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Chapter IX – The Storming of Lakhnao

The force at Sir Colin’s disposal

The total force at the disposal of Sir Colin Campbell for the siege of Lakhnao amounted to twenty thousand men and a hundred and eighty guns. With such an army Sir Colin was able to act on a scientific plan, at once effective and sparing of the lives of his soldiers.

Sir Colin Campbell and Brigadier Napier

The plan to be carried out had been the subject of many conversations between Sir Colin Campbell and the Chief Engineer, Brigadier Napier – now Lord Napier of Magdala – who had been his guest for some time at Kanhpur. From these conversations a thorough understanding had been arrived at as to the general direction of the attack167.

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Lakhnao

The city of Lakhnao stretches in an irregular form on the right bank of the Gumti, for a length from east to west of nearly five miles, and an extreme width at the west side of one and a half mile; the east side diminishes in width to less than one mile.

Two bridges, one of iron and the other of masonry, span the Gumti, leading the traffic of the country from the north of the Gumti into the heart of the city.

March 1

The canal

A canal of deep and rugged section, enclosing the city on the east and south sides, bears away to the south-west, leaving the approach to the west side of the city open, but intersected with ravines; towards the north-east, where the canal joins the Gumti, its banks are naturally shelving and passable.

Description of the strong places within the city

The important positions within the city at the time of the siege were the Kaisarbagh, a palace about four hundred yards square, containing several tombs or ranges of buildings; not originally fortified, but strengthened since the November preceding; the Farhatbaksh palace, and the palaces adjoining it; the Residency; the ruins of the Machchi Bhawan, commanding the masonry bridge and on the south side of it; a series of strong buildings, the Great Imambarah, the Jam’ania-bagh, the Shesh-Mahall,

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and Ali Naki Khan’s house, extending to the west along the banks of the river, and more or less surrounded by streets and houses; the Musabagh, a mile and a half beyond it; the Imambarah and a range of palaces stretching from the Kaisarbagh towards the canal. Beyond the canal on the east side of the city was the Martinière, a fine range of buildings; and overlooking this and the eastern suburbs, on the brow of a tableland, stood the Dilkusha168.

The enemy had strengthened their defences

The enemy, profiting by experience, had strengthened their defences by works exhibiting prodigious labour. Sir Cohn Campbell’s former route across the canal, where its banks shelved, was now intercepted by a new line of canal of very formidable section, flanked by strong bastions. This line of defence was continued up the canal beyond the Charbagh bridge, more or less complete, and the banks of the canal had been scarped and rendered impassable.

Their three lines of defence

The enemy bad three lines of defence. A strong battery of three guns, resting against a mass of buildings called the Hazratganj, supported the outer line, at the junction of three main roads. A second line of bastioned rampart and parapet rested with its right on the Imambarah, a strong and lofty building; thence, embracing the Mess House, it joined the river bank near the Moti Mahall. A third line covered the front of the Kaisarbagh.

These defences were protected by a hundred guns. In addition, all the main streets were protected by bastions and barricades, and every building of importance, besides being loop-holed, had an outer work protecting its entrance.

Napier recommends an attack on the eastern side.

Brigadier Napier recommended that the east side should be attacked. His reasons were that that side offered the smallest front, and would therefore be more easily enveloped by the attack; that it possessed ground for planting the artillery – a condition not possessed by the western side; that it gave the shortest

Plan to Illustrate the Operations of the British Army before Lakhnao in March 1858

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approach to the Kaisarbagh; and that the positions in it were better known. The west side, moreover, presented a great breadth of dense, almost impenetrable, city, resting on the strong buildings on the river bank. Even were these obstacles to be overcome, the Kaisarbagh and the principal defences would still remain to be reduced169. This reasoning prevailed, and it was decided to attack Lakhnao on the eastern side.

Reasons why the northern face was neglected

I have not alluded to the northern side. Why the rebels should have neglected to throw up defences on that side seems, at the first glance, most strange. The real reason affords an additional proof to the many already cited of the absence of original thinking power from their ranks. The natives of India are essentially creatures of habit, of custom. When set to repeat a task already once accomplished, they follow implicitly the lines previously trodden. So it was now. Havelock and Outram, in their attempt to relieve Lakhnao, had advanced by the Charbagh bridge; Sir Colin Campbell, in November, had crossed the canal and attacked the Sikandarbagh. Neither the one nor the other had approached the Gumti. Hence, drawing the conclusion that the courses pursued before would be followed again, the rebels neglected the Gumti, and concentrated all their energies on the lines previously attacked.

Sir Colin detects the weak point

Sir Colin Campbell detected at a glance the error they had committed, and he resolved to profit by it. He had men enough at his disposal to risk a division of his forces. He determined, then, to send across the Gumti a division of all arms, which, marching up that river, should take the enemy’s position in reverse, and, by the fire of artillery, render it untenable. At the same time, advancing with his main force across the canal, he would turn the enemy’s position, and move by the Hazratganj on the Kaisarbagh.

His plan of attack

Whilst a strong force should hold the base of the triangle, Outram’s force would occupy one side of it. Rather more than one half of the opposite side would be held by the Alambagh force and the Nipalese.

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Neither the remaining part of that side nor the western side could, with the troops at his disposal, be hemmed in, but it was to be hoped that as Sir Colin advanced his base, Outram might move round the angle on one side, whilst the Alambagh force and the Nipalese might close up round the corresponding angle on the other. Should the execution equal the design, the entire rebel force would be reduced to extremities.

March 2

Sir Colin advances

Early on the morning of the 2nd March, Sir Colin Campbell began to execute his plan. Taking with him the headquarters of the Artillery Division (Sir A. Wilson and Colonel Wood, C.B.) and three troops of horse artillery (D’Aguilar’s, Tombs’s, and Bishop’s), two 24-pounders and two 8-inch howitzers of the Naval Brigade, and two companies of sappers and miners; the headquarters of the Cavalry Division (Hope Grant), and Little’s Cavalry Brigade (9th Lancers, 2nd Panjab Cavalry, detachment 5th Panjab Cavalry, 1st Sikh Irregulars); and the 2nd Division of Infantry (Sir E. Lugard), comprising the 3rd and 4th Brigades; 3rd Brigade (Guy), 34th, 38th, and 53rd; 4th Brigade (Adrian Hope), 42nd and 93rd Highlanders and 4th Panjab Rifles); he marched on the Dilkusha park.

on the Dilkusha which he captures

Passing the fort of Jalalabad within sight of the Alambagh force, Sir Colin drove in the advanced pickets of the enemy, and captured a gun. The palace was then seized and occupied as an advanced picket on the right – a small garden, known as Muhammad-bagh, fulfilling the same purpose on the left. It was found impossible to bring up the main body of the infantry, for the enemy’s guns, in position along the canal, completely commanded the Dilkusha plateau.

and erects batteries there to keep down the fire of the rebels

Sir Colin therefore drew back his infantry as far as was practicable, while he issued orders to erect batteries with all convenient haste at the Dilkusha and the Muhammad-bagh to play on the enemy and keep down their fire. Until the batteries could be established – and they were not established till late on the night of the 2nd – the British troops were greatly annoyed by an unremitting fire, directed with precision on a point the range to which was thoroughly well known.

March 3

The batteries open

But when, on the morning of the 3rd, the batteries established at the Dilkusha and Muhammad-bagh opened their fire, that of the rebels began perceptibly to slacken. They were, in fact, forced to withdraw

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and silence the enemy’s guns

their guns, and though, from the further distance whence they directed a new fire, the shot occasionally ranged up to and into the British camp, it caused but a trifling loss.

March 4

More troops are massed on the Dilkusha

On that day and the day following, then, the remainder of the siege-train, together with the 3rd Division (Walpole’s), comprising the 5th and 6th Brigades, 5th Brigade (Douglas), 23rd Fusiliers, 79th Highlanders, 1st Bengal Fusiliers; 6th Brigade (Horsford), 2nd and 3rd battalions Rifle Brigade, 2nd Panjab Infantry; closed up on the Dilkusha.

New line occupied by the British

The line now occupied by the British force touched the Gumti on its right at the village of Bibiapur, then, stretching towards the left, intersected the Dilkusha, and, proceeding towards Jalalabad, stopped at a point about two miles from that fort. The interval was occupied by one native regiment of cavalry, Hodson’s Horse, nearly sixteen hundred strong. Outram’s force, from which three regiments had been withdrawn, still occupied its old position.

Franks and his troops arrive

To complete the formation necessary if the complete success at which Sir Colin Campbell aimed were to be insured, another strong division of troops was yet required. This want was supplied on the morning of the 5th by the arrival of Brigadier-General Franks with the gallant force of Europeans and Nipalese whose gallant deeds have already been imperfectly recorded.

Sir Colin orders the conquerors to bridge the Gumti

But before complete communication with Franks had been established, that is, on the evening of the 4th, Sir Colin had directed that two pontoon bridges should to be thrown across the Gumti near Bibiapur. It was across those bridges that he would despatch the division. of the army intended to march up the Gumti and take the enemy’s position in reverse.

The engineers worked at the bridges all that night with so much energy and effect, that before the morning of the 5th dawned they had completed one of them.

