The fleet left Carlisle Bay on the 28th of January, 1809, and arrived off the island of Martinique in two days. On the 30th, the troops landed in two divisions; the first division at Bay Robert, under Lieut.-General Sir George Prevost; and the second division, commanded by Major-General Maitland, near St. Luce and Point Solomon. Both divisions were actively engaged in operations for the reduction of the island. After a night march of seven miles through a difficult country, the first division occupied a position on the Great Lizard River; and on the 1st of February it engaged the enemy on Morne Brune and the heights of Surirey, which were warmly contested; but British valour was triumphant. In eight days from the time the fleet quitted Barbadoes, Fort Desaix (or Fort Bourbon) was invested, ‘notwithstanding heavy rains, and most unfavourable weather, in which the troops have borne every species of privation in a manner worthy the character of British soldiers.’[10] The siege of the fort was prosecuted with vigour; and on the 24th February, the French governor, General Villaret, surrendered, the French twenty-sixth and eighty-second regiments becoming prisoners, and delivering up their arms and Eagles to the British troops. The conduct of the regiment, at the capture of this valuable island, was afterwards rewarded with the royal authority to bear on its colours the word “Martinique,” to commemorate its services on this occasion.
The Thirteenth were stationed at Martinique, where they received two hundred and fifty volunteers from the English militia, in October, 1809.
1810
A strong detachment of the regiment embarked from Martinique on the 21st of January, 1810, and sailed to Prince Rupert’s, Dominica, where it joined the expedition against Guadaloupe, under the orders of Lieut.-General Beckwith: the detachment of the Thirteenth, sixty-third (600 rank and file), York light infantry volunteers, and fourth West India regiment, formed the fourth brigade under Brigadier-General Skinner, in the first division, commanded by Major-General Hislop. This division sailed from Dominica on the 26th of January, landed at St. Mary’s, in Capesterre, on the 28th, and took an active part in the operations by which the French troops in the island of Guadaloupe were forced to surrender on the 6th of February. The loss of the Thirteenth foot, in this service, was limited to one man killed and five wounded; and immediately after the capture of the island, the detachment rejoined the regiment at Martinique.
1811
1812
During the years 1811 and 1812, the Thirteenth were stationed at the island of Martinique.
1813
On the 15th of February, 1813, General Campbell was removed to the thirty-second regiment, and was succeeded in the colonelcy of the Thirteenth by Lieut.-General Edward Morrison, from Colonel-Commandant in the sixtieth foot.
In the meantime, the measures adopted by the English government, to counteract the tyrannical decrees of Napoleon, designed for the destruction of the commerce of Great Britain, had involved England in war with the United States of America, and the frontiers of Canada had become the theatre of conflict, to which the Thirteenth foot were directed to repair. The regiment accordingly embarked from Fort Royal, Martinique, on the 2nd of May, 1813, arrived on the 28th of June at Quebec, and proceeded from thence in steam-boats and bateaux to Montreal.
At this period, a numerous American force had penetrated Upper Canada; and a small expedition was fitted out on Lake Champlain, with the view of calling the attention of the Americans to the defence of their own settlements on the borders of that sheet of water. To engage in this service, nine officers and one hundred and eighty-one soldiers of the Thirteenth foot crossed the river St. Lawrence in boats, on the 24th and 25th of July, and proceeded to the Isle aux Noix, where an expedition was assembled under Lieut.-Colonel J. Murray; Lieut.-Colonel William Williams, of the Thirteenth, being second in command. Sailing from the Isle aux Noix in boats, the expedition navigated the lake, and as it approached the enemy’s post at Plattsburg, the American militia abandoned the place. The British landed, destroyed the arsenal, block-house, commissary’s buildings and stores, with the barracks at Saranac, capable of containing four thousand men. The flotilla afterwards returned to Isle aux Noix. In concluding his public despatch, Lieut.-Colonel Murray expressed his sense of the conduct of Lieut.-Colonel Williams, of the Thirteenth foot, in terms of commendation; and added, ‘I have to report in the highest terms of approbation, the discipline, regularity, and cheerful conduct of the whole of the troops; and feel fully confident, that, had an opportunity offered, their courage would have been equally conspicuous.’