Camps, Quarters, and Casual PlacesForbes, Archibald
History
Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places
Forbes, Archibald
Military camps; Military history, Modern
blood in him, turns round in the saddle, shouts "Charge!" and bids the
pipers to strike up. Wild and shrill bursts over that Indian plain the
rude notes of the Northern music. But louder yet, drowning them and the
roll of the artillery, rings out that Highland war-cry that has so
often presaged victory to British arms. The Ross-shire men are in and
over the guns ere the gunners have time to drop their lint-stocks and
ramming-rods; they fall with bayonets at the charge upon the supporting
infantry, and the supporting infantry go down where they huddle
together, lacking the opportunity to break and run away in time. But
the battle rages all day, and the white soldiers, as they fight their
way slowly forward, hear the bursts of military music that greet the
Nana as he moves from place to place, _not_ in the immediate front.
Barrow and his handful of cavalry volunteers crash into the thick of
them with the informal order to his men, "Give point, lads; damn cuts
and guards." Young Havelock, mounted by the side of the gallant and
ill-fated Stirling trudging forward on foot, brings the 64th on at the
double against the great 24-pounder on the Cawnpore road that is
vomiting grape at point-blank range. The night falls and the battle
ceases, but among the wearied fighting men there is none of the elation
of victory; for through the ranks, after the going down of the sun, had
throbbed the bruit, originating no one knew where, that the women and
children in Cawnpore had been butchered on the afternoon of the day
before, while Stephenson and his Fusiliers were carrying the bridge of
the Pandoo Nuddee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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