Page 129

Chapter 6 – The March Upon Dehli

Mirath after the outbreak

May 12–27

On the day after that dreadful night at Mirath, which witnessed the first horrors of the revolt, it was the effort of the authorities to concentrate all the surviving Europeans, and such property as could be saved, within the English quarter of the great Cantonment. All the outlying piquets and sentries were therefore recalled; and all who lived beyond the new line of defence were brought in and lodged in a capacious public building used as the Artillery School of Instruction, and known as the Damdamah. There also the treasure was brought from the Collectorate, and safely guarded against the plunderers, who were roaming about the place. For the predatory classes were now making high festival, the escaped convicts from the gaols, the Gujars from the neighbouring villages, and all the vile scum and refuse of the bazaars were glorying in the great paralysis of authority which had made crime so easy and so profitable. From the Cantonment the great harvest of rapine stretched out into the surrounding district. There was no respect of persons, races, or creeds. All who had anything to lose and lacked strength to defend it, were ruthlessly despoiled by the marauders. Travellers were stopped on the highway; the mails were plundered; houses were forcibly entered and sacked, and sometimes all the inmates butchered134. And so entirely had all semblance of British authority disappeared, that it was

Page 130

believed that the English in Mirath had been slain to a man135.

Meanwhile, with the proverbial rapidity of evil tidings, news had travelled up from Dehli, which left no doubt of the total defeat of the English, the Proclamation of the Padishah, and the concentration of the rebel troops, who, it was believed, would soon return to Mirath with all the immense resources of the great Magazine at their command. And presently fugitives came in with the sad details of mutiny and massacre, and exciting narratives of their own providential escapes136. All this increased the general consternation. It was plain now that there was wide-spread revolt. All Civil authority was practically suspended; so Martial Law was proclaimed in the joint names of General Hewitt and Mr. Greathed; and the first who tasted the ready justice of the improvised gallows was the butcher from the Bazaar, who had brutally murdered Mrs. Chambers in her house. But this seems to have been an isolated act of vigour, due rather to the energy of an individual than to the joint authority from which the edict had proceeded137.

On the 16th an incident occurred which increased the general consternation.

Page 131

The Sappers and Miners

Sixty miles from Mirath, on the Ganges Canal, lies Rurki, the Head-Quarters of the Engineering science of the country. There the great Thomason College, with its famous workshops, was in all the bustle and animation of its varied mechanical industry. There was the centre of the Irrigation Department, whence issued the directing authority that controlled the great system of Canal Works which watered the thirsty land. There, too, was posted the regiment of Sappers and Miners – trained and educated Native military Engineers under European officers. It was a great thriving bee-hive; and that month of May found the workers in all their wonted peaceful activity, with plans and projects suited to the atmosphere of quiet times, and no thought of coining danger to disturb the oven tenor of daily life.

Baird Smith

“No community in the world,” wrote one, who may be said to have been the chief of this prosperous colony, “could have been living in greater security of life and property,” when Major Fraser, who commanded the Sappers and Miners, received an express from the General at Mirath, ordering him to proceed by forced marches to that station, as the Sipahi regiments were in open revolt. When intelligence of this summons reached Colonel Baird Smith, he at once suggested that the regiment should be despatched by the route of the Ganges Canal. To this Fraser readily agreed; and within six hours boats were prepared sufficient for the conveyance of a thousand men. The regiment mustered only seven hundred and thirteen, who were equipped and ready for the journey, when another express came ordering two companies to stand fast at Rurki, for the protection of that place. So eventually some five hundred men set out, under Fraser, for Mirath.

The Defence of Rurki

Then came to Rurki the news of the Dehli massacre. And as the Sappers were moving down to Mirath, Baird Smith was making admirable arrangements for the defence of the great engineering depot, in which he took such earnest and loving interest. Officially, he was Superintendent-General of Irrigation in the North-Western Provinces; a most useful functionary, great in all the arts of peace, and with a reputation which any man might be proud to possess. But the man of much science now grew at once into the man of war, and Rurki became a

Page 132

garrison under his command.. Not an hour was lost138. Those indeed were times when to lose an hour might be to lose everything; and Baird Smith knew that there was no emergency against which he might not be called upon to provide. Even the companies of Sappers, which had been left for the defence of Rurki, might soon become a source of infinite danger. It was soon settled that the workshops should become the citadel, to which women and children might be removed; and there, on the 16th of May, all these helpless ones, little less than a hundred139 in number, were comfortably accommodated in the several rooms, whilst to each of our male people some fitting duty was assigned. Their number was not much greater than that of the women and children; and half of them were non-combatants, clerks attached to the establishment, and little accustomed to the use of arms. The trained soldiers were but about fifty140 in number, with eight or ten good officers; and of these Baird Smith took the command, telling them off into different guards, and organising different departments, so that nothing was omitted or neglected that could add to the defence of the place.

