Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/90

86 Hardinge. Broadfoot, with Cust, the Assistant Political Agent, and myself alone remained. On advancing towards the line of infantry which had deployed, we saw to our dismay a regiment of Native Infantry, not only firing into the air, but some of them firing right and left. Their officers seemed to have no control over them. The men had lost their heads, and I am afraid this was not the only instance; but, as usual, the steady discipline of the Europeans carried the day.

I mention this incident because Sir H. Hardinge alluded to it in a private letter to Lord Ripon: 'The men soon got under arms. We advanced through some jungle, and after a heavy cannonade and file-firing, drove our assailants back at every point, advancing about four miles from our camp and capturing seventeen guns. The darkness of the night, and the risk of the troops firing into each other, which they did, rendered it necessary that the pursuit should not be continued. There can be no doubt that the following reasons may have operated prejudicially upon the Native corps. The troops having been collected from various points, and constantly engaged in marching, had only been brigaded on paper. British and Sepoy regiments who have served together before, ought to be reunited whenever it is possible to do so. The troops, therefore, were not in that state of organisation and formation so essential to discipline and field movements. The brigadiers and their staff were unknown to the men, and the men to the brigadiers, while at Múdkí the confusion of the attack,