BATTLE HONOURS FOR SERVICES IN INDIA, 1843
Scinde—Meeanee—Hyderabad—Maharajpore—Punniar.
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Scinde, 1843.
This distinction was accorded to the Cheshire Regiment for its services in Scinde—services which brought to the regiment the two battle honours "Meeanee" and "Hyderabad." The distinction has not been conferred on the Bombay native regiments which fought side by side with the Cheshires in the brilliant and hardly-contested campaign on the banks of the Indus.
Meeanee, February 17, 1843.
This battle honour, which commemorates the victory gained by the army commanded by General Sir Charles Napier over the Amirs of Scinde, is borne by the following regiments:
Cheshires.
34th Poona Horse.
35th Scinde Horse.
36th Jacob's Horse.
2nd Queen's Own Sappers and Miners.
112th Infantry.
125th Outram's Rifles.
The hostilities with the Amirs of Scinde were the direct but inevitable result of the first Afghan War. With some difficulty we had succeeded in obtaining the consent of some of the Amirs to the passage of the Bombay column of the army of Afghanistan through their country; but the people themselves were very averse to this concession. It was laying them open to future annexation, as they wisely conjectured. The passage of our convoys through their territories was an irresistible attraction to Baluch marauders, and, not content with robbery, they cut up stragglers with impunity. Then we demanded satisfaction, and finally the Amirs undertook to enter into a treaty, by which they were compelled to pay the cost of a force which we maintained in Scinde for the purpose of safeguarding our lines of communication. Our reverses in Afghanistan, as well as the defeat they themselves inflicted on our troops in the neighbourhood of Kahun, and one or two other regrettable incidents, led the Amirs to underrate our strength. They not only neglected to keep up the payments for the army of occupation, but they consistently violated the treaty in every possible way. Frequent attacks were made on parties of troops, and it was evident either that the Amirs would not, or could not keep their people in order.
Sir Charles Napier was despatched to Hyderabad to compel respect to the treaty. The Amirs retaliated by attacking the Residency. Fortunately, a small vessel belonging to the Indian Marine was lying in the Indus, some few miles from the Residency, and Major (afterwards General) Sir James Outram was enabled to beat off his assailants, and to reach the steamer in safety. Napier was a man of action. Knowing that the Amirs were within a few miles of the city, he at once marched to attack them. He calculated their numbers at between 30,000 and 40,000 men, well armed with matchlock and sabres. His own force was just 2,600 men, with twelve guns. This included but one British battalion—the 22nd (Cheshires)—barely 600 men, all armed with the old flintlock Brown Bess—a weapon which, though a more rapid loader than the matchlock, was its inferior in range. The Amirs had taken up a strong position in a large wooded game-preserve, surrounded with a low mud wall. The one entrance Napier closed with a company of the 22nd, and then he assaulted the place, after he had thoroughly shaken the defenders with a searching fire from his twelve guns. The Baluchis fought well, but this happened to be one of the sepoys' fighting days, and, after three hours' hard firing, the Baluchis were driven off in confusion. Estimates vary as to their losses. Napier himself put it at 5,000 killed; others put it as low as 500.