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Originally Posted by Andreas
The French also had a colony near Assam, Chandernagore (today Chandannagar)
in West Bengal. Andreas
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Thanks for the info and lead Andreas.
Chandannagar was returned to the French in 1816 by the British. The Assam Rifles (then the Cuttack Legion) were raised in 1817 in Cuttack of Orissa (now Odisha) state, which is some 321 miles from Chandannagar, which doesn't sound a lot by today's travels, but back then it was some considerable distance to travel over some very inhospitable terrain. The Cuttack Legion did have a cavalry detachment at that point, but surely they would have used British Patterns?
They spent nearly a year marching from Cuttack to Brahmaputra river and were based in Rangpur (274 odd miles from Chandannar) and they were then called the Rangpur Local Battalion (later Rangpur Light Infantry), which were involved in the first Burma War 1823-1826 about an 870 mile trek
In 1827 it became the Assam rifles and had an increase in company level to twelve, two of which were 'Gurkha'.
From 1829 to 1832 they were fighting in Jorhat some 760 miles from Chandannagar, and from 1834 to 1835 they were fighting the Singpho tribe and so on.
So how did a French Light Cavalry troopers sword made from 1802 to 1819 come to be used by Officers of the Assam Rifles?