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Updated: June 29, 2025
Sixteen thousand of the Spanish troops under the order of the archduke were encamped to the west of the town, and had 30 of their siege-guns in position there, while 4000 men were stationed on the east of the town under Count Bucquoy. Ten guns were in position on that side.
More Uhlans followed, the hoofs of their magnificent horses ringing like thousands of steel hammers breaking stones in a road; and after them the giant siege-guns rumbling, growling, the mitrailleuse with drag-chains ringing, the field-pieces with creaking axles, complaining brakes, the grinding of the steel-rimmed wheels against the stones echoing and re-echoing from the house front.
If they had but handed over one or two of the forts to the gendarmes, or kept a company or two of sailors there, there would have been a line by which the troops could have approached the town, as it is they will have to bring up siege-guns and silence Issy and Vanves before much can be done."
Moolraj, consequently, was allowed time to complete the defences of Mooltan, which he rendered very formidable. No sooner had Sir Frederick Currie, the resident at Lahore, received information that Moolraj had shut himself up in Mooltan, than he despatched General Whish, with a train of heavy siege-guns, to invest it.
General McClernand called for three cheers, that were given with a will. The regiments broke ranks, and the battery fired upon the massive works and heavy siege-guns crowning the heights across the river. A plunging fire of great shells from the fortifications, and the sight of boats loaded with troops leaving the opposite shore, were impressive warnings that the invaders could not safely tarry.
After dark our battery was ordered to move down toward Fredericksburg and occupy some earthworks just outside of the town. We had been well in range of the siege-guns already, but now the only hope was that they would overshoot us. As I was on guard that night I had ample time, while pacing the breastworks, for cogitation.
Now that is almost precisely what happened when the Germans besieged Antwerp, the enormously superior range and calibre of their siege-guns enabling them to pound the city's defences to pieces at their leisure without the defenders being able to offer any effective resistance.
The arm had but just begun to develop itself, and it was cultivated as a special trade by the guild of the holy Barbara existing in all the principal cities. This system furnished a powerful element of defence at a period when every city had in great measure to provide for its own safety. The two first were called battering pieces or siege-guns. All the guns were of bronze.
Their commander spoke wittingly, for two days it took to get the trenches, and the redoubts thrown out in advance of them, completed, and the heavy siege-guns were not moved forward until after dark on the 8th.
Four thousand shots had been fired from the siege-guns upon the city, and three hundred upon the relieving force. The besieging army numbered in all nine thousand one hundred and fifty men of all arms, and they lost during the eighty-five days' siege three hundred killed and four hundred wounded.
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