XXI. THE RESCUE AT LUCKNOW, BY SIR COLIN CAMPBELL…

XXI. THE RESCUE AT LUCKNOW, BY SIR COLIN CAMPBELL

A little care is needed to avoid confusion in the use of the words ‘siege,’ ‘defence,’ and ‘relief,’ relating to Lucknow—so peculiar and complicated were the military operations in and near that city during the mutiny. In the first place, there was the defence of the Residency by Brigadier Inglis, during July, August, and September: the mutineers and rebels in the city itself being the besiegers. Secondly, in the closing week of September, came the siege of Lucknow city by the British under Havelock, Outram, and Neill: the rebels being the besieged, and Inglis’s little band, still shut up within the Residency enclosure, being unable to take an active part in the operations. Next, for a further period of seven or eight weeks, a renewed defence of the British position was maintained by Havelock, Outram, and Inglis—the mutineers and rebels being, as in the first instance, the besiegers. Then, in the third week of November, occurred a siege of the city by Sir Colin Campbell: the mutineers and rebels being the defenders, and the British inmates of the Residency being enabled to aid the operations of the commander-in-chief. After this, there was another defence of the Alum Bagh against the rebels by Outram, and another siege of Lucknow by Campbell. It follows, therefore, that the ‘siege,’ the ‘defence,’ or the ‘relief’ of Lucknow should not be mentioned without defining the period to which the expression refers.

With this explanatory remark, the scope of the present chapter may be easily shewn. In former pages[115] the eventful defence of the Residency at Lucknow from the beginning of July to near the close of September, by Brigadier Inglis, was described; together with the arrival of a small army under Havelock and Outram, and the terrible conflict in the streets of the city. In the present chapter the sequel of the story will be given—shewing how it arose that Havelock and Outram could not escort the suffering women and children, sick and wounded, from Lucknow to a place of safety; how they struggled on for eight weeks longer; what preparations Sir Colin Campbell made to collect an army of relief; how he fought his way to Lucknow; and by what felicitous arrangements he safely brought away those who, from sex, age, sickness, or wounds, were unable to defend themselves against a fierce and relentless enemy.

On the 26th of September, when a few hours’ sleep had closed the agitating proceedings of the previous day, it was found that the ‘relief’ of Lucknow was a relief rather in name than in substance. Sir Henry Havelock surrendered the command which had been generously left in his hands up to this time by a superior officer; Brigadier Inglis surrendered the military control of the intrenched position, or rather continued to hold it under the supervision of another; while Sir James Outram, in virtue of an arrangement previously made, assumed the leadership of all the British forces, and the exercise of all British power, throughout Oude. At present, this leadership and power were of humble dimensions, for he commanded very little more of the province than the few acres at the Residency and the Alum Bagh. Of the gallant troops, under 3000 in number, who, led by Havelock, Outram, and Neill, had left Cawnpore on the 19th of September, nearly one-third were stricken down by the time the Residency was reached. The survivors were too few in number to form a safe escort for the women and children from Lucknow to Cawnpore; the march would have been an awful one, marked by bloodshed at every step; the soldiers, distracted by the double duties of protectors and combatants, would have been too weak for either. They brought muscle and sinew to aid in constructing countermines and batteries; they enlarged the area of the intrenched or fortified position—but they could not rescue those who had so long borne the wonderful siege.

Some of the troops, in charge of guns, baggage, and baggage animals, had defended a position outside the Residency enclosure during the night; and arrangements were now made to secure the new or enlarged area—including the Clock Tower, the Jail, a mosque, the Taree Kothee, the Chuttur Munzil palace, the Fureed Buksh palace, the Pyne Bagh, and other buildings and gardens. It was not without severe fighting and much loss on the 26th that the wounded were placed in safety, the guns secured, and the new position fortified. When these palaces, which had until now been respected, were conquered from the enemy, they were regarded as fair military spoil. The buildings formed a labyrinth of court-yards, inner gardens, balconies, gateways, passages, verandahs, rotundas, outhouses, and pavilions; and all became a scene of plunder. ‘Everywhere,’ says Mr Rees, ‘might be seen people helping themselves to whatever they pleased. Jewels, shawls, dresses, pieces of satin, silk, broadcloths, coverings, rich embroidered velvet saddles for horses and elephants, the most magnificent divan carpets studded with pearls, dresses of cloth of gold, turbans of the most costly brocade, the finest muslins, the most valuable swords and poniards, thousands of flint-guns, caps, muskets, ammunition, cash, books, pictures, European clocks, English clothes, full-dress officers’ uniforms, epaulettes, aiguillettes, manuscripts, charms; vehicles of the most grotesque forms, shaped like fish, dragons, and sea-horses; imauns or representations of the Prophet’s hands, cups, saucers, cooking-utensils, china-ware sufficient to set up fifty merchants in Lombard Street, scientific instruments, ivory telescopes, pistols; and (what was better than all) tobacco, tea, rice, grain, spices, and vegetables.’ There is no proof that much order was observed in the partition or distribution; every one appears to have helped himself to what he pleased; and many collected large stores of useful and ornamental articles which they afterwards sold at high prices. There was a good deal of luxurious living for the first few days, on the savoury provisions found in the palaces; and we may in some degree imagine how this was enjoyed, after such sorry rations of chupatties, stewed peas, and morsels of tough gun-bullock beef. There was, perhaps, something undignified in all this scrambling spoliation that jars with one’s notions of heroism and exalted courage; but military men are accustomed to overlook it in the moment of victory.

When Sir James Outram clearly ascertained that the rebels and mutineers, instead of escaping from the city, were closing in more and more resolutely, he saw that no departure would be practicable either for officers or men, military or civilians, women or children. He endeavoured to open negotiations with Maun Singh, a powerful thalookdar or landowner;[116] to win him over to the side of the British, and thereby lessen the difficulties of the position; but the wily Oudian, balancing the relative advantages of loyalty and rebellion, gave specious answers on which no dependence could be placed. It became necessary to prepare for a new defence against a new siege. All the old ‘garrisons’ were strengthened, and new ones formed; all the guns and mortars were placed in effective positions, and all the soldiers told off to regular duties. As Outram and Havelock had brought scarcely any provisions with them into the Residency; and as those found in the palaces were articles of luxury rather than of solid food, a very careful commissariat adjustment became necessary—it being now evident that the daily rations must of necessity be small in quantity and coarse in quality. The enemy renewed their old system of firing, day after day, into the British position; they broke down the bridges over canals and small streams between the Residency and the Alum Bagh; and they captured, or sought to capture, every one who attempted to leave the intrenchment. On the other hand, the British made frequent sorties, to capture guns, blow up buildings, and dislodge parties of the enemy. Six days after the entry of Outram and Havelock, a soldier was found under circumstances not a little strange. Some of the garrison having sallied forth to capture two guns on the Cawnpore road, a private of the Madras Europeans was discovered in a dry well, where the poor fellow had been hiding several days. He had fortunately some tea-leaves and biscuits in his pockets, on which he had managed to support life; he had heard the enemy all round him, but had not dared to utter a sound. The well contained the dead body of a native sepoy; and the atmosphere hence became so pestilential and frightful that the poor European was wont to creep out at night to breathe a little fresh air. Great was his joy when at length he heard friendly voices; he shouted loudly for help, in spite of his exhausted state, and was barely saved from being shot by his countrymen as a rebel, so black and filthy was his appearance.

Throughout the month of October did this state of affairs in Lucknow continue. Outram had brought his guns into the intrenchment by clearing a passage for them through the palaces; he had destroyed Phillips’ or Philip’s Battery, with which the enemy had been accustomed greatly to annoy the garrison; he had blown up and cleared away a mass of buildings on the Cawnpore road; he had strengthened all the points of the position held by himself and Havelock; but still he could neither send aid to the Alum Bagh, nor receive aid from it. He could do nothing but maintain his position, until Sir Colin Campbell should be able to advance from Cawnpore with a new army. A few messages, in spite of the enemy’s vigilance, were sent and received. Outram was glad to learn that a convoy of provisions had reached the Alum Bagh from Cawnpore, and that Greathed was marching down the Doab with a column from Delhi. As for Lucknow itself, matters remained much as before—sorties, firing, blowing up, &c.; but it must at the same time be admitted that Outram was more favourably placed in this respect than Inglis had been; his fighting-men were three or four times as numerous, and were thus enabled to guard all the posts with an amount of labour less terribly exhausting. Danger was, of course, not over; cannon-balls and bullets still did their work. The authoress of the Lady’s Diary on one day recorded: ‘An 18-pounder came through our unfortunate room; it broke the panel of the door, and knocked the whole of the barricade down, upsetting everything. My dressing-table was sent flying through the door, and if the shot had come a little earlier, my head would have gone with it. The box where E. usually sits to nurse baby was smashed flat.’ Breakfasts of chupatties and boiled peas were now seldom relieved by better fare; many a diner rose from his meal nearly as hungry as when he sat down. Personal attire was becoming more and more threadbare. Poor Captain Fulton’s very old flannel-shirt, time-worn and soiled, sold by auction for forty-five rupees—four pounds ten shillings sterling.

Little news could be obtained from the city itself, beyond the limits of the British position; but that little tended to shew that the rebels had set up a natural son of the deposed king as ‘Padishah’ of Oude, as a sort of tributary prince to the King of Delhi. Being a child only eight or ten years old, the real power was vested in a minister and a council of state. The minister was one Shirreff-u-Dowlah; the commander-in-chief was Hissamut-u-Dowlah; the council of state was formed of the late king’s principal servants, the chieftains and thalookdars of Oude, and the self-elected leaders of the rebel sepoys; while the army was officered in the orthodox manner by generals, brigadiers, colonels, majors, captains, subalterns, &c. There was a strange sort of democracy underlying the despotism; for the sepoys elected their officers, and the officers their commander; and as those who built up felt that they had the right to pull down, the tenure of office was very precarious. The mongrel government at Lucknow was thus formed of three elements—regal, aristocratic, and military, each trusting the other two only so far as self-interest seemed to warrant. The worst news received was that a small body of Europeans, including Sir Mountstuart Jackson and his sister, fugitives from Seetapoor, were in the hands of the rebels, in one of the palaces in Lucknow, and that a terrible fate impended over them.

November began with very low resources, but with raised hopes; for it was known that the commander-in-chief was busily making arrangements for a final relief of the garrison. Brigadier—or, as his well-earned initials of K.C.B. now entitled him to be called, Sir John—Inglis remained in command of the old or Residency intrenchment; Sir Henry Havelock took charge of the new or palatial position; while Sir James Outram commanded the whole. Labour being abundant, great improvements were made in all parts; sanitary plans were carried out, and hospitals made more comfortable; overcrowded buildings were eased by the occupancy of other places; cool weather brought increase of health; and improvements were visible in every particular except two—food and raiment. On the 9th of the month, Mr Cavanagh, who in more peaceful times had been an ‘uncovenanted servant’ of the Company, or clerk to a civil officer in Lucknow, made a journey on foot to a point far beyond the Alum Bagh under most adventurous circumstances,[117] to communicate in person full details of what was passing within the Residency, to concert plans in anticipation of the arrival of Sir Colin, and perhaps to act as a guide through the labyrinthine streets of the city. As an immediate consequence of this expedition, a system of semaphore telegraphy was established from the one post to the other, by which it was speedily known that Mr Cavanagh had succeeded in his bold attempt, and that Sir Colin arrived at the Alum Bagh on the 11th. Arrangements were now at once made to aid the advance of the commander-in-chief as effectively as possible. Day after day Havelock sent out strong parties to clear some of the streets and buildings in the southeastern half of the city—blowing up batteries and houses, and dislodging the enemy, in order to lessen the amount of resistance which Sir Colin would inevitably encounter.[118]

All this time, while the British in Lucknow were stoutly maintaining their ground against the enemy, some of their companions-in-arms—near at hand, but as inaccessible as if fifty miles distant—had their own troubles to bear. The position of the small detachment at the Alum Bagh was as trying as it was unexpected. When Havelock left a few hundred soldiers at that post, with four guns, vehicles, animals, baggage, ammunition stores, camp-followers, sick, and wounded, he never for an instant supposed that he would be cut off from them, and that the Residency and the Alum Bagh would be the objects of two separate and distinct sieges. Such, however, was the case. Not a soldier could go from the one place to the other; and it was with the utmost difficulty that a messenger could convey a small note rolled up in a quill. The place, however, was tolerably well armed and fortified; and as the enemy did not swarm in any great numbers between it and Cawnpore, reinforcements were gradually able to reach the Alum Bagh, although they could not push on through the remaining four miles to the Residency. On the 3d of October, a convoy of 300 men of the 64th regiment, with provisions, under Major Bingham, started from Cawnpore, and safely reached the Alum Bagh; he could not penetrate further, but the supplies thus obtained at the Alum Bagh itself were very valuable. On the 14th, a second convoy, under Major M’Intyre of the 78th Highlanders, was despatched; but he was attacked by the enemy in such force, that he could not reach the Alum Bagh; he returned, and had some difficulty in preventing the supplies from falling into the hands of the enemy. Another attempt afterwards succeeded. Colonel Wilson, commanding at Cawnpore, received the small detachments of British troops sent up from time to time from the lower provinces, as well as the supplies coming in from every quarter. His duty was, not to make conquests, but to send men and provisions to the Alum Bagh or the Residency as often as any opportunity occurred for so doing, he knew that the Alum Bagh batteries commanded all the approaches, and that the ground was cleared and exposed for five hundred yards on all sides; he did not therefore apprehend any serious calamity to the miscellaneous force shut up in that place, provided he could send provisions in good time. The three or four miles from the Alum Bagh to the Residency were, it is true, beset by difficulties of a most formidable character; bridges were broken, and lines of intrenchment formed, while mutineers and rebels occupied the district in great force; but they directed their attention rather to the Residency than to the Alum Bagh, thereby leaving the latter comparatively unmolested. Much sickness arose within the place, owing to the deficiency of space and of fresh air; and in the intervals between the arrivals of the convoys, provisions were scanty, and the distress was considerable. Nevertheless, the occupants of the Alum Bagh, with such men as Havelock and Inglis near them, never for an instant thought of succumbing; they would fight and endure till aid arrived.

Having thus watched the proceedings of the beleaguered garrisons at the Residency and the Alum Bagh, we may now trace the footsteps of Sir Colin Campbell, in his operations for their relief.

The commander-in-chief, as has already been stated, remained at Calcutta many weeks after his arrival in India. He was called upon to remodel the whole military machinery, and to arrange with the governor-general the system of strategy which would be most desirable under the actual state of affairs. He watched with intense interest the progress of events on the banks of the Jumna and the Ganges. He gave due praise to Wilson for the conquest of Delhi, and to Greathed for the conquering march through the Doab. He admired, as a soldier might well admire, the struggles of Havelock’s gallant little army ere Outram had joined him; the combined operations of Havelock and Outram; and the wonderful defence made by Inglis against a host of opponents. He sent up from Calcutta, as soon as they arrived, reinforcements for the lamentably small British army; and he sent orders for brigading and marshalling, at Allahabad and at Cawnpore, such troops as could arrive from Calcutta on the one hand, and from Delhi on the other. At last, he himself departed from Calcutta on the 28th of October, travelling like a courier, narrowly escaping capture by rebels on the way, and arriving at Cawnpore on the 3d of November—utterly heedless of the glitter and trappings that usually surround a commander-in-chief in India.

By what steps the various regiments reached Cawnpore, need not be traced in detail. As fast as they arrived, so did some degree of tranquillity succeed to anarchy. A portion of railway had for some weeks been finished from Allahabad to Lohunda, forty-two miles towards Futtehpoor, but had been stopped in its working by the mutiny; arrangements were now made, however, for bringing it into use, and for finishing the section between Lohunda and Futtehpoor. The English regiments, from China and elsewhere, went up from Calcutta by road or river, in the modes so often described; and were engaged in occasional skirmishes on the way, at times and places which have in like manner been mentioned. Benares was the converging point for the road and river routes; from thence the troops went up by Mirzapore to Allahabad; thence to Lohunda by rail; and, lastly, to Futtehpoor and Cawnpore by road-march or bullock-vehicles. A column under Colonel Berkeley was on its way; another under Colonel Hinde was in or near Rewah; another under Colonel Longden was near Jounpoor; while Colonel Wroughton, with the Goorkhas furnished by Jung Bahadoor, was on the Goruckpore frontier of Oude. True, some of these so-called columns were scarcely equal to one regiment in strength; but each formed a nucleus around which other troops might accumulate. Greathed’s column, now better known as Hope Grant’s, was the main element in Sir Colin’s present force. It crossed the Ganges from Cawnpore into Oude on the 30th of October, about 3500 strong, with 18 guns, and advanced without opposition towards the Alum Bagh, near which it encamped, and awaited the arrival of the commander-in-chief.

A little may usefully be said here concerning the proceedings of the naval brigade, already noticed as having been placed under the command of Captain Peel, and as having arrived safely at Allahabad after a very wearisome voyage up the Ganges. On the 4th of October Sir Colin Campbell, then at Calcutta, telegraphed to Peel: ‘In the course of about a week there will be a continuous stream of troops, at the rate of about ninety a day, passing into Allahabad, which I trust will not cease for the next three months.’ Captain Peel was employed during October in facilitating the passage of troops and artillery up to Cawnpore. On the 20th Lieutenant Vaughan joined him, bringing 126 more naval officers and seamen, which raised the strength of the naval brigade to 516. Most of these new arrivals were sailors of the merchant service at Calcutta, who had agreed with much alacrity to join the brigade. On the 23d he sent off 100 seamen to Cawnpore, in charge of four siege train 24-pounders. On the 27th he despatched 170 more, in charge of four 24-pounders and two 8-inch howitzers; and on the same day a military escort was provided for a large amount of ammunition. Next, Captain Peel himself started for Cawnpore; and was soon afterwards joined on the road by Colonel Powell with the head-quarters of H.M. 53d regiment. Rather unexpectedly, a battle took place on the way. While at Thurea, on the 31st, news reached them that the Dinapoor mutineers, with three guns, had crossed the Jumna, and were about either to attack Futtehpoor, or to march towards Oude. Powell and Peel had with them troops and sailors numbering altogether about 700, in charge of a large and valuable convoy of siege and other stores: They marched that same evening to the camping-ground of Futtehpoor, where they were joined by some of the 93d Highlanders; and on the morning of the 1st of November a column of about 500 men marched twenty-four miles to Kudjna. The enemy were here found, with their guns commanding the road, their right occupying a high embankment, screened by a grove, and their left on the other side of the road. A part of the column advanced against the guns, while the rest rendered support on either side. A sharp battle of two hours’ duration ensued, during which the enemy kept up so severe a fire of musketry that many of the English fell, including Colonel Powell, who received a musket-ball in the forehead. Captain Peel, although a sailor, then took the command; he carried a force round the upper end of the embankment, divided the enemy, and drove them from all their positions, capturing their camp and two of their tumbrils. His men were so worn out by 72 miles of marching in three days, that he could not organise a pursuit. Collecting his dead and wounded, which amounted in number to no less than 95, he marched back to Binkee; and after a little rest, the column, minus those who fell in this battle, continued the march towards Cawnpore. It was supposed the enemy numbered not fewer than 4000 men, of whom one half were mutinous sepoys from the Bengal army, and the other half rebels whom they had picked up on the way. After leaving some of his men at Cawnpore, to serve as artillerymen, Peel advanced with his heavy guns, and about 250 sailors, towards the Alum Bagh.

Understanding, then, that regiments and detachments of various kinds were working their way, at the close of October and early in November, towards Cawnpore, and across the Ganges into Oude, we may resume our notice of Sir Colin Campbell’s movements.

