CHAPTER XIV.
THE RESIDENCY AT LAKHNAO AFTER CHINHAT—HAVELOCK'S FIRST ATTEMPTS TO RELIEVE IT.
I left Sir Henry Lawrence, on the 1st and 2d of July, concentrating his troops within the Residency of Lakhnao. He had, on the evening of the 1st, caused the Machchí Bhawan to be blown up, and its garrison, guns and treasure to be withdrawn to the enclosure which he had fixed upon as the place most capable of offering resistance to the rebels. Within that enclosure he had, on the morning of the 2d of July, 535 men of the 32d Foot, fifty of the 84th, eighty-nine artillerymen, 100 English officers attached to the loyal sipáhís, or unattached, 153 civilians, covenanted and uncovenanted servants of the State, and 765 natives. The place these held was, from a military point of view, not defensible. The slight fortifications, in the shape of earthworks, which had been contemplated, were still incomplete, whilst distant from these less than the width of the Strand were houses capable of being occupied in force by the rebels. The west and south faces of the enclosure were practically undefended, the bastion commenced at the angle of the two faces having been left unfinished. The position may, in a few words, be roughly described as comprising a number of houses built for ordinary domestic purposes, separated originally from one another by small plots of ground but now roughly united by mud walls and trenches. These houses were contained in a space called, from the chief house within it, the Residency, 2150 feet long from north-west to south-east, and 1200 broad from east to west. The defences, as they were gradually constituted, beginning from the Baillie guard at the eastermost point, and continuing northward, were (1) Alexander's battery, (2) the water-gate battery, (3) the Redan battery, (4) a palisade. From that point southward there followed (1) Innes's garrison, (2) the bhúsá guard, (3) Gubbins's garrison and Gubbins's battery, (4) the Sikh square. Thence eastward (1) the Kánhpur battery, (2) Thomas's battery, (3) Anderson's garrison, (4) the post-office garrison, (5) the judicial garrison, (6) Sago's guard, (7) the financial garrison. The defences were not, I have said, complete when the blockade began. They were, at the best, very rough, run up under great difficulties, and never in their finished state deserving the character of regular fortifications. It was only gradually that the several houses and their occupants came to be distinguished by the names I have appended to each.
From the day when Lawrence concentrated his troops within the enclosure the fire of the rebels upon it had been continuous. The mutinous sipáhís, the old aristocracy, the dispossessed landowners, the discontented middlemen in the districts, all contributed their quota to the memorable leaguer. In the cause to the triumph of which they devoted their energies they displayed a persistence, a perseverance, and a resolution which gave evidence of the strength of their convictions. Night and day, from the tops of the houses in close vicinity to the intrenchment, from every point where cover was available, they poured in an unremitting fire of round-shot, of musketry, of matchlock balls. From the howitzers they had filched from the British they sent shells hissing into the Residency itself. One of these, the very first day of the siege, caused to the assailed a calamity which was mourned wherever the English language is spoken.
Sir Henry Lawrence had occupied in the Residency a room convenient for noticing the movements of the enemy, but much exposed to their fire. Seated in this room, the day after the fight at Chinhat, conversing with his Secretary, Mr Couper, he was startled by the bursting within the room of an eight-inch shell. No harm followed the explosion, but the danger to the most precious life in the garrison made a deep impression on his staff, and Sir Henry at length agreed to remove to a less exposed room on the morrow. The following morning, the 2d, he went out early to arrange the disposition of the force which had come in from the Machchí Bhawan. He returned, tired, about eight o'clock, and lay on his bed whilst he transacted business with his Adjutant-General, Captain Wilson. Lying near him was his nephew, George Lawrence. Suddenly there came a sheet of flame, a terrific report and a shock, followed by intense darkness. It was a shell from the howitzer which had been fired in the morning. It left George Lawrence, as it burst, unscathed, it tore off the shirt from the back of Captain Wilson, and it mortally wounded Sir Henry Lawrence. He lingered in extreme agony to the morning of the 4th, and then died.
The death of this great man was felt by the garrison as a loss only not irreparable, because they inherited the splendid courage which had animated him from the first hour of the insurrection to the moment when he was called away. They felt, one and all, that they could best testify their respect for his memory by carrying out their stern defence on the lines he had laid down. He was succeeded, as chief commissioner, by Major Banks, an officer of rare merit who had been his friend and confidant. The command of the troops, however, devolved upon Brigadier Inglis of the 32d.
