1804.
On the 18th of May 1804 Napoleon was invested with the dignity of Emperor of the French; and on the 26th of May of the following year he was crowned King of Italy, at Milan.
Further measures of defence were adopted by Great Britain, and the “Additional Force Act” was passed on the 29th of June 1804, by which a second battalion was added to the Thirty-sixth regiment, to be formed of men raised in the county of Durham for limited service; the second battalion was placed on the establishment of the army from the 25th of December following.
On the 12th of December 1804 the Court of Spain issued a declaration of war against England, in consequence of the capture of some frigates off Cadiz, which had been intercepted on their way to France with cargoes of treasure for the use of Napoleon, Spain having agreed to furnish a powerful aid to that ruler.
During the year 1804 the first battalion of the regiment continued in garrison at Dublin.
1805.
On the 3d of August 1805 the first battalion of the regiment marched from Dublin, having been selected to form part of the army under Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart; it encamped on the Curragh of Kildare until the 20th of September, marched from thence to Bandon, and occupied the barracks there; on the 29th of October the battalion embarked at Cork for Germany.
The second battalion remained in Great Britain during 1805, and three following years.
1806.
The first battalion of the Thirty-sixth regiment arrived in Germany on the 1st of January 1806, and occupied cantonments in Bramstead and Bokell until February, when it again marched and embarked for Great Britain, the British troops having been recalled to England in consequence of the events which followed Napoleon’s victory over the Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz in December of the preceding year;—the battalion landed at Ramsgate early in March.