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Chapter II – The Agra Surprise, and the Duab

Wilson follows up the capture of Dehli

Deeply sensible of the fact that a victory not followed up is a victory thrown away, General -Wilson prepared, as soon as he felt his hold upon Dehli secure, to detach a force in the direction of Balandshahr and Aligarh to intercept, and, if possible, cut off the rebels.

by sending a force towards Agra

Had Nicholson lived, it had been the General’s intention to bestow upon him the command of this force. On his death it was thought in camp that it would be offered to the commandant of the cavalry brigade, Brigadier Hope Grant. The presence of this gallant and able officer was, however, still thought necessary at Dehli. The officer selected was Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Greathed, commanding the 8th Foot.

The force consisted of two thousand seven hundred and ninety men, composed as follows:–

Europeans Natives
Captain Remmington’s Troop of Horse Artillery, five guns 60
Captain Blunt’s Troop of Horse Artillery, five guns 60
Major Bourchier’s Battery, six guns 60 60
Sappers 200
H.M.’s 9th Lancers 300
Detachments, 1st, 4th, and 5th Panjab Cavalry, and Hodson’s Horse 400
H.M.’s 8th and 75th Regiments 450
1st and 4th Regiments Panjab Infantry 1,200
930 1,860

“Never,” wrote a distinguished member of the force51, “never

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Glad sensations of officers and men on leaving Dehli

did boys escape from the clutches of a schoolmaster with greater glee than we experienced on the 21st September, when we received our orders to proceed on the following morning to the plain in front of the Ajmir gate, where a column was to be formed under the command of Colonel Greathed, H.M.’s 8th Foot, destined to scour the Gangetic Duab.”

September 24

With the exhilarating feelings sufficiently indicated in the above extract, the force I have detailed marched on the morning of the 24th by way of the Hindan in the direction of Balandshahr.

September 26–27

Greathed destroys Dadri and comes on the track of the rebels

Crossing the Hindan, and passing through Ghazi-ud-din Nagar, the force reached Dadri, twenty miles distant, on the 26th. There it was clearly proved that the Gujar inhabitants of the place had sacked the loyal town of Sikandarabad and committed other depredations. Their own homesteads were in consequence destroyed. Pushing on, Greathed reached Sikandarabad on the 27th. Here he found himself upon the track of the enemy, a body of their cavalry having evacuated the place only on the day preceding. The distance from Sikandarabad to Balandshahr is about eight miles. Five miles from the latter is the fort of Malagarh, a place which had been held for upwards of three months by Walihad Khan, a partisan of the royal family of Dehli, and connected with it, it was said, by ties of blood. To expel Walihad Khan from Malagarh was, then, the first object of Greathed’s mission.

September 28.

Moves on Balandshahr

Starting in the early hours of the 28th, the column reached at daylight four cross roads within a mile and a half of Balandshahr. One of these cross roads led to Malagarh. Balandshahr was immediately in front of the column.

Noticing that a picket of the enemy’s cavalry, stationed at the cross roads, fell back before his advanced cavalry of the British force on Balandshahr, Greathed divined at once that that station was the true point of attack. Despatching, then, to the left front two Horse Artillery guns, and forming a reserve under Major Turner to protect his baggage, he advanced, his troops well in hand, towards that town.

Position of the rebels

The rebels had occupied a position in front of the town, at a point where two roads leading to it converged. The position was well wooded, abounding in high crops, and in gardens, the walls of which were lined with

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infantry. Their guns were in the centre, concealed by the crops.

Greathed’s order of attack

On this position Greathed marched, four guns of Remmington’s troop moving on by the main road; Bourchier’s battery, supported by a squadron of the 9th Lancers and the squadron of the 5th Panjab cavalry, advancing on the right, the remainder of the cavalry with the other two guns of Remmington’s troop under Lieutenant Cracklow, on the left; the 8th and 75th Foot and the 2nd Panjab Infantry being at the same time pushed forward through the gardens and houses of the civil station. Remmington’s guns pounded the enemy in front, while Bourchier advanced till he could gain a position to open a cross fire on their flank. He soon obtained such a position, and opened fire. The rebels, recognising their position to be untenable, fell back; the British centre immediately pushed forward, and drove them headlong into the town.

The cavalry turn the enemy’s right

Meanwhile the cavalry under Major Ouvry and Cracklow’s guns had circled round to the left, and though exposed in their progress to a severe fire from a sarai52 which the enemy had fortified, and from the gaol, which momentarily checked them, they carried all before them. Their loss, though heavy, was not out of proportion to the results obtained by their dash.

The infantry come up and complete the defeat of the enemy

The advantage they had gained was followed up by the infantry and the remainder of the cavalry, and the rout of the rebels was completed. Four hours after the halt at the cross roads, the town, three guns, a quantity of baggage and ammunition, were in the hands of the victorious troops. The enemy lost about three hundred men, the victors forty-seven in killed and wounded.

An attack on the baggage repulsed with loss

The wisdom of forming a reserve to cover the baggage was justified by the results. For no sooner had the main column advanced to attack the town than a flying party of the enemy made a dash at the baggage. Major Turner, however, beat them off, and Lieutenant Probyn, with the squadron of the 2nd Cavalry following them up, killed several of them.

Lieutenant Watson, 1st Panjab Cavalry, and Lieutenant Blair, 9th Lancers, greatly distinguished themselves in this

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action. Of Lieutenant Roberts, Assistant Quartermaster-General, so distinguished in later years, now the commander-in-chief in India, who throughout his brilliant career was ever foremost when real service was required, Captain Bourchier, who witnessed and shared his heroic efforts, writes that he “seemed ubiquitous.”

