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Chapter II – The Leaguer of Lakhnao

Illness of Sir Henry Lawrence

The repression of the mutiny of the 30th and 31st of May at Lakhnao had, at least, rid the cantonments of the least trustworthy of the Sipahis. But the incessant labour, mental and bodily, the deprivation of sleep, the constant anxiety, had told on the already overtasked strength of the Chief Commissioner. His spare frame daily became still sparer, his physical strength diminished, under mental toil. His medical advisers insisted then that he should rest for a time from the labours of his office. Sir Henry Lawrence, I have already stated, had been on the point of proceeding to Europe for the benefit of his health when he was summoned by Lord Canning to Oudh. Regarding that summons as a call of duty, with characteristic forgetfulness of self, he had obeyed it. But under the fatigues, the excitement, the anxiety of his new life, his physical condition had become sensibly worse than it had been when his medical advisers had ordered him home from Rajputana. It was necessary that he should rest.

No one had felt less confident as to his power to stand the wear and tear of work in trying times than Sir Henry himself. His strength he knew might utterly fail him at any moment. Under ordinary circumstances he might, and probably would, have felt satisfied that the Government would on his death provide a fit officer as his successor.

His views regarding his successor

But the circumstances were not ordinary. In the then state of the country the Government had not the means to send to the province a successor from outside its borders. They might not even have the power of communicating with those in the province itself. In that case the succession would, by right of seniority, devolve upon a civilian, in

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whose judgment and capacity for the post Sir Henry Lawrence had no confidence.

Recommends Major Banks and Colonel Inglis

To prevent the possibility of an occurrence which he could not regard in anticipation in any other light than as a public misfortune, Sir Henry Lawrence, feeling his strength daily failing, despatched to Lord Canning on the 4th of May a telegram, in which he earnestly recommended that, in the event of anything happening to himself, the office of Chief Commissioner might be conferred on Major Banks, and the command of the troops on Colonel Inglis. “This,” he added, “is no time for punctilio as regards seniority. They are the right men – in fact, the only men – for the places.”

Major Banks

The Major Banks referred to was the Commissioner of the Lakhnao division. He belonged to the Bengal Army. He was distinguished by the wide range and the depth of his acquirements, by his thorough knowledge of the natives of India, by administrative talents of the highest order, by a large fund of humour, and by his large-hearted sympathies. He was the most promising political officer who bad not actually attained the highest grade in that branch of the Indian Service. For languages he had a remarkable talent. He was familiar alike with Persian, with Hindi, and with Sanskrit. Major Banks had filled several offices with distinction, had gained the esteem of men so opposed to each other as were Sir Charles Napier and Lord Dalhousie, and, on the annexation of Oudh, had been selected by the latter to be Commissioner of one of the four divisions of the kingdom. Installed as Commissioner of Lakhnao, Banks speedily justified Lord Dalhousie’s opinion. How he had impressed a man not easily deceived is apparent from the recommendation made by Sir Henry Lawrence to Lord Canning that Banks should succeed him.

Lieutenant-Colonel Inglis

Lieutenant-Colonel Inglis, the other officer referred to, commanded the 82nd Foot. He was in the prime of life, an excellent soldier, active, energetic, and quick-sighted. The native army having mutinied, and Inglis. the only remaining reliable troops being European troops, it was practically necessary that the officer commanding the European regiment should have the chief military authority. It was, to repeat Sir Henry Lawrence’s remark, “no time for punctilio” as regarded. seniority. The recommendation, then, was characterised. by practical good sense.

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June 9

Five days after the despatch of this telegram the health of the Chief Commissioner seemed to give way entirely. On the 9th of June “an alarming exhaustion came on, and the medical men pronounced that further application to business would endanger his life146.”

Sir Henry resigns his authority to a council of five

In consequence of this sudden illness, a provisional council was formed of Mr. Gubbins, the Financial Commissioner, Mr. Ommaney, the Judicial Commissioner, Major Banks, Colonel Inglis, and the Chief Engineer, Major Anderson. Of this council Mr. Martin Gubbins was the President.

The President – Mr Martin Gubbins

The character of Mr, Gubbins has thus been sketched by Sir Henry Lawrence: “He is a gallant, energetic, clever fellow, but sees only through his own vista, and is therefore sometimes troublesome.” Now at this particular period the “vista” of Mr. Gubbins showed him the danger of retaining the armed remnants of the native regiments, the necessity of trusting the native military police. As President of the Council of Five, he insisted, then, that the Sipahis who still remained in the lines should be disarmed and dismissed. In vain was it pointed out to him that these men had stood the test, that they had been tried in the fire, that they had not only resisted temptation, but had acted with spirit against their comrades on the 30th and 31st of May. Mr. Gubbins would listen to no argument.

June 11

Opposed in the Council, he yet step by step carried out his favourite measures, until, on the 11th of June, he actually started off to their homes all the Sipahis belonging to the province.

Sir Henry resumes authority

This act had upon Sir Henry Lawrence an effect more decisive than the prescriptions of his medical advisers. It roused him to action. Shaking off his weakness, he immediately dissolved the Council, resumed authority, recalled the Sipahis, and “had the satisfaction of seeing numbers return to their post with tokens of delight, the honesty of which was verified by their loyalty during the siege147.”

Sir Henry Lawrence was particularly desirous to retain the services of a large portion of the native troops. He believed that those who had stood the ordeal of the 30th of May would

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thenceforth remain faithful.

His views regarding the native troops

He believed that without the aid of native troops his position at Lakhnao would not be tenable. And he believed, likewise, that, by judicious arrangement, it would be possible to ensure loyalty and good service from those who still remained. On resuming office, then, he directed his energies at once to the organising of a force of native troops. He collected all the Sikhs from the three native regiments and formed them into one battalion; the Oudh men he likewise banded together, rejecting those only who had given evidence of disloyalty. Sir Henry had recourse likewise to men of another class. Confident that many of the men who had served in the Company’s army prior to the annexation had carried with them to their homes their military pride and their fidelity to their masters, he summoned by circular to Lakhnao all of their number who would care to re-enlist for the cause of order. The response to this summons was very remarkable.

and the pensioners

About five hundred pensioned Sipahis hastened to Lakhnao. Amongst them were the gray-headed, the halt, the maim – even the blind – some on crutches – all anxious to evince their loyalty. Sir Henry gave them a kind and cordial reception. He selected about a hundred and seventy of them for active service, and placed them under separate command. The number of the native brigade was thus brought to nearly eight hundred.

The military police cavalry revolt

That night the whole of the cavalry of the military police remaining at their head-quarters at Lakhnao broke into revolt. The cavalry were under the special command of Captain Gould Weston, and he at once rode down to their lines, situated near the Dil-aram Kothi on the left bank of the Gumti, followed only by his two native orderlies. He came upon them as they were starting and exhorted them to listen to the voice of duty and of honour. But his efforts proved unavailing, and they galloped off into darkness.

and the infantry

The next morning (the 12th of June) the 3rd Regiment of Infantry of the Military Police mutinied at the Moti Mahall, about a mile and a half from the Baillie Guard. Captain Adolphus Orr, who, although he had removed his family into safety at the Residency, continued to occupy his house near his men, fortunately escaped uninjured, and riding in hot haste to the superintendent reported that the

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regiment had gone off in the direction of the Dilkushi Park, and was in full march towards Kanhpur.

Captain Gould Weston

Weston was engaged at the time with Mr. Ommaney, the Judicial Commissioner, but on hearing the evil tidings he instantly, with all the alacrity of a man to whom duty was the first consideration, rushed from the house, mounted the first horse he could find from the picket of the 7th Cavalry, and galloped after the mutineers. He overtook them about five miles from the Residency. It is impossible to over-estimate the danger of his position. There he was – a solitary European – in the presence of about eight hundred men who had mutinied, and who fully intended to join in the attempt to drive the English out of India. One shot would have sufficed to lay low the daring Faringhi. But it was that very daring that saved Weston. The bolder spirits were captivated by it. Dashing aside the muzzles already pointed towards their English commander, they declared in reply to his appeal to them to return to their duty that they must go – they were committed to it – but that his life should not be taken.

Owes his life to his daring

They then fell in and marched onwards. A few men of the 2nd Regiment of Military Police who had been on guard at Weston’s house, but who had joined the mutinous 3rd Regiment, determined to remain with him, and they returned to the Residency that night to tell of Weston’s escape from death, an escape which, bearing in mind the force of evil examples, and the fact that scores of officers had already fallen victims to their men, was well-nigh miraculous148.

The mutinous police followed up

On their way back Weston and his followers were met by the cavalry and the guns of the little force despatched in pursuit, under Colonel Inglis, and which had far outstripped the two companies of Her Majesty’s 32nd intended for their support. These went on in their enterprise, but the ground was broken and difficult, and, although the artillery did some execution and the native troopers cut up a few stragglers, a fair blow was not struck at the main body. A considerable number of the mutineers had, in fact, occupied a village on the further side of some ravines, a position strong enough to resist cavalry. As his Infantry had not come up and the night was fast closing, Inglis determined to desist

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from further pursuit. Accordingly he brought back his men, much exhausted after a long and trying march in an exceptionally hot day. The enemy lost about twenty killed and had many more wounded, whilst some ten prisoners were captured.

Mr. Thornhill, C.S.

Two of the loyal troopers were killed, and others were wounded, including their gallant native officer; two of the Europeans succumbed to sun-strokes, and Mr. Thornhill of the Civil Service, a man of great, even remarkable, daring, was twice seriously wounded.

Attempts made to render the Residency defensible

Since the mutiny of the 30th of May efforts to make the Residency defensible had been pushed on with extraordinary vigour. The outer tracing had been connected by breastworks; ditches had been excavated in front of them, and parapets erected behind them; at certain points ramparts had been thrown up and embrasures had been pierced; slopes had been scarped; stakes and palisades fixed; some houses had been demolished, the roofs of others had been protected by mud walls; windows and doors had been barricaded; walls had been loop-holed. All the ordnance belonging to the ex-King of Oudh that could be found in the city had been brought within the defences. Some houses outside the walls of the Residency were left solely because time had not remained to level them, as had been intended. The omission to destroy them was at a later period much regretted, for they were used by the rebels as shelter houses whence to watch the movements of the garrison and to keep up a heavy fire on the defences.

and the Machchi Bhawan

Nor was the Machchi Bhawan neglected. Sir Henry Lawrence had originally resolved to hold this post in conjunction with the Residency, only to concentrate on the latter when threatened in overwhelming force. With this view he had strengthened it and made it habitable for Europeans. He then stored it with food and ammunition.

June 13

On the 13th of June, Sir Henry Lawrence was able to write to Lord Canning in the words quoted: “We hold our ground in cantonment, and daily strengthen both our town positions, bearing in mind that the Residency is to be the final point of concentration.” Sir Henry continued to strengthen the Machchi Bhawan till the very last, believing that the preparations made would be greatly noised abroad, and would affect the moral of the enemy.

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Sir Henry’s anxiety about Kanhpur

A terrible anxiety which preyed upon Sir Henry Lawrence about this time, was caused by his inability to assist Sir Hugh Wheeler, then beleaguered at Kanhpur. The scission of communication with that station on the 6th of June had made it clear that the native troops there had mutinied. That they had gone further, and, under the leadership of Nana Sahib, had besieged the British general in his barracks, shortly afterwards became known. Then there came from General Wheeler earnest appeals for help. Mr. Gubbins, generous, sympathetic, strong-willed, and eager, urged Lawrence to comply with these appeals. But compliance was, in point of fact, simply impossible. How it was so cannot more fitly be expressed than in Sir Henry’s own words.

His reasons for not moving to its aid

Writing to Sir Hugh Wheeler on the 16th of June, the Chief Commissioner said: “I am very sorry indeed to hear of your condition, and grieve that I cannot help you. I have consulted with the chief officers about me, and, except Gubbins, they are unanimous in thinking that, with the enemy’s command of the river, we could not possibly get a single man into your intrenchment. I need not say that I deeply lament being obliged to concur in this opinion, for our own safety is as nearly concerned as yours. We are strong in our intrenchments; but, by attempting the passage of the river, should be sacrificing a large detachment without a prospect of helping you. Pray do not think me selfish. I would run much risk could I see a commensurate prospect of success. In the present scheme I see none.” A week later he wrote to Lord Canning: “It is deep grief to me to be unable to help Kanhpur; I would run much risk for Wheeler’s sake, but an attempt, with our means, would only ruin ourselves without helping Kanhpur.”

Soundness of those reasons

No military critic will question the soundness of these views. To cross the Ganges, even with the entire force at the disposal of Sir Henry Lawrence, in the face of the army serving under Nana Sahib, would have been impossible.

