Walking the Berkshires

More F&I from Fort Ti

There are so many memories of the French and Indian War Grand Encampment at Fort Ticonderoga last weekend, and great images to go with many of them.  This mixed fife and drum corps includes both French and British musicians and came down the road to welcome us on our arrival.  Musicians have a special place in period reenactments, and we heard many impromptu performances by soldiers and civilians in camp as well as on the battlefield.  The highlanders had their pipers on the field, but the skirl of their pipes was drowned out by the musketry. The sound of the drums, however, carried far.

The fort itself was just as popular with the thousands of participants as it was with regular visitors.  I came upon these Grenadiers from His Majesty's 40th Regiment of Foot viewing the portrait and personal effects of an obscure Virginia Militia Colonel who had fought with Braddock at Monongahela in 1755.

The Rangers had their own section of the British camp.  Here members of Rogers' Rangers prepare for the coming battle after the noonday meal. Fort Ti is behind them on the hill, and offers a new profile with the addition of a newly reconstructed building on the east side of the parade ground. 

The highest ranking British officer I saw at the encampment was a much more diligent commander than his counterpart, General James Abercromby, who was not even present at the front during the fruitless assaults he ordered all afternoon against impregnable French positions.  This fellow, on the other hand, was in the thick of things.  Here he addresses some of the drummers from the various regiments, and I overheard him caution that the field was full of briers ands thistles that would make it hard for those without gaiters or leggings.  The green-coated drummer of the Highland Grenadiers in his socks and kilt gamely said that the thistle was the flower of Scotland, to which the general wryly replied that it was a Scottish flower to a certain height, but then became an English spear.

Abercromby and the rest of the 16,000 man force he lead against Montcalm suffered an early and devastating loss when his second in command, Brigadier General Lord Howe, was killed in the opening skirmish after the British made landing at the north end of Lake George.  The 250th commemoration features an opening reenactment in the park by the falls of La Chute in Ticonderoga.  The French have just fired on the advancing British and Howe is down.  The three brown coated light infantrymen in this picture removed his body and placed it beneath a shady tree and guarded it until the 45 minute battle was concluded.  The truth is that all was chaos and blundering in the woods after Howe was shot, and there is still considerable controversy over what became of his body.

Black powder is pretty strong stuff, and reenactors fire much smaller loads than would have been used in actual battle.  Cannons in particular take a fairly small charge and still make a heck of a racket.  One of the peculiarities of firing blanks from muzzle loaders is that they sometimes produce beautiful smoke rings that rise above the fray as can be seen at right where the French have just fired a volley at the British.  It is sometimes known by the charming name of Holy Smoke.

The La Chute battle was actually easier to view than the massive reenactment the next day at the Fort.  Even so, there was action across the river where the Rangers moved on the French flank.  There were only a handful of Native Americans in these engagements (Montcalm had just 14 with him at Carillon), but one is visible in the British line, crouched down and firing at will.  He also riffled the "corpses" looking for trophies, which I thought was a good depiction (though he ought to have had plenty of willing accomplices in the camp followers and king's men).

I recognized two or three of these guys, though, from the reenactment Viv and I saw last September at Rogers Island in Fort Edward.  The fellow in the center was one of these, and at the Grand Encampment he was a designated safety officer, shown here getting his yellow arm band.  The reenactor holding his rifle and the one painted red and black in the center (and also sporting the requisite nasal piercing) are others I remember from that day.  This time they fought with the British, but then they were with the French.

The French sent out a small detachment of skirmishers while the rest of their forces filed in behind this spectacular redoubt, build with volunteer labor especially for this reenactment. Driving in these pickets was the only success of British arms on this day. 

The weather turned ominous after a brutally hot day and began to rain after the battle was well engaged.  I saw units with hats over their gun barrels or marching with their muskets reversed to keep their powder dry, and a drummer with his uniform coat over the drumhead.  The rain kept the smoke near the ground, giving an especially eerie quality to the scene of battle.

We were in a much better position to view the British than the French.  Had we stuck around for the second day and its repeat performance of this battle, we might have tried out the view from the other side of the works.

I can't tell which regiment these men are depicting because they have left their uniform coats with their telltale facings back in camp because of the heat. His Majesty's forces may appear to be dressing down, but in fact modifications were made to their uniforms to account for the challenges of forest fighting.  Col. Gage's 80th foot were trained as Light Infantry, an innovation that would have a great impact on British armies and their adversaries in the coming decades.

