About the same period the first battalion took the field in India, and formed part of the force assembled at Goute, from whence it proceeded against Canool, where it arrived on the 25th of December, and batteries were erected during the night, but a flag of truce being sent out on the following morning, hostilities ceased. The battalion was also at the reduction of the fort of Raree, Goosecull; and passed the monsoon in quarters at Cataubaugy; afterwards returning to Goute, it was relieved in the field by the second battalion of the Royals; it had lost three hundred and fifty men from disease, and was so reduced, that it was ordered to return to Bellary; it subsequently marched to Fort St. George, Madras.

The third battalion did not remain many days in quarters in Holland before it was employed in active operations, in consequence of a request of the Prussian general, Bulow, that the British would make a forward movement upon Antwerp, to favour his operations; the English general accordingly advanced to make a reconnoissance, and approaching that fortress on the 13th of January, attacked a body of French troops at the village of Merxem. On this occasion the Fifty-sixth supported the Seventy-eighth Highlanders, in a charge with the bayonet, on a French column, which was driven from its ground. The Fifty-sixth were engaged in a sharp skirmish, and had four men killed and fourteen wounded. The object of this movement having been accomplished, the British troops marched to Rosendael.

A serious attack on Antwerp was afterwards concerted, and General Bulow engaged to support the British with his Prussian corps. An advance was accordingly made, and on the 2nd of February the English again approached the village of Merxem, where a numerous body of French troops were stationed, and had fortified their post. The light troops commenced skirmishing about nine o’clock in the morning; and the Fifty-sixth, having cleared the wood on the right and left, formed line and advanced; when they were ordered by Sir Thomas Graham, in person, to move to the right,—charge through the village,—ford the dike on the other side,—take the enemy’s battery,—and attack them on the left of their line. These orders were gallantly executed, and two guns, which had annoyed the advance, were captured. The Fifty-sixth sustained some loss from the enemy’s fire, and had several men drowned in crossing the dike; but they succeeded in gaining the left flank of the enemy, and were warmly engaged until the French retired under the guns of Antwerp, when they pursued until recalled, and ordered to take post under the embankment of St. Ferdinand’s dike, which was not accomplished before several round shot had passed through the ranks. The regiment had thirteen rank and file killed; Ensign Sparks, and twenty-four rank and file wounded. Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Graham stated in his despatch,—“All the troops engaged behaved with the usual spirit and intrepidity of British soldiers;” and the conduct of Lieut.-Colonel Brown of the Fifty-sixth was particularly noticed.

After this success the British troops were employed in constructing a breastwork and battery, and the Fifty-sixth took their share in this labour, the men working all night. On the 3rd of February, several pieces of heavy ordnance opened upon the city of Antwerp, and on the French shipping in the Scheldt, and the cannonade was continued until the 6th, the Fifty-sixth taking their turn in the trenches, and being under fire each day; but General Bulow having received orders to march southward, to act with the grand army of the allies, it became necessary to relinquish the attack on Antwerp, when the British retired towards Breda,—the Fifty-sixth halting a few days at Rysburg, ten miles from Breda.

In the beginning of March the battalion again moved towards Antwerp, and was employed in services connected with preventing the enemy throwing a relief into Bergen-op-Zoom, which fortress Sir Thomas Graham had resolved to attack; and the battalion afterwards made a forced march towards that place, where it arrived in time to witness the failure of the attack. The services of the battalion were afterwards connected with the operations against Antwerp, and preventing supplies of provision and troops joining the garrison.

In the mean time Napoleon was pressed on every side by overwhelming numbers, which he was not able to withstand, and he was forced to abdicate the throne of France. Peace was restored, and the battalion of the Fifty-sixth marched into Antwerp; from whence it proceeded to Ostend, where it embarked for England in September, and landing at Deal, marched to Sheerness.

The army being reduced on the restoration of peace, the third battalion was disbanded at Sheerness on the 24th of October; its men fit for service being transferred to the first and second battalions in India, for which country they embarked about three months afterwards.

The second battalion continued to suffer severely from disease at the camp at Domus; its loss from March 1813, to December 1814, amounting to three hundred and twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and soldiers. The conduct of the men, during this distressing period, called forth the approbation of the commander of the district, expressed in division orders, in the strongest terms. During the year, it proceeded to Barachia, subsequently embarked for Bombay, and after occupying the pendals at Colabah a short period, marched into Fort George barracks.

1815

Considerable improvement having taken place in the health of the men, the second battalion embarked for Panwell in January, 1815, and mustered upwards of nine hundred non-commissioned officers and soldiers; it joined the Poonah subsidiary force under Colonel Lionel Smith, encamped on the celebrated plain of Assaye, where the troops remained until the 27th of February, when they marched northward. In May they entered cantonments at Jaulna, where they remained during the monsoon, and in August marched in three divisions to Seroor, from whence the grenadier and rifle companies proceeded to Poonah under Colonel Smith, who left Lieut.-Colonel Kingscote in command at Seroor: these companies returned in October.