EMPLOYMENT IN THE PUNJAUB AS SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE CORPS
OF GUIDES, AND ALSO AS ASSISTANT TO THE RESIDENT AT LAHORE.
_From October, 1847, during the Campaign of 1848-9, to the Annexation
of the Punjaub in March, 1849._
CAMP, KUSSOOR, _Nov. 15th, 1847_.
I almost forget the many events that have happened since I
wrote last. I believe I was "at home" in my snug little
cottage in Subathoo, and now I am in a high queer-looking
native house among the ruins of this old stronghold of the
Pathans; with orders "to make a good road from Lahore to the
Sutlej, distance forty miles," in as brief a space as
possible. On the willing-to-be-generally-useful principle
this is all very well, and one gets used to turning one's
hand to everything, but certainly (but for "circumstances
over which I had no control") I always labored under the
impression that I knew nothing at all about the matter.
However, Colonel Lawrence walked into my room promiscuously
one morning, and said, "Oh, Hodson, we have agreed that you
must take in hand the road to Ferozepoor,--you can start in
a day or two;" and _here I am_. Well, I have galloped across
the country hither and thither, and peered into distances
with telescopes, and inquired curiously into abstruse (and
obtuse) angles, rattled Gunter's chains, and consulted
compasses and theodolites, till I have an idea of a road
that will astonish the natives not a little. Last night I
was up half the night, looking out for fires which I had
ordered to be lighted in sundry places along the line of the
Sutlej at a fixed hour, that I might find the nearest point.
This morning, I had a grand assembly of village "punches,"
to discuss with them the propriety of furnishing able-bodied
men for the work. By a little artful persuasion, I succeeded
in raising 700 from a small district, and am going onwards
to hold another such "county meeting" to-morrow. The mode
and fashion that has always obtained in public works under
native governments, has been to give an order to seize _all_
the inhabitants, and make them work,--_and not pay them
then_. These gentry, therefore, have been so bullied by
their Sikh masters, that they hardly believe my offers of
ready-money payments. My predecessor, an artillery officer,
who came here on the same errand, was turned off for
resorting to violent measures in his anxiety to get hold of
workmen, having hung some of the head men up by the heels to
trees _till they were convinced_. He got no good (nor hands
either) by his dodge. So I was sent here on the other
persuasion, and you will be glad to hear, for the credit of
the family, that I am gammoning the dear old punches most
deliciously. They'd give me anything, bless their innocent
hearts! when I get under the village tree with them, or by
the village well, and discourse eloquently on the blessing
to society of having destroyed the Sikhs, and on the
lightness of their land-tax. I hope to be relieved in a
month, and go up to Peshawur to join "the Guides," for this
is cruelly hard work, and I have had enough for one year of
native work-people. Besides, I am not strong yet, and have
a horrid cold. I would give anything to be able to sit down
and read a book quietly, a luxury I have not enjoyed for
many a long day. Colonel Lawrence starts for England on the
30th for two years. I hope you will contrive to see him, and
make his acquaintance. Sir F. Currie is to be his successor
during his absence.
_December 1st._
I have been at Lahore to receive Colonel Lawrence's parting
instructions, and say good-bye to him, poor fellow. He is a
genuinely kind-hearted mortal, and has been a brother to me
ever since I knew him. I hope to see him back in two years,
invigorated and renewed, to carry out the good work which he
has so nobly begun.
* * * * *
_To his Sister._
CAMP, KUSSOOR, _Dec. 15th, 1847_.
Your letter met me on my road two days ago, and emerged from
the folds of a Sikh horseman's turban, to my great delight.
I got off my horse, and walked along, driving him before me
till I had read the packet. You must not conclude, because I
am writing to you a second time from this place, that I have
been here ever since I first commenced operations in these
parts. I have been twice to Lahore, and several times to
various intermediate and more distant places, since then. In
short, you may give up all idea of being able to imagine
where I may be at any given time. My work has progressed
considerably. In three weeks I have collected and got into
working order upwards of a thousand most unwilling
laborers, surveyed and marked out some twenty miles of road
through a desert and forest, and made a very large piece of
it. I am happy to say I am to be relieved in a day or two,
and sent to survey another district. I have had one or two
visitors the last few days, and therefore not been so lonely
as usual; but my time has been even more than ever occupied.
My duties are nearly as various as there are hours in the
day; at one time digging a trench, at another time
investigating breaches of the peace. I am a sort of justice
of the peace for general purposes, and have to listen to and
inquire into complaints, and send cases which I think worthy
of it for trial to Lahore. I caught as neat a case of
robbing and murder the other day as ever graced Stafford
Assizes; to say nothing of endless modes of theft, more or
less open, according to the wealth or power of the stealer.
This is the most remarkable scene of ruin I have met with
for many a long day; erst, a nest of the abodes of wealthy
Pathan nobles, and now a desert tract, of many miles in
extent, covered with ruins, with here and there a dome, or
cupola, or minaret, to mark what has once been.
I am happy to say that I have succeeded in obtaining a
respite on Sundays. Hitherto, all the works I have had in
hand have gone on the same every day, and consequently one's
annoyance and responsibility continued equally on Sundays.
This is happily put an end to, and I shall have one day's
rest a week at least, to say nothing of higher
considerations. An order on the subject was issued six
months ago, but great difficulties were in the way of its
execution.
CAMP, DEENANUGGUR, _Jan. 15th, 1848_.
Here I am off again like a steam-engine, calling at a series
of stations, puffing and panting, hither and thither, never
resting, ever starting; now in a cutting, now in a tunnel;
first in a field, next on a hill: thus passes day after day,
week after week, a great deal of work going through one's
hands, and yet one can give very little account of one's
self at the end of it. At present I am moving rapidly along
the banks of a small canal which traverses the Doab, between
the Ravee and Beas rivers, for purposes of irrigation;
accompanying Major Napier,[5] to whom the prosecution of all
public improvements throughout the Land of the Five Rivers
belongs. We (the "Woods and Forests" of the day) have nearly
reached the point where the river debouches from the hills,
and have put up for the day in a little garden-house of
Runjeet Singh's, in the midst of a lovely grove of great
extent, through whose dark-green boughs we have a splendid
panorama of the snowy range to back our horizon. We have
great projects of extending the canal by various branches to
feed and fertilize the whole extent of the Doab, which wants
nothing but water to make it a garden, so fertile is the
soil. We have come along a strip of beautiful country,
richly cultivated, lying along the banks of this life-giving
little watercourse, and the weather is perfect, so I am as
happy as mere externals can make one. Certainly we whose lot
has fallen on this side of India, are much to be envied.
