Through the bold initiative of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Bouquet,[1] a Swiss officer of distinction, commanding the 1st Battalion, the 60th Royal Americans adopted Colonial methods of equipment, simpler drill, open formations, and the Indian system of forest warfare, thus early acquiring those attributes of individual action, swift initiative, and of elastic though firm discipline, which have been the conspicuous characteristics of the Regiment throughout its long and brilliant career, characteristics which have made its reputation. Thus equipped, The Royal American Regiment from its very beginning played a distinguished and memorable part in establishing British power in North America. The great struggle between France and England for supremacy in America was at its height, when early in 1758, Abercromby,[2] who had succeeded Loudoun as Commander-in-Chief, decided upon a general advance. [Sidenote: July 8th, 1758, TICONDEROGA.] The 1st and 4th Battalions, under Bouquet and Haldimand,[3] formed part of the main Army in the Western Field of operations, and on the banks of Lake Champlain, at the memorable defeat of Ticonderoga, “at once a glory and a shame,” the 4th Battalion and a portion of the 1st showed a stubborn courage worthy of the highest praise, and lost very heavily in killed and wounded. On July the 27th, three weeks later, regardless of their losses, the Regiment furnished a part of the column under Bradstreet,[4] of the 60th, which, after a forced march, captured by a _coup de main_ Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. [Sidenote: Nov. 25th, 1758, Capture of FORT DUQUESNE.] The 1st Battalion, employed on the Western frontiers under _General Forbes_, played the leading part in the advance against Fort Duquesne on the Ohio, in November, 1758, and led by the gallant Bouquet effected its capture from the French and Red Indians. This brilliant triumph over great physical difficulties was achieved by sheer determination, endurance, and pluck; and the solid value of the victory is thus summed up by the American historian, Parkman:—“It opened the great West to English enterprise, took from France half her savage allies, and relieved her Western borders from the scourge of Indian Wars.” Fort Duquesne, re-christened Fort Pitt, was thereupon garrisoned by a detachment of the 60th, and was destined later to play a prominent part in the subsequent operations. [Sidenote: July 26th, 1758, LOUISBURG.] The 2nd and 3rd Battalions, under Lieut.-Colonel Young and Major Augustine Prevost[5] respectively, early in 1758 were ordered to join Generals Amherst[6] and _Wolfe_ in the Eastern Field of operations, and they took a prominent part in the capture of LOUISBURG. [Sidenote: Sept. 13th, 1759, QUEBEC.]