A few days later a letter reached Sir Henry with the information that Wheeler had agreed to treat with Nana Sahib. He then knew that all was over. His forebodings were confirmed by the receipt of details of the massacre on the 28th of June.

“If Kanhpur holds out, I doubt if we shall be besieged at all.” Thus had Sir Henry Lawrence written to Lord

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Canning on the 23rd of June.

Learns the fate of the Kanhpur garrison

But five days later he learned that Kanhpur had fallen. Prior to that date, and with more certainty every day, had come the intelligence that the mutinous troops of the Oudh Irregular force– the troops who had revolted in the provinces – were gradually collecting at a place called Nawabganj Bara Banki, only seventeen miles from Lakhnao. The subsequent movement of these troops, whose numbers were not inconsiderable, obviously depended on the result of the leaguer of Kanhpur. It was known on the 28th that the enemy that place had fallen.

Hears that they are moving on Chinhat

The following morning the advanced guard of the enemy’s force marched on Chinhat, a village on the Faizabad road, within eight miles of the Residency.

His reasons for determining to strike a blow

This gave Sir Henry an opportunity for which he had been longing. With the foresight of a real general opposed to Asiatics, he felt that for him to await an attack would be to invite a general insurrection, whereas, an effective blow dealt at the advanced troops of the rebels would paralyse their movements, and spread doubt and hesitation amongst them. He hoped and believed, in fact, that it might not be impossible to reply to Kanhpur by Chinhat. To say that because he did not succeed his plan was bad and impolitic is not a logical argument. His plan was justified alike by military science and by political considerations.

Those reasons sound

Whilst he fought a battle in which victory would have been decisive, he lost little by defeat. He did not, in a word, risk his general plan, nor was he, in a military sense, in a worse position after his defeat than that which he had occupied before he went out to fight. In some respects, indeed, his general position became more assured, because more clearly defined.

Concentrates his forces

Sir Henry’s first step was to withdraw the troops from the cantonments and to bring them within the Residency. He then ordered that a force composed of three hundred men of the 32nd Regiment; two hundred and thirty men of the regular native infantry; the small troop of volunteer cavalry, thirty-six strong; a hundred and twenty troopers of the Oudh Irregulars; ten guns and an 8-inch. howitzer, should assemble at the iron bridge at daylight the following morning to march thence at once in the direction of Chinhat. It deserves here to be remarked that of the ten guns

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six were manned by natives and four only by Europeans. The howitzer was on a limber drawn by an elephant driven by a native.

Marches on Chinhat

The force had been ordered to march at dawn, but the necessary arrangements caused unavoidable delay, and the sun was already high – it was past 6 o’clock – when it moved from the iron bridge across the Gumti in the direction of Chinhat After marching three miles along the metalled road it reached the bridge spanning the rivulet Kukrail. Here a halt was ordered whilst Sir Henry with his staff and a few cavalry rode in front to reconnoitre. Unable, from the summit of a rising ground under some trees, to see anything in the shape of an enemy, he then and there decided to return to Lakhnao, and sent the Assistant Adjutant-General to counter-march the force. That officer had delivered his message, and the troops had begun their return journey, when suddenly fresh instructions arrived for the force to advance towards Chinhat. The men then marched, in regular order, covered by cavalry, and with videttes thrown out, along “a newly raised embankment, constructed of loose and sandy soil, in which every now and then gaps occurred, indicating the positions of future bridges149.” Following the cavalry, there came, first, the 8-inch howitzer, then the four guns manned by Europeans, then the four manned by natives. A hundred and fifty men of the 13th Native Infantry came next, followed by two guns manned by natives, then by three hundred men of the 32nd Foot, then by the remaining native troops, eighty in number.

Descries the enemy

Marching in this order for about a mile and a half, the troops descried the enemy drawn up at a distance of about twelve hundred yards, their right covered by a small hamlet, their left by a village and a lake, their centre resting on the road. Simultaneously the enemy saw them and at once opened a heavy round-shot fire.

Battle of Chinhat

Sir Henry immediately halted his column and deployed the infantry into line. Then placing his European guns in position, and ordering the infantry to lie down,

he returned the enemy’s fire. A continuous cannonade from both sides was now kept up. Then, after something of a lull, which induced many officers to believe that the

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British were getting the best of the day, the enemy suddenly divided, and menaced both flanks in considerable force. The movement against the British left was made not only in overwhelming numbers, but from the cover of the village of Ishmailganj – a village which ran parallel to that part of our line occupied by the 32nd.

The enemy gain our left flank

The fire from this village caught that regiment in flank, and in a very few minutes nearly half of its number present, with a large proportion of officers, including the commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Case, were lying dead or disabled on the ground. Meanwhile every effort had been made to bring the native artillery into action, but with very indifferent success. The fact was that native artillerymen were traitors; they had upset in the ditch two of the guns and cut the traces by which some of the others were attached.

The British retreat

Elated with the success achieved against the 32nd, the enemy pressed on with so much vigour that it became evident that, if any of the force were to be saved, the retreat must be sounded. A retreat was then commenced, the 32nd necessarily, from the position they had occupied near the road, leading; the native infantry protecting the rear. The retreat once begun, the enemy galloped their guns on either flank of our force, and continued to pound it with grape all the way to the Kukrail bridge. So heavily was the column pressed, that few of those who were hit were saved, a fact borne out by the extraordinary proportion of killed to wounded150 – in the 32nd alone one hundred and fifteen to thirty-nine. As the retiring force approached the bridge over the Kukrail a large body of the rebel cavalry was descried immediately in their line of retreat. They were in considerable force.

Gallantry of Captain Radcliffe and his companions

But on our side there was no hesitation. Captain Radcliffe’s trumpet sounded the charge, and instantly our thirty-six horsemen dashed at the enemy. A more gallant charge was never made. It appalled the rebels. They did not wait for it, but turned and fled. The line of retreat was secured.

The danger, however, was not over. The enemy’s infantry

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was pressing on. All our gun-ammunition was exhausted. In this dilemma Sir Henry showed a nerve and decision not to be surpassed.

The pursuit is checked at Kukrail

He placed the guns on the bridge and ordered the port-fires to be lighted. The feint had all the hoped-for effect. The enemy shrunk back from a bridge ; apparently defended by loaded guns. They at once relaxed their pursuit, and the little army succeeded in gaining the shelter of the city and in retiring in some sort of order on the Machchi Bhawan and the Residency. Their losses, however, had been most severe, and they had left the howitzer and two field-pieces behind them151.

Immediately after crossing the Bukrail bridge Sir Henry Lawrence made over the command to Colonel Inglis, and, followed by his staff officer, Captain Wilson, and by his secretary, Mr. Couper, – who, acting throughout the day as his aide-de-camp, had displayed equal coolness and courage –galloped, unattended by any escort, through the city to the Residency.

again at the Gumti

Arriving there, Sir Henry ordered out fifty men of the 32nd, under an officer, Lieutenant Edmonstone, to the iron bridge over the Gumti, with a view to their being posted in the two houses on either side of the bridge, to defend it. Towards this bridge the elated enemy surged in crowds, but they never forced it. The fifty Englishmen, covered by a fire from two 18-pounders in the Redan battery, held it successfully, though not without loss, till noon. The enemy then desisted, and crossed the river by another bridge. Our men were then finally withdrawn. This defence was a very gallant affair.

Advantages derived by the loss of the battle

That the loss of the battle of Chinhat should precipitate the crisis was certain. But the crisis would have equally come had there been no battle. And the battle, unfortunate in its immediate results though it proved to be, had at least this advantage, – it removed from Sir Henry’s mind any doubt he might have had as to his ability to hold two positions. Brigadier Inglis states, in his dispatch, that, had both posts been held, both must have

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fallen; and he ascribes the concentration of the troops in the better position of the two to Chinhat.

Calmness in combat of Sir Henry

Of the behaviour of Sir Henry Lawrence on that day but one opinion has been recorded. That opinion is ably summarised in the record of a gallant soldier, the Assistant Adjutant-General throughout the siege.. “Throughout that terrible day, during the conflict,” records Captain Wilson, “and when all was lost, and retreat became all but a rout, and men were falling fast, he displayed the utmost calmness and decision; and as, with hat in hand, he sat on his horse on the Kukrail bridge, rallying our men for a last stand, himself a distinct mark for the enemy’s skirmishers, he seemed to bear a charmed life.”

The first consequence of the defeat was the occupation of the city by the rebels and the uprising of the discontented spirits within it. That very afternoon they began to loop-hole many of the houses in the vicinity of and commanding the Machchi Bhawan and the Residency.

Anderson’s post is attacked

They even succeeded in bringing a six-pounder to bear on the outer verandah of the post afterwards known as Anderson’s post. Subsequently, about half-past one, they brought another gun into position, and soon demolished the outer defences, including a loop-holed mud parapet but recently erected. The post, however, was so important, that orders were sent to its garrison to hold it to the last extremity. Shortly afterwards a circumstance happened, the precursor of many deeds of gallantry on the part of the defenders of Lakhnao.

Mr. Capper is buried in the ruins of the verandah

The house which was thus being defended was the residence of Mr. Capper, C.S. Mr. Capper had volunteered to aid in its defence, and was standing for that purpose under the verandah, behind one of the pillars, when the enemy’s fire brought down the verandah, and buried him under six feet of wood and masonry. Captain Anderson, 25th Native Infantry, though not the senior officer present, at once called upon the garrison to assist in rescuing the buried gentleman. The work was one of no ordinary danger, for there was no protection against the concentrated fire of the enemy, and one at least of those present expressed the opinion that the act would be useless, as Mr. Capper would probably be dead. Anderson was not discouraged by these doubts. Announcing his intention to rescue Capper at all risks,

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he called on those around to aid him, and set to work with a will.

Anderson gallantly sets to work to extricate him

He was speedily joined by Corporal Oxenham, 32nd Foot, Monsieur Geoffroi, a Frenchman, Signor Barsotelli, an Italian, and two Englishmen, Lincoln and Chick, from the Post Office garrison. The enemy’s round shot continued to pour over the place where Capper lay, and, to be able to work, the six men I have mentioned were forced to lie on their stomachs, and grub away in that position.

and succeeds

At length they succeeded in extricating Capper’s body, but his legs still remained buried. The situation for him was now replete with danger, for to stand up was almost certain death. In this dilemma, Oxenham, obeying a signal from Anderson, who was supporting the head, dashed round to the other side, and extricated by a supreme effort the buried legs. This done, Capper was hauled in by the other five men, and was saved152.

The Machchi Bhawan is abandoned

The following morning the enemy opened a heavy musketry fire upon the Machchi Bhawan and the Residency. Sir Henry had foreseen this action and had prepared for it. Resolved to concentrate all his defensive efforts on the Residency, he signalled the following night to the garrison of the Machchi Bhawan to evacuate and blow up that fortress. These orders were admirably carried out by Captain Francis, 13th Native Infantry, then commanding at that post. A quarter of an hour past midnight the

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garrison of the Machchi Bhawan entered the Residency with their guns and treasure without the loss of a man. Shortly afterwards the explosion of two hundred and forty barrels of gunpowder and of five hundred and ninety-four thousand rounds of ball and gun ammunition announced the complete destruction of that post.

The time for the evacuation fortunately chosen

A singularly good fortune attended the time chosen for this operation. The enemy had determined, before they commenced in earnest to besiege the Residency, to devote a preliminary night to the plunder of the shops of the town. They were engaged in this congenial work when the explosion of the Machchi Bhawan signified to them that they had missed a great chance.

The garrison

The garrison, consisting, including civilians, of nine hundred and twenty-seven Europeans153 and seven hundred and sixty-five natives, was now concentrated in the Residency. To all appearances the situation was desperate.

The weakness of the defences

Not only were the fortifications incomplete, but the enemy had at once occupied and loop-holed the houses which had been left standing outside and close to those fortifications. The west and south faces of the enclosure were practically undefended, the bastion which had been commenced at the angle of the two faces having been left unfinished. Looking at the weakness of his resources and the immense superiority in numbers of the besiegers, Si Henry may be held excused if, at the first moment, he scarcely expected to hold out, without relief, for more than ten or fifteen days154.

The mode in which they might have been forced

And, if the rebels had possessed as leader a real soldier, the advantage of their position was so marked, their superiority in point of numbers so overwhelming that the earlier forebodings of Sir Henry possibly have been realised. A general who would have freely sacrificed his men, and whose men would not have flinched from his summons, might well have taken advantage of the disaster of Chinhat. The Residency was not, in a military

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sense, defensible, and must have succumbed to the determined onslaught of determined men, vastly superior in numbers to the garrison.

