Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 6, 1898

66
THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
THE TAKING OF DARGAI
20th OCTOBER. 1897.
.rgyw'iLL day from the sangars had tribesmen kept
i« raining
■^ Their musketry's thunder like liailstones of
fire,
While line after line leapt our troops uncomplaining
To scale the grim precipice higher and higher.
But still, ever backward, battalions were driven
And brave British blood dyed the valley in vain.
The foemen prevailed and asunder lay riven
The laurels that victory alone could regain.
Then look ! 'tis the General's brief heliograph
flashing :
' That fort must be taken whatever the cost ! '
And two thousand bayonets stand ready for dashing
At call of their Colonel when conquest seems lost.
'The Gordons will take iti' for 'Bydand,'* their
slogan
Of old, still is true of the Gordon to-day.
With heart of the hero and strength of the Trojan
To follow his Leader and rush to the fray.
' The Gordons will take it! ' On, on to the skirling
And blare of the pibroch, 'the Cock o' the North,'
They're out and they're over the fiery zone whirling,
The ridges are reached, and the rebels swept
forth !
And wherefore i To clansmen that question were
treason ,
From Delhi and Lucknow and wild Waterloo,
The blood of their forefathers gives back the reason
Because where they're sent will the Gordons
prove true.
And into the ages will pass down the story
How, shot through his feet, where the bullets
whizzed by,
That piper crouched piping, still urging to glory
His comrades who captured the heights of Dargai !
* Steadfast, the clan slogan motto.
Mayor Allan.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR.
HIGHLANDERS IN THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
To the Editor, i\lfi,: Moiitlily.
Sir — About three years ago I inserted a notice
in the Ohan I'mus requesting information concerning
any MS. journal kept by an officer in any of the
Highland regiment.s in the American Revolutionary
War. I never received any response to the notice.
Evidently there are such MSS. in existence.
The object I had in view was to use such MS. as
a basis for a history of the Highlanders in said
Revolution. Histories devoted wholly both to
Germans and French have been published. Also
every obtainable diary has been given the public,
notably among which are the diaries of Hadden,
Digby, Pausch, and Riedesel, officers under Bur-
goyne. In short, everything relating to the
Revolution has been caught up with avidity in this
country. Hadden's journal was found in a New
York bookstore in 1875, and published in 1884.
Digby's in the British Museum in 1883, and pub-
lished in 1887. Pausch's in the State Library at
Cassel, Gei-many, and published in 1886.
In 1882 "The New York Historical Society"
published the " Letter-Book of Captain Alexander
M'Donald of the Royal Highland Emigrants, 1775-
1770."
A history of the Highlanders, engaged against
the Americans, in the service of England, such as 1
propose, would be fraught with great labour, and at
a sacrifice of both time and money. Y'et I am
willing to undertake the same, provided an unpub-
lished journal can be obtained. As the British
look askance at American Revolutionary history,
even to the discredit of their own heroes who engaged
in that struggle, such a work must, aa have all
others of this description, come from the American
side of the Atlantic.
Whilst Highlanders were fighting in the service
of George III. there were other Highlanders, born
in Scotland, who gained immortal renown by their
espousal of the cause of the oppressed. By leave
of the Editor of the Celtic Mvufhlii I will present
outline sketches of some of these distinguished men.
„.*^M°' Vi*^i^^- J. P. Maclean.
Highland Notes. — The Clan Maclean Society
have started a singing class, and collected £40 to
inaugurate a pipe band. — "Ale.vanher MacKinnon
A.s Poet SoLniER" was the title of an address
delivered at last meeting of the Clan Mackinnon
Society by Mr. Alexander Macdonald. — Clyubbank
HicHLANii Association met on 2t)th November,
when Mr. John Mackay, Ct'ltic Munflilij, delivered
a lecture on " The Banners of the Clans," and
exhibited photographs of those belonging to the
Mackays, Macphersons, and Stuarts. At next
meeting Mr. Malcolm Macfarlane lectures on
" Gaelic Bards of the present time." — The Clan
CoL(.iUHOUN Society have now in the press an
interesting little volume, treating of the Traditions
of the Clan and Loch Lomond side, edited by Miss
F. Mary Colquhoun and Mr. Niel C. Colquhoun,
Hon. Secretary, illustrated with a number of fine
process portraits and views of the clan country.
The MacCokmacks. — In reply to Mr. William
MacCormick's enquiry, we may say that Mr. Frank
Adam, in "What is my Tartan," places this name
as a sept of the Clan Buchanan {Nn CanuuitUIi),
whose badge is the bilberry, and slogan " Clar
Innis" (an island on Loch Lomond). The Murrays
are an old Perthshire clan, and derive their name
from the district ; the Cunninghams in like manner
take their name from the district of that name in
Ayrshire.