Here, all day long, one rides about, clothed as warmly, and
even more so, than in England at this season, enjoying the
bright clear sunshine, and never troubled with thinking of
the sun; whilst at Calcutta they are running into their
houses at nine o'clock to avoid the heat of the day! I
imagine two years in Calcutta would be more _wearing_ than
ten up here; by the same token, I have achieved the
respectable weight of eleven stone ten pounds, being an
increase of seventeen pounds since July. May my shadow never
be less!
I live from the arrival of one mail in expectation of the
next. I had meant to have written a long series of
despatches for this opportunity, and have asked you to do
some commissions for me, but I must postpone it now to
another time, as Major Napier has lots of work for me. I
want a pair of thick blankets; mine were plundered at
Ferozeshah, and I have always mourned over them since, when
cold nights and long marches come together. In these far
countries it is next to impossible to get anything decent.
* * * * *
CAMP, RAJA KE BAGH, _Jan. 29th, 1848_.
For some days I was staying in, and intend returning again
to, a fine picturesque old castle or fort built by the
Emperor Shahjehan. Its lofty walls, with their turrets and
battlements, inclose a quadrangle of the size of the great
court of Trinity, while from the centre rises a dark mass of
buildings three stories high, forming the keep; presenting
externally four blank walls pierced with loopholes, but
within, arches and pillars and galleries, with an open space
in the centre, in which they all face. The summit rises
sixty-four feet, which, in addition to the great elevation
of the mound on which the castle stands, gives a noble view
of mountain, river, and plain, covered with the finest
timber and green with young corn; the whole backed by range
on range, peak after peak, of dazzling snow. Another, nearly
similar, lies about ten miles to the north, and I am now
"pitched" at the foot of a third to the west; all monuments
of the taste and grandeur of the Mogul Emperors. That Goth,
Runjeet Singh, and his followers have as much to answer for
in their way, as Cromwell and his crop-eared scoundrels in
England and Ireland. They seem only to have conquered to
destroy,--every public work, every castle, road, serai, or
avenue, has been destroyed; the finest mosques turned into
powder magazines and stables, the gardens into cantonments,
and the fields into deserts. I had a pretty specimen the
other day of the way in which things have been managed here.
I was desired to examine into, and report on, the accounts
of revenue collected hitherto in 180 villages along the
"Shah Nahr," or Royal Canal. By a convenient mixture of
coaxing and threats, compliment and invective, a return was
at last effected, by which it appeared that in ordinary
cases about one half the revenue reached the treasury, in
some one third, and in one district _nothing_! To my great
amusement, when I came to this point, the gallant collector
(a long-bearded old Sikh) quietly remarked,--"Yes, Sahib,
this was indeed a great place for us entirely." I said,
"Yes, you villain, you gentry grew fat on robbing your
master." "Don't call it robbing," he said; "I assure you I
wouldn't be dishonest for the world. I never took more than
my predecessors did before me." About the most _naive_
definition of honesty I have had the luck to meet with. I
fancy our visit to these nooks and corners of the Punjaub
has added some 50,000_l._ a year to the revenue. My present
_role_ is to survey a part of the country lying along the
left bank of the Ravee and below the hills, and I am daily
and all day at work with compasses and chain, pen and
pencil, following streams, diving into valleys, burrowing
into hills, to complete my work. I need hardly remark, that
having never attempted anything of the kind hitherto, it is
bothering at first. But one is compelled to be patient under
this sort of insult, and I should not be surprised any day
to be told to build a ship, compose a code of laws, or hold
assizes;--in fact, 'tis the way in India; every one has to
teach himself his work, and do it at the same time; if I go
on learning new trades as fast during the remainder of my
career as I have done at its commencement, I shall have to
retire as a Jacksonian professor at least, when "my dog has
had his day." Well! I have fairly beaten the cold this
time,--I turned back one side of the tent, and had a big
fire lighted outside, protected from draughts by a canvas
screen, and the whole tent is now in a jolly glow; a gypsy
light reflected on the trees around, and on the two tall
picturesque Affghans who, seated cross-legged on each side
of the fire, either replenish it with sticks, fan it into a
flame, or watch my pen with the large, black, inquisitive
eye of a dog looking out for a crust.
They make much better servants for wandering folks like
myself than the Hindostanee servant-tribe, have fewer or no
prejudices, (save against clean water,) and trudge along the
livelong day as merrily as if life was a joke to them,
instead of the dull heavy reality it is.[6]
_Feb. 27th, 1848._
I really have very little to tell you of my new Guide Corps
duties from the somewhat strange fact that I have never yet
actually entered upon them; this will soon come to an end,
however, as I have directions to proceed to Peshawur as soon
as the survey I have been at work on is completed. The grand
object of the corps is to train a body of men in peace to be
efficient in war; to be not only acquainted with localities,
roads, rivers, hills, ferries, and passes, but have a good
idea of the produce and supplies available in any part of
the country; to give _accurate_ information, not running
open-mouthed to say that 10,000 horsemen and a thousand guns
are coming, (in true native style,) but to stop to see
whether it may not be really only a common cart and a few
wild horsemen who are kicking up all the dust; to call
twenty-five by its right name, and not say _fifty_ for
short, as most natives do. This of course wants a great deal
of careful instruction and attention. Beyond this, the
officers should give a tolerably correct sketch and report
of any country through which they may pass, be _au fait_ at
routes and means of feeding troops, and above all (and here
you come close upon practical duties) keep an eye on the
doings "of the neighbors" and the state of the country, so
as to be able to give such information as may lead to any
outbreak being nipped in the bud. This is the _theory_,
what the _practice_ may be I'll tell you some day or other
when I know. Hitherto I have been making myself generally
useful under the chief engineer, and learning to survey. One
has to turn one's hand to everything if one wishes to get
on.
Meanwhile, I am busily collecting every species of
information about the people and the land they live in. Hard
work and fatigue, of course, but a splendid opening and
opportunity for making one's self known and _necessary_.
* * * * *
DEENANUGGUR, _March 14th, 1848_.
The night your letter reached me, Napier (our chief
engineer) and I were encamped on a spur of grass land
separating two streams of the river "Chukkir," and had been
so for some days. That evening it began to rain, (if a
sluice of water, apparently _struck down from the heavens_
by a flood of the fiercest lightning, can be called so,) and
for thirty-six hours the torrent descended without
intermission, as only Asiatic storms can descend. At length
a pause ensued, and the sky was visible, and we emerged from
our sodden tents only to be threatened with water in a worse
form. The hills, valleys, and mountains began to send down
to us what they had so plentifully received from above, and
the hitherto quiet stream, whose wide stony channel
surrounded us, was in a single hour a powerful torrent,
tearing over the country as if to prove what it could do. By
one of the singular freaks common to all tropical rivers, it
dammed up one of its own widest outlets by the quantity of
stones which it brought along with it, and came tearing down
the one nearest to us. Across this, not a hundred yards
from our tents, we had just built a powerful breakwater some
sixteen feet wide, but the water quietly walked over, under,
and round it; roared, groaned, stormed, and swelled angrily
for two hours, and our breakwater was a "thing of history;"
meantime, we were gradually getting more and more surrounded
with water, it rose and rose until only four inches were
wanting to set us well afloat. The pegs of my tent-ropes
were undermined, and a notice to quit was as plainly written
on the face of the water as ever on a legal process. There
was but one way of escape, so mustering the whole of a
neighboring village, we loaded all our valuables and
movables on their backs, and made a dash at the hamlet. Once
having succeeded in turning us out, the valiant Chukkir was
content, and we slept in our tents as usual, but not
without, as it turned out, considerable risk of finding
ourselves landed in some unknown field on waking.
