Hamilton's 82nd Regiment of Foot
TRACKING the 82nd
This compilation of references and sources is meant to provide historical context for the lives of those soldiers—including Ruairidh Breac MacNeil—who were members of Hamilton's Regiment. It represents an attempt to find and to follow the troops in those years between the raising of the regiment at the end of 1777 to its final days in July 1784.
Without the help of experts who stepped up at once offering generous and valuable assistance, this record of the life of the 82nd would not have been possible.
Although it is a brief span between 1778 to 1784, the Hamilton's history is unwieldy:
- It was hybrid—about two-thirds Lowland / one-third Highland, and this split remained through all the days of the regiment.
- Although the whole regiment [about 40 officers and 1000 men] was enrolled in January 1778, only six companies shipped out from Glasgow for Nova Scotia in April 1778. Ten months later, February 1779, the remaining four companies sailed from Edinburgh bound for New York.
- The patron, the 8th Duke of Hamilton, was only 21 years old in 1777 when he undertook the raising of the regiment. He married in April 1778, and initially accepted the commission as Captain, but he never became an active member of the 82nd. His regiment, "for the service of the country", was his coming of age, his first official act as 8th Duke of Hamilton.
- In March 1779, the flank companies, i.e. grenadiers and half the light infantry from Halifax, were shipwrecked and most (145) were lost at sea when they were en route to join the main army in New York.
- The colonel-in-chief of the regiment, Francis McLean, who was also the commandant of the Halifax garrison, had part of the 82nd with him when he made the foray to Penobscot, Maine in the summer of 1779. This group is generally referred to as a 'detachment' of the 82nd, and may have been the half of the light company that had not sailed for New York aboard the ill-fated Mermaid with the grenadiers. General McLean died of a long debilitating illness in Halifax in the spring of 1781.
- In the winter of 1779, the battalion companies remaining in Halifax were sent to join the forces under General Henry Clinton in New York, although there is no evidence that they joined the four companies of the 82nd from Scotland already on strength there.
- Finally, in the months following the end of the war in America, the 82nd was disbanded in Halifax in 1782/83; in Glasgow in 1783; and in Edinburgh in 1784.
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| Dec 1777 / Jan 1778 | REGIMENT RAISED
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| | See letter from Secretary of War to Colonel Francis McLean (full text) |
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Extract below:
Sir
I am commanded by the King to acquaint you, that His Majesty approves of your Proposal for raising a Regiment of Foot in the Highlands of Scotland; to consist of Eight Battalion Companies, One Company of Grenadiers, and One of Light Infantry. . . The Regiment to be under your Command as Colonel Commandant, with the Command of a Company.
I have the Honour to be,
Sir, etc.
Barrington [Secretary of War].
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SUCCESSION BOOKS – 82nd Officers [WO25-211 & 212]
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| | Beating Order – authority given by the king empowering the Duke of Hamilton to raise men by beat of drum for general service in the new regiment.
Extract below:
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From The Glasgow Mercury, January 29th, 1778
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On Thursday evening last, the Duke of Hamilton accompanied by several gentlemen of the Military Line made a grand procession through the streets of this city. They were attended with drums, fifes, and a number of soldiers carrying flambeaux. He bid up for volunteers to serve in the Regiment at present raising under the auspices of His Grace, and the success he met with was altogether unexampled in so short a time. His Grace gave very high bounties to his recruits, and distributed porter to the crowd very liberally, besides throwing money among them. He went next morning to Hamilton, his principal residence, and to Strathaven for the same purpose, where his success likewise has been very great.1
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April 1778 |
Six Companies [four Battalion Companies + two flank Companies] embarked in the Clyde (Glasgow) for Halifax.2 [See General Return WO17-203/3]
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| August 1778 | Halifax: "Since General Francis MacLean had arrived in August with the Hamilton and Argyll Regiment the garrison had been strengthened by 2200 men. His men [Capt. Alexander McDonald's 84th Emigrant Regiment] were relieved of guard duty at Halifax." |
[Scottish Highlanders and the American Revolution 3]
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| November 1778 | Halifax: "On November 19th he [Capt. McDonald, 84th Regiment] reported to General Francis McLean, the new commandant of the Nova Scotia district."4
Instruction to General Clinton
"Complying with his sovereign's desires, [Commander-in-Chief, General Henry] Clinton had dispatched in November, 1778, 3500 men from New York and New Jersey, under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell [71st Regiment] . . . in an attack on Savannah."5
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| December 1778 | South Carolina: Some members of the 82nd are present at the capture of Savannah; 3,500 men under Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell (71st). [JSAHR]6
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| January 1779 | Halifax Garrison – on strength – 19 officers + 556 members of 82nd + several other regiments. [JSAHR]7 [List of Officers – WO17-203/1&2]
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| | Instructions for the '79 Campaign
1779 – New York, "[General Henry] Clinton was told to employ two corps of four thousand each against the New England seacoast and in Chesapeake Bay. To enable him to implement these schemes, substantial reinforcements were promised him for early spring."8
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| February 1779 | Remaining four companies of 82nd embark at Leith (Edinburgh) with the 76th and 80th Foot, bound for New York. [Troop movements – WO379/19]
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| | "[Secretary at War] Amherst had told him [Commander-in-Chief, Scotland, Sir James Oughten] that he must embark three marching-regiments for America . . . the 76th, the 80th Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, and Francis MacLean's 82nd. . . . [Those ashore] from dawn until dusk . . . watched the small boats that embarked the men of the 80th and 82nd, crimson flowers floating seaward from the quay to the ships."10
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| | Portrait – Officer of the 82nd – Lieutenant Sir Thomas Wallace.
