The voyage of the right wing of the regiment from England was interrupted very early in its progress by one of the most unhappy events that could befall a ship at sea. The Kent took fire on the 1st of March, in the Bay of Biscay, and was totally destroyed: the accident was first perceived about ten o’clock A.M., towards the end of a violent gale of wind, when the sea was disturbed, and the ship rolling heavily.

When all hopes of saving the ship vanished, exertions were made to rescue the troops and the crew. Encouraged by the noble example of their officers, the soldiers preserved the utmost order and firmness in their perilous situation.

During the long and honorable services of the regiment, no opportunity had occurred to put its discipline and conduct to such a severe trial, but it brought from the ordeal a reputation even more distinguished than it had previously gained. In the field, when the spirits of men are excited by the animating circumstances of the contest, where honor is sure and death uncertain, valour and good order may be expected; but in the midst of dangers against which it appeared hopeless to struggle,—at a time when no aid appeared, and passively to die was all that remained,—the manly resignation, the ready obedience, and the unfailing discipline—characteristics of a good soldier—evinced by the THIRTY-FIRST, entitle the regiment to dwell at some length, in its Record, upon the events that called forth those admirable qualities. Although Lieut.-Colonel Fearon and Major M‘Gregor were most conspicuous, yet all who were on board deserve that their names should be recorded.

In the following statement is shown the number of officers and men of the THIRTY-FIRST embarked in the “Kent,” specifying also the number saved:—

	Officers.	Men.	Women.	Children.	Total.
Embarked in the Kent	20	344	47	73	484
Saved by the Cambria	20	276	46	52	394
Saved by the Caroline	—	14	—	—	14
Total lost		54	1	21	76

The following letters will explain the providential means of escape afforded by the brig Cambria, and do justice to the humanity and gallantry of Captain Cook, who commanded it, as well as of his officers and crew. The name of this gallant officer must ever be held in great estimation by the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, to him, under Providence, it owes the power of being enabled to record the many high qualities shown by its members in the extremity from which he rescued them.

It was two hours after midnight when the ‘Kent’ blew up; all the individuals of the regiment and of the crew that it had been possible to save were now on board the “Cambria;” their number, however, was diminished by sixty-eight men, one woman, and twenty-one children:—about twenty of the former were left on the poop of the vessel, when it became unsafe for a vessel to approach her; whence, abandoning themselves to despair, they would make no exertion to escape; it was absolutely necessary therefore to leave them: others had thrown themselves into the sea, and were drowned before help could be extended to them, or had come in contact with part of the wreck and had been killed; while the anxiety of some few to board the “Cambria” lost them their lives;—they were jammed to death between the brig and the boats. The only woman lost was suffocated in the orlop deck, with her three children; she was not able to escape. Among the children lost there were four, three girls and a boy, the family of Serjeant Jack, an old and deserving soldier, who had seen much service with the second battalion in the Peninsula. While the women and children were being lowered into the boats, Mrs. Jack fell overboard; the serjeant leaped into the sea to save his wife, and was not able to return to the ship. In the confusion unavoidable on board, the children were overlooked; missing their parents, they had sought refuge, it is supposed, in the Colonel’s cabin, and no one knew, until it was too late, that they were still on board; for the soldiers were not backward in giving their aid to save the families of their comrades; there were instances of men who tied the children of their brother soldiers on their backs, and, leaping overboard, swam with their burdens to the boats. There were indeed proofs among the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of a fortitude, courage, and good-feeling that would have done honor to the highest station. It happened, however, that fourteen of the men, who had remained on the wreck, were picked up the following morning, clinging to some portions of it, by the “Caroline,” a vessel bound from the Mediterranean to Liverpool, and carried by her into that port. The lives lost amounted, therefore, to seventy-six, being two serjeants, two corporals, one drummer, forty-nine privates, one woman, and twenty-one children, as specified at page 82. The “Cambria” was of 200 tons only; notwithstanding her crowded state, she providentially reached Falmouth on the third day (the 4th March), when the regiment landed.

It is needless to observe that nothing was saved from the wreck, and many had found it difficult to preserve even the clothes they happened to have on at the time; the motley and forlorn appearance the corps presented on its landing, was never equalled,—at any rate, in the British army. The kind exertions of the gentry and residents generally in Falmouth, to soften the sufferings of the women and children, must ever be remembered with gratitude by the regiment; the officers are more particularly indebted to this calamity for the brotherly attention and friendship it procured for them from the officers who then belonged to the Division of Royal Marines at Chatham, where on the 26th of March it arrived, having sailed on the 16th of that month in the “Diadem” transport from Falmouth.

The following letter from the Military Secretary, Major-General Sir Herbert Taylor, conveying the sentiments of his Royal Highness the Duke of York of the conduct of the officers and men of the regiment, will show that the discipline received approbation from the quarter from which it was most valuable:—

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.

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.

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.

On the same day the THIRTY-FIRST occupied the lines vacated by the fourteenth regiment. Meerut was the head-quarters of a division of the Bengal Army, commanded by Major-General Reynell; and a considerable force was assembled, as a check upon Delhi, thirty-six miles from Meerut, as well as upon the province of Rohilcund, on the opposite shore of the Ganges.

The THIRTY-FIRST had been without colours since the destruction of the “Kent,” but a new stand, which, for want of an opportunity, had not yet been presented, was in possession of the regiment; and the Governor-General of India, the Right Honorable Lord Amherst, being at Delhi, in the course of a tour of the upper provinces, his Lady was solicited to present the new colours to the regiment. They were presented by her Ladyship on the 7th of March, 1827, and the Governor-General addressed the following speech to Lieut.-Colonel Cassidy on the occasion:—

To celebrate the event, the officers of the regiment entertained a large party at a ball and supper in their Mess-house.

During the years 1828 and 1829 the regiment continued at Meerut.

In 1829 orders were received to reduce the establishment of the regiment to 736 rank and file.

The THIRTY-FIRST regiment was at this time stronger than it had ever been; its effective strength amounted to 1086. The men were young and in high health; the climate good, and the barracks excellent, different from those at Dinapore; they consisted of a certain number of detached buildings, each calculated for a subdivision only: they were thatched, and had at the angles good rooms for non-commissioned officers. New buildings were erected of even a superior description, each company having four houses allotted to it, with its proportion of non-commissioned officers’ rooms at the angles, as in the old buildings.

In the commencement of the year 1831 the north-west frontier of India was reinforced, and the THIRTY-FIRST marched to Kurnaul, the head-quarters of the Sirhind division. The regiment left Meerut on the 27th of January, and halted that day at Sardhanna, the capital of an independent state, under the celebrated Begum Sumroo. She had been its ruler for a period of sixty years; and, a Mahometan in her youth, she had adopted Christianity. The officers of the regiment dined with her Highness.

It is five days’ march from Meerut to Kurnaul. On the 30th of January the river Hinden was crossed by ferry, and on the following day the river Jumna, when the regiment encamped in its new quarters. The barracks had not then been built, Kurnaul never having been occupied by a British regiment. The Native cantonment was situated in front of the city, facing to the north.

The new lines marked out for the regiment were in front of the right of the old lines facing the west, in which quarter an extensive plain extends, without one tree to shade it, as far as the eye can reach; in the rear flows the canal of Merdan Ali Khan, a lively stream drawn from the Jumna at Rajghaut, fifty miles above, and running to Delhi, eighty miles below. On the right are long tracts of jungle, with a few villages and some cultivated land near the bank of the canal, a little to the rear. The barracks were detached buildings, two to each company.

General Sir Henry Warde, G.C.B., was appointed from the sixty-eighth regiment to the Colonelcy of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment on the 13th of April, 1831, in succession to General the Earl of Mulgrave, G.C.B., deceased.

It was the month of June before the barracks were ready to receive the men, until which time the regiment remained in camp. The officers’ houses in rear of the barracks were built at their own expense, it being the custom in the upper provinces of India to possess property of this description; the inconvenience and expense of establishing a cantonment are very severe at the time on many, particularly on the junior officers. It is only, however, when a cantonment is altogether abandoned that this custom can be attended with loss. Kurnaul was likely to be permanent from its position with regard to the Punjaub and the dominions of the Ameers of Scinde, besides the great importance acquired every year by the country beyond the Indus.

In October, 1831, the regiment marched to Roopur on the river Sutlej, as part of the escort attached to the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, who had arranged to have an interview at that place with his Highness Runjeet Singh, the Ruler of the Punjaub.

Having left Kurnaul on the 10th of October, the regiment reached the ground allotted for the escort on the 22nd of that month; the route lay through the Sikh territories, on the British side of the Sutlej. Thennaiser, a spot of celebrated sanctity, and Umballa, a populous city, were the only places of consequence, however, on the march. The escort assembled at Roopur, to do honor to the interview, was composed of two squadrons of the sixteenth Lancers, with the band of that regiment, the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, two battalions of native infantry (the 14th and 32nd), eight guns of horse artillery, with two squadrons of irregular cavalry from Colonel Skinner’s regiment.

The force Runjeet Singh had brought with him encamped, on the morning of the 25th of October, on the opposite bank of the river, and consisted of ten thousand of his best horse and six thousand disciplined infantry. A bridge of boats had been thrown across the river, and on the morning of the 26th of October the meeting took place; the Chief of the Punjaub, accompanied by a deputation of British officers that had gone to meet him, with a detachment of 3800 horse, 800 being disciplined dragoons, under General Allard, a French officer in Runjeet’s service, crossed the river. All the Sikh chiefs were in attendance on their Sovereign, and the train passed through a street to the Governor-General’s camp, formed by the sixteenth Lancers and the THIRTY-FIRST regiment. This is not the place in which to dwell on the splendour or chivalrous appearance of the scene, on the glitter of the polished armour of some, and the gaiety of the yellow silk in which all were dressed. The British troops were infinitely greater objects of interest and curiosity to the Sikhs, than even the variety of the arms, and the figures of the men of the latter, were to the former. Runjeet Singh inquired into every thing connected with the arming and disciplining of the THIRTY-FIRST with the keenest eye. During a review of the corps, on a second visit, he rode close into the line, and examined every movement, pointing out with great intelligence to the Sirdars, or leaders, about him the evolutions that he thought useful, or sending them to observe particularly how they were performed. The THIRTY-FIRST regiment was not under arms on the return visit. The farewell interview took place on the last day of the month, with the same ceremony as that observed at the first meeting.

The next morning (November 1st) the camps broke up; the THIRTY-FIRST regiment returned, by the route it had come, to Kurnaul, and arrived there on the 16th of November.

In the spring of the year 1832, Lieut.-Colonel Cassidy returned to England in ill health, after having commanded the regiment seven years. He was succeeded by Major Eagar, who died in December following, when for nearly three years the command of the regiment devolved upon the two senior Captains alternately.

On the 10th of October, 1834, Lieut.-General Sir Edward Barnes, G.C.B., was appointed from the seventy-eighth regiment to the Colonelcy of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, in succession to General Sir Henry Warde, G.C.B., deceased.

In December, 1834, Major Bolton joined the regiment, and was promoted, in November of the following year, to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, by purchase, Colonel Cassidy having been removed to the charge of a recruiting district.

On the 20th of January, 1836, the regiment left Kurnaul on its march to Dinapore, and, halting a day near Delhi, crossed the Jumna below the city; thence, continuing through the Doab (land between two rivers), to Allahabad, crossed the Ganges by a bridge of boats above the fort. Having halted at Benares and Ghazeepore, it recrossed the Ganges at Buxar, and arriving on the 26th of March at Dinapore, again took up its quarters in the barracks it had occupied ten years before;—although the weather was very hot, and the regiment had marched without a day’s halt from Cawnpore (thirty-one marches), there were only fifteen sick. From Kurnaul to Dinapore the change of climate is very great, while the confinement of the latter place, with the close and crowded state of the barracks, after the open scene, the comfortable thatched buildings, and the cold bracing winter air of the former station, were severely felt. In Kurnaul the hospital list never exceeded seventy, while it occasionally continued, during the hot weather, so low as thirty, and in the cold season eight or nine, for months together.

During the summer of the year 1837, the thermometer remained at 115 degrees in the barracks for several days, and many deaths occurred from apoplexy, produced by the great heat.

Lieut.-General Sir Colin Halkett, K.C.B. and G.C.H., was appointed from the seventy-first regiment to the Colonelcy of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, on the 28th of March, 1838, in succession to General Sir Edward Barnes, G.C.B., deceased.

On the 16th of November the THIRTY-FIRST marched towards Ghazeepore, to relieve the forty-fourth regiment, and occupied the barracks at that station on the 27th of that month. Ghazeepore stands at the edge of a fine plain on the left bank of the Ganges, close to the river. It is one of the frontier posts towards Nepaul, is forty-six miles from Benares, and four hundred and six miles from Calcutta.

The strength of the regiment had been reduced to six hundred and thirty-two rank and file; it had at this period been fourteen years in India, during which time the casualties by death amounted to fourteen officers, and six hundred and seventy-seven men.

During this year the regiment remained cantoned at Ghazeepore, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Bolton; and was constantly on the alert in expectation to march towards Nepaul to repel the incursions of the Nepaulese.

On the 3rd of April, 1839, the regiment was augmented to an establishment of ten companies, consisting of one colonel, two lieut.-colonels, two majors, ten captains, thirty subalterns, six staff, fifty-seven serjeants, nineteen drummers, and nine hundred and seventy-six rank and file.

On the 13th of May, 1839, the regiment was inspected by Major-General Cocks, of the Honorable East India Company’s Service, who expressed, in high terms, his approbation of its appearance.

Ghazeepore was found very unhealthy during the rains, and the regiment suffered severely, both in officers and men, from fever and dysentery.

The regiment remained at Ghazeepore until the 12th of October, 1840, when orders were received to march to Agra, to relieve the ninth foot. It arrived at Agra on the 30th of November, and its effectives amounted to forty-one serjeants, and seven hundred rank and file.

At Agra the regiment was more healthy than at the two former stations, and its strength was increased during the year by a large detachment of recruits from England.

In March, 1841, a large party of recruits joined the regiment under the command of Major Skinner, through whose able management they arrived in the highest possible order.

Owing to the indefatigable exertions of Lieut.-Colonel Bolton, the commanding officer, little time elapsed before the regiment formed a highly disciplined and most efficient battalion of 992 bayonets.

At this period the government of Shah Shoojah became so unpopular, that the Affghans appeared determined to effect the expulsion of the British, by whose aid he had been reinstated in the sovereignty of Cabool in 1839, and whose presence was rendered necessary to support his authority.

Towards the close of the year 1841, the Affghans broke out into open insurrection; the British Envoy, Sir William McNaghten, and Sir Alexander Burnes were treacherously murdered; and the British troops, including the forty-fourth regiment, which occupied Cabool, being compelled to evacuate and retreat towards Jellalabad, were cut to pieces on the march.

Jellalabad was soon beleaguered by the Affghans, and every exertion was made to send succour from India to its little garrison, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Robert Sale, of the thirteenth light infantry, who was serving with the rank of Major-General in Affghanistan. Upon the breaking out of the insurrection, the Major-General had been detached from Cabool with a force, in order to reduce the insurgents, and, after much hard fighting in the passes, had taken possession of Jellalabad, the successful defence of which, by his small garrison, forms so interesting a feature in the Affghan campaign.

The regiment was ordered to join a force collected at Peshawur, in the north of the Punjaub, under Major-General Pollock; and on the 15th of January, 1842, it marched from Agra, mustering 996 bayonets, in the highest state of discipline and efficiency.

On the 10th of March the Sutlej was crossed by means of a bridge of boats (which had been constructed for the accommodation of the British troops by the Sikh government) by the force under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Bolton, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment. The force, which consisted of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, the sixth native infantry, some troops of Tait’s irregular horse, and Delafosse’s troop of horse artillery, arrived at Peshawur on the 21st of April, and was most hospitably entertained by General Avitabile,[26] by order of the Maharajah Shere Singh.

Before the corps could join the army, Major-General Pollock forced the Khyber Pass, and marched on to Jellalabad, at which place he arrived on the 16th of April; the Affghans had, on the 7th of April, been attacked, and defeated, by Major-General Sir Robert Sale; Mahomed Akbar Khan was consequently obliged to abandon the siege of Jellalabad, which he had blockaded since February, 1842.

The THIRTY-FIRST regiment, which had followed Major-General Pollock by forced marches, joined at Jellalabad on the 5th of May,—after making a halt for about five days at Peshawur,—having undergone much privation on the way by the desertion of the camel-drivers: several deaths occurred from famine and fatigue.

The army was halted in wretched tents at Jellalabad, the climate of which is known to be so unhealthy during the summer as to cause it to be used by the natives as a winter residence only. Soon the effects of this displayed itself; the days became so oppressive that both officers and men were obliged to dig deep holes underground in which to shield themselves, in some slight measure, from the burning heat of the sun. The thermometer rose as high as 126° in the tents, and man and beast fell stricken by the extreme heat.

Neither was it in men alone that the army was daily losing its efficiency. From the valley of Jellalabad having been so long the seat of war, the fertile land had become a desert,—the wretched half-starved camels could find no forage on the bare face of the sand, and they died by hundreds; their dead bodies lying about in all directions, swollen with the sun, and emitting the most horrid exhalations, together with the filth and dirt of a standing camp of 50,000 men, added to the disease which raged among the troops. The army suffered a loss which the most sanguinary encounter with the enemy could not have exceeded.

At last, it was found necessary to divide the force, and the fourth brigade, in which was the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, was ordered to march under Brigadier Monteath to Peshbolak, in the Shinwaree country, to punish some refractory tribes, which had behaved with great treachery to a party of Jezailchees, who had been at the former place, and to bring to submission the unruly Shinwarees, who had attacked several convoys, and been guilty of many acts of murder and plunder.

For the first month the regiment met with little opposition, and the camel-thorn, a wild bush, on the leaves of which camels feed, being found in great quantities, and large supplies of grain being taken, the condition of the camels, horses, and other baggage animals was much improved; the half-starved emaciated animals, which had marched from Jellalabad, quickly recovered their wonted vigour and efficiency. The warlike and turbulent Shinwaree tribes retired before Brigadier Monteath’s brigade, until they sheltered themselves in their strongholds, which were formed in a narrow valley, strengthened by many forts and stockaded enclosures, while the heights on either side were defended by numerous sunghas, or breastworks of large stones, which were so constructed as to enable them to dispute every inch of ground with an advancing force.

The brigade having arrived, and encamped about two miles from this formidable position, a reconnoitring party was sent out, under the command of Captain Willes, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, to examine the strength of the enemy’s preparations, and determine his exact position. It was composed of two companies of the thirty-third Native Infantry, with a few Jezailchees, or Native Light Infantry, so named from the Jezail, or short rifle, with which they are armed. This party, having proceeded some four or five miles from the camp, was furiously attacked by a large force of Shinwarees, and suffered severely from their fire, which was very effective from the position they had taken up, and from which it required a very considerable force to drive them: nevertheless the object sought was fully obtained; the enemy’s position was correctly ascertained, together with every requisite information for the attack in force, after which the reconnoitring party returned to the camp, sustaining a smart action the whole way back.

On the 26th of July Brigadier Monteath prepared to attack the enemy near Mazeena with his whole force; and accordingly, leaving the camp standing under an efficient guard, he moved towards the position occupied by the Affghans, who were prepared, and nothing loth to meet him. Little time elapsed before the engagement was commenced by the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, seconded by the thirty-third and fifty-third Native Infantry, ascending the heights, and driving the Shinwarees from their breastworks, and along the ridges of the hills, while the tenth Light Cavalry, in the valley below, charged them whenever they showed front on level ground. The camp followers and pioneers had been furnished with combustibles to burn the forts, as the Shinwarees were driven out of them, which service was very efficiently performed. Meanwhile, on the heights, the enemy disputed every foot of ground until taken at the point of the bayonet, and Lieut. M‘Ilween, of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, was killed while gallantly leading an attack of this kind against a vastly superior force.

The Affghans being driven from their defences, the artillery, under the command of Captain Abbott, played upon them with great effect; and after contesting the day until every fort and place of defence had been taken and destroyed, they fled, dispersing themselves among the neighbouring hills, where it was impossible to pursue them. Their loss was very great, including most of their leaders.

The THIRTY-FIRST regiment had Lieut. Dalway M‘Ilveen killed, and seven rank and file wounded; several men of the regiment died suddenly from apoplexy, caused by the heat of the sun and want of water. Thus ended the action of Mazeena, in which the behaviour of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment elicited the highest commendation from Brigadier Monteath, who stated, in his despatch of the 27th of July, that