When this flood subsided, it appeared that the scene of our
unfortunate dam had become the deepest part of the channel,
and the old course choked with stones and boulders which you
and I couldn't lift in a week of Sundays. Is not this an
incident?
Since I wrote last, in consequence of representations I sent
to head-quarters as to the amount of plundering going on, a
large party of horse, with one of the principal chiefs, was
sent out here, with directions to act on the information I
gave them. We have, accordingly, had a robber-hunt on a
large and tolerably successful scale. Numbers have been
caught. One shot _pour encourager les autres_, and we have
traces of others, so that my quiet practice (originally for
my own amusement and information) has been very useful to
the State. I found out the greatest part of it by sending
clever fellows disguised as "faqueers" (you know what they
are, I think;--religious beggars) to the different villages
to talk to the people and learn their doings. Some of the
stories of Sikh violence, cruelty, and treachery which I
have picked up are almost beyond belief. The indifference of
these people to human life is something appalling. I could
hardly get them to give a thought or attempt an inquiry as
to the identity of a man whom I found dead, evidently by
violence, by the roadside yesterday morning; and they were
horrified at the thought of tying up or confining a sacred
ox, who had gored his _thirteenth_ man the evening before
last! They told me plainly that no one had a right to
complain of being hurt by so venerable a beast.
In such pursuits, combined with surveying, my time passes
away tolerably well. I am alone again, Napier having gone to
Lahore; but this is a sweet place, and I am staying in a
pleasant summer-house of Runjeet Singh's, in the midst of a
fine garden, or grove of mango and orange trees.
* * * * *
CAMP ON RAVEE, _March 29th, 1848_.
Just as I had completed my somewhat lengthy reply to your
question, I was interrupted by a camel-rider, who had come
in hot haste with a letter from Sir F. Currie, at Lahore,
with the most agreeable intelligence in the world,--_voila_.
"MY DEAR MR. HODSON,--Pray knock off your present work, and
come into Lahore as quickly as you can.
"I want to send you with Mr. Agnew to Mooltan. Mr. Agnew
starts immediately with your acquaintance, Sirdah Sumshere
Singh, to assume the government of that province, Moolraj
having sent in his resignation of the Nizamut. Lieutenant
Becher is to be Agnew's permanent assistant, but he cannot
join just now, and I wish you to go with Agnew. It is an
_important mission_, and one that, I think, you will like to
be employed in. When relieved by Becher, you will join the
Guides at Lahore, and be employed also as assistant to the
Resident. The sooner you come the better.
"Yours, sincerely,
"F. CURRIE."
The last line of Sir Frederick's letter was not lost on me,
and to keep up my character for locomotion, I started at
daybreak for Deenanuggur, finishing off my work _en route_,
remained there the rest of the day to wind up matters, and
add my surveying sketch to the large plan I had commenced
beforehand, and hurried onwards this morning. You will
perceive that I have crossed the Doab, and am now writing on
the banks of the Ravee, some sixty miles above Lahore. I
marched twenty-four and a half miles with tent and baggage
this morning, and hope to continue at that pace, with the
difference of marching by night, the weather having suddenly
become very hot indeed.
I am much interested in the thought of going to so new a
place as Mooltan--new, that is to say, to Europeans, yet so
important from position and commerce. The only drawback is
the heat, which is notorious throughout Western India. I am
not aware, however, that it is otherwise unhealthy.
As you may suppose, I am much gratified by the appointment,
both for its own sake and also as evincing so very favorable
and kindly a disposition toward myself on the part of the
new potentate.
* * * * *
_To his Sister._
CAMP, _March 29th, 1848_.
Of incidents to amuse you I have not many to narrate, save
the usual "moving" ones by "flood and field." On the 18th I
was very nearly becoming a damp unpleasant corpse to
celebrate my birthday. In attempting a ford, my horse sank
up to the girths in a quicksand. I managed to extricate
myself and, dry land being near, he got up without damage.
Sending a man ahead, I tried again in another place. Here it
was fair to the eye but false to the foot. Down he went
again, this time in deeper water, and got me under him by
struggling. However, I realized the old proverb, and escaped
with a good ducking and a mouthful of my native element,
_rather_ gritty. Next I tried a camel, but the brute went
down at the first stride. So giving it up in despair, I put
on dry clothes, and _then_ waded through the river.
Not content with one attempt on my existence, the horse gave
me a violent kick the same evening when I went up to him to
ask "How d'ye do." So I completed my year, in spite of
myself, as it were.
LAHORE, _April 2d_.
Since the above was written, I have succeeded in reaching
the metropolis, as you see, at a greater expenditure of
animal heat and fatigue than I have gone through for some
time. I was very friendlily and pleasantly greeted by Sir F.
and Lady Currie, and tumbled at once again into the tide of
civilization--loaf bread, arm-chairs, hats, and ladies--as
philosophically as if I had been for months in the calm and
unrestrained enjoyment of such luxuries.
On my arrival, I found that the arrangement proposed in Sir
F. Currie's note had already become matter of history, _not_
of fact. The new one is still better for me. I am to remain
at Lahore, and be an assistant to the Resident, having my
Guide duties to discharge also, when Lumsden arrives from
Peshawur with the Corps. He is expected in twenty days.
Nothing could possibly have been better for me. I shall have
the advantage of learning in the best school, head-quarters,
and have many more opportunities of making myself "generally
useful." I am most rejoiced at the plan, and Sir F. Currie's
considerate kindness in devising it. We wont say anything of
the regularity or consistency of making a man of two and a
half year's service, and who has passed no examination, a
political officer, nor will we be ungrateful enough to say
that he is unfit for the appointment, but that he should do
his utmost to show that the rule is more honored "in the
breach than in the observance."
* * * * *
RESIDENCY, LAHORE, _April 16th, 1848_.
