War Medals and Their History

by William Augustus Steward

The siege train arrived on September 4th, together with a wing of the 8th Detachment of the 9th and 60th, and a battalion of Beloochees. The guns were mounted, and by the 11th ready for action, when fire was opened and incessantly sustained against the Cashmere and Watergates until breaches had been made, and then it was determined to assault the city.

Blowing in the Cashmere Gate.—It was found necessary, however, to blow up the Cashmere Gate, and a party of twenty men under Lieutenants Home and Salkeld of the Engineers were detailed for the purpose. They effected their object, but Salkeld was mortally wounded and many of the men killed and wounded in their gallant effort. Bugler Robert Hawthorne of the 52nd, having thrice sounded the regimental call of the 52nd for the column to advance, took charge of the wounded lieutenant, and having bound up his wounds, removed him to a place of comparative safety. The bugler was decorated with the V.C. for "as noble a deed as any that has ever graced the annals of war." In the assault on September 14th the gallant Irishman John Nicholson fell, mortally wounded while leading his men near the Lahore Gate, and 1,169 officers and men were killed, wounded, or missing, but the whole of the outer parts of the city were in possession of the British. On the 16th the magazine which Willoughby had, it was found, only partially blown up was captured by the 61st, but desultory fighting was continued until the 20th, when the Lahore Gate and the palatial Jumma Musjid were captured. Then the gates of the palace were blown in, and the 60th Rifles led the way into the ancient home of the Mogul Kings, and Delhi was in the hands of the British Army. In the grand assault upon Delhi 8 European officers and 162 men were killed, 52 officers and 510 men wounded, and 103 sepoys killed and 310 wounded. It is estimated that over 5,000 mutineers perished in the defence of the city.

Hodson's Daring Feat.—But the king and his family had taken refuge in Humayon's Tomb, about 7 miles from the city, and Hodson, the daring Captain of the Light Horse bearing his name, determined to capture him. Taking only fifty men, he essayed one of the most daring feats on record. With his little band he rode along the rebel-infested road to the tomb where, in the gigantic marble dome, the King and his two sons had concealed themselves; for two hours he parleyed with the intermediaries of the decrepit King, undismayed by the thousands of retainers who guarded him. At last the old man, on promise of his life, surrendered, and Hodson marched off before the wondering natives with his royal prisoner. There yet remained the two sons of the King, whose conduct in torturing English prisoners had made them notorious. They had barbarously slaughtered innocent women and hapless children, and Hodson determined that they should also become his prisoners. On September 21st he and his second in command, Macdowell, with 100 men rode off to effect the capture of the princes, who had 6,000 or 7,000 armed followers at their command. Reaching Humayon's Tomb, he demanded their surrender, but they at first refused to submit unless their lives were promised. Hodson calmly refused, and then they came forth with 3,000 armed men. But the daring Hodson interposed his troopers between the bullock-cart in which the princes were riding and the armed men, sent forward the princes with an escort of troopers, and then—calmly ordered the retainers to lay down their arms! Having collected them, Hodson quickly said to Macdowell "We'll go now," and then rode off with his troop. Overtaking the princes, he found that a crowd appeared to be threatening the troopers in charge of the cart, and fearing that he might lose them and that the ends of justice would be defeated, he ordered the princes to strip, and, after stating the nature of the crimes they had committed, shot them with his own hand. Brave, gallant, and daring Hodson was prepared to take the consequences which he fully appreciated, and, convinced that he was right, did not flinch from moral censure any more than he had from physical consequences when he sallied forth with a handful of men to capture the King and his bloodthirsty sons. With the fall of Delhi the back of the mutiny was broken, but it had cost the besiegers a loss of 3,854 killed, wounded, and missing.

Defence of Lucknow.—The neighbourhood of Lucknow, however, remained in possession of the mutineers, although over the Residency

"Ever upon the topmost wall our banner of England flew."

For several weeks Lucknow had been in a state of unrest, and then at 9 o'clock on the night of May 30th, 1857, the smouldering fire broke into flame. Sir Henry Lawrence, that stalwart, cool northern Irishman, as just and firm as he was unselfish, had but 700 Europeans in a city of 700,000, of whom 7,000 were sepoys. He did not lose heart, but quickly and steadily made preparations for the defence of the place; he knew he could rely upon the Sikhs and a small number of the sepoys—700 actually remained true to their salt during the siege; he made no error in his calculations, and took few chances. He turned the Residency into a fortress, and generally prepared for the worst, while his sense of humour and his smiling face gave no sign of the stern practical heart within him. He was, as he said, "virtually besieging four regiments—in a quiet way—with 300 Europeans," while he resided "in cantonments guarded by the gentlemen" he was besieging!

On June 30th he decided to "blood" the native troops, and he accordingly sent half a dozen guns with sepoy artillerymen in the little force of just over 800, of whom only 336 were Europeans, to meet the mutinous regiments which were marching upon the city from Eastern Oude. The estimated force was 5,000; it turned out to be 15,000, and when they were encountered at Chinhut the Sikh horsemen bolted, and the artillerymen disabled and deserted their guns. The fates generally went against the bold step that Lawrence had taken. The remnants of the little band had to retire in face of the great moving mass of mutineers; "regiment after regiment of sepoys steadily pursued towards us," and the 32nd who had gone into battle—300 foodless and badly armed men—were reduced to a skeleton, 5 of their officers and 112 men being killed. Lawrence returned with his straggling men to Lucknow; it was one of the few mistakes which the hero of Lucknow made, but he saved the survivors of the desperate fight by a masterly stroke in placing empty guns upon the iron bridge (the ammunition was exhausted), and with gunners standing beside them with lighted port-fires stayed the advance of the victorious sepoys. The time for desperate action had arrived. On July 1st he blew up the Mutchee Bhawan with its 1,000,000 cartridges and 250 barrels of gunpowder, and concentrated upon the Residency, and there for eighty-eight days, with a force of 927 Europeans and 700 sepoys, made one of the most famous defences in history. And there, despite the supreme efforts of the mutineers to shoot it down, the British flag was only temporarily out of position when the staff was shot away, and so

"Ever aloft on the palace roof the old banner of England blew."

On July 2nd Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded, and died on the 4th; then Brigadier Inglis took command of the troops. During the defence the populace of 3,000 and the troops were harassed by cholera, smallpox, and an indefinable disease, but the spirit of the troops remained undaunted until Jessie Brown's keen Scots ears heard the far-off skirl of the bagpipes of the 78th, Outram's Highlanders—"the saviours of India"—and Havelock, marching into Lucknow on September 25th, reinforced, as well as relieved, the brave garrison which still had, for another six weeks, to hold the Residency against 60,000 mutineers.