A brief timeline of the 23rd’s activities during the American Revolution.
For a more detailed history of the regiment, from its formation through the American Revolution, read History of the 23rd Foot.
1773-1775
Spring 1773
New York City
With the tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain becoming steadily more pronounced, the 23rd Regiment of Foot, Royal Welch Fusiliers was ordered to North America. The regiment sailed from Plymouth, England in April, arriving in New York Harbor on June 10th and came ashore into New York City on June 14, 1773.
Summer 1774
Boston
In order to bolster the strength of General Thomas Gage’s beleaguered garrison in Boston, the 23rd set sail from New York City in late July, arriving at Boston harbor on August 4, 1774.
19th April 1775
Battles of Lexington and Concord
All companies of the Royal Welch Fusiliers took part in the opening of hostilities between the two sides in the American War of Independence. The Grenadier and Light Infantry Companies of the 23rd were assigned to Colonel Smith’s force that had been initially tasked with marching to Concord to seize the stores of arms that were stored there. The fusilier companies of the 23rd later marched out of Boston, attached to Lord Percy’s relief column, which met up with Smith’s retreating force later in the day, the combined columns making their way back to Boston, under fire throughout their return journey from hostile colonial militiamen.
17th June 1775
Battle of Bunker Hill
(Breed’s Hill)
Following Lexington and Concord, the American colonists besieged the city of Boston and in June, British General Thomas Gage decided to seize the occupied heights overlooking the city from the rebels. The Battle of Bunker Hill was a pyrrhic victory for the British, with the 2,000 strong British force suffering nearly 50% casualties. The 23rd’s grenadiers and light infantry participated in this engagement and took considerable losses, sustaining a total of 14 killed and 38 wounded, including all three of the grenadier company’s officers. Just five men from the 23rd’s grenadier company and only seven men in the 23rd’s light infantry remained at the end of the battle that had not been killed or wounded during the engagement.
March 1776
Evacuation of Boston
With no hope of breaking the rebel siege of Boston, General William Howe (who had taken over command of all Crown Forces in North America from General Gage in October 1775) opted to abandon the city in March 1776. The 23rd along with the rest of the British garrison there, departed Boston and sailed to Nova Scotia, where they awaited reinforcements from Great Britain.
1776-1777
New York & New Jersey Campaign
July 1776
Return to New York City
With the new objective to regain control of New York City from the rebels, the 23rd and the rest of General Howe’s army sailed from Nova Scotia to New York Harbor and were joined by substantial reinforcements sent from Great Britain and their Germanic allies. The army assembled to recapture New York in the summer of 1776 comprised of over 32,000 soldiers which was the largest amphibious military force that Great Britain had ever assembled up to that point in its history.
27th August 1776
Battle of Long Island
All companies of the 23rd were engaged in what was the largest field action of the American War of Independence. The regiment’s fusilier companies were attached to General James Grant’s division on the British left where they saw considerable action, taking part in the feint upon the American defenders under the command of William Alexander. Meanwhile, the grenadiers and light infantry fought with their newly formed flank battalions under the command of General Cornwallis on the British right, which marched unobserved around the American’s left flank during the night and then attacked once in position late in the morning, causing the American army’s lines to completely collapse. The battle ended in a substantial victory for the Crow Forces, yet General Howe refused to pursue the fleeing rebels into their fortifications on the Brooklyn Heights along the East River, allowing the Americans to make their escape to Manhattan under cover of darkness a few days later.
16th September 1776
Battle of Harlem Heights
What was just a minor confrontation between British and American pickets quickly escalated into a large skirmish that ended in a tactical draw between the two opposing armies. The grenadier company of the 23rd, attached to the 1st Grenadier battalion, was engaged in this action which took place mainly on the north side of Manhattan.
18th October 1776
Battle of Pell’s Point
In pursuit of Washington’s retreating army heading north into the Bronx, General Howe sent a British and Hessian force of 4,000 men from New York City by boat up the East River to Throgg’s Neck. A few days later, this force was redeployed to nearby Pell’s Point where they encountered a single brigade of rebels that had taken up positions behind a series of stone walls lining the main road heading north. In the engagement that followed, the 1 st British light infantry battalion (which included the 23rd’s light infantry company) were joined by Hessian grenadiers and jaegers along with a detachment from the Royal Artillery and drove the rebels from their positions. However, the Americans succeeded in delaying General Howe’s forces long enough that day to allow Washington and his main army to escape further north towards White Plains.
28th October 1776
Battle of White Plains
The 23rd’s light infantry and grenadier companies, attached to their flank battalions, along with the 23rd fusilier companies were all present at this battle but did not take part in any fighting as they were held back in reserve.
