_1858. CAPTURE OF LUCKNOW_
Rifles against cannon--The sailors’ battery--The circle narrows--
The 10th in Lucknow--The Moulvie’s house--Ladies rescued--Surgeon’s
place in battle--Soldiers’ gratitude--Martinière--Wrecks of
victory--The city--The Residency--Isolated casualties--Flight of
sepoys--Columns in pursuit.
Throughout March 5 heavy bombardment continued, the batteries of rebels
within Lucknow replying actively to those outside the city. On the 6th,
Captain Graham’s company of the 10th occupied an intrenched position
at an angle of the Mohamed Bagh, where during the night temporary
defences had been thrown up, the task assigned to, and successfully
performed, being by their rifle fire to keep down that from rebel guns
of a battery close to Begum Serai. It became an exciting sight to watch
the enemy as they moved their guns into the several embrasures of their
battery preparatory to discharging them upon our position, and then
the effect of the volley poured into those embrasures by our men; then
the burst of flame--our soldiers instantly throwing themselves prone
on the ground; the thud of round shot upon our protecting rampart; our
soldiers starting to their feet, pouring volley after volley as before
into the embrasures, while the guns were being lowered therefrom to be
reloaded. Thus the seemingly unequal duel went on. After a time the
rebel fire from that particular point began to slacken, then ceased.
The men of the 10th had done their work right well. Other portions of
our general force were engaged elsewhere, preparatory to the grand
attack about to be delivered.
Steadily during the next two days the circle of fire narrowed around
the city. On the 9th a more than usual heavy artillery fire took place
between our forces and the enemy. The sailors’ battery of 68-pounders
was engaged against large bodies of the rebels assembled among a
range of ruined buildings at the western end of the Martinière, the
men who worked the guns taking affairs with such coolness that, in
the intervals between firing, cleaning, and loading their respective
pieces, they squatted in parties of four on the ground, and proceeded
with games of cards, in which they seemed to take as much interest as
in the effect produced by their fire. About 2 p.m., to an increased
rapidity of fire from sailors and artillery guns was added more active
_pings_ of rifles, and somewhat later on the position of the Martinière
was in the possession of our force.
Two more days of arduous work by all ranks, the rebels gradually but
steadily being pressed in from their advanced positions; the siege guns
opening heavily upon the city; bodies of rebels in their endeavours at
flight falling into the hands of our troops, many of their own numbers
being killed. Our force increased by the arrival of reinforcements from
Cawnpore, and by that of 10,000 Ghoorkas under Jung Bahadur, the advent
of the latter causing some interest, and not a little amusement, dirty
and untidy, flat-faced, small-sized as they were, their guns drawn
by men instead of horses, their whole aspect more suited to dramatic
effect than for such work as was then in progress.
On March 11 the Begum Kotee was stormed and captured by a combined
force of 93rd Highlanders, 4th Sikhs, and Ghoorkas, the losses
sustained by the assailants being on the occasion very heavy in
both men and officers. In the afternoon of next day, the 10th, led
by Colonel Fenwick, occupied the position thus so gallantly won.
Everywhere around signs indicated the deadly nature of the struggle
that had taken place during its assault. Bodies of defenders, bleeding
and mangled, lay in heaps; some were being thrown pell-mell into a
V-shaped ditch, down, then up the sides of which our troops had in
the first instance to scramble, while exposed to terrific fire by
the defenders. As we entered, our artillery hastened to prepare for
its further work of bombarding at close quarters. During the night
we bivouacked within the city. On the 13th, the 10th forced its way
against severe opposition directly through the city towards the Kaiser
Bagh, while other portions of the troops were similarly at work from
other directions. Again, as night closed in after a day of most
arduous work and heavy list of casualties among our numbers, the 10th
bivouacked in streets and gardens wrested from their sepoy occupants.
On the 14th the regiment went on with its work of conquest, heavy fire
from roofs and loopholes bringing to earth, now one, then another, and
another of our men as we continued to advance. At last the Kaiser Bagh
was reached; it was quickly entered by Captain Annesly at the head of
his company, by means of a gateway first detected by Havelock, then
adjutant of the 10th; thus the central point within the city, held by
the rebels, was now in the hands of our troops.
At a short distance from that position, and partly hidden by other
buildings, were the ruins of what had until the previous day been
the residence of the notorious Moulvie,[185] by whose orders, in the
earlier days of the mutiny, several of our countrymen and countrywomen
who had fallen into the hands of the rebels were put to death. As our
troops now entered the enclosure within which those ruins stood, they
came upon two gory heads of British soldiers, who had during recent
operations been captured by the rebels. The Moulvie had, however,
escaped, but was known to be in the still unsubdued part of the city,
whence he exerted command over the rebels yet actively engaged against
our forces.
A communication of romantic and pathetic interest now reached the
more advanced portion of our force. It detailed the fact that two
ladies[186] were in the hands of the rebels, their lives threatened,
their position in other respects one of serious danger; it urged those
into whose hands it might fall to press onwards to their rescue. As
subsequently transpired, those ladies were held prisoners by Wajid
Ali, and by him treated with some degree of consideration, so much
so that suspicion was brought upon him in respect to his fidelity to
the rebel cause. He it was also who sent, by the hand of his brother,
to the nearest British officer, the letter alluded to. Instantly on
receipt of it, Captain McNeil and Lieutenant Bogle, at the head of a
rescue party of Ghoorkas, started under the guidance of the bearer of
the letter. The house in which the ladies were was quickly reached; the
two captives were placed in doolies, and together with their protector
escorted, not without much difficulty and risk, to the camp of General
Macgregor.
