The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-02-27 00:00:00

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL

THE WAR IN INDIA

,—CAPTURE OF MOULTAN.
ceived in London, by express, in

anticipation of the overland mail, from Calcutta to the
sth of January, from Bombay to the 19th, and from
Moultan, the seat of war, to the 7th of the same month.
The intelligence is most important. The following sum-
mary is from the Bombay Times :

---"Moultan has at length been captured, after one of
the most obstinate and gallant defences on the part of

having been battered and bombarded by nearly a hundred
and fifty pieces of ordnance for a week, was taken on the
2nd. This fort was expected to be stormed on the 7th
instant. The Bombay troops joined General Whish on
the 21st December. The besieging army now amounted
to 15,000 British troops, the allies amounting to about

•
17,000; or m 32,000 in all. The artillery amounted to
about 150 pieces of ordnance, of which nearly one-half
were of the largest caliber. On Christmas-day, and the

lowing

the force c

grounc

the troops advanced in four columns to the attack, and,
clearing the suburbs, and driving in the enemy on all
sides, established themselves within five hundred yards

of the walls. Batteries were now constructed in every
direction, and on the morning of the 28th a terrific can-
nonade and bombardment commenced. On the 29th the
heavy guns were battering within eighty yards of the
ramparts. On the morning of the 30th the principal
magazine in the fort blew up with a terriffic explosion,—
nearly 800,000 lbs. of powder are reported to have been
stored in it,—blowing a vast column of dust a thousand
feet into the air. The destruction it caused all round
must have been tremendous. A mighty conflagration,
supposed to be that of the principal stores, was now
spreading in the town. £50,000 worth of grain were
afterwards found to have been destroyed. The enemy's
artillery slackened their fire, but still continued unsilen-
ced. On the two next days the cannonade continued ;
shells were thrown, sometimes every reipute, sometimes
at intervals of ten minutes, and fearfulgilvos were from
time to time discharged from the heavy batteries. A
furious cannonade having been kept up all the previous
night, on the morning of the 2nd a column of Bengal
troops, commanded by Colonel Franks, consisting of her
Majesty's 32nd, 49th, and 72nd Native Infantry, pushed
forward to a breach near the Delhi Gate. Here they
found the enemy determined to oppose them to the last.
The breach, besides, proved impracticable; so the troops
retired, and moved round to the opposite side of the
town, where the entrance of the Bombay column had
already been effected. The breach stormed by them bad
been much more complete than the other, and the enemy
defending it were driven off at the bayonet's point. The
Fusiliers entered first, and speedily placed their standard
within the walls of the town. The Bengal column fol-
lowed them, and the city of Moultan, which was captured
about three p.m., was, before sunset; filled with British
troops. The fire from the fort, which had for a time
slackened, was meanwhile renewed. In the course of the
night a mine was sprung on us, which occasioned some
mischief. Moolraj seemed determined to maintain him-
self to the last, and showed no sign of fear amidst all his
reverses. On the morning of the 3rd the cannonade was
again resumed by us, and the Dowlut Gate, the last hold
of the enemy, destroyed. Large quantities of pillage
were being collected ; and the bankers were said to have
offered £30,000 if we would leave their establishments
alone." It does not appear, however, that down to the
evening of the 6th of January the fort of Moultan had
surrendered. A letter of that date says,—" Moolraj had
sent a communication to General Whish to request
-' The answer was,—" An unconditional surren-
To that the reply was not known when the letter

A letter from Moultan, of the 7th, published in the
Bombay Telegraph and Inquirer, says, tnat the citadel
had not yet fallen, but was being mined, with the object
of blowing the counterscarp into the ditch, and then
storming the fort. Another letters tys,—" The fort still
holds out. Moolraj appears deter nined to stand to his
walls to the last. 1 understand that the plan now is to
blow the counterscarp into the ditch, which will enable
the breich to be stormed. We still bombari night and
day. Moolraj sent in a Vakeel yesterday offering to sur-
render, on condition of his life being promised. This was
refused. I suppose a day or two more will give you the
accounts of the fort being ours." _

__The following is a list of the killed and wounded at
Moultan :

" Killed.—Major J. Gordon, 60th Rifles ; Lieutenant
E. Younghusband, 9th Bombay Native Infantry.
" Wounded.—Lieutenant Colonel Nash, 72nd Native
Infantry ; Major Case, 32d Foot ; Lieutenant H. A.
Playfair, (since dead,) 52d Native Infantry ; Lieutenant
Hill, Bombay Engineers ; Captain Bailey, Bombay
Artillery, (arm lost ;) Lieutenant Baugh, 9th Bombay
Native Infantry ; Lieutenant N. W. Dyatt, 31 Bombay
Native Infantry, slightly; Surgeon J. P. Malcolmson,
3d Bombay Native Infantry, slightly ; Second Lieut.
G. Napier, 3d Company Ist Battalion Bombay Artillery,
slightly ; Lieutenants Brooke and Straubenzee, 32d Foot,
severely ; Lieutenant Tyrwhitt, 51st Native Infantry ;
Lieutenant Armstrong, and Ensigns Gillon and M`Dou-
gal, 72d Native Infantry.
These casualties all occurred on the 27th of December.
No account of those which happened on the 2nd of Janu-
ary has yet appeared, further than that Captains R. W.
D. Leith and T. Tapp, and Lieutenants E. A. Law, W.
Gray, and E. Dansey, of the Ist Bombay Fusiliers, with
about 40 men, were wounded, and four men killed ; Lieut.
Garforth, Bengal Engineers, severely wounded ; Lieut.
Taylor, of her Majesty's 32nd Foot, wounded, with two
men killed and ten wounded.

The Bombay correspondent of the Times, writing on
the 19th, says,—" By late advices we learn that Moolraj
had prepared to treat, and that General Whish had given
'Bombay-GOLVerirgait'sofn iegathiAfehal,, TiriCerßtr:‘,..ll4
further deferred the mail during the last fourteen hours ;
but, if any intelligence has been received during the course
of to-night, as to the submission of Moolraj, it has not
been disclosed." _ _

The commercial accounts by the overland mail continue,
on the whole, to be very satisfactory. At Bombay both
cotton goods and metals are in active demand, and the
stocks of both have become so low that considerable
transactions have taken place for arrival. At Calcutta
also the import market as regards cotton goods is ex-
tremely firm. From China the advices are less favourable,
but, although there was a general dulness in the markets,
it was attributed in some degree to the season, and an
early improvement was anticipated.