walls, and the mutineers having learned that it was _en route_, sallied
forth in considerable numbers to intercept it; but Nicholson, with
1,600 infantry, 400 cavalry, and a battery of field guns, set out on
August 25th to save the train. The troops had to cross the swamps, made
more difficult by the ceaseless rain; but after wading through them,
the water sometimes over the horses' backs, and along the rain-drenched
roads, they came up with the enemy at Nujutgurh after a march of
twelve hours. The mutineers numbered 6,000, but the tired and drenched
soldiers of Britain, led by the daring Nicholson, charged the enemy,
placed 800 of them _hors de combat_, captured 13 guns, and sent the
sepoys flying back to Delhi. Retracing their steps, the little force,
having lost 60 men, arrived back in camp, having in forty hours, during
twenty-four of which they were foodless, marched 35 miles and beaten
and dispersed an army of well-trained men.
[Illustration: HONG-KONG PLAGUE MEDAL.
Awarded to about 350 of the Shropshire Light Infantry, Engineers, and
men of the R.N.]
[Illustration: (Obverse.)
EGYPTIAN MEDAL FOR 1882.]
[Illustration: (Obverse.)
KHEDIVE'S BRONZE STAR FOR 1882.]
The siege train arrived on September 4th, together with a wing of the
8th Detachment of the 9th and 60th, and a battalion of Beloochees. The
guns were mounted, and by the 11th ready for action, when fire was
opened and incessantly sustained against the Cashmere and Watergates
until breaches had been made, and then it was determined to assault the
city.
=Blowing in the Cashmere Gate.=--It was found necessary, however, to
blow up the Cashmere Gate, and a party of twenty men under Lieutenants
Home and Salkeld of the Engineers were detailed for the purpose. They
effected their object, but Salkeld was mortally wounded and many of
the men killed and wounded in their gallant effort. Bugler Robert
Hawthorne of the 52nd, having thrice sounded the regimental call of the
52nd for the column to advance, took charge of the wounded lieutenant,
and having bound up his wounds, removed him to a place of comparative
safety. The bugler was decorated with the V.C. for "as noble a deed
as any that has ever graced the annals of war." In the assault on
September 14th the gallant Irishman John Nicholson fell, mortally
wounded while leading his men near the Lahore Gate, and 1,169 officers
and men were killed, wounded, or missing, but the whole of the outer
parts of the city were in possession of the British. On the 16th the
magazine which Willoughby had, it was found, only partially blown up
was captured by the 61st, but desultory fighting was continued until
the 20th, when the Lahore Gate and the palatial Jumma Musjid were
captured. Then the gates of the palace were blown in, and the 60th
Rifles led the way into the ancient home of the Mogul Kings, and Delhi
was in the hands of the British Army. In the grand assault upon Delhi
8 European officers and 162 men were killed, 52 officers and 510 men
wounded, and 103 sepoys killed and 310 wounded. It is estimated that
over 5,000 mutineers perished in the defence of the city.
=Hodson's Daring Feat.=--But the king and his family had taken refuge
in Humayon's Tomb, about 7 miles from the city, and Hodson, the daring
Captain of the Light Horse bearing his name, determined to capture
him. Taking only fifty men, he essayed one of the most daring feats
on record. With his little band he rode along the rebel-infested road
to the tomb where, in the gigantic marble dome, the King and his two
sons had concealed themselves; for two hours he parleyed with the
intermediaries of the decrepit King, undismayed by the thousands of
retainers who guarded him. At last the old man, on promise of his
life, surrendered, and Hodson marched off before the wondering natives
with his royal prisoner. There yet remained the two sons of the King,
whose conduct in torturing English prisoners had made them notorious.
They had barbarously slaughtered innocent women and hapless children,
and Hodson determined that they should also become his prisoners. On
September 21st he and his second in command, Macdowell, with 100 men
rode off to effect the capture of the princes, who had 6,000 or 7,000
armed followers at their command. Reaching Humayon's Tomb, he demanded
their surrender, but they at first refused to submit unless their lives
were promised. Hodson calmly refused, and then they came forth with
3,000 armed men. But the daring Hodson interposed his troopers between
the bullock-cart in which the princes were riding and the armed men,
sent forward the princes with an escort of troopers, and then--calmly
ordered the retainers to lay down their arms! Having collected them,
Hodson quickly said to Macdowell "We'll go now," and then rode off with
his troop. Overtaking the princes, he found that a crowd appeared to
be threatening the troopers in charge of the cart, and fearing that
he might lose them and that the ends of justice would be defeated, he
ordered the princes to strip, and, after stating the nature of the
crimes they had committed, shot them with his own hand. Brave, gallant,
and daring Hodson was prepared to take the consequences which he fully
appreciated, and, convinced that he was right, did not flinch from
moral censure any more than he had from physical consequences when
he sallied forth with a handful of men to capture the King and his
bloodthirsty sons. With the fall of Delhi the back of the mutiny was
broken, but it had cost the besiegers a loss of 3,854 killed, wounded,
and missing.
