To Nicholson belongs a great share of the credit for the fall of Delhi. By a series of remarkable forced marches he brought a strong force of artillery and British and Sikh soldiers from the Punjab to the Ridge at Delhi, which added greatly to the strength of the army there encamped. And by his impetuosity in council he compelled the wavering General Wilson to decide on the final assault in September.
Before I come to this point, however, I have to tell of some gallant deeds that were performed in the fighting round Delhi. While the army lay on the Ridge preparing for its leap upon the rebel city, a number of engagements with the enemy took place. These were mostly of a very desperate character, and the individual deeds of some who distinguished themselves therein were fittingly rewarded with the Cross for Valour.
In one of the sorties made by the sepoys at Delhi in July of that year, 1857, Lieutenant Hills and Major Tombs, of the Bengal Horse Artillery, had a fierce encounter with the rebels, which gained the V.C. for each of them.
With a cavalry picket and two guns, Hills was on outpost duty on the trunk road, near a piece of high ground called the Mound, when a large body of sepoy sowars from the city charged upon him. The picket, taken by surprise, took to flight and left the guns undefended, but Hills remained at his post. To save his guns and give the gunners a chance of opening fire was the plucky lieutenant’s first thought, so clapping spurs to his horse he bore down alone on the enemy.
In narrating the incident himself he says: “I thought that by charging them I might make a commotion, and give the guns time to load, so in I went at the front rank, cut down the first fellow, slashed the next across the face as hard as I could, when two sowars charged me. Both their horses crashed into mine at the same moment, and, of course, both horse and myself were sent flying. We went down at such a pace that I escaped the cuts made at me, one of them giving my jacket an awful slice just below the left arm—it only, however, cut the jacket.
“Well, I lay quite snug until all had passed over me, and then got up and looked about for my sword. I found it full ten yards off. I had hardly got hold of it when these fellows returned, two on horseback. The first I wounded, and dropped him from his horse. The second charged me with his lance. I put it aside, and caught him an awful gash on the head and face. I thought I had killed him. Apparently he must have clung to his horse, for he disappeared. The wounded man then came up, but got his skull split. Then came on the third man—a young, active fellow.
“I found myself getting very weak from want of breath, the fall from my horse having pumped me considerably, and my cloak, somehow or other, had got tightly fixed round my throat, and was actually choking me. I went, however, at the fellow and cut him on the shoulder, but some ‘kupra’ (cloth) on it apparently turned the blow. He managed to seize the hilt of my sword and twisted it out of my hand, and then we had a hand-to-hand fight, I punching his head with my fists, and he trying to cut me, but I was too close to him.”
At this critical moment Hills slipped on the wet ground and fell. He lay at the sowar’s mercy, and nothing could have saved him from death had not Major Tombs come within sight of the scene. The major was some thirty yards away, and had only his revolver and sword with him. There was no time to be lost, so resting the former weapon on his arm he took a quick steady aim and fired. The shot caught the sepoy in the breast, and as his uplifted arm fell limply to his side he tumbled dead to the ground.
Thanking Heaven that his aim had been true, Major Tombs hastened to assist Hills to his feet and help him back to camp. But as they stood together a rebel sowar rode by with the lieutenant’s pistol in his hand. In a moment Hills, who had regained his sword, dashed after the man, who proved no mean adversary.
They went at it cut and slash for some time; then a smashing blow from the sowar’s tulwar broke down the lieutenant’s guard and cut him on the head. Tombs now received the sepoy’s attack, but the major was among the best swordsmen in the army, and closing with his opponent he speedily ran him through.