This was the Highlanders' battle, though: the one in which they were sent in as reserves and cut to pieces in repeated charges into the entanglements.  We had been playing and singing The Piper's Refrain all weekend, thinking of Duncan Campbell and his many fallen companions.

I'm already starting to make plans to be on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 2010.  Maybe this time in garb...

2008 French and Indian War Grand Encampment, Ticonderoga

This past weekend, our family pitched our tent in the Adirondack woods by a pond named for a Captain in Rogers' Rangers and attended the largest French and Indian War reenactment ever held, anywhere.  The Grand Encampment at Ticonderoga this year was the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Carillon, and reenactors came from as far away as Australia to participate. 

The size of the thing was truly amazing.  This shot taken from the newly restored northern bastion of Fort Ticonderoga shows only the British camp and sutlers tents: the French and civilians each had camps of their own and there were thousands of these in attendance.  There were, in fact, more than 500 British, Provincial, French and Indian combatants engaged in the opening skirmish at La Chute on Friday (above) and more than 2000 the next day at the reenactment of the British debacle before the French redoubt and abatis at what was then called Fort Carillon.

We drove up in modern mufti, for I have not yet made the...my wife assures me "investment" is not the right word...commitment to this hobby, much as it appeals to my lifelong love of living history.  F & I is a family friendly time period, with many families coming in garb and staying in character.  I saw a girl younger than Elias bowing a reel on a tiny fiddle, and many women blending into the ranks ala Deborah Samson as well as in 18th century gender roles.

There were a colonial doctor and his lady, who walked serenely through the brutal heat and later downpour on Saturday, as well as a good number of barelegged painted savages.  Truth be told, though the full kit can run you into thousands of dollars, there were plenty of folks just wandering around in hunting shirts and loin cloths.  I would also observe that at least on the British side, there was a preference for representing the various ranging companies disproportionate to their historic numbers in the King's forces.  The British regulars, while impressive, constituted perhaps 40% of the total forces available on Saturday to assault the French.

As in the actual battle, when British commander General Abercromby left his artillery train with the boats at the North end of Lake George, only the French had cannon.  They also had the advantage of an extensive log breastwork and abatis on which Abercromby sacrificed over 2,000 of the 8,000 troops he sent in frontal assaults all afternoon on July 8th, 1758.  The heaviest casualties were taken by the 42nd Highland Regiment, which loss half of those it sent into action.  There were four reenacting companies of the Black Watch present for the 250th, including grenadiers in bearskins.  We stopped in Fort Edward on the way home to pay our respects at the grave of one of these Scots, the fabled Duncan Campbell of Inverawe about whom I have written before. Here's just a taste...

   

Name That Ruin

Extra points for its history. 

Tenting Tonight

We are heading for the Northway and the massive French and Indian War Grand Encampment at Fort Ticonderoga this weekend to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Carillon.  We will be observers at this event, as were one or two of my ancestors: certainly Reverend Jonathan Ingersoll, Chaplain in Colonel Eleazer Fitch's 4th Connecticut Provincial Regiment, and possibly Lieutenant Elias Dayton of the Jersey Blues who was there the next year when the British took Ticonderoga.  Given my wife's French Canadian heritage, it is possible that some of her ancestors fought with the French.  In any case we'll be camping at Putnam Pond and enjoying the scenery and the gun smoke and a few days away from things like cell phones and blogging. 

Anticipate many pictures on our return.

Sir Robert No More

Sir Robert Mugabe, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath since 1994, is to be stripped of that honor by Great Britain.  Not that this will matter to him in the least, but it has certainly taken far too long for Britain to get around to disassociating Zimbabwe's brutal dictator from this title.  UMass barely beat the Brits to the punch in revoking Mugabe's honorary degree on June 12th, which he had held since 1986.  The Edinburgh University yanked his 1984 honorary doctorate still earlier on July 17th, 2007.  A belated groundswell?

Not really, as  Michigan State University still refuses to revoke Mugabe's honorary degree. 

Also today, the massive mining concern Anglo American announced it is investing in a Zimbabwe platinum mine to the tune of US$400 million, which is mighty white of them.   Divestment be damned in the global marketplace.  And what's good for Barclays is good for Zimbabwe, right?  But at least they don't have to call him Sir or Dr., anymore.  That's gotta hurt.

