Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
264
chap, ix
selves, and all had to pay some respect to the spirit which animated the private soldifers in their readiness to do battle for the commonwealth of Gobind. The
1845-6^
effects of this enthusiastic unity of purpose in an army, headed by men not only ignorant of warfare, but
studiously treacherous towards their followers, was conspicuously visible in the speediness with whicn numerous heavy guns and abundance of grain and ammunition were brought across a large river. Every Sikh considered the cause as his own, and he would work as a labourer as well as carry a musket; he would drag guns, drive bullocks, lead camels, and load and unload boats with a cheerful alacrity, which contrasted strongly with the inapt and sluggish obedience of mere mercenaries, drilled, indeed, and fed with skill and care, but unwarmed by one generous feeling for their country or their foreign employers. The youthful Khalsa was active and strong of heart, but the soldiers had never before met so great a foe, and their tactics were modified by involuntary awe of the British army, renowned in the East for achievements in war. The river had been crossed, and the treaty broken; but the Sikhs were startled at their own audacity, and they partially entrenched one portion of. their forces, while they timorously kept the other as a^ reserve out of danger's way. Thus the valiant Swedes, when they threw themselves into Germany under their king, the great Gustavus, revived the castrametation of Roman armies in the presence of the experienced commanders and thus the young Telemachus, tremuof Austria; lously bold, hurled his unaccustomed spear against the princes of Ithaca, and sprang for shelter behind the shield of his heroic father ^
!
The battle 18 i^^i>^'
1845
^
The Ambala and Ludhiana divisions of the British armv arrived at Mudki, twenty miles from Ferozepore, *^^ *^^ l^t^ December; and they had scarcely taken up As at Werben. before the battle of Leipzig. Col. Mitchell says Gustavus owed his success almost as much to the spade as to the sword. (Life of Wallenstein, p. 210.) - Odyssey, xxii. The practice of the Sikhs would probably have resolved itself into the system of fortified camps of the Romans at night and during halts, and into the Greek custom of impenetrable phalanxes on the battle-field, while it almost anticipates the European tendencies of the day about future ^
—which are,
mass artillery, and make it overwhelmtheir infantry and guns together, while they swept the country wiih their cavalry; and it is clear that no troops in India or in Southern Asia, save the movable brigades of the English, could have successfully warfare ing.
to
The Sikhs would have moved with
assailed them.
264
chap, ix
selves, and all had to pay some respect to the spirit which animated the private soldifers in their readiness to do battle for the commonwealth of Gobind. The
1845-6^
effects of this enthusiastic unity of purpose in an army, headed by men not only ignorant of warfare, but
studiously treacherous towards their followers, was conspicuously visible in the speediness with whicn numerous heavy guns and abundance of grain and ammunition were brought across a large river. Every Sikh considered the cause as his own, and he would work as a labourer as well as carry a musket; he would drag guns, drive bullocks, lead camels, and load and unload boats with a cheerful alacrity, which contrasted strongly with the inapt and sluggish obedience of mere mercenaries, drilled, indeed, and fed with skill and care, but unwarmed by one generous feeling for their country or their foreign employers. The youthful Khalsa was active and strong of heart, but the soldiers had never before met so great a foe, and their tactics were modified by involuntary awe of the British army, renowned in the East for achievements in war. The river had been crossed, and the treaty broken; but the Sikhs were startled at their own audacity, and they partially entrenched one portion of. their forces, while they timorously kept the other as a^ reserve out of danger's way. Thus the valiant Swedes, when they threw themselves into Germany under their king, the great Gustavus, revived the castrametation of Roman armies in the presence of the experienced commanders and thus the young Telemachus, tremuof Austria; lously bold, hurled his unaccustomed spear against the princes of Ithaca, and sprang for shelter behind the shield of his heroic father ^
!
The battle 18 i^^i>^'
1845
^
The Ambala and Ludhiana divisions of the British armv arrived at Mudki, twenty miles from Ferozepore, *^^ *^^ l^t^ December; and they had scarcely taken up As at Werben. before the battle of Leipzig. Col. Mitchell says Gustavus owed his success almost as much to the spade as to the sword. (Life of Wallenstein, p. 210.) - Odyssey, xxii. The practice of the Sikhs would probably have resolved itself into the system of fortified camps of the Romans at night and during halts, and into the Greek custom of impenetrable phalanxes on the battle-field, while it almost anticipates the European tendencies of the day about future ^
—which are,
mass artillery, and make it overwhelmtheir infantry and guns together, while they swept the country wiih their cavalry; and it is clear that no troops in India or in Southern Asia, save the movable brigades of the English, could have successfully warfare ing.
to
The Sikhs would have moved with
assailed them.
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