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

Lord Elgin arrived at Calcutta early in the month of August, 1857, bringing with him two war steamers, the Shannon and the Pearl, which were placed at the disposal of the Indian Government. Peel, who had so gallantly managed a naval battery in the Crimea during the siege of Sebastopol, was commissioned to organize a naval brigade, and entered on the task with his usual energy. Aided by the resources of the two war steamers, he succeeded in forming a splendid naval brigade, the most effective, perhaps, we have ever possessed, consisting of four hundred able British seamen, and ten of those enormous 68-pounder guns which such seamen can handle so skilfully. They started from Calcutta, up the Hooghly and the Ganges; their progress was necessarily slow; the half of August and the whole of September passed wearily away on this most tedious voyage. The ardent spirit of the seamen would have chafed and fretted beneath this compulsory delay, if they had been under the command of a leader less esteemed and admired; as it was, his presence and example told upon all. Week after week elapsed; the gallant band made but slow progress against the stream; their ponderous guns rendered it still slower. On the 30th of September, Peel reached Benares with 286 of his brigade. Without waiting for the arrival of the rest, he hurried on to Allahabad, which he reached on the 3rd of October, with 94 men; he remained there four days when he was joined by the others, with their enormous guns and stores of ammunition. These guns—the chief cause of delay—were now found to be useless, as no means of transport could be found for conveying them across the country, and they were abandoned at Allahabad with regret. They had still their 24-pounders to trust to, one of which was proudly named the Shannon, after the war steamer to which she belonged. Urged by the authorities at Patna to afford them some relief, Peel formed a small naval brigade, which was placed under the command of Captain Sotheby, to be employed against the insurgents in the neighbourhood.

The wearisome voyage up the Ganges was now concluded, and on the 4th of October, soon after his arrival at Allahabad, Peel received the following telegram from Sir Colin Campbell, then at Calcutta:—“In the course of about a week there will be a continuous stream of troops, at the rate of about ninety a day, passing on to Allahabad, which, I trust, will not cease for the next three months.” Peel was now in his element, and the Naval Brigade under his command found abundant employment in facilitating the passage of troops and artillery from Allahabad to Cawnpore. Their strength was increased by the arrival of 126 naval officers and seamen under the command of Lieutenant Vaughan, who joined them on the 20th of October. This reinforcement was composed of sailors of the merchant service at Calcutta, who volunteered to join the brigade, and rejoiced in the opportunity of serving under such a distinguished commander. On the 23rd, four siege-train 24-pounders were on the way to Cawnpore, under the charge of 100 men of the Naval Brigade; on the 27th, other four 24-pounders and two 8-inch howitzers were despatched with an escort of 170 seamen; and on the same day a large amount of ammunition was forwarded. Peel infused something of his own energy into every seaman under his command, and personally superintended every arrangement; so that on the 28th of October he was ready to start for Cawnpore, and was joined on the way by Colonel Powell, with the head-quarters of Her Majesty’s 53rd Regiment. On the 31st they reached Shured, where they received the alarming intelligence that the Dinapore mutineers had crossed the Jumna with three guns, and were preparing either to attack Futtehpore or to force their way into Oude. The soldiers and sailors under the command of Powell and Peel did not exceed 700 men, while the number of the enemy did not fall short of 4000; our men, moreover, were encumbered with the charge of a large and valuable convoy of siege and other stores, the loss of which at such a juncture would have been irreparable; still it was of the last importance that something should be done to arrest the progress of the rebels, and the two leaders, Powell and Peel, resolved to offer them battle.

