fullest extent; and I did so, accordingly, in the battle of Goojerat."
The discomfiture of the enemy was thorough. Cavalry, infantry,
and artillery left the field in utter confusion. The rout was too
complete to allow of the reunion of formed bodies in anything
like order. A body of Sikh horse with a brigade of Afghan cavalry
adventured an advance on Thackwell's flank. He hurled against them
the Scinde Horse and the Ninth Lancers, and a wild stampede resulted.
The rest of the British cavalry struck in and rushed on, dispersing,
riding over, and trampling down the Sikh infantry, capturing guns
and waggons, and converting the discomfited enemy into a shapeless
mass of fugitives. The horsemen did not draw rein until they had
ridden fifteen miles beyond Goojerat, by which time the army of
Shere Singh was a wreck, deprived of its camp, its standards, and
fifty-three of its cherished guns. On the morning after the battle
Sir Walter Gilbert started in pursuit of the broken Sikh host, while
Campbell took out his division in the direction of Dowlutanuggur,
but the latter was recalled on the 25th. On March 6th, however, he
received the order to join Gilbert's force in room of Brigadier
Mountain who had been injured by the accidental discharge of his
pistol. On the road to Rawul Pindi on the 15th he passed the greater
part of the Sikh army with its chiefs, who were laying down their
arms. Campbell was moved by the fine attitude of the men of the
Khalsa army. "There was," he wrote, "nothing cringing in the manner
of these men in laying down their arms. They acknowledged themselves
beaten, and they were starving--destitute alike of food and money.
Each man as he laid down his arms received a rupee to enable him to
support himself while on his way to his home. The greater number of
the old men especially, when laying down their arms, made a deep
reverence or salaam as they placed their swords on the heap, with the
muttered words 'Runjeet Singh is dead to-day!' This was said with
deep feeling; they are undoubtedly a fine and brave people." On the
21st Gilbert and Campbell reached Peshawur, and the latter encamped
near the fort of Jumrood at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, through
which the Afghans, whom Dost Mahomed had sent into the Punjaub to
reinforce the Sikhs in their warfare with the British forces, had
retreated very shortly before. The campaign was at an end; and early
in April Colin Campbell took command of the Sind Sagur District
with his headquarters at Rawul Pindi. There he shared a house with
his friend Mansfield, who in the time of the Mutiny was to be his
Chief-of-Staff. In July there occurred an event which called for all
his firmness and discretion. Two native infantry regiments stationed
at Rawul Pindi refused to accept the cantonment scale of pay, which
was lower than they had been receiving when on campaign. Evidence
was clear that the combination to resist the cantonment scale had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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