THE CAMPAIGN IN ROHILCUND
It will be remembered that in the beginning of the year, when the
Commander-in-Chief was desirous of effecting the settlement of
Rohilcund before proceeding to the final reduction of Lucknow in
the autumn, the Governor-General had evinced his preference for
postponing operations in Rohilcund and for proceeding as early as
possible to the conquest of the capital of Oude. That great task
had now been accomplished, and it was the opinion of the sagacious
veteran that, Oude having been entered and Lucknow in British
possession, it was the wise and proper course to proceed to the
subjugation and settlement of the great province of which Lucknow
was the centre, before committing the British arms to a campaign
beyond the boundaries of that province. But now again Lord Canning
differed from his military subordinate. "I feel," he wrote to Sir
Colin, "the full force of the reasons which you have urged in favour
of limiting active operations in the field to Oude for the present,
and of making clean work of that province while we are about it."
But he argued that, unlike Oude the inhabitants of which had been
and still were bitterly hostile, Rohilcund contained a "numerous
well-affected population." The argument had a real weight, but was
somewhat belated. If Sir Colin had been permitted to settle Rohilcund
in the beginning of the year, the numerous "well-affected population"
of that province, on behalf of whom Lord Canning was now suddenly so
solicitous, would have escaped several months of anarchy and disorder.
Sir Colin, disciplined soldier as he was, bowed to the superior
authority and promptly set about the preparations for the Rohilcund
campaign. Napier's engineers established a secure military position
for the troops appointed to garrison Lucknow. To Hope Grant was given
the command of the Lucknow field-force, inclusive of the troops
available for the garrison of Lucknow and for operations in the
districts; a formidable force the infantry alone of which comprised
eleven regiments, with a siege-train, nine batteries, and adequate
cavalry. Lugard led a column of all arms into the disturbed Azimghur
district beyond south-eastern Oude, which with local reinforcements
was to constitute the Azimghur division. On April 8th Walpole's
column, in which marched one Punjaub and three Highland regiments
with a strong artillery force and two cavalry regiments, started on
its road for Rohilcund by way of Sandeela, Rhooyah, and the Ramgunga
river. Sir Colin's plan for the invasion of Rohilcund was based on
the projected advance of two columns from opposite points; Walpole's
force marching up from Lucknow, and a fine body of troops collected
at Roorkee by the exertions of Sir John Lawrence, consisting of
four infantry regiments, the Mooltan Horse, a field-battery and two
18-pounders under the command of Brigadier-General John Jones.
Those columns, sweeping the country during their respective onward
movements, were destined to converge on Bareilly the capital of the
province, which thus became the objective point of this strategical
combination.
Sir Colin Campbell had a high opinion of Walpole, which the latter
had certainly justified at Cawnpore and throughout the recent
operations against Lucknow. In the course of his march towards
Rohilcund, some fifty miles from Lucknow there was reached the
jungle-fort of Rhooyah. The Rajah in possession refused to surrender.
Walpole then ordered an attack without having previously reconnoitred
the position; and the attack was unfortunately delivered against the
strongest face of the paltry place. The garrison took advantage of
this folly to make an obstinate defence, with the result of heavy
losses among the assailants and of their failure to carry the fort.
Several officers of distinction fell; but the most grievous loss was
the death of that noble soldier Adrian Hope, the heroic leader of the
Highland Brigade. The feeling against Walpole throughout the column
was so strong as almost to endanger discipline, and to this day his
name is execrated by the survivors of that time. From Rhooyah Walpole
advanced to Allehgunj after having defeated at Tirsa a large body
of the enemy, whom he pursued with artillery and cavalry, capturing
their guns and camp and saving from destruction the bridge of boats,
whereby he was enabled to cross to the right bank of the Ramgunga.
He encamped at Inigree two miles in advance of Allehgunj to await
the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief. Brigadier-General Jones began
his march from Roorkee on the 17th of April. In the course of his
advance after crossing the Ganges he had several sharp engagements
with rebel bodies resulting in the capture of twenty-three guns. In
the last week of April he reached Moradabad, where he halted in a
position whence he should be able to time his arrival at Bareilly
simultaneously with that of Walpole's column from Lucknow.
