The 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot was a Scottish infantry regiment in the British Army also known as the Black Watch. Originally titled Crawford's Highlanders or the Highland Regiment and numbered 43rd in the line, in 1748, on the disbanding of Oglethorpe's Regiment of Foot, they were renumbered 42nd, and in 1751 formally titled the 42nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot. The 42nd Regiment was one of the first three Highland Regiments to fight in North America, along with the 77th and 78th Regiments. During the American Revolutionary War, the regiment was involved in the defeat of George Washington in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776 and saw combat at the Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776, the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 and the Battle of Piscataway in February 1777. It also fought at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, the Battle of Germantown in October 1777 and the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 as well as the siege of Charleston in spring 1780. In September 1778 a detachment from the regiment raided Fairhaven, Massachusetts, inflicting severe damage on the town's shipping industry. Following the end of the war in America, the 42nd were posted to Nova Scotia in 1783, serving there until 1786 when they moved north to Cape Breton Island. The regiment returned to England in 1789.