A picket is thrown across one of these on the 5th

Across this was at once despatched a strong picket, which began without a second’s delay to throw up a small earthwork to defend the bridge-heads. As the enemy showed shortly in some force in a village at a distance of about a thousand yards, some guns were brought down to the river-bank close to the bridges to silence

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the enemy’s fire whenever it should become annoying. The enabled the engineers to continue their work throughout that day and during the following night.

Both completed on the night of the 5th

By midnight on the 5th the two bridges and the embankments connecting them with the level on both sides were completed. Sir Colin, having counted on this, had directed Outram to cross to the left bank with a strong division at 2 o’clock in the morning to carry out the plan I have already detailed.

March 6. Outram is ordered to cross

Outram had with him Walpole’s division of infantry, the 2nd Dragoon Guards, the 9th Lancers, the 2nd Panjab Cavalry, detachments from the 1st and 5th Panjab Cavalry, D’Aguilar’s, Remmington’s, and Mackinnon’s troops of horse artillery, and Gibbons’s light field battery. Hope Grant accompanied him as second in command.

The difficulties of the ground delay him

It had been intended that he should cross at 2 o’clock in the morning; but the night was dark, the ground was broken and full of watercourses, and the troops had much difficulty in finding their way. Outram, who had ridden on in front to the bridges, dismounted, and, knowing that nothing that he could do would hasten the arrival of his corps, sat on the ground and lighted a cigar. It was close upon 4 o’clock when the 2nd Panjab Cavalry, leading the way, reached the ground. Then the crossing began.

Sir Colin’s anxiety for the prompt crossing.

Sir Colin, angry at the delay, anxious that the troops should cross before the dawn should discover them to the enemy, came down to stimulate their movements170. His presence, due to a natural anxiety, really added nothing to the effect. The staff officers were in their places, doing their work calmly and efficiently, and before the day broke the whole force had completed the passage of the Gumti. The place which it had left vacant on the right bank was at once occupied by Franks’s division, the fourth.

Importance of the position on the left bank of the river

The reader will not fail to see that Outram, on the left bank of the river, was in a position to execute the first move in the game. He was to push up the left bank of the Gumti and turn and render untenable the strong position of the enemy on the other side

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of it. When it should become apparent that he had turned the first line of those works, then, but not till then, would the second move be made by Sir Colin himself with the troops waiting for Outram’s success in the position of which the Dilkusha may be called the centre.

In pursuance of this plan, Outram, drawing up his force in three lines, marched up the left bank of the river for about a mile.

Outram pushes forward to the Faizabad road

The river there made a turn; so Outram, throwing forward his right, and leaving the sinuosities of the river, moved straight on in the direction of the city. A party of the enemy’s cavalry which shortly afterwards appeared on his left was charged, routed, and pursued, though with the loss of Major Percy Smith of the Queen’s Bays, described as an excellent officer. No further interruption to the progress of the force was offered, and it encamped that evening about four miles from the city, which it faced, its left resting on the Faizabad road, about half a mile in advance of the village of Chinhat.

March 7–8

He advances his pickets and constructs batteries

The following day and the 8th were spent mainly in skirmishing – the enemy advancing and being invariably repulsed. Outram, whilst maintaining his position, threw his pickets gradually much more forward. On the 8th, in obedience to instructions from Sir Colin, he sent back D’Aguilar’s troop of horse artillery and the 9th Lancers, receiving in exchange twenty-two siege guns. That night he constructed two batteries, armed with heavy guns, within six hundred yards of the enemy’s works, on the old racecourse.

His plan of attack on the 9th

At daybreak the following morning, the 9th, he made his attack. Preluding it with a heavy fire from the newly constructed batteries, he detached a column of infantry under Walpole to attack the enemy’s left, and, after forcing it back, to wheel to the left and take them in the rear. He designed, meanwhile, to lead in person the left column across the Kokrail stream to a point whence, on the success of the right column being pronounced, it could attack and occupy a strong building known as the Yellow House – the Chakar Kothi – the key of the position of the rebels, and the occupation of which would turn and render useless the strong line of intrenchments erected by them on the right bank of the Gumti.

The result corresponded entirely to Outram’s soundly based hopes.

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Walpole beats the enemy’s left

Walpole drove the enemy’s left through the jungles and villages covering their position, and, then bringing his right forward, debouched on the Faizabad road, in rear of their most efficient battery, which, however, was found empty. The left column, meanwhile, which had marched at 2 o’clock in the morning to take up the position assigned to it, as soon as it learned that Walpole had reached the Faizabad road, attacked the Yellow House.

and Outram their right

The rebels were there in numbers, but, with the exception of nine they did not show fight, but made so rapid a flight along the banks of the river that before the guns could open upon them they were out of reach. The “nine,” however, clung to the building, and killed or wounded more than their own number. Amongst them were Anderson of the Sikhs, and St. George of the 1st Fusiliers. It was only by firing salvoes from the horse-artillery guns that they were eventually dislodged171. The success of the column was notified to Sir Colin Campbell by the hoisting of the colours of the 1st Fusiliers on the roof of a small room erected on the second story of the Yellow House.

Pressing the rebels

The column then pressed forward, following the rebels, and drove them rapidly through the old irregular cavalry lines and suburbs to the Badshah-bagh, and thence to the river, where they effected a junction with the right wing. The whole line then halted, and, occupying the houses and breastworks on the banks of the stream, opened and maintained a heavy fire on the rebels who lined the walls and occupied the gardens.

Outram establishes a battery enfilading the enemy’s works

Under cover of this fire three heavy guns and a howitzer were placed in position to enfilade the works in rear of the Martinière. Another battery of two 24-pounder guns and two 8-inch howitzers was likewise erected near the river to keep down the fire from the town.

The extreme left of Outram’s line

The first battery I have mentioned – that composed of three heavy guns and a howitzer – occupied the extreme left of Outram’s line. It was commanded by Major Nicholson, RE., of whose services at the Alambagh I have already spoken, and protecting the guns was a party of the 1st Fusiliers under a very gallant and capable officer, Captain Sainsbury. The guns had been unlimbered

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when Nicholson remarked that the hostile lines seemed abandoned by the rebels. Sainsbury proposed to cross with a party of his men and ascertain the fact, but Nicholson considered it would be too hazardous to leave the guns without protection.

Butler volunteers to signal to the Highlanders on the right bank

At this conjecture a young lieutenant of the 1st Fusiliers, named Thomas Butler, and four privates, volunteered to go down to the river-bank and signal their presence to the Highlanders of Adrian Hope’s brigade, who were discerned at a distance of about six hundred yards on the other side of the river. They ran down accordingly; but shouting and signalling were alike useless – they could attract no attention. It was very important to open the communication, and, all other means having failed, Butler did not hesitate an instant to try the last and the most hazardous. It was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon; the river was some sixty yards wide, its depth was considerable, the stream was strong.

Unable to attract their attention, Butler swims the river

But Butler, caring for no consequences, heedless of the chance that the batteries on the other side might be occupied, took off his coat and swam across. He landed in rear of the batteries, which he found unoccupied.

and attracts the attention of the 93rd

Mounting the parapet of one of the works, he quickly attracted attention, and after some delay, caused by the stupidity of a staff officer, who considered it would not be correct to occupy the abandoned works without special orders, the Highlanders and the 4th Panjab Rifles relieved him. During the time that Butler, wet, cold, and unarmed, occupied the works, he was twice fired at by the distant enemy, but he did not leave them to swim back until he had made them over to the men of Adrian Hope’s brigade. For his cool gallantry on this occasion Butler received the Victoria Cross.

Result of Outram’s operations on the 9th

Outram’s movement on the 9th had thus answered every expectation. He occupied the left bank of the Gumti as far as the Badshah-bagh; the hostile batteries on the other side of the river were enfiladed. The enemy were completely taken in reverse. I propose now to show how on that same day, the 9th, Sir Colin Campbell profited by Outram’s manoeuvres.

Sir Colin, in his turn, advances

The Commander-in-Chief had waited patiently in his position at the Dilkusha whilst Outram, on the 6th, the 7th, and the 8th, was executing the manoeuvres which were the necessary preliminaries of the

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attack on the 9th, just described. Early on the morning of that day, the guns and mortars, which, by Sir Colin’s orders, had been placed in position on the Dilkusha plateau during the preceding night, opened a very heavy fire on the Martinière. This fire was maintained until, about 2 P.M., the hoisting of the British ensign on the roof of the little room on the second story of the Yellow House, made it clear to Sir Colin that Outram’s attack had succeeded. Then, without the slightest delay, he launched Adrian Hope’s brigade (the 4th), supported by the 53rd and 90th Regiments, the whole commanded by Lugard, against the Martinière.

and carries the Martinière

The effect of Outram’s work that afternoon then became quickly apparent. The enfilading fire from the batteries which he had erected had caused the abandonment of a post which otherwise would have offered a strenuous resistance. It fell, so to speak, without a blow. The rebels, who had withdrawn their guns, fled precipitately across the river. The British loss was extremely small; and, but for the fact that the returns record a dangerous wound inflicted by a musket ball on the gallant William Peel172, they would be too slight to be specially recorded.

