sentences:  The regiment was given a county designation in 1782 becoming the 48th (the Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot.The regiment returned to the West Indies in 1796 for garrison duty during the French Revolutionary Wars and again lost men to disease before returning home the following year.In 1800 the regiment sailed for Malta where Ensign Thomas Bell, a junior officer of the regiment, planted the regimental colours at Fort St. Angelo following the recapture of the island from the French in September 1800.