"We Apologize Because This Is Not Who We Are"; What Southern Africa Really Owes Zimbabwe

The African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, has issued a strongly worded statement condemning repression of democratic rights in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.  Meanwhile, the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeke, who lost control of his own party last December, has remained silent.  In neighboring Namibia, the Prime Minister Nahas Angula voiced concern last week about the upcoming runoff elections in Zimbabwe and called for increasing the number of observers. 

Since then, of course, the opposition leader has pulled out of the elections and fled to the Embassy of the Netherlands in the wake of surging violence and police action against members of his party.  Namibia has not condemned Mugabe's regime either, and its Defense Force Chief has just returned from a 4 day trip to Zimbabwe where he assured the Zimbabwean media:

"The relationship between Namibia and Zimbabwe is growing from strength to strength. We share so many things. We have so many things in common. We would want to build on that relationship,"

What southern Africa nations share with Zimbabwe, in addition to a common history of liberation struggle and instability during the Cold War / Apartheid years, are complex economic dependencies, most significantly with regard to access to electrical power.  This month Namibia doubled its power imports from Zimbabwe. 

"[In March],Nampower advanced US$40 million to Zimbabwe to assist with the refurbishment of four electricity generating units at its coal-fired Hwange Power Station in return for a guaranteed supply of 150 megawatts for the next five years.

NamPower's managing director Paulinus Shilamba said the rehabilitation of the first unit has been completed, allowing for the increased power production.

Shilamba said the utility was not concerned that the deteriorating situation would affect Zimbabwe's ability to honor the agreement despite the power station being plagued with breakdowns and a shortage of parts in the country.

"They (Zimbabwe) have been very good in fulfilling their commitment and we have a lot of confidence in these guys," Shilamba said."

Even as many world powers call for the isolation of Zimbabwe, including a unanimous vote of the UN Security Council which said that "a free and fair election was impossible if violence and intimidation continued",  Russia, China and South Africa blocked stronger language in the UN measure that would have recognized opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as "the legitimate president, until another fair election can be held."  China and South Africa are Zimbabwe's biggest trading partners, and both are heavily invested in the regional economy. 

There is also a strong sensitivity in southern Africa to interference in the affairs of sovereign nations.  Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe overcame these qualms as participants in the The Second Congo War, which was as much a scramble for resources as an expression of solidarity and regional alliances.  Some of this reticence is cultural; with the exception of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere, there is not a strong tradition of former African leaders making a successful transition to senior statesmen.  Some of it comes from looking over their shoulders.  And some of it is ideological - resistance movements that become ruling parties after achieving Independence are used to identifying external threats and avoiding turning the lens on internal shortcomings.

Alan Little of the BBC cautions his readers today; "Do not underestimate the psychology of Africa's liberation tradition." This tradition is also what makes this e-mail letter from a South African to Zimbabwean refugees who have suffered a murderous backlash in his own country so telling:

"...I have been pondering whether to write this email or not, but mainly because I was ashamed of what this beautiful countries (sic) of ours has become.

In your country:  My democracy was conceived when the MK soldiers fought alongside the ZIPRA forces in what was known as the Wankie Campaign in 1967.  My brothers and sisters were looked after in Lusaka and they were given shelter.  The blood of my brothers and sisters were spilled in Maputo in what was known as Matola raid on January 31, 1981 and your government gave them a state burial.  The blood of my people was spilled in Maseru in what was known as the Maseru Massacre and your government gave them a state burial.  The foundation of my democracy was laid in Mongoro Tanzania in 1969 in what was known as the Morogoro resolution.  Your country gave my people land for them to be educated at Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO) in Mazimbu Tanzania.  My soldiers were trained in Uganda, Lusaka, Angola, Mozambique, Algeria, Libya, Cuba, Russia.  They fought in Cuinto Canhavallo alongside their Angolan, Namibian as well as the Cuban comrades in Angola.  My democracy was delivered in Harare when the Harare Declaration was signed with the support of the Frontline States.  my Movement's Congress was held in your country in 1985 in Kitwe, Zambia.

Your people protected, clothed and loved my movement.  My people's struggle became your own struggle.  Not once did you call them with derogatory names.  Not once did you burn my brothers and sisters and not once did you say they are taking your jobs and women.

