Defence Continued.—As I have stated, the relief of Lucknow was also a reinforcement, and those who relieved the garrison, continued its defence for nearly fifty days, and survived the war, were awarded the clasp for the Defence of Lucknow.
Havelock, having relieved Lucknow, did not deem it advisable to take the risk of escorting the women and children and non-combatants through the thousands of sepoys who still encircled the Residency, so for six weeks the garrison, under Outram, kept the enemy at bay, until Sir Colin Campbell, the cool and daring Scots veteran of the Peninsular War, fresh from the Crimea, who was ready at the age of sixty-five to take up the arduous duties of Commander-in-Chief in India, prepared for the final relief. He landed at Calcutta on August 13th, but through delays, largely occasioned through want of transport, he could not start out on the march to Lucknow until November 9th. Three days later he had under his command 4,700 men, a number of whom had been engaged in the siege of Delhi; detachments of the 4th, 5th, and 23rd Fusiliers; a wing of the 53rd, a number of the 82nd, and the 93rd Highlanders 1,000 strong, 700 wearing the Crimean medal; remnants of the war-worn 8th King's (Liverpool) Regiment; the 75th (now 1st Gordons); a heavy battery Royal Artillery; Bengal Horse and Field Artillery; two squadrons of the 9th Lancers; Hodson's Horse; a squadron each of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Punjab Cavalry; 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry; detachments of Bengal and Punjab Sappers and Miners; and the Naval Brigade with 8 guns under Captain Peel.
Sir Colin Campbell arrived at the Alambagh, where Sir James Hope Grant had resolved to await reinforcements, on November 12th, and having determined upon his plan of advance forced his way round the north of the city, pushed the enemy through the Dilkoosha Park, and after taking the Secundrabagh and the Shah Nujeef, entered the Residency, where on the afternoon of November 17th he was shaking hands with Outram and Havelock in front of the Mess House, with bullets and shells pouring around them, for although the relief force had reached the Residency they stood in fear of being themselves besieged. Sir Colin Campbell therefore determined to take the 1,000 sick and wounded men, and 600 women and children, out of the place that had so long protected them from the "devil's work" of the mutineers. On the night of November 19th the work of removal commenced, and by the morning of the 22nd the Residency had been completely evacuated. As Captain R. H. Burgoyne, who was present, states, "Thus was accomplished one of the most difficult and daring achievements ever attempted, for such it must be acknowledged it was, when we consider that with a force scarcely exceeding 4,000 Sir Colin Campbell, opposed by upwards of 40,000 regularly trained soldiers supplied with munitions of war far exceeding ours, and holding one of the strongest positions imaginable, penetrated into their midst, carried one fortified position after another, and finally brought away in safety every living man, woman, and child shut up in the Residency, together with their baggage, treasure, etc.," and "the guns it was thought worth while to keep."
JUMMOO AND KASHMIR MEDAL, 1895.
(Obverse.)
JUMMOO AND KASHMIR MEDAL, 1895.
(Reverse.)
BRONZE HUNZA NAGAR BADGE, 1891.
BRONZE DECORATIONS GIVEN BY THE MAHARAJAH OF JUMMOO AND KASHMIR.