A breach having been effected, Auchmuty resolved to assault the place; and an hour before daybreak on the morning of February 3 the attacking column moved forward. It was headed by the Riflemen under Gardner; the storming party being led by Captain Dickenson at the head of his own company. They got near the walls before they were discovered, when a destructive fire was opened from every gun that could bear on the column and from the musketry of the garrison. The enemy had piled up hides in the breach; and unfortunately, in the darkness, its situation was not immediately discovered, and the troops remained under a heavy fire for a quarter of an hour. At last the breach was discovered and pointed out by Captain Renny, of the 40th (which formed part of the attacking column), who fell in the assault. Our troops at once mounted it, led by Dickenson and the Riflemen, and forced their way into the town; and though cannon placed at the head of all the principal streets opened a destructive fire, the place was taken and occupied. In this gallant affair Dickenson fell gloriously at the head of his company; 10 rank and file were killed, and Lieutenants Scanlan and Macnamara, 4 sergeants, and 15 rank and file were wounded. The Riflemen engaged were specially thanked in General Orders; and eleven sergeants received silver medals under the sanction of the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief, for their gallantry on this occasion. The three companies under Gardner remained in La Plata until they were joined in May by a wing of the 1st Battalion. This force, consisting of five companies (Norcott’s,[28] O’Hare’s,[29] Jenkinson’s, Ramage’s, and Bennett’s), under the command of Majors M’Leod and Travers, and numbering 25 sergeants and 370 rank and file, marched from Faversham on July 23, 1806, and embarked at Gravesend on the 26th on board the ‘Chapman,’ armed transport. Their voyage was a slow one. They sailed on the 27th, remained at anchor in the Downs from the 30th till August 4, arrived on the 21st in Plymouth Sound, were disembarked on September 2, and encamped on Buckland Down till the 13th, when they re-embarked, Norcott’s and Bennett’s companies being placed on board the ‘Alexander’ transport. They did not sail, however, till October 6, and then only to Falmouth; the other ship, with the head-quarters, having preceded them on September 28. On October 24, Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd (under whom the Regiment served subsequently so long and so gloriously in other fields) arrived at Falmouth and took command of the troops assembled in that harbour for (as it was then called) ‘the remote expedition.’