Soon after this, Lieutenant Edwardes’ force was joined by Lieutenant Lake, and other British officers. On the 1st of July was fought the battle of Suddoosam, where Dewan Moolraj, in spite of the assurances of his soothsayers that it would be an auspicious day to him, was again completely beaten, and driven up to the very walls of his capital. In this battle fell a gallant soldier, Captain Macpherson, in the service of the Nawab of Bhawulpoor, under Lieutenant Lake. The next day a serious accident happened to Lieutenant Edwardes. His pistol exploded as he was putting it into his belt, and the ball passing through his right hand, deprived him for ever of the use of it. His sufferings were great till the arrival of Dr Cole, a young and excellent English surgeon, who won the affection of all the wounded natives he attended. The four chief leaders in these actions received the thanks of the Governor in Council, and all the credit they so fully deserved; nor was a brave Irishman, Mr Quin, who volunteered to serve under Lieutenant Edwardes, and rendered him most efficient aid, overlooked.
There can be little doubt that, from the ill-defended condition of Mooltan, these successes might have been followed up by the capture of the city itself, had the victorious army been allowed at once to attack it; but the higher authorities decided otherwise, and Lieutenant Edwardes’ force was directed to wait for the arrival of a regular army to commence the siege.
Moolraj, consequently, was allowed time to complete the defences of Mooltan, which he rendered very formidable.
No sooner had Sir Frederick Currie, the resident at Lahore, received information that Moolraj had shut himself up in Mooltan, than he despatched General Whish, with a train of heavy siege-guns, to invest it. Meantime the fort was surrounded and closely invested by the troops under Lieutenant Edwardes and the Nawab of Bhawulpoor, and had thus at their command the revenues and resources of the whole district. Lieutenant Edwardes was now joined by Lieutenant Lumsden and a young lad, Hugo James, who had come out to seek for a cadetship—a gallant boy. As he had come out to learn the art of fighting, his chief afforded him every opportunity of doing so, and “used to give him a few hundred men to take into any ugly place that wanted stopping up.”
Steamers had found their way up the mighty Indus into the Chenab, and two of their officers, Captain Christopher and Mr McLawrin, frequently joined their mess. The steamers were employed in capturing the boats, and otherwise harassing the enemy. The English leader had a great cause of anxiety from the approach of a large Sikh force, under Rajah Sher Singh, whose fidelity he had every reason to doubt. The Sikhs advanced, however, and encamped before the city, and Moolraj lost no time in endeavouring to corrupt both their leaders and common soldiers. With the latter he succeeded but too well, as the sequel will show. Meantime, Moolraj was actively recruiting, and numbers from the Sikh country flocked to his standard. Thus matters went on till the arrival of General Whish, under whom the right column of the British army encamped at Seetul-Ke-Maree, on the 18th of August 1848. Moolraj, hearing of his approach, resolved to attempt surprising him before he reached the city. Accordingly, on the night of the 16th, he sent out a strong force, accompanied by artillery horses ready harnessed, to bring away the guns they expected to capture. Now it happened that on that very day Lieutenant Edwardes, not wishing to have the Sikh force between him and General Whish, had exchanged positions with it, and both armies, according to custom, had in the evening fired a feu de joie on the occasion, prolonged by General Courtlandt’s gunners in honour of their approaching friends. This heavy cannonade put the British camp on the qui vive, and the General ordered all the tents to be struck, and the troops to get under arms, in case it should be necessary to march to Mooltan, and assist in the supposed engagement with the enemy. Scarcely had this been done than the rebel detachment reached the British camp; and instead of finding all plunged in sleep, except the usual sentries, they were received with such a rattling fire, that, after fruitlessly assailing the pickets, they fled in confusion, as many as possible mounting the artillery horses, which they had brought for so different a purpose. In the affair the British had only six men and two horses wounded, and none killed; while the enemy lost forty killed, many more wounded, and some taken prisoners. It is one of the numberless examples to be brought forward of the importance of being on the alert in the neighbourhood of an enemy. How disastrous might have been the consequences had General Whish’s army not been aroused and prepared for an enemy on that occasion!
Moolraj made every attempt to destroy his enemies; and contriving to send three traitors into the camp of the irregulars, who got employed as cooks, Lieutenant Edwardes, Lake, Lumsden, Courtlandt, Hugo James, and Cole, who were dining together, were very nearly all poisoned. The wretches were shaved, flogged, and turned out of the camp, when they fled to Mooltan as fast as their legs could carry them.
Siege of Mooltan.
And now the avenging army arrived before Mooltan. General Whish’s headquarters were with the right column; the left was under Brigadier Salter, and arrived on the 19th August 1848; while the heavy siege-guns, under Major Napier, with the sappers and miners, commanded by Captain H. Siddons, did not reach headquarters till the 4th of September. The European regiment attached to each column came as far as practicable by water. The irregular force under Edwardes and Lake being encamped a distance of six miles from that of General Whish, it was necessary to move it closer up to the latter, to prevent the enemy’s cavalry from passing between them. The very position taken up, it was found, was within gunshot of Mooltan; but as it was an important one to hold, Lieutenant Edwardes resolved to keep it. It was not obtained without some fighting, where Lake and Pollock greatly distinguished themselves. Hugo James and Captain Wilmot Christopher accompanied Lieutenant Edwardes into the field, and greatly assisted him in carrying orders. The latter rode about with a long sea-telescope under his arm, just as composedly as if he had been on the deck of his own vessel. Encamping within shot of the enemy’s walls is unheard of in regular warfare; and the irregulars soon found it anything but pleasant. One Sunday, during the service held by the Chief for the benefit of all the Christians under him, the little congregation was disturbed by about twenty shot falling round the tents in the space of a very few minutes; and when at length one found its billet, and smashed a man’s thigh at the door, a general rush was made to the guns, and the whole strength of the artillery bent upon the Bloody Bastion until its fire was silenced.
On another occasion, Major Napier had one night gone over to visit Edwardes. They were sipping tea and breathing the cool night air, while Lake, exhausted with his day’s work, was fast asleep in his bed, under the same awning as themselves, when, the rebel gunners seeming to awake, one shot buried itself hissing in the sand by Napier’s side, and then another passed close by his friend.
A third fell at the head of Lake’s bed, and his servant immediately got up, and with great carefulness turned his bed round. Lake gave a yawn, and asked sleepily, “What’s the matter?”