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Chapter VIII – Outram at the Alambagh

In the second chapter of this book162, I stated that on the 26th November Sir Colin Campbell, marching with his large convoy to Kanhpur, had left to occupy the Alambagh and to threaten Lakhnao, until he should return, Major-General Sir James Outram, with a force of between three and four thousand men of all arms, and twenty-five guns and howitzers163. As the period of Sir Colin Campbell’s return is now approaching, it is fit that I should relate how Outram and his gallant warriors had comported themselves during the more than three months which intervened between the departure and the return of the Commander-in-Chief.

The Alambagh

The Alambagh, “the Garden of the World,” was one of the royal gardens, being a square of five hundred yards, enclosed by a wall about nine feet high, and entered by a handsome gateway. In the centre was a double-storied garden-house of masonry. The garden had been full of fruit trees; but these had been out down, and all traces of them had disappeared. The wall, on the city side, had been strengthened by a strong ramp of earth; and an interior earthen ramp or traverse had been thrown all round the centre building to protect it from the enemy’s fire. Well-formed earthen bastions had been erected at each angle,

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and the face of the enclosure next the road was protected by a ditch. It lay on the right of the high road coming from Kanhpur, at a distance of about two miles from the outskirts of the city of Lakhnao.

Position taken up by Outram

Outram did not occupy the Alambagh with his main force. Holding it with a small detachment and a few guns, he pitched his camp in the open, about half a mile behind it. He thus occupied a position across the road, extending to the right and left on either side; on the right as far as the fort of Jalalabad, and covered on all points by batteries, trenches, and abattis; on one or two by some happily situated swamps.

The enemy greatly disheartened by the successful withdrawal

The artificial defences I have indicated were not thrown up at once, they were developed as the energy of the enemy showed them to be required. But that enemy had received a lesson so severe in the storming of the Sikandarbagh and of the Shah Najaf, and in the bombardment of the Kaisarbagh, that several days elapsed ere he ventured to show himself on the track of the conqueror who had robbed him of his prey. Nor was it till the early days of December that any indications of life or movement whatever were visible on his part. But on the 2nd December it became apparent that he had recovered heart, and that he was preparing an attempt to dislodge Outram.

Their leader devises a skilful plan to expel Outram

The British right, resting on the fort of Jalalabad, was tolerably secure. The leader of the rebels, the famous Maulavi, known as Ahmed Shah, far from meditating an attack in that quarter, had devised a plan, not at all despicable had it been carried out with sufficient force and with energy, whereby, amusing the whole front of the British, he should suddenly turn their left, and, pouncing on the Banni bridge, hem them in between two fires.

Recovering confidence, they begin to work out their plan

The manner in which the Maulavi prepared to execute this plan indicated a return of confidence. His men began, in the first week of December, to throw up batteries in front of the British left. When these were completed, they proceeded to extend them towards their proper left, opposite the right centre of the British. Whilst these works were in progress, they threatened the British position, skirmishing up to within grape distance, but always making their attacks in front. They repeated these

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attacks until the gunners of Outram’s force came to look forward to a daily visitation as a matter of course.

The rebels make their attack

At length, on the 22nd December, the rebels threw off the mask, and attempted to carry out the programme they had drawn up. They sent a detachment of four thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry, and four guns, to march by the villages of Gaili and Badrup to Banni, and there, in the rear of the British force, to intrench themselves, severing the communications with Kanhpur.

Their plan had been betrayed to Outram

The plan was skilful, and, had it been as skilfully executed, it might have greatly embarrassed the British. But, two days before it was executed, it had been betrayed to Outram by his spies. Possessing thus the inestimable advantage of complete acquaintance with his enemy’s designs, Outram determined to play their own game against them; and, whereas they were trying to sever his communications with Kanhpur, he determined to see if he could cut them off from Lakhnao.

