Historical Record of the Fifty-Third, or the Shropshire Regiment of Foot by Richard Cannon

Author:Richard Cannon [Cannon, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Nonfiction, Historical, Fiction, Literary, History
ISBN: 4064066135133
Google: 07GxDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 37039929
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2019-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

"I have only to report upon Her Majesty's FIFTY-THIRD, a young regiment, but veterans in daring gallantry and regularity; and Lieut.-Colonel Phillips's bravery and coolness attracted the attention of myself and every staff-officer I sent to him."

The casualties of the regiment were limited to three men killed and eight wounded.

Although the Sikh army was much disheartened at the sight of the numerous bodies which floated from the battle-field to the bridge of boats at Sobraon, yet in a few days they appeared as confident as ever of being able to retain their entrenched position, and to prevent the passage of the river.

On the 3rd of February the regiment marched from Aliwal, and joined the head-quarters of the Army of the Sutlej on the 8th of that month.

The heavy ordnance having arrived, the Commander-in-Chief resolved to storm the formidable entrenchments of the Sikhs at Sobraon, and finally expel them from the territory they had invaded. This was an undertaking of some magnitude. It was ascertained that the entrenchments were defended by thirty thousand of their bravest troops; besides being united by a good bridge to a reserve on the opposite bank of the river, on which was stationed a considerable camp, with artillery, which commanded and flanked their field-works on the British side of the Sutlej.

On the 10th of February the FIFTY-THIRD formed part of the attacking division, on the extreme left of the army, under the command of Major-General Sir Robert Dick. It had been intended that the cannonade should have commenced at daybreak, but the heavy mist, which hung over the field and river, rendered it necessary to delay operations until the sun's rays had cleared the atmosphere. Meanwhile, on the margin of the Sutlej, two brigades of Major-General Sir Robert Dick's division, under his personal command, stood ready to commence the assault against the extreme right of the Sikhs. His seventh brigade, in which was the tenth foot, reinforced by the FIFTY-THIRD regiment, and led by Brigadier Stacy, was to head the attack, supported at two hundred yards distance by the sixth brigade under Brigadier Wilkinson.

The part the FIFTY-THIRD sustained in the conflict cannot be better expressed than in the words of the despatch of the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Hugh Gough:—

"At nine o'clock, Brigadier Stacy's brigade, supported on either flank by Captains Horseford's and Fordyce's batteries, and Lieut.-Colonel Lane's troop of horse artillery, moved to the attack in admirable order. The infantry and guns aided each other correlatively. The former marched steadily on in line, which they halted only to correct when necessary. The latter took up successive positions at the gallop, until at length they were within three hundred yards of the heavy batteries of the Sikhs; but notwithstanding the regularity and coolness, and scientific character of this assault, which Brigadier Wilkinson well supported, so hot was the fire of cannon, musketry, and zumboorucks kept up by the Khalsa troops, that it seemed for some moments impossible that the entrenchments could be won under it; but soon

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