumed, in the minds of his Scottish tenantry, something of the
character of a Highland chief. When Sir William died in 1774, this
attachment was transferred to his son, Sir John. This explains why, on
the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, when Sir John Johnson fled to
Canada early in 1776, he was accompanied by a considerable number of his
Highland followers. These were joined a year later by the remainder of
the Mohawk Valley Highlanders.
Scarcely had Johnson put a foot in Montreal when he
received a commission as colonel in the British army, and was authorized
to raise a regiment of Loyalists under the name of The King's Royal
Regiment of New York (KRRNY).24 With
his tenantry at his heels he had no problem in finding recruits,
particularly when he had the support of the Macdonell chieftains,
Aberchalder, Scotus and Leek, as his officers.
The 1st Battalion of the KRRNY saw action with St.
Leger's force in 1776 when they defeated the Americans at Oriskany.
However the failure to capture Fort Stanwix nullified this victory and
St. Leger did not join forces with Burgoyne. In the years which
followed, the "Royal Yorkers," as they were sometimes called, took part
in several notable raids into the Mohawk Valley. These actions not only
brought in additional recruits to the Yorkers, but also stripped the
region of supplies useful to the American rebels. Accordingly, Johnson
was authorized to form a 2nd Battalion in 1780,25 despite the fact that Canada's Swiss governor, Sir
Frederick Haldimand, was disposed to sneer at Johnson's regiment as "a
useful corps with the Ax," but "not altogether to be depended on with
the Firelock."26
Like the Royal Highland Emigrants, the officers and
men of the KRRNY were given land grants on demobilization in 1783. The
1st Battalion settled largely in what is now Glengarry and Stormont
counties; the 2nd Battalion, which contained fewer Scots and more
Germans, settled in the Bay of Quinte region.
During the American invasion of Canada at the time of
the War of 1812, few Scotsmen from Great Britain saw service in this
country. With the exception of the Royal Scots, no overseas Scottish
units were sent to Canada until the late summer of 1814, when the
Glasgow Lowland Division arrived from Ireland. And in the Royal Scots
few of the men were, in fact, Scottish-born; most of them were of
English, Irish and French nationality. The Scots who fought in the
Canadian War of 1812 were, therefore, most of them Canadian Highlanders
who lived on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, where
the disbanded Emigrants and Royal Yorkers had settled a generation
previously, and where their numbers had been reinforced by the arrival
from Scotland of the disbanded Glengarry Fencibles and their chaplain,
Father Alexander Macdonell, in 1803.
Several times during the early years of the
nineteenth century, suggestions had been put forward that a regiment of
Canadian Highlanders should be raised as a force to supplement the
British regulars. But no one had heeded this advice until the threat of
war with the United States was so obvious that it could be ignored only
with peril. Finally, under the shadow of invasion, the Glengarry
Regiment of Light Infantry Fencibles was embodied in Upper Canada early
in 1812. Father Alexander Macdonell, assisted by "Red George" Macdonell
of Leek, fired the heather, and on May 12 a unit of some 400 men was
paraded for duty, just one month before the President of the United
States declared war on Great Britain and began to move troops towards
the Canadian frontier. The Glengarrians shared in many of the
significant engagements of the war, including Salmon River, Ogdensburg,
York, Fort George, Sackett's Harbour, Oswego, Fort Erie, Lyon's Creek
and Mackinac, as well as in the hardest fought battle of the war,
Lundy's Lane, where they protected the right flank of the British force
and were accorded the right to wear "Niagara '' on their colours. In
1816 the regiment was disbanded at Kingston.
The men from the Scottish counties also saw service
in the militia. In General Brock's opinion the militia along the St.