Remaining at Cawnpore no longer than was necessary to organise his various military arrangements, the commander-in-chief crossed the Ganges on the 9th of November, and joined Hope Grant’s column on the same day at camp Buntara, six miles short of the Alum Bagh. Wishing to have the aid of other detachments which were then on the road, he remained at Buntara till the morning of the 12th, when he started with the force which he had collected with so much trouble.[119] Advancing towards the Alum Bagh, he defeated a party of the enemy in a skirmish at a small fort called Jellalabad, a little way to the right of the main road, and five or six miles from the city. This fort being taken and blown up, Sir Colin pushed on and encamped for the night outside the Alum Bagh. Knowing that Havelock and Outram two months before had suffered severely in cutting their way through the city, Campbell now formed a plan of approach at the extreme eastern or rather southeastern suburb, and of battering down the enemy’s defences step by step, and day after day, so as to form a passage for his infantry with comparatively small loss. This he had reason to hope; because there was a large open space at that end of the city, which—although containing many mosques, palaces, and other buildings—had few of those deep narrow lanes which had proved so dangerous to the former force. Hence the tactics of the next few days were to consist of a series of partial sieges, each directed against a particular stronghold, and each capture to form a base of operations for attacks on other posts nearer the heart of the city, until at length the Residency could be reached. The palaces, buildings, and gardens that would be encountered in this route were the Dil Koosha palace and park, the Martinière college, the Secunder Bagh, the Shah Nujeef, the palace Mess-house, the Observatory, the Motee Mehal, the Keisah or Kaiser Bagh, and various palatial buildings, of which the names are not clearly rendered; until at length those posts would be reached (the Chuttur Munzil, the Pyne Bagh, the Fureed Buksh palace, the Clock Tower, and the Taree Kothee) which were held by Havelock, and lastly those (the Residency and the other buildings within Inglis’s original intrenchment) which were held by Outram.

After changing the garrison at the Alum Bagh, giving a little rest to troops who had recently had much heavy marching, and receiving an addition of about 650 men[120] from Cawnpore, Sir Colin commenced his arduous operations on the morning of the 14th, with a miscellaneous force of about 4000 men. As he approached the Dil Koosha park, the leading troops encountered a long line of musketry-fire; he quickly sent up reinforcements; and after a running-fight of about two hours, he drove the enemy down the hill to the Martinière college, across the garden and park of the Martinière, and far beyond the canal. This was effected without any great loss on either side. Campbell had now secured the Dil Koosha (’Heart’s Delight’) and the Martinière (Martine’s college for half-caste children). Hope Grant’s brigade, flanked by Bourchier’s field-battery and Peel’s heavy guns, was brought to the side of the canal (which enters the river Goomtee close to the Martinière), where they effectually kept the enemy in check. When night came, Sir Colin found he had made a good beginning; he had not only secured the easternmost buildings of Lucknow, but he had brought with him fourteen days’ provisions for his own troops, and an equal proportion for those under Outram and Havelock; he had also brought all his heavy baggage (except tents, left at the Alum Bagh), and was therefore prepared to make a stand for several days at the Dil Koosha if necessary.

After further completing his arrangements on the 15th, and exchanging messages or signals with Havelock and Outram, the commander-in-chief resumed his operations on the 16th. Leaving every description of baggage at the Dil Koosha, and supplying every soldier’s haversack with three days’ food, he crossed the canal and advanced to the Secunder Bagh—a high-walled enclosure of strong masonry, about a hundred and twenty yards square, loopholed on all sides for musketry, and held in great force by the enemy. Opposite to it was a village at a distance of about a hundred yards, also loopholed and guarded by musketeers. After a determined struggle of two hours, during which artillery and infantry were brought to bear against them in considerable force, the enemy were driven out of the Secunder Bagh, the village, and a range of barracks hard by—all of which speedily became valuable strongholds to the conquerors. Sir Colin described this as a very desperate encounter, no less than 2000 of the enemy having fallen, chiefly after the storming of the Secunder Bagh itself by parties of the 53d and 93d regiments, aided by the 4th Punjaub infantry and a few miscellaneous troops. Indeed the enemy, well armed, crowded the Secunder Bagh in such numbers, that he said ‘there never was a bolder feat of arms’ than the storming. Captain Peel’s naval siege-train then went to the front, and advanced towards the Shah Nujeef—a domed mosque with a garden, which had been converted into a strong post by the enemy; the wall of the enclosure had been loopholed with great care; the entrance had been covered by a regular work in masonry; and the top of the building had been crowned with a parapet. Peel was aided by a field-battery and some mortars; while the village to the left had been cleared of the enemy by Brigadier Hope and Colonel Gordon. A heavy cannonade was maintained against the Shah Nujeef for no less a space than three hours. The enemy defended the post very obstinately, keeping up an unceasing fire of musketry from the mosque and the defences in the garden. At last Sir Colin ordered the place to be stormed, which was effected in an intrepid manner by the 93d Highlanders, a battalion of detachments, and the naval brigade. In his dispatch, the commander-in-chief said: ‘Captain Peel led up his heavy guns with extraordinary gallantry to within a few yards of the building, to batter the massive stone-walls. The withering fire of the Highlanders effectually covered the naval brigade from great loss; but it was an action almost unexampled in war. Captain Peel behaved very much as if he had been laying the Shannon alongside an enemy’s frigate.’

While Sir Colin and his troops were thus engaged, Havelock contributed towards the success of the general plan by the capture of a range of buildings in advance of the palace of Fureed Buksh. It had been agreed by signal and secret message, that as soon as Sir Colin should reach the Secunder Bagh, the outer wall of the advance garden of the Fureed Buksh (Havelock’s most eastern post), in which the enemy had before made several breaches, should be blown in by mines previously prepared; that two powerful batteries erected in the enclosure should then open on the insurgents in front; and that after the desired effect had been produced, the troops should storm two buildings known as the Hern Khana or Deer-house and the Engine-house. This was successfully accomplished. At about eleven o’clock, the operations began. The mines were exploded; the wall was demolished; the works beyond were shelled by mortars; two of the mines at the Hern Khana were charged with destructive effect; and the infantry—eager for a little active work after being many weeks pent up within their intrenchment—dashed through the Chuttur Munzil and carried all before them, capturing the several buildings which had been marked out by previous arrangement.

Thus ended the important operations of the 16th, sanguinary in Sir Colin’s force, but much less so in that of Havelock—operations during which the Secunder Bagh, the Shah Nujeef, the Hern Khana, the Engine-house, and many minor buildings, were captured. On the 17th, the commander-in-chief, after overcoming many obstacles, opened a communication between the canal and the left rear of a range of barracks, that facilitated his subsequent proceedings. Captain Peel meanwhile began to operate with his now famous naval brigade against a building called in the maps the Mess-house—a large structure, defended by a ditch twelve feet broad, and scarped with masonry, and by a loopholed mud-wall beyond the ditch. As a part of Sir Colin’s general plan—that of employing artillery as much as possible, to save his infantry—a cannonading was continued for several hours against this Mess-house; and then it was stormed and taken without much difficulty by various detachments of the 53d, the 90th, the Punjaubees, and other regiments. This done, the troops pressed forward with great vigour, and lined a wall that separated the Mess-house from the Motee Mehal (’Pearl Palace’). This last-named place consisted of a wide enclosure containing many buildings. Here the enemy determined to make one last desperate stand; they fought with energy and determination for an hour, but then gave way. Sir Colin’s troops broke an opening through the wall, aided by the sappers, and then they poured through, rushing onward until they reached the part of the city which for seven or eight weeks had been in the hands of Havelock. On the evening of this day the British found themselves in possession of nearly the whole river-side of Lucknow from the iron bridge to the Dil Koosha.

It may not be amiss here to mention that these operations during the second decade of November were conducted by the following officers: Sir Colin Campbell commanded the whole. General Mansfield officiated as chief of the staff. Brigadier Hope Grant was in immediate command of the column, formerly known as Greathed’s, which constituted the chief part of Sir Colin’s force. Colonel Greathed, now raised to brigadier-general as a mark of Sir Colin’s estimate of his services, commanded one of the brigades of infantry. Brigadiers Russell and Adrian Hope took two other infantry brigades. Brigadier Little commanded the cavalry, Brigadier Crauford the artillery, Lieutenant Lennox the engineers, and Captain Peel the naval brigade. The operations brought the honorary distinction of K.C.B. to Grant and Peel, who became Sir James Hope Grant and Sir William Peel. Sir Colin’s advance to the Residency, however, with the collateral struggles to which it gave rise, was severe in its results to his force, though less so than the operations of Outram and Havelock in September. He had to mourn the loss of 122 killed and 345 wounded. Out of this number there were 10 officers killed and 33 wounded. Sir Colin himself received a slight wound, but not such as to check his activity for an hour.[121] The loss of the enemy was frightfully severe; the exact amount was not known to the British, but it must have reached three or four thousand. They fought at the Secunder Bagh and the Shah Nujeef with a fierceness which rendered immense slaughter inevitable; for Peel’s powerful artillery swept them down fearfully.

Whether the transports of joy that animated the British in Lucknow on the 17th of November were equal in intensity to those which had broken forth fifty-three days before, can never be exactly measured; men’s emotions are not susceptible of such nice estimate. Suffice it to say, that as Inglis, on the 25th of September, had warmly grasped the hands of his deliverers Havelock and Outram; so did Outram, Havelock, and Inglis now welcome with all fervour Sir Colin Campbell and those who with him had just fought their way through the hostile streets of Lucknow. Then, when a few hours had enabled the new-comers to spread forth some of the supplies which their commissariat had provided, and the old inmates had done what little they could to render quiet eating and drinking possible—then were experienced once again the luxuries of wheaten bread, fresh butter, oranges, and other articles which are never luxuries save to those who have been long unable to obtain them. And then the feast of letters and newspapers from England was scarcely less delightful; for so close had been the investment of the Residency, that the inmates had been practically shut out from the world during the greater part of the summer and autumn.

The jubilation was, however, soon ended. Almost immediately on Sir Colin’s arrival, an announcement was made that every European was to leave Lucknow and retire to Cawnpore. Many in the garrison had fondly hoped that the success of the commander-in-chief would have restored British control over the city; that comfort was about to succeed discomfort; that officers and civilians would resume their former duties under their former easy conditions; and that the ladies and children might rest a while in quiet, to recover health and strength before retiring to Calcutta or to the Hills. But such was not to be. Campbell had come to Lucknow almost solely to liberate them; and his plan of strategy—or, more probably, the number of available troops at his command—did not permit him to leave his small force in the Oudian capital; for there was hot work to look forward to. The enemy, notwithstanding their losses, still numbered fifty thousand fighting-men in and near Lucknow, shewing no symptoms of retreat, but rather a determination to defend the rest of the city street by street. To attack them further would have been to sacrifice a force already much reduced, and to risk the necessity for a third relief. Sir Colin issued an order, therefore, not only that all were to depart, but to depart quickly. The sick and wounded were to be removed directly from the Residency to the Dil Koosha—a distance of four miles in a straight line, but five or six if it were necessary to take a circuitous route to avoid the enemy; the women and children were to follow the same route on the next day; and the bulk of the soldiers were to depart when all else had been provided for. An encampment was prepared in the Dil Koosha park, with such necessaries and comforts as could be hastily brought together for sick, wounded, women, and children. The sojourn at the Dil Koosha was to be a brief one, sufficient only for the organisation of a convoy to Cawnpore. Only a small amount of personal baggage was allowed for each person; and thus those who possessed property were forced to leave most of it behind. The property, it is true, was very scanty; but the garrison felt vexed at leaving even a trifle as a booty to the rebels. As the ordnance stores and the Company’s treasure (twenty-three lacs of rupees, safely preserved through all the trying scenes of half a year) were to be removed to the Dil Koosha about the same time as the non-combatants, and as all this was to be effected without exciting the suspicions of the rebels, the utmost vigilance and caution were needed.

The exodus from the Residency, and the escape to the Dil Koosha, through nearly the whole length of the city of Lucknow, will never be forgotten by those who took part therein. Many delicate ladies, unprovided with vehicles or horses, had to walk over five or six miles of very rough ground, exposed at one place to the fire of the enemy’s musketry. The authoress of the Lady’s Diary, with two other ladies, secured a carriage to convey them. ‘We had a pair of starved horses of Mr Gubbins’s to drag us; but the wretched animals had been on siege-fare so long that they had forgotten the use of their legs, and had no strength, so came to a stand-still every five minutes, invariably choosing the most dangerous parts of the road for their halt. At one place we were under so hot a fire that we got out and ran for our lives—leaving the vehicle to its fate; and two poor natives, who were helping to push it on behind, were shot. At the Fureed Buksh we had to wait a long time, as the carriage could not be got through a gateway till some stores were cleared away. Some of the officers of the 90th invited us inside, and gave us wine and water, which was very refreshing. We walked after that every step of the way to Secunderabad [Secunder Bagh], where we all had to wait several hours till doolies arrived to take on all the women; and we proceeded under a strong escort to Dil Koosha. The road to Secunderabad was frightfully dangerous in places. In one spot we were passing a 24-pounder manned by some sailors of the naval brigade; they all called out to us to bend low and run as fast as we could; we had hardly done so when a volley of grape whizzed over our heads and struck a wall beyond. At Secunderabad we found the place overflowing with women and children of the Lucknow garrison.... At about nine o’clock P.M. we started again in doolies. The crowd and confusion were excessive, the enemy hovering round and firing occasional shots, and we were borne along in the most solemn silence; the only sounds were the tramp, tramp, tramp of the doolie-bearers and the screaming of the jackals. It was an awful time; one felt as if one’s life hung in a balance, with the fate we had so long dreaded; but our merciful Father, who has protected us through so many and great dangers, brought us in safety to Dil Koosha, where we arrived about two o’clock in the morning.’ They found shelter in the hastily prepared Dil Koosha encampment, already mentioned; and then, for the first time during five months, they snatched a little sleep beyond the Residency intrenchment. Mrs (now Lady) Inglis behaved on this occasion in a manner worthy of her name; a doolie or hospital-litter was prepared for her accommodation; but she refused it, in order that the sick and wounded might be better attended to. Mr Rees gives an extract from a letter of this lady, in which the incidents of the day are narrated nearly in the same terms as by the chaplain’s wife; but the following few additional facts may be given: ‘The road was quite safe except in three places, where it was overlooked by the enemy’s position, and where we had to run. One poor woman was wounded at one of these places. We arrived at Secunder Bagh about six, and found every one assembled there, awaiting an escort and doolies to carry us on. When I tell you that upwards of two thousand men had been hastily buried there the day before, you can fancy what a place it was.... We were regaled with tea and plenty of milk, and bread and butter—luxuries we had not enjoyed since the commencement of our troubles. At ten o’clock we recommenced our journey; most of the ladies were in palanquins, but we had a covered-cart drawn by two obstinate bullocks. We had a force of infantry and cavalry with us, but had not proceeded half a mile when the column was halted, and an order sent back for reinforcements; some noise was heard, and it was believed we might be attacked. However, it proved a false alarm; and after two disagreeable and rather anxious hours, we arrived safely at the Dil Koosha, and were quartered in tents pitched for our reception.’ The charnel-house at the Secunder Bagh, mentioned in this extract, was the place where most of the slaughter of the enemy had occurred, and where the dead bodies had been hastily interred; the atmosphere around it was for many days in a frightful state.

The military movement in this evacuation of the Residency was spoken of by Sir Colin, in his official dispatch, as something masterly. He told how Outram so planned that each corps and regiment, each detachment and picket, should be able to march out silently in the dead of the night, without exciting suspicion among the myriads of enemies near; and yet that there should be guns and riflemen so posted as to repel the enemy if they should attempt any serious molestation of the retiring troops. It must be remembered that Outran and Havelock’s gallant and much-enduring men had many things to effect after the non-combatants had departed from the Residency. They were called upon to bring away as many of the stores as could conveniently be conveyed, and to destroy those which, if left behind, would too much strengthen the enemy; they had to escort and protect their weaker companions, and to maintain a bombardment of the Kaiser Bagh and other posts, to deceive the enemy. The last of the men came out as quietly and cautiously as possible, in the dead of the night between the 22d and 23d of November, leaving lights burning, that the departure might not be suspected. They silently passed through the streets and roads, and safely reached the Dil Koosha. Captain Waterman, through some misconception, was left behind, and found himself, at two o’clock in the morning, the only living man in the intrenched position which had lately been so crowded. The situation was a terrible one, surrounded as he was by fifty thousand vindictive armed enemies. In an agony of mind, he ran past the Taree Kothee, the Fureed Buksh, the Chuttur Munzil, the Motee Mehal, the Secunder Bagh, and the Martinière, to the Dil Koosha, which he reached in a state of mental and bodily prostration. Sir Colin was among the last to leave the place. So cleverly was the evacuation managed (without the loss of one man), that the enemy continued to fire into the Residency enclosure long after the British had quitted it. What the scene was among the women and children, we have just been informed; what it was among the soldiers, is well described in a letter from one of the officers: ‘An anxious night indeed that was! We left at twelve o’clock, having withdrawn all our guns from position, so that if the scoundrels had only come on, we should have had to fight every inch of our way while retiring; but the hand of Providence, which had watched the little garrison for so long a time, never left it to the last. The eye of the wicked was blinded while we marched breathlessly with beating hearts from our post, and, forming into line, walked through the narrow defiles and trenches leading from the ever-memorable Bailey guard. Out we went, while the enemy’s guns still pounded the old wall, and while the bullets still whistled over the buildings; and, after a six miles’ walk in ankle-deep sand, we were halted in a field and told to make ourselves comfortable for the night. Here we were in a pretty plight. Nothing to cover ourselves, while the cold was intense; so we lay down like so many sheep huddled together to keep ourselves warm, and so lay till the morning, when we rose stiff and cold, with a pretty prospect of the chance of finding our servants in a camp of 9000 men.’

The world-renowned ‘Residency’ at Lucknow being thus abandoned, it may be well to give in a note[122] Sir James Outram’s comments on the eight weeks’ defence of that place, as a sequel to Brigadier Inglis’s account (p. 336) of the previous three months’ defence before Outram arrived. To Outram was due the planning and execution of the strategical movement by which the evacuation of the Residency was accomplished. The commander-in-chief, in a general order issued on the 23d, thus spoke of it: ‘The movement of retreat last night, by which the final rescue of the garrison was effected, was a model of discipline and exactness. The consequence was, that the enemy was completely deceived, and the force retired by a narrow, tortuous lane—the only line of retreat open—in the face of fifty thousand enemies, without molestation.’[123]

Great and universal was the grief throughout the camp when the rumour rapidly spread that Havelock, the gallant Christian soldier, was dead. He shared the duties of Outram at the Dil Koosha on the 23d and 24th, but died the next day, stricken down by dysentery, brought on by over-fatigue. All men talked of him as a religious as well as a brave man—as one, more than most men of his time, who resembled some of the Puritans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A few words may give the outline of his career. Henry Havelock was born near Sunderland in 1795. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and then studied for the bar for a short time; but afterwards adopted the military profession, following the example of his elder brother William. He entered the 95th regiment just after the battle of Waterloo, and during forty-two years saw a good deal of active service. After serving eight years in the United Kingdom, he exchanged into the 13th regiment, and went to India in 1823. He joined in the first Burmese war, of which he afterwards wrote and published a narrative. He served in various capacities twenty-three years before he became a captain, having no patronage in high places to facilitate his advancement. Then he served in the Afghan campaign, of which he wrote a memoir; and took a leading part in the memorable defence of Jelalabad. Rising gradually in office and in influence, he served in later periods at Gwalior, Moodkee, Ferozshah, Sobraon, the Sutlej, and other scenes of battle. When the Persian war broke out at the close of 1856, he was put in command of one division of the Anglo-Indian army; and when that war ended, he returned to India. What he achieved during 1857 the foregoing pages have shewn. All classes in England mourned his death. The Duke of Cambridge as commander-in-chief, Lords Palmerston and Panmure as ministers of the crown, the Earl of Derby as chief representative of the party at that time in opposition, the Court of Directors, the Court of Proprietors, the corporation of London, public functionaries and municipal bodies, religious and missionary societies—all sought to pay respect to the noble soldier who was at once pious, daring, and skilful. His widow, made Lady Havelock in virtue of his knighthood, received a pension of £1000 a year. His son received a baronetcy from the Queen, the rank of major from the commander-in-chief, and a pension of £1000 a year from the House of Commons. The public afterwards took up the subject of a monument to the hero, and a provision for his daughters, as matters not unworthy of support by voluntary efforts independent of the government. With or without a monument, the name of Henry Havelock will be held in grateful remembrance by the nation.

Sir Colin Campbell, like all around him, mourned the loss of his gallant coadjutor; but his thoughts had no time to dwell on that topic. He had to think of the living, to plan the march from the Dil Koosha to the Alum Bagh, and thence onward to Cawnpore. Certain state-prisoners had to be guarded, as well as the women and children, the sick and the wounded, the treasure and the stores. The whole army was thrown into two divisions: one under Brigadier Hope Grant, to form an escort from the Dil Koosha to the Alum Bagh; the other, under Outram, to keep the enemy at bay until the convoy was safely on its road. It was on the 24th that this novel and picturesque procession set out. The distance to the Alum Bagh was about four miles; and over the whole length of very rough road was a stream of bullock-carriages, palanquins, carts, camels, elephants, guns, ammunition and store wagons, soldiers, sailors (of the naval brigade), sick, wounded, women, children, and prisoners. The delays were great, the stoppages many, the fatigue distressing, the dust annoying; and all gladly rested their weary limbs at the Alum Bagh when night came.