Comparison between the English and Asiatic soldier

But it is a remarkable fact that the mutiny produced amongst the mutineers no real general – not one man who understood the importance of time, of opportunity, of dash, in war. It is, too, worthy to be noted that, whilst no men in the world have a greater contempt of death than the natives of India, they yet always have shrunk from a hand-to-hand encounter with Europeans. Still less have they cared to assault a fortified position defended by Europeans. If carelessness of life be courage, no people in the world are braver than the natives of India. But the courage which is required to make a man a real soldier is something more than mere carelessness of life. Such a man must be anxious to affront death, to court it. He must be indifferent to pain; must be capable of enjoying the delirium of battle; must be animated by a love of glory, and above all by a confidence in his superiority to his enemy. None of these qualities are possessed by the native soldier to the same extent as by our own countrymen; whilst, with respect to the last, it is conspicuous by its absence. Perhaps it is mainly because the native soldier opposed to the British soldier, far from feeling the confidence I have referred to, is imbued with the conviction of the enormous superiority of his enemy, that his moral nature is cowed, and he cannot fight him as he can and does fight a fellow Asiatic.

Effect of the superior moral of the English

Certainly in the case of Lakhnao this moral power was a strong factor on the side of the British. There they were, few in numbers, occupying a position, not, in a military sense, defensible; two sides of it, indeed, practically undefended. To attack them came an army enormously superior in numbers, flushed with victory, and occupying positions which commanded a great portion of the defences. To all appearance the victory of the attacking party was assured. It was not gained, simply because the inferior moral nature of the Asiatic, shrinking involuntarily from actual contact with the European behind defences, neutralised the superiority of numbers.

What was the position? Let the reader imagine a number of houses, built for ordinary domestic purposes, originally separated from each other by small plots of ground, but now

Plan of the intrenched position covering the Lakhnao Residency

Compiled from the Survey made by Lieutenant W. Moorsom, H.M. 52 Lt Inf. 1857.

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joined together by mud walls and trenches – the mud walls for defence from outer attack, the trenches for protection against the enemy’s shells!

The Residency enclosure. What was it?

Such, in a few words, was the enclosure known to the world, from the principal building within it, as the Residency. It is true that the walls of the houses were thick, that the bricks were of that small class peculiar to India during the last century, and that they were cemented by well-tempered mortar. But even the strongest houses constitute but a poor military position, especially when those houses are, to a great extent, commanded from higher buildings outside. This position, moreover was blockaded and attacked by the enemy before, as I have said, a single part of it had been made really defensible. As the blockade progressed, and whilst the enemy were erecting batteries, mounting guns, throwing up barricades, and loop-holing the empty houses outside of, but close to, the enclosure, the garrison had time, notwithstanding the fierce and continuous fire maintained upon them, to repair, and in some cases even to strengthen, their defences. These defences were naturally rough, run up under enormous difficulties, and never in their most finished state deserving the name of regular fortifications. The houses of the several occupants, and the batteries erected along the line of intrenchments came to be regarded as posts, and each of these posts was commanded by an officer. What these posts and who these officers were will be related in due course. At present, I have to describe the earliest and most regrettable incident of the siege.

Proceedings of the enemy after Chinhat

Since the retirement of our force within its lines of defence the fire of the enemy upon it had been continuous. Night and day, from the tops of surrounding houses, from loop-holed buildings, from every point where cover was available, they had poured in a perpetual fire of round shot, of musketry, and of matchlock balls. Many of the garrison who were in places considered before the siege perfectly safe were hit. But no place was so exposed as the Residency itself, and on it a well-directed fire was constantly maintained. Moreover, the enemy had recourse to digging deep approaches to their batteries and guns, and these effectually concealed them from our sharp-shooters.

But, long before the cautious system of attack thus described had attained its full development, the garrison sustained an irreparable loss.

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A shell penetrates Sir Henry Lawrence’s room

Sir Henry Lawrence occupied in the Residency a room convenient for the purpose of observing the enemy, but much exposed to their fire. There, the day after the defeat at Chinhat, he was seated conversing with his secretary, Mr. Couper. Suddenly an 8-inch shell, fired from the very howitzer we had lost at Chinhat, fell into the room, close to them. It burst, however, without injury to either. The whole of the staff then implored Sir Henry to remove to a less exposed position. But this he declined to do, remarking with a smile that another shell would never be pitched into the same room. Later in the day, when it was evident that the enemy’s round-shot were being directed at the Residency and were striking the upper storey, Captain Wilson and Mr. Couper again pressed Sir Henry to go below and to allow his things to be moved. He promised to comply on the morrow. The following morning he went out to post and arrange the force which had come in from the Machchi Bhawan and to place the field-pieces in position. He returned tired and exhausted about 8 o’clock. He lay down on his bed, and transacted business with the Assistant Adjutant-General, Captain Wilson.

A second strikes and kills him

He was engaged in this work when suddenly a howitzer shell entered the room, and, bursting, wounded him mortally. He lingered in extreme agony till the morning of the 4th, when he died.

Captain Wilson’s account of the event

Captain Wilson’s account of the event is as follows:–

“During the first day the enemy threw an 8-inch shell from the howitzer they had captured from us into the room in which Sir Henry and Mr. Couper were. It burst close to both, but without injury to either, and curiously enough did little damage. We now urged Sir Henry to leave the Residency and go elsewhere, or at least go down below into the lower storey. This, however, he then declined to do, as he laughingly said he did not believe the enemy had an artilleryman good enough to put another shell into that small room. Later in the day some round-shot came into the top storey of the Residency; and in the evening Mr. Couper and I both pressed him to go below, and allow his writing things and papers to be moved; and he promised that he would the next day.” ... “Towards 8 a.m.” (on the 2nd) “he returned, greatly exhausted (the heat was dreadful), and lay down on the bed with his clothes on, and desired me to

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draw up a memorandum as to how the rations were to be distributed. I went into the next room to write it, but, previous to doing so, I reminded him of his promise to go below. He said he was very tired, and would rest a couple of hours, and that then he would have his things moved. In about half-an-hour I went back into the room with what I had written. His nephew, Mr. George Lawrence, was then lying on a small bed parallel to his uncle’s, with a very few feet between them. I went between the beds, and stood on the right-hand side of Sir Henry’s, with one knee resting on it. A native servant was sitting on the floor pulling the punkah. I read what I had written. It was not quite in accordance with his wishes, and he was in the act of explaining what he desired altered, when the fatal shot came; a sheet of flame, a terrific report and shock, and dense darkness, is all I can describe. I fell on the floor, and, perhaps for a few seconds, was quite stunned. I then got up, but could see nothing for the smoke and dust. Neither Sir Henry nor his nephew made any noise, and, in alarm, I cried out, ‘Sir Henry, are you hurt?’ Twice I thus called out without any answer. The third time he said, in a low tone, ‘I am killed.’ The punkah had come down with the ceiling, and a great deal of the plaster, and the dust and smoke were so great that it was some minutes before I could see anything; but as they gradually cleared away I saw the white coverlet of the bed on which Sir Henry was laid was crimson with his blood. Some soldiers of the 32nd now rushed in and placed Sir Henry in a chair. I then found that the back of my shirt was all blown off (I had on only a shirt and trowsers), that I was slightly wounded by a fragment of the shell, that our chief was mortally wounded; and that the servant pulling the punkah had had one of his feet cut off by another fragment of the shell. Mr. George Lawrence was alone of the four in the room unhurt.”

Character of Sir Henry Lawrence

Sir Henry Lawrence was one of those rare characters which it is difficult to over-praise. The adjective “noble” expresses most nearly what he was. His thoughts and his deeds were alike noble. In one of the Lawrence. eloquent and effective speeches which he who was then Mr. Disraeli delivered when in the cold shade of opposition “justice” was most felicitously described as being “truth in action.” The life of Sir Henry Lawrence was a witness to the soundness of this aphorism. The nobleness of his nature,

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the honesty of his mind, his unqualified love of justice, displayed themselves in his every act.

His noble nature

He was just to others because he was true to himself. Than his, it is difficult to imagine a purer, a more unselfish, a more blameless, and at the same time a more useful life. He, at least, did not live in vain. Great as were his services to his country, those he rendered to mankind were still greater. The establishment of the Lawrence Asylum – an institution which provides, in the healthy mountainous ranges of India, food, lodging, and instruction for the children of our European soldiers, was not the least important of those services. To it Sir Henry gave his time, his savings, the energies he could spare from his duties. He inoculated his friends and the Government of India with his ardour. For more than forty years that institution has borne testimony to the practical nobility of the spirit which founded it.

His human passions

It must not be imagined that because he possessed great virtues Sir Henry Lawrence was fashioned after the manner of the monks of the middle ages. There could not be a greater mistake. He was essentially human, with strong human passions. His passions, indeed, had been brought gradually and by long training very much under control155. Yet, even when they burst the bonds, there was something noble about them too. He never concealed the annoyance which had been caused him from having been “cavalierly elbowed out of the Panjab.” He felt that he had been wronged, that injustice had been done him, that advantage had been taken of his generosity, and he showed that he felt it. This wrong, he admitted, had caused him to fret even to the injury of his health. Yet how hearty was his forgiveness of those who had so wrung him when the stain on his reputation, as he regarded it, was removed by Lord Canning. “I can now,” he writes, “more freely than ever forgive Lord Dalhousie.”

Faculty of gaining respect and affection

In his personal dealings with other men, the nobleness of his nature is reflected by the love, the respect, the affection he drew towards himself. “Few men,” wrote Brigadier Inglis, when commenting on his death, “few men have ever possessed to the

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same extent the power which he enjoyed of winning the hearts of all those with whom he came in contact, and thus ensuring the warmest and most zealous devotion for himself and for the Government which he served.” The deep affection with which he was regarded when living survives to the present day. Of no man is the recollection more warmly cherished. Nor is this to be wondered at, for no man ever excited so much enthusiasm in others. When he arrived at a decision, those to whom he communicated it felt that the subject had been thoroughly considered in all its bearings, and that the order was final. His elevation excited no envy. His nature and his policy alike incited him to trust. He believed in the honour, the right feeling, the public spirit of those with whom he was brought in contact until they actually showed themselves unworthy of his confidence.

Trust reposed in him by the natives

He gained, to a greater extent than any Englishman of the present century, the trust of the natives. He gained this trust by his absolute frankness. Far from flattering them, far from simulating a regard which he did not feel, his frankness was carried to the extremest limit. But they believed in him, they knew that he was sincere. They had a saying that “when Sir Henry looked twice up to heaven and once down to earth, and then stroked his beard, he knew what to do.” He devoted all his energies to the country he served so well. In a word, he was a striking type of that class, not a rare one, of the public servants of England in India, who give themselves without reserve to their country. That Sir Henry Lawrence felt to the last the inner conviction that he had so given himself wholly and without stint, is evidenced by the expression of his dying wish that, if any epitaph were placed on his tomb, it should be simply this: “Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty.”

Credit due to Sir Henry for the ability to defend the Residency with success

The credit of the successful defence of the Residency at Lakhnao is due, in the first place, to Sir Henry Lawrence. He alone made it possible to successfully defend it. Three weeks before any one else dreamed of the chance even of a siege he began to lay in supplies. He did more. To ensure the prompt provisionment of the place, paid for the supplies so stored considerably in excess of their market value. It is a fact, not perhaps generally known, that he did this in spite of the written protests of men so highly placed that they might almost be called his colleagues.

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He caused to be brought into the Residency the treasure from the city, and, whenever feasible, from out-stations. The treasure, so collected, amounted to a very large sum. To obviate the necessity of placing a guard over it, he buried it, and made it the site of a battery in the Residency enclosure. He collected there the guns, the mortars, the shot and shell, the small arms, the ammunition, and the grain. A great portion of the latter he caused to be stored underground. He strengthened the fortifications, formed outworks, cleared away the obstructions close up to the Residency. He did all this before the siege commenced. And it was owing to his care, his energy, his determination in respect of these things, that the gallant men who survived him were able to offer to the foe a successful resistance.

Lakhnao the Plevna of India

The value of that successful resistance to the general interests of England in India has never publicly been sufficiently appreciated. It appears to me this is the proper place, dealing as I am with the character of the man who made that successful resistance possible, to estimate it. An event which occurred nearer to us in the autumn and winter of 1878 will bring more vividly before the reader than any description the value of the successful defence of Lakhnao. I allude to the defence of Plevna by the Turks. That splendid feat of arms neutralised for four months two Russian armies, and gave time to Turkey to organise whatever means she might have to prolong the contest. Now the Lakhnao Residency was the Plevna of India. It is not too much to assert that the siege of the Residency kept in Oudh for five months immense masses of the regular army156, troops who but for that defence would have been employed either in overrunning the North-West or in reinforcing the garrison of Dehli. It was the splendid defence of the Residency that kept those troops from harming us, that gave time to England to send out reinforcements. That defence was, in a word, necessary to the maintenance of the hold of England on India. That that hold was preserved sums up, briefly, the amount of one portion of the debt incurred by England to Sir Henry Lawrence.