A siege-train of twenty-eight guns and mortars commanded by
Lieutenant Tod Browne and escorted by two infantry regiments and a
squadron of cavalry, had left Cawnpore on April 15th, and moved up
by the usual stages to Futtehghur. Three days later, having assured
himself that the arrangements for the efficient maintenance of the
Lucknow garrison were complete, Sir Colin went to Cawnpore with
Mansfield, headquarters having preceded them to that station. They
started next day for Futtehghur and moving rapidly reached that place
on the 24th. Next day the artillery-park and siege-train crossed the
Ganges by the bridge of boats commanded by the guns of the fort,
and on the 27th Sir Colin and his staff joined Walpole's column at
Inigree. The advance on Bareilly began on the following morning. The
route was across the Ramgunga at Bajpoorea Ghat through Jellalabad
to Shahjehanpore, a large town which the enemy were known to hold in
force, but which when entered on May 1st was found deserted and the
cantonment destroyed. A detachment of all arms under Colonel Hale
of the Eighty-Second was placed in the jail and its enclosure as
the most defensible position, and the army resumed its march on the
2nd. A considerable detachment from the Meerut division joined at
Meranpore Kuttra on the same day. It had been commanded by General
Penny, a gallant officer who had fallen in a night skirmish, and
the command had now devolved upon Brigadier Richmond Jones. Thus
reinforced Sir Colin's force continued its advance on Bareilly, from
which place on the 4th it was distant one march. Next morning the
column moved on Bareilly.
At the sixth milestone the troops halted for the baggage to close
up. At 6 A.M. the force was formed in order of battle and advanced
against the enemy who, full of confidence, had come out from the city
and taken up a position on the hither bank of the Nerkuttea nullah
with that stream in their rear. Sir Colin advanced in two lines, the
Highland Brigade leading supported by the Fourth Punjaub Infantry
and the Belooch battalion, with a heavy field-battery in the centre
on the road,--the front and flanks covered by horse-artillery and
cavalry. The second line had the duty of protecting the baggage and
siege-train, a necessary precaution against the enemy's numerous and
daring cavalry. The strength of the British column amounted to seven
thousand six hundred and thirty-seven men, with nineteen guns apart
from the siege-train.
About 7 A.M. the enemy opened fire from guns commanding the approach
to the bridge. The British cavalry rode out on both flanks covering
the horse-artillery, until the latter unlimbered and replied so
sharply to the enemy that they fled across the stream abandoning
such of their guns as were on the near side of the bridge. Meanwhile
the infantry, along with the heavy field-battery, moved rapidly
forward in line. As the nullah was approached the left wing halted
on its right bank while the right crossed the bridge and continued
its advance for some distance in the direction of the town; but
the progress was slow partly on account of the great heat, partly
because the enemy's position was masked by dense groves. As the
heavy guns crossed the bridges and were brought up, they opened fire
on the hostile line holding the suburbs and ruined cantonments.
About 11 A.M. a fierce onslaught, described by Sir Colin as "the
most determined effort he had seen during the war," was delivered
by a body of Ghazees or Mussulman fanatics. The Fourth Punjaub
Rifles were in broken order in the irregular cavalry lines when the
Ghazees, numbering about one hundred and thirty, caught the Sikhs
at a disadvantage and rushed upon them. Brandishing their swords,
with heads low covered by their shields, and uttering wild shouts
of "_Deen! Deen!_" they fell on with furious impetuosity and hurled
the Punjaubis back on the Forty-Second Highlanders. Sir Colin had
formed up the latter regiment, with strong warnings on his part to
the young soldiers to be steady and hold their ground against the
impending assault, but it was barely ready to meet the whirlwind of
the charge when the Ghazees were upon the bayonets. Giving ear to
the injunctions of their veteran commander to trust to the bayonet
and to keep cool, the Forty-Second never wavered; but some of the
fanatics swept round its flank and fell upon its rear. A brief but
bloody hand-to-hand struggle ensued, and in a few moments every
Ghazee was killed right in the very ranks of the Highlanders. Colonel
Cameron of the Forty-Second was dragged from his horse by three men
and would certainly have been slain but for the timely and gallant
interposition of Colour-Sergeant Gardiner who bayoneted two of the
fanatics. General Walpole was wounded and escaped with his life only
by the promptitude with which the Black Watch used the bayonet. When
the Ghazees had been exterminated the Highlanders and Punjaubis
advanced into the cantonments.
