In the year 1760 commissions to raise Independent
Companies in the Highlands, to consist of 5 sergeants and 105 rank and
file each, were given to the following gentlemen, viz. Captains, Colin
Graham of Drainie, James Cuthbert of Milncraigs, Peter Gordon of
Knockespic, Ludovick Grant of the family of Rothiemurchus, and Robert
Campbell, son of Ballivolin.
These officers were to recruit in their own counties
of Argyle, Ross, and Inverness. As observed by a respectable veteran,
who served as a lieutenant in one of those companies, "It was not
necessary, in those days, to go to manufacturing towns to bribe with
whisky and high bounties, the idle and the profligate; we got plenty of
young men in the country." The companies were soon completed. Having
assembled at Perth, they were marched to Newcastle, and remained there
till towards the end of 1761, when the whole were ordered to Germany to
reinforce Keith's and Campbell's Highlanders.
[While these companies lay at Newcastle, they
received orders to be in readiness to march to Durham, as the Pitmen or
Colliers in that part of the country had shown a disposition to riot,
some colleries having struck work, and proceeded to acts of violence.
When this order was received, every cutler's shop in the town was
crowded with the soldiers, sharpening their swords, and preparing their
arms, to the great surprise of the inhabitants, who had formed a very
favourable opinion of the Highlanders, and who could not reconcile this
apparent ferocity with their regular and orderly conduct, and their
ordinarily quiet and obliging disposition. These preparations were the
subject of much observation, and being reported to the discontented, the
circumstance may have had some influence on their minds in producing
that return to tranquillity which rendered active measures against them
unnecessary.]
After the men had embarked, the officers were ordered
back again to the Highlands to recruit. On this service they were very
successful: in a few months 600 men were assembled at Perth, and were
there formed into a regiment of six companies of 5 sergeants and 105
rank and file each. The regiment was numbered the 101st, and the command
given to Major, afterwards Sir James, Johnstone of Westerhall, with the
rank of Major Commandant.
Except Major Johnstone, Adjutant Macveah, and
Sergeant-Major Coxwell, every officer and soldier, both in the
Independent Companies and in the 101st regiment, were Highlanders.
Although Major Johnstone was not himself a
Highlander, he had every qualification for the command of a Highland
regiment. An excellent judgment enabled him to perceive the advantages
of availing himself of the peculiar habits of the men, and of commanding
them rather by influencing their minds, than by the fear of corporal
punishments. He entered on his functions with the spirit of a knight of
former times, and while he made himself agreeable to his men by wearing
their favourite garb, and by humouring and indulging them in the
exercise of their characteristic habits and customs, so far as they did
not interfere with their duty, he secured their attachment, while he
possessed their respect, by the spirit and energy he displayed. When
reviewed at Perth in 1762 by Lieutenant-General Lord George Beauclerk,
the regiment received his public commendation, and he declared that he
had not seen a body of men in a more "efficient state, and better fitted
to meet the enemy." But, however capable they were in this respect, they
had no opportunity of being put to the proof. A detachment of the
regiment was ordered to Portugal, under Lieutenant-General the Earl of
Loudon, but while waiting for orders to sail from Portsmouth, they were
countermanded in consequence of the negotiations for peace, and ordered
back to Perth, where the regiment was reduced in August 1763.