A History of the British Army, Vol. 2 First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' War

I have followed with little interruption the long tale of hostilities which opened with the declaration of war with Spain and closed with the Peace of Fontainebleau; for despite...

It was late in November before Parliament reassembled, and listened to a speech from the throne, jubilant over the captures of Louisburg, Fort Frontenac, and Senegal, but modest...

It might have seemed that, with the recall of Dupleix and the dismissal of Bussy from the court of Salabad Jung, French ascendency in India was already shaken to its foundations...

The first blow against the French in America had failed; it must now be seen how it fared with the operations entrusted to Shirley, Johnson, and Monckton. Shirley, at Massachuse...

Pitt had now a free hand for the execution of such enterprises as he might desire, a freer hand indeed than any of his predecessors for ten years past had enjoyed; for Cumberlan...

As English history to the vast majority of Englishmen begins with the Norman, so does also the modern history of India begin with the Mohammedan, conquest. As early as in the ei...

Before the campaign closed in Germany, the great Minister who had revealed to England for the first time the plenitude of her strength in arms, and had turned that strength to s...

The long reign of Walpole and of peace had endured for full seventeen years. Session after session, through difficulty after difficulty, the minister had handled his charge with...

Ever since the death of Cardinal Fleury, in January 1743, the hopes of the Jacobites for French help in an attempt to re-establish the Stuarts by force of arms had been steadily...

For convenience of arrangement I have followed the conquests both of Canada and of India without interruption to their close. In the earlier stages of the war, when England had...

No sooner was the victory gained at Trichinopoly than the Nabob Mohammed Ali and his allies the Mysoreans and Mahrattas fell at variance over the division of the spoil. This com...

Long before the enterprise against the Spanish Main had worn itself out to its tragical end, all Europe had been kindled into a blaze of war. On the 20th of October 1740, while...

The first of the native states in which the British initiated their new policy of intervention was one with which the French had busied themselves ten years earlier, the kingdom...

The work of disbanding the Army began some months before the final conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht. By Christmas 1712 thirteen regiments of dragoons, twenty-two of foot, and...

From the political I turn to the purely military side of the Army's history. Treating first of the officers, it has, I think, been sufficiently shown that there were influences...

Lally's failure before Madras could not fail to raise British reputation and to depress that of the French; and sundry petty chieftains who had long been wavering in the Carnati...

The conclusion of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was followed by the usual reduction of the forces in Britain. The ten new regiments and several other corps were disbanded, leavin...

Never in the whole course of her history had come to England such a year of triumph as 1759. Opening with the capture of Goree in January, its later months had brought one unbro...

However fortunate might be the issue of Dettingen, it served at least its purpose in preventing the despatch of French reinforcements to the Danube and to Bohemia; and the campa...

It is now time to return to the subject of India, which, as will be remembered, was dropped at the conclusion of the truce between France and England in January 1755. Two days a...

From the East the course of our history leads us by rapid transition to the great continent of the West. The English claim to the sovereignty of North America dated from the rei...

The reader will probably have been struck during the narrative of the American campaign of 1758 with the inferiority of the French in numbers to the British at every point. The...

The city of Quebec when the British entered into possession was little better than a shapeless mass of ruins, having been reduced to that state by the guns of the fleet. The pop...

The virtual evacuation of the Low Countries by the British in consequence of the Jacobite Rebellion was an advantage too obvious to be overlooked by the French. At the end of Ja...

Meanwhile on the 20th of November Parliament had met to hear his first speech from a new king. For on the 25th of October, just before the coming of the news of Kloster Kampen,...

340, 491 (Minden), 514, 528, 541 Twenty-Fourth Foot, i. 337, 388, 437 (Blenheim), 399, 469, 509, 511, 525; ii. 60, 69, 75, 292, 307, 340, 501, 527 Twenty-Fifth Foot, i. 339, 363...

Cromwell, Oliver, i. 200; defeats Royalists at Marston Moor, 206; first called Ironside, 207; Lieutenant-General, 223; Naseby, 227; ingratitude of Parliament to, 231; short meth...

Ireland, separate military establishment in, i. 283; the establishment of 1698, 389; Walpole denounces it as part of the Standing Army, ii. 18 (for differences of pay in Ireland...

William III. (of Orange), i. 296; invades England, 305, 330; increases army, 336; conquest of Ireland, 341; as a general, 356; war with France, 357; Steenkirk, 361-367; Landen,...

votes money for the wars, 450, 514; recruiting Acts, 563; impatience over increased expenditure, 580 1714-1739, attempts to disband army after Utrecht, ii. 3; encroachments on w...

denounces Spanish convention, 56; Paymaster of Forces, 62; refuses to serve under Newcastle, 287; return to power, 299; his Militia Bill, 302; dismissed from office, 303; but re...

Note.--Maps of the British Isles and Northern France for 1745-1746; of the Low Countries for the Campaigns of 1743-1748; of Spain and Portugal; and of Germany for the Campaigns...

Ninth Dragoons (now Lancers), ii. 6, 7, 140 Tenth Dragoons (now Hussars), ii. 6, 340, 511 (Warburg), 527 Eleventh Dragoons (now Hussars), ii. 6, 501, 511 (Warburg), 527 Twelfth...

Ninth Foot, i. 300, 342, 388, 399, 417, 447, 458, 487 (Almanza) Tenth Foot, i. 300, 366, 369, 388, 437 (Blenheim), 453, 469, 475, 511, 514, 525 Eleventh Foot, i. 300, 388, 417,...

Parliament and the Army:-- 1640-1660, Commons levy soldiers, i. 199; the Parliamentary army during Civil War, 201; the New Model, 208-222; crippling influence of Parliament on a...

First Dragoons (Royals), i. 292, 298, 306, 375, 388, 417, 447, 477, 530; ii. 95 (Dettingen), 119 (Fontenoy), 501, 509, 514, 527, 555 Second Dragoons (Greys), i. 323, 388, 426, 4...

Fifth Dragoons (now Lancers), i. 342, 511 (Oudenarde), 563 Sixth Dragoons (Inniskillings), i. 342, 375, 563; ii. 7, 95 (Dettingen), 153, 162 (Lauffeld), 341, 511 (Warburg), 514,...

Fourth Dragoon Guards, i. 300, 388 Fifth Dragoon Guards, i. 300, 388, 455, 511, 525 Sixth Dragoon Guards (Carbiniers), i. 300, 388, 442, 471, 475, 511, 525; ii. 501, 511 (Warbur...