The rebels try to sever Outram’s communications

The rebels set out on the night of the 21st December, reached the village of Gaili, and, occupying a position between that village and Badrup, encamped for the night. In that position they were not quite cut off from Lakhnao, for the left of their position was but half a mile from the Dilkusha, which had, since Sir Colin’s departure, been strongly re-occupied by the insurgents.

Outram attacks them

Against the rebels so encamped, Outram started very early on the morning of the 22nd, with a force consisting of twelve hundred and twenty-seven infantry, under, Brigadier Stisted, a hundred and ninety cavalry, under Major Robertson, and six 9-pounder guns, under Captain Olpherts. At daybreak he came upon them. Sending his centre against their main position, with his left he drove them from Gaili, doubling them back on Badrup. Surprised, the rebels scarcely attempted resistance as these manoeuvres were being carried out. They lost their four guns and an elephant.

and drives them back on the Dilkusha

At Badrup Stisted again attacked them, and forced them to relinquish their hold. They then changed their line of retreat, and fell back on the Dilkusha. The pursuit then ceased, and in sufficient time. For the detachments from the main rebel army, hearing the

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uproar, were crowding from the Dilkusha to retrieve the day. They arrived in time only to receive their beaten comrades. The loss of the rebels exceeded fifty killed. That of Outram amounted to two killed and some eight or ten wounded.

After three weeks’ comparative rest the courage of the rebels returns

This repulse considerably checked the enemy’s ardour, and during the three weeks that followed they but once made a manifestation of attack. On this occasion , they confined themselves to a long cannonade, ineffective against the British position, but too successful in killing a most prominent artillery officer, Lieutenant D. Gordon. Nothing further occurred till the 12th January. But on that day the rebels made a supreme effort for victory.

on learning that Outram has weakened his force

Circumstances seemed to favour them. They were well served by their spies, and they had learned that on the 8th January Outram had weakened his force by four hundred and fifty infantry, eighty cavalry, and four guns, detached to protect a convoy of empty carts – to be laden and returned – he was sending into Kanhpur.

Reasons for weakening the force

A rebel partisan, named Mansab Ali, was at this time in the district, in communication with the main body of the Lakhnao rebels. The task had been assigned to him to hover about the main line of British communication, and to harass and, when possible, to cut off small detachments and convoys. It had become known to Outram that early in January this man had received considerable reinforcements from Lakhnao. Hence it was that he had detached a large covering party with the convoy I have alluded to.

The Lakhnao rebels waited till they believed that the convoy and its escort had reached Kanhpur. They then, on the morning of the 12th January, made their long-meditated attack.

The rebels make their supreme effort

They came out in force – to the number, it is estimated, of thirty thousand. Massing this large body opposite the extreme left of Outram’s position, they gradually extended so as to face his front and his left flank, thus covering nearly six miles of ground. Threatening with their left, their right centre and right advanced to the real attack.

Outram waited till the enemy’s movement should take some ascertainable form. He allowed them, therefore, to extend even round his left flank.

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Outram develops his position

But the moment their advance was sufficiently pronounced he dealt, with rapidity, the counter blow he kept ready for delivery. Forming up his two brigades, the one consisting of seven hundred and thirteen, the other of seven hundred and thirty-three European troops, to face the front attack of the enemy, he directed the ever-daring Olpherts to take four horse artillery guns, and, supported by a detachment of the Military Train, to dash at the overlapping right of the enemy. The protection of the rear of the position in case it should be threatened, was confided to the volunteer and native cavalry.

Olpherts foils the enemy’s right

With the dash and energy eminently characteristic of the man, Olpherts took out his guns at a gallop, and, pushing to the front, opened fire on the rebel masses just as they had begun the second overlapping movement, to gain the rear of the British position. The vigorous assault made by Olpherts completely disconcerted them. Renouncing their turning efforts, they fled in confusion and dismay.

