Few men, probably, have ever survived so many and such severe wounds.
Besides Lieutenant Green, three Riflemen were (as I have said) wounded on this day.
It will be anticipated that Brigadier Barker speaks highly of this gallant deed in his despatch of October 9.
‘The party of the Rifle Brigade, under Lieutenant Green’ he says, ‘gallantly rushed up the high position in front of the village, and captured a six-pounder gun.’ ... ‘Among the wounded (and I am sorry to say he is dangerously so) is Lieutenant Green, Rifle Brigade.... This officer had behaved so gallantly all through the day that I most deeply lament this misfortune.’ Ensign Richards also was favourably mentioned in this despatch.
The Adjutant-General of the Army in India, also, in forwarding this despatch to the Secretary of the Government, by the direction of the Commander-in-Chief adds, ‘I am also to request marked attention to the gallantry of Lieutenant Green of the Rifle Brigade, who has been dangerously wounded.’ And the Governor-General in his General Order publishing these despatches, states his ‘great satisfaction’ at the conduct of Lieutenant Green.[301]
On the 12th Captain Alexander, who had returned to Lucknow on the previous day, proceeded to take command of his company, and arrived at Sundeelah on the 13th.
On the 13th this company were engaged in a daur[302] to the fort of Mandaula, which was blown up, and three guns were taken. And on the 18th three more companies, Atherley’s, Stephens’, and H. Newdigate’s, under command of Major Oxenden, marched from Lucknow and joined it at Sandeelah.
On the 21st the Brigade under Brigadier Barker proceeded to attack the fort of Birwah, which was held by Gholab Singh and about 700 rebels. The four companies of the 3rd Battalion, commanded by Captains Alexander and Stephens, and Lieutenants Percival and Cragg, and led by Major Oxenden, accompanied this force. They paraded at two A.M., and soon after marched in the direction of Birwah, and arrived before it about seven in the morning. Brigadier Barker had resolved to attack the west front. A few hundred yards from the fort was a village on a mound, which was intrenched and occupied by the enemy’s picquets. It was surmised that, as in so many previous instances, the rebels would not have awaited the approach of the column. But the assailants were soon undeceived; for a puff of smoke issued from a large circular bamboo jungle on the right, and a round shot flew over the column. The Riflemen were then hurried to the front; and with some native police and an eighteen-pounder and mortars, gradually inclined to the right till they came to the village, from which they drove in the enemy’s picquets, and it and the intrenchments were at once abandoned. They were then halted and ordered to lie down in a wood beyond the village. In front was an impenetrable bamboo jungle, out of which shots came now and then to show where the fort was, but so thick was the mass of bush and thorns that they could not see the walls; though from the reports of the guns they did not seem to be more than 100 yards off.
The mortars were placed in the village, and the gunners were directed to pitch their shells over the Riflemen, and to let them fall near a flag-staff which was supposed to mark the centre of the fort; but the enemy foreseeing this had moved the flag-staff to the further side, so that the shells went over the fort altogether. The fire of the mortars appearing thus to produce no effect, the eighteen-pounder was brought to where the Riflemen were lying down among the trees, in order to endeavour to make a breach in the wall. Lieutenant Percival was sent with twenty men of the company in his charge into the jungle, with orders to move along the ditch, to mount the breastwork of the outer defences, and to clear it of the enemy. This was rapidly effected. They drove the enemy before them, who abandoned the outer works, leaving a gun in their hands, and escaping through the jungle, retired to the fort. In this service two Riflemen were killed.