Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/195

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with the party at the breach. Sir A. Campbell mentioned in his despatch that Sale was the first man who appeared on the top of the work. The attack on the seven stockades at Kamarut on 8 July was led by Sale at the head of his regiment. Sale had a personal encounter with the Burmese commander-in-chief, whom he killed in single combat, taking from him a valuable gold-hilted sword and scabbard.

At the end of November 1824 Sale commanded one of the two columns of attack which were to advance from Rangoon. With this column, eight hundred strong, on 1 Dec. Sale stormed the Burmese lines. On the 5th he drove the enemy from all their positions. On the 8th he attacked the rear of the enemy's lines opposite the Great Pagoda, and on the 15th stormed the enemy's entrenchment at Kokien, where he was severely wounded in the head. Sir A. Campbell again mentioned Sale in his despatch as ‘an officer whose gallantry has been most conspicuous on every occasion since our arrival at Rangoon,’ and, alluding to his wound, ‘I trust his valuable services will not long remain unavailable.’

The Burmese army having retreated to Donabyu, the commander-in-chief determined on an advance on Prome, first sending Sale with a column to reduce the province of Bassein. Embarking on 10 Feb. 1825 at Rangoon, Sale arrived off Pagoda Point, Great Negrais, on the 14th. On the 26th the first stockade on the river was successfully stormed; others followed; and when the city of Bassein was reached on 3 March, it was found to be on fire and abandoned. Sale made an expedition up the river 120 miles, returning to Bassein on 23 March, and, having met with no resistance, he re-embarked with the troops under his command for Rangoon, where he arrived on 2 May. He was promoted to be regimental lieutenant-colonel on 2 June 1825, and on the same day his brother George, in the 4th dragoons, was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel; so their names for some years were together in the army list.

On 8 Aug. Sale embarked with his regiment at Rangoon to join the army at Prome, where he arrived on 25 Aug. On 1 Dec. 1825 he commanded the 1st brigade and repulsed the Shans and Burmese at Simbike, near Prome; the next day he stormed the enemy's position on the Napadi Hills. On 19 Jan. 1826 he commanded the successful assault from boats on the main face of the enemy's works at Malown, when he was severely wounded. He was again mentioned in despatches. The war was concluded the following month, and Sale returned with his regiment to India, arriving at Calcutta in the middle of April 1826. He was made a Companion of the Bath for his services in Burma.

Sale was with his regiment at Barhampur until November 1826, when he took it to Danapur for five years and then to Agra for four years, and in January 1835 he arrived at Karnal. On 28 June 1838 Sale was promoted to be brevet-colonel. In October he was appointed to command the 1st Bengal brigade of the army of the Indus, then assembling at Karnal. This brigade, which formed the advanced brigade throughout the first campaign in Afghanistan, was composed of the 13th light infantry and the 16th and 48th native infantry regiments.

The march from Karnal began on 8 Nov. 1838. Sale reached Rohri at the end of January 1839, crossed the Indus by a bridge of boats, and reached Shakarpur on 20 Feb. After a five days' halt at Dadar he entered the Bolan pass on 15 March, and reached Shalkot or Quetta on 26 March with little opposition but great loss of baggage-animals. Want of supplies was greatly felt, and the force had to be put on reduced rations. After a halt of eleven days the Khojak pass was traversed, with further loss of animals, baggage, and ammunition, but without opposition, and Sale entered Kandahar on 26 April. Here a halt of two months was made to allow crops to ripen and the army to rest and refit. In this interval Sale was sent, on 12 May, with a mixed force of two thousand five hundred men, Abbott's battery of artillery, two 18-pounder guns, and two 5½-inch mortars, to reduce Girishk and dislodge the Kandahar chiefs from their refuge. After a fatiguing march the river Halmand was crossed on 18 May, and Sale found Girishk deserted, the Afghan chiefs having retired towards Seistan. Leaving a regiment of the shah's contingent to occupy Girishk and other abandoned places, Sale hastened back, on 24 May, to Kandahar, where he arrived on 29 May.

On 27 June the march to Kabul was resumed, and on 21 July the army arrived in front of Ghazni. The Kabul gate was blown in by the engineers on the morning of 23 July, and Sale commanded the storming column, composed of all the European infantry in the force; the advanced section, consisting of the light companies under Colonel Dennie, made good their entrance, and were at once supported by Sale with the main column. There was a sturdy conflict at the gate, and amid the crumbling masonry and the falling timber, Sale was brought to