As a general rule, it is injudicious to allow sailors and soldiers to be mixed together during an attack, and frequent disasters have resulted from overlooking this fact; but on this occasion, from our inferiority in numbers, we had no choice. On the evening of the 31st our men reached the camping ground at Futtehpore, where they were joined by a small detachment of the 93rd, or Sutherland Highlanders, who were also on the way to Lucknow. The following morning a column, consisting of 500 soldiers and sailors, marched to Kudjna, a distance of twenty-four miles, to attack the enemy. The latter had taken up a strong position, with their right occupying a high embankment screened by a grove, and their left extending on the other side of the road, which was commanded by their artillery. Our column was divided into three parts: one advanced to attack the enemy’s guns, while the other two supported it on either side. Our soldiers and sailors rushed forward with their usual impetuosity; but the rebels, having every advantage of position, maintained their ground for two hours, and kept up so severe a fire of musketry that many of our men, including Colonel Powell, who received a musket-ball in the forehead, were killed. At this moment, Captain Peel, on whom the command devolved, displayed such coolness and presence of mind as proved that, though a sailor, he was fitted for the highest military command. Perceiving that the enemy could not be dislodged without incurring the loss of many lives, none of which could well be spared, he changed the mode of attack by marching his men round the upper end of the embankment, and their forces being thus divided, they were driven from all their positions, leaving their camp equipage and two of their tumbrils in our possession. If there had been a small body of cavalry to follow up this success, the whole body of the enemy might have been dispersed or destroyed; but no pursuit could be organized, as our men had marched seventy-two miles in three days, and exhausted nature could do no more. The column, after collecting the dead and wounded, returned to Binkee, and after a little rest resumed their march to Cawnpore. The enemy are supposed to have lost about one-fifth of their number, and abandoned the idea of marching into Oude: that terrible column of blue jackets and red coats had shown them what they might expect when they dared to cross bayonets with the redoubtable Feringees.

We need not trace the advance of the Naval Brigade, which was now reduced to 250 men, from Cawnpore to Lucknow: it is sufficient to remark, that they and their gallant leader reached the Alum Bagh early in November, and placed themselves under the command of Sir Colin Campbell. Our readers will bear in mind that Lawrence maintained his position in the Residency until his death, early in July; and that the command then devolved upon Inglis, who continued the defence until September, when he was relieved by Outram and Havelock. It was known that the small garrison was hemmed in on every side by the rebels, and every effort was made to relieve them; it was with this object in view that Sir Colin Campbell had concentrated his forces around the city of Lucknow on the 14th of November. The name of this gallant veteran will ever be dear to the people of England. The son of a Glasgow tradesman, he obtained his commission while still a boy through the influence of an uncle, and had served forty-nine years as an officer of the British army. Being unable to purchase, he could not look for rapid promotion, but, like Havelock, he had learned to labour and to wait. He had shed his blood freely in the service of his country; his gallantry had been acknowledged in public despatches; but many years elapsed before he obtained his company. In the course of nearly half a century he had fought in almost every quarter of the globe; he served in the Walcheren expedition; then in the Peninsular war, including the battles and sieges of Vimiera, Corunna, Barossa, Vittoria, San Sebastian, and Bidassoa; then in North America; then in the West Indies; then in the first Chinese war; then in the second Sikh war; and lastly, in the Crimea. When the news of General Anson’s death reached England on the 11th of July, Sir Colin was offered the post of Commander-in-Chief in India, which he at once accepted. When the question was put to him, “When will you be ready to start?” his reply was “To-morrow.” He kept his word: the next day he was on his way to India, taking very little with him but the clothes on his back. Sir Charles Napier was wont to say, that two towels and a piece of soap was ample luggage for an officer serving in India: Sir Colin Campbell seems to have held the same opinion. He travelled by the quickest route: by rail to Folkestone, steam to Boulogne, rail to Marseilles, steam to Alexandria, rail and other means to Suez, steam from Suez to Calcutta. How his ardent spirit must have chafed during the many weeks he was detained at Calcutta! But that time was not lost. He attended to the minutest details; he remodelled the whole system of military machinery in India; he arranged with the Governor-General the plan of the ensuing campaign. He admired with all the unselfish admiration of a true soldier the heroic resistance of the garrison at Lucknow; the struggles of Havelock’s little army; the combined efforts of Havelock and Outram. At length, on the 28th of October, he left Calcutta, travelling like a common courier, and caring nothing for the pomp and glitter of military rank. After several narrow escapes by the way, he crossed the Ganges on the 9th of November, and commenced his attack on Lucknow on the 14th, with a miscellaneous force of 4000 men.

