THE MUTINY.
In a previous chapter it was related, that at the close of the year 1856 symptoms of mutiny were exhibited in the Bengal army. At the beginning of 1857 these symptoms became demonstrative and terrible. It is difficult to say how far an acute and foreseeing government might have prevented the evil, but the last persons to observe the signs of the times, and provide against the rising calamity, were those in high authority. “There were,” wrote the editor of an Indian paper, “deep tokens of disaffection everywhere, suspicious looks and expressions daily heard in the bazaar, and a belief that all was not sound in the minds of Englishmen unconnected with the services. Every class, except the members of the governing body, was impressed with a foreboding of evil. No one, however, without the pale of authority dreamt of the magnitude of the dangers by which we were about to be assailed; and inside that potent circle not a soul had gained an inkling of the coming horrors. The ship of the state was struck by a white squall, with every sail set, and not a man at his post to warn the crew of their peril. On the 22nd of January, 1857, Captain Wright, of the 70th native infantry, brought to the notice of Major Bontein, commanding the depot of musketry at Dum-Dum, the fact that there was a mutinous spirit among the troops in connection with the greased cartridges.” From that date the conspiracy developed itself rapidly, but at no stage of its incipient progress did the government show sagacity in detecting the causes of the outbreak, or efficient means for its repression.
At Barrackpore and Berhampore indications of mutiny of a decisive nature were made. General Hearsey, who commanded at Barrackpore, gave the government explicit information, and foretold results. The government would not be warned.
A mutiny of the 19th regiment led to the disbanding of that corps. This regiment was by no means among the more disloyal sepoys; it had been seduced into acts of insubordination, and regretted it. There was, however, little discrimination on the part of the Calcutta authorities. Some corps attempted to murder their officers, and were treated with surprising leniency. General Anson, who commanded the forces in India, was at Simlah, where the military records also were, and much loss of time and great confusion resulted from the necessity of the government at Calcutta carrying on a correspondence, with so remote a station, on subjects of such vital moment. When at last the commander-in-chief became convinced of the danger that existed, he hurried down to Umballah, and issued a conciliatory proclamation to the army, which had the effect of increasing the pride and self-importance of the sepoys.
Matters proceeded in this way until May, when the first grand effort of mutiny burst forth at Meerut. The sepoys suddenly arose there, attacked their officers, murdered some, and, having set fire to the cantonments, marched to Delhi. Major-general Hewett, who commanded the garrison, showed extraordinary weakness and vacillation, and took no prompt or vigorous measures to intercept the flight of the fugitives, or to pursue them. The mutiny occurred on Sunday evening, the 10th of May. The rabble of the neighbourhood joined the mutineers. Both the revolted sepoys and the insurgents showed a sanguinary delight in murdering women and children. As soon as the fugitive mutineers arrived at Delhi the whole city rose in insurrection; its garrison revolted, women and children were butchered, the ex-king of Delhi, a pensioner of the British government, was placed at the head of the revolution, and his sons were leaders in every act of barbarity and cowardice. The magazine was defended by a few officers and soldiers. Among them was Lieutenant Willoughby, who, when defence was no longer possible, blew up a large portion of the magazine, causing the death of a considerable number of the assailants, estimated, according to different testimonies, at from one to two thousand.
On the 18th of May the general at Meerut sent a despatch to say that he could not move his troops against Delhi, or for any operations in the field, for want of carriage. Such was the management of military affairs in India.
