Historical Record of the Nineteenth, or the First Yorkshire North Riding Regiment of Foot: Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688, and of its subsequent services to 1848Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Nineteenth, or the First Yorkshire North Riding Regiment of Foot: Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688, and of its subsequent services to 1848
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Green Howards
Major-General Sutton was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general
in 1735, and died in 1738, when the colonelcy of the regiment was
conferred on Colonel the Honorable Charles Howard, from captain and
lieut.-colonel in the foot guards.
[Sidenote: 1739]
In 1739 war was proclaimed against Spain, and the NINETEENTH regiment
was withdrawn from Ireland, and stationed in North Britain.
[Sidenote: 1742]
[Sidenote: 1744]
A British army proceeded to Flanders in 1742, to support the
interests of the House of Austria against France and Bavaria; but
the NINETEENTH were employed on home service until 1744, when they
proceeded to Flanders, and served the campaign of that year with the
army under Field-Marshal Wade. The regiment was encamped some time on
the banks of the Scheldt, and afterwards advanced into the territory
subject to France, as far as Lisle; but no serious fighting took
place, and it passed the winter in quarters at Ghent.
[Sidenote: 1745]
The regiment was called from its winter quarters in April, 1745, and
advanced with the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of
Cumberland, to the relief of Tournay, which fortress was besieged by
a numerous French force, and on the approach of the allied army the
enemy took up a formidable position near the village of _Fontenoy_.
This position was attacked on the 11th of May, and the gallant
bearing of the British infantry was conspicuous; by a determined
charge they broke the French lines and overthrew all opposition at
their point of attack; but the Dutch failed in their attempts to
capture the village of Fontenoy, and the English were exposed to a
destructive flank fire which forced them to retreat. The attack was
repeated, and British valour and intrepidity triumphed once more;
but the Dutch again failed, and the English battalions, which had
broken the enemy's lines, were exposed to so destructive a fire from
batteries on both flanks, that a retreat was ordered, and the army
withdrew from the field of battle to Aeth.
The regiment had Lieutenant Le Grand, Ensign Gibson, and seventeen
private soldiers killed; Major Petitot, Captains Cochran and Douglas,
Lieutenant Coote, Ensigns Cheape, Martin, and Potterfield, one
serjeant, and sixty-nine rank and file wounded; thirteen men missing.
The subsequent operations of the campaign were of a defensive
character, and the allied army was so much inferior in numbers to the
enemy, that it was unable to prevent the capture of several fortified
towns in the Austrian Netherlands.
This year a rebellion broke out in Scotland, and Charles Edward,
eldest son of the Pretender, gained some advantages at the head of
the Highland clans, when several corps were ordered to return to
England, but the NINETEENTH remained in the Netherlands.
[Sidenote: 1746]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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