The 2nd Battalion remaining at Cawnpore, Captain Fremantle’s company, made up to 100 men with Lieutenants Baillie[284] and Scriven, was sent as an escort with the ladies from Agra; and starting with them at four o’clock on the morning of the 25th, he marched to Maharajpore, ten miles, where he encamped that night; and on the next day made a further march of thirteen miles and a half, when he handed over his charge to an escort of the Madras Fusiliers, and encamped. On the next day he returned to Maharajpore, and on the 28th arrived at Cawnpore, which the Battalion had left; but Captains Thynne’s and R. Glyn’s[285] companies had remained there to await his arrival.
Sir Colin Campbell having decided to undertake the siege of Lucknow, the 2nd Battalion marched at five in the morning of February 27 to Oonao, a distance of thirteen miles, and on the following day to Nawabgunge, where they rejoined the 3rd Battalion.
The two Battalions marched on March 1 to Bunteerah, twelve miles, and encamped in a broad plain. About midday they were disturbed by an alarm that their enemy was close upon them; but it turned out to be a false alarm, no enemy appearing.
Here the three companies from Cawnpore came up with the Battalion. They had marched on the same day from Cawnpore at three in the morning to Nawabgunge, doing the twenty-three miles in one march, without the intermediate halt at Oonao. Rain had fallen in the night, and the morning was cool, and they reached Nawabgunge at 11.30. On March 2 they came on to Bunteerah, where, as I have said, they rejoined their Battalion.
On the 3rd the two Battalions received orders to march towards Lucknow. Four companies of the 3rd Battalion, under Major Bourchier, formed the advance, and starting at six o’clock in the evening reached the Dilkoosha at two o’clock the next morning, a distance of twelve miles.
The Head-quarters of the two Battalions marched at 10.30 P.M., and reached their bivouack about three on the morning of the 4th. Four companies of the 2nd Battalion, Nixon’s, Pellew’s, Earle’s, and Fremantle’s, with two companies of the 3rd Battalion, formed the rear-guard: a most arduous duty. For the quantity of carts, laden with shot, shell, ammunition and provisions, was innumerable, and extended many miles. Though this rear-guard paraded with the Battalions it did not start until half-past three on the morning of the 4th, nor did they reach their destination till three o’clock on the following afternoon. This twelve miles’ march was most harassing, and the dust was intolerable.
During this march, while the 2nd Battalion was halted in a tope, a curious circumstance took place. There were a number of skulls lying about, and bodies of rebels, killed, no doubt, in a former encounter; some were skeletons, some sun-dried and shrunk almost into mummies. A bugler gave one of them a kick, and hearing a rattle, stooped down and found in the body nine gold mohurs, wrapped in a rag. It was supposed that the man had carried them, as natives often do, in his cummerbund; and that this having perished, the coins and their envelope had fallen on or into the remains of the body. Sir Hope Grant, who mentions the circumstance,[286] supposes that the man had swallowed them in some panic or alarm, rag and all; which seems incredible.
The Battalions bivouacked near the Alumbagh from three till six A.M., when they were moved to near the Dilkoosha, where they encamped. But the ground was not good, and very dusty. They were exposed, too, to the enemy’s fire from a battery about 700 yards off, near the Martinière.
On the 5th the Battalions furnished outlying picquets; and four companies of the 2nd Battalion marched back to Jellalabad (a small fort about three miles from the Dilkoosha), in order to look after some carts that had strayed away from the rear-guard the night before. They received there some of the horses, and returned to camp at three o’clock, where the 3rd Battalion had been under arms nearly all day.