In the meantime circumstances had occurred which occasioned the battalion to be called from its quarters at Meerut, to take the field against the Nepaulese, whose depredations on the British territory could not be restrained without force of arms. The FIFTY-THIRD marched from Meerut on the 14th of October, and joined the division of the army appointed to invade the kingdom of Nepaul, or the Gorca state, under the orders of Major-General Robert Rollo Gillespie. This division was directed to penetrate the Himalaya mountains by the pass of the Deyrah Doon, and capture the strong fort of Kalunga, situate upon a peak in the mountains between the rivers Sutlej and Ganges, which was defended by a garrison of warlike mountaineers, under a celebrated Hindoo warrior named Bulbudder.
1814
Two companies of the FIFTY-THIRD, commanded by Lieutenant Young, were detached with a small column under Lieut.-Colonel Carpenter of the seventeenth native infantry, and ascending the Timlee pass, into the Deyrah valley, joined at midnight on the 24th of October, another detachment under Colonel Mawby of the FIFTY-THIRD regiment, who advanced to capture the fort of Kalunga by a coup-de-main; but upon approaching the place, it was found to be a strong work of excellent stone masonry, more formidable than it had been represented to be, and not to be taken without cannon. After a close reconnoissance, Colonel Mawby retired, and received the acknowledgments of Major-General Gillespie, in orders, for his conduct on the occasion. The Major-General afterwards advanced with the leading corps, and taking with him a few light field-pieces on the backs of elephants, had them placed in battery upon a piece of table-land near the fort, and on the morning of the 31st of October storming parties were in readiness to attack the fort. The troops moved forward with great gallantry, but under such unfavourable circumstances, that the assault failed; among the other disasters the pioneers bearing the ladders fell, from the fire of the garrison, in the midst of a village of grass huts, which caught fire, and the storming party was thus deprived of the means for ascending the walls of the fort. The two companies of the FIFTY-THIRD lost several men, and had Lieutenants Young and Anstice severely wounded. Three of the columns of attack had not advanced, in consequence of not hearing, or not understanding, the signal, and the messengers despatched to them never reached their destination. The columns which had advanced, withdrew to the village. At this moment three companies of the FIFTY-THIRD arrived from a long march, under Captain Wheeler Coultman, and were ordered to join the storming party, which consisted also of a brigade of Bengal horse artillery (six-pounders), under the command of Captain Charles Pratt Kennedy, for the purpose of making another determined effort to capture the place. Major-General Gillespie headed the assault in person. A party of the FIFTY-THIRD dragged two of the guns forward with ropes up a steep ascent under a sharp fire, and after overcoming the difficulty of a stockade across the path, a few shots were fired at a small gate in the wall, to force it open. A destructive fire was opened from the walls upon the storming party, crowded in a narrow space, waiting for the gate to be forced open and a passage to be made; Major-General Gillespie placed himself at the head of the troops, and while leading the men to the assault, he fell mortally wounded. The attack failed; the storming party retired; and afterwards withdrew from before the fort to await the arrival of a battering train. The FIFTY-THIRD had sixteen men killed and seventy-five wounded.
The battering train having arrived from Delhi, the siege was resumed by the troops under Colonel Mawby, and on the 27th of November the flank companies of the FIFTY-THIRD, with one battalion company of the regiment, and the grenadiers of the native corps, stormed the breach under the orders of Major William Ingleby of the FIFTY-THIRD. A numerous body of mountaineers defended the breach with desperate resolution. Major Ingleby was wounded, and withdrew, leaving the storming party under Captain Coultman. Lieutenant Harrington and a few men of the FIFTY-THIRD ascended the breach, but were instantly killed. The storming party proving not sufficiently numerous to capture the place, the remaining companies of the regiment were ordered forward, and the attack was repeated, but without success: the approach to the breach proved very difficult, and the defenders numerous and desperate; after a severe loss had been sustained, the storming party was ordered to retire. Lieutenant Harrington and twenty men of the regiment were killed on this occasion; Major Ingleby, Captain Stone, Lieutenants Horsley, Green, and Brodie, Ensign Aufrere, twelve serjeants, three drummers, and one hundred and eighty-four rank and file wounded.
The battery resumed its fire to widen the breach; but further loss was prevented by the garrison evacuating the fort, and retreating and forcing their way through the besieging corps.
From Kalunga the division moved along a ridge of mountains towards Nahn; the enemy evacuating the fortifications as the British approached, and retiring to another ridge of mountains of much greater elevation. On the 27th of December the flank companies of the regiment were engaged in driving back the enemy's outposts, in order to make lodgments for besieging some fortified places on the Jampta heights, and had one serjeant and eight rank and file killed.
1815
In 1815 the Nepaulese were brought to submission, and the regiment marched from the camp in the mountains to the banks of the Ganges, where it embarked in boats and proceeded down the river to Berhampore, where it landed on the 30th of August, and was joined by a strong detachment from the second battalion, under the command of Major Giles. On the 20th of October the regiment again embarked in boats, and proceeded to Calcutta, where it remained until December, when it embarked for Madras.
1816
In January, 1816, the first battalion marched from Madras to Wallajahbad; but in March three companies returned to Madras, and seven proceeded to the Naggery Pass, to keep in check the plundering bands of Pindarees, who infested the British territory in India at this period. These marauding tribes having been driven from British India with severe loss, the seven companies marched to Bangalore, where they were joined by the detachment from Madras in June; also by a detachment from Europe. In November the battalion commenced its march for Trichinopoly, where it arrived on the 12th of December, after a march of two hundred and seven miles.