A Redcoat in America: The Diaries of Lieutenant William Bamford, 1757-1765 and 1776

This volume consists of two diaries by Lieutenant William Bamford, an Irishman in the British Army in the mid-18th century. The first is ‘A narrative of the campaigns and feats of arms of the 35th Regiment (Royal Sussex)’. It covers the regiment’s activities during the French and Indian War and includes an account of the capitulation of the British forces at Fort William Henry in 1757, the siege and capture of Louisbourg in 1758, the French siege of Quebec in 1760 and the capture of Montreal, skirmishes at Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and Albany in 1761, a voyage to Martinique via Barbados in 1762, the siege and capture of Havana in 1762, a voyage to Saint Augustine Florida, Charleston, South Carolina, and Port Royal, Jamaica in 1763, and a voyage to Pensacola, Florida and a description of Mobile, Alabama (then part of West Florida), and other parts of West Florida, in 1765, and finally back again to England by way of Havana in 1765. Also included in this section are a copy of a letter from General Webb to Colonel Munro dated August 4, 1757, and two anecdotes from 1759 and 1760 regarding Anglo-French battles fought outside Quebec. The second dairy, running from January through December 1776 documents Lieutenant William Bamford’s service in the 42nd Regiment at Boston after the battle of Bunker Hill, during the winter and early spring of 1776, the British evacuation to Halifax, return to Staten Island, New York, the campaign on Long Island, and the occupation of New York City. In an appendix a transcribed a letter from Bamford relates part of his career. 22 original b/w drawings