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Chapter 19

The City – Ordered to Maliabad – Troops without ammunition – An angry officer – Police posted at Rahimabad and surrounded by the enemy – Attacked and defeated by Lieutenant Ffrench – Police re- warded for gallant defence – A brave native collector – The enemy frightened by a road – Agriculture unaffected by the war – Land- holders assembled for sports at Rahimabad – Talukdars backward – Policy to Talukdars reversed – People should be taxed – Oudh Military Police – Town of Sandela attacked by Captain Dawson – Prince Firuzshah, of Delhi, with 600 cavalry, defeated by fifty Sikhs

The demolitions continued, and the city rapidly assumed a clean and prosperous appearance. Most of the citizens returned, and some of the leading men of the rebellion accepted the pardon offered to them, and endeavoured to settle down in their quiet homes. The road to Kanhpur was protected by troops at Banni and Nawabganj, to the south; and Sir Hope Grant’s force to the east guarded that side of Lucknow. To the . north our territory extended only a few miles, and westward it was secured at the extremity by untried Irregular troops that made no effort to check the encroachments of the enemy, who presumptuously threatened to besiege them at Maliabad.

The Chief Commissioner, Sir Robert Montgomery, in a very encouraging note from his Secretary, requested I would proceed to Maliabad, and endeavour

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to extend our influence further into the district of Mullion. I reached the garrison in the afternoon, and learnt that there was not enough ammunition to defend the place twenty-four hours! I expressed surprise to Captain Dawson, and he was displeased with me for doing so. He had about fifty native cavalry, five hundred infantry, and no guns: while the enemy had fifteen hundred infantry, two hundred cavalry, and three guns. Reports reached during the day that they meant to attack us, and another arrived, while we were at dinner, informing us of their advance. I again pointed out to Captain Dawson how embarrassing it would be to send troops from Lucknow to relieve us, supposing the want of ammunition did not oblige him to abandon the post: which exasperated him so much that he lost his temper, and the public service seemed likely to suffer by his intemperance. His generous temper, however, returned the following morning, when he admitted the oversight, and at once obtained an ample supply of ammunition. He consented to a proposal to attack the enemy, some of whom had come as close as Rahimabad. They retired as we entered the village, and I posted a party of police, under two Head-men inimical to the rebels, who were joined by a few villagers, which raised the party to about forty armed men. We visited the villages in the neighbourhood to warn them against assisting the rebels should they attack the police who were hastily located in a house indifferently fortified.

Early the next day reports followed quickly of the advance of the rebels to Rahimabad with two thousand men, and four guns; and, in reply, I desired the Head-men to stay at their post and defend it till relieved. They waited to be surrounded; refused to surrender;

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and manfully resisted frequent attempts to carry the place by assault. Lieutenant Ffrench, of the 53rd Foot, Adjutant of the Police, and myself; started to their relief with forty cavalry and five hundred infantry, and on nearing the place I found matchlock-men of neighbouring villages resisting the attempts of the enemy to pass towards Maliabad. The rebel infantry, under cover of high reeds and garden plants, fired on Lieutenant Ffrench as he impetuously descended a high mound and engaged them. I kept his right flank secure from cavalry till the rebels began to retreat, when I advanced at a gallop, and fell upon a large body of matchlock-men as they issued from the village in full flight. After doing good service my sword snapped on the shield of a tall swordsman, and my horse was wounded as I rode him down. The main body of the enemy flew off under cover of a ravine. Lieutenant Ffrench, reinforced by the rescued garrison, in vain endeavoured to overtake them, they ran so very fast. With our cavalry we afterwards scoured the country around, and warned the owners of villages to co-operate in the defence of. the police; which they were willing enough to do where we could save them from the vengeance of the rebels.

The beleaguered garrison had a few men killed and wounded, and behaved so well, against great odds, that Sir Robert Montgomery consented to reward them with money grants, as an encouragement to others; and. I gave each a written statement of his gallant service. The Tuhseeldar, or native revenue collector, who followed me into the midst of the enemy, was brave to rashness, and during the combat he alone engaged several swordsmen, for which I presented him with a Colt’s revolver. The Sikh cavalry fearlessly dashed into the

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crowd, and with their sharp swords greatly quickened the speed of the runaways, who ran nine miles off to their head-quarters in the town of Sandela.