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| | Uniform – 82nd Regiment
The following appeared in The (New York) Royal Gazette, 19th January, 1780:
DESERTED FROM HIS MAJESTY'S 82ND REGIMENT OF FOOT . . . THOMAS HYNES . . . WENT OFF IN HIS REGIMENTAL JACKET, FACED BLACK, THE NUMBER OF THE REGIMENT ON THE BUTTONS, BLUE CLOTH GAITER TROWSERS, ROUND HAT WITH WHITE LACE.
In the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research this item (above) appeared under the signature of A. W. Haarmann as an illustration of the modifications adopted by the British Army to accommodate winter service during the American Revolution. He notes an advertisement in The Royal Gazette 2nd October 1779: "Blue Broad Duffils, fit for Soldiers Leggings, and a quantity of large blue and red WATCH COATS, TROWSERS, AND STRIPED DUFFIL BLANKETS."11
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| March 1779 | New York: "The flank companies of the 70th, 74th and 82nd had been brought from Halifax and incorporated in these battalions" [Grenadier and Light Infantry]. [JSAHR]12 |
 | But see below, shipwreck of The Mermaid; at least four-fifths of the 82nd flank companies were lost at sea.
Biographical note: Captain James Dunlop—"In the spring of that year he went with the flank companies to New York and was wrecked on the coast of New Jersey when four-fifths of the company to which he belonged were drowned and the rest made prisoners by the Americans."13
The New Jersey Gazette account of the shipwreck The Mermaid: ". . . the ship sailed from Halifax in company with six other transports, having on board all the flank and light companies of that garrison: that on board The Mermaid was the flank company and half the light company of the 82nd regiment. . . Perished, . . . Lt. Snodgrass of 82nd light company; Saved . . . Capt. Thomas Pitcairn, Lieuts, Andrew Rutherford, James Dunlap [sic], of grenadiers, James Maxwell, and Robert Anderson, of light infantry of 82nd regiment." |
[The New Jersey Gazette]
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| | A list sent home by Sir Thomas Wallace Dunlop, of the soldiers belonging to the flanking companies of the 82d, or Duke of Hamilton's regiment, saved from the Mermaid transport, from Halifax to New York, wrecked on the 22nd of March last, near Egg-Harbour.
Light Company: Serjeant Drummond, Serjeant M'Kie, Alexander M'Crea, James Young, Thomas M'Curdy, William Dick, - Crawford, John Dempster, James Henderson, John Wier, James Craig, Robert Wright, James Gilmour, William Brown, David Monro, - Bowman, - Strang, - Farmer, - Davidson, - Bell, - Shepherd, - Leitch, and - Small.
Grenadiers: Serjeant Cockburn, Serjeant Ranking, Serjeant Campbell, Walter Stewart, George Coventry, Gavin Miller, George Sutherland, and Alexander Wilson. |
[From the Edinburgh Advertiser 14]
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| May 1779 | Halifax: ". . . a detachment of 450 men of the 74th and 200 of the 82nd left Halifax on 30 May '79, under Francis McLean, in six transports convoyed by seven warships to occupy and fortify Penobscot, where they soon-after successfully resisted the rebel attack."15
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| June 1779 | Two regiments under the command of Brigadier General Francis McLean to Penobscot Bay on the east coast of Maine, then a part of Massachusetts. |
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penobscot_Expedition]
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| August 1779 | Letter from Francis McLean to Henry Clinton about the Penobscot expedition forces: "Camp at Majabigwaduce 23 August 1779".
