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War Beyond the Dragon Pagoda

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War Beyond the Dragon Pagoda
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Author(s): Major J. J. Snodgrass
Date Published: 02/2007
Page Count: 192
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-234-4
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-233-7

In this, the second book published by Leonaur on the barely reported First Anglo-Burmese War, the author—a staff officer—who was an eyewitness to most of the major events, gives us an incisive overview of the whole war. This provides the reader with a unique insight into the actions of the various troops during the course of the campaign. However it is the author’s descriptions of pitched battles against a richly caparisoned foe—including everything from umbrella bearing generals and war elephants to “invincibles” and Amazons—that bring this exotic and spectacular conflict vividly to life. Re-living this war from just one step away, whether witnessing fighting in jungle stockades or experiencing river actions against Burmese war boats, will remain with and intrigue all who are interested in the British in the East.

The day had scarcely dawned, on the 1st of December, when hostilities commenced with a heavy fire of musketry and cannon at Kemmendine, the reduction of that place being a preliminary to any general attack upon our line. The firing continued long and animated; and from our commanding situation at the Great Pagoda, though nearly two miles distant from the scene of action, we could distinctly hear the yells and shouts of the infuriated assailants, occasionally returned by the hearty cheer of the British seamen, as they poured in their heavy broadsides upon the resolute and persevering masses. The thick forest which separated us from the river, prevented our seeing distinctly what was going forward; and when the firing ceased, we remained for a short time in some anxiety, though in little doubt as to the result of the long and spirited assault.
At length, however, the thick canopy of smoke, which lowered over the fierce and sanguinary conflict, gradually dissolving, we had the pleasure of seeing the masts of our vessels lying at their old station off the fort—a convincing proof that all had ended well on our side.
In the course of the forenoon Burmese columns were observed on the west side of the river, marching across the plain of Dalla, towards Rangoon. They were formed in five or six different divisions, and moved with great regularity, led by numerous chiefs on horseback—their gilt umbrellas glittering in the rays of the sun, with a sufficiently formidable and imposing effect, at a distance that prevented our perceiving anything motley or mobbish, which might have been found in a closer inspection of these warlike legions. On reaching the bank of the river opposite to Rangoon, the men of the leading division, laying aside their arms, commenced entrenching and throwing up batteries for the destruction of the shipping, while the main body disappeared in a jungle ·in the rear, where they began stockading and establishing their camp, gradually reinforcing the front line as the increasing extent of the batteries and entrenchments permitted.
Later in the day, several heavy columns were observed issuing from the forest, about a mile in front of the east face of the Great Pagoda, with flags and banners flying in profusion. Their march was directed along a gently-sloping woody ridge towards Rangoon: the different corps successively taking up their ground along the ridge, soon assumed the appearance of a complete line, extending from the forest in front of the Pagoda, to within long gun-shot distance of the town, and resting on the river at Puzendown, which was strongly occupied by cavalry and infantry; these formed the left wing of the Burmese army.
The centre, or the continuation of the line, from the Great Pagoda up to Kemmendine, where it again rested on the river, was posted in so thick a forest, as to defy all conjecture as to its strength or situation; but we were well aware that the principal force occupied the jungle in the immediate vicinity of the pagoda, which was naturally considered as the key to our position, and upon which the great effort would accordingly be made. In the course of a few hours we thus found ourselves completely surrounded, with the narrow· channel of the Rangoon river alone unoccupied in our rear, and with only the limited space within our lines that we could still call our own.
The line of circumvallation taken up by the enemy, obviously extended a very considerable distance, and divided as it was by the river, injudiciously weakened his means of assailing us on any particular point; but as far as celerity, order, and regularity are concerned, the style in which the different corps took up their stations in the line, reflected much credit on the arrangement of the Burmese commander. When this singular and presumptuous formation was completed, the soldiers of the left columns also laying aside their spears and muskets, commenced operations with their entrenching tools, with such activity and good will, that in the course of a couple of hours their line had wholly disappeared, and could only be traced by a parapet of new earth gradually increasing in height, and assuming such forms as the skill and science of the engineer suggested. The moving masses, which had so very lately attracted our anxious attention, had sunk into the ground; and to anyone who had not witnessed the whole scene, the existence of these subterranean legions would not have been credited: the occasional movement of a chief, with his gilt chattah (umbrella), from place to place, superintending the progress of their labour, was the only thing that now attracted notice. By a distant observer, the hills, covered with mounds of earth, would have been taken for anything rather-than the approaches of an attacking army; but to us who had watched the whole strange proceeding, it seemed the work of magic or enchantment.
In the afternoon His Majesty’s Thirteenth Regiment and the Eighteenth Madras Native Infantry, under Major Sale, were ordered to move rapidly forward upon the busily-employed and too-confident enemy; and as was suspected, they were found wholly unprepared for such a visit, or for our acting in any way, against such numerous opponents, on the offensive. They had scarcely perceived the approach of our troops before they were upon them, and the fire which they at last commenced proved wholly inadequate to checking their advance.. Having forced a passage through the entrenchments and taken the enemy in flank, the British detachment drove the whole line from their cover with considerable loss; and having destroyed as many of their arms and tools as they could find, retired unmolested before the numerous bodies which were now forming on every side around them.
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