INTRODUCTION. During the wars waged with France and Spain, prior to the establishment of the French Republic, it was the custom in England to raise regiments in cases of emergency, disbanding them when their services were no longer required. On two occasions a 90th Regiment was so embodied, the first time being in 1760, the Corps appearing in the army-list of the following year as the 90th Regiment of Light Infantry. This battalion served with credit in the West Indies, where, in 1762, it took part in the successful assault on the Castle of Moro, in the island of Cuba, on the 30th of July. The storming party was commanded by Lieut.Colonel Stewart, of the 90th Regiment, and was composed as follows: Lieutenant Holroyd, of the 90th, was killed on this occasion. The Regiment was disbanded in March, 1763, on its return home. In 1779, when Spain joined France in the war which was being carried on by the latter country against England, a 90th Regiment was again raised, and remained embodied, under the command of Colonel Loftus Anthony Tottenham, until peace was concluded at Versailles in 1783. RECORDS OF THE 90TH REGIMENT, LIGHT INFANTRY. THE end of the last century, remarkable for the overthrow of the French Monarchy, found England with a small army scattered over the face of the globe, and but ill prepared for the war which was declared by the French Convention in February, 1793. The unnecessary atrocities which had accompanied the rise of the Republic, and the persistent endeavours of the French to force their democratic principles upon the other nations of Europe, made the war, to a certain extent, popular in England; therefore, when it was found necessary to increase the army by the formation of new regiments, no difficulty was experienced in obtaining recruits; but, as is usual on the sudden augmentation of the peace establishment, the bounties demanded were enormously high. Of the new corps, six were raised in Scotland; letters of service were granted to the Duke of Gordon, the Duke of Argyle, Lord Seaforth, Lieutenant-General Stewart Douglas, Sir James Grant, of Grant, and Mr. Thomas Graham, of Balgowan, who, on his return from Toulon, whither he had proceeded as a volunteer with the force under Admiral Lord Hood, had solicited permission to raise and command a regiment. This was reluctantly granted, owing to the king's dislike to give high commands B |