A.D. 1857.] REPEATED ATTACKS UPON LUCKNOW. front of the breach. The explosion was followed by a general assault of a less determined nature than the two former efforts, and the enemy were consequently repulsed without much difficulty. But they succeeded, under cover of the breach, in establishing themselves in one of the houses in our position, from which they were driven in the evening by the bayonets of Her Majesty's 32nd and 84th Foot." The enemy made one more serious assault, this time on the 5th of September. He sprung two mines in succession, and strove to storm into the place. He brought up scaling ladders, and tried to mount, but could not stand against the fire of musketry and the explosion of hand grenades. On this, as on other occasions, he was routed with immense slaughter. But these actions were not what the garrison had most to dread. The glory of the defence did not lie in these fierce combats, but in the unfaltering fortitude which enabled all to bear the incessant fire; the daily losses; the horrid stench; the ever-present dread of mines; the absence of the common conveniences of life; the want of a knowledge of the events occurring in the outer world; the fear lest all the natives should desert. The unceasing cannonade knocked down the walls, and tore through and through some of the buildings. It seemed as if, by sheer force of heavy shot, the enemy would level the defences in one common ruin. But it is astonishing what an amount of cannonading a clump of well-built houses will bear. The enemy, fortunately, did not possess a good supply of shells, so that the arrival of these destructive missiles was comparatively rare. We had shells, but no howitzer to fire them from, and to supply this want, Lieutenant Bonham ingeniously rigged a carriage for a mortar It was called "the ship," and did good service in horizontal shell firing. The history of the mining operations is not the least remarkable. The enemy was ever employed in digging and mining all round the place, and hence we were compelled to countermine. Shafts were sunk and galleries run out in the direction of the enemy's mines, that direction being discovered by close observation above, and intense listening under-ground. In this work, very severe, the Sikhs and Hindostanees behaved extremely well. As there was more skill in the garrison than in the rebel army, so the former were more fortunate in their mines. But the eloquent report of Brigadier Inglis contains at once the most authentic and most touching account of the sufferings and endurance of this illustrious garrison, and we cannot do better than quote it. Had it not been, he says, "for the most untiring vigilance on our part, in watching and blowing up their mines before they were completed, the assaults would probably have been much more numerous, and might, perhaps, have ended in the apture of the place. But by countermining in all directions, we succeeded in detecting and destroying no less than four of the enemy's subterraneous advances towards important positions, two of which operations were eminently successful, as on one occasion not less 477 than eighty of them were blown into the air, and twenty suffered a similar fate on the second explosion. The labour, however, which devolved upon us in making these countermines, in the absence of a body of skilled miners, was very heavy. The Right Honourable the Governor-General, in Council, will feel that it would be impossible to crowd within the limits of a dispatch even the principal events, much more the individual acts of gallantry, which have marked this protracted struggle. But I can conscientiously declare my conviction, that few troops have ever undergone greater hardships, exposed as they have been to a never-ceasing musketry fire and cannonade. They have also experienced the alternate vicissitudes of extreme wet and intense heat, and that, too, with very insufficient shelter from either, and in many places without any shelter at all. In addition to having to repel real attacks, they have been exposed night and day to the hardly less harassing false alarms which the enemy have been constantly raising. The insurgents have frequently fired very heavily, sounded the advance, and shouted for several hours together, though not a man could be seen, with the view, of course, of harassing our small and exhausted force, in which object they succeeded; for no post has been strong enough to allow of a portion only of the garrison being prepared in the event of a false attack being turned into a real one. All, therefore, had to stand to their arms, and to remain at their posts until the demonstration had ceased; and such attacks were of almost nightly occurrence. The whole of the officers and men have been on duty night and day during the eighty-seven days which the siege had lasted up to tho arrival of Sir J. Outram, G. C. B. In addition to this incessant military duty, the force has been nightly employed in repairing defences, in moving guns, in burying dead animals, in conveying ammunition and' commissariat stores from one place to another, and in fatigue duties too numerous and too trivial to enumerate here. I feel, however, that any words of mine will fail to convey any adequate idea of what our fatigue and labours have been-labours in which all ranks and all classes, civilians, officers, and soldiers, have all borne an equally noble part. All have together descended into the mine; all have together handled the shovel for the interment of the putrid bullock; and all, accoutred with musket and bayonet, have relieved each other on sentry