(1775-1782).
Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye,
Thy steps I follow with my bosom1 bare,
Nor heed2 the storm that howls along the sky.
Smollett.
In the earlier chapters we have dealt with the actions in which the Black Watch, Fraser’s, and Montgomery’s Highlanders were engaged. It is now time that mention was made of the other Highland3 regiments5 that were formed about this period, and that were, to some extent, recruited from the troops disbanded shortly before the American War of Independence. It would take too long and be too confusing to enter into any detail concerning the various false starts that many Highland regiments made. The actual date of their respective foundations will be found in the list of regimental battle honours, or in the chapters devoted7 on occasions to the exploit of a particular battalion8.
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 Infantry9. The principal cities in Scotland each contributed towards a regiment6, 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 narrative10. In times of major warfare11, 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 battalions12, 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.
At the time when the American War of Independence broke out George III. was upon the throne. He was an Englishman born and bred, and, after the earlier Georges, that in itself made a great appeal to the imagination of the English people. He was a man possessed13 of a great sincerity14 and a greater obstinacy15, who lived as much as possible amongst his tenants16 in the country or within his own domestic circle. He evidenced, in brief, most of the virtues17 with many of the weaknesses of the English character. Though he displayed to a large degree the genial18 spirit that made men call him ‘Farmer George,’ there was also rather too much John Bull in his personality. His were the virtues of an honest, determined19, rather stupid Englishman. It might be said that such a nature as this, particularly in the riotous20 eighteenth century, could achieve nothing but good. Unfortunately he not only ruled his family so harshly that they all turned out extremely badly, but he also tried to carry out the same attitude towards America. He scolded the colonists21 as though they were naughty children, and the colonists, many of whom had no acquaintance with England, and whose forebears had left the mother-country for the very good reason that they were happier out of it, met this intolerance with a bold and determined front. They naturally resented the autocratic demands of the Government; they could not tolerate the attitude of the English officers, while although they had outgrown22 Jacobite sympathies, they cherished no loyalty23 to a Hanoverian king.
In 1761 the Importation Act was passed, an attempt to enforce payment of duty, in consequence of which English ships went far to ruin trade with the West Indies. The end of the French and Indian wars had brought with it a great increase to the National Debt, and it seemed only fair to the Government that, as the conflict had been undertaken principally to guard the interests of the settlers, the cost should be shared by them. To this the colonists retorted that they too had fought, and that Canada was ample compensation to the British for any loss of capital.
In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed, ordering that all documents of every description must be printed on paper purchased from the Government.
On October 1, 1768, seven hundred soldiers marched into Boston and attempted to overawe the residents. To use a familiar catch-phrase, ‘the Government was asking for trouble.’ But the colonists still displayed great patience, and though disaffection simmered, it was not until 1773 that any sign of rebellion was visible. It was then that fifty men, dressed up as Red Indians, flung a cargo24 of tea into Boston Harbour, and on March 31, 1774, the port was ordered to be closed by the Government. Once started, deeds followed fast upon words, while incident hurried upon incident. Little things acquire an indescribable importance at such times, just as a spark will blow up a magazine. Finally, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the war commenced.
In England the effect of the Declaration was provocative25 of hardly more alarm than the outbreak of war in South Africa in 1899. In both cases it was exceedingly difficult to estimate the power of the enemy, and hard to believe he could resist a disciplined army. Take, for instance, a typical blusterer26 of the period. Major James Grant stated in the House of Commons that he knew the Americans very well, and was certain they would not fight,—“that they were not soldiers, and never could be made so, being naturally pusillanimous27 and incapable28 of discipline; that a very slight force would be more than sufficient for their complete reduction; and he fortified29 his statement by repeating their peculiar30 expressions and ridiculing31 their religious enthusiasm, manners, and ways of living, greatly to the entertainment of the House.”[6]
Pitt replied in memorable32 words. “The spirit,” he said, “which resists your taxation33 in America is the same that formerly34 opposed loans, benevolences, and ship-money in England.... This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates35 three millions in America, who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded36 chains and sordid37 affluence38, and who will die in defence of their rights as freemen.”
