3-053-776 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Indian Frontier Sketches: reconnoitring party, camp of exercise, Punjaub, 1873. Engraving from a sketch '...by a naval officer - Lieutenant Francis Ingram Palmer - who visited the camp...of exercise for the [British] Indian army, held in the early part of this year, under the personal superintendence of Lord Napier of Magdala, the Commander-in-Chief... The field of operations was an area of 700 square miles in the Hassun Abdul country, at the north-western angle of the Punjaub frontier, beyond Rawul Pindee, and towards the Indus, near the Fort of Attock. It is distant nearly 2000 miles from Bombay, by rail and dawk road, but still farther from Calcutta. Three separate camps were formed, each containing a force of some 5000 European and native soldiers, with about 3500 followers, making in all 26,000 men. The troops under each of the Generals commanding were at first drilled and exercised apart. Latterly, the whole army was massed together, and was then divided into two forces, supposed to represent the advanced guards of two opposing large armies. They executed a series of strategic manoeuvres and sham fights, which had much interest for spectators acquainted with the military art'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.