We come now to the crowning action of Sobraon. It was on the night of the 7th of February that the long-expected siege-train arrived from Delhi, with four companies of foot-artillery, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wood. The Commander-in-Chief, overjoyed by this accession to his strength, determined upon the immediate attack of the enemy’s intrenched position. But short time was allowed to the artillery to prepare ammunition for the heavy ordnance. On the 8th, the artillery, which had been detached with Sir Harry Smith, rejoined head-quarters: on the 9th, the plan of operations was sketched out for the following day. A little before midnight the heavy ordnance moved out of camp to the advanced position of Rodawallah, there to be joined by Brigadier Ashburnham’s brigade of infantry, to which was added the 62nd foot, which, owing to some mistake, did not reach that post till near gun-fire. The following account of the Sikh intrenchments and of the plan of attack is taken from the Calcutta Review:—
“The Sikhs had taken up one of the falsest positions possible; viz. with their rear resting on the Sutlej; yet, by dint of much labour, some foreign science, and the ingenuity natural to a military people, they contrived to convert it into one of the strongest fortifications against which troops were ever led;—being nothing less than a series of vast semicircular intrenchments, the outer one of which was two miles and a half from end to end, and three quarters of a mile in depth; the whole surrounded by a deep ditch and ‘bristling’ with sixty-seven pieces of artillery. A bridge of boats united this formidable camp to another on the opposite bank of the Sutlej; where also were planted some heavy guns, whose range swept easily across the river.
“Sir Hugh Gough’s plan of attack was as follows:—The heavy guns were to commence operations by a cannonade upon the intrenchment, into which, crowded as it was with upwards of 30,000 men, their fire was expected to carry confusion and dismay. Sir Robert Dick’s division, on the extreme left of the British line, was then to advance and storm the right, or western corner of the Sikh position; General Gilbert’s division on the centre, and Sir H. Smith’s division on the right, were simultaneously to make false attacks, with the view of diverting the enemy’s attention from the real attack of Sir Robert Dick. Brigadier Cureton, with a brigade of cavalry and a troop of horse-artillery, was directed to threaten the ford of Huríkí Puttun, about a mile distant from the eastern corner of the intrenchment, on the opposite bank of which the enemy’s cavalry were posted.
“Agreeably to this plan, at about 7 o’clock A.M., the artillery opened; the fog rolled off as it were a curtain, and the surprised Khalsa at once heard and saw that the avenger had come upon them. In an instant the Sikh drums beat to arms; and many rounds had not been fired from the British guns before an answering thunder from the intrenchment told that the works were manned and the struggle had begun.”
Owing to the delay above mentioned, it was not until a little after sunrise that the heavy guns were placed in position. Opposite the enemy’s centre was a mortar-battery, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wood. On the prolongation of the right flank of the enemy’s intrenchment, at a distance of 1,300 yards, were placed three batteries of heavy ordnance—six 18–pounders under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrenson—six 10–inch howitzers under Brigadier Dennis—and eight 8–inch howitzers under Lieutenant-Colonel Huthwaite. Further to the left of these batteries, and slightly in advance, were the rockets, under Lieutenant-Colonel Geddes; Brigadiers Biddulph and Brooke superintended these batteries; the first on the right, the second on the left. The attack was commenced by Major Grant’s howitzer-troop. The surprise was most complete. The Sikh position, which up to this time had been wrapped in profound silence, now became a scene of uproar and commotion. Their drums beat to arms; and they began to busy themselves in preparations for the engagement. The 12–pounder reamers, manned by the men of the 5th troop 1st brigade, under the command of Captain Day, were the next to open. These, after a short interval, were followed by the heavy batteries. Then, to use the words of the Commander-in-Chief’s despatch, “The whole of our artillery fire was developed. It was most spirited and well directed. I cannot speak in terms too high of the judicious disposition of the guns, their admirable practice, or the activity with which the cannonade was sustained; but notwithstanding the formidable calibre of our iron guns, mortars, and howitzers, and the admirable way in which they were served, and aided by a rocket battery, it would have been visionary to expect that they could, within any limited time, silence the fire of seventy pieces behind well-constructed batteries of earth, plank, and fascines, or dislodge troops covered either by redoubts or epaulements, or within a treble line of trenches.”
As already mentioned, but a short time had been allowed for the preparation of ammunition for the heavy guns; to this and to the great distance at which they were posted from the enemy’s works, is to be attributed their inability to silence the Sikh fire. But the practice both of guns and rockets was considered highly effective. It had been proposed by the commanding officers of artillery, to place the guns in battery nearer the enemy’s intrenchments; and had this been done, some satisfactory results might have been obtained.[[103]] But the Commander-in-Chief was unwilling to hazard the delay which the formation of the necessary parapets would have occasioned. Hence, at the time when Sir Robert Dick, who was on the extreme left, was ordered to advance to the attack, the ammunition of the heavy guns had been well nigh expended.
“The attack,” says the writer in the Calcutta Review, “was led by Brigadier Stacy with her Majesty’s 10th and 53rd regiments, and the 43rd and 59th native infantry, supported on the flanks by Captains Horsford’s and Fordyce’s batteries, and Lieutenant-Colonel Lane’s troop of horse-artillery. Beyond all comparison this was the finest attack of the campaign. The artillery galloped up and delivered their fire within 300 yards of the enemy’s batteries, and the infantry charged home with the bayonet, and carried the outworks without firing a single round.”—“a forbearance,” says the Governor-General, “much to be commended, and most worthy of constant imitation.” As it was the finest attack, so also did it meet with the most determined hand-to-hand resistance which the Khalsa soldiers had yet opposed to the British. Like lightning, the real plan of the attack seemed to flash on the minds of all the desperate men in that intrenchment; and, disregarding the distant feints of Gilbert’s and Smith’s divisions on their left and centre, they rushed to the right to repel the real danger that was upon them. In vain, Stacy’s brigade tries to withstand the mass which every moment is growing denser; in vain, Wilkinson’s brigade comes up to the support; in vain, Ashburnham’s reserve swells the furious tide of the assault. It was like the meeting of two mighty rivers, one swifter and one deeper than the other;—and as the swifter for a moment penetrates its duller neighbour’s stream, then, yielding to the overpowering waters, is rolled back and swept away; so would the conquered trenches of the Sikhs have been wrested again from the brave division of the British, had not Sir Hugh, with the intuitive quickness of a general’s eye, marked the crisis and the struggle, foreseen its issue, and ordered up Gilbert’s and Smith’s divisions to the rescue. They advanced; the enemy beheld it, and, returning tumultuously to the posts they had abandoned, poured upon these new enemies, from every foot of the intrenchment, a destructive fire of grape, round shot, and musketry. In spite, however, of a loss, unprecedented in so short a time,—Sir H. Smith’s division losing 489, and General Gilbert’s 685 men, in about half an hour, these two indomitable divisions persevered in storming what proved to be the strongest part of the enemy’s position; and the intrenchment being thus carried by the British at three different points, the gunners, who drew their swords when they could no longer fire, were bayoneted beside the guns they had so murderously served,—while the cavalry and infantry, driven from three sides into a confused and disordered mass, but fighting to the last, were inch by inch forced to retreat where alone retreat was possible. Preferring death to surrender, they recklessly plunged into the river. The bridge, of which they were so proud, and to which they had so confidently trusted, broke down under the first party of flying horsemen, and became impassable; while the Sutlej, having risen seven inches in the night, had flooded the ford. “In their efforts to reach the right bank,” says the graphic narrative of the Commander-in-Chief, “through the deepened water, they suffered from our horse-artillery a terrible carnage.[[104]] 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.” “Sixty-seven pieces of cannon, upwards of 200 camel swivels, numerous standards, and vast munitions of war,” were left in possession of the victors.
The loss of artillery in this action was not very severe; Lieutenant Faithfull, of the 1st troop 2nd brigade, was killed by a cannon-shot. Major Grant was wounded in the arm. The total of killed and wounded in the different troops and batteries, was (killed), 1 European officer, 3 rank-and-file, 3 syces, and 17 horses; (wounded), 1 European officer, 1 sergeant, 33 rank-and-file, 5 lascars, 5 syces, and 23 horses.
The following officers were especially named by the Commander-in-Chief:—Brigadiers Gowan, Biddulph, Brooke, Denniss; Captain Christie, deputy assistant adjutant-general; Captains Pillans and Warner, commissaries of ordnance; Lieutenant Maxwell, deputy assistant quartermaster-general; Captains Austin, Mackenzie, and Lieutenant Kaye, brigade majors; Lieutenant-Colonels Wood, Huthwaite, Geddes, Alexander, and Lane; Majors Lawrenson, Grant, Brind, and Campbell; Captains Day, Turton, Swinley, Fordyce, Horsford, Waller, and Lieutenant Holland.
It should be mentioned in this place, that, on the death of Major Broadfoot, the political agent on the north-western frontier, Major H. M. Lawrence, of the artillery, then political agent at Catmandoo, was summoned from Nepaul to take charge of our relations with the Punjab, and to execute the congenial policy of the Governor-General. The summons was responded to with remarkable despatch, and, within a fortnight from its receipt, he had joined the camp of the Governor-General. He was present at the battle of Sobraon.