September 28–October 2

Greathed pushes on to Malagarh

Malagarh was, however, the main object of Greathed’s hopes, and he at once reconnoitred with a view to attack it. But the blow inflicted at Balandshahr had penetrated to Malagarh. The rebels evacuated it in a panic, leaving behind them all the plunder they had collected there.

Accidental death of Lieutenant Home

Greathed immediately occupied Malagarh, and issued orders to destroy its fortifications. In carrying out this operation an accident happened, by which the engineer, Lieutenant Home, was unhappily killed on the spot. Home was an officer of great distinction and greater promise. He was the sole surviving officer of the gallant band who had blown up the Kashmir gate on the morning of the 14th of September. For that act, one of many deeds of skill and daring, he had been promised the Victoria Cross. To die by accident after having survived the storming of the Kashmir gate seemed a hard dispensation; but, though Home did not live to reap the fulness of his reward, he had at least known how his former splendid service was appreciated by his comrades.

October 3–9

Khurja and its skeleton

From Balandshahr the column marched, 3rd October, to Khurja. On entering this town the soldiers were greeted by a sight calculated above all others to excite their feelings of resentment to boiling pitch. “As we entered Khurja,” writes Colonel Bourchier, “a skeleton was stuck up on the roadside, exposed to public gaze, against a wall. The head had been severed from the body, and cuts in the shin-bones were apparent, inflicted by some sharp instrument; and, in the opinion of a medical committee, this skeleton was that of a European female.”

Khurja was on the high road to Aligarh. It had twenty-six thousand inhabitants, and was a place of some importance, for it paid a considerable revenue. The civil officer attached to the column was, therefore, strongly opposed to the prosecution of any measures of retaliation against the townspeople. Moved by his remonstrances, Greathed, despite the unconcealed indignation

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of his men, spared Khurja, pushed on to Aligarh, two marches in advance, where he believed he should meet a considerable force of the rebels.

The column gains Aligarh and pushes on to Akbarabad

The enemy, however, had evacuated Aligarh and taken to the open, and the place was substantially undefended. Greathed launched his cavalry in pursuit of the rebels; caught them in their headlong flight; and killed some two hundred and fifty of them. The British had only three men wounded. Leaving, then, a garrison in Aligarh, Greathed pushed on to Akbarabad, and was fortunate enough to surprise it with two notorious rebel chiefs within its walls. The two chiefs, Mangal Singh and Maitab Singh, were tried and summarily executed.

Greathed now pushed forward in the direction of Agra, from which place “epistles, imploring aid in every language, both dead and living, and in cypher, came pouring into camp53.” On the 9th October he was at Bijaigarh, forty-eight miles distant.

October 9

An instance of the forbearance of the rebels

Near this place, the troops came upon a house belonging to an indigo factory, containing all its furniture uninjured, and having servants in attendance. The contrast presented by the undisturbed appearance of this property to that offered by the other houses, deserted by their owners, in the disturbed districts, and which were found plundered and destroyed, struck the officers and men. The owner, an Englishman, had fled to Agra. From Bijaigarh, in consequence of the urgent entreaties he received from Agra, Greathed sent forward at midnight the cavalry and horse artillery by forced marches. Four hours later he followed with his infantry, using the utmost speed, mounting his men on elephants, carts, and camels.

October 9–10

Greathed receives urgent prayers for assistance from Agra

The despatches he received on the way became, as he proceeded, more and more urgent. “His credit was at stake,” he was told, “if Agra were attacked and he so near.” Thus implored, he pressed on with the utmost expedition, overtook his artillery and cavalry, and with them crossed the Jamnah at the bridge of boats under the walls of the fort of Agra on the morning of the 10th.

To account for the urgent requisitions of the Agra garrison,

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it is necessary to give a brief narrative of the occurrences at that place from the time we left it.

September 9

The condition of Agra

We left Agra on the 9th September. The death of Mr. Colvin had left Mr. E. A. Reade the senior civil officer in the North-west Provinces. To great capacity for work, a clear brain, and a large understanding, Mr. Reade added the rare virtue of absolute disinterestedness. Conscious that inter arma silent leges, Mr. Reade at once wrote to the Supreme Government, recommending that until order were restored the administration should be vested in the hands of a military chief, and promising his hearty co-operation in any capacity. Pending the orders of Government, Mr. Reade, though the senior officer, retained only his office of Financial Commissioner.

Even before Mr. Colvin’s death, Agra had been agitated by the rumour of another attack. The 23rd Native Infantry, which, it will be recollected, had mutinied at Mau on the night of the 1st July – joining itself to the mutinous contingents of Central India – those of Mehidpur, of Malwa, and of Bhopal – and to the rabble of the Native States, had reached Gwaliar. There, by the loyal exertions of Maharajah Sindhia, in active correspondence with the political agent, Major Charters Macpherson, residing in the fortress of Agra, they had been detained the whole of the month of August. To detain them so long the Maharajah had strained his authority over his followers, and was at times in imminent personal danger. To restrain them longer was impossible.

threatened by the mutineers of Central India

Early in September, then, this force of Central Indian mutineers, joined by a number of Gwaliar malcontents, though not, it is believed, by any of the regular army of that State, broke loose from the capital, and marched on Dholpur. This place lies nearly midway between Gwaliar and Agra, being distant but thirty-four miles from the latter. The ii presence, then, of a large force of the three arms, at Dholpur I constituted an undoubted threat to the fortress of Agra.

who are emboldened by the compulsory silent attitude of the garrison

So much was known at the time of Mr. Colvin’s death. It was impossible to attempt to disturb the intruders by detaching from the fortress of Agra any portion of the small garrison upon whom the safety of so many thousand lives depended. Thus it happened that the rebels, emboldened by the silent attitude of the English, began gradually to feel their way

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towards Agra.

