Six Battles for India: Anglo-Sikh Wars, 1845-46 and 1848-49 (Conflicts of Empire) by George Bruce

Author:George Bruce [Bruce, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-11-07T22:00:00+00:00

The 53rd Regiment of infantry now followed up the cavalry to seize the village — brilliant masses of scarlet in the burning sun, against the sepia of the mud walls. Black smoke swirled in the narrow streets, bayonet and tulwar clashed, men and horses screamed, until with a roar of frenzied triumph, the sweating well-disciplined ranks of the 53rd emerged with the village of Bhundri in their hands. Major Lawrenson’s Horse Artillery now dashed among the flying Sikh infantry and blasted them with grape.

Then came a setback. About a thousand Sikhs hidden in the hollow of a ravine just outside the village, suddenly opened a heavy fire with their long matchlocks and mowed down the British. ‘Here our regiment suffered most,’ Tom Pierce noted. ‘Now we longed for some cavalry to cut them up.’ They were scattered eventually, by a flanking charge of the 30th Native Infantry, ordered by Smith himself. ‘This native corps nobly obeyed my orders,’ he reported, ‘and rushed among the Avitabile troops, driving them from under the bank and exposing them once more to a deadly fire of twelve guns within three hundred yards. The destruction was very great… from guns served as these were.’

The whole Sikh force, completely hemmed in, were now running away to the ford by their camp, throwing themselves in disorderly masses into the water and the boats, the eight-inch British howitzers firing shell that burst among them murderously. The Sikh artillery commander had unlimbered nine guns to cover his retreat by the ford, but the gunners fired them once only before they were cut down or ran off; two more were stuck in the mud, two were seen to sink in the quicksands and two were dragged across. What Smith called the ‘debris’ of the Sikh army tried to form a line upon the opposite and higher bank of the Sutlej, but they were scattered after the first salvo from some twenty British guns lashed them with shrapnel. The gunners then fired over the water in their direction for another two hours to stop the Sikhs regrouping.

So ended the battle of Aliwal, at 5.20 in the evening. The Sikhs lost sixty-seven guns, their tented camp, their supplies, animals and three thousand men. British losses were one hundred and fifty-one killed, four hundred and thirteen wounded and twenty-five missing, a total of five hundred and eighty. The 16th Lancers, whose intrepid charges against guns and well-trained Sikh infantry did so much to help win the day, suffered most, with fifty-nine killed — more than a third of the total — and eighty-three wounded.

Gough at Sobraon, some fifty miles west, first knew of the battle through the sound of the cannonade. An officer who was with him recalled asking what he thought of it. ‘Think of it!’ the white-haired old General replied. ‘Why, that ’tis the most glorious thing I ever heard. I know by the sound of the guns that Smith has carried the position and silenced their artillery.’

When the news of Smith’s win came through, Gough was said to be nearly ‘frantic with joy’.

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