General Anson slowly collected a force at Umballah, and Sir John Lawrence sent Sikh troops from the Punjaub. General Anson died, and the command devolved upon General Barnard, who marched upon Delhi. It must not be supposed that Sir Henry Barnard, in his advance to Delhi, was unopposed. Whatever the sepoys may have been in British pay, in revolt they were energetic and persevering, and, as long as they entertained any hope of success, fought with keenness; as a loyal native in Delhi described them, “they were willing to take life, and willing to give their lives away.” It had been arranged, before General Anson’s death, that a brigade should advance from Umballah, under General Barnard, and that General Hewett, at Meerut, should order another brigade to advance from that station, the two forces to form a junction, and storm or lay siege to Delhi. In pursuance of this plan General Hewett placed a small body of troops under the command of Colonel Archdale Wilson, consisting of five hundred men of the 60th Royal Rifle regiment, two hundred of the carbineers, and one battery of artillery, to which a troop of horse-artillery was subsequently added. They marched on the 27th of May, and encamped on the 30th at Ghazeeoodeen Nuggur, a large Hindoo village on the left bank of the river Hindoun, eighteen miles east of Delhi. At that place there was a suspension bridge, the possession of which commanded the passage of the Hindoun from Meerut. Brigadier Wilson was attacked there by a force from Delhi, who hoped, by defeating the colonel, to prevent the junction of his forces with troops from Kurnoul. A battle ensued, the first of the war, as the previous struggles between mutineers and loyalists did not assume the form of a regular engagement. The rebels not only disputed the passage of the river, but opened a heavy cannonade with five guns from a well-chosen position. Wilson brought all his troops into action. The rifles were very efficient, fighting in a mode similar to that afterwards attributed to the Turcos of the French army in the war in Italy. They rushed forward with great rapidity for short spaces, then falling flat on their faces, timing their intervals of movement by the play of the enemy’s guns, which they watched skilfully. In this way they suffered exceedingly little in their advance, until at last springing upon the guns they captured them instantaneously, piercing the gunners with their sword bayonets. The sepoy infantry made a stand, but the rifles, in a hand to hand combat, were easy victors. The battle was decided in favour of the British; the sepoys fled, pursued by the carbineers, who continued the pursuit until night closed around conquerors and fugitives. The loss on the part of the English was eleven killed, and twenty-one wounded and missing. Of the killed five met their death by the explosion of a powder-waggon, fired by a desperate sepoy. Captain Andrews, of the Rifles, was one of those blown up.
On the 31st Colonel Courtance, of the carbineers, was actively employed watching strong reconnoitering parties of the enemy’s horse, so that the brigade could not advance far on the left side of the river without another action. At one o’clock five thousand mutineers and irregulars took up a position on an elevated sweep of land. A battle of artillery ensued; the mutineers of the 3rd Bengal cavalry charged the English guns repeatedly, but were repulsed. After more than two hours, spent in a contest of this kind, Colonel Wilson ordered his line to advance, and the mutineers were routed. The English were too much exhausted by the heat to pursue: several men in all branches of the service dropped dead from sun-stroke. The rebels bore away their guns. The English lost twenty-four men; about half from sun-stroke. Lieutenant Perkins was among the slain; Captain Johnson, and Ensign Napier, among the wounded. The stubbornness of the mutineers led Colonel Wilson to maintain his position and await orders and reinforcements. On the 3rd of June he was joined by another company of the Royal York Rifle regiment, and by a battalion of Goorkhas. These troops remained faithful, for, although attached to the Brahminical religion, they are more superstitious than fanatical, and hold the sepoys, and even Sikhs, in contempt, while the British are objects of military admiration to them. On the 6th the brigade reached the rendezvous at Rhagput.
The force from Umballah left that place on the 24th of May, and readied Kurnaul on the 25th. Anson died on the 27th. In his last illness he confided the capture of’ Delhi to General Barnard, and telegraphed to Lord Canning that he had done so, who confirmed the general in the command of the forces acting against Delhi. Before the command delegated to Barnard by Anson could be confirmed at Calcutta, General Reid, in virtue of seniority, became chief of the army, but he carried out the wish of General Anson in confiding the attack on Delhi to Sir. H. Barnard.
After various misunderstandings and serious delays on the part of Colonel Wilson, caused by the obstruction offered by the sepoys, and by taking a circuitous and difficult route, the two brigades met on the 6th of June, and on the 7th the whole force was reorganized near Delhi.
