From Martinico the fleet proceeded to Guadeloupe, and the forts and batteries on the shore having been silenced by the ships-of-war, the troops landed on the 24th of January, and took possession of the town and citadel of Basse-Terre; the French soldiers and inhabitants, with their armed negroes, retired to the mountains, and prepared for a desperate defence of the interior of the island.
For three months hostilities were continued on the island, and during this period the officers and soldiers of the Sixty-first evinced valour and perseverance in carrying operations against, and making attacks on, the posts occupied by the enemy. Captain William Gunning, of the regiment, was killed at the attack of a hill near Fort Louis; “he was an excellent officer, and universally lamented by the army[1].” Lieut.-Colonel Barlow distinguished himself at the head of a detachment at the capture of St. Maries, when a party of the Sixty-first penetrated a thick wood, and gained the rear of a strong post, from which the French were soon driven. The regiment also made a very determined effort to penetrate the woody mountains, and turn the enemy’s main position, and the operations of the day were successful. After much desultory fighting, the French were forced to surrender the island. The Sixty-first had a number of men killed and wounded; and others died from the effects of the climate: the loss of the regiment in officers was Capt.-Lieutenant William Gunning killed; Lieutenant John Rowland wounded; Ensign Samuel Horner died. The conduct of the officers and soldiers of the Sixty-first was commended in orders.
On the decease of Major-General Elliott, he was succeeded in the colonelcy of the regiment by Lieut.-Colonel George Gray, from the first troop, now first regiment, of Life Guards.
1760
1763
The regiment, having become considerably reduced in numbers, returned to England to recruit, and in the summer of 1760 it was encamped at Chatham; in 1761 it proceeded to the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, where it was stationed until the termination of the seven years’ war; and in 1763 it proceeded to Ireland, where it remained seven years.
On the 9th of May, 1768, Major-General Gray was removed to the Thirty-seventh Regiment; and King George III. conferred the colonelcy of the Sixty-first on Major-General John Gore, from lieutenant-colonel in the Third Foot Guards.
1771
Three years afterwards the regiment was removed from Ireland, and stationed at the island of Minorca, which had been captured by the British in 1708, and was ceded to Queen Anne by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
1778
Lieut.-General Gore was removed to the Sixth Foot in 1773, when the colonelcy of the Sixty-first was conferred on the lieut.-colonel of the regiment, Colonel John Barlow; who was succeeded, in 1778, by Major-General Staates Long Morriss, whose regiment, the Eighty-ninth, had been disbanded at the termination of the seven years’ war.