It had been fully intended to afford the troops and their convoy several days’ repose at the Alum Bagh; but on the 27th, Sir Colin was surprised to hear very heavy firing in the direction of Cawnpore. No news had reached him from that place for several days; therefore fearing some disaster, he felt it necessary to push forward as quickly as possible. Leaving Outram in command of part of the force at the Alum Bagh, and placing the rest under the immediate command of Hope Grant, he resumed his march at nine o’clock on the morning of the 28th. Messages now reached him, telling of a reverse which General Windham had suffered at Cawnpore, at the hands of the Gwalior mutineers. Sir Colin hastened forward, convoy and all; but he and a few officers took the start, and galloped on to Cawnpore that same night. The nature of Windham’s disaster will come for notice in the next chapter; here we have only to speak of its immediate effect upon Sir Colin’s plans. The enormous train of helpless women, children, sick, and wounded, could cross the Ganges and quit Oude only by a bridge of boats; if that were broken, the result might be tragical indeed. Orders were sent for the heavy guns to hurry on, and to take up such a position as would prevent the enemy from destroying or attacking the bridge; while a mixed force of infantry, cavalry, and horse-artillery was to cross quickly, and command the Cawnpore end of the bridge. Happily all this was effected just in time. When the passage was rendered safe, the artillery, the remaining troops, and the non-combatants, were ordered to file over the bridge; this they did, occupying the bridge in a continuous stream for thirty hours—unmolested, owing to Sir Colin’s prompt plans, by the enemy’s guns. All having safely crossed, the troops encamped around the ruinous old intrenchment rendered memorable by the gallant spirit and hapless fate of Sir Hugh Wheeler; while the women, children, sick, and wounded, were put temporarily into occupation of the old foot-artillery lines.

Although Sir Colin Campbell abandoned Lucknow for a while, he did not abandon the Alum Bagh. This post, a compact enclosure, capable of being defended on all sides, would afford an important base for future operations if maintained. Taking Hope Grant’s division back with him to Cawnpore, he left Outram with three to four thousand men to hold the Alum Bagh against all odds, furnishing him with as large a supply as possible of provisions and stores. This force consisted of all the remaining or available companies of H.M. 5th, 78th, 84th, and 90th foot, the Madras Europeans, the Ferozpore Sikhs, three field-batteries, some heavy guns, two squadrons of the military train acting as dragoons, and a body of irregular cavalry. While the enemy were busily engaged in refortifying the city, so as to make it more formidable than ever, Sir James was making the Alum Bagh proof against all their attacks. The position thus occupied included not only the Alum Bagh itself, but a standing camp about three-quarters of a mile distant, and the bridge of Bunnee, which was separately held by 400 Madras sepoys and two guns.

Serious work and anxious thoughts occupied the mind of the commander-in-chief. He could do little in active military operations while so many helpless beings were depending on him for protection. Hence the sojourn of those who, from sex, age, or sickness, could render no active service at Cawnpore, was rendered as brief as possible. Vehicles, animals, provisions, and stores, were quickly collected; and on the 3d of December the march was resumed towards Allahabad—under an escort of H.M. 34th foot, two guns, and some cavalry. How the released Europeans fared on their journey; how they were cheered and greeted at Allahabad; how they felicitated themselves on once again sleeping in safety; and how they ultimately reached Calcutta by steamers on the Ganges—need not be told in detail. Let it suffice to say that when the ladies and children, with the invalided officers, who had passed through so wonderful a series of events, were approaching Calcutta, Lord Canning issued a notification, in which he said: ‘No one will wish to obtrude upon those who are under bereavement or sickness any show of ceremony which shall impose fatigue or pain. The best welcome which can be tendered upon such an occasion is one which shall break in as little as possible upon privacy and rest. But the rescue of these sufferers is a victory beyond all price; and in testimony of the public joy with which it is hailed, and of the admiration with which their heroic endurance and courage are viewed,’ it was ordered that a royal salute should be fired from the ramparts of Fort William as soon as the steamer arrived; that all ships-of-war in the river should be dressed in honour of the day; that officers would be appointed to conduct the passengers on shore; and that the state-barges of the governor-general should be in attendance.

Thus ended a great achievement. The women, children, sick, and wounded, who had to be brought away from the very heart of a city swarming with deadly enemies, and escorted through a country beset by mutinous sepoys and rebellious chieftains, were not fewer than two thousand in number. Let it be remembered, that while this helpless train of persons was on the way through Oude, behind them was the enormous hostile force of Lucknow, while in front of them were the Gwalior mutineers flushed by a recent victory. That all should have passed through this perilous ordeal with scarcely the loss of one life, reflects lasting credit on the generals who planned and executed the manœuvre. Of the five noble officers whose names are imperishably connected with the extraordinary sieges and defences of Lucknow—Inglis, Havelock, Neill, Outram, and Campbell—two fell before the grateful thanks of their countrymen at home could reach them; but the remaining three, when Christmas arrived, had the infinite satisfaction of knowing that their arduous labours had been rewarded by the safe arrival, at or near Calcutta, of the tender and weakened, the broken-down and invalided—those who had so long formed the European community in the Lucknow Residency.

Note.

Cavanagh’s Adventure.—At p. 362 it is mentioned that Mr Cavanagh, an uncovenanted civil servant of the Company in the Residency at Lucknow, volunteered to make the perilous journey from that post to the commander-in-chief’s camp many miles beyond the Alum Bagh, in order to establish more complete correspondence between Sir James Outram and Sir Colin Campbell than was possible by the simple medium of a small note enclosed in a quill. Mr Cavanagh’s account of his hair-breadth run was afterwards published in the Blue-books; and as it affords a good idea of the state of Lucknow and its environs at the time, we will reprint it here:

‘While passing through the intrenchment of Lucknow, about ten o’clock A.M. on the 9th inst., I learned that a spy had come in from Cawnpore, and that he was going back in the night as far as the Alum Bagh with dispatches to his excellency, Sir Colin Campbell, the commander-in-chief, who, it was said, was approaching Lucknow with 5000 or 6000 men.

‘I sought out the spy, whose name is Kanoujee Lall, and who was in the court of the deputy-commissioner of Duriabad before the outbreak in Oude. He had taken letters from the intrenchment before, but I had never seen him till now. I found him intelligent, and imparted to him my desire to venture in disguise to the Alum Bagh in his company. He hesitated a great deal at acting as my guide, but made no attempt to exaggerate the dangers of the road. He merely urged that there was more chance of detection by our going together, and proposed that we should take different roads, and meet outside of the city, to which I objected. I left him to transact some business, my mind dwelling all the time on the means of accomplishing my object.

‘I had, some days previously, witnessed the preparation of plans which were being made by direction of Sir James Outram to assist the commander-in-chief in his march into Lucknow for the relief of the besieged, and it then occurred to me that some one with the requisite local knowledge ought to attempt to reach his excellency’s camp beyond or at the Alum Bagh. The news of Sir Colin Campbell’s advance revived the idea, and I made up my mind to go myself at two o’clock, after finishing the business I was engaged upon. I mentioned to Colonel R. Napier, chief of Sir James Outram’s staff, that I was willing to proceed through the enemy to the Alum Bagh, if the general thought my doing so would be of service to the commander-in-chief. He was surprised at the offer, and seemed to regard the enterprise as fraught with too much danger to be assented to; but he did me the favour of communicating the offer to Sir James Outram, because he considered that my zeal deserved to be brought to his notice.

‘Sir James did not encourage me to undertake the journey, declaring that he thought it so dangerous that he would not himself have asked any officer to attempt it. I, however, spoke so confidently of success, and treated the dangers so lightly, that he at last yielded, and did me the honour of adding, that if I succeeded in reaching the commander-in-chief, my knowledge would be a great help to him.

‘I secretly arranged for a disguise, so that my departure might not be known to my wife, as she was not well enough to bear the prospect of an eternal separation. When I left home, about seven o’clock in the evening, she thought I was gone on duty for the night to the mines; for I was working as an assistant field-engineer, by order of Sir James Outram.

‘By half-past seven o’clock my disguise was completed, and when I entered the room of Colonel Napier, no one in it recognised me. I was dressed as a budmash, or as an irregular soldier of the city, with sword and shield, native-made shoes, tight trousers, a yellow silk koortah over a tight-fitting white muslin shirt, a yellow-coloured chintz sheet thrown round my shoulders, a cream-coloured turban, and a white waistband or kumurbund. My face, down to the shoulders, and my hands, to the wrists, were coloured with lampblack, the cork used being dipped in oil to cause the colour to adhere a little. I could get nothing better. I had little confidence in the disguise of my features, and I trusted more to the darkness of the night; but Sir James Outram and his staff seemed satisfied. After being provided with a small double-barrelled pistol, and a pair of broad pyjamahs over the tight drawers, I proceeded with Kanoujee Lall to the right bank of the river Goomtee, running north of our intrenchment, accompanied by Captain Hardinge, of the irregular cavalry.

‘Here we undressed and quietly forded the river, which was only about four and a half feet deep, and about a hundred yards wide at this point. My courage failed me while in the water, and if my guide had been within reach, I should perhaps have pulled him back and abandoned the enterprise; but he waded quickly through the stream. Reaching the opposite bank, we went crouching up a ditch for three hundred yards, to a grove of low trees on the edge of a pond, where we stopped to dress. While we were here, a man came down to the pond to wash, and went away again without observing us.

‘My confidence now returned to me, and with my tulwar resting on my shoulder we advanced into the huts in front, where I accosted a matchlockman, who answered to my remark that the night was cold: “It is very cold—in fact, it is a cold night.” I passed him, adding that it would be colder by and by.

‘After going six or seven hundred yards further, we reached the iron bridge over the Goomtee, where we were stopped and called over by a native officer who was seated in an upper-storied house, and seemed to be in command of a cavalry picket, whose horses were near the place saddled. My guide advanced to the light, and I stayed a little back in the shade. After being told that we had come from Mundeon—our old cantonment, and then in the possession of the enemy—and that we were going into the city to our homes, he let us proceed. We continued on along the left bank of the river to the stone bridge, which is about eight or nine hundred yards from the iron bridge, passing unnoticed through a number of sepoys and matchlockmen, some of whom were escorting persons of rank in palanquins preceded by torches.

‘Recrossing the Goomtee by the stone bridge, we went by a sentry unobserved, who was closely questioning a dirtily dressed native, and into the chowk or principal street of the city of Lucknow, which was not illuminated as much as it used to be previous to the siege, nor was it so crowded. I jostled against several armed men in the street without being spoken to, and only met one guard of seven sepoys, who were amusing themselves with some women of pleasure.

‘When issuing from the city into the country, we were challenged by a chowkeedar, or watchman, who, without stopping us, merely asked who we were. The part of the city traversed that night by me seemed to have been deserted by at least a third of its inhabitants.

‘I was in great spirits when we reached the green fields, into which I had not been for five months. Everything around us smelt sweet, and a carrot I took from the roadside was the most delicious I had ever tasted. I gave vent to my feelings in a conversation with Kanoujee Lall, who joined in my admiration of the province of Oude, and lamentation that it was now in the hands of wretches whose misgovernment and rapacity were ruining it.

‘A further walk of a few miles was accomplished in high spirits. But there was trouble before us. We had taken the wrong road, and were now quite out of our way in the Dil Koosha Park, which was occupied by the enemy. I went within twenty yards of two guns to see what strength they were, and returned to the guide, who was in great alarm, and begged I would not distrust him because of the mistake, as it was caused by his anxiety to take me away from the pickets of the enemy. I bade him not to be frightened of me, for I was not annoyed, as such accidents were not unfrequent even when there was no danger to be avoided. It was now about midnight. We endeavoured to persuade a cultivator, who was watching his crop, to shew us the way for a short distance, but he urged old age and lameness; and another, whom I peremptorily told to come with us, ran off screaming, and alarmed the whole village. We next walked quickly away into the canal, running under the Char Bagh, in which I fell several times, owing to my shoes being wet and slippery and my feet sore. The shoes were hard and tight, and had rubbed the skin off my toes, and cut into the flesh above the heels.

‘In two hours more we were again in the right direction, two women in the village we passed having kindly helped us to find it. About two o’clock we reached an advanced picket of sepoys, who told us the way, after asking where we had come from, and whither we were going. I thought it safer to go up to the picket, than to try to pass them unobserved.

‘Kanoujee Lall now begged I would not press him to take me into the Alum Bagh, as he did not know the way in, and the enemy were strongly posted around the place. I was tired, and in pain from the shoes, and would therefore have preferred going into the Alum Bagh; but, as the guide feared attempting it, I desired him to go on to the camp of the commander-in-chief, which he said was near Bunnee (a village eighteen miles from Lucknow) upon the Cawnpore road. The moon had risen by this time, and we could see well ahead.

‘By three o’clock we arrived at a grove of mango-trees, situated on a plain, in which a man was singing at the top of his voice. I thought he was a villager, but he got alarmed on hearing us approach; and astonished us, too, by calling out a guard of twenty-five sepoys, all of whom asked questions. Kanoujee Lall here lost heart for the first time, and threw away the letter intrusted to him for Sir Colin Campbell. I kept mine safe in my turban. We satisfied the guard that we were poor men travelling to Umroula, a village two miles this side of the chief’s camp, to inform a friend of the death of his brother by a shot from the British intrenchment at Lucknow, and they told us the road. They appeared to be greatly relieved on discovering that it was not their terrible foe, who was only a few miles in advance of them. We went in the direction indicated by them, and after walking for half an hour we got into a jheel or swamp, which are numerous and large in Oude. We had to wade through it for two hours up to our waists in water, and through weeds; for before we found out that we were in a jheel, we had gone too far to recede. I was nearly exhausted on getting out of the water, having made great exertions to force our way through the weeds, and to prevent the colour being washed off my face. It was nearly gone from my hands.

‘I now rested for fifteen minutes, despite the remonstrances of the guide, and went forward, passing between two pickets of the enemy, who had no sentries thrown out. It was near four o’clock in the morning when I stopped at the corner of a tope or grove of trees to sleep for an hour, which Kanoujee Lall entreated I would not do; but I thought he overrated the danger, and, lying down, I told him to see if there was any one in the grove who would tell him where we then were.

‘We had not gone far when I heard the English challenge “Who comes there?” with a native accent. We had reached a British cavalry outpost: my eyes filled with joyful tears, and I shook the Sikh officer in charge of the picket heartily by the hand. The old soldier was as pleased as myself when he heard whence I had come; and he was good enough to send two of his men to conduct me to the camp of the advance-guard. An officer of her Majesty’s 9th Lancers, who was visiting his pickets, met me on the way, and took me to his tent, where I got dry stockings and trousers, and, what I much needed, a glass of brandy—a liquor I had not tasted for nearly two months.

‘I thanked God for having safely conducted me through this dangerous enterprise, and Kanoujee Lall for the courage and intelligence with which he had conducted himself during this trying night. When we were questioned, he let me speak as little as possible. He always had a ready answer, and I feel that I am indebted to him in a great measure more than to myself for my escape. It will give me great satisfaction to hear that he has been suitably rewarded.

‘In undertaking this enterprise, I was actuated by a sense of duty, believing that I could be of use to his excellency the commander-in-chief when approaching, for its relief, the besieged garrison, which had heroically resisted the attack of thirty times its own number for nearly five months, within a weak and irregular intrenchment; and, secondly, because I was anxious to perform some service which would insure to me the honour of wearing our Most Gracious Majesty’s Cross.

‘My reception by Sir Colin Campbell and his staff was cordial and kind to the utmost degree; and if I never have more than the remembrance of their condescension and of the heartfelt congratulation of Sir James Outram and of all the officers of his garrison on my safe return to them—I shall not repine, though to be sure having the Victoria Cross would make me a prouder and a happier man.

‘JAMES CAVANAGH.

‘Camp, Alum Bagh, Nov. 24.’

-----

Footnote 115:

‘Story of the Lucknow Residency,’ chap. xix. pp. 316-337.

Footnote 116:

The thalookdaree system of Oude requires a little explanation, in relation to the participants in the Revolt. Most of the annexations effected by the East India Company were followed by changes either in the ownership of the soil, or in the assessment of land-tax—such land-tax being the chief item in the Company’s revenue. When the several annexations occurred, it was found throughout a great part of India that superior holders—whether proprietors, hereditary farmers of revenue, or hereditary middlemen—held large tracts of land, in a middle position between the native governments and the cultivating communities, and were responsible for the revenue to the state. In Bengal, these influential men were generally recognised by the Company as proprietors, and the rights of the sub-holders almost wholly ignored. In the Northwest Provinces, acquired by the Company at a much later date, the thalookdars, zemindars, or whatever these landowners may have been called, were generally set aside; but the asserted rights of some of them became subjects of endless litigation in the courts of law; the landowners frequently obtained decrees against the Company, and many received a percentage in compromise of their rights or claims. In Oude, annexed in 1856, the thalookdaree system was particularly strong. Almost the whole country had by degrees become parcelled out among great thalookdars or zemindars. Though under a Mohammedan government, these men were almost universally Hindoos—native chiefs who had obtained great prescription, exercised great power and authority, and were in fact feudatories of the government. They were much more than mere middlemen or farmers of revenue. They had their own forts, troops, and guns; they obeyed their nawab or king so far as they chose or were compelled; they seized with the strong hand estates which had unquestionably belonged to village communities in earlier times; and they fought with each other as English barons or Scottish clan-chieftains were wont to do in past ages. Sir William Sleeman estimated the number of armed retainers, whose services these thalookdars could command, at scarcely less than one hundred thousand; while they had nearly five hundred pieces of cannon in their several forts or strongholds. Under this system the village proprietary rights, even if not actually thrown aside and disregarded, became more weak and undefined than when the villagers held directly from the government. Hence arose a very embarrassing question when the Company took possession of Oude. With whom was the settlement to be made? The thalookdars were strong and in possession; the village communities were dormant, broken, and ill defined. It would have taken some time to suppress the one and revive the other. The opinions of revenue officers in the Northwest Provinces ran strongly in favour of village proprietaries; still stronger in the Punjaub; and Oude was treated somewhat in the same way. The result in many cases was to eject the thalookdars, and make direct settlements with the village communities. When the Revolt began, the thalookdars at first behaved well to the British personally; with the butchery by a rabble they had no sympathy; and many were the Europeans whose lives they saved. But, the Company’s government being for a time upset; and the period since the annexation having been too short to destroy the strength of the thalookdars, or to enable the village proprietors to acquire a steady possession of their rights—the thalookdars almost universally resumed what they considered to be their own. There is evidence, too, that in this course of proceeding they met with a considerable amount of popular support. It was in this way they became committed against the British government. Till Havelock’s retreat from his unsuccessful attempt to relieve Lucknow in August, the thalookdars adopted a temporising policy; but when they saw him and Outram retreat across the Ganges to Cawnpore, they thought their time had arrived. They began to act in concert—not because they had much sympathy with mutinous sepoys, with the decrepit king of Delhi, or with the deposed king of Oude—but in the hope that, amid the general anarchy, they might regain their old influence.

Footnote 117:

See NOTE, at the end of this chapter.

Footnote 118:

One of the two hard-worked and sorely tried chaplains, in a letter to a relation when the dangers were past, employed a few simple words that really described the position of the Residency enclosure better than any long technical details. English friends had talked and written concerning the ‘impregnable fort’ in which the garrison were confined; to which he replied: ‘We were in no fort at all; we occupied a few houses in a large garden, with a low wall on one side, and only an earthen parapet on the other, in the middle of a large city, the buildings of which completely commanded us, and swarming with thousands of our deadly foes, thirsting for our blood. God gave us protection and pluck, the former in a wonderful degree, or not one of us would be here to tell about it.... The engineers calculated that all those months never one second elapsed without a shot being thrown in at us, and at times upwards of seventy per second, besides round shot and shell.’ This probably means that the average was a shot per second for nearly five months—twelve or fourteen million deadly missiles thrown into this narrow and crowded space.

