um Khan, the Amil of the
district, with one thousand men and five guns; 5. Seoraj-od Deen, the
Amil of Ramnuggur, with one hundred and fifty men and two guns; 6.
Ghalib Jung, with one thousand foot soldiers, forty camel jinjals
(tumbooraks), seven guns, and one hundred troopers, in an attack upon
Kasimgunge. The different parts of this force had been so disposed as
to concentrate upon and invest the fort at daybreak on the morning of
that day. The surprise was complete.

Shells were thrown into the fort from Captain Barlow's guns, but
Captain Boileau did not consider the force sufficient to take the
fort and secure, the garrison, and wrote to request a reinforcement.
The distance from Kasimgunge to the cantonments was twenty miles. A
wing of the 10th Regiment Native Infantry, with two guns, was sent
off under Captain Wilson; but the garrison had evacuated the fort and
fled on the night of the 26th, and the wing was ordered to proceed
direct to the fort of Bhetae, four miles nearer to the cantonments,
which was to be invested by the same force on the morning of the
28th.

Captain Wilson had with him Lieutenant Elderton, as adjutant of the
wing, and Ensigns Trenchard and Wish, with a native officer in charge
of the two guns. They reached Bhetae at 7 A.M., were joined by the
Bhetae force at 8 A.M., and the two forts of Bhetae and Munmutpore
were forthwith invested. Munmutpore stood about three hundred yards
to the west of Bhetae; and both forts were held by Thakur Purshad and
Bhugwunt Sing, members of the same family of pansee robbers, and
their gangs. Captain Wilson was the chief in command; and he, with
his own and Captain Boileau's wing, took up his position on the north
side of Bhetae, and placed Captain Barlow on the west side of
Munmutpore. There was a deep dry ditch all round outside the outer
wall, and a thick fence of bamboos inside. Between this fence and the
citadel in both forts was a still deeper ditch. Between the fence of
bamboos and the inner ditch was a small intricate passage,
intersected by huts and trenches.

The wall of the citadel was about twenty feet high, and the upper
part formed a parapet eight feet high, filled with loopholes for
matchlocks. Between Bhetae and Munmutpore, midway, was a large
bastion filled with matchlock-men, to keep open the communication and
prevent an enemy from taking up any position between the two forts.
The investing force was distributed all round, with orders to att