The Indian Mutiny of 1857/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FIRST RELIEF OF THE LAKHNAO RESIDENCY.
I have recorded in a previous chapter[1] how the garrison of the Lakhnao Residency had been cheered, on the night of the 25th of July, by the receipt of a letter from Tytler telling them that Havelock was advancing with a force sufficient to bear down all opposition, and that he would arrive in five or six days. The six days passed and no Havelock came. The sound of firing was occasionally heard in the direction of Kánhpur, and this sound tended to confirm the hopes already raised. But they were doomed to be disappointed for the moment. We have seen how Havelock, on the 13th of August, finally recrossed the Ganges.
Three days before that happened the rebels, encouraged doubtless by his retreat from Bashíratganj, made their second grand assault on the position of the Residency. It began about half-past ten in the morning, by the successful springing of a mine, which made a great breach in the defences. Against this they marched in considerable numbers, and with great resolution. But the men of the garrison were on the alert. A heavy musketry fire from the roofs of the adjacent houses was kept on the advancing foe, whilst a stern resistance met their front attack. Eventually they were driven back with enormous loss. A second attack on another point, Sago's house, and a third, on Innes's, Anderson's, and Gubbins's posts, met with a like result. But the attacks had lasted twelve hours. Again the loss of the garrison was small.
Two days later a sortie made by the garrison was repulsed. Six days after that, the 18th, the besiegers made their third grand assault.
The springing of the mine on this occasion, under one of the Sikh squares, was most effective. It made a breach, some twenty feet wide, in the defences. Against this the rebels came with extraordinary enthusiasm. Again, however, the men of the garrison were ready for them, and again did they drive them back with heavy loss.
Still the rebels persevered. They believed it was but a question of time. They knew to some extent of the sufferings of the garrison; how the necessity to be constantly on the alert must tell upon them. They kept up, then, a fire almost unremitting, varied by sudden rushes on points which they regarded as weak or likely to give way to pressure. In one sense the conviction they held as to the wearied condition of the garrison was too true. Their ranks were rapidly thinning. They had to repair the defences daily, to remove supplies from the buildings which had either fallen in or which succumbed to the enemy's shot, to countermine the rebels' mines, to remove guns, to erect barricades, to bury corpses, to serve out the daily rations, and, with the weak and daily diminishing garrison, to supply fatigue parties of eight or ten men each to do work for which, under ordinary circumstances, ten times that number would not have been considered excessive. The garrison, however, performed all these duties with cheerfulness and resolution. In their ranks there was never a sign of faltering.
Their hopes of relief were becoming less bright. On the 28th of August a letter from Havelock informed them that he had no hope of being able to relieve them for five-and-twenty days. Much might happen in that period. One result of the letter was a diminution of the rations.
Eight days later the rebels made their fourth assault. They attacked two points simultaneously, but in vain. Again were they compelled to turn their backs. On this occasion the loyal sipáhís of the 13th N. I. behaved splendidly.
That these repeated failures dispirited the assailants was shown by the relaxation of their efforts on the morrow of their repulse. They never tried a grand assault after that of the 5th of September, but contented themselves with pouring in an unremitting fire of guns and musketry, with mining, with attempting surprises, and with assailing isolated points. But the labour of the garrison was by no means diminished. The season was the most unhealthy season of the year. Scarcely a day passed but some portion of one or other of the posts crumbled under the enemy's fire. Some idea of the incessant nature of that fire may be gathered from the fact that, on the 8th of September, 280 round-shot, varying in size from a twenty-four to a three-pounder, were gathered from the roof of the brigade mess-house alone.