By desire of the Chief Commissioner I constructed a road to Lucknow, to facilitate the passage of guns, should it be determined to add a European force to the native troops with Captain Dawson. The rapid completion of the road so alarmed the enemy, that they increased in numbers at Sandela, and threatened to march on our fortified position at Maliabad before we could be reinforced. We took no notice of the boast, and every day made long patrols to within a short distance of them, and even drove in their cavalry picquets.

The rebellion had nowhere interrupted the industry of the agriculturist, whose summer crops, moistened by the rains, now covered the face of the country with a beautiful green mantle, which was rent here and there by numerous groves of tall umbrageous trees bearing the luscious fruit of the season. Through these flourishing fields, and under a terrific sun, we rode to reassure the landholders, and draw them into a meeting at Rahimabad, where I purposed amusing them with sports and compromising them with the enemy. There was a fair assemblage of landed proprietors, who came to the gathering with matchlocks, and heartily joined in the sports of the day. But the Talukdars pleaded illness and kept away, for their sympathies were decidedly with the enemy, whom they secretly encouraged to oppose us. These men, at the annexation of Oudh in 1856, were deprived of their villages, and the small proprietors on their estates encouraged to harass them by suits in our courts. The official bias was so strong

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against the whole body of Talukdars, that every pte text was seized to lessen their property and to degrade their position. Every deed of infamy committed before the annexation was attributed to them, and almost every acre of land in their possession was supposed to have been acquired either by force or by fraud. With singular imprudence we revived old claims, and disturbed landlords many years in possession.

That harsh policy, which was merited only in a few cases, was now reversed. Talukdars were restored to all they had lost, and many proprietors whom our regular courts had reinstated, were summarily turned out wondering at our inconsistency. The disclosures of the war had exposed our folly in this and in many other things, and the Government seized the earliest opportunity of amending the errors of the past. The Barons, or Talukdars of Oudh, are generally idle, sensual, and uneducated; but under a generous system of administration they will doubtless improve before the close of the century. European officers can exercise a most beneficial influence over them if they have leisure to do it. No system of administration can be perfected with an imperfect establishment of officers, and until this defect is remedied, the Home Government may order, and the Local Government threaten, without increasing the quality as well as the quantity of work done. If it were only to add to the number of administrators the taxes proposed by Mr. Wilson ought to be imposed.

After the capture of Lucknow in March, 1858, a force of military police was organized for civil duties. The cavalry regiments were largely recruited from the Panjab, and the infantry was composed of Sikhs,

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and men of every shade of religion: experience having taught that it was better to mingle the castes and disregard the prejudices so greatly pampered before. The cavalry with Captain Dawson was formed of Sikhs and Afghans, and the infantry of Sikhs, Parsees, and other low caste men. Most of them had never been under fire prior to the little battle of Rahimabad, where they were very forward in engaging the enemy.

The enemy grew bold, and began to replenish their treasury by plundering villages supposed to be friendly to us or backward in assisting them with armed men. The supplies of the city of Lucknow, moreover, were checked by the position of the rebels at Sandela. Captain Dawson, therefore, consented to go on to Sandela, sixteen miles west from Maliabad, to capture that important town, which was reported to be occupied by fifteen hundred infantry, two hundred cavalry, and five guns.

The time seemed favourable for attacking them, for the spirited progress of Sir Hope Grant towards Faizabad and Sultanpur had somewhat disheartened the rebels throughout the province. Our troops on the Kanhpur road were also threatening Prince Firuzshah on our left, and a rumour was circulating that the dreaded Highlanders were crossing the Ganges into the district.

