The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred yearsBlackwood, Robert Melvin
History
The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred years
Blackwood, Robert Melvin
Battles -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
In person, the infantry soldiers are tall and thin, with good features
and full beards; their superior height is owing to the extraordinary
length of their lower limbs. They are capable of enduring the fatigue
of long marches for several days in succession (the author having on
one occasion marched with his regiment a distance of 300 miles within
twelve days), and are, generally speaking, so hardy that exposure to
oppressive heats or heavy rains has little effect upon them. In a great
measure this is the result of custom. Excepting in the vicinity of
Lahore and Peshawur, there are few regular quarters or cantonments; the
men occupy small tents or caravanserais.
The drum and fife and bugle are in general use in the Sikh infantry
regiments, and in some of the favourite royal corps of Runjeet Singh an
attempt was made to introduce a band of music, but a graft of European
melody upon Punjaubee discord did not produce, as may be imagined, a
very harmonious result.
The cavalry of the Sikh army is very inferior in every respect to the
infantry. While the latter are carefully picked from large bodies of
candidates for service, the former are composed of men of all sorts and
sizes and ages, who get appointed solely through the interests of the
different sirdars. They are mean-looking, ill-dressed, and, as already
stated, wretchedly mounted. Their horse trappings are of leather of the
worst quality, and their saddles are of the same miserable material,
and badly constructed. When the horse is in motion, the legs and arms
of the rider wave backwards and forwards, right and left, by way, as
it were, of keeping time with the pace of the animal bestridden. The
horses are small, meagre, and ill-shaped, with the aquiline nose which
so peculiarly proclaims inferiority of breed. In the field, the conduct
of the Sikh cavalry has generally corresponded with their appearance
and efficiency. They are totally deficient of firmness in the hour of
struggle, and only charge the foe when a vast superiority of numerical
force gives them a sort of warranty of success.”
Undeceived touching the supposed weakness of the Sikh army, Sir Henry
Hardinge, in conjunction with his gallant superior in command, Sir
Hugh Gough, concentrated his troops, called for reinforcements from
the interior, added largely to his commissariate--and what in Eastern
warfare is altogether indispensable, largely increased his beasts of
burden and means of transport. Then taking a central position, he
waited calmly and prudently until the Sikh designs should be more
clearly developed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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