The following information was collected and assembled after some lengthy research on the 84th Foot I did a couple of years ago using the references listed at the beginning of the 'essay' and perhaps it will be useful for anyone interested.
It may be disjointed somewhat and I apologize for that shortcoming.
B
The sources I used for researching Moore's Creek and the 84th Foot are:
-American Loyalist Troops 1775-1784 by Rene Chartrand.
-Encyclopedia of the American Revolution by Mark Boatner.
-The Moore's Creek Bridge Campaign 1776 by Hugh Rankin.
-Military Loyalists of the American Revolution: Officers and Regiments 1775-1783 by Walter Dornfest.
-The Loyalist Corps: Americans in Service to the King by Thomas Allen and Todd Braisted.
-King's Men: The Soldier Founders of Ontario by Mary Fryer.
-Military Uniforms in America: The Era of the American Revolution 1755-1795 edited by John R. Elting.
-Don Troiani's Soldiers of the American Revolution, Art by Don Troiani and Text by James Kochan.
Here's the order for raising the Royal Highland Emigrants, and it specifically states two battalions, not five as some sources state. The 84th Foot was a two-battalion regiment for its entire existence and the two battalions never served together and some companies from the second battalion were sent on detached service. The regiment was the brainchild of LtCol Allan Maclean who would command the 1st Battalion and Major John Small would command the 2d Battalion.
Royal Highland Emigrants
Orders to Raise a Corps
(Copy)
By His Excellency The Honorable Thomas GAGE General and Commander in Chief of all His Majesty's Forces in North America.
To Lieutenant Colonel Allan MACLEAN
You are hereby empowered with the Officers under your command by Beat of Drum or otherwise to inlist for His Majesty's Service, in any of His Provinces of North America, such Highlanders or such other Loyal Subjects, as you may be able to procure, to be formed into a Corps of two Battalions, to be paid as His Majesty'' other Regiments of Foot, and to receive Fifty Shillings Bounty; they are to consist of Ten Companys each, which companies are to be composed of One Field Officer or Captain, two Subalterns, three Serjeants, three Corporals, two Drums, and Fifty private men:
The whole number of Officers to consist of One Colonel in Chief, one Lieutenant Colonel Commandant, two Majors, one of the two Majors to be Major Commandant, Seventeen Captains, two Captain Lieutenants, Twenty Lieutenants, Eighteen Ensigns, two Adjutants, two Quarter Masters, two Surgeons, two Surgeons Mates, and one Chaplain.
The whole Corps to be cloathed Armed and accoutred in like manner with His Majesty's Royal Highland Regiment and are to be called the Royal Highland Emigrants.
You are to rendezvous on Lake Champlain, or bring them to this place, as you shall find most practicable; but should they be formed in Canada, you will act under the Command of General CARLETON until further orders.
Given under my hand at Head Quarters, Boston 12th June 1775.
(Signed) Thomas GAGE
A true Copy
By His Excellency's Command
(Signed) Saml. KEMBLE
Whitehall September 15th 1778
The foregoing is an exact and true Copy of the Original order for levying the Highland Regiment of two Distinct Battalions, whereof the Honorable Lieut. General GAGE is Colonel in Chief, Lieut. Colonel Allan MACLEAN Commandant of the first Battalion, and Major John SMALL Commandant of the Second.
(Signed) John SMALL Majr. Commandant
Whitehall 27th March 1779
I have compared the foregoing Copy of the order for raising a Corps of Royl. Highland Emigrants with the Original order from Lieut. General GAGE in the possession of Lord AMHERST and find it to be a true Copy.
(Signed) Leod. MORSE
Great Britain, British Library, Additional Manuscripts, No. 21,833, folios 1–2.
Taken from the website royalprovincial.com
Regarding the recruitment of Highlanders for the RHE in North Carolina, Rankin states that two officers of the regiment were dispatched to that state for that purpose in July 1775-LtCol Donald MacDonald and Captain Donald McLeod. They were ‘apprehended' and questioned by state Committee of Safety, but released, after maintaining that they were no longer in the British Army (Rankin, 10).
Rankin also states that 300 men were recruited for the RHE but were added to the Loyalist force departing for the coast to meet the British expeditionary force that was supposed to be on the way to support the rising (Rankin, 12). However, there is no evidence that the recruits were ever part of the regiment and because the Loyalist force was defeated with most of the troops captured, and the rest dispersed, that any of these men ever reached Canada and the regiment.
