[sirupate]

Extracts from 'Britain's Gurkha War' by John Pemble;
In an incident at Kalanga dismounted 8th Royal Irish Light Dragoons, who where at the forefront of an attack became over extended;
'Nepali soldiers were swarming over the walls of the fort to support their comrades. Khukuri unsheathed, they engaged the oncoming Dragoons in a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, thrusting within the point of the sabres and parrying every swipe before it could be completed with shields born on the left arm. These they wielded with dazzling dexterity' within a few minutes, fifty eight Dragoons were lying wounded and four dead.

Parsa Ram Thapa engaged in combat with Lt. Boileau, wounding him with a sabre thrust in the thigh; but a quick-thinking sepoy, Rama Sahai Singh, swiped at Thapa from behind, when Thapa turned Lt Boileau cut him through the skull.

At Niakot Captain Croker in personnel combat killed the Nepalese chief Suraj Thapa, and Ensign John Ship engaged Sarda Krishna Bahadur Rana 'I made a feint at his toes, to cut them; down went his shield from his face, to save his legs; up went the edge of my sword smack under his chin'.

At Malaun Captain Charles Shower's in an effort to spur his men on (1st/19th Native Infantry), ran forward and challenged a Nepalese Officer, he soon had the upper hand, run him through with his sword. However, he couldn't get the sword out, and some Nepalese soldiers sprang forward stabbing him to death (probably spear), his sepoy's retreated. However Captain Shower's had earned the respect of the Nepalese, and as a consequence when the bearers went to collect his body the next day, they found it on a bed of leaves wrapped in fine cloth, as is the custom in such circumstances.


Through the Indian Mutiny;
The Memoirs of James Fairweather, 4th Punjab Native Infantry 1857-58, by William Wright
Quote from the War Correspondent W.H. Russell in 1858 whilst visiting the hospital in Kiddepore ‘On enquiry, I found that a great proportion of the wounds, many of them very serious and severe, were inflicted by the sabre or native tulwar. There were more sword-cuts in the two hospitals than I saw after Balaklava.’

‘Major Coke (1st Punjab Infantry) received a severe wound in the shoulder ... His native adjutant, Mir Jaffir, was wounded was wounded at his side, and received another bullet through his shield ...’ (Billy Paget CO of the 5th Punjab Cavalry, and friend of Fairweather)

On the journey from Calcutta to Lahore, in the Punjab, Fairweather notes; ‘The people working in the fields, in many cases with shields on their backs and tulwars by their side.’

Fairweather on the men in the regiment; ‘The men of the regiment were from all the fighting classes – Sikhs, Pathans, Dogras, Punjabis, Mussulmen, and Hindustanis (a few). They were armed with the Brunswick two grooved rifle and a sword bayonet, but many of the native officers and some of the men carried also their iron tulwar with a shield on their backs.’

Authors notes reference Dighton Probyn VC (CO 2nd Punjab cavalry) and John Watson VC (CO 1st Punjab cavalry), they were great friends and great swordsman both using curved sabres (from what I can judge they were of the Shamshir/Mameluke design), ‘hit first and hit hardest’ was their only rule.

At the battle of Bareilly Fairweather notes that 'the Ghazis were so drugged with bhang that they did not know whether they were striking with the flat or the edge of their swords'

(General Campbell, still carried a pipe backed 1796 LCS, On the 10th October 1857, the mutineers posing as jugglers etc did a surprise attack at the camp in Agra. The senior Officers were having breakfast in the fort, and some were slow to respond. However the Adjutant-General Henry Norman borrowed Sir Colin Campbell's sword cutting down two mutineers as he galloped to help repel the attack)

From; new.fibis.org;
Just as the 42d reached the old lines, they were met by the Punjabees in full flight, followed by a lot of Gazees carrying tulwars and shields.

Ian Coghlan; 42d Royal Highland Regiment, Am Freiceadan Dubh "The Black Watch", VII 1856-1869;
At the battle of Bareilly General Sir Colin Campbell had a close escape (9); His eye caught that of a quasi dead Gazee, who was lying, tulwar in hand, just before him. The Chief guessed the ruse in a moment. “Bayonet that man!” he called to a soldier. The Highlander made a thrust at him, but the point would not enter the thick cotton quilting of the Gazee’s tunic; and the dead man was rising to his legs, when a Sikh who happened to be near, with a whistling stroke of his sabre cut off the Gazee’s head at one blow, as if it had been the bulb of a poppy!! The Gazee’s were fine fellows, grizzly bearded elderly men for the most part, with green turbans and cummerbunds, and every one of them had a silver signet ring, with a long text of the Koran written on it. They came on with the heads down below their shields, and their tulwars flashing as they whirled them over their heads.