called on our brave
English soldiers to punish the Sikhs when they came too close, and were
imprudent; and when morning broke, we went at it in true English style.
Gough was on the right. I placed myself, and dear little Arthur by my
side, in the centre, about thirty yards in front of the men, to prevent
their firing; and we drove the enemy without a halt from one extremity
of the camp to the other, capturing thirty or forty guns as we went
along, which fired at twenty paces from us, and were served obstinately.
The brave men drew up in an excellent line, and cheered Gough and
myself as we rode up the line, the regimental colours lowering to me as
if on parade. The mournful part is the heavy loss I have sustained in
my officers. I have lost ten aides-de-camp _hors de combat_, five
killed and five wounded. The fire of grape was very heavy from one
hundred pieces of cannon. The Sikh army was drilled by French officers,
and the men the most warlike in India."

This letter describes the commencement of the struggle on the 22nd. The
line was supported on both sides by horse artillery, while from the
centre was opened a fire by such heavy guns as remained effective, aided
by a flight of rockets. The British, however, in the advance suffered
much from a masked battery, which, opening on them, dismounted the guns
and blew up the tumbrils. But nothing impeded the charge of the
undaunted British, led on by their two heroic generals, till they were
masters of the field. Their rest was short: in the course of two hours
Sirdar Tej Singh, who had commanded in the last great battle, brought up
from the vicinity of Ferozepore fresh battalions, and a large field of
artillery, supported by 30,000 Ghorchurras, hitherto encamped near the
river. He drove in the British cavalry, and made strenuous efforts to
regain the position at Ferozeshah.

Scarcely had this attempt been defeated, when more Sikh troops and
artillery arrived, and a fresh combination was made against the flank of
the British, with so formidable a demonstration against the captured
village that it was necessary to change the whole front to the right,
the enemy's guns all the time keeping up an incessant fire, while those
of the British were silent for want of ammunition. Under these
circumstances Sir Hugh Gough ordered the almost exhausted cavalry to
threaten both flanks of the enemy at once, while the whole infantry
prepared to advance. With the swoop of a whi