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

Not until the last day of February did the commander-in-chief cross over the Ganges, and take command of the army destined to besiege and finally capture the great city of Lucknow. Meanwhile Sir James Outram, at the Alum Bagh, had been daily in communication with the other officers, and had prepared detailed plans of everything relating to Lucknow and its defences, so far as he was acquainted with them. The engineers, too, had been busily engaged in preparing that vast store of siege-materials which is necessary for the attack of strongly defended fortifications.

What the army of Oude effected during the month of March, the next chapter will shew. Before quitting this part of the February operations, however, it may be well to notice episodically the remarkable connection between the newspaper press and the battle-field in recent times. In the great wars of former days, correspondents residing at the chief cities in foreign countries were wont to send such items of information as they could pick up to the editors of English newspapers; and military officers, cautiously and anonymously, sent occasional criticisms on the details of the battles in which they were engaged. It was left for the period of the Crimean war, however, to commence, or at least to perfect, a system by which a non-military writer is sent out at enormous expense, to join an army in the field or at a siege, to bear some danger and much privation, to see with his own eyes everything that can be seen, and to write such descriptions of the scenes as shall be intelligible to ordinary newspaper readers. Mr W. H. Russell, of the Times, gave an importance to such communications never before equalled, by the brilliant style in which he described the military operations in Bulgaria and the Crimea during the Russian war of 1854-5; and the system was ably carried out by special correspondents connected with the staff of some of the other London newspapers. When the Indian mutiny was half a year old, Mr Russell started from England, to do that for India which he had before done for the Crimea – mix in the turmoil of war, and describe battles in a graphic and vivid way. What he saw and what he did in February initiated him into many of the peculiarities of Indian life, when scenes of slaughter had not yet come under his notice. Leaving Calcutta on the 4th of February, he went like other travellers to Raneegunge by railway, and thence to Benares by gharry dâk – a four-wheeled, venetian-blinded, oblong vehicle, driven by a native with ‘mail post guard’ inscribed on his brass belt-plate, and drawn at the rate of seven miles an hour by a single horse, the horse being changed at post-houses at every few miles’ distance. On the way were troops going up with great regularity, travelling 35 miles per day in bullock-carts, and supplied with comfortable meals and sleeping-places at the dâk-bungalows. Travelling thus by way of Burdwan, Nimeaghat, Sheergotty, and Noubutpore, he arrived at Benares; this city, ‘long, straggling, and Turkish looking,’ was completely commanded by a new fort at Rajghat, built since the troubles of the preceding summer. Thence to Allahabad the fields were rich with corn, and the roads thronged by natives and trains of bullock-hackeries laden with cotton for the Benares and Mirzapore markets. Arrived at Allahabad, Mr Russell commenced his camp-life, messing generally with some of the officers, and sleeping under a tent. Viscount Canning and his suite were at that time living under canvas within the fort; while all around were evidences of military preparation for the English regiments sent up from Calcutta. Thence he travelled for fifty miles by the second portion of the great trunk-railway. The rebels in the preceding June had attacked the locomotives in an extraordinary way, if his account is to be taken as anything more than mere raillery: ‘They fired musketry at the engines for some time at a distance, as if they were living bodies; then advanced cautiously, and finding that the engines did not stir, began to belabour them with sticks, all the time calling them names and abusing them.’ By horse-dâk Mr Russell proceeded through Futtehpoor to Cawnpore, where he, like all others, was struck with astonishment that poor Sir Hugh Wheeler’s ‘intrenchment’ could ever have held out so long as it did. Sir Colin Campbell was then at Cawnpore, living in a small subaltern’s tent, working incessantly, and provided with an amount of personal ‘baggage’ so marvellously small as to shew how little the old soldier regarded luxuries. Mr Russell remained at Cawnpore till the 27th, when he joined the army in the march towards Lucknow. He had provided, in true Indian fashion, for the carriage of himself and baggage, a saddle-horse, a horse-gharry, and four camels. His account of the preparations for his march is not only amusing from the way in which it is told, but is instructive on matters relating to travelling in India.126 The end of February found Mr Russell, a civilian immersed in all the bustle of an army, ready to see and hear whatever the month of March should present to his attention.

