influence upon thoughtful minds. His verse is homely and direct, and marked by religious fervour and simplicity. As a portrayer of Scottish peasant-life in fiction he was the precursor of a large school, which has benefited by his example and surpassed its original leader in popularity. The religious tone of his novels is relieved by tolerance and a broad spirit of humour, and the simpler emotions of humble life are sympathetically treated.
MACDONALD, SIR HECTOR ARCHIBALD (1852–1903),
British soldier, was born of humble parentage at Muir of Allan-Grange, Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1852. As a boy he was employed in a draper’s shop at Dingwall, but in 1870 he enlisted in the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders. He rose rapidly through the non-commissioned ranks, and had already been a colour-sergeant for some years when, in the Afghan War of 1879, he distinguished himself in the presence of the enemy so much as to be promoted to commissioned rank, his advancement being equally acceptable to his brother officers and popular with the
rank and file. As a subaltern he served in the first Boer War of 1880–81, and at Majuba, where he was made prisoner, his bravery was so conspicuous that General Joubert gave him
back his sword. In 1885 he served under Sir Evelyn Wood
in the reorganization of the Egyptian army, and he took part
in the Nile Expedition of that year. In 1888 he became a
regimental captain in the British service, but continued to
serve in the Egyptian army, being particularly occupied with
the training of the Sudanese battalions. In 1889 he received
the D.S.O. for his conduct at Toski and in 1891, after the
action at Tokar, he was promoted substantive major. In
1896 he commanded a brigade of the Egyptian army in the
Dongola Expedition, and during the following campaigns he
distinguished himself in every engagement, above all in the
final battle of Omdurman (1898) at the crisis of which Macdonald’s
Sudanese brigade, manœuvring as a unit with the
coolness and precision of the parade ground, repulsed the most
determined attack of the Mahdists. After this great service
Macdonald’s name became famous in England and Scotland,
the popular sobriquet of “Fighting Mac” testifying the
interest aroused in the public mind by his career and his soldierly
personality. He was promoted colonel in the army and appointed
an aide-de-camp to the queen, and in 1899 he was
promoted major-general and appointed to a command in India.
In December 1899 he was called to South Africa to command the
Highland Brigade, which had just suffered very heavily and had
lost its commander, Major-General A. G. Wauchope, in the
battle of Magersfontein. He commanded the brigade throughout
Lord Roberts’s Paardeberg, Bloemfontein and Pretoria
operations, and in 1901 he was made a K.C.B. In 1902 he
was appointed to command the troops in Ceylon, but early in
the following year (March 25, 1903) he committed suicide
in Paris. A memorial to this brilliant soldier, in the form of
a tower 100 ft. high, was erected at Dingwall and completed
in 1907.
MACDONALD, JACQUES ÉTIENNE JOSEPH ALEXANDRE (1765–1840), duke of Taranto and marshal of France, was born at Sedan on the 17th of November 1765. His father came of an
old Jacobite family, which had followed James II. to France,
and was a near relative of the celebrated Flora Macdonald.
In 1785 Macdonald joined the legion raised to support the
revolutionary party in Holland against the Prussians, and
after it was disbanded he received a commission in the regiment
of Dillon. On the breaking out of the Revolution, the regiment
of Dillon remained eminently loyal, with the exception of
Macdonald, who was in love with Mlle Jacob, whose father
was enthusiastic for the doctrines of the Revolution. Directly
after his marriage he was appointed aide-de-camp to General
Dumouriez. He distinguished himself at Jemmapes, and was
promoted colonel in 1793. He refused to desert to the Austrians
with Dumouriez, and as a reward was made general of brigade,
and appointed to command the leading brigade in Pichegru’s
invasion of Holland. His knowledge of the country proved
most useful, and he was instrumental in the capture of the
Dutch fleet by French hussars. In 1797, having been made
general of division, he served first in the army of the Rhine and
then in that of Italy. When he reached Italy, the peace of
Campo Formio had been signed, and Bonaparte had returned
to France; but, under the direction of Berthier, Macdonald
first occupied Rome, of which he was made governor, and then
in conjunction with Championnet he defeated General Mack,
and revolutionized the kingdom of Naples under the title of the
Parthenopaean Republic. When Suvarov invaded northern Italy,
and was winning back the conquests of Bonaparte, Macdonald
collected all the troops in the peninsula and moved northwards.
With but 30,000 men he attacked, at the Trebbia, Suvarov with
50,000, and after three days’ fighting, during which he held
the Russians at bay, and gave time for Moreau to come up,
he retired in good order to Genoa. After this gallant behaviour
he was made governor of Versailles, and acquiesced, if he did
not co-operate, in the events of the 18th Brumaire. In 1800
he received the command of the army in Switzerland which
was to maintain the communications between the armies of
Germany and of Italy. He carried out his orders to the letter,
and at last, in the winter of 1800–1, he was ordered to march
over the Splügen Pass. This achievement is fully described
by Mathieu Dumas, who was chief of his staff, and is at least
as noteworthy as Bonaparte’s famous passage of the St Bernard
before Marengo, though followed by no such successful battle.
On his return to Paris Macdonald married the widow of
General Joubert, and was appointed French plenipotentiary in
Denmark. Returning in 1805 he associated himself with Moreau
and incurred the dislike of Napoleon, who did not include him
in his first creation of marshals. Till 1809 he remained without
employment, but in that year Napoleon gave him the command
of a corps and the duties of military adviser to the young prince Eugène Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy. He led the army from Italy till its junction with Napoleon, and at Wagram commanded the celebrated column of attack which broke the Austrian centre and won the victory. Napoleon made him marshal of France on the field of battle, and presently created him duke of Taranto. In 1810 he served in Spain, and in 1812 he commanded the left wing of the grand army for the invasion of Russia. In 1813, after sharing in the battles of Lützen and Bautzen, he was ordered to invade Silesia, where Blücher defeated him with great loss at the Katzbach (see Napoleonic Campaigns). After the terrible battle of Leipzig he was ordered with Prince Poniatowski to cover the evacuation of Leipzig; after the blowing up of the bridge, he managed to swim the Elster, while Poniatowski was drowned. During the defensive campaign of 1814 Macdonald again distinguished himself; he was one of the marshals sent by Napoleon to take his abdication in favour of his son to Paris. When all were deserting their old master, Macdonald remained faithful to him. He was directed by Napoleon to give in his adherence to the new régime, and was presented by him with the sabre of Murad Bey for his fidelity. At the Restoration he was made a peer of France and knight grand cross of the order of St Louis; he remained faithful to the new order of things during the Hundred Days. In 1815 he became chancellor of the Legion of Honour (a post he held till 1831), in 1816 major-general of the royal bodyguard, and he took a great part in the discussions in the House of Peers, voting consistently as a moderate Liberal. In 1823 he married Mlle de Bourgony, by whom he had a son, Alexander, who succeeded on his death in 1840 as duke of Taranto. From 1830 his life was spent in retirement at his country place Courcelles-le-Roi (Seine et Oise), where he died on the 7th of September 1840.
Macdonald had none of that military genius which distinguished Davout, Masséna and Lannes, nor of that military science conspicuous in Marmont and St Cyr, but nevertheless his campaign in Switzerland gives him a rank far superior to such mere generals of division as Oudinot and Dupont. This capacity for independent command made Napoleon, in spite of his defeats at the Trebbia and the Katzbach, trust him with large commands till the end of his career. As a man, his
