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The ROYAL GLOUCESTERSHIRE, BERKSHIRE and
WILTSHIRE REGIMENT
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| 21st
December 1845 |
| Unit
Awarded Battle Honour |
Subsequent
designation |
| 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment |
Merged with
2n Bn 1948 |
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1st
Bn D.E.R.R. 1959 |
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Now 1st Bn
R.G.B.W. |
| The lead up to the battle |
| In December, 1844
the 62nd were relieved by the 39th Foot, and started their march to the
Punjab
. In February 1845 they reached
Delhi
, and they arrived at Ferozepore, in March. The
62nd's barracks were still in the process of building, as a British
Regiment was not normally stationed there; the aggressive attitude of the
Sikhs beyond the River Sutlej determining the change in policy. For two
months the Regiment camped out, and when they moved into ten barrack
blocks in May, there were still no doors to the buildings and no officers'
quarters. By now the hot weather had come, and once again cholera struck
the Regiment. They always seem fated to be in a part of
India
rife with the disease, and there was much of it
in the
Punjab
during that month of June. In this Asiatic
variety the victims turned black and suffered cramp in the limbs, but
stood every chance of recovery if they survived the first forty-eight
hours. The Regimental hospital was not ready till July, and the sick had
to be accommodated in one belonging to the Native Infantry. In September
there were 170 men in hospital, and, by the outbreak of the First Sikh War
in December, 126 men had died from cholera and apoplexy. Ferozepore was
just South-East of the River Sutlej, which formed the boundary between
that part of the
Punjab
ruled by the Sikhs and the territory governed
by the British. The 62nd's barracks lay in a great sandy plain without a
tree or a blade of grass. A mile away was the old city, with the Frontier
Treasury and Military Headquarters.
It was against this
background that the 62nd approached the forthcoming battle
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| The
Battle
of Ferozeshah
(Conquest of the Punjab, 1st Sikh War)
|
At
eight o'clock
on the morning of 21st December Littler's
Division marched. The 62nd, in full kit, red coats and stocks, numbered
just under 600, including many convalescents from cholera and fever just
out of hospital. By
12.30 p.m.
they had covered the twelve miles without
incident, and joined the other British force about five miles South-west
of Ferozeshah. General Gough's total force was now about 18,000 with
sixty-three guns, mostly of small calibre, and a preponderance of native
troops. The exact position of the enemy was not discovered until three in
the afternoon, when they were found strongly entrenched around Ferozeshah
village. This Sikh force was the one commanded by Lal Singh; reinforced
since fighting at Moodkee, it now totalled over 30,000 men with more than
100 guns, many of large calibre. Tej Singh, with at least an equivalent
force, was still encamped some ten miles away near the
Sutlej
. The
village
of
Ferozeshah
lay behind a high embankment, along which the
Sikhs were positioned. In front of them the ground was flat and completely
open for 300 yards, then came brushwood and jungle through which the
British advanced to the attack at four in the afternoon. On
the British left flank Major-General Littler ordered Acting Brigadier
Reed's Brigade to take station next to the main body, with
Acting-Brigadier Ashburnham's Brigade on his left. Deployment was from the
right, which meant that Ashburnham's three Regiments needed longer to get
into position than Reed's. However, once Reed's Brigade was deployed,
Littler placed himself behind them and ordered the advance. As a result
Reed's left flank was exposed, as Ashburnham had not had time to get into
position, and his right flank was equally unprotected, as a gap of a
quarter of a mile was opened up between his Brigade and the main body. It
also brought Reed's men under fire well before anyone else, and the Sikh
artillery could concentrate on them alone. The 62nd, led by Major Shortt,
were on the right, the 12th Native Infantry on their left, and the 14th
Native Infantry in support. Under tremendous fire the two Native Regiments
hung back except for a few files. Ashburnham was having similar trouble on
the left, only managing to get one-third of his men into action. The 62nd,
having advanced through the trees and brushwood with round shot and shell
dropping among them, came into the open entirely unsupported opposite the
strongest part of the Sikh fieldworks. A storm of grape-shot and canister
met them at short range, and masses of enemy cavalry threatened their left
flank.
|
A Modern Painting
depicting the actions of the 62nd on the 21st December 1845 |
For twenty minutes they
struggled slowly forward, by which time half of them were casualties. The
Regiment then halted and commenced firing. Reed, seeing them exposed to
certain destruction right under the muzzles of the Sikh guns, ordered a
charge. This they were quite unable to do, having been on the move for
nine hours in the sun without food or water, and having advanced rapidly
through jungle and over heavy ground. Many of the convalescents among them
had doubled through out most of the attack in order to keep up, and the
survivors were exhausted. In Reed's own words, "Unable to urge them
on, they declaring they would stay there as long as I wished but had not
the strength to charge, which was true, seeing the fire to which they were
exposed, I took the responsibility of ordering them to retire, which they
did in good order."
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| The night bivouac
of the British army at Ferozeshah on the night of the 21st December 1845 |
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| Ferozeshah - The
Ground 21st/22nd December 1845 |
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| The Sikh view of the Battle of Ferozeshah |
| The
Sikh Army, consisting of five divisions numbering 50,000 men and 108 guns
was assembled on the right bank of the
Sutlej
.
They were to invest Ferozepur, where Maj. Gen. Littler was caught unawares
with 7500 men and 35 heavy guns. Two divisions under the command of Lal
Singh, a Brahmin from the
Gandhara
Valley
and the Sikh Army C-in-C, took position at Ferozeshahr village/ ten miles
above, to intercept the main British Army marching from Ambala to relieve
Ferozepur. The other commander was Tej Singh, again neither a Sikh nor a
Punjabi, nor true to his adopted country, which was Ranjit Singh's
Punjab
.
