US Civil War Highland Regiments

[macwilkin]

Getting back on-topic: (which was my fault )

Besides the aforementioned 79th New York, another Federal "Scottish" unit was the 12th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the "1st Scotch Regiment", commanded by John MacArthur, a native of Erskine, Scotland. MacArthur commanded the Chicago Highland Guards, a pre-war militia unit.

The 12th Illinois only wore a "Scotch bonnet" as part of its uniform.

The Colonel of the 12th shares his surname with one of the most famous Scottish-Americans to serve in the war, Arthur MacArthur of the 24th Wisconsin Infantry, and father to General Douglas MacArthur. Arthur received the Medal of Honor for actions on Missionary Ridge during the Battle of Chattanooga:

http://www.spanamwar.com/macarthur.htm

As young Arthur charged up the ridge, he shouted "On, Wisconsin!" One of my g-g-grandfathers (in the 75th Illinois Regiment) followed behind the 24th, successfully driving the rebels from their positions. MacArthur later served during the Indian Wars and in the Philippines before dying of a heart-attack while attending a reunion of his late regiment.

His father, also Arthur MacArthur, was a Scottish immigrant of "double-distilled" heritage, as he noted that both of his parents were MacArthurs, and an active member in the Milwaukee Scottish expatriate community.

On the Southern side, a noted Scots expatriate was Sgt. William Watson of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry:

http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/bookPage...807120156.html

The 3rd played an important role in the battle where I worked, Wilson's Creek. Opposing the 3rd was Andrew Young McDonald, the "fighting plumber" of Dubuque, Iowa:

http://www.aymcdonald.com/about_history.cfm

http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/i...C_Andrew_Young

Regards,

Todd

[wvpiper]

see post below

[wvpiper]

The Scottish ancestry was by that time fairly remote historically as most had been arriving in the US, and the South primarily, from 1700 or so on

small point, but the Ulster Scots/Scots Presbyterians/Scots-Irish primarily landed in Philadelphia, and migrated South, and West. See "The Scotch-Irish A Social History" by James Leyburn.
A few did land in the Carolinas - as did Highland Scots pre Civil War, but the majority came through Philadelphia.

Your major point is spot on, I would think.

As to the book mentioned, in the section of plates (i'm viewing it through Google Books, I can't see any actual plates, if they exist), the author also states:
The Union Light Infantry.......wore trews,or trousers, and a plaid, in Black Watch Tartan, that worn by the British 42nd; his fur bonnet is also based on that worn by the 42nd Highlanders.....This became Co F 1st SC Infantry until 1863 and thereafter Co C 27th SC infantry

[macwilkin]

small point, but the Ulster Scots/Scots Presbyterians/Scots-Irish primarily landed in Philadelphia, and migrated South, and West. See "The Scotch-Irish A Social History" by James Leyburn.
A few did land in the Carolinas - as did Highland Scots pre Civil War, but the majority came through Philadelphia.

Ah, but after landing in Philly, some moved west, and then down the Great Wagon Road along the Appalachians to the backcountry of the Carolinas, so FM is correct.

As to the book mentioned, in the section of plates (i'm viewing it through Google Books, I can't see any actual plates, if they exist), the author also states:
The Union Light Infantry.......wore trews,or trousers, and a plaid, in Black Watch Tartan, that worn by the British 42nd; his fur bonnet is also based on that worn by the 42nd Highlanders.....This became Co F 1st SC Infantry until 1863 and thereafter Co C 27th SC infantry

Yep, that's what I quoted several messages back.

[ForresterModern]

