8 
 

 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
M E M I B S 
 
 OF 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL 
 
 SIR HENRY HAVELOCK K.C.B. 
 
tffe. 
 
 ' 
 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL 
 
 SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. K.C.B. 
 
 3T 
 
 JOHN CLABK MAESHMAN 
 
 ta 
 
 (Bbitiort 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, READER. AND DYER 
 
 1867 
 
X 
 
 .V 
 
 v 
 
 JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 
 
THE esteem in which the character and services of General 
 Havelock continue to be held by his fellow-countrymen, has 
 been manifested by the exhaustion of the former editions of 
 his Memoirs, and it has appeared advisable to issue another and 
 a popular edition, with the view of placing them within the reach 
 of a larger number of the public. The compiler has not felt it 
 necessary to yield to the advice of those who consider that the 
 disparaging remarks which have recently been made on his pro- 
 fessional and his religious character should be noticed in the next 
 edition of his Life. The simple, unvarnished narrative of his deeds 
 during the appalling difficulties of the Mutiny, and the exposi- 
 tion of his familiar correspondence, will be found to furnish the 
 best vindication of his character. Whatever feelings may have 
 been excited under the idea that his merits have been over- 
 estimated by his country, must be left to the ameliorating 
 influence of public opinion. 
 
 JOHN CLARK MARSHMAN, 
 
 London, May 1st, 1867. 
 