On the 16th the messenger Angad was again sent out for news. He returned, on the night of the 22d, with information that help from outside would certainly arrive within a fortnight. The next day a smart cannonade was heard in the direction of Kánhpur. The following morning firing was again heard. That night a messenger who had gone out returned with the information that the relieving force was in the outskirts of the city. The next day it was clear that a tremendous struggle was going on within the city. When, about half-past one, people were noticed leaving the city with bundles on their heads, and when, half-an-hour later, sipáhís and other armed bodies were observed to follow them, it became clear that the end was at hand. The garrison brought every gun and mortar to bear on the retreating foe. At four o'clock the report arose that some English officers, dressed in shooting coats, and some soldiers, wearing blue pantaloons, had been seen in the vicinity of the Motí Mahall. An hour later volleys of musketry, rapidly growing louder, were heard in the city. Soon the bullets were whistling over the Residency. Five minutes later and the British troops were seen fighting their way through one of the principal streets. Once fairly seen the long pent-up feelings of the garrison found vent in a succession of deafening cheers. Even from the hospital many of the wounded crawled forth to join in that shout of welcome. 'Soon,' continues Captain Wilson, from whose graphic journal I have abridged the account in the text, 'soon all the rear-guard and heavy guns were inside our position; and then ensued a scene which baffles description. For eighty-seven days the Lakhnao garrison had lived in utter ignorance of all that had taken place outside. Wives who had long mourned their husbands as dead were again restored to them. Others, fondly looking forward to glad meetings with those near and dear to them, now for the first time learned that they were alone. On all sides eager inquiries for relations and friends were made. Alas! in too many cases the answer was a painful one.'
But the Residency had been relieved, or, to speak more correctly, had been reinforced. For, after the delirium of joy had given place to sober considerations, it was recognised that the combined troops were not strong enough to escort the non-combatant portion of the garrison through the city, still thronged with armed rebels, and thence to Kánhpur. For that the strengthened garrison must await the arrival of the new Commander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell. His action will be described in due course. Meanwhile it becomes my duty now to describe how it had become possible for Havelock and Outram to accomplish the splendid feat of arms which had brought joy and consolation to the beleaguered garrison of the Residency.
I left Havelock, just returned to Kánhpur, on the 13th of August. He gave his men a rest on the 14th and 15th, then on the 16th marched against Bithor, at which place nearly 4000 rebels, mostly revolted sipáhís of various regiments, had congregated in his absence. Havelock attacked and defeated them, though only after a very stubborn fight. However, the victory was complete, the position was captured, and two guns were taken. But the British loss was heavy, amounting to between sixty men killed and wounded, and twelve who succumbed to sunstroke.
It was on the day following that Havelock read in the Calcutta Gazette the appointment of Outram to the command of Kánhpur. Outram's arrival could not be very distant This nomination removed Havelock from the position of independent commander to that of a locum tenens for his superior officer. In such a case a sense of responsibility must necessarily weigh upon a commander. I have already pointed out that the position at Kánhpur, with a small force, fronted on one side by Oudh in rebellion, in front by provinces in a state of insurrection, to the left rear by the gradually concentrating Gwáliár contingent, was not, in a military sense, defensible except by a large force. It had one merit, it was central. In the eyes of Havelock that fact alone almost compensated for the other disadvantages. He wrote, then, to the Commander-in-Chief to announce that if hopes of speedy reinforcements were held out to him he would continue to hold Kánhpur, otherwise he would be forced to retire on Allahábád. The reply of Sir Colin was of a nature to decide him to remain at Kánhpur.
Since the 3d of August reinforcements, in small parties, had been gradually arriving at that station. Outram himself came only on the 16th of September, This illustrious man had reached Allahábád on the 2d of that month, and had despatched thence, on the 5th, to Kánhpur the 5th Fusiliers, Eyre's battery of eighteen-pounders, and had started himself the same evening with the 90th. On the way up Eyre, with 160 infantry and two guns, crushed a body of insurgents who had crossed over from Oudh with the view of cutting Outram's communications. This action completely cleared the road, and enabled Outram to reach Kánhpur with the much-needed reinforcements on the 16th.
His first act illustrated the character of the man. Feeling that, under extraordinary difficulties, Havelock had made a most daring attempt to relieve the garrison of the Lakhnao Residency, and that but for his own arrival that general would have been enabled to renew the attempt under favourable conditions, he resolved that the credit of the relief should still belong to him above all others. He therefore on his arrival issued a divisional order, in which he declared that, 'in gratitude for, and admiration of, the brilliant deed of arms achieved by Brigadier-General Havelock and his gallant troops,' he, Outram, 'will cheerfully waive his rank in favour of that officer on this occasion, and will accompany the force to Lakhnao in his civil capacity, as Chief Commissioner of Oudh, tendering his military services to Brigadier-General Havelock as a volunteer.'
This generous offer was accepted in fitting terms by Havelock.