The Sapper companies, suspected of disloyalty from the first, were placed under their officers in charge of the College buildings. Baird Smith had talked to some of their leading men, endeavouring to allay the obvious excitement among them by friendly explanations and assurances; and after that, he said, “I could do no more.” The wretched story of the bone-dust flour was rife amongst them, and there was a vague fear, as in

Page 133

other places, of a meditated attack by the British, taking them by surprise, disarming, and then destroying them. In such a state of feeling every circumstance of an exceptional character is misinterpreted into an indication of offence, and when it was known to the Sappers at Rurki that the Sirmur Battalion – a regiment of Gurkahs commanded by Major Charles Reid – was coming down from Dehra, on its way to Mirath141, a terrible suspicion took possession of them; they believed it was a hostile movement against themselves. When this became known to Baird Smith, he sent an express to Reid requesting him not to march upon Rurki, but to make straight for the Canal, and at once to embark in the boats that were waiting for him. Reid grasped the position at once, and acted upon the suggestion. Pretending that he had missed his way, he asked for a guide to lead him straight to the banks of the Canal, and so they marched on to the boats without increasing the general alarm. And, said Reid, Baird Smith “was right beyond doubt, and his good judgment and forethought may have been – indeed, I feel pretty sure it was – the means of saving the place and the lives of the ladies and children.”

Mutiny of the Sappers

May 15

Meanwhile, the main body of the Sappers, under Major Fraser, had marched into Mirath. Not without some feelings of suspicion and alarm, they had. moved down the great Canal; but their behaviour had, on the whole, been orderly, and when, on the 15th, they arrived at their destination, there was no reason to doubt their fidelity. Brought, however, into the immediate presence of a large body of European troops, who had the blood of their slaughtered countrymen to avenge, they were in that excitable, inflammable state, which needs only a single spark to draw forth the latent fire. It soon fell. It seems that the Commandant had promised them that they should retain charge of their own ammunition. He had no intention of breaking faith with them; but he desired that, for greater security, it should be stored in a bomb-proof building, which had been placed at his disposal. If the object of this had been carefully explained

Page 134

to the men, they would probably have assented without a murmur. But when, on the day after their arrival, the ammunition was being conveyed to its destination, the Sipahis suspected treachery, resented the removal of the magazine, stopped the laden carts, and broke into open mutiny. An Afghan Sipahi fired his piece from behind the Commandant, and Fraser fell, shot through the back. Others fired at Adjutant Mansell, but missed him; and the Native non-commissioned officer who was in attendance on Fraser was killed in the affray. Having done this, the mutineers broke and fled, but their victory was but short-lived. A troop of the Carabineers and some Horse Artillery guns were let loose upon them. The greater number escaped; but some fifty of the fugitives were overtaken outside cantonments among the sand-hills, and were killed. And so the Sappers and Miners, as a regiment, ceased to exist. Two companies, however, which were at work in another part of Mirath, were disarmed and set to work on the fortification of the Damdamah.

May 15–24

Inactivity at Mirath

After this, there was, for a time, a lull at Mirath. The destruction of the Sappers was, perhaps, regarded as a cause of congratulation and a source of confidence, and as the advancing month brought with it no new alarms, and it seemed that the mutineers were resolved to concentrate their strength at Dehli, and not to emerge thence – as people whose fighting powers were greater behind walls – things began gradually to assume a cheerful complexion, and the inmates of the Artillery School ceased to tremble as they talked of what was to come. But there was vexation in high places. The telegraph line between Mirath. and Agra was sometimes, if not always open; and Lieutenant-Governor Colvin, who never could lose sight of the fact that there were a battalion of English Rifles, a regiment of English Dragoons, and two batteries of English Artillery at Mirath, was constantly urging them, for God’s sake, to do something. Thinking, after a while, that it was quite useless to exhort General Hewitt to put forth any activity in such a case, Colvin addressed himself to Brigadier Wilson, thus virtually setting aside the General of Division. Nettled by this, Hewitt telegraphed to Agra respectfully to request that the Lieutenant-Governor would transmit through him orders to his subordinates when such a step could cause no delay. But the Lieutenant-Governor still continued to telegraph to the Brigadier, beseeching

Page 135

him to go out in force so as to keep open the main road and to prevent dangerous combinations of revolted troops throughout the Dual. “What plan,” he had asked, “does Brigadier Wilson propose for making the Mirath force actively useful in checking an advance down the Duab? If the mutineers leave Dehli in force, it is plain that no wing of a corps, or even a single corps, could stay their march. Therefore a move in strength to Balandshahr seems to be the right one.” And now the Agra authorities continued to urge these movements, but were met by protests that it would be inexpedient to divide the force. “The only plan,” said Wilson, “is to concentrate our European force, and to attack Dehli. He had consulted,” he said, “with all the European officers in the force, and they were unanimously of opinion that any movement of the force from Mirath would be highly imprudent without the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, as it might counteract any movement that he might be forming.” “To move in full strength,” he added, “would involve the abandonment of all the sick, women and children and [ ].” Then came the inevitable story that “the Commissariat report that they cannot supply carriage for a force of half the strength; “and yet it was, numerically, but a small force that would have taken the field142. So Colvin yielded the point, and no longer looked to Mirath for assistance.

