Memoir of the Services of the Bengal Artillery: From the Formation of the Corps to the Present Time, with Some Account of Its Internal OrganizationBuckle, E. (Edmond)
History
Memoir of the Services of the Bengal Artillery: From the Formation of the Corps to the Present Time, with Some Account of Its Internal Organization
Buckle, E. (Edmond)
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947; India -- History, Military; India. Army. Bengal Artillery
Seventy-six brass and 86 iron guns, 20 tumbrils, with two lacs of rupees
and ammunition, &c. were captured; among them was the celebrated great
gun of Agra, which lay on the banks of the Jumna until some twenty years
afterwards it was broken up and sold, an attempt to carry it down the
Jumna having failed, as also a fine brass 72–pounder, now in the barrack
square at Dum-Dum.
General Lake wrote:—“I attribute the early surrender of Agra to the
great impression our breaching battery made on the walls, which opened
yesterday within 350 yards, and which would have caused a practicable
breach in a few hours more battering.
“To Colonel Horsford, of the artillery, * * * as well as to every
officer of the * * * corps, I feel myself under great obligations for
their unremitted exertions on this occasion, and to which I principally
attribute my early success against this place.”
Twenty-four lacs of rupees of prize-money were on this occasion divided
among the troops, in accordance with the principle of the General Order
1st November, 1803, above quoted.
On the 27th October the army marched from Agra, and on the 31st (having
previously left their baggage and heavy guns under a guard at Futtypoor
Sicoree) had nearly come up with the Mahrattas. In the evening, General
Lake moved on again with the cavalry, directing the infantry to follow
at three o’clock next morning, and after a march of twenty-five miles
overtook the Mahrattas at sunrise, near Laswaree, amounting to about
9,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, with 72 guns. As they appeared to be
in some confusion, he was tempted to make an attack at once, without
waiting for the artillery and infantry.
The enemy retarded this movement by cutting a bund and flooding the
road, and availed themselves of the time gained to form their line, the
right resting on Laswaree and the left on Mohalpoor, the front covered
by the guns, and, as at Delhi, the country around covered with long
grass. The cavalry charged boldly through the guns several times, the
gunners falling down as they passed and reopening on their return, while
the infantry plied them with musketry from behind an intrenchment formed
of the baggage-hackeries: the guns could not be secured from want of
infantry.
The loss having been great, and the men and horses much fatigued, the
cavalry were withdrawn to wait the arrival of the infantry, the enemy
having been effectually stopped and crippled. By noon the infantry
reached the banks of the nullah, but some slight rest was necessary
after a march of twenty-five miles; and as the enemy offered to
surrender their guns on certain terms, a favourable answer was returned,
though preparations were made for renewing the attack when the
stipulated time should expire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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