A party of the FIFTY-THIRD dragged two of the guns forward with ropes up a steep ascent under a sharp fire, and after overcoming the difficulty of a stockade across the path, a few shots were fired at a small gate in the wall, to force it open. A destructive fire was opened from the walls upon the storming party, crowded in a narrow space, waiting for the gate to be forced open and a passage to be made; Major-General Gillespie placed himself at the head of the troops, and while leading the men to the assault, he fell mortally wounded. The attack failed; the storming party retired; and afterwards withdrew from before the fort to await the arrival of a battering train. The FIFTY-THIRD had sixteen men killed and seventy-five wounded. The battering train having arrived from Delhi, the siege was resumed by the troops under Colonel Mawby, and on the 27th of November the flank companies of the FIFTY-THIRD, with one battalion company of the regiment, and the grenadiers of the native corps, stormed the breach under the orders of Major William Ingleby of the FIFTY-THIRD. A numerous body of mountaineers defended the breach with desperate resolution. Major Ingleby was wounded, and withdrew, leaving the storming party under Captain Coultman. Lieutenant Harrington and a few men of the FIFTY-THIRD ascended the breach, but were instantly killed. The storming party proving not sufficiently numerous to capture the place, the remaining companies of the regiment were ordered forward, and the attack was repeated, but without success: the approach to the breach proved very difficult, and the defenders numerous and desperate; after a severe loss had been sustained, the storming party was ordered to retire. Lieutenant Harrington and twenty men of the regiment were killed on this occasion; Major Ingleby, Captain Stone, Lieutenants Horsley, Green, and Brodie, Ensign Aufrere, twelve serjeants, three drummers, and one hundred and eighty-four rank and file wounded. The battery resumed its fire to widen the breach; but further loss was prevented by the garrison evacuating the fort, and retreating and forcing their way through the besieging corps. From Kalunga the division moved along a ridge of mountains towards _Nahn_; the enemy evacuating the fortifications as the British approached, and retiring to another ridge of mountains of much greater elevation. On the 27th of December the flank companies of the regiment were engaged in driving back the enemy's outposts, in order to make lodgments for besieging some fortified places on the Jampta heights, and had one serjeant and eight rank and file killed. [Sidenote: 1815]