1707 Carr, Constable; Ensigns Adams, Smith, James Stewart, Montgomery, and Irwin, were wounded and taken prisoners; Lieutenant Ash was also taken prisoner, but was not wounded. The commanding officer of the regiment, Lieut.-Colonel William Stewart, and three or four other officers and a few men, escaped from the field of battle and proceeded to Alcira, a strong town on the river Xucar, where they joined the cavalry with which the Earl of Galway had made good his retreat.

The approach to Alcira being by almost inaccessible mountains, the Earl of Galway halted there a few days to reorganise the army. He afterwards retired from this place, leaving Lieut.-Colonel Stewart of the NINTH there with a few men. In May, Major-General Count Mahoni besieged Alcira with a body of French and Spanish troops, and Lieut.-Colonel Stewart having provision for only five or six days, was soon obliged to surrender. The conditions were, that the officers and soldiers should march out with the honors of war, and be conducted in safety to the allied army in Catalonia. The words "by the shortest and most convenient route" were accidentally omitted, and the enemy caused the troops to march by long and circuitous routes among the mountains, until their strength was exhausted. Several men died of fatigue, and others joined the miquelets, or guerilla bands, in the mountains. The march from Alcira to the allied army in Catalonia, might have been performed in a few days, but the garrison was detained nearly three months, and was much reduced in numbers.

At length the NINTH arrived at Tarragona; many of the wounded men had recovered, and they joined the regiment at this place; others joined from prisoners of

war, and, according to the official returns, in the 1707 beginning of November, three hundred and eighty officers and soldiers were present at head quarters. Many men were, however, unfit for active service, and, during the winter, the regiment was ordered to transfer its service men to other corps and return to England to recruit. It arrived at Portsmouth in the summer of 1708, and was stationed at Worcester and Hereford. 1708 In February, 1709, the regiment marched to Man- 1709 chester and Stockport, from whence it proceeded to Chester, in June, and it embarked for Ireland soon afterwards.

The NINTH were stationed in Ireland during the 1713 remainder of the war of the Spanish succession, and at the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, their numbers were reduced to a peace establishment.

Queen Anne died in 1714, and King George I. 1714 ascended the throne. In the following year the active 1715 exertions of the partisans of the Pretender created great political excitement, and, for some cause which has not been explained by historians, General William Stewart was removed from the colonelcy of the regiment. He was succeeded by Lieut.-Colonel James Campbell, from the Royal North British dragoons, by commission dated the 27th of July, 1715.

Colonel Campbell commanded the regiment eighteen 1717 months, and in February, 1717, he was removed to the Scots Greys, at the head of which corps he had distinguished himself in the Netherlands; and King George I. conferred the coloneley of the NINTH on Lieut.Colonel the Honorable Charles Cathcart, from the Scots Greys.

After commanding the regiment twelve months. 1718 Colonel Cathcart retired, and the colonelcy was con

1718 ferred on Lieut.-Colonel James Otway, a very meritorious officer, from Pitt's horse, now second dragoon guards, by commission dated the 7th of January, 1718.

In the summer of this year the regiment embarked from Ireland to relieve the Seventh Royal Fusiliers at Minorca, the second of the Balearic islands, situate in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Spain, which was captured by Major-General Stanhope in 1708, and ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht.

1725 On the 23rd of December, 1725, Colonel James Otway died; and was succeeded by Brigadier-General Richard Kane, who commanded a regiment of foot in the reign of Queen Anne, which was disbanded at the peace of Utrecht.

1737

Brigadier-General Kane commanded the NINTH eleven years, and died on the 9th of February, 1737, when King George II. conferred the colonelcy on Brigadier-General William Hargrave, from the thirty-first foot. This officer was appointed, in 1739, to the seventh royal fusiliers, and was succeeded by Brigadier-General George Reade from the twenty-ninth regiment. 1739 During the war which commenced at this period,

1739, and was terminated by the treaty of Aix-laChapelle, in 1748, the NINTH did not take the field; 1746 but in 1746, the twenty-ninth and forty-sixth regiments having been removed from Gibraltar to North America, the NINTH were withdrawn from Minorca, and proceeded to Gibraltar, where they were stationed during the remainder of the war; and in 1749 they returned to Ireland.

1749

Lieut.-General Reade was appointed colonel of the ninth dragoons, on the 1st of November, 1749, and was succeeded by Brigadier-General Sir Charles Armand Powlet from lieut.-colonel of the tenth marines.

Sir Charles A. Powlet was appointed to the thirteenth 1751 dragoons in January, 1751, when King George II. conferred the colonelcy of the NINTH foot, on Colonel the Honorable John Waldegrave, from major in the third foot-guards.

In the royal warrant regulating the standards, colours, and clothing of the army, dated 1st July, 1751, the facing of the NINTH FOOT is directed to be of yellow. The King's, or first, colour, to be the great Union; the second, or regimental colour, to be of yellow silk with the union in the upper canton; in the centre of each colour in gold characters, within a wreath of roses IX

F.

and thistles on the same stalk.

At this period the costume of the regiment was cocked hats bound with white lace; scarlet coats with yellow lappels and cuffs, and ornamented with white lace having a scarlet worm down the centre; white cravats; scarlet waistcoats and breeches, and white gaiters.

On the 22nd of January, 1755, Colonel the Honor- 1755 able John Waldegrave was removed to the eighth dragoons; and two months afterwards, the command of the NINTH foot was conferred on Colonel the Honorable Sir Joseph Yorke, one of the King's aides-de-camp.

The regiment left Ireland in the same year, and, hostilities having commenced in America between Great Britain and France, the establishment was augmented.

1757

In 1756 the regiment proceeded to Scotland, where 1756 it was stationed during the following year, and in 1758, 1758

it returned to Ireland.

Major-General Sir Joseph Yorke was appointed to the eighth dragoons, in October, 1758, and was succeeded

by Major-General William Whitemore, from the fiftythird foot.

1759 The NINTH returned to England in 1759, and in 1760 1760 they were encamped at Chatham under Major

General Kerr.

1761 Leaving Chatham, the regiment proceeded to Portsmouth, where it embarked in March, 1761, with the expedition, under Major-General Studholme Hodgson, against Belle Isle, a French island off the coast of Brittany, noted for its extensive pilchard fishery. The NINTH embarked, eight hundred rank and file, under Lieut.-Colonel Rowland Phillips. The expedition arrived off the island on the 7th of April, and found it about nine miles long from two to four broad, surrounded by steep rocks forming a natural fortification, and defended by numerous works at every point where a landing was deemed practicable. On the 8th of April the troops proceeded towards the shore in boats; the NINTH leapt on the beach in the face of the enemy's entrenchments, and rushed up the steep acclivity to storm the works, but were unable to gain the summit without ladders. Very gallant efforts were, however, made; Major Lewis Thomas of the regiment was wounded and taken prisoner; two serjeants and nine rank and file were killed; Lieutenants Samuel Surnam, William Ryder, one serjeant and forty rank and file, having ascended higher than the other men, were intercepted by the French and made prisoners. Being unable to overcome the difficulties, the troops returned to their boats and proceeded back to their several ships.

On the 25th of April another attempt was made to effect a landing, while the enemy's attention was diverted by two feint attacks. Brigadier-General