In this year the war of the Austrian succession commenced; and in 1742 a British army proceeded to Flanders to support the interests of the Archduchess, Maria Theresa; but the SIXTEENTH were employed on home service.
Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, arrived in Scotland in the summer of 1745, and being joined by a number of the Highland clans, he made a desperate effort to overthrow the existing government, and to procure the accession of his father to the throne. At first some partial successes were gained by the insurgents; but the British nation evinced firmness and decision in supporting the rights of their sovereign, and in preserving the constitutional privileges of the people. The services of the regiment were, at this period, limited to the south of England, where a body of troops was held in readiness to repel a menaced invasion by the French.
In January, 1746, the royal troops, under Lieut.-General Hawley, were defeated by the Clans, on Falkirk moor, and additional forces were ordered to proceed to Scotland. In March the SIXTEENTH regiment embarked from Gravesend, with several other corps, for Edinburgh, and arrived at Leith as the guns of Edinburgh castle were firing for the decisive victory gained over the clans at Culloden. The regiment waited a few days on board the transports, until the return of an express from the army, when it received orders to sail northwards, and landed at the royal burgh of Nairn on the 1st of May. It was subsequently stationed at Elgin, &c.
The regiment remained in Scotland, and in the summer of 1747 it was encamped in a valley environed by lofty mountains, near Fort Augustus.
The war on the Continent terminated in 1748; and in the following year the regiment was reduced in numbers to the peace establishment, and sent to Ireland, where it was stationed nearly twenty years.
On the 1st of July, 1751, King George II. issued a warrant for establishing uniformity in the clothing, standards, and colours of the several regiments of the regular army; and in this warrant the uniform of the SIXTEENTH, or Lieut.-General Roger Handasyd's regiment, was directed to be red, faced with _yellow_.[6] The first, or the King's colour, to be the great Union: the second, or regimental colour, to be of yellow silk, with the Union in the upper canton; in the centre of the colours, the rank of the regiment, in gold Roman characters, within a wreath of roses and thistles on the same stalk.