In his eloquent survey of the career of the elder Pitt Lord
Stanhope says---
Was it not he who devised that lofty
and generous scheme for removing the disaffection of the Highlanders by
enlisting them in regiments for the service of the Crown? Those minds which
Culloden could not subdue at once yielded to his confidence; by trusting he
reclaimed them; by putting arms into their hands he converted mutinous subjects
into loyal soldiers.
And he afterwards quotes Pitt's own words, spoken a few
months before his death.
I remember how I employed the very
rebels in the service and defence of their country. They were reclaimed by this
means; they fought our battles; they cheerfully bled in defence of those
liberties which they had attempted to overthrow but a few years before.
Whether the final pacification of the
Highlands
was mainly due to this policy of trust, or to that harsher policy which, by
exiling the chiefs, gradually loosened the tie between them and their clans, is
perhaps open to question. At any rate the raising of the
Highland
regiments was a bold and wise measure, for which Pitt deserves credit. But the
credit is not due to him exclusively, nor did the idea originate with him. The
needs of
America, not of
Scotland, gave
birth to it.
Eight years before, the duke of Bedford had proposed to
send out Highlanders to Nova Scotia as settlers, and the duke of Cumberland had
promised to support this scheme, 'as it is much to be wished that these people
may be disposed of in such a manner as to be of service to the government,
instead of a detriment to it.' And in 1751 Wolfe, who was at that time
commanding a regiment in Scotland, wrote to a brother officer in Nova Scotia
that he should imagine two or three independent companies of Highlanders would
be found useful in the desultory frontier warfare which was then going on:
'they are hardly, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country, and no great
mischief if they fall.'
Braddock's disaster in 1755, and the French reinforcements
sent to Canada
in the early part of the following year, made it an urgent matter to send out
British reinforcements. But it was not easy to find them. The standing army of Great Britain, normally 19,000, had been raised
to 34,000 men; but this was a little more than one-fifth of that of France. England was threatened with invasion, and when
Hessians and Hanoverians to the number of 19,000 were brought over to guard it
they had to be sent back to Germany
because of the popular outcry, of which Pitt took the lead. The Mediterranean
garrisons could not spare men to reinforce it, and it was driven to capitulate.
Lord Loudoun, who had been very useful in the Highlands at
the time of the rebellion, was sent to America to take the chief command;
but only two weak battalions accompanied him. One of these was the Black Watch,
the earliest Highland regiment, which had been formed out of independent
companies in 1739. So many Highland recruits
were set out to join it that in a few months' time it numbered 1,300 men. In
spite of the opposition of Pitt and his friends, money was voted for a regiment
of four battalions to be raised in America
from Swiss and German protestants settled in Pennsylvania
and New York.
One-third of the commissions were given to officers of those nationalities.
This regiment, at first known as the Royal American, is now the King's Royal
Rifle Corps, or 60th Rifles.
After various acts of hostility on both sides, war was
declared between England and
France
in May 1756. In the course of that month a plan for carrying on the war was
submitted to the duke of Cumberland.
It proposed an increase in the establishment of British regiments, and the
procuring of some German regiments for service in America,
and added, 'Two regiments, a thousand men in a corps, may be raised in the
north of Scotland
for the said service and on the same terms. No men in this island are better
qualified for the American war than the Scots Highlanders.' It further
suggested that the Scots regiments in the Dutch service should be recalled, and
2,000 Protestants raised in the north of Ireland.
Pitt was sworn as principal secretary of state on 4 Dec.,
and the duke soon afterwards sent him by Lord Albemarle the plan described
above. As regards the Highlanders, the matter was quickly settled, for
in the course of that month the duke wrote the following letter, marked 'Most
private,' to Lord Loudoun:---
St. James De 23d 1756.
My Lord Loudoun,--- I write this
private letter to you to assure you of the thorough satisfaction your conduct
has given me, and will not fail to support you to the utmost of my power
through the many difficulties you find in the executing of your orders, and in
opposition to the public service. Nothing can be worse than our situation here
at home, without any plan, or even a desire to have one, great numbers talked
of to be sent you, but without any consideration of how, and from whence,
without considering what they should carry with them. But that you may know
what can be done for you, I write in my own Hand, trusting to your Honour, that
you will burn this as soon as read.
