Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders - Electric Scotland

91st
5th ROYAL SCOTS OF CANADA 89
the early settlers in this district were the members of
the Highland regiments raised in America and disbanded
after the conclusion of the war. A majority of these
Highlanders were the descendants of ^urdent Jacobites,
who, after the crushing disaster at Cullodcn, had been
transported to the plantations. The remainder v,»erc
men who had served in Fraser's and IMontgomerie'.s
Highlanders. After the Mother Country had recognized
the independance of her former colonies, these heroic
Highlanders fought their way in bands to the banks of
St. Lawrence, enduring every conceivable hardship from
hunger, thirst, exposure and fatigue, and with true Scottish
clanishness settled down together in
the district mentioned.
The colony of royalist Highlanders was soon reinforced
by relatives of the settlers emigrating direct
from Scotland, and in course of time it was to receive a
further infusion of sterling Highland blood.
Between the
years 1780 and 1790 consolidation of the
.small farms took place in the Highlands of Scotland to
a great extent, cau.sing incredible distress to the disposessed
tenants. Owing to the restrictions then imposed
upon emigration, the Keverand Alexander IMcDonnell,
a devoted Roman Catholic priest, obtained occupation
for the disposessed farmers, to the number of nearly a
thousand, in the m.jnufactories at Glasgow, accompanying
them himself as their chaplain and guide. Not long
after this, from the depressed state of trade, due to the
war, these men were thrown out of employment, and the
intensely loyal priest obtained permission from the King
to raise a Roman Catholic Highland regiment, to which
he was appointed chaplain. This was the first Roman
Catholic regiment rai.sed in Great Britain since the Reformation.
In 1798, this regiment, known as the Glengarry
Regiment, performed most efficient .service in
Ireland in connection with the suppression of the rebellion.
During the peace succeeding the treaty of Amiens
in 1802, the regiment was disbanded, and in 1803, the
devoted chaplain obtained for every officer and man of
the Glengarries, who chose to go to Canada, a grant of
200 acres of land. The reverand gentleman altogether
obtained patent deeds for 160,000 acres of land, most of
it in the vicinity of the early Highland settlements on
the shores of Lake St. Francis and the upper vSt. Lawrence.
During the rebellion two regiments of Glengarry
Highlanders came to Montreal.
December 20, 1837, the Cornwall Ob.server recorded
the fact that four regiments of Glengarry Militia mustering
about 2,000 strong,
assembled at Lancaster for the
purpose of marching down to Montreal, under the command
of Colonels D. McDonnell, Fraser, Chisholm and A.
McDonell. The field pieces belonging to the different regiments
were mounted on strong sleighs, with horses,
and everything necessary for active service, which, with
the flags and martial music of the pipes, formed a most
interesting spectacle. It was intended that the troops
.should march on the 21st, but an express arrived from
Sir John Colborne containing an expression of his
warmest
thanks to the colonels of the different regiments for
their exertions and activity in this critical period, and
requesting them to inform the officers and men of the.se
brave Glengarry Regiments that in consequence of the
rebellion being put down he did not wish them to march
from their homes ji:st then.
During the anxiety preceding the second rebellion.
Sir John Colborne availed himself of the .services of two
of these battalions. In the winter and spring of 1838,
two battalions of Glengarry Highlanders came to this
I)rovince, one battalion, 500 strong under Lieut. -Colonel
Fraser, having been quartered for some time at St.
Philippe, Laprairie County, and the other under Mr.
Sheriff Macdonell, having been quartered in Napierville.
The first
mentioned battalion marched through Montreal
en route for Glengarry, March 19th, and the other battalion
on May ist. The Highlanders as they marched
through Montreal to the martial music of the spiritstirring
bag-pipe, created quite a .sensation.
Upon the actual outbreak of the second rebellion, in
the autumn of 1838, these two battalions of Glengarry
Highlanders, as well as a battalion of the Stormont Militia
under Col. Aeneas McDonnell, was called out and
hurriedly marched to Beauharnois and Odelltown.
A fine militia regiment has always been maintained
in the Glengarry district; but not of a distinctively
Highland character. Just as this volume is about to go
to press, an active movement, owing its inspiration to a
visit paid to the coimty by the present General Officer
Commanding the Militia, the Erffl of Dundonald, himself
a true Highlander, is under way in Glengarry to secure
the establishment of two Highland companies. In view
of the ancestry of the Glengarians the ultimate success of
the movement cannot be doubted.
There are at present five regiments in the acti\e
Force described in the Militia List as Highlanders, namely
the 5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders,
Montreal, organized by G. ()., January 31st 1862, 48th
Regiment, " Highlanders, " Toronto organized by G. O.
October i6th, 1901 ;
78th Colchester, Hants and
Pictou Regiment, " Highlanders, " organized G. O.
April 6, 1871
;
Highlanders, Hamilton, Ont., organized
G. O. Sept., 1st, 1903 ;
94th Victoria Regiment Argyll
Highlanders", Baddek, N.S., organized G, O., Ont.,
13, 1871.
Of these corps, apart from the 48th and the 91st, the
latter now in process of organization, none wear the
kilt; but they all wear diced bands round their forage
caps, and .several of them wear tartan trews.
The 15th Regiment, Argyll Light Infantry (Belleville,
Ont.), although not de.signated as Highlanders, wear the
checked band round their
forage caps.
The distinctively Scottish regiments in the Canadian
Militia are all distinguished by that keen corps spirit
which has always been characteristic of the Highland regiments
of the Imperial .service, and which is the outgrowth