He was a Gour Brahmin from Sardhana,
Meerut
,
and had been placed in the position in 1845 during the infant Dalip
Singh's rule. Before moving onto Ferozepur - as he should have done - Tej
Singh secretly informed the British Agent at Ferozepur, John Nicholson:
"I have crossed with the Sikh Army. You know my friendship with the
British. Tell me what to do?" Nicholson advised him not to attack
Ferozepur and "to halt as many days as you can and then march towards
the Governor General".The other player in this sordid tale of
treachery was Lal Singh. On
13 November 1845
, a sketch map was sent by him to Sir Henry Hardinge, the Governor
General, and Gen. Hugh Gough the C-in-C who joined him at Ambala
Cantonment. It showed the entire battle plan of the Sikh Army under Gen.
Lal Singh. It included the proposed deployment of forces for the attack
and the cavalry charge, the position of the foot soldiers for accuracy of
fire, the placement of guns, and finally the method of attack. The
stratagem had a touch of the late Maharaja Ranjit Singh's French generals
including shades of some of Napoleon's battle plans. There could have been
no worse treachery in history.
After
the Mudki setback the Sikhs moved to and entrenched themselves around the
village
of
Ferozeshahr
, ten miles from Mudki. Sir John Littler who had affected a junction with
the main body of the British Army four miles from the Sikh entrenchment,
now decided upon an immediate attack.
The
British artillery mounted a steady barrage of fire followed by an infantry
attack, gaining a foothold in the Sikh entrenchment. The Sikh infantry
drawn up behind its artillery guns retaliated with fierce musketry fire
and the British were hurled back with heavy losses. The next British
charge succeeded in wresting advantage from the Sikhs, the contest
continuing with greater determination throughout the night earning it the
appellation "night of terror". The position of the British grew
graver as the night wore on.The British had suffered terrible casualties
with every single member of the Governor General's staff either killed or
wounded. That frosty night "the fate of
British India
trembled in the balance." Sir Hope Grant, one of the British Generals
bloodied in the Anglo-Sikh Wars recorded: "Truly the night was
one of gloom and foreboding and perhaps never in the annals of warfare has
a British Army on so large a scale been nearer to a defeat which would
have involved annihilation. The Sikhs had practically recovered the whole
of their entrenched camp: our exhausted and decimated divisions
bivouacked' without mutual cohesion over a wide area." Lord
Hardinge sent his son back to Mudki with a sword awarded to him for
services during the Napoleonic campaigns with instructions that in the
event of a defeat, all his private papers were to be destroyed.
The
Khalsa's muscle:
Sikh
gunners stand by their weapons as the British Army begins its
near-suicidal advance at Ferozeshah. It is against these guns that the
62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment attacked
An
entry in Robert Cust's diary reveals that the generals had decided to lay
down arms: "News came from the Governor General that our attack of
yesterday failed, that affairs were desperate, all state papers were be
destroyed, and that if the morning attack failed would be over; this was
kept secret by Mr. Currie and we were considering measures to make an
unconditional surrender to save the wounded..."
However
in the morning, the Sikh soldiers were again betrayed by their leaders.
First Lal Singh fled battlefield. Then Tej Singh with a large force from
the
Sutlej
did not even attempt to repulse the British. Having exhausted their men
and munitions the British had neither fight in them nor were they a match
for the Sikhs. Treacherously, after firing a few rounds Tej Singh
retreated He had intentionally delayed his arrival and not appeared on the
scene till he had seen Lal Singh's forces dispersed.
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| The Regiment Remembers |
| As a result of the actions of the 62nd on
this day the Regiment has held an annual parade in
appreciation of the services rendered by the Sergeants during the battle,
when the officer casualties were so high they took over the responsibility
of carrying the Regiments Colours. On that parade the Colours are handed
over by the Commanding Officer to the custody of the Warrant Officers and
Sergeants of the Battalion for the rest of the day.
Prior to handing over the Colours the Commanding Officer reads out the
charge:
"Warrant Officers and Sergeants of the
Wiltshire/Duke
of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment/RGBW I am about to hand over to your custody for
a period, the Colours of the 1st Battalion. This high honour is bestowed
on you in commemoration of the gallant services rendered by your
predecessors at the battle of Ferozeshah, the anniversary of which we
celebrate today. Safeguard and honour these Colours as your Officers have
ever done and let the fact that our Colours are entrusted to your keeping
be not only a reminder of past services but also a visible expression of
the confidence and trust which today your Officers justly place in
you."
A
Sergeants' Ball is held in the evening and the Colours are handed back to
the officers at
midnight
.
The Wiltshire Regiment, The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment and the
present day Regiment The Royal Gloucestershire Berkshire and Wiltshire
Regiment have all commemorated this battle in December, the size of which
is dictated by the operational requirements of the day.
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| The
Wiltshire's commemorate 'Ferozeshah' 21st December 1933 in India |
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| The
Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment commemorate 'Ferozeshah' in Northern
Ireland 1986 |
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| The
Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment commemorate 'Ferozeshah'
in 2001 |
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| OTHER
UNITS ENTITLED TO THE BATTLE HONOUR |
| 3rd Hussars |
| Royal Norfolk Regiment |
| Worcestershire Regiment |
| East Surry Regiment |
| South Staffordshire
Regiment |
| Royal West Kent Regiment |
| Royal Munster Fusiliers
(Then 1st Bengal European Light Infantry) |
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| Sources |
Acknowledgements |
| The Wiltshire Regiment by Col Kenrick |
Sikh Heritage |
| The Dring Family Website |
The Dring Family |
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