Historical Record of the Fifty-sixth, or the West Essex Regiment of Foot: Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1755, and of its subsequent services to 1844.Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Fifty-sixth, or the West Essex Regiment of Foot: Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1755, and of its subsequent services to 1844.
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 56th (West Essex) -- History
The head-quarters were removed to Chambly, in June, 1841, and
in August, the detachments from the disputed territory, having
been relieved by the Sixty-eighth light infantry, arrived at
head-quarters[8].
[Sidenote: 1842]
The period having arrived for the return of the regiment to the
United Kingdom, its strength was reduced to three hundred and
thirty-three men, by volunteers to remain in the country and to
join other corps. In the beginning of July 1842 it proceeded to
Quebec, where it embarked in Her Majesty’s troop-ship Resistance,
and after an extraordinarily quick passage of seventeen days,
arrived at Cork on the 22nd of July. It was joined by the depôt
companies on the 3rd of August. In the autumn the regiment
proceeded to Birr, with detachments to Kilkenny, Banagher, Carlow,
and Shannon-bridge.
On the 17th of November, Lieut.-General Sir Hudson Lowe was removed
to the Fiftieth Regiment, and the colonelcy of the FIFTY-SIXTH was
conferred on Lieut.-General the Earl of Westmorland.
[Sidenote: 1843]
In March, 1843, the several detachments were ordered to head
quarters at Birr; but the regiment had been collected little more
than a week, when it was again found necessary to detach four
companies to Cashel, Tipperary, Bansha, and Dungarvon. In April,
the head-quarters marched to Fermoy, and from thence to Cork, where
the regiment was concentrated, in expectation of being removed
to England. The public service, however, required that it should
remain in Ireland, and it has since furnished detachments to
Ballincollig, Bandon, Buttevant, Mallow, Dummanway, Skibbereen,
Millstreet, &c., in order to be in readiness to aid the civil
power, if its services should be required, in consequence of
meetings of large masses of the people, to agitate the repeal of
the union between Great Britain and Ireland.
At the close of 1843, to which this Record is brought, the
head-quarters were at Cork, with four companies, under the command
of Major Norman, detached to Clonmel, and one company at Millstreet.
[Sidenote: 1844]
The FIFTY-SIXTH Regiment is distinguished for its career of
valuable service to the crown and kingdom; and it was conspicuous
for its pre-eminent efficiency in point of numbers and discipline
during the war from 1803 to 1815, during which period it was
augmented to three battalions, which were all employed on foreign
service. It was a favourite corps in England, particularly in the
county of Surrey; and although many men were lost by casualties
abroad, yet its effectives generally amounted to two thousand rank
and file. Its gallantry in the field, and its conduct on colonial
service, and in the United Kingdom, have enhanced the value of this
corps in the estimation of the government and country.
1844.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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