THE INDIAN MUTINY--ORGANISATION--RELIEF OF LUCKNOW--DEFEAT OF GWALIOR
CONTINGENT
In the beginning of 1857 the clouds that presaged the awful storm
of mutiny which Sir Charles Napier had foretold and temporarily
averted seven years earlier, were ominously gathering over the
Bengal Presidency. On the 19th of February the first flash of
actual outbreak burst forth at Berhampore. The revolt spread to
Barrackpore, and in the course of a few weeks it became apparent
that the spirit of insubordination was gradually but surely ripening
throughout the Bengal army. In the middle of May the crisis which
had been threatening for three months came to a head at Meerut. The
revolt of the native troops at that great station was consummated
in rapine and slaughter. Delhi, with its vast munitions of war
unprotected save by a handful of devoted European soldiers, fell
into the hands of the insurgents. The pensioned King of Delhi was
drawn from his senile obscurity and proclaimed Emperor of India, and
the great city became the capital of a rival power and the centre
of attraction to the revolted army. The native regiments in the
stations of the North-West Provinces broke out successively into
revolt and hastened tumultuously to Delhi, which soon contained
within its walls a turbulent mass of many thousand mutinous soldiers.
Within a month after the outbreak at Meerut British authority had
become almost extinct throughout the North-West Provinces. From
Meerut to Allahabad, among a population of some thirty millions and
throughout an area of many hundred miles, there remained no vestige
of British occupation, save where at Agra the British residents were
waiting anxiously for the signal to withdraw from their bungalows
into the shelter of Akbar's fort, and the hapless people closely
beleaguered in Wheeler's miserable entrenchment at Cawnpore. Across
the Ganges throughout Oude, British men, women, and children were
being mercilessly slaughtered by revolted sepoys; and Henry Lawrence,
himself in the midst of troops scarcely caring to cloak their
mutinous intentions, had soon sadly to realise that all Oude was
gone except the Lucknow Residency, where he was to die after having
exhausted himself in successful exertions to make that position
defensible by the brave and steadfast men who survived him.
While on the march from Umballa towards Delhi the Commander-in-Chief
in India, General the Hon. George Anson, died of cholera at Kurnal
on May 27th. Tidings of this misfortune did not reach the War
Office until July 11th. On that same afternoon Sir Colin Campbell
was sent for by Lord Panmure, who made him the offer of the high
command rendered vacant by Anson's decease. Campbell promptly
accepted the offer and expressed his readiness to start that same
evening if necessary. He stipulated successfully that his friend
Colonel Mansfield, then Consul-General at Warsaw (afterwards Lord
Sandhurst), should be offered the appointment of chief of staff with
the rank of major-general. This settled, Campbell had an interview
with the Duke of Cambridge, then as now Commander-in-Chief, who
approved of the selection of Major Alison[3] as military secretary,
and of Sir David Baird and Lieutenant Alison as aides-de-camp.
It had been arranged at Sir Colin's interview with Lord Panmure
that he should start next morning. He was ready and his modest kit
complete; but sundry matters intervened delaying his departure for
a few hours. The Queen, for one thing, had desired that he should
wait on her. The Duke of Cambridge brought him to Buckingham Palace;
and, so Sir Colin wrote in his journal, "Her Majesty's expressions of
approval of my readiness to proceed at once were pleasant to receive
from a Sovereign so good and so justly loved." He left London by the
continental night train, full of a justifiable elation. "Never,"
he wrote, "did a man proceed on a mission of duty with a lighter
heart and a feeling of greater humility, yet with a juster sense
of the compliment that had been paid to a mere soldier of fortune
like myself in being named to the highest command in the gift of
the Crown." Hurrying through Paris he found time to breakfast with
General Vinoy his old Crimean friend, and reaching Marseilles on
the morning of the 14th he immediately embarked for India on a
vessel which was in readiness with its steam up. During the voyage
he prepared a strategic scheme, the essence of which was a great
concentric advance upon the Central Indian States, to be undertaken
by the whole disposable military forces of the Madras and Bombay
Presidencies, that would effectually engage the whole rebel strength
of those turbulent territories, and so in some degree divert the
severe pressure of the Gwalior Contingent on the left flank of the
long and precarious main line of communication. This object obtained,
Bengal and the Punjaub once more united by the reconquest of the
intervening territory, and the left flank and rear of the reconquered
base secured by the reduction of Central India, the most arduous
work of the war could be safely undertaken; the vast, populous, and
bitterly hostile province of Oude might then be subdued, with the
result of securing non-molestation on the right flank of the region
through which the principal line of communication must pass. The
operation of this grand strategic scheme was weakened and retarded
by various causes; but the sound wisdom of Campbell's prescient
conception was ultimately in great measure vindicated.
The new Commander-in-Chief landed at Calcutta on the 13th of August
and became Lord Canning's guest at Government House. The situation
which confronted him was gloomy almost to utter hopelessness.
It was true, indeed, that John Lawrence was holding the Punjaub
in his strong hand, and was pressing forward all his available
reinforcements to strengthen the British force contending against
overwhelming odds before the walls of Delhi. But meanwhile that
force was little over four thousand strong, and it seemed more than
doubtful whether it could hold its ground until reinforcements should
reach it. The garrison at Agra was isolated and cut off from all
communication. That of Lucknow, hemmed within the feebly-defensive
position of the Residency and its environs by many thousands of
fierce and relentless enemies, encumbered also with a great company
of helpless women and children, had numbers wholly inadequate to
man the defences and was maintaining an almost hopeless resistance
against overwhelming odds. Havelock, at the head of less than two
thousand brave men, had fought his way from Allahabad to Cawnpore,
too late to save the lives of the hapless women and children who had
been reserved from the massacre of the men of Wheeler's command only
to endure a crueller fate. His gallant and persistent efforts to
relieve Lucknow had failed and he had been obliged to fall back to
Cawnpore, where with an attenuated force he was maintaining himself
precariously in the face of the threatening attitude of the revolted
Gwalior Contingent on the further bank of the Jumna.
