Note 561 — PART THIRD. HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND REGIMENTS. (continued 18)

“Here the Lochaber men (raised by Captain Cameron) showed at once the influence of that clan-feeling under which they had consented to go to war. When it was proposed to draft them into the separate divisions of grenadiers and light troops, they at once declared that they would neither be separated from each other, nor serve under any captain except Cameron, that they had followed him as their leader, and him only they would serve. It required all his persuasion to induce them to submit to the rules of the service; but, assisted by his relative, Major Campbell of Auch,—a man of weight and experience,—and promising that he himself would always watch over their interests in whatever division they were ranked, he prevailed on them to submit; and as we shall subsequently see, none of them ever had cause to reproach him with forgetting his pledge.” Memoir of Colonel Cameron, by Rev. A. Clerk.—When Huntly first resolved to raise the regiment, he called on old Fassifern, and offered to his son John a captain’s commission in it. Fassifern, however, declined the gratifying offer on the ground that he was unable to raise the number of men necessary to entitle his son to such a rank; whereupon the marquis offered the captaincy without any stipulation or condition, saying he would be glad to have John Cameron as a captain in his regiment, though he brought not a single recruit.