f the 60th Royal Rifle regiment, two hundred of
the carbineers, and one battery of artillery, to which a troop of
horse-artillery was subsequently added. They marched on the 27th of
May, and encamped on the 30th at Ghazeeoodeen Nuggur, a large Hindoo
village on the left bank of the river Hindoun, eighteen miles east of
Delhi. At that place there was a suspension bridge, the possession
of which commanded the passage of the Hindoun from Meerut. Brigadier
Wilson was attacked there by a force from Delhi, who hoped, by
defeating the colonel, to prevent the junction of his forces with troops
from Kurnoul. A battle ensued, the first of the war, as the previous
struggles between mutineers and loyalists did not assume the form of
a regular engagement. The rebels not only disputed the passage of the
river, but opened a heavy cannonade with five guns from a well-chosen
position. Wilson brought all his troops into action. The rifles were
very efficient, fighting in a mode similar to that afterwards attributed
to the Turcos of the French army in the war in Italy. They rushed
forward with great rapidity for short spaces, then falling flat on their
faces, timing their intervals of movement by the play of the enemy's
guns, which they watched skilfully. In this way they suffered
exceedingly little in their advance, until at last springing upon the
guns they captured them instantaneously, piercing the gunners with their
sword bayonets. The sepoy infantry made a stand, but the rifles, in a
hand to hand combat, were easy victors. The battle was decided in
favour of the British; the sepoys fled, pursued by the carbineers,
who continued the pursuit until night closed around conquerors and
fugitives. The loss on the part of the English was eleven killed, and
twenty-one wounded and missing. Of the killed five met their death by
the explosion of a powder-waggon, fired by a desperate sepoy. Captain
Andrews, of the Rifles, was one of those blown up.

On the 31st Colonel Courtance, of the carbineers, was actively employed
watching strong reconnoitering parties of the enemy's horse, so that
the brigade could not advance far on the left side of the river without
another action. At one o'clock five thousand mutineers and irregulars
took up a position on an elevated sweep of land. A battle of artillery
ensued; the mutineers of the 3rd Bengal cavalry charged the English guns
repeatedly, but were repulsed. After more than two hours, spent in a
contest o