16th November 1776
Battle of Fort Washington
After defeating the rebels at the Battle of White Plains, General Howe returned with his army to New York City to take one of the last remaining rebel outposts in the area, Fort Washington, located at the northern tip of Manhattan. On the morning of November 16, the 23rd’s grenadier and light infantry maneuvered with their flank battalions up the steep slopes east of the fort while the fusilier companies participated as a part of General Percy’s division that advanced north to capture the American’s southern outlying redoubts. The rebel garrison surrendered later that day after a stubborn defense and over 2,800 Americans were taken prisoner along with large amounts of arms, supplies and munitions. The fall of Fort Washington was the second largest capitulation of the patriots during the war, only eclipsed by the American’s surrender of Charleston, South Carolina in 1780.
23rd-24th March 1777
The Raid on Peekskill, NY
A detachment from the 23rd’s fusilier companies joined other battalion troops drawn from the 44th, 64th, and 15th regiments of foot, in a raid upon the American supply depot located along the Hudson River in Peekskill, New York. The British force sailed up the Hudson from Manhattan and confiscated large amounts of rebel supplies and equipment that were stored there and what could not be taken was destroyed. The following day, having encountered little opposition from the rebels, the British regiments re-embarked onto their ships and sailed back to New York City.
1777-1778
Philadelphia Campaign
27th April 1777
Battle of Ridgefield
Two hundred and fifty men selected from the ranks of the fusilier companies of the 23rd made up a portion of General William Tryon’s force of 2,000 British and Loyalist troops which took part in “Tryon’s Danbury Raid” lasting between April 25 – 28, 1777. Having marched inland from a beachhead established on Long Island Sound, the Crown Forces arrived at Danbury on April 26th where they encountered light resistance, raided the town and then set it ablaze upon their departure the following day. On the march south back to the coast, the Royal Welch Fusiliers distinguished themselves in the rearguard action just north of the town of Ridgefield, repulsing the American General Wooster’s determined attack upon the British column. The following day on April 28, the 23rd carried out a successful bayonet charge that drove the rebels away from the Crown Forces landing area at Compo Beach, where Tryon’s army then re-embarked upon their transport ships and sailed back to New York City.
26th June 1777
Battle of Short Hills
Seeking to draw Washington and his Continentals into a decisive field engagement, General Howe sent a sizeable force of British and Hessian soldiers out from New York City towards Washington’s Continental Army encamped in Northern New Jersey. Washington initially refused to commit any of his men to battle and instead, retired westwards. However, once seeing that General Howe had turned around and was heading back to Staten Island, Washington called off the retreat and sent William Alexander forward with his division to pursue the British. General Howe saw an opportunity to isolate and destroy Alexander’s force and quickly reversed course, sending two columns under the command of General Cornwallis and General Vaughan to overtake the rebels. A running battle ensued against Alexander’s forces as they fell back, narrowly eluding Howe’s trap. All companies of the 23rd initially took part in this fast-moving operation, though only the flank companies of the Royal Welch Fusiliers saw any action. The outcome of battle was indecisive, though it convinced General Howe he must find other ways to entice Washington’s rebels into a large engagement.
3rd September 1777
Battle of Cooch’s Bridge
Seeing no other way to force Washington and his army into a confrontation on the battlefield, General Howe set his sights on capturing the rebel capital city of Philadelphia. All companies of the 23rd and the majority of Howe’s army sailed from New York City in July towards the Chesapeake Bay. With the Crown Forces landed safely ashore, in the days leading up to the decisive engagement at Brandywine, the advanced elements of the two opposing sides clashed at Cooch’s Bridge, which passed over one of the many river fords in the area. The 23rd’s light infantry company, attached to the 1st Light Infantry battalion, participated in this day long action, which succeeded in dislodging the American defenders from their positions and captured the river crossing.
11th September 1777
Battle of Brandywine
All companies of the 23rd saw fierce combat in this engagement, which was one of the largest pitched field battles of the American War of Independence. The fusilier companies were assigned to General Kynphausen’s right wing of the army which conducted a feint upon the American left around Chadd’s Ford along the Brandywine River. The light infantry and grenadier companies of the 23rd were included in Cornwallis’ 18-mile flanking march that later assaulted and broke the American right, driving Washington and his rebels from the field. Shortly after this victory, General Howe’s army captured and occupied the rebel capital city of Philadelphia.
4th October 1777
Battle of Germantown
Having lost control of Philadelphia, Washington saw the opportunity to attack a portion of the British Army that was encamped north of city at the small village of Germantown. The American assault at dawn on October 4 was initially successful, but a combination of a thick morning fog, uncoordinated advance of the Continental troops and the stalwart defense of the 40th Regiment of Foot occupying the Chew Mansion allowed British and Hessian re-enforcements to come up from Philadelphia and, once again, achieve another victory over the rebels. The 23rd’s light infantry, attached to the 1st Light Infantry Battalion, saw considerable action in this battle from start to finish.
