The field-train establishments, which in 1809 were placed entirely under the control and care of commanding officers of artillery at Agra and Cawnpoor, were now transferred to the magazines, and kept in order by the commissaries under the general control of the commanding officer of artillery.

The horse field-batteries were increased to three, and considered part of the permanent establishment, making the number, fourteen bullock and three horse-batteries. Another bullock-battery was shortly added, on Mhow becoming a Bengal station.

The Governor-General, adverting to the important, responsible, and laborious duty which the recent signal alterations in the constitution of the artillery have imposed on the commandant, and considering the staff salary at present allowed to him, when not a general officer, to bear no proportion to the extent and variety of his command, was pleased to sanction a personal allowance, in addition, of Rs. 500 per mensem; and also, on the same principle, the commanding officer of artillery in the field was allowed to draw 600, and all field commanding divisions, 300. The major of brigade was raised to an assistant adjutant-general of the regiment, and a brigade-major permanently sanctioned in the field.

A model department was formed at Dum-Dum under Captain Parlby, and the establishment for bouching guns and preparing tangent-scales was attached to it. In this department a very valuable collection of models was made up, and which, on the breaking up of the establishment in 1829, were transferred to the expense magazine, and thence to the regimental mess in 1839, the regiment having added a room for their reception.

A permanent select committee was formed, consisting of certain regimental and staff officers of artillery, at Dum-Dum and in the neighbourhood, to whom every question involving change in the matériel equipment of the department was to be submitted in the first instance, and their opinion was to be forwarded to assist Government in coming to a decision, and they were soon fully occupied with the important questions of windage, brass ordnance, and patterns of light field-carriages.

In August the lascars of the regiment were very much reduced; the use of drag-ropes as a means of moving guns, except for trifling distances, or out of a difficulty, was given up, and with that, the necessity of such strong bodies of lascars with artillery companies ceased. They were reduced to a detail of one havildar, two naiks, and twenty-four privates, to each troop and European company, and taken away entirely from the native battalions; the men thus struck off from the regiment were formed into sixteen companies of store lascars, each consisting of one subahdar, one jemadar, four havildars, four naiks, and eighty privates, and were posted to the different magazines. But this arrangement was not found to answer, and the lascar companies were, on the war breaking out in 1824, increased to forty privates, partly, perhaps, from the insufficiency of Europeans to keep the companies up to their proper strength.

An interpreter was allowed to the regiment at head-quarters, and attached to the golundaz companies at Dum-Dum.

Lieutenant-Colonel A. MacLeod was appointed commandant on Major-General Hardwicke’s sailing for Europe in December, and with Colonel MacLeod the command of the artillery in the field ceased; the brigade-majorship was also abolished, and Captain Tennant, who held it, was appointed assistant secretary to the Military Board.

In February five companies were added to the golundaz battalion, raising its number to twenty companies, to meet the exigency of the war with Ava. In June, to meet the deficiency of Europeans, three additional companies of lascars of eighty-four men each were raised; four privates were added to each golundaz company, and the lascar companies increased, as above mentioned, to forty men each, those who had been transferred to the store lascars being taken back again.

In May, a fundamental change took place in the Indian army; the battalions were formed into regiments, and the officers of all branches of the service were placed on the same footing as to the chances of promotion, by the regiments being of equal strength in this particular. This new organization caused a considerable degree of promotion throughout the army, and in this the artillery shared. The officers of the regiment continued, as previously, to rise in one general gradation list, and the regiment was to be composed of

The rocket-troop was to form one of the troops of a brigade.

Lascar details were attached to the troops, and a company to each European company, and a driver company to each field-battery.

These changes, however, were not even nominally carried into effect until the middle of the next year, owing to the scattered state of the regiment, the occupation the Burmese war gave, and the difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of European recruits to meet the demand. In reality, some of the troops of horse artillery were not formed until the end of 1826; we therefore shall not in this place give a tabular statement of the strength of the regiment, but reserve it until we arrive at the year 1826, when a reorganization of the native battalion made another change, and the state of the regiment, before and after its alteration, will then be seen at one glance.