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| | "He [General McLean] particularly noticed the exertions and zeal of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Campbell of the 74th, and Lieutenant Crawford [sic] of the 82nd regiments."16
In McLean's own words: "To Lieut. Colonel Campbell I am much indebted for the most unwearied diligence in every part. And I must request the liberty of also mentioning to your Excellency the great service I received from the particular Activity and Conduct on every Occasion of Lieut. Carthrae of the 82nd Rt." |
[www.mainememory.net/media/pdf/7472.pdf]
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| September 1779 | New York: ". . . also four companies (15 + 302) of the 82nd had been transferred from Halifax." [JSAHR]17 [Atkinson is incorrect here; the four companies of the 82nd that have arrived (with the 76th and 80th) are from Scotland. They had embarked from Leith (the port at Edinburgh) in February 1779.]
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| November 1779 | Halifax: "General MacLean, with the detachment of the 82nd, returned to Halifax, and left Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Campbell of Monzie, with the 74th, at Penobscot." [JSAHR]18
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| | New York: "Before the end of the year Clinton sailed for CAROLINA with: R.A. (200 rank and file); two battalions Grenadiers (783); two battalions light Infantry (1,041)." [It appears the four (Edinburgh) companies of the 82nd were included in these battalions.] [JSAHR]19
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 | 1780 – The Southern Campaign
The distribution was as follows: [JSAHR]20
• NEW YORK: – . . . 82nd (four companies).
[These companies had apparently gone South with Clinton. . . .]
• HALIFAX: – 82nd (part) [four companies]
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| May 1780 | "Siege at Charlestown"
". . . after overseeing the victory at Charleston, Clinton was departing South Carolina and returning to New York. He appointed Lord Cornwallis to take command of all British forces in the southern provinces, leaving him with a substantial number of battle-hardened soldiers [a force of 8000 soldiers]. . . . Clinton asserted that he was leaving Cornwallis in South Carolina 'in sufficient force to keep it against the world.' "21
Halifax: "The [82nd] regiment was moved from Halifax to New York during 1780. In the autumn of that year, it was incorporated in a force of more than two thousand men, including some German mercenaries, sent from New York under General Leslie to the Chesapeake, and up the James River to the support of Lord Cornwallis, then engaged in his hopeless task of freeing the Carolinas." Nova Scotia History 22
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| July 1780 | New York: Clinton returned to New York, taking the two Grenadier battalions, and two Light Infantry battalions . . . [JSAHR]23
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| October 1780 | New York: "Leslie [Commander of the Light Infantry Brigade] embarked for a diversion in VIRGINIA, taking . . . detachment 82nd (120) [JSAHR]24
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| | New York: ". . . the [82nd] regiment sailed from New York on 16 Oct '80, on Leslie's raid in the Chesapeake, which may have been sent on (early Nov) to Cape Fear, and the 82nd disembarked at Charleston, SC, on 14 Dec '80, joining Cornwallis's southern army." |
[E-mail 21 February 2007 J. A. Holding25]
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| Dec 1780 | Fortescue's History of the British Army26
On the 14th of December Leslie's detachment arrived at Charleston from the Chesapeake, and shortly afterwards began its march up country to Winnsborough; but before he had even seen these troops Cornwallis wrote to complain of their quality in a letter of unbecoming and patronizing tone. He then sent a detachment under Major Craig to occupy Wilmington on Cape Fear, so as to secure the transport of his supplies into North Carolina.
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1They consisted of the Guards, a German battalion, six companies of Maclean's (82nd) and two provincial regiments.