Adrian Hope occupies the works

Not content with the capture of the Martinière, Adrian Hope’s brigade pushed onwards. The 4th Panjab Rifles, gallantly led by Wylde, supported by the 42nd Highlanders, climbed up the intrenchment abutting on the Gumti, and proceeded to sweep down the whole line of hostile works till close to the vicinity of Banks’s house. It was to this brigade that the men belonged who occupied the fortified place which the gallant Butler had stormed single-handed.

from the Gumti to the vicinity of Banks’s house

This and the works forming a line from the Gumti to a point not far from Banks’s house were occupied during the night by Adrian Hope’s brigade and the 53rd Regiment.

Total result of the fighting on the 9th

The work of the 9th had, then, resulted in success on both the lines of operation. Outram, establishing himself on one side of the parallelogram, had made it possible for Sir Colin to push up the other side of it – and this he had effectively done.

The next day, the 10th, Outram intended to be a day of preparation rather than of conflict.

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Outram strengthens his position during the 10th

The rebels being in considerable force in the suburbs in his front, he wished to strengthen the position he had already gained. But the rebels, fully aware now of the danger threatening them from across the Gumti, came on in considerable force and attacked a picket held by the 79th Highlanders. They were, however, repulsed with loss, and the work designed by Outram proceeded thenceforward undisturbed. To ensure its rapid execution, the cavalry under Hope Grant patrolled the vicinity of the camp. This patrolling produced occasional conflicts with detached parties of the rebels, and in one of these Major Sandford, of the 5th Irregular Cavalry, an officer of much promise, was killed. Throughout this day Outram’s batteries at the mosque west of the Chakar Kothi played on Hazratganj and the Kaisarbagh.

Sir Colin storms Banks’s house

The same day the Commander-in-Chief was content to complete the work of the previous evening by the storming and occupation of Banks’s house. This was accomplished by Lugard with the troops already indicated, and with but trifling loss.

Total result of the fighting on the 10th

By the evening of the 10th two sides of the parallelogram were all but completely occupied. The attempt to pierce its centre – to force the line stretching from Banks’s of the house to a point beyond the Kaisarbagh – was now to be made.

and prospects of the morrow

Strong as were the buildings which constituted the value of that inner line, the position of Outram on the opposite bank of the Gumti, and of Sir Colin Campbell now firmly established across the canal, having in Banks’s house a post strong for attack, caused the chances to be very much in favour of the assailants. For, whilst Outram enfiladed the enemy’s works on one side, Sir Colin was now able to turn them on the other.

March 10–11

Outram is directed to attack the positions covering the iron and stone bridges

In pursuance of the plan already indicated, Outram was directed to employ the evening and night of the 10th in establishing batteries which should rake the enemy’s works, and annoy the defenders of the Kaisarbagh with a fire vertical and direct. He was also instructed to resume his offensive movement on the morning of the 11th by attacking the positions covering the iron and stone bridges – the former leading to the Residency, the latter to the Machchi Bhawan – and, by carrying them, to command the iron bridge from the left bank of the river.

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He carries the positions leading to the iron bridge

Outram carried out these instructions to the letter. He established, during the night, batteries which bore, in the manner prescribed, on the Mess-house and on the Kaisarbagh. On the 11th, shortly after daylight, he led Walpole’s column – the right – (79th Highlanders, 2nd and 3rd battalions Rifle Brigade, 1st Bengal Fusiliers, Gibbons’s light field battery, and two 24-pounders) to gain a position commanding the iron bridge. The column, covered by the Rifles, worked its way through the suburbs till it reached a mosque within an enclosure at the point where the road from the Badshah-bagh joins the main road to cantonments, about half a mile from the iron bridge. The place being very defensible, Walpole left there the 1st Fusiliers, and proceeded towards the stone bridge. On his way to this bridge he surprised and captured the camp of Hashmat Ali, Chaudhari173 of Saudila, with that of the mutinous 15th Irregulars, took two guns and their standards, and killed many of those soldiers faithless to their salt. Sending Gould Weston with a troop of the Bays to cut off the fugitives from Makhanganj – a service which Weston performed very efficiently – Outram pushed on, without serious opposition, to the head of the stone bridge. Finding, however, that it was commanded by the enemy’s guns, as well as by musketry fire from several high and stone-built houses from the opposite side of the river, he deemed it more prudent to retire to the mosque at the cross roads, there to remain till the operations I am about to record had been completed. He then fell back on his camp behind the Badshah-bagh.

Pratt establishes batteries near the iron bridge

Meanwhile the left column (23rd Fusiliers, 2nd Panjab Infantry, two 24-pounder guns, and three field battery guns), commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Pratt, starting twenty minutes after the right column, had met with considerable opposition, and, being exposed to the fire of a hostile battery from the right side of the river, had suffered considerable loss. It succeeded, however, in occupying all the houses down to the river’s bank and the head of the iron bridge, to the right of which Pratt placed in battery the two 24-pounder guns. It was a difficult and dangerous operation, and, though it succeeded, it cost Outram the lives of two of his most gallant officers, Captain Thynne of the Rifle Brigade, and Lieutenant Moorsom, Deputy Assistant

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Quartermaster-General, a soldier of remarkable talent and promise. He was guiding the column, and was killed while reconnoitring in front of it.

March 11–15

It may be convenient, for the sake of clearness, here to add that the positions taken up by Outram on the 11th continued to be occupied by him on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and. 15th. During those days he carried out, with vigour and accuracy, the purpose he had in view – the maintenance of an enfilading fire, raking the positions which the Commander-in-Chief was assailing on the other side of the river. Having been reinforced on the 12th by four 18-pounder guns, two 10-inch howitzers, and five 10-inch and four 5½-inch mortars, he erected, in addition to the batteries already enumerated, three more to play on the Kaisarbagh; and when that strong place fell, as I am about to recount, on the morning of the 14th, he turned the fire of those batteries against the Residency and the buildings to the right of the bridge. It can easily be conceived the enormous assistance rendered to the main attack by this heavy enfilading fire, maintained without the slightest intermission. It had been possible to do even more, but Outram was hampered, as I shall show in its proper place, by restrictions to action placed on him by the Commander-in-Chief.

March 10

I now return to Sir Colin. I left him, on the evening of the 10th, established on the city side of the canal on a line stretching from the Gumti to Banks’s house.

The Sikandarbagh occupied

Whilst the Chief Engineer, Brigadier Robert Napier, maintained a heavy fire from Banks’s house on the works in front – especially on the block of palaces known as the Begam Kothi – Lugard, bringing forward his right, occupied, without opposition, the Sikandarbagh – famous in Sir Colin’s first advance for the splendid gallantry of Ewart, Cooper, Lumsden, and their dozen followers, Highlanders and Sikhs – and then prepared to work his way to the Shah Najaf. His operations were greatly facilitated by the noble daring of three engineer officers attached to his column, Medley, Lang, and Carnegy.

From three to four hundred yards to the right front of the Sikandarbagh stood an isolated building high on a mound overlooking the river, called the Kadam Rasul174. Beyond this again, but in close vicinity to it, was the Shah Najaf, the building,

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The happy audacity of three engineer officers

which, in Sir Colin’s first advance, had almost made him falter, and the capture of which was due to the keen observation and happy audacity of Sergeant Paton175 and Adrian Hope. Both these posts were immediately outside the enemy’s second line of works, which ran in front of the Moti Mahall, the old Mess-house, and the Tara Kothi. Lang, noticing that the two posts I have referred to, the Kadam Rasul and the Shah Najaf, were very quiet, proposed to his companions that they should reconnoitre, and possibly occupy, them. The three officers at once set out, followed by four native sappers.

gains the Kadam Rasul

Creeping quietly up to the Kadam Rasul, they found it abandoned. Entering it and ascending the little winding staircase, they looked down into the garden of the Shah Najaf. This seemed also abandoned. But not liking to make, with four men, an attack, which, if the interior of the place were occupied, would certainly fail, the engineers, leaving the four sappers to guard their conquest, returned to the Sikandarbagh to ask for men to take the Shah Najaf. The officer commanding at that post declined, however, to take upon himself a responsibility not greater than that from which, in the case of the Kadam Rasul, the engineers had not flinched, whereupon Medley rode to Banks’s house to obtain an order from Lugard. Lugard gave it at once, and Medley, returning, had placed at his disposal one hundred men.

and the Shah Najaf.

With these and fifty sappers, the engineers entered the Shah Najaf and found it abandoned. As it was but two hundred yards from the line of intrenchments already spoken of, the engineers at once set to work to make it defensible on the side nearest the enemy, and, at Medley’s suggestion, a hundred men were thrown into the place176.

