I need info on the original 78th Highlanders

[Genevieve]

I am currently writing a novel featuring a Highlander who is joining the Highland regiments in 1757 and heading to the colonies for the F&I war. I have a few questions and wondered if I might count on you for a little assistance on some of the technical matters.

For example, I needed to know the difference between the 77th and the 78th, and did they serve in different places?

I know Simon Lovat was responsible for raising Fraser's Highlanders, but who was Montgomerie?

Where in Inverness did they train? Do you have any idea what the training might have entailed? What did they eat? Where did they sleep, and what did they wear when they retired for the night?

Do you know the names of any of the ships that transported the Highlanders to the colonies?

Any bits of trivia would be greatly appreciated.

This is my second story featuring a Highlander. The first, "Under the Same Sky" is being published by Penguin books in early 2012. This is a companion novel to it.

Thank you so much for any help you can provide.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Speaking as one professional author to another, there are no shortcuts to researching the background for a novel, or a screenplay. Fiction only works if it is believable rather than superficial. If you are serious about your writing I'd suggest two books: THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING by Lajos Egri, and more to the point of your query, THE SCOTTISH SOLDIER by Stephen Wood. Both are excellent jumping off points.

[ThistleDown]

Welcome, Genevieve, from Inverness-shire and British Columbia. Rathdown's advice has great value; although there is a vast amount of knowledge held by the members of this forum you must have a goodly amount of time and patience to access it.

Tell us about you avatar. You are armigerous?

Rex

[figheadair]

There's loads of information available on-line. Here's a starter for 10 - http://www.militaryheritage.com/78thregt.htm

[Highland Logan]

Sounds like a great project. I would suggest that in Great Britain and elsewhere it is know as Seven Years' War (after the war of course), not the French and Indian War (American term). Here is a site that may help.

Frank

[Genevieve]

Thank you all - I'm really looking forward to picking up whatever I can. I'm headed right over to visit that website now.

@ MacMillian of Rathdown: I am actually a published author (by Penguin), and I do most of my research the 'old-fashioned' way. But I find it's the tiny little 'aha!' bits that light up my writing. And it's passionate folk like you people and like re-enactors who seem more than willing to feed me. My shelves are full of dry and semi-dry historical textbooks, so I'm definitely not taking any shortcuts!

@ThistleDown Patience is my middle name! I'm in and out of emails and forums all over the place, picking through gems. That avatar is the Graham coat of arms. I'm a Graham of Montrose and also a Ferguson, though my married name is Ukrainian.

@HighlandLogan Thank you! See? It's so basic, but that is one of the things that has confused me, and now I'm set straight on it! Of course they wouldn't have called it that during the actual war, so that's just for my own private library of trivia.

Thank you all so much! Now ... off to that website.
- Genevieve

[Genevieve]

Aha. That was actually the site I've already been getting most of my info from. Thanks. Good to know I'm on the right track.

[macwilkin]

I would highly recommend you obtain a copy of Through So Many Dangers: The Memoirs and Adventures of Robert Kirk, Late of the Royal Highland Regiment:

http://www.catskill.net/purple/kirk.htm

Ian McCulloch's Highlander in the French and Indian War is also a good starting point for basic information about the life of a Highland soldier in North America:

http://www.amazon.com/Highlander-Fre.../dp/1846032741

And finally, Stephen Brumwell's Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755-1763 devotes a chapter to Highlanders serving in the F & I:

http://www.amazon.com/Redcoats-Briti...6366140&sr=1-6

Regards,

T.

[Genevieve]

Thank you, Cajun Scot! You know, the funniest thing ... I bought "Through So Many Dangers" about 2 years ago, but thought nothing of it, just tucked it in my shelf. This morning I remembered and grabbed it, and I've been celebrating for a couple of hours now ... and then you posted that! Timing is a mysterious thing! Thanks again.

[macwilkin]

Sounds like a great project. I would suggest that in Great Britain and elsewhere it is know as Seven Years' War (after the war of course), not the French and Indian War (American term). Here is a site that may help.

Frank

And just to add to Frank's post, the Seven Year's War is a global war, fought in Europe, North America, the West Indies and even India.

T.