The gallant old chief had one guiding principle throughout the whole Indian campaign—never to sacrifice the life of a British soldier unnecessarily. He was resolved that Lucknow should be taken, but with the least possible expenditure of human blood. Knowing that Havelock and Outram had suffered severely in cutting their way through the town two months before, he formed a plan of approach through the south-western suburb, and trusted to his artillery and the Naval Brigade to batter down the enemy’s defences step by step and day after day, so as to open up a passage for his infantry with comparatively little loss. To this plan he steadily adhered, and for several days there was a series of partial sieges, each directed against one of the enemy’s strongholds. Our army pushed its way slowly, but success was certain in the end. On the first day he drove the enemy, after a running fight of two hours, from the Dil Roosha Park, and then from the Martinière College, an institution for the education of half-caste children, founded by Claude Martin, who came out to India as a private soldier, and rose to the rank of major-general. During these operations the heavy guns of the Naval Brigade served to keep the enemy in check, and rendered important assistance. After completing his preparations on the 15th, and exchanging signals with Havelock and Outram, Sir Colin crossed the canal on the morning of the 16th, and advanced to the Secunder Bagh, a high-walled enclosure about a hundred and twenty yards square, loopholed on every side, and strongly garrisoned by the enemy, who fought with the greatest obstinacy. In vain the guns of the Naval Brigade thundered against the walls; the noise grew deafening; the ardour of our troops could no longer be restrained; two companies of Highlanders, with fixed bayonets, reached a plateau, and rushed forward till they were stopped by a dead wall. “In at the roof, Highlanders!” shouted the old chief, whose blood was now up; “in through the roof; tear off the tiles. Go on!”

They needed no second order; in a moment the plumed bonnets and tartan kilts vanished through the tiles and broken bamboos, and the enemy, driven from their position, retired with the loss of two guns.

At length the breach in the main building was declared practicable; the hole was barely large enough for a single man to pass, but all were impatient of further delay. The gallant old chief thought of Badajoz, where he was the first to storm the breach, and would willingly now have been the first to pass through the fiery opening if duty had permitted; as it was, he uncovered his grey hairs, and waved the Sikhs and Highlanders to the assault. Then followed a gallant race between the mountaineers of India and of Scotland: a Sikh is the first to enter and—to die. He is followed by a Highlander; a bullet passes through his body, the plumed bonnet rolls from his head, and he sinks lifeless to the ground. Another and another press forward and meet the same fate, but their comrades step across their bodies and make good their entrance. The gate was violently forced, and the whole body of Sikhs and Highlanders poured into the Secunder Bagh, and then came the hour of retribution. “Remember Cawnpore, boys! No quarter! Think of our women and children! Mercy? no mercy for you!” Such were the cries that rose from our men as the bayonet did its deadly work. No quarter was given, and many of the enemy threw themselves into the flames which were now spreading through the building. The massacre of Cawnpore was avenged at the Secunder Bagh; two thousand of the enemy met their death within its walls.