Throughout England there was the bitterest resentment39 against the war, with the widest sympathy for the Americans. Many officers handed in their papers, and meetings were held to express the indignation that such a step should have been forced upon a loyal and long-suffering people. Only Scotland, Tory at home and abroad, supported the king against America, while, with pathetic loyalty, the Highlanders, some of whom had fought for Prince Charlie against George II., risked their lives and lost their homes in America for the cause of George III.
The Black Watch and Fraser’s Highlanders sailed from Greenock on April 14, 1776, and disembarked at Staten, where the main body was stationed. Here the Highlanders were drilled in a new form of warfare, to enable them to overcome the resistance of the colonists. Broad-swords and pistols were laid aside, and greater reliance was placed upon marksmanship. After some preliminary fighting at Long Island the Americans, under Washington, secured a masterly retreat. In the month following the British troops took possession of the heights commanding New York. So far England had swept everything before her.
During the cessation that followed this engagement Washington devoted every moment to strengthening his forces. The American troops were no more trained than the Boers in South Africa, but like the latter they could claim in their favour a thorough knowledge of the country with practised marksmanship, derived41 from years of fighting with the Indians. Their hatred42 for the English, which burned deeper day by day, was in no degree cooled when they saw amongst the English troops both German mercenaries and Redskins. It is difficult for us to realise how bitterly the Americans abhorred43 the very sight of an Indian, while on the other hand, an unwritten page in history is the strange alliance that bound many Royalists to their merciless allies, and the brutal44 instincts such a fellowship aroused in some of the Highlanders, particularly those of the older, wilder generation, the scourings of the ‘45. On one occasion, for instance, a Highlander4 with the honest name of Donald M’Donald, led a party of Redskins against a block-house called Shell’s Bush. After the siege, which most fortunately ended in favour of the settler, it was discovered that “M’Donald wore a silver-mounted tomahawk, which was taken from him by Shell. It was marked by thirty scalp-notches, showing that few Indians could have been more industrious45 than himself in gathering46 that description of military trophies47.”[7]
It is also worth mentioning, for few histories have dealt with this point, that the unfortunate Highlanders who had settled in America in the years succeeding Culloden, and who, in their loyalty to the throne, fought against the American settlers, were eventually left in the lurch48 at the conclusion of hostilities49, and forced to trek50 into Canada. Amongst these hapless people who lost their homes were Flora51 Macdonald and her husband. Her family divided and her future in jeopardy52, she set sail again for Scotland, and there she died at the end of the eighteenth century, in the land where she had befriended Prince Charlie.
The capture of Fort Washington by General Howe was an important achievement, in which the Highland regiment played an honourable53 part. The Fort was well stationed upon the summit of a high plateau, as difficult of access upon at least one side as, let us say, the flank of Edinburgh or Stirling Castles. But where difficulties are so obvious, caution should always be exercised the more. We have seen how the heights of Quebec were scaled simply by challenging the apparently54 impossible. In much the same manner the Highlanders cleared the precipice55 beneath Fort Washington, and last, but certainly not least of them, Major Murray, whose stoutness56 and valour can only be compared to that of Sir Robert Munro at Fontenoy, was carried to the summit.
“This hill,” says an authority, “was so perpendicular57 that the ball which wounded Lieutenant58 Macleod entered the posterior part of his neck, ran down on the middle of his ribs59, and lodged60 in the lower part of his back. One of the pipers who began to play when he reached the point of a rock on the summit, was immediately shot, and tumbled from one piece of rock to another till he reached the bottom. Major Murray, being a large corpulent man, could not attempt this steep ascent61 without assistance. The soldiers, eager to get to the point of their duty, scrambled62 up, forgetting the situation of Major Murray, when he, in a melancholy63, supplicating64 tone cried, ‘Oh, soldiers, will you leave me?’ A party leaped down instantly, and brought him up, supporting him from one ledge40 to another until they got him to the top”—a spectacle not without humour.
The Americans, flying before the Black Watch, were brought face to face with the Hessians, and were compelled to lay down their arms. It is unquestionable that half the success of a victory lies in the manner that the pursuit is carried out, and unfortunately General Howe, instead of pressing hard upon the demoralised Americans, was content to go into winter quarters, thus permitting Washington to employ the succeeding weeks in strengthening his army. The time lost was never recovered. On January 22 the Hessians at Trenton were completely surprised and defeated. It had been touch-and-go for the Americans. Defeat at that moment would have ended the war. Immediately the whole situation was changed, and the future grew dark for the British arms.
