acLeod became 23rd Chief of the Clan in 1772, and entertained Boswell and Johnson at Dunvegan before raising a Company for the 71st Regiment (Fraser's Highlanders) and the war in America. He was taken prisoner on the voyage out but returned to Skye and in 1779 was made Lt.Col. of the 2nd Battalion of the 42nd Regiment (later The Black Watch), raised by himself. He reached Madras in 1782, and served in the second Mysore War, and in 1785 was appointed Second in Command of the army in India, then a total of 115,000 men.

Zoffany's fine portrait, celebrating MacLeod's status, was probably painted in January 1787, when it was described by MacLeod in a letter to his wife as being '….nearly finished; it is very like, very like but too handsome.' The furled canvas of the tent doorway, and the distant view of the encampment below, with its camels, elephants and palanquin, both serve to enhance the impact of the central figure. MacLeod wears the uniform which his Battalion adopted in 1786, when it was formed into a separate corps and designated the 73rd Highlanders. His second wife, Sarah Stackhouse, is almost certainly the figure depicted in the encampment, clearly distinguishable by the bonnet of black feathers she is wearing. A miniature portrait, painted in Calcutta in 1787 by the artist Diana Hill, shows Lady MacLeod in a silk tartan jacket, and wearing a very fashionable bonnet of black feathers and silk ribbon. Her full-length portrait was also painted by Zoffany, who was one of the most brilliant and sought-after artists in Calcutta between 1786 and 1798. In his portrait, Zoffany has carefully observed the scar on MacLeod's left temple, the result of a wound inflicted by Tipu himself. In 1784, after the close of the Second Mysore War, MacLeod was attempting to enforce the conditions of the truce and dined with Tipu one evening to pursue these negotiations. The discussion became heated, and Tipu suddenly fired a pistol at MacLeod, grazing his left temple. How matters resolved themselves that evening is not known, but MacLeod survived, and lived until 1801.

All three of the portraits mentioned hang at Dunvegan Castle, stronghold of the MacLeods, and of John MacLeod of Macleod, the 29th Chief. 'In days gone by the chief and his clan would be living in the same territory,' said MacLeod, when asked for his thoughts on history, tradition and technology. 'But, since 1745, there has been the clearances and emigration, and Scots have left home in enormous numbers. So the clan exists across several continents. That's where resources like the Internet come in. That makes the communication possible.' That communication today links Australia and New Zealand with South Africa and the USA. In 1785, Norman MacLeod was Second-In Command of 115,000 men. Today, 'strikes' on the Clan MacLeod Society website since its inception in 1995, are rapidly approaching the same number