September 11

Sending out detachments from Dholpur about the 11th September, they spread over the districts of Khairagarh, Fathpur-Sikri, Iradatnagar, and Fathabad, expelling from them the native officials in the pay of the British Government.

The difficulties of the Agra garrison momentarily aggravated by the fall of Dehli

The storming of Dehli, instead of lessening, aggravated for the moment the difficulties of the British authorities in Agra. For, although the assault of the 14th September at Dehli had resulted only in a partial success, yet the persistence of General Wilson, on the 16th and 17th, had had the effect of inducing the more soft-hearted of the rebels to quit the town.

September 26

A considerable body of these men, led by a Shahzadeh named Firuzshah, bent their way from Dehli towards Mathura, reached that place on the 26th September, and joining there the rebel Sipahis of the regular army – men mainly of the 72nd Native Infantry, led by one Hira Singh, a Subahdar of that regiment – effected a junction with the rebels from Central India.

September 19

Measures taken in consequence by the Agra authorities

To combat the facts and rumours surging about him, Mr. Reade, in conjunction with Lieutenant -Colonel Cotton, commanding the garrison, issued orders, on the 19th September, to set to work at once to level some obstacles which interfered with the free play of the guns mounted on the fort, and to mine some of the more prominent buildings, including the great Mosque, which were in dangerous proximity to the walls.

September 30 Colonel Hugh Fraser, C.B., is appointed Chief Commissioner

On the 30th September an order from Calcutta was received at Agra, nominating Colonel Hugh Fraser, C.B., of the Engineers, to act as the Governor-General’s Chief Commissioner for Agra and its dependencies.

Three days prior to the installation of Colonel Fraser, official intelligence had been received in Agra of the complete success of the British arms in Dehli, of the capture of the Tiling, and the slaughter of his two sons and grandson. It was then anticipated that a column of the Dehli force, released from its siege operations, would at once be despatched to Agra by Gurgaon and Mathura, on the right bank of the Jamnah.

Great, then, was the consternation in the fortress when the

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September 30–October 10

Reason for the urgent applications sent to Greathed

news arrived that though a column under Colonel Greathed had been despatched south-eastwards, it had crossed the Jamnah and had taken the route of Khurja and Aligarh. To the minds of the British within the fortress there was present always the possibility that Greathed’s force, regarding Agra as secure in the strength of its fortifications, might push on towards Kanhpur or Bareli, leaving the Agra garrison threatened by the rebels of whom I have spoken. Hence it was that the urgent applications I have referred to were sent to Colonel Greathed, – applications imploring him to make the best of his way to Agra, to relieve the garrison there from their unpleasant predicament, and to re-establish the Government of the North-west Provinces.

Reason why these applications caused merriment in Greathed’s force

That these urgent applications should have been misunderstood, and have been the cause of some merriment among the officers of Greathed’s force, is scarcely surprising. The officers and men of that column had for more than three months occupied a position before Dehli, exposed to the fire of the enemy, to rain, and heat, and privations of every sort. They were fresh from the storming of the imperial city, and worn by exposure, by fatigue, by watchings54, their minds were scarcely tuned to listen to entreaties for help from men who, however anxious and wearisome their position, seemed to have enjoyed comparative ease in the shelter of the fortress.

We have already seen how Colonel Greathed, responding to the entreaties pressed upon him with so much urgency, turned off the Grand Trunk Road and hurried by forced marches to the threatened capital. When at sunrise on the morning of

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Greathed reached Agra and is informed that the enemy have retreated

the 10th he marched his force over the bridge of boats, cheered by the 3rd European Regiment on the bastions, to the gates of the fort, he was informed that the enemy, alarmed at his approach, had retired beyond the Mari Nadi, a stream about nine miles distant55.

Difference of opinion as to the encamping ground

The force halted on the public road in front of the fortress, whilst the Agra authorities and Colonel Greathed were debating about the choice of an encamping ground. Two hours were spent in this discussion – a dreary two hours for men who had just completed a forced march of forty-eight miles. The “local executives,” touched doubtless by the sunburnt appearance of the troops, were all for encamping them “in a series of gardens overgrown with brush wood, where the guns would not have had a range of fifty yards, and where the cavalry could not possibly act,” but Greathed was too much of a soldier to accede, without urgent remonstrance, to such a proposition.

Ultimately, Greathed’s proposal that his men should encamp on the parade ground, a magnificent grassy plain, with not

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Greathed gains the point and encamps on the parade ground

an obstacle within three or four hundred yards of it, and at that distance only a few high crops, were allowed to prevail. The camp was marked out, the horses were picketed, and the men went to their breakfasts. Some of the officers hastened into the fort, others from the fort poured. into the camp, followed or accompanied by men of all sorts, who seized the long-wished-for opportunity of communicating with their friends of the outside world.

Greathed’s camp

The men in the camp, having swallowed a hasty meal, were variously occupied. Some, pending the arrival of the baggage, now slowly coming up, had thrown themselves on the ground and were fast asleep; some were talking to their friends; some were assisting to pitch the few tents that had reached the ground.

The soldiers prepare to rest after their toil.

The long march had caused the camp to be pervaded by an air of listlessness and languor, common to men who have but just completed an undertaking of more than ordinary labour. Not a sign betokened an enemy. As far as the eye could reach, the horizon was clear. The high crops and trees which shut in the view at no great distance were stirred only by the breeze. After their long fatigues it seemed as though the weary soldiers were to enjoy at last a day of repose.

This sense of security was scarcely justified by the certain proximity of the enemy, and by the absence of any effort being made to ascertain whether the conjectures of the Agra officials were correct.

