d sailors, camels and elephants, white men and black men,
horses and oxen, marines and artillery, Sikhs and Highlanders.

"When we leave the encampment, all is shrouded in darkness, and everyone
naturally feels a little grumpy; but when the first streaks of dawn
appear, and we have been an hour on the road, the welcome note is heard
in the distance of the bugles sounding the `halt.' With great rapidity
it passes from regiment to regiment, and dies away in the rear. Cavalry
dismount, infantry pile arms in the middle of the road, and for a few
minutes the whole army disperses on each side of it. The favourite
refreshment of officers is bread, cold tongue, and `brandy pawnee,'
which find their way out of innocent-looking holsters. And now we take
off overcoats and monkey-jackets, which were needed when we started in
the cold and damp night; the bluejackets fasten theirs over their
shoulders, and the officers strap theirs to their saddles. The brief
halt is too quickly at an end, and after a ten minutes' rest the advance
again sounds down the line from bugler to bugler. All at once fall in,
arms are unpiled, and, enlivened by our band, we again step out; now
feet begin to ache, and boots to chafe; but the cheery music of the
bands, bugles, or drums and fifes of the regiments marching next to us,
generally the Rifles, infuses energy into the most footsore. We make
three halts in a march of thirteen or fourteen miles, of which the last
is the longest, to allow the quartermaster-general and his staff to ride
on and mark out the camp. As the sun rises, the heat rapidly increases,
and the camels and elephants are seen making short cuts across the
fields, and keeping always clear of the road. When our bands have blown
as much wind as they can spare into their instruments, our men strike up
a song; and old windlass tunes, forecastle ditties, and many a
well-known old ballad resound through the jungles and across the fertile
plains of Bengal, and serve to animate our sailors and astonish the
natives."

On the 2nd of January 1858, the naval brigade were engaged at the battle
of Kallee-Nuddee. A party of seamen, under Lieutenant Vaughan, had been
repairing the bridge across that river, when the Sepoys opened fire on
him from a small gun in the opposite village. He returned it, and,
crossing the bridge with three guns, held in check a body of the enemy's
cavalry visible beyond the village. Brigadier Greathed's division and