Almost simultaneously with the onslaught of the Ghazees a large body
of rebel cavalry swept in upon the flank of the baggage-column,
cutting down camels, camel-drivers and camp-followers in all
directions. The confusion for the moment amounted almost to a panic.
Mr. Russell of _The Times_ had an extremely narrow escape. He was
very ill and was being carried in a dooly. In the alarm caused by the
rush of the enemy's horsemen he had left his dooly and mounted his
horse undressed and bareheaded as he was. "Several of the enemy's
_sowars_," writes Forbes-Mitchell, "were dodging through the camels
to get at him. We turned our rifles on them, and I shot down the
one nearest to Mr. Russell just as he had cut down an intervening
camel-driver and was making for _The Times_ correspondent; in fact,
his tulwar was actually raised to swoop down on Mr. Russell's bare
head when my bullet put a stop to his proceedings. I saw Mr. Russell
tumble from his saddle at the same instant as the _sowar_ fell; and
I got a rare fright, for I thought my bullet must have struck both.
However, I rushed to where Mr. Russell had fallen, and I then saw
from the position of the slain _sowar_ that my bullet had found
its proper billet, and that Mr. Russell had been struck down with
sunstroke, the blood flowing freely from his nose."
The wild dash of rebel cavalry was sharply checked by the fire of
Tombs' guns, and their rout was soon completed by the Carabineers and
the Mooltanee Horse. The cantonments and civil lines were occupied
in force. The action had lasted for six hours; the sun's rays were
oppressive, and a hot wind intensified the distress so greatly that
several fatal cases of sunstroke occurred. The trophies of the day
consisted of seven guns, and several more were found abandoned in the
town when the column finally entered it. Owing to the prudence with
which the troops were handled Sir Colin's casualties were remarkably
few. His halt outside the city enabled Khan Bahadoor Khan, the rebel
commander, quietly to withdraw his trained forces under cover of
darkness, leaving only a rabble to maintain a show of resistance
while he marched away to Pileebheet, thirty-three miles north-east of
Bareilly. When on the morning of the 6th the British forces opened
fire on the city, they met with no reply. But the sound of artillery
was heard from the further side of Bareilly--the guns of the force
which Brigadier John Jones had brought forward from Moradabad having
encountered and defeated some opposition by the way. He took up
positions in the city and opened communication with Sir Colin. On the
7th Bareilly was entirely occupied by the united force.
On the same day tidings reached Sir Colin that the detachment
under Colonel Hale left to hold Shahjehanpore was surrounded in
its position by a force several thousand strong, which had been
brought up from Mohumdee by the Fyzabad Moulvie and the local Rajah
within twenty-four hours after Sir Colin had quitted Shahjehanpore
on the morning of the 2nd. Since the 3rd the rebels had bombarded
the position incessantly, Hale steadfastly maintaining a gallant
resistance. Sir Colin promptly despatched to his support a column
of all arms under Brigadier-General John Jones, which left Bareilly
on the 8th and reached the vicinity of Shahjehanpore on the 11th.
The enemy, consisting chiefly of great masses of horsemen, was
encountered in fair fight and was defeated with the loss of a gun.
Jones then pressed forward, passed through the town and crossing the
parade-ground reached the jail where for eight days Hale had been
stoutly holding his own against heavy odds. But now Jones in his turn
found himself compelled to accept the defensive until reinforcements
should arrive. To the standard of the Moulvie, meanwhile, there
rallied contingents from far and near. In his camp were the Begum of
Oude, the Prince Feroze Shah, and a body of warlike followers sent by
the Nana Sahib; not to speak of _budmashes_ and freebooters from the
Nepaul frontier to the Doab. On the 15th the Moulvie attacked Jones
with his whole force. The rebels fought with ardour and persistency,
but they achieved no success. Jones, for his part, destitute as he
was of cavalry, could do no more than maintain the defensive and
abide in his position the arrival of reinforcements.
