The Story of the Highland RegimentsWatson, Frederick
History
The Story of the Highland Regiments
Watson, Frederick
Great Britain. Army
The various Highland regiments that were raised after the Black Watch
were largely the outcome of personal enterprise. The chief of the
Macleods, for instance, raised the battalion that afterwards became the
1st Highland Light Infantry. The principal cities in Scotland each
contributed towards a regiment, and the great families of Seaforth,
Gordon, Argyll, and Macdonald did much in the time succeeding and
preceding the American War to foster the military spirit. The regiment
created by the Earl of Seaforth ultimately became the 1st Seaforth
Highlanders.
There is, I think, only one particular point to note before we continue
this narrative. In times of major warfare, such as in the great
campaigning of the Napoleonic wars, the Crimea, and South Africa,
several Highland regiments, not necessarily all, were banded together
under the control of a commander, and called the Highland Brigade. A
brigade may consist of three or four or more battalions, each battalion
roughly a thousand odd men, and naturally comes into severe fighting.
In the Crimea the Highland Brigade was composed of three regiments, the
Black Watch, the Camerons, and the 93rd Sutherlands. It was commanded by
the famous Sir Colin Campbell. In the Indian Mutiny no regular brigade
was formed. In the Egyptian war in 1882 the Highland Brigade was under
the command of Sir Archibald Alison, and included the Black Watch, the
Highland Light Infantry, the Gordons, and the Camerons. In the Boer War
of 1889-1902 the Highland Brigade was under the command of General
Wauchope, and included the 2nd Battalion of the Black Watch, the 2nd
Seaforth Highlanders, the 1st Argyll and Sutherlands, and the 1st
Highland Light Infantry. It was these four regiments that met with the
severe reverse at Magersfontein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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