The brigades under both generals had been considerably augmented on the march. The officials took no steps for preventing disaster, but acted in the same way as in England and elsewhere, that occasioned so much loss of life and reputation before Sebastopol. Sir H. Barnard found himself and all about him, upon whom in the first instance the duty devolved, bewildered, and incapable of combining, arranging, or devising expedients to supply governmental and commissary defects. The army before Delhi, on a small scale, for a time repeated the faults and follies of the army before Sebastopol. Those upon whom the army depended for intelligence, succour, and directions, gave no real aid, but created additional embarrassments. The time consumed in deciding anything was extraordinary, although in the early part of the siege the telegraphic wire lent all its aid between Agra and Calcutta. General Barnard found that he could not take Delhi by storm; a regular siege was therefore resorted to. Throughout the month of June a fierce conflict raged around the once proud capital of Hindostan. During July these conflicts were continued, and rendered fiercer by the arrival of large forces-of mutineers from Rohilcund. Mutiny was discovered in the camp of the besiegers. Sickness also smote the British, so that by the end of July there were 1,200 invalids in the little army. Battle and disease must have utterly wasted it had not Sir John Lawrence sent troops’ and supplies, and with them the skilful and intrepid young General Nicholson. The sickness and ultimate decease of Sir Henry Barnard caused the demand to devolve on the senior general, Reid. His health also giving way, General Wilson, an excellent artillery officer, assumed the command.
Early in August the English made an effort to destroy the bridge of boats, by floating detonating machines, which was unsuccessful, and the mutineers continued to make it available for purposes hostile to the besiegers, and advantageous to themselves. On the 1st of August 5000 men made a sortie, if such, in the peculiar circumstances of the siege, it could be called. The Metcalf picket-house and the flag-staff tower became the objects of incessant attack. The sepoys, however, fought in vain. During August reinforcements for the rebels poured into the city of Delhi, from the various districts, far and near, where revolt had raged.
In the beginning of September the siege-train arrived, and strong reinforcements of troops; the sick and wounded then reached the number of 3000. A terrible bombardment was opened against the city on the 11th, which continued until the 14th, when the assault was ordered, and after desperate fighting it proved successful. It was not, however, destined to triumph on the first day. On all points but one the British were victorious. The attack on the western suburbs failed from the inefficiency of the Cashmere contingent, the bravery and number of the sepoys, and their contempt for the native force under Captain Dwyer’s command. After a fearful conflict for possession of the Redghat, the whole attack on the western side was abandoned. The English held the posts won within the gates: the enemy showed unflinching resolution, and even threatened the English flanks and rear. Night closed over the sanguinary scene, the English having lost 8 officers killed, and 52 wounded; 162 English and 103 native soldiers killed; 512 English, and 310 natives wounded. The first and second columns held all the towers, bastions, and ramparts from the vicinity of the Cashmere-gate to the Cabulgate; the third column and the reserve held the Cashmeregate, the English church, Skinner’s house, the Water bastion, Ahmed Ali Khan’s house, the college gardens, and many buildings and open spots in that part of Delhi; while the fourth column, defeated in the western suburbs, had retreated to the camp or the ridge. It was not until the end of that the long and bloody succession of assaults ended in the total subjugation of the place, after deeds of slaughter seldom paralleled. The king and several members of his family escaped, but were pursued by Major Hodson, and captured under circumstances of extraordinary daring and presence of mind on the part of that officer.
The taking of Delhi was a deadly blow to the hopes of the rebels all over India.
The progress of the mutiny and its suppression in other directions must now be related. It was alleged that the King of Delhi was treated with extraordinary indulgence, reinstated in his palace, and was treated by the company’s civil officers with even marks of homage. These reports were set at rest by a letter written to the brother of his captor, by Mrs. Hodson, the major’s wife. The letter was deeply interesting, and depicted the ex-royal family as in a condition of abject ignorance and moral degradation.
The narrative of the siege of Delhi having been conducted to its close, it is necessary to show the occurrence of events taking place in other directions, which were contemporaneous with those which happened around and in the capital of the Mogul.
