THE CAMPAIGN IN CENTRAL INDIA
The operations which, during the long campaign of the Mutiny, were
carried on under Lord Clyde's direct supervision were confined to
the region north of the Jumna; he himself never crossed that river.
But in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief he was mainly responsible
for the grand strategy of the campaign throughout the whole area of
military operations, the outlines of which he had laid down in the
scheme prepared during his voyage from England. Of this scheme an
essential feature was, it may be remembered, a great concentrated
advance upon the Central Indian States to be undertaken by the
available military forces of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The
fulfilment of this plan of campaign was retarded by various causes,
but the wisdom of the Commander-in-Chief's conception was justified
in the event.
Something had already been done in Central India before Colin
Campbell set foot on Prinsep's Ghat on the strand of Calcutta. On the
12th of July, 1857, there left Aurungabad for Mhow a little column
under the command of Brigadier C. S. Stuart, consisting of half of
the Fourteenth Dragoons, the Third Hyderabad Cavalry, Woolcombe's
battery, the Twenty-Fifth Bombay Native Infantry, and detachments
of Bombay and Madras sappers. On August 2nd this force relieved
Mhow, but remained there doing nothing until after the middle of
October. On the 21st of that month, accompanied by Colonel Durand,
the acting Resident at Mhow, and strengthened by the Eighty-Sixth
regiment, Hungerford's battery and sundry details including a small
siege-train, the column, now bearing the title of the Malwa Field
Force, marched on Dhar and on the 25th prepared to bombard that
strong fort. Its garrison abandoned it during the night of the
31st. The main body marched northward on Mundasore on the 8th of
November, while Major Orr's column of the Hyderabad Contingent moved
on Mahidpore, where the fugitives from Dhar had been joined by the
Mahidpore Contingent, which had killed the Europeans attached to
it. Orr overtook the mutineers at Rawul, and inflicted on them a
severe defeat with the loss of all their guns. On the morning of
the 21st the Field Force took up a position between Mundasore and
Neemuch, where it was attacked in force but routed its assailants
with heavy loss, and the cavalry drove them into Mundasore sabring
them as they fled. On the 23rd the column pushed on to Neemuch, where
it was known that the British people of that station had been shut
up in the fort for months surrounded by about ten thousand of the
enemy. They had beaten off two desperate attacks, but provisions
and ammunition were running short, and word had come from the fort
that they could not hold out many days longer. While on the march
the rear of the column was harassed by troops from Mundasore, and
presently there became visible in front a large mass of cavalry
and two bodies of infantry which had come out from Neemuch to
resist the British advance. Those Rohillas were exceedingly daring
and stubborn, and fought to the last gasp. They held with extreme
obstinacy the village of Ghorariah, from which they maintained a
constant heavy fire. As the night closed in the village became one
great blazing fire; death stared its occupants in the face; yet they
clung to it throughout the night. In the morning the place was a
mere shell into which was being poured a stream of heavy missiles,
yet the garrison held out until after mid-day, when at length some
two hundred and fifty survivors came out and surrendered. With the
storm of Ghorariah and the relief of Neemuch, Durand, scanty as the
force at his disposal was, had succeeded in crushing the rebellion
in the Malwa country and in cutting off the disaffected troops of
Holkar from the supports on which they had rested. Leaving the
Hyderabad Contingent at Mundasore under Major Orr he returned by way
of Mahidpore and Oojein to Indore, where he disarmed Holkar's troops.
With this service ended the short Malwa campaign. On December 16th
there arrived at Indore Major-General Sir Hugh Rose, the officer who
had been nominated by Lord Canning to conduct the operations of the
body of troops thenceforth known as the Central India Field Force.
Rose had seen much war, and had displayed brilliant gallantry in the
field as well as great capacity in the cabinet. He was a man who
wore the silk glove over the iron hand, and while the suaveness of
his manner seemed to the superficial observer to indicate a lack of
force, it was apparent to the more clear-sighted that he possessed
the _fortiter in re_ which marked him as a man of promptitude,
determination, and vigour. His division, consisting of five and a
half infantry battalions, five cavalry regiments, six batteries,
detachments of Bombay and Madras sappers and a siege-train, was
divided into two brigades, of which the second, which Rose himself
accompanied, marched on Rhatghur and Saugur, while the first moved on
a parallel line farther to the west heading for Goona and the Trunk
Road from Bombay to Agra.
