The manuscript was placed in my hands by Captain Buckle’s executor, and I undertook to see it safely through the press. The Memoir was brought down by the author to the close of the Afghan war; but during the interval which had elapsed since he laid down the pen, the Sikhs had crossed the Sutlej, and the battles of Moodkhee, Ferozshuhur, Aliwal, and Sobraon had been fought. It seemed desirable that some record of these engagements should be added to the Memoir, and I attempted to supply what was wanting to complete the work. But whilst the sheets containing the annals of this campaign were passing through the press, the second Sikh war broke out, and the further necessity of bringing down the chronicle to the close of that memorable campaign which resulted in the annexation of the Punjab, was imposed upon the editor. Others would have done this more effectively and more expeditiously. My qualifications for the due performance of the work intrusted to me were mainly the cheerfulness with which, both from respect for the memory of the deceased author and affection for the regiment of which I was once a member, I undertook the labours it entailed; and such aptitude as may be supposed to result from a life spent in literary pursuits. For the three last chapters I alone am responsible. I am indebted to others for the information they contain; but if any errors should appear in them, they must be laid to the account of my misuse of the materials placed at my disposal. That, valuable and interesting as are many of the details of this Memoir, it would have been more interesting and more valuable if Captain Buckle had lived to complete it, is no mere conjecture of mine. The marginal pencil notes which appear on the face of the manuscript, indicate the writer’s intention of furnishing fuller information on many important points already touched upon, and of supplying many additional details which in the progress of the work had escaped his notice, but which subsequent inquiries, or, in some instances, the suggestions of friends, had enabled him to introduce, and which would have been introduced had he lived to superintend the passage of his Memoir through the press. It is certain, too, that the details in the concluding chapters would have been more accurate and more complete. I have followed the original manuscript, as far as it went, with scarcely the alteration of a word; and I have endeavoured, in the concluding chapters, as nearly as possible to retain the manner of the original work.