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

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,124 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.125

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.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN FEBRUARY

Impatient as the whole British nation was to hear of a brilliant and successful termination of the struggle in India, every telegram, every weekly mail, shewed that the time for this satisfaction was still far distant. The mutineers were beaten, but not crushed; the rebellious chieftains were checked, but not extinguished; their deluded followers were disappointed in the results obtained, but not deterred from making further efforts. England, with all her delays and waverings of opinion, had sent over a large, fine, and complete army; the Punjaub had supplied such a force of reliable troops as no one would have ventured beforehand to anticipate; generals had been brought into notice by the exigencies of public affairs who possessed those fine soldierly attributes which a nation is proud to recognise; the authorities, steady at their posts, never for a moment doubted that the British ‘raj’ would be established on a firmer basis than ever – and yet everything was in turmoil in India. Blood and treasure were being daily expended; but the time had not arrived when any adequate return was obtained for these losses. January having passed, men speculated whether Lucknow and Oude – to say nothing of other cities and provinces – would fall permanently into British hands during the month of February. What was the response to this much-mooted question, the present chapter will shew.

The gallant commander-in-chief, Sir Colin Campbell, being the chief actor in the busy military scenes of the period, it may be well to trace his movements during the month of February, before noticing the marchings and battles of other generals.

It will be remembered, from the details given in the last chapter, that Sir Colin, after the capture of Furruckabad and Futteghur early in January, remained during the greater part of that month encamped in that neighbourhood, organising the military arrangements necessary for an advance into Oude. These arrangements involved the arrival of siege-guns from Delhi and Agra, and the concentration at one point of different columns under his brigadiers. Among various subsidiary operations, Captain Taylor, of the Engineers, was sent to the Alum Bagh, to report as far as possible on the defensive works thrown up by the enemy in and near Lucknow, and to gather a strong engineer force to aid the commander-in-chief. Sir Colin remained nearly stationary during these preliminary proceedings, elaborating the details of his plan of strategy, in conjunction with his chief of the staff, General Mansfield. When his troops and his missiles, his personnel and matériel, were pretty well collected, he returned from Futteghur to Cawnpore on the 4th of February. Viscount Canning had shortly before gone up from Calcutta to Allahabad; and Sir Colin started off on the 8th to meet him. What these two representatives of British power agreed on during their interview, they of course kept to themselves; but every one felt the probability that some extensive scheme of policy, military and political, to be worked out by soldiers and civilians in unison, was discussed and mutually accepted. Returning again to Cawnpore, the commander-in-chief made the last arrangements for giving activity to the force which had been so slowly and with so much difficulty collected. Fain would many critics have censured the old general for delay; fain would they have urged that in two months he had only fought two battles – at Cawnpore and at Furruckabad – while the world was impatiently waiting to hear of the reconquest of Oude; but as he kept his own council with remarkable reticence, criticism gave way to a belief that there must have been good and sufficient cause for the caution which marked all his proceedings.

On or about the 11th of February, all the preparatory operations were completed, and an army, larger than any which had up to that time appeared against the rebels, began to cross the Ganges from Cawnpore into Oude. It had originally been intended to effect the crossing of a portion of the army at Futteghur; but Cawnpore was afterwards selected. The crossing was necessarily a slow and difficult one, on account of the vast impedimenta of an Indian army. To increase the facilities, a second bridge of boats was constructed. Even with this addition the passage across the Ganges lasted several days; for each bullock-cart carried but little. A small portion only of the ammunition, irrespective of all other equipage and baggage, required the services of fifteen hundred carts. The artillery was on an enormous scale; the siege-guns, the naval-brigade guns, the field-guns, and the horse-artillery guns, numbered not much less than two hundred in all. After crossing, the army distributed itself at certain places on the line of route from Cawnpore to Lucknow. For instance, on the 15th of the month, the head-quarters were still at Cawnpore; one portion of the army was encamped at Onao, one march from Cawnpore; another at Busherutgunje, a march and a half from Cawnpore; a third at Nawabgunge, two marches from Cawnpore; a fourth, under Outram, at the Alum Bagh; and a fifth at Sheorajpore, twenty miles from Cawnpore on the Allygurh road. Sir Colin himself still remained with head-quarters at Cawnpore – partly to provide for the safety of convoys of ladies and children passing down from Agra through Cawnpore to Allahabad; partly to await the entry into Oude, from the east, of the forces under Jung Bahadoor and Brigadier Franks; and partly to watch the proceedings of a large body of the enemy near Calpee, who were threatening again to overrun the Doab unless strongly held in check.

It may here usefully be stated that Sir Colin organised his Oudian army before any of the regiments began to cross into that province. As a permanent record of the component elements of that fine force, we give the details in a note at the end of the present chapter; but a summary may not be out of place here. The ‘army of Oude,’ as tabulated on the 10th of February, comprised such regiments and corps as were at that time under the more immediate command of Sir Colin Campbell; and took no account of the separate forces under Jung Bahadoor, Franks, Seaton, Macgregor, Windham, Inglis, Van Cortlandt, Rose, Stuart, Steuart, Orr, Whitlock, Greathed, Penny, M’Causland, Roberts, and other officers whose services were required elsewhere, or who had not reached the Oudian frontier at that date. The army of Oude, thus limited in its meaning, was systematically classified. There were three divisions of infantry, under Outram, Walpole, and a third general afterwards to be named. These were subdivided into six brigades, under Hamilton, Russell, Franklyn, Adrian Hope, Douglas, and Horsford – two brigades to each division. Each brigade was further divided into three regiments or battalions. The Queen’s regiments of infantry in the six brigades were the 5th, 23d, 34th, 38th, 42d, 53d, 78th, 79th, 84th, 90th, and 93d, and two battalions of the Rifle Brigade. The other infantry regiments were Company’s Europeans, Sikhs, and Punjaubees; the Goorkhas were in corps not yet incorporated in the army of Oude. A fourth division of infantry, under Franks, Wroughton, and Puhlwan Singh, was provided for, but did not at that time form a part of the army of Oude. The cavalry formed one division, under Hope Grant, and was separated into two brigades, under William Campbell and Little. The Queen’s cavalry regiments in this division were the 2d Dragoon Guards, the 7th Hussars, and the 9th Lancers; the other cavalry were Sikhs, Punjaubees, and a few volunteers and irregulars of miscellaneous origin. The artillery division, under Archdale Wilson (the conqueror of Delhi), comprised a field-artillery brigade under Wood, a siege-artillery brigade under Barker, a naval brigade under Peel, and an engineer brigade under Napier.