Our Sailors: Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign. William Henry Giles Kingston
a message, to the effect that if the British ships attempted to pass the stockades on the banks of the river, they would be fired on.
Information was received that nearly 5000 troops were assembled near the stockades, and during the night and the following day numerous war-boats, each containing from fifty to eighty men, were discovered coming down the river. At the same time several vessels full of armed men arrived at the general rendezvous from the Pegu river. The war had begun.
On the next morning active hostilities commenced. The Henries steamer, Captain Fishbourne, first towed the Fox frigate to within 400 yards of the stockade, where she anchored to protect the merchantmen as they passed by to be out of fire. In the meantime the Hermes went in search of a large Burmese war-vessel, with which she soon returned as her prize in tow.
The English vessels, having dispersed or sunk a fleet of war-boats which came out to meet them, steamed along the shore, pouring in an iron shower, which tore the stockades to pieces and quickly silenced the enemy’s batteries.
The squadron now took up a position at the mouth of the Rangoon river, the commodore declaring the rivers of Rangoon, the Bassein, and the Salween above Maulmain, to be in a state of blockade.
Meanwhile the steamer Proserpine, after landing the hostages from Rangoon at Maulmain, was ordered to proceed to Calcutta with despatches from the commodore.
On her arrival on the 17th of January, the Governor-general being absent, the Supreme Council resolved to equip a force to carry on hostilities against Burmah; while reinforcements were despatched with unusual promptitude, to strengthen the forts guarding the passes leading from the Burmese territory.
General Godwin, the commander-in-chief, arrived on the 13th of April; and the Burmese Emperor having offered no apology, the steamers ran close in with Martaban, rapidly firing broadside after broadside. The enemy for some time returned their fire with spirit; but their guns being silenced, the troops were thrown on shore, and they fled in every direction. The walls and defences exhibited the terrific effects of the broadsides poured in on them. Of the English, only eight were wounded.
The squadron was now augmented by twelve East India Company’s steamers, which had, besides marines, 5767 troops on board.
With this formidable force Rangoon was attacked on the 12th of April. The steamers fired for many hours shot and shell without intermission, which destroyed and set on fire the enemy’s stockades and other defences. A small naval brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Darville, HMS Rattler, did good service on shore. For three days the Burmese garrison held out; stockade after stockade was stormed and taken in a most gallant way by the troops. On the 14th the grand attack was made, and the great pagoda was stormed, when, after some more severe fighting, Rangoon fell into the hands of the British. Captain Armstrong and several other officers and men of the land forces were killed, and many wounded.
Bassein was captured in the same spirited way on the 19th of May. At the pagoda here, the Burmese defended themselves with much determination; but it was stormed by some troops and some of the naval brigade, when Lieutenant Rice, RN, was wounded severely, three men killed, and seven officers and twenty-four men wounded.
While these operations were going on, Martaban, in which only a small garrison had been left, was attacked by the Burmese, but they were driven back in a very gallant manner by Major Hall and his men.
Capture of Pegu—14th June 1852.
An attack on Pegu, seventy-five miles north of Rangoon, being next resolved on, an expedition, consisting of 230 troops, who were embarked on board the Phlegethon, and the boats of that vessel and HMS Fox, under the command of Captain Tarleton, left Rangoon on the 3rd of June, and proceeded up the river.
As the boats advanced, a sharp fire of musketry was opened on them from the Pegu side. On this, Captain Tarleton, seeing the disadvantage under which they laboured from being beneath the enemy’s fire, with no effectual means of returning it, landed with the boats’ crews of HMS Fox, and was shortly after joined by Captain Neblett and the boats’ crews of the Phlegethon—in all about fifty men. Meantime Mr. McMurdo, mate, was left in charge of the boats.
As Captain Tarleton and his party advanced, the Burmese fired on them, but were driven from point to point, until completely broken—one party retreating by the riverside to the northward, and the other within the old wall of the city. The object of the British being attained, they were retiring in close order to the boats, when a fire of jingalls and musketry was opened on them from the walls. Deeming it unwise to allow the Burmese to suppose they were retreating, Captain Tarleton led his party to the attack, having found a native guide to show them the causeway through the ditch. Having halted a few seconds to gain breath, they rushed in over the causeway, and through a breach to the right of the gateway. On the storming-party getting over the wall, after a stout defence the enemy fled, and ultimately retired within the great pagoda.
Meantime the boats had been attacked, but were bravely defended by Mr. McMurdo, who succeeded in getting them to the other side of the river, Major Cotton having sent a detachment to their support. After the troops and seamen had rested for some time, the Burmese were observed issuing from the pagoda in considerable strength, with the evident intention of attacking them. The troops lost not a moment in getting under arms, and the seamen forthwith came on shore. The British instantly advanced; and before the Burmese could recover from their surprise at a movement so little expected, the place was carried without another casualty. HMS Fox had three men wounded, and the Phlegethon one seaman killed.
The force, after destroying the fortifications, returned to Rangoon on the 5th.
Expedition up the Irrawaddy.
It being important to ascertain the number and position of the enemy posted on the banks of the Irrawaddy, Commodore Lambert directed Captain Tarleton to take under his orders HMS Medusa and three Company’s steamers, and to proceed up the river for the purpose of obtaining that information. Accordingly, on the 6th of July, the vessels proceeded up the Irrawaddy.
At a place called Konnoughee, twenty-five miles below Prome, a large body of armed men were observed collected on the banks; and on a shell being fired among them, they opened a vigorous fire from six guns and from a large number of musketry. At a short distance from Prome the river divides into two streams—the left, or western, being the deepest, and the only navigable branch at any season but the rainy one. At sunset the expedition anchored off Meaoung. At daylight on the 8th it again weighed, and proceeded till within sight of an extensive fortification, crowning the end of a ridge of hills 300 feet high, terminating abruptly at the town of Akouktoung, which completely commands the river. Here, the position being strongly fortified, a Burmese army of about 10,000 men had been assembled, under General Bundoola, to guard the passage to Prome and the capital. Captain Tarleton having been warned of the resistance he would meet, and hearing from the native pilots that at that season the eastern stream was navigable, determined to try it. Instead, therefore, of keeping on, to the disappointment of the enemy, who had begun to fire on him, he turned off through the eastern channel, and was quickly beyond their reach, having had not less than two fathoms water in the channel. By steaming through the night, the rest of the squadron came off Prome by daylight on the morning of the 9th. At the south end of the town, near the water’s edge, four heavy guns were seen, but no troops were observed in the place.
Captain Tarleton accordingly anchored the Medusa abreast of the spot, and soon hove them off. The iron guns were disabled and sunk in deep water, and the brass ones were taken on board. When the other vessels joined their crews with the boats’ crews of the Fox, heartily entering on the work, every gun in Prome, twenty-three in number, was brought off. In the afternoon the Medusa ascended the river ten miles higher; but Captain Tarleton felt himself bound by his orders to return. His feelings may be supposed when he thus found himself at Prome, within four days’ steaming of Ava, with a certain knowledge that there was nothing to oppose him, and with a broad, deep river, easy of navigation, before him. Had he had with him one regiment and half a battery of guns, there is every reason to believe