Ticinderoga
by Diarmid Campbell, Facilities Management
Diarmid Campbell here.
Does anyone have any information on a proposed "Black Watch Cairn" to be
constructed at Fort Ticonderoga, upstate NY, USA, for an event this July?
My great-grandfather's great uncle (in fact his own grandfather's elder
brother) Duncan Campbell of Inverawe (1702-1758) was second in command of the
Black Watch in the attack on Fort Carillon (now called Ticonderoga) in 1758.
This was during the American colonial period during what has been called the
French-Indian War, when France attempted to prevent the westward expansion of
the British colonies of the eastern seabord. The Black Watch arrived from
Ireland in the summer of 1756 and were - with a number of other regiments -
under the Campbell Earl of Loudoun. He did not prove successful in the
commando-style of warfare adopted by those Indian peoples who had been
commandeered by the French and was replaced. However his successor,
Abercromby, was even less skillful (the men gave him the nickname "nabby-
cromby". Sadly the one really good general available, Howe, was killed
in the abortive attack on Ticonderoga in 1758.
The attack was up a slope (from the lake) on which the French had felled trees
with their heads down slope and so the men of the Black Watch had to clamber
through these in their repeated charges up hill - a few gained the French
redoubts on the summit of the low plateau before the fort, but not enough to
carry the day.
Duncan was wounded in the battle and died shortly afterwards. Although it was
only an arm wound, the French under Montcalm who held the fort were using rusty
nails for shot, having run out of lead ball, and wounds festered and blood
poisoning set in. His grave was later moved to Glens Falls NY where the old
stone still stands.
There is already a monument to the Black Watch at Ticonderoga (and to Duncan),
so one wonders why this new one. I have had a letter from a Maclean in
Scotland who has been asked to help and is suspicious because some of the
history in what he was sent is in-accurate. He wrote to me for advice and I
cannot tell him anything, not having been sent anything. Bob Campbell at
Euless in Texas is sending me some material he has seen, but any other
information on what is going on would be gratefully received.
Cairns - and particularly memorial cairns - are for the ages. If one becomes a
victim of a committee who doesn't do their home-work it would be sad...I am not
saying that this is the case here, but I have to wonder.
If I don't hear anything official, I think I will suggest to my Maclean friend
that he be in touch with the Black Watch regimental headquarters in Scotland.
Argyll family genealogy (Lochawe/Loch Awe & Argyll).
People who are curious about the Chiefly genealogy should look at the secondary
sources in the books called 'peerages'. The Scots Peerage (Ed.Balfour-Paul)
was published at the turn of the century, but is on the whole a good article on
the Chiefly family - of course listed under their title of Argyll (and so in
volume I). This information can be up-dated to the present by the article in
Burke's Baronetage & Peerage, and it's accuracy can be checked by the article
in the Compleat (sic) Peerage which has included corrections to some of the
earlier articles. There are many editions of Burke and so you want to find
the most recent (in the 1970s I think).
Breadalbane family genealogy (Glenorchy & Breadalbane)
The sources for this family are as for the above only of course the articles
are listed under Breadalbane.
These works are usually in the genealogy reference section of the larger city
libraries so I doubt whether they are available on inter-library-loan. I know
that there are copies in the Los Angeles and Denver and New York Public or City
Libraries and so I imagine that there are copies in most larger city libraries.
Since the founding of the family of the Campbells of Lochnell in the fifteen
hundreds, there has been no male branch of the Argyll family which has
survived in the male line for more than a couple of generations. All the other
male line branches of the Campbells branched off before that time so there are
no Campbells in the male line "descended from the Dukes of Argyll" unless they
were natural children. The first Duke was created in 1707 if I remember
rightly. There were a number of natural children - something not considered
dishonourable in the Highlands into the 18th century except by the minister.
The old tribal idea of 'the blood of' (i.e. genes as we would call them) the
chief of any war leader, was considered helpful to the survival of a family in
physical times.
There are, somewhere on the globe (it seems likely), cadets (younger sons) of
the Campbells of Lochnell. They could be descended from the late 18th and early
19th century Campbells of Lerags (the second and Lochnell family of that place,
the earlier and MacConnochie Campbells of Lerags having died out in the 17th
century). It would be very intersting to find any descendants of these
Lochnell Campbells of Lerags. Should (God forbid) both the Argyll son and
Lochnell sons be (for example) killed in plane crashes, one of these Campbells
of Lerags would likely be the Chief. The senior Lochnell cadets, of Jura and
Glendaruel, seem to have come to an end.
Lochnell is the place of the family and since there were so many Campbell
families in Argyll and Perthshire, they tend to be called by their territorial
title. In Scotland your territorial title (like Campbell of Lochnell) is a
legal name and if the place is sold you take the title with you. Normally the
in-comer has to provide a new name for the place. So all designations come
after the name and territorial title - for example Alastair Campbell
of Airds, FSA(Scot).
All best, Diarmid