Through the gloom there was one gleam of sunshine. The fortress of
Allahabad, with its magazines of military stores, remained in British
possession. At the point where the Ganges and the Jumna blend their
waters, distant by land five hundred miles from Calcutta, it was a
position of the highest strategical importance, forming as it did
an advanced base for operations in the regions beyond having for
their object the relief of beleaguered places and the restoration of
communications with Delhi and the Punjaub. From Calcutta to Allahabad
there were two available routes; by the Ganges a distance of eight
hundred miles, to accomplish which by steamer required from twenty
to thirty days; by the land route of five hundred miles, one hundred
and twenty of which was by railway and three hundred and eighty by
the Grand Trunk Road. The troops as they landed were despatched up
country in detachments by one or other of those routes. The common
objective for the time was Allahabad, where Sir James Outram, who
had returned from the command of the Persian expedition and had left
Calcutta on the 6th of August to assume the command of the combined
Cawnpore and Dinapore divisions along with the civil appointment
of Chief Commissioner in Oude, was to collect the detachments of
reinforcements as they arrived, preparatory to moving upward to
Cawnpore there to join Havelock and advance with him to attempt the
relief of the beleaguered garrison in the Residency of Lucknow.
But the troops, which as soon as possible after landing at Calcutta
should have been pushing straight up country to Allahabad either by
land or by water, suffered unavoidable detentions by the way. So
disturbed was the country that posts had to be maintained to keep
the routes open, and their occupation absorbed a certain proportion
of the scanty European force. The mutinies of native troops at
Dinapore and Bhagulpore caused the temporary detention by the local
authorities of important reinforcements; and it was not until the
first week of September that Outram was able to collect his scattered
detachments at Allahabad. After a sharp and successful fight on the
way he reached Cawnpore on September 15th; bringing reinforcements
which raised to a strength of about three thousand men the force
of which he chivalrously waived the command in favour of Havelock.
Ten days later was accomplished what is commonly though erroneously
styled the First Relief of Lucknow,--not a "relief" in any sense of
the term, but simply a great augmentation to the defensive strength
of the garrison which had been holding the weak position of the
Residency with a heroism so staunch.
Sir Colin found Calcutta all but entirely bare of material for a
campaign; nothing was in readiness for the equipment of the troops
fast converging on his base on the Hooghly. Means of transport there
were scarcely any; horses for cavalry or artillery there were none;
ammunition for the Enfield rifles was deficient; flour even was
running out; guns, gun-carriages, and harness for the field-batteries
were either unfit for active service or did not exist. Prompt and
active were the exertions made by the energetic Chief and his
subordinates to cope with needs so pressing. Horses were purchased
no matter at what cost; ammunition was gathered in far and wide;
flour was commissioned from the Cape; field-guns were cast at the
Cossipore foundry; gun-carriages and harness were made up with all
possible haste. The Commissariat and Ordnance departments were
stirred from their lethargy and stimulated to an activity previously
undreamed of; and the whole military machine was set throbbing at
high pressure. As the falling of the Ganges gradually made the river
route precarious, great exertions were made to quicken and extend the
means of transport by the Grand Trunk Road, for which purpose the
Bullock Train, as it was called, was established. Relays of soldiers
travelled up night after night in bullock-waggons, halting during the
heat of the day at prepared resting-places. Ultimately this system
was so perfected that two hundred men were daily forwarded from the
end of the railway at Raneegunge; and they reached Allahabad after
about a fortnight's travel, perfectly fresh and fit for immediate
service.
In the midst of the pressure of his preparations Sir Colin found time
to write with soldierly appreciation and cordiality to the principal
officers now under his command. His first message to Outram concluded
with the words, "It is an exceeding satisfaction to me to have your
assistance, and to find you in your present position." To Havelock
he wrote: "The sustained energy, promptitude, and vigorous action
by which your whole proceedings have been marked during the late
difficult operations deserve the highest praise. I beg you to express
to the officers and men under your command the pride and satisfaction
I have experienced in reading your reports of the intrepid valour
they have displayed upon every occasion they have encountered the
vastly superior numbers of the enemy, and how nobly they have
maintained the qualities for which British soldiers have ever been
distinguished--high courage and endurance." To Archdale Wilson,
commanding the force before Delhi, he sent on August 23rd some words
of generous encouragement, the first communication which had reached
that officer from any military authority for many weeks: "I must
delay no longer to congratulate you on the manner in which the force
under your command has conducted itself and upheld the honour of our
arms. You may count on my support and help in every mode in which it
may be possible for me to afford them." And when on September 26th
the happy news reached him that Delhi, the head and heart of the
rebellion as it was then considered to have been, was once more in
the occupation of a British garrison, the Chief promptly telegraphed
to Wilson, "Accept my hearty congratulations on your brilliant
success."
It seems quite clear that Sir Colin regarded it as virtually certain
that Outram, who assumed command when Havelock and he had fought
their way into the Lucknow Residency, would succeed in speedily
effecting the relief and withdrawal of the garrison which was
still holding that precarious position. But his confident hope
for the prompt relief of Lucknow was doomed to early and utter
disappointment. Outram's column had proved to be simply in the nature
of a reinforcement, and that, too, with no corresponding addition to
the supplies of the original garrison. The beleaguerment was close;
the position environed by some sixty thousand armed and rancorous
enemies. Outram sent word on October 7th, just a fortnight after
his entry, to the effect that by eating his horses and gun-draught
bullocks he would be able to subsist for a month; and he added that a
force equal at least to two strong brigades would be required for the
extrication of the garrison.