I shall not have the same variety to chronicle now that I
seem to be fixed here, but more interest and a higher style
of work. Since I wrote last I have been six hours a day
employed in court, hearing petitions and appeals in all
manner of cases, civil and criminal, and in matters of
revenue, as there are but two officers so employed. You,
perhaps, will comprehend that the duty is no sinecure. It is
of vast importance, and I sometimes feel a half sensation of
modesty coming over me at being set down to administer
justice in such matters so early, and without previous
training. A little practice, patience, and reflection settle
most cases to one's satisfaction, however; and one must be
content with substantial justice as distinguished from
technical law. In any point of difficulty one has always an
older head to refer to, and meantime, one has the
satisfaction of knowing that one is independent and
untrammelled save by a very simple code. Some things, such
as sentencing a man to imprisonment for seven years for
killing a cow, are rather startling to one's ideas of right
and wrong; but then to kill a cow is to break a law, and to
disturb the public peace--perhaps cause bloodshed; so the
law is vindicated, and one's conscience saved. I have many
other duties, such as finishing my map, for which I was
surveying at Deenanuggur; occasionally translating an
official document; going to Durbars, &c.; and when the
Guides arrive (on the 20th) I shall have to assist in
drilling and instructing them; to say nothing of seeing that
their quarters are prepared, and everything ready for them.
I am not, therefore, _idle_, and only wish I had time to
read.
On the 26th he writes from Lahore:--
I mentioned to you that Sir F. Currie's plan of sending me
to assist Agnew at Mooltan had been altered, and that
Anderson had gone with him in my stead. At the time I was
disposed to be disappointed; but we never know what is for
our good. In this case I should doubtless have incurred the
horrible fate of poor Anderson and Agnew. Both these poor
fellows have been barbarously murdered by the Mooltan
troops.
He then gives a detailed account of their tragical fate, and the
treachery of the villain Moolraj, and adds:--
The Sikh Durbar profess their inability to coerce their
rebel subject, who is rapidly collecting a large army, and
strengthening himself in the proverbially strong fort of
Mooltan.
One cannot say how it will end. The necessary delay of five
months, till after the rains, will give time for all the
disaffected to gather together, and no one can say how far
the infection may extend. The Sikhs were right in saying,
"We shall have one more fight for it yet."
* * * * *
LAHORE, _May 7th_.
I expect to be busy in catching a party of rascals who have
been trying to pervert our Sepoys by bribes and promises. We
have a clue to them, and hope to take them in the act. We
are surrounded here with treachery. No man can say who is
implicated, or how far the treason has spread. The life of
no British officer, away from Lahore, is worth a week's
purchase. It is a pleasant sort of government to prop up,
when their head-men conspire against you and their troops
desert you on the slightest temptation.
Lumsden, the commandant of the Guides, and I want something
sensible for the protection of our heads from sun and blows,
from _coups de soleil_ equally with _coups d'epee_. There is
a kind of leathern helmet in the Prussian service which is
light, serviceable, and neat. Will you try what you can do
in the man-millinery line, and send me a brace of good
helmets? We don't want ornament; in fact, the plainer the
better, as we should always wear a turban over them, but
strong, and light as a hat. I have no doubt your taste will
be approved. I hope this wont be a bore to you, but one's
head wants protecting in these stormy days.
The helmets on their arrival were pronounced "maddening." This was the
first of a series of commissions connected with the clothing and
arming of the Guide Corps, which was left mainly, if not entirely, in
my brother's hands, and was a matter of much interest to him. The
color selected for their uniform was "drab," as most likely to make
them invisible in a land of dust. Even a member of the Society of
Friends could scarcely have objected to send out drab clothing for 900
men, but to this succeeded directions to select the pattern of, and
send out, 300 rifle carbines, which seemed scarcely a clerical
business. The result, however, was satisfactory, and in the following
year my brother wrote:--
Many thanks for the trouble you have taken about the
clothing for the Guides. Sir C. Napier says they are the
only properly dressed light troops he has seen in India.
* * * * *
CAMP, DEENANUGGUR, _June 5th, 1848_.
You will hardly have been prepared to hear that I am once
more on the move, rushing about the country, despite
climate, heat, and rumors (the most alarming).
I wrote last the day after our successful capture of the
conspirators, whom I had the satisfaction of seeing hung
three days later. I then tried a slight fever as a variety
for two days; and on the 14th started to "bag" the Ranee in
her abode beyond the Ravee, she having been convicted of
complicity in the designs of the conspirators. Lumsden and
myself were deputed by the Resident to call on her, and
intimate that her presence was urgently required. A
detachment was ordered out to support us, in case any
resistance should be offered. Fortunately it was not
required, as the Ranee complied at once with our "polite"
request to come along with us. Instead of being taken to
Lahore, as she expected, we carried her off to Kana Kutch,
on the Ferozepoor road, where a party of Wheeler's
Irregulars had been sent to receive her. It was very hard
work--a long night march to the fort, and a fourteen hours'
ride across to Kana Kutch, whence I had two hours' gallop
into Lahore to report progress, making sixteen hours in the
saddle, in May, when the nights are hot. On the next Sunday
night I was off again, to try and seize or disperse a party
of horse and foot collected by a would-be holy man, Maharaja
Singh, said to amount to four or five hundred. I made a
tremendous march round by Umritsur, Byrowal-Ghat, on the
Beas, and up that river's bank to Mokeria, in the Jullundur
Doab, whence I was prepared to cross during the night with a
party of cavalry, and attack the rascals unawares.
Everything succeeded admirably up to the last, when I found
that he had received notice from a rogue of a native
magistrate that there would be attempts made to seize him,
when he fairly bolted across the Ravee, and is now infesting
the Doab between that river and the Chenab. I have scoured
this part of the country (which my late surveys enabled me
to traverse with perfect ease) got possession of every boat
on the Ravee from Lahore to the Hills, placed horsemen at
every ferry, and been bullying the people who supplied the
Saint with provisions and arms. I have a regiment of
Irregular Horse (Skinner's) with me, and full powers to
summon more, if necessary, from the Jullundur Doab.
Meantime, a party from Lahore are sweeping round to
intercept the fellow, who is getting strong by degrees; and
I am going to dash across at midnight with a handful of
cavalry, and see if I cannot beat up the country between
this and Wuzeerabad. I am very well, hard at work, and
enjoying the thing very much. I imagine this will be the
sort of life we shall lead about once a week till the
Punjaub is annexed. Every native official has fraternized
with the rebels he was ordered to catch.
* * * * *
LAHORE, _July 5th, 1848_.
I wrote last from Deenanuggur, on the eve of crossing the
Ravee to look after the Gooroo, Maharaja Singh. I remained
in the Rechnab Doab some days, hunting up evidence and
punishing transgressors.
