The loss of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment at the battle of Ferozeshah, on the 21st and 22nd of December, amounted to two officers killed and six wounded.
| Serjeants. | Rank and File. | |
| Killed, | 2 | 57 |
| Wounded, | 4 | 92 |
The following officers were killed or wounded on this occasion:—
| Killed. | Wounded. |
| Lieut. Pollard. | Major Baldwin, mortally. |
| Lieut. & Adj. Bernard. | Lieut. T. Plasket, severely. |
| ” A. Pilkington, ” | |
| Ensign Paul, slightly. | |
| ” Hutton, ” |
Captain Garvock, Major of Brigade, had his horse shot under him in the advance to charge the enemy’s batteries.
On the 21st of December, Lieutenant Bolton was appointed to carry orders from the Governor-General to Major-General Sir Henry Smith, and was transferred from the twenty-first Fusiliers to the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, to which he was appointed adjutant shortly afterwards.
Lieutenant Pollard, a promising officer, was wounded at Moodkee; but being a high-spirited young man, he would not remain behind, when his regiment went into action at Ferozeshah, although suffering from his wound, and advised to remain in his tent by the medical officers. He went into action on horseback; his wound being in the foot, he was unable to walk. At the desire of Sir Henry Smith he was employed as second adjutant to convey the orders of his commanding officer, Major Spence, who was so hoarse from a severe cold which he had caught at the battle of Moodkee, that he could not make himself sufficiently heard by the men; in the performance of this duty this gallant young officer nobly fell.
“The field after the retreat of the enemy was literally covered with dead,—they had abandoned large stores of grain, military stores, camp-equipage, and ammunition. The loss of the British army was very heavy; being opposed to a highly disciplined and organized army more than treble their number, with a field of artillery of battering calibre, admirably served, which kept up an incessant and destructive fire on the British troops: justifying the remark of an officer, who had been in all Napoleon’s great battles, that he never saw such devastation committed by artillery at any battle in Europe. What other army in the world would, under such circumstances, have, within thirty hours, stormed an entrenched camp, fought a general action, and sustained two considerable combats with the enemy? Within four days it dislodged from their positions 60,000 Sikh soldiers supported by 150 pieces of artillery, 108 of which the enemy acknowledged to have lost, and 91 of which fell into our hands.”
Another account of the action states:—
“The right wing was commanded by the Commander-in-Chief in person; the left by the Governor-General. As our troops deployed into line, and prepared for an advance, a tremendous fire from upwards of one hundred pieces of artillery, 40 of them of battering size, was opened by the enemy. The right wing, under Sir Hugh Gough, threw themselves with matchless gallantry on the guns, and wrested them from the enemy, when the storm of shot from the Sikh infantry behind became so fearful, that a portion only of the intrenchments could be carried, when darkness put an end to the conflict.