The 29th Regiment of Foot

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 regiment shifted to North America during the War of the Austrian Succession and helped capture the French stronghold of Louisbourg in 1745. The next year, twenty-seven soldiers died in the Port-la-Joye Massacre, principally because they were unarmed (after this, officers were ordered to carry swords and side arms even when off duty, leading to the nickname ‘The Ever-Sworded’). The regiment remained in North America after the end of the war, and they seethed over the return of Louisbourg to France. In 1749 the regiment helped establish the town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, during Father Le Loutre’s War (an Indian War). 

After the reforms of 1751, the regiment became known as the 29th Regiment of Foot. 

In 1759, ten black youths taken in the Invasion of Guadeloupe were presented to the regiment’s commander, and he employed them as regimental drummers; the tradition continued until 1843. 

In 1768 the 29th debarked in Boston, Massachusetts for garrison duty. On 5 March 1770, members of the grenadier company under Captain Thomas Preston were involved in the Boston Massacre. The 29th would later be known as ‘the Vein Openers’ for drawing first blood in the American Revolution. In 1771 the regiment moved to British-controlled Florida, then to England two years later. After the outbreak of the American War of Independence, the 29th was dispatched to Quebec City to reinforce the garrison that had beaten off an American attack in 1775. The 29th’s Light and Grenadier companies joined the 1777 Saratoga Campaign and fought at the Battle of Hubbardton in July. Following defeat in the running battles of Saratoga, these companies surrendered alongside the rest of General Burgoyne’s forces in October. The other eight companies remained in Canada, raiding and skirmishing along the Vermont and New York state frontiers. The regiment returned to England after the Anglo-French War ended in 1783.  

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