The rebellion being thus finally suppressed, part of the forces in England became disposable for other services; and the nation being at war with France, an attack on the French possessions in Canada was meditated; and the first battalion of the Royal Regiment, being at this period in the south of England, was selected to form part of the expedition, under its Colonel, Lieut.-General the Hon. James St. Clair, which was accompanied by a naval force under Admiral Lestock. The fleet was, however, detained so long by contrary winds that the attack on Canada was deferred, and an attempt on L'Orient, a considerable sea-port on the north-west of France, and the principal station for the French East India Company's shipping and stores, was resolved upon. The expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 14th of September, and on the 20th a landing was effected in Quimperle Bay, and a body of French troops were driven from the shore. On the following day the troops advanced in two columns towards L'Orient, the Royals being in the right column; some French militia fired upon the troops from the woods, but a few skirmishers were thrown out, and the militia were driven back. On arriving at Plemur the leading companies of the column entering the village were fired upon from the houses; but this resistance was speedily overcome, and the villagers were punished for their temerity. On the 22nd the troops appeared before L'Orient, when the governor sent a flag of truce, and proposed to surrender the town on certain conditions. These conditions were, however, considered too favourable to the French, and they were rejected in consequence of a report of the engineers stating the practicability of reducing the town. The siege was immediately commenced, the sallies of the garrison were repulsed, and the town was set on fire in three places by the bombs; but the expedition proved of insufficient force for the capture of the town, and the siege was raised on the evening of the 26th. The roads being bad, four pieces of cannon, one mortar, and some ammunition, were left behind; and the troops retreated to Quimperle Bay and re-embarked without opposition.
In the early part of October another descent was made on the French coast. The troops effected a landing on the peninsula of Quiberon, and Lieut.-General St. Clair, at the head of the Royals and 42nd Highlanders, took a fort with 18 guns, and having fortified the isthmus the troops were cantoned in the villages and farm-houses. The forts and guns in the peninsula, with those in the isles of Houat and Hedic, having been destroyed, and the country laid in ruins, the troops re-embarked and returned to England.
1747
The war had, in the meantime, continued to rage in the Netherlands, and the French, having reduced the Austrian provinces, advanced, in April, 1747, into Dutch Flanders, and captured Sluys and Sas van Ghent, and besieged Hulst. The 1st battalion of the Royal Regiment had, in the meantime, proceeded to Holland, and was in cantonments in the province of Zealand, from whence it was detached, with Bragg's (28th) and Lord John Murray's Highland (42nd) Regiments, under the command of Major-General Fuller, to the relief of Hulst, and, having landed at Stapledyke on the 1st of May, was employed in the defence of an outwork called Fort Sandberg. On the 3rd of May the French attacked Sandberg by storm; the Dutch made a gallant resistance, and, on the advance of the British brigade, the enemy was driven back. On the 5th the Royals were on duty in the fort, and the French, having carried the sap along the dyke to within a few paces of the pallisades, attacked the place by storm about nine o'clock in the evening. The assailants advanced with all the spirit and fury which usually distinguishes the first attack of the French; the out-guards and piquets were instantly forced back into the garrison, and a Dutch regiment was disconcerted and gave way. The enemy continued his triumphant career until he encountered the Royals, when a most sanguinary conflict of musketry ensued, which was kept up throughout the night. "The narrowness of the ground in which the battalion was drawn up would not admit of wheeling outwards to the right and left, as is requisite in common street-firing, as it contained only a platoon abreast; so the first platoon fired their 24 rounds, and then filed off man by man, and were succeeded by the next and following platoons, which acted in the same manner; and what is extraordinary, all this, though in the night, was performed without any disorder and confusion."[95]
The morning light had already dawned upon this scene of conflict and carnage,—between three and four hundred officers and men of the Royals were hors de combat; yet the survivors,—though standing amidst the dying and the dead, and being unable to take one step without treading on a killed or wounded man,—maintained their ground with resolution, and continued to pour their fatal volleys upon the enemy, who had sustained an equal or greater loss, until five o'clock, when the Royals were relieved by the Highlanders; and the French, dismayed by the sanguinary tenacity of the defence, retreated.[96] In this desperate service Major Sir Charles Erskine was killed; Lieut.-Colonel Abercrombie, Lieutenants Forbes, Grant, Gordon, and Rutherford, with Ensigns Campbell and St. Clair, were wounded; and several of these officers afterwards died of their wounds: the battalion had also about four hundred non-commissioned officers and private men killed and wounded.[97]
The fire of the French batteries being resumed with increased fury, Fort Sandberg was rendered untenable a few days afterwards, and the Dutch governor, General La Roque, having resolved to vacate the Fort and surrender the town of Hulst, the British brigade proceeded to Welshorden, where it was attacked by the French; but, having repulsed the enemy, it embarked in small vessels, and, sailing to South Beveland, went into cantonments on that island. The Royals appear to have remained in South Beveland some time, and they did not engage in any other military operation this year.
1748
2nd Batt.
In the spring of 1748 the 2nd battalion of the Royal