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Major Banks succeeds him

Sir Henry died, I have said, on the 4th of July. In consequence of his death-bed instructions Major Banks assumed the chief civil authority, whilst the command of the troops devolved upon Brigadier Inglis.

The “posts” of the Residency

The ground on which were built the detached houses now about to be attacked was an elevated plateau, the surface of which was rough and uneven. The defences traced around it had the form of an irregular pentagon. A glance at the accompanying plan will show that regarding the point indicated as “Innes’s house” as the northernmost point, its eastern face ran irregularly parallel with the river Gumti as far as the Baillie Guard. The line from that point to “Anderson’s garrison” constituted the south-eastern, and from Anderson’s garrison to “Gubbins’s battery” the south-western face. The western face comprehended the line between Gubbins’s battery and Innes’s garrison.

Innes’s garrison occupied a long, commodious lower-roomed house, containing several rooms, two good verandahs, and having a flat roof. It was commanded by Lieutenant Loughnan of the 13th Native Infantry, a most gallant officer.

Overlooking this post on the eastern face was the Redan battery, at the apex of the projecting point of high level ground. This battery was armed with two 18-pounders and a 9-pounder. It was commanded by Lieutenant Samuel Lawrence of the 32nd Foot.

The line of intrenchments between the Water Gate and the Banqueting hall, transformed into a hospital, was commanded by Lieutenant Langmore of the 71st Native Infantry. It was entirely without shelter.

Passing over the Residency and the Banqueting hall, we come to the Treasury buildings situated below and to the eastward of the latter, known under the name of the Baillie Guard. This was armed with two 9-pounders and an 8-inch howitzer, commanded by Lieutenant Aitken, 13th Native Infantry. Following the outer tracing we come to Fayrer’s house with one 9-pounder, commanded by Captain Gould Weston, late Superintendent of the Military Police; to the Financial garrison post commanded by Captain Sanders, 13th Native Infantry; and to Sago’s house commanded by Captain T. T. Boileau, 7th Cavalry. The two last-named buildings were commanded by the Post Office armed with two 18-pounders and a 9-pounder, and whose garrison was under the orders of Lieutenant Graydon.

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Following the line of outer works we arrive at the Judicial post, an extensive upper-roomed house, commanded by Captain Germon, 13th Native Infantry. Next to that, and forming the south-eastern angle of the position, was Anderson’s post, – a two-storied house surrounded by a wall, with two good verandahs, and intrenched and loop-holed. No battery was attached to this post. It was commanded by Captain R. P. Anderson, 25th Native Infantry, the officer whose gallant rescue of Mr. Capper has been recorded in a preceding page.

The Kanhpur battery, constructed of earth and palisades, was the next post. This was armed with an 8-pounder and two 9-pounders. This was the only post the commandant of which was constantly changed. The reason was that it was so entirely commanded by the enemy’s works, that when they concentrated a heavy fire upon it no man could live in it. But neither could the enemy occupy it, for it was entirely commanded by the house behind it. It thus remained to the end a part of our defences. The Thag gaol, occupied by the boys of the Martinière College, and commanded by their principal, Mr. Schilling; the Brigade Mess, a high and convenient building, commanded by Colonel Master, 7th Light Cavalry; and the Sikh squares; led to Gubbins’s post, armed with two 9-pounders and an 18-pounder, and commanded by Major Apthorp, 41st Native Infantry. Between this post and the Church garrison were the Bhusa intrenchments and sheep pens, slenderly manned by the officers and soldiers of the Commissariat Department. The Church garrison consisted of about a dozen Europeans. The church was stored with grain. This leads us back to Innes’s house, whence we started.

Of the garrisons within the lines of defence may be mentioned Ommaney’s post, connected by a lane with Gubbins’s post and supported by the residents of the Begam Kothi, few in number and principally on the staff.

Difficulties in the way of the defence

It cannot be too often repeated that on the morrow of Chinhat this plateau was, in a military sense, indefensible. In many places barricades of earth constituted the only defence against the enemy. Nor was it easy to repair the want. “It is difficult,” wrote a staff officer, “to chronicle the confusion of those few days, for everywhere confusion reigned supreme.” The same authority gives, a little further on, example of this confusion. After mentioning the severe wound received by the commissariat officer,

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Lieutenant James, at Chinhat, and the consequent disorder in that department, he paints in graphic terms how the bullocks, deserted by their attendants and wandering about in search of water, fell into wells; how fatigue parties of civilians and officers, after having been engaged many hours in repelling the enemy’s attacks, had to spend six or seven more in burying the dead cattle; how the horses of the troopers of the 7th Cavalry who had deserted, maddened for want of water, broke loose and fought with each other, unheeded by the over-worked garrison.

Why the enemy took no advantage of those difficulties

The rebels were not ignorant of the confusion that reigned behind those weak ramparts. Why did they not take advantage of it? They had guns, they had position, they had overwhelming numbers. One determined rush, or an unceasing succession of determined rushes,. and, though their losses would have been enormous, the position must have been carried. The reader will have already answered the question. They did not attempt those rushes because they were entirely Asiatics and the defenders were mainly Europeans!

The defence – as described by Brigadier Inglis

The course which they pursued, and the means adopted by the garrison to baffle that course, have been described in immortal language by the Brigadier who commanded the defence157. It would be difficult to add to the grandeur of that simple and expressive story. Regarded from a literary point of view, it is a model of despatch-writing. But it is far more than that. Its greater merit lies in the fact that it records with unsurpassed modesty, untinged by a shadow of self-laudation, a long deed of heroism, unsurpassed and unsurpassable, to be spoken of with reverence so long as the pulse of the English heart beats high in appreciation of what is brave, of what is manly, of what is noble.

Tactics of the mutineers

Far from taking of their victory at Chinhat that prompt advantage at which a capable English general would have clutched, the rebel-leaders, for nearly three weeks, did everything but assault those slight defences. They occupied in force the houses which commanded them; they erected batteries; they placed guns in position; they dug trenches to protect their men from our shells; and for the entire period I have mentioned, that is from

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the 1st to the 20th of July, they kept up a terrific and incessant fire day and night, not less than eight thousand men, and probably a larger number, firing at one time into the defenders’ position. Their fire was very effective. The mosques, the houses which from want of time to destroy them had been allowed to stand, the not very remote palaces, afforded them commanding positions. Their shells penetrated into places before considered absolutely secure.

Casualties in the early part of the siege

Many of the garrison succumbed to this incessant rain of projectiles. Mrs. Dorin was killed in an inner room of Mr. Gubbins’s house; Mr. Ommaney, of the Civil Service, was mortally wounded on the 4th of July; Major Francis, of the 13th Native Infantry, a very gallant officer, on the 7th; Mr. Polehampton, the chaplain, the same day, severely. Before the 20th of July dawned, the list of casualties had been increased by Mr. Bryson, at one time Sergeant-Major, 16th Lancers, shot through his head on the 9th; by Lieutenant Dashwood, 48th Native Infantry, who succumbed the same day to cholera; by Lieutenant Charlton, 32nd Foot, shot through the head on the 13th; by Lieutenant Lester, mortally wounded on the 14th; by Lieutenants Bryce and O’Brien, wounded on the 16th; by Lieutenant Harmer wounded, and Lieutenant Arthur killed, on the 19th. That day also, Mr. Polehampton, wounded on the 7th, died of cholera. In addition to these officers, many privates, Europeans and natives, succumbed. A few of the latter deserted to the enemy.

Further effect of the enemy’s fire

Upon the improvised defences the effect of the enemy’s fire was even greater. Thus on the 15th Anderson’s house was entirely destroyed by round-shot, though the post was still nobly held by the garrison; on the 18th, many round-shots were fired into the Post Office, Fayrer’s house, Gubbins’s, and the Brigade Mess-house. At one time the rebels succeeded in setting the Residency on fire by firing carcasses into it. At another they threatened an assault on Gubbins’s post. In fact they had recourse to every possible expedient excepting one, and when they did attempt that one it was met gloriously and successfully.

Proceedings of the garrison

The garrison during these three weeks had their work cut out for them. The order, so conspicuous by its absence in the first hours of the siege, was gradually restored. By the 10th arrangements had been made for securing and feeding the bullocks, whilst the surviving horses, after scores had been shot down, had been

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got rid of by turning them loose over the intrenchment in the dark of the night. A strong element of disorder was thus removed. A large number of these animals, however, had previously perished, and the interring of them was no slight addition to other labours158.

Difficulties they had to contend with

The heat during this time was excessive. Cholera was busy. The stench from putrid animals was most offensive. Few officers had a servant. Whilst the days were consumed in fighting, the nights were passed in. developing means for the continuance of the struggle. Then, stores had to be dug out and carried, guns to be shifted, trenches to be dug, shafts for mines sunk, the dead buried, and the thousand-and-one necessities devolving upon men so situated attended to. Still the garrison showed no signs of faltering. The necessity for having the mind constantly on the stretch, however, whilst, perhaps, it added to the bodily capacity to bear fatigue, told in the long run upon many.

The first sortie

On the 7th of July a sortie was made. The party consisted of fifty men of the 32nd and twenty Sikhs. The object was to examine Johannes’ house, a building outside, and close to the line of defence, near the Brigade mess, as it was believed that the enemy were mining. The sortie was successful. The rebels were driven out of the house, and fifteen or twenty of their number were killed. On our side three men were wounded.

Daring of Lieutenant Sam. Lawrence

I cannot quit the account of this sortie without making special reference to the gallantry of the officer who led it, Lieutenant Sam. Lawrence, of the 32nd Foot. The cool daring he displayed obtained for Lieutenant Lawrence the Victoria Cross159.

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For some time subsequently the garrison confined themselves strictly to defence. But on the 20th the rebels changed their tactics. They determined then to try the rush which they should in the first instance have attempted.

July 20

At midnight, on the 20th of July, the enemy’s fire almost ceased, nor was heavy firing resumed in the early morning. About half-past 8 o’clock, however, a considerable movement on their part was noticed. The observation of this movement and surmises as to its immediate aim kept the garrison well on the alert.

The first assault

A little after 10 o’clock the rebels sprang a mine inside the water-gate, about twenty-five yards from the inner defences, and close to the Redan. Immediately after the explosion they opened a very heavy fire on the defences near which the mine had been sprung. Under cover of this fire, as soon as the smoke and dust had cleared away, they advanced in heavy masses against the Redan The garrison, however, received them with so heavy a fire that they reeled back sorely smitten; nor, although they made a second attempt, and penetrated to within a very few yards of the English battery, were they able to effect a lodgment. Again they fell back, baffled.

Gallantry of young Loughnan

Simultaneously a heavy column advanced against Innes’s house. The garrison here consisted only of twelve men of the 32nd Foot; twelve of the 13th Native Infantry; and a few non-military servants of Government; – the whole commanded by Ensign Loughnan, 13th Native Infantry. Against this handful of men the rebels pressed in large numbers, and made their way to within ten yards of the palisades. A rolling fire sent them back. They came, however, again, – and again; – and again; – but always with the same result. Loughnan, who commanded the post, young in years, but cool, wary, and resolute, covered himself with glory. By the qualities indicated by those adjectives, he

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forced the rebels to desist from their attempts to storm the post, and to content themselves with a heavy musketry fire from a safer distance.

The attack repulsed at all points

But the enemy’s attack was by no means confined to the two points I have noted. They made, likewise, a desperate and very determined attempt on the Kanhpur battery, their standard-bearer, who led them on, jumping into the battery-ditch. But a well-directed bullet having stopped his further progress they became disheartened and fell back. Very soon afterwards another detachment at advanced with scaling ladders against Anderson’s and Germon’s posts. But their reception at both was so warm that they retreated, not to renew the attack.

It was now 2 o’clock. For two hours longer the rebels still continued to pour in a heavy fire. They even attempted to effect a lodgment in one of the brick-built cook houses close to the outer defences. But the real attack was over. Made in great force and with considerable resolution, it had been defeated by the British with the loss of but four killed and twelve wounded. By sharp experience the garrison had learned the wisdom of keeping themselves as much as possible under cover.