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With this force, leaving Colonel Wilson of the 64th, with the headquarters of his regiment and some details of convalescents, in all about 400 men, to hold Kánhpur, Havelock crossed the Ganges, on the 19th, under cover of Eyre's heavy guns. Those guns followed the next day. On the 21st Havelock drove the rebels from Mangalwár, then halting at Unáo for a mouthful of food, pushed on to Bashíratganj, already the scene of three contests, and bivouacked there for the night. It was raining heavily, and not a man but who was wet to the skin. However, the impedimenta arrived two hours later, and with it the luxury of dry clothes and a dinner. The rain was still falling as the little force set out at half-past seven the next morning. Marching sixteen miles, it came in sight of the bridge of Banní, a very defensible position had the rebels had the heart to defend it. But badly led, or believing in the greater capabilities of the narrow streets of Lakhnao, they had neither broken down the bridge over the river Sai nor manned the two half-moon batteries which they had constructed on the further side of it. Havelock then crossed the bridge, bivouacked for the night on its further bank, and fired a royal salute to intimate to the defenders of the Residency the near approach of relief.
The 23d promised to be a day of action. Lakhnao was but sixteen miles distant. The wind no longer bore to the British Camp the customary sound of the booming of heavy guns against the Residency. It was plain that the rebels were concentrating their resources for a stern defence of the city. Havelock gave the men their breakfasts, and then moved forward. It was half-past eight. For some time no enemy was visible. But as the troops approached the Álambagh, some infantry appeared on their flanks, and they soon had evidence that the rebels were prepared to receive them at and near that walled garden. Havelock then halted his men, changed the order of his march from right to left in front, bringing Hamilton's brigade to the left front, their route lying across broken and heavy ground. Eyre's heavy battery then opened on the enemy's batteries, which occupied a tope of trees in front of his centre and left, whilst Olpherts was despatched to the left to cover the movement of the second brigade (Hamilton's) against the right, Barrow's cavalry leading. Overcoming every obstacle, Olpherts' battery took a position on the rebels' right flank and opened fire. The rebels on the left and centre, crushed meanwhile by the play of Eyre's guns, then gave way; but the Álambagh remained, and two guns were firing on the British force from embrasures in its wall. To capture these Neill sent forward a wing of the 5th Fusiliers. The 5th, with their habitual gallantry, stormed the wall. Whilst they were engaged in a fierce fight for the two pieces, Captain Burton of the 78th had forced the main entrance, and rushed to their aid, taking the defenders of the guns in reverse. The Madras Fusiliers followed. The men of the three regiments did their work so well that in ten minutes the Álambagh was cleared of its defenders, and Barrow and Outram and their companions were galloping in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. As they were returning from pursuing the rebels to the Yellow House, near the Chárbágh bridge, a despatch was placed in Outram's hands. It told him that our countrymen had stormed Dehlí. He galloped to Havelock with the news a few minutes later, and Outram, bareheaded, announced the glad tidings to the hurriedly collected soldiers. The ringing shouts with which they received it might almost have been heard in the Residency.
No tents were up, no food was forthcoming, but the day's work had been eminently satisfactory, and the men, exhilarated by their success and by the news, were content to wait until food should arrive. The next day they rested whilst their general made his last arrangements for the advance of the morrow. The rebels kept up a heavy fire all day in their direction, but Havelock had thrown back his line so as to be beyond its range.
At last the decisive day dawned. The final scheme adopted was to force the Chárbágh bridge, then to follow a winding lane skirting the left bank of the canal, thence to make a sharp turn to the left and push through the fortified palaces and bazaars which covered the ground extending to the very gates of the Residency. It was certain that the Chárbágh bridge and every inch of ground beyond it would be desperately defended. The sick and wounded, the hospital, the baggage, and the food and ammunition reserves would meanwhile be left in the Álambagh, guarded by 300 men, mostly footsore, commanded by Major M'Intyre of the 78th.
At half-past eight o'clock the advance sounded, and the first brigade, with Maude's battery in front, accompanied by Outram, moved off towards the Yellow House in column of sections, right in front. Soon the rebel fire opened upon them. Maude, however, quickly cleared the way with his guns, and the men pushing on, forced their way to a point near the bridge. There they were halted whilst Outram, with the 5th Fusiliers, should make a detour to the right to clear the Chárbágh garden, with the view of bringing a flanking fire to bear on the strong defences of the bridge.
