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::b. IOR Mss Euro E231, K16. ''Letters to Harry Verelst, President of the Bengal Council''. <br></ref> However, nowhere seems there to be a list of those officers involved and one must conclude that the omission or removal was deliberate.
The Council in Madras received Clive’s letter of 1st May on 28th May. They immediately set about the difficult task of complying with his request. The Commander-in-Chief of the [[Madras Army]], [[John Caillaud|General John Caillaud]], himself at some four days from Madras, eventually proposed a reduction of the number of Companies of European soldiers and increasing the size of each. This would release, for loan to Bengal, a total of 65 officers, including three named non-commissioned officers who were given commissions: Quartermasters of Cavalry Nairn (Ensign) and Pattison (Cadet), plus Serjeant-Major Dunn (Cadet). McGowan receives no mention. Additionally, three un-named sergeants were sent to Calcutta in charge of 3 corporals, 2 drummers and 62 privates as a general support for Clive. It is possible that McGowan was one of these sergeants.
The total number of resignations offered has been variously calculated at just short of 200. Without losing face, Clive found reasons to permit many of his officers to be re-accepted into service. The names of the officers concerned do not appear to have been officially recorded at the time or, if they were, which was likely, they seem subsequently to have been expunged. In 1773 Henry Strachey, Secretary to Clive during the mutiny, was commissioned to report on it to the House of Commons Select Committee, and summoned to give evidence.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=iQ8NAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Henry+Strachey&lr=&as_brr=0#PPP7,M1 "Narrative of the Mutiny of the Officers of the Army of Bengal in the Year of 1766" written by Henry Strachey Esq., Secretary to Lord Clive during his last Expedition to India and lately given in Evidence to the Secret Committee of the House of Commons. London 1773]. IOR Mss. Euro F128/152 </ref> This document, of some 172 pages, includes several copies of correspondence relevant to the orders and activity of the Bengal Army in 1766. Again, apart from reference to the leading players such as Clive, Carnac and Fletcher, no single officer is named.
