the 30th there were twenty-seven pieces in battery playing on the citadel and city walls. About 9.30 a.m. the principal powder magazine of the fortress exploded with terrific violence. A stately column of smoke and débris first appeared to rise, which, gradually expanding into a palm-like canopy, enveloped the fort, and gradually descending like a vast pall on the doomed fortress, involved the entire works in smoke and dust. The shell which caused the explosion was fired from No. 2 8in. mortar of the "Blue Mosque" Battery.* The General commanding the force (Whish) and Colonel (afterwards Sir Henry) Lawrence, the Resident of Lahore-who was passing up country on his way from England-were both standing close in rear of my battery watching the practice, and when the explosion took place they came in and warmly congratulated me. Sir Henry left camp next day, and was in time for the battle of Chilliánwalla, fought by Lord Gough's army on the 13th of January, whilst we were still in the trenches before Mooltan. By the evening of this day a practicable breach in the city wall at the south east or Koonie-Boorj bastion had been opened by the Bengal Artillery, with the loss of fifteen gunners killed or wounded.

The breach at the Delhi gate, opened by the sailors of the Indus flotilla, under the Bombay Artillery, was reported ready the next day, but proved impracticable when assaulted on the 2nd January by the Bengal Column, led by the grenadiers of the 32nd Regiment, as there

* Besides my journal, the Punjaub Blue Book for that eventful period—1847-8-9—is before me, and is itself a most interesting history of most of the details of these wars. I may just quote Letter No. 44, Enclosure 21, as containing a report on the subject: "From Major-Genl. Whish to the Adjt.-Genl. of the Army. "Camp, Mooltan, Dec. 30, 1848.

"I was in hopes yesterday of being able to forward a complete casualty list in reference to our attacks of the 27th instant, and trust nothing will prevent my doing so to-morrow.

"I have the gratification now of reporting to you for the information of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, that by a shell from one of the mortars of the battery mentioned in my letter of the 28th instant (laid on the occasion by Lieutenant Newall, Bengal Artillery) the enemy's principal magazine in the citadel was blown up at 9 a.m., and the Grand Musjid, so appropriated, destroyed, with many houses and buildings in its vicinity. The sight was awfully grand, and precisely similar to that at the Siege of Hattrass, on the 1st March, 1817. I hope the consequences may be the same, in which case the enemy would abandon the fort to-night; otherwise I contemplate assaulting the city to-morrow."

And in my opinion this should have been done-and the fort as well-as was, indeed, suggested and volunteered for by Colonel Franks, H.M. 10th Regiment, a most able officer of those wars, though a terrible martinet.

was found a drop of 12ft. or more of the wall unbreached, and the column had to retire under cover. The Bombay column on the other hand, led by the stormers of the 1st Bombay Fusiliers-by a strange inconsistency told off to assault the Bengal breach-succeeded in carrying the city of Mooltan in the most gallant manner, and acquired all honour thereby, somewhat at the expense of the troops of the rival Presidency of Bengal; but let it be remembered that the old Bengal Artillery opened the road for them on that occasion! The total loss in storming the city amounted to two hundred and forty-nine casualties-chiefly amongst the Bombay troops.

From this date the siege went steadily on the city was occupied by our troops, and breaching batteries were established on the city side as well as at the north-east angle of the citadel, so that two distinct attacks were thus established. I see that on the 8th there were thirty-six pieces in battery. On the 9th a Bombay battery manned by sailors caught fire and was burned to the ground. On the 11th a sortie by the enemy on the head of the sap met with some success, owing to the guard of the trenches not being well placed, but after a short fight in the trenches the enemy was repulsed. On the 15th I found myself on duty at the city breaching battery, the guns of which I had the job of bringing through the tortuous streets of the city. On the 17th three mines, each of nine hundred pounds, were tamped and ready for explosion to blow in the counterscarp of the ditch. They were exploded on the 18th, when also the city breaching battery (where I again found myself on duty with the heavy 8in. howitzers) opened fire, and in the course of that day effected a practicable breach on the city face of the citadel; the walls-shaken by the 18-pounders-falling in great masses under the fire of the howitzer shells.

During the night I recollect having to keep open the breach by grape, as the enemy made many efforts to retrench it. My poor old servant- -a classie—whilst bringing me my cloak from the rear, was shot through the head near these guns this day. On the 20th we heard of the battle of Chillianwálla; and with us also all was ready for

*

* It was bruited about camp that I had myself been killed, and I recollect meeting friends for several days afterwards who seemed surprised to see me; one especially, who exclaimed, "Hullo, old fellow, alive still! We heard you had got a cropper long ago, and were under the muttee (ground)!" I suppose the pace was too good to enquire.

the assault; but it was not till the 21st that the garrison came to terms. On that date or next day, after much negotiation and attempts at cajolery, Moolraj, with the remainder of his garrison-3,500 mensurrendered unconditionally; leaving fifty guns in position on the walls: some of them, especially those flanking the breaches, were found loaded up to the very muzzle with bags of nails, &c.

The fort inside was a mass of débris and a mere ruin, scarcely a square foot of ground on which a shell, or fragment of a shell, had not fallen; and it speaks well for the energy of the defence that the surrender was so long delayed. Both breaches were found perfectly practicable, though some slight attempts at retrenchment were observable.

