Highland Fencible Corps

In the military history of Great Britain, the plan of raising a fencible corps in the Scottish Highlands was first proposed and carried into effect by British politician William Pitt the Elder, (afterwards Earl of Chatham) in the year 1759.

[1] In England, county militia regiments were raised for internal defence in the absence of the regular army; but it was not deemed prudent to extend the system to Scotland, the inhabitants of which, it was supposed, could not yet be safely entrusted with arms because of The '15 and The '45 rebellions.

Groundless as the reasons for this caution may have been in regard to the Lowlands, militias could have been hazardous in the Highlands at a time when the Stuarts and their adherents were still plotting a restoration to have armed the clans.

[3] The martial appearance of these men, when they marched into Perth in May, 1760, with the earl of Sutherland at their head, was never forgotten by those who saw them, and who never failed to express admiration of their fine military air.

A spirit of jealousy and distrust of their officers had taken deep root in the breasts of the men, in consequence of an attempt that had been made the preceding year at Linlithgow, to induce them to extend their service, which was confined to Scotland.

They erroneously conceived that there was a design to entrap them; a suspicion which appears to have originated in the conduct of the officers, some of whom did not explain the nature of the proposals to their men, whilst others entirely mistook their import and meaning.

[12] For a time the good understanding between the officers and the men appeared to have returned; but an incident which occurred at Dumfries rekindled the dying embers of dissension, and led to the most unpleasant consequences.

A soldier in the ranks having made a jocular remark, which was considered as offensive by the officers, he and some of his comrades, who appeared to enjoy the joke, were put into confinement, and threatened with punishment[13] This injudicious step roused the feelings of the Highlanders, who considered themselves as insulted and disgraced in the persons of the prisoners, and they could not endure that such a stain should "attach to themselves and their country from an infamous punishment for crimes, according to their views, not in themselves infamous in the moral sense of the word".

The four privates were marched out to Gullane Links, East Lothian, on 16 July 1795, and when they had arrived on the ground they were told that only two were to suffer, and that the two Mackintoshes would be permitted to draw lots.

They accordingly drew, when the fatal one fell on Charles, who, with Fraser, was immediately shot in presence of the Scots Brigade, (afterwards the 94th regiment) and the Sutherland, Breadalbane, and Grant Fencibles.

[16] On the march to Edinburgh, this man stated to Major Colin Campbell, who commanded the party, that he knew what his fate would be, but that he had left business of the utmost importance to a friend in Glasgow, which he wished to transact before his death; that as to himself he was fully prepared to meet his fate, but, with regard to his friend, he could not die in peace unless the business was settled; and that if the officer would permit him to return to Glasgow, he would join his comrades before they reached Edinburgh.

[24] Of the exemplary conduct of the regiment, some idea may be formed from the following extract of an address presented to Lieutenant-colonel James Fraser of Culduthill, who commanded the regiment several years in Ireland, by a meeting of the magistrates of the county of Armagh, in the year 1798, the Lord Viscount Gosford, the governor, in the chair:[24] We beg leave to testify our highest approbation of the conduct of the Rothsay and Caithness Fencibles, during a period of fourteen months, and under circumstances of peculiar difficulty.

Divided, from the unfortunate necessity of the times, into various cantonments, and many of them stationed in a manner most unfavourable to military discipline, they yet preserved the fidelity of soldiers, and the manly rectitude of their national character.

It is with pleasure and satisfaction we declare, that the tranquillity which this county is now happily beginning to enjoy, must, in many respects, be ascribed to the ready obedience and proper deportment of the officers and men under your command.

[29] The Dumbarton Fencibles was raised by Colonel Campbell of Stonefield, agreeably to orders, dated 11 October 1794, and was inspected and reported complete by Major-general Sir James Stewart, in the summer of the following year.

They were particularly noticed by Sir John Moore, who, after the rebellion was crushed, stationed them as a light infantry corps in the mountains under his own eye, and such was his confidence in them, that he selected a detachment of this regiment to guard 400 prisoners sent to Prussia, "as the service required confidential and trust-worthy men".

[29] Amongst other districts fixed on by government for raising fencible corps at the commencement of the French Revolutionary Wars, that of "Lord Reay's country" (as that region was then called),[31] the residence of the Clan Mackay, was selected.

[29] Notwithstanding the unfortunate state of their chief the clan came readily forward, and in a few weeks a body of 800 Highlanders, of whom 700 had the word Mac prefixed to their names, was assembled.

[29] In March 1795 the regiment was embodied by Sir Hector Munro at Fort George, whence it immediately proceeded to Ireland, where it soon acquired the confidence of Generals Lake and Nugent.

[30] The only opportunity they had of proving their firmness in the unhappy service in which they were engaged was at the battle of Tara Hill, on 26 May 1798, where, in conjunction with two troops of Lord Fingall's, some cavalry and foot from the Kells and Navan yeomanry, three companies of the Reays, under Captain Hector Maclean, an experienced officer, who had served 37 years in the 42nd, attacked a large body of rebels, and drove them from their strong and elevated position, with a loss of about 400 killed and wounded.

The men were not in general large, but active, well-made, and remarkable for steady marching, never leaving any stragglers, even on the quickest and longest march.This unit, also known as the Fraser Regiment, was disbanded at Glasgow in July 1802.

Alexander Macdonell involved himself in their affairs and persuaded Glasgow business men to employ them while he acted as the Highlanders priest and interpreter (for they were Catholics in a predominantly Protestant town and spoke Gaelic not Scottish English).

[42] This would mean that the fencibles lost the opportunity to participate in the battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf, a lopsided victory in which the British repelled a French attempt to retake the islands.

At Waterford an amusing incident occurred, which afforded no small surprise to some, and no slight ridicule to others, whilst, at the same time, it showed the simplicity of the Highlanders, and their naivety of the ways of the world.

The soldiers who received billet-money on their entrance into the town, returned it upon their being ordered to march the same evening to New Ross, for the purpose of reinforcing General Johnson, who was surrounded, and in a manner besieged by the rebels.

Their chaplain, struck with their forlorn condition, proceeded to London, and entered into a negotiation with the government, in the hope of procuring assistance to enable them to emigrate to Upper Canada (what is today southern Ontario).

Alexander Macdonell, however, persevered in his design, and the Prime Minister, Henry Addington, procured for him an order with the sign-manual to the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, to grant two hundred acres of land to every one of the Highlanders who should arrive in the province.

John Macpherson, Sir Archibald Macdonald, lord-chief baron of the exchequer in England, Charles Grant, one of the directors of the East India company, and M. P. for Inverness-shire, with the other gentlemen connected with the Highlands, and even Francis, Earl of Moira, then commander-in-chief in North Britain (then a fashionable designation for Scotland), endeavoured to dissuade the chaplain from his purpose, and promised to procure a pension for him if he would separate himself from the Highlanders; but neither their persuasions, nor those of the Prince of Wales, who was induced to interfere, and who offered a grant of waste lands to the intending emigrants in the county of Cornwall, could induce the chaplain to forgo his resolution.

On the evening of the King's birthday, a crowd of people, principally young men, collected in the main street of Aberdeen, which coincidentally was the regiment's guardhouse.

[57] Contemporary commentators such as David Stewart considered it a matter of regret, that during that most trying period of the French Revolutionary Wars, so many efficient regiments were so fettered by their terms of engagement, that they could not be employed on those important occasions where they would have formed a very seasonable aid, and where their military qualities could have been exerted to the utmost advantage.