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| January 1781 | "Leslie [Light Infantry Brigade] had joined Cornwallis . . . [only some of his force] the rest of his force having gone on to Charleston." {Cornwallis and Leslie advancing through CAROLINA} [JSAHR]27
Biographical note: James Dunlop – When the mouth of the Chesapeake was seized by two French frigates, he was dispatched with the news to Charlestown, where he arrived in April 1781; after which he joined a detachment under Major (afterwards Sir James) Craig at Wilmington, North Carolina, and commanded a troop of mounted infantry acting as dragoons.28
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| | Letter to Major Craig, 15 January 1781. Orders to proceed to Cape Fear River. "You will be pleased to embark with the troops ordered to put themselves under your command, and proceed from hence to Capt Fear River, in North Caroline, to gain the Navigation of which, being the principal object of this Expedition. . . ." [Full text: PRO 30/11/109/1-2]
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| | Biographical note: James Henry Craig: [He] was severely wounded in his first action, the battle of Bunker's Hill. In 1777 . . . he was again wounded, as he was in the action at Freeman's Farm. . . . He [returned to Britain where he] was promoted major without purchase into the newly raised 82nd regiment, with which he at once sailed for Nova Scotia. He served in Penobscot in 1779, and in North Carolina under Lord Cornwallis in 1781, either with his regiment or in command of light troops, and showed (to quote his biographer in the Scots Magazine) "such fertility of resources and remarkable clearness of military judgement" that he was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 82nd.29
[Infantry commander Leslie] had left at SOUTH CAROLINA: – . . . detachment 82nd (The rest of the 82nd from New York seems to have been sent to Charleston). [JSAHR]30
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| | Tarleton's History of the Campaigns (1787)
"Previous to the movement of the royal army from Wynnesborough, Earl Cornwallis instructed Lieutenant-colonel Balfour, to send a detachment from Charles town, under the convoy of a naval force, to take possession of Wilmington, in North Carolina. Information was received about this time, that Major Craig, of the 82d, with the flank companies of his regiment, and two hundred men, had proceeded up Cape-Fear river with military supplies, and had fortified himself in that post."31
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| Jan-Feb 1781 | Wilmington (North Carolina) Infantry: F82; Regiment of Foot [www.regiments.org] |
| | During most of 1781 the borough of Wilmington was occupied by the British, and Lord Cornwallis had his headquarters here. [www.nps.gov/revwar/]
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| March 1781 | Battle of Guilford Courthouse [Cornwallis]
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| | [Major Battles . . . American Revolution: http://www.srcalifornia.com/]
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"A mosaic that tells the story—" from Rebels & Redcoats 32
"[By the middle of February] Cornwallis was within twenty-five miles of Guilford; . . . From Virginia to Florida, the Southern states belonged to the King."
Guildford Court House was the place; . . . A light frost settled in the night, and Greene's [American militia; 4,300 men] awoke to a cold but crisp morning. The courthouse stood on the brow of a domesticated hill in the midst of a wilderness.
It was nearly one-thirty before Cornwallis's troops marched into sight. . . . On his right he placed General Leslie's Brigade. . . . In all Cornwallis had about 2,200 men.
When the crimson line swept into the field, muddy from recent rain . . . they met a "most destructive fire"; . . . Leslie's Highlanders swung to the right; his [Cornwallis's] reserve moved into his center. Cornwallis re-formed and moved forward against Green's second line . . .
[An eyewitness account] ". . . the British general did not stop to concentrate his force, but pressed forward to break our third line."
Tarleton considered that "at this period the event of the action was doubtful and victory alternately presided over each army."
". . . when, unaccountably, the Second Regiment [American] gave way, abandoning to the enemy the two fieldpieces. . . . Desperately, the British field guns "opened upon friends as well as foe". . . . Greene now ordered a retreat . . .this March 15 was a chilly day. . . . as the rebels marched from the field . . . Cornwallis claimed the field, one made the more awful by the coming of night."
Of the 2,200 Cornwallis had brought to action on the fifteenth, 11 officers and 88 men were killed, 18 officers and 389 men wounded, and 26 missing. Although he had fought valorously and well against a very superior force, his proportionate loss . . . was so great . . .
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Major James Henry Craig, 82nd Foot:
". . . major in the 82nd Foot and fought throughout the southern campaigns of 1780-1781, including Guilford Court House. At the end of the war he was promoted lieutenant colonel. . . . He was appointed Governor-General of Canada [1807-1811]." [JSAHR]33
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| May 1781 | Colonel Francis McLean dies in Halifax following a lengthy illness. |
[Plaque St Paul's Church, Halifax NS]
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| April 1781 | Fortescue's History of the British Army34
[Cornwallis], in accordance with his own design, had marched from Wilmington on the 25th of April with sixteen hundred men and four guns.
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1Guards, 23rd, 33rd, 2nd battalion of Fraser's Highlanders, Bose's Hessians, Light Infantry companies of MacLean's (82nd).
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| June 1781 | "Rawdon, now in command in South Carolina had had to send the King's American Regiment to secure Savannah, Georgia. Besides the detachment of the 82nd from New York, five companies [84th] joined him, apparently from Halifax." [JSAHR]35
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| July 4-10 1781 | Wilmington (North Carolina) Infantry: F82; Regiment of Foot [www.regiments.org]
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| | [Major James H. Craig of the 82nd is officer-in-charge at Wilmington. Records show he was in command of 400-500 British regulars who captured the town on February 1, 1781.] |
[www.nps.gov/revwar/]
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Through July and August General Cornwallis with a force of about 8,000 soldiers and support troops moved continually through Virginia in pursuit of the American General Greene. In early August, Cornwallis established a British base at the port of Yorktown, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. The French and American troops under General Washington quickly moved in and closed off the peninsula behind the base and, at the same time, prevented ships from entering Chesapeake Bay. Yorktown was under siege and continually under attack.
