Highland Independent Companies

My previous post covered the Argyll Militia, formed in the South West of Scotland to counter the Jacobite Rebellion.   Duncan Forbes, Lord Culloden, was Lord President of Scotland, effectively its Governor in the absence of the Secretary of State for Scotland who was in London.

In September 1745, Duncan Forbes was authorised to raise 20 Highland Independent Companies in the North of Scotland.  These were to operate under the command of Colonel John Campbell, Lord Loudoun, who commanded the 64th Foot.  I had already modelled him since he served as General Cope’s Adjutant General at the Battle of Prestonpans and here he is here.  After Prestonpans he escaped to Inverness and continued to recruit his regiment from there.

Argyll Militia

I am in the middle of modelling the Highland Independent Companies which operated in Northern Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion.  Meanwhile, I thought I would post a bit about the Argyll Militia.  Later in the 18th Century several Fencible Regiments (for home service only) were formed but there was only such regiment during the Jacobite Rebellion, the Argyll Militia, formed from followers of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll.

The commission to raise the Argyll Militia was issued in June 1745 to Major General John Campbell of Mamore, a cousin of the Duke, who went on to become the 4th Duke of Argyll in 1761.  However he was in London at the commencement of the Jacobite Rebellion, so his son, the 22 year old Lieutenant Colonel John Campbell of Mamore (later 5th Duke of Argyll) actually raised the Argyll Militia and commanded it throughout the Jacobite Rebellion.

I modelled him earlier and here he is.  He was the Lieutenant Colonel (deputy commander) of the 64th Foot (Loudoun’s) and I have shown him in their uniform, but with a Campbell plaid and a red saltire on a black cockade on his bonnet, which was worn by the Argyll Militia.   There were a lot of officers named John Campbell, including Lord Loudoun himself, so it is easy to confuse them.  He is a converted Strelets Swedish Trabant (Dragoon) of Charles XII.