=Defence of Lucknow.=--The neighbourhood of Lucknow, however, remained
in possession of the mutineers, although over the Residency
"Ever upon the topmost wall our banner of England flew."
For several weeks Lucknow had been in a state of unrest, and then at 9
o'clock on the night of May 30th, 1857, the smouldering fire broke into
flame. Sir Henry Lawrence, that stalwart, cool northern Irishman, as
just and firm as he was unselfish, had but 700 Europeans in a city of
700,000, of whom 7,000 were sepoys. He did not lose heart, but quickly
and steadily made preparations for the defence of the place; he knew
he could rely upon the Sikhs and a small number of the sepoys--700
actually remained true to their salt during the siege; he made no error
in his calculations, and took few chances. He turned the Residency into
a fortress, and generally prepared for the worst, while his sense of
humour and his smiling face gave no sign of the stern practical heart
within him. He was, as he said, "virtually besieging four regiments--in
a quiet way--with 300 Europeans," while he resided "in cantonments
guarded by the gentlemen" he was besieging!
On June 30th he decided to "blood" the native troops, and he
accordingly sent half a dozen guns with sepoy artillerymen in the
little force of just over 800, of whom only 336 were Europeans, to meet
the mutinous regiments which were marching upon the city from Eastern
Oude. The estimated force was 5,000; it turned out to be 15,000, and
when they were encountered at Chinhut the Sikh horsemen bolted, and
the artillerymen disabled and deserted their guns. The fates generally
went against the bold step that Lawrence had taken. The remnants of
the little band had to retire in face of the great moving mass of
mutineers; "regiment after regiment of sepoys steadily pursued towards
us," and the 32nd who had gone into battle--300 foodless and badly
armed men--were reduced to a skeleton, 5 of their officers and 112 men
being killed. Lawrence returned with his straggling men to Lucknow;
it was one of the few mistakes which the hero of Lucknow made, but he
saved the survivors of the desperate fight by a masterly stroke in
placing empty guns upon the iron bridge (the ammunition was exhausted),
and with gunners standing beside them with lighted port-fires stayed
the advance of the victorious sepoys. The time for desperate action
had arrived. On July 1st he blew up the Mutchee Bhawan with its
1,000,000 cartridges and 250 barrels of gunpowder, and concentrated
upon the Residency, and there for eighty-eight days, with a force of
927 Europeans and 700 sepoys, made one of the most famous defences in
history. And there, despite the supreme efforts of the mutineers to
shoot it down, the British flag was only temporarily out of position
when the staff was shot away, and so
"Ever aloft on the palace roof the old banner of England blew."
On July 2nd Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded, and died on the
4th; then Brigadier Inglis took command of the troops. During the
defence the populace of 3,000 and the troops were harassed by cholera,
smallpox, and an indefinable disease, but the spirit of the troops
remained undaunted until Jessie Brown's keen Scots ears heard the
far-off skirl of the bagpipes of the 78th, Outram's Highlanders--"the
saviours of India"--and Havelock, marching into Lucknow on September
25th, reinforced, as well as relieved, the brave garrison which still
had, for another six weeks, to hold the Residency against 60,000
mutineers.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN MEDAL FOR THREE CAMPAIGNS. (Reverse.)]
[Illustration: INDIA MEDAL FOR FOUR CAMPAIGNS. (Reverse.)]
[Illustration: EAST AND WEST AFRICA MEDAL FOR FIVE EXPEDITIONS.
(Reverse.)]
The original defenders of the Residency were 535 men of the 32nd, 50 of
the 84th, with 89 artillerymen, and 100 British officers whose native
regiments had mutinied, and 153 civilians who took up arms to assist
the regulars; and these, with 700 sepoys, undeterred by "the terrific
and incessant fire by day and night," had for eighty-eight days defied
not less than "8,000 men firing at one time into the position."
