CHAPTER XXV.
ÁZAMGARH — RECONQUEST OF ROHILKHAND, OF OUDH, OF THE ÁZAMGARH AND WESTERN BIHÁR DISTRICTS.
Whilst Sir Colin Campbell was putting the last finishing stroke to his operations against Lakhnao there occurred an event in the Ázamgarh district which taxed very severely the resources immediately available to Lord Canning. On the 27th of March an express informed the Governor-General that, on the 22d, Kunwar Singh, the famous chieftain of Western Bihár, had surprised the British force, under Colonel Milman, near Atráoliá, twenty-five miles from Ázamgarh, had forced it to fall back on the last-named place, and was there besieging it. It was too true. Milman, whose force consisted of 206 men of the 37th Foot and of 60 Madras Cavalry, had been caught napping; had fallen back, first on Koilsá, then on Ázamgarh; had received there reinforcements in the shape of 46 men of the Madras Rifles (natives) and 280 men of his own regiment, the 37th Foot, under Colonel Dames, who, as senior officer, then assumed command. On the 27th Dames had attempted a sortie, and had been beaten back.
The situation was a difficult one for Lord Canning, for Ázamgarh was not very distant from Allahábád, where he was, and if Kunwar Singh were to compel the surrender of the force behind the walls of Ázamgarh the conflagration might reach even Banáras. Realising to the fullest extent the possibilities which Kunwar Singh might utilise, whilst Oudh still remained unsubdued, Lord Canning took prompt and efficient measures to nip the evil in the bud. There happened to be at Allahábád a wing of the 13th L. I., commanded by a most gallant soldier, Lord Mark Kerr. Lord Canning sent for Lord Mark, explained to him the situation, and authorised him to take the measures he might consider necessary to deal with it. That night Lord Mark started, with his wing, 391 strong, for Banáras, picked up there a troop — fifty-five men and two officers — of the Queen's Bays, seventeen gunners and one officer, with two six-pounder guns and two 5½-inch mortars, and set out for Ázamgarh the night of the 2d of April. His entire force consisted of twenty-two officers and 444 men. On the evening of the 5th he had reached Sarsána, eight miles from Ázamgarh. Kunwar Singh had notice of his arrival there, and prepared an ambush for him, to entrap him whilst he should be pushing on in the early grey of the next morning. Lord Mark did so push on, and became entangled in the ambush, but by a display of combined coolness and courage, very remarkable under the circumstances, largely outnumbered as he was, not only extricated his men, but inflicted upon the rebels a crushing defeat, and relieved Ázamgarh. It was one of the most brilliant achievements of the war.
The Commander-in-Chief had received news of Milman's disaster on the 28th of March. Realising, as Lord Canning had realised, its full significance, he despatched at once General Lugard, with three English regiments, 700 Sikh sabres, and eighteen guns, to march, by way of Atráoliá, to Ázamgarh, there to deal with Kunwar Singh. To Lugard's operations I shall refer presently. Meanwhile, I propose to take up the story of the measures decided upon for the pacification of Rohilkhand and of Oudh.
For the reconquest of Oudh Sir Colin detailed one army corps, under Hope Grant, to march to Bárí, twenty-nine miles from Lakhnao, to expel thence the rebels collected there under the Maulaví, to march eastward thence to Muhammadábád, and, following the course of the Gogra, to reconnoitre Bitaulí, thence to cover the return to their own country of the Nipál troops, under Jang Bahádur. Whilst Hope Grant should be moving in that direction, Walpole, with a moveable column, was to march up the Ganges, await near Fathgarh the arrival of Sir Colin, who would draw to himself as he advanced other columns converging to the same point.
