Junior officer Campbell was commissioned as an
ensign in the
9th Regiment of Foot on 26 May 1808. His first experience of war was under
Sir Arthur Wellesley at the
Battle of Vimeiro on 21 August 1808 during the
Peninsular War. he took part in the disastrous
Walcheren Campaign in Autumn 1809 and contracted
malaria there. Due to the contraction of the army after
Battle of Waterloo, the number of Royal American battalions was cut back drastically. To avoid being put on half-pay Campbell transferred to the
21st Royal North British Fusiliers on 26 November 1818. The regiment was sent first to
Barbados and then to
Demerara, where Campbell became
aide-de-camp to the governor. His part in quelling the
slave rebellion in Demerara in August 1823 is hazy. He is not recorded as joining in the reprisals against slaves pursued by his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Leahy, but he was on the
court-martial which sentenced Reverend
John Smith, the suspected instigator of the revolt, to death. He
purchased his majority on 26 November 1825. File:Colin Campbell by Thomas Jones Barker 1860, SNPG.jpg|Colin Campbell by
Thomas Jones Barker 1860 File:William Barnes Wollen, Colin Campbell at the Siege of San Sebastián in 1813.jpg|Campbell leading the '
forlorn hope' at the
Siege of San Sebastián, 1813. File:Colin Campbell and William Mansfield - Project Gutenberg eText 16528.jpg|Colin Campbell
(right) with
William Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst Commands His regiment returned to England and in 1828 was posted to Ireland. From late 1830 they were called upon to police the Irish
Tithe War. Campbell purchased an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy on 26 October 1832 Campbell became commanding officer of the 9th Regiment of Foot on 8 May 1835 but then exchanged to become commanding officer of the
98th Regiment of Foot on 19 June 1835 and commanded that regiment at the
Battle of Chinkiang in July 1842 during the
First Opium War. and a
Companion of the Order of the Bath on 24 December 1842. Campbell was given command of a brigade of British troops in
Lahore in
British India in 1847. He led his brigade at the
Battle of Ramnagar in November 1848, and a division at the
Battle of Chillianwala in January 1849 and at the decisive
Battle of Gujrat in February 1849 during the
Second Anglo-Sikh War. After defusing a local mutiny of native troops at
Rawalpindi, he was then posted to
Peshawar in August 1849.
Lord Dalhousie,
Governor-General of India, requested Campbell lead increasing punitive expeditions against
Pathan tribesmen. Finally, when Dalhousie asked Campbell to mount an invasion of the
Swat Valley, Campbell resigned in disgust. In 1854 Campbell was appointed Colonel of the
67th Regiment of Foot and subsequently of the
93rd Regiment of Foot.
Crimean War In early 1854, shortly after the
Crimean War broke out, Campbell accepted the command of the
Highland Brigade. and to
major-general on 20 June 1854. The Highland Brigade distinguished itself at the
Battle of Alma in September 1854 and, with his "
thin red line of Highlanders", Campbell repulsed the
Russian
attack on Balaclava in October 1854. and advanced to
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 5 July 1855. When the
Duke of Cambridge returned to England, Campbell took command of the
1st Division (Guards and Highland brigades) and commanded the Division at the
Battle of the Great Redan in September 1855. and the
substantive rank of lieutenant general on 4 June 1856, he remained in the Crimea hoping to take overall command, but when General
Sir William Codrington was appointed instead, he returned home in a huff.
Prince Albert suggested the army in the Crimea be split into two
corps d'armee, and Campbell be given one.
Lord Panmure requested
Queen Victoria ask Campbell return to command one of these corps, and Campbell agreed. However, by the time he had returned, the war was virtually over. He commanded
South-Eastern District from July to September 1856. For his services in the Crimean War, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Sardinian
Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus on 11 August 1856 and the Turkish
Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class, on 2 March 1858. The
Board of Directors of the East India Company also granted Campbell an
annuity (a life-long annual payment) of £2,000 on 9 June 1858.
Commander-in-Chief of India after the Slaughter of 2,000 Rebels by the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab Regiment. First Attack of Sir Colin Campbell in November 1857, Lucknow. Albumen silver print, by
Felice Beato, 1858. On 11 July 1857, at an early stage in the
Indian Mutiny,
Lord Palmerston offered Campbell the command of all British forces in India. he left England the next day and reached
Calcutta in August 1857. and
raised to the peerage as Baron Clyde, of Clydesdale in Scotland on 3 August 1858. In Autumn 1858, faced with a further mutiny by the
East India Company's European troops, who had not received their
enlistment bounties, he used British troops to enforce discipline until the
British Cabinet agreed to some concessions. He continued in charge of the operations in India until all aspects of the revolt had died away and then returned to England in June 1860. ==Retirement and memorials==