Desertion in the Ranks

There's an unexplained enthusiasm I experience exploring old military records, which most certainly coincides with 20 years of active duty military service. I had honorably served with the United States Navy from 1993-2013 and, in that time, experienced a small percentage of enlistees with some forms of legal issues - mostly drugs and alcohol-related incidences. But, there were many days when a sailor failed to show up at his or her appointed place of duty, and it was on those days the individual was marked 'unauthorized absence.' Occasionally our Squadron was forced to document a service member 'absent without leave,' or AWOL (after 28 days away of missed duty), but there was only one instance during my career when I witnessed someone marked as 'deserter.' 

Life in the British army in the mid-18th century was extremely disciplined, and even minor matters of misconduct did not go unpunished. The courts - either regimental, district or general - were advised by a military lawyer and made up of panels of officers, with some sentences even being determined by His Majesty. The main crimes normally concerned drunkenness, theft, and general misbehavior. The wrong-doer might be punished by running the gauntlet, which involved being flogged by one's own regiment as he passed between two lines of soldiers. In 1765, a soldier was piquetted (made to stand on a tent peg) without shoes for drunken misconduct.

One of the more common offenses that required excessive punishment was desertion. A soldier could be branded with a 'D' if captured, and if he re-offended could face execution. Death sentences were not all that common, with hanging normally reserved for murderers, and death by shot employed for those who were repeat offenders. The criminals were punished in front of their peers and officers and the utter humiliation suffered was meant to deter from any further wrongdoing. Punishments were often painful and disgraceful to discourage those who bore witness from undergoing the same fate. However, it was customary that a soldier was excepted back by his peers without any discredit once he had been punished. One particular case worth noting involved Joseph Stoakes who, it was reported, between 1728 and 1730, deserted his Regiment three times, and upon being captured for the third time was sentenced by court-martial to death. 

Any incidences of desertion in Colonel Fraser's 78th Regiment were limited in discussion in correspondence. During the early formation of the regiment in 1757, Major James Clephane (Fraser's second-in-command) did briefly discuss this topic with a close confidante. Writing from Kilravock Castle, Croy, Scotland, on 8 April 1757, he proudly boasts of his Company recruits. He wrote: "I have at last sent of [sic, off] for Glasgow 124 recruits, not one of them was ever confined and not one deserted...I was obliged to put a stop to my friends recruiting for me in Angus and Perthshire otherwise my number of men would be too great..." [1] And the colonel, writing on 28 June 1757 from onboard the Ann Transport in Cove Harbour, Cork, Ireland, briefly discussed with Baillie James Fraser the following. 

"After a halt of Five days at Cork to recover the fatigues of a march of 400 miles the battalion Embark'd, consisting of 1000 fine fellows besides 170 Supernumerarys, being 40 more than the Secretary at War desired me to bring, those 40 were intended to answer any deficiency that might arise by death or Desertion, but I did not lose a man by either from the day we left Glasgow and but 7 before." [2]

Alexander Campbell

A document entitled, List of Perth Prisoners, provided by Perth and Kinross Council Archive, A K Bell Library, Perth, Scotland, contains the name of Alexander Campbell, an identified deserter from Colonel Fraser's Regiment. [3] The document is dated 31 August 1757 and, unless he was on the run for five months (initial recruiting was completed by April 1757), this indicates desertion from one of the three additional companies also raised for service; the first 10 companies departed Cork, Ireland on 30 June 1757 and were already in North America by this time. And considering Campbell was jailed in Perth, he may have been familiar with the area as there was an authorized recruit depot in the city of Dunkeld, 15 miles north of his prison cell at the old Tolbooth.

Coincidentally, this same name appears in Captain Hugh Fraser's Company at the end of the war, but there is no evidence they are the same soldier.

List of Prisoners within the Tolbooth of Perth

Francis Porter from Forfar was banished by Sentance [sic] of the Lords in April 1755.

Jean Henry from Forfar was banished by Sentance of the Lords in May last.