The sudden and pressing danger threatening Outram's isolated and
beleaguered force in Lucknow imposed on the Commander-in-Chief the
most urgent exertions. Every military department was stimulated to
the utmost; the whole resources of the Government were thrown into
violent action. Stores, provisions, carriages, ammunition, guns, all
were hurried forward upon Allahabad. But the available resources
were sadly limited. The infantry were straggled in small detachments
all along the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Cawnpore. No cavalry
existed except some two hundred men of the military train, and there
were scarcely any horses for the field-batteries which were being
organised at Allahabad. All told, the troops on the up-country march
constituted a force hardly equivalent to a single weak brigade,
less than half the strength which Outram had specified as requisite
for his extrication. To relieve Lucknow in time seemed a sheer
impossibility and disaster to the garrison there inevitable.
Fortunately, while every nerve was being strained to succour Outram
from below, the welcome tidings were received that invaluable
co-operation was approaching from the opposite direction. As soon
as Delhi had fallen General Wilson had sent out in pursuit of the
fugitive rebels a mixed column under the command of Colonel Greathed.
The strength of this force amounted to two thousand eight hundred
men, of whom nine hundred and thirty were Europeans. It was made up
of two troops and one battery of artillery with sixteen guns, the
Ninth Lancers three hundred strong, the Eighth and Seventy-Fifth
Regiments four hundred and fifty strong, two hundred native sappers,
four hundred Punjaub cavalry, and two regiments of Punjaub infantry
twelve hundred strong. Marching down the Gangetic Doab, Greathed
defeated bodies of mutineers at Bolundshuhur, Malaghun, and Allyghur.
Failing to overtake the main body of fugitives which had crossed his
front towards Oude, he pushed on to Agra by forced marches, and had
barely pitched his camp there when he was suddenly attacked by the
Indore brigade. Recovering from their momentary surprise, the British
troops notwithstanding their exhaustion met the hostile onslaught
with vigour, and after a sharp engagement routed the enemy with heavy
slaughter and the capture of thirteen guns and a great quantity of
baggage and stores in the lengthened pursuit following on the combat.
During the march from Agra down the Doab Colonel Hope Grant overtook
the column, and having taken command of it in virtue of seniority
arrived at Cawnpore on October 26th. Four days later, at the head of
the Delhi column reinforced by several companies of the Ninety-Third
Highlanders and some infantry detachments, he crossed the Ganges into
Oude. Strictly enjoined to refrain from any serious operation pending
the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, Grant halted at Buntera, six
miles short of the Alum Bagh, with the garrison of which position
he established communications. As the reinforcements and supplies
reached Cawnpore they were sent forward to the depôt-camp at Buntera.
The arrival of this Delhi column was of priceless value to Sir Colin,
on whom his all but utter want of cavalry and his deficiency in
field-artillery had hitherto weighed sorely. The column had come well
provided with carriage, a hardly less valuable acquisition than the
cavalry and artillery it brought. Now the Chief had to his hand the
elements wherewith to organise a field-force strong enough to justify
the opening of active operations at an early date.
Sir Colin left Calcutta on the 27th of October, and hurried with all
speed to the seat of war. On the way he narrowly escaped falling
into the hands of a body of mutineers who were crossing the road
just as he came up. At Allahabad on November 1st intelligence
reached him that Outram considered himself able to hold out on
further reduced rations until beyond the middle of the month,--a
welcome announcement, since it afforded Sir Colin more time to
complete his arrangements and gave opportunity for the arrival of
reinforcements still on the way. On the morning of the 3rd he reached
Cawnpore, where he remained a few days to get the engineer train and
commissariat in trim for the projected operation.
That operation was of the most difficult and embarrassing character.
Its urgent objective was the relief of Lucknow, whence came an
importunate cry for succour. Yet to attempt the immediate relief
of Lucknow was at the imminent risk of the sacrifice of his
communications; and the result of relieving the city at the cost of
the forfeiture of his communications, would be simply to find himself
in the air, hampered by a great convoy of sick and wounded, of women
and children, his scanty force ringed around by vast hordes of
enemies. For, as he knew, at Calpee on the Jumna, forty miles south
of Cawnpore and directly on the flank of the road between Allahabad
and Cawnpore, was gathering the revolted Gwalior Contingent, a large
force under the Nana Sahib, and portions of the Dinapore mutineers--a
collective body at least triple his own strength, having the obvious
intention of striking at Cawnpore and his communications so soon as
he should be fairly committed to the Lucknow enterprise. Of this
eventuality he had no alternative but to take the risk, leaving
in Cawnpore General Windham with a few hundred men to remain on
the defensive in an intrenched position and not to move out unless
compelled by threat of bombardment.
On the 9th Sir Colin reached the camp at Buntera, where he placed
Hope Grant in divisional command, reserving to himself a general
superintendence of the operations. During the halt there the brave
Kavanagh, who had volunteered to pass from beleaguered Lucknow
through the hostile lines in the guise of a native scout, came
into camp with despatches for the Chief. The scheme of operations
settled on was to skirt the city from the Alumbagh to the Dilkoosha;
thence to advance upon the Martinière and the line of the canal; to
follow the right bank of the Goomtee seizing the barracks and the
Secundrabagh; thence under cover of batteries to be opened on the
Kaiserbagh to carry the remaining buildings; and after effecting a
junction with the Residency to withdraw its garrison. A message was
sent in to Outram informing him that the Commander-in-Chief would
leave the Alumbagh on the 13th; that he hoped to gain possession of
the barracks and the Secundrabagh on the 14th; and on the 16th to
carry out the women and children and the sick and wounded.
