Scots at War

21 January 2010, 09:10

Two bloody battles for a fort, which took place 250 years ago, began to cement the Scot’s reputation in empire building. 

The two Battles of Ticonderoga, just north of New York, which took place during the French and Indian War, would see the 42nd Regiment of Foot lose over half of its officers and men in one disastrous battle.

The following year the 42nd returned to the same battlefield at Ticonderoga. Victory was won for the fort within 30 minutes. The 3 SCOTS Battalion still celebrates this victory, as they do every year, on what is now known as Ticonderago Day.

With Scots at War also looking at the modern day battle tactics being used in urban warfare in the fight against the Taliban, it makes sense for the programme to study a battle which took place in a town over 200 years ago. This fight would not only see a Highland regiment secure a British protectorate very close to home, but it would also be the last battle to ever take place on the British Isles. 

The Battle of Jersey was played out in 1778, and was an attempt by France to invade Jersey. Retaking it and securing it from invasion, the local militia was supplemented by the 95th Regiment of Foot, five companies each of the 83rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Glasgow Volunteers) and 78th Highlanders, and around 700 semi-retired reservists.

While territories close to home were being secured from invasion, territories on the other side of the world were being invaded by British forces.  The McLeod Highlanders played a large part in laying the foundation of empire in India and the career of that regiment’s most famous commander - the Duke of Wellington, who led them in India, the Peninsular War and Waterloo - played a large part in this astonishing expansion.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are now a Tank Regiment, but this company began its life as a Cavalry Regiment nearly 350 years ago known as the Scots Greys. The Scots Greys have many prestigious battle honours to their name and their charge was famously described as “the greatest thunderbolt ever launched by the British Cavalry”.

However, this reputation was hard won and in the early 1800s the Scots Greys took part in a battle which has gone down in history as perhaps their most significant achievement. In early June, 1815 in a muddy field in Belgium, even Wellington thought that what they were facing would be the nearest run thing you’ve ever seen in your life.  The battle was Waterloo.

After more than 12 years of intense fighting between the British and the French all over the world and more than two million casualties, Napoleon Bonaparte had finally been defeated.  But his breakout from exile threatened to rekindle the flames of war all over again. He needed to be stopped.  On the June 18, 1815, events came to a head on the rolling fields of Waterloo in Belgium.

In Scots at War, military historian James Falkner explains: “Wellington had to hold his ridgeline at Waterloo in order to bar the road to Brussels in the north. If Napoleon could break through and take Brussels, that would be a tremendous diplomatic coup for him, so Wellington’s task was to hold this vital ground.”

The British soldiers defending this crucial position were being relentlessly pounded by the French guns. They were about to face an even greater challenge when  Napoleon decided to send his trusted Commander, the Count of Delon, with some 16,000 French infantry, to march up the slope to the ridge and try to break through the British line.

Falkner adds: “Now this was Napoleon’s big punch, his first big punch, and it couldn’t be countered by Wellington.  If the French infantry in those sort of numbers got up onto the ridge and established themselves, there was nothing Wellington could do about it.”

The British were on the verge of being overwhelmed by this vast French infantry regiment.  It would take a tactical master stroke to turn the tide back in their favour.  With split second timing the two heavy cavalry brigades of the British Army were brought forward to support the hard pressed infantry.  The Cavalry charged into the front and flank of the advancing French.  And playing a central role in this courageous attack were the Royal Scots Greys.  This aggressive strategy worked, and probably marked the beginning of the end for Napoleon.  The French were stopped in their tracks and driven back in confusion to the muddy valley bottom.

Last updated: 21 January 2010, 10:22