Lawrence, from the Bay of Quinte to Glengarry, were "the most
respectable of any in the province,"27 a statement borne out by the battle honours awarded the
militia regiments from Glengarry, Stormont and Dundas. The 1st Stormont
Regiment was at Salmon River, Ogdensburg, Crysler's Farm, and Hoople's
Creek, and the 1st Dundas at Toussaint's Island, Prescott, Salmon River
and Ogdensburg. Militiamen from these counties were also employed in
garrison and escort duty along the vital highway of the St. Lawrence,
the sole line of communication between Upper and Lower Canada.
The significant role of the Scots in the militia
during the War of 1812 is revealed by a glance at the names of the
officers who commanded the county units.28 Among them we find Colonel Neil Maclean, a former Royal
Highland Emigrant, of the 1st Stormont; Colonel William Fraser of the
1st Grenville; Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Fraser of the 1st Dundas;
Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander MacMillan of the 1st Glengarry; and
Lt.-Col. Allan Macdonell of Greenfield of the 2nd Glengarry.
Lieutenant-Colonel Allan Maclean of the 1st Frontenac became commanding
officer of the Battalion of Incorporated Militia. Lieutenant-Colonel
John Macdonell was A.D.C. to General Brock and died at Queenston Heights
with his superior officer. Colonel Archibald Macdonell commanded the 1st
Prince Edward Militia; Colonel John Ferguson, the 1st Hastings; Colonel
Matthew Elliott, the 1st Essex; Lt.-Col. William Graham, the 1st York;
and Captain William Mackay, the Michigan Fencibles. Mackay and Elliott
were officers of the Indian Department. The Adjutant-General of the
Canadian militia during the war was
Major-General Aeneas Shaw, a former officer of The Queen's Rangers.
The response of the Canadian Scots to the call to
arms was reminiscent of the old days in Scotland, and it was repeated
with the mustering of the militia during the troubles of 1837 and 1838.
If it was a Scot, William Lyon Mackenzie, who set out to establish a
Canadian republic in December, 1837, it was another Scot, Sir Allan
MacNab, who led the Loyalists who opposed him. In the Ottawa Valley, the
last Highland chief ever to play the traditional role, Archibald MacNab,
12th of MacNab, raised the local militia in Lanark and Renfrew; and in
Glengarry, Bishop Alexander Macdonell prompted the Highlanders to form
four battalions, one each from the townships of Charlottenburg,
Lancaster, Lochiel and Kenyon, commanded by Colonels Alexander Fraser,
Donald MacDonald, Alexander Chisholm and Angus Macdonell respectively.
In November, 1838, detachments of the militia from Stormont, Dundas and
Glengarry took part in the Battle of the Windmill, and other detachments
from the Glengarry and Stormont regiments formed part of Sir John
Colborne's corps employed in supressing the rebellion in Beauharnois. It
was not without justification that a British officer wrote in December,
1840, "I beg to state that the County of Glengarry has, on every
occasion, been distinguished for good conduct, and will, in any
emergency, turn out more fighting men in proportion to its population,
than any other in Her Majesty's Dominions."29
IV
That 'n
fhuil a tanachadh ach tha an spiorad treun
The blood grows thin but the spirit remains strong
Following the War of 1812 a number of Scottish line
regiments saw tours of garrison duty in Canada, including The Royal
Scots, the 71st Highland Light Infantry, the 70th Cameron Highlanders,
the 80th (Glasgow Lowland), and the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders. But the
days of the British garrison were numbered and by 1871 the last of the
British regiments had been withdrawn from Canada. The old county militia
units were also gone. In their place were the new volunteer territorial
units, which still form a considerable portion of Canada's present-day
military establishment. The Militia Acts of 1855 and 1859 provided for
the organization of volunteer regiments, and in November, 1859, the 1st
Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada, was organized in
Montreal. The following spring another battalion was formed, the 2nd
Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles, this time in Toronto. Thus began a
series of territorial infantry battalions which, prior to 1914, numbered
110.
