56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot

On the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars the 56th raised a second battalion in 1804 as part of the anti-invasion preparations; both saw service in India and in the Indian Ocean, with the first capturing Réunion and Mauritius.Following the rise of tensions in North America in 1755, the British government decided to raise ten regiments of infantry in preparation for an expected war with France.After a long reduction, a storming party was organised and attacked on 30 July, and took the fort after a brief but violent action, in which 150 of the garrison were killed and 400 taken prisoner, with the remaining 200 dying in an attempt to escape in small boats.The 56th remained as part of the Havana garrison for the following year, until Cuba was returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, when it was transported to Ireland, arriving in Limerick in October 1763.The commander of the garrison decided late in 1781 to attempt a sortie, and this was launched on the night of 26 November; the flank companies of the 56th were part of the raiding force, and successfully destroyed several batteries of artillery.[11] The siege was finally lifted in February 1783 – after three years and seven months – when the Treaty of Paris ended hostilities, and confirmed British possession of Gibraltar.[12] In the spring of 1784 it moved to garrison duty in Scotland, serving at various stations there until January 1788, when it embarked for Ireland with a reduced establishment of ten companies.The regiment sailed to Cork in September, and after a brief period in Ireland was deemed to have attained "so perfect a state of discipline and efficiency" that it was considered fit for overseas service once more, and despatched to Barbados.[16] In 1799 the regiment was part of the force sent to the Netherlands in the ill-fated Helder Campaign, arriving in Holland in September in time for the Battle of Schoorl-Oudkarspel on the 19th, where it suffered sixty-three officers and men killed or wounded, plus another fifty-nine missing.[20] A detachment of the regiment served on board the frigates Psyche and Piedmontaise as marines in 1809–1810, and fought in a brief war with the Indian kingdom of Travancore in 1809.[21] The first battalion moved from Ireland to the Isle of Wight in January 1805, where it was brought to a full strength of a thousand men, and shortly thereafter embarked for Bombay, where it remained as a garrison for several years.[22] A force of 200 men were detached for service in the Indian Ocean in January 1809, successfully raiding the Île Bourbon in September, capturing a large amount of shipping at anchor.[23] During this time, in August 1809, the remaining companies of the battalion were shipped from Bombay to Madras at short notice and under great secrecy, in an attempt to make a show of force to avert a possible mutiny of the Indian regiments.The two portions of the battalion were split up in a gale, one group putting in at the Cape of Good Hope to refit before continuing to Madras in convoy with HMS Greyhound, arriving in December.[27] It suffered greatly from disease during garrison operations in Gujarat in 1813, and again in camp in 1814, losing some three hundred and thirty men between March 1813 and December 1814.[32] The third battalion was raised at Horsham in November 1813, and was recruited very rapidly; within a month of its formation, it was reported as ready for service with an establishment of 650 men.[31] At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the remaining battalion of the regiment was stationed in Mauritius, where it undertook routine garrison duties and helped suppress the slave trade in the newly acquired colony.[40] In March 1840 the main body of the regiment sailed aboard Apollo for Canada, to reinforce the garrison there during the Northeastern Boundary Dispute.[43] The regiment remained at various stations in Ireland, serving to assist in keeping the peace during the widespread repeal movement demonstrations,[43] until it moved to England in 1844.[44] The reserve battalion was transported to join them in February 1847, aboard the Birkenhead;[46] it later disbanded, with the men transferred to rejoin the main force.[47] In September 1853, an outbreak of yellow fever aboard the convict hulk Thames in Bermuda harbour spread to the barracks; more than two hundred men died.