Whilst Havelock was fighting his way from Allahábád to Kánhpur, in the manner described in the preceding chapter, the garrison of the Residency was exposed to the unremitting attacks of an enemy vastly superior to it in numbers and strength of position. The compass of this volume will not permit me to give in full detail a history of the several assaults. It must suffice to refer to those of the greatest importance. From the very outset the damage done to life and material were great. Sir Henry Lawrence died, as I have told, on the 4th of July. Mrs Dorin and Mr Ommanney, the latter one of the prominent members of the Civil Service, were killed or mortally wounded the same day. Major Francis, of the 13th N. I., a very gallant officer, who had successfully brought in the garrison of the Machchí Bhawan, and Mr Polehampton, the Chaplain, succumbed to the rebels' fire on the 7th. Before the dawn of the 20th of the month the casualties had been increased by Mr Bryson, at one time Sergeant-Major 16th Lancers, shot through the head on the 9th; by Lieutenant Dashwood, 48th N. I., who succumbed the same day to cholera; by Lieutenant Charlton, 32d 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.
Nor was the damage less to the materials which formed the component parts of the defences. On the 15th Anderson's house was entirely destroyed by round-shot. The garrison, however, still continued to hold the ground on which it had stood. On the 18th many round-shots were fired into the post-office, Fayrer's house, commanded by Gould Weston, Gubbins's house, and the brigade mess-house. At one time the rebels nearly succeeded in setting fire to the Residency house by means of carcasses.[1]
The difficulties the garrison had to contend with were enormous. They had, in addition to the work of active defence, to dig out and carry stores, to shift the guns, to dig trenches, to sink shafts for mines, to bury the dead, especially the dead animals, whose putrifying carcasses contaminated the air, to repair damages. In all these duties the officers shared equally the labours with the men, and all exerted themselves to the utmost.
Sometimes they made a sortie. They attempted the first on the 7th. The sallying party succeeded in driving out the enemy from a position they held commanding the defences. Lieutenant Lawrence, who led it, obtained for his cool daring the coveted Victoria Cross.
I have given the casualties of the officers and others up to the 20th, because on that day the rebels made their first grand assault. Their movement began at half-past eight in the morning, was sustained vigorously for several hours, and was finally beaten back at four o'clock. Several officers and men covered themselves with glory. Conspicuous amongst them was Ensign Loughnan of the 13th N. I., against whose post, Innes's house, the weight of the attack was directed. The garrison here consisted of twelve men of the 32d Foot, twelve of the 13th N. I., and some clerks. They repulsed an enemy vastly superior in numbers. Another attack, made simultaneously against the Redan, was repelled with equal courage and equal determination.
Of this general attack, the first grand assault against the garrison, it has been remarked that it was a triumph of British coolness and pluck over Asiatic numbers and swagger; of the mind over matter. The writer[2] adds that, in another sense, it was still more important. It proved to the mutineers that they had miscalculated their chances; that, unless famine should come to aid them, they and their countrymen would never triumph over that handful of Europeans.
The result of that day's action, doubtless, greatly 'encouraged the garrison. Their losses, four killed and twelve wounded, had been small, whilst the casualties of the rebels had been severe. The day following, however, they suffered a bereavement second only to that which they had experienced when Sir Henry Lawrence died. His successor. Major Banks, whilst reconnoitring from the top of an outhouse, was shot dead through the head. He had been an invaluable colleague to Brigadier Inglis, and it was felt there was no one left who could replace him. The office he had held was accordingly left vacant until the Government of India could be communicated with.
The garrison had no certain knowledge of the events passing at Kánhpur. They had despatched many letters by native messengers believed to be faithful, but up to the 25th of July no reply had been received. Three days previously, however, on the 22d, their most trusted messenger, a pensioned sipáhí named Angad, arrived to state that he had seen the victorious English regiments at Kánhpur; but it was not till the 25th that the same messenger, who had been sent out again, returned with a letter from Tytler stating that 'Havelock was advancing with a force sufficient to bear down all opposition, and would arrive in five or six days.' Inglis replied by despatching, by Angad, to Havelock a plan of his position and of the roads by which it could be approached. This reply reached Havelock at Mangalwár, a village five miles from the Ganges, in the province of Oudh. To reach Lakhnao there still remained forty miles to traverse. Before describing the further progress of the leaguer of the Residency it is necessary that I should return to Kánhpur, and narrate how it was that Havelock had been able to push on so far, and yet failed to accomplish the entire journey.