It has been shown that, as one result of the inactivity of this beautiful force of all arms, a belief gained ground in the adjacent country that the English at Mirath had all been killed to a man. Although the surrounding villages were swarming with robber-clans, who had murdered our people and sacked our houses, it was not until the 24th of May, two weeks after the great tragedy, that a small party of our Dragoons was sent out to chastise the inmates of one of these nests of plunderers.

May 24

Death of Mr. Johnston

On that day, for the first time, the English magistrate, Mr. Johnston, obtained the assistance of troops to enable him to suppress the overflowing crime of the district. The village of Iktiapur was then burnt, and the people learnt that English soldiers were still alive in

Page 136

Mirath. But the demonstration was an ill-fated one. For Johnston, who had gone out with the troops, riding homewards in hot haste, when the work was done, eager to be again actively employed, was fearfully injured by the falling of his horse, and three days afterwards expired.

William Hodson

But the Mirath Brigade had now done with inaction. The “orders of the Commander-in-Chief,” for which it b had been waiting, had arrived143. It had been supposed for some time that the road between Karnal and Mirath was closed; but in the camp of the Commander-in-Chief there was an officer, equal to any difficult work, who volunteered to carry despatches to the latter place, and to bring back the much-needed information of the state of Wilson’s Brigade. This was Lieutenant William Hodson, a man of rare energy of character, who was then serving with the 1st (Company’s) Fusiliers. He had been, years before, one of that little band of pioneers who, under Henry Lawrence, had cleared the way for the civilisation of the Panjab, and he had afterwards risen to the command of that famous Guide Corps, the institution of which had been one of the most cherished and the most successful projects of his accomplished chief. But, amidst a career of the brightest promise, a heavy cloud had gathered over him, and he had rejoined his old regiment as a subaltern, chafing under a sense of wrong, and eager to clear himself from what he declared to be unmerited imputations upon his character. This gloom was upon him when General Anson, discerning his many fine qualities, offered him a place in the Department of the Quartermaster-General, and especially charged him with the intelligence branch of its duties, in prosecution of which he was to raise a body of a hundred horse and fifty foot144. This was at Ambalah, to which place he had marched down with his regiment from Dagshai. He was soon actively at work. He hastened down to Karnal, and there picking up some horsemen of the Jhind Rajah’s Contingent, rode into Mirath, a distance of seventy-six miles, delivered his despatches, took a bath, a breakfast, and a little sleep, and then rode back with papers for the Commander-in-Chief. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Mirath Brigade was in the bustle of preparation for an

Page 137

advance, under Wilson, to join the column which was moving down from the hills to the attack of Dehli. Many then, who had chafed under the restraints of the past fortnight, took fresh heart, and panted with the excitement of coming action.

May 27

In high spirits, the troops marched out of cantonments on the night of the 27th of May. The column consisted of two squadrons of the Carabineers; a wing of the light field battery; Tombs’s troop of Horse Artillery; two eighteen-pounder guns, all manned by Europeans; with some Native Sappers and Irregular Horse. Brigadier Archdale Wilson commanded the force, and Mr. Hervey Greathed accompanied it as civil officer. And with them rode, at the head of an improvised body of Horse, Jan Fishan Khan, the Afghan chief, who, unlike most of his countrymen, thought that he was bound to do something in return for the British pension, which supported him and his house145.

The marches of the two first days were uneventful. No enemy appeared, and Greathed believed that the

May 30

The battles on the Hindan

rebel force would not attempt to give us battle except before the walls of Dehli. But when, on the 30th of May, Wilson’s force reached Ghazi-ud-din Nagar146, near the river Hindan, there were signs of a coming struggle. Flushed with success, and confident in their strength, the mutineers had left their stronghold, and had come on to give battle to the Mirath Brigade before its junction with the force from Ambalah. They had planted some heavy guns

