56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot
The 56th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881. It was originally raised in Northumbria as the 58th Regiment, and renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded. It saw service in Cuba at the capture of Havana in the Seven Years' War, and was later part of the garrison during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the American Revolutionary War. During the French Revolutionary Wars it fought in the Caribbean and then in Holland. On the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars the 56th raised a second battalion in 1804 as part of the anti-invasion preparations; both saw service in India and in the Indian Ocean, with the first capturing RĂ©union and Mauritius. A third battalion was formed in the later years of the war, but was disbanded after a brief period of service in the Netherlands.
Cap badge of the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot
Morro Castle before the British attack, 30 July 1762 by Dominic Serres
Panorama of the Grand Assault on Gibraltar by French and Spanish warships, showing 1 ship exploding, infantry and artillery on land in right foreground, September 1782
Evacuation of the British and Russian troops at the end of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799
The siege of Havana was a successful British siege against Spanish-ruled Havana that lasted from March to August 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War. After Spain abandoned its former policy of neutrality by signing the family compact with France, resulting in a British declaration of war on Spain in January 1762, the British government decided to mount an attack on the important Spanish fortress and naval base of Havana, with the intention of weakening the Spanish presence in the Caribbean and improving the security of its own North American colonies. A strong British naval force consisting of squadrons from Britain and the West Indies, and the military force of British and American troops it convoyed, were able to approach Havana from a direction that neither the Spanish governor nor the Admiral expected and were able to trap the Spanish fleet in the Havana harbour and land its troops with relatively little resistance.
The Capture of Havana, 1762, Taking the Town, 14 August, Dominic Serres
A plan of Havana and its environs in 1762, by Thomas Kitchen
The British expeditionary fleet
Bombardment of the Morro Castle, Havana, 1 July 1762 by Richard Paton