without regard to the distinctions of rank, civil or military. Notwithstanding all these hardships, the garrison has made no less than five sorties, in which they spiked two of the enemy's heaviest guns, and blew up several of the houses from which they had kept up the most harassing fire. Owing to the extreme paucity of our numbers, each man was taught to feel that on his own individual efforts alone depended in no small measure the safety of the entire position. This consciousness incited every officer, soldier, and man to defend the post assigned to him with such desperate tenacity, and fight for the lives which Providence had intrusted to his care with such dauntless determination, that the enemy, despite their constant attacks, their heavy mines, their families were consequently left without the services of a single domestic. Several ladies have had to tend their children, and even to wash their own clothes, as well as to cook their scanty meals, entirely unaided. Combined with the absence of servants, the want of proper accommodation has probably been the cause of much of the disease with which we have been afflicted. I cannot refrain from bringing to the prominent notico of his Lordship in Council the patient endurance and the Christian resignation which have been evinced by the women of this garrison. They have animated us by their example. Many, alas! have been made widows and their children fatherless, in this cruel struggle. But all such seem resigned to the will of Providence, and many-among whom may be mentioned the honoured names of Birch, of Polehampton, of Barbor, and of Gall— have, after the example of Miss Nightingale, constituted themselves the tender and solicitous nurses of the wounded and dying soldiers in the hospital." It was on the 22nd of September that the garrison got news of the coming relieving force. On that evening the faithful and intrepid Ungud arrived with a letter from Sir James Outram, announcing that he had crossed the Ganges on the 19th, and would soon be in Lucknow. To account for the appearance of this army, we must go back to the period when we left Havelock after his victory over the mutineers at Bithoor in August. overwhelming numbers, and their incessant fire, could never succeed in gaining one inch of ground within the hounds of this straggling position, which was so feebly fortified that had they once obtained a footing in any of the outposts, the whole place must inevitably have fallen. If further proof be wanting of the desperate nature of tho struggle which we have, undor God's blessing, so long and so successfully waged, I would point to the roofless and ruined houses, to the crumbled walls, to the exploded mines, to the open breaches, to the shattered and disabled guns and defences, and lastly to the long and melancholy list of the brave and devoted officers and men who have fallen. These silent witnesses bear sad and solemn testimony to the way in which this feeble position has been defended. During the early part of these vicissitudes, we were left without any information whatever regarding the posture of affairs outside. An occasional spy did, indeed, come in, with the object of inducing our Sepoys and servants to desert; but the intelligence derived from such sources was, of course, entirely untrustworthy. We sent our messengers daily, calling for aid and asking for information, none of whom ever returned, until the twenty-sixth day of the siege, when a pensioner, named Ungud, came back, with a letter from General Havelock's camp, informing us that they were advancing with a force sufficient to bear down all opposition, and would be with us in five or six days. A messenger was immediately dispatched, Sir Colin Campbell had just arrived in Calcutta. When requesting that on the evening of their arrival on the the news of General Anson's death reached London, the outskirts of the city, two rockets might be sent up, name of only one man occurred to the Duke of Camin order that we might take the necessary measures for bridge, as that of a soldier fit to restore to us an empire assisting them in forcing their way in. The sixth day, in the East. By a sort of instinct, in moments of real however, expired, and they came not; but for many peril, nations select their commanders; and when the evenings after officers and men watched for the ascen-Duke of Cambridge sent for Sir Colin Campbell, he only sion of the expected rockets, with hopes such as make anticipated the national choice of a fit leader. The scene the heart sick. We knew not then, nor did we learn at the Horse Guards was characteristic. The Duke until the 29th of August, or thirty-five days later, that offered the command of the Indian army to the veteran, the relieving force, after having fought most nobly to who but a few months before was simply a colonel. Sir effect our deliverance, had been obliged to fall back for Colin accepted the appointment, and when he was asked reinforcements; and this was the last communication we how soon he would be ready to start, he replied-in fourreceived until two days before the arrival of Sir James and-twenty hours. He was as good as his word, and Outram on September 25th. Besides heavy visitations of embarking for India at once, arrived in Calcutta on the cholera and small-pox, we have also had to contend 13th of August, two months and a half after the death against a sickness which has almost universally per- of Anson. But the army he was to command was slowly vaded the garrison. Commencing with a very painful steaming and sailing round the Cape of Good Hope. eruption, it has