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Chapter 2

Civil and military officers die at their posts – Nearly shot by refugees from Sitapur massacre – Volunteers sent to rescue Europeans at Sikrora – Captain H. Forbes a good soldier – Civilians drilled, and Captain R. P. Anderson is rebuked for laughing at them – Martinière school boys saved – Captain Radcliffe and volunteer horse – Remember the brave I – The volunteers fine fellows – Kanhpur – Mutineers chase us back to our defences from Chinhat

Before the middle of June, British authority was extinct throughout the Province of Oudh, notwithstanding the generous exertions of our Chief, and the many valuable lives sacrificed to stem the torrent of rebellion. We were daily distressed by news of the murder of some, and of the flight of other Europeans, who wandered through a hostile people, uncertain whither to turn for refuge. Never have Britons shewn such devotion to duty as was evinced in that unnatural war. As long as there was a vestige of submission to their authority, the civil and military officers stayed at their posts, and several perished with their families rather than retire. Englishmen identified themselves with the Government, and every one rightly thought then that on his conduct depended the safety of the empire.

The mutiny at Sitapur occurred on the 6th of June, and the following day a party of volunteers and

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Sikh cavalry, under the orders of Captain H. Forbes, were sent out to escort into Lucknow the Europeans flying from the massacre. After proceeding a few miles, we learnt from a traveller of their approach, and I rode on to assure them of their safety. As I galloped eagerly into the mango grove, Major Bemble was on the point of ordering the escort to fire, when he perceived that I was a friend, and their alarm was succeeded by intense joy. Captain Forbes, with his cavalry, soon joined us, and while waiting for conveyances for the women and children, I induced several to drink from my flask of brandy, for they had travelled about fifty miles under an awful sun, and were greatly fatigued.

A few days later I was again asked by Mr. Gubbins to take out volunteers with Captain H. Forbes, who was going to bring in the European families from Secrora, where a mutiny was expected every moment. Mr. F. D. Lucas accompanied him. As we neared Nawabganj, the advanced vedette saw a horseman precipitately retire from the front; and our commander, thinking that the cavalry had already mutinied, drew up on a plain to the right of the road, where we waited for more than an hour. We then advanced, till we reached a magnificent grove of trees close to the town, where over a hundred native cavalry were standing, with horses saddled. Captain Forbes thought them to be a part of his own regiment whom he had called into Lucknow; but their attitude was threatening, and the slightest indiscretion would have provoked a quarrel against great odds, for, including the Sikhs, we only mustered about thirty-five. Captain Forbes behaved with admirable tact, and we passed on to the police station. The chief native officer gave us refreshments

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while we rested for a couple of hours, (after a ride of twenty miles,) in the midst of about a hundred and fifty armed policemen of doubtful fidelity. The intemperance of a volunteer, who struck and abused one of the police, at one time endangered us; but I pacified the man, who patiently submitted to a very unprovoked assault. Returning to the side of Captain Forbes, the horse ridden by Mr. Lucas kicked me severely, and the vicious beast, at a well five miles further on, where we stopped to drink, bit that gentleman so savagely, that he had to be sent back with two of the volunteers to Lucknow. I shot the infuriated animal to prevent further injury. We were much vexed at losing so spirited a companion as Mr. Lucas, who remained disabled for several days, when he would have given worlds to be up and doing.

After a journey of forty miles we reached Ramnugur, a town within a few miles of the river Gogra. Here we learnt, by a note delivered to Captain Forbes, from Major Boileau at Secrora, that he did not despair of preserving his regiment from the general contagion. This intelligence caused the former to decide that it would be better for us to return to Lucknow, as the presence of the volunteers in Secrora might alarm the native troops, and precipitate a mutiny before the European families were withdrawn; or, if we thought six of us too few to travel forty miles through a disturbed country, to stay at Ramnugur till he came back. The volunteers respectfully remonstrated against being deprived of the honour of sharing the danger which seemed to be inevitable on his attempting to withdraw the families; and I made the proposal of attempting to overawe the troops by suddenly seizing the guns. But the excellent

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judgment of Captain Forbes saw that it was no time for a rashness which might imperil the lives we were going to rescue; and that the object of his expedition would be better effected without us. After giving me a few lines to satisfy the authorities at Lucknow that we had done our duty, he started with his small party of Sikhs, to perish as we feared; and we turned our faces homewards, greatly disheartened by his decision. The soldierly and gentlemanly bearing of Captain Forbes was such, that we felt sure that everything which courage and temper could effect would be accomplished; and a few days afterwards we had the satisfaction of seeing him enter our poor defences with several women and children, whom he had brought away just in time.

