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[[Category:British Army]]
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[[Image:Wiltshir.gif|right]]
== Introduction ==
This history of the Wiltshire Regiment (62nd Foot) is largely extracted from 'The Story of The Wiltshire Regiment ' by Colonel N.C.E. Kenrick, D.S.O. (1963). It has for the most part been extracted verbatim, with some sections taken out for the sake of brevity. It focuses only on that period when the regiment was in India.
In June 1830, the 62nd sailed to India. Lieutenant-Colonel John Reed disembarked at Madras in September with three Companies, and camped at Marmalong Bridge outside the City, before marching to [[Bangalore]], where the rest of the Regiment joined them in November.
At eight o'clock on the morning of 21st December Littler's Division marched. The 62nd, in full kit, red coats and stocks, numbered just under 600, including many convalescents from cholera and fever just out of hospital. By 12.30 p.m. they had covered the twelve miles without incident, and joined the other British force about five miles South-west of Ferozeshah. General Gough's total force was now about 18,000 with sixty-three guns, mostly of small calibre, and a preponderance of native troops. The exact position of the enemy was not discovered until three in the afternoon, when they were found strongly entrenched around Ferozeshah village. This Sikh force was the one commanded by Lal Singh; reinforced since fighting at Moodkee, it now totalled over 30,000 men with more than 100 guns, many of large calibre. Tej Singh, with at least an equivalent force, was still encamped some ten miles away near the Sutlej. The village of Ferozeshah lay behind a high embankment, along which the Sikhs were positioned. In front of them the ground was flat and completely open for 300 yards, then came brushwood and jungle through which the British advanced to the attack at four in the afternoon.
[[Category:British Army Infantry Regiments]]
