570 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
enemy is repulsed, not bioken, and the victor’s retreat from the 
battle-field to protect their baggage, be reckoned as a complete success. 
Yet much brilliant conduct on the part of isolated units shines out here 
and there through the sad story of muddle and impatience, and amongst 
instances of such the splendid behaviour of our artillery must be 
recorded. 
When the two brigades on the British right were separated by the 
inroad of the Sikhs and found themselves assailed on all sides and 
unable to render each other mutual support, when in short the fortune 
of the day was distinctly in the balance, it was the behaviour of the 
Bengal Horse and Field Artillery which retrieved disaster. Colonel 
Malleson, 1 the historian of the battle, thus speaks of their services— 
“ Splendid as is the record of that noble regiment” (he appears to think 
it was all Horse Artillery), “it may be confidently asserted that never 
did it render more valuable, more efficacious service to its country, 
never did it tend more to save a rash and headstrong General from the 
defeat he deserved than on that memorable 13th of January. The 
battery 2 of Dawes, attached to Gilbert’s division, was, at the crisis I 
have described, of special service.” 
Durand records that “ in spite of jungle and every difficulty, when¬ 
ever, in a moment of peril, he was most needed, Dawes was sure to be 
at hand ; his fire boxed the compass before evening, and Gilbert felt 
and handsomely acknowledged the merit and the valour of Dawes and 
his gunners.” Colonel Malleson in a footnote also quotes the following 
words from the “Journal of a Subaltern” of the 2nd Europeans: 
“ Dawes’s battery was the saving of us,” and Thackwell 3 draws from 
the same source many similar expressions of appreciation. 
From Goojerat, 21st February, 1849, Lord Gough’s last battle and his 
best, an instance of good service done by artillery may also be quoted, 
and it is a no less skilful and scientific a soldier than Havelock that 
testifies to it. 4 In the memoir of him by Marshman, a letter in which 
he gives an account of the battle is published. He says :— 
“ The Singhs, ever ready with their guns, seemed as usual anxious 
to have the first blow, and opened the batteries on the British at an 
unusually long range. The infantry was halted beyond the reach of 
their round shot, and the artillery, protected by skirmishers, pushed 
boldly to the front. A cannonade was commenced about 9 a.m., of 
which the oldest and most experienced soldiers in the army had never 
witnessed the parallel for magnificence and effect. It continued some¬ 
what more than two hours aud-a-half, the Field Artillery firing at the 
rate of about 40 rounds each sixty minutes, and its results exceeded the 
most sanguine expectations, even of those who had most boldly 
advocated this mode of reading warriors, who piqued themselves on 
their artillery powers, a great and abiding, it may be, a final lesson. 
1 “ The fifteen decisive battles of India.” 
2 This was a Field Battery, was then the 3rd Company 1st Battalion Bengal Foot Artillery, and 
is now the 53rd Field Battery. 
Captain Michael Dawes, its commander, retired from the Army 1st January, 1858, as a brevet 
Lieut.-Colonel and C.S.I. Died the 30th of May, 1871. 
3 The second Sikh war. 
4 “Memoirs of Sir Henry Havelock,” by John Marshman. 