While the incidents just related passed in and around Meerut and Delhi, Scinde and the Punjaub were greatly agitated. Conspiracy to revolt and murder, similar to what had taken place elsewhere, were discovered in these two provinces. In both they were promptly and effectually suppressed. Scinde remained tranquil, after a few arrests and executions had been effected. In the Sikh districts Sir John Lawrence acted with extraordinary sagacity, management, vigour, and courage, putting down at once, and with a high hand, all attempts at mutiny or insurrection, so as to direct the great resources of the Punjaub to the assistance of the other provinces, and especially during the siege of Delhi. The services of that great man have never been sufficiently acknowledged by the British government.
In the presidencies of Bombay and Madras the army and people, with few exceptions, remained quiet, and to a considerable extent were loyal. In Central India the disturbance was universal, and the contingents of native princes burst into open hostility. The presidencies of Madras and Bombay were much endangered by this state of things, but “field forces” were organized in the presidencies, by which the rebel districts of Central India were penetrated from the south and west, until the revolt was crushed. The troops of Madras displayed more loyalty than those of Bombay. Some of the Bombay regiments mutinied, bringing upon themselves a swift and terrible punishment.
In the eastern districts of Bengal there were only the perturbations caused by the great earthquake of revolution, which had its centre far north and west. The disposition to insurrection in Assam and Chittagong was kept down by astonishingly weak forces. Along the Assam frontier a few troops sufficed to preserve tolerable quietude. A small detachment of British sailors, acting as infantry of the line, awed a vast region of eastern Bengal.
The native troops of the Bengal army, stationed on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, showed the same disposition to revolt as upon the eastern land confines of that presidency; but the people of Pegu, Martaban, and the other provinces on the sea-coast, were loyal. The troops there were mostly European, and were moved up the bay to Calcutta, as occasion demanded and opportunity served.
In Lower Bengal the people were too unwarlike to aid the troops who mutinied.
Upper Bengal and the dominions which had been recently wrenched from the King of Oude, were the grand foci of mutiny and rebellion; although Jhansi, Delhi, and Meerut, were also centres of active revolt.
Agra, the queen of the upper provinces, suffered much. Mr. Colville acted with prudence, temper, and energy; but committed the general fault of the officials, civil and military, of placing too much confidence in the native troops.
Benares, the ecclesiastical capital of heathen India, was more loyal than any city in the disturbed regions. The protection afforded to the religious rites of the Brahmins in that city, and the security of pilgrims travelling to its far famed shrines, through the order enforced by British power, caused a respect for the English name and authority not only in the city of Benares, but throughout the province, which acted favourably to the preservation of order. The vigour of Brig.-gen. Neill, and the fear he inspired, had also much to do with these results.
Allahabad was the centre of many intrigues hostile to British power: the heroic little garrison of that place suffered much, and endured nobly and successfully until help arrived, and Brig.-gen. Neill quelled the power, if not the spirit, of rebellion all around.
Throughout Oude, comprising in the designation the provinces, whether of older or more recent date, which fell within the circle of that kingdom, the mutiny and rebellion were fiercest. Cawnpore was one of the great capitals of revolt. Situated near Bithoor, the residence of the infamous Nana Sahib, the principal chief of the insurrection, it suffered much, possibly more than any other place. “The Nana” collected all the force which his retainers and the people of his district could contribute, and with the mutineers of Cawnpore, and neighbouring garrisons, he attacked the British quartered in that city, who were under the command of the veteran hero, General Wheeler. In vain the little band of English were assailed; they remained unconquered by the multitudes of their enemies, and by famine and fatigue, until treachery secured their destruction. They were induced to capitulate, under promise of protection and safe escort. They were brutally and barbarously murdered by the bodyguards of Nana Sahib; women and children, as well as soldiers and civilians, were unpityingly consigned to a common slaughter, and their bodies cast into the well of Cawnpore. Since the mutiny, a memorandum upon the events connected with the Cawnpore mutiny and massacre has been prepared by Lieutenant-colonel Williams, military secretary to government in the north-western provinces:—“Forty-two depositions from persons of all classes and creeds—Christians, Mahomedans, and Hindoos—have been recorded, and valuable evidence obtained from respectable and influential residents in the city. These depositions, together with the native journal of a city resident, have been translated, and relate the first attempts made by the Nana to tamper with the troops, his ready success, the earliest meeting held by the conspirators, and their proceedings on and subsequent to their mutiny, from the 1st of June to the advance of the British force in July. The evidence shows the Nana’s brother, Bala Sahib, to have taken as (if not more) active and prominent a part as even the Nana himself. There are no traces of any conspiracy prior to the arrival of the Nana at Cawnpore, on the 22nd of May, 1857, with the two guns, and 300 horse and foot, for the avowed purpose of aiding in the maintenance of order. But about that time it would seem that two sowars, the one named Rahem Khan, of Bishenpore, near Bithoor, the other Muddut Alee, of Bancla, and in the service of the Nana, were employed by Bala Sahib to corrupt the fidelity of the troops. The 2nd Cavalry, already ripe for mutiny, needed but little persuasion.” Among those who perished were the heroic General Wheeler and his heroine daughter.
