THE STORY OF THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 30

THE STORY OF THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS.

At a service club the other day a knot of officers telegraphed to Colonel Mafchias, commanding the Gordon Highlanders on the Indian frontier :—": — " On their return the Gordon Highlanders will take all London by storm — Bravo ! " They had stormed the Chac;ra Kotal, and in doing so bad also stormed all hearts. But, indeed, many are the storming feats that are emblazoned on the colours of tho " gay Gordons " since firsb their tartans waved ab Mysore till tbeir war pipes startled the echoes of the Mftlakand Pass. They derive their title from the celebrated Duchess of Gurdon — the " daring duchess," as she was called — who, among other things, was the patroness of Burns. After serving for some time in the Guards, her son, the Marquess cf Huntly, returned to Scotland in 1793, and his ambitious mother resolved to put him at the head of a regiment of his own. Tho following year letters of service were granted to the young nobleman, when he and his mother at once started on a recruiting expedition to every fair in the countryside ; " and tbe kiss she bestowed on every lad who took the shilling from her fired him. with a martial ardour rarely matched in the annals of the British Army." Within a few weeks sha had enrolled hundreds of her Btalwarfc clansmen, who thus came to form the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, who now constitute the 2ud btttalion of the regiment whereof the Ist battalion lately perfo'tned sucb a brilliant feat of arms on the Indian frontier. Under the new territorial system this latter battalion, in 188-1, becime " linked " to the old 92, or Gordon Highlanders proper ; bub up till then it had bean known to fame as the 75th, which was raised in Stirlingshire iv 1787, or seven years prior t> the Gordons ; and henca it was that on the linking of tho two battalions tbe 75th was awarded piiority of place.

When first raised the 75th was » kilted regiment, but in 1809 ib was put into trousers — its name being changed from the 75th Highlanders to the 75 h Foot — and these trousers it; retained till 1881, when it resumed the " garb of 01-l Gaul " on being linked with ttfa Gordons. Ah this lime it was stationed ab the Sbr*rl* R«ale barracks, Malbi ; so that the conundrum was asked : " What is the difference between the 92nd aud the 75bh ? " the answer being that "the one were real Highlanders aud the' other Reale Highlanders." But the Rsale, or Stirlingshire Highlanders— those who lately stormed the Chngra Kotal — have contributed a little more, perhaps, to the common blezonry of the present regimental colours than the Gordons proper from Aberdeenßhire, Banff, and the Home o' 'the Mearos. Mjsore and Seringapatam were their first g:eab battles, perhaps their bloodiest ; and again, under Sir David Baird, they did wouders of valour on the field of Coruuna. But ib was the Gordons proper to whom fell most of the regiment's Peninsular honours — their colours bearing tLe proud names of " Fuentei d'Onoro," " Almsrza," "Vittoria," "Pyrenees," "Neve," '• Orthes," and "Waterloo." " As the 42ud aud 92nd Highlanders," said an eye witness at Brussels, " marched through the Place Royale and the Pare, or>e could not but admire their fine appearance, their steady mili tary demeanour, with their pipes plaj ing before (hem. and the beams of the rising sun shining upon their glittering arms. Ou many a .Highland hill and iv many a lowland valley wil! the deeds of these brave mea be remembered. It was impossible to witness such a sight unmoved." At Qutvtre Bras the Gordons lost their colonel, Cameron of Fassifem — a kinsman of Lochiel, — who fell mo.ta'ly -wouaded when just about to storm a house iuto which -his . Highlanders then bucsb with wild cries, putting every man in the place to death, bub nob until 19 officers aud 280 rank and file had fallen. At Waberlco the 92nd was raduced to less than 300 men ; but", nevertheless, so great was . (vfcill their fighting ardour that when the " Sc^ts G-eys charged down the elope shouting "Scotland for ever ! " the Gordons caught hold of their stirrup leathers, and, rushing forward, jjined in the battle cry. Sir Ddnis Puck cried out, " Ninety -second ! you inuit charge, for all the troops on your right and left have giveu way." The Gordons replied with "a roar of cheering..* The regiment formed four deep, and in that compact order advanced until wilhin 20 paces, when it fLed a volley and then daehed with the bayonet into the heart of a French column, in which it became almost invisible in tha midst of the mass opposed to it. " You have saved the day, Highlanders," cried Sir Denis once more ; " but you must return to your position ; there is more work to be done."