On the afternoon of the 11th Sir Colin's little army, all told barely
four thousand five hundred strong, was formed up on the plain for the
inspection of its Chief. A spectator has graphically depicted the
scene. The field-guns from Delhi looked blackened and service-worn;
but the horses were in good condition and the harness in perfect
repair; the gunners bronzed; stalwart, and in perfect fighting
case. The Ninth Lancers, with their gallant bearing, their flagless
lances and their lean but hardy horses, looked the perfection of
regular cavalry on active service. Wild and bold was the bearing
of the Sikh horsemen, clad in loose fawn-coloured dress, with long
boots, blue or red turbans and sashes, and armed with carbine and
tulwar. Next to them were the worn and wasted remains of the Eighth
and Seventy-Fifth Queen's, who with wearied air stood grouped under
their colours. Then came the two regiments of Punjaub Infantry, tall
of stature, with fierce eager eyes under their huge turbans,--men
swift in the march, forward in the fight, and eager for the pillage.
On the left of the line, in massive serried ranks, a waving sea of
plumes and tartan, stood the Ninety-Third Highlanders, who with loud
and rapturous cheers welcomed the veteran commander whom they knew so
well and loved so warmly. Till he reached the Highlanders no cheer
had greeted Sir Colin as he rode along the line of men to whom as yet
he was strange. But the Ninety-Third were his old familiar friends.
"Ninety-Third!" so ended his little speech--"You are my own lads, I
rely on you to do yourselves and me credit!" "Aye, aye, Sir Colin!"
answered a voice from the ranks, "Ye ken us and we ken you; we'll
bring the women and bairns out o' Lucknow or we'll leave our ain
banes there!"
The expected reinforcements having joined, the column, Sir Colin
riding at its head, began the flank march towards the Dilkoosha at
daybreak on the morning of the 14th. No opposition was met with until
the advance approached the Dilkoosha park, whence came a smart fire
which was soon overpowered. The Dilkoosha was promptly occupied and
the straggling enemy hurried down the slope towards the Martinière,
whence presently came a heavy fire of artillery and musketry which
was beaten down by Travers' heavy guns. At the approach of the
British skirmishers the Martinière was evacuated, and all the
ground on the hither side of the canal was won. The field-hospital
and commissariat were installed in the Dilkoosha and headquarters
were established in the Martinière, the wood to the west of which
was occupied by Hope's brigade with guns on the higher ground on its
left. An attack on the position made by the enemy in the afternoon
met with defeat, and they were driven back across the canal by a
couple of regiments which made good a lodgment on its further side.
All the 15th the advance halted to admit of the closing up of the
rearguard, which had been constantly engaged with the enemy during
the previous day and did not reach the Dilkoosha until late next
morning. The nearest road from Sir Colin's position to the Residency
was by the Dilkoosha bridge, the Begum's palace, and the Huzrut
Gunj,--the road followed by the Seventy-Eighth Highlanders in the
first relief; but it was manifestly extremely dangerous. Another
road, starting also from near the Begum's palace and passing between
the barracks and a suburb, led straight to the Secundrabagh. This
was the route traversed by Outram and Havelock's main force on the
25th of September, and it was recommended in the plan Outram had
sent out by Kavanagh. But Sir Colin was assured that this road also
would present formidable obstacles to his advance; and he could not
afford to run the risk of compromising his scanty resources, already
diminished by the detachments he was obliged to leave in his rear.
He wisely resolved to make a detour to his right and approach the
Secundrabagh by the open ground near the river. In the afternoon a
reconnaissance was made by the Commander-in-Chief of the position
opposite his left, the intention being to impress the enemy with the
belief that his advance was to be made in that direction. The massing
of all his artillery on that point and the maintenance upon it of a
fire of mortars during the night, together with the entire absence of
outposts on his right, were measures intended to contribute to that
conviction.
By daybreak of the 16th the army was in motion. The enterprise before
it was arduous in the extreme. After the subtraction of the details
necessary to hold the Alumbagh, the Martinière, and the Dilkoosha,
there were available for the relief operations only the Ninety-Third,
part of the Fifty-Third, two weak Sikh regiments, two provisional
battalions of detachments, and portions of the Twenty-Third and
Eighty-Second regiments--in all not above three thousand bayonets.
Opposed to this handful was a host of some sixty thousand armed men
concentrated in a central position of great strength. The task would
have been rash even to madness but for Campbell's great strength in
artillery, on which he chiefly depended for overcoming the obstacles
which interposed between him and the garrison he had come to relieve.
That artillery comprised the gallant Peel's naval brigade, consisting
of six 24-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, and two rocket-tubes;
the sixteen field-guns of Greathed's column, a heavy and a light
field-battery and a mortar-battery of the Royal Artillery, one
half field-battery of the Bengal Artillery, and two native Madras
horse-artillery guns--in all thirty-nine guns and howitzers, six
mortars, and two rocket-tubes.
The line of Campbell's advance was from his extreme right along the
right bank of the river for about a mile, and then by a narrow
and tortuous lane through thickly-wooded enclosures and between
low mud-houses until the vicinity of the rear of the Secundrabagh
should be approached. A strong advance-guard of cavalry with Blunt's
troop of Bengal Horse Artillery and a company of the Fifty-Third
led the way. Hope's and Russell's brigades followed, the ammunition
and engineer park came next, and Greathed's brigade brought up the
rear. After passing the village of Sultangunge the lane by which the
force was advancing turned sharp to the left, when the rear of the
Secundrabagh became immediately visible, from the loopholes in which
and from the adjacent huts on either side of the lane came a brisk
fire. The moment was extremely critical; for the movement in advance
was checked, while the cavalry, jammed and helpless in the narrow
lane, hindered the passage forward of the artillery and infantry. Sir
Colin pushed to the front regardless of the enemy's fire, thrust the
cavalry into the side alleys of the village, and ordered a company
to line and cover the continuation of the lane passing along the
west side of the Secundrabagh and debouching into the open space in
its front. He himself then brought up to the front of the building
two of Travers' 18-pounders, which promptly set about battering a
breach in the south-west bastion of the Secundrabagh. Blunt's troop
of horse-artillery came tearing up at a gallop through a heavy
cross-fire till it reached the open space between that building and
the serai a couple of hundred yards to the southward. Blunt gallantly
maintained his fire in three different directions, sustaining heavy
losses in men and horses. The Ninety-Third now coming up, three
companies of that regiment cleared the serai and the adjacent
buildings, drove out the enemy holding those positions, and pursuing
the rebels across the plain seized and held the barracks while part
of the Fifty-Third in skirmishing order connected that post with
the main attack against the Secundrabagh. Sir Colin was near one of
Blunt's guns when a bullet which had passed through a gunner struck
him with great force on the thigh, but it did not penetrate and he
escaped with a severe bruise.
