f
musketeers took them on each flank, and some getting to their rear
among the jungle, fired upon them with deadly aim. The British were
thus compelled to cut their way back to their own lines through hosts
of encircling foes. While this was going on upon the centre, Sir Walter
Gilbert advanced against the enemy's left. That general occupied the
extreme right of his division, and Brigadier Godby the extreme left.
They marched through a dense jungle almost unmolested, and then were
confronted by infantry. Had the British at once charged with the
bayonet, the result might for them have been less sanguinary; they,
however, opened fire, and the Sikhs, more numerous, returned the fire
and outflanked them. Two companies of the 2nd (or Queen's) British
regiment charged with the bayonet, but were surrounded. These gallant
and skilful soldiers immediately faced about, and after some file-firing
charged, rear-rank in front. At this critical moment, Deane's battery
arrived, and drove back the enemy by the precision of their fire.
Several guns were here captured by the British. The heroism and losses
of the 2nd regiment were very great. While the infantry had thus been
engaged in close and deadly battle, the cavalry also were occupied both
on the left and right. On the former flank of the British, Brigadier
White's brigade charged the enemy, covering the retreat of the infantry.
On the extreme right Brigadier Pope's brigade, strengthened, as has been
already shown, by the temporary attachment of the 14th Light Dragoons of
the Queen's army, was ordered to charge a body of the enemy's cavalry,
the numbers of which were much superior. Instead of obeying the orders
given, they wheeled right about, and galloped off the field, breaking
through the artillery, upsetting artillerymen, drivers, and waggons in
their course, until they reached the field hospital. According to some
narrations of this transaction, the men galloped away under a mistake of
orders; other accounts represent this to have been impossible, because
their own officers and officers of the artillery endeavoured to stop
and rally them without success, except so far as a portion of the 9th
Lancers was concerned. The enemy was not slow to take advantage of
this extraordinary flight; they pursued--dashed in among the horse
artillery--cut down seventy-five gunners, and took six guns. The arrival
of artillery reserves, the rallying of a portion of the 9th Lancers, and
the steadin