OH TO BE A SOLDIER, OH!

One Comrie soldier, John McNiven, from Glenartney, had enlisted as a boy in the 44th regiment as a seven years’ man. He shared in the brunt of several severe battles in the Peninsula including the fighting retreat to Corunna. Later, like many others who expected to be returned to the United Kingdom after the conflict, he was sent to America to fight in the War of 1812. He was in one of the advance companies of “forlorn hope” at the taking of Washington. He was one of only eleven soldiers of his company who survived to tell the tale. When asked by one of his neighbours how he felt when he was marching through Washington, he answered sadly and with much thought, “I dinna ken, I was just there.” He also took part in the Battle of New Orleans, where he was wounded.

Uniform of the 44^th Regiment

During his later years in Comrie there was much discussion regarding the superior education which young people were receiving compared to his own schooling, especially about geography. Finally John exclaimed, “Aye, aye! The children at the skules now-a-days ken better aboot Spain and Portugal than them that were in’t! Is that fair?” One day he was detailing the hardships undergone in the Peninsula, and the effects of hunger on the great retreat to Corunna mentioning that the soldiers were compelled to eat their boots. One of the children found this hard to grasp and asked with some amazement, “Surely you didn’t eat the tackets in the boots as well?” “No, no,” said the soldier, “we just ate round about them!”

Several years before his death he received the Peninsula medal with clasps, and also a small pension. This was awarded on account of his being wounded in the ankles by slug shot during the American War of 1812-1814.