The aggression of the Burmese on our frontiers, and the contempt with which they treated all remonstrances, forced the Indian Government reluctantly to declare war in 1824. Unfortunately, little was known of the country, and a most injudicious plan of operations was drawn out, which, by seizing Rangoon and the numerous native craft the maritime capital was expected to furnish, embarking the troops in them, and sailing up the Irawaddy in the rainy season, and threatening Amerapoora, was to terminate the war in one campaign. With this intention the expedition sailed in April, and was joined by the Madras portion early in May at Port Cornwallis in the Andaman Islands.

Two companies of the Bengal Artillery with their lascars accompanied the expedition.

On the 10th May the fleet reached Rangoon, and, overcoming a very faint resistance by a few broadsides from the Liffey, the troops landed and took possession. They found it deserted by its inhabitants, and incapable of affording either subsistence or the means of advancing. No choice was left; nothing could be done till the cold weather, except shelter themselves against the approaching rainy season, to which the Bengal monsoon is but as summer showers in comparison. During this season, the troops suffered much from exposure, from bad and insufficient supplies, harassment by the enemy, and continual petty attacks on stockades, so that when the season for operations arrived, it found an army of invalids, instead of one fit to take the field.

The Burmese recalled their army under Bundoola from Arracan, and it arrived in the vicinity of Rangoon in November. Rangoon was invested, but, awaiting reinforcements and supplies, Sir Archibald Campbell offered little opposition, contenting himself with strengthening his own position and placing all his artillery in battery, to bear on the enemy’s trenches. Things remained thus till the 5th December, when the guns all opening, the columns moved out under cover of their fire, attacked and overcame the enemy’s left; Bundoola, however, rallied again, and pushed on his attack on the Shevé-da-gon pagoda. On the morning of the 7th the attack was renewed; every gun that would bear on the enemy was opened, and continued firing till noon, when the infantry moving out, completely routed the enemy. He rallied in a strong position at Kokaing, from which, on the 13th, he was with difficulty dislodged, and in which action the regiment lost a fine young officer, Lieutenant O’Hanlon, who, volunteering with the body-guard, was shot in a gallant charge, made to cover a column hard pressed by the enemy.

This action cleared the vicinity of Rangoon of the enemy, and reinforcements, stores, and supplies arriving, health was restored to the army, and preparations for an advance were strenuously made. Among the reinforcements, were a troop of horse artillery and half the rocket-troop, “corps which excited great hopes, and never disappointed them.”

But, leaving the force at this point, let us trace the steps of the other divisions, and then return to the Rangoon column, on which the chief exertions of the war fell.

The small advanced party at Ramoo, unsupported by the force at Chittygong, fell an easy prey to Bundoola’s force, which gradually closed on and cut it up; a detail of artillery, with two 6–pounders under Lieutenant J. W. Scott, formed part. Lieutenant Scott, severely wounded, was placed on an elephant and carried into Chittygong, whither the few who escaped fled.

After this reverse, the force at Chittygong was strengthened and formed into a division, under Major-General Morrison, for the purpose of driving the Burmese out of Arracan, crossing the Yemidong mountains and joining the Rangoon force about Prome. With it were two companies of artillery.

This column marched in the cold weather slowly, for it experienced much difficulty both from the wild and swampy country it traversed, and from the breadth of the rivers it had to cross, which, from its route being as near the coast as possible, were complete estuaries. Transporting the guns and stores over these deep and rapid streams required no small exertions from the artillery, as also in traversing the swampy delta of the Koladine river, leading to the capital. No opposition was offered until the army reached the Padhna pass, on the 25th March, 1825; there the advanced guard was fired upon, and it became necessary to drive the enemy from the heights. On the 28th, the army debouched into an open plain, under a line of hills, covering the town of Arracan. The foot of these hills was a swampy thicket, the upper part cleared from jungle and strengthened by a breastwork. Without much reconnoissance, the guns were pushed on into battery under the hills, and a general assault took place. It was unsuccessful; such as effected their way through the tangled thicket at the foot were driven back by the musketry and volleys of stones of the defenders. The guns were abandoned for the time, and withdrawn under cover of the night. During the night of the 31st, some troops with two 9–pounders on elephants ascended the ridge to the right of the enemy’s position, moved along the crest at daylight, and bringing the guns into play, the enemy fled, leaving the city at our mercy. And here the operations of this army may be said to terminate; disease, engendered by the pestilential locality, soon raged most fearfully, and converted the town into a large cemetery. Small detachments were sent against Ramree; Lieutenant Hotham, with two guns, engaged in the attack, which was at first unsuccessful; it was, however, finally occupied, as was Aeng, a station on the pass leading through the hills.