To the middle of June, the civilians had been provided with muskets, and some with swords and pistols: now they were regularly embodied into infantry and cavalry, and some were told off to the guns. Captain R. P. Anderson, in his unpretending narrative of the defence, jestingly mentions the drillings to which they cheerfully submitted twice a day; and it is pleasant to know that this body of respectable and intelligent men were afterwards more distinguished for gallantry than he will ever be for witticisms. Although attached to the cavalry, I attended the infantry and artillery drilling, thinking that the cavalry would be of no use should we be besieged, albeit that extraordinary opinions were expressed of its probable usefulness. So little, indeed, was the nature of the approaching struggle understood, that it was seriously proposed to employ horse artillery, up this and down that road, to keep our defences clear of assailants, and I incurred displeasure for

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remarking that the progress of the defences was retarded by such misplaced confidence. It was once seriously decided to fortify the chief police stations in the city, and to defend those posts with volunteers and native policemen; and I was afterwards asked, through Mr. George Couper, to call for eight volunteers to occupy the Martinière College, which is two miles from the Residency, to assist the masters and boys to defend it in case of an attack. Only six men could be got to join in so mad a project, and the boys were withdrawn to a building inside the defences.

As another instance of our ignorance, I may mention that we began to fortify our positions as if they were to be separately defended, and to attack each other; and it was Sir Henry Lawrence who tore down those superfluous works as soon as he saw them. Most persons inexperienced in war, which cannot be learned from books, would have done no better; and it is really no reproach to confess that we were bewildered, whatever the engineers may now say of having “ completed a fortification which turned every house to advantage, and secured as much flanking defence as possible1.”

Captain Radcliffe, of the 7th Light Cavalry, commanded the Volunteer Horse, composed of uncovenanted civilians, and a few officers belonging to corps that had mutinied. Lieutenant Warner, a very intelligent and gallant young soldier, was the Adjutant; and Mr. Alexander Bryson was Serjeant-Major of the troop. An extraordinary attachment sprang up between Captain Radcliffe and the civilians, who would have done anything for him. His patient endurance of hard

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labour, and his conspicuous bearing in action, fully justified this. Brother volunteers, give him praise wherever you go; and, Englishmen, honour the widow and children of so good and gallant a soldier. Valour is plentiful among British soldiers, but valour like his, which was combined with patience, charity, and gentleness, is rare.

The troop made good progress in mounted drill, and in the use of the sword; and when the mutineers began to assemble at Nawabganj Barabanki, about twenty miles east of Lucknow, Captain Radcliffe frequently took it into the country to collect information. The first occasion will be remembered by all who survive, for the right good glee with which we stood on the road at Chinut, singing comic and martial songs with noisy choruses, whilst the rain poured down in torrents, damping everything but our spirits. Few of those joyous hearts are now throbbing in this world, and the rest are dispersed, never again to be united. With what glee you stood, wet, and ankle deep in mud, pouring out the lightsome sounds of your voices in songs of Britons’ might and England’s glory, regardless of danger! Well might the leader be fond of the daring men who sported around him on that dark and stormy night, as he saw each smiling face by the lightning flashed upon it

Tidings occasionally reached us of the contest going on, at Kanhpur, between the mutineers and the garrison of Sir Hugh Wheeler. The prevailing opinion was that he would succeed in defending his post till the arrival of relief, which, promised by successive telegrams, was too sanguinely expected before he sought shelter inside that miserable fortification. Their urgent appeals for assistance deeply affected us, and threatening as was

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our own position, we would gladly have gone to their rescue. It was once seriously discussed, and only abandoned upon a review of the difficulties which our small numbers could not have surmounted.

At last the distressing news came to Lucknow that the garrison, after imprudently capitulating to the Nana of Bithur, bad been mercilessly slaughtered. The heads of our women reeled, and their hearts sickened, as the harrowing story was told amidst the curses and fierce resolves of the men. Many a savage vow was made then, which was awfully fulfilled on the bodies of our enemies, and “CAWNPOOR!” was afterwards the war-whoop for atrocities which the British soldier will disown in the next generation.

The news of this frightful massacre was followed by information that the mutineers of Oudh were assembling at Nawabganj Barahbanki, with the avowed intention of advancing immediately upon Lucknow; of which, I think, we were rather too dubious. Appalling as was the intelligence that came from every quarter, and impending as was our own danger, the conviction of our true position came slowly, slowly, slowly, till the 30th of June, when the disastrous battle of Chinut brought the enemy triumphantly treading on our heels, as we precipitately and sadly ran to the protection of our defences.

My health had some days previously been fast yielding to fatigue and exposure, and the efforts made to keep up my strength at so critical a time completely prostrated me, so that when Bryson warned me for duty on the fatal morning of Chinut I was too ill to rise. The volunteer troop of cavalry greatly distinguished itself both dining the action, and when covering the retreat of the

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little force of Sir Henry Lawrence back to the defences; which it entered angry, fatigued, and disheartened, through the residue of the garrison, who looked on alarmed and astonished. The spirit of the defenders instantly sank, and the prowess of the victorious mutineers assumed unmerited importance in their eyes.

Footnotes

1. See Captain George Hutchinson’s badly written “Narrative of the Mutinies of Oudh.”

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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