History of the 91st Princess Louise's Argyllshire Highlanders: Now the 1st Battalion Princess Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlands, 1794-1894

Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnson, 1894. Limited Edition. Octavo. Limited to 530 copies and the only hardcover edition printed. 43 pages, illustrated with 9 unnumbered lithographic colored leaves of plates by Harry Payne. The regiment was raised in Argyll by General Duncan Campbell of Lochnell for John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll as the 98th (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution, on 10 February 1794. During the Napoleonic Wars, a second battalion was raised in Perth in August 1804. The 1st Battalion embarked for Hanover in December 1805 and, after service in Germany, returned to England in February 1806. The battalion embarked for Portugal in June 1808 for service in the Peninsular War. It took part in the Battle of Roliça in August 1808 and the Battle of Vimeiro later that month before fighting under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809 and then taking part in the subsequent evacuation from the Peninsula. The regiment lost its territorial designation being renamed the 91st Regiment of Foot in April 1809. The 1st Battalion then took part in the disastrous Walcheren Campaign in autumn 1809 though was called back at Waterloo. Very scarce since it was issued in a small print run in hardcover. Bound in red pictorial cloth over beveled boards depicting the coat-of-arms, beautifully rebacked in red morocco lettered in gilt, raised bands with compartments decoratively stamped in gilt, end papers renewed, light wear to corners. A very nice copy.