The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-30 00:00:00

THE WAR IN THE PUNJAUB.
(Extracts from the Journal of a Subaltern in the 2d
Europeans.) _

At sunset we collected as many of our wounded as we
could find, blfw up all the ammunition that we had
taken, and moved out of the jungle into the open
ground, where we piled arms and bivouacked on the
ground, and a more wretched night I never passed; it
came on a thick drizzling rain, and we were wet to the
skin; sleep was impossible, and we were almost perish-
ing with thirst, but not a drop of water was to be got.
In my wanderings about in search of it I came upon
the field hospital, and the sight I saw there I shall re-
member to my dying day—poor wounded wretches
lyin on the ground without a thing to cover them;
" Wc,
Water—water—water," was their ceaseless cry, and not
a drop was there to slake their thirst. All the hospital
apparatus was behind, and there was not a single com-
fort for the poor fellows: even medical assistance was
very scarce; many were lying bleeding on the cold
earth for hours without having a soul near them; the
ghastly sight of suffering, the fearful wounds and hideous
gashes that met my eyes, would poison an angel's dreams.
Never was dawn—a miserable and a rainy one as it was
—so welcome.
Jan. 14.—At daybreak the ground was marked out for
an encampment, and we moved up in order. The Chief
rode all along the line and congratulated us on our
success. The way in which the 14th behaved is a black
business, but give them another . chance and I would
stake my existence on their doing well. At four o'clock
I went with the rest of the officers to the funeral—
s melancholy office it was. -The heavens were black
with clouds, and the rain poured down incessantly.
25 officers were buried in one spot; 13 of the 24th
(Queen's) were brought up one after another, and buried
, in one grave. Brigadier Pennycuick and his son were
buried in another. The father was cut down first, and
his son threw himself on his body and was killed there.
Major Christie was buried in the same grave with his
men; they fell together, and now they sleep together in
the bed of glory. Ekins, the Deputy-Adjutant General,
was buried there also. He fell in trying to rally the
14th Dragoons.
Jan. 1 6. —Still raining—wretched, wretched weather,
and very disheartening to the troops. Went to the hos-
pital—the men are most of them doing as well as can be
expected. One poor fellow in my company, who was
shot close to me, died in the night. Nightingale is in a
dangerous state, but hopes are held out of him. At four
o'clock we buried poor Walden; the clergyman was un-
able to attend, so I had to read the service over him; the
rain was pouring all the time, and as there was no grave
digger present the men had to fill in the grave with their
hands and bayonets. The enemy's tents are plainly to
be seen on a hill about four miles off. A sepoy, who had
been taken prisoner, was sent back this morning with a
message from Shere Singh. He says that the enemy's
wounded are lying in heaps on the hill without any at-
tendance—left to die of their wounds.
January 17.—A beautiful day, thank God!—the
bright sunshine has come out again, and no one who has
not experienced the misery of wading through a wet
camp with mud up to the ancles can appreciate the
blessing dry weather is to a campaigner. Rode out to
see the battle field—a sickening sight it was. The
enemy had come down in the night, after we left the
ground, and murdered every wounded man. Many of
them had evidently only been hit in the legs, and they
were gashed about in a fearful manner; every man had
his throat cut, and many their heads clean cut off. One
poor man of ours was obliged to be left behind in the
charge, and a lot of the enemy came down and literally
hewed him in pieces. Another, who is now lying,
doing well, in the hospital, was awfully cut about too.
He says that they took him and tossed him up in
the air, to see if he was alive; but, as he himself
quaintly expressed it, he had presence of mind to
be dead. The most fearful sight of all was in front of
the battery where the 24th had been repulsed. 150 of
them lay dead on the ground; they were literally in
heaps. The hideous way they had been mangled by
these inhuman fiends no tongue can describe, and no
mercy will be shown by our infuriated soldiers to any
who may fall in their way. There were immense heaps
of Seikhs lying there too, but they had taken away the
greater number.