But most importnatly, I have a home in Harare at pastor Murefu's house, Zimbabwe.  I have a home in Lilongwe at Cyprian's house, Malawi.  I have a home in Kenya at Levi Nyambati's house.  I have a home in Lusaka, Chipata, Mapanza as well as Livingstone with the BBalo and the Mutare family respectively, Zambia.  My brother is lying in Mapanza, Zambia.  I have a home in Mozambique at Pastor Nhantumbo's family (May his soul rest in peace).  I have a home in Ivory Coast as well as DRC Kinshasa with Vincent Tohbi.  I am married to the grand daughter of the Sena people in Malawi, Mozambique as well as Zimbabwe.  My wife's maternal grandparents are in Swaziland.

My brothers, I apologize to you, your friends and your families for the barbaric action that you see in our country.  I apologize to Kenyatta, Nkrumah, Machel, Tongoara, Mwalimu Nyerere, Aostinho Nehto, Mondlane, etc.  I apologize on behalf of my leaders as well as my people that this is not who we are and this is not what makes us.  I apologize and I would like to tell you that this is not the view of my country, but the thuggery elements in our society who will use and drag our name in mud to achieve their evil deeds.  I would also like to assure you that our government as well as the members of our society at large, are working hard to root out these elements in our society.

We apologize because this is not who we are.

I hope you will find it in your hearts to open your doors and not to let these barbaric actions come between our friendship and all the wonderful things we have shared.  My home is your home and I trust and believe that your home will remain my home.  This I write from my heavy heart and i truly apologize on behalf of my firends, my family as well as all South Africans.

Freddy Tshikala, South African"

The return to the bad old days of regional instability and the specter of burning necklace victims once more in the townships have shaken people like Mr. Tshikala and those like him who were raised in a culture of pan-African resistance where "an injury to one is an injury to all."  They grieve for what Zimbabwe has become under Mugabe, their former comrade and supporter.  But they also grieve for what they have become, as nations and people who by their actions and inactions are now complicit in the repression of those who stood by them when the oppressor was always external and not one of their own.  Finding their courage and helping their leaders find theirs is the best hope for Democracy in the region. 

May it come in time for Zimbabwe.

Cabinet of Curiosities #8 "Mathom Edition"

"It was a tendency of hobbit-holes to get cluttered up; for which the custom of giving so many birthday-presents was largely responsible. Not, of course, that the birthday-presents were always new; there were one or two old mathoms of forgotten uses that had circulated all around the district; but Bilbo had usually given new presents and kept those that he received." 

- The Fellowship of the Ring pg 65; Art at left: "A Tolkien Mathomium" by James Dunning.

Apparently J.R.R. Tolkien is to blame for those regifted presents among coworkers come Secret Santa Season.  A mathom to a hobbit is something for which one really has no use, or for which the use has been forgotton, but is passed along (if parted with at all) rather than tossed out.  A mathom-house like the one the hobbits maintain at Michel Delving is really just a cabinet of curiosities by another name. It is a fine line between a meaningful heirloom and a mathom, and the difference between the two is the story that goes with the item.  Here, then, is the 8th "Mathom Edition" of Cabinet of Curiosities, the blog carnival that dares you gift us with the stories behind your own mathoms.

Mr. Lord of Lord and Lady starts us off with the remarkable story of how he unravelled the genealogy of a family heirloom: a flintlock. 

"It is a beautiful piece in very bad condition, a Connecticut weapon made probably in the late 1700's It was given a special place in my collection. On the top of barrel there is a German silver inlay and this is inscribed with J.LORD, this is why the dealer in Tribes Hill new I would want it."

Over in the forums at Straight Razor Place, the smooth skinned devotees of wet shaving are geeking over their ancestral shaving gear.  Though one commenter notes "Hehe, I can't help thinking that most of my family would consider such an item no different than an old toothbrush rather than an heirloom."  Good thing other folks do.  I have a couple of my grandfather's, but they are definitely just for looking at.

Zay MoMo has what may be the quintessential mathom: a family heirloom that curses your root!

