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== History in India ==
{{Template:Origin|text=This section was part of the Family History in India website, which was designed by Cathy Day to help people research their European and Anglo-Indian family history in colonial India. Cathy has kindly allowed us to transfer this page to our wiki.}}
==== Arrival 1819 ====
After a voyage lasting from 9th February to 13th June 1819, the regiment arrived at Madras. On disembarkation it was marched into [[Fort St George]], where it remained until the 10th of July.
Marching for [[Arcot]] on that day, the future station of the 13th Light Dragoons was reached on July 19. We now arrive at a period of no less than twenty years' duration, when no call was made on the 13th to display its proved prowess in the field on active service. For it was not until March 1839 that any portion of the regiment was employed in forming a part of an Expeditionary Force. For all these long years of peace - inspections, reviews, the joining of remounts, the transfer of horses, and similar notices, are the only events which exist to be chronicled. As a catalogue, they cannot be said to be interesting, still, for the sake of accuracy and continuity, the record of them must be duly set forth here; though with the brevity which their absolute lack of interest warrants.
On July 30 1819, the regiment was inspected at [[ArcoArcot]]t by Major General Browne - and similar inspections took place on October 13 and 14. The [[21st Light Dragoons]] during September were presumably under orders to return to England, and from that regiment thirteen privates volunteered and joined the 13th.
During October, 389 men (including Cathy Day's ancestor, Private William KILLMAIN) volunteered from the [[22nd Light Dragoons]] and joined the 13th Light Dragoons. On October 24th eighty remount horses joined. During October and November two very large drafts of horses were made over to the regiment from the [[22nd Light Dragoons]], amounting to 415 and 120 respectively.
==== Move to Bangalore ====
From the Army List we find that the [[21st Light Dragoons]] were disbanded at Chatham in May 1820. On February 1 1820, the 13th marched from Arcot for [[Bangalore]], at which station it arrived on February 19. During May, on the 3rd, 6th, and 13th, the regiment was inspected by Major-General Hare. A remount of 191 horses joined the 13th from Koongul on June 15. On July 4h a review of the regiment was held at [[Bangalore]] by Major-General Sir W. G. Keir. A draft of nine men from the depot in England joined on September 27. The regiment was inspected by Major-General Sewell at [[Bangalore]] on the 28th and 31st of October, and November 1. There is no entry until May 1821, when on the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 18th, an inspection was held by Lieut.-General Bowser.
An inspection in marching order and ball-practice was held on January 14, 1830, and on the following day the regiment was reviewed by the same officer. On May 27 1830, and the two following days, Major- General Sir T. Pritzler KCB, held inspections of the regiment, dismounted and at riding drill, followed by a review. For four days in December the same officer held inspections and a review, dismounted, riding-school order, review and ball-practice in marching order. During 1831 forty-four horses were cast and transferred to the Commissariat, and one hundred artillery horses were received from Oossoor. Thirty men joined from the depot in England. During May, Major-General T. Hawker inspected the regiment - dismounted, saddlery, accoutrements, barrack-rooms, and horse lines. He also held a review and on the following day examined the saddlery, cloaks, hospital, canteens, barracks, etc. In addition to these inspections, His Excellency Lieut-General Sir George Walker GCB KCI, Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, reviewed the regiment on September 13, and early in October held an inspection of the barracks, school, canteen, stores, etc., and the regiment dismounted.
==== The Mutiny at Bangalore ====
In the month of October 1832 the existence of a plot to mutiny and murder all the European officers and soldiers in [[Bangalore]] was discovered. As no account of this serious matter is to be found in histories, and as the destruction of the 13th Light Dragoons formed part of the conspiracy, the details may well be inserted here. The mutiny was timed to break out at midnight on the 28th of October. Up to the morning of that day no suspicion even was entertained by either European officers, soldiers, or officials.
Rewards were given to all who had given information, promotion in all cases, and sometimes in addition a pecuniary grant of 500 Rupees. Forewarned, it was easy to nip this mutiny in the bud. But what if the warning of trouble had been withheld?
==== 1832-39 ====
During 1832 twenty-four men joined from England, thirty-eight horses were cast and delivered to the Commissariat, and seventy-three remount horses were received from Oossoor. The regiment was inspected by Major-General Hawker on May 2; reviewed on December 3, and the saddlery, cloaks, arms, etc., inspected on the following day; the canteen, school, and hospital were inspected on December 5; in marching order, at carbine and pistol practice, on December 6; the horses proposed to be cast and the remounts on December 7; and the riding-school on December 8. Besides this, His Excellency Lieut-General Sir R. W. O'Callaghan KCB, reviewed the regiment on September 7, and a week later inspected the riding-school, young horses, barracks, horse lines, etc.
