The regiment landed near Cork on the 5th of January, 1791, and marched to Kinsale; in the summer of 1792, it proceeded to Dublin, from whence it was removed in March, 1793, to Drogheda.
In the meantime a revolution had taken place in France; men of violent republican principles had seized on the reins of government, beheaded their Sovereign, and involved Europe in another war. The pernicious doctrines of liberty and equality had been disseminated in the French West India Islands, and the European planters had solicited the protection of the British arms against the fury of the mulattoes and negroes. War was commenced to arrest the tyrannical proceedings of aggression pursued by the French republic;—a British army was sent to Flanders under His Royal Highness the Duke of York; additional forces were sent to the West Indies, and in November the flank companies of the Twelfth foot, commanded by Captains Tweedie and Perryn, Lieutenants Mathews, Leister, Leister junior, and O'Brien, embarked for the West Indies.
1794
The deliverance of the French West India Islands from republican domination, was undertaken in January, 1794; the flank companies of the Twelfth joined the expedition under General Sir Charles Grey, K. B. (afterwards Earl Grey), at Barbadoes, and were engaged in the attack of Martinico. A landing was effected at three different points in the early part of February, and after some sharp fighting, in which the companies of the Twelfth signalized themselves, particularly the grenadier company, forming part of the brigade commanded by Prince Edward (afterwards Duke of Kent), which captured Fort Royal by escalade on the 17th of March, and carried Morne Tartisson by storm, the island was captured. In his despatch, Sir Charles Grey stated,—'All the officers and soldiers of this little army merit the greatest praise.' The loss of the Twelfth foot was limited to a few private soldiers killed and wounded.
From Martinico the flank companies of the Twelfth sailed with the expedition against St. Lucia, where the troops arrived on the 1st of April, and the companies of the Twelfth took part in the reduction of that island, which was accomplished in three days without loss.
The flank companies were afterwards engaged in the capture of Guadaloupe and its dependencies, in which service they lost several men. The rapid success with which the British empire was thus extended, by the addition of three valuable islands and their dependencies, excited great admiration; and Sir Charles Grey stated in his despatch, that he 'could not find words to convey an adequate idea, or to express the high sense he entertained, of the extraordinary merit evinced by the officers and soldiers in this service.'
While the flank companies were engaged in the capture of the French West India Islands, the regiment was withdrawn from Ireland to reinforce the troops under the Duke of York in Flanders; it embarked from Drogheda on the 7th of March, landed at Parkgate on the 14th, re-embarked at Greenwich on the 1st of May, and landed at Ostend on the 6th of that month.
On arriving at the seat of war, the regiment was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count Clerfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together with the thirty-eighth and fifty-fifth regiments, and the eighth light dragoons.
The Twelfth regiment, commanded by Major Frederick Bowes, consisting of eight hundred and fifteen rank and file, took part in numerous operations, and was engaged in the general attack on the French positions on the 17th and 18th of May. On the latter day, the Twelfth were engaged in driving the enemy from Werwick, and in forcing the passage of the river Lys, on which occasion they highly distinguished themselves; but the operations on the above two days were not successful, from the want of a more perfect combination in the movements of the several divisions, and from the superior numbers of the enemy.