Page 138

on a ridge to the right of their position, and from this point they opened fire upon our people. Then the eighteen-pounders, under Light, and Scott’s field battery, made vigorous answer, and under their cover the British Riflemen advanced, and moving along the causeway, came to close quarters with the enemy. For some time a stubborn conflict was maintained; but our Horse Artillery, under Henry Tombs, supported by the Carabineers, dashed to the right, crossed the Hindan, making light of its rugged bank and dangerous bed, and successfully turned the left ,flank of the enemy. Under the galling fire then poured in upon them the mutineers reeled and staggered, and presently broke. Some took refuge in a village, whence they were driven by our Riflemen, and soon the whole body of the enemy were in ignominious flight towards the walls of Dehli. Five of their guns fell into our hands, and they left many of their fighting men behind them. Our own loss would have been small, but for the explosion of an ammunition-waggon; not by an accident of warfare, but by an act of resolute and sacrificial courage on the part of one of the mutineers. A Sipahi of the 11th Regiment deliberately discharged his musket into the midst of the combustibles just as a party of the Rifles, under Captain Andrews, were gallantly seizing the gun to which the cart belonged. The explosion cost the man his life; but Andrews and some of his followers were killed by it, and others were carried wounded from the scene147. It taught us that among the mutineers were some brave and desperate men, who were ready to court instant death for the sake of the national cause. Many acts of heroism of this kind brighten up the history of the war, and many more were, doubtless, performed, of which History has no record.

May 31

The mutineers fled in hot haste to Dehli, where they were reviled for their disgraceful failure, and sent back reinforced, to try whether Fortune would help them on another day. Stimulated by promises of large rewards to achieve a great success in honour of the restored monarchy,

Page 139

they again marched to the Hindan. That day was our Whit-Sunday. There was no Church parade. But the morning was ushered in by the most solemn and beautiful of all our Church services – that of the Burial of the Dead. There was genuine sorrow for those who had fallen as they were laid in unconsecrated ground, “a babool tree and a milestone marking the spot148.” Little space was then left for mournful reflections. It was soon known that the Sipahis were returning to the attack. About noon our bugles sounded the alarm. The enemy had taken up a position on the ridge to the right of the Hindan, about a mile from our advanced posts on the bridge. Pushing forward his guns, he opened a heavy fire upon Wilson’s force. This was a signal for our advance. The Artillery were sent forward to reply to the enemy’s fire – the Rifles, with two of Scott’s guns, occupying the head of the bridge. The battle, which then raged for some two hours, was almost wholly an Artillery fight149. But Cavalry and Infantry were exposed both to the fire of the enemy, and to the more irresistible assaults of the sun. It was the last day of May, one of the hottest days of the year. The fiery blasts of the summer were aggravated by the heat thrown from the smouldering embers of the burnt villages. The thirst of our people was intolerable. Some were smitten down by sun-stroke; others fell exhausted by the way; and there is a suspicion that some were destroyed by water poisoned by the enemy150. But, in spite of all these depressing circumstances, Wilson’s troops drove the enemy from their position. When the fire of the mutineers had somewhat slackened, the Brigadier ordered a general advance of his force, and the Sipahis recoiled before it. But although they felt that they could not hold their ground and continue the battle, they did not fly, shattered and broken, as on the preceding day. Having discharged into our advancing columns a tremendous shower of

Page 140

grape-shot, they limbered up their guns before the smoke had dispersed, and fell back in orderly array. Exhausted by the cruel heat and suffering Agonies of thirst, the English soldier could not improve his victory by giving chase to the retiring enemy. The mutineers carried off all their guns and stores, and made good their retreat to Dehli. But they had been thus twice beaten in fair fight by inferior numbers, and had nothing but their disgrace to carry back with them and to lay at the feet of their King.

In the English camp there was great rejoicing; and as the news spread, all men were gladdened by the thought that the tide now seemed to have turned, and that retribution, which, though delayed, was certain, was now overtaking the enemies of our race and the murderers of our people. The old stern courage had been again asserted, and with the old results. Success had returned to our ranks; and there was special cause for congratulation in the fact that Wilson, with a portion only of the old Mirath Brigade, had been the first to inflict punishment on the rebels, and among them upon some of the very men who had prevailed against us so grievously a little time before. But the situation of the little force on the Hindan was not without its perils. It was doubtful whether our troops, exhausted as they were by the work that they had done under that fiery sky, could successfully sustain another attack, if, as was probable, the enemy should come out again from Dehli, and in increased numbers.

June 1

But the month of June came in, bringing with it no fresh assaults, but a welcome reinforcement. The Gurkah regiment, nearly five hundred strong, having moved up from Balandshahr, marched into camp, under its gallant Commandant, Major Charles Reid. At first they were taken for a body of the enemy marching upon our rear. But no sooner were they identified than the British troops turned out and welcomed them with lusty cheers.

