After the troops had been in the woods for some months, they at length succeeded, in February, 1774, in bringing the Caribs to terms, who agreed to acknowledge the sovereignty of Great Britain, but were permitted to preserve their own laws and customs.
Thus terminated the Carib war. The THIRTY-FIRST regiment returned to England, and was subsequently stationed in North Britain.
1775
At this period the unfortunate misunderstanding between Great Britain and her American colonies, on the subject of taxation, produced open hostilities. On the 19th of April the first collision occurred at Lexington, and on the 17th of June following the battle of Bunker’s Hill was fought. During the winter Quebec was besieged by an American Army: this fortress was gallantly defended by the troops under Lieut.-General Guy Carleton, and reinforcements were ordered to proceed from England to Canada.
1776
The THIRTY-FIRST regiment proceeded from Glasgow to Cork, whence it embarked for Canada in April, as part of the army under Major-General Burgoyne. The transports arrived at Quebec on the 28th of May, shortly after the defeat of the Americans by a sortie of the garrison. Lieut.-General Carleton had pursued the enemy up the river St. Lawrence, and Major-General Burgoyne’s force remained only one night at anchor below Quebec, where orders had been left for him to follow. He joined at Trois Rivières; part of the army disembarked and immediately occupied the villages adjacent to their post on the road to Montreal. On the 8th of June the Americans attempted to surprise the post of Trois Rivières, having passed the river from Sorel with two thousand men.
Brigadier-General Fraser, who commanded at the post of Trois Rivières, gave the foe a ready reception, with such men as he could collect, and, being soon supported from the cantonments and the transports, put the Americans to the rout. The troops pursued the fugitives along the shore, while the shipping sailed up the river and intercepted their flight. Major-General Thompson, the American General, with many officers, and two hundred men, were taken prisoners.
On the 14th of June the flotillas and the force on shore reached Sorel, which the colonists had evacuated a few hours before; Major-General Burgoyne continued the pursuit as far as St. John’s, where the troops from the transports under Major-General Phillips joined him, and soon afterwards an additional reinforcement under Brigadier-General Fraser.
All hope of accommodation now failed; on the 4th of July the American Congress issued their Declaration of Independence, and abjured their allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain. By this Declaration the name of colonies was abolished, and the thirteen provinces, namely, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, were constituted the United States of America.
The whole of Major-General Burgoyne’s army was assembled by the end of July at St. John’s, where it remained encamped during the naval operations on Lake Champlain. After the defeat of the American fleet, on the 11th of October, the weather becoming too severe for further operations in the field, the troops returned to Canada. The posts occupied by the THIRTY-FIRST regiment during the winter were Sorel, St. Charles, St. Denis, St. Anthony, and St. Ours.