the enemy opened a severe cannonade on them, which was vigorously
replied to by the batteries of horse artillery under Brigadier Brooke.
A gallant charge of the 3rd Light Dragoons, the 5th Light Infantry, and
4th Lancers, turned the left of the Sikh army, put their cavalry to
flight, and sweeping along the whole rear of the infantry and guns,
silenced them for a time. After this, Brigadier Brooke pushed on his
horse artillery, and while the cannonading was resumed on both sides,
the infantry, under Major-Generals Sir Harry Smith, Gilbert, and Sir
John McCaskill, attacked in echelon of lines the enemy's infantry,
almost invisible among the jungle and the approaching darkness of night.
The enemy made a stout resistance; but though their line far outflanked
the British, that advantage was counteracted by the flank movements of
the cavalry. The roll of fire from the British infantry showed the
Sikhs that they had met a foe they little expected, and their whole
force was driven from position after position at the point of the
bayonet, with great slaughter and the loss of seventeen pieces of
artillery.

Night alone saved them from worse disaster, for this stout conflict was
maintained for an hour and a half in dim starlight, amidst a cloud of
dust from the sandy plain, which yet more obscured every object. The
victory was not, however, obtained without severe loss to the British.
Sir John McCaskill was shot through the chest, and killed on the field;
the gallant Sir Robert Sale, the brave defender of Jellalabad, received
so severe a wound in the leg that he shortly after died from its
effects; many other officers and men were killed, making in all 215; and
657 were wounded. The enemy's sharpshooters had climbed into trees, and
from thence killed and wounded many officers. The victorious army
returned to camp at midnight, and halted on the 19th and 20th, that the
wounded might be collected, the captured guns brought in, and the men
refreshed.

BATTLE OF FEROZESHAH--21ST DECEMBER 1845.

The Sikhs had intrenched themselves in a camp a mile in length, and half
a mile in breadth, with the village of Ferozeshah in the centre. They
numbered nearly 60,000 men, and 108 pieces of cannon of heavy calibre in
fixed batteries.

The Umbala and Sir John Littler's forces, having formed a junction, now
arrived. The British army, thus increased, consisted of 16,700 men, and
69 guns, chiefly horse artillery. The united forces advance