Lugard effects a breach in the Begam Kothi

Whilst this operation was successfully conducted on the right, the guns from the heavy batteries on the left were pouring shot and shell on the Begam Kothi. The contiguous palaces known under this designation were extremely strong, capable, if well defended, of resisting for a very long time even the fighting

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power sent against them by Sir Colin Campbell. But, in warring against Asiatics, the immense moral superiority which assault gives to an assaulting party is an element which no general can leave out of consideration. The truth of the maxim was well exemplified on this occasion. About half-past 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a breach was effected which opened a way to stormers. The breach, indeed, was so narrow, and the defences behind it were so strong, that, if the men who lined them had been animated by a spirit similar to that which inspired the assailants, no general would have dared to attempt an assault. But Lugard, believing in the overpowering influence of an assault made by British troops on Asiatics, on the breach being pronounced, gave, without hesitation, the order to storm. It is possible that, had he been aware of the extreme strength of the mine defences177, he might have held back for a while, but even that is doubtful.

and sends Adrian Hope’s brigade to storm it

The storming party consisted of those companions in glory, the 93rd Highlanders and the 4th Panjab Rifles. It was indeed fitting that to the men who, in the previous November, had stormed the Sikandarbagh and carried the Shah Najaf, should be intrusted the first difficult enterprise of Sir Colin’s second movement on Lakhnao. Fortunate in their splendid discipline, in their tried comradeship, in their confidence each in the other, the 4th Panjab Rifles and the 93rd Highlanders enjoyed the additional privilege of having as their leader one of the noblest men who ever wore the British uniform, the bravest of soldiers, and the most gallant of gentlemen. Those who had the privilege of intimate acquaintance with Adrian Hope will recognise the accuracy of the description.

Description of the Begam Kothi

The block of buildings to be stormed consisted of a number of palaces and courtyards, one within the other, surrounded by a breastwork and deep ditch. The artillery fire had breached the breastwork and the wall of the outer courtyard, but some of the inner walls had not been seriously injured. They were occupied by a considerable body of Sipahis, probably exceeding five thousand in number.

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The assault

At 4 o’clock in the afternoon Adrian Hope led his men to the assault, the 93rd leading, the 4th Panjab Rifles in support. The Sipahis, not yet daunted, met their assailants in the breach, and for a short time their greatly superior number offered an obstacle difficult to overcome. But individual valour, inspired by a determination to conquer, was not to be withstood. The Adjutant of the 93rd, William McBean, cut or shot down eleven of the enemy with his own hand. Many of the men emulated, if they did not equal, the example set them by their adjutant. The Panjabis, pressing on from behind, added to the weight of the attack. Their behaviour excited the admiration of every one. When a Highlander chanced to fall, his native comrades rushed forward to cover his body and avenge his death. The splendid rivalry of the two soon made itself felt.

The Begam Kothi is gained

Forced back from the breach, the Sipahis scarcely attempted to defend the strong positions yet remaining to them. They seemed to have but one object – to save themselves for a future occasion. But the Highlanders and the Panjabis pressed them hard. Quarter was neither asked for nor given, and, when the Begam Kothi was evacuated by the last survivor of the garrison, be left behind him, within the space surrounded by the deep ditch of which I have spoken, six hundred corpses of his comrades! It was “the sternest struggle which occurred during the siege178.”

Robert Napier proceeds by the sap and heavy guns

The capture of the Begam Kothi opened to the Chief Engineer, Brigadier Napier, the means of dealing destructive blows against the remaining positions of the enemy. It brought him inside the enemy’s works, and the enclosures the assailants had stormed now served as a cover from the enemy’s fire. “Thenceforward,” says Sir Colin, in his report, “he pushed his approach, with the greatest judgment, through the enclosures by the aid of the sappers and of heavy guns, the troops immediately occupying the ground as he advanced, and the mortars being moved from one position to another as ground was won on which they could be placed.”

Death of Hodson

The storming had been effected with comparatively small loss on the side of the British. But amongst those who fell was one who had made a name for himself

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as a most daring and able soldier. Hodson, of Hodson’s Horse, was mortally wounded on this day. He had joined the storming party, had entered the breach with Robert Napier, and had been separated from him in the mêlée. He was not wounded during the storm; but, after the breach had been gained, he rushed forward to hunt for Sipahis who might be concealed in the dark rooms and recesses of the palace. Coming suddenly upon a party of these, he was fired at and mortally wounded. The Highlanders avenged his death, for they bayoneted every man of the group which had fired at him.

My opinion of Hodson has been recorded in an early page of this volume. I have little to add to it. His abilities were great, his courage was undeniable, his brain was clear amid the storm of battle, his coolness never left him on the most trying occasions. As a partisan soldier he was not to be surpassed. But the brain which was clear was also calculating. The needless slaughter of the princes of the House of Taimur would seem to indicate that he was born more than a hundred years after the era when all his qualities would have obtained recognition. Trenck and his Pandours were too bloody and too savage for the civilisation of 1756; and Trenck was never accused of shooting unarmed prisoners.

Position of the assailants the evening of the 11th

The position of the assailing force on the evening of the 11th was in considerable advance of that it had occupied in the morning. It was now pushed forward to the Shah Najaf on the right, and it held the Begam Kothi on the left. Before the Kaisarbagh could be assailed, the Mess-house, the Hazratganj, and the Imambarah had first to succumb.

The Nipal troops arrive

On that day the Nipal troops, led by the Maharajah Jang Bahadur, were brought into line. This reinforcement enabled Sir Colin Campbell, as I shall show, to extend the plan of his operations on the succeeding days.

Franks’s division comes to the front on the 12th

The following day, the 12th, was a day chiefly for the engineers. Their work proceeded steadily and surely. Some changes, however, were made in the disposition of the troops. Lugard’s division, the 2nd, which had hitherto been in the front, was relieved by Franks’s, the 4th. The Nipal troops, too, were, as I have said, brought into line, and ordered to advance on the British left, so as to hold the line of the canal beyond Banks’s house.

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March 12-18

Napier presses forward with the sap

The 13th was likewise an engineers’ day. Avoiding the main road, which was well defended by the enemy’s batteries, Napier pressed forward on a line about a hundred and twenty yards to its left and parallel to it, sapping through the houses, out of the line of the enemy’s fire. When necessary, the heavy guns opened breaches for his advance, and the sappers, supported by the infantry, pushed on slowly but steadily, enlarging the breaches communicating with the rear, so as to have a way ready for supports, should they be required. The overwhelming superiority of the British artillery fire, supported as it was by Outram’s enfilade, and cross fire from the other side of the Gumti, effectually prevented any serious annoyance from the enemy’s guns. The rebels maintained, however, from the neighbouring houses, a hot fire of musketry on the advance, to which the men forming the latter replied effectively179.

The Nipalese operate on the extreme left.

This day, too, the Nipal force, crossing the canal, moved against the suburb considerably to the left of Banks’s house. We shall see that this operation drew the attention of a portion of the rebel force to that quarter.

Position on the evening of the 13th.

By the evening of the 13th the task assigned to the engineers had been completed. All the great buildings on the left up to the Imambarah had been sapped through. The battery which had been playing on the massive walls of that building had effected a breach, and it was hoped that it would be sufficiently practicable on the morrow to permit an assault.

The morning of the 14th

Early on the morning of the 14th, the heavy guns, at a distance of thirty yards, were still pounding at the breach – “the 8-inch shot, at this short distance, walking through three or four thick masonry walls in succession as if they had been so much paper180.” The enemy were replying from the walls with musketry fire. At length, about 9 o’clock in the morning, the breach was reported practicable; and the stormers, who had been drawn up, awaiting the signal, received the order to assault.

Franks storms the Imambarah

The storming party was composed of sixty men of Brasyer’s Sikhs and two companies of the 10th Foot, supported by the remainder of the two regiments. These men, gallantly led, dashed at the breach with all

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the impetuosity of their pent-up energies. The defenders waited to receive them; nor was it until after a very sharp struggle that they were forced back in disorder. But, once forced back, they fled as though panic-stricken, and in a few minutes the Imambarah was in the possession of the stormers. The support and reserve followed, completing the lodgment. In the assault there fell a very gallant officer of the regiment of Firuzpur, Captain Dacosta, who had volunteered for this special service. He had lived a life which had brought him many enemies, but the hostility of the bitterest of them would have changed to admiration had they witnessed the heroic manner in which he led his men to the assault.

The stormers gain a position commanding a portion of the Kaisarbagh

The gain of the Imambarah did not quench the zeal of the stormers. The rebels were in such haste to save themselves that, emerging from the Imambarah through the great gateway into the road, they ran as fast as they could to the Kaisarbagh. Brasyer’s Sikhs, burning to avenge Dacosta’s death, dashed after them as they fled, and a few men of the 10th joined in the pursuit. Following in a parallel line, a portion of the 90th, guided by the Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the Division, Henry Havelock, forced their way into a palace which commanded. three bastions of the Kaisarbagh. Once in that position, they brought to bear upon the enemy’s gunners below them a fire so withering that one by one these deserted their guns, the last they discharged being an 8-inch howitzer, which was only abandoned under pressure not to be withstood. This daring advance made by Havelock had the most important consequences. By it the second line of the enemy’s defences, the line stretching from the Gumti, in front of the Mess-house, to the Imambarah, was turned. Its defenders, panic-stricken at seeing their position thus taken in reverse, had no thought but to save themselves. Abandoning, then, the second line, they ran into the buildings yet intervening between the Imambarah and the Kaisarbagh, and from behind the walls of these endeavoured to stay the further progress of our troops. Then it was that the engineers proposed to suspend operations for the day, and tc proceed by the slower process of sap.