In the following cold season reinforcements were sent, among them the 4th company 4th battalion, Lieutenants Rutherfurd and Buckle, and it was intended that the force should attempt the passage of the hills, and for that purpose it was partially collected at Amherst Island; but the difficulties and want of transport were too great, and the idea was abandoned. Arracan was evacuated, and the troops located at Ackyab, an island at the mouth of the Koladine and Myoo rivers, Cheduba, Ramree, and Sandoway, and finally withdrawn in 1826.

That the passage of the hills was possible, there is no doubt; two regiments from Prome succeeded in the attempt by the Aeng pass, while Lieutenant B. Browne; Lieutenant Brady, of artillery; and Captain Trant, deputy quarter-master general, reached Arracan by another, early in 1826.

In 1823, a squadron of gun-boats was sent to cruise on the Burrampooter, probably with the intention of protecting that frontier from threatened incursions of the Burmese. Captain Timbrell, Lieutenants Bedingfield and Burton, were with this flotilla.

On the Sylhet frontier detachments of the 6th battalion were with the army, Captain J. Scott, Captain C. Smith, Lieutenants Brind and Lane, Lieutenant Turton, adjutant; but this force never came in contact with the enemy. The country proved impassable.

Lieutenant Huthwaite was with a detail of native artillery employed against Munneypoor, and engaged in the successful attack on the enemy’s blockaded position at Daoudputlee.

Let us now return to the Rangoon army. Such preparations as circumstances admitted of being made, the army advanced on the 11th February, 1825, in two columns, one by land and one by water: the main portion of the artillery was with the former; with the latter, Lieutenant Paton and some of the rocket-troop were placed in the Diana steamer. The inadequacy of the supplies of the land column may be easily imagined when it is stated that it was with the utmost difficulty Captain Lumsden obtained four bullocks for his forge-cart!—its value, however, was repeatedly acknowledged, and its aid gladly sought, almost daily, to repair public carriages of every department.

To the water column was intrusted the operations of dislodging Bundoola from his strong position at Donabeu, while the land column pushed on as rapidly as possible for the capital. The enemy were driven from their stockade below Donabeu, but on approaching that position, it was found far more formidable than represented. The attack on it proved unsuccessful, and Sir Archibald was forced to retrograde to assist in its capture. On the 1st April, the attack was renewed by land and by water; from the latter, a brisk cannonade and effectual flights of rockets were poured in, and the batteries on the land side were equally effectual; the rockets, however, then failed; the heat and shaking they had been exposed to in the march rendered them nearly or worse than useless. One, however, is claimed as having decided the day, by killing Bundoola. His energy alone kept the enemy together, and after his death they fled from the stockades during the night. The march was resumed, and Prome occupied by the army for the rainy season. Here Lieutenant Thompson died on the 11th May.

During the rains, Lieutenant Timmings came round to Dum-Dum for his own health, and returned in October, carrying back with him reinforcements in men and horses for the artillery; Lieutenants G. Graham, Daniell, Begbie, and Brady also accompanied him.

The enemy rallied, and towards the middle of October had nearly surrounded Prome with stockades. On the 2nd December, Sir Archibald Campbell attacked and defeated them, following up his success the next day. The horse artillery were pushed on in advance through nullahs and over rocks, to obtain a position bearing well on the enemy at Nassadee, and during the cannonade an howitzer missing fire twice, Captain Lumsden directed the shell to be withdrawn; this was done, but the fuze having ignited, the shell burst, just as it reached the muzzle, killing a lascar, wounding a gunner and Captain Lumsden; but he immediately rallied, and continued, in spite of his wound, directing the operations of his battery. Six guns, manned by the 3rd company 5th battalion, with Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock, Captain Biddulph, and Lieutenant Laurenson, were also engaged in this successful attack.

