Rohilkhand[1]. After assuming the chief command, he spared no pains to push on reinforcements of British troops up country as they arrived day by day at Calcutta. Some days before he reached Calcutta, H. M. S. Shannon, having on board Lord Elgin in diplomatic charge of the Expedition to China, had sailed up the Húglí, followed by H.M.S. Pearl. On the 20th of August, Captain Peel, R.N., of the Shannon, with his 500 British sailors and ten 8-inch guns, left for Allahábád, and was followed a few days later by further reinforcements of all arms. Thus the Commander-in-Chief was doing all that lay in his power to support the troops destined for the relief of Lucknow; while Brigadier Nicholson had fortunately reinforced the tired-out little army before Delhi with a welcome contingent of about 3500 men, European and Native, from the Punjab.
The British army before Delhi now (August) exceeded 6000 men, of whom about one-half were Europeans. 'At Delhi,' Sir Colin wrote on the 12th of September, 'things are much as I expected. Whatever might have been our hopes and wishes to the contrary, it is an incontrovertible fact that hitherto the so-called besieging force had never been in sufficient strength to attack with a will, with due regard to the
- ↑ Shadwell states that Colonel Mansfield, when passing through London on his way to India to take up his post as Chief of the Staff, was consulted by the Government, and submitted a plan based on the same principles which underlay that put forward by Sir Colin Campbell.