Brasyer’s Sikhs gain a courtyard adjoining the Kaisarbagh

But the men, the Sikhs of Brasyer’s regiment especially, were not to be restrained. The joy of conquest had mastered every other feeling. Led by Brasyer and Havelock, they effected an entrance into a bastion by a vacant.

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embrasure, and forced their way, cheering, under a terrible fire, into a courtyard adjoining the Kaisarbagh, driving the enemy before them.

The Sikhs and 10th Foot turn the third line of the defences

Seeing the possibilities before him – the chance of gaining the Kaisarbagh at a blow – Havelock ran back to the detachment of the 10th Foot, commanded by Captain Annesley, and ordered it to the front. Obeying with alacrity, the 10th dashed to the front and joined the Sikhs. A portion of these latter, led by Brasyer, diminishing by casualties as they went, pushed daringly on, nor did they halt until, expelling the enemy before them, they had penetrated to the Chini181 Bazaar, to the rear of the Tara Kothi and Mess-house, thus turning the third line of the enemy’s works.

The rebels evacuate that line

The enemy, congregated in numbers at not less than six thousand in the Tara Kothi and the Mess-house, now finding themselves taken in reverse, evacuated these buildings, and endeavoured to re-enter the city by an opening in the further gateway of the Chini Bazaar. Had they succeeded in so doing, they would have cut off Brasyer and his gallant band, which must then have been overwhelmed. But Havelock, advancing with sixty Sikhs, in support of Brasyer, promptly seized two adjoining bastions, and, turning the six guns found there on the enemy, so plied their masses, issuing from the positions above named, with round shot, grape, and musketry, that he stopped their dangerous movement and turned them back.

This action assured the posts won by the advanced party. Gradually Havelock’s small body was strengthened by a company of the 90th, brought up by Colonel Purnell himself, and from that moment success was certain.

Supports arrive.

By this time the fourth note sent by Havelock urging him to come on reached Franks, and that gallant officer at once pushed forward with every available man to aid the advanced parties. His arrival shortly after with his supports, accompanied by the Chief Engineer, made the position of the attacking party completely solid. The only question now to be solved was, whether the advantages already so wonderfully achieved should or should not be turned to immediate account by the storming of the Kaisarbagh.

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Shall the advantage be pursued?

Every consideration seemed to urge the attempt. Although that morning it had been intended to storm only the Imambarah, events had moved so quickly, the assailants had displayed so much energy and daring, the enemy had been so mastered by panic, that it seemed advisable to push on whilst the stormers were still eager, the rebels still dejected.

The Kaisarbagh is stormed

Accordingly, after a brief consultation, Franks and Napier resolved to push on. Reinforcements were sent for from the rear, and an order was despatched to the troops at the Sikandarbagh and the Shah Najaf on the right to push forward. The reinforcements soon came up, and whilst the troops

on the right advanced and occupied, with but little resistance, the Moti Mahall, the Chatar Manzil, and the Tara Kothi, Franks sent his men through the court of Saadat Ali’s mosque into the Kaisarbagh itself. The Kaisarbagh is a rectangular enclosure, made up of a series of courts and gardens, interspersed with marble summer-houses. These were still full of Sipahis, who, from the roofs and from the summits of the houses in the adjoining enclosure, poured a heavy musketry fire on the invaders. But, the British once within the garden, the game for which the rebels were struggling was lost, and, in a comparatively short space, those of them who had failed to escape lay dead or in death’s agony.

The plundering which followed.

Then began a scene of plunder, of which it is difficult to give an adequate description. The glowing words of an eye-witness, then in the zenith of a literary fame which still lives, mellowed by time and increased by experience, brings it, however, as vividly before the reader as words can bring a scene so rare and so terrible. “The scene of plunder,” wrote Dr. Russell, “was indescribable. The soldiers had broken up several of the store-rooms, and pitched the contents into the court, which was lumbered with cases, with embroidered cloths, gold and silver brocade, silver vessels, arms, banners, drums, shawls, scarfs, musical instruments, mirrors, pictures, books, accounts, medicine bottles, gorgeous standards, shields, spears, and a heap of things which would make this sheet of paper like a catalogue of a broker’s sale. Through these moved the men, wild with excitement, drunk with plunder.’ I had often heard the phrase, but never saw the thing itself before. They smashed to pieces the fowling-pieces and pistols to get at the gold mountings, and the stones set in

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the stocks. They burned in a fire, which they made in the centre of the court, brocades and embroidered shawls for the sake of the gold and silver. China, glass, and jade they dashed to pieces in sheer wantonness; pictures they ripped up, or tossed on the flames; furniture shared the same fate. ... Oh the toil of that day! Never had I felt such exhaustion. It was horrid enough to have to stumble through endless courts which were like vapour baths, amid dead bodies, through sights worthy of the Inferno, by blazing walls which might be pregnant with mines, over breaches, in and out of smouldering embrasures, across frail ladders, suffocated by deadly smells of rotting corpses, of rotten ghee, or vile native scents; but the seething crowd of camp-followers into which we emerged in Hazratganj was something worse. As ravenous, and almost as foul as vultures, they were packed in a dense mass in the street, afraid or unable to go into the palaces, and, like the birds they resembled, waiting till the fight was done to prey on their plunder182.”

Result of the day’s work.

The day’s work was over. A work great, unexpected, and, in every sense of the word, magnificent. The line which in the morning had stretched from the Shah Najaf to Hazratganj now ran from the Chatar Manzil to the Residency side of the Kaisarbagh. Two strong defensive lines of works, garrisoned by thirty to forty thousand men, had been turned, and the great citadel on which the second of those two lines rested had itself been stormed!

It was, I repeat, a great, even a magnificent work, but it might, and ought to, have been greater. Its greatness and magnificence were due mainly to the Sikhs and the 10th Foot, to the gallant leading of Havelock and Brasyer, the confident daring of Franks, and the skill of Napier – its want of completeness must be attributed solely to the Commander-in-Chief. How this was so I shall explain in a few words.

Outram proposes to cross by the iron bridge.

In a previous page I have narrated how, on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, Outram continued to occupy his positions on the left bank of the Gumti commanding the direct approaches to the iron bridge, but restricted from further movement in that direction by the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. The iron bridge led across the river to a point not far from the Residency. Now, when,

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on the 14th, the stormers under Franks attacked the Imambarah, and, pushing onwards, dashed against the Kaisarbagh, the enormous effect which would have been produced by the crossing of the river and the penetrating into the very heart of the enemy by Outram’s division, may be imagined. Outram wished to carry out such an operation, and applied to the Commander-in-Chief for permission to do so.

Unsatisfactory reply of the Commander-in-Chief’

In reply he was informed by the Chief of the Staff that he might cross by the iron bridge, but “that he was not to do so if he thought he would lose a single man.” A more extraordinary proviso never accompanied a permission to advance granted to a of general in the presence of the enemy. It was tantamount to an absolute prohibition. Outram had that afternoon reconnoitred the enemy’s position across the river. His plans were laid, his troops were ready to attack, but he saw that there was at least one gun on the bridge; that the bridge itself was commanded by a large mosque and by houses which had been loop-holed; and that the rebels, in anticipation of a forward movement on his part, had laid their batteries in such a manner as to render it difficult and dangerous. Not only, then, would he have lost one man, but probably very many. On the other hand, the passage of the Gumti by Outram that afternoon would have been fatal to the enemy, for it would have in a great measure cut off their retreat. Their slain would have been counted by thousands, and, in all probability, the province of Oudh would have immediately succumbed. The rebels who escaped on the 14th were the rebels who fell back on the forts and strong places of the province, there to renew the resistance which had broken down in the capital. Had they been cut off, that resistance would not have been possible!

Comments on the Commander-in-Chief’s reply

That they were not attacked in their retreat was due solely to Sir Colin’s order to Outram not to advance if the advance would cost him the life of one single man. Why the bands of a gallant soldier like Outram were thus tied is a question which has never been answered. True it is that Sir Colin had only contemplated on the 14th an attack on the Imambarah. The Kaisarbagh, in his programme, was reserved for the day following. But he had sufficient experience of war to be aware that the unexpected is always possible, and, knowing that, he committed a grave error when he restricted the action of a

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lieutenant, and such a lieutenant, occupying a position which, under certain circumstances, could be made fatal to the enemy. In the camp the order was attributed to the counsels of Mansfield; but the responsibility rested, and still rests, with Sir Colin.

The 15th on the right bank of the river

To return. The 14th, as we have seen, had been a day devoted entirely to work, and to little but work. It was necessary to take early measures to consolidate the progress which had then been made. To this end the 15th was devoted – on the right bank of the Gumti. Under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief powder was removed, mines were destroyed, and mortars were fixed for the further bombardment of the positions still held by the rebels on the line of advance, up the right bank of the river, and in the heart of the city.

The 15th on the left bank

On the left bank it was different. Here two movements were ordered, both of which would have been more effective if directed the previous day.

