Protecting the Empire's Frontier tells stories of the roughly eighty officers who served in the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot, which served British interests in America during the crucial period from 1767 through 1776. The Royal Irish was one of the most wide-ranging regiments in America, with companies serving on the Illinois frontier, at Fort Pitt, and in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, with some companies taken as far afield as Florida, Spanish Louisiana, and present-day Maine. When the regiment was returned to England in 1776, some of the officers remained in America on staff assignments. Others joined provincial regiments, and a few joined the American revolutionary army, taking up arms against their king and former colleagues. Using a wide range of archival resources previously untapped by scholars, the text goes beyond just these officers' service in the regiment and tells the story of the men who included governors, a college president, land speculators, physicians, and officers in many other British regular and provincial regiments. Included in these ranks were an Irishman who would serve in the U.S. Congress and as an American general at Yorktown; a landed aristocrat who represented Bath as a member of Parliament; and a naval surgeon on the ship transporting Benjamin Franklin to France. This is the history of the American Revolutionary period from a most gripping and everyday perspective. An epilogue covers the Royal Irish's history after returning to England and its part in defending against both the Franco-Spanish invasion attempt and the Gordon Rioters. With an essay on sources and a complete bibliography, this is a treat for professional and amateur historians alike.

Table of Contents:
* List of Illustrations * Acknowledgments * Introduction * The Early History of the Regiment * North American Service * Captain Hugh Lord's Detachment in Illinois * Atlantic Seaboard Service * 1 The Officer Corps of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment * The Makeup of the Officer Corps * Officer Careers * Courts-Martial and Discipline * Wives and Children * The Officers' Biographies * 2 Field Officers * Henry Folliott * Isaac Hamilton * John Saunders Sebright * John Shee * John Wilkins * Adam Williamson * 3 Captains and Captain Lieutenants * Hugh Antrobus * Thomas Batt * William Blackwood * Benjamin Chapman * Charles Edmonstone * John Evans * Henry Fermor * Robert Hamilton * Matthew Lane * Hugh Lord * Benjamin Charnock Payne * William Richardson * George Stainforth * John Stewart * Lewis Wynne * 4 Lieutenants * George Bewes * George Bruere * William Conolly * Edward Crosby * John de Birniere * John Peter DeLancey * John Joyner Ellis * Alexander Fowler * Francis John Kelly * John Mawby Jr. * Marcus Paterson * William Perkins * Edmund Prideaux * William Raymond * William Smith * Nicholas Trist * 5 Ensigns and Volunteers * James Aldcroft * Charles Hoar * Francis Howard * George Mawby * Sebright Mawby * John Piercy * Thomas Serle * Henry Shaw * William Henry Slator * Godfrey Tracey * Samuel Twentyman * John Wilcocks * 6 Staff Officers * George Buttricke * Edward Hand * John Handamede * Stanley Leathes * John L. Lynn * John Mawby Sr. * Robert Jocelyn Newburgh * William Smith * Daniel Thomas * Thomas Thomasson * Samuel Turner * 7 Absentee Officers * Horace Churchill * Caesar Colclough * John Cope * Thomas Cuming * William Greaves * Claudius Hamilton * John Hamilton * Benjamin Johnson * John Wilmot Prideaux * James Taylor Trevor * Francis Wadman * 8 Other Officers Associated with the Royal Irish in America * John Bailey * Thomas Bruce * Robert Douglas * George Gordon * Francis Seymour Hearst * Thomas Hutchins * John MacKay * Henry Miller * John Pexton * James Rumsey * George Sinclair * John Smith * Jonas Watson * Epilogue * Notes on Sources * Notes * Bibliography * Index