The Naval Brigade, under the command of the gallant Peel, was then ordered to the front, and advanced toward the Shah Nujeef—a domed mosque with a garden, which had been strongly fortified by the enemy, with the intention of arresting the progress of our army. The walls of the garden had been loopholed on every side; the entrance was built up, and the summit of the building crowned with a parapet. On the left was a village held by the rebels; Brigadier Hope and Colonel Gordon drove them from this position before the Naval Brigade opened fire on the Shah Nujeef. Peel was aided by a field battery and some mortars, but the enemy defended the post with the greatest obstinacy, and kept up an incessant fire of musketry from the mosque and the loopholed walls of the garden. It was on this occasion that three members of the Naval Brigade displayed such conspicuous bravery as attracted the notice of the Commander-in-Chief, and secured for them the distinction of the Cross of Valour. The Shannon 24-pounder, which bore the name of the war steamer from which it had been taken, was entrusted to the charge of Lieutenant Young and William Hall, A.B., who proved themselves worthy of the confidence reposed in them. Though exposed to a heavy fire of musketry and assailed by hand-grenades thrown from the walls, they led up their heavy gun to within a few yards of the building, and opened fire on it with as much coolness as if they had been alongside an enemy’s frigate and fighting on their own element. It was, to borrow the words of Sir Colin Campbell, “an action almost unexampled in war,” and excited the admiration of all who witnessed it. For three hours a heavy cannonade was kept up against the walls of the mosque, and our sailors would have suffered more at the hands of the enemy if they had not been covered by the withering fire of the Highlanders in the rear. Sailors always like to mingle a little fun with fighting, and Lieutenant Nowell Salmon, of the Naval Brigade, who was known as an unerring marksman, had recourse to an ingenious expedient to arrest, or at least to weaken, the enemy’s fire. Close by the walls of the mosque stood a lofty tree, whose spreading branches overlooked the building, and offered a tempting cover to any one who was venturous enough to climb it. Lieutenant Salmon perceived at a glance all the advantages of such a position, where he could see without being seen and shoot without being shot. Having obtained the necessary leave, he mounted the tree in true sailor fashion, and, sheltered amid its leafy recesses, took deliberate aim and picked off the enemy’s sharpshooters when they ventured to show themselves in the mosque or the garden. He was ably seconded by a private of the 93rd Highlanders, who, standing below, received the discharged rifles, loaded them, and handed them up again. We can conceive the surprise and consternation of the rebels as they saw their ranks thinned and their comrades shot down by an irresistible foe, and the enjoyment of the reckless sailor as he witnessed the effect of his unerring fire. At length Sir Colin, impatient of delay, gave orders to storm the place, which was done in the most intrepid manner by the soldiers and sailors, who forced their way through the garden and drove the rebels from the mosque. The gallantry of the Naval Brigade at the capture of the Shah Nujeef was acknowledged in a public despatch; Lieut. Young, William Hall, A.B., and Lieut. Salmon, who was badly wounded, were decorated with the Victoria Cross; and Captain Peel became Sir William Peel.

It would be foreign to our purpose to follow the army of rescue in all their operations till they effected their entrance into the Residency, or to describe the emotions of Campbell, Outram, and Havelock, as they grasped one another’s hands and felt that their work was done. All the three have now passed away; but they did noble service to their country, and their names will not be speedily forgotten. The early struggles, the patient discharge of duty in a subordinate position, the perseverance and the final success of Campbell and Havelock, ought to be a lesson and encouragement to the young men of England who have to tread the same path and aspire to reach the same goal.

Wherever the Naval Brigade served during the Indian campaign, they displayed the same coolness and courage as at the capture of the Shah Nujeef. It was part of Sir Colin’s tactics to employ artillery as much as possible so as to save his infantry, and whenever walls were to be battered down he had only to summon Peel and his now famous brigade to the front. Their gallant achievements in Oude must ever occupy a prominent place in Indian history, and the name of Peel received additional lustre from the brave young sailor who perished in his prime. In the scarcity of regular troops, they occupied a middle position, and did the work of soldiers and sailors with equal readiness: well-drilled and accustomed to active movements, they were ready to march at a moment’s notice, and moved their heavy guns with a rapidity and ease hitherto unknown in field operations. They were favourites wherever they came; their unfailing good-humour and almost boyish exuberance of spirits were contagious, and spread to all who served by their side. When the campaign was over and the mutiny suppressed their services were not forgotten; the residents of Calcutta did honour to themselves by honouring them with a public reception and a grand banquet. We can conceive the hearty enjoyment of the blue jackets as they partook of the delicacies which had been prepared for them, and listened to the kind, graceful words in which Outram, their fellow-guest, told of their services as witnessed by himself at Lucknow during the previous winter. “Almost the first white faces I saw, when the lamented Havelock and I rushed out of our prison to greet Sir Colin at the head of our deliverers, were the hearty, jolly, smiling faces of some of you Shannon men, who were pounding away with two big guns at the palace; and I then, for the first time in my life, had the opportunity of seeing and admiring the coolness of British sailors under fire. There you were, working in the open plains, without cover or screen, or rampart of any kind, your guns within musket range of the enemy, as coolly as if you were practising at the Woolwich target. And that it was a hot fire that you were exposed to, was proved by three of the small staff that accompanied us (Napier, young Havelock, and Sitwell) being knocked over by musket balls in passing to the rear of those guns, consequently further from the enemy than yourselves.”