Hope Grant carried out his instructions to the letter. He defeated the Maulaví at Bárí, found Bitaulí evacuated, saw Jang Bahádur on his way to the frontier, and then returned to protect the road between Kánhpur and Lakhnao, seriously threatened at Unáo. Walpole was less successful. Obstinate, self-willed, and an indifferent soldier, he led his column against the fort of Ruyiá, two miles from the Ganges, and fifty-one west by north from Lakhnao, attacked it on its only unassailable face, and after losing several men, and the most gifted soldier in the British army, the accomplished Adrian Hope, allowed the defenders to escape from the face which he himself should have assailed. He moved on thence, expelled the rebels from Sirsá, and was joined on the Rohilkhand side of Fathgarh, on the 27th of April, by Sir Colin.
Seaton, who had been left at Fathgarh, noticing that the rebels had collected in considerable force in front of him, had issued from that place on the 6th April, and had inflicted on them a crushing defeat at Kankar, between Aliganj and Bángáun. By this victory he secured the gates of Duáb against an enemy issuing from either of the menaced provinces. Whilst he was keeping that door closed, Penny, with another column, was moving down from Bulandshahr. Penny met Sir Colin at Fathgarh, on 24th April, then crossed the Ganges and marched on Usehat. Finding that place deserted, and being told that his march to Budáun would not be opposed, Penny started on a night march for that place. But the rebels lay in ambush for him and surprised him, and although his column defeated them, he was slain. Colonel Jones of the Carabineers succeeded him, and under his orders the column marched to join Sir Colin at Míránpur Katrá on the 3d of May.
Whilst these columns, united under Sir Colin, should invade Rohilkhand from its eastern side, it had been arranged that a brigade, under Colonel Coke, should enter it from Rúrkí. Coke had arrived at Rúrkí the 22d of February, but so disorganised was the country that April was approaching before he could complete his commissariat arrangements. When he was ready, Sir Colin made the command a divisional one, and sent Colonel John Jones to lead it. The change, however, did not affect the order of the proceedings, for the good understanding between Coke and his superior in rank remained perfect to the end.
The division crossed the Ganges at Hardwár on the 17th of April, defeated the rebels at Bhogníwálá (17th), and at Naghíná (21st), and reached the vicinity of Murádábád on the 26th of April. Entering that place, Coke was able to seize the persons of several notorious rebels, and then pushed on to take part in the operations which Sir Colin was directing against Baréli.
Sir Colin, joined on the 27th of April by Walpole, had entered Sháhjahánpur the 30th. He had hoped to find there the Maulaví and Náná Sáhib, but both had fled he knew not whither. Leaving there a small detachment, under Colonel Hale, he moved then on Miránpur Katrá, picked up there, as I have told, the brigade but recently commanded by Penny, and marched on Barélí. There Khán Bahádur Khán still tyrannised. It seemed as though he had resolved to strike a blow for the permanence of his sway.
It was seven o'clock on the morning of the 5th of May when Sir Colin led his troops to attack the rebel chieftain. In his first line he had the Highland brigade, composed of the 93d, 42d, and 79th, supported by that excellent Sikh regiment the 4th Panjáb Rifles, and the Balúch battalion, with a heavy field-battery in the centre, and horse-artillery and cavalry on both flanks. The second line, composed of the 78th, seven companies of the 64th, and four of the 82d, and the 2d and 22d Panjáb Infantry, protected the baggage and the siege-train. The enormous superiority of the rebels in cavalry required such a precaution.
