J. Lucas.] [By permission of Messrs. Graves.
CAPTAIN SIR WILLIAM PEEL, R.N.,
In command of the Naval Brigade at Lucknow.
While these events were passing, General Anson, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India, died on June 27. It was decided to send out Sir Colin Campbell to replace him. On being asked when he would be ready to start Sir Colin answered with characteristic promptitude: “To-morrow”; and he sailed the following day without waiting to prepare his outfit.
Sir Henry Lawrence,[G] Chief Commissioner of Oude, had fortified and provisioned the Residency of Lucknow where, on July 2, he was besieged, having with him a single battalion of Europeans and all the European inhabitants of the station. |The Relief of Lucknow.| Lawrence was killed at the opening of the siege, but the little garrison held out with magnificent resolution till, on September 25, they were relieved by Havelock and Outram. But these generals were in turn hemmed in by immense masses of rebel troops, and it was not until Sir Colin Campbell fought his way to Lucknow, on November 17, that the garrison with the women and children could be considered to be relieved. One of those who endured this long and painful siege was that Dr. Brydon, who had ridden alone into Jellalabad after the awful retreat from Cabul in 1842.
A. H. Ritchie.] [From an Engraving.
SIR HENRY HAVELOCK,
1795–1857.
T. Brigstocke.] [From the National
Portrait Gallery.