Jan. 20—Two of the 9th Lancers who were taken pri-
soners the other day were sent back this morning with
Shere Singh's compliments. They seemed rather sorry
to come back, as they had been treated like princes,
plied with champagne and brandy to the masthead, and
sent away with ten rupees each in his pocket. Shere
Singh is evidently providing for the worst, and making
as favourable an impression as he can. The Sirdars are
a fine set of fellows enough; it is only the rabble that
perpetrate all these atrocities. There are six of their
wounded now in our hospital, and treated with the
greatest care.

Jan. 21.—Divine service at 11 o'clock in the mess
tent; after that, took a walk out to the trenches. There
is a breastwork thrown up along the face of the camp,
Interspersed with batteries here and there. Whilst we were
down a lot of the enemy came and attacked our cavalry
Picket, and fired at the videttes. However, a 9-pounder
shot, pitched into the middle of them, was very persua-
sive au
, d they quickly went to the rightabout. We are
`exPeetinK an attack every night and day, and are all
r:ady flr them.
.Tqn. 24.—Toward the e cninc, the Seikhs fired a salute
of' 21 guns. Hoavf.lft nal: iii:--4.s what for; but I sup-
pose some other blackgai'td
see joined them. With the
spy-018g one can b t tter
beautifullyevidently into their camp,
ayl preparing for us.
anti nico work they are
I,w-
-e parties are working „
throwing up
deftAices. A fresh battery appears every'd
out to the advanced picket to see what ay. Walked
was going on;
saw a large body of cavalry moving along to the ri ht.
the sun was shining on them, and we could even see he
hilts of the sabres as they flashed in the light.
Jan. 25.—About two o'clock there was an alarm, andr my company was ordered out in advanced picket; took
out my miserable old tent, and arranged ourselves or
the night. However, nothing took place. At sunset c%re
were visited by the Brigadier, and received orders,lin
case of an attack, to hold our position until most of; us
were killed, and then retire on the breastwork in rear of
ut,:_ At ten o'clock it began to pour with rain, and
i
9d, without a lull, all night.
last
Ja n. 26.—Woke at daybreak; still raining violently.
The te. At was so flooded that the water was half way up

