The first battalion landed in February, 1809, at Ramsgate, and after a halt of a few days at Margate, was ordered to Steyning, in Sussex, where it was fully equipped and completed to upwards of one thousand rank and file, and embarked in July following at Portsmouth, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pratt, to form part of the expedition under the Earl of Chatham designed to effect the destruction of the enemy's shipping and arsenal on the Scheldt. During the siege of _Flushing_, on the Island of Walcheren, the first battalion of the FIFTH was very actively employed, and although bivouacked without tents during the whole time (with the exception of one week that it was in garrison in Flushing, after its surrender) had very few sick; but on being embarked to proceed up the Scheldt for the projected attack upon Antwerp, the Walcheren fever broke out in its ranks with dreadful violence, attacking about six hundred men. In the active operations it lost one captain (Talbot) killed, and Captain M. Hamilton and Lieutenant Galbraith were wounded, the former losing a leg: its loss from disease was much more severe, for before its return to England, in December following, two captains (Philips and William Hamilton), and three lieutenants (Brown, MacDonough, and Cary) and many men had been carried off by the fever. On its return to England, the battalion was stationed at Bexhill. In the mean time a detachment of the regiment left in Portugal, when the first battalion advanced into Spain, had been added to a battalion of detachments under Lieutenant-Colonel Copson of the FIFTH, and warmly engaged at the battle of _Talavera_, on the 27th and 28th of July, for which Lieutenant-Colonel Copson received a medal. The second battalion had been removed from Fermoy, in April of this year, to Coloony in the King's County, and from thence in June to Cork, and, embarking at Cove, landed on the 4th of July at Lisbon; and on the 3rd of August marched, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable Henry King, to join the army in the field under Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, and take its share in the subsequent operations of the campaign. About the end of September it was reinforced by nearly one hundred men of the first battalion, who had been left behind as before stated, and it passed the winter in quarters near the Portuguese frontiers. [Sidenote: 1810]