War Medals and Their History

by William Augustus Steward

EGYPTIAN MEDAL FOR THREE CAMPAIGNS.
(Reverse.)

INDIA MEDAL FOR FOUR CAMPAIGNS.
(Reverse.)

EAST AND WEST AFRICA MEDAL FOR FIVE EXPEDITIONS.
(Reverse.)

The original defenders of the Residency were 535 men of the 32nd, 50 of the 84th, with 89 artillerymen, and 100 British officers whose native regiments had mutinied, and 153 civilians who took up arms to assist the regulars; and these, with 700 sepoys, undeterred by "the terrific and incessant fire by day and night," had for eighty-eight days defied not less than "8,000 men firing at one time into the position."

Relief of Lucknow.—Havelock, having rested his men after the advance on Cawnpore, followed up the Náná Sáhib, destroyed his palace and stronghold at Bithoor, and then with his tiny force, which was daily lessening through wounds and disease, marched towards Lucknow. He attacked Oonas en route, and passed through it, despite the 15 rebel guns which guarded the only road; pushed past the opposition at Busserut Gunge, but with a loss of 88 officers and men killed and wounded; then in despair, owing to his enfeebled force, Havelock started to return to Cawnpore. On reaching the Ganges the mutineers made a determined attack upon the little force, but the 78th, Ross-shire Buffs, dashed at the enemy's guns, and, as Havelock said, saved themselves and their comrades. Retracing his footsteps, Havelock was not aware that he had unconsciously helped the besieged in Lucknow by drawing off the rebel force to meet him, thus giving the garrison breathing-space in which to strengthen the fortifications and increase its stock of provisions. After a four-days rest the undaunted Havelock again set out for Lucknow with 1,300 men, but again meeting with opposition at Bithoor, and although the enemy was defeated, he decided to return to Cawnpore and await reinforcements. The 5th and 90th Regiments arrived early in September, five companies of men came in to make up for the terrible losses of the 78th, and then Sir James Outram, the "Bayard of India," arrived to take command of the Cawnpore and Dinapore divisions, but chivalrously delegated the command to Havelock "in gratitude for the brilliant deeds of arms achieved by General Havelock and his gallant troops." The relieving force consisted of the 1st Brigade—5th Fusiliers, 84th, and 100 men of the 64th under Brigadier-General Neill; 2nd Brigade—78th Highlanders, 90th (Perthshire) Light Infantry, and Brasyer's Sikhs under Colonel Walter Hamilton of the 78th; 3 batteries of artillery under the dauntless Maude, "Hell-fire Jack" Olpherts, and brave Vincent Eyre; 109 volunteer cavalry and 59 native cavalry under the dashing Barrow.

Crossing the Ganges on September 19th and 20th, the relieving force of 2,500 men attacked the enemy at Mungulwah on the 21st, and, although an obstinate opposition was met with, defeated the enemy and captured a couple of guns. Pushing forward, drenched by heavy rains for three days and through quagmires of mud, the badly fed little force came upon the enemy, 12,000 men, entrenched on the outskirts of Lucknow at the Alambagh, but after the artillery had opened fire the 78th Highlanders and the Fusiliers rushed the position, and in ten minutes the mutineers were flying in all directions. "The petticoated devils" were too much for them. After a day's rest, leaving 300 sick men to hold the place, the army advanced towards the Residency, and through a storm of shot gallantly rushed the Charbagh bridge, leaving the 78th as a rear-guard to hold it, which they bravely did, although stormed at by rifles and field pieces. The column then pushed on to the Kaiser Bagh, or King's palace, taking in reverse the battery which had been firing on the main body; and then the Highlanders, followed by the Sikhs and Fusiliers, made a desperate effort to reach the Residency. For three-quarters of a mile, with desperate and dauntless courage, the men pressed forward through a street in which from every housetop, door, and window a relentless hail of bullets poured upon them. In this grand advance Brigadier Neill fell, shot through the head, but the troops pushed on, and then through the embrasure by the side of the battered archway of the Baillie Guard they pressed. The picture has often been painted of the big rough-bearded soldiers—those stern but soft-hearted Highlanders—seizing the little children out of their mothers' arms and "kissing them with tears running down their cheeks." The relieving column lost over 700 men by death or wounds, or nearly one in four of its total complement of 3,000.