West Indies and the American War

Martinique 1762

In 1761, the 3rd Battalion, under Augustine Prevost, moving to the West Indies, had taken part in the first capture of Martinique from the French on 27th January, 1762. Havannah, 13th August 1762

It subsequently joined the expedition to Cuba under the Earl of Albemarle, where, led by BrigadierGeneral W. Haviland, it played a leading part in the capture of Havannah from the Spaniards on 13th August, in the course of which it penetrated into a morass, where it charged and defeated a regiment of Spanish dragoons and other mounted troops.

On the termination of the French War in America the British Army 3rd 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, recruited as they were from the Colonists themselves, to the West Indies. 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 dispatched to the West Indies, and thence to Florida, where they took part in the operations in that region.

Savannah 1779

In 1779 the 3rd Battalion and some companies of the 4th Battalion formed part 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 (3rd March, 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 held at bay by a very much smaller army under Prevost, and at the final assault was signally defeated with great loss (9th October, 1779). An improvised body of light dragoons (or mounted infantry), organized by Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Prevost, of the 60th, did remarkable service during these operations, and at the victory on 9th October at Savannah lost heavily, but greatly distinguished itself by repulsing the main assaulting column of the enemy and capturing the Colour of the Carolina Regiment, now in the possession of the Prevost family.