Footnote 119: H.M. 8th, 53d, 75th, and 93d foot. 2d and 4th Punjaub infantry. H.M. 9th Lancers. Detachments 1st, 2d, and 5th Punjaub cavalry. Detachment Hodson’s Horse. Detachments Bengal and Punjaub Sappers and Miners. Naval brigade, 8 guns; Bengal H.A., 10 guns. Bengal horse field-battery, 6 guns; Heavy field-battery. —About 700 cavalry and 2700 Infantry, besides artillery.

Footnote 120:

Detachments H.M. 23d and 82d foot.

Detachments Madras horse-artillery, royal artillery, royal engineers, and military train.

Footnote 121:

The officers killed were Lieutenant-colonel Biddulph; Captains Hardy, Wheatcroft, Dalzell, and Lumsden; Lieutenants Mayne, Frankland, and Dobbs; Ensign Thompson; and Midshipman Daniel. The wounded were Sir Colin Campbell; Brigadier Russell; Lieutenant-colonels Ewart and Hale; Majors Alison and Barnston; Captains Alison, Anson, Grant, Hammond, Travers, Walton, and Burroughs; Lieutenants Salmond, Milman, Ford, Halkett, Munro, French, Wynne, Cooper, Welch, Goldsmith, Wood, Paul, M’Queen, Oldfield, and Henderson; Ensigns Watson, Powell, and M’Namara; Midshipman Lord A. P. Clinton; and Assistant-surgeon Veale.

Footnote 122:

‘I am aware of no parallel to our series of mines in modern war. Twenty-one shafts, aggregating 200 feet in depth, and 3291 feet of gallery, have been executed. The enemy advanced twenty mines against the palaces and outposts; of these they exploded three, which caused us loss of life, and two which did no injury; seven have been blown in; and out of seven others the enemy have been driven, and their galleries taken possession of by our miners—results of which the engineer department may well be proud. The reports and plans forwarded by Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B., and now submitted to his excellency, will explain how a line of gardens, courts, and dwelling-houses, without fortified enceinte, without flanking defences, and closely connected with the buildings of a city, has been maintained for eight weeks in a certain degree of security; notwithstanding the close and constant musketry-fire from loopholed walls and windows, often within thirty yards, and from every lofty building within rifle-range, and notwithstanding a frequent though desultory fire of round-shot and grape from guns posted at various distances, from seventy to five hundred yards. This result has been obtained by the skill and courage of the engineer and quartermaster-general’s departments, zealously aided by the brave officers and soldiers, who have displayed the same cool determination and cheerful alacrity in the toils of the trench and amid the concealed dangers of the mine that they had previously exhibited when forcing their way into Lucknow at the point of the bayonet, and amid a most murderous fire.’

Footnote 123:

The fate of the few English prisoners at Lucknow is not clearly traceable; but one account has stated that four Englishmen were put to death on the night when the Residency was finally evacuated. When the English troops, the women and children, the guns and baggage, and a quarter of a million sterling in silver, had safely reached the Dil Koosha, the leaders among the rebels became enraged beyond measure at a manœuvre which completely balked them. A few of them rushed to the Kaiser Bagh, where the unfortunate prisoners were confined, tied four of them—Sir Mountstuart Jackson, Mr Orr, Mr Barnes, and Sergeant Martin—to guns, and blew them away. The ladies were said to have been spared at the intercession of one of the begums or princesses of Oude.

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XXII. CLOSING EVENTS OF THE YEAR

The expedition of Sir Colin Campbell to Lucknow in November, followed by the extraordinary rescue of the British residents at that city, formed an episode in the history of the Indian Revolt well worthy of being treated singly and separately from other matters. This having been done, the present chapter may conveniently be devoted to the closing events of the year in other places, touching only upon such occurrences as immediately affected the mutiny or the plans for its suppression. As in the former chapters[124]—relating, the one to July and August, and the other to September and October—the survey (applicable in this case to November and December) may usefully begin in the Calcutta provinces, and thence travel westward.

Calcutta itself, for reasons more than once stated, was not likely to be materially affected by mutinous proceedings. The interests of the native towns-people, concerned in supplying the wants of a larger number of Europeans than resided at any other city in India, led them to prefer scenes of quiet, even if the Bengalee character had been more warlike than is its wont; while the frequent landing of British troops from other shores kept in awe such of the sepoy soldiers as still remained in arms. A naval squadron anchored in the Hoogly, with sufficient power of metal to batter the city to ruins if danger arose. The natives, except a few of fanatical character, were more disposed to seek for holiday than for war; and holiday occasionally fell to their share, in the proceedings of the British themselves. On one day, towards the close of November, there were 4500 British troops temporarily garrisoned at Calcutta, and 11 ships-of-war anchored in the river. The troops comprised H.M. 19th, 20th, 42d, 54th, 79th, and 97th regiments of foot, or portions of them, together with one battalion of the 60th Rifles, and one of the Rifle brigade. A review of most of these fine troops was held on the Calcutta volunteers’ parade-ground, before the journey to the upper provinces commenced. The Calcutta government commenced operations for reorganising the vast regions which had been thrown into confusion by the Revolt. A plan was sketched out for separating the divisions of Delhi and Meerut from the Northwest Provinces, and transferring them to the government of the Punjaub—in order that they might share in the peculiar system of executive rule which had been found to work well in the Punjaub, under the energetic control of Sir John Lawrence. The rest of the Northwest Provinces could not be permanently reorganised until the warlike operations had made further advance. Another proceeding on the part of the government was to send out a commission to the Andaman Islands, to examine how far they were suited as a penal settlement for rebels or traitors sentenced to transportation; the commission comprised naval and medical officers, who were empowered to select a spot healthy in situation and easily defended.

In the easternmost districts of India, mutiny shewed itself in small degree. It could hardly be other than slight, however; for the Hindustani troops were few in number, and the general population not ill affected. Three companies of the 34th Bengal native infantry, it will be remembered,[125] were stationed at Chittagong at the very beginning of the troubles in March and April; they not only remained faithful when the other companies of the same regiment became mutinous at Berhampore, but made a very high-flown declaration of their loyalty. After remaining ‘true to their salt’ throughout the whole of the summer and autumn, these three companies at length yielded to the general mania. They broke out into mutiny at Chittagong on the 18th of November, burnt their lines, blew up the magazine, looted the treasury, and commenced a search for Europeans. These latter escaped, chiefly in boats upon the river. The mutineers then released the convicts from the jail, and decamped. They moved northward, apparently tending toward Tipperah, where a petty rajah held his court. Directly this was known, Major Byng, commanding a Silhet native regiment, marched down from the hills, and met the mutineers. A brief conflict ensued, in which the major unfortunately received a mortal wound; but the misguided men of the 34th, meeting with no kind of sympathy from the Silhetees, were almost wholly annihilated within a few days.

There were at that time two companies of the 73d native regiment at Dacca; and as soon as the authorities received from the magistrate of Chittagong news of what had occurred at the last-mentioned place, they resolved to disarm those two companies, as a precaution against mischief. The sepoys, however, hearing the news from Chittagong more speedily than the authorities, prepared for resistance. A party of volunteers disarmed a few scattered sepoys; but as the others had artillery to assist them, a hundred English sailors, with two or three howitzers, were told off to deal with them. A sharp contest ensued at the sepoy barracks, with balls, grape, and musketry; until at length the sailors, determined on a closer attack, rushed upon the sepoys, drove them out of the barracks, and killed many on the spot. The rest set off on a hasty march to Jelpigoree, the head-quarters of the regiment. So utterly was that part of India denuded of British troops, that there were none to repel even one or two hundred mutineers; and many villages were plundered on the road. The check came from a quarter where apparently the mutineers least expected it—from the men of their own regiment. The motives of the native troops were as inscrutable now as at any former time; for although the two companies thus rebelled, fought, and fled, the bulk of the regiment remained faithful. They had even quietly permitted two hundred Goorkhas to join the regiment—that step having been adopted by the authorities to infuse new blood into the corps. An officer of the 73d, writing from Jelpigoree on the 3d of December, said: ‘Our men have sworn to their native officers (not to us) that they will do their duty; and our spies, who have hitherto proved so trustworthy, declare that we may fully depend on the regiment. Yesterday the test commenced by our ordering accoutrements and ammunition to be served out to our two hundred Goorkhas. This was done cheerfully, and is a very good indication of the prevailing feeling. A strange scene it was, watching the sepoys doling out ammunition to Goorkhas to fight against their own (the sepoys’) comrades, and it did one’s heart good to see it: we are all under arms, and very sanguine.’ These men actually joined in routing the mutinous companies of their own regiment, and in driving them towards Bhotan, where they died miserably among an unsympathising population.—Such discrepancies in conduct between different regiments and different companies of the same regiment, threw great difficulties in the way of any logical tracing of the causes of the Revolt.

In a wide region of Bengal westward of Calcutta, the only incidents requiring notice were two or three in which the Shekhawuttie battalion shewed that it still remained faithful to the Company’s raj—almost the last relic of the once magnificent Bengal army. With this regiment Colonel Forster put down the recusant Rajah of Pachete, whose domain touched the grand trunk-road above Raneegunge. After hovering some time on the verge of treason, this man at length refused to obey the British resident at Rugonauthpoor, Mr Lushington, who was obliged to intrench himself in self-defence. Colonel Forster hastened thither; and by his own boldness of bearing, and the faithfulness of his Shekhawutties, he captured the rajah, a fort of no inconsiderable strength, much wealth, and a mass of treasonable correspondence—without firing a shot. Shortly afterwards, Forster marched to Sumbhulpore, where a band of ruffians, headed by one of their own class, had commenced a course of violence that needed and obtained a prompt check.

Let us hasten on to the busier scenes of the northwest, viewing them in connection with Cawnpore as a central point of strategy, and with Sir Colin Campbell as leader of all the British operations. This may the more appropriately be done; because there were no events on the Lower Ganges, between Calcutta and Benares, requiring notice, so far as concerned the months of November and December.

Cawnpore was a centre in military matters for the following reasons. On one side of it was Lucknow, so important in relation to the occupancy of Oude; Allahabad, on another side, was on the great line of route for troops from Calcutta; Agra and Delhi, towards the northwest, lay on the path of approach from the Punjaub; while on the south and southwest were the roads along which armies or columns of armies might march from the two southern provinces of Madras and Bombay. Hence Sir Colin Campbell made earnest endeavours to maintain a good position at Cawnpore, as a convenient base of operations. Colonel Wilson, as commandant, was instructed to attend to the wants of Lucknow so far as he could, and to watch the movements of insurgent troops in the neighbourhood. This continued throughout October. In November, when Sir Colin went with his small army to relieve Lucknow, he left General Windham—well known in Crimean warfare as the ‘hero of the Redan’—in command at Cawnpore, not to fight, but to keep communication safely open from Lucknow viâ Cawnpore to Allahabad. Sir Colin, it will be remembered,[126] hurried back to Cawnpore at the end of November on account of events that had occurred during his absence. What those events were, we have now to narrate.

The series of disasters that occurred to General Windham originated in part in the want of good communication between him and Sir Colin Campbell. Whether the messengers were stopped by the way, does not clearly appear; but Sir Colin remained in ignorance that the Gwalior mutineers were approaching Cawnpore; while Windham received no replies to letters sent by him, asking for instructions for his guidance. Sir Colin knew nothing of Windham’s troubles until, on the 27th of November, he heard at the Alum Bagh the noise of artillery-firing at Cawnpore; while Windham received no aid or advice until Sir Colin himself appeared late on the following day. Whether or not there were defective tactics in the subsequent management of the affair, this uncertainty at the beginning was unquestionably disadvantageous. Windham knew, about the middle of the month, that the Gwalior and Indore mutineers, swelled to 20,000 strong by reinforcements of rebels from various quarters, had reached within about thirty miles of Cawnpore, on the Calpee road; and a week later he found that they were within twenty miles. As the troops at his command barely exceeded 2000 men, and as he received no news from Campbell, he considered how best to maintain his position. He was in an intrenchment or intrenched fort, far distant from the one formerly occupied by Sir Hugh Wheeler, and placed close to the Ganges, so as to command the bridge of boats; there being within the intrenchment the requisite buildings for the daily necessities of his force. As the city of Cawnpore lay between him and the Calpee road, he deemed it necessary to take up a new position. Leaving some of his troops, therefore, in the intrenchment, he formed with the remainder a new camp at Dhuboulee, close to the canal westward of the city, at a point where he believed he would be able to watch and frustrate the enemy.

On the 26th, finding that the mutineers were approaching, he went out to encounter them. He started at three in the morning with about 1200 infantry (chiefly of the 34th, 82d, 88th, and Rifles, 100 Sikh cavalry and eight guns), and marched eight or nine miles to Bhowsee, near the Pandoo Nuddee—leaving his camp-equipage and baggage near the city. Brigadier Carthew was second in command; and the chief officers under him were Colonels Walpole, Kelly, and Maxwell. The enemy were found strongly posted on the opposite side of the dry bed of the Pandoo Nuddee. The British advanced with a line of skirmishers along the whole front, with supports on each flank, and a reserve in the centre. The enemy opened a heavy fire of artillery from siege and field guns; but such was the eagerness of the British troops to engage, that they carried the position with a rush, cheering as they went; and a village, half a mile in the rear of the enemy, was rapidly cleared. The mutineers hastily took to flight, leaving behind them two howitzers and one gun. At this point, apparently for the first time, Windham became aware that he had been engaging the advanced column only of the enemy, and that the main force was near at hand. Rendered uneasy by his position, he resolved on retiring to protect the city, camp, cantonment, intrenchment, and bridge of boats. This he did.

So far, then, the operations of the 26th were to a certain extent successful. But disaster followed. He encamped for the night on the Jewee Plain, on the Calpee side of Cawnpore, having the city between him and the intrenchment. Whether Windham did not know that the enemy were so near in great force, whether his camping-ground was ill chosen, or whether he left his flanks unprotected, certain it is that, about noon on the 27th, when his men were preparing for a camp-dinner, they were surprised by an onslaught of the enemy in immense force, from behind a thick cover of trees and brushwood, beginning with an overwhelming artillery cannonade. For five hours did this attack continue, chiefly near the point of junction of the Delhi and Calpee roads. Distracted by an attack on three sides of him, Windham hastened to see what was doing on the fourth side, towards the city; and here he ascertained that the mutineers had turned his flanks, got into the city, and were beginning to attack the intrenchment near the bridge. Retreat was at once resolved on; and although the general’s dispatch did not state the fact, the private letters shew that the retreat was sauve qui peut. For, in truth, it became a matter of speed, whether the British could rush back to the intrenchment in time to save it. They did so; but at the expense of a large store of tents, saddlery, harness, camp-equipage, and private property—all of which had to be abandoned in the hasty scamper from the camp to the intrenchment. This booty the enemy at once seized upon, and either appropriated or burned according to its degree of usefulness. No less than five hundred tents fed a bonfire that night—a loss quite irreparable at that time to the British.

Bitter was the mortification with which the troops contemplated this day’s work. One of the officers said in a private letter: ‘You will read the account of this day’s fighting with astonishment; for it tells how English troops, with their trophies and their mottoes, and their far-famed bravery, were repulsed and lost their camp, their baggage, and their position, by [to?] the scouted and degraded natives of India.’ The beaten ‘Feringhees,’ as the enemy had now a right to call them, did certainly retreat to their intrenchment amid overturned tents, pillaged baggage, men’s kits, fleeing camels, elephants, horses, and servants. Another officer who had just come up from Allahabad, and who was within the intrenchment on the afternoon of this day, thus described the scene: ‘Saw our troops retreating into the outer intrenchment. A regular panic followed. Trains of elephants, camels, horses, bullock-wagons, and coolies came in at the principal gate, laden with stuff. The principal buildings are the General Hospital, the Sailors’ Hospital, the Post-office, and the Commissariat-cellars. Around these houses, which are scattered, crowds of camels, bullocks, and horses were collected, fastened by ropes to stakes in the ground, and among the animals, piles of trunks, beds, chairs, and miscellaneous furniture and baggage. There was scarcely room to move. Met one of the chaplains hastening into the intrenchment. He had left everything in his tent outside. The servants almost everywhere abandoned their masters when they heard the guns. Mounted officers were galloping across the rough ground between the inner and outer intrenchments, and doolie after doolie, with its red curtains down, concealing some poor victim, passed on to the hospitals. The poor fellows were brought in, shot, cut, shattered, and wounded in every imaginable way; and as they went by, raw stumps might be seen hanging over the sides of the doolies, literally like torn butcher-meat. The agonies which I saw some of them endure during the surgical operations were such as no tongue or pen can describe. The surgeons, who did their utmost, were so overworked, that many sufferers lay bleeding for hours before it was possible to attend to them.’ During the hasty retreat, one of the guns had been overturned in a narrow street in Cawnpore. The British could not wait to bring it away; but at night General Windham ordered 100 men of the 64th to aid a few seamen of the naval brigade in an expedition to secure the gun. It was a delicate task, in a city crowded with the enemy; how it was done, one of the officers of the naval brigade has told.[127]

What was next to be done, became an important question. General Windham assembled his superior officers, and conferred with them. If he could have obtained reliable information concerning the position of the enemy’s artillery, he would have proposed a night-attack; but, in ignorance on this important point, it was resolved to defer operations till the morrow. Early on the 28th, accordingly, the force was divided into four sections, thus distributed: One, under Walpole, was to defend the advanced portion of the town on the left side of the canal; a second, under Wilson, was to hold the intrenchment, and establish a strong picket on the extreme right; a third, under Carthew, was to hold the Bithoor road in advance of the intrenchment, receiving support from the picket there if needed; while the fourth section, under Windham himself, was to defend the portion of the town nearest the Ganges on the left of the canal, and support Walpole if needful. These several arrangements were especially intended to protect the intrenchment and the bridge of boats—so important in relation to Sir Colin Campbell’s operations in Oude. The British position was to be wholly defensive. A severe struggle ensued. The Gwalior mutineers were now joined by another force under Nena Sahib, and a third under his brother Bhola Sahib; altogether the insurgents numbered 21,000. They marched unmolested towards the city and cantonment; and then were the few British sorely pressed indeed. Walpole was speedily engaged in very hard fighting; and it was on his side only that anything like a victory was achieved. Aided by Colonels Woodford and Watson, and Captain Greene, Walpole repulsed a vigorous attack made by the enemy, and captured two 18-pounder guns. Carthew, who struggled from morning till night against a most formidable body of the enemy, was at length obliged to retire from his position. Wilson, eager to render service at an exposed point, led his section of troops—chiefly consisting of H.M. 64th foot—against four guns planted by the enemy in front of Carthew’s position. He and his gallant men advanced in the face of the enemy, and under a murderous fire, for more than half a mile, up a ravine commanded by high ground in front as well as on both sides. From the ridge in front, the four 9-pounders played upon them as they rushed forward. After reaching and almost capturing the guns, they were encountered by a very large force of the enemy who had hitherto been hidden; further progress was impossible; they retreated, and saw their officers falling around them in mournful number. Colonel Wilson himself was killed; as were also Major Stirling, Captain M’Crea, and Captain Morphey; while many other officers were wounded. It was a defeat and a loss, for which no counterbalancing advantage was gained.

Thus the 28th had increased the humiliation of the preceding day. Tents, baggage, officers, prestige—all had suffered. The mutineers revelled in the city as conquerors on the night of the 28th, seizing everything which had belonged to the British. More than 10,000 rounds of Enfield cartridges, the mess-plate of four Queen’s regiments, paymasters’ chests, and a large amount of miscellaneous property, fell into their hands. On the morning of the 29th the insurgents began to bombard the intrenchment and the bridge of boats. Had not Sir Colin Campbell arrived at that critical time, it is hard to say what might have been the amount of disaster; for the enemy were in immense strength; and if the bridge of boats had been broken, the fate of the refugees from Lucknow might have been sad indeed. All that day did the firing of the enemy continue. All that day did the living stream from Lucknow approach the bridge. Sir Colin immediately assumed command at Cawnpore. Mortifying as it was to him to leave the enemy in possession of the city and everything west of it, he had no alternative. One holy duty pressed upon him—to protect the helpless Lucknow convoy until it could be sent on to Allahabad. He despatched Hope Grant with a column, to keep open the road from Cawnpore through Futtehpoor to Allahabad; while he employed all his other troops in keeping the enemy at bay. The officers in the intrenchment, looking over their earthworks, could see the six miles’ train of women, children, sick, wounded, bearers, servants, camp-followers, horses, oxen, camels, elephants, wagons, carts, palanquins, doolies, advancing along the road to the bridge; and most narrowly were the movements of the enemy watched, to prevent any interruption to the passage of the cavalcade over the frail bridge.

