Annotation:March of the Die Hards (2)

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MARCH OF THE DIE HARDS [2]. AKA and see "Caledonian March (2)," "Caledonian March of the Die Hards." Scottish, March (cut time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The title commemorates the 57th Regiment Scots. McDonald (Gesto Book of Highland Music, 1895) believed the air "to be of great antiquity" and "was a great favourite with Duncan MacDonald of Dalness, colonel of the 57th Regiment of Die Hards, one of the heroes of the Peninsular War." The reference to Die Hards stems from the Battle of Albuhera in 1811, when the commander of the regiment, a Colonel Inglis, knowing his men were hard pressed by the enemy, urged them to "Die hard, 57th, die hard!" David Murray, in his book Music of the Scottish Regiments (Edinburgh, 1994), says: "The tune of this march is the same as that of the 'Roussillon March', the slow march of the former Royal Sussex Regiment, raised in 1701, absorbed like the Middlesex into The Queen's Regiment in 1966 and, until 1881, the 35th Foot, otherwise 'The Orange Lilies', from its facing colour. The 35th defeated the French regiment Royal Roussilon at Quebec in 1759, and incorporated the Roussillon, the white plume of Henry of Navarre, in its crest and ultimately in its cap badge. As published in the Gesto book, the Scotch Snap is prominent, but as played by the Royal Sussex the figure was reversed, the long note falling on the beat (p. 211).

MacDonald, in his assertion of antiquity for the melody, seems to have been quoting Lt. Donald Campbell, who wrote in his book A Treatise on the Language, Poetry, and Music of the Highland Clans (1862, p. 225):

This Caledonian March, believed to be of great antiquity, was a great favourite with Ducan Macdonald of Dalnes, Colonel of the 57th Regiment, of "Die-Hards." He made is so much the march of that regiment as to be the sure sign of its presence or signal of its approach, wherever it was heard in the Peninsula or the South of France. A more spirited or a braver officer than Colonel Duncan MacDonald never drew his sword in the service of his country; yet his end was very melancholy. He was severely wounded in the battle of the Nivelle, but having, like his intimate friends, Sir Thomas Picton and the Honourable Sir William Stewart, a passion for battles, he could not be prevailed on to remain in the rear. He followed the regiment on its daily march, keeping sufficiently close to make sure of seeing or of joining it in every battle; but, from his state of health, he never found himself in a condition to resume the command. One of the companies of the 57th and its captain, who temporarily commanded the regiment, being quartered in a deserted chateau at Ayres, on the night after the brilliant affair of the second division at that place, some of the men discovered the plate-room, and carried away the more portable parts of it in their knapsacks on the following day. An old and faithful servant, who had been left to watch over the chateau, wisely kept sight of these men until they fell into the ranks, when she repored the circumstance to the general. The captain of the company was called before the Duke of Wellington, and, finding himself in a serious scrape, threw the whole blame on the colonel; stating that, by keeping continually in the vicinity of the regiment, and lodging always in the same place with them at night, without either taking the command himself, or leaving it effectually to him, the discipline had become relaxed, and the regiment demoralized. Unfortunately for himself, Colonel Macdonald was a high-minded, warm-hearted, generous Highlander, who considered the military as the most illustrious of all professions, and regarded flogging as not only barbarous and inhuman, but as destructive of the pride and dignity that ought to be inclucated in the soldier. As rewards for good conduct had not then been introduced into the service, he did everything in his power by kindness, encouragement, and praise, and (in extreme cases) severe rebukes and fatigue duties, to maintain discipline without the lash. This made him obnoxious to all the scourge-advocates; and they took care that a mere delinquency by a private of the 57th was made more of than a crime in regiments trained by the martinet and the lash. The colonel's abhorrence of the lash being known to the great, but in questions of discipline, too inflexible Duke, he the more readily believed in the demoralized condition of the regiment—for the cunning captain studiously concealed from him the fact, that the whole regiment, excepting a few men of his own company, were innocent. Macdonald was dismissed fromt he service, without having been allowed the benefit of a court of inquiry or a court-martial!

Macdonald's friends prevailed upon him to return to England to convalesce, which he did, but the news of his dismissal was published in a newspaper, along with another officer of the same rank dismissed for cowardice, and the association of his name with this other officer so upset Macdonald that he committed suicide by plunging out a window. After Macdonald's death the Duke found evidence that he was the victim of false testimony and compensated the price of Colonel Macdonald's commission to his brother.

Although "March of the Die Hards" was a favorite of Macdonld's, he did not introduce it to the 57th. Rather, it was introduced (as "Caledonian March") by General John Campbell of Strachur who was Colonel of the 57th Foot from 1790–1806, having previously commanded them.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Campbell (A Treatise on the Language, Poetry, and Music of the Highland Clans), 1862; p. 7. McDonald (The Gesto Collection of Highland Music), 1895; p. 110.

Recorded sources:

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