Movements of Barnard’s force

Meanwhile the Dehli Field, Force, under Barnard, had marched down to Alipur, which lies at a distance twelve miles from Dehli. It arrived there on of the 5th of June, and was halted until the Mirath troops could come up from the Hindan. There had been some want of understanding between the commanders of the two forces as to the nature of the operations and the point of junction. It had been thought, at one time, that it would be strategically expedient to move upon Dehli from both

Page 141

banks of the Jamnah; and after the battles of the Hindan, Wilson’s force had halted for orders from the chief. Those orders were received on the 4th of June. That evening Wilson commenced his march, and soon after midnight on the morning of the 6th he crossed the Jamnah at Baghpat. The delay was a source of bitterness to the Ambalah troops, who were furiously eager to fall upon the enemy. Fresh tidings of mutiny and murder had reached them, and the blood of officers and men alike was at fever heat. The impatience, however, was but short-lived. Wilson was now close at hand.

June 6

Arrival of the siege-train

And already the waiting was bearing good fruit. On the 6th the siege-train arrived. Orders for the equipment of the train had been received on the 17th of May. On the morning of the 24th, the gates of the Fort were opened. The guns and waggons and the labouring bullocks were all ready. The Sipahis of the 3rd regiment at Philur had volunteered to escort the train151; and, with some troopers of the 9th Irregular cavalry, they now marched upon the Satlaj. The bridge was still passable, and the train crossed over. Two hours afterwards the boats, which spanned the river, had been swept away by the flooding waters. But, although the Sipahis of the 3rd regiment, who had then the game in their hands, had suffered the train to cross the bridge, it was known that they were mutinous to the core152. So when the whole line of ordnance was secure on the other bank of the river, it was quietly explained to the Sipahis of the 3rd that their services were no longer needed. A contingent of Horse and Foot had been furnished by the Rajah of Nabha, and it was now ready to relieve the men of the suspected regiments. Under this guard of auxiliaries, with which the detachment of Irregular Cavalry

Page 142

moved forward, the train laboured on to Ambalah, which it reached on the 27th of May. But a new difficulty awaited it there; for, although the guns had arrived, they were useless for want of gunners. A weak company was, therefore, despatched from Firuzpur by bullock-train, to be afterwards strengthened by recruits from Mirath. Meanwhile, the position of the train was not without its surrounding dangers. The Nasiri Battalion, which had been guilty of such shameful defection in the hour of our need, had come into Ambalah, and the Sipahis of the 5th were striving to induce the Gurkahs to combine with them to seize the guns and to march to Dehli153. The plot, however, was frustrated, and the siege-train passed on safely to Head-Quarters154.

June 7

Junction with the Mirath force

On the 7th of June, amidst hearty welcomings and warm congratulations, the Mirath contingent marched gaily into Alipur. At one o’clock on the following morning they commenced the march on Dehli, thirsting for the battle. Their scouts had told them that the enemy were strongly posted in front of the approaches to the city, resolute to contest the progress of the British Force. Never since the first English soldier loaded his piece or unsheathed his sword to smite the dark-faced, white-turbaned Moor or Gentu – not even when Clive’s army, a century before, landed in Bengal to inflict retribution on the perpetrators of the great crime of the Black Hole – had our people moved forward under the impulse of such an eager, burning desire to be amongst the murderers of their race, as on that early June morning, when Barnard’s fighting men knew that the mutineers of Mirath and Dehli were within their reach. It had been ascertained that the enemy were strongly posted, Infantry and Cavalry, with thirty guns, about six miles from Dehli, at a place called Badli-ki-Sarai, where groups of old houses and walled gardens, once the country residences of some of the nobles of the Imperial Court, supplied positions capable of powerful resistance155. On this place marched Barnard, on the early morning of the 8th of June, along the

Page 143

Grand Trunk Road, with the river on one side, and the Western Jamnah Canal on the other, whilst Brigadier Hope Grant, with Cavalry and Horse Artillery, crossed the canal and moved down along its right bank with the object of taking the enemy in flank.

