On their return from Guernsey in January 1799 the Inniskillings were quartered at Lyndhurst, where a large reinforcement of recruits joined from Ireland (Copeland-Trimble). Amongst these men was Private Joseph Ratcliff who had been returned from the Recruiting Company in Ireland with six recruits and was incorporated into Capt. Moncrieffe Willoughby's Company on 25th January 1799. He was made up to Corporal in the Commandant's Company on 25th May 1799 and received an increase in pay from 1s a day to 1s 2¼d (National Archives). ('s' is an abbreviation for shilling; 'd' is an abbreviation for pence.) In today's money the purchasing power of Joseph's weekly pay in 1790 would have been equivalent to about £20 and in 1800 equivalent to about £12 [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/]

In summer 1799 the British decided to send an army into Holland to drive out the French and restore the exiled House of Orange. In 1861, a Subaltern drew on contemporary sources to write a detailed history of this campaign (Subaltern). Copeland-Trimble provides details for the Inniskillings and Joseph's service is drawn from musters and paybooks (National Archives).

868 men of the Inniskillings joined the camp at Barham Downs in July. They were part of Sir Ralph Abercromby's division, four brigades and a reserve totalling nearly 12,000 men, which was assembling in and around the ports of Margate, Ramsgate, Deal and Dover. Alongside the 2nd, 29th, 69th and 85th Regiments they formed 3rd Brigade commanded by General Coote. The brigade embarked between 9th and 12th August, the Inniskillings at Margate, and set sail for North Holland on the 13th.

Some 200 craft of all sizes, mostly square-rigged, transported the troops from Margate Roads and the Downs across the Channel but the weather turned stormy and a gale forced the fleet to stand off the Dutch coast near Den Helder. The troops not only suffered buffeting by wind and waves for two weeks but also had to fund their possibly transient enjoyment of ship's rations; 5s 9¼d was deducted from Joseph's pay!

By the evening of the 26th the weather had calmed and by the morning after the surf had subsided sufficiently to allow landing on the North Sea beach of the Helder peninsula. This spit of sand was no more than half a mile wide with three ridges of dunes running north-south and backed by marsh. The British troops faced around 10,000 Batavian troops commanded by the Dutch General Daendels, who had split most of his forces between the hamlet of Den Helder in the north and the village of Callantsoog in the south.

British landing at Callantsoog, 27th August 1799

Under covering fire from the fleet, 50 flat-bottomed boats ferried Coote's 3rd Brigade to lead the assault on the beach. The Inniskillings were deployed on the right flank and amongst them, in Lieut-Col Frederick Maitland's Company, was newly promoted Sergeant Joseph Ratcliff. They immediately encountered opposition from light forces, including Batavian jagers, that Daendels had deployed in the dunes in order to slow the landing while he prepared a double flank attack from the north and south.

Batavian Jagers in the dunes

The British left flank in the north were never seriously threatened by the forces deployed around Den Helder. It was a different story on the British right flank where Daendels attacked vigorously. The battle for the dunes was closely fought and the Inniskillings were involved in some fierce actions, in one of which they lost Colonel Samuel Graham to a severe head wound which cost him an eye. Meanwhile British gunboats had come close inshore and began to wreak havoc on the Batavian forces whenever they emerged from cover in the dunes. By evening the British had taken the farthest ridge of dunes, embarkation of their infantry was complete and the Dutch had retreated six miles to Petten. Den Helder was occupied the following day when the garrison evacuated the town.

The Dutch lost 137 officers and men killed and 950 wounded. The British losses were 54 killed, 376 wounded and 26 missing; another 20 men drowned when their boats capsized in heavy surf. The Inniskillings lost: one subaltern, one sergeant and 6 rank and file killed; one lieutenant-colonel, one sergeant and 43 rank and file wounded; seven rank and file missing.

The weather was severe as the British troops fortified the peninsula. Joseph had only a trench scooped out of the sandy soil to protect him against cold and frequent showers.

The Dutch fleet surrendered on August 30 leaving control of the Zuider Zee to the British. Daendels retreated from Petten to Alkmaar to await reinforcements and the British advanced to the natural defensive position extending from Petten along the line of the Zijpe dike and drainage canal. By September 9 Franco-Batavian troops had been reinforced and, now commanded by the French General Brune, outnumbered the British by 25,000 to 23,000. British reinforcements had begun arriving so Brune decided to attack immediately. Franco-Batavian losses in the resulting Battle of Krabbendam on September 10 were nearly 2000 dead and wounded while the British lost only 37 dead and 147 wounded.

On September 12 a contingent of Russian troops and British reinforcements led by the Duke of York began arriving in Den Helder. By September 18 the Anglo-Russian forces amounted to 33,000 men. The Duke of York, having assumed supreme command of the Anglo-Russian expeditionary force, decided to exploit this numerical superiority. He made an unsuccessful attempt to break out of his bridgehead in the Zijpe polder on 19 September in the Battle of Bergen which ended in a tactical draw. He managed to force a Franco-Batavian retreat in the Battle of Alkmaar on October 2 but four days later, at the Battle of Castricum, the Franco-Batavian forces forced him to withdraw back to the Zijpe polder. The Inniskillings were actively engaged in all these battles, losing several killed, 60 or so wounded and nearly 20 missing.

Evacuation of British and Russian troops from Den Helder October, 1799

By October 13 only eleven days of provisions remained and early winter gales were making it difficult to maintain supplies by sea. The Duke of York had to face the prospect of a winter siege and his troops facing starvation. Therefore he decided to approach Brune with a proposal for an honorable capitulation which was concluded in the form of the Convention of Alkmaar. Evacuation of the expeditionary forces from the peninsula was completed by November 19.

On his return to England Joseph transferred temporarily to Capt. Ralph Darling's Company