It was apparently the object of the rebels to entice the British to the position they had selected as the best for their purposes, for they abandoned their first line as Sir Colin advanced, and fell back on the old cantonment of Barélí, covering their movement with their cavalry and guns. Sir Colin, inclined to humour them, anxious only to bring them to action, crossed the Nattiá rivulet, and was advancing beyond it, when the Gházís, men who devoted their lives for their religion, made a desperate onslaught on a village which the 4th Panjábis had but just entered. With the élan of their rush they swept the surprised Sikhs out of the village, and then dashed against the 42d, hastening to their support Sir Colin happened to be on the spot. He had just time to call out, 'Stand firm, 42d; bayonet them as they come on!' when the Gházís were upon them. But vain was their rush against that wall of old soldiers! They killed some indeed, but not a single man of the Gházís survived. Some of them, however, had got round the 42d, and inflicted some damage. But they, too, met the fate of their comrades. The first line then advanced, and for about a mile and a half swept all before it. Just then the information reached Sir Colin that the rebel cavalry had attacked his baggage, but had been repulsed. He halted to enable the second line, with the baggage and heavy guns to close up, sending only the 79th and 93d to seize the suburbs in their front. This attempt led to fresh fighting with the Gházís, which, however, ended as had the previous attacks. In a very important particular the halt made by Sir Colin, desirable as it was in many respects, was unfortunate, as it enabled the rebel chief to withdraw, with his troops, from the town. It would even have been better had the attack been delayed for a single day; for on the following morning, as Sir Colin entered the evacuated town on the one side, the division commanded by Jones and Coke entered it on the other. Khán Báhádar Khán eventually escaped into Nipál.
Meanwhile, the Maulaví, who had evacuated Sháhjahánpur on the approach of Sir Colin, had no sooner learnt that the British general was approaching Barélí, than he turned back from Muhamdí, and resolved to surprise Hale at Sháhjahánpur. It is more than probable that, had he marched without a halt, he would have succeeded. But when within four miles of the place he stopped to rest his men. This halt gave to a loyal villager the opportunity to hasten to apprise Hale of his approach, and that officer had time to take measures to meet his enemy. Giving up the town, he fell back on the gaol. The Maulaví, who had eight guns, followed him to that place, invested it and from the 3d to the morning of the 11th of May kept up against it an all but incessant cannonade.
Information of the position of Hale reached Sir Colin on the 7th. He at once despatched John Jones, with the 60th Rifles, the 79th, a wing of the 82d, the 22d Panjáb Infantry, two squadrons of the Carabineers, the Multání horse, and guns in proportion, to dispose, if he could, of the most persistent of all the rebels. Jones started on the 8th, reached the vicinity of Sháhjahánpur the 11th, drove the rebel outposts before him, and effected a junction with Hale. But the Maulaví was too strong in cavalry to permit of his being attacked with any chance of success. Jones halted, then, until he should receive from Sir Colin troops of the arm of which he stood in need. The Maulaví, meanwhile, occupied the open plain, whither rebels who had been elsewhere baffled flocked to him from all sides. Matters continued so till the morning of the 15th, when the Maulaví, whose following had greatly increased, attacked Jones. The fight lasted all day without his having been able to make the smallest impression on the serried ranks of the British. Sir Colin, meanwhile, deeming the campaign at an end, had distributed his forces. He was himself on his way to Fathgarh, with a small body of troops, when he received Jones's message. Sending then for the remainder of the 9th Lancers, he turned his course towards Sháhjahánpur, and effected a junction there with Jones on the 18th.
Even then he was too weak in cavalry to force the rebels to a decisive battle. A skirmish, however, brought on a partial action near the village of Panhat. It resulted in the repulse of the rebels, and in nothing more. But the Maulaví, realising that he could make no impression on the British infantry, fell back into Oudh, to await there better fortune. Sir Colin then distributed the troops, and closed the summer campaign. He had reconquered Rohilkhand, but a great part of Oudh still remained defiant.
A fortunate chance rid him, a few days later, of his most dangerous and persistent enemy. No sooner had the Maulaví realised that Sir Colin had put his troops in summer quarters than, with a small following, he attempted on the 5th of June to effect a forcible entrance into the town of Powain. The Rájá, a supporter of the British, had refused him entry, and when the Maulaví, seated on his elephant, pressed forward to force the gate, the Rájá's brother seized a gun and shot him dead. Thus ignominiously, by the hands of one of his own countrymen, terminated the life of one of the principal fomentors of the Mutiny, and its ablest and most persistent supporter.