They are surprised by the enemy

It was soon disturbed in a very sudden and remarkable manner. Four natives, apparently conjurors, and beating tom-toms, came strolling up to the advanced guard of the 9th Lancers. On the sergeant in charge ordering them off, one of them drew a sword from under his clothes and cut him down. Another sergeant moving up to the rescue was also wounded. These men were soon despatched by the troopers, but, before the alarm had reached the rear, round shot “from out the blue” came pouring into the camp. The familiar sound was sufficient for the soldiers of Dehli.

but promptly form up

The assembly was sounded, though the call was scarcely needed. To start to their feet, seize their muskets, mount their horses, and man the guns, was the work of an instant. But while this was doing the cannonade spread terror among

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the camp followers, and surprise and consternation among the visitors56.

Gallant charge of the 9th Lancers

The enemy’s horse, appearing as if by magic on the scene, took prompt advantage of the surprise, charged the still motionless artillery, and had sabred the gunners of one gun, when a dashing charge made upon them by a rapidly formed squadron of the 9th Lancers, drove them back in disorder. It cost the squadron dear, for Captain. French, the squadron leader, was killed, and Lieutenant Jones, his subaltern, was dangerously wounded and cut up when dismounted.

Greathed deploys his line

Greathed, who had hurried to the spot a few minutes after the attack had begun, lost not a moment in taking the necessary measures. He deployed his line and directed Watson to move off with a portion of his irregular cavalry to turn the enemy’s left flank.

Pearson brings his battery to the ground,

The line when advancing was joined by Pearson’s 9-pounder battery, which had been despatched from the fort on the first arrival of Greathed’s column. This gallant officer, whose distinguished conduct has battery to already been mentioned57, had brought this battery again into a state of efficiency by substituting for the native drivers, who had wholly deserted after the disastrous affair of the 5th July, volunteers from the Eurasian fugitives in the fort58. He now arrived at an opportune moment on the right of the line where there was no artillery, and where the infantry were giving ground under the fire of some heavy guns of the enemy which commanded the road along which their centre was advancing. As Pearson drives back pressed forward, the limbers of three of these were his left.

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blown up and captured Simultaneously the cavalry under Ouvry, with all the guns on the left under Turner, dashed forward with all speed. The rebels, who had not believed it possible that a surprised force could so quickly organise itself for an active advance, relaxed their efforts under the continuous and combined pressure. As the pressure became greater, they were seen to be giving way on all sides.

The enemy’s disorder is completed by the cavalry

A well-timed charge by Watson and Probyn completed their disorder; nor though, with their usual tactics, their cavalry attempted to make a diversion by threatening the camp, were they successful. A second charge of the Lancers and two squadrons of Hodson’s Horse sent them back more quickly than they came.

Colonel Cotton arrives with the 3rd Europeans and assumes command.

Colonel Cotton had by this time arrived from the fort with the 3rd Europeans, and, as senior officer, had assumed the command. Detaching two companies of this regiment to strengthen the Panjab infantry on the right flank, where the enemy were still contesting the ground under shelter of some high crops, he urged the whole line forward in pursuit. The rebels fell back in hasty disorder by the Gwaliar road, nor did they make a halt even at their camp, which was found standing about midway between Agra and the Kari Nadi.

The enemy defeated and pursued

Here the infantry, completely tired out, were halted, but the pursuit was continued with great vigour and success by the artillery and cavalry. “Once only,” says Colonel Bourchier, “did they,” the rebels, “make a stand. A few rounds of grape, however, scattered them in all directions, and the cavalry were soon among their flying ranks, doing great execution.

Their guns and ammunition taken

For seven miles the road was one continued line of carts, guns, ammunition waggons, camels rushing about without their drivers, and baggage of every description – all of which fell into our hands. Not a gun or a cart recrossed the stream; all became prize owing to the rapidity with which the victory was followed up on the opposite bank. A few cavalry troopers made their appearance, but soon disappeared after a few rounds from the Horse Artillery. Thirteen pieces of ordnance, with an enormous quantity of ammunition, were brought into camp. Much that was useless was destroyed; and the enemy’s camp, with the villages on which it abutted, was burnt.”

No victory could have been more rapid or decisive. It was

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Merit due to the troops who won it

especially creditable to the troops who had that morning marched into Agra, and whom neither fatigue nor hunger, nor want of sleep, could stop when an enemy was to within their grasp. Bourchier’s 9-pounder battery who won it. had marched thirty miles without a halt before the action began. From first to last Greathed’s cavalry and artillery had marched at least over sixty-four miles, and the infantry fifty-four miles of road, in less than thirty-six hours, only after that to move through the fields and fight a general action. It was a splendid performance – well marched, well fought, well followed up. The force did not return to their camp before 7 o’clock in the evening.

The surprise as great to the rebels as to the British

But it was a surprise! Yes – but a surprise also to the rebels. They were not aware, until the sleeping camp had been startled into activity by the fire of their guns, that it was Greathed’s force which lay before them. the rebels as They believed they had to do only with the garrison of Agra. In adjusting the balance, then, of surprises, it must be admitted that the rebels had more reason than the British to regret the want of a careful look-out. The column halted at Agra the three days following the battle.

The column halts three days to refit

A supply of ammunition was obtained from the fort, and the wounded were sent into the hospital which had been improvised in the Moti Masjid. Here they were attended not only by the medical officers but by the ladies, whose zealous and tender exertions have been recorded in a previous volume.59

Hope Grant

Whilst the column lay halted at Agra a change in the command of it was inaugurated.

