Martinique 1762
In 1761, the 3rd Battalion, under Augustine Prevost, moving to the West Indies, had taken part in the first capture of Martinique from the French on 27th January, 1762.
Havannah, 13th August 1762
It subsequently joined the expedition to Cuba under the Earl of Albemarle, where, led by BrigadierGeneral W. Haviland, it played a leading part in the capture of Havannah from the Spaniards on 13th August, in the course of which it penetrated into a morass, where it charged and defeated a regiment of Spanish dragoons and other mounted troops.
On the termination of the French War in America the British Army 3rd was reduced, and in 1764 and 1763 respectively the 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded.
The discontented and hostile feeling of the American Colonies at this period rendered it advisable to transfer the Royal Americans, recruited as they were from the Colonists themselves, to the West Indies. Thus it fell to the lot of the Regiment to take a prominent share in the conquest and annexation of the West Indian Islands and the adjacent coast, which took place at this period. The officers in many instances filled important posts as governors and administrators of the various islands.
On the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1775 the 3rd and 4th Battalions were again raised in England and dispatched to the West Indies, and thence to Florida, where they took part in the operations in that region.
Savannah 1779
In 1779 the 3rd Battalion and some companies of the 4th Battalion formed part of an army under General Augustine Prevost in Georgia and South Carolina. The Regiment played a leading part at the brilliant action of Briars Creek (3rd March, 1779), and also in the subsequent siege of Savannah, where a superior force of French and Americans under Comte d'Estaigne and General Lincoln was held at bay by a very much smaller army under Prevost, and at the final assault was signally defeated with great loss (9th October, 1779). An improvised body of light dragoons (or mounted infantry), organized by Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Prevost, of the 60th, did remarkable service during these operations, and at the victory on 9th October at Savannah lost heavily, but greatly distinguished itself by repulsing the main assaulting column of the enemy and capturing the Colour of the Carolina Regiment, now in the possession of the Prevost family.
Upon the termination of the American War of Independence in 1783 the 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded for the second time, but were again raised in 1788 for the third time and dispatched to the West Indies. The 1st and 2nd Battalions at this period until 1797 were quietly stationed in Canada.
The 3rd and 4th Battalions in the West Indies took part in the following military operations at this period:
Capture of Nicaragua-Panama, 13th April, 1780.
Capture by assault of the island of Tobago, 17th April, 1793. Capture (2nd) of Martinique, 23rd March, 1794. Capture of Saint Lucia, 2nd April, 1794. Capture of Grande Terre Guadaloupe, 12th April, 1794. Capture of Saint Vincent, 9th June, 1796. Capture of Trinidad, 18th February, 1797. Attack on Porto Rico, 18th April, 1797.
MARTINIQUE, 24th February, 1809. Capture by 3rd Battalion.
It will be seen that the Regiment at this period was closely identified with the ebb and flow of reverse and success in the conquest and re-conquest of the West Indian Islands. It was cursed with a perpetual and deplorable death rate due to disease, official negligence or ignorance, in the notoriously evil climate. Yet the spirit of the Regiment, the spirit of the original heroes of Louisburg, of Ticonderoga, of Quebec, of Bushey Run, and of Savannah still survived.
On 23rd August, 1797, Field-Marshal H.R.H. Frederick, Duke of York," was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, vice Lord Amherst, deceased.