Hope Grant and Campbell are sent to pursue the rebels

Sir Colin, sensible now that the door of retreat had been left too open to the enemy, despatched Hope Grant, with eleven hundred cavalry and twelve horse artillery guns, to pursue them along the Sitapur road. Brigadier Campbell was likewise directed to move with his infantry brigade, some guns, and fifteen hundred cavalry from the .Alambagh on the Sandila road. Neither of these operations came to anything.

who, however, escape.

The rebels had taken neither the Sandila nor the Sitapur road, and the only effect of the two movements, combined with a third on the 16th, to which I am about to refer, was to leave open to them the road to Faizabad, by which more than twenty thousand of them eventually escaped.

March 16

Outram ordered to cross the Gumti

The third movement was made by Outram. That general was directed on the 16th to cross the Gumti, near the Sikandarbagh, with Douglas’s brigade, the 5th (23rd, 29th Highlanders, 1st Fusiliers), and join the Commander-in-Chief at the Kaisarbagh, leaving Walpole’s brigade still in its position on the left bank watching the iron and stone bridges.

He crosses near the Sikandarbagh.

Outram crossed the Gumti by a bridge of casks, far removed from the fire of the enemy, near the Sikandarbagh, and, joined by the 20th Regiment and Brasyer’s Sikhs, marched towards the Kaisarbagh by a road made the previous day by the sappers. On the way

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Sir Colin rode out to the force and gave his final instructions to Outram.

and moves on the Residency

These were to push on through the Residency, take the iron bridge in reverse, and then, advancing a mile further, to storm the Machchi Bhawan and the great Imambarah.

Contrast between the English and the Indian defence of the Residency.

Outram pushed on at once, passed through the Kaisarbagh, and then moved straight on the Residency. As his little force neared the venerated and battered defences of that monument of British valour, the 23rd leading, it was assailed by a fire of musketry from the line of posts which Aitken and Anderson, Sanders and Boileau, Graydon and Gould Weston, and many noble men had defended so long and so bravely. But now the positions were inverted. Then the assailants were Asiatics, the defenders mostly Englishmen. Now Asiatics defended, Englishmen assailed. The difference showed itself in a remarkable manner. For, whereas, in the former case the Englishmen defended themselves, unassisted, for eighty-four days, in the latter the Asiatics were disposed of in less than half an hour. One charge of Outram’s division, and the enemy fled, panic-stricken and panting, from the classic ground.

Outram pushing forward

The 23rd pursued the fleeing rebels, followed by Brasyer’s Sikhs and the 1st Fusiliers. Two companies of the 23rd under Lieutenant-Colonel Bell, guided183 by Gould Weston, pressed rapidly forward, and, taking the enemy’s defences in reverse, captured the gun of which I have spoken as commanding the passage across the iron bridge. The force then pushed on, taking in reverse the batteries between the two bridges.

captures the great Imambarah and the Machchi Bhawan

Meanwhile Major Cotter crowned the Residency height with a field battery of Madras Artillery, and, opening a heavy fire on the Machchi Bhawan, maintained it till he was relieved by two 65 cwt. 8-inch hollow-shot or shell guns of the Naval Brigade. After these had played with effect for some time on the devoted place, the 1st Fusiliers and Brasyer’s Sikhs were sent forward to finish the work. This they did without difficulty, and the Machchi Bhawan and great Imambarah fell into their hands, the enemy abandoning seven guns. In this advance Captain

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Salusbury of the 1st Fusiliers and Lieutenant MacGregor184, doing duty with that regiment, greatly distinguished themselves.

The retreating rebels attack Walpole, but are repulsed

Whilst these operations were successfully progressing on the right bank of the Gumti, a number of the enemy, driven from the Residency and other places, poured over the stone bridge, and, the better to cover their design of retreating on Faizabad, made a strong attack on Walpole’s pickets. The attack was repulsed, but the rebels made good their retreat.

A more serious counterblow had been attempted in another quarter.

Reduced garrison of the Alambagh

The garrison of the Alambagh had been reduced by the number of troops withdrawn by Sir Colin to less than a thousand men of all arms. These were made up of about four hundred infantry, the Military Train, a small detachment of the 7th Hussars, and some artillery. The post was commanded by Brigadier Franklyn.

The rebels attack it

At 9 o’clock on the morning of the 16th the rebels came down in considerable masses of the three arms. Whilst their infantry menaced the front of the British position their cavalry and artillery endeavoured to force back the left flank, and to get round it, with the view of giving their infantry the opportunity they were awaiting.

They are met

To meet this movement Franklyn ordered four guns and the Military Train and cavalry, under Robertson, to the village in the rear of his position, whilst to Olpherts and the four guns which remained to him he entrusted the defence of his left.

and repulsed on the left and rear by Robertson and Olpherts

These arrangements were made just in time. The rebels had been coming on boldly, but no sooner did Olpherts sweep the plain with his guns than their cavalry first halted, and then began to retire A few of them did indeed make a sudden dash at the left front picket, and even entered the village in which it was; but eventually these, too, followed the example of their comrades.

Meanwhile the main body of the infantry attacked the front, throwing out skirmishers, and advancing beyond the British rifle-pits.

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in the centre by Vincent Eyre

But Vincent Eyre, who commanded the whole of the artillery, arranged his guns in such a manner as to rake their whole line from left to right, whilst the infantry brigade, commanded by Brigadier Stisted, waited for them to come on.

The fire of the guns first checked the rebels and then drove them back; but the fact that the attack began at 9 o’clock and ceased only at half-past one will give some idea of its determined nature.

Jang Bahadur covers the Commander-in-Chief’s left

Two days previously, the 14th, the Commander-in-Chief had requested Jang Bahadur and the Nipalese to move to his left, up the canal, and take in reverse the positions which, for three months, the rebels had occupied in front of the Alambagh, the garrison of which was now reduced to two regiments. Jang Bahadur carried out the instructions conveyed to him with ability and success. One after another the enemy’s positions, from the Char-bagh bridge up to the Residency, with their guns, fell into his hands. This operation, which effectually covered, as it was carried out, the Commander-in-Chief’s left, occupied several days. The losses the Nipal chief experienced were inconsiderable185.

Outram continues his forward movements on the 17th

The 17th, Outram, pursuing his onward course, occupied, without resistance, in the morning, the Huseni Mosque and the Daulat Khana186. In the afternoon he moved, with a brigade (Middleton’s field battery, two 8-inch howitzers, one company native sappers, wing 20th Foot, wing 23rd Foot, wing 79th Highlanders, Brasyer’s Sikhs), to occupy a block of buildings known as

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Sharif-ud-Daula’s house. The enemy made no resistance, but hastily evacuated the place. The success, however, was marred by a deplorable accident. In the courtyard in rear of the Jammi Masjid, impeding the progress of the troops, nine carts, laden with gunpowder packed in tin cases and leather bags, were found.

An explosion causes loss of life

Outram directed Captain Clarke and Lieutenant Brownlow of the Engineers to remove the carts, and to dispose of the powder by throwing it into a large and deep well. If the order had been carefully carried out, no accident could possibly have occurred. But it is supposed that in the course of the operation a tin case struck the side of the well near the surface and ignited. The fire communicated itself to the powder in the carts, and caused an explosion, which resulted in the death of the two officers and about thirty men. Others were also injured, more or less seriously.

Further progress on the 18th

On the 18th, Outram’s advanced post (a picket of the 20th under Lieutenant Gordon) cleared the houses and streets in front of it, though not without meeting a sharp opposition from the enemy. In carrying out this operation the men captured a very fine brass 9-pounder gun, loaded to the muzzle with grape, and pointed down the street which they had to clear. The demoralised state of the enemy was made clear by the fact that they abandoned it on the advance of the British without waiting to discharge it.

Sir Colin learns that a large number of rebels are still in the Musa-bagh.

It had become known during these last two days, to the Commander-in-Chief, that the rebels had occupied, to the number of from eight to nine thousand, the Musa-bagh, a large palace with gardens and enclosures, standing in the midst of an open country filled with trees, about four miles to the north-west of Lakhnao, near the right bank of the Gumti. These rebels were believed to be animated by the presence of the Begam and her son, and of the more desperate leaders of the revolt. Sir Colin Campbell was resolved, now that all the strong points in the city itself were in his hands, to expel them from this last stronghold.

March 19

Outram marches on the Musa-bagh

On the morning of the 19th, therefore, Outram, under instructions from Sir Colin, marched against the Musa-bagh. His force consisted of two squadrons of the 9th Lancers; one company Royal Artillery; one the company native sappers; Middleton’s field battery;

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two 18-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, four 8-inch mortars, under Captain Carleton, R.A.; three companies 20th Regiment; seven companies 23rd Regiment; 79th Highlanders and 2nd Panjab Infantry. Whilst this force marched against the place from the advanced positions in the city, Sir Hope Grant, still on the left bank of the Gumti, was directed to cannonade it, and, on the enemy being dislodged, to fall upon those of the garrison who should attempt to cross the river; at the same time Brigadier Campbell of the Bays was ordered to take up, with a brigade of infantry, fifteen hundred cavalry, and a due proportion of guns, a position on the left front of the Musa-bagh, ready to pounce upon the rebels when Outram should expel them from their stronghold. The Nipalese troops were likewise directed to enter the city, from the Charbagh line of road, towards the rear of the Huseni Mosque. This time it was hoped and believed there would be no fugitives; but again expectation was baulked.