 212188 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Havelock's Lineage and Parentage. His early Education and Removal 
 to the Charter House. He prepares for the Bar. Enters the Army, 
 and embarks for India. His Religious Exercises during the Voyage. 
 Is engaged in the first Burmese War, and is deputed to Ava. Appointed 
 Adjutant of the Depot at Chinsiirah. Publishes his Campaigns in Ava. 
 Character of that Work. His Marriage. Joins the Baptist Commu- 
 nity. Rejoins his Regiment. Religious Instruction of his Men Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Havelock endeavours in vain to obtain a Company by Purchase. Is 
 appointed Interpreter to the 16th Foot; and Adjutant of the 13th 
 Light Infantry. Mrs Havelock's Life endangered by the burning of her 
 Dwelling. Havelock is at length a Captain. The Affghan War. 
 Eldred Pottinger at Herat. Havelock accompanies the Army to 
 Affghanistan. Candahar. Ghuznee. Cabul. He publishes a Narra- 
 tive of the Campaign. Appointed Persian Interpreter to General 
 Elphinstone. His Religious Services at Cabul. Perils of our Position 
 in Affghanistan. He proceeds with General Sale's Brigade, which is 
 attacked throughout the Passes. Insurrection at Cabul. Murder of the 
 Envoy. Sale's Brigade advances to Jellalabad . . .42 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Defence of Jellalabad. Captain Broadfoot's Character and Exertions. 
 Restoration of the Fortifications. Repulse of the Enemy on the 1st of 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 December. Assassination of the Envoy at Cabul. Straits of the 
 Garrison. The fatal Capitulation. Extermination of the Army. Dr 
 Brydon's Escape. Council of War at Jellalabad. Negotiations with 
 the Cabul Chiefs broken off. Reinforcements from India. Akbar 
 Khan approaches Jellalabad. The Earthquake of the 19th of February. 
 Destruction and Restoration of the Works. General Pollock's 
 Approach delayed. Exhausted state of the Garrison. Havelock 
 advises an Attack on Akbar Khan. Victory of the 7th of April. 
 Arrival of General Pollock. Proclamation of Lord Ellenborough. 
 Death of General Elphinstone. Advance on Cabul. Battle of Tezeen. 
 Cabul re-occupied. Release of the Prisoners. Victory at Istaliff under 
 Havelock's direction. Army breaks up and returns to India Page 84 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Havelock returns to his Regiment. Appointed Persian Interpreter to the 
 Commander-in-Chief. The Gwalior Campaign. Battle of Maharajpore. 
 The Mutinies. Origin of the first Sikh War. Battle of Moodkee 
 of Ferozeshuhur of Sobraon. Havelock's Description of the Sikh 
 Sirdars. He is appointed Deputy-Adjutant-General at Bombay. 
 Extracts from his Bombay Correspondence. The Second Sikh War. 
 Havelock's Remarks on the Campaign. Death of his Brother, Colonel 
 Havelock. Havelock's Remarks on the Battle of Chillianwallah. 
 Havelock endeavours to join the Army in the Field. Battle of 
 Goojerat . . . . . , .135 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Havelock is obliged by ill Health to visit England. His Correspondence 
 after his Arrival. Presented at the Levee by the Duke. His Opinion 
 of Sir Robert Peel. Meeting with Sir W. Norris and Archdeacon Hare. 
 Letter from the Archdeacon. Visits the Baths of Germany. His 
 Opinion of the Court of Directors, and the Court of Proprietors. 
 Endeavours to obtain the Rank of Brevet- Colonel, but in vain. Re- 
 turns to Bombay. Seeks Employment in the Burmese War. Ap- 
 pointed Quarter-Master-General of Queen's Troops in India. Visits 
 Serampore for the last time. Proceeds to Simla. Promoted to the 
 Rank of Brevet- Colon el. Appointed Adjutant-General of Queen'e 
 Troops. His Letters to his Family. Returns to Calcutta. Tours with 
 the Commander-in-Chief, General Anson . . . 191 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Origin of the Persian War. Havelock recommends General Outram for 
 the Command of the Expedition. Is appointed to command the Second 
 Division. Battle of Khooshab. Havelock arrives at Bushire. Expe- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 dition up the Euphrates. Mohumra. Strength of the Fortifications. 
 Havelock's Plan of Attack. Its successful Result. Expedition to 
 Ahwaz. Peace with Persia. Havelock returns to Bombay. Hears of 
 the Revolt of the Bengal Army. Origin and Character of the Mutiny of 
 1857. Mutiny of the 19th and 34th. Outburst at Meerut. Occupa- 
 tion of Delhi by the Insurgents. Havelock embarks in the Erin, and 
 is wrecked off Ceylon. Reaches Madras, and accompanies Sir P. Grant 
 to Calcutta. His Memorandum on the Bengal Mutinies. Is appointed 
 to command the movable Column. His Opinion of the 78th High- 
 landers ....... Page 230 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Position of Affairs at Benares at Allahabad at Cawnpore at Luck- 
 now. The Oude Mutiny. Resources placed at the Disposal of General 
 Havelock. He reaches Benares, and assumes the Command of the 
 Army. Proceeds to Allahabad. Letter from Sir Henry Lawrence. 
 Detachment sent on to Cawnpore. The Cawnpore Massacre. The 
 General starts for that place. March of the first three days. Battle 
 of Futtehpore. Remarks on it. Order of the Day. Disarming of the 
 Irregular Cavalry. Action at Aong at Pandoo nuddee. The Battle 
 of Cawnpore. Final Charge and Rout of the Enemy. Remarks on the 
 Battle. Night of the 16th July. The Order of the Day after the 
 Battle. The General's private Letters respecting it . . 265 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The third Cawnpore Massacre. Death of Sir Henry Lawrence. Bithoor 
 evacuated by the Nana. Death of Captain Beatson. Intrenchment 
 constructed at Cawnpore. The Force crosses the Ganges. Difficulties 
 of the Advance into Oude. Action at Onao at Busseerutgunge. 
 The General retires to Mungulwar. He is disappointed in Reinforce- 
 ments. Mutiny of the Dinapore Sepoys. The General's second Ad- 
 vance. Second Battle at Busseerutgunge. The General constrained to 
 retire a second time. Correspondence with Sir Patrick Grant on the 
 subject. The Goorkah Auxiliary Force. Communication established 
 between the two Banks. Action at Boorhiya. The Troops recross 
 the Ganges. Battle at Bithoor. Remarks on the Campaign. Cap- 
 tain Havelock and the Victoria Cross. A Christian Minister joins the 
 Force , 314 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Sir Colin Campbell arrives in Calcutta as Commander-in-Chief August 
 13th. The General, returning from Bithoor, hears that he has been 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 superseded. Sir James Qutram appointed to command the Force. 
 Remarks on this Transaction. The General is pressed by the Enemy, 
 and contemplates the necessity of retiring to Allahabad. Sir Colin 
 pushes on Reinforcements. The General's valedictory Correspondence 
 with Sir Patrick Grant. Other Routes for reaching the Residency pro- 
 posed and abandoned. Detention of a portion of the Reinforcements. 
 The General's Remarks on the Cause of the Mutiny. Arrival of Sir 
 James at Cawnpore with Reinforcements. He restores the Command 
 to the General. The Force crosses the Ganges. Action at Mungul- 
 war, and at the Alumbagh. The three Modes of entering Lucknow. 
 Determination to advance over the Charbagh Bridge Page 367 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Advance to the Charbagh Bridge and into the City. The Generals rush 
 to the Residency, and enter it in the Dark. Losses in the Rear-guard, 
 and among the Wounded. Remarks on this Occurrence. The Gen- 
 eral's Despatch on the Operations of the 25th. Sir James assumes the 
 Command of the Force. Determines to remain at the Residency. The 
 Blockade. Advance of Sir Colin Campbell's Force. The General's 
 Operations to aid him. His last Despatch. The Meeting of the three 
 Generals. Sir Colin determines to retire to Cawnpore. The General's 
 Letters to his Family, November 19th. His Illness. His Death and 
 Burial. His Military Character. His Moral Courage. His Christian 
 Character. Honours paid to his Memory in England, in France, in 
 America , 407 
 
or THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 SIE HENEY HAVELOCK, KC.B. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Havelock's Lineage and Parentage. His early Education and Removal to the 
 Charter House. He prepares for the Bar. Enters the Army, and embarks 
 for India. His Religious Exercises during the Voyage. Is engaged in the 
 first Burmese War, and is deputed to Aya. Appointed Adjutant of the 
 Depot at Chinsurah. Publishes his Campaigns in Ava. Character of that 
 "Work. His Marriage. Joins the Baptist Community. Rejoins his Regi- 
 ment. Religious Instruction of his Men. 
 
 HENRY HAVELOCK was born at Bishop Wearmouth, a 
 suburb of Sunderland, on the 5th of April, 1795. The 
 family, as may be inferred from the name, was Lineage and 
 of Danish lineage. One of the oldest lays in Srv^ 
 England is that of Havelock the Dane, who is Havefock - 
 supposed to have held sway in the eastern counties before 
 the arrival of Hengist and Horsa. Tradition, however, 
 assigns a more modern origin to the family, and traces it 
 up to Guthrum, the Danish king of East Anglia, who was 
 converted to Christianity in the days of Alfred. The seal 
 of the corporation of Great Grimsby, moreover, exhibits 
 the figure of Grime, the founder, in the centre, and that 
 of a crowned youth in the background, who is designated 
 Haflok, and who was said to have been the lost child of a 
 Norse sea-king, and became a great warrior. But the 
 theatre on which Henry Havelock was called to act during 
 the Indian mutinies required men, and not pedigrees, and 
 
2 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP, i. 
 
 it is therefore of little moment whether he was descended 
 from Havelock the Dane, or from King Guthrum, or from 
 a Norse sea-king ; the admiration of his countrymen is 
 based on his own achievements, not on any of the deeds 
 of his remote ancestors. Havelock's great-grandfather 
 was one of the victims of the South Sea Bubble ; his 
 grandfather settled in Sunderland, and engaged largely 
 in the commerce by which the town was rising to import- 
 ance. He bequeathed a lucrative business to his son, 
 William Havelock, who embarked likewise in shipbuilding, 
 and is still remembered as having constructed the largest 
 vessel, the Lord Duncan, which had at the time ever been 
 launched at the port. In August, 1787, he married Jane, 
 the daughter of Mr John Carter, a solicitor of Stockton- 
 on-Tees. Havelock' s mother was the great-niece of Wil- 
 liam Ettrick, Esq., of High Barnes, Bishop Wearmouth, 
 a gentleman of ancient descent, who married a daughter 
 of Hichard Wharton, Esq., member for Durham. Mr 
 William Havelock's two elder sons, William and Henry, 
 the subject of this memoir, were born at Ford Hall, Bi- 
 shop Wearmouth. Having amassed a considerable fortune, 
 he migrated to the south, and purchased Ingress Park, 
 near Dartford, where two other children, Thomas and 
 Charles, were born. All the sons embraced the profession 
 of arms. 
 
 After the removal of the family to Ingress Park, Henry 
 Havelock and his elder brother were placed under the 
 Haveiock at tuition of the Rev. J. Bradley, the curate of 
 d c eveiopment y of Swanscombe, and one of Havelock' s earliest re- 
 ws character, collections was the pride he felt in riding on his 
 pony to school. The notices which have been preserved 
 of him at this early period are scanty, but they are not 
 without interest as exhibiting the germ of those qualities, 
 by which his character was subsequently distinguished. 
 On one occasion, he had climbed up a tree to obtain a 
 bird's nest, when the branch broke, and he was thrown 
 violently to the ground. " Were you not frightened ? " 
 said his father, on meeting him immediately after. ' ' No," 
 replied he, " I had too much to think of to feel terrified. 
 