The position of the rebels, indeed, could scarcely have been stronger. The Chárbágh bridge was defended on its farther side by an earthen rampart about seven feet high, stretching completely across it, but having in the centre an opening through which only one man at a time could pass on foot. On this parapet were mounted six guns, two of them twenty-four-pounders. To the right of the bridge, on the side of the canal by which the British were advancing, were some enclosures occupied by the rebels.
Such was the position. The men behind it were numerous, their guns were loaded, and there was every appearance that it would be desperately defended. On the British side were Maude's two guns in front; to their left, thrown forward, twenty-five men of the Madras Fusiliers, under Lieutenant Arnold, endeavouring to beat down the musketry fire from the tall houses on the other side; behind Maude's guns, close by, covered by a bend of the road and a wall, were the remainder of the Madras Fusiliers, lying down and waiting till Maude's guns should have done their work; to the right, Outram had led the 5th Fusiliers, for the purpose already indicated. These, I need hardly add, were not in sight. In a bay of the wall of the Chárbágh garden stood Neill and his Aide-de-Camp, waiting until Outram's flank movement should make itself felt. On the other side of the road, mounted, was young Havelock.
The duel between Maude's guns and those of the rebels had raged for some time. The enemy had all the advantage of fighting under cover, and they had made deadly havoc with Maude's gunners. One after another these had fallen, their places being supplied from the infantry behind them. So great was the pressure that Maude and his Lieutenant, Maitland, were doing the work themselves. At the end of half-an-hour Maude recognised that he was making no impression. Then he called out to young Havelock that he could not fight his guns much longer, and begged him to 'do something.' Havelock rode at once to Neill and suggested that he should charge the bridge. But Neill, feeling himself hampered by the presence of Outram, with his brigade, declared that in his absence he could not take the responsibility; that Outram must turn up soon. Tytler then attempted to persuade him to give the order, but with the same result.
Meanwhile, nothing had been heard of Outram and the 5th. The position was critical. Maude could not hold on much longer. A charge alone could remedy the position. Recognising this, young Havelock, full of ardour, despairing of overcoming in any other way the obstinacy of Neill, attempted a ruse. Riding to the rear a short distance, he suddenly turned his horse, and galloping back, rode up to Neill and, saluting him, said, as though the order had come from his father, 'You are to carry the bridge, sir.' Neill gave the order, directing Havelock and Tytler to form up the men. At the word Arnold dashed forward with his handful on to the bridge, and made for the barricade. Young Havelock and Tytler were by his side in a moment. Then the hurricane opened. Arnold fell, shot through both thighs. Tytler's horse was killed, and he himself shot through the groin. Of the twenty-eight men who had dashed forward, Havelock and a private named Jakes alone were unwounded Unable to pass the barricade, Havelock, erect on his horse, waved his sword and called on the main body to come on. Jakes stood by his side, loading and firing as fast as he could. There they stood, the hero officer and the hero private, for fully two minutes exposed to the full fire of the enemy. They stood unharmed. Then suddenly there was a rush, and the Madras Fusiliers dashed forward, cleared the bridge, stormed the barricade, and bayoneted the rebel gunners where they stood. The bridge was gained. The entrance gate into Lakhnao was won.
On the regiments of the second brigade closing up, the whole force crossed by the bridge, and then, in pursuance of the plan indicated, turned sharp to the right along the canal. There was one exception to this movement. The 78th was sent with orders to hold the end of the direct Kánhpur road, cover the advance of the heavy guns, and then to follow the column as its rear-guard. The main body meanwhile, followed the lane along the canal for two miles, then turned northwards near the Dilkushá bridge, when its progress was suddenly checked by a formidable obstacle. Before them, under lee of the Kaisarbágh, was a narrow bridge across a nullah, commanded by guns and musketry fire from that building. The bridge could not hold more than two abreast. However, a rush was made, and the men who crossed opened a fire on the rebels to cover the passage of their comrades. Many men were here struck down, when suddenly the situation was mended by the 78th in a manner presently to be related. Then the crossing was effected, and the men, reuniting, halted under cover of some deserted buildings near the Chatr Manzil.
