D. Maclise, R.A.] [From the Original
Sketch in the South
Kensington Museum.
CHARLES DICKENS, 1812–1870.
WITH HIS WIFE AND WIFE’S SISTER.
While the events recorded in these chapters were enacting, those books were appearing in rapid succession which have made Dickens’s name a household word. Dickens was born at Portsmouth, where his father held an appointment in the Navy Pay Office. In early life he learned by experience what poverty meant; but his earliest writings, the “Sketches by Boz” (1836), brought him immediate celebrity. The “Pickwick Papers” appeared in 1837, then in succession, “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “The Old Curiosity Shop,” and “Barnaby Rudge.” “David Copperfield” appeared in 1850, and “Edwin Drood” was in course of publication (1870) when its author died. He is buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Meantime, General Whish was carrying on the siege of Mooltan with an army of 32,000 men and 150 guns. It is impossible to speak too highly of the splendid defence made by the Sikhs under Moolraj. |Siege and Fall of Mooltan.| By December 29 the British siege guns were bombarding the city walls at eighty yards range. On the 30th the principal magazine in the citadel blew up with a terrific explosion, and the town was in flames. Still the brave garrison fought on. The bombardment continued without intermission for fifty hours. On January 2, 1849, the town, or the wreck of what had once been a town, was taken by assault; but the citadel still held out. From the 4th to the 18th it was incessantly bombarded, and mines were exploded at intervals under the walls, till at last, on the 21st, two wide breaches had been made, and a general assault was ordered for the following day. Moolraj anticipated this by unconditional surrender. His garrison, less than 4,000 men, marched into the British lines to lay down their arms; the last man to leave the fort, in the heroic defence of which he had won undying glory, was Moolraj, dressed in gorgeous silks, splendidly armed, riding a superb Arab with a scarlet saddle-cloth.
T. Phillips, R.A.] [In the National
Portrait Gallery.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN,
1786–1847.
Entered the Navy in 1801, and was present at the Battles of Copenhagen and Trafalgar. He conducted several Expeditions to the Arctic regions. In March 1845 he sailed in command of the Erebus and Terror in search of the “North-West Passage.” Nothing was heard of them for years, but in 1859 the Fox, fitted out by Lady Franklin and commanded by Sir Leopold McClintock, found relics, now in Greenwich Hospital, which left no doubt of the total loss of the ships and all lives.
After the fall of Mooltan General Whish joined forces with Lord Gough, who, as described above, had driven the enemy from their encampment at Ramnuggur on November 22. It was believed that the rebellion was broken, and that the Sikhs would not again meet our army in the field. But our generals had still to learn the extraordinary resolution and resources of this fine race. Chuttur Singh and his son Shere Singh still commanded nearly 40,000 men with sixty-two guns, and had captured Attock, a fort defended by Major Herbert. |Battles of Chilianwalla and Goojerat.| Gough advanced to attack the chiefs on January 13, 1849, in their position on the Upper Jhelum near the village of Chilianwalla, a name of melancholy associations in British annals. The Sikhs, indeed, withdrew, but they carried with them four British guns and five stand of colours. The British loss was terrible, amounting to twenty-six officers and 731 men killed, and sixty-six officers and 1,446 men wounded. Lord Gough was blamed for bad generalship in this action: he was recalled from his command, and Sir Charles Napier was appointed in his place. But fortune was kind to a brave soldier. Before the orders from home could reach him, Gough, having followed the enemy, retrieved the disaster of Chilianwalla by inflicting on Shere Singh a crushing defeat at Goojerat on February 21, pursuing him into the Khoree Pass. On March 6 Shere Singh surrendered unconditionally, and on the 29th a proclamation was issued by the Governor-General permanently annexing the Punjab to the British Empire.