On the evening of December 30 he occupied the village, which he proceeded to strengthen so far as was possible. The want of water was a great drawback, and, as I have said before, the large number of horses within such a confined space impeded the movements of the men. The fight was an exceedingly fierce one. The enemy on more than one occasion obtained an entrance into the village, and were able to seize the temporary hospital. The wounded were cruelly massacred, but a fine charge led by Dr. Wylie enabled Staunton to regain possession of this building. On another occasion during an assault by an overwhelming number of the enemy one of the two guns was lost, but a counter-attack retrieved this loss. For thirty-six hours the little force held its own. Five out of the eight officers were _hors de combat_, only six men were left to work the guns, and the sepoy battalion had lost 150 out of 500 men. On the evening of New Year's Day the fire of the assailants began to slacken, and ere nightfall it had died away. News had reached Sir Lionel Smith of the hard straits of Staunton's force, and he at once moved off to relieve him. The Peishwa's army was in no mood to face a well-organized British army, and it hurriedly withdrew from before Corygaum, leaving Staunton with the consciousness of having placed on record one of the finest feats of arms in the history of the Bombay army. Both Staunton and Dr. Wylie ultimately received the Companionship of the Bath for their services, and a monument was erected at Corygaum to commemorate the fight. CASUALTIES AT THE ACTION OF CORYGAUM, JANUARY 1, 1818. +------------------+-----------+-----------+ | |_Officers._| _Men._ | | _Regiments._ +-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | K. | W. | K. | W. | +------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ |Bombay Art. | 1 | - | 12 | 8 | |Poona Horse | - | 3 | 40 | 24 | |102nd Grenadiers | 1 | 3 | 50 | 105 | +------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ NOWAH, JANUARY 21, 1819. This name is inscribed on the colours of the 94th and 95th Russell's Infantry, and commemorates a little-known episode in the history of our dealings with the peoples of Southern India. A mud fort held by a rebellious chief defied the power alike of the Hyderabad Nizam and the British Resident. It became necessary to bring the recalcitrant chief to reason, and the Resident despatched a portion of the Hyderabad contingent to reduce the fort. Fortunately, the operations were attended with no loss of English life, but a glance at the casualty list shows that the fighting was far more severe than in many actions which are recognized on the colours of better-known regiments than the direct representatives of Russell's brigade. CASUALTIES AT THE SIEGE AND ASSAULT OF NOWAH, JANUARY, 1819.