So far as the occupation of Bareilly and the dispersion of the
main body of insurgents were concerned, Sir Colin had brought the
Rohilcund campaign to a satisfactory conclusion. Having thereby
secured the re-establishment of British authority vested in Mr.
Alexander the Civil Commissioner, he considered himself in a position
to break up the Rohilcund force. The Second and Fourth Punjaub
Infantry regiments, which had served with great distinction during
the past year, were despatched on their return to the Punjaub. A
force consisting of a troop and battery of artillery, the Second
Punjaub Cavalry, the Forty-Second, Seventy-Eighth and Ninety-Third
Highlanders, and the Seventeenth Punjaub Infantry, was chosen to
constitute the garrison of Bareilly. General Walpole was nominated
as divisional commander of the troops in Rohilcund. On the 15th Sir
Colin, with Tombs' troop of horse-artillery, part of the siege-train,
the Ninth Lancers, a Punjaub Cavalry regiment, the Sixty-Fourth
Foot, the Belooch battalion, and the artillery-park, started from
Bareilly and moved in the direction of Futtehghur, believing that he
might now safely betake himself to some central point on the great
line of communication, whence he might direct the general campaign.
But at Faridpore on the 16th he received a message from Jones at
Shahjehanpore asking for assistance. Sir Colin hastened towards
Shahjehanpore, sheltering his men from the terrific heat under the
groves by the wayside. As he approached the town on the 18th, he
swept aside a hostile force threatening him with a demonstration, and
traversing the city effected a junction with Jones. An engagement
occurred in the afternoon in which the enemy displayed more than
ordinary skill and courage, and although in the end they were
repulsed no attempt was made to pursue them. Sir Colin waited until
the arrival of Brigadier Coke's column, which, while it was on the
march to Pileebheet he had recalled to Shahjehanpore. Coke arrived
on the 22nd, and on the evening of the 23rd Sir Colin, having given
Jones orders to attack the enemy next morning, left Shahjehanpore
with his staff and a small escort, and proceeding by double marches
reached Futtehghur on the morning of the 25th, where he remained
until June 5th, once more in direct communication with Lord Canning
at Allahabad, and in a position to exercise a more active supervision
over the columns operating in Oude, Behar, and Bundelcund.
Brigadier-General Jones in accordance with his instructions advanced
upon the Moulvie's position at Mohumdee, which fell into his hands;
but the rebels crossed the Goomtee too promptly to admit of his
cavalry capturing their guns. A few weeks later the Moulvie, one of
the most bitter and stubborn antagonists of the British rule, met
his death by the treachery of one of his own countrymen, the Rajah
of Powain. The Rajah's brother shot him dead; the Rajah himself cut
off the Moulvie's head, and wrapping it in a cloth carried it to
Shahjehanpore. He entered the magistrate's house, opened the bundle
and rolled the bloody head at the feet of the official. On the day
following it was exposed to view in a conspicuous part of the town,
"for the information and encouragement of all concerned."
Sir Colin left Futtehghur on June 5th, having made the necessary
arrangements regarding the troops he could spare to support Sir Hugh
Rose's advance on Gwalior, and having satisfied himself that affairs
in Rohilcund and the Doab were progressing favourably. Since the
settlement of the early spring the latter territory had remained
undisturbed save by a few casual irruptions. Sir Colin proceeded
directly to Allahabad where he remained during the hot weather in the
house which Lord Canning had prepared for him. There awaited him in
Allahabad a letter from Lord Derby, then Prime Minister, in which
his lordship intimated that he "had been honoured with the Queen's
commands to signify to you her Majesty's unqualified approval of the
distinguished services you have rendered to her Majesty and to the
country as Commander-in-Chief of the armies in India.... Her Majesty
deems the present a fitting moment for marking her high sense of your
eminent and brilliant services by raising you to the dignity of a
peer of the United Kingdom by such title as you may think it proper
to assume." Sir Colin, with his innate modesty of character, at
first shrank from the proffered honour. He was, in the words of Sir
William Mansfield, "much disposed to run restive at being put into
such strange harness; but he is now reconciled, and, I think, very
much pleased." His constant friend the Duke of Cambridge suggested
that he should be called up by the title of "Lord Clyde of Lucknow."