Down foils their centre

Whilst Olpherts was thus delivering a decisive blow on the extreme right, a repulse, scarcely less signal, had been inflicted upon the rebel troops opposed to the British left centre. These advanced with considerable spirit into a grove of trees in front of the picket commanded by Captain Down, of the Madras Fusiliers, and usually occupied by him. Down allowed them to come rather near; then, dashing at them with the bayonet, drove them back with loss. Whilst the enemy were thus being repulsed in their attacks on the left and the left centre, they had not been idle on the British right. This part of the British line was covered by the fort of Jalalabad, upon which some rough repairs had been executed, and it was considered comparatively unassailable. Knowing this, and deeming it probable that because the fort was considered strong it would be therefore weakly garrisoned, the rebel leader, whilst threatening, as we have seen, the left, and making on that side a noisy demonstration, had quietly massed a large body of infantry against the picket connecting the right with Jalalabad, and, bringing their three guns to the front, opened upon that picket a heavy fire. But here, too, Outram was equal to the occasion. Bringing to the front, from the left of the right brigade, detachments of the 5th Fusiliers and Brasyer’s Sikhs, and two guns of Moir’s bullock battery, he took up a position which

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gave him the right flank of the enemy, and then opened upon that flank.

Outram foils their left

The effect was instantaneous. The rebels abandoned the advanced position, evacuated the village they had occupied, and, though for a time they continued the fire from their guns, their practice was bad, and caused no damage.

and they are driven back from the Alambagh

Simultaneously with the attack just described, the enemy advanced against the Alambagh, and established themselves in a thick cover close to that enclosure. From this, about 12 o’clock, they advanced into the open. Here, however, they became exposed to a heavy fire from Maude’s guns and riflemen, and were soon driven back.

and the rebels fall back

By 4 o’clock in the afternoon the rebels were in full retreat on all sides. Their losses must have been considerable. Outram’s amounted, on that day, to only three wounded.

Religious influences affecting the natives

The serious manner in which the rebels were affected by their repulse and their losses was manifested in a very curious manner. The natives of India are peculiarly influenced by religious influences. They believe in fortunate days and periods – days and periods peculiarly auspicious for producing certain results. It happened that the most learned pandit in Lakhnao had declared on the 12th January that, unless the British were driven from their position within eight days from that period, they never would be expelled; and, moreover, that the period in question, from the 12th to the 20th inclusive, was peculiarly favourable to effecting their expulsion. In consequence of this prophecy, it had been resolved by the rebels to give the British no rest throughout the period indicated.

But, when the attack, prepared with so much foresight, and delivered with all the skill of which they were capable, failed, their spirits sank to zero; and, in spite of the pandit, they remained quiescent on the 13th and two following days. Nor was it till the 16th that they made their second attempt.

The Maulavi’s oath,

But though they made no attack on the British position, they did attempt to intercept the convoy. The active and determined Maulavi had sworn that he would capture the convoy and ride back into Lakhnao through the British camp. He left Lakhnao with a considerable force without baggage, on the night of the 14th, turned the

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British camp, and took up a position from which he could advantageously pounce on the convoy. Everything seemed to favour him. A violent dust-storm was blowing towards the direction whence the convoy was approaching, and its leader had no warning. But again did Outram’s prescience baffle him. Reports as to the Maulavi’s movements had reached that general, and he, noting how the weather seemed to favour an attack, ordered out Olpherts with two guns and a detachment of the Military Train, on the road to Banni. He subsequently supported this small body with the rest of the battery and the Military Train, a detachment of Wale’s Horse, and the 90th Light Infantry.

and Olpherts’s performance

Olpherts revelled in danger. He possessed the coup-d’oeil of a dashing leader, was ready in resource, and quick to act as circumstances might require. He waited for the enemy till he came in the open, and then opened on them and killed or dispersed them. The Maulavi was wounded and narrowly escaped capture.

The British convoy safely arrives in camp

Early on the morning of the 16th, between 1 and 3 o’clock, the convoy returned with supplies to the camp. The force was thus increased again by about four hundred men. No attack was anticipated, and many officers were about to unpack and distribute seine of the private stores arrived, when, about 9 o’clock, the enemy made a sudden and very formidable attack on a picket guarding a battery in the process of erection, between Jalalabad and the camp.

