Numbers were against them, and even superiority of weapons was not
so overwhelmingly in their favor, for those were the days of short-
range rifle-fire and smoothbore artillery, and one gun was considerably
like another. The mutinous sepoys had their rifles with them; there
were guns from the ramparts of Hanadra that were capable of quite
efficient service at close range; and practically every man in the
dense-packed rebel line had a firearm of some kind. It was only in
cavalry and discipline and pluck that the British force had the
advantage, and the cavalry had already charged once and had been
repulsed.
General Turner rode up and down the sweltering firing-line, encouraging
the men when it seemed to him they needed it and giving directions
to his officers. He was hidden from view oftener than not by the
rolling clouds of smoke and he popped up here and there suddenly
and unexpectedly. Wherever he appeared there was an immediate
stiffening among the ranks, as though he carried a supply of spare
enthusiasm with him and could hand it out.
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