| caption: |
Historical Summary - The Hills Districts |
| caption: |
punishment of Khonoma and other villages; death of Blyth at Baladhan |
| text: |
A campaign against the Nagas then ensued, in which the 42nd and 44th Regiments, with a wing of the 18th Native Infantry and a detachment of the 43rd Native Infantry, took part and which lasted till March 1880. Khonoma was taken on the 22nd November 1879, but the defenders retreated to a very strong position above the village on a spur of Japvo, where they maintained themselves till the end of the campaign. Jotsoma was captured on the 27th November, and every one of the 13 villages which had entered into the coalition against us was either occupied or destroyed. The most notable event of the war, however, was the daring raid made in January 1880, by a party of Khonoma men from the fort above the village, at the time beleaguered by our troops, upon the tea-garden of Baladhan in Cachar, more than 80 miles distant, where they killed the Manager, Mr. Blyth, and 16 coolies, plundered what they could and burned everything in the place. |
