Historical Record of the Thirty-sixth, or the Herefordshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1701, and of its subsequent services to 1852Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Thirty-sixth, or the Herefordshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1701, and of its subsequent services to 1852
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army. Herefordshire Light Infantry -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 36th -- History
The army also received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament “for
its distinguished discipline, firmness, and valour in the battle of
CORUNNA.”
On the 17th of January the battalion embarked at Corunna for
England; portions landed at Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Deal, but the
several divisions were assembled at Battle, in Sussex, during the
month of February.
Immense preparations had been made by the British Government to fit
out the most formidable armament that had for a long time proceeded
from England. The troops amounted to forty thousand men, commanded
by Lieut.-General the Earl of Chatham; the naval portion consisted
of thirty-nine ships of the line, thirty-six frigates, and numerous
gun-boats and bomb-vessels, and other small craft, under Admiral
Sir Richard Strachan. The object of the expedition was to obtain
possession of the islands at the mouth of the _Scheldt_, and to
destroy the French ships in that river, with the docks and arsenals
at Antwerp. The first battalion of the THIRTY-SIXTH regiment
received orders to prepare itself for this service, and on the
16th of July embarked at Portsmouth for _Walcheren_, under the
command of Colonel Burne. The expedition sailed from the Downs
on the 28th of July, and on the morning of the 1st of August the
THIRTY-SIXTH and other corps were landed, and on the same day the
troops advanced to the investment of _Flushing_, which operation
was warmly contested by the enemy.
By the 13th of August, the preparations for the attack on the town
were completed, and on the night of the 14th one of the enemy’s
batteries, advanced upon the sea dyke in front of Lieut.-General
Alexander Mackenzie Fraser’s position, was most gallantly carried
at the point of the bayonet by detachments from the THIRTY-SIXTH,
Seventy-first, and the light battalions of the King’s German
legion, under Lieut.-Colonel Denis Pack, of the Seventy-first,
although opposed to great superiority of numbers; the troops took
forty prisoners, and killed and wounded a great many of the enemy.
_Flushing_ capitulated on the 15th of August; the garrison becoming
prisoners of war.
From the 8th to the 15th of August the THIRTY-SIXTH had three rank
and file killed; Major Alexander Mackenzie was dangerously wounded;
two serjeants and seven rank and file were wounded.
An epidemic disease of a fatal character broke out among the
troops, and the following officers and men of the THIRTY-SIXTH
regiment died of fever:--Captains Waddle, C. Douglas, and Alexander
Barbor, Lieutenant McDermott, Assistant-Surgeon James McFarlane,
fourteen serjeants, two drummers, and two hundred rank and file.
On the 10th of December 1809 the first battalion embarked for
England, and arrived at Woolwich on the 22d of that month; it
subsequently returned to Battle in Sussex.
[Sidenote: 1810.]
During the year 1810 the first battalion was stationed at Battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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