As one born and bred literally on the Mason Dixon Line, and raised from ancestors who spent the better part of the 150 years leading up to the war hopscotching back and forth across that line (and which is still spread along and across that line today) I always have trouble deciding where to fall in the Union-Confederate conflict as I reportedly had relatives fighting on both sides and others who simply hid out in the hills and waited it out. I doubt I could or would wear either Federal or Confederate tartans and feel right. Although the war was necessary in its time to settle longstanding conflicts in the large view, it was just plain wrong in the microscopic view, at the personal and family level. Literally family fighting family and dying and maimed in massive numbers, the like of which we have never before or since known in war. The South's greatest General coming from a major Virginia plantation directly across the Potomac from the Union capital known as Arlington, his ancestral home since well before the revolutionary war, believing in the cause of the Union but fighting for the South because of his loyalty to his state, losing that plantation home to the US government to now become (by governmental spite) the burial place of thousands of the Union dead from that conflict, now Arlington Cemetary. I am obviously speaking of Robert E Lee, only the most visible of the strange conflicts beneath the greater conflict that describe the bizarre and incredible nature of that most horrible war. I have spent literally decades reading about the war, visiting battlefield after battlefield, reading more about the backgrounds of the people both major and minor in the conflict, and the more I learn about it the more twisted my gut feels and the more pained my mind is by just the sheer ferocity and futility of the whole thing. But my morbid curiosity keeps me coming back, trying to learn more, trying to understand, trying to validate and make sense of it all. Speaking of futility.

[bikeolounger]

My great-grandmother (father's mother's mother) had an uncle who, according to family lore, served under the Grey Ghost. My father still has the issue pistol and one that said uncle lifted from a Yankee officer (again, there is some family lore involved).

That branch of my family tree was rooted in the northern region of Virginia. My father's parents lived their childhoods in the farmlands between Sperryville and Woodville. There is a business of some sort in the building where both attended high school eighty-some years ago, and in the adjacent building is a company that sells tables made of old barn wood. A second- or third cousin operates a tourist store right on 211 (That Sperryville Emporium)

That said, of course I have a nodding familiarity with the events of 140-some years ago.

No, I'm not interested in re-enactments. One of my great-grandmother's wishes was that the pistols never be fired again, lest they still carry some reminder of the evil that was part of that horrendous time. Forrester Modern put it quite well--atrocities were committed by both sides, aye, by family against family. It was quite a showcase of then-modern ways to kill and maim enemy combatants. Battlefield medicine struggled to keep up (and didn't do well at that). It was a grisly, horrible time.

Would I wear the Confederate Memorial Tartan? I don't know. I'm not ready to buy a kilt of it for monetary reasons. I suspect that there are other tartans I would wear more often, simply due to the respective color patterns. If I ever have the funds to get that far down a wish-list, I'll decide.

Back to the thread topic, though, I don't have any idea about whether such a unit existed. I wasn't there.

[English Bloke]

A fascinating thread. Can't contribute to the topic but I'm enjoying the read...

[macneighill]

I like this thread already. Sorry, its the history freak in me :mrgreen: .

At any rate, my GGG Grandfather served as an Officer in the Confederate Army during the War Between the States (American Civil War for those that aren't too familiar with that term). Prior to the outbreak of the war, he was a blacksmith/gunsmith by trade. When hostilities began, he found himself making rifles for the Confederate Government. In 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Shortly after, he was appointed Surgeon of the 4th Georgia Infantry and, served in that position until his parole in May of 1865.

3 years into the war (1864), our family records quote him as saying " he longed for life to return to way it was prior to the war". He was no advocate for continuing the fighting. As our records state, he longed for peace and, to return to his life at home.

Records show my GGG Grandfather was born in South Carolina in 1825. We have/had family from all around where my GGG Grandfather was born. Prior to that, our records show (as we go further back in time) that, our family came from Western Scotland to Northern Ireland then, to Pennsylvania (late 1600's / early 1700's), eventually heading south into South Carolina, then finally settling in Northern Georgia in the 1830's.

[gilmore]

delete

[wvpiper]

Ah, but after landing in Philly, some moved west, and then down the Great Wagon Road along the Appalachians to the backcountry of the Carolinas, so FM is correct.

yes, that's exactly what I said. What FM said is that they landed primarily in the South.
They didn't.

Yep, that's what I quoted several messages back.

Actually, you quoted something different. Your quote came from earlier in the book than mine, and is different
You:
Field quotes an article from an 1870 issue of the Scottish American Journal which describes the uniform of the Union Light Infantry (so-named to honour the Union of England & Scotland in 1707) which wore trews in Government Sett, bonnets and thistle buttons on their coats.
Me:
The Union Light Infantry.......wore trews,or trousers, and a plaid, in Black Watch Tartan, that worn by the British 42nd; his fur bonnet is also based on that worn by the 42nd Highlanders.....This became Co F 1st SC Infantry until 1863 and thereafter Co C 27th SC infantry