Hugh Gough continued from the previous page....

The Regimental Colour was found under the body of Ensign Moxon by Ensign P.R Innes who, ' in spite of severe fire, gallantly recovered and brought the Colour back in safety, the men of the Regiment hailing its restoration with shouts of joy ' It now hangs on the walls of Winchester Cathedral where the blood of Ensign Moxon may still be seen. Always in the midst of the fighting in this battle was the white-haired Gough, riding out in his white coat to draw the enemy's fire away from his soldiers, a gesture that epitomized the concept of gentlemanly chivalry. He could be heard urging his troops in his racy Irish brogue to use the ' bayonet ', to him the prince of weapons.

British Infantry attacking at The Battle of Ferozeshah

Ferozeshah was a British victory, but the high cost for the British was some 2,400 casualties, for the Sikhs an estimated 5,000. Gough's victory against the Sikhs at the Battle of Sobraon in early February 1846 ended the war, but the press questioned his appalling casualties. He had, however, won this First Sikh War, was awarded a Baronetcy and granted a pension of £2000 both from the House of Commons and the East India Company. The Sikhs wanted revenge and the murder by them of an English Officer and a civil servant on the 20th April 1848 was seen as the signal for a general uprising in the Punjab. After an unneccessary and unwise cavalry charge with casualties at Ramnagar in November Gough was indormed by Governor General Lord Dalhousie that he would be glad of a victory. Gough advanced at once and the Battle of Chillianwalla on the 13th January 1849 was another bloody affair. Both sides attacked simultaneously. It was a draw rather than a victory. Some believe that the Sikhs, knowing Gough's pugnacity, had ' got the old man's Irish out ' and deliberately provoked him so that he attacked using tired troops.

' A large number of the casualties would have been Irish, for this was the time when regimental rolls began to resemble Irish parish registers and the march of the British Empire in India was milestoned by graves bearing Irish names '.

The huge casualty list so shocked authorities in Britain that it was reported that Wellington, who had earlier praised Gough, now told Sir Charles Napier that one of them had to go to India and take over the post of Commander-in-Chief. Punch called for Gough's immediate dismissal.

A scene from the Battle of Chillianwalla 1849

Before Napier arrived as the new Commander-in-Chief in May 1849, Gough had brought this second Sikh War to an end with an overwhelming victory at Gujrat in February, useing fresh troops, superior artillery and cavalry to surprise the enemy when their battle line disintegrated. The Sikhs surrendered and the Punjab was annexed to British India. Queen Victoria ' acquired ' the magnificent Koh-i-noor diamond as a token of Sikh surrender and Gough and the men in the ranks did well out of prize money. Gujrat brought Britain's new Irish hero a viscountancy and another large pension. Napier wittily expressed his view of Gough, admiring him as a person but criticizing his generalship, for their careers had overlapped in India where they had amicably quarreled over the treatment of rebels:

Everyone who knows Lord Gough must love the brave old warrior who is all honour and nobleness of heart and. . . were his military genius as great as his hear the Duke ( Wellington ) would be nothing in comparison.

In England ' Punch ' outrageously glorified him . . .When Lord Gough met with reverse Punch set him down for an incompetent octogenarian: now that he has been fortunate ' Punch ' believes him to be a gallant veteran. In 1854 he was appointed Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards, and two years later he was sent to the Crimea to invest Marshal Plessier and other officers with the insignia of the Bath. In 1862, already retired, Gough was made a Field Marshal. Honours were multiplied upon him during his latter years. He was made a Knight of St. Patrick, being the first Knight of the order who did not hold an Irish peerage, was sworn a privy councillor, was named a G.C.S.I. Hugh Gough died seven years later in his 90th year, one of the greatest of ' Sepoy Generals '.
Always courageous, Paddy Gough's gift of communication his love of battle to his troops and his concern for their welfare inspired great loyalty, and never was he defeated in battle. The Sikhs had intense respect for this ' fighting general '. It may have been that Gough's often-derided ' Tipperary tactics ' did much to persuade the Sikhs, like the Gurkhas before them, to become supporters of the British Army in the years preceding the crisis of the Indian Mutiny. The British welcomed them with their ready-made stock of pugnacity waiting to be harnessed. The Pathans and the Sikhs were a proud warlike people: ' Like the Irish... they would fight each other if there was no one else to fight. It was quicker and easier to make them into soldiers.
Irish military leadership would not pass away with the deaths of men like Wellington, Napier and Gough; Irish men such as Wolseley and Frederick Roberts would dominate the rest of the 19th Century.