Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/22

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off the Havannah on the 6th of June, and a landing was effected on the following day. The Regiment mustered nine hundred and thirty-three officers and soldiers, under Lieut.-Colonel James Stewart, and were formed in brigade with four companies of the Royals, and a battalion of the Sixtieth, under Brigadier-General Haviland.

The Havannah, from its great importance, had been carefully fortified; the entrance to the harbour, which is one of the finest in the world, was secured on one side by the Moro fort, built of solid masonry on a projecting point of land, and having an immense ditch cut out of the rock. The west side of the harbour was defended by the Puntal fort, and the town was surrounded by a rampart, flanked with bastions, and strengthened by a ditch. The reduction of the Moro fort was the first object which engaged the attention of the troops, and this service was intrusted to Major-General the Honorable William Keppel (colonel of the ), his own regiment forming part of the force placed under his orders, and having repeated opportunities of evincing its spirit and perseverance in this arduous undertaking, rendered particularly difficult by the oppressive heat, a scarcity of water, the necessity of dragging the artillery along a rocky coast, and from the thinness of the soil; so great was the labour in carrying on the approaches, that several men were daily lost by diseases produced by their extraordinary exertions. The destruction of the grand battery by fire augmented the labours of the besieging troops; but they resumed their work, repulsed a sortie of the Spaniards, and erected new batteries. On the 30th of July, a storming party was formed under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, of the late Ninetieth Regiment (disbanded on 18th March, 1763): two mines were sprung, a small practicable breach made, and the British