While the portion of the Thirty-ninth had been thus engaged in Bengal, the remainder of the regiment left at Madras had not been unemployed. An expedition having been determined upon against Nelloure, Major Francis Forde, of the Thirty-ninth, was selected to command the force selected for that service, which consisted of one hundred Europeans, fifty-six Caffres, and three hundred Sepoys. He effected a junction with the army of the Nabob of Arcot, or of the Carnatic, at Serapely on the 25th of April 1757. Two days afterwards the troops encamped before Nelloure. A practicable breach having been made, at sunrise on the 5th of May the assault was commenced; but in consequence of the Sepoys being seized with a panic, the attack was not successful. The troops subsequently returned towards Serapely, where Major Forde received express orders to return to Madras, in order to prevent the designs of the French on Trichinopoly.
In consequence of the danger to which Trichinopoly was exposed, Colonel Adlercron marched from Madras on the 26th of May with three hundred Europeans, being the whole of the Thirty-ninth at that station, together with five hundred Sepoys, thirty of the King’s artillery, and four field-pieces. Intelligence having been received of the relief of Trichinopoly by Captain Caillaud, who had been selected to command the expedition against Madura[14], Colonel Adlercron was directed to invest the fortress of Wandewash, and accordingly marched towards that place on the 5th of June. On the following day he entered the town; but before the heavy cannon could arrive, the greater part of the French army from Trichinopoly reached Pondicherry, and marched to the relief of Wandewash, upon which Colonel Adlercron withdrew from the town, and encamped a few miles off. Several marches and countermarches were afterwards made, but no general engagement took place, and it being seen that nothing but the certainty of advantage would bring the enemy from his entrenched camp to action, the troops marched for Conjeveram on the 26th of July, at which place they arrived on the 28th of that month, where five hundred Europeans and fifteen hundred Sepoys remained in cantonments under the command of Major Francis Forde, of the Thirty-ninth, and the rest of the troops returned to the garrisons and stations from whence they had been drawn.
Shortly afterwards orders were received from England recalling the Thirty-ninth regiment, when most of the men, and certain of the officers, entered the East India Company’s service.
1758.
The regiment remained in India until the end of the year 1758, when it returned to Ireland, on the western coast of which it was wrecked.
1759.
After remaining in Ireland some time, and being recruited to its establishment, the regiment was greatly reduced by a large detachment sent to Germany to join the British troops serving under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. No record has been preserved by the regiment of the services of this detachment, and the research made to supply the deficiency has not been attended with success.
1763.
The Seven Years’ War, which had commenced in 1756, while the regiment was serving in India, was terminated by the peace concluded at Paris in February 1763.
1766.