The volunteer movement coincided, in date, with the
movement to eliminate the kilt as part of the military dress of British
regiments. Unable to find sufficient recruits in the
Highlands, the War Office had been compelled to fill the so-called
Scottish regiments with men of other nationalities, and the new recruits
were not only indifferent but sometimes hostile to the traditions the
kilt implied. With a home government cool towards the kilt it is hardly
surprising that few militia regiments in Canada were initially kilted
units. It was argued that Fraser's men had complained of the cold and
that the Glengarrians had willingly worn the uniform of the British
light infantry in 1812. Accordingly only two Highland units were
established, as such, in the 1860s and 1870s in Canada, both of them,
appropriately enough, in Nova Scotia: the 79th Colchester and Hants or
Highland Battalion of Infantry (later the Pictou Highlanders and today
the 1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders), and the 94th Victoria
Highland Provisional Battalion of Infantry (later the Cape Breton
Highlanders and today the 2nd Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders).30
But the kilt survived and was revived
in Great Britain in the 1880s, and in Canada the enthusiasm for the
Scottish military tradition was reflected in the formation of the 48th
Highlanders in Toronto in 1891; the 91st Highlanders (later the Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders) in Hamilton in 1903; the 72nd Highlanders
(later the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada) in Vancouver in 1910; and the
79th Highlanders (later the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada)
in Winnipeg in 1910. The 5th Battalion, organized in 1862 in Montreal,
was re-designated the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1880. In 1906 it became
the Royal Highlanders of Canada, and in 1930, The Black Watch (Royal
Highland Regiment) of Canada.
Between 1899 and 1901 militia units provided men for
the Canadian battalions which served under British command during the
South African War, but it was not until the Great War of 1914-1918 that
Canadian troops were sent abroad in any very considerable numbers.
Following the declaration of war between Great Britain and Germany in
August, 1914, the Canadian Department of Militia and Defence, ignoring
existing militia units and the traditions they had developed, enlisted
men into a new series of numbered Canadian Expeditionary Force
battalions. Because the kilted units had demonstrated their popularity
in Canada, several of the CEF battalions were given Scottish
designations. It was almost as if Sir Sam Hughes and Sir Edward Kemp had
read the words of Duncan Forbes of Culloden or those of William Pitt.
Thus the 13th Battalion CEF carried the name "The Royal Highlanders of
Canada," the 15th CEF was the "48th Highlanders of Canada," and the 16th
CEF "The Canadian Scottish." These three Scottish units were grouped
together in the 3rd Canadian Brigade. The 42nd (Royal Highlanders of
Canada) and the 43rd (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) were in the 7th and
8th brigades; the 38th (Cameron Highlanders), the 72nd (Seaforth
Highlanders of Canada), and the 85th (Nova Scotia Highlanders) were part
of the 12th Infantry Brigade. None of these battalions, although they
carried Scottish names and their officers and men wore the kilt, were
composed solely of Canadian Scots or Scots living in Canada. If the 16th
Canadian Scottish was anything to go by, they included almost all the
nationalities one could find in Canada; Scots, of course, but also
English, Irish, French, Americans, Italians, Dutch, Danes, Mexicans and
others.31
The first major battle involving a Canadian Scottish
unit was a trying ordeal. When the French colonial troops broke under
the German gas attach at Ypres early in 1915, the 3rd Canadian Infantry
Brigade was left dangling at its flank. It was this brigade, with its
three Highland units, which bore the initial brunt of the German attack.
All three regiments suffered heavy casualties at Ypres and St. Julien,
but all proved their worth in battle. They had gone to France green and
untried. In the crucible of Ypres they became the veterans who gave the
Canadian corps its strength and its reputation.
