After the capture of this fortress, the regiment joined the main army, which was encamped at Villers-Brulin during the siege of Bethune, which fortress was reduced before the end of August. The regiment was subsequently employed in covering the sieges of Aire and St. Venant, both of which fortresses were captured before the end of the campaign.
1711
Quitting its winter quarters among the Walloon peasantry, in April, 1711, the regiment joined the army, and was reviewed, at the camp at Warde, on the 8th of June, by the Duke of Marlborough. It was formed in brigade with the Tenth, Twenty-first, and Wynne’s (afterwards disbanded) Regiment, under Brigadier-General Hamilton, and took part in the movements by which the enemy’s formidable lines were passed at Arleux, on which occasion the superiority of the English general’s tactics was particularly conspicuous.
This splendid success was followed by the siege of the town of Bouchain, situated on both sides of the river Scheldt, and the Thirty-fourth Regiment had the honor to take an active share in the operations against this fortress, which was taken by capitulation in the middle of September. When the damaged works at Bouchain were repaired, the regiment went into winter quarters.
1712
Early in April, 1712, the Thirty-fourth Regiment took the field, and joined the army under the command of the Duke of Ormond, who penetrated the French territory to the frontiers of Picardy, encamping at Cateau-Cambresis, while the Germans undertook the siege of Quesnoy. In the mean time the French monarch had solicited peace, and had agreed to deliver the city of Dunkirk into the hands of the British sovereign, as a pledge of his sincerity. A suspension of arms was proclaimed between the British and French, and the army under the Duke of Ormond withdrew to Ghent. On the 4th of August the regiment was detached from the camp near Ghent, with several other corps, under Lieutenant-General the Earl of Orkney, to Dunkirk, where it was stationed some time.
On the 30th of November, 1712, Queen Anne conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Chudleigh, from Brigadier-General Durell’s regiment, in succession to Brigadier-General Hamilton, who, on the death of Brigadier-General Durell, in December following, was nominated colonel of his corps,—the Sixteenth Foot.
1713
At the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht, the regiment was withdrawn from Dunkirk, and proceeded to Great Britain. At this period a considerable reduction took place in the numbers of the regular army, and all the corps raised after the peace of Ryswick, in 1697, were directed to be taken off the establishment, except two, viz., the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Regiments of Foot. This reduction included the Thirty-fourth Regiment, which was accordingly reduced, and the officers placed upon half-pay.