The enemy retired on Melloon, a stockaded position on the opposite bank of the river, there about 500 yards wide. Negotiations commenced on their part, and an armistice was concluded, to last till the 18th January, 1826. The ratified treaty not having been received, at midnight preparations for the attack commenced; batteries for the guns were got ready; boats in waiting for the troops, and at 11 A.M., when the fog cleared up, the whole of the guns, mortars, rockets, heavy and light, opened with a salvo. The range was hit at once, and shot, shells, and rockets flew into all parts of the stockades, the interior of which, from their being planted on the side of a rising ground, was distinctly visible. The “hurtling of this iron shower” continued for about an hour and a half, when the storming columns crossed in the boats of the flotilla, and were soon masters of the place.

The rocket practice was particularly efficient, scarce a rocket failed; a strong contrast to the rockets carried by land, which had proved worthless on several occasions: those used at Melloon were brought up with the flotilla, and perhaps never has there been an occasion since the invention of the weapon where they were more successful, or their effects could be so distinctly seen, as when blazing and roaring, their long trails of smoke marking their course, they plunged into the stockades of Melloon and raked them from side to side in their eccentric courses after grazing.

The army pressed on, allowing no respite. “Officers’ chargers were put in requisition to drag the guns of the invaluable horse brigade;” horses of the rocket-troop were similarly employed, and their place supplied by Burmah ponies. The horse artillery, body-guard, and H.M.’s 13th light infantry now formed the advance guard, and on the 9th February came up with the enemy at Pagahen-Meen; the guns immediately opened, and the enemy were soon broken, but, in pursuing them too rashly, the 13th regiment got entangled in the difficult ground, and the main body coming up, in endeavouring to debouch from a defile, got wedged together, artillery, rockets, guns, and carriages. Of this confusion and delay the enemy took advantage and rallied, and had they not been held in check by the gallant conduct of the horse artillery, body-guard, and the 13th, much mischief might have been done. The confusion was soon remedied, and a complete victory rewarded the troops.

This was the last action. The enemy, thoroughly humbled, now opened negotiations in earnest, which were soon concluded. A deputation proceeded to the “Golden Fort,” at Amerapoora, and returned with the ratified treaty of peace. Among those selected for this distinguished duty was Captain Lumsden, than whom and his gallant troop, none had borne a more honourable and useful part during these laborious campaigns.

A silver medal, of the annexed pattern, was awarded to all the native troops engaged in the war, either in Rangoon, Arracan, or Sylhet.

Among the General Orders we find, “The Governor-General entertains the highest sense of the efficient services and honourable exertions of Captains * * * Timbrell of the artillery;” and “the services of the Bengal * * * foot artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock, and of the Bengal rocket-troop and horse artillery, under Captains Graham and Lumsden, demand also the special acknowledgments of Government.”

Early in 1825, British interference^[79] in the state of Bhurtpoor became necessary, and Major-General Sir D. Ochterlony, the agent to the Governor-General at Delhi, exercising the authority vested in him, ordered the assembly of a force for the purpose. It was disapproved by the Governor-General, and many portions of the regiment had in consequence the désagrémens of a useless march in the months of April, May, and June.

In the cold weather, however, affairs in Bhurtpoor continuing the same, and those in Ava more satisfactory, the project was resumed, and a force ordered to collect at Agra and Muttra, in November, under the command of Lord Combermere, who had just been appointed to the chief command in India.

For this army the whole of the available artillery was drawn together and the provinces were denuded. The field batteries were thrown into the magazines, and their bullocks appropriated to the siege-trains, and yet when collected, the whole were barely sufficient to work the guns in battery, without one single relief. In like manner the magazines from Cawnpore to Kurnal poured forth all their munitions of war, but this afforded only 114 siege-pieces, with about 1,000 rounds of shot per gun, and 500 shells per mortar and howitzer, with a proportion of shrapnell and case.^[80] A reserve was formed at Allahabad to be pushed on as opportunity offered.

The personnel consisted of five and a-half troops of European, and two of native horse artillery, nine companies of European, and five of native foot artillery,^[81] forming a total of about 1,200 Europeans, and 700 native artillerymen, with 500 lascars, but of these only 1,100 were foot artillery, barely sufficient to man the guns, even when augmented by a body of horse artillery recruits, who, just drafted into that branch on the augmentation, were not qualified for the duties of mounted artillerymen.