June 8

Battle of Badli-ki-Sarai

Day was just dawning when Barnard’s columns came within fire of the Sipahis’ guns. The dispositions which he had made for the attack were excellent, and they were not frustrated by any discovery of a mistaken estimate of the enemy’s movements. He found the rebels where he expected to find them. Whilst Showers, with the First Brigade, was to attack upon the right, Graves, with the Second, was to lead his men against the enemy’s position on the left; and Grant, on the first sound of the guns, was to recross the canal by the bridge in the rear of the rebel camp, and to take them in flank. The strength of the enemy was known to be in their Artillery. Four heavy guns, Money’s Horse Artillery troop, and part of Scott’s Battery, were sent in advance to silence their fire, but the guns of the mutineers were of heavier metal than our own, and it was not easy to make an impression on their batteries. For some time the Artillery had the fighting to themselves156. Officers and men were dropping at their guns, and for a little space it seemed doubtful whether they could hold their own. But the British Infantry now deployed into line; and the inspiring mandate to charge the guns went forth to the 75th. Then Herbert led out his noble regiment with a ringing cheer, right up to the enemy’s batteries, and the 2nd Europeans followed in support. Nothing could resist the impetuous rush of these English soldiers; but the rebels stood well to their guns, and showed that there were some resolute spirits ‘beneath those dusky skins, and that the lessons they had learnt in our camps and cantonments had not been thrown away. Many fought with the courage of desperation, and stood to be bayoneted at their guns. It was not a time for mercy; it’ it was sought it was sternly refused.

Meanwhile the Second Brigade, under Graves, charged the enemy’s position on the left, and, about the same time, Hope

Page 144

Grant, whose march had been delayed by the state of the roads along which he had advanced, appeared in the enemy’s rear with his Cavalry and Horse Artillery. Thus the programme of the preceding day was acted out in all its parts, and the enemy, attacked on every side, had nothing left to them but retreat. At first, they seem to have fallen back in orderly array; but the Lancers, under Yule, fell upon them so fiercely, and the Horse Artillery guns, though impeded by the watercourses, opened so destructive a fire upon them, that they were soon in panic flight, shattered and hopeless. All the guns, and stores, and baggage which they had brought out from the great city were abandoned; and so our first fight before Dehli ended in an assuring victory.

But the day’s work was not done. Barnard saw clearly that it was a great thing to make an impression on the enemy, not easily to be effaced, on the first day of the appearance of the Army of Retribution before the walls of Dehli. The sun had risen, and the fury of the June heats was at its height. Our men had marched through the night, they had fought a battle, they were worn and weary, and now the fierce sun was upon them, and there had been but little time to snatch any sustaining food, or to abate the thirst of the Indian summer; but the strong spirit within them overbore the weakness of the flesh, and there was no demand to be made upon them by their leader to which they were not prepared to respond. Barnard’s soldierly experiences had taught him that even a force so broken as the advance of the enemy at Badli-ki-Sarai might rally, and that they might have a strong reserve. He determined, therefore, to push onward, and not to slacken until he had swept the enemy back into Dehli, and had secured such a position for his force as would be an advantageous base for future operations. From Badli-ki-Sarai the road diverges into two branches, the one a continuation of the Grand Trunk leading to the suburb of Sabzimandi, and the other leading to the old British Cantonments. Stretching in front of these two positions, and forming, as it were, the base of a triangle, of which the two roads were the sides, was a long rocky ridge overlooking the city. At the point of divergence, Barnard separated his force, and sending Wilson with one division along the former road, led the other himself down to the Ridge. There he found the enemy posted in some strength with heavy guns; but another dexterous flank movement turned their position, and, before they could

Page 145

change their line, the 60th Rifles, the 2nd Europeans, and Money’s Troop were sweeping along the Ridge: and soon Wilson, who had fought his way through the Sabzimandi, and driven the enemy from their shelter there, appeared at the other end, and rebels saw that all was lost. There was nothing left for them now but to seek safety behind the walls of the city. From those walls their comrades, looking out towards the scene of action, could see the smoke and flame which pronounced that the Sipahis’ Lines, in our old cantonments, were on fire. That day’s fighting had deprived them of their shelter outside the walls, and given us the finest possible base for the conduct of our future operations against the city157.

Results of the battle

So the victory of the 8th of June was complete, and it remained for us only to count what we had gained and what we had lost by that morning’s fighting. The loss of the enemy is computed at three hundred and fifty men; and they had left in our hands twenty-six guns, with some serviceable ammunition, which we much wanted158.

Page 146

Our own loss was small, considering the dashing character of the work that had been done. Four officers and forty-seven men were killed in the encounters of that day, and a hundred and thirty men were wounded or missing. Among those who received their death-wounds at Badli-ki-Sarai was the chief of Sir Henry Barnard’s Staff. Colonel Chester, Adjutant-General of the Army, was shot down, almost at the commencement of the action. As he lay there, in agony, with young Barnard, the General’s son and aide-de-camp, vainly endeavouring to help him, he asked the young officer to raise his head, so that he might see the wound that was rending him; and having seen it, he knew that he was dying. Telling Barnard that nothing could be done for him, he begged his young friend to leave him to his fate. Then presently the spirit passed away from his body; and, at sunset, all that was left of the Adjutant-General of the Army was laid in the grave. To the Commander of the Dehli Force this must have been a heavy loss, for Chester possessed all the knowledge and experience which Barnard lacked; and the Adjutant-General was a brave soldier and a man of sound judgment, and his advice, in any difficult conjuncture would have been wisely received with respect159. But Chester had risen in the Department, and the time was coming when departmental experience and traditionary knowledge were to be stripped of their splendid vestments. And History, without any injurious reflection upon his character, may declare that the incident was not all evil that in due course brought Neville Chamberlain and John Nicholson down to Dehli.

