On This Day ... in 1858 & Others
At Shunsabad during the Indian Mutiny, Troop Sergeant-Major David Spence of the 9th Lancers won the Victoria Cross for galloping back to the aid of a wounded trooper whose horse had been shot from under him, rescuing the man from a large number of mutineers.
He later achieved the rank of Regimental Sergeant-Major. In 1862 he became a Yeoman of the Guard, a bodyguard to the Queen and not to be confused with the Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) who protect the Tower of London. He died on 17 April 1877
1874: The Ashanti War had broken out in 1873 when Kofi Karikari attacked tribes under British protection. Sir Garnet Wolseley drove off the first attacks, then, having been reinforced, advanced into Ashanti territory in January 1874. On 17 January, Major Sartorius rescued under heavy fire a badly wounded African non-commissioned officer. Sadly, the NCO died of his injuries, but Sartorius' gallantry was recognised by the award of the Victoria Cross. His brother also won the VC five years later in Afghanistan.
1885: Major-General Stewart was advancing with the "Desert Column" of Kitchener's army attempting to relieve General Gordon besieged in Khartoum, when his 1,400 men came under attack at Abu Klea from some 10,000 Mahdists. The ferocity of the Mahdists' attack initially broke into the large British defensive square, but Stewart's men eventually drove them off with about 1,100 casualties: the British lost 74 men killed. Gunner Smith saved the life of an officer attacked by a Mahdist swordsman, and received the Victoria Cross. Stewart was killed in action two days later, and his successor failed to continue the advance with sufficient alacrity to save Gordon and his Egyptian garrison.
1912: The expedition led by Captain Scott arrived at the South Pole - only to find that the Norwegians led by Amundsen had just beaten them. Conditions on the return journey proved too much, and Scott's party perished only a few miles short from reaching a supply dump.
Comments
The Sergeant Major is a worthy bulldog!
Posted by: Yank in Germany | January 17, 2009 1:58 PM
The Sergeant Major is a worthy bulldog!
Posted by: Yank in Germany | January 17, 2009 1:58 PM
"(the) Mahdists' attack initially broke into the large British defensive square"
I wonder if this isn't the inspiration for the lines
"The sand of the desert is sodden red.
Red with the blood of a square that broke.
The gatling is jammed, the colonel dead
And the regiment blind in the dust and smoke"
from Vitae Lampada
Col Beausaber (lines may be slightly off, it's been many decades...)
Posted by: Beausaber | January 17, 2010 5:28 PM
No, It was imortalized in Kipling's Fuzzy Wuzzy...
Partial here:
We took our chanst among the Khyber 'ills,
The Boers knocked us silly at a mile,
The Burman give us Irriwaddy chills,
An' a Zulu "impi" dished us up in style:
But all we ever got from such as they
Was pop to what the Fuzzy made us swaller;
We 'eld our bloomin' own, the papers say,
But man for man the Fuzzy knocked us 'oller.
Then 'ere's "to" you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, an' the missis and the kid;
Our orders was to break you, an' of course we went an' did.
We sloshed you with Martinis, an' it wasn't 'ardly fair;
But for all the odds agin' you, Fuzzy-Wuz, you broke the square.
Posted by: trainer | January 18, 2010 12:46 AM
This is also the poem which added the famous "sloshed you with Martinis" to military lexicon.
Posted by: trainer | January 18, 2010 12:47 AM
...altho the good Col is probably right about the later Vitae Lampada, as I don't know of any other broken squares that entered the popular imagination.
Posted by: trainer | January 18, 2010 12:56 AM
What was the Regiment whose square was broken?
I should know, but someone has pinched my copy of Robert Graves' "Goodbye to All That". In it, he mentions that there was a regimental town where to enter a bar and ask for "A Pint of Broken Square" was to provoke the mother and father of bar fights.
Posted by: Jeff Wood | January 18, 2010 11:37 AM
List of casualties and units in the Sudan Engagements...
http://www.britishmedals.us/files/egypt_casualties.htm
Posted by: trainer | January 18, 2010 8:53 PM
This has more details of the square and what units were where within it.
http://www.britishbattles.com/egypt-1882/abu-klea.htm
Posted by: trainer | January 18, 2010 8:58 PM