I was very fairly successful in obtaining information of the
extent of the conspiracy, which has been keeping the whole
country in a ferment these two months past. All that has
occurred is clearly traceable to the Ranee (now happily
deported) and her friends, and has been carried out with a
fearful amount of the blackest treachery and baseness. There
have been stirring events since I wrote last. Twice within a
fortnight has Herbert Edwardes fought and defeated the
Mooltan rebels in pitched battles, and has succeeded,
despite of treacherous foes and doubtful friends, in driving
them into the fort of Mooltan. His success has been only
less splendid than the energy and courage which he has shown
throughout, especially that high moral courage which defies
responsibility, risks, self-interest, and all else, for the
good of the State, and which, if well directed, seems to
command fortune and ensure success. I have been longing to
be with him, though after my wonderfully narrow escape of
being murdered with poor Agnew at Mooltan, I may well be
content to leave my movements in other hands. I was summoned
into Lahore suddenly (as usual!) to take command of the
Guides and charge of Lumsden's duties for him, as he had
been sent down the river towards Bhawulpoor. I came in the
whole distance (one hundred miles), with bag and baggage, in
sixty hours, which, considering that one can't travel at all
by day, and not more than four miles an hour by night,
required a great amount of exertion and perseverance. It is
strange that the natives always knock up sooner than we do
on a march like this. The cavalry were nine days on the
road, and grumbled then! I know few things more fatiguing
than when exhausted by the heat of the day, to have to mount
at nightfall, and ride slowly throughout the night, and for
the two most disagreeable hours of a tropical day, viz:
those after sunrise. One night, on which I was making a
longer march than usual, had a fearful effect on a European
regiment moving upon Ferozepoor, the same hot night-wind,
which had completely prostrated me for the time, fell upon
the men as they halted at a well to drink; they were fairly
beaten, and lay down for a few minutes to _pant_. When they
arose to continue their march, a captain and nine or ten men
were left dead on the ground! It was the simoom of Africa in
miniature. I have happily escaped fever or sickness of any
kind, and have nothing to complain of but excessive
weakness. Quinine will, I trust, soon set me up again.
* * * * *
LAHORE, _Sept. 3d, 1848_.
We have had stirring times lately, though I personally have
had little share in them. Mooltan is at last invested, and
we expect daily to hear of its fall. Meanwhile, a new
outbreak has occurred in Huzara, a wild hilly region on the
left bank of the Indus, above Attok, where one of the
powerful Sirdars has raised the standard of revolt.
I suppose I may say to you at so great a distance, what I
must not breathe here, that it is now morally certain that
we have only escaped, by what men call chance and accidents,
the effects of a general and well-organized conspiracy
against British supremacy in Upper India. Our "ally" Gholab
Singh, the creature of the treaty of 1848, the hill tribes,
the whole Punjaub, the chiefs of Rajpootana, and the states
round Umbala and Kurnal, and even the King of Cabul, I
believe, have been for months and months securely plotting,
without our having more than the merest hints of local
disturbances, against the supremacy of the British
Government. They were to unite for one vast effort, and
drive us back upon the Jumna. This was to be again the
boundary of British India. The rising in Mooltan was to be
the signal. All was prepared, when a quarrel between Moolraj
and the treacherous khan, Singh Man, who was sent to
commence the war, spoilt their whole scheme. The proud
Rajpoot, Gholab Singh, refused to follow in the wake of a
Mooltan merchant, and the merchant would not yield to the
soldier. We have seen the mere ebullitions of the storm, the
bubbles which float at the surface. I believe that now we
are safe from a general rising, and that the fall of Mooltan
will put a stop to mischief. If, however, our rulers resort
again to half measures, if a mutinous army is retained in
existence, the evil day will return again. Absolute
supremacy has been, I think, long demonstrated to be our
only safety among wild and treacherous races. _Moderation_,
in the modern sense, is the greatest of all weakness.
* * * * *
_Sept. 18th, 1848._
You will have seen that our troops have been hard at it in
Mooltan, and now I have to tell you that it has all been in
vain; Rajah Shere Singh, and the whole of our worthy Sikh
allies, have joined the rebel Moolraj, and General Whish has
been compelled to raise the siege and retire.
I have just dispatched every available Guide to try and get
quietly into the far-famed fort of Govindghur, and hope in a
few hours to hear of their success. They have forty friends
inside, and only a few score wavering enemies. I have not a
moment which I can call my own, and have put off this (which
is merely an assurance that I am alive and very well) to the
last moment, so as to give you the latest tidings. I am all
agog at the prospect of stirring times, and the only single
drawback is the fear that you all will be very anxious. I
shall not, however, run my head unnecessarily into a scrape,
and see no cause for your frightening yourselves.
One comfort is, that the farce of native government has been
played out. It was an experiment honestly tried, and as
honestly a failure.
A few days later he says:--
My Guides have covered themselves with glory (and dust) by
the way in which they got into, and got possession of, the
famed fort of Govindghur. A hundred of my men, under a
native officer--a fine lad of about twenty, whom I have
petted a good deal--went up quietly to the gates, on
pretence of escorting four State prisoners, (whom I had put
in irons for the occasion,) were allowed to get in, and then
threw up their caps, and took possession of the gateway,
despite the scowls, and threats, and all but open resistance
of the Sikh garrison. A day afterwards a regiment marched
from Lahore, and went into garrison there, and so Runjeet
Singh's treasure-fort is fairly in our hands.
* * * * *
_Nov. 1st, 1848._
I left Lahore--but stay, I must get there first. Well, I
wrote from Ramnuggur, on the Chenab, last; whence, after a
fruitless _sejour_ of six days, in the vain hope of meeting
Mrs. George Lawrence, I returned suddenly to Lahore by an
order which reached me the evening of the 5th. I started at
sunset, and pushing my way on various borrowed steeds across
that dreary region during the night, accompanied by a
single camel-rider, I reached Lahore, a distance of seventy
miles, by nine the following morning.
On the 8th I was off again at daybreak on a longer journey
still, having to cross the country to Brigadier Wheeler's
camp in the Jullundur Doab, to convey orders to him relative
to the reduction of two rebellious forts in the Doab,
between the Ravee and Beas. A "grind" of some twenty-six
hours on _camel-back_, with the necessary stoppages, took me
to the camp, whence (because I had not had enough) I
recrossed the Beas the same night, after examining and
reporting on the state of the ferries by which the troops
were to follow me. This time I was escorted by a troop of
Irregular Horse, and being thereby, according to _my_
estimation of Sikh prowess, rendered tolerably independent,
I marched the next morning for the fort of Rungur Nuggul,
some fourteen miles from the right bank of the Beas.
