They were serving in Bihar in May 1857, when the Dinapore Brigade mutinied. Rattray's were the only troops loyal to the British, apart from the 10th Foot (later the Lincolnshire Regiment), between Calcutta and Benares. They were taken into the Bengal Line as the 45th in 1864.

After the Battle

Although there was a fort at Malakand, many of the men were in camps outside. When the alarm sounded McRae and Major Taylor ran out with some Sikhs and engaged in a fight in a narrow defile in which Taylor was killed. This action prevented the enemy from encircling the camp and cutting it off from the fort. They held the right of the position against repeated day and night attacks between 26th and 30th July. Having had very little sleep they were required to make a desperate bayonet charge during the storm-laden night of 30th which scattered the tribesmen. It was all over by that time and reinforcements arrived the next day.

Chakdara Fort

Soon after their arrival there was a mass attack that was beaten off. Small groups of suicidal tribesmen continued to rush at the fort after this, convinced that dying in this way would give them a place in paradise. The fighting continued like this, mass attacks coming and going and continuous sniping, for three days and nights, but the enemy never managed to get in. Apart from the sepoys and sowars in Chakdara itself, there was a detachment of 16 men of the 45th led by Lance-Naik Vir Singh in a blockhouse tower located on a spur of one of the mountains 500 yards from the fort. The blockhouse was used as a signalling post so that Chakdara could keep in contact with Malakand using heliograph. As it turned out, signalling proved to be almost impossible as the heliograph needs to be operated out in the open, in this case, exposed to sniper-fire. But the men had to remain there as it was the only chance for Rattray and his men to have any kind of contact with the outside world. One message was received by the sentries at Malakand on 1st August; it simply said "Help us." This message was bravely sent by Sepoy Prem Singh. Luckily the blockhouse was easily defendable, even when the enemy tried to set fire to it but it depended on the fort for supplies, and shortage of water was a big problem for 16 men at the hieght of summer. Towards the end of the 7 day siege the tribesmen were reinforced by more and more men so that, whereas the garrison was outnumbered about 8-1 on the 26th, by the 1st August they were outnumbered 50-1. Another outpost situated between the fort and the blockhouse was used as a hospital, but abandoned since the attacks began. This was occupied now by the tribesmen thus cutting of any supplies reaching the signallers. The final and most unnerving part of the siege occured at daybreak on the 2nd August when a mass attack of between 10,000 and 14,000 tribesmen bore down on the fort in a last ditch effort to overcome the defenders. This battle lasted two desperate hours until they were literally saved by the cavalry, the main force of the 11th Bengal Lancers arrived and the Swatis fled. The final act of the drama was the extraction of the tribesmen inside the hospital mostly with the use of the bayonet. Rattray led this foray and was wounded in the neck by a bullet, but he killed the man who shot him with his sword. The battle at Chakdara must surely go down in history as one of the bravest fights carried out by any unit anywhere in the world.