While the 18-pounders were doing their work the infantry were lying
down behind an embankment waiting impatiently till their time should
come. After an hour's battering a Sikh native officer, without
waiting for the word, sprang forward sword in hand followed by his
men. Sir Hope Grant[4] states that the brave Sikh was outrun by
Sergeant-Major Murray of the Ninety-Third. Mr. Forbes-Mitchell[5]
says that the Sikh officer was killed on the way and that the two
European officers of the Sikh regiment were wounded, misfortunes
which caused a temporary halt on the part of the Punjaubis. "Then,"
according to Forbes-Mitchell, "Sir Colin called to Colonel Ewart,
'Ewart, bring on the tartan!'; his bugler sounded the advance, and
the seven companies of the Ninety-Third dashed from behind the
bank. It has always been a moot point who got through the hole
first. I believe the first man in was Lance-Corporal Donnelly of the
Ninety-Third, killed inside; then Subadar Gokul Singh, followed by
Sergeant-Major Murray of the Ninety-Third also killed, and, fourth,
Captain Burroughs[6] severely wounded."
The foremost men climbed in through the narrow breach. The bulk of
the Ninety-Third and the Sikhs entered by the great gate further left
after its massive locks had yielded to many bullets, and they were
followed by Barnston's battalion of detachments. The Fifty-Third
broke in through a window to the right. The vast interior garden
in which the deadly strife was proceeding rang with the clash of
weapons, the crackle of musketry, the shouts and yells of the
combatants. The scene baffled all description. The enemy, caught in
a death-trap, fought with the courage of despair. The conflict raged
for hours and the carnage was appalling. When the enclosure and
buildings were finally cleared of their ghastly contents, no fewer
than two thousand native soldiers were found to have been slain.
That Sir Colin's temper was apt to break out in sudden passion, he
himself was very ready to admit; and if the passion were causeless,
he was equally ready to make amends for the outburst. Forbes-Mitchell
tells a story of him which illustrates both characteristics. Colonel
Ewart, he says, in the fighting inside the Secundrabagh had captured
a regimental colour from two native officers, both of whom he had
killed notwithstanding that he had been himself severely wounded; and
seeing that the fight was over, Ewart, bareheaded, covered with blood
and powder-smoke, his eyes still flashing with the excitement of the
fray, ran up to where Sir Colin sat on his gray charger outside the
gate of the Secundrabagh and called out "We are in full possession of
the place, sir! I have killed the two last of the enemy with my own
hand, and here is one of their colours!" Sir Colin had been chafed
by events, and he turned angrily on Ewart. "Damn your colours, sir!"
he thundered--"it is not your place to be taking colours; go back to
your regiment this instant!" Ewart turned away, much disconcerted
by the reception given him by the Chief; but Forbes-Mitchell adds
that he subsequently heard that Sir Colin sent for the colonel later
in the day, apologised for his rudeness, and thanked him for his
services.
Some distance beyond the Secundrabagh, and about one hundred yards
right of the road towards the Residency, was the Shah Nujeef, a
great mosque and tomb surrounded by a high loopholed wall fringed
by trees, jungle, and enclosures. About midway between the two
places lay a village to left of the road. Having drawn off his
brigade from the Secundrabagh Hope cleared and occupied this
village, while Peel brought up his heavy guns and placed them in
battery within short range of the Shah Nujeef. The defence of that
stronghold was most obstinate, the enemy maintaining from it a
severe and incessant musketry-fire which cost Peel very heavy loss.
The attack had lasted for nearly three hours, yet no impression
had been made on the massive structure; and Peel was enduring a
double cross-fire from the left bank of the Goomtee and from the
Kaiserbagh in addition to the injury wrought him by the garrison
of the Shah Nujeef. A gallant attempt made by Barnston's battalion
of detachments to clear the outlying enclosures failed; Barnston
was struck down, and the determined attempt then made by Wolseley
to escalade could not succeed, for he and his men were raked by a
storm of missiles,--grenades and round-shot hurled from wall-pieces,
arrows and brickbats, burning torches of rags and cotton saturated
with oil. A dangerous crisis was imminent. Retreat was not to be
thought of, even had it been possible, which it was not. The veteran
Chief was equal to the occasion. He sent orders to Middleton's light
field-battery to advance, to pass Peel's guns on the right, and,
getting as near as possible to the Shah Nujeef, to open a quick and
well-sustained fire of grape. Peel, for his part, was to redouble
his fire; and the Chief rode back to the village occupied by the
Ninety-Third to tell his favourite regiment that no matter at what
cost the Shah Nujeef must be taken, and since the place had withstood
gun-fire the cold steel would have to play its part. Many words were
not needed, for Sir Colin and the Ninety-Third understood each other;
and so, announcing to the regiment that he would himself head its
advance, he led it out from the village into the open, ready to press
forward at the word.