But he modestly wrote in reply, "I have thought it proper not to add
the word 'Lucknow,' as the baronetcy of the late Sir Henry Havelock
was distinguished in that manner. It would be unbecoming in me to
trench, as it were, on the title of that very distinguished officer."
Ultimately, at the suggestion of Lord Derby, he took the title of
"Lord Clyde of Clydesdale." But he was curiously reluctant to make
use of his new title. Not one of his letters to his intimate friends
has the signature of "Clyde." They uniformly bear his initials "C.
C." or "C. Campbell"--a retention of the simplicity which had been
a marked feature of his character in the days of his comparative
obscurity. To accompany his peerage the grant of an annuity of £2000
was made to him by the East India Company--one of the last acts of
that body before its extinction by Act of Parliament. On the 14th of
May he had been gazetted to the rank of full General.
An old Ninety-Third man still to the fore, tells a genial little
anecdote about Lord Clyde when he first met his favourites after
having been raised to the peerage. He had a great regard for worthy
old Pipe-Major John MacLeod of that regiment. When Sir Colin took
what he believed to be his final farewell of the Ninety-Third when
he left the Crimea in May, 1856, the last man he shook hands with
was John MacLeod. When the _Mauritius_ on the third anniversary of
the Alma reached Calcutta with the Ninety-Third aboard, the first
man to recognise Sir Colin as he came alongside in a dinghy was John
MacLeod, who electrified his comrades with the shout, "Lord save us!
wha could hae believed it? Here's Sir Colin himsel'!" "Aye, aye,
John," replied Sir Colin, "it's just me, able to go through another
campaign with you. Little did I think, when we last parted, that
I should hear your pipes on the plains of India!" When he met the
regiment for the first time after becoming Lord Clyde, he as usual
called the pipe-major to the front. After the customary greetings
John came to attention, saluted and said, "I beg your pardon, Sir
Colin, but we dinna ken hoo tae address you noo that the Queen
has made you a lord!" The old Chief replied, with just a touch of
sadness in his voice,--"Just call me Sir Colin, John, the same as in
the old times; I like the old name best. Except yourselves of the
Ninety-Third there are but few now alive in whom I take interest
enough to care how they call me."
After a good deal of fighting in the Azimghur district with Koer
Singh, Sir E. Lugard and Brigadier Douglas had followed that
notable rebel across the Ganges. An attempt, however, to dislodge
him from his native jungles of Jugdeespore, resulted in a serious
discomfiture. In the hope of effecting a surprise a small force
of one hundred and fifty British infantry, fifty men of the Naval
Brigade, and one hundred and fifty Sikhs penetrated into the
jungle, where they encountered the enemy at dawn of April 23rd. The
rebels were on the alert; a panic ensued, the guns were abandoned,
and most of the Europeans were killed or died of sunstroke. With
the co-operation of the Dinapore Brigade Lugard now approached
Jugdeespore through the open country on the western side instead of
taking the direct route through the jungle. The rebel force covering
Jugdeespore was taken by surprise and driven in; and on the 9th of
May the Jugdeespore stronghold was captured. It was ascertained
that Koer Singh had died of his wounds, and his followers were
now discouraged. Lugard succeeded in defeating and dispersing the
main rebel force, and the guns lost by the Arrah detachment were
recovered. It was an unsatisfactory and harassing warfare, in which
the rebels played the part of guerillas. No longer formidable as
a military body, they kept the province in a state of anarchy and
confusion; and they gave no rest to the troops, many of whom fell
victims to the deadly effect of exposure in the unhealthy season.