Neill, I have said, had joined Havelock, with a few troops, on the 20th of July. Five days later Havelock crossed the Ganges with the intention of endeavouring to relieve the Residency. In the interval between the two dates he had despatched Major Stephenson to destroy Bithor, evacuated by Náná Sáhib and his troops. Stephenson burned down the palace, blew up the magazine, and brought back to Kánhpur twenty cannon abandoned by the Náná. Simultaneously Havelock had designed, armed, and nearly finished at Kánhpur a fortified work commanding the river, large enough to accommodate the 300 men, all he could spare to hold the place in his absence. The command of these he intrusted to Neill. He had begun, on the 21st, his preparations for crossing the river; had sent over his guns on that day, the infantry on the succeeding days. On the 25th he crossed himself, and moved that day to Mangalwár, five miles. There he halted to complete his arrangements for the carriage of his ammunition and supplies. These were completed by the 28th, and he made his first move forward the following morning.
For the purpose which he had in view his force was small indeed. It was composed of less than 1500 men, of whom barely 1200 were Europeans. His cavalry consisted of sixty volunteers and mounted soldiers, his artillery of ten small field-pieces, his infantry of portions of the 64th, the 84th, the 78th, the Madras Fusiliers, and Brasyer's Sikhs.
At five o'clock, on the 29th, this little force began its forward movement. After a march of three miles Havelock discerned the rebels occupying a strong position in front of and in the village of Unáo. From this position he dislodged them after a fierce conflict, in which they lost fifteen guns and about 500 men. He then pushed on to Bashíratganj, six miles distant. Bashíratganj was a walled town, intersected by the high road its entrance protected by a turreted gateway, with lateral defences, and a wet ditch in front. Still more to the front of it was a large jhíl, or shallow pond, whilst another, still larger, lay behind the town, on the road to Lakhnao, traversed by a narrow causeway. Havelock conceived the idea of sending round the 64th to cut off the enemy from the causeway, whilst he should assail it in front Unfortunately the turning movement took longer than was expected, and the troops with Havelock made their front assault before the 64th had completed it. The result was that, though the rebels suffered severely, the bulk of them escaped across the causeway.
The British loss in the two actions had been severe also. Eighty-eight men had been placed hors-de-combat, and eighty-eight men represented nearly a twelfth of his European fighting strength. A nearly equal number of sick reduced that strength still further. Havelock had used up, too, one-third of his gun ammunition, whilst he had accomplished but fifteen miles out of the forty-five necessary to traverse. In front of him were positions which would be held against him still more steadfastly, and by a greater number of troops. Then, too, the question forced itself upon him, how could he carry his sick and wounded? He could not leave them, because he could spare no troops to guard them. Just at the moment moreover, he had received information of that fatal mutiny at Dánápur, the consequence of the imbecility of the Calcutta Government, which came at the moment to add terribly to the existing complications. There were, also, rebel troops in the districts, any number of whom combining might, if he were to advance further, cut him off from the Ganges. Feeling that these difficulties were too great to be encountered with the force at his disposal, he fell back, on the 31st, to Mangalwár, and despatched thence his sick and wounded into Kánhpur, with a letter to Neill informing him of the reason of his retreat, and adding that, to enable him to reach Lakhnao, it was necessary he should receive a reinforcement of 1000 men and another field-battery.
To this letter Neill wrote a most intemperate, even an insulting. reply. Havelock was very angry. He contented himself, however, for the moment with warning Neill that considerations of the public service alone prevented him from placing him under arrest. But it is the opinion of Havelock's latest biographer[3] that Neill's letter may so have operated on a high-strung temperament, made sensitive by disappointment following on an inspiriting sequence of brilliant successes, as to induce Havelock to attempt another advance without adequate reinforcements. At all events Havelock did attempt a second forward movement. Setting out on the 4th of August, he found himself the following morning in front of Bashíratganj; occupied it, but could not prevent the rebels from carrying off all their guns, and taking a strong position a little further on. He then recognised that to advance further would probably involve the loss of his whole force. Fortified by the opinion of the three officers of his staff whom he consulted, Tytler, Crommelin, and young Henry Havelock, he determined then to fall back. He had once again reached Mangalwár, on the 10th, when he heard that the rebels were making a great show at Bashíratganj. Glad to seize the chance of inflicting upon them a severe blow before he should cross, he promptly marched on that place, caught his enemy, killed 200 of them, and captured two guns; then turning again, he recrossed the Ganges into Kánhpur on the 13th. There he read the details of that insane action of the Government of India by which the much desired and needful reinforcements had been withheld from him at the most critical period of his command.
To understand how this happened I must ask the reader to return with me to Calcutta, and to accompany me thence to Dánápur and Patná.