=Relief of Lucknow.=--Havelock, having rested his men after the
advance on Cawnpore, followed up the Náná Sáhib, destroyed his palace
and stronghold at Bithoor, and then with his tiny force, which was
daily lessening through wounds and disease, marched towards Lucknow.
He attacked Oonas _en route_, and passed through it, despite the 15
rebel guns which guarded the only road; pushed past the opposition
at Busserut Gunge, but with a loss of 88 officers and men killed and
wounded; then in despair, owing to his enfeebled force, Havelock
started to return to Cawnpore. On reaching the Ganges the mutineers
made a determined attack upon the little force, but the 78th,
Ross-shire Buffs, dashed at the enemy's guns, and, as Havelock said,
saved themselves and their comrades. Retracing his footsteps, Havelock
was not aware that he had unconsciously helped the besieged in
Lucknow by drawing off the rebel force to meet him, thus giving the
garrison breathing-space in which to strengthen the fortifications and
increase its stock of provisions. After a four-days rest the undaunted
Havelock again set out for Lucknow with 1,300 men, but again meeting
with opposition at Bithoor, and although the enemy was defeated, he
decided to return to Cawnpore and await reinforcements. The 5th and
90th Regiments arrived early in September, five companies of men came
in to make up for the terrible losses of the 78th, and then Sir James
Outram, the "Bayard of India," arrived to take command of the Cawnpore
and Dinapore divisions, but chivalrously delegated the command to
Havelock "in gratitude for the brilliant deeds of arms achieved by
General Havelock and his gallant troops." The relieving force consisted
of the 1st Brigade--5th Fusiliers, 84th, and 100 men of the 64th
under Brigadier-General Neill; 2nd Brigade--78th Highlanders, 90th
(Perthshire) Light Infantry, and Brasyer's Sikhs under Colonel Walter
Hamilton of the 78th; 3 batteries of artillery under the dauntless
Maude, "Hell-fire Jack" Olpherts, and brave Vincent Eyre; 109 volunteer
cavalry and 59 native cavalry under the dashing Barrow.
Crossing the Ganges on September 19th and 20th, the relieving force of
2,500 men attacked the enemy at Mungulwah on the 21st, and, although
an obstinate opposition was met with, defeated the enemy and captured
a couple of guns. Pushing forward, drenched by heavy rains for three
days and through quagmires of mud, the badly fed little force came upon
the enemy, 12,000 men, entrenched on the outskirts of Lucknow at the
Alambagh, but after the artillery had opened fire the 78th Highlanders
and the Fusiliers rushed the position, and in ten minutes the mutineers
were flying in all directions. "The petticoated devils" were too much
for them. After a day's rest, leaving 300 sick men to hold the place,
the army advanced towards the Residency, and through a storm of shot
gallantly rushed the Charbagh bridge, leaving the 78th as a rear-guard
to hold it, which they bravely did, although stormed at by rifles and
field pieces. The column then pushed on to the Kaiser Bagh, or King's
palace, taking in reverse the battery which had been firing on the main
body; and then the Highlanders, followed by the Sikhs and Fusiliers,
made a desperate effort to reach the Residency. For three-quarters of
a mile, with desperate and dauntless courage, the men pressed forward
through a street in which from every housetop, door, and window a
relentless hail of bullets poured upon them. In this grand advance
Brigadier Neill fell, shot through the head, but the troops pushed on,
and then through the embrasure by the side of the battered archway of
the Baillie Guard they pressed. The picture has often been painted
of the big rough-bearded soldiers--those stern but soft-hearted
Highlanders--seizing the little children out of their mothers' arms
and "kissing them with tears running down their cheeks." The relieving
column lost over 700 men by death or wounds, or nearly one in four of
its total complement of 3,000.
=Defence Continued.=--As I have stated, the relief of Lucknow was also
a reinforcement, and those who relieved the garrison, continued its
defence for nearly fifty days, and survived the war, were awarded the
clasp for the Defence of Lucknow.
