Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/352

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320
Sir Colin Campbell.

at length by the example of their officers, and by the success achieved by the Carabineers and the Guides, they joined in the combat, and took their proper place in the front. Meanwhile, the infantry and the artillery had been following up the advantage gained by the defeat of the rebel horse. The enemy was now in full flight. At this crisis Gerrard, riding in front, conspicuous on his white Arab charger, was mortally wounded by a musket-ball. In the momentary confusion which followed, the rebels, rallying, made a desperate effort to restore the fortunes of the day. In vain, however. The Fusiliers charged and drove them into flight, and completed their expulsion from the fort of Narnúl. Caulfield, who had succeeded to the command, followed up his advantage. He, however, a few days later, was relieved by Seaton, and, under orders from headquarters, that officer led back the force to Dehlí, preparatory to taking part in the measures which Sir Colin Campbell was devising for the recovery of Oudh, Fathgarh, and Rohilkhand.

Sir Colin Campbell had arrived in Calcutta on the 13th of August. Already at that period, although Dehlí had not fallen, the position for an advance from Kánhpur, though far from perfect, had, thanks to the splendid efforts of Neill, Frederick Gubbins, William Taylor, Vincent Eyre, Havelock, and Outram, materially improved. There was, however, still much to be accomplished. The line of 600 miles, the security of which had been prominently put forward by Mr Secretary Beadon in the early days of the Mutiny, was not only insecure, but was being daily broken. The evil had been intensified for a time by the refusal of the Government to disarm the native regiments at Dánápur, and by the consequences of that refusal. Then, too, the division of Chutiá Nagpur, a mountainous territory lying between Southern Bihár,