Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/97

Rh from the batteries with grape and canister at 300 yards was tremendous. The Sikh guns were well served, and vigorously defended to the last. For me, therefore, who have commanded Portuguese troops, I can fairly say that they would not have behaved better than our Sepoys did, and as the list of killed and wounded will prove. The batteries were carried by our brave British infantry. Sir J. Littler told me H. M.'s 62nd gave way when almost in the battery, but what is the fact? One hundred and eighty-five men were killed and wounded in ten minutes by grape and canister, and can he or any other officer be surprised that boys who never before heard a ball whistle should turn back? Their officers were nearly annihilated, and I maintain, and shall on the first occasion tell that regiment, they nobly did their duty.

'The people under my immediate command carried the battery and camp; and we were pushing through in the midst of their tents when by the explosion of some powder or tumbrils the tents and forage caught fire, and we were obliged almost in the dark to take up ground on the edge of the burning camp. Here I insisted on every man lying down and not talking. On the left, Littler having failed by the 62nd Queen's giving way, he retired a short distance, and we could not find him. On my right I was joined in about an hour by the Commander-in-Chief. Firing was heard on our right, which we supposed to be the reserve under Sir Harry Smith, and on our left, which we supposed to be Littler. Thus the left centre