Highlanders in the French and Indian war

[Chris Hills]

Hello all, I am a bit of a history buff (and am a soldier from a long line of soldiers). I spend time every fall in the mountains of PA (Northern Appalachian range) where a number of scots settled upon leaving britain and many still live today. My ancestors actually came through the southern Appalachian range (TN to kY) with many still there but we migrated north.

That said, after a walk in the woods a few weeks back, I headed off to Ligonier PA where they had reenactments going in commemoration of their annual Ft ligonier days. Lots of kilts to be seen as usual, but not just the locals. While my Scots ancestors actually came up to ligonier to fight during this war, they were in buckskins at that time. I had not realized or had somehow missed that the british forces included highlanders. So I had a chat with one of the historians (in a black watch kilt) who, not so kindly, schooled me on the highlander regiments that fought in the war. At one point there were over 1000 kilt wearing highlanders fighting at Ft. Ligonier (or through there on the way to Ft Duquesne). I wonder what they thought of their scots speaking backwoods cousins from KY?

So there you are, all of these Kilt wearing scots running around town looking dapper as usual were NOT the first kilt wearers to hang out in those mountains. Perhaps you all have stumbled across that before but thought you would enjoy it as much as I did!