1805.] HAVELOCK AT THE CHARTER HOUSE. 3 
 
 I was thinking of the bird's nest I had lost." His master 
 one day observed that he had a black eye, and insisted on 
 knowing the cause of it. He had, in fact, interfered to 
 defend a younger boy from the tyranny of a bully, and had 
 received a severe blow for his pains. But he maintained 
 an imperturbable silence, and rather chose to submit to a 
 severe castigation than inculpate a schoolfellow by con- 
 fessing the truth. He remained at Mr Bradley's seminary 
 five years, during which period he read the newspapers of 
 the day with avidity, and manifested a very strong interest 
 in the records of Napoleon's movements and successes ; 
 and there can be little doubt that the enthusiasm thus 
 early imbibed contributed in no small degree to those 
 military propensities which he subsequently exhibited. 
 To his excellent mother he was indebted for those early 
 religious impressions which are so often found to triumph 
 over the assaults of scepticisn on the inquiring mind of 
 youth, and to exercise a permanent and salutary influence 
 on the character of the man. She was accustomed to as- 
 semble her children for the reading of the Scriptures. 
 Havelock took his share in these devotional exercises, and 
 the truths of the Bible, thus imprinted on his memory with 
 his earliest and dearest associations, continued to be his 
 support and solace through life. 
 
 Before the age often, Havelock was sent with his brother 
 William to the Charter House, and placed in the boarding 
 house of Dr Eaine, the head master. Dr Raine H aveiock re- 
 is described as " a man to be praised as often as ?he V chaSer 
 he is named, and who was only permitted to die House - 
 unmitred, because his political principles were too liberal 
 to suit the taste of the reigning faction of the day." Have- 
 lock continued there for seven years, and he never recur- 
 red to this period of his life without a feeling of delight 
 and gratitude. He regarded the tuition and associations 
 of the Charter House as having contributed essentially to 
 the formation of his character as a man.' He never ad- 
 mitted that the severity of its discipline, or even the 
 hardships of fagging, which were severely imposed on 
 him, furnished any argument against the system of public 
 
4 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 schools. Indeed, lie was often inclined to trace his pro- 
 pensity to strict discipline in the army to his Carthusian 
 experience of its benefits. At the Charter House Have- 
 lock exhibited all that power of application which cha- 
 racterized him through life. He never allowed himself 
 any relaxation while anything remained to be done. He 
 became an accomplished, though by no means a profound, 
 Latin and Greek scholar ; and not only appreciated the 
 beauties of the classic authors, but to a considerable degree 
 imbibed the spirit of their writings. To this early 
 familiarity with the matchless models of antiquity, is to 
 be traced the purity and vigour which marked, not only 
 his more elaborate compositions, but his familiar corre- 
 spondence. The early religious impressions which he had 
 received under the tuition of his mother, were revived and 
 deepened at the Charter House. In a memorandum which 
 he drew up many years after, he remarked that the " most 
 important part of the history of any man is his connection, 
 through faith, with the invisible world." So, of Henry 
 Havelock, it may be recorded that there were early indi- 
 cations of the stirring of the good Spirit of God within 
 his soul, though Satan and the world were permitted for 
 many years to triumph. Four of his companions united 
 with him in seeking the seclusion of one of the sleeping 
 rooms for exercises of devotion, though certain in those 
 days of being branded, if detected, with the epithet of 
 methodist and canting hypocrites." But such was the 
 native resolution of his character, that no strength of op- 
 position, or keenness of ridicule, would have induced him 
 for a moment to forego these meetings. From his earliest 
 years the performance of what he considered " duty," was 
 the moving principle of action, and he would no more have 
 flinched from it in the cloisters of the Charter House, than 
 he subsequently did amidst the severest shower of bullets. 
 His sober and contemplative disposition procured him 
 among his companions the sobriquet of " Philosopher," ab- 
 breviated into " Phlos," the name by which he was known 
 in the school. 
 
Ll.] DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. 
 