Rose began his advance on January 6th and arrived in front of the
fortress of Rhatghur on the 24th. After two days' bombardment it was
evacuated by the garrison during the night of the 28th, an attempt on
the part of the forces of the Rajah of Baunpore to raise the siege
having been easily frustrated. Rose then pushed forward to Saugur,
which had been beleaguered for the last eight months. The place
was relieved in the beginning of February, when the Europeans who
had been so long cooped up in their fort came out to welcome their
deliverers; by whom and by the Thirty-First Bengal Native Infantry,
one of the few regiments of that army which had remained faithful,
Rose was escorted past the fort into the cantonment. On February
11th with part of his force he was before the fort of Gurrah Kota,
which was garrisoned by the revolted sepoys of the Fifty-First and
Fifty-Second Bengal Native Infantry. One day's bombardment sufficed
to reduce the place. The garrison escaped during the night of the
12th, but the fugitives were pursued by cavalry for twenty-five miles
and suffered considerable loss. Rose was back in Saugur on the 17th,
eager to prosecute his advance on Jhansi distant one hundred and
twenty-five miles farther north. He had been informed that General
Whitlock with the Madras column had reached Jubbulpore, but he could
not quit Saugur until he should be assured that the Madras general
had begun his advance towards that place. The interval he utilised in
gathering supplies, replenishing the ammunition of his siege-train,
and strengthening it by the addition of heavy guns, howitzers, and
mortars from the Saugur arsenal. At length tidings came that Whitlock
had left Jubbulpore, and Rose moved from Saugur on the 27th. A few
days later, by a flank movement through the pass of Madanpore, he
turned the more formidable pass of Malthon by which the enemy had
been expecting him, and after some extremely hard fighting entered
the town of Madanpore. On March 19th he was within fourteen miles of
Jhansi, whither he despatched the cavalry and field-artillery of his
second brigade to reconnoitre and invest that place.
Jhansi was the chief stronghold of the rebel power in Central India;
and it was a place, moreover, in which the slaughter of British men
and women had been perpetrated in circumstances of peculiar atrocity.
It was of great strength, both natural and artificial, its walls
varying in thickness from sixteen to twenty feet. Town and fortress
were garrisoned by eleven thousand men, rebel sepoys, mercenaries,
and local levies under the command of the Ranee, a woman of fierce
and dauntless character. The cavalry having invested the place on
the 22nd, the siege operations began on the night of that day. The
batteries opened fire on the morning of the 25th, on which day the
first brigade came up into line, having on its march bombarded,
breached, and stormed the important fortress of Chandairee, situated
about eighty miles south-west of Jhansi. For seventeen days the duel
between the besieging batteries and the guns of the defence was
incessant. By the 31st a breach had been effected, but it was barely
practicable; and on the same evening tidings came to Rose that Tantia
Topee with twenty-two thousand men and twenty-eight guns was on the
march from the north to the relief of Jhansi. He realised that his
position, placed as it was between two superior hostile forces, was
critical in the extreme. But Rose was the man to pluck the flower
of safety out of the nettle of danger. Maintaining his grip on the
fortress, he resolved to take the offensive against Tantia Topee on
the following morning.
As the rebel army advanced, he struck both its flanks simultaneously
with cavalry and horse-artillery. As soon as that evolution had
manifested itself, his infantry advanced, poured in a volley,
and then charged. The first line of the rebels broke and fled in
disaster hotly pursued. Brigadier Stuart struck in upon the right
flank of the second line and hurled it into confused flight. Tantia
fired the jungle, and under cover of the smoke made for the Betwa.
But the British cavalry and horse-artillery pursued with ardour,
and did not desist until every rebel gun had been taken. Fifteen
hundred of the mutineers were killed or wounded. Tantia Topee and his
discomfited host fled towards Calpee. Rose took prompt advantage of
the discouragement which he realised that Tantia's defeat must have
wrought on the garrison of Jhansi. He stormed the fortified city
at dawn of April the 3rd. It was an arduous task. "The fire of the
enemy waxed stronger, and amid the chaos of sounds of volleys of
musketry and roaring of cannon, of hissing and bursting of rockets,
stink-pots, infernal machines, huge stones, blocks of wood and trees,
all hurled on their devoted heads, the men wavered for a moment and
sheltered themselves behind stones." Everywhere fierce and bloody,
the conflict was most severe near and inside the palace, which had
been prepared by the rebels for a centre of resistance in the last
resort. Four hundred men who had taken up a position outside the
fortress were surrounded by Rose's cavalry and slain almost to a man.
Desultory fighting continued for thirty-six hours. The Ranee made
her escape and galloped straight to Calpee. The fortress was finally
occupied by Rose on the 5th. The loss sustained in its subjugation,
including that in the action of the Betwa, amounted to three hundred
and forty-three killed and wounded, of whom thirty-six were officers.
The enemy's loss was reckoned to exceed five thousand.
It now only remained for Sir Hugh Rose to march on Calpee, and
to exterminate from that important position the mutinous bodies
which had so long threatened Sir Colin Campbell's main line of
communications. He began his advance in the end of April and on May
7th reached Koonch, where the rebels were in an entrenched position
covering the Calpee road. That position he turned, stormed the town,
and pursued the rebels for eight miles along the road to Calpee,
capturing eight guns and a quantity of ammunition and stores. He had
now been joined by the Seventy-First Highlanders, and continuing his
advance reached the Jumna at Gowlowlee six miles below Calpee. The
Commander-in-Chief had sent to co-operate with him Colonel Maxwell
with the Eighty-Eighth Foot, some Sikhs and the Camel Corps, part of
which crossed the river and joined Rose's force on the right bank.