Captures Ali Naki Khan’s house and the Musa-bagh

Between Outram’s advanced posts and the Musa-bagh there stood, near the Gao Ghat, on the Gumti, a house belonging to the last prime minister of Oudh, the Nawab Ali Naki Khan, at the time a prisoner in Calcutta. A company of the 79th, led by Lieutenant Evereth, attacked and drove the rebels from this place. Outram’s further advance was delayed nearly two hours by the necessity of breaking through a thick wall. When at last this obstacle was removed, the troops pushed on through the suburbs to the Musa-bagh. Here the enemy appeared in great strength, but on Outram threatening their flanks, at the same time that his guns opened fire on their front, they hastily abandoned the place, leaving behind them two guns, which had been posted to protect the approaches to it.

They fled by the line which Campbell should have commanded. But where was Campbell? “With his large force of cavalry and artillery,” writes Sir Hope Grant, “there was a splendid opportunity for cutting off the large masses of fugitive rebels, yet nearly all were allowed to escape.” The gallantry of Colonel Hagart, of Slade, Bankes, and Wilkin, all of the 7th Hussars, splendid as it was, was far from atoning for the mistakes of his chief. I proceed to show the manner in which it was displayed.

Close to the position taken up by Campbell was a village with a small mud fort, of which the enemy had taken possession.

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Gallantry of Colonel Hagart

To dislodge them Campbell sent a troop of the 7th Hussars, some of Hodson’s Horse, a few of the 78th, and two of Tombs’ guns, the whole under the command of Colonel James Hagart of the 7th Hussars. A couple of shells had been fired into the fort, when the rebels, to the number of fifty, rushed out and made a dash at the guns.

Hagart ordered the 7th to charge; but, before they could get well in motion, Slade, who commanded the charging party, was severely wounded, and Bankes and his charger were cut down. Wilkin charged to his side, but, as he warded off the blow directed at his wounded comrade, his horse reared. This caused him to miss his aim, and he received at the same moment a severe wound on the foot. Wheeling again to the rescue, he cut down the rebel who was on the point of killing Bankes. The loss of their officers had somewhat disconcerted the men; but Wilkin, severely wounded as he was, effectually rallied them, and, joined by Hagart, who came up opportunely, once again charged the rebels, and cut down nearly all who remained. These two officers particularly distinguished themselves187.

Remarks on William Campbell’s inaction

This was almost the solitary achievement of Campbell’s fine brigade. No attempt whatever was made by him to cut off the fleeing enemy. His conduct was officially attributed to his having lost his way. “But,” records an officer who wrote of these occurrences the year following that in which they took place, “his error appears to have partaken of wilfulness. He moved his force in utter disregard of the statement of his guides, in opposition to the protestations and explanations of all to whose

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information and advice he was bound to listen188.” Consequently the greater number of the rebels escaped.

Splendid pursuit by the 9th Lancers

Not, however, all. Outram, keenly alive to the necessity of following up a victory, no sooner noticed that the rebels were abandoning the Musa-bagh than he detached in pursuit two squadrons of the 9th Lancers, which he had, in anticipation, posted near the enemy’s left flank. For four miles the men of this splendid regiment, despite of the obstacles offered by nullahs almost impassable and ravines difficult for horsemen, pursued the enemy, nor did they desist till they had captured six guns, and killed about a hundred of the foe.

and the artillery

Nor were the 9th Lancers alone in the chase. The field artillery and infantry followed them in support as rapidly as possible, and captured the remaining four guns of the twelve possessed by the rebels that morning.

After this decided success Outram left the 2nd Panjab Infantry in occupation of the Musa-bagh, and returned to his positions of the previous day.

March 20 Lord Canning’s proclamation

The following day copies of Lord Canning’s Oudh proclamation were received in camp. That proclamation professed to confiscate the whole proprietary right in the soil of Oudh, save in the case of six comparatively inferior chiefs. To rebel landowners who should at once surrender to the Government immunity from death and imprisonment was promised, provided only that they could show they were guiltless of unprovoked bloodshed. To those who had protected British lives special consideration was promised.

Effect of it in camp

Of the proclamation itself I shall speak in another place. I will only refer here to the effect it produced in the camp. It arrived just when the city of Lakhnao had been gained, but when Oudh was still in insurrection, and when the rebel army, which had vainly defended the city, had cast itself on the districts, there to offer a fresh resistance.

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Every leading man who had taken a part in the campaign was struck with the impolicy, at such a moment, of disinheriting a whole people, that people being still armed and in the field. “I have not,” wrote Dr. Russell189, who was attached to the headquarter staff, “heard one voice raised in its defence; and even those who are habitually silent now open their mouths to condemn the policy which must perpetuate the rebellion in Oudh.”

A qualifying clause added to it on the suggestion of Outram

Owing to the urgent remonstrance of Sir James Outram, authority was given to insert in the proclamation a qualifying clause, by virtue of which a further indulgence was held out to those who would throw themselves on British mercy, a claim to which would be strengthened by aid which might be given in the restoring of peace and order. But the other clauses remained.

March 21.

The city is cleared of rebels

Something remained to be effected even in the city itself. The Maulavi – the most obstinate of the rebel leaders – had returned to Lakhnao; he was still there, at Shadatganj, in its very heart, occupying, with two guns, a strongly fortified building, whence he bade defiance to the British.

by the 93rd and 4th Panjab Rifles

To dislodge him, Lugard was detached, on the 21st, with a portion of the division which had conquered the Begam Kothi, the first day of the attack. The troops employed were the 93rd Highlanders and the 4th Panjab Rifles. Seldom did the rebels display so much pertinacity and resolution as on this occasion. They defended themselves most bravely, and were not driven out until they had killed several men and severely wounded many others on our side. When at last they were dislodged, they were met by Brigadier Campbell’s brigade of cavalry, this time on the spot, and were pursued, with considerable loss, for six miles. The Maulavi, however, effected his escape.

March 22

Hope Grant defeats the rebels at Kursi

The following night, that of the 22nd, Hope Grant was ordered out at midnight with a strong force (two troops horse artillery, two 18-pounders, two howitzers, four Cohorn mortars, nine hundred cavalry, and four regiments of infantry) to attack the enemy, reported to be four thousand strong, at Kursi, a small town twenty-five miles from Lakhnao, on the Faizabad road. The mistake of a guide delayed the march, but at 4 A.M. on the 23rd Kursi was

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sighted. The enemy did not await an assault, but, on the appearance of the British troops, began to evacuate the town. Upon this Hope Grant sent his cavalry at them. Two squadrons of the Panjab Cavalry under Captain Browne190, and a party of Watson’s Horse led by Captain Cosserat, dashed at them. “Captain Browne, who commanded,” wrote Sir Hope Grant, in his diary, “seeing some guns moving off, charged the rebels in the most magnificent style. Five times he rode clean through them, killing about two hundred, and taking thirteen guns and a mortar. His unfortunate adjutant, Lieutenant Macdonald, was shot dead in the act of cutting down a Sipahi. Captain Cosserat was shot through the face, and died shortly after.”

The enemy having been pursued for some time, Hope Grant returned to Lakhnao.

Remarks on the campaign

With this action the operations in Lakhnao and in its immediate vicinity ended. The city was captured. It had been gained at a loss – from the 2nd to the 21st March inclusive – of a hundred and twenty-seven officers and men killed, and five hundred and ninety-five wounded. Notwithstanding two errors which I have indicated – the one attributable to the Commander-in-Chief himself, the other, in the first instance, to one of his brigadiers – it is impossible to withhold admiration of the skill with which the operations were planned, of the courage with which they were carried out. The plans of the rebels, based on the conjecture that the British force would advance by the lines of the previous November, were entirely baffled by the masterly movement across the river. That movement, which placed an enemy on their flank, raking their defences, completely cowed them. It took all the heart out of them. Enfiladed from the opposite bank of the river, they could not offer a stern or determined resistance to the foe advancing on their front. The weakness of their defence of the Imambarah and the Kaisarbagh was due in a very great degree to the moral depression which the position occupied by Outram had caused in their minds.

Claims of Sir Colin to a high or to the highest rank as a general

But if, as has been well asserted191, the strategy of Sir Colin Campbell in his attack on Lakhnao “must ever be the subject of admiration on the part of the military student of this campaign,” it is fit that history should mark the blunder which prevented it from

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being decisive. Outram was a lieutenant to be trusted. He was cool and daring in action, always kept his troops well in hand, and carefully guarded his communications. No living man had a greater or more profound knowledge of the native character.

Reasons which are decisive against his claim to the highest rank.

If any man, in the circumstances in which he was placed, might have been trusted to act on his own judgment, that man was Outram. Yet when, at a critical period of the advance, Outram, firmly seated on the left bank, proposed to co-operate with the Commander-in-Chief in a manner which would have rendered the victory of the latter absolutely decisive, the proposal was refused in language totally unworthy of Sir Colin Campbell. He was forbidden to cross “if he thought he would lose a single man.” The reasons for this prohibition have never been published. Dr. Russell, who was very much in the confidence both of Sir Colin and of Outram, whilst admitting the “blot” caused by Outram’s compulsory inaction, does not explain the motive by which Sir Colin was actuated to make it compulsory192.