CAMP CHILLIANWALLA.
JANUARY 15.—Two days have passed over, and, thank
God, lam bore to tell you we have had as severe an
action as ever was fought in India. But I will go back,
and give it you all in detail.
On the morning of the 13th we marched at seven
o'clock, struk our tents, took a glass of wine all altogether,
and drank to every man's escape during the anticipated
action. Marched about ten miles, and came upon a
thick jungle, where we were halted about an hour.
The artillery went a-head, and presently we heard
the cannonading commence—bang, bang, went our guns
one after the other, in one continued stunning roar, and
oar hearts beat and our pulses quickened with anticipa-
tion. The enemy took it up, and a tremendous fire was
kept up for half an hour, when the word came for the
infantry to advance. " Fix bayonets—load—deploy into
line—quick march !" And just then came a roll of
musketry that drove us almost mad. " Quick march !"
And into the jungle we plunged in line with a deafening
cheer—the roll of musketry increasing every moment.
On we went at a rapid double, dashing through the
bushes and bounding over every impediment. Faster
rolled the musketry, crash upon,crash the cannon poured
forth its deadly contents, and down upon them comes
our brigade, and, gaining an open space in the jungle,
the whole of the enemy's line burst on our view.
" Charge !" rang the word through our ranks, and the
men bounded forward like angry bulldogs, pouring in a
murderous fire. The enemy's bullets whizzed above our
heads—the very air seemed teeming with them. Man
after man was struck down, and rolled in the dust ; but
a passing glance was all we could give them. And on-
ward we went, bearing on their line with a steadiness
which nothing could resist. They fired a last volley,
wavered, and then turned and fled, leaving the ground
covered with dead and wounded.,Pursuit in a jungle like
that was useless, where we could not see 20 yards before
us, so we halted, and began to collect oar wounded; when
all of a sudden a fire was opened upon us in our rear; a
large body of the enemy had turned our flank in the
jungle, and got between us and the rest of the troops ;
another party were on our left, and we found ourselves
with our light field battery completely surrounded and
alone in the field ; the word was given "Right about
face !" and we advanced steadily, loading and firing as
we went, and the artillery pouring in grape as steadily
as if on parade. If it had not been for that battery we
should have been cut up to a man. The fire was fearful,
the atmosphere seemed alive with balls; I can only com-
pare it to a storm of hail, they rang above my head and
ears so thick that I felt that if I put out my hand it
would be taken off. A man was knocked over on
eitht r side of me, and I expected every moment to be
hit, so incessant was the storm of balls. I thought about
you all, and breathed a short prayer—it was all I
had time for, for we were obliged to be almost every-
where at once, keeping the men in line, which from the
jungle was extremely difficult. Our firing was beautiful,
every man was as steady as a rock, and fired low and
well, while the Sepoys on our right were blazing away
into the air, and taking no aim whatever.
All this time the enemy were dodging about the
bushes, banging away at us, and then disappearing. At
last General Gilbert rode up, and said to Steel, " Well,
Major, how are you? Do you think you are near
enough to charge?" "By all means," said Steel.
" Well, then, let's see how you can do it." Men of
the 2d Europeans, prepare to charge—" Charge!" And
on we went with a stunning cheer. Poor Nightin-
gale was shot in the head, and fell at my feet. I
• had just time to order two men to pick him up. The
Seikhs fought like devils. They charged down on us,
singly, sword in hand, and strove to break through our
line—but it was no go; and after a short struggle
we swept them before us and remained masters of
the field. This is only what happened in one part of
the field. The battle was general all over the line, and
we were in the extreme right, and the thickness of the
jungle prevented our seeing what was going on anywhere
else. We took three of their guns in our second charge,
and spiked them on the ground. After all was over we
did what we could for our wounded, and a fearful sight
it was, and one to make a man's heart bleed ; poor
fellows lying on the ground and writhing i❑ agony, and
not a doctor or drop of water to be got ; one poor fel-
low in my company was mortally wounded in the
stomach ; another bud his leg shot off. The enemy lay
in heaps around—some dead, some dying, but fierce and
untamed even in their dying strugle; numbers of them were
bayonetted by our men in the act of rearing themselves
up and taking aim at the officers. The battle lasted
for three hours, and so maddening was the excitement
that it seemed scarcely half an hour. The chief rode
down our line afterwards; we gave him three cheers,
and proud we were of the praise he gave us. In short
we have gained ourselves a name. The Brigadier and
Major did all that commanding officers could do; the
colours were carried gallantly by De Mole and Toogood,
the senior ensigns, and were shot through and through.

the legs of my bed; on the top of which I lay, very
much in the position of the ark on Mount Ararat. Not
being able to rise, I made the best of my position, and
went to sleep again. At eight o'clock it cease-I, and
the sun came out brightly; the clouds all cleared
away rapidly, and slunk off as if they were ashamed
of having spent a night in persecuting three harm-
less subalterns and a company of unfortunate Euro-
peans. Fished about till I found a piece of dry
ground, on which I stood to get dry. Breakfasted there,
and then laid down on my bed and read till the sun
had dried up the greater portion of the surrounding
pools. At two o'clock a Royal salute, thundered from
our big guns, announced the welcome intelligence of the
fall of Moultan. At last the place is ours! I was look-
ing through a glass at the Seikh camp at the time, and
as the first report from the heavies came booming
through the air it seemed to swarm with human beings.
I could see thousands of them rushing about; they evi-
dently did not know what to make of it. Bowie, one of
our Politicals, who was taken prisoner with Herbert,
came into camp to-day with a proposition from Shere
Singh, on parole. Shere Singh treats him " like a
brick." He has twenty men to guard him all day and
night; and such is their idea of us that he has a bottle
of brandy placed on his breakfast table every morning.