Shortly after, the Highlanders in their turn were nearly overcome by a sudden attack while they were seeking some rest after long night-watching. A force of 2000 Americans attempted to rush and take them by surprise. Happily for the Black Watch their outposts were resolved to die rather than retreat, and the delay saved the situation.
About the middle of June General Howe perceiving that Washington was strongly entrenched65 at Middlebrook, resolved to change the theatre of war. When it is difficult to take a position there are two actions that are open to a commander—one is to mask it, as we have seen fortresses66 masked in the German War, and the other is simply to go elsewhere. The British forces marched away and sailed for Elk67 Ferry, from thence advancing on Philadelphia. Washington, hurriedly abandoning Middlebrook, pushed across country to oppose the crossing of the English at Brandy Wine River. Now the fording of a river under the shield of heavy battery fire is no light matter, but in those days, when the protection of artillery68 was not so adequate as it is to-day, it could only be carried with a terrible loss of life. Instead of a frontal attack Cornwallis determined to carry out a flanking movement upon the American position, so, marching up-stream, he forded the river without opposition69 and drove back General Sullivan. This enabled General Knyphausen to cross with his division, and at the falling of night the Americans were in retreat. Washington was beaten. On the 26th, Philadelphia fell into the hands of the British. Then followed the greatest blow of the war, and the decisive moment was come. General Burgoyne, marching victorious70 from Canada to co-operate with General Howe at Saratoga Springs, met with a disaster the importance of which can be estimated by the memorable words of Lord Mahon.
“Even of those great conflicts, in which hundreds of thousands have been engaged and tens of thousands have fallen, none has been more fruitful of results than this surrender of thirty-five hundred fighting men at Saratoga. It not merely changed the relations of England and the feelings of Europe towards these insurgent71 colonists, but it has modified, for all times to come, the connexion between every colony and every parent state.”
With General Burgoyne was General Simon Fraser, a Highlander of great distinction, who had served on the Continent, in the expedition against Louisburg, and with Wolfe at Quebec, where he was the officer who, deceiving the French sentry72, enabled the Highlanders to land unsuspected. It is difficult to say whether the defeat at Saratoga Springs could have been averted73, but it is probable that the despatches summoning Howe miscarried. Undoubtedly74 Burgoyne made a blunder in forcing Fraser to retreat when he was driving the troops of Colonel Morgan back. However that may be, what followed was dismal75 enough. Burgoyne took up his last position on the Heights of Saratoga, holding on till famine made further resistance impossible.
Saratoga was the turning-point of the war. France no longer hesitated, but threw in her lot with America. The whole character of the struggle was changed, and its wider issues lie outside our story. In 1780 the Black Watch took part in the siege of Charlestown, which surrendered on May 12. In the further history of the 42nd in America there is little more that is worth recording76. The capitulation of Cornwallis (with whom were Fraser’s Highlanders) at Yorktown in 1781 practically ended hostilities.
In the American War of Independence there was little honour or glory for the British name or the Highland regiments. Where the cause is unworthy of a great nation success can carry with it nothing but dishonour77.
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1
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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highlander
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| n.高地的人，苏格兰高地地区的人 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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outgrown
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| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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blusterer
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| n.咆哮的人，吓唬人的人 | |
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pusillanimous
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| adj.懦弱的，胆怯的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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ridiculing
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的现在分词 ) | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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animates
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| v.使有生气( animate的第三人称单数 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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44
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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46
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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47
trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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48
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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49
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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50
trek
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| vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行 | |
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51
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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52
jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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53
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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54
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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55
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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56
stoutness
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| 坚固，刚毅 | |
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57
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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59
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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60
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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61
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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62
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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63
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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64
supplicating
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| v.祈求，哀求，恳求( supplicate的现在分词 ) | |
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65
entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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66
fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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67
elk
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| n.麋鹿 | |
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68
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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69
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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70
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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71
insurgent
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| adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子 | |
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72
sentry
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| n.哨兵，警卫 | |
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73
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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74
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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75
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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76
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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77
dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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