The victory of General Sir Charles Napier at the battle of Scinde

In 1842, at the age of 60, Sir Charles James Napier was appointed Major General in command of the Indian army within the Bombay Presidency. Under the instruction of the Governor General, Lord Ellenborough, Napier was despatched to the province of Sindh to quell the insurrection of the Baloch ruler's in the region, where on the 15th February the Residency in Hyderabad had been attacked. On the 17th February 1843 Napier and his force of 2,800 East India Company troops attacked the 8,000 strong Baloch army at a bend in the dry bed of the Falaili River at Miani. A five hour battle ensued between the two armies, with the better equipped and more tactically advanced British forces being subjected to wave after wave of ferocious cavalry charges by the unrelenting Baloch forces, whose strength never seemed to weaken despite the heavy fire from the British. In the carnage that followed, Napier rode amongst his officers and troops to rally and stop them falling back whilst pouring out torrents of blasphemous exhortations towards the enemy. At the crucial moment Napier ordered his cavalry to sweep through the enemy lines and then return attacking them from behind with irrepressible fury. Upon a spectacular victory for the British, Hyderabad was restored and the Baloch rulers conceded defeat.