"My Halmoni (Grandmother) gave this bottle of ginseng liquor as a gift long ago when my parents were newlyweds. My dad always had plans to open this bottle and have a drink when he retired from the Army. My dad didn't have the heart, I guess, to open the bottle since it had been with us from the start. Dad gave the ginseng liquor to K when we were newlyweds. K had the intention of opening the bottle when he graduated from college. The big day came and went and the bottle still remained intact without a drop missing. K, too, didn't have the heart to open the bottle. Unintentionally, this gift had been turned into a heirloom."

Vintage Lane Stitches shows off some heirloom needlework and observes; "Imagine making and sewing lots of these, by hand, with feather stitch onto a big piece of material to make a bed spread, this big.Lots of patience required I think. My husbands Nan made this quite a few years ago using some of the material out of his mum's and aunties old dresses."  Gorgeous stuff and wonderful memories.

"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."  At the Art Institute of Chicago, reports Hyperexperience there are holes in the wall that offer windows into miniature rooms of exquisite detail.

"The lilliputian rooms stand out in the city of big shoulder, not only for their size but because they only depict domestic, traditionally feminine spaces, namely kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms, and are filled with cues of the woman’s place in these societies. Most rooms feature a pace for sewing, writing letter, or cooking; almost all contain furniture for receiving groups of people, as well as children’s toys scattered about, but none contains any tools which may have been associated with manual labor, industry and the male place. The Thorne rooms stand as a micro-monuments to domesticity, a striking counterpoint to Chicago’s contribution to our modern monumental vocabulary: the skyscraper, towering emblem of commerce and industry and anything but domestic or feminine in form or function."

Then there is the "house as mathom", such as the semi-detached in Headington, England that Out The Blog leads us to with the 25' shark impailed in its roof...

"No one living in Headington notices it much any more, but it caused a tremendous stir both locally and nationally on the day it appeared. It had been winched up by a crane overnight, and although the police were aware of what was going on they were powerless to do anything, as there is no law to prevent a man from putting a shark on his own roof."

Praises be.  I'm going to remember that when I decide to do some home improvements. Go here to see how the shark has eluded the best efforts of the municipal planning board to have it removed since 1986.

Damn Data / Cabinet of Wonders rolled out another installment in its marvelous Compendium of Curiosities series on May 20th.  Doctor Doolittle would be proud of this edition, and it even has the classic YouTube drama in which a pride of lions, some crocodiles, and a herd of Cape buffalo mix it up at a Kruger waterhole.  Not to be missed, especially the surprise ending.

So you wanna be a souvenier smashed penny collector?  Andy Fletcher's Custom Trains Blog may give you the bug.

Richard McGlauchlin's Oh, the Places You'll Go explains The Grandfather Paradox, and hence why timetravel is bound to create more mathoms than heirlooms.  I'm my own grandpaw, indeed.

But if you do have a hankering to go somewhere curious and exotic, AdmirableIndia recommends Chennakesava temple at Belur, Hoysaleswara temple at Halebid and Castle Rock Homestay, Chikmagalur.

So, if you've got, say, a shiny gold ring you can't bear to part with, it may be a mathom.  Or it may be The One.  Either way, we want to know about it. 

Cabinet of Curiosities will be on summer holiday until September.  If you would like to host a future edition, by all means be our guest.  And if your eye falls on a bargain, pick it up.  of such things are mathoms made.

1780 British Sloop of War Found Intact (Except for the Zebra Mussels)

This is a great story.  HMS Ontario, a revolutionary war era ship, has has been found intact at the bottom of its namesake lake.  She went down with all hands in a fearsome gale on October 31, 1780.

The 80ft sloop of war sank with more than 120 men, women, children and prisoners on board during the American revolutionary war in October 1780. Bad weather rather than cannon fire put paid to her. As she was crossing the lake from Fort Niagara a gale swamped her decks and sent her to the bottom.

The following day some of her boats and hatch covers drifted ashore, along with a few hats. A few days later her sails were found adrift. It was a further nine months before six bodies were washed up 20 miles away.

The ship is in deep water, in such an extraordinary state of preservation that two of its windows are still in place and its masts still stand 70 feet above the deck.  It would be in even better shape were it not for the invasive zebra mussels that infest the great lakes, Lake Champlain and ever more US waterways and encrust the wreck.  Canadian author and historian Arthur Britton Smith said;

“If it wasn’t for the zebra mussels, she looks like she only sunk last week.”

