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 But Baird- Smith was not destined to spend his life making ditches. He saw service at Aliwal and Sobraon (1846), and at Chilianwalla and Gujerat (1848). In 1855 he returned to Madras to visit the chief irrigation works of the Presidency.

In 1857 Baird-Smith was at Roorkee, where, by his prompt action and quick foresight, he saved that station from an outbreak. In the last week of June he was directed to proceed to Delhi, which at that time had fallen into the hands of the mutineers. Barnard, who was in command, decided to make an attack upon the town. Lord Roberts writes thus of Baird-Smith: 'On the morning of the day on which it had been arranged that the assault should be made, the staff at Delhi received a most valuable addition in the person of Lieutenant-Colonel Baird-Smith of the Bengal Engineers. Summoned from Roorkee to take the place of the chief engineer, whose health had broken down, Baird-Smith was within sixty miles of Delhi on July 2, when the news of the intended movement reached him. He started at once and arrived in camp early on the 3rd, but only to find that the assault had been postponed.' The post-ponement was a wise decision. The engineers and artillery were weak and unequal to the task. Baird-Smith set about strengthening them at once. Soon after his arrival Barnard died of cholera, and the command eventually devolved upon Sir Archdale Wilson. Wilson had very little hope of taking the town, but, as Lord Roberts says : 'Fortunately for the continuance of our rule in India, Wilson had about him men who understood, as he was unable to do, the impossibility of our remaining any longer as we were. They knew that either Delhi must be taken or the army before it be withdrawn. The man to whom the commander looked for counsel under these conditions Baird-Smith of the Bengal Engineers proved