 At Christmas, 1809, Havelock went home, as usual, for 
 the holidays, and found his mother in very indifferent 
 health. This was a cause of great anxiety to his g^th^ 
 affectionate disposition, and of disappointment to mother? 
 both, as he had been accustomed, on such occasions, to 
 pass the evening with her and the family in reading aloud 
 to a late hour. On the 6th of January, 1811, her health 
 was so far restored as to enable her to join in the amuse- 
 ments of Twelfth-night with her assembled family. On 
 the following morning, however, after breakfast, while 
 Havelock was reading the Scriptures to her, in company 
 with his sister Jane, she suddenly exclaimed, " I am very 
 ill," and fell from her chair in a fit of apoplexy. After 
 raising her up and ringing for assistance, he continued 
 to watch over her for several hours before medical attend- 
 ance could be procured. She rallied for the time, but, 
 though her reason was not impaired, her speech became 
 almost unintelligible, except to his quick and anxious ear. 
 He tended her with the greatest affection, and she seemed 
 happy only when he was by her side. Early in February 
 the time arrived for him to return to the Charter House, 
 and their farewell was melancholy in the extreme, for, 
 though he buoyed himself up with the hope of seeing her 
 again, she felt, and expressed the conviction, that it was 
 their last meeting. She appeared to lose all cheerfulness 
 after he was gone ; silent sadness took possession of her 
 mind, and on the 26th of the month she sunk into the 
 grave. He was summoned back from school, without 
 being informed of the death of the mother he so tenderly 
 loved, and he came home unconscious of the event, rushed 
 into the chamber, and asked the nurse if he might see her. 
 She withdrew the curtain, and he bent over her, suppos- 
 ing that she was only asleep. He kissed her cold lips, 
 and then only discovered that she was no more. His 
 affliction was more intense than that of his brothers or 
 sisters, and the shock which he received he did not re- 
 cover for years. 
 
 Havelock returned to the Charter House, and endea- 
 
6 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAI>. i. 
 
 voured to forget his grief in a more intense application to 
 his studies. In April he was the fourth in the 
 fifth form ; " of which," as he remarked, " Wai- 
 pole, a grandson of Sir Robert, was first ; Hare 
 ranesere. secon a . j^ pi n a ar third ; and Haveiock fourth. 
 It consisted of some thirty boys, and lower down in it were 
 Connop Thirlwall, and Hinds/' In 1 8 1 1, Haveiock passed, 
 in due course, into the sixth form. In August of that 
 year Dr Raine died; and so strong was Haveiock' s esteem 
 for him as a scholar, and his affection for him as a man, 
 that the place seemed to have lost its chief attraction. He 
 was succeeded by Dr Russell, who introduced many 
 changes into the rules of the school, tending to subvert 
 the system to which, in Haveiock' s estimation, the Charter 
 House was indebted for the high character it had attained. 
 He, therefore, persuaded his father to remove him; and at 
 the close of 1811 took leave of the school, with a mind 
 richly stored with secular knowledge, a heart imbued with 
 Divine truth, and a spirit of the strongest resolution. Of 
 his contemporaries many have since risen to great emi- 
 nence in Church and State, and it was a source of no small 
 delight to Haveiock, in future years, to watch the growing 
 celebrity of the associates of his happy Carthusian school- 
 days. In 1850, he drew up a memorandum of his own 
 career for his friend Sir William Norris, in which he thus 
 adverts to his companions at the Charter House forty 
 years before : 
 
 "My most intimate friends were Samuel Hinds, William 
 ris, and Julius Charles Hare. Hinds, a man of taste and a poet, 
 spent his early years in travelling, married in France, distinguished 
 himself in one of the colonial assemblies of his native island, 
 Barbadoes, at the period of slave emancipation, and died at Bath 
 about 1847. Norris, now Sir William JSTorris, was called to the 
 bar, appointed successively advocate-fiscal, or queen's advocate, 
 puisne judge, and chief justice of Ceylon, and subsequently re- 
 corder of Penang. Hare went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 
 1812, graduated B.A. in 1815, and subsequently as M.A., and 
 became a fellow and tutor of Trinity. He is well known to the 
 literary and religious world, by his joint translation with Connop 
 
1813.] PREPARES FOR THE BAR. 7 
 
 Thirlwall of part of the Eoman History of Niebuhr, by some 
 volumes of sermons, and several polemical pamphlets. Nearly 
 contemporary with me and the boys just named were Connop 
 Thirlwall, now Bishop of St David's ; George Waddington, Dean, 
 of Durham, distinguished as a scholar and a man of letters ; 
 George Grote, the historian of Greece ; Archdeacon Hale, now 
 Master of the Charter House ; Alderman Thompson, member for 
 Northumberland ; Sir William Macnaghten, the talented but un- 
 fortunate envoy "at Cabul ; the Eight Hon. Fox Maule, now se- 
 cretary-at-war ; Eastlake, the painter ; and Yates, the actor." 
 
