In the Royal Warrant, dated the 1st of July, 1751, for ensuring uniformity in the clothing, standards, and colours of the army, and regulating the number and rank of regiments, the facings of the FORTY-SIXTH regiment were directed to be yellow. The first, or King's colour, was the Great Union; the second, or Regimental colour, was of yellow silk, with the Union in the upper canton; in the centre of the colour the number of the rank of the regiment, in gold Roman characters, within a wreath of roses and thistles on the same stalk.
1756
While the regiment was stationed in Ireland, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was interrupted by the aggressions of the French on the British territory in North America, and early in 1756 the King of France prepared a powerful armament for the capture of the island of Minorca. In consequence of this attack on Minorca, hostilities became inevitable on the part of Great Britain, and on the 18th of May war was declared against France.
1757
On the 7th of May 1757, the FORTY-SIXTH, and other regiments, embarked at Cork, for Nova Scotia, being intended to form part of an expedition under Major-General the Earl of Loudoun, for the attack upon Cape Breton, an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On arriving at Halifax, the seventeenth, forty-second, FORTY-SIXTH, and the second battalion of the sixtieth regiments were formed in brigade under Major-General James Abercromby; but the French at Louisburg having been reinforced, the expedition was deferred until the following year, and the regiment remained in Nova Scotia during the winter.
1758
While the expedition under Lieut.-General (afterwards Lord) Amherst proceeded in May, 1758, against Cape Breton,[12] the FORTY-SIXTH regiment was ordered to join the body of troops under Major-General James Abercromby, selected to attack the fort of Ticonderoga. This force, which comprised the twenty-seventh, forty-second, forty-fourth, FORTY-SIXTH, and fifty-fifth regiments, embarked on Lake George on the 5th of July, and landed on the following day near the extremity of the lake, from whence the troops marched through a wild and thickly-wooded country, in four columns, upon Ticonderoga; the guides mistook the route through the trackless woods, and on the 6th of July, a skirmish ensued with a body of French troops, in which Brigadier-General George Augustus Viscount Howe (of the fifty-fifth regiment) was killed. With this exception the British sustained but small loss, while the enemy had three hundred killed, and one hundred and forty-eight taken prisoners. On the 8th of July, the British appeared before the fort, which was situated on a tongue of land, projecting into Lake Champlain, and was built by the French in 1756. It could only be approached on one side, which was strongly fortified; the other three sides being surrounded by water. Felled trees, with their branches outward, were spread before the works, which were defended by between four and five thousand men.
The engineer having reported that the entrenchment might be forced by musketry alone, Major-General Abercromby, unfortunately, determined to attack the place without waiting for the artillery, which, on account of the badness of the ground, could not be easily brought up. A rumour also that the French were about to be reinforced with three thousand men, confirmed the General in his resolution. Although the troops behaved with the utmost gallantry in the attack on fort Ticonderoga, on the 8th July, it was found impossible to succeed in the undertaking, and after many unavailing efforts, during a desperate contest of upwards of four hours, Major-General Abercromby gave orders to withdraw, and the British returned to their camp on the south of Lake George, where they arrived on the following evening.[13]
1759