Philadelphia was evacuated in the middle of June, and the Tenth took part in the difficult service of retreating through a wild and woody country, intersected by rivulets, the bridges over which had been destroyed. On the 28th of June, the regiment was in advance under Lieut.-General Knyphausen, and as the last division of the army descended from the heights above Freehold, in New Jersey, the American troops appeared in the rear and on both flanks, and some sharp fighting took place, which terminated in the repulse of the enemy. The grenadier company of the Tenth had an opportunity of distinguishing itself on this occasion; it had Major Gardiner wounded, and several private soldiers killed and wounded.
Having repulsed the enemy, the army continued its march, crossed the channel to Sandy Hook, and embarked from thence for New York.
The Tenth had lost many men, during the period they had been in America, from fatigue, privation, disease, and other casualties, besides those killed and disabled in action with the enemy, and soon after the regiment arrived at New York, it was selected to return to England. The men fit for service, who volunteered to remain in the country, were transferred to other corps, and the remainder embarked from New York towards the end of October; they arrived in England in December, and immediately commenced recruiting their numbers.
1781
After the decease of Lieut.-General Sandford, King George III. conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on Major-General Sir R. Murray Keith, K.B., from the late eighty-seventh foot (which was disbanded at the peace in 1763), by commission dated the 10th of October, 1781.
1783
1784
1785
The American War having ceased in 1783, reductions took place in the military establishments, and the numbers of the Tenth Regiment were consequently diminished; in the autumn of 1783 the regiment embarked for Ireland, and it was stationed in that part of the United Kingdom during the years 1784 and 1785.
1786
On the 2nd of March, 1786, the regiment embarked from Ireland for Jamaica, to relieve the first battalion of the sixtieth foot, which was ordered to proceed to Nova Scotia.