After four days of constant skirmishing Maxwell's batteries opened
fire from the left bank on the fort and town, and Rose determined
to strike the decisive blow on the 22nd. But the rebels anticipated
him. On the morning of that day they came out in great masses to
attack him. There was a critical moment when the thin British line
momentarily yielded. But Sir Hugh brought up the Camel Corps,
dismounted the men, and led them forward in person to the charge. The
victory was won; Calpee was evacuated during the following night, and
the rebel force, pursued by the horse-artillery and cavalry, lost
formation and dispersed, losing all its guns and baggage. "This,"
writes Dr. Lowe,[9] "was a glorious success won over ten times our
number under most trying circumstances. The position of Calpee; the
numbers of the enemy, who came on with a resolution and display of
tactics we had never before witnessed; the exhausted and weakened
state of Sir Hugh Rose's force; the awful, suffocating hot wind and
burning sun which the men had to endure all day without time to eat
or drink; combined to render the achievement one of unsurpassed
difficulty. Every soul engaged suffered more or less. Officers and
men fainted away, or dropped down as if struck by lightning in the
delirium of sunstroke. Yet all this was endured without a murmur,
and in the cool of the evening we were speculating on the capture
of Calpee on the morrow." The speculation was justified. Calpee was
occupied, fifteen guns and several standards were taken; and Sir Hugh
Rose, considering the campaign ended, issued a complimentary order
to his troops and prepared to proceed to Bombay on sick certificate.
But in the first week in June he had suddenly to alter his plans. The
main body of the Calpee mutineers had reached Morar, the cantonment
of the old Gwalior Contingent, situated close to Scindiah's capital.
Remaining steadfast to the British cause the young Maharajah moved
out from Gwalior on June 1st and engaged the enemy in the Morar
position. It was obvious from the first that Tantia Topee had been
successfully tampering with the Maharajah's troops, who went over
in a body to the rebels and Scindiah had to seek safety in flight
to Agra. The daring project of the Ranee had thus far succeeded,
and she and her confederates were prompt to take advantage of the
temporary good fortune which had come to them. They took possession
of fortress, treasury, arsenal, and town, and proceeded to form
a regular government. Nana Sahib was proclaimed as Peishwah and
Rao Sahib as Governor of Gwalior. The royal property was declared
confiscated. The command of the troops outside the city was vested in
the Ranee; those inside were under the command of Tantia Topee.
On receiving intelligence of this extraordinary state of things,
Sir Hugh Rose resumed his command and advanced on Gwalior by forced
marches, gathering up reinforcements as he moved. Of his two
brigades one was commanded by Brigadier C. S. Stuart of the Bombay
Army; the other by Brigadier R. Napier of the Bombay Engineers.
Approaching Gwalior on June 18th, the ninth day from Calpee, he
attacked the insurgents on the following morning, drove them out of
the cantonments and pursued them vigorously. Smith with the Sipree
column joined by Orr with his people of the Hyderabad Contingent,
fought his way through the defile of Kotah-ke Serai after a stout
defence on the part of the enemy, in which the Ranee of Jhansi lost
her life while attempting to escape. Reinforced by Smith and Orr,
Sir Hugh advanced on the 19th with the combined force against the
heights in front of the city. In face of a heavy fire of artillery
the assaulting columns carried the heights gallantly, capturing all
the twenty-seven guns of the enemy. Then the rebels lost heart and
fled pursued by the cavalry, while Rose advanced on the city. That
same evening Scindiah, who had accompanied a force from Agra, found
himself once more sovereign of the Gwalior State. The rock-fortress
of Gwalior was daringly captured on the morning of the 20th by a
couple of lieutenants at the head of a handful of men, after a
hand-to-hand struggle with the garrison in which the gallant young
Lieutenant Rose met his death. A flying column of cavalry organised
by Sir Hugh was placed in command of Brigadier Napier, who on the
morning of the 21st, after a ride of twenty-four miles, struck the
enemy at Jowra Alipore. He had barely six hundred men all told, and
only six guns; the enemy were reckoned twelve thousand strong--the
remnants of the Calpee force with additions picked up at Gwalior.
Lightfoot with his troop of horse-artillery galloped to the enemy's
left flank, fired a couple of rounds, and then dashing forward at
full speed with Abbott's cavalry rolled up the enemy's line and
drove him from his guns. The mutineers, stricken and demoralised,
dispersed, abandoning sixteen guns which Napier brought in. The
Central India Field Force was now broken up, and the troops
composing it were distributed at Gwalior, Jhansi, Sipree, and Goona.
Its gallant chief repaired to Bombay, there to recruit his health
impaired by the triumphant march he had accomplished through Central
India. The doings of Whitlock with his Madras column in the Banda and
Kirwee territories were not brilliant and need not be summarised.
With the pacification of Gwalior began what Sir Colin Campbell
described as "that hunt of the rebel leaders which was finally
brought to a conclusion by the capture and execution of Tantia Topee
in April, 1859," after a chase which lasted nearly ten months.