Description
Scinde Medal 1843, for both Meeanee & Hyderabad, Ramnac Coostnac, 12th Bombay Native Infantry, aka The Grenadiers. A rare early named campaign medal to the Indian Army.
Impressed in typical Calcutta Mint Style to Indian Recipients: “Ramnac Coostnac 12th Regt”
Fitted with a steel clip and straight bar suspension, as typically seen on surviving examples to these men.
Good example with both battle honours on the medal, The regiment fielded 868 men at Meanee with only 595 returning for Hyderabad.
Sepoy Ramnag Coostnag served in the Scinde War with the 12th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry.
The regiment has since been disbanded since 1923 but before that they became the 5th Regiment of the 4th Bombay Grenadiers and live on today in the form of the Indian Army unit known as “The Grenadiers”.
The Regiment fought in 2 major battles that formed the dual Battle Honours of Meeanee and Hyderabad,
First the Battle of Meanee fought on 17th February 1843.
The 12th N.I. fought bravely on this day, their fearless Commanding Officers paid the price, by the end of the day the regiment had lost its Commander, Major W.H. Jackson, Captain R.N. Meade, Lieut E. Wood, 1 Havildar and 12 Privates Killed along with Ensign Holbrow, 1 Jemadar, 2 Havildar and 47 men wounded.
Sir Charles Napier in his after battle report specially mentions the 12th Native Infantry for having captured several of the enemy guns, and goes on to say “Nor is the country less indebted to Major Reid for his gallantry at the head of the 12th native Infantry.”
Secondly the Battle of Hyderabad, aka Dubba on 24th March 1843, an account reads:
“Meanwhile the Amirs had reorganised and were concentrating their armies in the neighbourhood of Hyderabad but the arrival of reinforcements enabled the British to resume the offensive.
It was discovered that 25,000 enemy with 15 guns had taken up a position in two parallel, dry nullahs near the village of Dubba, about five miles from Hyderabad and once again a frontal attack was launched. On this occasion the 12th N.I., reduced to 580 of all ranks, and commanded by Captain G. Fisher, occupied the centre of the line.
Battle was joined at 9 a.m. on March 24th, the first nullah falling almost at once. Fighting continued until noon when the second nullah and the village of Dubba fell. During the course of the action 5,000 enemy were killed with surprisingly little loss to the attackers, the 12th N.I. losing only 2 Privates killed and 35 wounded.
This battle is known alternatively as Dubba, from the name of the village at which it was fought, as Maraja, from the name of the nearby plain and, officially, as Hyderabad.
Lieutenant Fitzgerald was again mentioned in despatches – “Four or five fell beneath the iron hand of Fitzgerald whose matchless strength renders the wildest tales of chivalry almost incredible”.
In spite of the tremendous heat the troops marched another 20 miles in pursuit of the enemy and eventually reached the village of Meypooor on March 26th. The men suffered cruelly as they were dressed in scarlet coats with tight-fitting stocks, they carried heavy equipment and had no protection from the sun while, to add to their miseries, the water supply ran out.
Yet, such was the desire to close with the enemy that the sepoys carried the British soldiers’ muskets until they themselves were forced to fall out from sheer exhaustion when it was discovered that many of the sepoys had been wounded but had concealed the fact in order to be permitted to take part in the final pursuit.”
A full account of Meanee:
On January 4th the column captured Deeja–Ka–Kote and destroyed the fort at Imanghar. By the 23rd they had occupied the whole of Upper Sind as far as Peer–Abu–Baker. After a two days halt the advance into Lower Sind was commenced, Nowsharra was captured on January 31st and Sukkerunder on February 9th.
Meanwhile a force of 30,000 Baluchis had taken up a position near the village of Meanee where they awaited the arrival of the column. After a rest of five days at Sukkerunder the British set out for Meanee where they arrived by a series of forced marches on February 17th.