Havelock, having relieved Lucknow, did not deem it advisable to take
the risk of escorting the women and children and non-combatants through
the thousands of sepoys who still encircled the Residency, so for six
weeks the garrison, under Outram, kept the enemy at bay, until Sir
Colin Campbell, the cool and daring Scots veteran of the Peninsular
War, fresh from the Crimea, who was ready at the age of sixty-five to
take up the arduous duties of Commander-in-Chief in India, prepared for
the final relief. He landed at Calcutta on August 13th, but through
delays, largely occasioned through want of transport, he could not
start out on the march to Lucknow until November 9th. Three days later
he had under his command 4,700 men, a number of whom had been engaged
in the siege of Delhi; detachments of the 4th, 5th, and 23rd Fusiliers;
a wing of the 53rd, a number of the 82nd, and the 93rd Highlanders
1,000 strong, 700 wearing the Crimean medal; remnants of the war-worn
8th King's (Liverpool) Regiment; the 75th (now 1st Gordons); a heavy
battery Royal Artillery; Bengal Horse and Field Artillery; two
squadrons of the 9th Lancers; Hodson's Horse; a squadron each of
the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Punjab Cavalry; 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry;
detachments of Bengal and Punjab Sappers and Miners; and the Naval
Brigade with 8 guns under Captain Peel.
Sir Colin Campbell arrived at the Alambagh, where Sir James Hope Grant
had resolved to await reinforcements, on November 12th, and having
determined upon his plan of advance forced his way round the north of
the city, pushed the enemy through the Dilkoosha Park, and after taking
the Secundrabagh and the Shah Nujeef, entered the Residency, where on
the afternoon of November 17th he was shaking hands with Outram and
Havelock in front of the Mess House, with bullets and shells pouring
around them, for although the relief force had reached the Residency
they stood in fear of being themselves besieged. Sir Colin Campbell
therefore determined to take the 1,000 sick and wounded men, and 600
women and children, out of the place that had so long protected them
from the "devil's work" of the mutineers. On the night of November
19th the work of removal commenced, and by the morning of the 22nd the
Residency had been completely evacuated. As Captain R. H. Burgoyne,
who was present, states, "Thus was accomplished one of the most
difficult and daring achievements ever attempted, for such it must
be acknowledged it was, when we consider that with a force scarcely
exceeding 4,000 Sir Colin Campbell, opposed by upwards of 40,000
regularly trained soldiers supplied with munitions of war far exceeding
ours, and holding one of the strongest positions imaginable, penetrated
into their midst, carried one fortified position after another, and
finally brought away in safety every living man, woman, and child shut
up in the Residency, together with their baggage, treasure, etc.," and
"the guns it was thought worth while to keep."
[Illustration: JUMMOO AND KASHMIR MEDAL, 1895. (Obverse.)]
[Illustration: BRONZE HUNZA NAGAR BADGE, 1891.]
[Illustration: JUMMOO AND KASHMIR MEDAL, 1895. (Reverse.)]
[Illustration: BRONZE DECORATIONS GIVEN BY THE MAHARAJAH OF JUMMOO AND
KASHMIR.]
=The Secundrabagh.=--The storming of the Secundrabagh is full of heroic
deeds. "There never was a bolder feat of arms," stated Sir Colin
Campbell in his dispatch. There seven companies of the 93rd, as the
4th Punjabis halted for a moment when their British officers were shot
down, raced ahead of their Sikh comrades, and Lance-Corporal Dunlay
gained his V.C. for being one of the first through the breaches and
supporting Captain Burroughs, who had been wounded, against superior
numbers of the enemy. There also Lieutenant Kirke Ffrench and Private
Irwin of the 53rd, and Private J. Smith of the 1st Madras Fusiliers,
gained the V.C. for being among the first to enter the Secundrabagh by
the gateway. When the roll of the 93rd was called after the storming,
it was found that 8 officers had been wounded, 28 non-commissioned
officers and men killed, and 71 wounded. At the Shah Nujeef, a domed
mosque, the enemy withstood a heavy cannonade by Captain Peel's naval
siege train, and the field battery with some mortars for three hours,
when "it was stormed in the boldest possible manner by the 93rd
Highlanders under Brigadier Hope," while Captain Peel took his guns
forward with such daring that had it not been for the withering fire
of the Highlanders the naval brigade would have suffered considerable
loss. As Sir Colin Campbell stated in his dispatch, it should not be
forgotten that the heroes of the relief of Lucknow had made the longest
forced marches, some from Agra, some from Allahabad, and had undergone
great fatigues and privations in pressing forward for the attainment of
this great object.
=No Bar for Cawnpore.=--On the afternoon of November 20th Sir Colin
Campbell, with his great convoy, arrived at the Alambagh, and encamped
on the open space his force had occupied before advancing on Lucknow.