merged into a low fever, combined with The French Emperor had offered to our Government free diarrhoea; and although few or no men have actually passage for troops through France, but we had not died from its effects, it leaves behind a weakness and become so humiliated as a nation as to be in a position lassitude which, in the absence of all material susten- to accept that offer. Many persons urged the Govern ance, save coarse beef and still coarser flour, none have ment to send the Indian reinforcements through Egypt been able entirely to get over. The mortality among the as if Egypt were our own. Had the Government done women and children, and especially among the latter, so, an evil precedent would have been set; for the from these diseases and from other causes, has been, French would have been only too happy to avail themperhaps, the most characteristic of the siege. The want selves of an example which would have made Egypt a of native servants has also been a source of much priva- sort of neutral highway; and which might have been tion. Owing to the suddenness with which we were used to serve ambitious purposes, and have led to the besieged, many of these people, who might perhaps have occupation of Egypt by a French army, which it would otherwise proved faithful to their employers, but who have required a war to expel. Therefore the Governwere outside of the defences at the time, were altogether ment wisely sent the troops by the sea route. excluded. Very many more deserted, and several As soon as he heard of Sir Colin's arrival.. Havelock A.D. 1857.] POSITION OF HAVELOCK'S ARMY. reported to him, and begged that he might be reinforced. The Indian Government, however, had taken the unusual step of superseding Havelock by Sir James Outram, and left the former to learn his supersession from the columns of the Calcutta Gazette. Havelock felt this keenly, but he was a good soldier, and did not complain. His friends supplied the required amount of indignation, and his biographers, from excusable motives, have not failed to censure the Government. It cannot, however, be contended that there was anything unfit in placing over Havelock the man under whom he had so recently served in Persia. The position of Havelock at Cawnpore was one of great peril; enemies were accumulating all around him. There was a mutinous force at Futtehpore, above; the Gwalior contingent, kept inactive by the skill of Scindia and his able minister, Dinkur Rao, nevertheless threatened to move on Calpee. The Oude insurgents had occupied the abandoned position at Mungulwar, and scouring the left bank of the Ganges, threatened to strike at his line of communications with Allahabad. Agra, it must be remembered, was beset. Delhi, it should be borne in mind, had not been taken; indeed, Nicholson had only just entered the camp with the moveable column. Central India was ablaze with mutiny. To hold Cawnpore we had not more than 1,000 men. Deducting the force required to guard an entrenched position covering the point of passage over the river, and a hundred men sent down the Ganges in a steamer to destroy the boats collected on the Oude bank for an inroad into the Doab at Futtehpore, Havelock could only muster 685 Europeans. Thus it was impossible that he could act in the field. Indeed, at the end of August he was forced to contemplate the fatal step of retreating on Allahabad, unless he were speedily reinforced. These views he laid before Sir Colin, for the telegraph enabled them to hold a rapid correspondence. Now, there were troops in Behar, the 5th and 90th; but the civil authorities had got hold of these, and had kept them for their own protection at various points between Benares and Allahabad. Sir Colin saw the folly of splitting up these regiments into detachments; but so cager was every civil servant for a company of Britons, that it required the most energetic efforts on the part of the Commander-in-Chief to employ his army as he thought fit. He succeeded, and Havelock learned, to his great delight, that the 5th and 90th Foot had been ordered to proceed at once to Allahabad. Thus set at rest on this vital point, Havelock began to prepare for a march into Oude, equipping a powerful train of artillery, but being obliged to draw on his infantry both for gunners and for horsemen. 479 act him. Moreover, Sir James Outram conceived a new plan of campaign-a march up the Gogra or Goomtee, combined with the advance of Havelock from Cawnpore, instead of the dash of a single column from Cawnpore on Lucknow. To this both Sir Colin and Lord Canning were opposed, and when Sir James Outram heard that Havelock could not hold Cawnpore unless reinforced, he gave up his own views at once, and set his face towards Cawnpore. At the same time he apprised Havelock of his approach, and told his old comrede in arms that he would not supersede him. "I shall join you with reinforcements," so ran his message; "but to you shall be left the glory of relieving Lucknow, for which you have already struggled so much. I shall accompany you as civil commissioner, placing my military service at your disposal, should you please [to accept it], serving under you as a volunteer." On the 1st of September Outram had reached Allahabad; but, as all his soldiers had not come up, he could not start until the 5th, when he led 1,450 men forward on the road to Cawnpore. Intending to move rapidly-for the danger at Lucknow, he had been assured, was most pressing-he made a forced march; but so many soldiers sank down on the way, that he reduced the length of each day's journey, in order that he