This unfortunate series of events at Cawnpore greatly disconcerted Sir Colin Campbell. In his first dispatch to government relating to them, he referred almost without comment to Windham’s own narrative. Three weeks afterwards a singularly worded dispatch was issued from his camp near Cawnpore, expressing a regret at an ‘omission’ in his former dispatch; and adding, ‘I desire to make my acknowledgment of the great difficulties in which Major-general Windham, C.B., was placed during the operations he describes in his dispatch; and to recommend him and the officers whom he notices as having rendered him assistance to your lordship’s protection and good offices.’ Lord Canning shortly afterwards issued a general order, containing an echo of Sir Colin’s dispatch. General Windham continued for a time with the commander-in-chief. If official dissatisfaction with his management at Cawnpore existed, it was either hushed up or smoothed away by subsequent explanations.

The month of December opened amid events that caused sufficient anxiety to Sir Colin Campbell. The convoy of Lucknow fugitives had not yet been sent away; the Gwalior mutineers had not yet been defeated. He was compelled to act on the defensive until his helpless non-combatants were provided for. During one week, from the 26th of November to the 2d of December, the loss in British officers had been very considerable in and near Cawnpore; for 10 were reported killed, 32 wounded, and 2 missing. The commander-in-chief, therefore, while repelling the still audacious insurgents, had to promote and establish numerous officers, as well as to reorganise his force.

It was a great relief to Sir Colin when the convoy left Cawnpore on its march towards Allahabad. He was then free to act as a military commander; and the enemy did not long delay in giving him an opportunity of proving his powers of command. On the 5th of December the enemy’s artillery attacked his left pickets, while their infantry shewed on the same quarter; they also fired on the British pickets in the Generalgunje—an old bazaar extending along the canal in front of the line occupied by the camp. Brigadier Greathed had held this advanced position supported by Peel’s and Bourchier’s guns. Sir Colin resolved to take the offensive on the following day. The enemy occupied a strong position. Their centre was in the city of Cawnpore, and lined the houses and bazaars overhanging the canal and the barricaded streets; their right stretched away to a point beyond the crossing of the main trunk-road over the canal; while their left occupied the old cantonment, from which General Windham’s post had been principally assailed. The canal, along which were placed the centre and the right, was thus the main feature of the enemy’s position, and could only be passed by two bridges. The enemy’s camp was two miles in rear of their right, on the Calpee road, which was intended to be their line of advance and retreat. Sir Colin well studied this position before he formed his plan. ‘It appeared to me,’ he said in his dispatch, ‘that if the enemy’s right were vigorously attacked, it would be driven from its position without assistance being able to come from other parts of the line: the wall of the town, which gave cover to our attacking columns on the right, being an effective obstacle to the movement of any portion of the enemy’s troops from their left to their right.’ In fact, his quick eye saw that the Gwalior mutineers had placed one-half their force in such a spot that it could not help the other half, provided the attack were made in a certain fashion. It was really a large and powerful army to which he was now confronted; so many other mutinous regiments had joined the Gwalior Contingent, that their force was now estimated at little short of 25,000 men, with about 40 pieces of artillery.

On the morning of the 6th, the commander-in-chief assigned to all his several corps and regiments their respective duties.[128] General Windham opened a heavy bombardment at nine o’clock, from the intrenchment in the old cantonment, to induce the enemy to believe that the attack would be in that quarter. For two hours, the rest of the force was quietly taking up its position—Greathed’s column in front of the enemy’s centre, and the other columns in rear of the old cavalry lines, effectually masked from observation. When it was judged that Windham’s fire had drawn the enemy’s attention away from the real point of attack, Sir Colin sent his cavalry and horse-artillery by a detour on the left, to cross the canal a mile and a half higher up, and assail the enemy’s rear; while the infantry deployed in parallel lines fronting the canal. Captain Peel was the first man to cross the canal bridge for the attack on the enemy’s camp; the heavy guns followed him; and in a few minutes the enemy were astonished at finding themselves in the heat of battle on a side not at all contemplated by them. Their defeat was equal to their surprise. Sir Colin’s regiments crossed the canal by various bridges, reached the enemy’s camp, cut their forces in two, and then completely routed them—pursuing them for fourteen miles on the Calpee road, and capturing guns and wagons as they went. In all this work the sailors of the naval brigade pushed forward with an energy which seems to have struck even the commander-in-chief, accustomed as he was to deeds of daring. In his official dispatch he said: ‘I must here draw attention to the manner in which the heavy 24-pounder guns were impelled and managed by Captain Peel and his gallant sailors. Through the extraordinary energy and good-will with which the latter have worked, their guns have been constantly in advance throughout our late operations, from the relief of Lucknow till now—as if they were light field-pieces. The service rendered by them in clearing our front has been incalculable. On this occasion there was the sight beheld of 24-pounder guns advancing with the first line of skirmishers.’ Before Sir Colin returned to camp in the evening, the enemy had been driven entirely and completely away from Cawnpore. The four infantry brigades engaged in this hot day’s work were headed by Brigadiers Greathed, Adrian Hope, Walpole, and Inglis. Windham was only employed in masking the real nature of the attack. Sir Colin mentioned this matter in the following peculiar terms: ‘Owing to his knowledge of the ground, I requested Major-general Windham to remain in command of the intrenchment, the fire of which was a very important feature in the operations of the 6th of December; although I felt and explained to General Windham that it was a command hardly worthy of his rank.’

There was a subsidiary operation in this battle of the 6th. After the capture of the enemy’s camp, in the afternoon, General Mansfield was sent to occupy a position called the Subadar’s Tank, in rear of the enemy’s left, and about a mile and a half from the intrenchment. Having taken measures for the safeguard of the captured camp, and for maintaining a good post on the Calpee road, Mansfield advanced towards the Tank—struggling over broken ground and through enclosures, and driving parties of the enemy before him. After a good deal of manœuvring, in ground that greatly assisted the rebels, Mansfield succeeded in securing the position sought, and had the satisfaction of seeing large bodies of the enemy’s infantry and cavalry move off westward in full retreat. As it was not practicable to communicate with Sir Colin after sunset, the position taken up being almost isolated; and as there were considerable numbers of the enemy still in occupation of the town and the old cantonment—Mansfield strengthened the pickets all round his position, and bivouacked his troops for the night, where they were left undisturbed by the enemy.

The mutineers were so thoroughly worsted in these operations on the 6th, that they retired from Cawnpore, irresolute touching their future plans—some marching in one direction, some in another. After securing and consolidating his position on the 7th, Sir Colin prepared further work for his lieutenants. On the 8th, he gave orders to Brigadier Hope Grant to march to Bithoor, and, if it should appear to him desirable, to advance further to Serai Ghat, a ferry over the Ganges about twenty-five miles above Cawnpore. This energetic officer set off with a strong column of 2800 men[129] and 11 guns, and marched through Bithoor to Soorajpore, three miles short of Serai Ghat. Here he bivouacked for the night. Early in the morning of the 9th, leaving a portion of his column to guard the baggage, he advanced with the main body, and found the enemy assembling on the bank of the river. The opposing forces soon got engaged in an artillery action, in which Grant’s guns narrowly escaped being lost in a quicksand at the river-side. After a sharp firing for half an hour, the enemy’s guns were silenced and then withdrawn. Then came up a force of the rebels’ cavalry, to endeavour to capture Grant’s guns; but he promptly sent forward his own cavalry, which advanced upon them, drove them away, pursued them, and cut up a considerable number. The nature of the ground, however, was such that most of the enemy reached the cover of trees and houses before the British could intercept them. Hope Grant’s infantry was not engaged in this conflict; the retreat of the enemy taking place before their aid was needed. The enemy left behind them fourteen brass guns and howitzers, one iron 18-pounder, together with a large store of wagons and ammunition—all of which were speedily secured by the conquerors. These trophies were brought away by the exertions of the infantry, who had much difficulty to contend against along the quicksands. The troops had been marching and fighting for thirty hours, with few and short intervals, and had scarcely eaten for twenty-four hours; so that a supper, a night’s rest, and a quiet day on the 10th, were very welcome to them. This affair at Serai Ghat completely succeeded; but the most extraordinary fact relating to it has yet to be mentioned. Hope Grant’s casualty-list was a blank! In his dispatch he said: ‘I am truly grateful to God, and happy to say, that though the fire of grape from the enemy was most severe and well placed, falling among the artillery like hail, I had not a single man even wounded, and only one horse of Captain Middleton’s battery killed. It was truly marvellous and providential. Thirteen guns, most of them 9-pounders and 24-pounder howitzers, were playing with grape on the gallant artillery, and with round-shot upon the cavalry, the former within about five hundred yards—and his excellency is well aware with what precision these rebels fire their guns—yet not one single man was wounded.’ It requires all one’s faith in the honour of a truthful man to credit such a marvellous announcement.

In the various operations from the 3d to the 8th of December inclusive, Sir Colin suffered a loss of 13 killed and 86 wounded—a mere trifle compared with the strength of his force and the kind of enemy with whom he had to deal. Among the killed were Lieutenants Salmond and Vincent; and among the wounded, General Mansfield, Lieutenant-colonel Horsford, Captains Longden, Forbes, and Mansfield, Lieutenants Neill and Stirling, Ensigns Wrench, Graham, and Dyce. Lieutenant Stirling afterwards died from the effects of a wound which was at first reputed curable.

The occurrences narrated in the last few pages will have shewn by what steps Sir Colin Campbell obtained a firm footing at Cawnpore, as a centre from which he and his officers might operate in various directions. He had removed the British from Lucknow; he had furnished to Outram such a force as would enable that general to hold the Alum Bagh against all assailants; and he had dispersed the formidable rebel army which so endangered Windham and the British interests at Cawnpore. In the latter half of December he prepared to start off, with one portion of his force, towards Furruckabad; while Walpole was to proceed to Etawah, and Hope Grant to Futtehpoor; leaving Seaton to operate near Minpooree, Franks near Benares, and other brigadiers and colonels in various directions as rapidly as small columns could be brought together. The object appeared to be, to attack and disperse the enemy in various parts of the Northwest Provinces, and either permit or compel them to retreat into Oude—where a great effort, made early in the ensuing year, might possibly crush the rebellion altogether. So much of these operations as took place in December may briefly be noticed here, before proceeding to the affairs of Central India.

The whole region around Benares, Mirzapore, Allahabad, Goruckpore, and Jounpoor was thrown into occasional uneasiness—not so much by rebellious manifestations at those places, as by temptations thrown out by the Oudians. Mahomed Hussein was still powerful as a leader near the Oudian frontier; and he left no means untried to rally numerous insurgents around his standard. As the British could spare very few troops for service in this quarter, Mahomed Hussein remained throughout the most of the year master in and near Goruckpore. Even if the British were enabled to defeat him occasionally, they had no cavalry wherewith to organise a pursuit, and he speedily returned to his old quarters. Thus, towards the close of December, Colonel Rowcroft, with a mixed body of English sailors, Sikh police, and Goorkha irregulars, defeated this chieftain near Mujhowlee; but, unable to pursue him without cavalry, the victory was of little effect. Jung Bahadoor, as we have seen in a former chapter, sent a strong body of Goorkhas several weeks earlier to aid in the pacification of this part of India; and the gallant little Nepaulese warriors enabled the few English officers to effect that which would have been impracticable without such assistance. Jung Bahadoor himself, in conformity with an engagement made with Viscount Canning, prepared to join in the scene in person. He descended with 9000 picked men from his mountains in December, to attack the Oudian rebels near Goruckpore and Azimghur, and drive them back to their own country. It was just at the close of the year that he began to encounter the enemy, and to obtain successes which left Franks, Rowcroft, Longden, and other officers, free to engage in such operations as Sir Colin Campbell might plan for them at the opening of the new year.

Allahabad and Mirzapore, though often threatened, remained safely in British hands. In the Rewah district, southwest of those cities, the rajah still continued faithful, and Captain Osborne still carried on those energetic operations by which he had so long and so wonderfully maintained his post in a territory where he was almost the sole Englishman, and where many of the rajah’s troops were burning with impatience to join the insurgents elsewhere. Osborne was incessantly on the watch, and almost incessantly in motion, to keep open the important line of route between Mirzapore through Rewah to Jubbulpoor—part of the available postal route between Calcutta and Bombay. There was a nest of rebels at Myhere that gave him much trouble; but, aided by the faithful portion of the rajah’s troops, he defeated them at Kunchynpore and Zorah; and finally, on the 28th of December, stormed and captured Myhere itself.

In Oude, as the last chapter sufficiently shewed, British power was represented simply and solely by Sir James Outram and his companions in the Alum Bagh and at the Bridge of Bunnee. Lucknow was quite in the hands of the enemy, as were all the provincial districts of Oude. Sir James maintained his post steadily; not strong enough to make conquests, but holding the key to a position that might become all-important as soon as the commander-in-chief should resume operations in that quarter. So well did he keep watch and guard, that the movements of any insurgent troops in his vicinity became speedily known to him. On the 22d of December, the rebels made a clever attempt to obtain possession of the road to Cawnpore. They posted 1200 men inside a jungle, with a sandy plain in front and a road close at hand. Sir James, detecting the intended plan, silently moved out two regiments in the dead of the night. The soft sand deadened all sound; and dawn found them within the enemy’s pickets. A rattling volley and a cheer startled the enemy, who, after one discharge of their muskets, fled, leaving a hundred of their number dead on the field, besides four guns and several ammunition-wagons. One good result of this victory was, to induce some of the villagers to bring supplies for sale to the camp.

In Rohilcund, nothing could at present be effected to wrest the province from the enemy, until the Doab had been cleared from the host of rebels and marauders who infested it.

The proceedings of certain columns in the Doab, both before and after Sir Colin’s victory at Cawnpore, must here be noticed.

Colonel Seaton, during the month of November, was placed in command of a column—consisting of one wing of the 1st Bengal Europeans, the 7th Punjaub infantry, a squadron of Carabiniers, Hodson’s Horse, a troop of horse-artillery, and two companies of Sappers and Miners. Seaton started from Delhi, and worked his way southeastward, between the Jumna and the Ganges, clearing off small portions of the enemy as he went. After picking up at Allygurh a small force from the Agra garrison under Major Eld, he started again on the 13th of December, towards Etawah and Minpooree. The self-styled Rajah of Minpooree, who had fled at the approach of Greathed’s column in October, afterwards returned to his old haunts, and expelled the officials established there by Greathed. His palace had been blown up, and his treasury and jewel-house looted; yet he possessed influence enough to collect a band of retainers in his service. To punish this rebel was one of the duties intrusted to Colonel Seaton. On the 14th, he fell in with a body of the insurgents, 4000 strong, at Gunjeree, on a small stream called the Neem Nuddee. His column suddenly surprised them, disordered them by a brilliant charge of Carabiniers, and drove them in confusion along the Futteghur road—capturing several guns on the way. Hodson’s Horse cut down many of them during a brief pursuit. On the 15th, the column marched to Khasgunj, and on the 16th to Sahawur—in each case only to learn that the enemy had just fled. Seaton, determined not to give them up readily, marched on to Putialah, several miles further on the Furruckabad road, where he came up with them on the morning of the 17th. They were drawn up in a good position, with their centre and left posted behind ravines, and their right abutting on a tope of trees in front of the village. After having caused this position to be well reconnoitred by Captain Hodson and Lieutenant Greathed, Colonel Seaton began the contest with a sharp fire of light artillery, to which the enemy promptly responded. He then ordered the cavalry round to the right, to avoid the ravines, and to attack the enemy in flank. While this was being done, the infantry, deploying into line, advanced boldly on the enemy’s right, charged with the bayonet, and speedily drove them out of the tope and village. The rout was complete, the cavalry having got round beyond the ravines, and reached a point whence they could pursue the fleeing enemy. Thirteen guns, camp-equipage, baggage, ammunition, and stores fell into the hands of the conquerors; while no less than 600 of the enemy were computed to have fallen in the field or during the pursuit. Leaving Furruckabad and its chieftain to be dealt with by Sir Colin Campbell, Colonel Seaton moved on towards Minpooree. He found the enemy awaiting him, posted a mile west of the city, with their front screened by large trees, under cover of which their guns opened upon the column as it came up. Seaton, by a flank-movement, disconcerted them, and they commenced a retreat, which resulted in the loss of six guns and a large number of men. The colonel at once took possession of Minpooree.

Brigadier Showers, another officer to whom the management of a column was intrusted, started, like Seaton, from Delhi, and, like him, sought to regain towns and districts which had long been a prey to misrule. This column began its operations in October, and during the following month returned to Delhi, after having retaken Nunoond, Dadree, and other places southwest of the city, together with many lacs of rupees which the rebels had looted from the several treasuries of the Company. Between Delhi and the Sutlej, General Van Cortlandt maintained tranquillity by the aid of a small force. Colonel Gerrard was the commander of another small column; consisting of one European regiment and a miscellaneous body of native troops. With this he marched to Rewaree, and thence to the town of Narnoul in Jhujjur, where a rebel chief, Sunnand Khan, had taken post with a number of armed retainers. Gerrard defeated them, and captured their stronghold, but his own gallant life was forfeited. Another small force, divided into detachments according to the services required, took charge of the triangular space of country included between Agra, Muttra, and Allygurh. Colonel Riddell and Major Eld moved about actively within this space—now watching the movements of rebellious chieftains, now cutting off the advance of mutineers from Rohilcund.

Colonel Walpole of the Rifle Brigade, in the higher capacity of brigadier, was intrusted by Sir Colin Campbell with the command of a column, consisting of H.M. 88th foot, two battalions of the Rifle Brigade, three squadrons of the 9th Lancers, the 1st Punjaub cavalry, Bourchier’s battery, and Blunt’s troop of horse-artillery. His duty was to sweep along the western half of the Doab, near the Jumna, and clear it of rebels. He started from Cawnpore on the 18th of December, and on the following day reached Akburpore, half-way to Calpee. Here he remained a few days, settling the surrounding country, which had long been disturbed by the Gwalior mutineers. From thence he proceeded towards Etawah, to clear the country in the direction of Agra and Dholpore.

It will thus be seen that, while Sir Colin was engaged in the larger operations at Lucknow and Cawnpore, and soon after the completion of those operations, small columns of troops were marching and fighting in various parts of the Northwest Provinces, clearing away bands of insurgents. The mutinied sepoy regiments still kept together in large bodies, mostly in Oude or on its borders; the insurgents here adverted to were rather marauders and plunderers, who were influenced very little either by creed or by nationality in taking up arms; they were retainers of ambitious petty chieftains, or they were reckless men, who hoped in the scramble to enrich themselves with plunder.

The commander-in-chief himself took the field just before the close of the year. Having made arrangements for the security of Cawnpore after the great victory over the Gwalior mutineers, and having marked out separate paths of duty to be followed by Seaton, Walpole, Hope Grant, Franks, Rowcroft, and other officers, he directed his attention towards Furruckabad, which had long been in hostile hands. This city, near the point of junction of Oude, Rohilcund, and the Doab, it was important to place again under British control. Colonel Seaton was ordered to direct his march towards that point, after other operations in the Doab; and Sir Colin now arranged to co-operate with him. Leaving Cawnpore in the last week of December, he marched up the great trunk-road, by way of Meerun-ke-Serai. It was not, however, until the year 1858 had arrived, that Campbell, Walpole, and Seaton, meeting from various points, effected a thorough capture of Furruckabad, and of the long deserted cantonment at Futteghur. Here, however, as in many other quarters, the commander-in-chief had to bear the vexation of losing his prey; the enemy, wonderfully alert in their movements, escaped from those places just before he reached them; he captured both the towns, but the enemy were still at large to fight elsewhere.

Let us on to Delhi.