 Havelock's mother had always designed him for the 
 profession of the law. So strong was her confidence in 
 his abilities, that she always affirmed that he H aveiock 
 would rise to the head of the profession, and Etiffor 
 often remarked, " My Henry will one day sit on the bar - 
 the woolsack/' On leaving the Charter House, he retired 
 to Ingress Park, where he remained till the summer of 
 1812, giving his time to the study of the classics and the 
 acquisition of general knowledge. His father's fortunes 
 had been for some time on the decline. Rejecting the 
 remonstrances of his friends, he continued to embark in 
 speculations he was unable to manage, and was at length 
 reduced to such a state of embarrassment, as to be under 
 the necessity of parting with Ingress Park, which was 
 purchased by Government for 50,000. The family 
 removed to Clifton, and it became necessary for Haveiock, 
 now in his eighteenth year, to make choice of a profession. 
 Whenever the subject was introduced by his father, he 
 invariably evinced his determination to follow the oft- 
 expressed wishes of his mother, and go to the bar. At 
 the beginning of 1813, he was accordingly entered of the 
 Middle Temple, and became a 'pupil of Chitty, the most 
 eminent special pleader of the day. The companion of 
 his studies was Mr, afterwards Sir Thomas, Talfourd, the 
 author of " Ion." A congeniality of tastes led to a very 
 intimate friendship, and they were accustomed to ramble 
 together for hours, after the labours of the day were com- 
 pleted, and their conversation turned much oftener on the 
 beauties of poetry than on the pleas of the court. It was 
 
8 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. L 
 
 from Talfourd that Havelock imbibed tliat love of the 
 Lake school, which he never lost. After having pursued 
 his legal studies for more than a twelvemonth, his father, 
 owing to an unhappy misunderstanding with his son, 
 withdrew his support, and Havelock was obliged to 
 relinquish the pursuit of the law. The loss of occupation 
 affected his health, and he was obliged to leave London for 
 Brighton ; but the change proved of little benefit, and he 
 returned to his family at Clifton, without any settled plan 
 of life. 
 
 Havelock had been induced to make choice of the law, 
 in obedience to his mother's wishes ; he was now obliged 
 Havelock to relinquish the study of it through his father's 
 
 enters the -i i -ii-ii r i i 
 
 army. displeasure, and he had a profession to choose. 
 
 His earliest predilections had been for a military life., and 
 they were now revived and confirmed by the conversation 
 of his brother William, of the 43rd, fresh from the field of 
 Waterloo. William had joined the British army in Spain 
 in time for the gallant but fruitless action which General 
 Craufurd fought on the banks of the Coa, had accompanied 
 his regiment in the memorable retreat to the lines of 
 Torres Yedras, and was in the hottest of the fight at 
 Busaco and Salamanca. At the battle of Waterloo he was 
 aide-de-camp to Baron Charles Alten, who had succeeded 
 to the command of the light division in Spain on the 
 death of General Craufurd. In gratitude for the services 
 rendered to the Baron on the field of Waterloo, where he 
 was severely wounded, he offered to use his influence in 
 favour of his young friend, in any way he might point out. 
 William Havelock, finding on his return to England that 
 his father continued to reject every overture for enabling 
 his brother Henry to resume his studies at the Middle 
 Temple, advised him to choose the army for his pro- 
 fession; and having nothing to ask for himself of the 
 Baron, proposed to solicit hia influence to procure him a 
 commission. The offer was gladly accepted ; the Baron 
 obtained the commission; and Henry Havelock, at the 
 age of twenty, became a soldier. In the course of the 
 year 1815, he was appointed second lieutenant in the 
 
18151822.] ENTERS THE ARMY. 9 
 
 95th, or Rifle Brigade, and was some time after attached 
 to the company of Captain Harry Smith, also one of the 
 heroes of the Peninsula and of Waterloo, and subsequently 
 the conqueror at Aliwal, on the banks of the Sutlege. 
 His education in the practical duties of a soldier was 
 pursued under the tuition of Captain Smith, whom in his 
 subsequent correspondence he designated his " guide, 
 philosopher, and friend/' and to whom he always felt the 
 strongest attachment and gratitude. 
 
