BOOK VIII.
Chapter V.

1857. July 5. and make

excellent

practice. Captains D'Oyly and

Pearson urge an advance,

but without success.

Probable reasons in

Brigadier.

short time they acquired the exact range and made such excellent practice that they exploded two tumbrils, and dismounted one of the guns in the half battery on the left, besides inflicting severe loss amongst the horses and drivers.

All this time our infantry were lying down. Captains D'Oyly and Pearson finding that their ammunition would soon be running low had sent repeated messages to the Brigadier reporting the fact, and urging him to attack the village with his infantry. The enemy, far from being checked, had been encouraged by the success of their guns to throw out skirmishers and to threaten our flanks with their cavalry. It had been for some time evident that if we were to confine ourselves to an artillery duel we could not beat them. Still, for two hours, the Brigadier seemed content to hold his own with the guns.

And yet, in continuing stationary, he was fluencing the simply courting disaster. At any period within those two hours Brigadier Polwhele was in a more favourable position than Eyre had enjoyed in his fight near Arah. On that occasion Eyre, after pounding his enemy until he found that pounding alone would not win the day, had let loose his infantry upon him. He did not wait till his caissons had been exhausted, till every shot had been fired away! But this is just what Brigadier Polwhele did do! The fact is, that, tenderness for the lives of the only European defence of A'gra had

infantry available for the
made him over-cautious. His men were com-
paratively safe, there, lying down. He could not

make up his mind to give, in sufficient time, the order to advance! Fatal caution! Lamentable

oblivion of the history of former wars! It needed but an onward movement of that thin red line to drive the enemy out of the village. The guns would then have completed their discomfiture.

BOOK VIII.
Chapter V.

1857.

July 5.

But minute succeeded minute, and our infantry Inaction of the still lay, prone and motionless, on the ground.

Brigadier Polwhele was yet considering whether

infantry,

enemy's

the time had arrived to give the order to advance, till too late! when the explosion of another tumbril in the half battery on our left warned him that it had all but passed. That explosion was greeted by the enemy with a frantic shout of joy. Their cavalry, Charge of the emerging in order from behind the village, swept cavalry, round the left flank to the rear of our force, and from that point made a desperate charge at the disabled guns. Calm and collected, Captain Pearson wheeled round one of his guns and awaited their approach. The company of the 3rd Europeans nearest him rose likewise, and wheeled to face them. A volley of grape and musketry but are driven greeted then the enemy as they charged through the guns shouting and waving their swords. They did not stop to complete their work.

off.

They attack

the right

Almost immediately after the incident just related one of the enemy's horsemen was seen to approach our right flank, as if to ascertain our condition there. The horseman returned and flank." made his report. At once about two hundred of the enemy's cavalry advanced with the evident intention of charging Captain D'Oyly's halfbattery. At this sight Captain Prendergast, who

Chapter V.

1857. July 5. Gallant

charge of

The artillery. ammunition

when the Brigadier orders the advance.

BOOK VIII. commanded eighteen mounted volunteers, could not contain himself, but with his small following charged the two hundred. As a manoeuvre to stop the enemy's advance this gallant charge was Prendergast. effective, but in other respects it was disastrous. In the hand to hand conflict which followed, our horsemen lost more than one-third of their number. Had the enemy not shown abject cowardice not one of our men would have escaped. More than two hours had elapsed. Captain is exhausted, D'Oyly now reported that his ammunition was all but exhausted. Then, and then only, did the Brigadier give the order to advance. The result showed how decisive would have been the movement had it been made earlier. Our infantry started to their feet, moved forward, and though suffering severely from the enemy's guns and from the fire of marksmen stationed on the roofs of the houses, gallantly forced their way into the village. One of the enemy's guns was captured and spiked. But our loss in this advance had been severe. The gallant D'Oyly, whose horse had been shot under him early in the day, was mortally wounded by a grape-shot whilst endeavouring to right one of his guns. Lifted on to a tumbril he still continued to direct the fire of his battery. The spirit of the soldier was still strong within him. Careless of his own sufferings, his duty to his guns, his corps, his country, mastered every other thought. Overcome, at last, by intense pain he turned to the man nearest him and said; "They have done for me now; put a stone over my grave and say that I

D'Oyly's

splendid conduct.

THE DELAY IN ADVANCING FATAL.

275

died fighting my guns."* He died the second BOOK VIII. day after in the fort.

Chapter V

1857.

July 5.

the village.

In the village itself Major Thomas of the 3rd Europeans, a brave and accomplished officer, was Our losses in mortally wounded. Many men fell with him. Every house, lane, and gateway was disputed. At last the enemy were driven out. It required now but the support of artillery to complete the victory. But here the fatal result of the delay in the advance became apparent. There was not a single round of ammunition left.

To continue the contest with small arms was Fatal conse quences of the useless, for the enemy, though driven out of the delay in advillage itself, still occupied detached houses whence vancing. they continued to pour a heavy fire on our men. D'Oyly was mortally wounded; Pearson, with the other half battery a complete wreck, had lost his only subaltern, Lamb, early in the action, and had suffered so severely in men and horses, and by the desertion of his native drivers with the spare horses, that he could not make a pretence of assisting. Meanwhile the enemy attributing to the right cause the silence of our guns, and gathering courage, began to make a strong demonstration with all three arms. For all practical purposes we had only infantry to oppose to them. The village could not be held by infantry alone. It would have been easy to cut off our communications with the fort. Our object besides was to defeat the rebels :-failing that—to guard the fortress of A'gra. A retreat then seemed

"If glory be a distinction, leveller." for such a man death is not a sular War.

Napier's Penin

276

THE BRITISH KETIRE ON A'GRA.

BOOK VIII. the only possible course, if indeed even this were Chapter V.

1857. July 5. The force retires on A'gra,

possible.

The retreat was ordered. It was a keen disappointment to all. There was not one, even amongst the privates, who did not feel that the day had been lost by bad generalship; that an early advance would have gained the victory. They showed the stuff that was in them when the enemy's horsemen seemed disposed to contest their retreat. Waiting calmly till the enemy approached, somewhat hesitatingly, within musket range, they then delivered a volley which made in good order. many a horse riderless. Again and again the rebel cavalry tried the same manoeuvre, but always with a similar result. The fire from the rebel guns, which had been at first alarming, now gradually slackened, and from the fact that in the last round they fired copper coins, it was inferred that they too had run short of ammunition.

Pearson tries to save his gun.

The enemy, wanting am. munition,

move on

Dehlí,

Meanwhile Pearson had made superhuman exertions to mount and get away his disabled gun. But horses, drivers, men, and time alike failed him. It did not, however, adorn the enemy's triumph, for it remained on the ground and a day or two later was brought into the fort.

Baffled by the result of their attempts to charge, and, probably, by the failure of their ammunition, the rebels as they followed marked their triumph by setting fire to every building they reached. Returning then to Shahganj, they took there a hasty meal, and set off that very night on the road to Dehlí. They reached the imperial city on the 8th of July, and were received there