The Sabre's Edge (51 page)

The haul of ordnance at Bhurtpore was great too: 133 guns, and a further 301 'wall pieces' firing a one-pound ball. One of the biggest guns can be seen today at the eastern end of the parade ground at the Royal Artillery barracks, Woolwich.

The battle was the first time the lance was used in action by British cavalry, and the first time that Gurkhas fought on the British side.

Of the great fortress itself, 'the pride of Hindoostan', nothing remains but a small and derelict part of the citadel. The walls were blown up or pulled down almost at once, and the jheels are now a spectacular bird sanctuary.

Bhurtpore fell to mines and the bayonet as my narrative recounts, but Serjeant-Major Armstrong's innovation was in truth that of a slightly later military generation - and in America. The credit must go to the splendid men of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, recruited from the coal-mining districts of Schuykill County, who achieved devastating surprise over the Confederate defenders in the siege of Petersburg, 186
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, prelude to the famed 'battle of the crater'.

The medal inscribed 'To the Army of India', perhaps the most romantic of all, bears last among its twenty-four clasps that for 'Bhurtpur'. The cavalry received especial praise from Lord Combermere, in marked contrast to the, at best, grudging recognition that the Duke of Wellington had usually bestowed, since 'none of the Enemy escaped from the Fort but on the conditions of surrender'. Of Skinner's Irregular Horse, Combermere said that 'nothing could exceed the devotion and bravery of this valuable class of soldiery'; and James Skinner was granted an honorary King's commission as a lieutenant-colonel and appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath.