Ramnagar and Chillianwalla -Two major covered up British Military Failures

By Agha Humayun Amin

At this critical stage of the battle, Pope's brigade, which had already halted and was waiting for orders, now became leaderless. An event then occurred which most British historians, from 1849 onwards have found hard to explain or account for. HM 14th Light Dragoons turned about and bolted The native cavalry also panicked and followed HM 14th Light Dragoon rearwards, galloping through, at top speed, through their own horse artillery batteries positioned behind them Fortescue states that HM 14th Light Dragoon bolted because Pope gave them a word of command of "Threes Right" which they heard as something like "Threes about" and that's why the brigade bolted There is no doubt that had a native cavalry unit, alone, done so Fortescue's verdict would have been much harsher Jawahir Singh Nalwa pursued Pope's cavalry brigade with great lan, cutting down many Bengal horse artillerymen, including Major Christie, one of the battery commanders, destroying (spiking) six guns and carrying off four guns intact, apart from two ammunition wagons and fifty three horses as war trophies Pope's cavalry brigade from this moment on ceased to be a fighting formation It was rallied with great difficulty by Gough's staff and the regimental Chaplain of HM 14th LD, with his pistol It was said that Gough recommended the Chaplain to be promoted to the rank of Brevet Bishop, on the battlefield The flight of Pope's brigade resulted in a serious operational imbalance in the British position. Their right rear flank was now vulnerable to counter attack. Sher Singh Attariwalla immediately ordered a counterattack and Sikh infantry and cavalry west of Rasul immediately advanced down from the heights through the open gap, encircling Gilbert's division from the rear It was Pope's good luck that he died soon afterwards from wounds suffered in the battle.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1500649171
• ISBN13: 9781500649173
• Release Date: July 2014
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 74 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"