The most notable statement in this letter will be admitted to be that of the second paragraph:—
After the most severe service in the worst weather, this squadron, owing to the unremitting attention of Sir W. Gordon, is almost as efficient as on the day when it left Mhow.
This was no exaggeration. The squadron, for all its hard work, literally brought back every horse with which it had started fit for duty, excepting only those that had been killed or wounded in action; surely a performance of which any officer might well be proud. 1859. The troop-horses, it may be added, were mostly Arabs, and stood the work, by Sir William Gordon’s testimony, remarkably well; and it is worth noting that in the supreme trial of two hundred and thirty miles in six days, several “walers” dropped dead under their riders, one or two Cape horses gave out, but no Arab was ever off his feed. We have already seen how Sir William Gordon took care of his horses, and we may now, by his kindness, catch a glimpse of his method of providing for those of whom he was even more careful—his men.
He writes as follows:—
As a rule we had not much difficulty in getting supplies for men and horses, but occasionally had to resort to force. I remember on one occasion marching into a town called Samrood at 7 A.M. The head-man of the town kissed my feet in the saddle and promised that I should have all supplies at once. I thanked him, but as no supplies came I sent Evelyn Wood into the town with six men about 11 o’clock. They found abundance of everything required for men and horses, but no preparations to let us have what we wanted. So I ordered the head-man three dozen; after which he could not do enough for me, and supplies were plentiful. All was of course paid for; and the occurrence was reported by me to the authorities.
Let us not omit to add that the officer who took such care of his men and horses was himself a perfect horseman, having won the Regimental Challenge Cup within a few months of joining as a cornet; that, as we have seen, he fought the Russians at Balaclava till his head was almost cut to pieces; that at Mungrowlee he killed three men with his own hand, and throughout the Central Indian campaign frequently distinguished himself in personal combats; and that he has characteristically left the present writer to gather these latter details from any source except from himself.
INDIA 1858.
Lastly, it must be remarked that this was the second if not the third campaign of its kind wherein the Seventeenth had been engaged. We saw it within twenty years of its foundation scouring the Carolinas and Virginia under Tarleton and Cornwallis, covering on one occasion one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and traversing by constant forced marches a total distance of fifteen hundred miles. 1859. We found it next in Malwa in 1818 chasing the Pindaris; once making a forced march of thirty miles, and cutting Cheettoo’s bandits to pieces at the end. Finally, forty years later, we follow it to this same Malwa through the mazy pursuit of Tantia Topee. In all three cases these incessant forced marches were accompanied by every hardship that could be inflicted by climate, privation, and fatigue; and whether we follow the Seventeenth in long-skirted scarlet and black helmet under the blazing sun of South Carolina and the drenching rain of the Alleghany slopes; or first in French gray jacket and white shako, and next in blue tunic and pugareed forage cap, through the burning days and bitter nights of the Malwa—in all three cases the story is the same. General Michel in 1858, no less than Lord Cornwallis in 1782, bears eloquent witness to the cheerful spirit and unconquerable patience with which these hardships were endured. Nor does the parallel hold less good of the action at the close of the march. It was when worn out with marching that a troop of the Seventeenth stood alone, after all others had given way, and cut its way through twenty times its number at Cowpens; it was when worn out with marching that a squadron of the Seventeenth charged and dispersed forty times its number at Barode.