Manifestly it is impossible to tell the whole story
of the Canadian Scottish battalions in World War I within the compass of
a few paragraphs. It is sufficient here to record the battle honours
worn by the Scottish units on their colours - household names to an
earlier generation and all too unfamiliar to those who have followed -
Festubert, Mount Sorrel, Somme, Courcellette, Arras, Vimy, Passchendaele,
Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Dro-court-Queant,
Canal du Nord, Valenciennes. These names echo through the halls of our
history the contribution made by the Canadian Scottish battalions,
indeed of all Canadian battalions, which fought under General Sir Arthur
Currie's command. And there is further testimony, too, of the prowess of
Canadian Scots. Should we forget the name of Sir Archibald Macdonell,
that descendant of the Glengarry Macdonells who commanded the 1st
Canadian Division? Should we forget the fact that eight of the Canadian
winners of the Victoria Cross between 1914-1918 were members of the
Highland battalions of the Canadian Corps? Such men as these walk erect
among the shades of those heroic Scots who, if not necessarily their
progenitors, were the inspiration of the tradition which the Canadians,
as members of Scottish units, had willingly embraced.
Perhaps it was the fighting reputation which the
Highland units earned during World War I; perhaps it was the strong
pride Canadians had in the kilt; perhaps it was the affection which our
people generally have had for the pipes; whatever the explanation, there
was a remarkable increase in the number of Scottish-named units when the
Canadian militia was reorganized after peace had been established in
1919. Not that new units were established, but a considerable number of
old infantry militia regiments were redesignated as Scottish units. In
this way the 20th Regiment (1866) became The Lome Rifles (Scottish) in
1931 and, after amalgamation with the Peel and Dufferin Regiment, The
Lorne Scots in 1936; the 21st (1885) became The Essex Scottish in 1927;
the 29th (1866) became The Highland Light Infantry in 1915; the 42nd
became The Lanark and Renfrew Scottish in 1927; the 43rd (1881) became
The Ottawa Highlanders in 1922 and, in 1933, The Cameron Highlanders of
Canada; the 50th (1913) and the 88th (1912) amalgamated
to become The Canadian Scottish in 1920; the 59th became The Stormont,
Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders in 1922; the 82nd became The Prince
Edward Island Highlanders in 1927; and the 103rd became The Calgary
Regiment and later The Calgary Highlanders in 1924. The Mississauga
Regiment lasted a year before becoming The Toronto Scottish in 1921. A
whole new array of kilted units (only The Lorne Scots were trewed) was
thus added to the Canadian Militia List.
But the new regiments, as well as the old, had their
problems in the between-wars years. These were not propitious years in
Canada for things military; indifference and hostility towards the
militia and towards military training were characteristic attitudes both
in Parliament and out. The 1920s were the years of pacifist idealism and
the 1930s of economic realism. Short of men, short of equipment, working
with hand-me-down uniforms and hand-me-down weapons, the officers and
men who devoted their time, effort and money to the militia performed a
service for their country which was ill-appreciated at the time.
Then everything changed. War broke out in 1939. Men
and money were readily available, and the military virtues, for nearly
20 years derided or ignored, became a source of popular admiration. On
this occasion the Defence Department did not repeat the blunder of
ignoring the militia units. The regiments mobilized in 1939 and 1940
were those which already existed in the peace establishment; and they
included a considerable number of Canadian Highland units. Among those
which served overseas in Italy and Northwest Europe between 1939 and
1945 were the 48th Highlanders (1st Canadian Infantry Brigade), The
Seaforth Highlanders of Canada (2nd Brigade), The Essex Scottish (4th
Brigade), The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, and The
Calgary Highlanders (5th Brigade), The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
(6th Brigade), The 1st Battalion Canadian Scottish (7th Brigade), The
Highland Light Infantry of Canada, The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
Highlanders, The North Nova Scotia Highlanders (8th Brigade), The Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders (10th Brigade), The Cape Breton Highlanders
and the Perth Regiment (11th Brigade), and The Lanark and Renfrew
Scottish (12th Brigade). The Toronto Scottish and the Queen's Own
Cameron Highlanders of Canada served as divisional troops in the 2nd and
3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions. The Lome Scots provided defence and
employment units at formation headquarters in Italy and Northwest
Europe. In the North American zone, we find The Renfrew Scottish, the
2nd Battalion Black Watch, the 2nd Battalion Canadian Scottish, The
Prince Edward Island Highlanders and The Scots Fusiliers.
