De Watteville's Regiment

De Watteville's Regiment was a Swiss regiment founded by Louis de Watteville and recruited from regiments that served between 1799 and 1801 in the Austrian army but in British pay. The troops then signed on as mercenaries, to be paid by the British. They fought in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), mainly around the Mediterranean, and were based in Malta and then in Egypt from 1801 to 1803, fighting in Sicily and Naples. The regiment fought and won the Battle of Maida, in Italy in July 1806. From 1811 to 1813 the unit served under Wellington in the Peninsular War in Spain, and defending Cadiz in the Siege of Cádiz. The regiment sailed to Canada in 1813 to fight in the War of 1812. The unit was retired at the end of the war and soldiers were given tracts of land in Canada.

References

• Biography of Louis de Watteville at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online