Duncan McGrigor and Hugh Cameron were committed prisoners by a Warrant from Clerk Miller as Justice of the peace.

John McNaughton Dester [sic, deserter] from Colonel Perrys Regiment was Committed prisoner by a Warrant from Mr Campbell of Achalader.

Alexander Campbell Deserter from Colonel Frazers Regiment was Committed prisoner by a Warrant from Baillie Robert Robertson and Clerk Miller two of his Majesty's Justices of the peace from Perth Shire. 

Cover sheet

List of Perth Prisoners

31 Aug 1757

Note: November 10, 1757. Order to Colin Drummond, collector of land tax in Perthshire, to pay George Buchanan, a soldier, the sum of 20s for the apprehension of Hugh Cameron, a deserter. [NRS, GD22/1/524].

Forfar and Achalader are towns situated about 20 and 30 miles respectively outside the city of Perth.

Charles Duff

Charles Duff, a farmhand, was imprisoned in 1757 in the Tolbooth in Aberdeen, a 17th-century former jail which now operates as museum. While plowing the fields of his master William Robertson, Duff was taken forcibly by a Mr. Fraser of Frendach and press ganged into the army. In 1756, following the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, an Act was passed in Parliament to allow a quick recruitment campaign to be started throughout the country. The Act allowed able-bodied, unemployed men 17-45 years of age, with no form of monetary support or employment to be forced into the army. Duff was threatened  with imprisonment if he did not agree with the impressment.

While appealing the reason for his incarceration he was also accused of wearing a tartan, which had been banned by the Dress Act of 1756, following the defeat of the 1745 Jacobite uprising at the Battle of Culloden. Tartan was viewed as a symbol of Highland pride, of the Stuart Dynasty and of Scottish Independence. 

Transcript from the Aberdeen Commission for

Military Impressment Appeals, Vol. 1.

"Thereafter there was given into the meeting a Petition from Charles Duff servant to William Robertson in Lumphanan Setting Forth That the Petitioner was sometime ago forcibly taken from his Masters plough by Mr Fraser of Frendrach and others his Assistant and threatened to be carried Prisoner to Aberdeen if he would not Inlist with Captain Simon Fraser which your Petitioner Refusing to do he was carried prisoner accordingly and was incarcerate in the Tolbooth of Aberdeen where he presently remains Contrair to all Laws and Equity and therefore Craving that it might please their Honours to take their Petitioners Case under their Consideration and to order his liberation acording [sic] to Justice and the said Petition signed by the said Charles Duff bears.

Compeared Thomas Mossman Procurator Fiscall and Represented that the Petitioner was Incarcerate for wearing the Highland plaid which he offers to prove and Craves a teim [sic] may be assigned for that purpose. Which being Considered by the meeting they Grant diligence for summoning Witness to prove the above Alledgeance against the seventh day of March Current and Appoints the Petitioner to remain in Prison until that time or find sufficient bail for his appearance the said day." [4]

While it's not absolutely certain this event was classified as desertion, Colonel Fraser may have construed it as such. Unfortunately, there are no records to indicate the outcome of Charles Duff's case.

Note: Captain Simon Fraser, who led one of Colonel Fraser's 10 original companies to North America, was an assigned recruiter covering the Aberdeen area.

Sources:

1. Rose and Shaw. A Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock (Nairnshire, Scotland, 1848), pp. 463-4; Major Clephane is referencing his "friend" John Strachan, a recruiter stationed in Dundee, Scotland. Strachan's surviving list of 12 original recruits does not contain Alexander Campbell's name. [NRS, GD125/22/16/18].

2. Macdonald, Rev. Archibald, D, D. The Old Lords of Lovat and Beaufort (1934), p. 140.

3. B59-24-11-163 (front and back pages).

4. Tolbooth 400. Tales from the Tolbooth. An Information Booklet of Character Histories and Text Transcript, pp.22-5.

©  Jeffrey Campbell, The 78th Regiment of Foot, 2021.