The blooding of General Andrew McNaughton's Canadian
Army in World War II began in August, 1942,
when the Essex Scots returned with only two officers and forty-nine
other ranks from the blood-stained beach of Dieppe. In the following
year the 48th and the Seaforths of the 1st Canadian Division landed in
Sicily and, joined later by The Cape Breton Highlanders of the 5th
Armoured Division, began the long, slow, push up the boot of Italy,
through the Hitler and Gothic Lines almost to the gates of Bologna.
Finally, after twenty months of separation, they rejoined the other
Canadian divisions in Northwest Europe. In June, 1944, the 3rd Canadian
Infantry Division landed on the channel coast of France to be joined
subsequently in the Normandy bridgehead by the 2nd Infantry and 4th
Armoured Divisions. Under the command of General H.D.G. Crerar, they
broke through the German defences between Caen and Falaise, pursued the
retreating foe across France and Belgium into Western Holland, and
secured a winter position on the river Maas. The Scottish units in these
three Canadian divisions, like the other Canadian regiments, paid
heavily for their victories, but none perhaps so heavily as The Black
Watch, which experienced near disaster at the Verrieres Ridge on July
25, thus imposing upon the Calgary Highlanders the heavy and almost
intolerable burden of carrying out not only their own responsibilities
but those of The Black Watch, until the Royal Highlanders could recover.
That the Calgaries were able to do this speaks volumes for their grit,
training, and loyalty to their trust, and the determination of their
commanding officer, Donald MacLauchlan. Early in 1945, the final
offensive against the Germans began in the Reichwald. It continued, in
the face of determined and often suicidal opposition, until the crossing
of the Rhine. The final stage of the war saw the Canadians of both the
1st and 2nd Corps co-operating in the liberation of the whole of
Holland.
When we read the battle honours of the Scottish
regiments which formed part of the Canadian First Army, we read, in
effect, the battle honours of all Canadian overseas regiments - Moro
River, Ortona, Liri Valley, Hitler Line, Gothic Line, Coriano Ridge,
Savio Crossing, Caen, Bourguebus Ridge, the Scheldt, Walcheren, Breskens
Picket, Hochwald, Zutphen, Kusten Canal, Apeldoorn - these are only a
sampling of the names inscribed on the colours of the various units
which served in the Canadian army during World War II.
These and other names are today part of Canada's military
history, part of Canada's military tradition. It is a tradition which
has been purchased at a high price in torn bodies and mutilated minds,
and in determination, heroism, valour and self-sacrifice. It is a
tradition of which we can be proud.32
The immediate post-war period has witnessed the
organization of only two new Scottish regiments in Canada, or rather the
conversion of three infantry regiments into Scottish regiments, the Lake
Superiors, and the New Brunswick Rangers, which became respectively, the
Lake Superior Scottish and The New Brunswick Scottish, and The Perth
Regiment which became kilted in 1946. But other changes were in the
offing. Three Canadian Highland regiments, The Cape Breton, The Pictou
and The North Nova Scotia Highlanders were amalgamated into a single
regiment, The Nova Scotia Highlanders, with two battalions - in New
Brunswick, the New Brunswick Scottish and The Carleton and York became
the 1st Battalion of The Royal New Brunswick Regiment. Today some
eighteen Canadian regiments out of fifty-five in the post-war
Canadian Army List bear Scottish names.33 One of these, The Black Watch, was activated as a regular
regiment between 1953 and 1969. On the reduction to nil strength of the
regular battalions of The Black Watch, the militia battalion became once
again the perpetuating unit of what is the senior Highland regiment in
the Canadian armed forces.
