Historical Record of the Thirty-ninth, or the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1853.Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Thirty-ninth, or the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1853.
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army. Dorset Regiment -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 39th (Dorsetshire) -- History
The first battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment arrived at Quebec
on the 5th of August, and marched from thence to Chambly.
After the arrival of the reinforcements from Europe, the
Governor-General of Canada, Lieut.-General Sir George Prevost,
Bart., assembled all the disposable forces in the lower province
for an attack upon the state of New York. On the 2nd of September
the first battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH, with the other corps
employed on this service, proceeded towards the United States to
co-operate with the naval force on Lake Champlain. As the troops
approached the line of separation, the Americans abandoned their
entrenched camp on the river Chazy, and this post was occupied by
the British on the 3rd of September.
The first battalion remained at Chazy to keep up the communication,
having sent forward the light company to _Plattsburg_, a fortified
place on Lake Champlain; two officers and sixty men of the
THIRTY-NINTH were detached on board the fleet to act as marines.
The attack was made on the morning of the 11th of September; but
the defeat of the British naval force on the lake rendered it
necessary to abandon the enterprise, as the most complete success
on shore would have proved unavailing after the loss of the
shipping. The troops accordingly retired to Lower Canada.
[Sidenote: 1815. 1st Batt.]
After the failure of these operations the first battalion
returned to Chambly, where it remained until the 27th of May
1815, and then proceeded to embark at Quebec under the command
of Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, its services being
again required in Europe in consequence of the return of Napoleon
Bonaparte to France, who resumed his former title of Emperor of the
French, but which assumption the Allied Powers refused to recognise.
The first battalion sailed from the river St. Lawrence on the 12th
of June, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 15th of July. Meanwhile
the destiny of France had been decided on the field of Waterloo,
and Louis XVIII. had been again restored to the throne. The
battalion proceeded on the 18th of July for Ostend, disembarked
on the 21st, and immediately marched to join the British army
at Paris. On the 26th of August it was reinforced by a strong
detachment from the second battalion under Lieut.-Colonel Cavendish
Sturt, who assumed the command.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
In April 1815 the second battalion was removed from Weymouth
to Winchester Barracks, and, after having transferred all the
effective men to the first battalion, was disbanded at the latter
place on the 24th of December following.
The regiment remained near Paris until the Army of Occupation
was formed, and on the 27th of December 1815 marched to take up
the cantonments appointed for it in the Pas-de-Calais, between
the towns of Arras and St. Pol, moving annually to the camps of
St. Omer and Valenciennes until the breaking up of the Army of
Occupation in 1818.
[Sidenote: 1818.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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