of muskets and mayhem

The 65th Regiment was born at the beginning of the Seven Years War as part of the army’s expansion. Unlike the 29th Regiment, it didn’t escape deployment to the West Indies. It participated in the capture of the French islands of Guadeloupe in 1759 and Martinique in 1762 and besieged Spanish Havana, Cuba later that year. In 1764 the weakened unit returned to England to recuperate. After serving garrison duty in Ireland, the regiment was sent to Boston, Massachusetts along with the 64th in 1768. The regiment’s Grenadier and Light Companies won a costly victory at the June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. In 1776 the remnants of the war-wearied regiments were drafted into other regiments while the officers returned to England to restore the regiment. In 1782 the regiment received a county title and became the 2nd Yorkshire, North Riding Regiment of Foot. The regiment was then sent to the fortress Gibraltar before being shifted to Canada in 1784 and, after the end of the Anglo-French War, bunk...

The creation of the 64th Regiment came about at the commencement of the Seven Years War, when a number of existing regiments were ordered to raise a second battalion. Among those ordered to do so was the 11th Foot; the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Foot was raised in 1756, and two years later the War Office made it its own regiment, the 64th Foot. The 64th Regiment wore black facings due to the decision of John Barrington, first colonel of the regiment.  The regiment first served in the West Indies and in 1759 partook in the failed expedition against Martinique; it overturned this failure with the successful invasion of Guadeloupe. The regiment, severely weakened by tropical disease and losing men to other units, returned to England in 1759; upon return to England, only 137 of the 790 men were fit for duty. The regiment recuperated in England before serving three years in the Scottish Highlands and five years in Ireland before being dispatched to Boston, Massachusetts in 1768.  In...

General Wolfe of Quebec fame condemned the soldiers of the 29th as ‘rascals and canaille… terrible dogs to look at.’ The 29th Regiment’s genesis took place in 1694 when raised by Colonel Thomas Farrington during the Nine Years War. Disbanded after the end of hostilities, it was reformed in 1702 with the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession. When Farrington learned that they would be posted in the West Indies, he vehemently protested, for he didn’t want his regiment being laid waste by disease. His supplications were answered, and his regiment joined Marlborough’s army in Flanders in 1704 (though too late to participate in the Blenheim campaign). It fought at the Battle of Ramillies in May 1706 and the Siege of Ostend the next month. As the war wound down, the regiment was dispatched to Gibraltar and remained as part of the garrison for thirty years; this regiment served alongside the West Yorkshires during the Siege of Gibraltar during the brief Anglo-Spanish War of 1727-1729....

The 16th Regiment of Foot was originally formed in October 1688 in Reading, Virginia to oppose a possible invasion by William of Orange (later William III after the Glorious Revolution); at this point it didn't have an actual name but was associated with its acting colonel. When William of Orange landed in England, King James abandoned his troops and went into exile. During the Nine Years War, the regiment served in Flanders and fought in the battles of Walcourt, Steenkirk, Neer Landen, and in the 1695 Siege of Namur. After the war, the regiment served garrison duty in Ireland.  At the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702, it returned to Flanders and served in Marlborough’s campaigns. It helped capture Liege in 1702 and fought at Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramillies, the Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. After the war it was sent to Scotland where it held Fort William against the Jacobite Uprising of 1715.  During the War of Jenkins’ Ear, it served in the West Indies an...

The West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ own) was raised in response to the 1685 Pitchfork Rebellion, which was an attempt to overthrow King James II. The West Yorkshires served in Scotland after The Glorious Revolution of 1688 before heading to Flanders in 1693. In 1695 it participated in the Siege of Namur during the Nine Years War. After the Nine Years War, the regiment served in Ireland until 1715 when it shifted to Scotland during the Jacobite Uprising, an attempt to reinstall the Stuart dynasty. It participated in the British victory at the 1719 Battle of Glen Shiel in the Scottish Highlands before returning to England. The regiment moved to Gibraltar to participate in the Siege of Gibraltar during the brief Anglo-Spanish War; after the war it remained as part of the garrison for fifteen years. The West Yorkshires fought at Fontenoy in 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession; it was then sent to Scotland to suppress the Scottish 1745 Rebellion, participating in the ba...

The Stamp Act  ∙  Much Affection Lost  ∙  The Virginia Resolves  ∙  John Locke’s ‘Social Contract’  ∙  Boston: Seedbed of Revolution  ∙  The Loyal Nine and the Sons of Liberty  ∙ Samuel Adams: Chief Incendiary and Architect of Revolution  ∙  Rioting in Boston  ∙  The Stamp Act Congress & The Declaration of Rights and Grievances  ∙  The Non-Importation Agreement of 1765  ∙  The Repeal of the Stamp Act  ∙  The Declaratory Act The Genesis of the Stamp Act The Stamp Act, passed on 22 March of 1765, would go into effect on November 1st of that year. The Act decreed that revenue stamps had to be placed on all paper goods sold in the colonies: all papers in lawsuits, all commercial papers, ship charters, surveys and conveyances of land, probates of wills, bills of lading, leases, newspapers and pamphlets, bills of sale, and even playing cards couldn’t be sold without a revenue stam...