V
Mairidh an cliu gu brath
May their names live forever
But there are clouds of doubt gathering on Canada's
military horizon. With the unification of the Canadian armed services
and the acceptance of the principle of uniformity, the question arises
as to what may be the future of Canada's Scottish regiments. To some
Canadians, these regiments appear as anachronisms, relics of a past that
is dead and gone. It is said that they no longer possess any ethnic
significance, since officers and men alike are drawn from all the
nationalities which now make up the composite Canadian population.
Others point out that active service had denationalized the Scottish
units in uniform as well as in personnel. They take the view that the
unsuitability of the kilt in modern warfare, apparent when the khaki
apron had to be introduced during the South African War and continued
during the War of 1914-18, became obvious even to the most stubborn Scot
when it had to be dropped entirely during World War II.
Modern combat uniform has no place for a tartan kilt or a
Glengarry bonnet. Efficiency must replace tradition, whether it be on
the field of battle or in the counting house.
Undoubtedly efficiency will have its way, if only
because it represents the future while tradition represents the past.
But if we ignore tradition, will we not lose those qualities which
tradition brings to us? Will we not sacrifice to the computer the
virtues which have been the strength of our military history? Can
efficiency provide an inspiration as moving and powerful as the memories
of the achievements of those who have gone before us? Does the skirl of
the pipes, the beat of the drum and the swing of the kilt no longer stir
the sluggish blood of the young Canadians, whether they be of Scottish
origin or not?
The end of the Scottish military tradition in Canada
will mean the end of an era that began centuries ago in the mountains
and glens of Scotland, that came to this country in the eighteenth
century in the haversacks of Fraser's and Montgomery's Highlanders, and
in the wooden trunks of those unhappy displaced Scotsmen seeking in
Canada the freedom and future their own land could not afford them after
"Butcher" Cumberland's "pacification."
NOTES
1. There is a further similarity between Canada and
Scotland. It is not always realized that Canada has only 3.9% of its
total area in arable land; 34.4% is in forest; 2.2% is in pasture; and
the remainder is in city, mountain, waste and water areas. This is in
contrast with the United States where 23.5% of the land is arable and
34.2% is pasture, with only 10% in city, mountain, waste and water
areas.
2. David Stewart of Garth, Sketches of the
Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland
(Edinburgh: Constable, 1822) I, 218.
3. Lord Mahon, History of England from the Peace
of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles
(London: Murray, 1853) iii, 324-327.
4. Quoted in John Prebble, Culloden (London:
Penguin, 1967), 163.
5. Ibid.,184.
6. Quoted in Mahon, iii,
327.
7. Gordon Donaldson, The Scots Overseas (London:
Hale, 1966), 32.
8. Quoted in Frank Adam and Sir Thomas Innes of
Learney, The Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands
(Edinburgh and London: Johnson, 1952),p.440.
9. The colonel of The Black Watch was a Lowlander,
the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, who had been raised in the Highlands
by the Duke of Argyll. For a list of the original officers of The Black
Watch see Stewart of Garth, I, pp. 227-228.
10. The Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment was John
Campbell, later Duke of Argyll.
11. According to The Scots Magazine, 1973,
65,000 Scotsmen were enlisted, of which by far the greater number were
from the Highlands. See Adam and Learney, p.441.
12. See for instance A.G. Wauchope, A Short
History of The Black Watch Royal Highlanders 1715-1907 (London and
Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1908), and B. Fergusson The Black Watch and the
King's Enemies (London: Collins, 1950).
13. For James Johnstone's story see Memoirs of the
Chevalier Johnstone, trans. C. Winchester, (Aberdeen: 1871).
14. "Malcolm Fraser's Journal of the Operations
before Quebec, 1759," (Quebec Literary and Historical Society), 27.
Quoted in G.F.G. Stanley, New France: The Last Phase (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart, 1969), p.243.
