From the Isle of Wight the second battalion proceeded to Guernsey, in March, 1806, and its establishment was fixed at a thousand rank and file.
1807
1808
After remaining at Guernsey twelve months, the second battalion returned to the Isle of Wight: it was in a high state of discipline and efficiency, and in June it embarked in two divisions for India. The fleet encountered a severe gale of wind, and the vessels of the first division parted company, and put into Simon’s Bay to refit. They remained at the Cape of Good Hope a month, and afterwards continued the voyage to Madras, where they arrived in December, under convoy of the Greyhound frigate. On arrival in India the several companies proceeded to Bombay, where both battalions were stationed in 1808: the success which attended the recruiting of the regiment, occasioning the establishment of the first battalion to be augmented to thirteen hundred non-commissioned officers and soldiers.
1809
In January, 1809, the second battalion marched to Barachie, near Surat.
Meanwhile British commerce had experienced considerable interruption and some loss from the French naval force stationed in the Indian Sea, which force rendezvoused at the Island of Bourbon, and the Isle of France (or the Mauritius). In January two hundred men of the first battalion were detached from Bombay, to join the troops assembling at the Island of Roderigue, under Lieut.-Colonel Keating, of the Fifty-sixth Regiment, for the attack of the French islands in the Indian Sea.
While this detachment of the first battalion was on the voyage, four companies of the second battalion marched to Baroda, under the orders of Captain D. Daly, and joined the force assembling at that place, under Lieut.-Colonel Walker, for the reduction of the fort of Mallia, in Kattawar, which was the stronghold of a numerous body of marauders, who plundered and devastated the surrounding territory, and had successfully resisted the attacks of powerful native chiefs, which had procured for their fort the reputation of being impregnable. The position was naturally strong, the fortifications good, the garrison, being fully aware of the approach of the British troops, was prepared, and, to gain additional security, had surrounded the wall with a strong embankment of earth and thorns.
After a long and fatiguing march the British troops arrived before Mallia on the 6th of July; and the garrison returning a vaunting answer to the summons to surrender, the fire of the artillery commenced on the following day, and a practicable breach was effected in a few hours.
At four o’clock in the afternoon the storming party, of which the Fifty-sixth furnished a proportion of one hundred and fifty rank and file, advanced; the forlorn hope being under the command of Captain McKenzie, of the Bombay European Regiment, who was gallantly supported by Lieutenant Newman of the Fifty-sixth, a volunteer on the occasion. Rushing forward with heroic valour, the soldiers soon forced the breach, and in less than three-quarters of an hour they were in possession of the greater part of the town. As they advanced, the resistance became more determined; the banditti fighting with great spirit, and eventually retiring into an inner fort, which was inaccessible to an assault; when, the evening being far advanced, operations ceased for the night. Before the following morning the defenders of Mallia withdrew through a sally port, and fled; a few men remaining to keep up an occasional fire, and these retired before daylight; when the fort was occupied by the British troops.