“Sir,
“I have great pleasure in transmitting to you copies of letters from the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons, enclosing the resolutions of both Houses of Parliament, dated 25th of January, 1809, which contain the thanks of those Houses to the army lately engaged before Corunna.
“In communicating to you, Sir, this most signal mark of the approbation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, allow me to add my warmest congratulations upon a distinction which you, and the corps under your command on that day, had a share in obtaining for His Majesty’s service.
“I have, etc.,
(Signed) “David Baird,
“Lieut.-General.
“Officer commanding first battalion
“Seventy-first Highlanders.”
After the battalion had landed at Ramsgate it was marched to Ashford, in Kent, where it continued for some time collecting the men, who, from contrary winds, were driven into different ports.
While at Ashford the battalion was brigaded with the Warwick Militia and the Ninety-first Regiment, under Brigadier-General the Baron de Rottenburg. Great sickness prevailed at this station, and Surgeon James Evans and several of the soldiers died of typhus fever.
On the 20th of March, 1809, the Royal authority was granted for the Seventy-first to be formed into a light infantry regiment, since which time it has been distinguished as the Highland Light Infantry.
The first battalion marched on the 27th of April, 1809, for Brabourne-Lees Barracks, and was brigaded with the Sixty-eighth and Eighty-fifth Light Infantry Regiments. Every exertion was here made to increase the strength and improve the discipline of the corps. In June the first battalion was increased by a large reinforcement, consisting of several officers and 311 non-commissioned officers and privates from the second battalion, which continued to be stationed in North Britain. Several volunteers from the militia were also received at this period.
Immense preparations had been made by the British Government to fit out the most formidable armament that had for a long time proceeded from England. The troops, amounting to 40,000 men, were commanded by Lieut.-General the Earl of Chatham. The naval portion consisted of 39 ships of the line, 35 frigates, and numerous gunboats, bomb-vessels, and other small craft, under Admiral Sir Richard Strachan. The object of the expedition was to obtain possession of the islands at the mouth of the Scheldt and to destroy the French ships in that river, with the docks and arsenals at Antwerp. The first battalion of the Seventy-first, towards the end of June, received orders to prepare for the above service, and marched on the 28th and 29th of that month in two divisions, encamping near Gosport.