While these operations were in progress, one or other regimental
surgeon was constantly with the fighting line, rendering what aid was
practicable to those struck down; and here it is well to mention that
whenever officer or soldier felt himself wounded, his first call was
“for the doctor.” Nor is it to be questioned that the moral effect of
our presence was very considerable; the presence of a hand to succour
imparted confidence.
As soon as practicable, the wounded were withdrawn to our hospital
tents, and there their injuries more particularly attended to. While
work in front was in progress, and as a consequence that in hospital
was most active, I was on an occasion occupied during twilight in so
affording aid to a wounded soldier just brought in, myself on my knees
on the ground and leaning over him. A touch on my shoulder, and then in
a soldier’s voice, “Here, sir, put that in your haversack,” the action
accompanying the word, and the man passed on his way, my attention
too much occupied to observe his appearance. When work was done and I
returned to my tent, I examined my haversack; I found therein a brick
of silver, of sufficient size to make, as subsequently it did, a tea
and coffee service, the donor remaining unknown. The circumstance is
noted, as in contrast to that already mentioned, in which an officer
was concerned.
A visit to the Martinière revealed the effects of recent operations
against that building; statues and other works of art dilapidated,
broken, and in ruins; doors and other woodwork torn and split, walls,
ceilings, corridors injured in every possible way, large masses of
_débris_ at particular places indicating those upon which shot and
shell had been most heavily directed. From the summit of the building
we traced the route by which, in the previous October, the relieving
force had effected its advance, together with some of the buildings
historically associated with that gallant feat, including the Yellow
House, Secundra Bagh, Mess House, and Motee Mahal.
In our field hospital the wreck of our “glorious victory” was to be
seen in plenty; officers and soldiers, wounded, maimed, or in various
instances terribly burnt and disfigured by explosions; many groaning
in their agony, others placidly bearing their sufferings, a few
unconscious to pain, the death-rattle in their throats--all arranged
on pallets, and far less comfortably seen to than were their comrades
fortunate enough to be taken into their own regimental hospitals.
The streets along which the 10th had so recently forced its way
to the Kaiser Bagh presented a scene of utter devastation: walls
blackened, loopholed, shattered with shot-holes of various sizes,
the buildings roofless and tenantless except by dead bodies gashed
or torn by bullets, their cotton-wadded clothing burning, sickening
odours therefrom contaminating the air; heaps of _débris_ everywhere,
furniture, utensils and dead bodies, all mixed up together; breaches
made by heavy guns to make way for advancing infantry, round shot by
which they had been effected; domes, at one time gilded and otherwise
ornamental, but now dilapidated and charred; costly furniture, oil
paintings once of great value, ornamental glass and china strewed
about, and everywhere to be seen; ornamental garden lakes black from
gunpowder cast into them; the gardens trodden down, mosaic work of
cisterns broken into fragments. At Secundra Bagh, where on November 16
some two thousand sepoys perished at the hands of the 53rd and 93rd
Regiments, the bones of the slain, now, four months after the event,
lay in heaps, a heavy odour of decomposition pervading the enclosure.
At the Residency a deep irregular-shaped pit immediately outside the
Bailee Guard marked the spot where, in the latter days of the memorable
siege, the rebels had prepared their mine against the defenders of
that position; inside and close to the same entrance were the remains
of the countermine by which the operations connected with the former
were detected, and itself sprung upon the besiegers. The door of
that gateway, penetrated and torn by bullets; buildings roofless and
bespattered with shot-marks, including that where ladies and children
spent the eighty-five days to which the siege extended, and that
in which Sir Henry Lawrence received his death-wound,--the whole
presenting an epitome of what war implies, not to be forgotten.
For some time after Lucknow was virtually in the power of our force
desultory fights continued to occur at places in and around the city.
In the portions actually held by our troops, isolated men occasionally
fell by a rebel bullet. Among other casualties, two officers had the
misfortune to fall into the hands of the sepoys, by whom they were put
to death, and their heads, so report said, borne away as trophies.
No sooner had the principal positions held by the rebels been captured
from them than their flight from the city began, at first in small
bodies, but rapidly increasing in numbers as channels of egress
became known among them. Although without artillery, considerable
numbers carried their small arms, while others were content to
abandon everything, and seek only their own safety. One armed body
of the fugitives, while endeavouring to get away in the direction
of the Alumbagh, was fallen upon by our troops and severely dealt
with; in other directions, however, the fact became known that large
bodies effected their escape without being attacked, in places where
no special difficulties intervened,--nor did explanation of the
circumstance transpire.
Several field columns were immediately organized and dispatched along
different routes known or believed to have been taken by the escaped
rebels. Years afterwards the gallant services performed by one of those
columns[187] were detailed in a published Biography. Other bodies found
their way to the neighbourhood of Azimghur and there united with a
considerable force of their brethren, which had on March 21 defeated a
small body of British troops at Atrowlea, obliging it to retire within
entrenchments at the first-named city.