might bring in his men fresh and well. Outram's column had reached Aong, the scene of one of Havelock's victories, when news arrived that a force from Oude had crossed the Ganges, the forerunner of a regular irruption, intent on intercepting our communications. Sir James saw at once how necessary it would be to put a stop to that, and he detached Major Eyre, already known to us, at the head of 150 men, two guns, and forty native troopers, under Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Charles Havelock, to attack and destroy the invaders. Eyre put his infantry on elephants, and, making a rapid march, came upon the enemy at daybreak. Detaching his horsemen, to keep them in play, and urging on his elephants, he found, on arriving, that the enemy had fled to his boats, and that the cavalry were gallantly engaging him, and holding him to the shore. The infantry went briskly into action, and tho guns were brought to bear. The Oude men were smitten with terror, and bundling into the river, tried to escape by swimming. So deadly was the fire of grape and musketry that only three men out of the host succeeded in recrossing the Ganges. This was a deadly blow, and left a deep impression. Another body had come over, four miles above, and Eyre at once turned upon them; but they had got news of the slaughter of their comrades, and before Eyre could strike them, they had swept back into Oude. Eyre then made a forced march, and joined Sir James at Futtehpore. But these reinforcements did not arrive very quickly. To this swift and sharp blow the Lower Doab was As soon as he assumed command, Sir Colin Campbell indebted for future security. The Oude borderers did not requested General Outram to push on the 5th and 90th again get within reach by attempting to molest the roads to Allahabad, together with all the detachments avail- in our rear. Sir James Outram reached Cawnpore on able, as fast as possible. The 90th had no sooner started the evening of the 15th, and with him came the last of than the civilians called them back. Then Koer Singh the reinforcements. The two chiefs now had all the reappeared in the field, and part of the troops destined men they could possibly obtain. Brigadier Inglis had for Cawnpore had to be detained to watch and counter-named the 21st of September as the day he could hold out to. There was no time to be lost. Indeed, Have-bridge over the Sye unbroken, and they encamped on lock had already began to take measures for the recon- the opposite bank. On the 23rd, ten miles from the struction of his bridge of boats, a work intrusted to the Sye, they found the enemy in position at Alumbagh. skilful hands of Captain Crommelin. This was a large park or garden, devised as a pleasaunce for one of the favourite wives of a former King of Oude. The park was enclosed by a wall, with turrets at each angle; it was entered by a handsome gateway, and contained a large palace. Hitherto Sir James had only privately notified his intention not to deprive Havelock of his command. Now, on the 16th of September, in a general order, become famous, Sir James Outram told his soldiers that the honour of relieving Lucknow was due to Brigadier- The enemy had brought up 10,000 men, including General Havelock, and, "therefore, in gratitude for, 1,500 horse from Lucknow, and supported them with and admiration of, the brilliant deeds in arms achieved many guns. Part of his front was covered by a morass, by General Havelock and his gallant troops," he, Sir his centro stood across the road, and his left was in the James Outram, would cheerfully waive his rank, and Alumbagh. In order to get at him, the whole column serve as a volunteer until Lucknow was relieved. Well had to move along his front under fire, having the water might Sir Colin Campbell say, "Seldom, perhaps never, of the swamp between it and the foe. But when once has it occurred to a Commander-in-Chief to publish and this obstacle was surmounted, and it became possible to confirm such an order." All the civilised world thrilled open with heavy guns, both artillery and cavalry fell with admiration of the conduct of Outram; but those away to the rear in some confusion. One gun alone who knew the man, rightly called the Bayard of India, remained. Its gunners were gallant, well-trained expected from him nothing less than this act of disin-regulars, and they went through their work without terested generosity. Outram and Havelock were old flinching. Suddenly a little band of horse swept down friends, not likely to deprive each other of glory. But upon them, and closing in, cut them down. It was Lieuthe incident is not the less touching and rare. It is the tenant Johnson and his native irregulars. He was now most brilliant, because the purest, act in the eventful more than half a mile in front of our line, and of course story of 1857; so full of heroism, so abounding in noble could not keep the gun, but the enemy did not go near instances of valour, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. it again. However he put two pieces into the Alumbagh, making holes in the wall, to serve as embrasures. This stood him in no stead, for the 5th Foot charged him, and drove him out of the garden and palace. We captured five guns, and pressed the enemy back upon Lucknow, with the Volunteer Horse at his heels. The troops prepared to bivouac and wait for their baggage; and had just taken up position, when Sir James Outram informed them that, on the 14th, the British had broken into Delhi-cheering news, which our soldiers received with loud shouts. The bridge was established in three