Captain Charles Fordyce, 14th Foot

For most of his military career-his only career-Captain Charles Fordyce commanded the elite grenadier company in His Majesty's 14th Regiment of Foot, an infantry regiment deployed to America and the West Indies between 1766 and 1775. These were the years leading to the War of American Independence. It was a time when the British government was accused of implementing a "ruinous system of colony administration ... calculated for enslaving these colonies." It was a time when impatient colonists with aspirations for civil and religious liberties and commercial and territorial growth, challenged the authority of a King and his Parliament thought to be confounding those aspirations. It was a time of fomenting rebellion. This is the account of Captain Fordyce's life and career. As such, it is the account of the sequence of confrontations that climaxed in the outbreak of war in America in 1775. The account ends with a detailed assessment of a historically neglected battle in Virginia in the earliest days of the War, the Battle of Great Bridge, Virginia on December 9, 1775. The Patriot victory at Great Bridge influenced the British commitment to New England as the focal point for their fight against the Americans. It was Captain Fordyce's last battle and although a defeat for the British, Fordyce and his grenadiers were praised by both the Americans and British for their heroic resolution, courage and valor.