Highland Brigade Its Battles and Its Heroes - James Cromb

Published in 1886, the golden age of the British Empire in its Victorian heyday, this is a red-blooded patriotic account of the daring deeds of one of Scotland's proudest military names - the Highland Brigade - and its doings in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. The Brigade fought in all the major engagements of the Crimea - including the battles of Alma ('the thin red line') and Balaclava. Then, under its famous commander, Sir Colin Campbell, it was transferred from the snowy trenches around Sebastapol to the steamy heat of India at the height of the Mutiny. The Brigade recaptured Cawnpore from the mutineers, before marching to the relief of the besieged garrison at Lucknow. The book's final chapters recount the Brigade's part in the Ashanti and first Boer War and the wars in Sudan. Plentifully illustrated with photographs and drawings, this is popular Victorian military history at its best.