On approaching it, and the village which covered one side of
it, I was welcomed by a discharge of matchlocks, &c., as a
sort of bravado, which served to point out exactly the range
of my friends' pieces. I lost no time in getting the
horsemen into a secure position (which means, one equally
good for fighting or running away), and advanced under
shelter of the trees and sugar-canes to within easy distance
of the fort. Hence I dispatched a message to the rebels, to
say that if they did not come to reason within an hour, they
should have no choice but that between cold steel or the
gallows. The hour elapsed without result, so mentally
consigning the garrison to annihilation, I set to work to
reconnoitre the ground round the fort. This
accomplished--with no further interruption than a shower of
unpleasant bullets when I ventured too near--I sat down,
and drew a little pencil plan of the ground and fort,
dispatched a trooper with it to the Brigadier, and then
retired to a little village about a mile off for the night.
Another day and night passed in this precarious fashion,
without (as is my usual fate), servants, clothes, or traps,
until at length my own men (Guides) arrived from Lahore with
my baggage and horses. I could now muster a hundred rifles,
and eighty horsemen, so we set to work to _invest the
place_, being the only way to render the escape of the
rebels difficult or impossible. The fort, though very small,
was immensely strong, and well garrisoned with desperadoes,
and we had sharp work of it during the two nights and day
which elapsed before the Brigadier[7] appeared with his
troops. By keeping my men scattered about in parties, under
cover, the superiority of their weapons enabled them to gall
the defenders of the fort whenever they showed their heads,
day or night; and whenever they made a sally they got driven
back with the loss of one or two of their companions. At
last the Brigadier appeared, pounded the place with his guns
during the day, and let the garrison escape at night. Then
came the bore of destroying the empty fort, a work which
consumed a week of incessant labor, and forty-one mines
loaded with an aggregate of 8,000 pounds of powder. Having
destroyed house, fort, stables, and everything, and removed
the grain and property, we at length moved on to a second
fort, called "Morara," about a mile from the left bank of
the Ravee, near this place. I cannot now go into details of
the second failure of the Brigadier in attempting to punish
the rebels, for they bolted before he fired a shot, nor of
my attempts to prevent their escape. I have had loads of
work, what with soldiering, providing supplies for the
force, and all the multifarious duties which come on the
shoulders of a "political" out here. I am quite well, and
the weather is lovely, so work is easy comparatively, and an
active life like this is, as you know, my particular
weakness. I hope to cross the Ravee in a few days with the
troops collecting to punish the rebel (or patriot) Sikh
army. We want Sir C. Napier sadly. What with the incapacity
shown at Mooltan, and the dilatory proceedings at
head-quarters, our reputation is suffering cruelly, and
every one knows that that is a stain only to be dyed out in
blood. Every week's delay adds thousands to our present foes
and future victims.
* * * * *
_To his Sister._
DEENANUGGUR, _Dec. 4th, 1848_.
You must not suppose that because I have written twice from
this place that therefore I have been here all the time. On
the contrary, I have been incessantly on the move. So much
so as to have pretty nearly established a claim to the medal
for discovering perpetual motion. I have been moving in an
orbit whose gyrations have been confined to a space bounded
by the Chenab and the Beas, and a line drawn E. and W.
through Umritsur and Lahore. Nearly the whole of this vast
"_track_" of country has been under my sole charge. I have
had also to feed an army daily of 3,000 odd fighting men,
2,000 odd horses, and 14,000 to 15,000 camp followers. Also
to take care of and work my Guides; to point out the haunts
and obtain information of the strength of "the enemy," and
give him over to the tender mercies of fire and sword;
_item_, to fight him personally; _item_, to destroy six
forts, and sell by auction the property therein found;
_item_, to be civil to all comers; _item_, to report all the
said doings daily to Government; _item_, to march ten to
twenty miles a day at a slow pace; _item_, to eat, drink,
dress, and sleep, to rest one's self from all these labors.
In the above compendious epitome of the work of that
much-abused and ill-used class called "politicals" in India,
you will, I trust, observe no vacant places or "hiati" in
which you would expect to see inscribed, "_item_, to write
to one's friends." No; one is a white slave, and no mistake;
day and night, early or late, week-day or Sunday, one is the
slave of the public, or rather of the Government, to a
degree which cannot be credited until it is experienced. The
departure of Brigadier Wheeler across the Beas, and
therefore out of my beat, has made a slight break in the
work, but there is still more than I can get through in the
day. I am grinding my teeth all the time at being kept away
from the scene of what must be the grand struggle between
the cow-killers and cow-worshippers on the banks of the
Chenab.
On the 8th of last month I marched hence to overtake
Brigadier Wheeler and his troops, and accompany them across
the Ravee. On reaching the river, I represented to the
Brigadier "who of course does not know friend from foe until
he is told," the urgent necessity of attacking a party of
insurgents who were within fourteen miles of us, but could
not persuade him to do so. The old gentleman was intent on
pushing on to the main army, flattering himself he was
going to command a division of it. When within twenty-five
or thirty miles of the head-quarter camp at Ramnuggur, I
rode over to Lahore, and talked to Sir F. Currie, who was
just dispatching an express to me about these very people we
had left unattacked two days before. He sent me off there
and then to see the Commander-in-Chief, who was very polite;
asked my opinion "and acted on it too!"; told me all his
plans for carrying on the war; and on my telling him the
facts of the case, sent an order to the Brigadier to retrace
his steps, and attack the party he had passed by at once,
with something very like a rap over the knuckles. After a
delay of some days, caused by a sudden counter summons to
move to reinforce Campbell,[8] who was vainly expecting that
the Singhs would fight, we at length turned back for
Kulallwala, the name of the fort occupied by my friends. We
got within twenty-five miles of it on the 20th, and I urged
the Brigadier to move on like lightning, and crush them. He
would not, and began to make short marches, so I was
compelled to out-manoeuvre him by a bold stroke. On the
morning of the 21st I left his camp, and pushed on some ten
miles to a place on the straight road for Kulallwala. Here
was a fort belonging to a doubtful Sirdar, and I determined
to get possession of it if possible. I had with me only 100
men, and the enemy was only eight miles off with
4,000--rabble, to be sure, and fellows who have no heart for
fighting; but the odds were great, and it was necessary to
put a bold face on matters. I therefore "boned" the Chief's
two confidential servants, who were in his dwelling-house
outside the fort, and taking one on each side of me, walked
up to the gateway, and demanded admission; they hesitated,
and made excuses. I significantly hinted that my two
companions should be responsible if a shot was fired; the
stout Sikh heart failed, and I was admitted. My proceeding
was justified, and rendered most opportune by the discovery
that the garrison were preparing munitions of war, mounting
guns, and looking saucy. I turned them out by the same means
as I had gained admittance, viz: by hinting that if any
resistance was made the headmen by my side were doomed.
