The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan 1856-7-8

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.120 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;121 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.122 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.123 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.