But it is not by lists of killed and wounded, or returns of captured ordnance, that the value of the first victory before Dehli is to be estimated. It had given us an admirable base of operations – a commanding military position – open in the rear to the lines along which thenceforth our reinforcements and supplies, and all that we looked for to aid us in the coming

Page 147

struggle, were to be brought. And great as was this gain to us, in a military sense, the moral effect was scarcely less; for behind this ridge lay our old cantonments, from which a month before the English had fled for their lives. On the parade-ground the Head-Quarters of Barnard’s Force were now encamped, and the familiar flag of the Faringhis was again to be seen from the houses of the Imperial City.

Footnotes

134. Take the following illustration from the Official Report of Mr. Commissioner Williams: “Ramdial, a prisoner confined in the Civil Gaol under a decree for arrears of rent, hastened to his village, Bhojpur, during the night of the 10th, and the next day at daybreak collected a party and attacked a money-lender who had a decree against him, and murdered him and six of his household.”

135. See description of the state of Mirath after the outbreak given by Major G. W. Williams in his “Narrative of events”: “I found the whole of the station south of the Nala and Begam’s Bridge abandoned, for here the storm that was to shake India to its basis first broke out, and the ravages there visible were, strange to say, not accomplished by bands of soldiery formidable from their arms and discipline, but by mobs of wretched rabble (hundreds of whom would have been instantaneously scattered by a few rounds of grape), and this in the face of an overwhelming European force. The General of Division, with several officers, inhabited one of the Horse Artillery barracks, whilst most of the residents occupied the Field Magazine, now universally known as the far-famed Damdamah, an enclosed space of about two hundred yards square, with walls eight feet high, a ditch and four bastions at each corner. Thus strengthened, it was defensible against any number of rabble insurgents unprovided with heavy guns or mortars. So completely were the rest of the cantonments deserted, that many Natives believed that every European had been exterminated, and their power being unseen, unfelt, was readily supposed to have been subverted.”

136. Among those who escaped from Dehli, but perished on the way, was the gallant leader of the little party that defended the great Dehli Magazine. It is stated that Willoughby was murdered, with several companions, by the inhabitants of a village near the Hindan river.

137. Ante, page 55.

138. “It was at daybreak that I received the first intimation of the Mirath mutiny and massacre. When I went to the porch of my house to mount my horse for a morning ride, I found Medlicott, our geological professor, sitting there, looking oppressed with some painful intelligence, and, on my asking what the matter was, he then told me that about an hour before, Fraser, the Commandant of the Sappers and Miners, had received an express from the General at Mirath, ordering him to proceed by forced marches to that place. I immediately suggested the Ganges Canal route instead of forced marches, which would have fatigued the men much, and made them unfit for service.” – MS. Correspondence of Colonel Baird Smith.

139. There were on the 28th of May fifty women and forty-three children, according to the Disposition List of the Rurki Garrison of that day.

140. Baird Smith, in a letter dated May 30th, says that the trained soldiers were only about thirty, but the number given in the text is on the authority of the nominal roll of the garrison.

141. Immediately on receiving intelligence of the state of affairs at Mirath, Baird Smith had written to Major Reid, warning him that his services would most probably be required at that place, and offering to provide boats for the regiment. A day or two afterwards the summons came from Head-Quarters.

142. In this telegraphic message it is stated that the force consisted of – Rifles, 700; Carabineers, mounted, 380; dismounted, 100; Artillery recruits, undrilled, 364. As some portion of the efficient, and all the inefficient men would have been left in Mirath, the number for field-service would not have exceeded 1000.

143. See ante, p. 118.

144. This order was subsequently extended to the raising of “an entire new regiment of Irregular Horse.”

145. The feeling generally, at this time, and in some instances the conduct, of the Afghan pensioners, of whom there was quite a colony in Lodiana, denoted the ingratitude of the race. See Mr. Ricketts’s interesting Lodiana Report, “Papers relating to the Mutiny in the Panjab, 1857.”

146. The position is thus described by Baird Smith in the unpublished fragment of history, to which I have above referred: “This town, of respectable size, and with some ancient traces of walls, stands on the left bank of the Hindan, about a mile from that river. A long causeway carries the Grand Trunk Road across the broad valley, within which the stream, shrunk during the scorching heats of May to a mere rivulet, wanders in a channel of extreme tortuosity, fordable both for infantry and artillery, though, from the prevalence of quicksands, the process is not altogether free from risk of mishap. A suspension bridge spans the stream, and on the right bank the causeway is covered by a toll-house, capable, if need were, of some defence. Villages, furnishing considerable means of resistance in their mud-walled houses and narrow lanes, are scattered at intervals along the road, and the ground in ridges of sensible magnitude on both banks, but especially on the right.”