28th June 1778
Battle of Monmouth Courthouse
With France’s entry into the war and roughly one third of all of the British Army in North America ordered to the country’s holdings abroad, General Henry Clinton (now the commander of all Crown Forces in North America) was forced to abandon Philadelphia and return the army to New York City. Washington and the Continentals pursued Clinton’s forces across New Jersey on the march back to New York, with the rebels catching up to the British rear guard west of the small town of Freehold. At what became known as the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, summer temperatures rose to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with both sides suffering more fatalities due heat exhaustion than from combat. While the engagement ended in a technical draw, General Clinton opted not to give battle the following day and continued marching his army to New York City. The 23rd’s grenadier company, attached to the 1st grenadier battalion, was engaged throughout most of this battle, ultimately losing a third of its strength including their commanding officer.
1779
Northern Theater after Saratoga
August to October 1778
As Royal Navy Marines
Not long after General Clinton’s return to New York City the French Navy arrived in force off the Atlantic coast and eventually made their way to Newport, Rhode Island to cut off the British garrison there. Seeing the need to do something to at least delay the French fleet, Admiral Richard Howe assembled a smaller British Navy force and requested infantry from Clinton’s army to serve aboard the ships of the line as marines. The 23rd was selected to take on this roll and the fusilier companies, along with both of the regiment’s flank companies, were distributed amongst 17 different Royal Navy warships where they remained from early August until the beginning of October. This assignment went by uneventfully for most of the regiment’s companies, though the most notable exception was the engagement that took place between the British 50-gun “Isis” and the French 74-gun “Cesar” on August 14. The Cesar had chased and overtaken the smaller Isis and had expected the British vessel to strike their colours, but was met with furious broadsides from the guns of the Isis along with accurate musket fire from the Royal Welch Fusilier’s light infantry company which was stationed aboard. The fire from the British vessel was so intense that the Cesar broke off the engagement after an hour and a half and fled.
May 1779
Hudson Valley Raids
In the late spring of 1779, General Clinton decided to move upon and occupy Stony Point and Verplank’s Point which formed a strategic choke point along the Hudson River. Clinton sent 6,000 troops up from New York City, including the Royal Welch Fusiliers, to secure these positions and eliminate Fort Lafayette that had been constructed at Verplank’s Point. The rebels chose to abandon these locations without a fight and the Crown Forces captured them without loss. General Clinton then returned with his army, including the 23rd, to New York City, leaving behind a small force to fortify the position at Stony Point.
3rd-14th July 1779
Tryon’s Raids
In an attempt to break the stalemate around New York City and once again try and lure Washington’s army into a pitched field battle, General Clinton ordered General William Tryon to lead a combined force of British, Hessian and Provincial troops on a mission to raid the Connecticut coastline along Long Island Sound. The fusilier companies of the 23rd took part in this operation, which met only scattered and uncoordinated resistance from local colonial militias and resulted in the burning and large-scale destruction of the coastal towns of New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk.
1780-1783
Southern Campaign
March –May 1780
Siege of Charlestown
With no measurable progress in the north, the focus of the war turned to the Southern colonies. All companies of the Royal Welch Fusiliers sailed from New York City to South Carolia in early 1780 and participated in the months long operation to seize the major rebel stronghold of Charleston. The capitulation of the American garrison of Charleston in May resulted in the largest single loss of the war for the patriots. The city fell into British hands and over 5,000 Continental soldiers and militiamen were taken prisoner in addition to substantial stores of rebel arms, supplies and munitions. Following the conclusion of the siege, the light infantry and grenadier companies of the Royal Welch Fusiliers sailed back to New York City with General Clinton.
16th August 1780
Battle of Camden
With the city of Charleson under British control, General Cornwallis directed his army into the surrounding countryside to try and eliminate the remaining pockets of patriot resistance. A series of smaller engagements followed until the two opposing sides finally met with their main armies in August near Camden in South Carolina. At this engagement, the 23rd formed the center of the Crown Force’s right wing of the main battle line and alongside the 33rd regiment of foot and the combined British light infantry companies, they made quick work of the inexperienced rebel militia to their front, sending the rebels fleeing from the field in disarray. The right wing then pivoted to support the British left, whereupon the combined strength of Cornwallis’s army routed the remaining Continentals from the field. Camden became one of the most decisive victories the Crown Forces achieved in the southern theater. It effectively destroyed an entire division of the Continental Army, ended the military career of the commanding American General Horatio Gates “the hero of Saratoga”, and, at least temporarily, helped strengthen the Crown’s effort to restore order to the Southern colonies.
