War was resumed in 1803; and Lieut.-Colonel Fancourt having been removed to the Thirty-fourth regiment, the command of the SIXTEENTH devolved on Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Skinner.
1804
On the 7th of January, 1804, the regiment embarked from Monkstown, for the West Indies, and arrived at Barbadoes on the 26th of March. It was immediately ordered to hold itself in readiness to proceed with the expedition under Major-General Sir Charles Green and Commodore Samuel Hood, against the Dutch colony of Surinam, in Guiana, in South America. This colony was ceded to the Dutch, by King Charles II., in exchange for New York, in North America; it was captured by the British in 1799, and restored at the peace of Amiens in 1802.
On the 7th of April, 1804, the expedition sailed from Barbadoes, and a landing was effected on the 26th of that month; the SIXTEENTH were actively employed in operations, until the surrender of the colony on the 4th of May.
1806
While the regiment was at Surinam, the post occupied by a detachment of the light company and a few men of the fourth West India regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Richard Greene, of the SIXTEENTH, at Armena, was attacked by a large force of predatory negroes and banditti, and defended with great gallantry, the greater part of the garrison being killed in the successful resistance made to the assailants. The inhabitants of the colony afterwards presented Lieutenant Greene with a valuable sword, in token of their sense of his conduct.
1807
In 1807 Lieut.-Colonel Skinner was succeeded in the duties of commanding officer by Major Brabazon Dean Vernon.[8]
1808