Kochan states that the Loyalist unit that fought at Moore's Creek was the North Carolina Highland Loyalists (Kochan, 46). No mention is made of the RHE being present in any form, but he does mention that General Gage had dispatched officers to ‘recruit a Highland corps' (Kochan, 46).
Chartrand makes a definite distinction between the RHE and the Highlanders who fought at Moore's Creek, stating that it was the North Carolina Highland Regiment (Chartrand, 13). The 1st Bn of the 84th Foot is described by Chartrand on page 22, and the 2d Battalion on pages 23-24.
In Boatner's Encyclopedia, there is no correlation drawn between the troops who fought at Moore's Creek and the 84th Foot. The RHE are not mentioned by Boatner at Moore's Creek.
Fryar states that ‘Two officers were taken prisoner by the rebels while recruiting in North Carolina. Major John Macdonald and the battalion's chaplain, the Reverend John Bethune, were apprehended and taken to Philadelphia' where both were set free when Philadelphia was taken by the British in 1777.
The North Carolina Provincials are listed as a Loyalist unit by Allen and Braisted on pages 81-82 and was the unit that fought at Moore's Creek. This seems to me to be the same unit said by Kochan to be the North Carolina Highland Loyalists and by Chartrand as the North Carolina Highland Regiment.
Dornfest confirms that the warrant, as shown above, signed by General Gage was for a two-battalion regiment, not five battalions as asserted elsewhere. Dornfest also lists Moore's Creek as an engagement of the 1st Battalion, which is not supported by any evidence. The first battalion was in Canada at the time and fought in the siege of Quebec. The battalion could not be in two places at once.
That the regiment was a two-battalion organization is also confirmed in Elting, Military Uniforms in America, page 38.
Conclusions:
Based on the proferred evidence, it seems likely that the RHE was intended and formed as a two-battalion regiment. Officers were dispatched to North Carolina to recruit and may have recruited up to 300 of the North Carolina Highland Scots for the regiment, but they were not, by any evidence presented, formed as part of the regiment and probably didn't fight as part of the regiment, but part of the North Carolina Provincials/North Carolina Highland Loyalists/North Carolina Highland Regiment. So the idea that the RHE fought at Moore's Creek, especially as the 1st Battalion was stationed in Canada at the time is most probably incorrect.
Pursuant to the discussion on the 84th Foot, the Royal Highland Emigrants, and whether or not they were present at the Battle of Moore's Creek, the book King's Men: The Soldier Founders of Ontario was recommended as a reference.
This volume came in today, and there is no mention of Moore's Creek at all. What is mentioned is that two officers were sent to North Carolina to recruit, but that they were taken prisoner and sent to Philadelphia (page 39). No battalion was formed composed of North Carolinan recruits among the Highlanders in that state.
The regiment consisted of two battalions that were stationed in Canada during the war and which did not serve together. The light companies of one of the battalions did serve in the south in 1780-1781 and fought at Eutaw Springs under Majoribanks.
Another book I ordered, The Moore's Creek Bridge Campaign 1776 by noted military historian Hugh Rankin does mention recruiting of Highlanders for the Royal Highland Emigrants and that those recruits were among the Loyalists who fought at Moore's Creek Bridge. However, they were not yet part of the regiment at the time, and if they ever got to Canada after being dispersed at the battle, it was in small groups and as individuals.
Again, though, Rene Chartrand states that the Highlanders at Moore's Creek were part of the North Carolina Highland Regiment, and were therefore separate from the 84th Foot.
I rec'd The Highland Scots of North Carolina 1732-1776 today, and here is what is said on pages 152-154 on the RHE:
'A large body of emigrants from Scotland came to North Carolina in 1775, as we have seen. The exiled Governor Martin, who was at that time aboard his floatingn executive mansion at the mouth of the Cape Fear, greeted a number of Highlander ships when they arrived. Knowing that he had no power to prevent the Highlanders from seizing crown land for their settlement, he decided to grant them land freely in return for an oath declaring their 'firm and unalterable loyalty and attachment to the King…their readiness to lay down their lives in the support and defence of his Majesty's Government.' The Board of Trande adopted a similar policy in 1775 to encourage enlistments in the Royal Regiment of Highland Emigrants. The following document was given to new recruits:
'The bearer hereof, Duncan MacArthur, having voluntarily engaged to serve His Majesty in the Royal Regiment of Highland Emigrants, (raised and established for the just and lyoal purpose of opposing, quelling, and suppressing the present most unnatural, unprovolked and wanton rebellion,) conformable to the orders and directions of his Excellency the Commander-in-chief, and agreeable to His Majesty's most gracious intentions, signified by the Earl of Dartmouth, (Secretary of State for America,) that such emigrants from North-Britain, as well as other loyal subjects, that should engage to serve in the before-mentioned corps, shoudl be considered in the most favourable light; and after the conclusion of the present unhappy civil war, (to which period only they are obliged to serve,) be entitled to a proportion of two hundred acres vacant (or forfeited) lands for every man or head of a family, together with fifty acres more in addition for every person the family may consist of; the whole to be graned and patented without any expense to the said grantees. And, moreover, to be free of any quit-rent to the Crown for twenty years.'
