These captures having been accomplished, the Fourteenth Regiment returned to Barbadoes, where it was stationed during the remainder of the year.
1797
Spain having united with France in the war against Great Britain, orders were issued to attack the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, and in the early part of February, 1797, the Fourteenth Regiment proceeded to Cariacou, where an expedition was assembled to attack the island of Trinidad. On the morning of the 15th of February the fleet sailed on the enterprise, and as it anchored near the shores of Trinidad, the Spaniards became conscious of their inability to resist, and set fire to their naval force in the harbour. The troops landed on the 17th of February, and the Spaniards immediately surrendered, delivering up the island.
From Trinidad the regiment proceed to Martinique, where it was stationed several weeks.
Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby assembled a small force, in the beginning of April, for the attack of the Spanish island of Porto Rico, and the Fourteenth were withdrawn from Martinique to take part in the enterprise. The fleet entered a narrow channel three leagues eastward of the town, and the troops landed on the 18th of April; but met with great opposition by a heavy fire of musketry from the Spaniards, who were lodged behind a breastwork on the beach. The Fourteenth were in flat-bottomed boats, pulled by the Lascars of the Indiamen in which they had been conveyed. The impetuosity of the men could not bear delay; but, leaping out of the boats, and wading ashore, they soon drove the enemy from their position, at the point of the bayonet. Lieutenant-Colonel Burnett was ordered to pursue, with all possible speed, to endeavour to get possession of the bridge which led over the river between the town and the beach. So closely were the enemy pursued by the Fourteenth, and particularly by the Light Company, that many threw away their arms and accoutrements, and fairly ran for it: they succeeded in gaining the bridge; and, as soon as the men of the Fourteenth approached the tête-de-pont, the Spaniards blew up the bridge at the moment when many of their own people were crossing it. The destruction of the bridge obliged the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Ralph Abercromby, to change his plan, which had, originally, been to take the town by a coup-de-main. The next day, therefore, the army began to erect batteries. The second day after their completion, the enemy kept up such an incessant fire, that they succeeded in dismounting two of the guns of one of the batteries, and otherwise seriously injuring the works. A strong party was, therefore, ordered out at night to repair the damage: this party consisted of three hundred and fifty men, under the command of Captain Powell, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel and Major of the regiment, of which number one hundred and fifty were to be employed in the trenches, and two hundred were placed at some distance from the battery to act as a covering party. The same night Major Ronald Hamilton, of the Fourteenth, made an attempt to ford the river, with a view of ascertaining if it were fordable for infantry; but, being discovered, he was fired upon by an advanced sentry. This creating some alarm, caused an irregular fire of musketry to be carried on all night. Under cover of this, and of the darkness, a party of five hundred Spaniards contrived to cross the river higher up, and then descending along its edge, secreted themselves among the brushwood between the river and the battery. At dawn of day a serjeant and twelve men of the Fourteenth, who had been on piquet in the bushes, were called in, and, at the very same moment, as if by magic, the whole party of Spaniards rushed, in one dense mass, into the battery.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, Colonel Hope, the Adjutant-General, (afterwards Lord Niddry) Colonel Maitland, with the whole staff of the Commander-in-Chief, had arrived, about an hour before, to inspect the work, and were at the moment in the battery. The sudden inrush of the Spaniards created surprise; and the increased number of persons thus in the battery produced great confusion. The only British who had arms were the twelve men from the piquet; but all the Spaniards were provided with bayonets, or short swords, evidently intended for the butchery of the whole working party. For a short time it seemed as if they were to be utterly at the mercy of the enemy; but, soon recovering themselves, they fell to work with good will with shovels, pickaxes, and other implements of labour, and that with such terrible effect, that every Spaniard was either killed, or taken prisoner, before the covering party could arrive to assist their comrades. The working party had five men killed, and seventeen wounded. Captain Powell, and Lieutenants Gibson and Wren, received thanks in general orders[13].
From Porto Rico the regiment again proceeded to Martinique, where it was stationed upwards of three years.
1800
Towards the end of the year 1800, the regiment relieved the Seventieth Foot at Trinidad.