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The sailors complained that the 23rd or the 42nd were firing at them, and the 42nd and 23rd made the same complaint of the Naval Brigade. In fact, from the denseness of the wood, and the general and continuous roar of musketry, it was impossible to gain any just ideas of direction.
The 42nd, formed into a square, was repeatedly broken, and as often recovered though with terrible loss of life: for out of 800 that went into the action, only ninety-six privates and four officers returned unhurt. The divisions of Alten, Halket, Cooke, Maitland, and Byng successively arrived; and night found the English general, after a severe and bloody day, in possession of Quatre-Bras.
However, whenever the trees are thick on the ground the difficulty is not so great our trouble came rather from other causes. The oasis was full of men. Part of the 42nd had come up on our right, and Headquarters and details of the Anzacs and Camel Corps were on our left.
This is described in Stark's "Picture of Edinburgh" thus: "Their uniform is 42nd tartan, with green velvet collar and cuffs, and a Highland bonnet, with feathers; on the front of the bonnet is the cross of St. Andrew, and a gold arrow on the collar of the jacket."
When the fight began, and the rattling musketry, to say nothing of booming artillery, created such a smoke that no unmilitary person could make head or tail of anything, the 49th Middlesex took advantage of a hollow, and executed a flank movement that would have done credit to the 42nd Highlanders, and even drew forth an approving nod and smile from the reviewing officer, who with his cocked-hatted staff witnessed the movement from an eminence which was swept by a devastating cross-fire from every part of the field.
I learnt that the 42nd F.A., to which my brother George was attached, was due to take over from our F.A. in Ronville; but I did not get in touch with him. On April 26 B.H.Q. moved to a fine château at the west end of Arras, where we were much more comfortable than at the sugar factory.
In 1856 the Forfar Yeomanry were re-raised, and in 1860 the Fifeshire Mounted Rifle Volunteers, under command of Lieut.-General The Earl of Rosslyn, Captain Anstruther Thomson, son of the officer who had commanded the Fife Yeomanry and Fife Fencible Cavalry half a century before, Captain Whyte Melville of the 9th Lancers, Captain Oswald of the Grenadier Guards, son of Captain Oswald of Dunnikier of the Royal Rifles, and Captain Sir Arthur Halkett, who had carried the colours of the 42nd Royal Highlanders at the Battle of the Alma, were the Troop leaders.
"Amherst commanded the principal division, including the 'Black Watch, or gallant 42nd, which has been renowned in military story wherever the British flag has been borne to victory for more than a hundred and forty years." At Waterloo, Corunna, Alma and Lucknow, in Afghan defiles and Egyptian deserts, they were always in the thickest of the fight.
Lord Glenlyon's Highlanders gave place to Lord Breadalbane's, the Murrays, in their particular set of tartan with their juniper badge, to the Campbells and the Menzies, in their dark green and red and white kilts, with the tufts of bog myrtle and ash in their bonnets. The pipers were multiplied, and a company of the 92nd Highlanders replaced the 42nd, in kilts like their neighbours.
Sir Robert Dick, who had commanded the 42nd Highlanders in Spain, was among the slain, as was Brigadier Taylor, C.B., the beloved colonel of the 29th Regiment, who commanded the third brigade of the second division. The 3rd, 9th, and 16th Light Dragoons, 9th, 10th, 29th, 31st, 50th, 53rd, 62nd, and 80th Foot, received the thanks of Parliament, and have "Sobraon" on their colours.
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