Meanwhile, complications with one of the native rulers had arisen, and trouble was brewing. On March 7, therefore, two squadrons of the regiment under were ordered to [[Bellary]]
==== The [[Affairs at Kurnool and & Zorapoor ]] ====
The 13th Light Dragoons, however, were not destined to leave India without employment on active service in the field. The story of the brief campaign of 1839 is as follows. A fanatical spirit was abroad among the Muslim chiefs and the people of India which appears to have originated in Scinde, whence emissaries were sent to induce the chiefs to engage in a holy war against the British raj. Among the chiefs implicated was the Nawab of [[Kurnool]] - a potentate of some power and not a little wealth. By treaty he was precluded from storing and collecting war materiel, but nevertheless he had amassed a huge quantity of guns, muskets, shot, shell, bullets, swords, matchlocks, English double-barrelled guns and pistols, salt petre, sulphur, copper, lead, reams of cartridge paper, and about 600,000 lbs of gunpowder. These warlike stores were cunningly concealed, some within the zenana (women's quarters) at [[Kurnool]], and hundreds of cannon were ranged in the courtyards hidden by grass which had been allowed to grow over them. The Nawab was called upon for an explanation and refused to offer one. The Government therefore moved up a force towards [[Kurnool]].
About 25,000 rupees, some jewellery, 85 horses, and 22 elephants, were found in the Durgah. The British force consisted of 350 to 400 native infantry, 80 of the 39th Regiment, 150 of the 13th Light Dragoons, 150 native cavalry, and the guns. Two British officers were killed, two wounded; five or six men of the 39th fell, and a few were wounded; one of the native infantry killed, and twelve or fourteen wounded. The enemy numbered 900 men, but had no artillery. Two hundred prisoners were taken, and fully one hundred and fifty killed. One private of the 13th was drowned while crossing the river, but there were no other casualties in the action. The two squadrons of the 13th returned to [[Bangalore]] on November 28, but not without serious loss, for cholera on the march claimed no less than thirty-two men. Of the horses, six were lost. The thanks of the Government for the services of the regiment on this service appeared in general orders.
==== Return to England ====The 13th Light Dragoons had now been serving in India for upwards of twenty years. It was now under orders for England. Early in 1840 the regiment marched from [[Bangalore]] for Madras, and on the way lost by cholera forty men as well as many women and children. On arrival in Madras the 13th was received by Major General Sir R. Dick, K.C.B., K.C.H.KCB KCH, and on the next day transferred its horses to the 15th Hussars. Such non-commissioned officers and privates as volunteered to remain in India being permitted to transfer their services to other corps. Major-General Sir R. Dick on the morning of January 29, 1840, after the review, wrote in the highest possible terms of the regiment. He expressed his high appreciation of everything he had that day witnessed. He praised the appearance and steadiness of the men and the condition of the horses. The movements executed were performed with precision and celerity, " notwithstanding the heavy sandy ground"," and the horses were well in hand. He greatly regretted that the services of so efficient a regiment would be so soon lost to the Indian Army. Finally, he trusted that Lieut.-Colonel Brunton, the officers, and men, would have a safe passage to England.
The general order was even more highly complimentary. Beginning in more general terms, it concludes as follows:- "The Major-General is enabled to bear testimony [as well as from the Reports of his Predecessors] to the uniform correctness of its conduct, and throughout the course of its lengthened Service in Mysore, he believes it may safely be asserted that not an instance has occurred of a complaint or appeal being preferred against an Officer, Non-Commissioned Officer, or Private of this Distinguished Corps, to the Civil Authorities. In taking leave therefore [for a time he hopes only] of the 13th Light Dragoons, the Major-General begs Lt.-Colonel Brunton will accept himself and convey to the Officers and Soldiers under his Orders the assurance of the Esteem the Major-General feels for, and the warm interest he shall ever take in the prospects and fair fame of the Regiment, and it will constitute a pleasing part of his Duty to make the General Commanding-in-Chief of His Majesty's Army, acquainted with the sentiments he has thus felt to be due to the Corps, to Express of its character and merits, and one in no wise diminished by a Twenty Years' absence from its Native Land. "
The 13th Light Dragoons embarked at Madras in February 1840, and landed at Gravesend in the following June. The regiment had been absent from England for a space of twenty-one years and three months. During its service in India, of the officers fifteen died, of the non-commissioned officers and men one thousand and fifty-one. Of the officers of the regiment only five remained of those who had sailed from England more than twenty years before.