In Lucknow, the capital of Oude, Sir Henry Lawrence (brother to Sir John) maintained a resolute defence, but was wounded in a sortie, and died of his wound. Colonel Inglis afterwards maintained the defence with true British obstinacy and intrepidity.
The time at last arrived when the tide of tumult and blood should be rolled back upon the mutinous garrisons and rebel cities in the southern parts of Upper Bengal, in Oude, and in Central India. Brig.-gen. Neill, of the Madras Fusiliers, having with detachments of his regiment been sent on to Allahabad, restored order and even tranquillity to that place, as related on a previous page. On the return to India of the portion of the expeditionary army of Persia, under General Havelock, that officer was sent on to Allahabad, and superseding Brig.-gen. Neill in the command, he marched at the head of what forces he could muster, about 2,000 men, to the relief of Cawnpore. He had to fight his way thither, displaying extraordinary valour and military genius. With his small force he conquered Cawnpore, and drove the rebel Nana to Bithoor; but, alas! the noble garrison of Wheeler was not relieved on the advance of Havelock: the Nana, driven to despair, perpetrated the wholesale murder which blackens the page of Indian history with the name of Cawnpore. Havelock resolved on tracking the murderer to his den: Bithoor was attacked, and the Nana beaten. Havelock ordered Neill to bring on all his forces from Allahabad that could possibly be spared, and that officer took the command of Cawnpore, where, as at Allahabad, he soon created order, and subjected to his stern and resolute rule all disaffection. He took terrible vengeance upon the captured mutineers and rebels. Havelock pressed onward to relieve the garrison at Lucknow. Battle after battle was fought, Havelock, with a handful of men, dispersing hosts. Never, in the history of English military glory, were such achievements performed by so few. Even the mighty deeds of Clive and Wellington in their Indian warfare were surpassed by Havelock in his extraordinary marches upon Lucknow. At last, his troops were so reduced by battle and sickness that he retired upon Cawnpore and awaited reinforcements. These arrived, and with them a superior officer, General Outram. That hero refused to deprive Havelock of his command, and acted as volunteer in Havelock’s army. The garrison at Lucknow was relieved; provisions, medicine, money, and men were conveyed to the city and the Alumbagh a strong place on the Cawnpore road, within four miles of Lucknow. So numerous was the enemy, that the relieving army, like that which it relieved, was hemmed in by a host of mutineers and rebel zemindars, with their retainers. It became necessary that another army should relieve Outram, Havelock, and Inglis. Sir Colin Campbell had been sent from England to bring the insurrection to a speedy termination, the supreme military authority having been committed to him.
The arrival of Sir Colin Campbell to take the command of the army was not hailed with so much satisfaction in India, as the event was regarded with confidence in England. Sir Colin, however, knew how things were managed by governors-general in India, and by officials at head-quarters. He therefore expected to find much confusion, embarrassment, and neglect. The chief military authority in India was supposed to be at Calcutta, but the records were at Simla, the sanitary station to which the commander-in-chief was wont to repair, and where in fact commanders-in-chief spent most of their time, having generally been very old and feeble men. Sir Colin set to work with indefatigable industry to gather up an intelligible and connected account of the military condition and resources of India, especially of the Bengal provinces. This was essential to any consecutive plan of operations, and in this work, and in other important preparations, his time was consumed, when every day’s delay, every hour’s hesitation, every act of procrastination or tardiness, was perilous beyond estimate.
