page_title: 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Fort Meigs
context_page_description: The 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1719. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 69th Regiment of Foot to form the Welch Regiment in 1881.
context_section_description: The regiment was raised by Colonel Edmund Fielding in March 1719 as Edmund Fielding's Regiment of Foot out of independent companies of invalids and Chelsea out-pensioners - soldiers incapable of normal service through disease, age or injury. For much of its early history the regiment undertook garrison duties at Portsmouth. It was renamed the Royal Invalids in 1741, and it was numbered the 41st Regiment of Foot in 1751. In 1782, when other regiments took county titles, it was denoted as the 41st (Royal Invalids) Regiment of Foot; in 1787 it ceased to comprise invalids and became a conventional line regiment, dropping the title. On 23 January 1788, Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, joined the regiment as a young lieutenant.
  The regiment embarked for the West Indies in 1793 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars; it took part in the capture of Martinique in March 1794 and the attack on Guadeloupe in April 1794 before returning to England in October 1796. It was posted to Canada in 1800 and saw service there during the War of 1812.  It fought under Major General Isaac Brock at the Siege of Detroit in August 1812 and the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. Following Brock's death, it fought under Major-General Henry Procter at the Battle of Frenchtown in January 1813 and formed the bulk of the attacking force at the Siege of Fort Meigs in April 1813. It then formed part of the crew of the British naval squadron which was defeated at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813 and faced defeat again at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813. It also took part in the successful Capture of Fort Niagara in December 1813. Shadrack Byfield, a private in the regiment from 1809 to 1815, took part in many of these battles before losing an arm at Conjocta Creek in 1814 and, after returning home, chronicled the battles in his memoirs.
caption: Memorial to the men who fell during the Siege of Fort Meigs in April 1813
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.36", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:28 10:40:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9340", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5752", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/750", "EXIF FNumber": "19", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:09:28 10:40:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:09:28 10:40:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "312959/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "34799/4096", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "55", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "384000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1728000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}