Brigadier Hope Grant was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 9th Lancers. Left behind at Dehli in command of the cavalry, he had felt keenly his separation from his splendid regiment. He could not, however, devise, nor could General Penny – commanding at Dehli, in the absence of General Wilson, who on the fall of the place had proceeded on sick certificate to the Himalayas – devise any plan by which he could serve with the column to which his regiment was attached. For he was senior to Greathed, and General Penny did not possess the power to supersede that officer. One morning, however, when ruminating over the sad fate which

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is directed to

assume command of the column

compelled him to be inactive, Grant received a letter from Mr. (now Sir William) Muir, the Secretary to the Government of the North-West Provinces – a letter begun on the morning of the 10th October, and concluded while Greathed was beating the rebels – in which occurs the following passage: “You are to come on as sharp as you can. ... You are to come on at once in the mail-cart if possible.” Grant, doubting the authority of Mr. Muir to confer upon him the command of a movable column, showed the letter to General Penny, who, reading through the lines, directed Grant to proceed to Agra, and gave him a written order to assume command of the column.

He assumes command

The column had left Agra for Kanhpur before Grant, hurrying night and day, reached that place. He overtook, it, however, at Firuzabad, the third march out of Agra, and at once assumed command.

October 19–29 reaches Kanhpur

Pushing onwards, he reached Mainpuri, evacuated by its rebel Rajah, on the 19th, and arrived at Kanhpur on the 26th October. The monotony of the march had been broken but once, . by a skirmish, on the 23rd, of a squadron of the 9th Lancers and two squadrons of the Panjab cavalry with some five hundred rebels, on the Kali rivulet, near Kanauj.

crosses the Ganges

The skirmish had terminated in the complete defeat of the rebels; Lieutenant Dighton Probyn pursuing them as far as the Ganges, and capturing four guns, a large quantity of ammunition, and two store carts. At Kanhpur arrangements were made whereby the strength of the column should be increased, by additions principally to its infantry, to about five thousand men.

October 30

and encamps in the plain beyond the Banni bridge

On the 30th, Grant crossed the Ganges for the Alambagh, but, in consequence of orders from the Commander-in-Chief, he halted within a few miles of it, near the village of Banthra, situated in a fine plain four miles on the Lakhnao side of the Banni bridge, there to await the arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell, on his way to commence operations for the final relief of Lakhnao. To gain this position, Grant had a skirmish with the rebels who had occupied the village of Banthra. He drove them out of it, however, without loss, and captured the only gun they possessed – a 9-pounder, the property of the East India Company.

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Van Cortlandt

Simultaneously with the advance of Greathed’s column to relieve Agra, a considerable body of native levies, raised and commanded by Van Cortlandt – an officer of foreign extraction who had served under Ranjit Singh, and had subsequently to the campaign of 1845–6 accepted civil office under the British Government – proceeded to restore order in the districts to the north-west of the imperial city. Van Cortlandt was well qualified for the task. He had had great experience of native soldiers, and he had shown on many an occasion, notably when he assisted Herbert Edwardes in that gallant officer’s campaign of 1848, that he could make them fight. On this occasion his work was comparatively easy.

reduces the districts to the north-west of Delhi

The large villages all over the district submitted without a blow; many mutinous soldiers surrendered to him; the roads were opened; and on the 26th September he had so far reduced the large district of Rohtak to submission, that it was possible to re-establish the civil authorities, and even to collect revenue.

Brigadier Showers proceeds to the west and south-west

Another column, under Brigadier Showers, the commanding officer of the 2nd European Regiment, was despatched on the 2nd October to clear the districts to the west and south-west. This column consisted of portions of the Carabineers, of a portion of Hodson’s Horse, and the Guide Cavalry, of a field battery and two or three heavy guns and mortars, of the 2nd European Regiment, the 2nd Gurkhas, and a Regiment of Sikh Infantry. The first destination of this column was the fort of Jajhar, on the way to which place it had to march within a few miles of Ballabgarh60.

The Rajah of Ballabgarh

The Rajah of this place had certainly admitted the authority of the King of Dehli. It is more than possible, it is probable, that he had to choose between such a course and destruction.

submits

Certain it is, that when he heard that the British force was in the vicinity of his capital, he drove out in his carriage to meet it. The British officer with whom he came in contact was the notorious Hodson. Hodson has recorded his opinion that the Rajah and his followers deserved to be exterminated; but the orders not to interfere with the native chief of Ballabgarh had been so positive that he was constrained to allow him to return,

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Showers takes Rewari, Jajhar, and Kanaund

and the force, striking away from the road to Ballabgarh, marched through the Rewari district in the direction of Jajhar. The fort overlooking the town of Rewari was taken without opposition.

October 18

Jajhar was next reached and occupied, the Nawab having made his submission on the 18th. The still stronger fort of Kanaund in the same district, armed with fourteen guns, and containing five lakhs of rupees, surrendered the following morning to the Carabineers and Hodson’s Horse, both having marched forty-one miles in fifteen hours.

October 19

Showers returns

Being then on the borders of the sandy desert, Showers returned to Dehli. In the course of his expedition he had occupied four forts, burnt many villages, and taken about seventy guns and £80,000, besides much ammunition and many horses.

Results of his expedition

He had captured or forced to surrender, two princes, the Nawab of Jajhar, and the Rajah of Ballabgarh61, and one notorious partisan, Hakim Abdul Hak, chief of Gurgaon. The last-named was most justly hanged immediately after the return of the column to Dehli.

The rebels, reinforced by the Jodhpur legion, renew their excesses

Showers’s column had scarcely returned to Dehli when intelligence reached General Penny that the rebels, reinforced by the mutineers of the Jodhpur legion, had beaten the troops of the loyal Rajah of Jaipur, and reappeared in great farce in the districts which had but just been traversed, reoccupying Rewari. It became necessary, therefore, to organise and despatch a second force to restore order.

