The regiment marched to Castlebar, in the county of Mayo, on the 30th and 31st of March, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 9th of April, detaching two companies to Westport, under a field-officer; one company to Foxford, sending a subaltern and eighteen rank and file to Ballaghadareen, and one company to Dunmore. On the 2nd of May, two companies proceeded, per route, to Ballinrobe. The distinction of wearing a white or grenadier feather, which the FIFTH regiment had proudly won for itself, having become extinct by the regulations of the 10th of February of this year (1829), which directed a white feather to be worn by the whole of the infantry of the army, rifle regiments and light infantry excepted, the commanding officer (Lieutenant-Colonel Sutherland) lost no time in applying, through General Sir Henry Johnson, Bart., G.C.B., the Colonel of the regiment, for an equivalent; this was graciously conceded by his Majesty, George the Fourth, and the distinction of wearing a feather different from the rest of the army, was continued to the corps in the following handsome terms in a letter from Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert Taylor, G.C.H., Adjutant-General of the Forces. "_Horse Guards, July 11, 1829._ "Sir, "I have had the honour to receive and lay before the General Commanding-in-Chief your letter of the 6th of May last, with its enclosures, representing the anxiety felt by the officers and men of the FIFTH regiment, of which you are Colonel, to be allowed some distinction, as an equivalent for that which the regiment has lost in consequence of the regulations of the 10th of February last, prescribing a white feather to be worn by the whole of the infantry of the army, rifle regiments and light infantry excepted. "On this occasion, Lord Hill commands me to say, that his Lordship enters fully into the feelings of the FIFTH regiment, and adverting to the gallantry of the exploits which obtained for that corps its original distinction, his Lordship has been pleased to submit to His Majesty, that the FIFTH regiment shall, in future, wear a feather half red and half white, the red uppermost, instead of the plain white feather worn by the rest of the army, as a peculiar mark of honour, whereby its former services will still be commemorated, and a perpetual incitement be afforded to a continuance of its good conduct. "I have, &c. (Signed) "H. TAYLOR, Adj.-Gen. "General Sir H. Johnson, Bart., G.C.B. "&c. &c." [Sidenote: 1830]