The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-22
HIGHLANDERs IN BATTLE.
How Scottish Pipers Have Led Their
Comrades ON to Victory.

Comrades ON to Victory.
John Angus Mackaye, in Pittsburg Dis
The Ninety-second Gordon Highlanders.
~ known In the British army. have add
ed one more honor to their battle flag.
Long ago it d nopped With the weight Of
who swept over it are now known wher-
ever the telegraph runs. Piper Find
later, who blew Cock O. the North shrill
and clear, to an accompaniment of rat
Ting musketry and the weird screams of
comrades. dying, as they charged, is prob
ably lying invaded in a field hospital in
northwestern India But his name, as a
hero. has sent glow to the heart and
the world. Once more the Killed soldiers
have been the fOrlorn hope. Once more the
humble piper's plaid has proved the hero's
No such stirring story of war as the
taking of Dargai ridge, told in the tele-
grams yesterday morning. has been penned
that time the Highlanders and their piperS
We're also. the men who did 1t. They took
the trenches at Tel-El-Kebir, in lower
Egypt, in silence. Only the triumphant
pibroch of the bagpipers urged them on.
They are the only men who fight to music.
In other regiments the bandsmen, on active
service, become stretcher bearers and bu-
glers But wherever the "kilties go the
piper goes with them, and always in the
battle with nothing to defend himself but a
long dirk at his belt. He has been driven
ment-as a bully might swing a chair-in
self-defense. But his lack of arms never
serves as excuse for lack of courage. He
leads the men to battle: And so in the
piping times of peace" he has earned the
right to strut and swagger like peacock.
as he always does when his pipes are
skirling for war over his shoulder.
1t was the HighIanders who made 1.-The
thin red line" in the Crimea. 1t was the
flood and fire to the relief of Lucknow in
the Indian mutiny. 1t was their pipes that
Jessie Brown, dying in the beleagpered
cried "Dinna We hear them, oh! dinna we
hear?" 1t was the Highlanders who. under
Roberts. made the famous forced march
twenty years ago. 1t was the Highlanders
who died to a man fighting the Beers on
held the square against the Wild rush of the
Arab hosts at Ell Teb on the Nile, ard it
was the Highland Brigade who stormed
Arab Pasha out of Egypt. And wherever
the Highlanders fought the pipers went
| also, their wild music sounding high above
the cheers of the charging men behind
them. Cock o. the North" Blue Bon
nets" "A Hundred Pipers an a " or "Pi-
what the tune might be. the stirring strains
were the glory of the heather covered hills
far away, the memory of centuries of
renown. and the fair fame of that little
parish in the distant valleys from which the
regiment came II was the voice of their
kin calling on them to fight; And they
In the dawn of a September morning the
Highland Brigade was drawn up on the
sands of Egypt over decade ago. For
half the night they had marched in ST.
Ience. A hot, dusky. choking night 1t was
under sky of velvet blackness in which
the big tropic stars were winking as If in
tears for the brave men marching reso-
Iutely TO their DEATH Commands came in
whispers There was a feeling in the air
that an immense crowd was in motion I'm
the darkness on either hand. But no man
knew Just how much of the army was
under way The 'sift, stiff of thousands of
feet in loose sand. the choking cough, the
stumble of men in the darkness the clash
of steel against steel, the muttered OATH
the smell Of perspiration from men keyed
up to excitement-that was all the pri-
Yates could understand.
That and the fact that extra ammunition
in the pouches Juggling at the belts proba-
bly meant a battle Haiti came the whis-
pered command, and there was the rattle
of guns butts on gravel as the regiments
came to a standstill. Then there were more
sounds the noises that always come from
men getting ready to fight the next minute
Belts were tightening Helmets were being
pushed firmly down. Ammunition pouches
were being swung clear. Then came the
whispered order that the trenches of the
Egyptians were right In front. They We're
to be carried with the bayonet. II was to
be a surprise on the sleeping enemy. Tel
El-Kebir was to be captured. AS the low
order came, fix bayonets," there was a
prolonged rattle as thousands of long, slim