The 64th Regiment of Foot

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 1769 the regiment shifted to Halifax, Nova Scotia; it returned in 1772 and garrisoned Castle William in Boston Harbor. On 26 February 1775 the 64th, under commander Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leslie, was ordered to seize an illegal weapons depot in Salem, Massachusetts. American patriots blocked the redcoats’ progress, and a local Salem man was slightly injured by a British bayonet. The 64th withdrew to Boston without procuring the depot. When war broke out in April 1775, the regiment remained at Castle William throughout the Siege of Boston and thus did not participate in the June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. When the British abandoned Boston in March 1776, the 64th were the last to depart for Halifax. 

The 64th participated in the capture of New York in 1776 and later in the Battle of Ridgefield in the spring of 1777. The 64th then participated in the Philadelphia Campaign, fighting in the Battle of Brandywine, the Battle of Paoli, and the Battle of Germantown. The regiment wintered in Philadelphia, and the 64th served as General Clinton’s rearguard when he evacuated the city in June 1778. The 64th took part in small operations around New York, and its Light company took part in the Baylor Massacre in September 1778. In November 1779 the regiment shifted to the southern theater of operations. It participated in the successful siege and capture of Charleston in 1780; when General Cornwallis advanced to Virginia, the 64th remained in Carolina. The 64th participated in the 1781 Battle of Eutaw Springs and the 1782 Battle of the Combahee River. 

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