Middleton's battery came up grandly. With loud cheers, the drivers
waving their whips, the gunners their caps, it galloped through
the storm of fire to within pistol-shot of the wall, and poured in
round upon round of grape. Peel, manning all his guns, worked them
with swift measured energy. The Ninety-Third, with flashing eyes
and ardent step, the Highland blood throbbing in every vein, came
rolling forward in a great eager wave, the war-loving veteran of
many battles riding at its head. As he approached the nearest angle
of the enclosure the men began to fall fast, but without a check its
foot was reached. There, however, the gallant Scots were brought
to a stand in face of a loopholed wall twenty feet high. There was
no breach and there were no scaling-ladders. Unable to advance and
resolute not to retire, the Ninety-Third resorted to a stationary
fire of musketry; but the garrison of the place had all the advantage
and the assailants suffered severely. Of Sir Colin's staff both
the brothers Alison were struck down, and many of the mounted
officers, including Hope, his aide-de-camp, and his brigade-major,
had their horses shot under them. The aspect of affairs had become
exceedingly grave; the dusk was falling and the Shah Nujeef still
remained untaken. Just at this critical moment Sergeant Paton of
the Ninety-Third came running to Hope with the glad tidings that he
had found a breach in the north-east corner of the rampart near the
river. Hope quietly gathered a company and followed the sergeant
through the jungle to where the latter indicated the narrow fissure
he had discovered. He clambered up and then assisted Hope, Allgood,
and others; the soldiers followed in single file. A body of sappers
hurried up and enlarged the opening, and then the supports rushed in.
The garrison, taken by surprise, glided away amidst the rolling smoke
into the dark shadows of the night. The main gate was thrown open and
at last the Shah Nujeef was in British possession.
Enough had been done for one day. The Shah Nujeef was garrisoned
by the Ninety-Third, where also headquarters were established for
the night. The roads and positions in rear of that advanced post
were strongly held, and the wearied troops lay down to well-earned
rest. The relief of the Residency, a few hours before problematical
in the extreme, was now fairly assured. Taken between Campbell's
batteries and Outram's cannon, the enemy could not long maintain
themselves in the intervening buildings. In the early morning of
the 17th Peel's heavy guns were already in steady action on the
Mess House, a place of considerable strength, with a ditch twelve
feet broad backed by a loopholed wall. For several hours it was
bombarded, until, the musketry fire from it having been subjugated,
about 3 P.M. it was successfully attacked by Captain Wolseley[7] with
a company of the Ninetieth and a detachment of the Fifty-Third. As
Wolseley's men, flushed with success, followed their gallant leader
in pursuit of the fugitives across the open into the Motee Mahal,
Lieutenant Roberts[8] raised the flag on the top of the Mess House,
the specified signal which notified to the Residency garrison the
near approach of the relieving force. On the 16th Havelock had made
a sally the result of which was to give him the possession of the
advanced posts of the Herrn Khana and the Engine House; and thus
communication was opened between the two forces as soon as the Motee
Mahal had been carried. The meeting of Sir Colin Campbell, Outram,
and Havelock, commemorated in a well-known picture, marked the
virtual consummation of the operations for the relief. That object
had been accomplished at the cost of a loss of forty-five officers
and four hundred and ninety-six men. It still remained, however, to
withdraw from Lucknow the garrison and its encumbrances. To effect
this evacuation in security required the utmost vigilance on the
part of the troops and the greatest nicety in their handling, for
the enemy still held threatening positions in overwhelming strength,
and the long line from the Residency to the Dilkoosha which had to
be traversed by the garrison and its convoy, was exposed to hostile
fire at many points. From the 17th until the evacuation on the night
between the 22nd and 23rd, Campbell's force in effect constituted a
huge outlying picket which could not be relieved until the ultimate
withdrawal should have been effected. Sir Colin's first operation
was to protect the left flank and left rear of his force by a chain
of posts extending from the barracks to Banks' house, and this was
accomplished after some sharp fighting. To protect the women and
children from exposure to fire from the Kaiserbagh while crossing the
open space between the Engine House and the Motee Mahal, a flying sap
with canvas screens was constructed; and during the afternoon of the
19th their retirement as far as the Secundrabagh was accomplished
in safety. They were received by Sir Colin at his headquarters near
that building. To assure their safety he detained the ladies until
nightfall, when he sent them on to the Dilkoosha in doolies. The
Government treasure, the crown jewels of the King of Oude, and all
the serviceable guns were then gradually sent out; and at midnight
of the 22nd the withdrawal of the garrison began. In deep silence
the original garrison quitted the Residency and passed through the
advanced posts to the rear. Those in succession fell back until the
ground had been abandoned as far as the Secundrabagh, where Hope's
brigade was in position with fifteen guns. The troops were then drawn
back across the canal, Sir Colin remaining with a detachment until
the last gun was reported clear of the last village. Before dawn
of the 23rd the whole force was in its assigned positions at the
Dilkoosha and the Martinière. So adroit had been the arrangements
that the enemy continued to fire on the positions for many hours
after they had been relinquished. Thus terminated a series of
difficult and delicate operations, the entire success of which was
mainly owing to the steadfast adherence to Sir Colin Campbell's
original design. Wisely planned and skilfully executed, it proved how
much a comparative handful of disciplined soldiers could accomplish
against stupendous odds and in difficult ground, under the guidance
of a leader who combined great experience in war with the full
possession of the confidence of his troops.
On the afternoon of the 24th, just as the life was quitting the worn
frame of the noble Havelock, the relieving force with its unwieldy
convoy began its march to the Alumbagh, its rear covered by Outram's
division which closed up next day. It was not until midday of the
27th that Sir Colin, leaving Outram at the Alumbagh with four
thousand men and twenty-five guns, put in motion towards Cawnpore his
own vast miscellaneous column of soldiers, women and children, sick
and wounded, guns, treasure and material. When the camp at Bunnee
was reached in the evening, the sound of heavy firing was heard in
the direction of Cawnpore. For several days all communication with
Windham had been cut off; and when it was known that a cannonade
had been heard at Bunnee on the previous day, the conclusion became
inevitable that the Gwalior Contingent had caught at the opportunity
to assail the feeble garrison of Cawnpore. The apprehension of this
had been haunting Sir Colin ever since the rupture of communications
some days back; but nevertheless it must be said that there had
been a certain measure of deliberation since the accomplishment of
the relief. The weakness of Windham's resources and the disastrous
consequences of his being overwhelmed by numbers, occasioned very
serious disquietude. Cawnpore and the bridge over the Ganges in
hostile possession, it was but too obvious that Campbell's force
with its huge and helpless convoy would be gravely compromised. A
night-march made by such troops as could be spared from escort-duty
might have saved some valuable hours, but the force did not resume
its progress until the morning of the 28th. The thunder of the
cannon waxed louder as the column advanced; and note after note from
Windham, delivered by panting messengers, gave ominous intimation how
greatly endangered had become the situation at Cawnpore.
