Chiefs of Grant > Correspondence

466 ADDITIONAL GRANT CORRESPONDENCE. [1779.
540. Mr. James Grant, afterwards Minister of Urquhart, to The Same — Misconduct of
a detachment from the 4 2d and 71st Regiments, at Leith.
Edinburgh, 22 April 1779/
Sir, — I inclose two letters which came by last post. The unhappy squabble at Leith on
Tuesday is pretty fairly related in the newspapers.
The recruits had marched from Linlithgow that morning, and previous to their
departure, and whilst by the way, murmur'd a good deal from the dread of being draughted
into an English regiment, as they called it, with long coats. At Leith they got some whisky
and beer, which, from the fatigue of their march, intoxicated them to a great degree. Upon
marching to the shore they absolutely refused to embark. This occasioned an application
to the Commander-in-Chief, who ordered the Fencibles to bring them prisoners to the Castle.
A deal of reasoning and persuasion was first attempted, but in vain. Captain Mansfield,
in particular, used every lenient measure, untill he despaired of success. Then there was an
order to enclose the recruits and carry them prisoners by force. This was instantly opposed,
and Captain Mansfield was first wounded by a bayonet and then shot through the head.
Nearly at the same time a grenadier of the Duke of Buccleugh's was wounded by a shot. Upon
Captain Mansfield's fall many of the Fencibles fired in a very irregular manner, and without
any order from their officers ; but this was certainly a natural mistake, upon seeing a
favourite officer killed, and a companion wounded. Some indeed say that an idle person
called out, Fire, which the men mistook for an order from their commanders ; although their
firing is naturally enough accounted for by Captain Mansfield's fall.
The number killed on the spot were eight recruits and two fencible privates and one
officer. Five have died of their wounds, and three others are Scarcely expected to recover.
This affair was most unluckily managed. The poor sufferers ought to have been assured
that there was no intention to draft them ; and can you imagine that there was no officer of
their own corps present at the intended embarkation to sooth, if he could not remove, their
fears, or at any rate by his influence to have been the mean of preventing the bloody cata-
strophe which ensued. The poor recruits had only a few shot in all, otherways they would
have sold their lives much dearer. But in any view I consider the affair, they are much to
[be] blamed for firing at all, when the fencibles' officers behaved so mildly and properly, and
the order went no further than to carry them to the Castle. Their intoxication is the only
shadow of an excuse.
Captain Scot of Gala narrowly escaped being run through with a bayonet. A poor girl
was accidentally killed at Leith, and a man wounded.
Two Strathspey men were in the scuffle — one Fraser from near to Lurg, and Grant, son
to Peter Grant, Knis (Fir), in Abernethy. One is killed and the other wounded, but I have
not been able to learn which is the survivor. The boy Fraser, in Lewie's class, being acci-