At last, on February 8, they received authority to cross the frontier into Nepaul, Jung Bahadoor having given consent to their entering that territory. On the 9th, therefore, they marched at five in the morning and crossed the Raptee. They then moved through about five miles of very dense jungle with very large trees, and passed a mark like a mile-stone, which denoted the boundary of Nepaul. They then went round the spur of the mountains, and debouched on a large plain. They went on some miles farther, when the Brigadier ordered Colonel Hill, with a wing of the Battalion and some native troops, to recross to the right bank of the Raptee, where, at a crossing called Sidka Ghât, the enemy were reported to be in force, with fifteen guns in position.
This force was told off: two companies to proceed along the river’s bank; two under Major Warren to press through the jungle on the left, and to endeavour to intercept the enemy or to fall on their right flank; and the native troops under Major Vaughan to act in a similar manner, but on ground farther removed from the river.
The companies near the river extended in skirmishing order, the right file resting on the river’s bank. After advancing some distance they found themselves in front of a hill, which they were obliged to file round along the water’s edge. This was no easy work, for the ground was very difficult, and interspersed with rocks and great boulders. As they were thus proceeding, on reaching a bend of the river they found themselves in front of the guns of the enemy, who were in a strong position on some rising ground. These guns immediately opened on them with grape, but did little mischief, as the fire flew over their heads, wounding one man only. The Riflemen moved rapidly forward, and as soon as they were clear of the rocks formed and proceeded across the shingle, keeping up a smart fire which did much execution.
But the rebel gunners stood by their guns till the Riflemen were close upon them. Then they bolted and escaped into the jungle, giving the slip to Major Vaughan, whose force had been sent round to intercept them. They left fourteen guns and a mortar in the hands of Hill’s force.
The other wing, with Brigadier Horsford, having given the attacking party twenty minutes’ start, moved on along the plain, keeping the Raptee on the left, till about three in the afternoon, when they entered a dense forest. The ground became hilly and the road bad. At half-past three they made another halt of twenty minutes, and were just falling in when they heard guns open in the front. They pushed forward, and soon came to a very steep hill, which they ran down, and found themselves on the bank of the river, and saw the skirmishers of the other wing entering the jungle on the opposite bank. They were ordered to halt; and after their fight the other wing recrossed the Raptee and joined them, and they then marched to camp, which they found pitched about four miles off, and which they did not reach till seven at night, after one of the hardest day’s work they had ever had. For they had passed through dense and difficult jungle; had scrambled over rough rocks, and had moved over shingly and fatiguing ground; besides marching not less than twenty miles. A non-commissioned officer (Sergeant Braun) was very nearly drowned in crossing the Raptee. He fell twice, but one of the men on the right bank rescued him.
They remained in this camp till the 12th, when it was shifted to the tributary of the Raptee, near a jungle which seemed to be interminable. The rain was very heavy, and the camp-ground became a perfect swamp.
In his despatch reporting this action, Horsford favourably mentions Lieutenant-Colonel Hill, Major Dillon and Lieutenant Fryer.
On the 14th, very sudden orders were received at eleven P.M. for three companies, Captain Fremantle’s, one under the command of Lieutenant Sotheby, and another, to start on an expedition under command of Major Ramsay of the Kumaon Battalion. These companies accordingly paraded at half-past three in the morning; but owing to a delay in the arrival of elephants did not move off till half-past four. They crossed the Raptee five times, and as it was deep and rapid, the men for the purpose of crossing were mounted on elephants. They then marched forward; and at about six arrived at the edge of the jungle and formed up. They went on at a very brisk pace till half-past nine, when they halted for twenty minutes, sending on a spy to bring word if he could see anything of the enemy. Starting again, they marched through a gorge in the hill, and by the side and bed of a mountain stream, till half-past eleven; when, it being suspected that they had missed their way, a Goorka was despatched, who soon returned with the intelligence that they were on a wrong track. They therefore retraced their steps, and soon meeting the spy, were disappointed at hearing from him that the enemy had departed. At one o’clock they came up to the ground they had occupied, and found the ashes of their fires still smouldering. Here the Riflemen bivouacked, no tents having been taken with this detachment; but their rations did not come up till four o’clock. They had marched about sixteen miles over bad ground at a very rapid pace, and were much wearied.
On the 16th they returned to the camp of the Head-quarters, marching at half-past six, and arriving at one.
On the 17th the Battalion, starting at six in the morning, marched back to Sudheeria Ghât, where they camped about half-past eleven.