And Jim Kennard, who with his partner Dan Scoville found the wreck, said;

"Eight of the 22 guns were on the deck. Some are still in place. You can't see the others because the gun ports are closed. It's hard even to see the ports because the hull has a lot of mussels on it. The most prominent parts of the ship are the quarter galleries, a sort of windowed balcony, one at each side of the stern. That was the captain's quarters."

Nasty things, those mussels.

HMS Ontario, a 22 gun brig sloop, is the oldest confirmed shipwreck ever found in the lakes, and its discovery is an incredible achievement.  It is considered a war grave and though it lies in US territorial waters somewhere between Rochester New York and Niagara, it is still British property.  And the mussels.

Call For Posts: Cabinet of Curiosities #8 "Mathom Edition"

The 8th Cabinet of Curiosities Blog Carnival will be here at Walking the Berkshires on Monday, June 16st.  The deadline for you to send your nominations & submissions is 12:00 p.m. ET Sunday the 15th.  We are going to call this one the Mathom edition, which fans of Tolkien know refers to something for which Hobbits have no immediate use but are unwilling to throw away. 

"Bilbo had a corslet of mithril-rings that Thorin gave him.  I wonder what became of it?"

Any mathoms, heirlooms, keepsakes and ephemera you might have stashed away with a good story to go with them would be most welcome.   But we'll also take your story about your marriage to the Eiffel Tower.  Just spare us the wedding night photos...

"Should Old Aquaintance Be Forgot": Who Ever Heard of Thomas Stirling?

Perhaps we Americans have a natural disdain for keeping track of our former British adversaries from the colonial era, or maybe there is less interest today in the United Kingdom in preserving the memory of those old defeats.  I am otherwise at a loss as to why it is so difficult to find accurate information about a soldier of long service (1747-1801) who fought during the French and Indian War as a Captain in the Black Watch, was severely wounded at the head of his brigade during the American War of Independence, and left the British Army a full general.  He doesn't rate a mention in Boatner's (1966) Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, and unless I decide to create an entry you won't find him in Wikipedia.

My interest in General Thomas Stirling came about during my research into two battles that took place in New Jersey in June of 1780.  He was wounded at the very outset of this campaign - what is often referred to as Knyphausen's Springfield Raid - but there was evidently very little awareness of his ultimate fate on the part of contemporary Americans and subsequent historians.  Some sources said the wound was mortal.  Others that he died from complications a year later.  Given that the Dictionary of National Biography. 63 vols. London, 1885-1901. Vol. LIV, pp. 383-384 declares that Sterling lived another 28 years after his injury, it seems high time that someone set the record straight.

Thomas Stirling (1733-1808) was the younger brother of Sir William Stirling, Fourth Knight Baronet of Ardoch, and succeeded to his brother's title as the Fifth (and last) Knight Baronet in 1799.  Most available sources agree he was born in 1733.  His most complete service record available on line states that Thomas Stirling began his military career with a commission from the Prince or Orange dated October 11, 1747 and spent the next decade with the Scottish Brigade in the service of the Dutch, participating in the final stages of the War of Austrian Succession. 

On March 24, 1757 (another source says July 24th) he was commissioned a Captain in the 42nd Highland Regiment.  One of Stirling's biographical references claims in 1755 he was a captain and lieutenant in the 48th Regiment of Foot and wounded with Braddock at Monongahela, which conflicts with his Dutch service and is not borne out by other available records, including a list of the officers of the 48th.  He appears to have been at the Battle of Carillon under Abercrombie and the capture of Ticonderoga the following year with Amherst. He was at the surrender of Montreal in 1760, and wrote to his brother at home that he was "heartily tired of this country, as was every officer in it" and expressing his hope that "Long may Peace reign here...as surely god never intended any war should be carried on by any other besides the natives."  It would be a very long time indeed before he would return to his home in Scotland.

It gets tricky to follow his movements during this period, as the 42nd had two battalions and the 2nd of these was sent to Martinique in 1759. Captain Stirling and the 42nd (now Royal) Highland regiment was actually sent to the Caribbean in 1762, and he was wounded at Martinique during this campaign and not in 1759 as others assume.