Moral aspect of the repulse

This attack and this repulse deserve to be considered under two aspects – the material and the moral. As a deed of gallantry it is scarcely to be surpassed by any feat in history. It was the triumph of British coolness and pluck over Asiatic numbers and swagger; of the mind over matter. But in a moral point of view it was more important still.

on the Asiatics

It showed the mutineers that they had miscalculated their chances; that, if it had ever been possible for them to storm the intrenchment, that time had gone by; that, unless famine should come to aid them, they and their countrymen would never triumph over that handful of Europeans.

on the Europeans

Nor did they, the Europeans who formed that garrison, feel less the moral exaltation of that victory. After three weeks of incessant pounding with shot and shell the rebels had tried to overwhelm them by an assault. In making that assault they had been singularly favoured. Their mine had been sprung in accordance with their calculations; they had covered the advance of their infantry by a fierce artillery fire; their infantry had

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penetrated to within a few yards of the defences! And yet the garrison had repulsed them – and repulsed them with a loss so small that it did not visibly affect their numbers. The defenders were immensely elated at the results of the day, and, when their posts were visited in the evening, they could talk of nothing but of the heavy losses they had inflicted on the enemy as shown by the numerous corpses in front of their posts. Well might they, from that day, look forward with hope to the future!

Death of Major Banks

But the day following this inspiring victory the garrison sustained a loss which it could ill afford. Major Banks, who had succeeded Sir Henry Lawrence as Chief Commissioner, was shot through the head whilst reconnoitring from the top of an out-house. It is true that the functions devolving upon Major Banks were purely civil functions. But his great knowledge of the natives, his noble and cheery nature, his accurate perception of the situation, had rendered him invaluable as a colleague to Brigadier Inglis. His fearlessness, his courage, and his sympathy with suffering had endeared him greatly to the garrison. His place was not filled up.

Brigadier Inglis holds in abeyance the post of Chief Commissioner

This arrangement did not take place, however, without a protest. Mr. Gubbins at once intimated his intention of assuming the position of Chief Commissioner. But Brigadier Inglis and his advisers felt that the time for divided authority had passed; that under the circumstances it was necessary that there should be but one chief, and that that chief should be a soldier. The Brigadier then issued an order intimating that the office of Chief Commissioner would be held in abeyance until such time as the Government of India could be communicated with160.

The three weeks following the first assault

From the 20th of July to the 10th of August the rebels contented themselves mainly with keeping up an unremitting fire upon the garrison, loop-holing more houses and bringing the attack closer and closer. They made no general assault. On their side the defenders were so fully occupied in repairing damages, in countermining, often successfully, and in replying to the enemy’s fire, that they could

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not find sufficient time to remove the carcasses of horses and bullocks. The stench from these carcasses and from others only partially buried became almost unbearable, and possibly aided in fomenting the pest of flies, as well as the spread of fever, of cholera, of dysentery, of scurvy, and of small-pox. The badness and insufficiency of the food, the want of cooks, and the indifferent cooking, aided, in a marked manner, the working of these diseases.

But in the midst of these troubles and trials a spark of hope of aid from outside glimmered in the horizon. Many letters had been despatched by messengers believed to be faithful, but up to the 25th of July no reply had been received to any of them.

Letter from Colonel Tytler

Early in the morning of the 22nd, the pensioner Angad came in from Kanhpur, but without a letter. Angad was a very remarkable character. He had been a Sipahi, but he must have proved a very bad bargain, for he had quitted the military service, when still young, smooth-faced, and wiry. But he was the only messenger sent out from the intrenchment who ever brought back a letter. On this occasion he did not carry one with him for fear of being detained by the enemy; but he stated that the English had been victorious; that he had seen two European regiments at or near Kanhpur; that one of them had square buttons and the other light blue caps. This description greatly puzzled Brigadier Inglis and his staff, who could not call to mind any regiment in the British army which wore square buttons or whose heads were adorned with light blue caps. But it was perfectly accurate. The square buttons belonged to the 78th Highlanders – the blue cap-covers, to the 1st Madras Fusiliers161.

At 11 o’clock on the night of the 25th the same pensioner, who had been sent out again on the night of the 22nd to General Havelock’s camp, returned with a reply to that letter from that officer’s Quartermaster-General, Lieutenant-Colonel Fraser-Tytler. The letter stated that “Havelock was advancing with a force sufficient to bear down all opposition, and would arrive in five or six days.” Brigadier Inglis at once resolved to smooth the way for the relieving force by transmitting by the same channel to General Havelock a plan of his position and of the roads approaching it. Angad accordingly

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took advantage of the first dark night to leave the intrenchment with the plan, drawn up by Major Anderson, and two memoranda partly written in the Greek character. He delivered these to General Havelock at Mangarwar on the 28th of July. They satisfied him as to “the extreme delicacy and difficulty of any operation to relieve Colonel Inglis162.” Meanwhile the occasional sound of heavy firing on the road between Kanhpur and Lakhnao continued to confirm the hopes raised by the opening of this communication in the minds of the garrison.

The second grand assault

Four days later – the ominous 10th of August – the rebels made their second assault. About 10 o’clock that morning a body, numbering perhaps sixteen hundred, was observed by the garrison massed behind their trenches, opposite the southern face of the defences. Very soon after, a large force was noticed approaching the bridge of boats from the Mariaun cantonments. Brigadier Inglis was not slow to mark the significance of these movements. The word was passed that an assault was impending. Instantly all the occupants of the posts were on the alert. Half an hour later the enemy fired a shell into the Begam Kothi, a building in the centre of the intrenchment.

Effect of the mine sprung by the enemy

This was apparently a signal, for immediately after they sprang a mine between Johannes’ house and the Brigade mess-house. The effect of the explosion was terrible. The greater portion of the Martinière house was blown in, the palisades and defences for the space of thirty feet were destroyed. On the smoke and dust clearing away, a breach was discovered through which a regiment might have marched in unbroken order. The enemy advanced with great resolution, occupied Johannes’ house and garden and the buildings close to the Kanhpur battery, and made a desperate effort to take that post. But, whilst they were met by a withering front fire from its defenders, the garrison of the Brigade mess-house, composed of a large proportion of officers, many of them excellent shots, and armed with their sporting guns and rifles, poured upon their flank from its roof a well-directed and continuous fusillade. This front and flank fire quite paralysed the assailants. Some thirty of their number, however, more daring than their comrades, penetrated into the ditch of the battery within a few

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feet of our guns.

The attack repulsed

But hand-grenades freely rolled into the midst of them speedily caused them to run back, under a heavy musketry fire, to their comrades under cover. Their losses were enormous. This attack then was repulsed.

everywhere

But, whilst it was progressing, another had been attempted on the adjoining face. The explosion of a mine in front of Sago’s house was the signal for the assault. But it was repulsed as bravely and as successfully as had been the other.

They make a final effort, but in vain

It was now about noon. The losses of the rebels had been very severe. Repulsed at all the points they had attempted, they kept up, however, for two hours a steady and continuous fire of round-shot and musketry. This then subsided into the ordinary routine fire, which never ceased. But about 5 o’clock they suddenly made an unexpected formidable rush on Captain Sanders’s post (the Financial garrison). So determined were those who led the assault, that one of them actually seized the bayonet on the musket of a man of the 84th and tried to wrench it off. He was shot, and the attack was repulsed.

At 9 o’clock the assault was renewed on this post, on Innes’s house, on Anderson’s post, and on Gubbins’s post. But at each and all these places the rebels met a reception which caused them to repent their audacity. By 10 o’clock the comparative quiet all around the intrenchments was a confession that the second general assault had failed.

Effect of the assault on both parties

On this occasion the losses of the garrison scarcely exceeded those sustained on the 21st of July. They amounted to three Europeans and two Sipahis killed, and about double that number wounded. It was remarked by many of the garrison that the attack was neither so persistent, nor so energetic, as on the previous occasion, – a proof how the moral of the enemy had been lowered by their first repulse.

The British soldier during the siege

Still, to achieve that victory, the garrison had been terribly tried. The reader must never forget how the paucity of their numbers told against them. There were men enough, it is true, to man the posts, to work the guns, to repulse the enemy. But to do all this every man was required. Reliefs were impossible. The same men who had fought all day had to continue under arms, working and watching all night. It was the exposure,

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the fatigue, the want of rest, the inferior nourishment that combined to constitute an enemy more formidable than hostile bullets; an enemy wearing to the constitution, undermining the health, though never affecting the moral or the animal courage of the soldier. The illustrious French general, Foy, once wrote that “the British soldier is not brave at times merely; he is so whenever he has eaten well, drunk well, and slept well.” Sir William Napier rightly denounced this estimate as being a “stupid calumny.” At Lakhnao the British soldier had to contend against want of sleep, against bad food, and latterly against an entire want of liquor and tobacco. Yet who will deny that, at the defence of that place, “every helmet caught some beams of glory” ? True it is that, even there, “no honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen; his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.” But cold must be the blood, dull and clouded the spirit of the man, whose heart does not throb as he peruses the lines which follow, as applicable to the defenders of Lakhnao as they were when penned by the immortal historian163, to the tried soldiers of Wellington. “Did his heart sink therefore? Did he not endure with surpassing fortitude the sorest of ills, sustain the most terrible assault in battle unmoved, and with incredible energy overthrow every opponent, at all times proving that, while no military qualification was wanting, the fount of honour was still full and fresh within him?”

A worthy successor the warrior of the Peninsula

Who will say that this eloquent record of the stamp and character of the unlettered men who beat the choicest soldiers of Napoleon does not literally and accurately portray the moral and physical qualities of their successors in the ranks of the British army, who, at the defence of Lakhnao, sustained to the full even the lofty measure of their imperishable renown?

The Kanhpur battery

The next day, and the day following, the enemy continued a heavy cannonade. They appeared to concentrate their fire on the Kanhpur battery, which had already suffered so severely. The position of the garrison here was really critical. The battery was completely commanded by the enemy. It was quite impossible to hold it against an assault. Yet, with a splendid audacity, the defenders would

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not withdraw their guns, lest such an act should give the enemy confidence164! In the evening of that day a strong working party did their utmost to repair damages in that battery and to remove from it one disabled gun. Three days later the battery was again rendered untenable, but again that night, and the following, were the damages repaired and the defences strengthened. Brigadier Inglis, always at hand whenever danger was to be encountered, having heard that the officers and men of the post believed that it had been successfully mined, went to it and remained there during the night of the 16th.

Aug 12

A sortie made and repulsed

In the interval, the 12th of August, the garrison made a sortie in order to find out the intentions of the enemy in digging close to Sago’s house. The party consisted only of twelve men of the 32nd Foot, under Lieutenant Clery, accompanied by Captain Hutchinson of the Engineers. The rebels however, were well on the alert, and their covering party, strong in numbers, compelled our troops to retire without effecting their object.

The third grand assault

On the 18th, the enemy delivered their third general assault. This time the usual preliminary mine had been dug under one of the Sikh squares. Exploded at daylight, its effect was electric. Two officers and two sentries on the top of the house were blown into the air and fell among the débris. The guard below, consisting of six drummers and a Sipahi, were buried in the ruins and lost their lives. Of those on the roof, the officers and one of the sentries escaped with a few bruises. The other sentry was killed.

Success of the explosion of the enemy’s mine

In other respects the explosion was most successful. A clear breach, some twenty feet in breadth, had been made in the defences. The enemy, stimulated and excited, were not slow to take advantage of this opening. One of their officers, a very gallant fellow, sprang at once to the top of the breach, and, waving his sword, called on his men to follow. Before, however, his summons was responded to, a bullet had laid him low. His place was instantly occupied by another, but he was as instantly killed. Simultaneously the head of the column was sorely smitten by the flank fire from the top of the Brigade Mess. The moral of

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the Sipahis was greatly affected by these casualties, and the attacking force seemed suddenly to melt away. By means of some barricaded lanes, however, they managed shortly after to take possession of the right flank wall of the Sikh square.

The assault repulsed,

But the garrison, admirably commanded, not only drove them from this, but succeeded in capturing one of the houses previously held by them, between the Sikh square and Gubbins’s house. It was from this house that the enemy had most annoyed that face of the defences. Consequently it and others contiguous to it were blown up that evening.

with advantage to the garrison

The third assault was thus not only less formidable than its two predecessors; it resulted in a positive advantage to the besieged. And yet never had the latter been taken more completely by surprise, the presence of a mine in that spot never having been suspected. Notwithstanding the vigilance exercised by the garrison of the Sikh square, they had not heard the slightest sound of the working of the mine which exploded165. No precautions had, therefore, been taken. The rebels then had the opportunity most coveted by an assailing army – an open breach, an unprepared garrison, their own troops massed, their leaders bold and resolute. And yet they were foiled. Who will assert that the result would have been the same if the defenders had been the assailants, and the assailants the defenders?

