The medals were then fastened on the left breast of the officers and men by the General, assisted by several ladies, after which General Armstrong spoke again as follows:—
“I am quite sure there is not a man now wearing the decoration just fixed upon your breasts that will hereafter willingly be guilty of any act to tarnish this token of your Sovereign’s favour. Long may you live, one and all, to wear the honours you have won! I greatly regret to think that the time is rapidly approaching when I shall lose the 74th Regiment from my command on its return to England. Many of you, no doubt, will volunteer for other regiments in India, and you may be assured that every well-conducted man will find a good recommendation to his new corps in his having served in a regiment possessing the high reputation of the 74th Highlanders. But others will be returning with the regiment to your native land, whither, if my life is spared, I may follow you at no distant period, when I hope to beat up the quarters of the regiment, and if so, I trust to see many of the medals I have this day presented to you still decorating the ranks of the corps. It will always be to me a proudly gratifying recollection that a regiment so gallant, so well behaved, and in every way distinguished, has served under my command.
“Major Macleod, and officers of the 74th, you may well feel a pride in your Highlanders. I trust that you, Major Macleod, will long be permitted to retain the command of them—a command which you have so ably and efficiently exercised for the advantage of the service, and the happiness and well being of all ranks during the whole period the regiment has been under my orders.”
On the 1st of January 1864, 261 men who had volunteered to other corps in the Madras Presidency were struck off the strength of the regiment; and on the 4th of the same month the regiment marched from Bellary en route to Madras, where it arrived on the 13th of February, and was ordered to encamp till the vessels were ready to convey it to England.
While in camp cholera broke out, and several deaths having occurred, the camp was at once removed to Palaveram, where, happily, the disease disappeared.
On the 7th of March the regiment proceeded to Madras and embarked for England—the headquarters and right wing under Major Jago (Major Macleod having been permitted to proceed to England by the overland route), and the left wing under Captain Thackeray.
On the 19th of June, the headquarters reached Spithead, where orders were received for the vessel to proceed to Gravesend, on arrival at which place the wing was transhipped, without landing, to the “Princess Royal” steamer, and proceeded to Leith, disembarking at Granton Pier on the 24th of June, and marching to Edinburgh Castle, there to be stationed. The left wing did not reach Edinburgh till the 29th of July, having been delayed at St Helena by the illness of the commander of the “Hornet.”
Brevet-Colonel Patton, who had gone home from India on sick leave some weeks previously, joined headquarters on the 25th of June, and assumed the command; but on the 9th of September he retired upon half-pay, and Major Macleod was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the regiment.
The movements of the regiment, from its arrival in Edinburgh up to the present time, may be very briefly recorded, as there is but little to tell except its movements from one quarter to another. Its stay in Edinburgh was very brief, for in less than a year after its arrival, on May 1, 1865, it re-embarked at Granton for Portsmouth en route for Aldershot, where it arrived on the evening of the 4th. The 74th left behind its old colours, which were deposited in the armoury of Edinburgh Castle.