One other small incident requires notice before we pass to the operations of Howe’s army (whereof the Seventeenth formed part) in the campaign of 1776. Very early in the day Governor Martin of North Carolina had recommended the despatch of a flying column or small force to the Carolinas, there to rally around it the loyalists, who were said to be many, and create a powerful diversion in England’s favour. Accordingly in December 1775, five infantry regiments under Lord Cornwallis were despatched from England to Cape Fear, whither General Clinton was sent by Howe to meet them and take command. An attack on Charleston by this expedition proved to be a total failure; and on the 21st June 1776, Clinton withdrew the force to New York. This episode deserves mention, because it shows how early the British Government was bitten with this plan of a Carolina campaign, which was destined to cost us the possession of the American Colonies. Three times in the course of this history shall we see English statesmen make the fatal mistake of sending a weak force to a hostile country in reliance on the support of a section of disaffected inhabitants, and each time (as fate ordained it) we shall find the Seventeenth among the regiments that paid the inevitable penalty. From this brief digression let us now return to the army under General Howe. While the bulk of this force was quartered at Halifax, the Seventeenth lay, for convenience of obtaining forage, at Windsor, some miles away. In June the 16th light Dragoons arrived at Halifax from England with remounts for the regiment; but it is questionable whether they had any horses to spare, for we find that out of 950 horses 412 perished on the voyage. About the same time arrived orders for the increase of the Seventeenth by 1 cornet, 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, and 30 privates per troop; but the necessary recruits had not been received by the time when the campaign opened. On the 11th June the regiment, with the rest of Howe’s army, was once more embarked at Halifax and reached Sandy Hook on the 29th. Howe then landed his force on Staten Island, and awaited the arrival of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, who duly appeared with a squadron and reinforcements on the 1st July. Clinton with his troops from Charleston arrived on the 1st August, and further reinforcements from England on the 12th. Howe had now 30,000 men, 12,000 of them Hessians, under his command in America, two-thirds of whom were actually on the spot around New York.