147. “The officers that night drank in solemn silence to the memory of the brave departed, and from the manner in which the toast was proposed by Dr. Tunes, the surgeon of the regiment, and received by every officer and member of the mess, I am sure, from his gallantry and other estimable qualities, that the memory of poor Andrews will be long and fondly cherished by them.” – The Chaplain’s (Mr. Rotton’s) Narrative.

148. Chaplain’s Narrative.

149. “The conduct of Tombs’s troop yesterday was the admiration of every one; for a long time they were engaged on two sides with the enemy’s artillery. Light then got his two eighteen-pounders clown to the river-bank and drew off the fire upon himself, and paid it back with interest.” – Hervey Greathed’s Letters. Lieutenant Perkins, of the Horse Artillery, was killed by a shot from one of the enemy’s guns.

150. This is stated by Mr. Rotten, who says: “Some were sun-stricken, some slain, and a few, whose cruel thirst induced them to slake it with water provided by the enemy in vessels containing strong corrosive poison, were thus deprived of life.”

151. The train consisted of eight eighteen-pounders, four eight-inch howitzers, twelve five-and-a-half inch mortars, and four eight-inch mortars (Norman). The officer in charge of the train was Lieutenant Griffith. Major Kaye commanded the whole detachment.

152. This is an instance of what has been called the “inexplicable inconsistency” of the Sipahis, who so often allowed their best opportunities to escape; but Mr. Ricketts sufficiently affords a clue to it when, in his interesting Lodiana Report, he says that they were pledged in concert with others to a certain course of procedure, and that no temptation of immediate advantage could induce them to diverge from the programme. The later history of this corps will be found in Book VI.

153. The 5th was afterwards disarmed in the presence of two companies of the Fusiliers.

154. On a requisition from Major Kaye a detachment of Fusiliers was sent to join the escort. The artillerymen from Firuzpur joined at Karnal.

155. Baird Smith.

156. “Light, Kaye, and Fagan, with four heavy guns, bore the brunt for some time, until the brigade of infantry came up and got into line.” – Hervey Greathed’s Letters. – Major Kaye was in command.

157. In these first operations, as in all others, as will subsequently appear, the Sinn& Battalion did excellent service. Major Reid thus describes their conduct on the 8th: “About one o’clock p.m. we reached the Ridge, when I was directed by General Barnard to occupy Hindu Rao’s house, which is within twelve hundred yards of the Mori Bastion. Had just made ourselves comfortable, when the alarm was sounded. In ten minutes the mutineers were seen coming up towards Hindu Rao’s house in force. I went out with my own regiment and two companies of Rifles, and drove them back into the city. This, however, was not accomplished till five P.M., so that we were under arms for sixteen hours. Heat fearful. My little fellows behaved splendidly, and were cheered by every European regiment. It was the only Native regiment with the force, and I may say every eye was upon it. The General was anxious to see what the Gurkahs could do, and if we were to be trusted. They had (because it was a Native regiment) doubts about us; but I think they are now satisfied.” It is true, as stated, that the Sinn& Battalion was the only Native regiment engaged on our side; but there were other Native detachments. The Sappers from Mirath fought well, and were commended in Sir H. Barnard’s despatch, as was also the Contingent of the Jhind Rajah. And Jan Fishan Khan, with his horsemen, did gallant service. Flushed with the excitement of the battle, the Afghan chief is said to have declared that another such day would make him a Christian.

158. The statement in the text is given on the authority of Sir H. Barnard’s official despatch. But the number of guns captured on the 8th of June is set down at thirteen in Major Norman’s Narrative, Major Reid’s Extracts from Letters and Notes, and in the “History of the Siege of Delhi, by an Officer who served there,” &c. Norman has specified in detail the nature of the captured ordnance, and he is notable for his accuracy.

159. “Among the slain was unhappily Colonel Charles Chester, Adjutant-General of the Army, a brave and experienced soldier, whose loss thus early in the campaign was a grave and lamentable misfortune; for his sound judgment and ripe knowledge would have been precious in council as in action.” – Baird Smith’s unpublished Memoir. Two other officers of the Staff were killed, Captain C. W. Russell and Captain J. W. Delamain. The fourth officer who lost his life was Lieutenant Harrison of the 75th; Colonel Herbert of that regiment was among the wounded.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
hosted by ibiblio Support Wikipedia