Major-General Sir James Outram having, with characteristic generosity
of feeling, declared that the command of the force should remain in my
hands, and that he would accompany it as Civil Commissioner only, until
a junction could be effected with the gallant and enduring garrison
of this place, I have to request that you will inform His Excellency
the Commander-in-Chief that this purpose was effected on the evening
of the 25th instant. But before detailing the circumstances, I must
refer to antecedent events. I crossed the Sye on the 22nd instant, the
bridge at Bunnee not having been broken. On the 23rd I found myself in
the presence of the enemy, who had taken a strong position, his left
resting on the enclosure of the Alum Bagh and his centre and right
drawn up behind a chain of hillocks. The head of my column at first
suffered from the fire of his guns as it was compelled to pass along
the trunk road between morasses; but as soon as my regiments could be
deployed along his front and his right enveloped by my left, victory
declared for us, and we captured five guns. Sir James Outram, with his
accustomed gallantry, passed on in advance close down to the canal.
But as the enemy fed his artillery with guns from the city, it was
not possible to maintain this, or a less advanced position for a time
taken up; but it became necessary to throw our right on the Alum Bagh,
and re-form our left, and even then we were incessantly cannonaded
throughout the 24th, and the enemy’s cavalry, 1,500 strong, crept round
through lofty cultivation, and made a sudden irruption upon the baggage
massed in our rear. The soldiers of the 90th forming the baggage-guard
received them with great gallantry, but lost some brave officers and
men, shooting down, however, twenty-five of the troopers, and putting
the whole body to flight. They were finally driven to a distance by two
guns of Captain Olpherts’ battery.
The troops had been marching for three days under a perfect deluge of
rain, irregularly fed, and badly housed in villages. It was thought
necessary to pitch tents and permit them to halt on the 24th. The
assault on the city was deferred until the 25th. That morning our
baggage and tents were deposited in the Alum Bagh under an escort,
and we advanced. The 1st Brigade, under Sir James Outram’s personal
leading, drove the enemy from a succession of gardens and walled
enclosures, supported by the 2nd Brigade, which I accompanied. Both
brigades were established on the canal at the bridge of Char Bagh.
From this point the direct road to the Residency was something less
than two miles; but it was known to have been cut by trenches, and
crossed by palisades at short intervals, the houses also being
loop-holed. Progress in this direction was impossible; so the united
columns pushed on, detouring along the narrow road which skirts the
left bank of the canal. Its advance was not seriously interrupted
until it had come opposite the King’s Palace, or the Kaiser Bagh,
where two guns and a body of mercenary troops were entrenched. From
this entrenchment a fire of grape and musketry was opened under
which nothing could live. The artillery and troops had to pass a
bridge partially under its influence; but were then shrouded by the
buildings adjacent to the Fureed Buksh. Darkness was coming on, and
Sir James Outram at first proposed to halt within the Courts of the
Mehal for the night; but I esteemed it to be of such importance to
let the beleaguered garrison know that succour was at hand, that,
with his ultimate sanction, I directed the main, both of the 78th
Highlanders and regiment of Ferozepore, to advance. This column rushed
on with desperate gallantry, led by Sir James Outram and myself,
and Lieutenants Hudson and Hargood, of my staff, through streets of
flat-roofed, loop-holed houses, from which a perpetual fire was being
kept up, and, overcoming every obstacle, established itself within
the enclosures of the Residency. The joy of the garrison may be more
easily conceived than described; but it was not till the next evening
that the whole of my troops, guns, tumbrils, and sick and wounded,
continually exposed to the attacks of the enemy, could be brought step
by step within this “enceinte” and the adjacent palace of the Fureed
Buksh. To form an adequate idea of the obstacles overcome, reference
must be made to the events that are known to have occurred at Buenos
Ayres and Saragossa. Our advance was through streets of houses which
I have described, and thus each forming a separate fortress. I am
filled with surprise at the success of the operation which demanded the
efforts of 10,000 good troops. The advantage gained has cost us dear.
The killed, wounded, and missing, the latter being wounded soldiers,
who, I much fear--some or all--have fallen into the hands of a
merciless foe, amounted, up to the evening of the 26th, to 535 officers
and men. Brigadier-General Neill, commanding 1st Brigade; Major
Cooper, Brigadier, commanding Artillery; Lieutenant-Colonel Bazely,
a volunteer with the force, are killed. Colonel Campbell, commanding
90th Light Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Tytler, my Deputy Assistant
Quartermaster-General; and Lieutenant Havelock, my Deputy Assistant
Adjutant-General, are severely, but not dangerously, wounded. Sir James
Outram received a flesh-wound in the arm in the early part of the
action near Char Bagh, but nothing could subdue his spirit; and, though
faint from loss of blood, he continued to the end of the action to sit
on his horse, which he only dismounted at the gate of the Residency.
As he has now assumed the command, I leave to him the narrative of all
events subsequent to the 26th.
I have, etc.,
H. HAVELOCK,
_Brigadier-General_,
_Commanding Oude Field Force_.
Total casualties appended:
119 officers and men killed.
339 officers and men wounded.
77 men missing.