There was never perfect silence in the square, owing to the Seikhs' horses being picketed therein, the tramping of whose feet on the ground had more than once previously deceived us.
The smoke and dust thrown up enveloping us for some moments in complete darkness, and the sudden shock of the explosion, prevented my personally knowing what subsequently happened.
No. III.
Division Orders by Major-General Sir J. Outram, G.C.B.
Head Quarters, Lucknow, 5th October, 1857.
The incessant and arduous duties which have devolved on Brigadier Inglis and his staff, since the arrival of the relieving force, had hitherto prevented him from furnishing to the Major-General Commanding the usual official documents relative to the siege of the garrison.
In the absence of these the Major-General could not, with propriety, have indulged in any public declaration of the admiration with which he regards the heroism displayed by Brigadier Inglis and the glorious garrison he has so ably commanded during the last three months, and he has been reluctantly obliged therefore to defer so long the expression of the sentiments he was desirous to offer.
But the Major-General having at length received Brigadier Inglis's reports, is relieved from the necessity of further silence, and he hastens to tender to the Brigadier, and to every individual member of the garrison, the assurance of his confidence that their services will be regarded by the Government under which they are immediately serving, by the British nation, and by Her Gracious Majesty, with equal admiration to that with which he is himself impressed.
The Major-General believes that the annals of warfare contain no brighter page than that which will record the bravery, fortitude, vigilance, and patient endurance of hardships, privation, and fatigue, displayed by the garrison of Lucknow; and he is very conscious that his unskilled pen must needs fail adequately to convey to the Right Honourable the Governor-General of India, and his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, the profound sense of the merits of that garrison which has been forced on his mind by a careful consideration of the almost incredible difficulties with which they have had to contend.
The term "illustrious" was well and happily applied by a former Governor-General of India to the garrison of Jellalabad; but some far more laudatory epithet—if such the English language contains—is due, the Major-General considers, to the brave men whom Brigadier Inglis has commanded with undeviating success and untarnished honour through the late memorable siege. For while the devoted band of heroes who so nobly maintained the honour of their country's arms under Sir R. Sale were seldom exposed to actual attack, the Lucknow garrison, of inferior strength, have, in addition to a series of fierce assaults, gallantly and successfully repulsed, been for three months exposed to a nearly incessant fire from strong and commanding positions, held by an enemy of overwhelming force, possessing powerful artillery, having at their command the whole resources of what was but recently a kingdom, and animated by an insane and bloodthirsty fanaticism.