The Commander-in-Chief in India, General Sir Hugh Gough, sent immediate orders for the Umballa division of the army, which had lately been considerably increased in strength, to be pushed on towards the invaded frontier.
Previous to its march, this force had been formed into divisions and brigades. The first brigade of the first division was composed of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, and two regiments of Native infantry, viz., the twenty-fourth and forty-seventh regiments. The first division was commanded by Major-General Sir Henry Smith; Colonel Bolton, C.B., of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, was appointed Brigadier to command the first brigade. Lieut.-Colonel Byrne, the next senior officer, assumed the command of the regiment. Captain Garvock was appointed Brigade-Major to the first brigade, and Captain Lugard, Assistant-Adjutant-General to the first division.
It being of the utmost importance to aid the division of the army in the defence of Ferozepore, a fort on the left bank of the Sutlej, where the British Government had large magazines containing munitions of war, a park of artillery, military stores, and equipments for the field army, which protected the frontier, it was necessary to push on the Umballa division, with all possible speed, by rapid and forced marches, towards the point near which the Sikhs, after having crossed the Sutlej, were assembled in large force, emboldened by numbers, and their army composed of well-disciplined troops, with a numerous and well-appointed artillery. This army had been instructed and trained in European tactics and discipline by French and Italian officers; it was confident in its own strength and in the powerful aid of its formidable artillery.
It was evidently the object of the enemy to prevent the junction of the Umballa division with the Ferozepore field force, to cut off the latter division, and to capture the fort and magazines of Ferozepore, before the Umballa division could arrive at the scene of action. The enemy hoped also to have a rich booty in the plunder of the large town of Ferozepore. The Sikhs knew and calculated the distance the Umballa troops had to march before they could reach the vicinity of Ferozepore, one hundred and fifty miles, and the nature of the country through which they had to march; but they did not calculate on the energy, patient endurance of hardships, and privation, which the British soldier would cheerfully undergo, when he knew, that his brave and heroic Commander-in-Chief was leading him in person against the foe, who had dared to invade the British possessions.
On the 10th of December the THIRTY-FIRST received the order to march, and the morning of the 12th saw the regiment leave Umballa, mustering 30 officers and 844 men.
After long and harassing marches of twenty-five to thirty miles a day, the severe nature of which it is impossible to describe, the regiment arrived at the village of Moodkee about two o’clock in the afternoon of the 18th of December, having on that day performed a march of not less than twenty-five miles: some idea may be formed of the sufferings which the men endured from fatigue on this eventful day, when it is known that at the last halt, about two miles from Moodkee, scarcely fifty men were left with the colours; and for miles to the rear they might be seen staggering forward through the soft sand in an exhausted state from want of water and rest.
The soldiers were in the act of pitching their tents, and had eaten nothing, when the alarm was given that the enemy was close upon them in force. The THIRTY-FIRST rushed to arms, and forming the right of the first brigade of the first division, under Major-General Sir Henry Smith, formed in quarter-distance column, left in front, advanced two or three miles, deployed on the grenadier company, and so continued the line formed by the regiments on their right.
The THIRTY-FIRST were now on ploughed land in front of a thick jungle of thorny bushes, and moving forward under a heavy fire of round and grape-shot, entered the jungle, through which it was impossible to move in anything like a correct line, and beyond which the Sikhs were formed. It was here that the gallant Colonel Bolton received his death-wound;—his last emphatic words to the men were, “Steady, THIRTY-FIRST, and fire low,”—when man and horse came down together; but he did not allow himself to be removed from the field until the action was over. The regiment now found itself in front of a battery of fourteen or fifteen guns. By this time the men were falling quickly under severe discharges of grape from the guns, a few yards only distant, which were also protected by a battalion of infantry, from which withering volleys were sent into the ranks of the THIRTY-FIRST, who, however, returned it with interest, and the intrepid valour of the men bore down all opposition. One continued fire from the regiment laid low nearly the whole of the enemy’s artillery-men opposed to its part of the line, while the bayonet disposed of such of the remainder of the foe as had not time to save themselves by flight. The opposition of the Sikhs was desperate; but nothing could resist the bravery of the British troops, who drove them from one position after another with great slaughter: all their advanced guns remained in the hands of the British.