Putting in sixteen of my Guides to hold it until further
orders, I took up my quarters outside for the night, and
prepared to attack another small mud fort near at hand in
the morning.
However, my friends ran away in the night in a fright, and
thus I had opened the road to Kulallwala without firing a
shot. In the morning I marched with my little party towards
the enemy, sending back a messenger to the Brigadier to say
that I was close to the place, and that if he did not come
on sharp they would run away or overwhelm me. He was
dreadfully angry, but came on like a good boy! When within a
mile or so of the fort, I halted my party to allow his
column to get up nearer, and as soon as I could see it,
moved on quietly. The _ruse_ told to perfection: thinking
they had only 100 men and myself to deal with, the Sikhs
advanced in strength, thirty to one, to meet me, with colors
flying and drums beating. Just then a breeze sprung up, the
dust blew aside, and the long line of horsemen coming on
rapidly behind my party burst upon their senses. They turned
instantly, and made for the fort, so leaving my men to
advance quietly after them, I galloped up to the Brigadier,
pointed out the flying Sikhs, explained their position, and
begged him to charge them. He melted from his wrath, and
told two regiments of Irregulars to follow my guidance. On
we went at the gallop, cut in amongst the fugitives, and
punished them fearfully. The unfortunate wretches had cause
to rue the day they turned rebels, for we left them thickly
on the ground as we swept along. I had never charged with
cavalry before, or come so directly into hand to hand
conflict with the Sikh, save of course in the trenches at
Sobraon. About 300 to 400 escaped into the fort, while the
remainder threw down their arms and dispersed over the
country. The garrison ran away during the night,
unfortunately, and we had only to take peaceful possession
in the morning. We had killed some 250 to 300 of them, which
will be a lesson to them, I hope. My men got into the
village contiguous to the fort early, while we pitched into
those of the enemy who remained behind, to a great extent.
Since then we have been pursuing other parties, but only
came into collision with them to a very trifling extent
once. They had learnt how to run away beautifully. The
Brigadier has grown quite active, and _very fond of me_
since that day at Kulallwala, though he had the wit to see
how very "brown I had done him" by making him march two
marches in one.[9]
* * * * *
_Jan. 1849._
I have just completed the first series of my duties in this
Doab, by driving the last party of the insurgents across the
Chenab.
As soon as I had settled matters a little at Deenanuggur,
and made some arrangements to prevent further troubles if
possible, I crossed the Ravee again, and got upon the track
of the rebel party who had given us so much trouble. On the
15th, I heard that a large party had collected at a village
called Gumrolah (near Dufferwal), but they had so many spies
in my camp, that it was difficult to avoid their ken; at the
same time their tendency to run away made a surprise the
only feasible mode of reaching them. We therefore turned in
as usual at night, but soon after midnight I aroused my men,
and got them under arms and off before any one was aware of
our move. I had with me one hundred of my Guides and fifteen
sowars.
We marched quietly but swiftly, all night, and came upon the
insurgents just at daybreak. I had ridden forward about half
a mile, with a couple of sowars, to reconnoitre, and got
unobserved within 250 yards of the insurgents, numbering at
least 150 horse and foot.
They looked at me, and hesitated whether to come at me or
not, apparently, while I beckoned to the remaining sowars to
come up. I was in great hopes that they would have waited
for ten minutes, by which time my men would have been up,
with their rifles, and we should have given a good account
of them. However, before five minutes had elapsed, they
moved off sulkily like a herd of frightened deer, half
alarmed, half in doubt. I saw at once that there was but one
chance left, and determined to go at them as I was,--though
15 to 150 is an imprudent attempt.
The instant we were in motion they fled, and had gone half a
mile before we could overtake them; the mounted men got off,
but a party of Akhalees[10] on foot stopped and fought us,
in some instances very fiercely. One fine bold "Nihung" beat
off four sowars one after another, and kept them all at bay.
I then went at him myself, fearing that he would kill one of
them. He instantly rushed to meet me like a tiger, closed
with me, yelling, "Wah Gooroo ji," and accompanying each
shout with a terrific blow of his tulwar. I guarded the
three or four first, but he pressed so closely to my horse's
rein that I could not get a fair cut in return. At length I
pressed in my turn upon him so sharply that he missed his
blow, and I caught his tulwar backhanded with my bridle
hand, wrenched it from him, and cut him down with the right,
having received no further injury than a severe cut across
the fingers; I never beheld such desperation and fury in my
life. It was not _human_ scarcely. By this time the rest of
the party had gone a long way, and as we had already pursued
farther than was prudent, where the spectators even were
armed, and awaiting the result, I was obliged to halt, not
without a growl at General Wheeler for having left me
without any men. We had killed one more than our own number,
however, and five more were so severely wounded that they
were removed on "charpoys."
I insert here a portion of Sir F. Currie's despatch to the
Governor-General with reference to this affair, with the
Governor-General's reply.
They will show the high opinion entertained at the time of my
brother's services by his superiors.
"LAHORE PRESIDENCY, _Jan. 6th, 1849_.
"The affair at Buddee Pind was a most gallant one,--far more
so than Lieutenant Hodson's modest statement in his letter
would lead me to suppose. I have accounts from parties who
were eye-witnesses to the personal gallantry and energy of
Lieutenant Hodson, by whose hand, in single conflict, the
Akhalee, mentioned in paragraph 5, fell, after he had beaten
off four horsemen of the 15th Native Cavalry, and to whose
bold activity and indefatigable exertions, and the admirable
arrangements made by him, with the small means at his
disposal, the successful issue of this expedition is to be
attributed."
To this his Lordship replied as follows, through his secretary.
_From the_ SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT _to_ SIR F. CURRIE, BART.
"_Jan. 14th, 1849._
"I am directed to request that you will convey to Lieutenant
Hodson the strong expression of the Governor-General's
satisfaction with his conduct, and with the mode in which he
discharges whatever duty is intrusted to him. The
Governor-General has had frequent occasions of noticing the
activity, energy, and intelligence of his proceedings, and
he has added to the exercise of the same qualities on this
occasion an exhibition of personal gallantry which the
Governor-General has much pleasure in recording and
applauding, although Lieutenant Hodson has modestly
refrained from bringing it to notice himself. The
Governor-General offers to Lieutenant Hodson his best thanks
for these services.
(Signed)
"H. M. ELLIOTT,
"_Secretary to the Government of India
with the Governor-General_."
* * * * *
CAMP UNDER THE HILLS ON THE RAVEE, _Jan. 18th, 1849_.
... A few days afterwards, Lumsden having joined me with our
mounted men, we surprised and cut to pieces another party of
rebels, for which we have again been thanked by Government.