15. Stewart of Garth, I, 319. The battle of Culloden
was fought on April 16, 1746. The commander of the Highland host was
Lord George Murray.
16. C.W. Dunn, Highland Settler: A Portrait of the
Scottish Gael in Nova Scotia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1953), p.64.
17. The sporrans were of raccoon rather than badger
heads, thus giving the unit a distinctive North American feature of
dress.
18. The Quebec Gazette, August 10, 1775. For
various documents relating to The Royal Highland Emigrants and the KRRNY
see A History of the Organization, Development and Services of the
Military and Naval Forces of Canada (Historical Section of the
General Staff, Ottawa, 1919-1920), Volumes II and III.
19. A History of the Organization etc.,
II, 167, 172: Caldwell to Murray, June
15,1776.
20. Ibid., ii, 143: Memorial of Malcolm
Fraser, March 31, 1791.
21. lbid.,iii, 103: Germain to Haldimand,
April 10, 1779.
22. John Keltie, A History of the Scottish
Highlands, Highland Clans and Highland Regiments (Edinburgh:
Fullarton, 1879) II, 566.
23. Quoted in J.P. MacLean, An Historical Account
of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America prior to the peace
of 1783, together with Notices of the Highland Regiments and
Biographical Sketches (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.,
1968), 318. Captain Alexander Macdonald's
letter book will be found in The Collections of the New York
Historical Society, 1882. For an account of the 2nd Battalion, R.H.E.,
together with the muster roll, see Jonas Howe, "The Royal Emigrants,"
Acadiensis (Saint John, N.B., 1904), pp.
50-75.
24. A History of the Organization etc.
II, 179: Carleton to Germain, July 8, 1776.
25. Ibid., iii, 162: Haldimand to Johnson,
July 13, 1780.
26. Ibid., iii, 109: Haldimand to Clinton, May
26, 1779.
27. Quoted in G.F.G. Stanley, "The Contribution of
the Canadian Militia during the War of 1812," in P.P. Mason, ed.,
After Tippecanoe - Some Aspects of
the War of 1812-15 (Toronto: Ryerson, 1963), p.31.
28. See L.H. Irving, Officers of the British
Forces in Canada during the War of 1812-15 (Welland: Tribune, 1908).
29. Quoted in R.M. Barnes (In collaboration with C.K.
Allen), The Uniforms and History of The Scottish Regiments 1625 to
the Present Day (London: Seely Service, 1956), p.316.
30. For the various changes in names and organization
of Canadian regiments, see C.E. Dornbusch, Lineages of the Canadian
Army, 1855-1961 (Cornwallville: Hope Farm Press, 1961).
31. H.M. Urquhart, The History of the 16th
Battalion (The Canadian Scottish) Canadian Expeditionary Force in the
Great War 1914-1919 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1932), p. 15.
32. Among the various regimental histories of
Canadian Scottish regiments are E.J. Chambers, The 5th Regiment Royal
Scots of Canada Highlanders (Montreal: Guertin, 1904); K. Beattie, 48th Highlanders of Canada 1891-1928 (Toronto, 1932); and
Dileas, History of the 48th Highlanders 1925-1956 (Toronto, 1957);
W. Boss, The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders 1783-1951
(Ottawa: Runge Press, 1952); F. Farran, The History of The Calgary
Highlanders 1921-1954 (Toronto, 1955); D.W. Grant, Carry On - A
History of The Toronto Scottish (n.p., 1949), H.M. Jackson, The
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Montreal, 1953); R.
Roy, Ready for the Fray, The History of the Canadian Scottish
(Vancouver, 1958); C.B. Topp, The 42nd Battalion CEF (Montreal, 1931).
See The Regiments and Corps of the Canadian Army prepared by the Army
Historical Section, Volume I of the Canadian Army List (Ottawa, 1964).
APPENDIX
Scottish Regiments in the current Canadian Army List