Tue Gordons (75th) took a promiuent.part iv the stormiug of Delhi, wbile ''Luiknow" was also "added to their colours ; and in 1863 % monument was erected at Stirling to tha memory of the 10 officers, 13 sergeants, 9 corporals, 3 drummer*, and 216 privates ot tha battalion who have fallen during the Mutiny. Ib was tbe same battalion now linked to the Gordons ■ proper which formed part of Sir Archibald Alison's Highland Brigade that was the first to overtop the entrenchments of Arabi Pasha ab Tel- €l Kebir. "It was a noble sight," wrote- their commander, ♦' to see the Gordon and Cameron Highlanders mingled; together in the coufusion of the fight, their young officers leading with waving sword*, their pipes screaming, and tbe blight gleam iv the eyes of the m«D, which you only see in the hour of successful battle." A 1 ; xEIx El Teb it was the Gordons and their fiery rivals of the Black Watch who bore the brunt o F the Dervish battle, while at Tamai it was the steadiness of Bulltr'd square, partly formed by the Gordons, which saved the day, when the other square fronted by the 42nd had been dented iv by the devilish onrush of the Hadendowaa., Up in the north there is a popular saying, " The Gordons hae the guidin' o'fc," aud many is the Englir-h battlefield on which the truth of this m<xini has been exemplified,. It was only ab Kirbekan thab the "guidin' o't" was snatched from their hands by their kilted comr&drs of the " Fortv-twa" — the regiment, by the way, in which Bdie Ocbiltree, the king's bedesman in the " Antiquary," had fought ab Foutenoy — the fir-it Britiah battle in which a Highland regiment made its appearance, and saved the army of our " martial boy," the Duke of Cumberland, from utter ann'hilation at the hands of Marshal Saxe. But in Afghanistan the bagpipes of the gallant Gordons sbirltd out even louder screams of victory than had ever celebraied the exploits of th » Black W«tch, and tie 92nd Highlanders formed the backbone of the atiny which "Little Bobi" led in triumph from Cabul to Candahar. They earned splendid laurels in the firsb battles around C».bul. " With noble emulation," wrote Archibald Forbes, " the Highlanders and the Guides sprang up the rugged slope, tbeir faces set towards the centre of the summit Hue. Major White (now Commander-in-chief in India), who had already earned many laurels in the campaign, led on the 92nd. . . Lieutenant Forbes, a. young officer, heading the advance of his regiment, reach tbe summit accompanied only by his colour-sergeant. A band of Ghazees rushed on the pair and the sergeant foil dead. As Forbes stood covering tho body

he war overpowered and slain. -The sudden, and bloody catastrophe staggered for & moment the soldiers following their officer, but- Lieutenant Dick Cunyngham (now commanding the battalion) rallied them immediately and led them forward at speed. For his conduct on this occasion Cunyngham worthily recaived the Victoria Cross."

At the battle of Caudah&r, which was the sequel to the great relieving march of Lord Roberts, it was the irreiistible charge of the Gordons which decided the day. "The 92ad, under Major White, led the way," writes Forbes, •' covered by the fire of a field battery, and supported by the sbh Goorkhas and the 23rd Pioneers. SpriugfDg out from a wufcerconrso ab the challenge of their leader, the Highlanders rushed across fche open front. The Afghans, sheltered by high banks, fired steadily and well ; their riflemen from the Fir Faimal slopes joined in a sharp cross fire ; their guns were well served. Bat the Scottish soldiers were not to be deuied. Their losses were severe, but they took the Afghan guns at the point of the bayonet, and, valiantly supported by the Goorkhas and Pioneers, shattered and dispersed the mss9 of Afghans, reckoned to have numbered some 8000 men." Ab the forcing of the Malakand Pass in the Chittral war, it was egiin the Gordons (l=.t battalion), with their comrades of tho Scottish Borderert, who bore the brunt of the fighting and sufF-jred mosr, and for the rest of the campaign the •P*thans fought very shy of the petticoated warriors. It is the sama battalion which is now "sgaiu covei'iug itself with glory ou the Afghan frontier, aud who from the storming of the Cbagra Kotal will return to England to "storm all hearts." . "cock o' the north." Lance-corporal Piper Patrick Milne, of the Gordon H-ghlanders, one' of the special heroes of a memorable day, wsb shot not in the ankle, as at first reported, but through both legs, and he was brought helpless aud bleeding to the ground, txpi sed to the deadly fire of the enemy as he lay iv the bullet-swept zone. Milne, if nob quite the first to leap into the zane, was among the first party of Highlanders. ' Ab he ran he pipad luslily •'Cuck o' the North." When he was bowled over he managed to get himself into a sitting position, and with graduallj diminishing vigour continued to play the same tune. Bub Milne was merely one of five 'Gordon Highland pipers who did more than their b>re duty at Chagra Kotal. The other four marched sturdily across the fife zone playing "Cock o' the North," like Milne, and ouly one of them got aorojs unhurt. Three of them were wounded, one of them severely — full in the chest.

Piper Milne is mush bslauded in the press of Ab rdeeubhire. The Aberdeen Journal has published Irs portrait and infcsrvievred his 'father, and found out the history of his accomplishments on the violin and the bagpipe?. Had someone said to him on bis native heath, " Can you play upon this pipe ? " he would hive to answer, like Guildei.s'.ern in " Hamlet," thab he knew no touch of it. HU accomplishment was violin playing till he gob to Ir<2-1-iiid and was taught tha bagpipes in the Curragh camp. The prospect of going to India put au end to the lad's weariness of the army, and bis father, a gardener at Waterside, near Newburgh, no longer received letters from his son b°gging to be bought out of his ri'gioienb. Ho has reason ,to love his bag.pipts. , They saved his life, perhaps, in- the •Ghitfal campiign, for a bullet then p'mrcod them.. - -