Up to this time he had seen no active service, but in 1843 his was the one European regiment in the small force with which Sir Charles Napier won the battle of Miani (Meanee) (17 February), and it bore the brunt of that action, in which two thousand men defeated thirty-five thousand. The battalion was about five hundred-strong, nearly all Irishmen, like their Colonel and their General. "The noble soldier, Pennefather" (as Napier described him), fell wounded mortally, it was thought, on the top of the bank that bordered the river-bed and formed the crest of the Baluchis' position. He was made a C.B., and received the thanks of Parliament.