In March 1779 the regiment was removed to Perth, and from there marched to Burnt Island, where they embarked on the 17th. Major Donaldson's health not permitting him to go abroad, the command devolved on lord Berridale, second major, who accompanied them to New York, where they landed in August. The fleet sailed from the Firth of Forth for Portsmouth, and in a short time anchored at Spithead. While waiting there for the assembling of a fleet with reinforcements of men and stores for the army in America, an order was received to set sail for the island of Jersey, as the French had made an attempt there. But the French having been repulsed before the 70th reached Jersey, the regiment returned to Portsmouth, and proceeded on the voyage to America, and arrived in New York on August 27th.
On the arrival of the regiment in New York the flank companies were attached to the battalion of that description. The battalion companies remained between New York and Staten Island till February 1781, when they embarked with a detachment of the army, commanded by General Phillips, for Virginia. The light company, being in the 2d battalion of light infantry, also formed a part of the expedition. The grenadiers remained at New York.
This year, lord Berridale, on the death of his father, became earl of Caithness, and being severely wounded at the siege of Charleston, soon after returned to Scotland. The command of the 70th regiment devolved on Major Needham, who had purchased Major Donaldson's commission.
General Phillips landed at Portsmouth, in Virginia, in March. A number of boats had been constructed under the superintendence of General Benedict Arnold, for the navigation of the rivers, most of them calculated to hold one hundred men. Each boat was manned by a few sailors, and was fitted with a sail as well as oars. Some of them carried a piece of ordnance in their bows. In these boats the light infantry, and detachments of the 76th and 80th regiments, with the Queen's Rangers, embarked, leaving the remainder of the 76th, with other troops, to garrison Portsmouth. The detachment of the 76th which embarked consisted of one major, three captains, twelve subalterns, and three hundred men, under Major Needham. The troops proceeded up the James river destroying warlike stores, shipping, barracks, foundaries and private property. After making many excursions the troops marched to Bermuda Hundreds, opposite City Point, where they embarked, on May 2d; but receiving orders from lord Cornwallis, returned and entered Petersburg on May 10th.
When the 76th regiment found themselves with an army which had been engaged in the most incessant and fatiguing marches through difficult and hostile countries, they considered themselves as inferiors and as having done nothing which could enable them to return to their own country. They were often heard murmuring among themselves, lamenting their lot, and expressing the strongest desire to signalize themselves. This was greatly heightened when visited by men of Fraser's Highlanders. The opportunity presented itself, and their behavior proved they were good soldiers. On the evening of July 6th, the Marquis de Lafayette pushed forward a strong corps, forced the pickets, and drew up in front of the British lines. The pickets in front of the army that morning consisted of twenty men of the 70th and ten of the 80th. When the attack on the pickets commenced, they were reinforced by fifteen Highlanders. The pickets defended the post till every man was either killed or wounded.
A severe engagement took place between the contending armies, the weight of which was sustained on the part of the British by the left of Colonel Dundas's brigade, consisting of the 76th and 80th, and it so happened that while the right of the line was covered with woods they were drawn up in an open field, and exposed to the attack of the Americans with a chosen body of troops. The 76th being on the left, and lord Cornwallis, coming up in rear of the regiment, gave the word to charge, which was immediately repeated by the Highlanders, who rushed forward with impetuosity, and instantly decided the contest. The Americans retired, leaving their cannon and three hundred men killed and wounded behind them.
Soon after this affair lord Cornwallis ordered a detachment of four hundred chosen men of the 76th to be mounted on such horses as could be procured and act with the cavalry. Although four-fifths of the men had never before been on horseback, they were mounted and marched with Tarleton's Legion. After several forced marches, far more fatiguing to the men than they had ever performed on foot, they returned heartily tired of their new mode of travelling. No other service was performed by the 76th until the siege and surrender of Yorktown. During the siege, while the officers of this regiment were sitting at dinner, the Americans opened a new battery, the first shot from which entered the mess-room, killed Lieutenant Robertson on the spot, and wounded Lieutenant Shaw and Quartermaster Barclay. It also struck Assistant Commissary General Perkins, who happened to dine there that day.
The day following the surrender of lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown (October 20th), the British prisoners moved out in two divisions, escorted by regiments of militia; one to the direction of Maryland, the other, to which the 76th belonged, moved to the westward in Virginia for Winchester. On arriving at their cantonment, the officers were lodged in the town on parole, and the soldiers were marched several miles off to a cleared spot in the woods, on which stood a few log huts, some of them occupied by prisoners taken at the Cowpens. From Winchester the regiment was removed to Lancaster in Pennsylvania. After peace was declared they embarked for New York, sailed thence for Scotland, and were disbanded in March 1784 at Stirling Castle.
This regiment maintained a very high standard for their behavior. Thefts and other crimes, implying moral turpitude, were totally unknown. There were only four instances of corporal punishment inflicted on the Highlanders of the regiment, and these were for military offences. Moral suasion and such coercion as a father might use towards his children were deemed sufficient to keep them in discipline or self-restraint.
In the year 1775, George III. resolved to humble the thirteen colonies. In the effort put forth he created a debt of £121,267,993, with an annual charge of £5,088,336, besides sacrificing thousands of human lives, and causing untold misery; and, at last, weary of the war, on July 25, 1782, he issued a warrant to Richard Oswald, commissioning him to negotiate a peace. The definite articles of peace were signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. Then the United States of America took her position among the nations of the earth. George III. and his ministers had exerted themselves to the utmost to subjugate America. Besides the troops raised in the British Isles there were of the German mercenaries twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven. The mercenaries and British troops were well armed, clothed and fed. But the task undertaken was a gigantic one. It would have required a greater force than that sent to America to hold and garrison the cities alone. The fault was not with the army, the navy, or the commanding officers. The impartial student of that war will admit that the army fought well, likewise the navy, and the generals and admirals were skilled and able in the art of war. The British foreign office was weak. Nor was this all. The Americans had counted the cost. They were singularly fortunate in their leader. Thirty-nine years after his death, lord Brougham wrote of Washington that he was "the greatest man of our own or of any age. * * * This eminent person is presented to our observation clothed in attributes as modest, as unpretending, as little calculated to strike or to astonish, as if he had passed unknown through some secluded region of private life. But he had a judgment sure and sound; a steadiness of mind which never suffered any passion or even any feeling to ruffle its calm; a strength of understanding which worked rather than forced its way through all obstacles,—removing or avoiding rather than over-leaping them. His courage, whether in battle or in council, was as perfect as might be expected from this pure and steady temper of soul. A perfectly just man, with a thoroughly firm resolution never to be misled by others any more than by others over-awed; never to be seduced or betrayed, or hurried away by his own weaknesses or self-delusions, and more than by other men's arts, nor ever to be disheartened by the most complicated difficulties any more than to be spoilt on the giddy heights of fortune—such was this great man,—whether we regard him sustaining alone the whole weight of campaigns, all but desperate, or gloriously terminating a just warfare by his resources and his courage."[174]