Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
History
Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846
Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
India -- Description and travel; Sikh War, 1845-1846
When I left India, in 1846, after the decisive battle of Sobraon, it
was the general opinion that not another shot would be fired again in
India for many years to come, whereas, in little more than two years
after, we had, instead of a campaign of two months' duration, that is
from the 18th of December, 1845, to the 10th of February, 1846, an
uninterrupted warfare of ten months' continuance.
To resume our narrative. On the 3rd of January, Colonel Campbell's
force marched for the third time to Wudnee, a distance of seventeen
miles. The fatigue and tedium of marching to and fro, began to be
sensibly felt, and many of our camp followers deserted. Among them was
my _Bihishti_, or water-carrier, who had accompanied me on the march
from Cawnpore. Then, too, there was so much heavy baggage, that instead
of the indispensable refreshment of an ablution at the end of a dusty
march, our officers could not get their towels and soap till a late
hour in the afternoon.
On Sunday, the 4th of January, we marched back to Bhaga Poorana. Here
we experienced a scarcity of water; and what little there was, was very
bad. On the 5th, we marched at a quarter to five, A.M., on Moodkee,
fifteen miles distant.
Here we encamped on the battle-field, which was still covered with
the fragments of soldiers' clothing and appointments, carcases of
camels and horses, and the bodies of friends and enemies, who had been
slaughtered here on the 18th of December. The atmosphere all round was
greatly tainted, which, combined with the horrible sight before us,
made our hearts sick, and our heads faint.
About a month ago, this large village, containing about 4,000
inhabitants, belonged to the Lahore Rajah. It was now in the possession
of the English: the scene before us proclaimed the price at which
it had been bought. But even amid the ruins, the soldier as well as
the Christian, looks forward with hope to the future: the one to the
promotion of his country's glory, the other to the spread of the Gospel
among the heathen.
In the evening, we received an unexpected order to join the "army of
the Sutlej"; our Horse Artillery and Cavalry to proceed together;
the Infantry and Elephant Battery to halt. On the 6th, we made a
forced march of about twenty miles, to Aurufkee. On the road, we saw
several corpses of British and Sikh soldiers, in a state bordering on
decomposition, and plundered of their clothing.
Colonel Campbell[19] having been appointed to a brigade of Cavalry, as
also Colonel Scott, Major and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Fullerton[20]
assumed the command this day, of the Queen's Royal Lancers.
Our camp was pitched at a distance of four miles from the river Sutlej.
On the 8th, I called on Major-General Sir Harry G.W. Smith, K.C.B.,
commanding the first division of the army of the Sutlej, an old brother
rifleman, and friend of my father's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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