Leaving for the present the commander-in-chief and his army, we shall briefly trace the operations, so far as they occurred in the month of February, of such of his generals as were employed in duties away from his immediate control and supervision.

Sir James Outram at once presents claims for notice; for though appointed general of one of the divisions of the army of Oude, he held an independent command until the month had expired. During more than three months this distinguished officer had never seen Sir Colin Campbell; during more than five months he had never once been away from the vicinity of Lucknow and the Alum Bagh. He marched with Havelock and Neill from Cawnpore to the capital of Oude in September, and relieved or rather reinforced Inglis; he commanded the British Residency at Lucknow during October, with Havelock and Inglis as his subordinates; he aided Sir Colin to effect the ‘rescue’ in November; and then he commanded at the Alum Bagh throughout the whole of December, January, and February. What he did in the first two of these months, we have seen in former chapters; what were his military proceedings in February, a few lines will suffice to shew.

Whether the enemy supposed that, by another attack on the Alum Bagh, they might disturb the extensive plans of the British; whether they were influenced by a sudden impulse to achieve a limited success; or whether another motive existed, presently to be mentioned – they fought another battle with Sir James Outram, and received their usual defeat. On the morning of the 21st of February, no less than 20,000 of the enemy attacked the Alum Bagh. Having filled all the trenches with as many men as they could hold, and placed large masses of infantry in the topes as a support, they commenced a simultaneous movement round both flanks of Outram’s position – threatening at the same time the whole length of front, the northeast corner of the Alum Bagh, and the picket and fort at Jelalabad. Outram, perceiving at a glance the nature of the attack, strengthened the several endangered points. At the Alum Bagh and Jelalabad posts the enemy received a severe check, having come within range of the grape-shot which the British poured out upon them. He detached about 250 cavalry, and two field-pieces, under Captain Barrow, to the rear of Jelalabad; here Barrow came suddenly upon 2000 of the enemy’s cavalry, and 5000 infantry, whom he kept at bay so effectually with his two field-guns, that they were quite frustrated in their intended scheme of attack. The enemy’s attack on Outram’s left flank was made by no fewer than 5000 cavalry and 8000 infantry. To oppose these he sent only four field-guns and 120 men of the military train, under Major Robertson; but this mere handful of men, with the guns, drove away the enemy. A large convoy was at the time on the road from Cawnpore; and the escort for this convoy had taken away most of Outram’s cavalry. It is not surprising that the enemy should select such a time for attacking the Alum Bagh and endeavouring to intercept the convoy; but it is certainly a matter for wonder that such a large army should suffer itself to be beaten by a few hundred men. The casualty-list, too, was as surprising as anything else; for Outram had only 9 wounded and none killed; whereas the enemy’s loss was adverted to in the following terms: ‘The reports from the city state the enemy to have lost 60 killed and 200 wounded in their attack on the Alum Bagh, and about 80 or 90 killed in front of Jelalabad. This was exclusive of their loss on the left flank, and along our front, where our heavy artillery had constant opportunities of firing shell and shrapnel into the midst of their moving masses. I consider their loss to have been heavier than on any of their previous attacks.’ At this very time the bulk of Sir Colin’s army was approaching the Alum Bagh; the enemy well knew that fact, and had only been induced to hazard the attack on the 21st by the temporary absence of some of Outram’s troops. The attack having failed, they hastened back to strengthen their defensive arrangements at Lucknow.

It may now be well to notice what was doing eastward of Oude. The strong Goorkha force under Jung Bahadoor, and the effective column of miscellaneous troops under Brigadier Franks, had greatly improved the condition of that portion of country which lay between Oude and Lower Bengal, around the cities and stations of Patna, Dinapoor, Arrah, Buxar, Ghazeepore, Azimghur, Goruckpore, Jounpoor, Benares, and Mirzapore. Mutineers there were, and marauders connected with rebel chieftains; but their audacity, except in the immediate vicinity of Oude, was checked by the increasing power of the forces brought to bear against them.

