Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/446

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DURING THE BURMESE WAR.
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was divided into two columns; the right, under the command of Brigadier-General Cotton, continuing to march along the straight road leading to Simbike, and the other, accompanied by Sir Archibald Campbell, after fording the Nawine river, moving along its bank in a direction nearly parallel with the Brigadier-General’s division. The route followed by the latter officer brought him in front of a succession of stockades, which he at once assaulted and carried. In less than ten minutes the enemy was completely routed; and Sir Archibald had only an opportunity of cannonading his panic-struck masses as they rushed through the openings of the jungle before him, endeavouring to effect their escape. The enemy left 300 men dead upon the ground, with the whole of his commissariat and other stores, four guns, twelve jingals, more than four hundred muskets, a very considerable quantity of gunpowder, and upwards of 100 horses. The body of Maha Nemiow was found among the slain.

The enemy’s left corps thus disposed of, and finding, from the testimony of all the prisoners, that Meaday had been fixed upon as the point at which to re-unite in the event of any disaster. Sir Archibald Campbell immediately determined upon marching back to Ze-ouke, for the purpose of attacking the centre on the following day. At 6 p.m., the whole force was again assembled at Ze-ouke, after a harassing march of about twenty miles, which the troops underwent with the greatest cheerfulness and spirit. During the night, a message was sent to Sir James Brisbane, requesting him to be in readiness to move forward with the flotilla, as soon as the troops were seen debouching from the jungle in front of Napadee. Early in the morning of the 2d, the army was again in motion, and many hours had not elapsed before the numerous stockades and breastworks upon that formidable and almost inaccessible ridge, were successively stormed and carried, the enemy flying from hill to hill, over extremely dangerous precipices, until the whole of the position, nearly three miles in extent, was taken. Previous to the assault, Sir James Brisbane cannonaded the heights from the river, and the land artillery also opened upon them with great