In January 1797 bad weather in the North Sea, combined with outbreaks of mutiny and poor discipline among the recruits, stopped the attacking force headed for Newcastle, and they too returned to France.

[citation needed] The Wales-bound invasion force consisted of 1,400 troops from La Legion Noire, a partly penal battalion under the command of Irish American Colonel William Tate.

[3]: 76–77 The naval operation, led by Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, comprised four warships - some of the newest in the French fleet: the frigates Vengeance and Résistance (on her maiden voyage), the corvette Constance, and a smaller lugger called the Vautour.

The Directory had ordered Castagnier to land Colonel Tate's troops and then to rendezvous with Hoche's expedition returning from Ireland to give them any assistance they might need.

Of Tate's 1,400 troops, some 600 were French regular soldiers that Napoleon Bonaparte had not required in his conquest of Italy, and 800 were irregulars, including republicans, deserters, convicts and Royalist prisoners.

Some accounts report a failed attempt to enter Fishguard harbour, but this scenario does not seem to have appeared in print before 1892 and probably has its origin in a misunderstanding of an early pamphlet about the invasion.

The remaining invasion force confronted a quickly assembled group of around 500 reservists, militia and sailors under the command of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor.

Landowner William Knox had raised the Fishguard & Newport Volunteer Infantry in 1794 in response to the British Government's call to arms.

On the night of 22 February, there was a social event at Tregwynt Mansion, and the young Thomas Knox was in attendance when a messenger on horseback arrived from the Fishguard & Newport Volunteer Infantry to inform the commanding officer of the invasion.

He immediately assembled all the troops at his disposal and set off for the county town of Haverfordwest along with the Pembroke Volunteers and the Cardiganshire Militia, who were on routine exercises at the time.

A company of French grenadiers under Lieutenant St. Leger took possession of Trehowell farm on the Llanwnda Peninsula about a mile from their landing site, and it was here that Colonel Tate decided to set up his headquarters.

One group broke into Llanwnda Church to shelter from the cold, and set about lighting a fire inside using a Bible as kindling and the pews as firewood.

By the morning of 23 February, the French had moved two miles inland and occupied strong defensive positions on the high rocky outcrops of Garnwnda and Carngelli, gaining an unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside.

Many local inhabitants were fleeing in panic, but many more were flocking into Fishguard armed with a variety of makeshift weapons, ready to fight alongside the Volunteer Infantry.

Discipline among the convict recruits had collapsed once they discovered the locals' supply of wine, which was acquired from a Portuguese ship that was wrecked on the coast several weeks previously.

[5] Tate tried to delay it but eventually accepted the terms of the unconditional surrender and, at 2 p.m., the sounds of the French drums could be heard leading the column down to Goodwick.

Meanwhile, Cawdor had ridden out with a party of his Pembroke Yeomanry Cavalry to Trehowel farm to receive Tate's official surrender; the actual document has been lost.

A legendary heroine, Jemima Nicholas, is reported to have tricked the French invaders into surrender by telling local women to dress in the cloaks and high black steeple-crowned hats of soldiers.

[8] However, due to a lack of contemporary written or printed sources mentioning Nicholas or her actions on the day, it is impossible to verify this folk tradition outside of oral testimony.

When the news hit London a few days later, there was a run on the Bank of England by holders of banknotes, attempting to convert them into gold (a right enshrined in the wording that still exists on English notes of "I promise to pay the bearer on demand...").

[11] In 1853, amidst fears of another invasion by the French, Lord Palmerston recommended that the Sovereign, Queen Victoria, confer upon the Pembroke Yeomanry the battle honour "Fishguard".