At the Residency a deep irregular-shaped pit immediately outside the Bailee Guard marked the spot where, in the latter days of the memorable siege, the rebels had prepared their mine against the defenders of that position; inside and close to the same entrance were the remains of the countermine by which the operations connected with the former were detected, and itself sprung upon the besiegers. The door of that gateway, penetrated and torn by bullets; buildings roofless and bespattered with shot-marks, including that where ladies and children spent the eighty-five days to which the siege extended, and that in which Sir Henry Lawrence received his death-wound,—the whole presenting an epitome of what war implies, not to be forgotten.
For some time after Lucknow was virtually in the power of our force desultory fights continued to occur at places in and around the city. In the portions actually held by our troops, isolated men occasionally fell by a rebel bullet. Among other casualties, two officers had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the sepoys, by whom they were put to death, and their heads, so report said, borne away as trophies.
No sooner had the principal positions held by the rebels been captured from them than their flight from the city began, at first in small bodies, but rapidly increasing in numbers as channels of egress became known among them. Although without artillery, considerable numbers carried their small arms, while others were content to abandon everything, and seek only their own safety. One armed body of the fugitives, while endeavouring to get away in the direction of the Alumbagh, was fallen upon by our troops and severely dealt with; in other directions, however, the fact became known that large bodies effected their escape without being attacked, in places where no special difficulties intervened,—nor did explanation of the circumstance transpire.
Several field columns were immediately organized and dispatched along different routes known or believed to have been taken by the escaped rebels. Years afterwards the gallant services performed by one of those columns[187] were detailed in a published Biography. Other bodies found their way to the neighbourhood of Azimghur and there united with a considerable force of their brethren, which had on March 21 defeated a small body of British troops at Atrowlea, obliging it to retire within entrenchments at the first-named city.
CHAPTER XVI
1858. THE AZIMGHUR FIELD FORCE
The force extemporised—Jounpore—Tigra—Azimghur—Prestige—Casualties—Pursuing column—Mr. Venables—Night march—Painful news—Ghazepore—Recross the Ganges—Arrah—Preparations—Beheea—Jugdispore—Resting—Jungle fight—Chitowrah—Heat and exhaustion—Work under difficulties—Our commissariat lost—Peroo—Bivouac—Return to camp—Threatened attack—Village destroyed—Our physical condition—Dhuleeppore—Preparing for attack—Guns recaptured—A sad duty performed—Sick and wounded—Messenger mutilated—Keishwa—Slaughter—Force to Buxar—Non-effectives—The force ceases to exist—General orders, thanks, and batta.
The task of the 10th was looked upon as finished; the regiment had been sixteen years in India, the entire period continuously in the plains. With an expression of glee on the part of the men was the order received to commence our homeward march,—that is, to proceed towards Calcutta, there to embark for England. On the 28th of March the regiment turned its back on Lucknow; after several hours of weary progress it reached its camping ground. About midnight we were roused from slumber by the arrival of a cavalry escort and Staff Officer, with orders that the regiment should march forthwith towards Goorsagunge, there to form part of a field force under command of Brigadier-General Lugard, its object to raise what had become the siege of Azimghur by the combined rebel forces just mentioned. Before ten o’clock on the 29th our soldiers, to use their own expression, had “done twenty-eight miles of road, heel and toe,” disappointed at the unexpected change in destination, but also, in their own phrase, “ready for the new work cut out for them.” Other portions of what was to be the Azimghur Field Force[188] quickly reached the appointed rendezvous, and the process of organization was complete. Then we learned that the combined rebel force under Koer Singh surrounded Azimghur; that a body of British, while en route thither from Benares, had suffered severely while in conflict with them; that therefore the rapid advance of that under General Lugard was urgently called for.
Continuing our march from day to day, we traversed much of the route by which our advance upon Lucknow had recently lain, it being marked by whitened bones of men slain, ruins of villages, and huts destroyed by fire; otherwise no event worth notice occurred until the 9th of April, by which date we had reached Budlapore. On the morning of that day our force marched from its camp at 2 a.m., proceeding thence direct to Jounpore, a distance of twenty miles. There information was received that the rebel troops around Azimghur were commanded by Mendhee Hussun, Koer Singh being present with them.