Scotland Forever!
On 18 June 1815, Highland regiments played a central and celebrated role in the Battle of Waterloo, the engagement that ended Napoleon Bonaparte's bid to reclaim power and reshaped Europe for a century. Scottish soldiers fought with a ferocity and discipline that earned them immortal fame — and paid for it in blood.
The most legendary moment came with the charge of the Royal Scots Greys, the 2nd Dragoons. Mounted on their distinctive grey horses, they thundered through the ranks of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, who grabbed at their stirrups and charged alongside them into the French lines. The battle cry "Scotland Forever!" rang across the field. Lady Elizabeth Butler's famous 1881 painting of the charge — all flying manes, flashing sabres, and wild-eyed horses — became one of the most reproduced images in British art. The charge broke d'Erlon's corps and captured a French eagle standard, but the Greys paid a terrible price: of the three hundred men who charged, fewer than half returned.
The 92nd Gordon Highlanders and the 79th Cameron Highlanders both distinguished themselves throughout the day, holding their positions in the Allied line against repeated French infantry and cavalry assaults. The 42nd Black Watch, though not at Waterloo itself, had fought at Quatre Bras two days earlier, repelling French cavalry in square formation at fearful cost. The Highland regiments were consistently placed in the most dangerous positions — a testament to their reputation, but also a measure of the toll that was expected of them.
Waterloo cemented the paradox at the heart of Highland military history. The same clans whose way of life had been systematically destroyed after Culloden just seventy years earlier now provided the shock troops of the British Empire. The Clearances were emptying the glens even as Highland soldiers won glory at Waterloo. The bravery was real; the irony was inescapable. The cry of "Scotland Forever!" echoed across a battlefield in Belgium while the homes of the men who shouted it were being burned to make way for sheep.