A column is sent under Gerrard to repress them

A column composed of the 1st Fusiliers, under Captain Caulfield, the 7th Panjab Infantry, under Godby, a troop of Horse Artillery – the 3rd Brigade – under Colin Cookworthy, a heavy battery of 8-inch howitzers and 18-pounders, under Gillespie, a portion of the Corps of Guides, under Kennedy and Sandford, and the Multani horse under Lind, was ordered on. this duty. The direction of it was bestowed upon Colonel Gerrard, an officer of merit and distinction trained in the 1st Fusiliers, and who then commanded that regiment.

November 10–13

Gerrard marched from Dehli on the 10th of November, reached Rewari, fifty miles south-west of the imperial city, on the 13th, and reoccupied the fort without

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opposition.

Gerrard joined by detachments under Stafford

Here he was joined by two squadrons of the Carabineers. At Kanaund, which he reached two days later, he was met by a detachment of the Hariana Field Force – of the three arms, including, in addition to the police and native levies, the 23rd Panjab Infantry – under Captain Stafford. Thence he pushed on over a very sandy plain difficult to traverse to Narnul, where, it was understood, the enemy had mustered in force.

November 16th

The rebels meanwhile had occupied Narnul

It was true that on the morning of that very day, the 16th November, the rebels had occupied the village of Narnul in considerable force. They occupied it, however, only to prove for the fiftieth or sixtieth time in this memorable year, that neither strong positions, nor numbers, nor personal courage, will avail when there is no leader able to take full advantage of those positions, of those numbers, or of that valour.

Their splendid position – and the folly which prevented their keeping it

Never was there a stronger exemplification of the harmlessness of lions, when the lions are led by asses. Narnul was a very strong place. It lay under a hill about four hundred feet high, which formed part of a ridge extending some miles to the south-east. It was covered in front – the front facing the road by which the British force would have to advance – by low walls, forming admirable defensive cover. A large and well-filled tank with steep banks, standing much above the surrounding plain, distant only about two hundred yards from the village, and commanding the road to it, afforded another strong position, which infantry might advantageously have occupied. The ground to the left was broken and uneven, but the plain in front was level and broad, admirably adapted to the movements of cavalry, in which arm the rebels were very strong.

The rebel leader learns that the English are marching against him

Such was the position occupied early on the morning of the 16th November by the rebel army, flushed with recent victory over the Rajput levies of Jaipur. It was clear that their leader, Sancand Khan, a near relative of the Nawab of Jajhar, was well aware that a British force was moving against him, for he had specially selected the strong position of Narnul as one against which that force would spend its strength in vain. But, although the country people were well disposed towards him, he made no effort to procure information regarding

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his enemy’s movements.

Notwithstanding this information he posts neither vedettes nor scouts

He posted no vedettes, he sent out no scouts. Wielding a numerous cavalry, he trusted entirely to his own eyesight to learn when and in what manner the British would advance.

As up to 10 the English had not come in sight, he vacates his splendid position

It would appear that he expected the British early on the morning of the 16th. But when the clock struck the eight, then nine, and when then the hands began to point towards ten, and not a single speck of dust was visible on the horizon, he gave them up for the day, and retiring to his camp, near a dilapidated fort of the same name, about two miles in the rear, then gave orders to his men to dismount and eat. He thus deliberately abandoned, though for the short space of only one hour, a position which it would have required all the dash, all the energy, all the exertions of the small British force, numbering altogether about two thousand five hundred men, to carry. That hour was fatal to him.

Causes which had fortunately retarded the British

The fact was, that the impediments in the road between Kanaund and Narnul had terribly – though, owing to the incompetence of the rebel leader, fortunately – delayed Gerrard’s advance. The distance to the fort of Narnul was but fourteen miles, and Gerrard had started at 1 o’clock in the morning. Yet, in the first instance, the enormous difficulty experienced by the artillery in traversing the narrow and sharp-angled streets of Kanaund, and, in the second, the depth of the sand in the road which followed, so hindered the advance, that in ten hours they were only able to accomplish twelve miles! At 11. o’clock Gerrard reached the village of Narnul, now guiltless of the presence of an enemy.

The delay smooths away great difficulties

How he and his officers grumbled at the inevitable delay, may well be imagined. Not one of them could imagine that Fortune was working for them – that the blind goddess was really removing the difficulties in front and plotting to spare the lives of many – to give them in the plain the easy victory which, though still certain, would have been difficult and bloody in the village. At Narnul, I have said, Gerrard saw no signs of the enemy. The difficulties of the march had greatly fatigued his men. He therefore halted while a dram was served out, and the men devoured the small store of food which each had carried with

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him. They had hardly finished this frugal meal when “a slight cloud of dust was seen to rise over a gentle swell of the ground to the left in front62.” Another smile from Fortune!

The enemy return to occupy their position

Sanand Khan had withdrawn his men for an hour that they might break their fast at the encampment near the ruined fort: he was now returning, hoping to reoccupy his strong position!

A guide trooper reconnoitres

In a moment the British infantry stood to their arms, the cavalry were in the saddle. A trooper belonging to the Corps of Guides rode to the front to reconnoitre. As he nears the rising ground a bullet strikes the ground close to him. But prior even to that evidence of the presence of the enemy he had seen enough.

The enemy show themselves in numbers

He turned to report to his commanding officer, but before he could reach him the rebel horsemen showed themselves in numbers moving from left to right along the crest of the rising ground. Meanwhile Gerrard had ordered an advance, the Carabineers and the Guides on the right, linked to the centre by a wing of the 7th Panjab Infantry, and six light guns. In the centre the 1st Fusiliers, the heavy 18-pounders, which it had cost so much trouble to drag across the sand, a company of the Guide Infantry, and the 23rd Panjab Infantry.

