 He spent the next 11 years on half-pay, studying military tactics in France before serving as a volunteer in the Flanders campaigns of 1793 as aide-de-camp to Sir Ralph Abercromby.In March 1794 he obtained brevet promotion to colonel and the colonelcy of the old 94th Regiment of Foot and then became a major-general in May 1796, serving in Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, where he was second-in-command at the Battle of Castlebar under General Lake.In 1799, he was in the expedition to the Netherlands.