HLI Chronicle 1914 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE. 127down the palisades. He immediately broughtme to General Brisbane, to whom I alsonarrated my observations, who directed meto ride to the left and find out Sir ThomasPicton, who was with the other brigade, andto tell him my observations, After ridingabout two miles to the left I found Sir Thomasand told him as above stated, who immediatelysaid, in presence of all his staff, 'Go back,sir, and tell them to move on: This I didwith a very heavy heart, as I dreaded whatthe result must be; but I had no alternative.About a quarter of an hour afterwards theregiment moved from where it was halted.We experienced a loss of 30 killed and 100wounded out of 350 in the attempt to getpossession of the tete-de-pont, and wereobliged to retire without gaining any advantage.The attack was the more to be regrettedas Lord Wellington'S orders were that it wasonly to be a diversion and not a real attack."The casualties of the 74th at the battle ofToulouse were four officers (Captains ThomasAndrews and William Tew, Lieut. Hamilton,and Ensign John Parkinson), one sergeant,and 32 rank and file killed; and five officers(Brevet-Major Miller, Captain DonaldM'Queen, and Lieuts. Jason Hassard, Wm.Graham, and E. J. Crabbe), four sergeants, and94 rank and file wounded. Of the officerswounded, Captain M'Queen, who had servedin almost every action of importance in thePeninsular War, and who seldom came outwithout a wound, was left for dead on thefield. After the regiment had moved on, asoldier named John Gillanders, his fosterbrother,whom he had taken with him fromSkye as a recruit, missed his Captain, andhuxried back through a heavy fire, searchedfor and found him, and carried him to safety.There were few places for shelter, and thefaithful soldier, loaded with his almost insensibleburden, pushed his way into a housewhich was filled with officers, and called outfor a bed. In the room there was a bed, andon it lay a wounded officer. He heard theentreaty of the soldier and saw the desperatecondition of the officer he carried, and at onceexclaimed "That poor fellow needs the bedmore than I do," and rose and gave it up.That officer was the gallant General SirThomas Brisbane.The Allies entered Toulouse the day afterthe battle and marched through the city,and the writer of the "Vicissitudes of aScottish Soldier" describes the entry of the7lst :-" Immense crowds of well-dressedpeople stood at a bridge to welcome us,or at least pretended to do so; all of themwore white cockades. Another group wasbusily employed pulling down a statue ofNapoleon from the top of a triumphal arch.As we advanced further into the place almostevery window was filled with ladies wavinghandkerchiefs. Fortunately for the 50th and92nd, they had lately got new clothes, and theirappearance, therefore, was passable in the eyesof the French; but as for us [71st J, and mostof the other regiments, anything like magnificentcostume was out of the question. Ourclothes were, in fact, worn out; but not a raghung pennant-like in the air, strict orders.having been issued to that effect, althoughfull liberty had been given to mend the holeswith any sort of cloth. This indulgence was,acted up to in the fullest extent-patches ofcanvas and of blankets covering us from headto foot, interspersed with other patches of allthe colours of the rainbow. Such habilimentshad a very harlequin rainbow effect. Withregard to our personal appearance, many were'tanned or weather-beaten by the long exposureto sun, frost, and rain; but the late draftswere, of course, much less so. On emergingfrom Toulouse we directed our steps to theside of the Languedoc Canal and there encamped."Thus ended the long years of war in Portugal,.Spain, and the South of France, in which the71st and 74th had fought so well and earnedfor themselves an immortal fame to handdown to succeeding generations,BAI.FOUR KERMACK.A most interesting manuscript was recentlypresented to the Officers of the 1st Battalionby ~Ir. J. A. Wedderburn-Ogilvy, being thereminiscences of Private Balfour Kermack, asoldier of the 7lst, who passed through all itsmany campaigns in the early part of lastcentury.The "''Titer apparently joined the 7lst alongwith his Captain, Captain James M'Intyre,who came from the Breadalbane Fencibles, intheyear 1800.His reminiscences were apparently writtenabout 1849. Balfour Kermack was still alivein 1847, when his name appears in the medalroll for the war medal for the Peninsula,which medal he received with eight clasps,including that for the battle of Talavera,which was only granted to nine other men ofthe 71st.