On the 27th October the half-yearly inspection of the regiment took place, under Brigadier N. Wilson, K.H., commanding Deesa Field Brigade.
1857.
On the 23rd March a detachment, in strength 3 sergeants, 4 drummers, 9 rank and file, 6 women, and 15 children, proceeded, under the command of Lieutenant Dickenson (and in medical charge of Assistant-Surgeon Miles), to Mount Aboo.
During the month of May, 1857, the regiment was held in readiness for field service, in consequence of the mutinies of the Bengal native army; and on the 26th of that month the left wing, composed of Nos. 5, 6, 7, and the Light Company (strength—1 field officer, 2 captains, 6 subalterns, 2 staff, 18 sergeants, 6 drummers, 250 rank and file), under the command of Major Steele, proceeded on active service and marched on Nusseerabad, where it arrived on the 12th June, having performed a march of 237 miles in seventeen days during the hottest time of the year without a single casualty.
On the 13th June No. 7 Company was detached from the left wing to garrison the fort and arsenal of Ajmere.
The left wing was reinforced by Nos. 1, 2, 3 Companies (strength—1 captain, 2 subalterns, 7 sergeants, 3 drummers, 200 rank and file), which left the head-quarters at Deesa on the 17th June, and arrived at Nusseerabad on the 10th July.
On the 9th July two companies, under the command of Captain Read, were detached from Nusseerabad to Neemuch, 143 miles distant, where they arrived on the 18th of the same month.
On the 14th July the Grenadier Company, under the command of Captain Jones, left head-quarters for Ahmedabad, the native troops in garrison there having displayed symptoms of disaffection.
On the 10th August the left wing at Nusseerabad disarmed a detachment of the 12th Regiment N. I., which had exhibited evident symptoms of a mutinous spirit; and on the night of the 12th of the same month, the detachment at Neemuch, under Captain S. Read, was called out to suppress a mutiny of a squadron of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry; the night was exceedingly dark, but the detachment succeeded in making several prisoners, and sustained a loss of one man killed (Private Chambers) and two wounded.
On the 21st August the detachment of the 50 invalids at Mount Aboo was attacked by about 150 mutineers of the Joudpoor Legion, who were repulsed with some loss in killed and wounded, without the detachment having sustained any loss. On receipt of this intelligence at Nusseerabad, a wing of the Joudpoor Legion, there stationed, was disarmed by the 83rd Regiment.