robertmackayclan

Dear Clansmen & women

By way of introduction, I'm a past Commanding Officer of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada and the former Deputy Director of History & Heritage for the Canadian Armed Forces. My CV can be found at the Clan Macpherson website here:

http://www.parsonage.net/2005agm/guest.html

I have just completed a two volume book that should be of interest to some or all of your clan membership who trace their ancestry back to the first Highlanders that came to North America. Entitled Sons of the Mountains: A History of the Highland Regiments in North America during the French & Indian War 1756-67, it will be published next Spring, the 250th Anniversary of the arrival of the Black Watch in North America. Many Mackays served in all three regiments, some settling in North America after the war.

I invite you to use the attached press announcement (which contains all the details) in your clan newsletter or on your website. If you wish to do a book review closer to publication, please let me know and I will ensure your designated reviewer is put on the publisher's list. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask...

Slainte & Creag Dhub!

Ian Macpherson McCulloch
Lieutenant-Colonel
Commanding Officer (1993-96)
The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada


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PRESS RELEASE**STOP PRESS**PRESS RELEASE
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NEW HIGHLANDER BOOK DUE FOR PUBLICATION MAY 2006
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Three proud Highland regiments fought in North America during the Seven Year's War - the 77^th Foot (Montgomery's Highlanders), the 78^th Foot (Fraser's Highlanders), and the famous Black Watch, more correctly known at the time as the Royal Highland Regiment. Undoubtedly, the exploits of the 42^nd, 77^th and 78^th Highlanders in some of the most bloody and desperate battles on the North American continent were a critical factor in transforming the overall image of Highlanders from Jacobite rebels to Imperial heroes in the latter half of the 18^th century. But the everyday story of these regiments - how they trained, worked, played, fought and died from their own point of view - has never been seriously told.

Sons of the Mountains: A History of the Highland regiments in North America during the French &amp; Indian War, 1756-1767, is a two-volume set due to be co-published Spring 2006 by Purple Mountain Press and the Fort Ticonderoga Museum. It chronicles the Highland regiments' fighting performance and experiences from the time they were raised in the Highlands and stepped ashore in North America, to their disbandment in 1763; or, as in the case of the 42^nd, reduced in establishment and left on lonely garrison duty in the American wilderness until their recall and return to Ireland in 1767.

Volume One of Sons of the Mountains follows all three regiments on their various campaigns in the different theatres of war. As they range from the wilderness of the Ohio Forks to the wind-swept crags of Signal Hill in Newfoundland, and from the waters of the Great Lakes to the torrid swamps and cane fields of the "Sugar Islands", the reader will be exposed to all the major conflicts and actions of the "Great War for Empire" as seen though the eyes of the Highland soldier.

Cluny, the 27th Hereditary Chief of Clan Macpherson, writes from Blairgowrie, Scotland:

As a direct descendant of a Clansman who was present on the Heights of Carillon and at Fort Ticonderoga in July 1758 I feel that I understand now far better how my forebear and his fellow Highlanders must have felt and lived and fought, and relate much more closely to those "Sons of the Mountains" of long ago. I warmly commend Lt Colonel McCulloch's book to readers across the Atlantic and here in Scotland. He has done a great service to the memory of those who fought and died with these distinguished Regiments.

Volume Two of Sons of the Mountains will appeal to all families of Scottish descent and serious genealogists. It features comprehensive biographical histories of every regimental officer from all the major clans (over 350 entries) who served in North America. For example,

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Alexander Mackay (c.1740-1772)
Lieut: 1 August 1757; 42^nd Foot;
Capt-Lt: 31 March 1770, 42^nd Foot.

One of eleven children of Robert "The Tutor of Farr" Mackay, and the great-grandson of Lord Reay. His brothers were Major Samuel Mackay, 60^th and Captain John Mackay, 31^st Foot, and he was brother-in-law to Lt. John Gray of the 101^st Foot (Johnstone's Highlanders). Was an Additional Company officer who came over in the spring of 1758 and participated in all major campaigns of the regiment. Captured by the French on Lake Champlain in October 1759 but returned to the regiment the following month in a major prisoner exchange. He returned with the cadre of the 2^nd/42^nd Foot in October 1762 and spent 1763 in Britain. He returned to the regiment in 1764 and participated in Bouquet's Muskingum expedition. Listed as a participant in peace talks with Shawnee, Delaware and Iroquois Indians at Fort Pitt, 9-10 June 1766. He returned to Ireland with the regiment in 1767 and was promoted captain-lieutenant in March 1770. He died two years later on 23 November 1772.

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CBs; SBs; BALs; "List of the Officers of the 42^nd or Royal Highland Regiment according to seniority dated December 29^th, 1762", BL Add. MSS. 21634: f.178c; Stewart, Sketches, I-II, in passim; Croghan to Gage, 15 June 1766, Gage Papers, American Series, Vol. 52, Reel 10.

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Also included in the glossaries are regimental muster rolls and land petitions of discharged Highlanders. Marie Fraser editor of Canadian Explorer, newsletter of the Clan Fraser Society of Canada writes:

Besides being compelling Highland history, SOTM is a valuable genealogical resource for all of Scottish heritage. With over 350 officers' biographies, career details and genealogical notes in the annexes, McCulloch has identified the complex ties of kinship, marriage and friendship that bound the most prominent Scottish families of the day together during the Seven Years War between Britain and France fought in North America, known to some as the French &amp; Indian War.

Lavishly illustrated with artwork by Robert Griffing, Steve Noon, Peter Rindisbacher, Gary Zaboly, Charles Stolz and John Buxton, as well as with contemporary prints, maps and portraits from the collections of the Black Watch Museums of Scotland and Canada, the Fort Ticonderoga Museum, the Fort Ligonier Museum, the William L. Clements Library, the National Army Museum, Chelsea, the David M. Stewart Museum, Montreal, the National Archives of Canada and the Library of Congress, Sons of the Mountains is a visual delight.

Without a doubt, Sons of the Mountains is the most complete and informative work on the history of early Highland regiments of the British army in North America to date and will be published in Spring 2006. For further details on pre-ordering and prices, see Purple Mountain Press website at http://www.catskill.net/purple/order.htm or write for details at: Purple Mountain Press, Ltd., PO Box 309, Fleischmann's, NY, 12430-0309. Phone: 1-845-254-4062.