days, the enemy watching the operation supinely from Mungulwar. Leaving 400 men to guard the entrenchment at Cawnpore, Havelock crossed the river on the 19th, with 2,388 infantry, 109 volunteer cavalry, and 282 artillerymen, all Europeans. There were, besides, 341 Sikh soldiers, and 59 native troopers. The European infantry was made up of six regiments-the 64th, 84th, 78th, 5th, 90th, and the Madras Fusiliers. The artillery consisted of two 9-pounder batteries, under Maude and Olpherts, and a heavy battery-to wit, four 24-pounders, and two 8-inch howitzers, 18 guns-under Vincent Eyre. This force had been got together from Burmah, Ceylon, Madras, Bombay, and the Mauritius, one regiment, the 90th, being part of the force intended for operations in China. These details show the straits to which we were put in 1857. Thus Havelock crossed the Ganges with 3,179 men and 18 guns, confident that, if he arrived in time, he should save the noble Lucknow garrison. The heavy guns and stores for thirteen days were carried over the bridge on the 20th, and on the 21st the army began its march in two brigades, the first under General Neill, the second under Colonel Hamilton, of the 78th. The progress of the force was far more rapid than that of Havelock when he first crossed into Oude. Moving upon Mungulwar, he found the enemy posted there with six guns. Mindful of former defeats, the enemy made no stand, and being started from cover by the infantry and guns, were chased by Outram with the volunteer horse as far as Busherutgunge, where two guns, much ammunition, and a standard were captured. The whole force came up the same night, and slept on the scene of Havelock's three brilliant combats. The next day the troops marched fifteen miles. They found the Havelock was now in actual contact with the assailants of the garrison in Lucknow. He was within sight of the goal he had done so much to reach. It had been comparatively easy to defeat the enemy in the open field. The task of breaking into Lucknow, through its tortuous lanes and mighty buildings, was far more arduous. It had to bo undertaken with resolution, but also with circumspection: it was needful to temper daring with craft. On the night of the 23rd, for instance, the general had posted his men on a ridge, a little in advance of the left front of Alumbagh, because the high ground was drier than the low ground, and for two nights the rain had fallen in torrents. But at dawn it was found that the ridge was within range of guns hidden in the trees which fringe the suburbs of the city; and so precise was the fire of the enemy that the whole line had to be withdrawn, and formed a thousand yards to the rear on the interior slope. The pickets were posted in an enclosure a mile in front of the line, which' faced down the road to the Charbagh Bridge, over a canal which covers the south and south-east front of the city. Havelock determined to rest his men on the 24th, and to their great comfort tents were pitched in the forenoon. But they had scarcely been set up ere a dashing body of A.D. 1857.] GENERAL HAVELOCK'S PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. mutineer cavalry, 1,500 strong, crept stealthily into the rear, and charged the long baggage train just arriving at the camp. Mistaken for our own irregulars, the baggage guard had allowed them to come too near, and when they charged with horrid shouts, the drovers and camp followers were so terrified that they fled swift and far, their flight resembling "the sound of a rushing storm sweeping over the plain." The guard wero soon on the alert, and the horsemen were driven off, but not before they had killed an officer and several men. The round shot from Lucknow suburbs still rolled through 481 pore road. This plan was at once abandoned, because the route which the column would have to take iay through the heart of the city, and because every yard presented an obstacle. Another plan was to move tho whole column to the right, seize the Delkoosha Palaco and park, and, under cover of its excellent defences, bridge the Goomtee, throw the column over, and sweeping up the left bank of the river, capture the iron bridge, and so release tho garrison. The actual plan adopted was a compromise between the two. It was resolved that tho Charbagh Bridge should be carried, but that, instead of the camp, but the baggage was put out of harm's way | pushing forward into the city, the column should wheel in the Alumbagh. The 24th was spent by the generals in devising a plan of attack. First, it was wisely proposed to hold the Alumbagh, which thus served as an intermediate base of operations. It was highly defensible, and plentifully supplied with water. All the baggage was to be deposited here, and a garrison of 250 men, under Colonel M'Intyre, was intrusted with the defence. The next step-the choice of a route into Lucknow-was more difficult. One plan was to force the Charbagh Bridge, and to cut a passage to the Residency along the CawnVOL VIII.-No. 405. to the right, and fight its way through the palaces and large houses lying to the east of the Residency. There is reason to believe that the second plan would have been adopted, as the safer, and less costly in life, but it would have taken some days to execute it, and the latest communications from Brigadier Inglis painted the dangers of the garrison from mines, and the possible defection of the native troops, in such colours, that the idea was abandoned, and the deadlier project adopted. Havelock determined to take with him his heavy guns, and well it was that he did so. Therefore, leaving in |