Lieut.-Colonel Hastings Fraser, having arrived in India, overland from Europe, assumed the command, and Major Cuyler embarked for England.
1808
In February, 1808, Captain John Grant obtained permission to return to England, when it was stated in general orders,—“The Honourable the Governor in Council cannot allow Captain Grant to depart, without being accompanied by this testimonial to the credit which that meritorious officer has done to the British arms, during his service in India, at the siege of Baroda, the capture of the important fortress of Baroach and Powanghur, and particularly in the arduous and successful attack of the column which Captain Grant commanded on the 20th of February, 1805, at the siege of Bhurtpore, on which occasion, he most gallantly carried the enemy’s post, and captured the whole of their guns, being eleven in number, &c., &c., &c.”
1809
Orders having been received for the removal of the Eighty-sixth, to form part of a field force to be assembled in the Presidency of Madras, the following declaration was issued by the Viceroy and Captain-General of the Portuguese possessions in Asia, dated Palace of Panjam, 16th August, 1809.
“On the departure of His Britannic Majesty’s Eighty-sixth regiment from Goa, His Excellency the Viceroy and Captain-General of the Portuguese possessions in Asia avails himself of the opportunity to express his sentiments of praise and admiration of the regular order and conduct which Lieut.-Colonel Fraser, the officers and soldiers of that corps, have so honourably observed during a period of three years, which they have been employed in the territories subject to his authority, so highly creditable to the discipline of that corps.
“His Excellency the Viceroy will never forget the invariable harmony which has always subsisted between the subjects of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Portugal and all ranks of His Britannic Majesty’s Eighty-sixth regiment, whose remembrance will be always grateful to him; and he doubts not they will continue to acquire, in whatever part of the world their services may be called for, glorious claims on the rewards of their Sovereign, and the admiration of their country.”
Leaving Goa, the regiment proceeded in boats up the river to Candiaparr, from whence it ascended the ghauts. The monsoon having set in, the men suffered much from the incessant rains and inundations, and after a long march through the Mahratta territories, arrived at Bellary, on the 15th of September. The second battalion of the First or the Royals, the Eighty-sixth, and two battalions of Sepoys formed the first brigade, under Lieut.-Colonel Fraser, to which Lieutenant Michael Creagh was appointed brigade-major. A large force assembled under Colonel Conran, of the Royals, but the native troops, against which it was prepared to act, returned to their duty; when the Eighty-sixth garrisoned Bellary and Gooty. Captain James Burke, and many non-commissioned officers and soldiers, died from the effects of the fatigues they had undergone. Soon afterwards, the regiment returned to Goa.
1810