On the 1st April, 1847, the regiment was augmented to an establishment of 57 serjeants, 21 drummers, and one thousand rank and file. Major William Matthew Bigge was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on the 23rd April, 1847, on the retirement of Lieut.-Colonel Reed.
1848
Events in the East Indies having rendered reinforcements necessary, the sixty-fourth, SEVENTIETH, and eighty-third regiments have been selected for embarkation for India,—the SEVENTIETH being ordered to proceed to the Bengal Presidency, where the regiment may probably have an opportunity of distinguishing itself in a more signal, though not less useful, manner than a long tour of Colonial Service has afforded.
The foregoing statement of the services of the SEVENTIETH regiment shows the long, and unavoidable, detention of the corps on West India service, and that such was the cause of its not having had an opportunity of sharing in the splendid victories obtained by other regiments which were engaged in the Continental wars:—While the regiment was employed in an apparently inactive state on Colonial duty, the Government, and the Commander-in-Chief, were enabled to send other disposable regiments to combat the enemy in the Peninsula, and on various expeditions in Europe; the conquered Islands in the West Indies were consequently entrusted to a few corps, of which the SEVENTIETH regiment was one, and on which full reliance could be placed by the Sovereign, and by the Country.
1848.
SEVENTIETH REGIMENT