II.
1764–1807.—WEST INDIES AND THE AMERICAN WAR.
[Sidenote: WEST INDIES.]
On the termination of the French War in America the British Army was reduced, and in 1764 and 1763 respectively the 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded.
The discontented and hostile feeling of the American Colonies at this period rendered it advisable to transfer The Royal Americans to the West Indies, recruited as they were from the Colonists themselves. Thus it fell to the lot of the Regiment to take a prominent share in the conquest and annexation of the West Indian Islands and the adjacent coast, which took place at this period. The officers in many instances filled important posts as Governors and Administrators of the various islands.
On the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1775 the 3rd and 4th Battalions were again raised in England and despatched to the West Indies, and thence to Florida, where they figured prominently in the operations in that region.
[Sidenote: 1779, SAVANNAH.]
[Sidenote: AMERICAN WAR.]
In 1779 the 3rd and some companies of the 4th Battalion formed portion of an army under General Augustine Prevost in Georgia and South Carolina. The Regiment played a leading part at the brilliant action of Briars Creek (March 3rd, 1779), and also in the subsequent siege of Savannah, where a superior force of French and Americans under Comte d’Estaigne and General Lincoln was successfully held at bay by a very much smaller army under Prevost, and at the final assault was signally defeated with great loss (October the 9th, 1779). An improvised body of Light Dragoons (or Mounted Infantry), organised by Lieut.-Colonel Marc Prevost,[9] of the 60th, did remarkable service during these operations, and at the victory on the 9th of October lost heavily, but greatly distinguished itself by repulsing the main column of the enemy and capturing the colour of the Carolina Regiment, now in the possession of the Prevost family.
Upon the termination of the American War of Independence in 1783 the 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded for the second time, but were again raised in 1788 and despatched to the West Indies.
[Sidenote: WEST INDIES.]
The Regiment, for the most part quartered in the West Indies, took part in the following military operations:—
Capture of the Island of Tobago, a brilliant feat of arms April 17th, 1783
Capture (2nd) of Martinique March 1794
Capture Saint Lucia 1794
Capture Grande Terre Guadaloupe 1794
Capture Saint Vincent 1796
Capture Trinidad Feb. 1797
Capture Porto Rico April 1797
On the 23rd of August, 1797, Field-Marshal H.R.H. Frederick Duke of York[10] was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, _vice_ Lord Amherst deceased.
[Sidenote: 1797, 5th BATTALION (RIFLES) RAISED.]
In December of the same year the famous 5th Battalion was raised at Cowes, Isle of Wight, under Lieutenant-Colonel Baron de Rottenburg,[11] upon the German model as a Special Corps of Riflemen. Four hundred of Hompesch’s Mounted Riflemen—a German Corps raised for service under the British Crown—were drafted into the Battalion, which was armed with rifles and dressed in green with red facings. The second Lieutenant-Colonel was that celebrated Robert Crauford, who afterwards made his name so famous in the Peninsular War as the honoured leader of the Light Division. Thus, by the addition of the 5th Battalion to the Regiment as Riflemen in 1797, the gradual evolution of the 60th Royal Americans into The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was auspiciously begun.
[Illustration:
MAP I
NORTH AMERICA
Illustrating the area of Operations referred to in Part I, Sections 1 and 2, also Part II, Section 6.
Stanford’s Geog^l. Estab^t., London. ]
The system of organisation, drill, and tactics for Light Troops introduced into the Regiment by Baron de Rottenburg, was embodied in a Manual for Riflemen and Light Infantry. This volume[12] was published in August, 1798, with a preface signed by the Adjutant General, and especially commended to the Army by the Commander-in-Chief as a text book on the subject.
In 1799 a 6th Battalion was added to the Regiment, so that the close of the eighteenth century saw the Regiment composed of six battalions.
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Footnote 9:
Lieut.-Colonel Marc Prevost, born 1736, died 1785, youngest brother of General Augustine Prevost—a brilliant and most promising officer, who succumbed to the effect of his wounds.
Footnote 10:
Frederick, Duke of York, was the second son of George III, and brother of George IV and William IV.
Footnote 11:
Afterwards Lieutenant-General. Born 1760, died 1832. He commanded the 5th Battalion, 1797–1808. He afterwards served as Major-General commanding in Lower Canada, 1810–1815, during the American War, 1812–13.
Footnote 12:
_Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry and Instructions for their conduct in the Field_, with diagrams, published with a Memo, dated Horse Guards, August 1st, 1798. Copies of the editions 1808 and 1812 will be found in the Library, Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall.