Page:Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, Or the West Essex Regiment of Foot.djvu/53

Rh made a forced march towards that place, where it arrived in time to witness the failure of the attack. The services of the battalion were afterwards connected with the operations against Antwerp, and preventing supplies of provision and troops joining the garrison.

In the mean time Napoleon was pressed on every side by overwhelming numbers, which he was not able to withstand, and he was forced to abdicate the throne of France. Peace was restored, and the battalion of the marched into Antwerp; from whence it proceeded to Ostend, where it embarked for England in September, and landing at Deal, marched to Sheerness.

The army being reduced on the restoration of peace, the third battalion was disbanded at Sheerness on the 24th of October; its men fit for service being transferred to the first and second battalions in India, for which country they embarked about three months afterwards.

The second battalion continued to suffer severely from disease at the camp at Domus; its loss from March 1813, to December 1814, amounting to three hundred and twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and soldiers. The conduct of the men, during this distressing period, called forth the approbation of the commander of the district, expressed in division orders, in the strongest terms. During the year, it proceeded to Barachia, subsequently embarked for Bombay, and after occupying the pendals at Colabah a short period, marched into Fort George barracks.

Considerable improvement having taken place in the health of the men, the second battalion embarked for Panwell in January, 1815, and mustered upwards of nine hundred non-commissioned officers and soldiers; it joined the Poonah subsidiary force under Colonel Lionel Smith, encamped on the celebrated plain of Assaye, where the troops remained until the 27th of February, when they marched northward. In May

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