His Majesty was graciously pleased to confer upon Lieut.-Colonel Fearon the distinction of a Companion of the Bath, for his conduct on the 1st of March.
On the 10th of April a detachment, from the head-quarters at Chatham, marched to Gravesend, and embarked on board the “Charles Grant,” under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Cassidy, who had, a short time before, been appointed to the regiment. After a good passage the “Charles Grant” reached Calcutta on the 16th of August, when the detachment was ordered to Berhampore; it joined the left wing in that cantonment on the 12th of September, when, immediately on its landing, orders were received to return to Fort William. On the 21st of the same month, the left wing, with the detachment,—all under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Cassidy,—were again embarked, and dropping down the river, in a few days reached Fort William, and disembarking, marched into barracks in the fort on the 27th of September.
On the 17th of November the head-quarters marched into Fort William, and the regiment was once more together. This portion had embarked on board the “Lord Hungerford” on the 21st of June, under the command of Major Eagar.
The cholera broke out among the men of the regiment towards the end of November, and not abating, the regiment moved into camp on the south glacis of the fort. The ground was occupied on the 20th of December, and the change was soon attended with advantage.
1826
On the 18th of January 1826, another detachment, consisting of the grenadier company, and part of No. 1, joined, and the strength of the regiment was 39 officers, 50 serjeants, 17 drummers, 48 corporals, and 812 privates.
On the 13th of February the regiment embarked on the river Hoogley, and left the ghaut below the fort for the Sunderbunds, on its route to Dinapore, the Bhagaritty river, by which branch of the Ganges it would have entered the main stream, being at this season of the year too shallow for boats of such a size as composed the fleet. The cholera unfortunately made its appearance during the voyage, and carried off a great number of men. The disease was so sudden in its attacks, and so quick in its effects, that the men scarcely survived till assistance could reach them from the hospital, which being always in the rear, the boat in which a sick man might be, was ordered to drop down to it,—it therefore became necessary to supply officers with a mixture to be given immediately to the person seized: the sick man thus received aid from the nearest boat to his own, and was saved until the more necessary treatment could be used upon him. It was the 2nd of May before the regiment reached Dinapore;—this cantonment is within a few miles of Patna, midway between it and the junction of the Soane with the Ganges; it is composed of two quadrangles, a larger and a smaller one, the southern side of the former being occupied by two long buildings, with a road dividing them in the centre; these formed the barracks, each for a wing of a regiment, the remaining sides of the square being the quarters of the officers;—the centre area is a smooth greensward, used as a parade-ground; the river flows on the north of the whole, and within a few yards of the quarters on that side.
At the end of the hot season of the year, the regiment was ordered to Meerut, and commenced its first march in India, before daylight on the morning of the 8th of November, under Lieut.-Colonel James Cassidy, who had succeeded to the command of the THIRTY-FIRST, Lieut.-Colonel Fearon having been appointed to the sixty-fourth regiment on the 12th of January, 1826. The sick with the women and children had been previously sent by water under Captain Bolton.
1827
The route of the regiment lay across the Soane, which it passed at Quilwur Ghaut, through the Shahabad district to Buxar, beneath the fort of which place it crossed the Ganges by ferry, and marched towards the military station of Ghazeepore, then occupied by the forty-fourth regiment. After passing this post, the regiment crossed the Goomtee by a bridge of boats, where it falls into the Ganges, near the village of Kitee; then to the cantonment of Seerole, near the city of Benares; again reached the banks of the Ganges, at the little village of Joosey, and recrossed it to Allahabad; thence the route lay through Kurrah, Futtehpore, and Korah to Etawah, a city on the Jumna. From Etawah through Shekohabad and Jellasir, in the province of Agra; passing the dilapidated fort of Shasnee, the road led through the city of Coel, to the celebrated fortress of Allyghur; thence by Khorjah Bolundshuhur and Haupper to Meerut, where the regiment arrived on the morning of Saturday, January 13th, 1827, after a march of sixty-seven days, during which time the men continued very healthy;—the number in hospital never exceeded thirty, many for trifling cases, and but two men died.