Reason for specially dwelling on the four great assaults

In a history of the great Indian mutiny, and especially in the history of a prolonged siege, it is impossible to record every act of heroism, to describe every isolated attack, and every individual defence, however noble, and however gallant. I have selected, therefore, for more particular description the four general assaults made upon the defences of the Residency as affording the most striking examples of the conduct of the hostile parties. In this third assault I have shown how, with every advantage before them, the assailants were not only beaten back, but actually lost ground. The inquiry

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naturally arises – to what particular action on the part of our troops were they indebted for their victory? It is due to those gallant men to answer this question somewhat in detail.

A glance at the sketch166 will show that the outer Sikh square was commanded by the Brigade Mess-house. The explosion of the mine found the officers on the roof of that house ever watchful and ready, and with a large reserve of loaded muskets. It was their fire which struck down the two daring leaders who in succession mounted the breach. It was their fire, taking an advancing enemy in the flank, which made the enemy’s formed masses shrink from the assault. But that was not all. At the first sound of the explosion every man of the garrison was on the alert at his allotted post.

Detailed action of garrison in the repulse of the 18th of August

The Brigadier ordered down the reserve, consisting of only eighteen men, to the threatened point, and placed them in a position which commanded the breach from the right. At the same time boxes, doors, planks, etc. were rapidly carried down to make as much cover as possible to protect the more exposed men against musketry; a house, also, was pulled down and a road made for a gun; and, after incredible exertions, a 9-pounder was got into a position which commanded all the breach, and was loaded with a double charge of grape. I may leave this simple description without comment. It is typical of the garrison and its commander. Threatened with a great calamity, they brought at once into play every possible resource to meet it. The history of war does not show a brighter example of coolness and courage. The conduct of the assailants and the assailed on that 18th of August marks emphatically the fathomless distinction between the European and Asiatic in the qualities of a real soldier!

Peculiarities which distinguished this garrison from ordinary garrisons

It may not be out of place to point out here some of the peculiarities which distinguished this garrison from ordinary garrisons of besieged places – peculiarities which, strange though the assertion may at first sight appear – account to a certain extent for the success achieved. One of these was the paucity of its numbers. One effect of this was that the garrison of a post at the beginning of the siege remained the garrison of that post to the end. The men were never relieved, because

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there were no troops to relieve them. So great was the necessity to be for ever on the alert that the member of one garrison was unable to visit the member of another garrison. The only man who quitted his post was the man who went every morning to fetch the day’s rations. Even when the post was knocked down by the enemy’s fire the garrison of that post built up fresh defences from the débris. It was thoroughly understood by all that there was no retreat; that every man must die at his post; that whatever casualties might occur vacant places could not be filled. One consequence of this was that the defenders of a post on the western face knew nothing during the day of what was going on on the eastern face. It is true that, every evening, the Assistant Adjutant-General, Captain Wilson, visited every post, generally accompanied by Mr. Couper, and whilst examining its state, noting its wants, and receiving the reports of the commander, he encouraged the soldiers with accounts of success achieved in other parts. It is true also that there was a reserve – but its numbers from casualties had diminished very considerably.

The reserve

This reserve, and the Brigadier and his Staff, were the only members of the garrison who had no fixed post to defend. The men of the reserve were posted in the centre of the position, with the strictest orders that they were not to move thence except under the personal orders of the Brigadier or his Staff. Summonses from other persons were on no account to be attended to. It was their business to rush wherever the Brigadier might consider their presence to be most needed. Nobly did they perform this dangerous duty. The others lived or died where they had been originally posted. One consequence of this permanency of location, of this knowledge that they could neither be reinforced nor relieved, was to sharpen the wits of the defenders, to make them take precautions which otherwise they might have overlooked.

Precautions taken by the garrison

Thus they had always a considerable reserve of loaded muskets; they were careful never to expose themselves unnecessarily; when boring loop-holes they made sure that the background should be dark. The subject of loop-holes was, indeed, so thoroughly mastered that it deserves a paragraph to itself.

It must never be forgotten that the assailants and assailed were quite close to each other. The distance that separated them was, in many points, not greater, in some much less, than

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the average width of a street such as the Strand. No man on either side dared, therefore, expose himself in the open to discharge his musket.

Loop-holing

Except at the time of a general assault the muskets were fired through loop-holes. Now, when two hostile parties are so close to each other, it is very easy to discover the bearings of particular loop-holes – and to avoid them. Having found a point out of their line of fire, the besieging party would be naturally encouraged to post men at that point to fire on any defender who might expose his person. The garrison came gradually to encourage the assailants to occupy such a point and to have confidence in occupying it. But they marked well the direction; and during the night they bored holes in that direction. In the morning the enemy would come up by twos and threes to occupy their chosen post; or the garrison would do something to attract them there. Then the muskets would be discharged from the new loop-holes. The result was almost always successful. This method of outwitting the enemy was tried again and again, and generally with success.

A marked effect of the extremely narrow distance which separated the besiegers from the besieged was the constant, the unintermitting strain it caused to the defenders. They never knew when or where to expect an assault, and yet they always had to be ready to meet one. In a fortress, with its bastions and its glacis, the movements of an enemy are always discernible. At Lakhnao there were myriads on one side of a narrow lane, hundreds on the other side. These hundreds had no time to prepare for a sudden rush of the myriads, for the latter had but to traverse a few feet. The defenders were bound always to be ready; day or night; in sunshine or in storm. This necessity caused a strain on the system which can hardly be imagined, for, had the garrison not been ever ready, Lakhnao must have fallen.

Correction of prodigality of fire

At the commencement of the siege officers and men were prodigal of their fire. Even on the darkest night they discharged their pieces at an enemy they could not see. But, at the end of about ten days, this evil corrected itself. The fatigue was too great, the constant recoil of the piece too painful, to permit it to continue. After that the men husbanded their resources and never fired but when they could cover a foe. The garrison learned after the siege that nothing had tended more to daunt the enemy,

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than the perfect stillness which used to prevail in the intrenchment during the night.

The look-out system

Another most important matter in the defence was the mode adopted to obtain information of the enemy’s movements. To procure this information, an organised system of “look-out” was established at a very early date. It was carried out in this way. At daybreak an officer, accompanied by a Sipahi, was detailed to take post in the highest tower on the roof of the Residency. From holes made in this tower the officer watched all the movements of the foe.

He had slips of paper with him, and one of these he sent down by the Sipahi whenever necessary. They were relieved every two hours. A precisely similar watch was maintained from the roof of the Post Office. In this manner the Brigadier was kept acquainted with the movements which came within observation. These duties were by no means devoid of danger. During the defence two officers were severely wounded while so employed.

The British flag

As I am writing of the roof of the Residency this may be a fitting place to record that on the highest point of that roof the British flag waved gloriously throughout the long siege. Whilst the members of the garrison felt a noble pride in thus displaying to their assailants their resolute confidence, the sight of that symbol of British predominance filled the hearts of those assailants with fury. The flag was a constant aim of their sharpshooters. Again and again were the halyards severed; the flag was riddled; the staff cut through, by bullets. But, as soon as darkness permitted, a new staff, new halyards were supplied. Patched up though it might be, the flag continued to the last to float defiance to the enemies of England.

Mining

Perhaps no mode of foiling the enemy was more practised by a portion of the garrison than mining and counter-mining. To enable the general reader to understand how this was effected, I will briefly relate the process carried on in the defences as described to me by one of those who was present. A shaft some four feet in diameter was sunk in the interior of the defences, as near as possible to the point to be assailed, to a depth of from twelve to twenty feet, according to circumstances.

The method adopted

From this the gallery was run out in the direction and to the distance required. Now the real toil began. One man – an officer or soldier as the case might be – worked with a short

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pick-axe, or crowbar, to loosen the earth in front of him – to make a burrow just sufficiently high to clear his head when seated, and wide enough to allow of his working. Close behind this first worker sat another with an empty wine case. This he filled with loose earth. When filled, he jerked a cord as a signal, and the box was drawn to the shaft, where another individual again gave notice to two at the top holding a rope attached to either side of the case. These pulled it to the surface, emptied it and returned it. Thus five men worked at once. Two in the mine, one at the bottom of the shaft, two above it.

There were usually ten men thus employed on one mine, relieving each other at intervals agreed upon by themselves. The usual spell was half an hour, but was not unfrequently less. As the gallery progressed, it was visited by an officer of Engineers, who gave all necessary instructions.

These mines were not always made for offensive purposes. Frequently they were used to cut off the subterraneous advance of the enemy. In such cases they were run out a short distance, and then carried on laterally.

The fatigue and labour of constructing such works with indifferent tools and scant and impromptu appliances in a hot night in India, after fighting and working all day on an insufficiency of indifferent food, and without stimulants of any kind, cannot easily be imagined.

The officers and men share alike

It deserves to be remarked that throughout the siege officers and men equally stood sentry. There were no exemptions.

The hospital no place of safety

No place within the defences was absolutely safe. Even the building used as a hospital was constantly under artillery fire. In August a shell exploded there, killing one Sipahi and wounding two others. On the 5th of September an 18-pounder shot traversed the building, wounding again Lieutenant Charlton and a soldier of the 32nd. In fact, both attendants and patients were always under fire.

Houses outside the intrenchment demolished

To return to the siege. The defeat of the 18th of August had a depressing effect on the mutineers. They kept up, it is true, during the next day, a heavy fire, but they made no serious attempt to prevent the further demolition of houses and buildings outside the defences, which had, up to that time, afforded them excellent cover. This demolition was effected by a small party

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under Captains Fulton, Hutchinson, and Anderson, supported from within the defences by a covering fire.

The day following, however, the rebels had recovered their spirits, and, covered by the heaviest cannonade the garrison had till then sustained, made an attempt to burn down the gates at the Baillie Guard, but without result. They soon had to learn that mining was an art which could be practised by defenders as well as by assailants.

The garrison successfully mine Johannes’ house

Johannes’ house, held by the enemy, was a dominant position, and, as the siege wore on, the fire from it had become intolerable. It could no longer be taken by a sortie, for the enemy, warned by the previous successful sally, held it in such force as to render impossible any further attempt of the kind. There was only one resource, and that was to mine under it. Many nights of terrible toil, sustained almost exclusively by the officers, were spent in the work. At last the Engineer officer reported that the mine was, he believed, well advanced under the building. It was then heavily charged. To entice as many of the enemy as possible within the building, the garrison, on the 21st, opened upon it a heavy musketry fire. The enemy, regarding this fire as the prelude to another sortie, crowded into the house to assist in its defence. No sooner did the defenders note this than they fired the mine. The result was most successful. Johannes’ house played no further part in the siege of Lakhnao.

Occurrences between the third and fourth assault

In the interval between this date and the fourth and last assault on the 5th of September the losses of the garrison, alike from the fire of the enemy and from sickness, were very heavy. I find Captain Wilson, the Assistant Adjutant-General, thus writing in his journal on the 23rd of August:– “A heavy cannonade from the enemy from daylight till about 10 P.M., when it slackened. Their principal efforts were against the Brigade Mess-house and Kanhpur battery: the former they seriously damaged, and succeeded in entirely levelling the guard-houses on the top, both of which had fallen in and there was no longer any cover for our musketry to fire from. Our ranks were rapidly thinning.” The following extract from the same diary on the same day will show the enormous difficulties which beset the garrison even in the matter of labour absolutely necessary, and in the repair of damages from the enemy’s shot. “We had work nightly,” writes Captain Wilson, “for at least three

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hundred men; we had the defences to repair daily, supplies to remove from godowns which were fallen in from the effect of the enemy’s shot, mines to countermine, guns to remove, barricades to erect, corpses to bury, and rations to serve out; but with our weak, harassed, and daily diminishing garrison, we could seldom produce as working parties more than three fatigue parties of eight or ten men each relief.” Other difficulties too were overtaking them. It was the rainy season. And the grass and jungle outside the defences had grown in the prolific manner natural to grass and jungle during the rainy season in India. This extreme growth rendered it possible for the mutineers to steal up, unobserved, close to the intrenchment. The heavy rain had likewise greatly injured many of the defences.

The supplies diminished

Many of the supplies had been expended; the supply of tobacco was exhausted; flour had become scarce. In place of flour, wheat was now issued to all who could find time to grind it. The stench from decaying and decayed offal had become, in many places, scarcely endurable. Mortality from sickness had too become very prevalent especially, amongst the children.

Hopes of relief

There was, however, during this period one great counterpoise to the mental and bodily wear and tear. The garrison were still buoyed up by hope from outside. On the 22nd and 23rd reports of distant firing were heard. These had been often noticed before, and now caused but little excitement. But, on the 28th, the messenger Angad returned within the intrenchment, conveying a letter from General Havelock, dated the 24th, with the information that he had no hope of being able to relieve them for twenty-five days. They had a certainty then of three weeks’ continuance of this life, probably of more. One result of this letter was a further reduction in the amount of rations!

