Sunday, April 24, 2011

Drummond and Lawers Horse

Lawer’s Horse
Raised later than its associated foot regiment, it’s routmaster was Sir Mungo Campbell.  It joined its parent regiment on the march south with Callanders army in June 1644.  No record of its activities in England remain.
It was intended to be amalgamated with Hamilitons horse, but remained independent, serving in close association with the infantry through 1644 and 45.  At Auldearn they formed the right flank screening Cambells foote in their assault on the Village.  They were outnumbered and routed by Gordons charge. After serving through Auldearn and Alford, the troop was put on the same pay footing as Hamilton and Balcarres Horse in recognition of its experience.  However, by late summer it had been recruited up to full strength and amalgamated into Hamilton’s Horse.

Drummond’s Horse
Routmaster Henry Drummond raised his troop in April 1644 for service with the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant.  It served closely with Campbell of Lawer’s troop, both in England and once it returned to the northeast.  Both troops were brigaded together at Auldearn, presumably due to their small size.  They formed the right flank to the head of Hurrys advancing force, but sat on the flank of the Seaforths Highlanders.  When Aboyne's Horse attacked they attempted to wheel to counter but swung the wrong direction getting entangled with Seaforth, then fell back disordered into Lothian and the Lord Chancellors regiments. As with Lawer’s, the troop was amalgamated into Hamilton’s Horse later in the summer.

The flag is pure conjecture - there being no record of the original.  That being said I tried to use traditional motifs (cross-swords, thistles and covenant slogan) and chose a green back ground in contrast to the the red of the other unit (Halkett's).  I will probably do another standard specifically for Lawer's troop.

This will probably be the last post for a while as I'm working on the Northern levies just now and it's going at a snails pace.