Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/21

Rh In April, 1757, the regiment marched to Berwick, from whence it afterwards continued its route to Scotland, where it was stationed several years, occupying quarters at Aberdeen, and its vicinity, in 1758; and in  the following year at Edinburgh, from whence a detachment proceeded to Germany, to recruit the regiments serving in that country.

Embarking from Leith, in July, 1760, the regiment proceeded to Hilsea barracks, where it was stationed during the year 1761. On the 17th of December, Lord Charles Manners was succeeded in the colonelcy by Colonel the Honorable William Keppel, fourth son of William-Anne, second Earl of Albemarle, from the First Foot Guards.

In the mean time, France had been deprived of all her possessions in North America, and British troops, then employed in Germany, were opposing formidable resistance to the schemes of the court of Versailles; but the celebrated treaty, called the “Family Compact”, between the sovereigns of France and Spain (both Bourbon princes), gave a new character to the war. Confiding in the prowess of his seamen and soldiers, the British monarch did not shrink from the unequal contest, but proclaimed war against Spain on the 4th of January, 1762; and an expedition was afterwards prepared for the attack of the valuable Spanish settlement of the Havannah, in the island of Cuba. The Regiment, being selected to take part in this enterprise, sailed from Portsmouth on the 5th of March, and on arriving in the West Indies, it joined the armament under General the Earl of Albemarle: the colonel of the  Regiment, the Honorable William Keppel, had the local rank of Major-General in the expedition.

Passing through the dangerous navigation of the Straits of Bahama without accident, the fleet arrived