An attack on the right is repulsed by Brasyer’s Sikhs

No guns were mounted here, and the picket had to fall back on the intrenchment; but the alarm had no sooner been given than Brasyer’s Sikhs, ready for any emergency, rushed to the front, and, rallying the picket, put the enemy to flight and captured their leader, attired in the imaginary costume of the god Hanuman164. He turned out to be a Brahman, very influential with his countrymen. The enemy’s loss was severe.

That on the left

On the left the rebels confined themselves for several hours to a cannonade on the position. Their attack, though it ranged along the whole front, seemed specially directed against the picket occupying a village on the extreme left. Their grape and round shot came in very thick at this point, but beyond sending their cavalry within

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is driven back

a thousand yards of the British front, only to be driven back, they made no demonstration with the other arms till evening had set in. But as soon as it was dark they pushed forward masses of infantry against the village. The officer commanding at this point was Major Gordon, 75th Regiment.

by Gordon and Olpherts

Gordon allowed the enemy’s masses to approach within eighty yards, and then opened upon them with three guns and musketry, and drove them off immediately. The left rear was guarded by Olpherts with four horse battery guns and a detachment of the Military Train. With these he beat back the cavalry demonstration above indicated. The British loss from the enemy on this occasion amounted to one killed and seven wounded.

Thenceforward till the 15th February the enemy cease to attack in force

The failure on this occasion completed the discouragement of the rebels. From that time forth until the 15th February they confined themselves to demonstrations, to attempts to excite alarm – and to incessant bugling. Outram’s spies announced attacks for given dates, but the dates passed by and the attacks were not made. Meanwhile the conviction seemed to be stealing into their minds that they were bound to a losing cause. They heard of the loss of Fathgarh, and rumours even reached them of the capture of Bareli.

Contentions among the rebels

This conviction was not slow in producing discord in their councils, and blows between rival chieftains. On the 22nd January the troops led by the Maulavi, and those obeying the orders of the Begam came to a sharp encounter, resulting in the slaying of about a hundred men.

Outram receives reinforcements

All this time the advance portion of Sir Colin’s force was approaching, and on the 23rd January Outram received a reinforcement of ten guns escorted by a part of the 34th Regiment. To counterbalance this, the remnants of the heroic 75th, of Dehli renown, left on the 14th February for the Himalayas.

The Maulavi attacks on the 15th

At last, goaded by the Maulavi, who, after a brief imprisonment by the Begam’s party, had escaped and re-assumed his ascendancy in the rebel councils, the enemy hazarded an attack on the 15th. They attempted their attacks on the 15th, favourite plan of turning the left. But Outram was ready for them. The 90th turned out, and Olpherts, always full of zeal, galloped to the front with his guns, accompanied by the cavalry of the Military Train. When within

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but Olpherts drives them back

four hundred yards of the rebels, Olpherts unlimbered and poured in round after round. The rebels could not stand it, but broke and fled. The British lost one man killed and one wounded.

Further vain manifestations of the rebels

On the morning of the 16th the rebels threatened to renew the attack, but, after a great deal of show, they retired. In the evening, however, they came on against the whole British front as though they were in earnest. They made four separate advances, and retired as often, coming under musketry fire only on one point, the extreme left of the British. But, finding the picket on the alert, they made no serious attack even here. Their advances were accompanied by yells and shouts and the clang of brass instruments. This day they admitted to a loss of sixty killed and wounded.

The rebels determine to attempt one last assault

Stores were now coming in daily from Kanhpur, and the movements of the various brigades of Sir Colin Campbell’s force had become so pronounced as to spread conviction amongst the rebel leaders that unless they could, within the next five or six days, succeed in their projects against Outram, they would be for ever baffled. They determined, therefore, to try one last grand assault – an assault better planned, on a larger scale, and more sustained than any of its predecessors. Having ascertained from their spies that it was the custom of the General and a large proportion of officers and men to attend church-parade early on Sunday morning, they fixed upon an early hour on the following Sunday, 21st February, for their great blow.