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| September 1781 | The distribution was as follows: [JSAHR]36
• HALIFAX: – . . . four companies 82nd
• VIRGINIA: – "Light Company, 82nd "
[This does not account for the force stationed with Major Craig at Wilmington, N. Carolina.]
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| October 1781 | 16-17 October
By this time, with American field guns firing relentlessly into British defences, destroying the fortifications, Cornwallis decided to escape from Yorktown. About midnight, he moved his troops to the waterfront and began to ferry them across the river to Gloucester Point. After some were evacuated, a sudden, intense storm arrived, forcing the operation to be abandoned.
Cornwallis decided to seek terms of surrender. [The 'Light Company' or at least the remnants of the 82nd Light Company were with the forces under Cornwallis here at Yorktown.]
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| | 17 October
An officer with a flag of truce appeared on the British parapet, accompanied by a drummer beating a parley—the signal that Cornwallis requested a cease-fire intending to negotiate surrender terms.
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| | 19 October
That afternoon, the British soldiers, officers and men, marched to Surrender Field in Yorktown to lay down their arms. One hour later, the men at Gloucester Point underwent similar ceremonies. This action surrendered one third of all British forces in North America, and proved to be a devastating military disaster.
The surrender was impressive to all who witnessed it: most of Cornwallis' army marched out of Yorktown between two lines of soldiers—Americans on one side and French on the other—that stretched for more than one mile. The British marched to a field where they laid down their arms, and returned in procession to Yorktown. The soldiers then, as British prisoners, were marched to camps in Winchester, Virginia and Frederick, Maryland.
The British commander from New York, General Clinton and the British Navy with reinforcements finally made it through and arrived off the Virginia coast on October 24th.
Finding that they were too late, the force sailed back to New York.
Though there still were 26,000 British troops in North America after Yorktown, their resolve to win the war was nothing like it had been before Yorktown.
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| November 18, 1781 | Major J.H. Craig [82nd Regiment] was forced by the American forces under General Greene, to abandon the town of Wilmington, North Carolina. Craig made an offer of protection to any Loyalist who wished to leave with the British. |
[www.nps.gov/revwar/]
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| December 28-29, 1781 | John's Island, Charleston, the last British outpost to be evacuated, was cleared before the New Year. The troops here were commanded by Major James Henry Craig [82nd Regiment] who left on one of the last ships from South Carolina. |
[www.nps.gov/revwar/]
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| Biographical note: James Dunlop – After Cornwallis' surrender at York Town, Virginia, on 19 Oct 1781, the troops at Wilmington were withdrawn to Charlestown, and Dunlop, who meanwhile had purchased a company in his own corps, the 82nd, rejoined it at Halifax, where he served until the peace in 1783, when the regiment was ordered home.37
"Before the end of the year [1781] Leslie at Charleston [had] effected various changes in his command: . . . and the detachments of the 71st and 82nd were formed into a composite battalion (28 officers and 509 fit and present)" [JSAHR]38
This research into the brief history of Hamilton's Regiment makes it clear there was more than one formal disbandment of the 82nd regiment. Troops stationed at the garrison (Citadel) in Halifax were offered the 82nd Grant in Pictou and were disbanded in Nova Scotia. The forces in New York and in the various points of the Southern Campaign were sent in transports to Glasgow, Scotland—some by way of Halifax. And finally at least one company of the 82nd was left on strength and not returned to Scotland until 1784 when it was disbanded at Edinburgh. The final note in the biographical entry for James Dunlop, a Lieutenant in the 82nd, offers at least a partial explanation—below.
Biographical note: James Dunlop – A leak caused the transport to run for Antigua, where the troops landed and did duty until 1784, when the regiment was disbanded at Edinburgh, and Dunlop put on half-pay.39
See History of the County of Pictou by Rev. George Patterson (1824 - 1897) published by Dawson in 1877.
[Available at Pictou County GenWeb. Select 'Books & News Articles' > "County Genealogy & History" > Electronic On-Line text > Chapter VII.]
WO 12 / 8597 discloses the remnants of a company in the Regiment, designated Lieut Col and Captain Thomas Goldie's company, including one Lieutenant Roderick McNeil who is Chief—The MacNeil of Barra, who were let go at Edinburgh. This roster of Scottish names also reveals various places and dates on which members of the Hamilton's Regiment were disbanded. It is the last shred of —
Hamilton's 82nd Regiment, July 1784, Edinburgh, Scotland. |
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