lery. As these attacks of the centre and right commenced, the fire of our heavy guns had first to be directed to the right, and then gradually to cease; but, at one time, the thunder of full 120 pieces of ordnance reverberated in this mighty combat through the valley of the Sutlej; and as it was soon seen that the weight of the whole force within the Sikh camp was likely to be thrown upon the two brigades that had passed its trenches, it became necessary to convert into close and serious attacks the demonstrations with skirmishers and artillery of the centre and right; and the battle raged with inconceivable fury from right to left. The Sikhs, even when at particular points their entrenchments were mastered with the bayonet, strove to regain them by the fiercest conflict, sword in hand. Nor was it until the cavalry of the left, under Major-General Sir Joseph Thackwell, had moved forward and ridden through the openings in the entrenchments made by our sappers, in single file, and reformed as they passed them; and the 3rd Dragoons, whom no obstacle usually held formidable by horse appears to check, had on this day, as at Ferozeshah, galloped over and cut down the obstinate defenders of batteries and field-works, and until the full weight of three divisions of infantry, with every field artillery gun which could be sent to their aid, had been cast into the scale, that victory finally declared for the British. The fire of the Sikhs first slackened, and then nearly ceased; and the victors then pressing them on every side, precipitated them in masses over their bridge, and into the Sutlej, which a sudden rise of seven inches had rendered hardly fordable. In their efforts to reach the right bank through the deepened water, they suffered from our horse artillery a terrible carnage. Hundreds fell under this cannonade; hundreds upon hundreds were drowned in attempting the perilous passage. Their awful slaughter, confusion, and dismay were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their generous conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the earlier part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier whom, in the vicissitudes of

attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy. I must pause in this narrative especially to notice the determined hardihood and bravery with which our two battalions of Ghoorkhas, the Sirmoor and Nusseree, met the Sikhs, wherever they were opposed to them. Soldiers, of small stature but indomitable spirit, they vied in ardent courage in the charge with the grenadiers of our own nation, and, armed with the short weapon of their mountains, were a terror to the Sikhs throughout this great combat.

Sixty-seven pieces of cannon, upwards of 200 camel-swivels (zumboorucks), numerous standards, and vast munitions of war, captured by our troops, are the pledges and trophies of our victory. The battle was over by eleven in the morning; and, in the forenoon, I caused our engineers to burn a part and to sink a part of the vaunted bridge of the Khalsa army, across which they had boastfully come once more to defy us, and to threaten India with ruin and devastation.

We have to deplore a loss severe in itself, but certainly not heavy when weighed in the balance against the obstacles overcome and the advantages obtained. I have especially to lament the fall of Major-General Sir Robert Dick, K.C.B., a gallant veteran of the Peninsula and Waterloo campaigns. He survived only until evening the dangerous grape-shot wound which he received close to the enemy's 80th regiment, in their career of noble daring. Major-General Gilbert, to whose gallantry and unceasing exertions I have been so deeply indebted, and whose services have been so eminent throughout this eventful campaign, and Brigadier Stacy, the leader of the brigade most hotly and successfully engaged, both received contusions. They were such as would have caused many men to retire from the field, but they did not interrupt for a moment the efforts of these heroic officers. Brigadier MacLaren, so distinguished in the campaigns in Affghanistan, at Maharajpore, and now again in our conflicts with the Sikhs, has been badly wounded by a ball in the knee. Brigadier Taylor, C.B., one of the most gallant and intelligent officers in the army, to whom I have felt deeply indebted on

SKETCH

ARMY

near Kana Kach.

many occasions, fell in this fight, at the head of his brigade, in close encounter with the enemy, and covered with honourable wounds. Brigadier Penny, of the Nusseree battalion, commanding the 2nd brigade, has been wounded, but not, I trust, severely. I am deprived for the present of the valuable services of Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. Gough, C.B., Acting Quarter-Master-General of Her Majesty's troops, whose aid I have so highly prized in all my campaigns in China and India. He received a wound from a grape-shot, which is severe, but I hope not dangerous. Lieut.Colonel Barr, Acting Adjutant-General of Her Majesty's forces, whose superior merit as a staff-officer I have before recorded, has suffered a compound fracture in the left arm by a ball. It is feared that amputation may become necessary. LieutenantColonels Ryan and Petit, of the 50th Foot, were both badly wounded with that gallant regiment. Captain John Fisher, commandant of the Sirmoor battalion, fell at the head of his valiant little corps, respected and lamented by the whole ariny.

I have now to make the attempt, difficult, nay, impracticable I deem it, of expressing in adequate terms my sense of obligation to those who especially aided me by their talents and self-devotion in the hard-fought field of Sobraon.

First, Right Honourable Sir, you must permit me to speak of yourself. Before the action, I had the satisfaction of submitting to you my plan of attack, and I cannot describe the support which I derived from the circumstance of its having in all its details met your approbation. When a soldier of such sound judgment and experience as your Excellency assured me that my projected operation deserved success, I could not permit myself to doubt that, by the blessing of Divine Providence, the victory would be ours. Nor did your assistance stop here; though suffering severely from the effects of a fall, and unable to mount on horseback without assistance, your uncontrollable desire to see this army once more triumphant carried you into the hottest of the fire, filling all who witnessed your exposure to such peril at once with admiration of the intrepidity that prompted it and anxiety