Three days after the march was resumed, and as he advanced towards
Cawnpore the sounds of firing were heard, and he learned that the
Gwalior contingent, 10,000 strong, under Tantia Topi--the only leader
the mutiny produced--had joined with the force of the Náná Sáhib in
attacking Major-General Windham (Redan Windham). Leaving the convoy
in charge of the rear-guard, Sir Colin hurried forward with the main
column, which, despite its fatigued condition, footsore and hungry,
pressed onward to the assistance of their comrades at Cawnpore,
fighting their way forward until on December 6th the city was taken,
the rebel armies split in twain, and the portion under Tantia Topi
driven across the Jumna, and that with the Náná across the Ganges. This
was a general's battle. With a force of about 5,000 men, Sir Colin
Campbell had not only defeated an army of 25,000 well-trained men, but
had captured all their baggage and 32 guns. It is noteworthy that in
order to take part in this battle the 42nd, Black Watch, marched 80
miles in fifty-six hours, no mean feat in a tropical climate. Actions
were fought at Kâla Muddee, and Futteghur--where the 53rd spontaneously
charged the enemy and captured several guns--and having occupied the
latter place Sir Colin made arrangements for the retaking of Lucknow.
=Lucknow.=--To retake Lucknow, which Sir Colin Campbell had evacuated
on relieving the city, a splendidly equipped army was organised to
march upon the place under the Commander-in-Chief. On March 2nd,
1858, he advanced with about 18,700 men, to be later strengthened
by Brigadier Frank's column and the Nepaulese under Jung Bahadoor.
Approaching Lucknow by the Dilkoosha Park, the rebel pickets retired
before the 42nd and 93rd Highlanders, who swept the rebels from
their works in front of the Martinière, and the British troops
took possession of the palace and the Mahomed Bagh. On the morning
of March 9th the Martinière was assaulted. The Punjabis, with the
42nd Highlanders, took the rebels in flank, the 93rd Highlanders in
skirmishing order advanced at the double, supported by the 90th, and as
they approached the Martinière the mutineers bolted, and took refuge in
their entrenchments across the canal.
On the 11th the Begum's palace (Begum Kotee), sheltering 5,000 sepoys,
was stormed, the regiments rushing forward under "a perfect storm of
musketry," but "not a man wavered." The rebels had cunningly devised
"every obstacle that could be opposed to the stormers," but the 93rd
and the 4th Punjab Rifles were not deterred, and they fired their
muskets and plied their bayonets for two hours, until, with the aid of
a party of the 42nd, the enemy was forced to disperse, and the Begum
Kotee, the key of the position, was won after the most sanguinary
fight in the siege of Lucknow, nearly 1,000 rebels being killed. In
this fight Adjutant (later Lieutenant-Colonel) McBean, an Inverness
ploughman who rose from the ranks to the command of the 93rd, gained
the V.C. for his intrepid conduct in forcing his way through the breach
and killing eleven of the enemy with his own hands. Here the 93rd lost
a captain, a lieutenant, and 13 men killed, and 45 men wounded, several
dying afterwards of their wounds. Here, also, the dauntless Major
Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, met his death. Some of the flying sepoys
had taken refuge in the rooms abutting on a narrow lane, and Sergeant
Forbes Mitchell, of the 93rd Highlanders, records that Hodson, sabre
in hand, demanded of him "Where are the rebels?" The sergeant pointed
to the door of a room, and Hodson, shouting "Come on!" heedless of
Mitchell's entreaties to wait, made a step forward and was shot through
the body.
The Secundrabagh (Alexander's Garden) was again taken, this time with
comparatively little opposition, two companies of Highlanders being
conspicuous by the alacrity with which, on being faced by a wall, they
obeyed Sir Colin Campbell's command to "Tear off the tiles, and in at
the roof!" The Imambarrah was next stormed, and Brasyer's Sikhs rushed
the Kaiser Bagh, or King's palace; the different smaller points of
defence were carried, the mutineers scattered in all directions, and
the outworks of the city were soon in the possession of the besiegers.
It only remained to take the city itself, and this was effected by
a combined effort on the part of Sir James Outram, Sir James Hope
Grant and Brigadier Campbell, and after a stiff fight on March 21st
Lucknow was again under the British flag. The defeat of the retreating
mutineers by Sir Hope Grant about 12 miles out of the city removed all
fears for its safety.