The present battalion was the fourth raised by the family of Seaforth within twenty-five years. It contained many Islesmen, especially from the island of Lewis. Although to all appearance little else than a regiment of boys of very tender years, still they had within them the soul of the man, as after events abundantly proved. Embodied at Fort George in the winter of 1804–5 with a strength of 850, it was by request of Major-General Moore placed under his command for purposes of instruction in the new system of light infantry drill. This was a fortunate circumstance, and no doubt helped the battalion, not merely in the acquirement of a thorough military knowledge, but more especially served to instil a due confidence, which gave it that steadiness in action for which it was afterwards remarkable. The urgent requirements of the service having occasioned the removal of the battalion to reinforce the garrison of Gibraltar, it was early deprived of the benefits flowing from such an excellent course of training under so able a master of the science of war. Nevertheless, it had so improved the advantage which for a brief period it enjoyed, as made it a valuable addition to the garrison. From Gibraltar it proceeded to Sicily, to join the armament, under Sir John Stuart, destined for a descent upon the mainland of Calabria, in favour of the exiled monarch of Naples and the patriots of Italy. The expedition, which sailed from Melazzo in June, 1805, included the Twenty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Seventy-eighth, Eighty-first, and Watteville’s Swiss Regiment, afterwards reinforced by the Twentieth Regiment. Landing successfully in the bay of St Euphemia, the British General strove to anticipate the attack of the French under General Regnier, who, with a force lately augmented to nearly 8000, stood opposed to the British, who could scarce muster 4000 men, unsustained, moreover, by cavalry. The enemy occupied a very strong position in the vicinity of the village of Maida. Affecting to despise the handful of British who had ventured to challenge the assault, Regnier, forsaking his strong position, descended to the plains, boasting he should drive the British into the sea. The two armies advanced in hostile array in parallel lines across the plain, halting when within a few hundred yards, and pouring in a deadly volley upon each other. The precision of the British fire so shattered the first line of the enemy, that, broken, it retired in confusion upon the second line, and there struggled to maintain itself against the attack of our first brigade, comprising the Seventy-eighth and Eighty-first regiments under Brigadier-General Acland. A Swiss regiment bearing the name of its commanding officer, Watteville, at this crisis of the fight advanced against the Seventy-eighth, and mistaken, from its similarity of uniform, for the corps of the same name, family, and nation in the British service, which held post in reserve, our Highlanders ceased firing, lest they should