"White Slaves: Irish Rebel Prisioners and the British Army..." Topic

… in the West Indies 1799-1804.

"The significant role played by Irishmen in the military and naval campaigns of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars has not gone unnoticed.
1.As many as 150,000 may have been recruited by the Army in this era. Tapping the mainly Catholic manpower oflreland was a complex political issue in the 1790s, requiring among both government ministers and military staff confidence in the ordinary Irishman's ultimate allegiance to the Crown, which in the event was usually justified.

2 Despite this Irish presence, however, recruiting sufficient numbers for the Army remained a persistent problem, not least because of low pay, poor service conditions and harsh discipline. Moreover, most line regiments could expect at one time or another to serve in the West Indies, where during the Revolutionary Wars virulent epidemic diseases turned the islands into charnel houses for unseasoned white troops.
3 Between 1793 and 1801 more than 45,000 British soldiers died in the Caribbean, a mortality rate of about fifty per cent.
4 The West Indian theatre was thus a heavy drain on a scarce resource and the government sought to alleviate the problem by resorting to three strategems: recruiting foreign auxiliary formations;5 embodying regiments of blacks;
6 and filling up regular regiments in the West Indies with conditionally-pardoned criminals and deserters. Although recruiting convicted prisoners in small numbers from the gaols had a long pedigree by the 1790s, and is well documented/ the government's resort to this measure in the years after 1798 has not yet been fully explored. In particular, the drafting oflarge numbers oflrish rebel prisoners into the Army has gone almost…"

Free to read here…
PDF link

Hope you enjoy!

Amicalement
Armand

Not a surprise. Impressment into army or navy service was very common in that era and including into the 1800s. Not only by Britain but most large countries did it.

'In an unconfirmed but popular English story (which, considering Wellington's habitual asperity, may not be apocryphal), the Duke declared that Irishmen required only one thing to make them the finest soldiers in the world: white officers!'-John Elting, Swords Around A Throne, 710, note 10.

As usual, Armand…Thanks for finding this!

Kind of a prequel to the pdf:

link

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

'In an unconfirmed but popular English story (which, considering Wellington's habitual asperity, may not be apocryphal), the Duke declared that Irishmen required only one thing to make them the finest soldiers in the world: white officers!'-John Elting, Swords Around A Throne, 710, note 10.

Funnily enough my Grandfather used to say the same thing regarding the First World War. Obviously not much changed during the previous 125 year.

And of course, the French have said the same thing about British soldiers.