The two battalions were combined after the fall of Havana and remained in New York as part of the force selected to protect the colonies.  Captain Stirling took part in the relief of Fort Pitt in the summer of 1763 during Pontiac's Rebellion and served against the Ohio Indians in 1764.  He is specifically credited with leading a 100 man detachment down the Ohio to take possession of Fort Chartres in southern Illinois.  It was an odyssey worthy of the likes of Robert Rogers or Benedict Arnold and I'd love to someday read the journals of the expedition, which reportedly describe such encounters as a "prodigious number" of pelicans that were initially mistaken for a regiment of the white-uniformed French, a personal battle that Captain Stirling had with a "monstrous" bear, and makeshift sails made from the regimental plaids.  After overwintering at the Fort, they traveled downriver to New Orleans and sailed via Pensacola to New York and then marched to rejoin their regiment in Philadelphia.

Thomas Stirling remained with the 42nd Highlanders after they were posted to the Irish garrison, rising to Major and Lt. Colonel, which in the British army at that time served as the tactical commander of the regiment, with the Colonelcy going to a General officer. In 1776, he lead the 42nd back to America, arriving in August before New York.  The battalion companies of the 42nd and two other highland regiments were organized into two temporary battalions under the overall command of Lt. Col. Stirling, who set about preparing his men for the realities of an American campaign and training them to fight in open order as light infantry, as this 1825 history recounts:

"From the moment of their landing, Colonel Stirling was indefatigable in drilling the men to the manner of fighting practiced in the former war with the Indians and French bushmen, which is so well calculated for a close, woody country.  Colonel Stirling was well versed in this mode of warfare, and imparted it to the troops, first by training the non-commissioned officers himself, and then superintending the instruction of the soldiers.  The highlanders made rapid progress n this discipline, being, in general, excellent marksmen, and requiring only to have their natural impetuosity restrained, which often lead them to disdain fighting in ambush."

Thomas Stirling lead his men at Long Island.  Coincidentally, the American General William Alexander (1726-1786) of New Jersey, who also happened to be a claimant for the earldom of Stirling, was captured during this battle.  Alexander was known to American contemporaries as Lord Stirling even though he was unable to secure the title and should not be confused with the subject of this essay.

Lt. Col. Thomas Stirling also took part in the attack and capture of Fort Washington later that fall and served in New Jersey that winter.    The battalion companies of the 42nd were in reserve during the Battle of Brandywine and Stirling later led the 42nd and a detachment of the 10th to drive the enemy from Billingspoint ,and so was not present at the Battle of Germantown.  He was often sent on foraging expeditions and raids with more than just his regiment under his command.  In February 1779 he led a raid from Staten Island to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and reoccupied Stoney Point when it was abandoned by Anthony Wayne.

Clearly, this was a highly competent officer, well suited to service in America.  In February of 1779 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the King and.  In June, 1780, now a Brigadier General, he lead the first brigade in Knyphausen's invading force that crossed once again from Staten Island to Elizabethtown.  At the very outset, it was his misfortune to be shot from his horse in the single volley fired at the British vanguard by a picket of twelve men under Ensign Moses Ogden of Spenser's New Jersey regiment, who had been posted in Elizabethtown by my ancestor Colonel Elias Dayton.  Stirling's injury was considered severe and Knyphausen himself took command of the vanguard.

But how severe?  Thayer's As We Were; The Story of Old Elizabethtown published by the New Jersey Historical Society in 1964 mistakenly states that the wound was mortal.  Hatfield's History of Elizabeth, New Jersey (1868) to which Thayer's work owes a substantial debt, reports that the General was unhorsed, and his thigh fractured by the shot, and erroniously claims "he died of his wound, a year later".   His injury, while serious, did not prevent him from seeing further service, however.  One source states he was at Yorktown with Cornwallis, though it should be pointed out that this source also claims he was with Clinton during his 1780 Charleston, S.C. campaign, which was contemporaneous with his wounding in New Jersey.  His old regiment the 42nd Highlanders did go south with Clinton, however.  In May of 1782 he was made "colonel" of the 71st Highlanders, succeeded the deceased General Frasier.  In 1801 he was a full general.

Here then, was the commander of a famous regiment, who saw hard service in the American War of Independence and left North America a Major General, and yet his story is little known and much remains to be clarified. It may be that his loss at the beginning of the 1780 invasion of New Jersey had significant implications for the way that the campaign would develop, and it is a shame his record is not better understood or documented. I was unable to find even a portrait of Thomas Stirling to use in this piece.