Darkness was now coming on. Outram, who had found the clearing of the Chárbágh garden more serious than he anticipated, and who had come up after the bridge had been stormed, then proposed that the force should halt where it was — at the Chatr Manzil — to await there the arrival of the rearmost guard, of which they had no tidings, and of those it was escorting. There were many considerations in favour of such a plan, and there was only a sentimental reason against it. But Havelock considered that the importance of joining the beleaguered garrison outweighed every other consideration. So they pushed on through the Khás bazaar, crowded with the enemy. From an archway in this bazaar Neill was shot dead in the act of giving an order to his Aide-de-Camp. Still the British forced their way, despite the continuous musketry fire, until at length they emerged from the bazaar. Then they were gladdened by the sound of cheering from the Residency. The 78th, and others who had pushed their way through other streets, appeared on the scene directly afterwards and joined in the cry. They were not yet, however, within the Residency. The night was dark, and a way had to be made for them before they could enter. At last the defences which had so long bidden defiance to the rebels at the Baillie guard were removed, and there was no obstacle to a joyful union between the relievers and the relieved.
Not all entered that night. Many of the men lay on the ground between the Baillie guard gateway and the Farhatbakhsh palace, and rejoined their comrades early in the morning. It remains now to recount the course of the 78th. That regiment had had a hard time of it. Directed by Havelock to see to the safety of the heavy guns, it had diverged from the main body, and reached a point indicated on the Kánhpur road. There, for a time, the men remained unmolested, when suddenly swarms of natives set upon them. For three hours they resisted every attack; then, the number of the rebels increasing, they stormed a temple, and held it against the infuriated enemy. Vainly did the latter bring up three brass guns. The British soldiers, led on by Webster, Herbert Macpherson, and other gallant officers, charged and captured these, and threw them into the canal. Still the fight went on, and it required another charge before the rebels could be compelled to renounce their hopes of success. The Highlanders then, seeing nothing of the heavy guns, pushed on, with the idea of rejoining their comrades of the main body, but taking a shorter road, through the Hazratganj quarter, they arrived in close vicinity to the Kaisarbágh just as the guns from that building were playing on the Fusiliers in the manner related. The 78th dashed into the battery, and made the road easy by its capture. They then pushed on in an alignment with the rest to the Baillie guard.
But the heavy guns? Their progress had been rendered very difficult by the deep trenches which the rebels had cut across the road. But under the guidance of Lieutenant Moorsom, who knew every inch of the ground, sent by Havclock to direct them, they had deviated from the main road and went by a shorter cut, unopposed, to the Baillie guard. The rearmost guard, however, with two big guns, still remained unaccounted for. To search for and rescue these, Outram, who had assumed command, despatched, on the 26th, a force under Colonel Robert Napier.[2] Napier found them holding the passage in front of the Motí Mahall, and brought them in the following morning. It is sad to have to record that the wounded who had reached that palace were not so fortunate in their attempt to reach the Residency. The volunteer escort mistook the way, and some forty helpless men were done to death, some by the daggers of the rebels, some by the fire wantonly applied to their dolis.[3]
The losses sustained in this glorious operation were heavy. The official return puts them at 196 killed and 535 wounded, and there is every reason for believing that that return is accurate. Those losses were incurred in the hope that, as a satisfactory result of them, the defenders of the Residency would be relieved. As it was, they were merely reinforced. At first Outram inclined to the belief that it would be possible to fall back upon Kánhpur. But his better judgment prevailed. Subsequent experience proved most clearly that the women and children could not have been withdrawn by the force under his orders except at a tremendous risk. If it had cost him over 500 men to make his way into the Residency, unencumbered by non-combatants of that stamp, the reader may judge for himself how far he could have succeeded in making the reverse journey under circumstances infinitely more complicated. Eager as was Outram to return to place himself and his troops at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief, he was surely right, situated as he was, not to attempt it. Circumstances were too strong, even for a man who, throughout his career, had never flinched at either danger or responsibility.
Whilst he remains besieged in the Residency, his troops occupying some of the adjacent palaces, and the Álambagh held by a small detachment, I propose to take a survey of the events which had been passing in that part of the country in which British interests were represented almost solely by the men who occupied the fortress of Agra.