 Col. Shaw also had a high opinion of him"".Bermuda had been defended primarily by Militia from 1612 until the French Revolution, although the regular English Army (subsequently the British Army) had kept a company-strength infantry force there from 1701 until the end of the American War of Independence.The Royal Navy, however, identified Bermuda as the only available replacement for all the bases and seaports it had lost between The Maritimes and the West Indies.