On the 10th of October the posts occupied by the two battalions of the FIFTH, in front of the village of _Winkle_, were attacked by the enemy in great strength. The French troops had succeeded in forcing a passage over a canal which covered the village, when Colonel Bligh, who commanded the first battalion, perceiving that if the advance of the enemy was not checked, the remainder of the brigade was in danger of being cut off, planted the colours of the FIFTH on the top of the dyke, and kept his ground till he had secured and covered the retreat of the brigade; the second battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Talbot, in the mean time maintaining its positions till ordered to retreat by Prince William, who on this occasion, issued the following general order:-- "_Oude, Sluys, 12th October, 1799._ "Prince William desires Colonel Bligh and the first battalion of the _Fifth_ Regiment will accept his thanks, for the gallant manner in which they attacked the enemy when he was passing the canal opposite Winkle; and Lieutenant-Colonels Talbot and Lindsay, of the second battalion of the FIFTH, for their exertions on the 10th instant." [Sidenote: 1800] The Dutch did not second the gallant exertions thus made to effect their deliverance from foreign domination, and the evacuation of Holland was resolved on. As late as the 12th of October, the FIFTH Regiment was still in front of the enemy, and eventually occupied the works at the Helder, during the retreat and final embarkation of the army; being, according to Sir James Pulteney's letter of the 20th of November, among the last of the British troops who quitted Holland, and exhibiting to the end, persevering good conduct and unwearied courage, under hardships which his Royal Highness the Duke of York, in general orders, dated 8th of October, 1799, designated as "insupportable." On its arrival in England, the regiment was stationed at Silver Hill barracks, and the following year both battalions were ordered to Gibraltar. [Sidenote: 1801] In August, 1801, Sir Alured Clarke was removed to the Colonelcy of the Seventh Foot, and the command of the FIFTH was bestowed on the 20th of August, on Major-General Richard England, who, from the 14th of April, 1800, had been Colonel-Commandant of the second battalion. [Sidenote: 1802] [Sidenote: 1803] [Sidenote: 1804] At Gibraltar the regiment continued till the peace of Amiens, when it returned to England. The second battalion was then disbanded at Winchester, and the first ordered to Guernsey, where it remained till 1804, when it returned to England, and was stationed first, for a short time, at Hilsea, and afterwards at Colchester. The war with France having been resumed, a second battalion was again raised, in 1804, and embodied at Horsham in Sussex. [Sidenote: 1805]