With the British victory in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), Americans had, with British arms, achieved a level of security they had never known. The maxim “protection and obedience are reciprocal” —defining the roles of Great Britain and America in an archaic, patriarchal colonial relationship—no longer applied. The Americans no longer needed protection. Their security, coupled with their burgeoning economy and population, and their adoption of the enlightenment maxim “laws they are not, which the publick approbation hath not made so,” spelled the end of the patriarchy and the natural obedience inherent in that institution. “Tumults in America” signaled the collapse of the relationship, climaxing in a war of independence in 1775, twelve years after the French and Indian War ended. For ten of those twelve years, the 14th Regiment of Foot formed part of the thin red line British strategists emplaced in impromptu campaigns from Halifax to Boston, the Caribbean, St. Augustine and Virginia to contain the tumults, reaffirm their authority, and forestall the collapse. Duty in these campaigns involved every aspect of military service. It involved weeks at sea on crowded transports, settling wives and children in modest barracks in remote outposts, and fighting epidemics of tropical disease and smallpox with little more than home remedies. It involved combat in jungles and at aggressively defended provincial choke points. It involved the “delicate service” of patiently enduring the resentment and provocations of “refractory subjects,” service the 14th Regiment would perform with a level of discipline and order seldom, if ever, surpassed. But while the regiment’s performance in pacifying refractory subjects was unsurpassed, the record shows the 14th performed all the duties required of this deployment with commendable and arguably outstanding discipline, courage, fortitude and resolve. This book is the presentation of that record. Mr. Randolph collaborated with Colonel Charles Le Brun, former Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, The Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire (14th/15th Foot) on this project. In his foreword to the book, Colonel Le Brun addresses the way this history opens a window on the unique and extraordinary service performed by this regiment in the lead up to the American Revolutionary War—service often overlooked in histories focused on conventional military operations.