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A History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland Clans and Highland Regiments is in Victorian Books.
The regiment was quartered in Poonah until the 7th of April 1843, when it was ordered to Sindh. The right wing marched on the 7th. Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas being ordered on special duty to Sindh, the command of the regiment was taken over by Major Forbes. After several contradictory orders, a final order was received at Khandallah, to leave the families and heavy baggage, and embark immediately at Panwel for Kurrâchee. There the headquarters and five companies landed on the 20th of May. The left wing having joined from Bombay after the rains, the regiment marched for Sukhur in two divisions. There was no beaten track, and native guides were procured to lead the column, but even these frequently went astray. The march was sometimes through dreary wastes of heavy sand, dotted with the cactus and other bushes, and at other times through the dry bed of a river. Frequently, when the regiment halted, there was no sign of water to be seen, but by digging a few feet down, in certain spots, the water would suddenly well up, and in a short time form a little pond. The water would subside again after some hours, but men, camp followers, and cattle, received their supply, and the skins and other vessels would meanwhile be filled. The regiment marched into Sukhur apparently in excellent health, but disease must have been contracted on the way up, when passing through swampy tracts where the heat of the sun had engendered malaria.
"The excitement of the march kept the scourge from showing itself, but no sooner had the men settled in their barracks than a most virulent fever broke out, which continued, without cessation, throughout the stay of the regiment. Some lingered for weeks, some for days. It was not unfrequent to hear of the death of a man to whom one had spoken but half an hour previously. The hospital, a large one, was of course filled at once; some of the barrack-rooms were converted into wards, and at one time there were upwards of 800 men under treatment. Some hundreds of the less dangerously affected were marched about, a few paces, morning and evening, in hopes that by their being called 'convalescent,' the mind might act beneficially on the body, but as death called them away the group became less and less.
"Day after day we attended at the hospital for, in fact, funeral parade; for four or five, and then eight or nine, men died daily; you did not ask who had died, but how many. Firing parties were discontinued, not only that the sad volleys might not disturb the dying, but because there were no men for the duty. In the graveyard at Sukhur lie the bodies of hundreds of the regiment — officers, men, women, and children. Major-General Simpson, Sir Charles Napier's lieutenant (who afterwards commanded our armies in the Crimea), was at Sukhur at the time, and on his return to Hyderabad, caused to be erected there at his own expense a monument to the memory of all those who died, which feeling and tender act filled our hearts with the warmest gratitude. It was the spontaneous effusion of a truly noble mind. The remains of the regiment also erected a monument in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh [Map], to the memory of their comrades who died in Sindh.
"The regiment lost, lietwecn the 1st of September 1844 and 30th of April 1845, 3 officers, 532 men, 68 women, 134 children — total, 737 souls.
"The medical men attributed the sickness in a great degree to the improper time at which the regiment was moved, and the malaria engendered by the heat of the sun on the swampy plains which had been overflowed by the Indus. The deaths continued very frequent all the time we remained, and at last, on the 21st and 25th of December 1844, we embarked, or rather the men crawled, on board common country boats, which conveyed us to Hyderabad. These boats were very imperfectly chuppered, i.e., straw, reed, or matting roofed. The sun struck through the thatching by day, and the very heavy dews penetrated it by night, when it was extremely cold. When we moored in the evening we used to bury our dead, and I sewed up many of the poor fellows in their blankets and rugs, the only substitutes for a coffin we had. We dug the graves deep, and with the bodies buried the boxes and everything else that had belonged to them. We put layers of thorns inside, round, and on the top of the graves, in hopes of preserving the remains of our poor comrades from the attacks of the troops of jackals swarming in the neighbourhood. There were no stones to be had, so thorns and bushes well beaten down were all the protection we could give. We were much pleased on learning afterwards that in many cases our efforts had been successful, and that the wild people who live near the river had respected the graves of the white men. The two divisions of the regiment buried between Sukhur and Hyderabad, nearly 100 men, besides women and children. After its arrival the mortality still continued very great, and it was not until the warm weather set in that the sickness began to abate. The miserable remains of as fine a regiment as ever was seen, left Hyderabad in two parties, on the 24th of February and 4th of March 1845, respectively, for the mouth of the river, whence they went by steamer to Bombay. Some of the officers of the regiment, myself among the number, were detained in Sindh on court-martial duty; when relieved some went to Bombay via Kurrâchee, and at the latter place heard reports to the effect that the mortality in the regiment was to be attributed to intemperance. Indignation at this cruel and false charge, which was reported to Major Twopeny, caused him to write to Sir Charles Napier's militaiy secretary. Had not some of the officers of the regiment passed through Kurrâchee, these reports might have been believed, for every exertion was made at the time to persuade the public that climate had nothing to do with the disease. There was not a murmur heard in the regiment at the time of the plague, but the survivors were determined to relieve the memory of their dead from such a charge, and prove that the will of God, and not alcohol, had caused the mortality. The canteen returns showed how little liquor had been consumed, and the officers, who daily exisited the hospital and the barracks, not only in the common course of duty, but to tend, comfort, and read to the men, could not fail to have observed any irregularity, had any existed. The poor dying men were not thinking of intoxicating liquors, but met death with the utmost firmness and resignation. It was an accursed charge, and cannot be too highly censured. When relieved from duty, the officers who had been detained joined the wreck of the regiment at Fort George, Bombay. Invahding committees sat, and most of the survivors were sent home, so that but a very small remnant of that once splendid corps slowly took its way to Poonah, which, two years before, it had left full of health, strength, and hope. There the regiment got 100 volunteers from the 2nd Queen's, then going home, and between recruiting and volunteering, by December 1845, 700 had joined. These were afterwards always known as 'The 700.'"8
Note 8. Journal of Captain Keogh, late 78th Highlandars.
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