fought the bloody battle of
Chillianwalla, where the casualties on both sides were very severe, and
where the gallant 24th Foot had thirteen officers and the sergeant-major
laid out dead on their mess-table. Lord Gough required nearly three
thousand men to fill the gaps in his ranks before again closing with the
redoubtable Sikhs. On every count, therefore, the news of the fall of
Mooltan was received with considerable satisfaction, and the troops
recently engaged in it with keen alacrity turned their faces northwards
to Lord Gough's assistance, in the hope of arriving in time to throw
their weight into the balance in the closing scenes of a campaign
destined to add a kingdom to the British Empire.

Ahead of the troops from Mooltan went Lumsden and the Guides' cavalry,
followed by Hodson with the Guides' infantry. The corps when re-united,
before it joined Lord Gough, was deflected for the performance of a
detached duty which brought it no little honour. It was reported that
considerable numbers of Sikh troops, under Ganda Singh and Ram Singh,
having crossed the Chenab, were moving south-east heavily laden with
spoil, which having disposed of, they would be free to fall on the
British lines of communication.

Starting in hot haste, Lumsden and Hodson took up the trail, and by
dogged and relentless pursuit, after three days and nights of incessant
marching, came up with their quarry. They found Ganda Singh and his
following at Nuroat on the Beas River, while Ram Singh was some miles
further on.

The position taken up by Ganda Singh was in a clump of mango trees,
surrounded by a square ditch and bank in place of a hedge, as is often
the case in the East. This formed a good natural defence, and piling
their spoil up amongst the trees, Ganda Singh prepared to fight
desperately to hold what they had won with so much toil. The right of
the Sikh position rested on a deep and tortuous nullah, or dry
watercourse, whose precipitous sides, if properly watched, formed an
excellent flank defence; but if unwatched they formed an equally
admirable covered approach whereby an opponent might penetrate or turn
the position. The manifest precaution of setting a watch was, however,
neglected, an error not likely to slip the attention of so skilled a
campaigner as Lumsden. Occupying, therefore, the attention of the enemy
in front by preparations for the infantry attack under Hodson, Lumsden
himself, with the cavalry, slipped into the nu