The Story of the Guides

The Author's grateful thanks are due to the many past and present officers of the Guides who have helped him in this little book. And especially to General Sir Peter Lumsden and G.R. Elsmie, Esq., authors of Lumsden of the Guides; and to the Memoirs of General Sir Henry Dermot Daly, written by his son, Major H. Daly.

G.J.Y.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

FIRST STEPS IN WAR.

Sir Henry Lawrence's idea--Stocks and tunics--A new departure--Selection of title--Duties--Harry Lumsden--His methods of training--Baptism of fire--A gallant exploit--Working for the Sikhs--Capture of Babuzai--Death of Duffadar Fatteh Khan--The spring of 1848--Guides unravel a plot--General Khan Singh hanged--The Maharani deported 1

CHAPTER II.

THE FIGHTING AROUND MOOLTAN AND AFTER.

The Insurrection at Mooltan--Murder of Agnew and Anderson--Herbert Edwardes's great achievement--A guide or two with nerves of steel--Siege of Mooltan--Guides capture twelve guns--Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk--His historic charge--With seventy men routs a brigade--Arrival of Bombay troops--Mooltan stormed and taken--Lumsden attacks and annihilates Ganda Singh's force--Battle of Gujrat--Pursuit of the Sikhs--End of Second Sikh War 18

CHAPTER III.

THE CAPTURE OF THE FORT OF GORINDGHAR.

The fort described--Seventy-two guns and a battalion of infantry--British determine to capture it--Rasul Khan and Guides' infantry sent in advance--The strategy of the Subadar--Effects an entry--A day of anxiety--Plans for the night--The sudden onslaught--Capture of the fort--The Union Jack--Rasul Khan's reward 31

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE FRONTIER IN THE 'FIFTIES.

Guides increased--Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, again--The night attack--Staunchly repulsed--Thirty against two hundred--With Sir Colin Campbell--Nawadand--The enemy attack in force--A cavalry picquet--Lieutenant Hardinge to the front--His splendid charge with twenty men--Hodson of Hodson's Horse--Attack on Bori--Lieutenant Turner's predicament--Gallantry of Dr. Lyell--Hodson's charge--Celebrated spectators 39

CHAPTER V.

THE STORY OF DILAWUR KHAN.

Men accustomed to look after themselves--Shooting for a vacancy in the Guides--No fiddlers and washermen--Rudyard Kipling's Bhisti--The brave Juma decorated--Enter Dilawur Khan--A noted outlaw--Lumsden pursues him--They "talk things over"--The outlaw enlists--The goose-step--Dilawur the doctrinarian--The sinking boat--Nearly killed as a Kafir--Becomes a Christian--His last duty--A brave but pathetic end 51

CHAPTER VI.

THE GREAT MARCH TO DELHI.

The Mutiny of the 55th Native Infantry--Their tragic fate--The Guides start for Delhi--Daly's diary--A fight by the way--An average of twenty-seven miles a day--Arrival at Delhi--Every officer killed or wounded first day--The summer of '57--Return to the Frontier--A warm welcome--Three hundred and fifty out of six hundred left behind--Complement of officers four times over killed or wounded 65

CHAPTER VII.

TWENTY YEARS OF MINOR WARS.

With Sir Sidney Cotton against the Hindustani fanatics--Fierce hand to hand fighting--Dressed to meet their Lord--Against the Waziris in 1860 under Sir Neville Chamberlain--Fierce attack on the Guides' camp--Lumsden stands the shock--The charge of the five hundred--The Guides clear the camp with the bayonet--Heavy casualties--Lumsden's last fight--A story or two--Lord William Beresford--The Crag picquet--Colonel Dighton Probyn--A boat expedition--Cavignari's methods--Surprise of Sappri 76

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MASSACRE OF THE GUIDES AT KABUL.