Sunday, 21st February

They had calculated correctly. The men of the right brigade were attending a church parade, the General being with them, when masses of the enemy began to concentrate opposite the extreme right and left of the British position. Captain Gordon, whom we have known as aide-de-camp to General Neill, and who was now on the staff, noticed the movements of the enemy from No. 2 battery, and rode down to report the fact to the General. Outram at once sent down the Assistant Adjutant-General, Captain Dodgson, to turn out the left brigade, whilst the batteries opened all along the line. For the enemy, originally massing their forces on both flanks, had gradually extended inwards, and were threatening the whole position. They had advanced, in fact, to within five hundred yards of the British

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position before the troops were turned out ready to receive him. But then the old story was repeated. On the right the enemy, advancing against Jalalabad, were checked by an artillery fire, whilst Captain Barrow, with two hundred and fifty of the volunteer cavalry and two guns, coming up from behind that fort, dashed upon a party sent to turn the British position, and drove them back to their main body. On the left, Olpherts and a squadron of the Military Mounted Train, under Major Robertson, carried out the same plan, with the same success. Forced now to make a front attack, and threatened in turn on their left, the enemy did not long persevere. Once indeed they made as though they would try and overwhelm the left turning party, but at the decisive moment some well-directed rounds of shrapnel and round shot induced them to pause. “He who hesitates is lost” is a truth more applicable even to warfare than to the ordinary affairs of life.

The rebels fell back beaten

They did not renew their design, but, at a quarter past 10 o’clock, fell back, beaten, baffled, and humiliated, to the city. They admitted to a loss of three hundred and forty men killed and wounded. That of the British amounted to nine men wounded.

Outram receives reinforcements

The last, the most desperate, and the best-fought attack was made on the 25th February. During the few days immediately preceding, troops from Kanhpur had been gradually pouring in, and up to that date the force under Outram’s orders had been strengthened by the arrival of Remmington’s troop of horse artillery, of the 7th Hussars, of Hodson’s Horse, and of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. Hence he was now able, should he think fit, to retaliate more effectively on the enemy in the open plain.

The rebels make a final attack in sheer desperation

The despairing attack of the rebels was made with all the pomp and circumstance of war. For the first time the royal Begam, mounted on an elephant, attended by the Prime Minister and principal nobles, similarly mounted, accompanied the assailants. The proceedings began by a violent cannonade directed against the Alambagh at 7 o’clock in the morning. This lasted an hour. A little later, about 10 o’clock, a strong force was sent to threaten the British left, while the main body began to march along the right front, to the right, and out of the range of the guns. Of this force, which consisted of between twenty and thirty thousand men, a

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moiety, after passing the extreme point of the British right, made a sharp turn to the right again, and continued this until they had gained a position, sheltered by trees, in the right rear of the fort of Jalalabad. The other moiety, with which was the Begam, halted at the turning angle, so as to support the attack, or to maintain communications with the main posts, as might be required. The advanced portion began at once to shell the fort of Jalalabad.

Outram attempts to cut off the rebels from their base

The movement of the rebels to the right rear of the British position had been so pronounced that, at last, Outram thought he had them. Taking with him his right infantry brigade, four of Olpherts’s guns, four of Remmington’s, a squadron of the 7th Hussars, the Military Train, and detachments of Hodson’s Horse and Graham’s Horse, he started, a little before 10 o’clock, to the right, to cut off the advanced moiety of the rebels, whilst Barrow’s Volunteers and Wale’s Horse, making a detour, should take them in rear.

He first drives back their supports

The line taken by Outram naturally brought him in sharp contact with the second or reserve moiety of the rebel army. The cavalry with this reserve, numbering nearly a thousand, supported by infantry, came up to within seven hundred yards of Outram’s left flank, and threatened to come nearer. But the ubiquitous Olpherts, always ready, at once wheeled his four guns to the left, and, advancing a short distance, unlimbered and opened fire. The effect was remarkable. The Begam left the field, the Prime Minister followed in attendance, and the courtiers accompanied to guard the Prime Minister. The consternation caused by the fire of Olpherts’s guns had not abated – for the enemy had begun to fall back – when Remmington came up at full gallop, and, taking up a position about four hundred yards to the left and in advance of Olpherts, opened fire on the retreating enemy; the squadron of the 7th Hussars and Brasyer’s Sikhs advanced with them, and kept the rebel cavalry in check.

Brigadier Campbell charges and captures two guns

Made secure of his left by the action of these gallant men, Outram pushed forward with the remainder of his force to deal with the first or advanced moiety of the enemy’s army. Acting under his orders, Brigadier Campbell of the Bays took with him the Military Train and detachments of Hodson’s

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Horse and Graham’s Horse, and advanced beyond Jalalabad. Turning then to the right, he came in full view of the enemy. Alarmed by the sound of Olpherts’s and Remmington’s guns, the rebels, sensible of the presence of danger, were forming up hurriedly when they caught sight of Campbell’s horsemen. Campbell gave them no time for reflection, but at once charged the two guns which had been playing on the fort. The Sipahis, surprised as they were, did not flinch. They met the charge with courage, and though, as its result, the two guns remained in the hands of the Military Train, fifty corpses about them testified to the desperate valour of the defenders.

The rebels succeed in falling back

The enemy’s infantry meanwhile had fallen back on a tope of trees, from the upper branches of which some of their marksmen kept a constant fire on Outram’s force as it approached. The defence of this tope was so sustained as to give time for the main body of the rebels to fall back and recover their line of retreat. They even once again threatened the fort, but gave way before the persuasive powers of Olpherts and Remmington.

and then make a final effort

It was now half-past 2. The fighting for the clay was apparently over. But the rebels were resolved to make one final effort. Strengthening their right with the troops who had fought in the morning, they made a desperate attack, about 5 o’clock, on the village forming the left front of the British position. Never had they fought with greater determination. They took possession of the tope of trees in front of the village, and then pressed on, encouraged by the fact that the British picket, just then short of ammunition, was falling back. But their triumph was short.

but are baffled

A reinforcement came up, and forced them to retire. All that night, however, they continued their endeavours to take that village, threatening at the same time the entire left front of the position. Nor was it till the dawn of the following day that they gave up the task as hopeless.

Service rendered to the country by the successful occupation of the Alambagh.

With this attack the defence of the Alambagh may be said to merge into the more exciting drama of Lakhnao. It is, however, impossible to leave the gallant defenders of that important position without endeavouring, however inadequately, to indicate the great service which their prolonged occupation of it had rendered to the country. For more than three months

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Outram, with a force originally nearly four thousand strong, and subsequently often smaller, had kept in check the main army of the rebels. That army, known in November to count thirty thousand men, most of them trained soldiers, under its banners, had been gradually augmented after the fall of Dehli to more than treble that strength165. Between that augmented army and the Ganges lay Outram and his four thousand men – his right, his left, his rear, equally exposed. His nearest base was the Ganges; but between him and that base lay forty miles of road, guarded only at one point, the Banni bridge, and which, if sometimes occupied. by the British, was occupied only by long convoys. He was, so to speak, in the air, liable to meet attacks on all sides. In point of fact, he was attacked on all sides – in front, on his flanks, and in his rear. If there be any who might be inclined to make light of the service rendered by his successful defence, I would ask them to consider what the state of affairs would have been had Outram succumbed to the attacks made upon him on all sides. He had no line of retreat but that leading to the Ganges. Driven from the Alambagh, he would have fallen back, hotly pursued, on that river. In the face of such pursuit, could he have crossed by the frail bridge of boats? No one will affirm that to have been possible; he would have been lost; Kanhpur would have been reoccupied; Sir Colin’s communications would have been severed; the rebels might have captured Allahabad, and – the Azamgarh district and Bihar being in revolt – they could then have penetrated to Calcutta. All this would have been possible, but all this Outram and his gallant followers prevented by their gallant defence.

