On the 24th of January, 1797, Major-General Hulse was removed to the Nineteenth Regiment, and the colonelcy of the Fifty-sixth was conferred on Major-General the Hon. Chapple Norton, from the Eighty-first Regiment.
1798
In this year the regiment was employed in the district of Grand Ance in the island of St. Domingo; it took part in the attack of Port Jack Thomas, and in the defence of Irois, under Major-General Brent Spencer, also in the attack made on the town of St. Mary’s, after which it returned to Port St. Nicholas. When the island was given up, the regiment proceeded to Jamaica, where it remained until November, 1798, when it embarked from Kingston, for England.
1799
Arriving at Gravesend on the 31st of January, 1799, the regiment landed, and proceeded to Chatham. It was afterwards removed to different counties in England, and active measures were adopted with success to recruit its diminished numbers.
At this period a favorable opportunity appeared to present itself for rescuing Holland from the power of France, into which it had fallen during the early part of 1795, and a plan of co-operation was concerted between Great Britain and Russia, in the expectation that the Dutch would rise against the French, and, aided by the Anglo-Russian force, would exert themselves to effect their emancipation. The Fifty-sixth being selected to share in this enterprise, joined the troops at Barham Downs on the 31st of July, and in the middle of September embarked at Deal for Holland.
The regiment joined the Anglo-Russian army, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, in time to take a distinguished part in the attack of the enemy’s positions on the 19th of September. On this occasion the first operations of the several columns were successful; but the hopes, which a brilliant commencement afforded, of a general and decisive victory, were destroyed by the hasty valour, and the want of that precaution which the art of war prescribes, on the part of the Russians under General Hermann, who were repulsed by an enemy inferior to themselves in numbers and valour, but superior in science and prudence. This disaster rendered it necessary for the army to resume its position. The Fifty-sixth Regiment had thirty rank and file killed on this occasion; Captains King and Gilman, Lieutenant Prater, thirty-three rank and file, wounded; one serjeant, one drummer, and fifty-seven rank and file, missing. The Duke of York stated in his public despatch,—“The gallantry displayed by the troops engaged—the spirit with which they overcame every obstacle which nature and art opposed to them, and the cheerfulness with which they maintained the fatigues of an action which lasted, without intermission, from half-past three o’clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, are beyond my powers to describe. Their exertions fully entitle them to the admiration and gratitude of their king and country.”
On the 2nd of October a successful attack was made on the enemy’s positions between Bergen and Egmont-op-Zee; and the action “was[3] sustained by the British columns under those highly-distinguished officers, General Sir Ralph Abercromby and Lieut.-General Dundas, whose exertions, as well as the gallantry of the brave troops they led, cannot have been surpassed by any former instance of British valour.”
During the night the enemy fell back; and the British advance-posts moved forward on the following day. On the 6th of October the enemy’s posts were again attacked with success, and the British maintained a forward position.