Leaving the infantry to hurry forward with the convoy and heavy guns,
Sir Colin pushed on rapidly with the cavalry and horse-artillery.
Leaving those in the Mungulwar camping-ground he galloped on to
Cawnpore with his staff. Near the bridge an officer reported to him
that "Windham's garrison was at its last gasp." His soldierly nature
chafed by the flaccid despondency which tone and expression alike
disclosed, the hot old Chief spurred his horse across the bridge and
rode straight for the entrenchment. As he passed, some men whom
he had commanded in the Crimea recognised through the gloom the
familiar face and figure; and cheer on cheer was raised as the word
passed like lightning that the Commander-in-Chief had arrived. No
more caitiff babble now of the garrison being "at its last gasp!"
The feeling was universal that with Sir Colin's arrival disaster was
no longer to be dreaded; and the situation was already retrieved in
spirit.
Windham had not followed the instructions given him by the
Commander-in-Chief before the latter crossed into Oude. He had
loyally forwarded to Sir Colin the reinforcements as they arrived,
until the communications were cut off between him and his Chief. Left
then to his own resources both moral and material, and aware that
a rebel force of trained soldiers, fourteen thousand strong with
some forty guns, was daily drawing nearer and nearer, he abandoned
the defensive prescribed to him, and on the 24th of November he
pushed some six miles out into the country with his mixed force of
detachments, numbering all told less than fourteen hundred men with
eight guns. Accepting his challenge, Tantia Topee, the rebel general,
and the only real soldier the mutiny produced, threw forward his
advanced guard into a strong position lining the dry bed of a nullah.
That position Windham on the morning of the 26th carried at the first
rush; but he found it necessary to withdraw in face of the main body
of the rebels, and he fell back nearer to his base. At noon next day,
skilfully withholding his infantry, the rebel general opened a heavy
cannonade on Windham's front and flanks. For five hours the British
troops held their ground staunchly against overwhelming odds, but
at length they were forced to retreat. This movement through narrow
streets and broken ground was attended by considerable disorder, and
the camp-equipage had to be abandoned. Reluctant to withdraw into
the entrenchment, Windham during the night between the 27th and 28th
still held with his right the broken and wooded ground between the
city and the river, while his left stretched into the plain beyond
the canal. The fighting, renewed on the morning of the 28th, proved
disastrous to the attenuated forces of the defence. Walpole on
the left held his ground and even took the offensive, and Carthew
gallantly maintained his position on the right until it became quite
untenable. But the retirement of the latter gave possession to the
enemy of the Church and Assembly Rooms containing the stores and
baggage of the Commander-in-Chief's army, which Windham had omitted
to remove within the cover of the entrenchment. Gradually the hostile
batteries closed in around Windham's last defensive position near
the bridge head, and directed their fire also on the bridge itself.
A sally was made which for a time gave promise of a retrieval, but
it was ultimately repulsed with heavy loss and great discouragement.
By nightfall the garrison had been obliged to take shelter in the
entrenchment; and when Sir Colin rode into the work it had become
the mark for the cannon-balls and even the musketry-fire of the
victorious rebels.
On the morning of the 29th Sir Colin's artillery on the left bank,
aided by that of the entrenchment, gradually beat down the fire which
the enemy were directing on the bridge; and the crossing of the
troops then began. The passage of the vast convoy lasted unceasingly
for thirty-six hours. As the women and children, the sick and wounded
crossed, the interminable _cortège_ swept by the rampart of the fort
and encamped on the plain among the mouldering remains and riddled
walls of the weak shelter wherein Wheeler's people had fought and
died. Day after day the enemy cannonaded Sir Colin's camp, but
effective reprisals had to be postponed until the convoy of families
and wounded which had started for Allahabad on the night of December
3rd should have been far enough on the journey to be safe from danger
at the hands of the rebels. Meanwhile, the communications having been
restored, the current of reinforcements was resumed, and the eager
soldiers needed only to recover the fatigue of their march.
The enemy, whose forces were now increased to some twenty-five
thousand men, had their left strongly posted in the broken ground of
the old cantonments between the city and the river. Cawnpore itself
was occupied; and its face towards the canal, opposite the advanced
posts of the British camp, was thickly lined with troops. The hostile
right was behind the canal on the southern plain, the Calpee road
covered by the camp of the Gwalior Contingent. To fall on the enemy's
right and prevent assistance being rendered it by their left, was the
governing idea of Sir Colin's plan of attack. He determined to throw
the whole weight of his force on the rebel right on the plain, to
strike at the camp of the Gwalior Contingent, establish himself on
its line of retreat, and having thus separated it from the Bithoor
force constituting the rebel left, to effect the discomfiture of
both bodies in detail. The troops at his disposal amounted to five
thousand infantry, six hundred cavalry, and thirty-five guns.
At 10 A.M. of the 6th, while the troops of Sir Colin's left were
being formed in order of battle on either side of the Grand Trunk
Road, Windham opened a fire of heavy artillery from the entrenchment
upon the enemy's right between the city and the river, with the
object of concentrating their attention on that quarter and of
masking the main point of Campbell's attack. When this cannonade
slackened Greathed, moving up to the line of the canal, engaged the
enemy holding the edge of the city with a heavy musketry-fire for
the purpose of detaining them in that position. On Greathed's left
Walpole with his riflemen and the Thirty-Eighth crossed the canal,
skirted the southern edge of the city, then bringing forward his
right shoulder, swept across the plain towards the enemy's camp.
