This valuable conquest was achieved by a division of the royal navy, and a land force of fourteen thousand men; and it cost upwards of a thousand officers and soldiers in killed and deaths from extraordinary exertions.
The Fifty-sixth Regiment had twelve rank and file killed; one officer and twenty-three rank and file wounded: the regiment also sustained the loss of many brave men from diseases.
For its distinguished conduct on this occasion, the regiment was honored with the royal authority to bear the word “Moro” on its regimental colours, which forms a conspicuous feature in its Record; few corps having acquired an honorary inscription for their colours on their first service.
1763
The regiment remained at the Havannah several months, the garrison being under the order of its colonel, Major-General the Honorable William Keppel. A treaty of peace was soon afterwards concluded; and the Havannah was restored to Spain in exchange for Florida: it was, accordingly, delivered up to the Spanish troops on the 7th of July, 1763.
In September, the Fifty-sixth Regiment embarked for Ireland, and landing in the following month, marched to Limerick, its numbers being completed by volunteers from other corps.
1764
At this period, several changes were made in the clothing and equipment of certain regiments of cavalry and infantry; and a communication, dated Dublin, 9th October, 1764, made known to the Fifty-sixth Regiment—“His Majesty’s pleasure, that the facings of the clothing of the Fifty-sixth Regiment of Foot, under the command of Major-General Keppel, be changed to a purple colour; that the men have white breeches; that the accoutrements be white; and that the grenadier caps be plated instead of embroidered,” &c.
1765
Leaving Limerick on the 2nd of May, the regiment proceeded to Dublin, where it was stationed two years.