Since then I have been with Brigadier-General Wheeler's
force again, employed in hunting after one Ram Singh and his
followers, and have been day and night at work,--examining
the hills and rivers, trying fords, leading columns, and
doing all the multifarious duties thrust on that unhappy
combination of hard work, a "Guide" and "Political" in one.
Ram Singh's position was stormed on the 16th, and I had been
chosen to lead one of the principal columns of attack; but
we had to march by a circuitous route across the hills,
darkness came on, accompanied by dreadful rain, the rivers
rose and were impassable, and after twenty-four hours of the
most trying work I ever experienced, in which cold, hunger,
and wet were our enemies, we succeeded in reaching our
ground just in time to be too late; however, I had done all
that human nature could effect under the circumstances, and
one cannot always be successful. Two poor fellows, one a
nephew of Sir R. Peel's, were killed; otherwise the loss was
trifling on our side.[11]
We have just received intelligence of another great fight
between the army under Lord Gough and the Sikhs,[12] in
which the latter, though beaten, seem to have had every
advantage given away to them. Our loss has been severe, and
the mismanagement very disgraceful, yet it will be called a
victory and lauded accordingly. Oh for one month of Sir
Charles Napier!
* * * * *
DEENANUGGUR, _Feb. 4th, 1849_.
I had one of my narrowest escapes two days ago: I went into
Lahore for a few days to see Sir H. Lawrence (who is again
the Resident), and laid relays of horses along the road to
this place, so as to ride in at once. I left Lahore on the
morning of the 31st, and stopping at Umritsur to breakfast,
reached my camp at nightfall, having ridden one hundred
miles in ten hours and a half. A party of Sikhs had
collected at a village by the roadside to attack me and
"polish" me off, but not calculating upon the rapidity of my
movements, did not expect me until the morning. I am sorry
to say that they surrounded my horses which were coming on
quietly in the morning, asked for me, and finding I had
escaped, stole my best horse (a valuable Arab, who had
carried me in three fights), and bolted, not, however,
without resistance, for two horsemen (Guides) of mine who
were with the horse tried to save it. One got four wounds
and the other escaped unhurt. Had I ridden like any other
Christian instead of like a spectre horseman, and been the
usual time on the road, I should have been "a body." We gave
chase from hence as soon as we heard, and rode for eleven
hours and a half in pursuit! which was pretty well after a
hundred miles' ride the day before.
But my horse it is another's,
And it never can be mine!
* * * * *
CAMP, WUZEERABAD, _Feb. 19th, 1849_.
I have at length reached the "army of the Punjaub," almost
by accident, as it were, though I was most anxious to be
present at the final grand struggle between the Khalsa and
the British armies. I am at present with my men, attached to
a brigade encamped on this (the left) bank of the Chenab, to
prevent the enemy crossing until Lord Gough is ready to
attack them on the right bank, where he is now encamped with
his whole force minus our brigade. The Sikhs quietly walked
away from him the other day, and instead of having their
backs to the Jhelum, passed round his flank, and made
steadily for this place, intending, boldly enough, to march
upon Lahore. I came across the Doab with a handful of men,
and reached this place just as they took up a position on
the opposite bank of the river. At the same moment a brigade
arrived by a forced night-march from Ramnuggur, and, for the
present, the Sikhs have been _sold_. Yet I should not be
surprised at their evading us again, and going off to a
higher ford. The game is getting very exciting, and I am
quite enjoying the stir and bustle of two large armies in
the field. The grand finale must, one would think, come off
in a day or two. It is possible however that, as I say, the
Sikhs may out-manoeuvre us and prolong the campaign. The
Affghans have joined the Sikhs, contrary to the expectations
of every one (but myself), and there is now no saying where
the struggle will end.
The Affghans are contemptible _in the plains_, generally
speaking; but numbers become formidable, even if armed with
broomsticks.
This was written two days before the decisive engagement of Goojerat,
at which he was present, attached to the personal staff of the
Commander-in-Chief. His letter, giving an account of the action,
was unfortunately lost, but I subjoin a despatch from the
Commander-in-Chief to the Governor-General:--
"CAMP, KULLALA, _March 15th, 1849_.
"On the re-perusal of my despatch relative to the operations
of February 21st at Goojerat, I regret to find that I
omitted to mention the names of Lieutenants Lumsden and
Hodson of the corps of Guides, and Lieutenant Lake of the
Engineers, attached to the Political Department. These
officers were most active in conveying orders throughout the
action, and I now beg to bring their names to the favorable
notice of your Lordship."
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Now Sir Robert Napier, K. C. B.
[6] Lieutenant (now Col.) Herbert Edwardes wrote as follows to his
family in England:--
"Young Hodson has been appointed to do duty with our Punjaub Guide
Corps, commanded by Lieutenant Lumsden. The duties of a Commandant or
Adjutant of Guides are at once important and delightful. It is his
duty in time of peace to fit himself for leading armies during war.
This necessitates his being constantly on the move, and making himself
and his men acquainted with the country in every quarter. In short, it
is a roving commission, and to a man of spirit and ability one of the
finest appointments imaginable.
"I think Hodson will do it justice. He is one of the finest young
fellows I know, and a thorough soldier in his heart."
[7] _Extract from Despatch of_ BRIGADIER WHEELER _to the_
ADJUTANT-GENERAL.
CAMP, RUNGUR NUGGUL, _Oct. 15th, 1848_.
"Lieut. W. S. Hodson, with his detachment of Corps of
Guides, has done most excellent service, and by his daring
boldness, and that of his men, gained the admiration of
all."
[8] Sir Colin.
[9] _Extract from an Order issued by_ BRIGADIER-GENERAL WHEELER.
"CAMP KULALLWALA, _Nov. 23d, 1848_.
"The detachment of the Corps of Guides moved in the morning
direct on the village, whilst the other troops were moving
on the fort. It was occupied in force by the enemy, who were
dislodged in a most spirited manner, and the place
afterwards retained as commanding the works of the fort, the
men keeping up a sharp fire on all who showed themselves.
The thanks of the Brigadier-General are due to Lieut.
Hodson, not only for his services in the field, but for the
information with which he furnished him, and he offers them
to him and to his men."
[10] Fanatics.
[11] _Extract from an Order issued by_ BRIGADIER-GENERAL WHEELER,
C. B., _dated_
"CAMP BELOW DULLAH, _Jan. 17th, 1849_.
"This order cannot be closed without the expression of the
Brigadier-General's high opinion of the services of
Lieutenants Lumsden and Hodson, who have spared no labor to
obtain for him an accurate knowledge of the mountain of
Dullah and its approaches; and Lieutenant Hodson has
entitled himself to the sincere thanks of the
Brigadier-General for his endeavors to lead a column to turn
the enemy's position, which failed only from causes which
rendered success impracticable."
[12] Chillianwalla, Jan. 13th, 1849.