The fourth grand assault

On the 5th of September the enemy tried their fourth grand assault. The morning was fine, with a late moon giving a clear light before day had broken. The rebels, however, waited for the dawn to commence a cannonade severer, if possible, than the last referred to. As the sun rose, about eight thousand rebel infantry were descried preparing for an assault. It is needless to add that the garrison were ready – waiting for it. About 10 o’clock the enemy exploded two mines, one – the larger – close to the 18-pounder

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battery; the other at the Brigade Mess-house. Fortunately they had miscalculated their distances and in both cases the explosion did little harm. But as soon as the smoke cleared away they were seen advancing with great resolution – their attack specially directed against Gubbins’s post. Planting an enormous ladder against the bastion, they essayed to mount it. Several reached the top, but they encountered so heavy a fire of musketry and hand-grenades from the defenders that not a man could gain a footing there.

Repulsed

They came on again and again, however, with extraordinary courage, – not only against this point, but against the Sikh square and the Brigade Mess-house; nor was it until they had lost an enormous number of men that they fell back, beaten, baffled, and dispirited. The British loss amounted to but three killed and one wounded.

The “eight” of the 13th Native Infantry

It deserves to be recorded that in this attack eight Sipahis of the 13th Native Infantry, assisted by three artillerymen, loaded and worked the 18-pounder in the 13th battery, and after three or four rounds succeeded in silencing the 18-pounder opposed to them. This battery was entirely under charge of those Sipahis. It had been constructed solely by them under the superintendence of the Engineers, and they were very proud of it.

The assailants are dispirited by their repulse

Similar attacks, though in less force, were made the same day at other points, but they were all repulsed. The 5th of September was, in fact, the worst day the assailants had experienced. They had lost more men than on any previous occasion, and they appeared to those of the garrison who occupied positions commanding a view of their retreat to be more thoroughly beaten than on any previous occasion. Certainly they were more thoroughly dispirited, for they never tried a general assault again.

Still for twenty days the garrison remained cut off from the outer world, exposed day and night to a heavy fire of musketry and guns, to mines, to surprises, to attacks on isolated parts.

Sickness increases within the defences

The most unhealthy month of the year, the month in which the stagnant water caused by the abundant rainfall of July and August dries up, emitting miasmatic smells bearing with them fever, dysentery, and cholera, had now come to find a congenial field

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for its ravages within the intrenchment. The live stock, too, was sensibly diminishing, the small stock of rum and porter167, reserved only for the sick and wounded, was running low. As the numbers of the garrison diminished, the labours of the survivors naturally augmented. Added to this, scarcely a day passed but some portion of one or other of the posts crumbled under the weight of the enemy’s fire. Now it was two sides of Innes’s house, steadily cannonaded daily with 18-pounder shot, that fell in168; now the verandah of the Residency that succumbed to incessant battering; now the wall of the building occupied by the boys of the Martinière. Some idea of the incessant nature of the hostile fire may be gleaned from the fact that, on the 8th of September, two hundred and eighty round-shot, which had lodged there during the siege, varying in size from a 24 to a 3-pounder, were gathered from the roof of the Brigade Mess-house alone!

September 16

Angad sent out again

At 10 P.M. on the 16th the pensioner Angad was again sent out with a letter rolled up in a quill for General Havelock. He evinced no reluctance. The risk was great, – certain death if discovered, – but the reward promised him was enormous – not less than five hundred pounds a trip. He was absent just six days.

Angad brings glad tidings

He returned at 11 P.M. on the 22nd, bringing with him a letter containing the gratifying intelligence that the relieving force had crossed the Ganges and would arrive in three or four days! To guard against that depression among his men apt to be engendered by disappointed hope, the Brigadier put on ten days to the time, and announced to the garrison that help from outside would arrive certainly within the fortnight. The effect was electric. The garrison were greatly elated by the news, and on many of the sick and wounded the speedy prospect of a possible change of air and security exercised a most beneficial effect. As to Angad – whatever may have been his adventures – he was a made man for life.

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“Live or die,” he exclaimed, “I have made the trip three times in safety; I’ll go no more, but come life or death I’ll remain with you169.”

September 23

The approach of the relieving force heralded

On the 23rd – the day following Angad’s return – a smart cannonade was heard in the direction of Kanhpur some even fancied they heard musketry fire. A considerable movement of troops was also observed in the city, but the object was not apparent. A similar sound of distant firing and a similar movement of troops in the city was noticed likewise on the 24th. The night that followed was very unquiet, two alarms keeping the whole garrison under arms. The sounds that reached them indicated the prevalence of great disturbance within the city. It subsequently transpired that the rebels, aware of the near approach of the relieving force, were determined to use all possible means to prevent communication between that force and the garrison. Early the following morning distant firing was heard. At 10 o’clock a messenger arrived bringing an old letter from General Outram dated the 16th. The messenger could only add of his own knowledge that the relieving force had reached the outskirts of the city. The anxiety of the garrison was now intense. It was not lessened by the gradual cessation of the fire about an hour later (11 A.m.). The sounds of disturbance in the city still, however, continued. At noon the sound of musketry and of cannon close at hand gladdened their ears, whilst the smoke from the discharge of the latter showed that their friends were within the limits of Lakhnao.

Intense excitement of the garrison

The excitement now almost passed the power of endurance. But it had to be borne. For an hour and a half it was evident that a fierce struggle was going on. But then it became evident that the European had asserted his superiority. At 1.30 P.M. many of the people of the city commenced leaving with bundles of clothes on their heads and took the direction of the cantonments across the different bridges. At 2 P.M. armed men and Sipahis began to follow them, accompanied by large bodies of Irregular Cavalry. Whilst the disturbances within the city had been progressing, a blockading party of the enemy’s troops had continued to keep a heavy fire on our defences.

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Signs of the enemy’s defeat

They continued it, now that their comrades were retreating, more vigorously than ever. But the garrison, leaving them to do their worst, brought every gun and mortar to bear on the foe whom they beheld fleeing towards the cantonment. They were able to do this with the more effect as the bridge of boats had been carried away, and many of the enemy’s cavalry had to swim the Gumti. The cannonade on these men lasted an hour and a half, a proof that their numbers must have been considerable.

The relief

The scene that followed cannot be better told than in the words of one to whose diary170 I am so largely indebted. “At 4 P.M.” writes Captain Wilson in his journal, “report was made that some officers dressed in shooting coats and solah hats, a regiment of Europeans in blue pantaloons and shirts and a bullock battery were seen near Mr. Martin’s house and the Moti Mahall. At 5 P.M. volleys of musketry, rapidly growing louder, were heard in the city. But soon the firing of a Minié ball over our heads gave notice of the still nearer approach of our friends, of whom as yet little or nothing had been seen, though the enemy had been seen firing heavily on them from many of the roofs of the houses. Five minutes later, and our troops were seen fighting their way through one of the principal streets; and, though men fell at almost every step, yet nothing could withstand the headlong gallantry of our reinforcements. Once fairly seen, all our doubts and fears regarding them were ended: and then the garrison’s long pent-up feelings of anxiety and suspense burst forth in a succession of deafening cheers. From every pit, trench, and battery – from behind the sandbags piled on shattered houses – from every post still held by a few gallant spirits, rose cheer on cheer. Even from the hospital many of the wounded crawled forth to join in that glad shout of welcome to those who had so bravely come to our assistance. It was a moment never to be forgotten.

“Soon,” continues the journal, “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.

The meeting

Wives who had long mourned their husbands as dead were again restored to them.

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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 instances the answer was a painful one.”

Was it relief or reinforcement?

But relief had come. Communication with the outer world had been opened. By whom had this gallant dash through the beleaguering force been accomplished? This is a question which I shall answer fully in the next chapter. In this place I will only add that, when the delirium of joy at the sight of old friends, and of receiving intelligence from outside had given place to sober considerations, it was recognised that the garrison had not been relieved, but reinforced; that the losses sustained by the incoming force had been so great that, combined with the garrison, they still could not thoroughly master the enemy. In some respects, even, the position of the garrison had been rendered worse. There were more mouths to feed, and there was no increase of food to supply them; more accommodation to be provided, only to be obtained by extending the position; and withal the uncertainty as to the period when it would be possible for the Government to equip another force sufficiently large to attempt a real relief.

Summary

But with the arrival of that force concludes the episode of the first siege of the Lakhnao Residency. If in the course of my narrative of that unsurpassed trial of courage and endurance I have not more markedly referred to individuals by name, it is because, where all fought so nobly, where all showed such a devotion without stint and a valour that was dauntless, I have thought it becoming to accept the judgment – the keen and decisive judgment – of the man who was in all respects the best qualified to form an opinion.

Honour to whom honour is due

In his admirable report to the Government of India171 Brigadier Inglis has specially mentioned those to whom he Hour considered himself most indebted. In that report the members of the staff; the commandants of outposts; the officers of the artillery, of the 32nd, of the 84th, and of the native regiments; the gentlemen of the Civil Service, covenanted and uncovenanted; of the medical service, and those unconnected with the Government, are

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specially mentioned. Omitting necessarily the names of the class regarding which Sir William Napier wrote: “no honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen” – the private soldier – all, who in the opinion of Brigadier Inglis deserved special mention, have been mentioned. But there is one exception – an important though necessary exception. Brigadier Inglis could say nothing regarding the conduct of Brigadier Inglis. I may be allowed to supply the omission.

Brigadier Inglis

To command a small party defending a weak intrenchment against an overwhelming force, certain sterling qualities are necessary. A man need not be a strategist or a tactician. But, whilst confident in bearing, unyielding in temper, he must be bold, determined, and resolute in action. He must likewise possess the valuable quality the existence of which displays itself in the capacity to weigh correctly the professional opinions of the officers about him. Now, by the testimony of all with whom I have conversed on the subject, Brigadier Inglis fulfilled all these conditions. His daring obstinacy in resisting, his confident mien, his cool courage, gained him the respect and affection of officers and men. What he might have accomplished in the field I cannot say. But it may with confidence be affirmed that for the actual duties devolving upon him – for the defence of a weak post with a small force – few men were better qualified than Brigadier Inglis, and certainly no one more merited than he the honours and promotion by the bestowal of which a grateful country showed its sense of the eminent service he had rendered.

Captain Wilson

But it is impossible to allude to the qualities of Brigadier Inglis without paying a special tribute to the man who was his right hand – a man to whose untiring watchfulness, great decision, and unceasing exertions, the prolonged and successful defence of the Residency was in no small measure attributable. This is not my opinion only. It was the opinion of Brigadier Inglis: it is the opinion of every man of the garrison with whom I have spoken. I allude to Captain Thomas Fourness Wilson, of the Bengal Staff Corps.

Captain Wilson had been nineteen years in the army when the mutiny broke out. He had no interest, and was still but a regimental captain when Sir Henry Lawrence came to

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Lakhnao. On being nominated brigadier-general, Sir Henry was naturally anxious to have as his assistant adjutant-general a perfectly competent officer. He selected Captain Wilson, unknown to him before, but whom he had specially marked from the time of his first conversation with him. Brought at once into confidential relationship with Sir Henry, Wilson speedily gained his admiration and esteem. His activity, his prudence, his cool daring, his stern and inflexible nature, the determination with which he carried out orders, marked him as the man for the occasion. And when, after Sir Henry’s death, Wilson served under Inglis in the same capacity, he won his confidence by the display of the same qualities which had gained for him the esteem of his predecessor.

It is impossible, indeed, to overestimate the “splendid conduct” of this officer during the long siege. Brigadier Inglis, from whom I have taken this expression, wrote of him at the time that he “was ever to be found where shot were flying thickest”; and he bore emphatic testimony alike to “his untiring physical endurance and bravery,” and to “his ever ready and pertinent counsel and advice in moments of difficulty and danger.” Every night throughout the siege he visited the several posts, ready with advice, with assistance, with encouragement. His determined nature, his prompt decision, were invaluable to all, from the Brigadier to the meanest private. Nor will it be possible to speak of the gallant defence of the beleaguered Residency without associating it in the mind with the name of Thomas Fourness Wilson172.

