THE RECRUITING OFFICER

      In the decades after the Rising of 1745 service in the Government regiments became popular as an opportunity to wear the kilt and bear arms. Memories of the execution of the Black Watch mutineers had faded. Opportunities for employment were limited. Wearing of the traditional Highland dress or displaying tartan or carrying arms was proscribed by act of Parliament and individuals other than Government soldiers who did so were liable for imprisonment or transportation.

      When war with France seemed likely in 1755, there was no shortage of recruits. As is the case in most wars, many of the young men who enlisted died of wounds sustained in battle or from disease or the rigors of the harsh climates in which they served. For example, in his letter to Colonel Stewart of Garth, Lt.Col.. Duncan Macpherson mentions that only 175 men of the Fraser Highlanders (out of the 2200 who went to America) returned alive. As such losses became generally known it became more difficult to attract men to military service. As time went on this reluctance to serve voluntarily led to recruiting methods that drew criticism from parents and employers which helps explain the stories that grew around Capt. John Macpherson of Ballachroan and how he got the name An t-Ofhaichear Dubh (The Black Officer). He was the recruiting officer for Badenoch whose job it was to persuade young men to accept the King's shilling.

      Many bizarre tales have been related about how John Macpherson went about his job but, before lending credence to them, consider what Affleck Gray, that grand old man of our Clan, wrote about him in his book Legends of the Cairngorms -- ". . . there is not a single instance on record of his ever having forfeited [the local people's] regard for him." Among others who wrote favourably about him were Mrs. Grant of Laggan, whose Letters from the Mountains are famed far beyond the Highlands and Malcolm MacIntyre, a bard who Gray thinks of quite highly. To commemorate the loss of his friend of many hunting expeditions he wrote a moving elegy in the Gaelic that ran to fifteen stanzas. Another admirer, Captain Lachlan Macpherson of Biallid, was fully conversant with the details of the tales and wrote of him in glowing terms in Lays of the Deer Forest published in 1848.

      Anonymous sources tell us that Capt. Macpherson earned a black reputation among the people because his methods were not entirely ethical. It was said that he attended every market, ball and gathering in the district, mingling with the young men and treating them to as much whisky as they could drink. When they became tipsy, he would press a shilling in their hands, and declare them enlisted in the King's Army. In the case of the more wary who declined to drink beyond a certain point, he would slip a shilling into their glass or pocket and, with dire threats claim them as willing recruits. Tales about him were legion and they grew to the point where with each retelling they became more exaggerated. For example, it is said that he dressed as a shepherd and encouraged a pair of travellers to kill one of "his" sheep for a meal. Later, he reappeared in his officer's uniform, and offered them the choice of enlisting or being hung for sheep stealing.

      Despite the stories told about him, Capt. Macpherson seems to have been highly successful. It is said that no fewer than seventy of his recruits became commissioned officers.