Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders - Electric Scotland

36
itself, lor physique and drill. We find the following pen
sketch of the company in the Portland "Transcript's"
account of the visit of the rifles to Portland in 1858:—
"The dress of the Highland company was a green coatee
faced with red and gold, plaid pants, tartan scarfs.
Highland bonnet with ostrich plumes, and red feather.
The piper, in full Highland costume, with his kilt and
his bare knees, attracted some attention. The Highlanders
were thoroughly Scotch in form and features,
spare and sharp, and in their native costume looked like
true followers
of the Bruce."
The uniform worn by the Highland Company while
attached to the ist P. W. Rifles is described by lieut.-
Col.' Macpherson^ as consisting of rifle tunic or coatee,
after the pattern of the 71st Highland Light Infantry,
but of rifle green cloth, trews and plaid of the tartan of
%th
the clan McKenzie of Seaforth as worn by the 78th Highlanders,
highland plume bonnet, with red hackle.
Captain Macpherson retained the command of the
company till his promotion to the rank of Major (CO.,
19th Feb., 1861), which was closely followed by his appointment
to be Brigade Major to the Active Force of
Montreal, (G. O. 5th April, 1861). The company was
transferred to the 5th Royal laght Infantry, under No.
10 of General Orders of 9th October, 1863, which read as
follows:
"The Highland Rifle Company. This company is
hereby transferred from the ist Prince of Wales Regiment
Volunteer Militia, to the 5th Battalion or Royal
Light Infantry, and will be designated hereafter as No-
9 or the Highland Infantry Company of that Battalion."
The same general orders (October 9, 1863) contained
the announcement of the resignations of Lieut. G.
Brown, Ensign A. G. Lindsay, and Supernumerary Ensign
N. G. Slack, Captain Peter Moir being consequently
the only officer of the Highland Company transferred
with it to the 5th Royal Light Infantry. After the
transfer the company adopted the scarlet tunic, but adhered
to the Mackenzie tartan trews, also wearing)
checkered bands on their shakos and lorage caps.
The transfer of this old company to the 5th Roj'als,
marks the introduction of a Scottish element into that
corps, which can fairly be considered as the nucleus
about which has been developed the
Canada," as a Highland Regiment.
ROYAL SCOTS OF CANADA
"5th Royal Scots of
Upon its organization the vmiform of the first eight
companies of the 5th Royal Light Infantry was the regulation
one of the British Light Infantry regiments but
with silver lace and buttons. The full dress head-dress
was the shako and green ball,
the forage caps similar to
those worn by the Grenadier Guards, round and flat,
with large tops and broad red bands round the bottonis.
The winter head-dress was a shaggy fur cap, much resembling
the Fu,sileer busby, but not so large. The regimental
button consisted of the Royal Cypher "V.R."
in the centre, with the words "The Royals" above and
"Montreal," below. In undress, the officers wore a
double-breasted, blue frock coat with the crimson sash
over.
The appearance of the regiment on parade,
was very
fine, and Colonel Stevenson, of the Guards, who first
inspected the corps said it put him in mind of his own
regiment. The Royals carried everything before them
on the rifle ranges. For this the regiment was much indebted
to the enthusiasm of Captain John Grant. His
company had a target of their own, and its officers provided
an unlimited supply of ammunition, with the result
that at the first match, which was held upon the
ice at Point St. Charles, "Grant's Company," with its
four or five teams, won almost everything.
Major K. Campbell remarked the other day:— "The
Royals were very fortunate in having such an officer as
Captain Grant at this important epoch in their career.
Beloved by everyone, as a man and an officer, I have always
considered him above and be3'ond any one I knew
in the volimteer service. He was a splendid drill, had
a fine word of command, was cool and collected, strict
even to severity about diity, j^et always fair, affable and
reasonable, and without a trace of assTimption.
In 1863, the strength of the Active Militia, limited
by the Act of 1853 to 5,000, was raised to 25,000, at
which strength it was maintained until after the reorganization
following Confederation in 1867.
Montreal was the focus of the excitement produced
by the St. Allrans Raid, October 19, 1864, but the evidence
given at the trial of the raiders did not bear out
the general impression that the raid had been planned
and directed froin here. The evidence was to the effect
that at the time the leader of the raid, Bennet H.
Young, was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Confederate
army for the special purjjose of raising a body of
Confederate soldiers escaped from United States prisons
to make the raid, he was in Chicago on some political
mission. Some of his partj^ it is true, went direct from
Montreal to St. Albans, others proceeded through the
United States. The raiders took possession of the three
banks in vSt. Albans, which is eighteen miles from the
Canadian frontier, in broad daylight, seized the money
in the hands of the bank officials and some being tendered
on deposit by private citizens, set fire to the town
in three places, provided themselves with horses taken
from the people, and in a body made their escape into
Canada, dispersing after crossing the lines. Thirteen of
the raiders were arrested in Canada at the request of
the United States government and brought to trial in
Montreal. After a most sensational hearing and a
length}' argument, the prisoners were acquitted, it being
held that the raid was an act of war and not one of
robbery as charged in the indictments.
This incident resulted in another violent spasm of
Anglophobia in the United States, and once more the
recognized exponents of public opinion in the Republic
advocated war, and as a inatter of course, the immediate
invasion of Canada. Another period of anxiety