This contract with Duncan MacArthur was made in Boston in December 1775. Most members of the Royal Regiment of Highland Emigrants were either from New York or Nova Scotia. Although this writer has not discovered any copies of any such contracts made with North Carolina Highlanders, it is possible that some North Carolinians made similar agreements with Brigadier General McDonald. We do know that Governor Martin was directed in April, 1775, to set aside a special area in North Carolina for such Highlander recruits. We know also that the British government planned to organize the North Carolina Highlanders into the Second Battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants when they reached the mouth of the Cape Fear.'
Interesting, but the only problem with the 2d Battalion idea is that it was already ordered to be formed in Canada in June 1775, and it is in direct difference with Dornfest's book on the Loyalists.
So, it appears that the issue is difficult at best and not at all conclusive. What is certain, however, is the the Royal Highland Emigrants did not fight at Moore's Creek in early 1776-both battalions were in Canada.
Chartrand mentions the detachment from the regiment that was at Michilimackinac from the fall of 1780. There was one captain, one sergeant, and 22 enlisted. This was less than company strength and was definitely not two companies. They were from the 1st Battalion and there was also a detachment from the same battalion at Isle-aux-Noix in 1778.
In May 1779 battalion strength was authorized as 81 all ranks per company, but as this could not be reached, it was reduced to 67 all ranks per company.
The 2d Battalion was authorized originally 610 all ranks in ten companies and apparently remained at that authorization for the duration of its existence.
Further, not all of the Loyalists at Moore's Creek were Highlanders-they were regulators who had fought against the Governor at Alamance Creek before the Revolution.
They became Loyalists in the Revolution and the North Carolina militia that had fought for the governor against the rebellious Regulators became Rebels (or Patriots, depending on your point of view) and fought against them again at Moore's Creek…
From Allan Maclean Jacobite General, pages 118-121:
-King George III authorized the regiment on 3 June 1775.
-The regiment was named the Royal Highland Emigrants by the King.
-On 12 June General Gage signed a warrant which empowered Maclean to raise five battalions of the new regiment.
-However, Gage authorized only two battalions to be raised.
From pages 140-141:
'In March [1776], General Gage had evacuated Boston and broght the British army and some Loyalist refugees to Halifax. Worse, many of Allan's officers and recruits were prisoners of the rebels. Captain Duncan Cambell and Lieutenant James Symes, with twenty-three recruits, had left Boston on a privateer last October for New York, hoping to make their way to Canada. The privateer had been captured at sea.'
'Then on 27 February [1776], in North Carolina, some 1500 Highlanders led by Major Donald MacDonald, had set out for the coast on a rumor that a British fleet was approaching. At a bridge over Moore's Creek, the Highlanders had clashed with the rebels. Some thirty had been killed, among them Captain Donald MacLeod, and 850 were captured. Among the prisoners were Captain Allan MacDonald and Lieutenant James Macdonald, the famous Flora's husband and son, and the regimental chaplain, the Reverend John Bethune. All had been taken to Philadelphia.'
'…In North Carolina he [MacLean] had hoped to raise a third battalion, but the disaster at Moore's Creek bridge might rule this out…the royal governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, had flouted the King's plan to have all Highlanders serve in the Royal Highland Emigrants.'
The treacherous Martin had given commissions to Allan's officers. He made Major MacDonald a brigadier general and Captain Macleod a lieutenant-colonel, and had formed his own corps, the North Carolina Highlanders. The governor was empire-building, and had purloined Allan's officers and potential recruits.'
So it seems that the recruits were part of the North Carolina Highlanders at Moore's Creek, which is in concert with Chartrand's material. And, further, it appears that the recruits were not part of the 1st battalion, but were intended, but not embodied, into a 3d battalions of the regiment that was never formed.
paints brigs for the British fleet.