The King will spare you five old
Battalions from Europe and two thousand new
raised Highlanders, which will make 6,000 men, officers included: and I will
send a proper train of artillery with them. Prepare your own plan for one army
up the St. Lawrence River, and for the other
to keep the enemy in check from where your army now is. I will send you my
thoughts more fully with a plan of mine for your operations, which you shall be
left at liberty, either to adopt, in part, or not at all, as you shall find it
proper from your better information. I don't doubt a moment of your burning
this letter, so don't answer it, but send your plan and thoughts without taking
any notice of this most private letter. I remain very sincerely your most
affectionate Friend.
The 2,000 Highlanders here referred to were to form two
battalions, to be raised respectively by Archibald Montgomery, afterwards the
earl of Eglinton, and Simon Fraser, master of Lovat. Montgomery was a major of Lord Robert
Manners's regiment (88th Foot), but Fraser was in a different position and has
never held the king's commission. His father, Lord Lovat, had made him join the
Jacobite army in 1746 at the head of his clan. He had afterwards received a
pardon, and become an advocate (as readers of 'Catriona' may remember). He now
applied to be allowed to raise a regiment, and was supported by the duke of
Argyle, who told the government that under no other person would the clan of
Fraser enlist.
Among the Cumberland Papers at Windsor there is a list of officers from
Fraser's regiment, endorsed, 'These papers delivered to me by the Duke of
Argyle on 2d Jan. 1757, and approved the next day by the King. [Initialed] W.'
Out of a total of thirty-nine officers thirteen are Frasers, and there is a
note to that
Mr Fraser being to raise so great a
number of men, it is necessary to recommend many gentleman of the name of
Fraser who have not been in the service before, but who from their connections
and interest in the country can raise most men.
The two majors in this list are Campbells,
but one of them was afterwards appointed to Montgomery's regiment.
The duke of Newcastle,
whom Pitt had driven out of office, watched the measures of the new minitsry
with the disapproval which was to be expected. On 4 Jan. 1757 he wrote to Lord
hardwicke about the reinforcements for America---
The Duke will not part with more
than 4 regiments from hence, the new lord-lieutenant will spare only 1,000 from
thence, and the old governor of Scotland
cannot muster up above 2,000 of his Highland
Friends, which altogether will not amount to much above 6,000 men. Mr. Pitt
insists upon 8,000.
Hardewick replied on the 7th---
I find this measure of raising 2,000
Highlanders alarms many of the best affected, particularly the making
councillor Fraser colonel of one of the Battalions. . . . Nothing could more
affectually break in upon the plan which has been pursuing for that country,
ever since the last Rebillion, and I dare say the scheme is to put an end to
it.
Two days later Newcastle
wrote again---
I most entirely disapprove the
method of their Highland regiments. The Duke,
I hear, disapproves and submits. It is wholly the duke of Argyle.
There seems to be nothing to bear out the statement that
the duke of Cumberland
disapproved the raising of these regiments. The fact that Henry Fox supported
the measure in the house of commons is an indication to the contrary. The
situation is pretty clear. Pitt was bent on vigorous action in America, but
his hand were to some extent tied by his opposition to the employment of
foreign soldiers. Whether or not he welcomed the scheme at that time as a
message of peace to Scotland,
it was practically indispensable for waging war in America. The king and the duke, as
captain-general, were unwilling to denude the country of troops, especially as
they cherished a hole that some British regiments would join the army which was
to be formed for the defence of Hanover.
Highlanders had fought under the duke at Fontenoy, and against him at Culloden,
and he knew their value. As already mentioned, the Black Watch had been sent to
America
before Pitt became a minister. The opinions of Argyle and Loudoun, Campbells
both, would be likely to weigh with him, especially when they furnished a means
of reconciling his views with those of the imperious minister.
Recruits came in so freely that the establishment of the
two regiments increased. They were sent to America in a few months. Montgomery's regiment served under Forbes in the
successful expedition against Fort Duquense (where Braddock had met with disaster),
while Fraser's took part in the capture of Louisbourg and Quebec, and won the praise of Wolfe. The
regiments were brought into the line as the 77th and 78th respectively, but
were disbanded at the peace of 1763, the men receiving grants of land in America.
E.M. Lloyd.
