THE GATE PA AFFAIR. (FROM THE "ARMY AND NAVY GAZETTE," JULY 9 )

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XX, Issue 2240, 24 September 1864, Page 6

THE GATE PA AFFAIR. (FROM THE "ARMY AND NAVY GAZETTE," JULY 9 )

Since the 21th liegimcnl vras all but annihilated at Chilhauwallah, our colonial waia have given 113 no such shocking list of casualties in a regiment as that which the telcgiam has brought irom New Zealand in the case of the 43rd Light Inf.mtiy. liven in the Cnmea \\ c believe there was but ouo occasion on which a battalion had a larger number of officers killed in a single day — the ColdsU'cam Guards at Inkormiim — ttheie nine fell. In the action the loss, both among the na\al and military forces, aniounted to 10 officers killed or dead of. wounds, four wounded, and 21 men killed and 77 wounded The pi oporlion of officers to men is exceedingly large, and it is evident that those killed compused neaily all whose duty it was to be in the front. The colonel, four captains of companies, and the senior subaltern, probably also leading a company, were all killed, while among the other officer-", whose place would not be so prominent, the casualties weie far fewer. It has been suggested, from the enormous proportion of olliceis over nien killed, that the latter may not have behaved well, but in justice we should wait for the detailed accounts, which w ill aruve about Wednesday or Thursday next, before entertaining an idea which there appeals to be really but a slight hypothesis to justify, and which, may turn out to bo completely unfouudod. Official lotnrns of lulled and wounded are not al« ays to be relied upon as founding an argument of this kind. The first official return of casualiues at lnkermann represented the Coldstream Guards as having lost nine officers and eyactly the same number of men, although it afterwards turned out that tho loss among the i men was sit times as great. The 43rd was one of the great regiments of tho Peninsular, and ranked with the 52nd aud old 95th in fame. It behaved well in tho Kaffir war of ISSI-2-3, and since it landed ten years ago in India, it advanced with the Madras column to Kirwee. The regiment was on the point of sailing for England after the completion of its full, period of foreign service, when, in consequence of an urgent requisition from General Cameron, it was diveited to ISTew Zealand, to aid in bringing the war to a close It could scarcely be thou anticipated that the task would have been attended with the bloodshed we now have to recoi cl. Of the officers who have fallen, LieutenantColonel Booth belonged to a family long and prominently known in the regiment. It was, we believe, his father -nlio served, from Vimiera, for thirty-five years in the 43rd, and who commanded it in its famous march from Frcdei icton to Qucboc in December, 1837, an achievement of which tUo Iron Puke Baid " it

11-.- " ~ "- -■ • ' I I was the only military achievement of a British officer that he really envied." LieutenantColonel Booth himself served -in the Kafh'i; >war of 1851-52. Captain Glover served with the 51st Light Infantry! im the Burmese waivof 1852, and had been lately onj-tho Madras Staff. Captain Muro was' with the regitnenb in' the Kaffir war, and was aide-de-canvp to 1 General Markham, 'in the Crimea. Captain Hamilton served with the' 97f;h in the Indian Mutiny, afid Capt ain jUltqrfcon, wlib not long ago exchanged from the ssyd Fusiliers, had bepn wi,th,thafc gallant corps in ,the, Crimea 9,n,d through the Indian Mutiny, Thus i nearly all those who were killed had seen service in the field before this. In consequcu.ee of these casualties a very large number of- promotions will take placej Major Synge obtains the lieutenant-colonelcy, Capta'm ' Holmes ' a 1 majority, Lieutenants Crozier, Hatchell, Livesay, Bkteniah, and Blyth gc't their companies, and Ensigns Cuppage, Nicholl, Clark, Longley,' Cairns, and Gailand, their lieutenancies^ without purchase. „ , >