Changes

In September and October the 62nd sailed from Burma to Calcutta. A Draft of 100 men from England awaited them in [[Fort William]]. Their records stated, "By November the temptations which Calcutta presented had tended much to injure the morale and regularity of the Corps." On 5th November they started on a month's march to Hazaribagh, 2,000 feet up in the hills of Bihar. On the very first day the old scourge of cholera broke out again. Twenty-two men died on the way, making fifty-six deaths in all since leaving Burma. The families and the sick went up the Ganges by boat to [[Dinapore]], and were then faced with thirteen days' march South to [[Hazaribagh]]. This station had been chosen for European troops as having one of the coolest and most temperate climates in India, but the barracks, though large, were badly built, and the water was impure.

At the end of July, the 10th Foot arrived from England, and the young Springers relieved the old Springers in [[Fort William]]. On 11th August the first Division of the 62nd set off in boats up the River Ganges for [[Dinapore]], near [[Patna]]. All went well till 6th September, when a violent storm arose at two o'clock in the morning. The flotilla was moored to the bank opposite a place called Sickree Gully, near Bhagalpur. Many of the boats were blown from the shore and swamped, two lieutenants, forty-three of the Rank and File and eighteen women and children were drowned. Colonel and Mrs. Reed had the narrowest escape, their pinnace being blown loose and on to her beam-ends. The occupants managed to scramble out and cling to the sides, the Colonel and his wife doing so through the window of the after-cabin. In this position they drifted down with the current for three hours, the boat rolling from side to side but fortunately never righting, in which case she would have sunk. There were people on the banks and plenty of boats there, but their cries for help were ignored. At daybreak the dinghy was discovered, still attached to the stern by a rope. Scrambling into this they gradually righted the pinnace and half baled her out, and all were safely landed at Rajmahal. About fifty of the rank and file, who had also drifted downstream in their boats, collected here. A steamer was sent from Bhagalpur in which, with the Colonel, they overtook the Regiment. The Colours and the regimental records had been in the pinnace, and all went to the bottom of the river. All of the Officers' Mess silver was lost for good, except for a silver snuff box which was being used at the time by the Adjutant. The Regiment reached Dinapore on 1st October 1842.