We subjoin here a complete list of the honours conferred on the artillery:—
To be A.D.C. to the Queen:—Lieut.-Col. Gowan, C.B.
To be Lieut.-Cols.:—Majors F. Brind, G. Campbell, H. M. Lawrence, C. Grant, and G. S. Lawrenson.
To be Majors:—Captains H. Garbett, R. Horsford, E. F. Day, G. H. Swinley, J. Fordyce, W. S. Pillans, F. Boileau, R. Waller, and E. Christie.
To be Companions of the Bath:—Lieut.-Cols. Biddulph, Brooke, Denniss, Huthwaite, Geddes, Alexander, Lane, Lawrence, and Lawrenson.
Immediately after this action, the British army crossed the Sutlej, and marched upon Lahore. Indeed, the firing had scarcely ceased, when the Governor-General despatched a staff officer to Khoondah ghaut, directing Sir John Littler to commence the passage of the river at that point. Captain Garbett’s troop of horse-artillery and two native infantry regiments were ferried across the Sutlej, and thus, both banks being in possession of the British army, an excellent bridge of boats was thrown across, and the passage of the river was effected without opposition. Thus closed the first Sikh war—one of the most memorable and glorious in the annals of our eastern empire. Upon the history of the subsequent treaties, this memoir need not enter. In April, 1846, the greater part of the army returned to India, leaving a strong body of troops to occupy Lahore.
CHAPTER XI.
Kote Kangra—Use of Elephant-draught—Interval of Peace—Reassembling of the Army—Mooltan—Ramnuggur—Chillianwallah—Fall of Mooltan—Goojrat—Close of the Sikh War—Honours to the Artillery—Medals—Concluding Remarks.
In accordance with the treaties entered into with the Sikh government, the Jullundur Doab, and the hill country immediately bordering upon it, became a portion of the British territory. Within the latter stood the celebrated fortress of Kote Kangra, the killedar of which refused to deliver up possession of the place to the British authorities, declaring that, unless the Maharajah Runjeet Singh himself appeared before the gates, he would not surrender the keys. “The fort of Kangra is one of those which is strong from its position: it is built near the conflux of the Bub Gunja with the Beeas; and is bounded, for the most part, by precipices nearly perpendicular; and where the declivities are less formidable, the aid of masonry has been had recourse to, so as to render the place, in the opinion of Vigne, impregnable under European engineers. * * * The occupants of the fort were believed to amount to about 500, principally Akalis, and their guns were said to be ten in number.”[[105]]
It now, of course, became necessary to reduce this fortress to subjection. Accordingly, a force, under Colonel Wheeler, was sent against it. It consisted of the 2nd, 11th, 41st, and 44th native infantry, with a wing of the 63rd, and a siege-train composed of three 18–pounder guns, two 8–inch howitzers, and six mortars, under Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, with Captain Swinley’s troop (3rd troop 1st brigade), and Captain Fitzgerald’s (2nd company 7th battalion), and Captain Christie’s (4th company 6th battalion) batteries. The march was one of the most arduous character. It seemed impossible that heavy guns could be transported up the precipitous defiles which led to the fort. “With our heavy guns,” writes an officer of the force, “we had to cross the river Gooj no less than fifty-six times between the Beeas and Kote Kangra; and the last day we crossed it, rain having fallen on the hills, it swelled to a roaring torrent. Frequently the guns got completely fixed between enormous boulders of rock, so as to defy all the ingenuity both of artillery officers and engineers; when the united strength of men, horses, and bullocks, aided by two elephants dragging had failed, one fine old mukhna (a male elephant, with tusks like a female) was always called for. Coming forward with an air of pitying superiority—his look seeming to express clearly, ‘What! can’t you do it without me?’ he would look carefully at the gun in every direction, and when he had found the point where his power could be best applied, he put his head to it, and gave it a push, as if to weigh the opposition; then followed another mightier push; and if that did not suffice, a third, given with tremendous force, almost invariably raised the gun out of its fixed position, and sent it on. He would then retire with the air of Coriolanus, when he said to Aufidius, ‘Alone I did it!’—a more valuable ally than Coriolanus, because he said nothing, and was always willing.” Such, indeed, were the difficulties of the march, that the enemy, believing that our heavy ordnance could never be brought under the walls of the fort, determined to hold out. The same opinion of the impracticability of the road was entertained by many of our own officers. “The brigadier,” says the writer above quoted—Colonel Jack, of the 30th native infantry—“was recommended to leave his 18–pounders on the other side of the river Beeas; he, however, determined to take them on as far as possible, and, by extraordinary management and exertion, he succeeded in taking them all the way. They turned out, as the Europeans quaintly remarked, to be the really influential politicals.”