Brave British soldiers and the Victoria Cross / a general account of the regiments and men of the British Army, and stories of the brave deeds which won the prize "for valour"

by Unknown

CHAPTER XXI.
ROSS L. MANGLES, ESQ., V.C., BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, ASSISTANT-MAGISTRATE AT PATNA.

The town of Arrah, near which Mr. Mangles earned the Cross of Valour, is about twenty-four miles from Dinapoor, from which it is separated by the river Sone. It is the chief place in the district of Shahabad, and when the 7th, 8th, and 40th Regiments of Bengal Native Infantry mutinied at Dinapoor, on the 25th of July, 1865, they advanced against Arrah, where they expected to meet with little resistance, as there were no European troops at that station. It so happened, however, that the chief authority was vested in Mr. Wake, the resident magistrate, who proved himself equal to the occasion. He had not been trained to the profession of arms, but he possessed that calm courage and undaunted energy which most of our Indian civilians exhibited during the mutiny, and which contributed largely to the re-establishment of our power. Familiar with the manners and language of the natives, he had watched the progress of events with an anxious eye, and already foresaw the storm that was about to break forth; as he could not avert it, he prepared to meet it like a man. He had already warned the authorities at Calcutta that the licentiousness of the native press must sooner or later lead to an outbreak, and that symptoms of disaffection had already begun to appear in his own district; but the forces at Dinapoor, consisting of Her Majesty’s 10th Regiment, two Companies of the 37th, and two Companies of Artillery, were deemed sufficient to overawe the natives. They would have been so, if they had been under the command of an efficient officer; but the major-general was an old man, too infirm to be able to mount his horse without assistance, and utterly unfit to cope with the difficulty. The consequence was that the mutineers, who might easily have been disarmed or imprisoned, were allowed to escape, and proceeded to plunder the neighbouring towns. There were few Europeans left in the town of Arrah; the workmen who were employed on the railway, frightened by the symptoms of mutiny around them, and apprehensive for their own safety, had deserted the place in the beginning of June; but Mr. Wake, who remained at the post of danger, induced them by his example to return. He applied everywhere for assistance, but no troops could be spared till the 11th of July, when he received a small detachment of Sikh police from Patna.

On the evening of the 25th of July, intelligence reached Arrah that the native regiments at Dinapoor had mutinied, and crossed the river Sone. There was no time to be lost; the fifteen Europeans in Arrah had to decide at once what course they were to pursue: in a few hours the enemy would be upon them. There was not a single soldier in the place; the local police had fled at the first intimation of danger; there was no fort or stronghold where the Europeans could find refuge. No one could have blamed them if they had consulted their safety in flight; but that band of brave civilians scorned the idea, and resolved to remain at their posts. Mr. Boyle, an engineer of the main-trunk railway, was the only one amongst them who had made some preparations to meet this emergency; he had anticipated the danger, and some weeks before had begun to fortify with stones and timber a detached two-storied house, about fifty feet square, which stood in the same compound as his bungalow, and to collect a store of provisions. Mr. Boyle’s preparations for the coming danger had been the source of many a joke to his less thoughtful companions; but their levity gave place to gratitude on the 26th of July, when the mutineers were upon them. The ladies and children had already been sent away; the fifteen civilians who remained shut themselves up in Mr. Boyle’s house, with the fifty Sikhs of Captain Rattray’s police battalion. Their store of provisions was limited; their only weapons were rifles, revolvers, and hogspears; but they had abundance of ammunition, and an indomitable courage, which supplied every deficiency. On the morning of the 27th the mutineers marched into the town, released the four hundred prisoners in the gaol, and seized eighty thousand rupees which they found in the treasury. They then concealed themselves among the trees and buildings near Mr. Boyle’s house, where they kept up a galling fire during the day, and invited the Sikhs to join them; but these brave fellows had the virtue to refuse the bribes which they offered. On the 28th they procured two small cannon, with which they opened fire on the house, which was now riddled with balls; but its brave defenders never dreamed of surrendering. One of the cannon was mounted on the roof of Boyle’s bungalow, so as to enable the mutineers to fire into the house at the distance of sixty yards. “Nothing,” says Mr. Wake, “but the cowardice, ignorance, and want of unanimity of our enemies prevented our fortification from being brought down about our ears.” The gallant defenders offered something more than a passive resistance; every mine of the enemy was countermined; every new battery was met by a fresh barricade. The Sikhs, inspired by the example of the Europeans, vied with them in courage; when provisions ran short, they sallied forth one night and brought in four sheep. One of them was dangerously wounded; singular to relate, this was the only casualty that happened to the little garrison; all the others escaped with slight scratches or bruises. When the supply of water failed, the Sikhs dug a well underneath the house, and continued their labour till they found a spring; in short, the honours of the defence are equally divided between them and the Europeans. For seven days and nights the siege went on, and the gallant little band had to defend themselves against three thousand assailants. They looked for assistance, but they looked in vain; the authorities at Dinapoor seemed to have left them to their fate. They might have left their stronghold with all the honours of war; the mutineers, weary of the siege, and almost despairing of success, were willing to spare their lives, but all their offers were contemptuously rejected. They would never condescend to negotiate with rebels: they would rather fight it out to the last.

We must now direct attention to the steps which had been taken for the relief of the little garrison. As we have already mentioned, Major-General Lloyd was in command at Dinapoor; it was unfortunate that the control of military affairs, at such a moment, should have been vested in one who was worn out with years and infirmities, and should have been enjoying his well-earned pension at home. Arrah lay within his district, and it was his duty to take measures for the relief of its gallant defenders. This duty was peculiarly distasteful to a man whose culpable irresolution had already led to such disastrous results, and for two days nothing was done. Mr. Taylor, the civil magistrate at Patna, within whose district Arrah was situated, assembled all the European residents at his house as soon as he heard of the outbreak at Dinapoor, and invited them to act with him in case of an attack. This took place about one o’clock on the 25th; two hours afterwards a distant firing announced that the mutineers were engaged with the European forces; soon after, the report reached Patna that they had marched off in the direction of Arrah. Mr. Taylor at once improvised an expeditionary force of about one hundred men, made up of Sikhs, Nujeebs, recruits, and volunteers, and despatched it that same day in the direction of Arrah, to watch the movements of the mutineers. Mr. Mangles, who held the appointment of assistant-magistrate at Patna, joined this expedition as a volunteer, and accompanied them on their march till they were recalled by the commissioner, who had received alarming reports from the neighbouring stations, and deemed their presence necessary for the safety of the principal town. On the day after the mutiny, Mr. Taylor wrote to Major-General Lloyd, urging him to place a small body of European troops at his disposal; but the latter refused to comply with his request, on the ground that he had only six hundred soldiers under his command, and that he could render no assistance. Knowing the urgency of the occasion, Mr. Taylor resumed his application, and proposed to raise a corps of volunteer cavalry among the officers and gentlemen of Patna and Dinapoor, if the general would send two hundred men to co-operate with them for the relief of Arrah.