Ever since the conquest in September, the imperial city had gradually assumed a state somewhat more orderly than was possible immediately after the siege. Many weeks after the conquest, when the Delhi Gazette had again got into working-order, it contained a graphic account of the city in its condition at that time. On the road from Kurnaul to Delhi was an almost continuous line of dead carcasses of camels, horses, and bullocks, with their skins dried into parchment over the mouldering bones. Here and there were remains of intrenchments, where battles had been fought on the road. From Badulla Serai to the Lahore Gate of the city every tree was either levelled with the ground, or the branches lopped off with round-shot. The garden-houses of the wealthy citizens were in almost every instance masses of ruins, with the bleaching remains of men and beasts around them. Here and there might be seen a perfectly white skeleton of a human being; while on all sides lay scattered fragments of red and blue clothing, cartouch-boxes, round-shot, fragments of shell, and grape-shot. Near the Subzee Mundee every tree was a mere bare trunk, with the branches and foliage gone, and shot-marks visible all around. The gaily ornamented residences near at hand were masses of blackened ruins, with sand-bags and loopholed screens which told of many a scene of fiery warfare. With the exception of the Moree Bastion and the Cashmere Gate, the northern wall of the city did not exhibit much evidence of devastation. The Cashmere Gate breach had been repaired. The mainguard was wholly destroyed. St James’s Church was full of shot-holes, even up to the ball and cross. Most of the houses in this part of the city were utter ruins, some blackened as if by fire. The Bank, formerly the residence of the Begum Sumroo, had nothing but the walls and fragments of verandah remaining; and in a like state was the house of Sir T. Metcalfe. In the narrow street leading from Skinner’s house to the Chandnee Chowk, every house bore visible proof of the showers of musket-balls that must have fallen; and every door was completely riddled. The roads were still cut up with shot and shell furrows. In many of the streets might be seen the débris of archways, which had been built up by the city people, but broken into by our troops. Shop-doors and huge gates lay about in all directions, many of which were well backed up by heavy stone-work, logs of wood, &c.; and remains of sand-bag defences were numerous. In short, the city shewed that it had been obstinately defended, and that its conquest must have been terrible work for besiegers as well as besieged.

The aged king and his family still continued to be the subjects of newspaper gossip, mostly in a strain of fierce invective against the authorities for shewing lenity. It was stated in a former chapter,[130] that Mrs Hodson, wife to the gallant officer who had captured the king, made public the result of a visit to the royal captives, as shewing that no undue luxury marked their prison-life. But still the charges and insinuations continued. Newspaper paragraphs circulated the news that Jumma Bukht, son or grandson of the king, was allowed to ride about the streets of Delhi on an elephant, with an English colonel behind him; and that indulgence was granted to men whose only desert was speedy hanging. Captain (Major) Hodson himself made public a refutation of this charge, shewing the absurd way in which a very trifling incident had been magnified into a state proceeding. A military commission was appointed to try such leaders of the mutiny as were captured in or near Delhi. By sentence of this tribunal, twenty subordinate members of the royal family were executed on the 18th of November. Shortly afterwards, various chiefs of Goorgaon, Jhujjur, and Babulgurh were similarly put upon their trial, and sentenced according to the strength of the evidence brought against them.

The subject of prize-money remained for many weeks, or even months, involved in much controversy in Delhi. Notwithstanding the ruin and devastation, the amount of property recovered was very large, including forfeitures declared against those who were convicted of treason. This wealth reverted to the state, as a slight set-off for the vast expenses incurred. Some of the officers and soldiers, however, fondly hoped that it would be regarded as booty for the troops; and were thrown rather into discontent by an announcement that the reward of the conquerors of Delhi was to consist of six months’ ‘batta’ or pay. It was just one of those questions on which much might be said on both sides. By a subsequent arrangement, much of the personal property lately belonging to the rebels was set apart, and treated as prize-money to be shared by the soldiers engaged in the capture.

The leniency question, the prize-money question, and the paucity of reward to the engineer officers engaged in the siege of Delhi, were among many subjects made matter for controversy during the later weeks of the year. But these we may pass over without further comment. Suffice it to say that the reconquered city remained in British hands, and was gradually brought under the control of the British authorities. As to the aged king, preparations were made for subjecting him to a regular trial, to be commenced shortly after the arrival of the new year.

Of the Punjaub, little need be said. Happily for British interests in India, the same powerful mind continued to wield the destinies of the remote province. Sir John Lawrence, watchful over everything that occurred, not only maintained the Punjaub in quiet, but sent frequent reinforcements to other provinces. During the summer and autumn, the number of Sikh and Punjaubee regiments which he raised was something marvellous. Occasionally some of the wild tribes exhibited signs of insubordination; but they were met with such a determined front, and they received so little sympathy from the mass of the people, that their turbulence fell harmless. John Lawrence saved the Punjaub, and the Punjaub saved British India.

In all the portion of the empire included within the Saugor territories, Bundelcund, the Mahratta states, and Rajpootana, the months of November and December differed from the previous months principally in this circumstance—that the new mutinies were fewer, because the materials for mutiny were becoming exhausted; but that the battles were more numerous, because small armies were gradually being sent up from Madras and Bombay.

In October and November, many military operations in the Mahratta and Saugor countries were placed in doubt, so far as concerned the comprehension of them in England, by a difference of only one letter in the names of two commanders. The movements of Brigadier Steuart were often attributed to Brigadier Stuart, and vice versâ. Steuart commanded a column in the Deccan, which marched to Hosungabad, and then across the Nerbudda to Sehore. His duty was to protect Saugor on the right, Indore on the left, and Bhopal in the centre. By these movements, Saugor and Jubbulpoor were rendered tolerably safe. Holkar, at Indore, was sadly troubled by the mutinous feeling among his own troops. In order to maintain British influence in that important quarter, the Bombay government organised a new column, which, strengthened by other troops, would form a Malwah Field Force, to be placed under the command of Sir Hugh Rose; while Sir Robert Hamilton was ordered to resume his old appointment as British resident at Holkar’s court.

Brigadier Stuart, portions of whose column were engaged in and near Neemuch, Mundisore, Dhar, Mehidpore, Rampoora, and Kotah in October, swept off many parties of rebels from the regions bordering on Malwah and Rajpootana. Nevertheless the state of affairs remained very unsettled. Many petty chieftains, incited by the numerical weakness of the British, and by the unexpected stand made by rebels elsewhere, appeared by tacit agreement to consider this the proper time to set up as little kings on their own account, each relying on the services of retainers who probably thought that something good might come to their share in the scramble.

At a somewhat later date, when Stuart was in command of the Malwah Field Force, before its name was changed to the ‘First Brigade of the Nerbudda Field Force,’ he had a contest with the Mundisore rebels. Being joined by a portion of the Hyderabad Contingent under Major Orr, Stuart approached within three or four miles of Mundisore on the 21st of November. This town is a few miles south of Neemuch, on the road to Indore. The brigadier encamped until a good reconnaissance could be effected. The rebel enemy at Mundisore, hearing of his approach, had posted pickets entirely covering the country over which he was advancing; they also mustered in some force outside the walls, and appeared inclined to attack. In the afternoon he found that the enemy were advancing in form, threatening his centre and both flanks at the same time. They advanced steadily, in great numbers and with banners flying: and he went forth to meet them. The struggle was a brief one. Major Orr easily repulsed the enemy’s attack on the left flank; Captain Orr and Lieutenant Dew checked that on the right; a few rounds of artillery preserved the centre; and the enemy, giving way at all points, retreated into the town. Brigadier Stuart had now another matter to consider. He heard that a rebel army of 5000 men, employed in besieging Neemuch, intended to raise the siege, and to join their companions at Mundisore. This he resolved to prevent if possible by intercepting them. Accordingly, early on the 22d, he marched to such a position as would command the approaches to Mundisore; and later in the day his cavalry were engaged with a party of rebel horse under Heera Singh—one of many Rajpoot chieftains who took up arms at that disturbed period. Keeping a sharp watch during the night, Stuart prepared on the morning of the 23d to control the Neemuch and Mundisore road both from the north and the south. The enemy appeared, and took up a strong position with their right in and beyond the village of Goraria, their right centre covered by a date nullah and lines of date-trees, their battery of six guns on rising ground, with a large mud-hut protecting their gunners, and their left stretched along the ridge running east from the village. The battle that ensued was a very severe one. Stuart was obliged to recall a body of infantry, who charged a village that seemed full of the enemy; the rebels took possession of the houses, from which they kept up a very galling fire. The British could doubtless have taken the village; but the brigadier found his rear attacked by a second body of the enemy, requiring a new distribution of his troops. The engagements of this day resulted in a sort of drawn battle. On the 24th, the village was shelled for three hours; and was then captured by H.M. 86th and a native regiment, with considerable loss on both sides. During the ensuing night the enemy evacuated Mundisore and the whole vicinity, dispersing in flight throughout the country, after having lost at least fifteen hundred men during the four days. The brigadier then moved his camp to Mundisore, and made arrangements for dismantling the fort and destroying the guns before leaving the neighbourhood. By this series of operations, not only was Mundisore cleared of rebels, but Neemuch was relieved from a force which pressed very threateningly upon it.

The siege of Neemuch must now be noticed. The small English garrison at this station had for months been threatened by the Mundisore rebels; but it was not until the 8th of November that a formidable attack was actually made. A force of 5000 infantry, with three guns, advanced to within two miles of the town; and as it was impossible to meet such numbers in the open field, Captain Simpson prepared for the best defence he could make within the fort. Intrenchments had been formed some time before; but unfortunately they were too extensive to be effectively defended by the few hands in the garrison; and they thus speedily became occupied by the enemy. On the 9th, the enemy marched in full force into the bazaar and cantonment, plundering wherever they went. They then placed their guns at convenient distances, and began playing steadily against the fort. This cannonading was continued for several days. The rebels managed to build batteries for their guns in such positions that, from the foliage and other obstacles, they were unobservable from the walls of the fort. After about a fortnight of this battering, the rebels resolved to attempt an escalade. They brought forward huge ladders on wheels, affording room for four men abreast, and placed them against the walls of the fort; but here they were met by such steady and continuous volleys of musketry that not a man could enter. A Beloochee Mohammedan, belonging to the 12th Bombay native infantry, doing duty in Neemuch, performed an act of gallantry that won for him much and well-deserved applause. One of the besiegers, in retreating from the withering musketry-fire from the fort, dropped a splendid Mussulman green flag on the ground. The Beloochee at once offered to capture this flag. Under cover of a tremendous fire of musketry, he and a havildar were lowered by a rope from one of the enclosures; quick as lightning the flag was secured, and in a few minutes waved on the walls of Neemuch. The movements of Brigadier Stuart, recorded in the last paragraph, now disturbed the rebels; they departed, and Neemuch was for a time spared further molestation.

This narrative may pass over without particular mention the other regions of the vast empire of India. Disturbances there were in November and December, but not of such grave importance as to call for record. At Saugor and at Jubbulpore, the Europeans cried loudly for more troops, but they were still able to defend themselves against actual attacks. At Gwalior and at Bhopal, at Indore and at Mhow, although the vexations were many, the continued fidelity of Scindia and Holkar lessened the calamities that might otherwise have befallen the British. In Rajpootana and Gujerat, petty chieftains would from time to time unfurl the flag of rebellion, and collect a band of fighting retainers around them; but these territories were within practicable reach of Bombay, whence columns marched for the pacification of the upper country. Some portions of the Nizam’s territory were occasionally troubled by insubordinate troops belonging to the contingent; as the Nizam and his prime-minister, however, remained firm in their alliance with the British, and as the distance was very great to the turbulent regions of the Jumna, serious danger was averted. In the South Mahratta country, around Kolapore, Sholapore, Satara, and Poonah, indications once now and then appeared that fanatic Mohammedans were ready to unfurl the green flag against the infidel Feringhees; but the near vicinity of the presidential city of Bombay, and the quiet demeanour of the natives further south, prevented the intended conspiracies from becoming serious in magnitude. In the Madras presidency, tranquillity was almost wholly undisturbed.

Thus ended the extraordinary year 1857—the most momentous that the English had ever experienced in India.

Notes.

Proposed Re-organisation of the Indian Army.—In closing the narrative for the year 1857, it may be useful to advert to two important subjects which occupied the attention of the East India Company—the state of the army, and the causes of the mutiny. Instead of rushing to conclusions on imperfect data, the Court of Directors instructed the governor-general to appoint two commissions of inquiry, empowered to collect information on those two subjects. The letters of instruction were both dated the 25th of November; the first ran as follows:

‘1. We trust that when success, by the blessing of Divine Providence, shall have attended your efforts to put down the mutiny of the native army of your presidency, and to re-establish the authority of the government in the disturbed districts, you will be enabled to take advantage of the services of select officers of ability and experience, to assist you, by investigation and by practical counsel founded thereon, in forming wise conclusions on the most important subject which must soon press for decision—namely, the proper organisation of our army in India.

‘2. To this end we authorise you to appoint, as soon as circumstances will permit, a commission, composed of military officers of the armies of the three presidencies (with whom should be associated officers of the Queen’s army who have had experience of Indian service), on whose knowledge, experience, and judgment you can rely; together with one or more civil servants, whom you may consider to be specially qualified for such a duty by their knowledge of the native character and general administrative experience.

‘3. In framing instructions for the guidance of this commission, we are desirous that the following heads of inquiry should be specified, in addition to any others which you may consider to deserve their attention:

‘1st, Should corps be raised each in a prescribed district, and be recruited there, and there only?

‘2d, Should corps be composed of troops or companies, each of which shall consist of separate tribes or castes; or should the tribes or castes be mixed up together in the whole regiment?

‘3d, Should a company or companies of Europeans form a component part of a native regiment?

‘4th, What alterations should be made in your recruiting regulations relating to tribes and castes, with a view to determine the future composition of the native army?

‘5th, Will it be expedient to enlist natives of other tropical countries, equally qualified for service in India, with the natives of the country; and if so, should they be formed in separate regiments, or in companies, or otherwise?

‘6th, Whether, in native infantry regiments, the discontinuance of the grades of native commissioned officers, and the substitution of a European sergeant and corporal to each company, is advisable; and if so, whether, in lieu of the prospect of distinction and emolument arising out of these grades, it would be advisable to establish graduated scales of good-service pay and retiring pensions, claimable after specified periods of service?

‘7th, Whether the system of promotion generally, by seniority, to the grades of native commissioned officers (if these are retained), should not be altered and assimilated to the systems in force at Madras and Bombay?

‘8th, If separate corps are to be maintained for military and police purposes, what will be the best organisation for each branch respectively?

‘9th, Have the powers of commanding officers of native corps, and the powers of officers in charge of companies, been diminished? What consequences have been the result? Is it desirable that those powers should be increased, or what other measures should be adopted for the improvement of discipline?

‘10th, Should cadets be trained and drilled in European regiments before they are posted to native regiments; or what would be the best mode of drilling and training cadets before they are posted to native regiments?

‘11th, Should the special rules regulating punishment in the native army be retained; or should they be assimilated to the rules which obtain in the British army; or ought there to be any, and what, changes in those rules, or in the system of punishment?

‘12th, How can the demands for European officers for staff and detached employments be best provided for, without injuring the efficiency of regiments?

‘4. It is to be understood that the inquiries to be made by the commission, and the opinions to be offered by them, are to have reference to the several branches of the native army—infantry, regular and irregular; cavalry, regular and irregular; artillery, and Sappers and Miners; and, with respect to the artillery, and Sappers and Miners, whether they should be composed, as heretofore, of Europeans and natives, or be entirely European?

‘5. To aid your government in forming an opinion as to the proportion which the European should bear to the native portion of the army in India generally, and at each presidency separately, we would recommend that your government should call upon the commission to give their opinions on this very important question; and we can entertain no doubt that the enlarged knowledge and experience of the members of the Commission will enable them to furnish you with valuable information on this head.

‘6. Having obtained opinions on all these heads of inquiry, and on such other heads as you may deem to be essential to the thorough development of the important questions at issue, you will refer the views of the commission for the consideration of the commander-in-chief, and will then furnish us with the results of your careful deliberation upon the whole of the measures which should, in your judgment, be taken for the organisation and maintenance, in the utmost practicable state of efficiency, of whatever military force you may think it desirable to form.

‘7. The commission itself may be instructed to make to the governor-general in council any suggestions or recommendations which occur to them, although not on matters comprised in the specified heads of inquiry.’

Proposed Inquiry into the Causes of the Mutiny.—The second letter adverted to above was in the following terms:

‘1. Although we are well aware that, from the period when the mutiny of the Bengal army assumed a formidable aspect, your time must necessarily have been too much engrossed by the pressing exigencies of the public-service during each passing day, and in taking provident measures for the future, to admit of your directing much of your attention to past events, we have no doubt that you have not omitted to take advantage of all the means and opportunities at your command for the important purpose of investigating the causes of the extraordinary disaffection in the ranks of that army, which has, unhappily, given rise to so much bloodshed and misery.

‘2. In this persuasion, and as a review of the voluminous records containing the details of the events which have occurred since the first display of disaffection at Barrackpore, has entirely failed to satisfy our minds in regard to the immediate causes of the mutiny, we desire that you will lose no time in reporting to us your opinions on the subject, embracing the following heads, together with any others which you may deem it necessary to add, in order to the full elucidation of the subject:

‘1st, The state of feeling of the sepoy towards the government for some time preceding the outbreak.

‘2d, Any causes which of late years may be thought likely to have affected their loyalty and devotion to the service.

‘3d, Whether their loyalty had been affected by the instigations of emissaries of foreign powers, or native states, or by any general measures of our administration affecting themselves or any other classes of our subjects?

‘4th, Whether the proposed use of the new cartridges was to any, and what, extent the cause of the outbreak?

‘5th, Whether the objects which the mutineers are supposed to have had in view were directed to the subversion of the British power in India, or to the attainment of pecuniary or other advantages?

‘6th, Whether the progress of the mutiny can be traced to general combination or concert, or was the result of separate impulses at the several stations of regiments; and, if the former, how the combination was carried on without any knowledge or suspicion of it on the part of the regimental officers?

‘3. If, however, you should not feel yourselves to be in possession of information sufficient to form a well-grounded opinion upon the causes and objects of the mutiny, we authorise you to appoint a special mixed commission for a preliminary investigation into the same, to be composed of officers selected from all branches of the services of India, in whose personal experience and soundness of judgment you have entire confidence. In that case, you will lose no time in reporting to us your sentiments upon the conclusions arrived at by the commission.’

-----

Footnote 124:

Chap. xvii., pp. 277-294; chap. xx., pp. 338-358.

Footnote 125:

See p. 103.

Footnote 126:

Chap. xxi., p. 369.

Footnote 127:

‘We marched off under the guidance of a native, who said he would take us to the spot where the gun lay. We told him he should be well rewarded if he brought us to the gun, but if he brought us into a trap, we had a soldier by him “at full cock” ready to blow his brains out. We passed our outside pickets, and entered the town through very narrow streets without a single nigger being seen, or a shot fired on either side. We crept along; not a soul spoke a word, all was still as death; and after marching in this way into the very heart of the town, our guide brought us to the very spot into which the gun was capsized. The soldiers were posted on each side, and then we went to work. Not a man spoke above his breath, and each stone was laid down quietly. When we thought we had cleared enough, I ordered the men to put their shoulders to the wheel and gun, and when all was ready, and every man had his pound before him, I said “Heave!” and up she righted. We then limbered up, called the soldiers to follow, and we marched into the intrenchments with our gun without a shot being fired. When we got in, the colonel returned us his best thanks, and gave us all an extra ration of grog; we then returned to our guns in the battery.’

Footnote 128:

The regiments or portions of regiments—made up into four brigades of infantry, one of cavalry, one of artillery, and one of engineers—were the following: H.M. 8th, 23d, 32d, 38th, 42d, 53d, 64th, 82d, and 93d foot; Rifle Brigade; 2d and 4th Punjaub infantry; H.M. 9th Lancers; 1st, 2d, and 5th Punjaub cavalry; Hodson’s Horse; horse-artillery; light field-battery; heavy field-battery; Naval brigade; Queen’s and Company’s Engineers; Sappers and Miners.

Footnote 129:

42d Highlanders, 403 53d foot, 413 93d Highlanders, 806 4th Punjaub rifles, 332 9th Lancers, 327 5th Punjaub cavalry, 85 Hodson’s Horse, 109 Horse-artillery, 83 Foot-artillery, 139 Sappers, 100

Footnote 130:

P. 356

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XXIII. A SECOND YEAR OF REBELLION

When, at the opening of 1858, the stirring events of the preceding year came to be passed in review, most men admitted that the progress of the Indian Revolt had outrun their expectations and falsified their hopes. Some had believed that the fall of Delhi would occur after a few days of besieging, bringing with it a pacification of the whole country. Some, allowing that this capture might very probably be retarded several weeks, did not the less look to a general pacification as a natural result. Others, relying on the heroic Havelock and the energetic Neill, prepared to date the termination of the rebellion from the expected capture of Lucknow. Others, recognising Sir Colin Campbell as ‘the right man in the right place,’ strengthened themselves in the belief that he would march at once from Calcutta to Cawnpore, and put down all the rebels before the summer was well over. Some believed that the sepoys, lamenting the ill success of their treachery to the British government, would return to their allegiance without inoculating other portions of the Indian community with the virus of lawlessness. Others had fondly hoped that, under the pressure of public opinion in England, such large numbers of fine troops would have been sent over in the summer and autumn, as would suffice to quell the mutiny even though the sepoys remained obstinate.

