1772
1779
1781
In the mean time the American war had commenced; France had united with the revolted British provinces in their resistance; and Spain also commenced hostilities against Great Britain, and undertook the siege of Gibraltar in 1779. The capture of Minorca was also contemplated by the court of Spain; and in the middle of August, 1781, a powerful Spanish and French armament appeared before the island. The British troops employed on the detached stations were withdrawn, and the whole assembled in the citadel of St. Philip, the garrison of which place consisted of the Fifty-first and Sixty-first Regiments, two corps of Hanoverians (viz., Prince Ernest’s and Goldacker’s regiments), and a proportion of artillery, the whole amounting to two thousand five hundred men, commanded by Lieut.-General the Hon. James Murray, and Lieut.-General Sir William Draper, K.B. The combined French and Spanish forces mustered sixteen thousand men, commanded by Lieutenant-General the Duke of Crillon, who proved an officer of ability. The British garrison, however, made a resolute defence of the fortress intrusted to their charge; and the King of Spain, losing patience with the slow progress of the siege, caused a large sum of money to be offered to the British general, to induce him to betray his trust, which was rejected with indignation[2].
1782
For several months the British soldiers defended St. Philip with great gallantry; but at length the scurvy, a putrid fever, and the dysentery, broke out among them with so much violence, that in the beginning of February, 1782, there was not a sufficient number of men able to bear arms for one relief of the ordinary guards, and not one hundred men free from disease. Under these circumstances the governor capitulated.
Lieut.-General the Honorable James Murray stated, in his despatch,—“I flatter myself that all Europe will agree that the brave garrison showed uncommon heroism, and that thirst for glory which has ever distinguished the troops of my royal master.... Such was the uncommon spirit of the King’s soldiers, that they concealed their diseases and inability rather than go into the hospital; several men died on guard, after having stood sentry: their fate was not discovered until called upon for the relief, when it came to their turn to mount sentry again.... Perhaps a more noble, nor a more tragical scene was ever exhibited than that of the march of the garrison of St. Philip through the Spanish and French lines. It consisted of no more than six hundred decrepid soldiers; two hundred seamen, one hundred and twenty royal artillery, twenty Corsicans, and twenty-five Greeks, &c. Such was the distressing appearance of our men, that many of the Spanish and French soldiers are said to have shed tears.”
In the articles of capitulation the Duke of Crillon stated,—“No troops ever gave greater proofs of heroism than this poor worn-out garrison of St. Philip’s Castle, who have defended themselves almost to the last man.” Beatson, the historian of these wars, states,—“The zeal, bravery, and constancy, displayed by all the corps composing the garrison of St. Philip, under an accumulation of misfortunes, may have been equalled, but never exceeded.”
1783
Returning to England after the surrender of Fort St. Philip, the regiment was engaged in recruiting its numbers until the termination of the war; in August, 1782, it received the county title of the Sixty-first, or the South Gloucestershire Regiment: and in 1783, it proceeded to Ireland.
1792