The troops at Guadaloupe suffered severely from the climate, and the arduous duties they had to perform, and could only muster 389 soldiers fit for duty on the 1st of September.[23]
By the articles of capitulation the British troops were to march out with the honors of war, and it was agreed to send the garrison to England on board French ships, as soon as transports were ready. The latter part of the agreement was not, however, complied with, as they remained prisoners for more than a year afterwards, during which time many of them died. The garrison consisted of the flank companies of the 17th, 31st, and 34th regiments; the 39th, 43rd, 56th (three companies), and 65th regiments. Their loss in the different actions between the 27th of September and the 6th of October amounted to two officers killed and five wounded; twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates killed, and fifty-one wounded.
During the year 1794 Lieutenants Davies, Mackenzie, and Williams, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, died of fever contracted in the West Indies.
The whole island of Guadaloupe, with the exception of Fort Matilda, had been recaptured by the French: this fort was defended by the troops under Lieut.-General Prescott until the 10th of December, when it was evacuated by the British.
On the 12th of July, 1794, the THIRTY-FIRST regiment embarked at Wexford for England, disembarked at Bristol, and marched thence to Southampton.
The regiment, on the 25th of July, 1794, was augmented to ten battalion and two flank companies; and on the 17th of August following embarked for Holland, where it was stationed at Middleburg and Flushing, in the island of Walcheren, but was not employed on any particular duty.
1795
In this year the regiment returned to England, and landed at Plymouth on the 27th of February, 1795.
A camp was formed in the month of August, at Nursling, near Southampton, which the THIRTY-FIRST regiment joined on the 25th of that month, and received a reinforcement to its strength in drafts from the 43rd, 88th, 92nd, and 94th regiments, which raised its establishment to 1000 rank and file, with a second lieutenant-colonel, a major, and one additional lieutenant to each company, besides two recruiting companies.
On the 25th of October, 1795, the THIRTY-FIRST regiment embarked for the West Indies, as part of the armament which had been prepared for the deliverance of the French West India Islands from the power of republicanism, and to reduce to obedience the insurgents of St. Vincent and Grenada. The expedition, commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, sailed with the immense fleet, under the convoy of a squadron of the Royal Navy, commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Christian. The troops amounted to about 25,000 men, in the highest state of equipment; and the armament on quitting the British shores presented a magnificent spectacle, calculated to impress the mind with a just idea of the power of England; but it unfortunately happened that the voyage had been delayed until a very late period of the year; three attempts were made to get under weigh, and each was prevented by the violence of the weather: many ships were driven from their anchors and stranded.