All these hopes were dashed. The gloomy prophets, on this occasion, were in the ascendant. The mutiny had spread to almost every native regiment in the Bengal army. It had been accompanied by an unexpected display of military organisation among the revolted sepoys. It had incited many ambitious chieftains to try their chance for an increase of power. It had been encouraged and extended by the long delay in the conquest of Delhi. It had further received a certain glow of triumph from the extraordinary events at Lucknow, which left the rebels perfect masters of the city at the end of the year. It had been permitted to grow to unwonted magnitude by the extreme slowness with which British troops arrived at Indian ports. Lastly, it had become surrounded by very un-English attributes, in the savage feeling of vengeance engendered in the minds of English officers and soldiers by the sepoy atrocities.

It is true that Englishmen had much to be proud of, in the achievements of their countrymen during the past year. They could point to the sagacity of Sir Henry Lawrence, in quietly fortifying and provisioning the Residency at Lucknow at a time when less acute observers saw no storm in the distance. They could admire, and wonder while they admired, the heroism with which Sir Hugh Wheeler and his companions had so long maintained a wretchedly weak position against a large army of mutineers headed by an arch-traitor. They could follow with delight the footsteps of Sir Henry Havelock, winning victory after victory over forces five or ten times as strong as his own. They could shew how, in a hot climate, Neill had advanced from the east and Nicholson from the west, fighting energetically against all obstacles, and dying like true soldiers at the head of their columns. They could ask the world whether a garrison was ever more nobly defended, under circumstances of trying difficulty, than the Residency under Inglis; and whether a garrison was ever brought away from the middle of a hostile city under more extraordinary conditions, and with more complete success, than was achieved in the ‘Exodus from Lucknow’ under Campbell, Outram, and Havelock. They could point to Sir John Lawrence for an example of what a civilian could do, maintaining a large and recently conquered country at peace by the energy of his own individual character, raising regiment after regiment of trustworthy native troops, and sending an army to reconquer Delhi before a single additional soldier could arrive from England. They could point to the exertions of numerous individuals, any one of whom would have been a hero if his heroism had not been eclipsed by that of men better known to fame.

These recollections afforded some consolation under the disappointment occasioned by the long continuance of the war waged by the mutineers. Yet were they far from being an adequate reward for the blood and treasure expended; the prevailing natural feeling was one of disappointment. Nor were theorists less at fault in their estimate of causes, than practical men in their expectation of results. Still was the question put, ‘What was the cause of the mutiny?’ And still were the answers as diverse as ever. From May to December the theories multiplied faster than the means of solving them. On the religious side, men banded themselves chiefly into two parties. One said that the native troops in India had revolted because we, as a nation, had tampered with their religion. We had nearly put down infanticide and suttee; we paid less respect than formerly to their idols and holy places; we had allowed pious officers to preach to the sepoys in their regiments, and missionaries to inveigh against brahmins and temples; and we so clumsily managed a new contrivance in the fabrication and use of cartridges, as to induce a suspicion in the native mind that a personal insult to their religious prejudices was intended. On the other hand, religious Christians contended that the revolt was a mark of God’s anger against the English nation. They urged that a people possessing the Bible ought long ago, by government as well as by individual efforts, to have distributed it throughout the length and breadth of India; that we ought to have encouraged churches and chapels, ministers and missionaries, Bible-classes and Scripture-readers; that we ought to have disregarded caste prejudices, and boldly proclaimed that Hindooism and Moslemism were worse than mockeries, and that no expectations of happiness in this life or the next were sound but such as rested on Biblical grounds—in short, that England had had a magnificent opportunity, and a deep obligation, to teach with all her power the way of salvation to two hundred million benighted beings; and that, failing this, the Revolt had been a consequent and deserved calamity. Another class of reasoners attributed the outbreak to the want of sympathy between the Europeans and the natives in the general relations of life. A young man was sent out to India by the Company, either as a writer in the civil service or as a cadet in the army; he learned the immediate duties of his office, studied just so much of the vernacular languages and customs as were absolutely needed, rose in the middle years of his life to higher offices and emoluments, and returned to end his days in England. He held the natives in contempt; he neither knew nor cared what passed in their inmost hearts; he treated India as a conquered country, held especially for the benefit of the Company’s servants. Hence, according to the view now under notice, the natives, having nothing for which to love and respect the British, were glad to avail themselves of any pretext to expel the foreign element from their land. Military men, acquainted with the Bombay and Madras armies, insisted that the mutiny had arisen from the organisation of that of Bengal; in which the Brahmin sepoys and Rajpoot sowars had been so pampered and petted, that they began to deem themselves masters instead of subjects, and to aim at a sort of military despotism on their own account. Other speculators, pointing to the fact that Mohammedans have in all ages been intensely fanatical, regarded the mutiny as only one among many indications of an attempt to revive the past glories of the Moguls, when the followers of Mahomet were the rulers in India. Others again, keeping clear of the larger questions of creed and race, attributed the troubles to the policy of annexation, which had been pursued to so extraordinary a degree in recent years. These reasoners urged that, whatever may have been the faults and follies of the King of Oude, five million natives unquestionably looked up to him as their sovereign, and felt their prejudices shocked and their alarm excited, when, in 1856, he was rudely hurled from his throne, and made a pensioner dependent on a company of merchants. Another class of theorists, impressed with a horror of taxation, pitied the poor Hindoos who had to pay so much to the Company for permission to live on the soil, so much for the salt monopoly, so much for other dues; and sought to find a reason for the mutiny in the desire to throw off these imposts. Commercial men, estimating nations and countries by a standard familiar to themselves, had long complained that the Company did not encourage independent commerce in India; and now they said: ‘If you had acted with English good sense, the revolt would never have occurred. Afford facilities for the construction of railways, canals, and docks; build ships and steamers; develop your mineral wealth in coal and iron; sell or let plots of land to men who will bring English experience and English machinery to bear on its cultivation; grow tea and coffee, sugar and cocoa, timber and fruits, cotton and flax, corn and pulse, on the soils favourable to the respective produce—do all this, or afford facilities for others to do it, and the natives of India will then have something more profitable to think of than mutiny and bloodshed.’

We point to these various theories for the purpose of remarking, that the controversies relating to them were as warmly conducted at the end of the year as when the news of the cartridge troubles first reached England. The higher the position, the more extensive the experience, of public men, the more chary were they in committing themselves to any special modes of explanation; it was by those who knew little, that the boldest assertions were hazarded. An opinion was gradually growing up among cautious reasoners, that the revolt must have been the composite resultant of many co-ordinate or coexistent causes, each of which contributed towards it in a particular way; but such reasoners would necessarily perceive that a true solution could only be arrived at when all the separate items were known, and properly estimated. Hence the authorities, both in England and in India, recommended and followed a plan that may thus be enunciated—first suppress the mutiny; then collect gradually evidence of its various predisposing causes; and, finally, make use of that evidence in remodelling the institutions of British India on a firmer basis. The NOTES at the end of the last chapter shewed that the Company took the common-sense view, of inquiring into the probable causes of the mutiny before planning the reorganisation of Indian affairs. The candid acknowledgment by the Directors, that the voluminous documents hitherto produced had ‘entirely failed to satisfy their minds in regard to the immediate causes of the mutiny,’ was full of significance, and, it may be added, of caution to others.

So far as concerns the present Chronicle, the treatment will necessarily be affected by the character of the struggle. At the beginning of 1858, scarcely any symptoms of further mutiny were presented. The Bengal army was gone, scattered in anarchy; the armies of Bombay, Madras, and the Punjaub, were almost wholly sound; and the daily events consisted mainly of military operations against the revolted sepoy regiments of the Bengal army, and against such chieftains as had brought their retainers into the field for selfish purposes. Hence the narrative may march on more rapidly than before.

All the interest of the military operations in India, at the opening of the new year, grouped itself around the commander-in-chief. Slow as had been the arrival of British troops in India, during the months when Wheeler, Havelock, Neill, Outram, Inglis, Barnard, Wilson, and Nicholson were struggling against difficulties, the disembarkations were very numerous in November and December. When the old year gave place to the new, it was estimated that 23,000 British troops had landed at Calcutta since the troubles began, besides others put on shore at Bombay, Madras, and Kurachee.[131] They had advanced into the upper provinces, by those routes and modes which have so often been adverted to, and were placed under the brigadiers whom Sir Colin Campbell had appointed to conduct the various operations planned by him. We have first, therefore, to notice such of the proceedings of the commander-in-chief as took place during the month of January; turning attention afterwards to military proceedings in other quarters.

Sir Colin Campbell, as the last chapter shewed, rescued Cawnpore and General Windham from trouble at the close of November and the beginning of the following month. He did not move from the vicinity of that city till towards the end of December. Writing to Viscount Canning on this subject, on the 6th of January, he said: ‘I am informed by the civil authorities that my protracted stay at Cawnpore was of much benefit; and I am convinced that, apart from any immediate military object, it is necessary, for the re-establishment of authority, that the march of the troops should be deliberate. Time is thus afforded to the magistrates and special commissioners to visit rebellious towns and villages, and again display to the people in unmistakable manner the resolution of your lordship’s government to visit punishment on all those who during the last few months have set aside their allegiance.’ He at the same time glanced rapidly at the chief military operations which had marked the month of December in the Gangetic and Jumna regions—such as Outram’s defence at the Alum Bagh; Adrian Hope’s clean sweep of Nena Sahib’s property at Bithoor;[132] Walpole’s expedition to Etawah and Minpooree; Seaton’s energetic movements with a column from Delhi; and Windham’s expedition to Futtiah.

When the vehicles had returned to Cawnpore, after conveying the Lucknow fugitives to Allahabad, the commander-in-chief prepared to move his head-quarters to Furruckabad and Fort Futteghur, near which places many insurgent chieftains required to be dealt with. He started on the 24th of December and marched to Chowrepore. After remaining there some time to organise his force into brigades, &c., he renewed his march on the 28th, and reached Meerun-ke-Serai. At the several halting-places of himself and his brigadiers, he made arrangements for destroying the country-boats on the Ganges, in order to prevent molestation of the Doab from the Oude side of the river when the troops should have moved on. On the 31st he arrived at Goorsaigunje; Greathed, Windham, and Hope Grant all being with him. On the first day of the new year, Sir Colin sent forth two regiments under Adrian Hope to secure the iron suspension-bridge over the Kallee Nuddee, a very important point on the road from Cawnpore to Futteghur. A party of sailors were quite delighted to assist in this work, replacing with ropes some of the ironwork which the rebels had begun to destroy. On the 2d the enemy, hovering in villages near the bridge, attacked Sir Colin’s pickets and advanced columns; but they were speedily defeated and driven across the Ganges into Rohilcund.[133] Proof was here afforded that the insurgents had not forgotten the advantages of organisation. ‘The rebels,’ said the commander-in-chief in his dispatch, ‘who were dispersed on this occasion, consisted of three or four battalions of the 41st and other corps of native infantry. In the 41st, the rebels had begun with much system to organise a second battalion, their recruits being dressed in a neat uniform.’ On the 3d, Sir Colin reached Futteghur, the old British station near the city of Furruckabad. Fortunately, the enemy, who had held Futteghur for at least six months, now retreated so precipitately that they had not time to destroy the government property within the place. Sir Colin found a large amount of stores of the most valuable description, belonging to the gun and clothing agencies. Having secured these important items of military property, he sent a large stock of grain to Cawnpore, to lighten the labours of the commissariat for the supply of Sir James Outram at the Alum Bagh. The Nawab of Furruckabad had long been among the most ferocious leaders of the insurgents; and the commander-in-chief now proceeded to such measures as would punish him severely for his treachery. ‘The destruction of the Nawab’s palaces is in process. I think it right that not a stone should be left unturned in all the residences of the rebellious chiefs. They are far more guilty than their misguided followers.’

On the 6th of January, then, the commander-in-chief was on the banks of the Ganges at Futteghur. With him were the brigades and columns of Hope Grant, Adrian Hope, Walpole, Windham, Seaton, Greathed, and Little; Inglis, with a movable column, was restoring order in a part of the Doab between Cawnpore and Etawah; while Outram was still at the Alum Bagh. Sir Colin scarcely moved from that spot during the remainder of the month. He was waiting for more troops from Calcutta, and for vast stores of warlike material from the upper provinces. It may here be remarked that the enormous weight of stores and ammunition required for an army, and the vast distances to be traversed in India, gave a stupendous character to some of the convoys occasionally prepared. Thus, on the 22d of January, about 3000 troops started from Agra for the Cawnpore regions, having in charge 19 guns of various calibre, and 1500 carts laden with stores and ammunition. There were 750 rounds of ammunition for each of 24 guns, and 500 for each of 44 howitzers and mortars—all required by the commander-in-chief. Several ladies, en route to Calcutta, took advantage of the protection of this force. The above numbers give a very imperfect idea of the convoy; for native servants and camp-followers, together with animals of draught and burden, always accompany such a train in swarms almost inconceivable.

When the English public found that the whole of the autumn months, and the winter so far as the end of January, had passed away without any great achievement except the relief of Lucknow, portions of them began to complain and to censure. They could not and would not find fault with Sir Colin, because he was a general favourite; and therefore they rushed to a conclusion inimical to Viscount Canning, who from the first had been made to bear the burden of a vast amount of anonymous abuse. A story arose that the governor-general and the commander-in-chief were at ‘cross-purposes,’ that Campbell was doing nothing because Canning thwarted him. The Duke of Cambridge and Lord Panmure took occasion, in the House of Lords, to give authoritative contradictions to these rumours; and among other evidence adduced was a letter written by Sir Colin to his royal highness—the one as commander-in-chief in India, the other as commander-in-chief of all the Queen’s forces generally—just when he was about to set off to head the military operations at Cawnpore and Lucknow. ‘Now that I am on the point of leaving Calcutta,’ he said, ‘I would beg, with the greatest respect to the governor-general, to record the deep sense of the obligation I entertain towards his lordship. Our intercourse has been most cordial, intimate, and unreserved. I cannot be sufficiently thankful for his lordship’s confidence and support, and the kindly manner in which they have been afforded, to my great personal satisfaction. One at a distance, and unacquainted with the ordinary mode of transacting business in this country, could hardly estimate the gain to the public service which has thus been made. But I allude principally to my own feelings of gratification.’ Whether or not the governor-general and the commander-in-chief were divided in opinion touching the best policy to pursue, it is certain that men in lower though influential positions differed widely in their views on this point. Some were anxious that Lucknow should be attacked at once. They urged that that city being the chief seat of rebellion, a crushing of the force there would dishearten the rebels elsewhere; whereas every day lost would add to the strength of Lucknow. Even our victories increased the number and desperation of its defenders; and, therefore, till this central point was captured, the revolt would always have a nucleus, a flag around which the discontented might rally. On the other hand, it was urged that Rohilcund should be cleared before Lucknow could be profitably seized. Large bands still roaming over that province might interrupt the commander-in-chief’s communications, if he left them in his rear while engaged in Oude. Again, Sir Colin was waiting for more troops. It was asserted that, even if he could conquer sixty or eighty thousand fighting-men in the streets of Lucknow, he could not leave a force there while he was endeavouring to clear out Rohilcund. So far as can be judged from attainable evidence, it appears that Sir Colin himself held this second opinion—resolving to clear the outworks before attacking the central stronghold of rebellion.

Leaving the commander-in-chief for a while, we may suitably direct attention to the proceedings of other generals in other parts of the wide field of operations—beginning with those connected with Sir James Outram.

The Alum Bagh, never once out of English hands since the month of September, remained a very important stronghold. The reader will perhaps recall to mind the relation which that fort bore to the operations at Lucknow; but a short recapitulation may not be misplaced here. When Havelock and Outram, on the 25th of September, advanced to Lucknow, they left Colonel M’Intyre, of the 78th Highlanders, in command at the Alum Bagh, with orders to maintain that post until further instructions reached him. He had with him 280 English soldiers of various regiments, a few Sikhs, 4 guns, 128 sick and wounded, between 4000 and 5000 native camp-followers, large numbers of cattle, and a valuable store of baggage, ammunition, and other military appliances. His supply of food for the natives was very scanty, and those poor creatures soon suffered terribly from hunger. After a few days, they stealthily collected crops of rice and grain in fields near at hand, under protection of the guns; but this resource was soon exhausted. It is a familiar occurrence in the annals of Indian warfare, that the camp-followers and army-servants exceed by five or ten fold the number of actual combatants; and thus is to be explained the strange composition of the miscellaneous body collected within the walls of the Alum Bagh. Unable to receive aid or even instructions from the Residency, M’Intyre maintained his position as best he could. A convoy of provisions reached him from Cawnpore on the 7th of October, under Major Bingham, and another on the 25th under Major Barnston. Some of the troops remained with him on each occasion, raising his force altogether to 900 fighting-men and ten guns. Meanwhile he fortified his position with bastions and other defence-works, and contended successfully against the enemy, who constructed five batteries in various parts of the exterior, and brought artillery-fire to bear against him day after day. They also held the neighbouring fort of Jelalabad, which formed a sixth base of attack. So steadily and actively, however, did the colonel maintain his defence, that the enemy’s fire occasioned him very little loss. Matters continued thus until the middle of November, when Sir Colin Campbell, conquering Jelalabad, and reaching Alum Bagh, made a few changes in the garrison. Then, in the last week of the month, Sir James Outram became master of the Alum Bagh, with a picked force of 3000 to 4000 men. He easily maintained his position throughout December, and gave the enemy a severe defeat on the 22d, at a place called Giulee, three miles from Alum Bagh on the Dil Koosha road. The opening of the year 1858 found Outram still at his post, and the enemy still endeavouring or hoping to cut off his communications and starve him out.[134] Some of his troops were away, convoying a supply of provisions from Cawnpore; and the enemy, knowing this, resolved to attack him on the 12th of January in his weakened state. Fathoming their intentions, he prepared for defence. At sunrise they appeared, to the immense number of at least 30,000, and formed a wide semicircle in front and flank of his position. Outram, massing his troops into two brigades, sent them out to confront the enemy. Then commenced a very fierce battle; for while the main body of the enemy attacked these two brigades, a second proceeded to assault the fort of Jelalabad, while a third by a detour reached the Alum Bagh itself, and endeavoured to cut off Outram’s communications with it. From sunrise till four o’clock in the afternoon did the struggle continue, every British gun being incessantly engaged in repelling the advances of dense masses of the enemy. Foiled at every point, the insurgents at length withdrew to the city or to their original positions in the gardens and villages. It was a very serious struggle, for the enemy fought well and were in overwhelming numbers; nevertheless, their discomfiture was complete. Four days afterwards they made another attack, in smaller numbers, but with greater boldness: the result was the same as before—complete defeat and severe loss. Thus did this skilful and watchful commander frustrate every hostile attempt made by the swarms of insurgents who surrounded him.