Brigadier Franks, one of the most energetic and admired of the officers whom the wars of the mutiny brought forth, had since the month of December commanded a column called the Jounpoor Field-force, which had been employed in chastising and expelling bodies of rebels from the Azimghur, Allahabad, and Jounpoor districts. During these operations, he had defeated the enemy at many places. The time was now approaching when Franks was to join Sir Colin in the final operations against Lucknow; and when his Jounpoor field-force, losing its individuality, was to form the fourth division of infantry in the army of Oude, with Franks as its general of division. That change, however, was not likely to occur until the month of March had arrived. About the middle of February he was with his force at Budleepore, a town on the route from Jounpoor to Sultanpore in Oude. His force comprised H.M. 10th, 20th, and 97th regiments, six regiments of Goorkhas, and twenty guns. Colonel Puhlwan Singh commanded the Goorkhas, and Colonel Maberley the artillery. The force was a strong one, containing 2300 Europeans and 3200 Goorkhas, and an excellent park of guns. There was one month’s provisions collected; and Franks was awaiting the orders of Sir Colin for an advance into Oude. Colonel Wroughton was with him, having no distinct military command, but acting as a medium of communication between Franks and Puhlwan Singh; being familiar with the Goorkhas, his services were valuable in giving such instructions to the Nepaulese auxiliaries as would enable them to understand and obey the orders of the brigadier.

Although placed in an expectant attitude, until he could receive instructions from Sir Colin, and until he heard of Jung Bahadoor’s crossing of the frontier into Oude, Brigadier Franks was quite ripe for an encounter with the enemy whenever and wherever he could meet with them. They gave him an opportunity before the month was out, and he made ample use of it. He crossed the frontier into Oude near Singramow, on the 19th, and received speedy proof that a very large body of the enemy was before him – ordered, apparently, by the self-appointed authorities at Lucknow, to prevent him from approaching that city. Franks, however, cleverly deceiving the rebel leader, Nazim Mahomed Hossein, attacked his army in detail, first at Chandah and then at Humeerpoor. The section of the rebels at Chandah, under Bunda Hossein, comprised among other troops the mutinous sepoys of the 20th, 28th, 48th, and 71st Bengal native regiments. Franks attacked them in a strong position. They were in the fort and intrenchments, and crowning a long row of hillocks in front of the town; every neighbouring tope and village was full of them. Nevertheless he defeated them, and captured six of their guns. Giving his troops only a very brief rest, he marched on to Humeerpoor, two or three miles distant, on that same evening, and attacked a still larger force under the Nazim himself. The defeat was equally significant. ‘Our Enfield rifles did it all,’ wrote one of the English officers. The enemy retreated during the night, and Franks and his brave men bivouacked, after having, in the two engagements, inflicted a loss on their opponents of six guns and 800 men killed and wounded. The brigadier himself had been in the saddle fifteen hours on this severe day. After resting on the 20th, Franks and his opponent the Nazim, the one at Humeerpoor and the other at Warree, sought which should be the first to obtain possession of the pass, jungle, and fort of Badshaigunje. By a forced march, the English brigadier outmanœuvred the Nazim, gained the fort, and waited till reinforcements could reach him. The two forces came in sight of each other again on the 23d, by which time the Nazim and Bunda Hossein had swelled their motley army to no less than 25,000 men, comprising 5000 revolted sepoys, 1100 sowars, and the rest rabble; having with them 25 guns. The result of this encounter was a severe battle, fought near Sultanpore. The enemy had taken up a very wide position; their centre resting on the old cantonment and sepoy lines, thence extending through villages and topes, and screened in front by hillocks and nullahs. Franks turned the enemy’s right by a detour, drew them into a hot struggle, and won a complete victory. No less than 1800 insurgents were killed and wounded, including two or three rebel chieftains. The victors captured twenty pieces of artillery, and the whole of the enemy’s standing camp, baggage, ammunition, &c. The result of this battle was that the enemy were frustrated in the attempt to check the advance of Franks into Oude; he found the roads to Lucknow and Fyzabad entirely open to him. If he had had cavalry, he would have pursued and cut up the enemy in retreat; but 250 horse, long and anxiously expected from Allahabad, did not arrive at Sultanpore until the day after the battle. These three actions, two on the 19th and one on the 23d, were marked by that anomaly which the military operations in India so often exhibited – the disparity between the losses on the two sides. Nothing but a full trust in the truthfulness of a gallant officer would render credible the fact that, after conflicts in which 2600 of the enemy were killed and wounded, the conqueror could write as follows: ‘I am proud to announce that, through the glorious conduct of the officers and men of this force, European and Nepaulese, I have been enabled by manœuvring to achieve these brilliant results with the loss on our side, in all three actions, of only 2 men killed and 16 wounded’ – and this, be it remembered, in contesting against four times his own numbers.

