Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/389

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OUR ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY.
365

who were crowded on its ramparts, which the enemy had just abandoned.

The park of artillery was also attacked and carried in a masterly manner, and a body of cavalry which had formed to defend it speedily put to flight. A strong body of the enemy who had taken their position in the lines in front of Fort Corselis were attacked and driven from them, and the fort taken. The enemy was now completely put to flight; a vigorous pursuit followed, and the whole of the flying army was either killed, taken, or dispersed. So close was the combat that in the course of the day almost every officer was engaged hand to hand. Colonel Gillespie, in person, took prisoners two generals and a colonel, and another colonel fell by his hand. General Jansens succeeded with some difficulty in reaching Buitenzorg, a distance of thirty miles, with a few cavalry, the sole remains of an army of ten thousand men.

The loss on the part of the British was severe, that of the enemy still more so. About a thousand of the latter were buried in the works, many perished in the river, and many in the flight. Nearly five thousand were made prisoners, among whom were three general officers, thirty-four field-officers, seventy captains, and one hundred and fifty subalterns. In the Anglo-Indian Army, about one hundred and fifty men, European and native, were killed or missing, and upwards of seven hundred wounded.

The conquest of the island might now be considered as achieved; but General Jansens still held out, and took up in succession two or three other positions, with the view of making head against the invaders. But all his efforts were vain: he was driven from them all, and was finally compelled to give up the island, and to surrender, with all that remained of his army, as prisoners of war.

The Sultan of Palimbang, a chief in the south-eastern part of Sumatra, no sooner received intelligence of the success of the British arms than he formed the atrocious resolution of destroying the Dutch Resident, and every