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The men who aided Outram

Of Outram himself I have often spoken; but who were his followers? First, deserving a large meed of praise, comes Colonel Berkeley, of the 32nd Regiment, occupying virtually the position of chief of his staff. Than Berkeley it would have been difficult to find a more competent officer. To great activity of body he joined a head to devise the most complicated movements, and skill and coolness to carry them into execution. “He possesses,” wrote Outram, after bearing testimony to his services, “to an extent I have rarely seen equalled, the power of securing the confidence, acquiring the respect, and winning the personal regard of those with whom he is thrown in contact.” He was, in very truth, the right hand of his chief; and the relations between them, founded on mutual respect, were of the most cordial character166. Fit to be bracketed with Berkeley may be mentioned Vincent Eyre, Brigadier of the artillery force, who sustained to the full the reputation he had gained at Arab. In Olpherts and Maude he had lieutenants of more than ordinary skill and daring, always to the front, and always full of fight. Dodgson, the Assistant Adjutant-General – the most modest, the least pushing, but the bravest of men; always cool, calm, self-possessed, and yet always in the place where his services were most required; Macbean, the able and energetic commissariat officer, without whose fertility of resource the army could not have been fed; Moorsom, the Assistant Quartermaster-General, uniting to the finest qualities of a fighting soldier the skill of the accomplished draughtsman; – it was to his skill, indeed, that Outran’ and Havelock were indebted for the plan which enabled them to penetrate so skilfully to the Residency; Gould Weston, who had served throughout the long defence of that Residency in command of Fayrer’s horse, and of whom, now attached to the Intelligence Department, Outram wrote in the despatch he penned after the capture of Lakhnao, that “he has signalized himself by the spirit and gallantry which he displayed on several occasions, and has been of much use to me”; Chamier and Hargood, most efficient as staff officers; Alexander Orr and Bunbury, useful from their knowledge of the country and the people; Barrow and Wale, daring cavalry leaders; Brasyer, of Brasyer’s Sikhs – whose name in those stirring times was a

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household word; Nicholson, of the Royal Engineers, unsurpassed in his profession; – these are but a few names amongst the many of the gallant men who contributed to that splendid defence.

But it has become a thing of the past. On the 1st March the Commander-in-Chief visited the Alambagh, and on the 3rd his troops were seen marching past that post. To the Commander-in-Chief, then, I must now return.

Footnotes

162. Page 155.

163. The European force consisted of three hundred and thirty-two artillerymen, two hundred and ninety-two cavalry, two thousand seven hundred and seventy-one infantry; the Native, of a hundred and eight artillerymen, seventy-seven cavalry, and eight hundred and sixty-two infantry, or in all four thousand four hundred and forty-two. But, of these, five hundred and forty were detached to the Banni bridge. The infantry regiments were the 5th, the 95th, the 84th, the 98th, the 90th, the 1st Madras Fusiliers, the Firuzpur Regiment, the 27th Madras Native Infantry, and the Madras Sappers.

164. “Hanuman,” the deity who takes the form of the monkey.

165. Outram ascertained, on the 27th January, that the strength of the enemy on that date was as follows:–

37 Trained regiments of sipahis 27,550
14 Regiments of new levies 5,400
106 Najib, or irregular regiments 55,150
26 Regiments of cavalry 7,100
Camel corps 800
96,000

This computation did not include artillerymen, the number of whom was unknown, nor the armed followers of the talukdars, estimated at 20,000. Altogether there could not have been less than 120,000 armed men in Lakhnao on that date.

166. This most gallant officer did not long survive the campaign in which he was so gloriously engaged.

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