Note 43 — HISTORICAL RECORD (continued 2)

The chivalrous spirit displayed throughout these campaigns by private James Grant, of the second battalion, deserves to be recorded in these memoirs. This brave fellow was a native of Strathspey; being a musician in the band, he was, as usual, left with it in the rear whenever there was any expectation that the battalion might be seriously engaged. On such occasions, however, Grant uniformly stole away from the band, appropriated to himself the arms of the first man he found in the field disabled from using them himself, and, being a tall, fine-looking soldier, fell in on the right of the grenadier company, and there fought till the day was won, when he returned to his instrument. In this manner he took part in the actions of Busaco, Sabugal, Fuentes D'Onor, El Bodon, and Salamanca, the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo, and was amongst the foremost in the escalade of the castle of Badajoz. From all these he escaped without a wound: he was appointed serjeant-major of the regiment in 1828; and he died in 1835 from the effects of a fall, at Malta, where a handsome tomb was erected by the regiment, on which his achievements were recorded.