The regiment's HQ was at Plymouth and its service history was similar to the East Devons. It served with the other Devon regiments at Plymouth and Roborough during the War of American Independence and again in the French Revolutionary War. However, the South Devon regiment volunteered for service in Ireland and was stationed there during the Rebellion of 1798–99. During the Napoleonic Wars it mainly served in the southern and western counties, but during the Luddite disturbances of 1812 it was quartered in the Nottingham area. As with the other regiments it was disembodied in August 1814 and re-embodied during the Waterloo campaign from 17 July 1815 to 8 February 1816.