PERSIA.--HOW THE SQUARE WAS BROKEN.
Among our little wars of the last century that with Persia must not be
passed over here, inasmuch as it was the means of three distinguished
British officers winning the V.C. These were Captain John Wood, of the
Bombay Native Infantry, and Lieutenants A. T. Moore and J. G. Malcolmson,
of the Bombay Light Cavalry.
The war originated in the persistent ill-treatment of British residents
at Teheran, and in the insults offered to our Minister at the Persian
Court, Mr. Murray. No apologies being forthcoming, diplomatic relations
were broken off early in 1856. In November of the same year, after
fruitless attempts had been made to patch up the quarrel, Persia revealed
the reason for her hostility by violating her treaty and capturing Herat,
and war was declared.
Herat from time immemorial had been subject to Afghanistan, and as, from
its position on the high road from India to Persia, it formed the key of
Afghanistan, it was long coveted by the Shah. He laid violent hands upon
it in 1838, but the British Government made him withdraw. This second
insolent defiance of our warnings could not be borne with equanimity; a
force comprising two British and three native regiments was despatched
from India to read the Persian monarch a lesson. Sir James Outram
commanded the expedition. The capture of Bushire was the first success
scored by the British troops, and it was in the attack on this coast town
in the Persian Gulf that Captain Wood gained his Cross.
At the head of a grenadier company Wood made a rush for the fort. Persian
soldiers were in force behind the parapet, and a hot rifle-fire was
poured into the advancing infantry, but under the inspiration of their
leader they held bravely on. The captain was the first to mount the wall,
where his tall figure instantly became a target for the enemy. A score of
rifles were levelled at him, and some six or seven bullets found their
mark in his body.
Badly wounded as he was, Wood jumped down into the midst of the enemy,
killing their leader and striking terror into the hearts of the rest.
This desperate charge, completed by his men, who had quickly swarmed up
the parapet after him, carried the day. The fort was surrendered with
little more opposition.
The feat of arms, however, which led to Lieutenants Moore and Malcolmson
being decorated, was of even greater brilliancy. To Moore belongs the
almost unique distinction of having broken a square.
It was at Khoosh-ab that his act of heroism took place. Near this
village, some way inland behind Bushire, the Persians were massed about
eight thousand strong. Outram’s little army had made a successful advance
into the interior and routed the Persian troops with considerable loss
on their side, and was now making its way back to the coast. Surprise
attacks at night had been frequent, but this was the first attempt to
make a determined stand against our troops.
It was by a singular irony of fate that in this war we should have had
to fight against soldiers trained in the art of war by British officers.
But so it was. After Sir John Malcolm’s mission to Persia in 1810, the
Shah set to work to remodel his army among other institutions, and
British officers were borrowed for the purpose of bringing it to a state
of efficiency. The soldiers who gave battle to our troops at Khoosh-ab,
therefore, on February 8th, 1857, were not raw levies. But, for all that,
when it came to a pitched battle the Persians showed great pusillanimity.
At the charges of the Bengal Cavalry their horsemen scattered like chaff
before the wind.
Most of the infantry, too, fled when Forbes’ turbaned sowars of the 3rd
Bengals and Poonah Horse rode down upon them, as panic-stricken as the
cavalry. But there was one regiment that, to its honour, stood firm. In
proper square formation they awaited the onset of the charge, the front
rank kneeling with fixed bayonets, and those behind firing in volleys.
With his colonel by his side, Lieutenant Moore led his troop of the
Bengals when the order was given to charge, but Forbes having been hit
the young officer found himself alone. He had doubtless read of Arnold
Winkelried’s brave deed at Sempach, when “in arms the Austrian phalanx
stood,” but whether this was in his mind or not he resolved on a bold
course. He would “break the square.”
As he neared the front rank of gleaming steel, above which, through the
curls of smoke, appeared the dark bearded faces of the Persians, Moore
pulled his charger’s head straight, drove in his spurs, and leapt sheer
on to the raised bayonets. The splendid animal fell dead within the
square, pinning its rider beneath its body; but the lieutenant was up and
on his feet in an instant, while through the gap he had made the sowars
charged after him.
In his fall Moore had the misfortune to break his sword, and he was
now called on to defend himself with but a few inches of steel and a
revolver. Seeing his predicament, the Persians closed round him, eager
to avenge their defeat on the man who had broken their square. Against
these odds he must inevitably have gone under had not help been suddenly
forthcoming.
Luckily for him, his brother-officer, Lieutenant Malcolmson, saw his
danger. Spurring his horse, he dashed through the throng of Persians to
his comrade’s aid, laying a man low with each sweep of his long sword.
Then, bidding Moore grip a stirrup, he clove a way free for both of them
out of the press. What is certainly a remarkable fact is that neither of
the two received so much as a scratch.
Malcolmson’s plucky rescue was noted for recognition when the proper time
came, and in due course he and Moore received their V.C.’s together. The
former died a few years ago, but Moore is still with us, a Major-General
and a C.B.