Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s14.5

v4.c56.s14.5

At break of day, the signal gun was fired, the covering batteries began to bombard the enemy’s defences, and the stormers rushed to the assault. The first obstacle, a breast-work across the causeway, a hundred yards before the gate, was found deserted by the defenders. Monson made for the first gate; but now the garrison had taken the alarm, the half-moon batteries which flanked the gateway, began to shower death on the invading column, and the whole face of the fort was lit up by the fire of their cannon and musketry. The attempt to scale the wall with ladders was boldly defeated by the enemy’s pikemen standing on the top. So, a twelve-pounder was called up to breach the gate, but in the hurry it fell into a ditch near the entrance. It was fully twenty minutes before the second twelve-pounder could arrive and smash the gate. During all this time the halted storming column was subjected to a most severe raking fire of musketry, grape, and canister shot from all sides at close range. As an officer present at the scene wrote, “At this time it was that we lost so many of our officers and men. The sortie (passage before the gate) became a perfect slaughter-house. . . . But nothing could exceed the determined gallantry with which our troops struggled under this most destructive fire. The enemy, too, fought desperately, and many of them actually stepped out upon our own ladders, which were planted against the wall, to meet our men ascending. But British valour prevailed, and when two rounds from the leading gun opened the outer gate, our troops rushed in, and the slaughter among the enemy, in their turn, became very great.” [Pester, 155.]