Colonel Campbell's Advance—Provisions required—Camp Followers—Samana—The Doabs—Gooroo Govind—The Akalees, their quoits—Sikhs attack Ahmed Shah—Maha Singh—Maharattas—General Thomas—Runjeet Singh—Holcar—Sir Charles Metcalfe—Ochterlony's Proclamation—The Akalees routed—Generals Allard and Ventura—Treaty with Runjeet—Runjeet's Army—Runjeet's Death—Shere Singh Murdered—Dhuleep Singh—Ajean Khan—Battle of Moodkee.
In the meanwhile the force under Colonel Campbell was rapidly advancing to the scene of action. It was as we have stated, nearly 3,000 strong, and attended by about 10,000 or 11,000 camp followers, so that we were in all 13,000 or 14,000 assembled in camp, besides numerous elephants, camels, bullocks, horses, ponies, &c. I will here remark for what purposes camp followers are allowed. Every officer, according to his rank, will have from ten to twenty or twenty-five servants; the Bengal officers and others have more than those of Madras and Bombay; but the latter servants cost as much as the Bengalese. If a polki (or palanquin) be kept, then six bearers well be required; for every horse two servants, namely a groom and a grass-cutter;[4] for every elephant, two; for camels, one to every three is the usual number; for every two bullocks, one servant is allowed. Besides these there is a host of tent pitchers, store Lascars, etc.
Let us next consider the quantity of provisions required for our force; calculating the 9th Lancers at 800 horses (including officers' chargers,) the consumption of gram, a kind of vetch, daily would be, 800 × 5 = 4,000 seers, or 8,000 lbs. = 71 cwt. 48 lbs. The reader may hence form some idea of the quantity of corn required for 3,000 or 4,000 cavalry horses, or including horse artillery, waggon and private horses, say 5,000, and there would be a consumption of about 440 or 450 cwt. of gram daily. Then each elephant consumes 30 lbs. of atta (flour) cakes;[5] each camel public and private is allowed 6 lbs. of gram, and a bullock 5 or 6 lbs. daily. The elephant likewise gets forage, such as the leaves of trees; and if he can meet with the branch of a tree he is all the happier, for with it he gracefully fans away the flies from himself or his driver: the poor animal suffers greatly from the mosquito bite. The Mahāwat, or elephant-keeper puts the rice in a whisp of rice straw, making a kind of bowl for the food, which is boiled. The camels, too, get bhoosa, or split straw, when it can be procured, otherwise the leaves of trees: they prefer those of the Imlee, Peepul, Babool, and Burh (fig-tree). The bullocks eat bhoosa or karbi, the stalk of Joar or Bajra (the Holcus Sorgum and Spicatus). If we calculate the quantity of grain consumed in an army of 10,000, 30,000, or 40,000 men, the result will be enormous, and we can only marvel where such supplies are obtained.
The Duke of Wellington[6] when in India, often marched with 30,000, or 40,000 bullock-loads of grain, or 600,000, or 800,000 lbs. or 53,571, or 71,428 cwt. His grace's plan was never to open these grain bags so long as he could get supplies from the villages.
Let the reader imagine an Indian army of 20,000 men with its 60,000, 70,000, or even 80,000 camp followers, all of whom must be fed daily. Again, the number of hackeries, or carts, with an army of 20,000 or 25,000 men, varies from 700, to 12,000 or more, (for much depends upon whether there is a siege train), drawn by two, three, or four bullocks each, carrying shot, shells, and stores, and moving at the rate of two miles an hour, the whole line of march from the old to the new ground. Allowing 10 doolies, or light palanquins, for every European troop or company, for the conveyance of the sick or wounded men, there would be 80 required for the 9th Lancers, and as each dooly needs 6 bearers we had 480 bearers in our corps alone. In a European infantry regiment of 10 companies there will be 10 × 10 = 100; 100 × 6 = 600 bearers. A native corps is allowed only one for a troop or company, but some extra ones accompany the field hospital. Now such an army would have at least 5,000 dooly bearers, besides those which are required for luxurious officers, who have been seen, though, I am happy to say, rarely, to ride in palanquins.
The English waggon train establishment is said not to be good. A veterinary surgeon has published a work on the use of a light cart, with cross seats on springs; but before it can be generally adopted, the roads must be improved. In the Affghan war they used Kajawahs, that is a frame-work on each side of the camel, for two men.
On the 23rd of December, our force marched to Samana, a large old town, now completely in ruins, in the province of Delhi. It is in the Rajah of Pattiala's country, and is about seventeen miles distant from Pattiala, and seventy miles from Kurnaul. It was a very fatiguing march; the road during the last few miles being bad, rough and sandy; this greatly impeded the elephants who dragged the guns, and our progress was very slow; so slow indeed that at six o'clock in the afternoon the men had not dined. In cantonments one o'clock is the usual hour, but in marching to meet an enemy the dinner hour is uncertain. Yesterday and to-day we were obliged to breakfast upon what chance threw in our way.