They found the enemy ensconced in the dry bed of the river Fullaillee, their right resting on the village of Katri and their left on impenetrable jungle some 1,200 yards away.
A frontal attack was launched with the 12th N.I., occupying a position on the left of the line, the advance being maintained at a steady pace until the troops found themselves confronted by what an eye–witness describes as “a perfect forest of swords, filling the broad bank of the Fullaillee, clustering on both banks and, filling the plain beyond.”
The enemy hurled themselves down the slope and, in describing the resultant action, the historian goes on:–
“How the Baloochees closed their dense masses and such a fight took place as has seldom been known in the records of war. No fire of small arms, no push of bayonets, no sweeping discharges of grape from the guns could drive them back. They gave their breasts to the shot, they leapt upon the guns and were blown away by twenties at a time. Their dead went down the deep slope by the hundred but the gaps in their masses were continually filled up from the rear, the survivors of the front rank still pressing forward with unabated fury.
Thus they fought, never more than three yards apart and often intermixed, the line being occasionally forced back by sheer weight of numbers. Major Jackson, commanding the 12th N.I., led his men, 730 strong, into the action as if the succession of death had been in his orders. Two brave Havildars kept close to him, all three in advance of their Regiment, and all fell dead together covered with wounds, but not passively; several of the fiercest Baloochees were seen to sink beneath the strong arm and whirling blade of the heroic Jackson as, crowding round him, they tore his body with their weapons.
…Such was the battle of Meanee, fought on 17th February 1843 with 1,200 men against thirty thousand. It had been a chain of single combats, no quarter being asked and none given. The ferocity on both sides was unbounded and the slaughter terrible, with the British throughout the fight literally on the brink of destruction. The enemy lost no fewer than 6,000 dead alone, so that in less than four hours 2,000 men had struck down 6,000, three to each man.”
The enemy continued to press forward in spite of their losses until a cavalry charge against their right caused them to give way. On the death of Major Jackson, Major A.T. Reid assumed command of the 12th N.I.
In his subsequent report General McMurdo comments,
“I observed along the line about 10% of the men engaged constantly with their locks; either in wiping moisture from the pan or in chipping their blunted flints; and I saw some even change them for new ones, this involving a mechanical operation with the screw of the hammer. But in doing these things the men did not fall out to the rear as on the parade, but stood their ground in line, with their bayonets pointed to the enemy. I saw the men dispense at last with their ramrods; the cartridge of the old smooth bore fitted so loosely in the barrel that the weight of the ball, accompanied by a sharp stroke of the butt upon the ground, was sufficient to send it home.”
When the force left Roree in December 1842 Lieutenants Fitzgerald and Russell of the 12th N.I. were seconded for duty with the cavalry and at the battle of Meanee Fitzgerald’s conduct occasioned a special report of which the following is an extract:-
“…but the exploits of Lieutenant Fitzgerald made all who saw him in the fight marvel. Three or four had fallen beneath his tempestuous blade when a Baloch, crouching, as their custom is, beneath a shield, suddenly stepped up on the bridle hand and, “with a single stroke, brought the horse down dead.” Fitzgerald’s leg was entangled by the fall and twice did the elated Baloch drive his keen blade at the prostrate warrior; each time the blow was parried and the, clearing himself from the dead horse, the strong man rose. The barbarian instantly cast his broad shield over his head, which was likewise defended with a thickly rolled turban of many folds, but Fitzgerald’s sword went sheer through shield, and turban, and skull, down “to the teeth.”
In his subsequent reports Sir Charles Napier specially mentions the 12th N.I. for having captured several enemy guns, and goes on to say “Nor is the country less indebted to Major Reid for his gallantry at the head of the 12th Native Infantry.”*
The regiment lost Major W.H. Jackson, Captain R.N. Meade, Lieutenant E. Wood, 1 Havildar and 12 Privates killed and Ensign Holbrow, 1 Jemadar, 2 Havildar and 47 men wounded.