September 1780
Skirmish at Polk’s Mill
Following the Battle of Camden, Cornwallis and his army moved into North Carolina. The British then halted outside the city of Charlotte to obtain forage and supplies for the army in order to continue their operations. Late in September (the exact date is disputed) approximately 120 mounted American riflemen attacked one of the occupied grist mills outside of Charlotte that had been requisitioned for use by Cornwallis’ army. The patriots surrounded and attempted to assault the mill but ran up against a rudimentary blockhouse that had been constructed there by the British and held by a detachment of 20 men from the Royal Welch Fusiliers. The rebels were unsuccessful in taking the blockhouse and were forced to retreat at the end of the day.
1st February 1781
Action at Catawba Fords
By February 1781, fortunes had changed for the Crown Forces in the Southern colonies. The optimism that grew out of the fall of Charleston and the victory of Camden the previous year had been replaced by a growing pessimism brought on by the crushing defeats at King’s Mountain and Cowpens. The inexorable patriotic support in the region made holding any area outside of the major British occupied coastal cities tenuous and was further complicated still by the arrival of the new rebel general, Nathaniel Greene, who assumed command of the reinforced Continental Army in the South. In pursuit of Greene’s fast-moving army, Cornwallis’ forces had to cross the Catawba River at Cowan’s Ford on February 1. While under a hail of fire from a large contingent of rebel militia posted along the opposite bank of the river, the Guards and the Royal Welch Fusiliers waded across the ford, drove off the militia after a brief firefight and secured the river crossing.
15th March 1781
Battle of Guilford Courthouse
Pursuing Greene’s fast-moving army relentlessly for weeks, Cornwallis finally caught up with the Americans at Guilford Courthouse near present day Greensboro, North Carolina. Fatigued from the forced march, hungry from a lack of rations and outnumbered nearly 3-1, Cornwallis’ army was, nonetheless, ordered to attack. The Royal Welch Fusiliers found themselves on the Crown Forces left wing where, despite withering fire from the rebels, they broke through two successive lines of the American defenders before halting their advance. After a brief pause to redress their ranks and catch their breath, the 23rd rushed to the assistance of the 33rd regiment of foot and Guards that were hard pressed fighting against the American’s third line. It was here that the Royal Welch Fusiliers charged against the 1st Maryland Regiment and after a few minutes of desperate fighting, forced the latter to retire. While ultimately successful in driving Greene’s army from the field, Guilford Courthouse was another pyrrhic victory, with Cornwallis’s men paying a heavy price, with over a quarter of the army being killed, wounded or captured.
28th September – 19th October 1781
Siege of Yorktown
Following the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, General Cornwallis retreated from the Carolinas and led his army to Yorktown, Virginia to resupply and await reinforcements. However, in doing so, Cornwallis’ force became surrounded on all sides by a combined Franco-American army on land and the French Navy by sea. During the siege, 150 men from the Royal Welch Fusiliers, along with 40 British Marines held the “Fusiliers Redoubt” which had been constructed up against the southern bank of the York River. On the evening of September 30, 1781, the 23rd and the Marine detachment there successfully defended the Fusiliers Redoubt against a numerically superior French force that attempted to storm and capture the position. A portion of the 23rd was later selected to provide infantry support to Banastre Tarleton’s failed break out attempt on the opposite shore of the York River at the Battle of the Hook on October 3. The Royal Welch Fusiliers (including their light infantry company, which had returned from New York City in the summer of 1781), along with the rest of Cornwallis’ army, surrendered to the combined French and American forces on October 19. However, the 23rd was the only British regiment to not surrender its colours. Two junior officers of 23rd concealed the flags underneath their clothing and upon being issued their parole by their American captors not long after Yorktown, these officers transported the hidden colours back to England.
November 1783
Evacuation of New York City
The Grenadier company of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, having returned with General Clinton to New York City in the summer of 1780, was not present with the rest of the regiment that had surrendered at Yorktown. In the closing years of the conflict, the 23rd’s grenadiers were stationed in different locations in New York City and across Long Island. At war’s end in November 1783, the grenadiers of the regiment departed New York with the remnants of the Crown Forces located there and made their way back to Great Britain.
April 1784
The Regiment Returns to England
The fusilier and light infantry companies of the 23rd, which had been held in captivity since the surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, departed the newly independent American colonies at the conclusion of the war and arrived back in Great Britain, 11 years after the regiment had first left for North America.
The History of the 23rd Regiment of Foot, Royal Welch Fusiliers During the American War of Independence A Timeline of Events
by Justin Parker Grenadier Coy. 23rd RWFA
February 2026