On the afternoon of the 10th of August Captain Dawson advanced with a small force to Rahimabad, where we were joined by two small Talukdars, some of the native gentlemen of Sandela and Maliabad, and Chowdry Hushmut Ali, a handsome man, with considerable influence, who abandoned the cause of the rebels on the final occupation of Lucknow. They were accompanied by about four hundred matchlock-men on whose valour

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we could not depend. In the evening we rode, with a small escort of cavalry, to within five miles of Sandela, And I sent a watchman of one of their own villages to warn the leaders that we would attack them in the morning, and be disappointed if they again ran away. A native is half beaten when you frighten him, and I -was sure that the message would cause them to make early arrangements for retreat before they thought of defending the town.

It rained during the night. The morning was cool, and the country around rich in ripening crops of wheat. We started at dawn, and crossing a rapid stream by an old stone bridge, passed under the shade of a mango grove with its delicious fruit, on to an extensive plain studded with brush-wood, and covered by the rain of the night. Midway to Sandela we halted for breakfast, with the cavalry of the enemy watching in our front and on our right flank. Before we finished our repast a letter was delivered from Bharut Singh, (a good loyal Baron residing beyond Sandela,) informing us that the enemy, in consequence of my message to the Chiefs, had been reinforced during the night, and now had six hundred cavalry under Prince Firuzshah, three thousand regular and irregular infantry, -under the notorious Chiefs Namdar Khan and Gulab Singh, and five guns, one of which he described as large.

This was startling news, and it caused us to discuss .seriously whether we should proceed further with only fifty cavalry, and five hundred infantry, and no guns. The native chiefs were of opinion that we were too few, and frankly advised us not to rely on their followers. Hushmut All was the only one who concurred with us in thinking that them were only so many more to run

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-away. From a mound we surveyed, through our glasses, large bodies of cavalry and infantry standing under extensive woods screening the town in our front. Captain Dawson arranged to attack them to the south, and thus avoid the fire of the guns mounted on an earthwork commanding the high road. He made over the gallant troop of Sowars to me, and with them I covered his advance from the rebel cavalry, who retired to the south, and assembled in columns of troops with the intention of sweeping down upon my handful of horsemen. I put on a bold front, and sent them further back, by a feigned charge, to secure Dawson a passage into the suburbs of the town, where a rapid discharge of small arms and cannon checked him for a few minutes.

. The six hundred cavalry led by Firuzshah drew closer, and their steady advance was so menacing that I was forced to decide at once between attacking them or going into the town. The first would have disheartened our infantry, who were already engaged at great odds, and I, therefore, invited the Sikhs to say whether they would follow me. With one accord they lifted their swords, and called to me to go on. Firuzshah drew nearer, but, as I turned to engage him, he halted on the edge of a large grove of trees, apparently uncertain what to do. I again asked the troop whether they would do it, as we went on as if to engage their centre, and received the same response. In another minute we suddenly turned from the straight line,, and were engaged hand to hand with the left flank, which broke at once, and threw the whole body into such confusion, that they turned about and went away, pursued by the Sikhs.

Followed by a dozen Sikhs, I started after the Prince,

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who was conspicuous from riding a grey horse and being dressed in white. We became so mixed with the retreating cavalry, and in such peril from the difficulty of telling one from another, that he distanced us, and the desperate efforts made to cut our way through were stopped after a few minutes by a shot which disabled my horse and threw me to the ground. One of the enemy, passing at a gallop, struck at me while down: I threw up the hilt of my sword, and was slightly cut on the hand. A second cut through the heel of the left boot, and’ slightly wounded me. Another stopped so suddenly to reach me that his horse fell on his haunches, and I was enabled to seize him by the neck and drag him from his seat as the animal recovered itself. I spared him as a mark of respect to the cavalry, for he was a fine young Sikh who had deserted from the Residency during the siege of Lucknow. They were, however, greatly exasperated at his treachery, and while I was pursuing the enemy on another. horse, he was sabred, and left for dead on the field.

We disabled about forty of the irregular cavalry, who were so well mounted that a couple of minutes stoppage enabled them to get out of sight behind the woods and villages north of Sandela. From thence they went hot haste, eight miles off, to the fort of Birwa, to which place the infantry and three little guns were following them when I reached the rear of the town to hasten their movements.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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