Gerrard advances

To connect the centre with the Irregular Cavalry and Multani Horse on the left, and protected by the Sikh Infantry, were four light Sikh guns. In front of all rode Gerrard, a handsome man, with bright dark eyes and wavy grey hair, his red coat covered with decorations, conspicuous on his white Arab, surrounded by his staff. So steady were the movements, it might have been an ordinary field-day.

The trooper of whom I have spoken had scarcely rejoined his regiment when the enemy’s guns opened with grape on our right. There replied to them first the light guns of the assailants; next the big eighteens and an 8-inch howitzer.

The cavalry of the rival hosts join

Many hostile saddles are emptied; so the rebels, thinking this poor work, mass their cavalry on their left, and come down with a shout. But the movement has been foreseen, and the Carabineers and Guides, moving up at the same moment, gallop to meet

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them. About midway between the two lines the rival hosts join.

The cavalry conflict

It was a gallant conflict. Never did the enemy fight better. There was neither shirking nor flinching. Both sides went at it with a will. The Guides were commanded by Kennedy63, “the worthy son of a worthy sire,” and he led them with a skill and a daring which could not be surpassed. The Carabineers, splendidly led by Wardlaw, who commanded the entire cavalry, equalled, if they did not surpass, their former splendid achievements. Never was there a charge more gallant, and certainly never were the British Cavalry met so fairly or in so full a swing by the rebel horse. As the rival parties clashed in deadly shock, the artillery fire on both sides was suspended as it were by instinct, the gunners gazing with outstretched necks at the converging horsemen.

The result was not long doubtful. Though the enemy fought with the courage of despair, though they exposed their lives with a resolution which forbade the thought of yielding, they were fairly borne down. The Carabineers and the Guides forced them back, cleaving down the most stubborn foemen, till the remainder, overpowered, sought safety in flight. Then Wardlaw and Kennedy, mindful of the mistake of Prince Rupert, gathered up their men, and, instead of pursuing the routed horsemen of the enemy, wheeled suddenly round to the left, and came down with a swoop on the enemy’s guns. The shock was irresistible; the gunners who stood were cut down. Leaving the guns, the cavalry then went on to prevent any rally on the part of the enemy’s horse.

The infantry conflict

Scarcely, however, had they passed by when the enemy’s infantry and gunners, recovering from their panic, pushed forward, re-took their lost guns, and opened fire on our advancing infantry. They were not allowed to continue for long this hazardous game. For, the 1st Fusiliers, coming up with a run, reached the guns after two rounds had been fired, and recaptured them.

The conflict on the left

On the British left the cavalry movement had not been so successful. The Multani Horse, new levies, had not displayed the alacrity to come to close quarters which their comrades on the right had so conspicuously manifested. In vain did their gallant commander,

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Lieutenant Lind, dash amongst the foe. But few at first followed him. Noting this, the Field Engineer, Lieutenant Humphrey, who that day acted as Aide-de-Camp to Gerrard, rode up to the hesitating mass, called upon them to follow him, and charged single-handed the rebel horse. Then the Multanis followed, not, however, until the gallant Humphrey had been unhorsed and cut down, receiving a severe wound in his right arm; another, slighter, on the left side of his body; “while a third entirely divided his leather helmet and thick turban which covered it, fortunately without injuring his head.” He subsequently recovered.

The enemy defeated

But the action was over. The right and the centre had won it, and the charge of the Multanis, tardy though it was, completed the good work of their comrades. The enemy, beaten and in disorder, fell back through the gardens and broken ground on their left, in full retreat to their camp. The British followed them up with vigour, each arm vying with the other. It was on this occasion that the Horse Artillery performed a feat unsurpassed even in the annals of that splendid regiment.

Cookworthy’s gallant feat

It is thus recorded by an eye-witness64: “On turning up from the left, the Artillery got into a ploughed field, which was separated from the road by a mud wall fully three feet high. At this, Dawes’s troop, this day commanded by Captain Cookworthy65, rode at full gallop. On they come – over go the leaders, nicely both together, next follows the centre pair, and lastly the wheelers take the leap; then, with a sort of kick and a bump, over goes the gun on to the hard road. The Fusiliers were so delighted that they gave a willing cheer, while the Sikhs, who witnessed the feat, said nothing for some time, but looked on with open mouths and eyes; at last, ‘Truly that is wonderful!’ burst from their lips spontaneously66.”

The old Bengal Artillery

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Of such was the old Bengal Artillery, unsurpassed and unsurpassable!

Gerrard, directing the pursuit

Colonel Gerrard, the commander of the column, had ridden in front the whole time. He was the only man of the force – his orderly officer, Captain Osborn alone excepted – dressed in red, the infantry wearing the khaki67, or dust-coloured uniform, then authorised for service in the field. As in the fight, so in the pursuit, Gerrard maintained his prominent position. He pushed forward the men, till he reached a rivulet with partially wooded banks. On these banks he drew in his horse, whilst he directed the movements of the troops to the other side. To him, thus sitting on his white Arab and giving directions calmly, one of his staff officers, Lieutenant Hogg, suddenly I pointed out a man on the opposite bank taking deliberate aim at him. Just then the man fired, but missed. Hogg entreated the Colonel to move back. Gerrard replied that he would move in a minute, but that he must see what was going on.

is killed

But,. before he did move, the man had reloaded and fired. This time his aim was true. Gerrard fell mortally wounded, and died in two hours.

Caulfield takes command

By the death of Gerrard the command devolved upon Captain Caulfield, then commanding the 1st Fusiliers. But, before the intimation of his promotion reached him, the troops, carrying out Gerrard’s plan, had crossed the rivulet, and had stormed the enemy’s camp. The action, however, was by no means over.