Simultaneously the columns of Hope and Inglis, forming in successive
lines further to the left under cover of the heavy artillery and
preceded by the Sikhs and the Fifty-Third, drove the enemy across the
canal, followed them up closely, and pressed eagerly forward upon
the camp of the Gwalior Contingent, hurling back the foe in utter
confusion. A battery galloping to the front poured round after round
of grape into the tents, which were speedily cleared. So complete
was the surprise, so sudden the onslaught, that the _chupatties_
were found baking on the fires, the bullocks stood tied beside the
carts, the sick and wounded were lying in the hospitals. By noon
the enemy were in full flight by the road to Calpee. Such was the
demoralisation that a pursuit by Sir Colin, his staff and personal
escort, along with Bourchier's field-battery, sufficed to keep the
fugitives on the run; for the cavalry which was intended to cut
off the enemy's retreat had missed its way, and only joined in the
pursuit some miles beyond the abandoned camp. Gun after gun was
captured in the chase. Sir Colin maintained the pursuit with the
cavalry and the horse-artillery along the Calpee road for fifteen
miles, capturing seventeen guns with their ammunition waggons and a
great booty of material. The Gwalior Contingent, for the time being,
was utterly discomfited.
The defeat of the rebels would have been complete, but for the escape
of the Bithoor troops constituting the enemy's left in the ground
between the city and the river. After the capture of the Gwalior
Contingent's camp there had been assigned to General Mansfield, Sir
Colin's Chief-of-Staff, the task of cutting off the retreat of the
rebel left along the Bithoor road. Mansfield advanced, with the
Rifles in skirmishing order followed by the Ninety-Third and covered
by an artillery fire, to a position near the Subadar's Tank, where
he halted short of the road which was the enemy's line of retreat.
This passive attitude not only permitted the escape of the enemy,
but emboldened them to venture an artillery-attack on Mansfield's
stationary troops; and the rebels were allowed to carry off their
guns without hindrance and to make good their retreat on Bithoor.
Mansfield's inaction would have more seriously detracted from the
completeness of the British victory, but for the success of the
enterprise which Sir Colin committed to Hope Grant on the 8th. That
gallant soldier hurried in pursuit of the Bithoor fugitives with some
two thousand five hundred men and eleven guns. On the early morning
of the 9th he overtook them at Serai Ghaut twenty-five miles above
Cawnpore. Promptly opening fire on them, he drove them across the
river and captured fifteen guns. Of the forty guns with which the
rebels had advanced on Cawnpore, they had now lost all but one. Sir
Colin had disposed of some twenty-five thousand enemies, including
the formidable Gwalior Contingent, at the cost of only ninety-nine
casualties among the troops he had led to a success so signal.
He was free at last to appreciate the virtue of the old proverb,
"All's well that ends well." But he had run great risks and had
narrowly escaped disaster. Nobly stimulated by an exigence in the
urgency of which he put faith, he had set aside ordinary military
considerations and concentrated every energy on the relief of
a garrison which he had been led to believe was in extremity.
As a matter of fact, there was no such imminency as had been
represented to him. It must be said that both the chiefs who
successively conducted the defence of Lucknow were unduly impatient
of beleaguerment. Havelock sacrificed half his scanty force in
successive attempts to reach Lucknow, urged to try and to try again
by Inglis' needless nervousness on the subject of rations. Outram's
sole edible contributions to the resources of the original garrison
were the bullocks which had hauled his guns and ammunition waggons;
yet no approach to starvation threatened either the original garrison
or the so-called "relieving force." As a matter of fact there was no
resort to horse-flesh; and there never should have been any occasion
for reduced rations of farinaceous food, of which, indeed, Sir Colin
carried away one hundred and sixty thousand lbs. The commissariat had
simply miscalculated; and there was really no need that Sir Colin
should have strained every nerve for the immediate relief of Lucknow,
involving as it did the postponement of military undertakings
of more imminent importance. This fact impressed itself on the
Commander-in-Chief; and the realisation that he had been influenced
by representations which circumstances did not warrant gave occasion
to a coolness on his part towards Sir James Outram.
It is fair, however, to state that Outram wrote from Lucknow to
Captain Bruce in the following terms:--"However desirable it may
be to support me here, I cannot but feel that it is still more
important that the Gwalior rebels should be first disposed of.... We
can manage to screw on, if absolutely necessary, till near the end
of November, on further reduced rations.... But it is so absolutely
to the advantage of the State that the Gwalior rebels should first
be effectually destroyed, that our relief should be a secondary
consideration." Had Outram written in this tone three weeks earlier,
the option would have been with Sir Colin to strike at Calpee before
undertaking the relief of Lucknow. But it was not until the 28th
of October, when Sir Colin had already taken his line, that Outram
wrote as above; and his communication was addressed neither to the
Commander-in-Chief nor to Brigadier Wilson in command at Cawnpore,
but to a subordinate officer. Outram adds that his letter, since
it reached Bruce on October 30th, was no doubt communicated to Sir
Colin who did not leave Cawnpore for Lucknow until November 9th. But
a plan of campaign cannot be altered at a moment's notice and at
the eleventh hour. Nor is there any evidence that Sir Colin ever saw
Outram's letter to Bruce. It is true that intelligence reached him at
Allahabad on November 1st that Outram "was prepared, if absolutely
necessary, to hold out on further reduced rations till near the end
of November;" and the announcement pleased him, as it afforded him
a longer period in which to make his preparations for the relief of
Lucknow. But he wrote to the Duke of Cambridge on November 8th that
"all accounts from Lucknow show that Sir James Outram is in great
straits;" and his biographer Shadwell testifies that "the urgent
cry for succour which reached him from Lucknow overbore every other
consideration."