BATTLE OF MOODKEE. 18th. December, 1845.

After a harassing march of one hundred and fifty miles, along roads of heavy sand, the troops arrived at Moodkee, on the 18th. of December, having endured every kind of privation; the incessant labour required of them admitting scarcely an hour’s uninterrupted repose before being called upon for renewed exertions. About three o’clock in the afternoon, the army, suffering severely from the want of water, and in a state of great exhaustion, received intelligence of the advance of the Sikhs on Moodkee, and the troops had scarcely time to get under arms, and to move to their positions, before the information was confirmed. The horse artillery and cavalry were immediately pushed forward, the infantry and field batteries moving in support. Two miles were scarcely passed, when the enemy, consisting of about twenty thousand infantry, and an equal number of cavalry, with forty guns, under Lal Singh, were discovered in position, which they had either just taken up, or were advancing in order of battle. The country at this spot was a dead flat, dotted with sandy hillocks, and covered at short intervals with a low thick jungle, forming an excellent screen for the infantry and guns of the enemy, from which they 311opened a severe cannonade upon the advancing troops, which was vigorously replied to by the horse artillery under Brigadier Brooke. After the manœuvres of the cavalry on the left and right flanks of their opponents, the infantry commenced their participation in the fight, and advancing under Major-Generals Sir Harry Smith, Walter Gilbert, and Sir John Mc Caskill, attacked in echelon of lines the Sikh infantry, the wood and approaching darkness of night rendering them almost invisible. The great superiority of numbers of the enemy necessarily caused their extended line to outflank the British, but the movements of the cavalry counteracted this advantage. Desperate was the opposition experienced, but the roll of fire from the infantry soon convinced the Sikhs of the inutility of resistance; their whole force was driven from position to position with great slaughter at the point of the bayonet; night only saved them from further disaster, this stout conflict being maintained for an hour and a half of dim starlight, objects being rendered still more obscure from the clouds of dust which arose from the sandy plain. Lal Singh, the Sikh commander, was wounded, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. Darkness alone prevented the pursuit of the foe; and the force bivouacked on the field for some hours; returning to their encampment, when it was ascertained that they had no foe before them, as the enemy fled to their camp at Ferozeshuhur.

In this manner was achieved the first of a series of victories over the Sikh troops; troops that had fought with the British army only three years previously, in the advance on Cabool, and had been thanked in general orders for their services, sustaining as they did, at the forcing of the Khyber Pass, a loss equal to that of the Anglo-Indian force; it appears therefore but reasonable to infer, that much of the skill evinced by them in the disposition and arrangement of their army may be in some degree attributed to the experience they gained by their co-operation in the Afghan campaign; proving themselves unquestionably at Moodkee, and in the succeeding conflicts, one of the best disciplined and most powerful antagonists the British had ever encountered in India.

This victory was not gained without considerable loss; several gallant officers fell and two hundred men, amongst them the hero of Afghanistan, Major-General Sir Robert Sale, who, towards the conclusion of the action, had his thigh shattered with a grape shot, from the effects of which he died. Major-General Sir John McCaskill, K.C.B., who had served with the 9th. Foot in that country, was also amongst the slain.

The troops engaged at Moodkee were the 3rd. Light Dragoons, 9th., 31st., 50th., and 80th. Foot, Skinner’s Horse, 8th. Bengal Irregular Cavalry, and the 5th., 7th., and 26th. Bengal Infantry.

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