It will be recollected that when Sir Colin, after the capture of Lakhnao, distributed his forces for the pursuit of the rebels, he despatched a strong column, under General Lugard, to Ázamgarh to dispose there of Kunwar Singh. To the proceedings of that general and of his successors I must now ask the reader's attention.
Lugard left Lakhnao on the 29th of March, and made straight for Juánpur. When approaching that place he learned that the rebels had collected a few miles off to the number of 3000. He reached Tígrá on the afternoon of the 11th of April, after a march of sixteen miles, attacked the rebels the same evening, and defeated them, with the loss of eighty killed, and two guns. The victors lost but one killed and six wounded; but the killed man was the gallant Charles Havelock, nephew of the renowned General. Lugard then marched for Ázamgarh, still invested by Kunwar Singh with 13,000 men. That wily chieftain was resolved not to stake the issue of the campaign on a single battle. Whilst ranging his troops, therefore, so as apparently to guard the Tons, he really left there a widely spread out screen, whilst with the main body he hastily retreated towards the Ganges. Lugard forced (April 15) the passage of the Tons, but the 'screen' left by Kunwar Singh had made so resolute a defence that the main body had gained some twelve miles before they were overtaken. They were mostly old sipáhís, and on this occasion they did credit to the training they had received. Forming up, on the approach of the British, like veterans, they repulsed, whilst still retreating, every attack, and finally forced the pursuers to cease their efforts. The latter had to mourn the death this day, from wounds received in the fight, of the illustrious Venables, the famous indigo planter, who, with his comrade Dunn, had almost single-handed held his district when it had been abandoned by those to whose care it had been committed. On this day Middleton of the 29th Foot greatly distinguished himself by the rescue from crowds of the rebels of young Hamilton of the 3d Sikhs, who lay seriously wounded, and who ultimately died of his wounds.
Lugard, on entering Ázamgarh, had found for the moment sufficient occupation cut out for him in the district. He therefore committed the pursuit of Kunwar Singh to Brigadier Douglas. But before Douglas could make much way the rebel chief had reached the village of Naghai, where, in a strong position, he awaited his pursuer. Douglas attacked him there on the 17th, but though he forced the position, it was only to find himself baffled. Kunwar Singh had defended it long enough to secure two lines of retreat to his troops. By these his divided army fell back, misleading the pursuers, and reuniting when the pursuit ceased. On the 20th, however, Douglas succeeded in catching the rebels whilst halted at Sikandarpur, almost, indeed, in surprising them. But again they disappeared by several paths, to reunite again at some fixed spot. Not only did they so reunite, but, succeeding in putting on a false scent the officer who had been charged to pounce upon them should they attempt to cross the Ganges, they actually crossed that river, and reached Jagdispur unmolested. There Kunwar Singh received a large addition to his force. His first overt act was to completely defeat, with considerable loss, a party of troops led against him by Captain Le Grand of the 35th Foot (April 23). Again did Western Bihár seem at the mercy of the rebels. Expresses were sent across the river urging Douglas to come to the rescue. Douglas at once crossed into Sháhábád, but, before he could act, the veteran chief, who had been driven by his wrongs into rebellion, and who had more than repaid the British for the insults he deemed they had showered upon him, was no more. Kunwar Singh died three days after he had defeated Le Grand.
From that date till the pacification at the close of the year the contest in Western Bihár assumed all the character of a guerilla warfare. The rebels were surrounded, they were beaten, they were pursued, only again to reappear. From the end of April to the end of November they kept the district in continuous turmoil. To the genius of the present Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, then Captain Havelock, it was due finally that they were expelled. That officer devised a system of mounted infantry who should give them no rest. In three actions, fought on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of October, he killed 500 of them, and drove 4400 across the Kaimur hills. In those hills, on the 24th of November, Douglas surprised these, killed many of them, and took all their arms and ammunition. Before the close of the year he could boast that the districts he had been sent to pacify had been completely cleared. But it had taken a long time, and had cost many lives.