1675
During the depth of the winter, when the Germans had retreated, Douglas' Regiment[57] was placed, with several other corps, under the orders of the Marquis of Vaubrun, and engaged in the siege of Dachstein, a town in the department of the Lower Rhine. The trenches were opened during the night of the 25th of January, 1675; and during the night of the 28th, Douglas' veterans were engaged in storming the works, and lost several officers and men. Amongst the killed was the Major of the regiment, who is stated by the French historians to have been an officer of great merit. On the following day the governor surrendered the town, when the regiment was sent into quarters.
It again took the field in the month of May, and was encamped for a short time near Strasburg; at the same time the Germans, under the Count de Montecuculi, menaced the city of Philipsburg with a siege; but the French and British forces passed the Rhine on the 7th of June, when the Germans changed their position, and the two armies confronted each other, and manœuvred for several days in the territory bordering on the Rhine. Douglas' Regiment, having been on a detached service for some time, was suddenly ordered to join the main army, from whence it was afterwards sent to Treves to reinforce the garrison. Several sharp skirmishes occurred; and on the 27th of July, as Marshal Turenne was reconnoitring the enemy, he was killed by a cannon-ball. After the death of this celebrated veteran, the army was commanded ad interim by the Count de Lorge, who retreated across the Rhine. The Germans attacked their adversaries while making this retrograde movement, when the gallant conduct of two battalions of veteran Scots saved the main army from a severe loss. Treves was afterwards besieged by the Germans, and Douglas' Regiment highly distinguished itself in the defence of this ancient city, under the command of Marshal de Crequi. The French troops mutinied, and endeavoured to compel the governor to surrender, but Douglas' Scots stood by the Marshal in the desperate defence of the town, and were thanked for their conduct by Louis XIV. Treves was surrendered on the 5th of September, and the regiment was bound by the articles not to serve for three months, either in the field or in the defence of any town.
1676
The French monarch having employed the greater part of his forces in making conquests in the Netherlands, a small army, of which Douglas' and Hamilton's Scots regiments formed part, was employed on the Rhine during the campaign of 1676, under the orders of Marshal Luxembourg. The imperial army, commanded by the Duke of Lorraine, had great superiority of numbers. In the beginning of June, the two armies were manœuvring and skirmishing in Alsace; and on the 5th of that month, while the French were retiring through the mountains near Saverne, the Germans attacked the rear-guard with great fury, and, having forced a defile, put several French squadrons into confusion. But as the German horsemen galloped between the mountains in pursuit, two battalions of Scots foot having taken post on some high ground beyond the defile, the musketeers opened so tremendous a fire that the pursuing squadrons were checked and forced to retire, when a regiment of German horse, and several squadrons of Lorraine dragoons, were nearly destroyed. In this rencontre Sir George Hamilton and several other officers of distinction were killed. The French army subsequently formed an entrenched camp near Saverne; and the Germans besieged Philipsburg, which was surrendered on the 15th of September.
1677
During the campaign of 1677, the French army on the Rhine was commanded by Marshal de Crequi. The British troops with this army consisted this year of two squadrons of Royal English horse, and two battalions of Douglas' and a battalion of Monmouth's regiments.[58] The opposing armies took the field, and after much manœuvring and skirmishing, the Prince of Saxe-Eysenach, who commanded a division of Germans, having been driven into an island on the Rhine, was forced to capitulate. A sharp skirmish afterwards took place at Kochersberg, in Alsace, when the Imperialists were defeated, and sustained great loss. Fribourg was subsequently besieged by a detachment from the French army, and the garrison surrendered on the 16th of November, when Douglas' regiment proceeded into winter quarters.
1678
At length the conquests effected by France occasioned the English Court and Parliament to become sensible of the necessity of restraining the ambition of Louis XIV.; and King Charles II., having concluded a treaty with the Dutch, gave orders for the British troops in the French service to return to England; at the same time, his Majesty issued commissions for an augmentation of about twenty thousand men to the English army, and declared his determination of engaging in the war with France. Dumbarton's Regiment, as it was now designated, accordingly received orders in the early part of the year 1678 to quit the service of the French monarch, and from this period it has been permanently on the British establishment.
Soon after the arrival of the regiment from France, a number of men, who each carried a large pouch filled with Hand-Grenades, were added to the establishment, and formed into a company, under the command of Captain Robert Hodges. These men were instructed to ignite the fuses, and to cast the grenades into forts, trenches, or amidst the ranks of their enemies, where the explosion was calculated to produce much execution; and the men, deriving their designation from the combustibles with which they were armed, were styled Grenadiers. Their duties were considered more arduous than those of the pikemen or musketeers; and the strongest and most active men were selected for the grenadier company. And although the hand-grenades have long been laid aside, yet one company, which is designated the "Grenadier Company," continues to form part of every battalion.