Havelock lived just long enough to know that his services had been appreciated at last, and that he had been gazetted a Major-General for distinguished service in the field, and raised to the dignity of a K.C.B. The baronetcy conferred upon him was not gazetted until after his death. The final relief I deal with on [p. 326]. A dark shadow was cast over that glorious achievement. Havelock was able to drag his sorely stricken frame across the breastwork to welcome Sir Colin Campbell and the relieving army, and then, worn out by toil and anxiety, he sank into his grave. In a shady grove of trees hard by the Alumbagh they made his humble tomb, and Campbell, Outram, Inglis, Peel, and many a stout soldier who had followed him in that stern march from Cawnpore, now followed his remains to their last resting-place. So long as gallant deeds and noble aspirations and spotless self-devotion are cherished in our midst, so long will Havelock's lonely tomb, hard by the scenes of his triumphs and of his death, be regarded as one of the most sacred spots where England's soldiers lie.
Relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell, November, 1857.
No sooner was Delhi in our hands than General Wilson, as I have shown on [p. 312], despatched a small force towards Agra, where, unfortunately, the civil and military authorities had not shown themselves possessed of those qualities which have built up our Indian Empire. Few indeed were the men that Wilson could spare, but on the morning of September 21 Brigadier Greathed, Colonel of the 8th (King's), now the Liverpool Regiment, marched towards Agra at the head of the little movable column. His force consisted of two troops of horse and one battery of field artillery; the 9th Lancers (300 strong); the 8th and 73rd Regiments, which, in consequence of their heavy losses, only numbered 450 men; four squadrons of the 21st, 22nd, and 25th Cavalry and of Hodson's Horse, the four squadrons some 500 strong; and the 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry (now the 56th and 57th Rifles). All told, the brigade numbered 800 cavalry, 1,650 infantry, 200 sappers, and 18 guns.
On the 10th of the following month Greathed reached Agra, where he was attacked by the rebels. To their astonishment, these gentry found they had a totally different stamp of men to deal with than the Agra garrison, and Greathed, with the loss of but 13 killed and 54 wounded, drove them off, capturing thirteen guns. During the short halt at Agra, General Hope Grant, Colonel of the 9th Lancers, arrived in camp with some 300 British soldiers, convalescents of the regiments at Delhi, and took over command. Pushing on to Cawnpore, he found a wing of the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) and some men of the regiments which had gone into Lucknow with Havelock.
The relief of Lucknow was now the principal objective, and Hope Grant, in obedience to orders received from Calcutta, moved towards that city, halting at Bhantira until the arrival of Sir Colin Campbell, who, on the first news of the Mutiny reaching England, had been sent out to assume the post of Commander-in-Chief in India. The new Chief possessed the confidence not only of the Ministry in England, but of every man in the army. Probably he was the most deservedly popular General who had up till then ever commanded an army in the field. He had a wide experience of war. As a subaltern he had served in the Peninsula, been repeatedly mentioned in despatches for gallantry—a rare thing to happen to a subaltern in Wellington's days. He commanded a regiment in China in the war of 1842, a brigade in the Punjab Campaign of 1849, was in chief command in many of the early expeditions on the Punjab frontier, and was one of the very few General Officers who emerged from the Crimean War with enhanced credit. The vast majority of the reinforcements despatched from England for the suppression of the Mutiny had served in the Crimea, and to them the name of Colin Campbell was that of a man who could lead and whom they were proud to follow.
FIELD-MARSHAL COLIN CAMPBELL: LORD CLYDE.
To face page 324.
On November 9 Sir Colin arrived at Bhantira, and assumed the command of the army. Sir Colin was fully alive to the imperative necessity of withdrawing the beleaguered garrison from its perilous position at Lucknow. Sir James Outram, who, as I have shown, assumed command on reaching the Residency, was besieged by a disciplined army numbering 60,000 men. He was encumbered with 1,500 sick men, women, and children, and the Residency, over which our flag had been kept flying for thirteen weary weeks, was but an ordinary Indian building, commanded on all sides by masonry palaces, which had been converted into siege-batteries. To carry through this formidable task Sir Colin had but 4,500 men, distributed as under:
Cavalry Brigade—Brigadier Little (9th Lancers): Two squadrons 9th Lancers, one squadron 21st Daly's Horse, one squadron 22nd Sam Browne's Horse, one squadron 25th Cavalry, one squadron Hodson's Horse.