Historical Record of the Sixteenth, or, the Bedfordshire 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 Sixteenth, or, the Bedfordshire 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. Regiment of Foot, 16th (Bedfordshire)
In this year the war of the Austrian succession commenced; and in
1742 a British army proceeded to Flanders to support the interests
of the Archduchess, Maria Theresa; but the SIXTEENTH were employed
on home service.
[Sidenote: 1745]
Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, arrived in Scotland
in the summer of 1745, and being joined by a number of the
Highland clans, he made a desperate effort to overthrow the
existing government, and to procure the accession of his father
to the throne. At first some partial successes were gained by the
insurgents; but the British nation evinced firmness and decision
in supporting the rights of their sovereign, and in preserving
the constitutional privileges of the people. The services of the
regiment were, at this period, limited to the south of England,
where a body of troops was held in readiness to repel a menaced
invasion by the French.
[Sidenote: 1746]
In January, 1746, the royal troops, under Lieut.-General Hawley,
were defeated by the Clans, on Falkirk moor, and additional forces
were ordered to proceed to Scotland. In March the SIXTEENTH
regiment embarked from Gravesend, with several other corps, for
Edinburgh, and arrived at Leith as the guns of Edinburgh castle
were firing for the decisive victory gained over the clans at
Culloden. The regiment waited a few days on board the transports,
until the return of an express from the army, when it received
orders to sail northwards, and landed at the royal burgh of Nairn
on the 1st of May. It was subsequently stationed at Elgin, &c.
[Sidenote: 1747]
The regiment remained in Scotland, and in the summer of 1747 it
was encamped in a valley environed by lofty mountains, near Fort
Augustus.
[Sidenote: 1748]
[Sidenote: 1749]
The war on the Continent terminated in 1748; and in the
following year the regiment was reduced in numbers to the peace
establishment, and sent to Ireland, where it was stationed nearly
twenty years.
[Sidenote: 1751]
On the 1st of July, 1751, King George II. issued a warrant for
establishing uniformity in the clothing, standards, and colours
of the several regiments of the regular army; and in this warrant
the uniform of the SIXTEENTH, or Lieut.-General Roger Handasyd's
regiment, was directed to be red, faced with _yellow_.[6] The
first, or the King's colour, to be the great Union: the second,
or regimental colour, to be of yellow silk, with the Union in
the upper canton; in the centre of the colours, the rank of the
regiment, in gold Roman characters, within a wreath of roses and
thistles on the same stalk.
At this period the soldiers of the regiment wore three-cornered
cocked hats, bound with white lace, and ornamented with a white
loop and a black cockade; red waistcoats; red breeches; white
gaiters reaching above the knee, and fastened below the knee with a
black garter; and white cravats; they also wore buff cross-belts.
[Sidenote: 1755]
[Sidenote: 1756]
[Sidenote: 1757]
[Sidenote: 1758]
[Sidenote: 1760]
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