While this Jounpoor field-force was thus actively engaged, a small body of English sailors were slowly advancing by another route into Oude. Ever active to be up and doing, a band of about 250 tars, belonging to the steam-frigate Pearl, were delighted at being formed into a naval brigade, and offered a chance of meeting and well belabouring the ‘Pandies.’ Under Captain Sotheby, they were sent up the river Gogra in the Company’s steamer Jumna. They embarked near Dinapoor, and disembarked on the 20th at Nowraine, twenty miles short of Fyzabad. The enemy had two forts at that place, both of which were speedily taken, together with guns and ammunition, and the enemy driven away with great loss. Jung Bahadoor, with his Nepaulese contingent, was at the time not far distant; and Colonel Rowcroft, with 2000 Goorkhas, aided in the attack.

The proceedings of the Nepaulese leader must now be noticed. The English officers frequently, though cautiously, complained of the slowness of his movements; and Sir Colin Campbell was becoming impatient for his appearance near the great scene of conflict at Lucknow. He had been many weeks in the region around Goruckpore, with a fine army of 9000 Goorkhas; and though he had aided in putting down many bands of insurgents, it was now hoped that he would at once advance towards the centre of Oude. This he did, but not rapidly, during the month of February.

On the 26th, while Jung Bahadoor and Brigadier Macgregor were on the march from Mobarukhpoor to Ukberpoor, on the way to Fyzabad, they learned that a small body of rebels were in a fort at Berozepoor. A portion of the body-guard went to the place, and relied on a promise made by the rebels that they would evacuate the fort in forty minutes. Instead of departing, the enemy prepared for a defence; and a desperate fight ensued around a small fort distinguished by much novelty of construction. The fort was so completely surrounded by an impenetrable hedge of bamboos, that the besiegers were in much doubt concerning the nature of the defences within. At one place they were stopped by a ditch, at another by a high mud-wall and bastion, at another by a row of lofty bamboo-stakes. The place being very small, an attempt was made to storm it by assault; but so many were the obstacles, that a clearance by cannonade became necessary; and it was not until after much artillery firing, and much loss of life, that the fort was captured. So peculiar was the construction of the place, that Captain Holland was obliged to drag a 6-pounder gun through a bamboo-fence and an outer ditch, before he could breach a mud-wall which had until then been invisible. It was certainly no small achievement, in a military point of view, for the enemy to have constructed a fort entirely novel to the besiegers, and capable of being defended for several hours by less than forty men against many hundreds. When all was over, Brigadier Macgregor, wishing to know something more of the nature and construction of this little fort of Berozepoor, requested Lieutenant Sankey, of the Madras Engineers, to examine and report thereon – seeing that there might be like forts elsewhere, with which it would be well to be familiar. Near the village of Berozepoor, then, the fort was built. It was only sixty feet square, with circular bastions at the angles, and a banquette just within the parapet on which musketeers might stand. The mud-rampart was fifteen feet above the level of the ground, very thick at the bottom and loopholed for musketry at the top. It was surrounded by a ditch, this again by a belt of high bamboos, which was in turn encircled by another ditch ten or twelve feet deep. A row of newly planted bamboo slips, eight or ten feet high, was placed on the immediate lip of the counterscarp of the outer ditch. Lieutenant Sankey said in his report: ‘Viewed from the outside, nothing very suspicious or formidable was discoverable about the place. It had all the appearance of an ordinary clump of bamboos at the corner of a village; which latter, like all inhabited places in this part of the country, was very well screened in foliage.’ He found it, however, ‘a very hedgehog of fortification. Nothing could be more difficult of approach; every portion bristling with thorns, and intercepted by ditches and banks.’

