McClure's Magazine.
STORIES OF THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS.
By Charles Lowe.
THE FIGHTING GORDONS AT DARGAI—ONE OF THE MOST DARING CHARGES IN RECENT WARFARE.
The British victory at Dargai, which has lately given so much prominence to the Gordon Highlanders, was one of those rare instances of sheer enthusiasm and bravery achieving what cool military judgment had pronounced to be impossible. To reach the foot of the Dargai cliff the assailants had to cross a space perhaps a hundred and fifty yards wide which was entirely open to the enemy's fire from three different points on the top of the cliff. Then, for ascending the cliff there was but one path, a rough, zigzag watercourse, so narrow as to permit not more than two men to mount abreast. An assault was ordered on the morning of October 20th. The natives on the crest reserved their fire until the moment when it would be most fatal; only the smallest fraction of the assaulting column got across the open to the base of the cliff, and the attempt had to be abandoned, the commanding officer reporting that the passage could not be made. But word came back that it must be made, and the Gordon Highlanders and the Third Sikhs were sent forward to reinforce the assaulting line. Then it was that the colonel of the Highlanders called to them, "Men of the Gordon Highlanders, the General says that the position must be taken at all costs. The Gordon Highlanders will take it."
"The order was given," writes a correspondent from the field, "the officers leapt into the open, the pipers followed, striking up the 'Cock o' the North,' and with a shout the leading company of kilted men was into the fire zone. A stream of lead swept over, through, and past them, the bullets churning up a dust which half hid the rushing bodies. The leading line melted away, and it seemed that the Gordons would be annihilated; but more sprang into the passage, and the leaders struggled across to the cover. Then there was a lull, and one had time to see how cruel had been the slaughter. With a second cheer the mixed troops—Highlanders, Dorsets, Ghurkas, Derbys, and Sikhs—streamed across, and the enemy, seeing that the barrier had been swept away, left their loopholes and barricades and fled precipitately down the reverse slopes. It is impossible to describe that passage fully or to write of the Gordons temperately. One of the pipers leading his section was shot through both legs, yet he sat through the fire, wounded as he was, still piping the 'Cock o' the North.'"—Editor.
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THE martial feats performed on some of the most formidable warriors in the world, at the storming of the Dargai ridge, among the mountains of the Indian frontier, have lately directed attention anew to the famous Scottish corps, the Gordon Highlanders, known as the Ninety-second. It dates back to the year 1794, when more soldiers were wanted to fight the battles which the ambition of the French had made imperative on England, and the Duke of Gordon, known as "The Cock o' the North," was granted a "letter of service" empowering him to raise a regiment of infantry among his clansmen. This was in February, and by the month
Copyright, 1898, by the S. S. McClure Co. All rights reserved.
