Private Bn. Coy., 1742.
1774
After performing garrison duty at Quebec several months, the regiment embarked for Montreal, and occupied several posts in Lower Canada.
1775
While the Royal Fusiliers were in Lower Canada, the misunderstanding between Great Britain and her North American colonies, on the subject of taxes, attained a crisis; thirteen states united against the mother-country, and, hostilities having commenced, the Congress resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada. The only regular forces in Lower Canada, at this period, were the Seventh and twenty-sixth regiments, and their number being weak, they were unequal to the defence of this extensive province against the very superior numbers of the enemy: the eighth foot were in upper Canada.
In May, 1775, a body of Americans surprised and captured the posts of Ticonderoga and Crown-point; and this success was followed by the advance of two divisions of the American army at different points. The British governor, Lieut.-General Carlton, sent the Royal Fusiliers and twenty-sixth from Montreal to St. John's, where they were employed in constructing two redoubts.
In the autumn one division of the American army, under Colonel Montgomery (a native of Ireland, who had quitted the British service a short time before, and settled at New York), besieged St. John's. The garrison, consisting of five hundred and fifty men of the Seventh and twenty-sixth, and a few Canadian volunteers, commanded by Major Charles Preston of the twenty-sixth, had but a small supply of ammunition and provision, and the works were in an imperfect state, yet a most gallant resistance was made.
The American commander turned the siege into a blockade, and invested Fort Chambly, where Major the Honourable Joseph Stopford of the Royal Fusiliers, and about eighty men, were in garrison. This post kept up the communication between St. John's and Montreal; but the works were not in a good condition; the place was not deemed capable of resisting artillery, and no effectual resistance could, consequently, be made against the very superior numbers of the enemy. The garrison surrendered on the 20th of October.
After this success Colonel Montgomery resumed the siege of St. John's, and the Seventh and twenty-sixth regiments made a determined resistance. The hardships they endured were borne with patience; they were often knee-deep in mire, and were reduced to half-allowance of provision; yet they held out with the most heroic bravery until their strength was exhausted, and no chance of being relieved remained, when they surrendered. Thus at the commencement of the war the Royal Fusiliers were nearly all made prisoners.