40 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



lined by thirty - three regular regiments, and a 

 desperate struggle we had for it, and the loss in 

 that part of the affair was awful. But I must 

 draw up short, and try hereafter to give you 

 some idea of ' my first campaign.' I have been 

 most mercifully preserved through the whole of 

 it. As you may have seen in the papers, I was 

 wounded at Firozshah by a shot in the leg, but 

 it was of but little consequence. In each of the 

 other actions I was touched, and yet I am alive 

 and well, and in better health and spirits than I 

 have been for months, and I trust in some things 

 a better man. It is an excellent thing for one, 

 you may depend upon it, to be exposed to the 

 fire of an enemy, and a field of battle is a stern 

 but truthful and valuable monitor : may its lessons 

 not be forgotten ! " 



By the 13 th of April the 26th Native Infantry 

 had reached Umbala, on their way to Bareilly in 

 Eohilkhand. By this time Hodson had fondly 

 hoped to see himself transferred to the 1st 

 European regiment, who had just been styled 

 Fusiliers for their distinguished services in the 

 late campaign. "It is the finest regiment in 

 India," he writes, " with white faces, too, and a 

 very nice set of officers. I have been brigaded 

 with them all along." 



He had evidently had enough of soldiering with 

 men who could not be trusted to follow their white 

 officers in the hour of need. But the answer to 

 his latest application was so long in coming that 

 the 26th Sepoys were quietly cantoned among the 

 groves of Bareilly before he found himself posted 

 to the regiment of his choice. 