The enemy make a sudden stroke for victory

The rebel horse, rallying on the right, made a sudden charge on Lind’s Multanis and recaptured two of their lost guns. Their success, however, was but momentary.

but are foiled

Two companies of the Fusiliers, under Lieutenant Warner, charged and recovered the guns, whilst the main body of the regiment, under McFarlane, expelled the rebel infantry from the still remaining buildings in the fort of Narnul. The rebels then dispersed, leaving in the hands of the victors the eight guns, their camp, and the fort.

November 17–23

The next day Caulfield gave the force a rest, only sending out parties of horse to ascertain the direction in which the enemy had fled. This direction proving

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to be the south-east, towards the dominions of the Rajah of Alwar, Caulfield sent off on the 19th to follow them.

Seaton is sent to replace Gerrard; he returns to Delhi preparatory to marching towards Kanhpur

The rebels were, however, invisible. On the 23rd the force reached Paltaoli. Here it was joined by its new commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Seaton, C.B., sent for that purpose from Dehli. To that place Seaton marched the force to prepare it to escort to the camp of the Commander-in-Chief at Kanhpur a large convoy of grain and stores – covering above eighteen miles of road. Here I must leave him, to return once more to Calcutta, there to note how the Commander-in-Chief selected by Lord Palmerston to crush the mutiny was preparing to carry out his task.

Footnotes

51. Eight Months’ Campaign against the Bengal Sepoy Army during the Mutiny of 1857, by Colonel, now General Sir George Bouchier, K.C.B.

52. A traveller’s resting-place.

53. Bourchier’s Eight Months’ Campaign.

54. “We went,’ writes Mr. C. Raikes (Notes on the Agra Revolt), “to the royal bastion this morning, to see Colonel Greathed’s movable column cross the bridge – Sikhs, Lancers, three batteries of Horse Artillery, and skeletons of two Queen’s regiments. This column came in by long forced marches, owing to an express sent out by Colonel Fraser. From the bastion we went down to the Dehli gate. The Queen’s 8th passed within three yards of us. ‘Those dreadful-looking men must be Afghans,’ said a lady to me, as they slowly and wearily marched by. I did not discover they were Englishmen till I saw a short clay pipe in the mouth of nearly the last man. My heart bled to see these jaded, miserable objects, and to think of all they must have suffered since May last, to reduce fine Englishmen to. such worn, sun-dried skeletons.”

55. An attempt has been made to deny this. In his official report, Mr. Phillips, Magistrate of Agra, quotes a memorandum by Mr. – now Sir William – Muir, that “there was no intimation given to Colonel Greathed, by any of the authorities, on the morning of the 10th, that the enemy were recrossing.” But the presence of the enemy was either unknown or disbelieved, for I find it stated in a manuscript journal of a very high official: “Major Hennessy, Commandant of the Agra Militia, had been on picket duty during the previous night (9th) with militia-men, mounted and foot, at the Metcalfe Testimonial and the cemetery beyond it. His warning of the approach of the enemy, though some of his scouts had been fired upon, was disregarded. Such was the confidence that the arrival of Colonel Greathed’s force would deter any attempt, that his repeated remonstrances led to his being summarily remanded to the Fort. The same information, given by one of Mr. Muir’s spies, was scornfully rejected!’ Rejected – by whom? Certainly by the Agra authorities. Mr. Muir himself, writing the same day to Sir Hope Grant, says, “It was a most complete surprise in one sense to us, but a greater one to them (the rebels).’’ Major Norman, now General Sir H. Norman, K.C.B., wrote in 1858: “The head authorities at Agra informed Colonel Greathed that the insurgent force from Dholptdr was beyond the Kiri Nadi, ten miles from cantonments, across which they would find difficulty in passing. ... This information was given in positive terms.” It is clear, then, that convinced in their own minds, that the enemy had crossed the Kiri Nadi, and were ten miles distant, the Agra officials conveyed their convictions on this point to Colonel Greathed. It was, perhaps, unwise in him to trust to this.

56. “Such was the terrible panic among the latter,” writes Sir George Bourchier, K.C.B., an eye-witness and actor in the drama,” that those officers who had gone into the fort and were eager to get back to their posts could not stem the torrent of affrighted beings; an officer of the Dragoons in attempting it was fairly carried off his legs and borne back with the crowd. Not satisfied with legitimate means of escape, the gun horses in many cases were seized as they were being led to the guns, and were found next morning in the fort.”

57. Note, Vol. III. pages 181–5.

58. It is but justice to these men to record that, in consequence of their admirable behaviour on this and on other occasions, Lord Canning asked Captain Pearson if he would undertake to raise a battery of them. But there were several reasons why it was deemed inexpedient to give a permanent character to the experiment.

59. Vol. III. pages 190-2.

60. Also called, but incorrectly, Ballamgarh.

61. The unfortunate Rajah was subsequently tried and hanged at Dehli.

62. Blackwood’s Magazine, June 1858. The writer of the article was present at the affair.

63. Now Major-General Kennedy, C.B.

64. Blackwood’s Magazine, June 1858.

65. Now Major-General Colin Cookworthy.

66. The credibility of this story has been questioned by a reviewer, who, I venture to believe, was not present on the occasion. The feat was, nevertheless, witnessed by Dr. Brougham, then attached to the 1st Fusiliers, and by many others. General Cookworthy still happily lives, and, if appealed to by the reviewer, will be able to satisfy that gentleman, if any evidence short of that of his own eyesight can satisfy him, that the writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, who was present, told the exact truth.

67. Khaki; the Hindustani for “dusty.”

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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