The regiment was stationed at Norfolk, in Virginia, from whence a detachment of one hundred and twenty men, under Captain Fordyce, advanced at midnight on the 8th of December, against the American entrenchments at _Great Bridge_. At day-break the detachment crossed the bridge, and the grenadiers moved forward with great gallantry to storm the works, Lieutenant Batut being at the head of the leading section; but as they approached the entrenchments, a body of Americans, of very superior numbers, assailed them with a destructive fire of musketry: Captain Fordyce and twelve men were killed within a few yards of the breast-work; Lieutenant Batut and sixteen soldiers were wounded and taken prisoners, and the remainder of the detachment retreated across the bridge to a British fort, garrisoned by a detachment under Captain Leslie. The Americans buried Captain Fordyce with military honors. [Sidenote: 1776] The American troops afterwards increased in numbers so fast, that the royal forces were withdrawn from Virginia, and the FOURTEENTH Foot proceeded to the army under General Sir William Howe, at New York, where they were joined by a detachment which had been left at Nova Scotia on the embarkation of the regiment for the West Indies. After arriving at New York, part of the regiment was stationed on Staten Island, and the remainder was employed in the general operations of the army. [Sidenote: 1777] The regiment had sustained a serious loss at St. Vincent's, and being weak in numbers, it was directed to draft the private soldiers fit for duty to other corps, and return to England, where it arrived in the summer of 1777, and active measures were adopted to recruit its ranks. [Sidenote: 1778] [Sidenote: 1779] During the year 1778 the regiment was stationed in the south of England; and in the summer of 1779 it pitched its tents on Coxheath, where a camp was formed of the Sixth, FOURTEENTH, Fiftieth, Sixty-fifth, and Sixty-ninth Regiments, with sixteen battalions of militia, under Lieutenant-General Pierson. [Sidenote: 1780] [Sidenote: 1781] The regiment marched to Gosport in 1780, and pitched its tents at Stokes-bay, furnishing working parties at Fort Monkton, and a guard over the French, Spanish, and American prisoners of war, at Forton prison. In July the regiment embarked as marines on board the Channel fleet commanded by Admiral Darby, who, in 1781, relieved Gibraltar, which fortress was besieged by a combined French and Spanish force. [Sidenote: 1782] Having completed its recruiting, and attained a state of efficiency, the regiment embarked from Portsmouth, in January, 1782, for Jamaica; it was on board of transports in the harbour of St. Lucia, during Admiral Rodney's engagement with the French fleet under Count de Grasse, on the 12th of April, and afterwards mounted guard over the Count, when a prisoner on that island.