The prohibition to Outram to cross the Gumti.

Whether, as some assert, it was prompted by Mansfield, or whether it was the emanation of his own mind, Sir Colin, as the issuer of the order, was responsible for it, and he alone must bear the blame. That order derogates from his claim to be placed in the rank of the greatest commanders. He must be classed as a great general of the second rank, a general who could skilfully plan, carefully carry out that plan, who could achieve a victory, but who could not render it absolutely decisive.

The appointment of William Campbell and the approval of his failure

The second failure to pursue the beaten enemy is due likewise, though in a lesser degree, to Sir Colin Campbell. For the delicate operation he was bound to select an officer specially qualified, and, if not acquainted with the country, yet ready to listen to the experienced officers at his elbow or to understand the language of the guides. He appointed, on the contrary, an officer new to the country, who would listen to nobody,

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who could not understand the guides, and who, consequently, let slip a golden opportunity. Yet this action, which allowed thousands of rebels to escape, was justified by Sir Colin Campbell.

“Brigadier Campbell, in command of the cavalry on the left,” he writes, in his despatch, “performed his detached duty with much vigilance and judgment. His march round the city on the 19th inst., which was a running fight for the greater part of the day, was a very difficult one.” What it really was has been recorded in these pages.

These errors, however, stood alone, and the capture of Lakhnao in March 1858 will remain to all time a splendid achievement of skill and daring.

Footnotes

167. The statement, in the text, made by me in the first edition of this volume, regarding the part taken by Brigadier Napier in the plan for the attack on Lakhnao, having been taken objection to, I chew attention in the second edition to the official papers on the subject extracted from Volume X. of Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. I now attach extract from a letter, dated the 4th of February, 1858, addressed by Brigadier Napier to Sir Colin Campbell, containing his proposals for the attack – all of which were accepted and carried out.

“MY DEAR SIR COLIN. –

“I am afraid you will be disappointed at not receiving the projects, but our people have been bringing a considerable amount of intelligence to fill up our plans, which have tempted me to enter into details. I may, however, briefly state that, notwithstanding the enemy has made a good many defences, and thrown up a ditch and rampart round the north side of the Kaisarbagh, and has endeavoured to cut away all the passages across the canal, I do not apprehend any great difficulty.

“I would propose to encamp the force sufficiently far behind the Dilkusha to be out of fire; to establish a bridge on the Gumti to pass over artillery and cavalry, to cut off the enemy’s supplies, and to deter them from bringing out guns on the north side of the river to annoy us.

“To cross the canal in the first instance at Banks’s house, under cover of our artillery, and to place guns in position to bear on the mass of buildings which flank the European infantry barracks, the hospital, the Begam’s house, and the Hazratganj – the places which rendered the European barracks so barely tenable – and to take that mass of buildings with the barracks.

“This position takes in flank all the defences of the north side of the Kaisarbagh, and from them we may penetrate gradually to the Kaisarbagh with the aid of the sapper and gunpowder, at the same time that we will occupy your old ground _between the Kaisarbagh and the Gumti, to have positions for our artillery of all kinds to play on the Kaisarbagh and its surrounding buildings. We shall, during this time, be steadily penetrating through the buildings on the left of the European barracks, making irresistible progress until we reach the Kaisarbagh.

“Until we take that place we shall have as little street-fighting as is possible, and I hardly expect they will await an assault. But if they should do so, and defend the remainder of the city, we must advance, under cover of our mortars, until we occupy the bridges, which will certainly clear off the remainder, or they will starve.

“Jalalabad will be our depot, and when we have got the enemy’s guns driven off, we may bring our park up to the Dilkusha.

“I should have chosen your old passage across the canal, but the enemy have cut a new one across the neck of a loop, and have put guns behind it, so that, as far as the intelligence guides us, Banks’s house will be easier.”

168. Kaisarbagh, “the Imperial Garden.” Jam’ania-bagh, “the garden of meeting.” Shesha-Mahall, “the palace of mirrors.” Machchi-Bhawan, “the house of fish.” Imambarah, “the building of the Imams.” Farhatbaksh Palace was the royal palace till the last King of Oudh built the Kaisarbagh. The Martinière, a building 2500 yards S.S.E. of the Sikandarbagh, was built and endowed by the famous Claude Martin. For a full description of these and other places in Lakhnao, the reader is referred to the excellent description by Captain Eastwick in Murray’s Handbook to Bengal.

169. The foregoing – commencing from the paragraph headed “Lakhnao” – is almost a literal transcript from the report of the Chief Engineer, Brigadier Napier, dated 31st March, 1858 – a report addressed to the Chief of the Staff, but published by Lord Canning, Nov. 17th, 1858.

170. “Sir Colin, being anxious to get his men across before the enemy could discover our intention and open upon us, rode down to the river-side and pitched into everybody most handsomely, I catching the principal share.” – Hope Grant.

171. Hope Grant. They killed or wounded three officers and nine men.

172. “He went out with his usual nonchalance to find a suitable place for some guns to be posted to breach the outer walls of the Martinière, when he was shot in the thigh by a musket ball.” – The Shannon’s Brigade in India.

173. Chaudhari, a village chief. Sandila is an important town in the Hardui district, thirty-two miles north-west of Lakhnao.

174. Literally, “The foot of the Prophet.”

175. Vide p. 137.

176. This deed of happy audacity was not mentioned in the despatches. It was, however, well known in camp. My account of it is taken almost verbatim from the statement of one of the actors, to whom it is unnecessary further to refer.

177. “At the Begam’s palace the defences were found, after the capture of the place, so much stronger than could be observed or had been believed, that the General said that had he known what lay before the assaulting column he should have hesitated to give the order for advance.” – Twelve Years of a Soldier’s Life in India, p. 393, note.

178. Sir Colin Campbell’s Official Report.

179. A Year’s Campaigning in India. – Medley.

180. Medley.

181. Chini, Anglicé, “Chinese.”

182. My Diary in India. – W. H. Russell.

183. Outram’s despatch. – This was a duty often assigned to Captain Weston, one for which his knowledge of the localities peculiarly fitted him,

184. The late General Sir Charles MacGregor, K.C.B., C.S.I., C.I.E., one of the ablest, most prescient, and energetic men of whom the Indian Army could boast. I do not think there ever lived his superior.

185. Jang Bahadur’s successful advance was memorable for the recovery from captivity of two English ladies – Miss Jackson and Mrs. On. In the third volume of this history (note, p. 252–6) I have given a sketch of the adventures of the Sitapur fugitives, and have told how it was that on the 17th March only two of these, Mrs. Orr and Miss Jackson, survived. On the 20th March two British officers attached to the Nipal troops, Captain McNeill and Lieutenant Bogle, when exploring some deserted streets near the Kaisarbagh, were informed by a friendly native of the place in which the two ladies were confined. They at once procured the aid of a party of fifty Nipalese, and after walking through narrow streets – about half a mile – they reached a house occupied by one Wajid Ali, an officer of the old Court. In a room within the house they found the two ladies, dressed in Oriental costume. They at once procured a palanquin, and notwithstanding the opposition threatened by a body of ruffians, who would have prevented the rescue, they conveyed the ladies in safety to the camp of Jang Bahadur.

186. One of the royal palaces. Literally, “the house of happiness.”

187. Hope Grant’s Incidents of the Sepoy War. Sir Hope Grant further adds regarding Hagart’s daring exploit: “Everything about him bore traces of his gallant struggle. His saddle and his horse were slashed about both in front and behind, his martingale was divided, his sword-hilt dented in, the pocket-handkerchief severed as clearly as with a razor, and a piece of the skin of his right hand cut away.” – Sir Hope Grant recommended Hagart for the Victoria Cross. Wilkin, now Major Wilkin, was also twice recommended for the Victoria Cross for his gallant conduct. Hagart received neither reward nor recognition, but Wilkin eventually got a brevet majority. The reason why the recommendation in the case of Hagart was not attended to is, to say the least, curious. “Sir Colin Campbell,” writes Sir Hope, “did not, however, forward the recommendation, as he considered the reward an inappropriate one for an officer of so high a rank as Hagart.” The italics are my own. Bankes died of his wounds.

188. Calcutta Review, March 1859, Art. “The Campaign of 1857-8.” The writer continues: “But whatever may have been the cause of his erratic proceedings, whether they were accidental or whether they were worthy of blame, we believe that the mischief which resulted from them was incalculable; that to them is attributable such organization as the enemy were enabled to maintain, and the perseverance and pertinacity with which they still carried on a guerilla warfare with the British.”

189. My Diary in India, by William Howard Russell.

190. Now Major-General Sir Sam Browne, V.C., K.C.B.

191. Medley.

192. “The relations between Sir Cohn and General Outram, though not unfriendly, are a little stiff, on account of past events, and Outram is not the man to act in opposition to the commands of his superior officer. Had Sir Colin not bound Outram’s hands so tightly, the advance would have taken place, and a tremendous slaughter of the enemy must have followed.” – My Diary in India. – W. H. Russell.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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