We turn our attention next further eastward. The Nepaulese leader, Jung Bahadoor, with Brigadier MacGregor as representative of British interests, entered Goruckpore on the 6th of January, thus taking possession of a city which for many months had been almost entirely in the hands of rebels. The force was Goorkha, the officers were Nepaulese and English. Jung Bahadoor and Brigadier MacGregor being the two leaders, the brigades were thus commanded—the first by Run Singh and Captain Plowden, the second by Sunmuck Singh and Captain Edmonstone, the third by Junga Doge and Lieutenant Foote, and the artillery by Loll Singh and Major Fitzgerald. This singular combination was made because, although Jung Bahadoor was entitled to appoint his own native officers, it was nevertheless desirable that English officers should be at hand to advise or even control if necessary. The advancing force had first to effect a passage over a nullah, the bridge of which was broken, and the banks stoutly defended by the enemy; this was done after a short but sharp conflict. The enemy fled from the nullah through a jungle towards the city, pursued by the Goorkhas; but the latter could not equal the sepoys in running over loose sand, and therefore could not come up with them. All the baggage having crossed the nullah, Jung Bahadoor steadily advanced towards the city, attacked by new parties of the enemy in skirmishing form on both flanks. Many hundreds of the rebels rushed into the river Ribtee, to effect a safe crossing to the other side, adjacent to the Oude frontier; but they were shot down or drowned in considerable numbers in this attempt to escape. Goruckpore was entered, and taken possession of in the English name. It is curious to trace, in the military dispatch of Brigadier MacGregor to the Calcutta authorities, the same conventional ‘mention’ of Nepaulese officers as is customary in the British army. Colonel Loll Singh ‘proved himself a good artillery officer;’ Captain Suzan Singh’s ‘very effective fire was much admired;’ Brigadier Junga Doge ‘reaped, conjointly with the artillery, the principal honours of the day;’ Brigadier Sunmuck Singh’s brigade ‘was well in advance;’ Brigadier Run Singh’s brigade ‘was most skilfully led through the forest;’ and Brigadier Jodh Adhikaree was only shut out from praise by the fact that his brigade was not brought into action. The names of the British officers were set forth in parallel order, each to receive praise by the side of his Nepaulese companion. The English commander of a military force, we may here remark, must often be embarrassed while writing his dispatches; for unless he mentions the name of almost every officer, he gives offence; while it taxes his powers of composition to vary the terms in which encomiums are expressed. When Goruckpore was once again placed under British control, the authorities quickly put down the so-called government which had been introduced by Mahomed Hussein, the self-appointed nazim or chief. Such of his adherents as had clearly been rebellious were quickly tried, and many of them executed. All the convicted natives who were not sentenced to hanging were made to do sweeper’s work, within the church, jail, and other buildings, without respect to their caste, creed, or former dignity. Mushurruff Khan, and other rebellious leaders in the district between Goruckpore and the Oude frontier, were one by one captured, to the manifest pacification of the country villages and planters’ estates.

In the wide stretch of country between Patna and Allahabad, and between the Ganges on the south and Nepaul on the north, everything was awaiting the completion of the commander-in-chief’s plans. In and near Arrah, Azimghur, Ghazeepore, Jounpoor, Benares, and Mirzapore, there were bodies of malcontents ready to break out into open rebellion as soon as any favourable opportunities should occur for so doing, but checked by the gradually increasing power of the British. On one occasion, towards the close of the month, Brigadier Franks marched out of Secundra, near Allahabad, against a body of 500 rebels, who were posted with several guns at Nussunpore. He totally defeated them, and captured two of their guns. About the same time, on the 22d of the month, Colonel Rowcroft, with detachments of H.M. 10th foot, sailors, Sikhs, and Goorkhas, proceeded from Azimghur towards the Oudian frontier, there to aid in hemming in the rebels. Indeed, Jung Bahadoor, Franks, and Rowcroft, at the end of the month, feeling that all was pretty secure on the east of the frontier, were gradually drawing a cordon round the Oudians, from Nepaul in the north to the Ganges on the south—ready to concur in any large scheme of operations which Sir Colin Campbell might be enabled to initiate.

The brigadiers who were more immediately under the eye of Sir Colin Campbell were employed during the month of January, as has already been implied, in clearing away bands of insurgents in the Doab and neighbouring districts. To detail the various minor contests will be unnecessary; one or two will suffice as samples of all. On the 27th of the month, Brigadier Adrian Hope had a smart contest with the enemy at Shumshabad. Taking with him a small column,[135] he started from Futteghur on the previous day, and proceeded through Kooshinabad to Shumshabad, where he found the enemy in considerable force. They occupied a commanding knoll on the edge of the plateau overlooking the plain stretching towards the river. On the knoll was a Mussulman tomb, surrounded by the remains of an old intrenchment, upon which they had raised a sand-bag battery; their front was defended by a ravine impassable for cavalry or guns. Hope, having formed his plan of attack, moved over some broken ground towards the enemy’s camp. They at once opened with a well-directed fire of round-shot. Silencing these guns by a flank fire, Hope ordered his infantry to advance out of a hollow where they had been screened; they did so, rushed upon the camp, and captured it. Then began a pursuit of the fleeing enemy by Hope’s cavalry, and the securing of several guns and much ammunition which they had left behind them. The brigadier believed the insurgents to consist of two of the mutinied Bareilly regiments, accompanied by a motley group of rebels anxious for plunder. About the same day, another district near Furruckabad became the scene of a fierce encounter. A body of rebels about 5000 strong, with four guns, being heard of at a distance of some miles from the city, a force was sent out—consisting of H.M. 42d and 53d foot, the 4th Punjaubees, two squadrons of H.M. 9th Lancers, two of Hodson’s Horse, a horse-battery, and two troops of horse-artillery. The enemy’s guns were planted on the site of an old mud-fort on rising ground, whence they opened fire as soon as the British came in sight. The morning being densely foggy, the column proceeded cautiously to prevent a surprise. The action that ensued was chiefly carried on by artillery and cavalry, and was marked by several deaths on the side of the British owing to the blowing up of tumbrils. Among the wounded was the gallant Hodson, whose name had become so well known in connection with an active and useful body of Punjaub or Sikh irregular cavalry. The result of this, as of almost all similar contests, was the defeat and dispersion of the enemy. A glance at a map will shew that at Furruckabad and Futteghur (the latter a military station near the former), the commander-in-chief was in an admirable position to send out detachments on special service. Bareilly, Allygurh, Agra, Muttra, Minpooree, Gwalior, Etawah, Calpee, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, formed an irregular circle of which Furruckabad was the centre.

On the first day of the year the little colony at Nynee Tal received one of the alarms to which it had been so often subjected for six months; but, as in all the other instances, the danger was promptly averted. The subsidiary station at Huldwanee, eighteen miles distant, was attacked early in the morning by a large number of the Bareilly rebels. Some time previously, a force of about 600 Goorkhas had been sent to that station; but owing to the absence of the commandant at Almora, and to the neglect in making any defensive arrangements, the place was not well prepared to resist a surprise. The enemy opened an artillery fire most unexpectedly, for their approach was not in the least anticipated. The gallant little Goorkhas, however, speedily turned out, met the enemy hand to hand, defeated them, pursued them three or four miles from the station, and cut down a considerable number of them.

Of the two imperial or once imperial cities, Agra and Delhi, little need be said in connection with the events of January. Agra, it will be remembered, was never out of British hands during the turmoils of 1857, although severely pressed; and when Delhi on the one side, and Cawnpore on the other, were recovered, there was less chance than ever that Agra would fall into the hands of the enemy. The citizens resumed their ordinary employments, and the British authorities re-established their civil control.[136]

After four months of strict military occupancy, the city of Delhi was thrown open to natives who during that interval had been excluded. On the 18th of January an order to this intent came into operation. Each person availing himself of it had to pay one rupee four annas to the kotwallee or police authority; for this he was provided with a ticket, which insured him certain facilities for living and trading within the city. The Chandnee Chowk began to resume its former lively appearance; a military band resumed its evening music in the open space fronting the English church; and, ‘but for the shot-holes all around,’ as an eye-witness observed, ‘the signs of many sanguinary months were passing away.’ A formal charge was drawn up, and judicial proceedings commenced, against the imprisoned king; but as the trial chiefly took place in February, we may defer for a few pages any notice of the proceedings.

Everything westward of Delhi may happily be dismissed in the same language which has so often sufficed in former chapters. Sir John Lawrence, with his able coadjutors Montgomery, Cotton, and Edwardes, still held the whole length and breadth of the Punjaub at peace or nearly so. And the same may in like manner be said of Sinde, where Mr Frere and General Jacob held sway.

Of the state of the widely scattered and diversely governed regions of Central India and Rajpootana at the beginning of the year, it is difficult to give a correct picture. Unlike the Hindustani regions, they were inhabited by a very motley population—Bundelas, Rajpoots, Rohillas, Mahrattas, Bheels, Jâts, Ghonds, all mingled, and governed by chieftains who cared much more for their own petty authority than for the kings of Delhi and Lucknow, or for castes and creeds. Luckily the two principal Mahratta leaders, Scindia and Holkar, still remained faithful to the British, and thus rendered possible what would have been impossible without their assistance. If to Central India and Rajpootana, we add Bundelcund and the Saugor territories, we shall have a wide sweep of country approached nearest at one point by the Calcutta presidency, at another by the Madras presidency, and at a third by that of Bombay. As, however, Calcutta had no troops to spare for that part of India, Madras and Bombay sent up columns and ‘field-forces’ as fast as they could be provided; and thus it is that we read of small military bodies under Stuart, Steuart, Roberts, Whitlock, Rose, Raines, and other officers. According to the number of troops composing them, and the districts in which their services were required, these columns received various names—such as ‘Rajpootana Field-force,’ ‘Nerbudda Field-force,’ ‘Malwah Field-force,’ and ‘Central India Field-force.’ The mere naming might be of small consequence, were it not that confusion arose occasionally by different appellations being employed at different times for the very same force. At various periods during the month encounters took place, a few of which may briefly be noticed.

On the 6th of January, a small force of about 500 miscellaneous troops, with guns, set out from Camp Muddah in Rajpootana, under Major Raines, to rout a body of rebels at Rowah. They found the village strongly fortified by a hedge fronting a deep ditch and breastwork of earth, thick and loopholed. After a reconnaissance the major advanced; when the enemy opened fire, bringing down branches of trees with a crash among the British. When a hot artillery and infantry fire had been maintained for some time, about 200 men of the 10th Bombay N.I. received orders to storm the village; they advanced in admirable order, dashed forward, cleared the hedge, mounted to the opposite side, and compelled the insurgents to make a precipitate retreat. The village was burned to ashes, and the force returned to camp—having marched over deep sand in a thick jungle for twenty-two miles. One of the horrors of war was illustrated forcibly in a few brief words contained in an officer’s narrative of this engagement: ‘The villagers were mowed down in sections by the artillery, as they were entering a cave on the sides of the rock in rear of the village.’ Nothing perplexed the English officers more than to determine how far to compassionate the native villagers; sometimes these poor creatures suffered terribly and undeservedly; but on other occasions they unquestionably assisted the rebels.’

Sir Hugh Rose had a short but decisive encounter with a body of rebels at Ratgurh or Rutgurh towards the close of the month. This was a town in Central India, between Saugor and Bhopal, in and near which many chieftains had unfurled the banner of rebellion, at the head of whom was Nawab Fazil Mahomed Khan. Ratgurh was a strong place, in good repair, and supplied with a year’s provisions. The rebels intended to have made a bold stand; but they lost heart when they saw siege-artillery brought up to a position which they had deemed unattainable, and applied to the breaching of their fort. Many of the defenders abandoned the fort during the night, letting themselves down by ropes from the rocks, &c. On the next day some of their number, aided by many mutinous sepoys, emerged from the thick jungles in the neighbourhood, attacked the videttes guarding the rear of Sir Hugh’s camp, and attempted to relieve the fort; but they were driven across the river Betwah, and the fort securely captured. It is worthy of note how many of the contests during the wars of the mutiny partook of the nature of sieges. Mud-forts have been famous in India for centuries, and the natives exhibit much tact in defending them. As long as guns attack from a safe distance, such strongholds may be long defended; but a storming by British bayonets utterly paralyses the garrisons. Sir Hugh bent his attention towards Saugor also, which had for many months been invested by a large body of the enemy. With the second brigade of the Central India Field-force, reinforced by the 3d Europeans and the 3d native cavalry from the Poonah division, he laid his plans for an effective relief of that place. General Whitlock, with a Madras column, was also bound for Saugor; but it was expected that Rose would reach that place before him.

In another region, much nearer Calcutta, a small military affair presented itself for notice. Just before the commencement of the new year, Sumbhulpore was relieved from a trouble that had pressed upon it, in the presence of a miscellaneous body of rebels. A small force of less than 300 troops, consisting of Madras native infantry, Ramgurh infantry, and Nagpoor irregular cavalry, made a forced march from Nagpoor to Sumbhulpore; and on the 30th of December Captain Wood marched out with this force to chastise a body of rebels encamped in a gorse-land near the city. The victory was speedy and decisive, and was rendered more valuable by the capture of three native chieftains who had been leaders in the rebellion. The rebels were not sepoys, but escaped convicts.

The large and important regions of Nagpoor and Hyderabad exhibited nearly the same features at the beginning of the year as they had done during the summer and autumn. Containing very few pure Hindustanis of the Brahmin and Rajpoot castes, and being within comparatively easy reach of the trusty and trusted native troops of the Madras presidency, they were seldom disturbed by symptoms of mutiny. The British commissioners or residents had, it is true, much to render them anxious; but the perils were not so great as those which weighed down their brother-officials in other regions. The Deccan, or Hyderabad, or the Nizam’s Country—for it was known by all three names—had from the first been more troubled by marauders than by regular military mutineers. The villages of Mugrool, Janappul, Sind Kaid, Rungeenee, and Dawulgaum, mostly distant about twenty or thirty miles from Jaulnah, were infested during January by predatory bands of Rohillas and Bheels, who alarmed the villages by acts of plunder, dacoitee, and cruelty. They even went so far as to plunder the treasure-chest of a regiment of the Hyderabad Contingent, while on the way from Aurungabad to Jaulnab, and barely two miles from the last-named place. The officer commanding at Jaulnah sent a small force in pursuit; but the marauders, here as elsewhere, were swift of foot, and made clear off with their booty. These Bheels, a half-savage mountain tribe, gave annoyance in more districts than one. Captain Montgomery, superintendent of police at Ahmednuggur, a city between Jaulnah and Bombay, found it necessary to go out and attack a strong body of them, who held a position in a jungle twelve miles from Chandore. He had with him a miscellaneous force of Bombay native troops; but after three successive attempts he was beaten back from the enemy’s position, and wounded, as well as three of his officers.

The Nagpoor force, though never very closely in league with the mutineers further north, contrived to rouse suspicion and bring down punishment early in the year. The Nagpoor irregulars had been disarmed by Brigadier Prior very early in the history of the Revolt; but Mr Plowden, commissioner of the Nagpoor territory, believing that they might be trusted, advised that their weapons should again be given to them. The conduct of the men throughout the rest of the year justified this reliance; but, with the strange inconsistency that so often marked the proceedings of the natives, they stained the first month of the year with a deed of violence. On the 18th of January, at Raeepore, a place on the road between Nagpoor and Cuttack, a party of Mussulman gunners in the Nagpoor artillery suddenly rose, murdered Sergeant-major Sidwell, and called on the 3d Nagpoor irregular infantry to assist them in exterminating the Europeans. Either the 3d were innocent in the matter, or their hearts failed them; for they not only remained firm, but at once assisted in disarming the gunners. On the 22d, Lieutenant Elliott, deputy-commissioner, rode into Raeepore, and immediately brought the gunners to trial; all but one were found guilty, and were hung that same evening, amid frantic appeals to their comrades to save them for the sake of their common faith—an appeal to which the infantry did not respond.

It may be observed, in relation to all the military operations in the month of January, that there were certain rebel leaders whose personal movements were seldom clearly known to the British officers. Nena Sahib of Bithoor, Koer Singh of Jugdispore, and Mohammed Khan of Bareilly, were unquestionably urging the sepoys and rebels to continue the struggle against the Company’s ‘raj;’ but their own marchings and retreatings from place to place were veiled in much obscurity. There was, in truth, a very intelligible motive for this; for a price was placed upon the head of each, and he could not fully know whether any traitor were at his elbow. Some of the leaders, such as the Rajah of Minpooree and the Nawab of Furruckabad, were believed to have joined their fortunes with those of the defenders of Lucknow; while Mahomed Hussein, as we have seen, was hovering between Oude and Goruckpore, according to the strength of the Goorkhas sent against him. It was known that many of the Gwalior mutineers, after their severe defeat in December, had collected again in Bundelcund; but it was not clearly ascertained who among them assumed the post of leader.

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Footnote 131:

A return was prepared by order of parliament, of the odds and ends composing what was called the sea-kit of English soldiers going out to India, the cost at which they were estimated, and the mode of paying for them:

Articles. Price. Two canvas frocks at 3_s._ 3_d._ (jackets substituted for £0 6 6 frocks in the case of sergeants), One pair canvas trousers, 0 3 4 One neck handkerchief, 0 0 8 One pair of shoes, 0 6 0 Three pounds of marine soap, at 7_d._, 0 1 9 Two pounds of yellow soap, at 7_d._, 0 1 2 Nine balls of pipeclay, 0 0 9 One quart tin-pot, with hook, 0 1 0 One scrubbing-brush, 0 0 8 Three tins of blacking, 0 1 0 One clasp-knife, 0 1 0 One bag in lieu of haversack, 0 0 10 Needles and thread, 0 1 0 Three pounds of tobacco, at 2_s._ 8_d._, 0 8 0 Two flannel-belts, 0 2 0 Two check-shirts, at 2_s._ 6_d._, 0 5 0 —— —— — £2 0 8

‘The prices,’ as the return tells us, ‘are unavoidably liable to variation, but those in the above list will serve as a general standard for guidance. These extra necessaries are paid for by the men to whom they are issued, out of pay advanced for the purpose. Tobacco is issued to such men only as are in the habit of using it; and if any man be provided already with any of the above articles, and such are in a serviceable condition, a duplicate supply is not given.’

It will at once be understood that the ordinary equipment of the soldier is not here mentioned; only the extras for the sea-voyage being included. The ‘nine balls of pipeclay’ constitute perhaps the worst item in the list.

Footnote 132:

Before the final departure from the neighbourhood of Cawnpore, the British troops did their best to despoil one who received more execration than any other man in India. An officer writing at the close of the year, said: ‘We have made very good use of our delay at Cawnpore. The Highland brigade was encamped at Bithoor, and employed in raising all Nena Sahib’s valuables from a well. The operation was a most difficult one, as the well was deep and full of water. However, it was very successful; for not including their last day’s work (a very good one) they raised 75½ pounds of gold in various shapes, and 252 pounds of silver. The last day they got an enormous quantity of gold and silver, so heavy that a man could just carry it. I hope they will come upon Bajee Rao’s Jewels. There are two more wells yet to open. The Nena is “beating his breast” at our well-successes.’

Footnote 133:

One incident of this affair was afterwards thus described by an officer present: ‘A brigade was sent to repair the suspension-bridge. They commenced work on the 1st, and by morning of the 2d had finished it all but one or two planks, which they were laying down, when the chief saw the villagers come out of the village opposite. He desired some one to go and tell them not to be afraid, as they would not be hurt; when all of a sudden bang came a round-shot from amongst them, which killed four men of the 53d. The enemy were then discovered to be in force; the naval brigade soon opened on them, pitching into the village for about two hours, they returning it with an 18-pounder and a 9-pounder. When the firing commenced, we were all sent for, the bridge was soon finished, and then the chief with his force crossed, turned them out of the village, and pursued them with cavalry and artillery for about eight miles.’

Footnote 134:

Sir James Outram’s total force in and near the Alum Bagh, at the beginning of the year, was made up of the following elements:

H.M. 5th, 75th, 78th, 84th, and 90th foot. 1st Madras Europeans. Brasyer’s Ferozpore Sikhs. 12th irregular cavalry. Hardinge’s corps. Military train. Engineer park. Artillery park. Madras Sappers and Miners. Royal artillery, under Eyre and Maude. Bengal artillery, under Olphert.

Footnote 135: 9th Lancers, two squadrons. Hodson’s Horse, 200. Bengal H.A. one troop. Bengal F.A. 4 guns. 42d Highlanders. 53d foot. 4th Punjaub rifles.

Footnote 136:

The condition of the British quarters in Agra at the beginning of the year was briefly told by one of the writers in the Mofussilite newspaper, after the severe pressure on the garrison had ceased: ‘The fort is being abandoned by every one who has a house which can be made in the least degree habitable; but many people will still be compelled to remain within its gloomy walls for an indefinite period; as in many instances the destruction of houses has been so complete, that it will be a work of time and a matter of considerable expense to place them in anything like decent repair.... As we are fortunate enough to possess a good house with a pucka roof, which has been put into excellent repair, we intend publishing next Tuesday’s paper in that building—the former printing-office of the Mofussilite. We shall all be put to great straits for furniture, crockery, and such like things; for although a charpoy (stump-bedstead), a teapoy, and a couple of broken chairs, were as much as we could find room for in one of our little cells of the fort, yet we shall soon require rather more when we dwell in roomier habitations. Our distant friends must know that it is a rare thing to see two plates of the same pattern on any table, and that none but those upon whom fortune has smiled indulge in glass tumblers. Tin pots are the height of our ambition. Port, sherry, brandy, Allsopp, and Bass, are beverages generally as unknown to this community as they were to Robinson Crusoe.’

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