Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/421

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Conquering March of Sir Hugh Rose.
385

Sir Hugh marched with the second brigade from Sihor, on the 16th of January, for Ráhatgarh; the first, which set out from Máu on the 10th, marching in a parallel line to it in the direction of Gunah. Sir Hugh invested Ráhatgarh on the 24th, took possession of the town on the 26th, defeated the rebel Rájá of Bánpur, who had advanced to relieve the fortress on the 27th, and found the place evacuated on the morning of the 28th. Having discovered, two days later, that the same rebel Rájá was posted, with his forces, near the village of Barodíá, fifteen miles distant, he marched against and completely defeated him. He then pushed on Ságar, which had been held, isolated in the heart of a rebel country, mainly through the loyalty of the 31st Regiment N. I., faithful amid the faithless, for more than six months; reached it on the 3d of February; marched on the 9th, after pacifying the surrounding country, against the strong fortress of Garhákotá, twenty-five miles distant, compelled the rebels to evacuate it, pursued, and cut them up. Waiting there until he should hear that a column which, under the orders of Brigadier Whitlock, should have quitted Jabalpur, and gathering in meanwhile supplies for his campaign, he marched, on the 26th of February, for Jhánsí. On his way he inflicted a very severe defeat on the rebels at Madanpur, despite a most determined resistance. This defeat so daunted them that they evacuated, without resistance, the formidable pass of Malthón, the forts of Narhat, Suráhí, Maráurá, Bánpur, and Tal-Bahat, and abandoned the line of the Bíná and the Betwá, retaining only, on the left bank of the latter, the fortress of Chandérí.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Stuart, with the first brigade, had, as we have seen, quitted Máu on the 10th of January, and marched upon Gunah, the road to which had been cleared in a most gallant and effective manner by a de-