1858.
An expedition was organized for the reduction of the fortress of Awah, and two companies of the regiment having joined it, about 1000 men of all arms, with some siege guns, arrived before Awah on the 19th January.
Batteries were constructed, and their fire was warmly replied to by the enemy; an assault was arranged for the morning of the 24th January, but, favoured by a night of intense darkness and a heavy thunderstorm, the enemy evacuated the fortress during the night of the 23rd, about 50 of their number being killed, or taken by the picquets. Thirteen guns were taken in the place. The defences and fortified palace were mined and destroyed. The detachment had two men wounded.
Colonel Trydell and Lieutenant-Colonel Kelsall having proceeded to England, the command of the regiment devolved on Major Steele on the 24th February, 1858.
On the 8th March the regiment was joined by a draft of 152 men from England commanded by Captain Wright.
SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF KOTAH
The strongly fortified city of Kotah on the River Chumbul had been for many months held by a formidable insurgent force. Major-General Roberts, of the Honourable East India Company’s Army, commanding in Rajpootana, now moved against it from Nusseerabad, with two strong brigades; the 1st marching on the 10th March. With this brigade were three companies of the regiment, under the command of Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) Heatly.
The 2nd Brigade, commanded by Colonel Parke, of the 72nd Highlanders, to which the head-quarters of the regiment (strength 11 officers and 300 men) was attached, moved from Nusseerabad on the 11th March. The whole force comprised H.M.’s 8th Hussars, a company of Royal Engineers, the 72nd, 83rd, and 95th Regiments, a numerous force of native cavalry and infantry, a siege-train of 18 heavy guns and mortars, also 3 troops and batteries of horse and foot artillery of the Hon. Company’s service—about 4500 of all arms. The force encamped on the 22nd March before the city, on the opposite bank of the River Chumbul; the regiment furnished the usual working parties, trench and battery guards, outlying picquets, etc., until the 25th of the month, when, the capture by the enemy of the Rajah’s palace, which was held by our troops, being imminent, 200 men of the detachment of H.M.’s 83rd Regiment, with the 1st Brigade, were directed to cross the river, with other troops, for its protection; this detachment sustained a loss of 3 men killed and 5 non-commissioned officers and men wounded in the following three days, in which some vigorous assaults by the enemy were repulsed with heavy loss in killed and wounded. On the 30th the city was taken, having been entered by three columns of assault, the centre column being led by the head-quarters division of the 83rd Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Steele; the detachment of the 83rd with the 1st Brigade, commanded by Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Heatly, was in reserve, and entered the city later in the day. The regiment sustained a loss of 1 man killed and 6 wounded. The enemy abandoned their defences and retired towards Gwalior, having sustained a considerable loss in the siege and assault; about 80 guns were taken in the city, with large magazines of ammunition and supplies.
Having remained encamped before Kotah till the 18th April, the besieging force was broken up, and the regiment marched on return to Nusseerabad, arriving there on the 29th. The usual relief of detachment of one company in the fort of Ajmere took place on the 3rd May.
Enfield rifles were issued to the regiment at this time; the waist-belt, with small pouch in front, had been supplied to the regiment in supersession of the old cross-belts about one year previously.