At Calcutta, in their conveyance to the different spheres of action, or in the provision made for their comfort, our gallant army was not thought of, either by the officials at Calcutta, or by the government at home, with that wisdom, consideration, or generosity which befitted their merits, the occasion, or a great country. Sir Colin organized a system for the general suppression of the mutiny, and he himself advanced with a very inadequate force, for the second time, to effect the relief of the British garrison of Lucknow. This was achieved after battle and victory highly honourable to the British name. Sir Colin brought off the women and children, sick and wounded, leaving the cantonments and the neighbouring Alumbagh well garrisoned. General Wyndham had been left in command at Cawnpore. During the operations of the commander-in-chief at Lucknow, Wyndham was attacked by vast numbers of the enemy, and beaten. Sir Colin hastened to the rescue, and Cawnpore, after a sanguinary action, was saved. Reinforced, and with a plan of combined action by different forces from various directions, Sir Colin advanced upon Lucknow for its relief the third time. After regular approaches and bombardment, Lucknow was taken by storm; but to the discredit of the commander-in-chief and some of his superior officers, the rebels escaped, to make war and havoc elsewhere. General Havelock died of fatigue and exhaustion, regretted by all men, and leaving behind him an immortal fame.
Among the losses of British officers, caused by the efforts to relieve Lucknow, was the death of Brig.-gen. Neill, whose services had been so eminently valuable. A statue, by the sculptor Behnes, is to be erected to the memory of General Havelock, in Trafalgar Square. Brig.-gen. Neill has had this honour conferred upon his memory in a most conspicuous manner. A magnificent colossal statue of the general has been ordered to be placed in the city of Madras. It has been executed by a sculptor, Matthew Noble, whose genius is as much an honour to his country as the heroic deeds of him whom that genius thus commemorates. The same great sculptor executed another statue of Neill, which has been erected in Ayr, the hero’s native place.
Sir Colin committed the following up of the enemy to Grant. He was as unsuccessful in this as he had been in preventing the escape of the rebels from Lucknow, and returned to head-quarters utterly baffled.
Rohilcund continued in arms; the great cities and towns, such as Bareilly, Shajehanpoor, and Moorshedabad, were in the hands of the rebels. Khan Bahadoor Khan ruled at Bareilly, and his force was not to be despised. It now became apparent to everybody how serious were the consequences of the bad generalship which allowed the rebels and mutineers to escape from Lucknow.
The plan of the commander-in-chief was now to scour the borders of the province with two columns, which, setting out in opposite directions, should meet at Bareilly, the capital where two of the Delhi princes had taken shelter with Bahadoor Khan. Brigadier Jones was ordered to advance from Roorkee, with what was designated the Roorkee field force, and to take a direction south-east. The other column was to leave Lucknow under Brigadier Walpole, and both columns were to form a junction at an appointed rendezvous. Walpole had experienced a severe reverse, but at last the different forces met before Bareilly. Again the commander-in-chief was victorious, and again permitted his beaten enemy to escape. After long and harassing operations, continued through the year 1858, Oude and Rohilcund were restored to order.
In Central India long-sustained and fierce conflicts followed brutal and cowardly massacres. General Rose crowned his name with many honours, having defeated Tantia Topie, the Rhani of Jhansi, and the rebel leaders, and sweeping with his avenging sword the revolted provinces of Central India. Nana Sahib, the Begum of Oude, and other leaders retreated through the jungles into Nepaul, where most of them perished of jungle fever, and many by the arms of Jung Bahadhoor, the Regent of Nepaul. It was not until 1859 that the traces of the great rebellion and mutiny were completely cleared away, and Lord Canning could pronounce India once more subject to the sceptre of England.