march in July, and joined the main army the day after the battle of Talavera. From January to June 1810 Craufurd's advanced position on the Coa was one of extreme danger, and Cameron distinguished himself in many emergencies, and in the action, 24 June 1810, held the bridge with two companies against the French army until Major Macleod of the 43rd came to his assistance. In the retreat on Busaco he commanded the rear companies of the light brigade, which covered the retreat. He commanded the outposts during the time when Masséna remained at Santarem, and in the pursuit after that marshal succeeded to the command of the left wing of the rifles, after the fall of Major Stuart at Foz d'Aronce, and twice led it into action at Casal Nova and at Sabugal. The light brigade had during the occupation of the lines of Torres Vedras become the light division by the addition of two regiments of Portuguese caçadores, and as a wing of the rifles was attached to each brigade, Cameron's command was of proportionate importance, and he was specially recommended by Lord Wellington for a brevet majority, to which he was gazetted on 30 May 1811. During the siege of Almeida and at the battle of Fuentes de Onoro he commanded a detachment of two hundred picked sharpshooters and half a troop of horse artillery, with the special duty of preventing supplies from entering the place, and during the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo he commanded the left wing of the rifles at the outposts and the covering party during the storm on 18 Jan. 1812. At the siege of Badajoz he was specially thanked in general orders, with Colonel Williams of the 60th, for repulsing a sortie, and on the night of the assault he again commanded the covering party. On the death of Major O'Hare he succeeded to the command of the battalion, and led it into the city. He received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy and the vacant regimental majority on 27 April and 14 May 1812. He then succeeded to the command of the 1st battalion, which was again united, on the 2nd battalion rifles joining the division, and kept it in such perfect condition that it became a model to the whole army (see anecdote in Cope's History of the Rifle Brigade, p. 127). This battalion he commanded at the battle of Salamanca, and in the advance to Madrid, and with it covered Hill's retreat along the left bank of the Tagus. He had the mortification of being superseded in his command of the battalion by the arrival of Lieutenant-colonel Norcott in May 1813, and so was only present at the battle of Vittoria as a regimental major, where he was so severely wounded that he had to return to England. Towards the close of 1813 he was selected for the command of a provisional battalion of rifles, which was sent to Flanders to serve in Sir Thomas Graham's expedition, and he commanded it at Merxem, when he was thanked in the general orders and mentioned in despatches, and before Antwerp. At the conclusion of peace he received a gold medal and two clasps for having commanded a battalion at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and Salamanca, and was made a C.B. When war again broke out in 1815, he accompanied the 1st battalion rifles to Belgium as regimental major, and commanded the light companies of Kempt's brigade of Picton's division at Quatre Bras, and his battalion at the battle of Waterloo, from the period of Barnard's wound until the close of the day, when he was himself wounded in the throat. Cameron saw no more service, and his latter years are marked only by promotions and honours. In October 1815 he was made a knight of the Russian order of St. Anne; in 1830 he was promoted colonel; in 1832 he was appointed deputy-governor of St. Mawes; in 1838 he was promoted major-general, and made a K.C.B.; in 1846 he received the colonelcy of the 74th regiment, and on 26 July 1850 he died at Inverallort in Argyllshire. He was one of the very best officers of light troops ever trained by Moore and employed by Wellington.
[Royal Military Calendar; Cope's History of the Rifle Brigade.]
CAMERON, ARCHIBALD (1707–1753), Jacobite, was the fourth son of John Cameron, eighteenth of Lochiel, by his wife, Ishbel, daughter of Alexander Campbell of Lochnell, and the younger brother of Donald Cameron [q. v], who took a prominent part in the rising of 1745. He was born in 1707, and was originally intended for the bar, but preferred medicine to law, and, after completing his studies at Edinburgh and Paris, settled at Lochaber among his own people, devoting his whole attention to their general welfare, and exercising among them as much the functions of a philanthropist as a physician. In the rebellion of 1745 he was present with his clan, 'not from choice,' as he alleged, 'but from compulsion of kindred,' and chiefly in the character of physician, although apparently holding also the rank of captain. After the defeat of the highlanders at Culloden, 16 April 1746, Cameron took on active part in concealing Prince Charles, being always in constant communication with him, and sending information to him, when in the 'cage' at Benalder, of the arrival of two vessels at Loch-nanuagh to convey him and his friends to France. Escaping with the party, which