A little must now be said concerning a few isolated operations, belonging to the month of February, near the Jumna and the Ganges, in which Seaton, Maxwell, and Hope Grant were concerned. Colonel Seaton, at the close of the month, was at Mahomedabad, a few miles distant from Futteghur. He had with him a detachment of the 82d foot, 300 of De Kantzow’s horse, 350 of De Kantzow’s foot, and 40 Sikh troopers. After waiting for the arrival of the 4th Punjaub infantry, the 3d Europeans, Alexander’s Horse, and nine guns, he was enabled to organise an efficient column for chastising the rebels in a number of villages around Futteghur. Those operations, however, scarcely commenced until the month of March.

Colonel Maxwell had the gratification of defeating a body of insurgents who had for a long time given much anxiety to the British officers – anxiety arising from a doubt concerning the plans and movements of the insurgents. The Gwalior mutineers are here alluded to. They did not allow the month to pass away wholly without giving signs of activity; though those signs were few and unimportant. Colonel Maxwell, commanding a detachment sent out from Cawnpore, suddenly found himself attacked on the 4th by the mutineers, who marched from Calpee to his camp at Bhogneepore. The broken nature of the ground, the cover of the crops, and the dimness of the light at five o’clock on a winter’s morning, prevented Maxwell from forming a correct estimate of numbers; but he had every reason for believing them to be in great strength. He could only bring against them five companies of H.M. 88th foot, 50 troopers, and 2 guns; yet with this small force he maintained a running-fight for four hours. The enemy disputed every inch of the ground, making a stand at Chowra, a place three or four miles distant from the camp. He pursued them until they retreated across a small river, keeping up the fire of their skirmishers to the very last. It is difficult to understand what could have been the nature of the enemy’s fire; for while, after the battle, the bodies of eighty rebels were found dead upon the field, Colonel Maxwell recorded only five wounded (none killed) in his own little force. Among the wounded was Lieutenant Thompson, one of the few who escaped alive from Cawnpore.

About the middle of February, it became known that bodies of the enemy were in motion near the fords or ghats on the left bank of the Ganges, between Futteghur and Cawnpore, ready for any mischief that might present itself. To clear away these rebels, a movable column was organised, consisting of H.M. 34th, 38th, and 53d regiments, squadrons of the 7th Hussars and 9th Lancers, squadrons of Hodson’s Horse and Watson’s Horse, a company of Sappers and Miners, and a few guns. This column was to start from the main Lucknow road at a point near Bunnee, and to proceed on a line inclining towards the Ganges at such an angle as to sweep the rebels towards the west, where, at present, they would be less mischievous than if near the banks of the river. Sir Hope Grant took command of this column, which consisted of 3246 men (2240 infantry, 636 cavalry, 326 artillery, and 44 native Sappers). One of his achievements with this column consisted in the storming and capture of the town of Meeangunje or Meagunje, on the 23d of February. In the course of his various marchings, he learned that a body of the enemy had taken up a strong position at Meeangunje, a town between Lucknow and Futteghur. They had 2000 infantry in the town, 300 cavalry outside, and five or six guns. Hope Grant’s force being stronger than theirs, a victory was naturally to be expected, although the position was a strong one. Meeangunje was surrounded by a stone wall fourteen feet high, and had three strong gates, opening into the Lucknow, Cawnpore, and Rohilcund roads respectively; there were also numerous bastions on all sides. At each of the gates the enemy placed guns behind strong breastworks, and the breastworks themselves were covered by trees. After a careful reconnoitring, Grant found a weak point on the fourth side of the town, where he could bring two heavy guns within three or four hundred yards of the wall, at a place where a postern-gate pierced it. Telling off part of his force to command the Lucknow road, another part to the Rohilcund road, and the rest to await behind a village the result of the cannonading, he opened fire. In less than an hour, the two heavy guns made a practicable breach in the wall. Grant at once ordered H.M. 53d to advance to the assault. The regiment separated into two wings, one of which, after entering the breach, proceeded under Colonel English through the left of the town; while the other, under Major Payne, penetrated to the right. This work was admirably done; the infantry advancing through a labyrinth of lanes, and driving the enemy before them at every yard. The town was captured, and with it six guns. The enemy, in endeavouring to escape by the several gates, were killed or captured to the number of nearly a thousand altogether. Here occurred another of those inexplicable anomalies already adverted to; Sir Hope Grant, in language too distinct to be misinterpreted, stated that his loss was only 2 killed and 19 wounded.