The following officers were present:—

Brigadier MᶜLeod, C. B., Commanding; Captain Tennant, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenant Dashwood, Aide-de-Camp.

Brigadier C. Brown, Commanding Horse Artillery; Lieutenant Winfield, Major of Brigade.

Brigadier R. Hetzler, Commanding Foot Artillery and Park; Lieutenant Johnson, Major of Brigade.

The trains and stores were collected at Agra and Muttra, and started, in two divisions, on the 9th December. On the 17th they were united before Bhurtpoor, and the grand park formed. The cavalry and horse artillery had preceded the army and secured the bund of the lake, just as the enemy were about to cut it, to flood the ditch of the fortress.

The laboratory tents were pitched on the 16th, and the preparation of the platforms and stores commenced upon. On the 23rd, the first battery was armed, and it opened its fire on the 24th; daily the approaches, parallels, and batteries were extended, under a fire from the enemy always hot, and generally well directed. In addition to breaching-batteries, a mine was driven under the N.E. bastion, and sprung, but without effect, on the 7th January, the charge being too small. The gun breach was by this time practicable, and Lieutenant-Colonel Stark and his adjutant ascended it; the firing was directed to be continued, to improve it, but the shot buried themselves, pounding the earth into fine dust. On the 9th a depôt of ammunition, formed to supply the batteries, was blown up by a shot from the enemy passing through a tumbril; the whole was consumed with a fearful explosion; but although the enemy kept up a heavy fire all night, from every gun which would bear upon the spot, clearly indicated by the burning stores, the casualties were few. A mine was sprung in the counterscarp opposite the gun breach, making the descent into the ditch easy. On the 12th, a mine was commenced under the long-necked bastion; it was ready and loaded by the 18th January, and the firing it was to be the signal for the assault. A heavy fire was kept up from all the batteries on the morning of the 18th; the mine was sprung, and scarcely had the heavy mass of dust and smoke cleared away, when the columns moved out to the assault and were shortly in possession of the place.

The artillery casualties in this siege were remarkably few; the labours undergone by both officers and men in the batteries for twenty-six days were extreme, but borne with the utmost cheerfulness and good temper. The ammunition expended was,

The average rate of firing was forty-eight rounds per gun, and twelve per mortar per diem; the greatest, 142 and 20. Nine 24–pounders, sixteen 18–pounders, one 10–inch and seven 8–inch mortars, were rendered unserviceable, and the carriages of six 8–inch (brass) howitzers broke down during the siege.^[82]

General Orders of the Commander-in-Chief:—“To Brigadier MacLeod, C.B., in the general command of the artillery, and Brigadiers Hetzler and Brown, commanding the siege and field artillery respectively, the Commander-in-Chief feels greatly indebted for their highly creditable exertions, as, also, to the whole of the officers and men of the artillery, for the excellent display of scientific correctness in the batteries, as well as for their commendable endurance of fatigue which the nature of the service necessarily exposed them to.”

The Commandant issued the following regimental order:—“The Commandant begs to offer to officers and men of that part of the regiment engaged in the field under his more immediate command his best thanks for their conduct and exertions during the siege, which have, in General Orders to-day published, obtained the approbation of the Right Honourable the Commander-in-Chief; and to Brigadiers Hetzler, C.B., and C. Brown, he has more especially to tender his acknowledgments for the assistance he has derived from them in their respective commands.”

“To Captain Tennant, the assistant adjutant-general of the arm, he feels much indebted for his able assistance on this and many other occasions, for which he is entitled to his warmest acknowledgments and thanks. To Lieutenant Dashwood, his aide-de-camp, he also tenders his best thanks for his conspicuously useful exertions.”

In a former page we stated our intention of reserving a tabular statement of the organization of 1824, until we reached the year 1827, when a fresh arrangement of the native artillery took place; we have now reached that period, for the year 1826 has little to be recorded, except that in November four companies of golundaz and three of lascars (those raised in 1824) were reduced.

In September, 1827, an additional battalion of officers was added to the regiment, and the native artillery divided into two battalions, of eight companies each, denominated the 6th and 7th battalions.