“Farewell, my gallant comrades; may every happiness and prosperity attend you. Your old Commander will ever remember you with pleasure, and watch your future progress with all the deep interest of your firmest friends.
“By order,
(Signed) “G. A. Tytler, Brigade-Major.”
The Commander-in-Chief in India, having deemed it advisable to send home as many of the severely wounded men of the army as possible, before the beginning of the hot weather, gave orders for the boats to be prepared on the Sutlej to convey them to Bombay, and the command of this detachment was given by His Excellency to Lieutenant Robertson, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment. It consisted of about 158 men of all the European corps lately engaged, and an escort of 63 duty men of the THIRTY-FIRST, making in all 221, 97 of which belonged to the regiment. The detachment sailed from Ferozepore on the 14th of March, 1846, and arrived safely at Bombay on the 27th of April, whence it embarked on board the ship ‘Herefordshire’ on the 14th of May, and landed at Gravesend on the 29th of September, 1846, being the first portion of the regiment that arrived in England.
On the 28th of February the officers of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment were specially invited to dinner by Lieut.-General Lord Hardinge, the Governor-General, and on the 3rd of March the same honor was conferred on them by General Lord Gough, the Commander-in-Chief in India.
The volunteering being completed, the volunteers were delivered over to their new corps. The regiment separated from the army with which it had gained such distinguished renown, and commenced its march on the 4th of March towards Ghurmuktesir Ghât, on the river Ganges, where boats were prepared for its conveyance to Calcutta. The regiment recrossed the river Sutlej on the 7th of March, and on the 20th reached Umballa.
The women, children, and baggage of the regiment, having been left at Umballa when the regiment proceeded on service, a halt was required to enable the officers to arrange their affairs and dispose of their property, and that of the deceased officers and men; the houses which the officers occupied being their own property and built by themselves, as they were the first to inhabit the station when it was formed into a new cantonment in 1843.
The regiment moved again on the 28th of March, and, passing through the station of Meerut, arrived at Ghurmuktesir Ghât, on the right bank of the Ganges, on the 13th of April.
The boats provided by the commissariat for the conveyance of the regiment to Calcutta being in readiness for the voyage, the wounded and sick men, women, and children were embarked with as little delay as possible. By the 16th of April the whole were embarked, and the fleet of boats sailed for the Presidency of Calcutta on the following day.
Lieut.-Colonel Spence, after having commanded the regiment in every action during this brilliant and glorious campaign,—at Moodkee on the 18th of December, Ferozeshah on the 21st and 22nd of December, 1845, Buddiwal on the 21st of January, Aliwal on the 28th, and on the 10th of February, 1846, at the crowning victory at Sobraon,—had now the satisfaction of embarking with it on board the boats appointed to convey it to the port of Calcutta, where the ships lay at anchor, which were engaged to carry the war-worn veterans of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment to their native country.
On the 3rd of April Her Majesty was pleased to appoint Lieut.-Colonel Byrne and Lieut.-Colonel Spence, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, to be Companions of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath, for their distinguished gallantry in the late actions on the Sutlej.