The casualties amounted to 2 officers (Capt. C. W. M’Donald and Lt. Sergison), and 13 men killed; 2 officers (Lt. Grimstone and Ensign Hastie), and 45 men wounded. The losses of the enemy must have been enormous, as next day 860 dead bodies were buried, all found within the different enclosures; many must have escaped wounded. It was afterwards known that the garrison consisted of eight picked Sepoy regiments, altogether amounting to nearly 5000 men, who had sworn to die in defence of this position of the city. The 93rd numbered about 800 men.
Several individual acts of bravery, performed both by officers and men, are well worthy of being recorded. Lt. and Adjt. M’Bean encountered eleven of the enemy in succession, and after a hand-to-hand fight killed them all; for this he received the Victoria Cross. Young Captain M’Donald had been wounded severely in the early part of the day by a splinter of a shell in his sword arm, but refused to retire to hospital. On entering the breach at the head of his company, cheering them on, he was shot through the thigh, and in this disabled state, was being carried to the surgeon, when a bullet passed through his neck and killed him. Lt. Sergison, in attempting to break open a door, behind which a number of the enemy were concealed, was shot dead. Lt. Grimstone received a wound while in hot and deadly pursuit of an enemy, whom he overtook and killed. Capt. Clarke, several paces in front of his company, was the first man of his party to enter the breach. Indeed, almost all the officers had hand-to-hand encounters with single enemies. The pipe-major, John M’Leod, was the first to force his way in at the front breach, and no sooner was he in than he began and continued throughout the whole of the fighting, in places perfectly exposed, to cheer and encourage the men with the wild notes of his bagpipes. No words are sufficient to express the gallantry and devotion and fearless intrepedity displayed by every man in the regiment; and well deserved indeed was the meed of high praise contained in the general orders of Major-General Lingard and the Commander-in-chief. All the operations connected with the storming of the place were conducted by Brigadier Adrian Hope, and the position was carried by the 93rd Highlanders exclusively, supported at first by part of the 42nd, and the 4th Punjab Rifles.
The Commander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell, colonel of the regiment, was sitting in Durbar with Jung Bahadoor,[576] when an aide-de-camp hastily entered his presence, with the intelligence that the Begum Kotee was taken after a hard struggle and severe loss. The gallant chief sprang from his seat, and exclaimed, “I knew they would do it.”
On the afternoon of the 13th the regiment was relieved and returned to camp, where it remained till the evening of the 20th, when, with the exception of No. 7 company, it returned and took up a position around the Imambarah, preparatory to an attack which was to be made next day on the last position held by the enemy on the north side of the city. During the interval between the 13th and the 20th, the Kaiser Bagh, Imambarah, and other positions had been taken from the enemy; the regiment, however, had no share in these operations.
On the 21st the 93rd, supported by the 4th Punjab Rifles, after some severe skirmishing and street fighting, succeeded in expelling the enemy from several large mosques and enclosures, situated at the north end of the city. Only 11 of the 93rd were wounded.
This terminated the fighting within the city, which was now completely in possession of the British. The 93rd returned to the Dilkoosha, and remained in camp till April 7th, when it was ordered to prepare to form part of a force destined for Rohileund, under Brigadier-General Walpole.
It will have been seen that no regiment was more frequently employed than the 93rd in all the operations against Lucknow, under the Commander-in-Chief, who intrusted to this trustworthy regiment some of the most difficult duties.
At daylight on April 7th, the regiment moved from the Dilkoosha, and joined the rest of the force about five miles on the north-west side of Lucknow. This force consisted of the old Crimean Highland brigade, the 42nd, 79th, and 93rd, two troops of horse artillery, some heavy siege guns, the 9th Lancers, some Native Infantry, Sappers, and Native Cavalry, all under Brigadier-General Walpole. The strength of the 93rd was 41 officers and 833 men.
The “Old Highland Brigade” thus reunited, was commanded by Brigadier the Hon. Adrian Hope. The force continued to march in a north-west direction till April 16th, a day which can never be forgotten by the 93rd, for with every certainty of success, energy, ability, and desire to fight, the force was entirely mismanaged.
Before the regiment marched from Lucknow, Bt. Lt.-Col. Charles Gordon, C.B., the senior major, an officer who had served many years in the 93rd, took leave, having effected an exchange with Bt. Lt.-Col. Ross, commanding a depôt battalion in Scotland.