Captain Fulton

Brigadier Inglis was fortunate in his Engineers. Captain Fulton, who, to the grief and dismay of every one in the garrison, was killed on the 14th of September, was a man unsurpassed in his profession, supremely daring, and ever courting danger. No one than he more fertile in resource, more ready, more eager. He was peculiarly

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happy in the devices he adopted to foil the cunning of the enemy. A short experience had convinced him that when he had detected the enemy mining, the wisest plan was to meet him with a countermine. Often would he, pistol in hand, descend into the burrow which formed his countermine, and wait listening to the progress of the hostile pickaxe on the same level. The enemy hearing no sound would continue to work confidently. Suddenly the ground would give way to the pick. A lantern would be shown behind the leading man. Instantly Fulton’s pistol would lay that man low. The others, unable to pass him, would turn and run. Before they could come back the mine would be filled and exploded. His death, occurring but eleven days before the relief, was most acutely felt and lamented by all. It even caused a feeling akin to dismay.

Lieutenant James

Amongst others who are gone a tribute must be paid here to Lieutenant James, the Commissariat officer. It would be difficult, indeed, to add a word to the glowing eulogium of Brigadier Inglis. “It is not too much to say that the garrison owe their lives to the exertions and firmness of this officer.” Wounded as he was at Chinhat by a ball in the knee, causing him intense suffering, he refused to be placed on the sick list, and never ceased to pay the strictest attention to his onerous duties. His determination and his courage were alike conspicuous. His peculiar temperament fitted him exactly for the position he held. Lieutenant James lived to justify to the full the high opinion entertained of him by all his comrades. He met his death in the prime of life when pigsticking in Bengal. As a tribute – though a feeble tribute – to his daring nature and manly qualities, he was buried in the scarlet hunting coat which he wore when he met his fatal accident.

Mr. Couper, C.S.

I have spoken of Mr. Couper. This gentleman deserves more than a passing mention. A civilian, he was ever ready to descend into the mine, to visit the posts, to assist in interring the dead animals, to dig trenches, to carry stores, and to fight. He was ever cheery and buoyant. His subsequent career has not belied the early promise. At a later period he was nominated, as Sir George Couper, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces.

These men were types of their class in devotion to duty and to their country. There were many others. Prominent amongst those who fell during the siege, nobly fighting,

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The honoured dead

or who died of wounds, or from other causes, were Radcliffe of the 9th Cavalry, daring, ready-witted, full of energy; Francis of the 13th Native Infantry, “a brave, good officer, respected by all, and in whom Sir H. Lawrence had much confidence; “Anderson, the Chief Engineer, to whose able counsel Brigadier Inglis felt deeply indebted; Simons, of the Artillery, distinguished at Chinhat; Case, of the 32nd, who fell when gallantly leading on his men at that battle; Shepherd and Arthur, of the 7th Cavalry, killed at their posts; Hughes of the 57th Native Infantry; Mansfield and McCabe, of the 32nd – all three foremost in danger: Lucas, a gentleman volunteer, and Boyson of the uncovenanted service, both conspicuous for their coolness and courage. These were among the honoured dead. To mention with them the survivors who rivalled them, men of whom R. P. Anderson, whose splendid daring has been told in a preceding page, Master, Langmore, and Aitken were the types, it would be necessary to recount the story of the siege in every minute detail.

The native troops

It is difficult to praise too highly the fidelity and gallantry of the remnants of the 13th, the 48th, and the 71st Native Infantry, and the daring and bravery of their officers. Of those regiments the 13th counted the greatest number of loyal men. They were chiefly posted at the Baillie Guard. This position was described by Brigadier Inglis as “perhaps the most important in. the whole line of defences.” Here, led. by the most gallant of men, Lieutenant Aitken, they rendered the most splendid service. “They were exposed,” reported Brigadier Inglis, “to a most galling fire of round-shot and musketry, which materially decreased their numbers. They were so near the enemy that conversation could be carried on between them; and every effort, persuasion, promise, and threat, was alternately resorted to, in vain, to seduce them from their allegiance to the handful of Europeans, who, in all probability, would have been sacrificed by their desertion.” They vied with their European comrades in the work of the trenches, in the ardour of their courage, in their resolution to defend to the last the spot of ground assigned to them. True it is that they were led by their own officers, and it would be impossible to over-praise men such as Germon, Aitken, and Loughnan, of that regiment. But the Sipahis did more than fight. They risked even their caste for the English. On one occasion, when it had become necessary to dig new intrenchments,

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and to erect a new battery on the spot where Sipahis had been previously buried, the highest Brahmans of the 13th responding to the call of the gallant Aitken, themselves handled the putrid corpses to throw them into the outer ditch.

The pensioners

A few words must here be devoted to the native pensioners who replied to the call of Sir Henry Lawrence. I have stated in a previous page that about a hundred and eighty of these men were enrolled. It is difficult to write in too high terms of the conduct of these men. Most of them were old, the vision of some was impaired. Yet they bore themselves most bravely. Unable to work much, they yet manned the loopholes, and the least capable amongst them were ever ready to load and pass to their countrymen the spare muskets always at hand. Notwithstanding the facts that throughout the siege these men received no tidings from their family or their relations; that they were on reduced rations and entirely deprived of the condiments so highly prized by a native of India in his advanced years; not a single incident of desertion occurred amongst these men. Some died, many were killed, yet no one heard a grumble from the survivors. They continued to the last to abuse the rebels, and to declare that, as they had for so many years eaten the salt of the State, the State had a right to their lives.

The ladies

Imperfect as is this story of this first siege, it would be still more so were it to contain no reference to those who, despite their own sufferings and their own privations, used every effort to assuage the sufferings and the privations of others. “Many,” wrote Brigadier Inglis, referring to the ladies, “among whom may be mentioned the honoured names of Birch, of Polehampton, of Barber, and of Gall, have, after the example of Miss Nightingale, constituted themselves the tender and solicitous nurses of the wounded and dying soldiers in the hospital.” The word “many” might be held to include all whose attention was not absorbed by their own children, or who were not held down by sickness and ill-health. They were exposed to a danger of no ordinary kind, to privations almost unparalleled. When the siege began the number of ladies amounted to sixty-eight, and of children sixty-six. Of the former seven, of the latter twenty-three succumbed to the want of suitable food, to the fire of the enemy, or to privations. It has rarely happened that ladies have been placed in

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a position so trying – never that they have displayed qualities more worthy of respectful homage.

The losses sustained

One word regarding the losses sustained by the defenders. I have already stated that at the beginning of the siege the strength of the garrison amounted to nine hundred and twenty-seven Europeans, and seven hundred and sixty-five natives. Of the Europeans, one hundred and forty were killed or died of their wounds; one hundred and ninety were wounded; this does not include sixteen non-military men killed and fourteen wounded. Of the natives, seventy-two were killed and one hundred and thirty-one were wounded. There were deaths from other causes, and a few of the natives deserted. This is certain, that on the 25th of September the number of the European defenders, including sick and wounded, had been reduced to five hundred and seventy-seven; that of the natives to four hundred and two. In eighty-seven days the garrison had thus been reduced, in various ways, by three-eighths.

But they are now in the first delirium of the long-expected relief. They are welcoming with enthusiastic delight Outram, Havelock, and their gallant following. It remains for me now to relate how it was that Outram and Havelock accomplished the great feat of arms with which their names will for ever be associated.

Footnotes

146. Gubbins.

147. MS. Memorandum, quoted by Merivale. Life of Sir Henry Lawrence.

148. Hutchinson’s Narrative; see also Rees’s Siege of Lakhnao.

149. Gubbins.

150. Amongst the latter was Lieutenant James of the Commissariat Department, a most gallant officer, severely wounded in the knee. He would not allow the wound, severe and painful as it was, to interfere with the performance of his onerous duties throughout the siege.

151. These two field-pieces were, however, spiked by Captain Wilson, the Assistant Adjutant-General, before they were left. The heroic efforts made by Lieutenant Bonham of the Artillery to save the howitzer would most assuredly, had Sir Henry Lawrence lived, have gained for that officer the Victoria Cross.

152. For this act Oxenham received the Victoria Cross; but Mr. Capper ever considered that he owed his life mainly to Anderson, who alike suggested, the attempt, and, by his example, carried it to be a successful issue. Anderson was recommended for the Cross in 1868, but it was not bestowed upon him. On this occasion Mr. Capper wrote as follows: “My former letters clearly acknowledge that it was to the gallantry of Colonel Anderson that I owe my life: that had he not, by word and example, shamed the others to action, no effort would have been made to save me. ... It is clear that Colonel Anderson must have voluntarily exposed himself to imminent danger for the long period of three-quarters of an hour – contrary to the advice of his superior officer – with the object of rescuing a comrade from a terrible and lingering death. At the moment when Corporal Oxenham (at the call of Colonel Anderson) went forward to extricate my legs and feet, Colonel Anderson was supporting my head and shoulders; and, whilst all three of us were exposed to the cannonade, the head and upper part of Anderson’s body must have been exposed to the same heavy musketry fire as was risked by Oxenham. The risk of life accepted by Anderson was continuous; and if the question is, to whom (under God) I am chiefly indebted for the preservation of my life, the answer is – Colonel Anderson.”

153. These were composed as follows:– 32nd Foot, 535; 84th Foot, 50; Artillery, 89; officers not with English regiments or Artillery, 100; Civil, and Uncovenanted, 153.

154. His letter to General Havelock, dated 30th of June.

155. He did not admit this. Writing of Mr. Coverly Jackson, he says: “He is an able and energetic man, but, like us Lawrences, has strong passions not under much control.”

156. Besides the regular troops were many thousand men belonging to the ex-king’s army, and many of whom had been drafted into the local and police force of the country; also the numerous retainers of the talukdars.

157. Despatch of Brigadier Inglis to the Secretary to the Government of India, Military Department, given at full length in Appendix B.

158. “Numbers of horses and bullocks died, and their burial at night by working parties, in addition to nightly fatigue parties for the purpose of burying the dead, carrying up supplies from exposed positions, repairing intrenchments, draining, and altering the position of guns, in addition to attending on the wounded, caused excessive fatigue to the thin garrison, who had but little rest, night or day. In all duties the officers equally shared the labours with the men, carrying loads, and digging pits for putrid animals, at night, in heavy rain. All exerted themselves to the utmost, alternately exposed to a burning sun and heavy rain.” – Journal of a Staff Officer.

159. It may be interesting to the reader to peruse the words in which the bestowal of this honour was notified. In the London Gazette of the 22nd of November, 1859, the following announcement appeared:– “Lieutenant, now Brevet-Major, S. Lawrence, 32nd Foot – Date of act of bravery, 7th July, 1857. – For distinguished bravery in a sortie on the 7th of July, 1857, made, as reported by Major Wilson, late Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the Lakhnao garrison, ‘for the purpose of examining a house strongly held by the enemy, in order to discover whether or not a mine had been driven from it.’ Major Wilson states that he saw the attack, and was an eyewitness to the great personal gallantry of Major Lawrence on the occasion, he being the first person to mount the ladder and enter the window of the house, in effecting which he had his pistol knocked out of his hand by one of the enemy.”

160. This arrangement subsequently received the entire approval of the Governor-General

161. Brigadier Inglis’s despatch.

162. Havelock’s Despatch to the Commander-in-Chief, 28th of July 1857.

163. Sir William Napier.

164. This post (the Kanhpur battery) was so dangerous that the commanding officer had to be changed every day.

165. The officers at this post were Lieutenant Mecham and Soppett, and Captain Orr (unattached). One of them thus wrote, the day after the occurrence: “The new mine, which occasioned the calamity of yesterday, must have been worked by the enemy with sharp and noiseless tools, as ... not the slightest sound ... ever reached us.”

166. Facing page 290.

167. Some idea of the scarcity may be conceived from the prices realised at auction and at private sales. On the 10th a bottle of brandy realised at auction £1 14s.; on the 12th, £2 were given for a small chicken; £1 12s. for a bottle of Curacao, whilst the same price was offered for two pounds of sugar. A new flannel shirt fetched £4, whilst five old ones realised £11 1s. On the 19th the price of a bottle of brandy had risen to £2.

168. The post was, however, still nobly held, and preparations made for some kind of defence out of the débris. – Diary of a Staff Officer.

169. Angad had made four trips; but the three last of these only had been undertaken by order of Brigadier Inglis.

170. The Defence of Luchnow, – a Diary by a Staff Officer.

171. Vide Appendix B.

172. It is with the deepest regret that I have to add that this gallant officer no longer lives to serve. his country. Appointed a Companion of the Bath, and, later, Aide-de-camp to the Queen, he filled, after the siege of Lakhnao many important staff offices in India; and in 1880 he was selected by Lord Hartington for the high post of Military Member of the Governor-General’s Council in India. In the duties of that office his strong common sense, his resolute will, his appreciation of what was right, enabled him to render invaluable service to the Government. He had laid down the office after a five years’ tenure, when, engaged in a shooting party in the Tarai, he was attacked by fever and died.

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