Royal Marine Captain James Malcolm fought at sea under the command of Vice Admiral Sir John Duckworth, 1st Baronet in the Battle of San Domingo.

Participating in operations on the Chesapeake in the summer of 1813, he was rewarded by a second brevet promotion, this time to Lieutenant Colonel, on the British Army List.

Together with a 200-man detachment of the Canadian Fencibles, the Marines formed a corps of observation and reconnaissance watching the American forces under Major General James Wilkinson.

In May 1814, Malcolm's 2nd battalion of Royal Marines served together with a mixed British expeditionary force of veteran Scotsmen, Swiss, Canadian militiamen, and armed sailors, which probed American outposts on Lake Ontario in the Battle of Fort Oswego.

Malcolm and his Marines continued to operate on the Atlantic coast, as far south as Georgia's Sea Islands and Spanish Florida, until the peace was established in May 1815.

He was allowed to retain his rank and his name was carried (in italics) on the annual British Army Lists from 1828 until 1850, (the year following his death,) as a lieutenant colonel with seniority dating from June 1813.