Dya Ram, Rajah of the fortress, having determined on abandoning it, most gallantly cut his way through some of the piquets of the besieging army, and effected his escape. On the morning of the 3rd of March, the right wing of the Eighty-seventh marched into and took possession of the fortress of Hattrass, which was reduced to a mass of ruins. On the 8th of March the regiment commenced its return to Cawnpore.
In July and August the Eighty-seventh regiment, in Bengal, was increased by a detachment of thirteen serjeants, three drummers, and two hundred and sixty-nine rank and file, men who had been transferred on the second battalion being disbanded on the 1st of February 1817.
The regiment remained at Cawnpore until the 15th of October, when it received orders to march to Secundra, where the grand army was formed under the command of the Marquis of Hastings, against the Pindaree hordes, and having remained there until a bridge of boats was completed over the Jumna, it crossed that river on the 27th, and marched to the banks of the Sind, opposite Gualior; but the grand army being, about this time, attacked by that fatal disease, the cholera morbus, compelled the Marquis, with his troops, to retire to Erich on the Bettwah: the mortality for four or five days was very great, particularly among the natives, who died in vast numbers on the road and in the villages through which the army passed. The Eighty-seventh lost one subaltern (Lieutenant John Coghlan), three serjeants, and forty rank and file; total, forty-four, in three days. The army having in some measure recovered, his Lordship returned to the banks of the Sind, and took up a position at Lonaree, within twenty-one miles of Gualior, where Scindiah, with a powerful force, was ready to take the field, to support the Mahratta States, which had revolted.
1818.
On the 14th of February 1818, the different divisions of the army were broken up, in consequence of peace being concluded, and the Eighty-seventh returned to Cawnpore, at which station it arrived on the 26th of that month.
1820.
On the 21st of October 1820, the regiment marched from Cawnpore for Fort William, by the new road, and arrived in that garrison on the 21st of December, a distance of six hundred and sixty miles.
1821.
On the night of the 6th of September 1821, a very alarming fire broke out in the Honorable Company’s Dispensary, situated in Calcutta, and surrounded by many valuable houses. As soon as intelligence reached the fort, two captains and ten subalterns, with about three hundred men, immediately marched to the spot, and, by the greatest exertions, prevented the fire from spreading to the neighbouring houses. The strictness with which the armed party protected the property of the inhabitants, called forth their admiration, which was followed by the annexed letter from the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings.
“Council Chamber, 17th Sept. 1821.