Background
John Campbell was born on May 5, 1705 in Scotland. He was the son of Hugh, third earl, of Loudoun Castle, Galston, Ayrshire, and of his wife Margaret, only daughter of John Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair.
John Campbell was born on May 5, 1705 in Scotland. He was the son of Hugh, third earl, of Loudoun Castle, Galston, Ayrshire, and of his wife Margaret, only daughter of John Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair.
John Campbell chose to follow the military profession and entered the Scots Greys as cornet in 1727. By 1739 he had become captain, with the army rank of lieutenant-colonel, in the 3rd Foot Guards. His interests were not confined to the army, however. Having succeeded to the title in 1731, he was elected in 1734 as a Scottish representative peer, and shared in the Scottish patronage by getting, in 1741, the governorship of Stirling Castle. In Ayrshire he improved his own estates by systematic and scientific planting, and encouraged the building of roads and bridges.
In 1743 he saw service in Flanders and after Dettingen became aide-de-camp to George II. Loyal to the king, as his family had ever been, he fought the Jacobites during the rebellion of 1745, acting as adjutant-general to Sir John Cope, commanding later in the north of Scotland where the Young Pretender eluded him, and raising as colonel a regiment of Highlanders. This regiment was cut to pieces at Preston Pans; recruited again, it relieved Fort Augustus and was later reduced.
In 1749 Loudoun became colonel of the 30th Regiment and in 1755 major-general. A believer in the necessity of stern disciplinary measures to preserve colonial dependence on the royal prerogative, Loudoun readily accepted, in January 1756, the post of commander-in-chief of all forces in North America, offered him by the Duke of Cumberland with the approval of Fox and Halifax. At the same time he was appointed governor-general of Virginia, a sinecure post, and colonel-in-chief of the new Royal American Regiment. Administrative entanglements in London delayed his arrival at New York until July 23. There his candor and affability, his readiness to accept wise suggestions, his incessant attention to infinite detail (which was to undermine his health), and his direct methods of dealing, provoked favorable comment, at first, from such different men as Franklin and Hutchinson.
His tasks were two: to mold the British army in North America into an efficient fighting unit, and to unite jealous and divided colonies in support of the war. Without the aid of an adequate staff, he organized the transportation, supply, and ranging services to function without direct colonial support. He took the preliminary steps in training the raw recruits of the army for wilderness warfare. Such work constituted his greatest achievement and gives him a place among the conquerors of Canada.
In his relations with the colonies Loudoun was less successful. The British ministry had intended them to furnish, not only provincial troops, but recruits, funds, and quarters for the regular army. Loudoun's blunt insistence on his authority, accompanied often with deliberate outbursts of temper, led many colonial assemblies to fear military government, while Massachusetts almost refused him support. His campaigns were completely unsuccessful. Montcalm took Forts Oswego and William Henry in successive summers, and his own projected invasion of Canada by way of Louisbourg and the St. Lawrence failed. None of these disasters was wholly his fault, for he was a good soldier, if no genius.
In December 1757 Pitt determined on his recall, less because he had not accomplished visible results than because Pitt refused to continue longer the extensive political and military authority he possessed. Second in command of the British expedition to Portugal in 1762, Loudoun, after Tyrawley's resignation in June, acted as commander of British troops in the Peninsula until the following spring, and aided in turning back a Franco-Spanish invasion. There, as in America, he irritated the somewhat dilatory civil ministers by his tactless insistence upon conditions he deemed essential for the health of his troops. Lieutenant-general in 1758, governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1763, he became general in 1770, and colonel of the Scots Guards.
Loudoun was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1738.
Peter Wraxall in 1756 described him as "short, strong made & seems disposed & fit for Action, " his countenance "full of Candor, his Eyes Sprightly & good Humoured. "
Loudoun never married.