Thus ended the Siege of Mooltan in a bloodless manner at last—the troops being spared the additional loss of an assault-but our losses during the siege were, all told, 1,191 casualties. The artillery practice throughout the siege was excellent, and slightly in advance of the sapping and engineering operations, than which, however, nothing could have been better performed; and when we consider that after so long a peace this was the first considerable siege that had been undertaken either in India (or indeed Europe) by the British Army for years past, I think it may on the whole be pronounced creditable to the scientific corps engaged.

The Bengal Artillery had only 170 British and 84 native gunners to man their 32 siege pieces, with about 90 gun lascars. Their casualties during the siege were over 80 all told: two officers, two non-commissioned officers, and ten men killed; four officers, three non-commissioned officers and 62 men wounded. The total expenditure of ammunition (Bengal and Bombay) amounted to 39,479 rounds! an enormous expenditure, and to which the results obtained must be considered disproportionate.

On the 26th of January, 1849, the bodies of Messrs. Agnew and Anderson-our envoys at Mooltan, who had been treacherously murdered by Moolraj's soldiery in April-were disinterred and carried up the grand breach by our troops aud buried with due solemnities on the highest part of the citadel, which pious act terminated this eventful episode of the second Sikh war. On the 27th, the leading brigade of the Mooltan field force commenced its march to reinforce the army of the commander-in-chief-Sir H. Gough-on the Chenâb, which was

somewhat pressed to hold its own in face of the great united Sikh army opposed to it.

*

A few words on the picturesque aspects of the Mooltan expedition may, perhaps, here be given, and the subject finally dismissed. Could I here reproduce them, the illustrative sketches, which I found time to make from time to time, would, in themselves, afford glimpses of the current course of events. The turbid, rolling Sutlej, and the river scenes of the water journey; the hot night marches across the arid jungle of the Bári Doäb; the wild irregular fighting of the September's siege and times intermediate till the resumption of operations; the spectacle of the January's siege, are all incidentally depicted; but it would require the graphic pen of a Napier or of the military novelist to eloquently depict "camp life on service," and the incidents of the "war of the trenches." Many of these were grotesque and amusing, as well as sometimes sad the lights and shades of warfare ! The rush of the shot, the flight of the mortar shells-especially at night, were subjects of interest and even of beauty. The orbits of these last intersecting each other at night in brilliant curves, chasing each other as it were like fiery serpents through the air, presented a singularly beautiful sight, and we contrived to fire salvoes of mortar partly with the above object in view, a thing not often done in mortar practice. The starlit heavens, under which we lay so many nights in open trenches, were, of course, always a glorious canopy, except when-as occurred during the latter portion of the second siege-rain set in, and then the trenches became a slough of despond. The flashes of the bursting shell lighting up the dark walls of Mooltan, and bringing them into bold relief for a moment as they fell within the works, was a fine sight, and the explosion of the enemy's great magazine on the 30th of December, 1848, was a sight of awful grandeur never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.

I will borrow the words of a writer of those days, a non-combatant, and of another who, being in the allies' camp, four miles off, beheld it at

It is usually considered "bad form " to narrate one's narrow escapes, but I cannot forbear remembering the rush of a certain round shot which-fired from the walls of the fortress of Mooltan as I was presenting a document for signature to my commanding officer on my sabretache-passed exactly betwixt us! Another, following it immediately, struck a gabion, the withes of which cut the brave old major's hand. The rush of a shot is “shaky," but the idea that the wind of a round shot hurts must, I think, be considered a popular fallacy.

the best effective distance, and could describe it more perfectly than I, from whose battery the destructive shell was launched.

"Yesterday the magazine of the fort was blown up, having been ignited by a shell from our batteries. I happened to be on my way to the battery at the time-about a mile from the city-and saw the explosion just at a proper distance, and it was the most awfully sublime sight I have ever seen. The whole earth shook for miles around the fort, and the atmosphere was darkened for hours by a dense cloud, which hung like a mantle over the city."

Another eye-witness says "At first we felt a slight shock like an earthquake, then a second or two afterwards such a tremendous and prolonged report that it was like an awful clap of thunder. I hardly know what to liken it to, it was so inconceivably grand. Then a mass of dust rose to the very clouds; yet so perfectly distinct was its outline, and it was so dense and thick, that nobody at first could tell what it was; it looked like an immense solid brown tree suddenly grown up to the skies, and then it gradually expanded and slowly sailed away. The shock at four miles distance knocked bottles off the table, so terrific was the report."

And still another witness described it as "Like an enormous tree shooting up to the height of nearly a thousand feet. It seemed as if the army would be buried under the drooping canopy."

Moolraj had been collecting the shell and powder it contained for five years, and the latter was stated to be sixteen thousand pounds in weight, but must have been much more. It was stored in the Great Jumma Musjid of Mooltan, which was hurled into the air by the explosion; and it is a consolatory thought that, as compensation for the destruction caused, the army was probably saved the loss of an assault, the enemy's resources being so crippled thereby.

With these extracts I will conclude the chapter, and get on to Sir Hugh Gough's camp and the Army of the Punjaub.

D. J. F. NEWALL.