 Having thus embraced the profession of arms, Havelock 
 determined to master the principles of the military art. 
 While others were enjoying the lazy leisure of H ayeiock's 
 the barrack, he was diligently employed in the SK<$Et 
 study of Vauban, and Lloyd, and Templehoff, years - 
 and Jomini. He read every military memoir within his 
 reach. He examined the details of the most memorable 
 battles and sieges, and the position and movements of the 
 contending forces. He endeavoure'd in every case to ascer- 
 tain the cause of failure or of success, and was not satisfied 
 till he had discovered what he deemed the turning point in 
 every engagement. After his arrival in India, he often en- 
 tertained his friends at Serampore by fighting over again, 
 when the cloth was removed, the most memorable battles 
 of Marlborough and Wellington, of Frederic the Second 
 and Napoleon, calling up from his tenacious memory the 
 strength and disposition of the different divisions, and 
 tracing their evolutions on the table, till he came to the 
 critical moment when the fortune of the day was decided 
 by some masterly movement. It was during this period 
 of compulsory inactivity that he accumulated that fund of 
 professional knowledge which contributed so largely to 
 the success of his military operations in India. He like- 
 wise continued to cultivate the classics, reading them not 
 only as a matter of taste and enjoyment, but alstf with a 
 view to make himself master of the military strategy of 
 the ancients. He became perfectly familiar with the 
 history of every British regiment, and was enabled to 
 refer from his own recollections to the date and the scene 
 of their respective achievements. In the memorandum of 
 
10 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 his career to which allusion has been made, he remarks 
 with his usual modesty, " He now acquired some know- 
 ledge of his profession, which was useful to him in after 
 days ; " but the fact is, that few officers had ever become 
 so thoroughly proficient in their profession as Havelock 
 in the period between his entering the army and embark- 
 ing for India. During the eight years of his military life 
 in England, he was stationed sometimes in Ireland and oc- 
 casionally in Scotland, and appears to have been present 
 at what he facetiously termed the battle of Glasgow Green, 
 in the suppression of a riot, in 1820. In the year 1821, 
 he made a pedestrian tour through France, Italy, and 
 part of Germany. 
 
 Havelock' s elder brother William had proceeded to 
 Bombay with his regiment, the 4th Dragoons, in 1821. 
 Haveiock em- His voungfer brother Charles, having 1 obtained a 
 
 barks for J , 9 ., -,,, T i i i 
 
 India. cornetcy in the loth Lancers, had also gone to 
 
 the Bengal Presidency in 1822. Seeing no prospect of 
 active service in Europe, he determined to follow their 
 example, and seek employment in the ever busy scenes in 
 India. After having exchanged on half pay to the 21st 
 Regiment, he obtained a lieutenancy in the 13th Light 
 Infantry, which had been ordered to Calcutta. To 
 qualify himself for service in India, he went up to London 
 and attended the lectures of Dr John Gilchrist, formerly 
 
 Srofessor of Hindostanee in the college of Fort William, 
 alcutta, and in 1822 the ablest and most popular oriental 
 lecturer in England. Havelock applied with his accus- 
 tomed assiduity to the study of Persian and Hindostanee, 
 and was pronounced by the learned orientalist to be en- 
 titled to the " mark of a full moonshee." The 13th, 
 which was now to receive into its ranks the soldier whose 
 name will long continue to be associated with its renown, 
 had been distinguished by its services in Egypt. It was 
 at this time commanded by Major Robert Sale, afterwards 
 Sir Robert Sale, the hero of Jellalabad ; and immediately 
 under him was the gallant and daring Dennie. Havelock 
 was in his twenty-eighth year, and at the bottom of the 
 lieutenants, when he embarked for India in the General 
 
1823.] EMBAEKS FOE INDIA. 11 
 
 Kyd, in January, 1823. He was diminutive in stature, 
 but well-built, with a noble expanse of forehead, an eagle 
 eye, a countenance remarkably comely, which, moreover, 
 exhibited that union of intellect and energy which never 
 fails to command deference. 
 
 The religious impressions induced by his mother's early 
 instructions, and deepened in the Charter House cloister, 
 in which he and his piously-disposed schoolmates . 
 
 i i ini -" 1S religious 
 
 assembled for devotional exercises, had been views during 
 weakened during eight years of military life in Lieut. <fard- 
 England. The influence of the new associations 
 into which he was thrown had tended to deaden his 
 spiritual feelings, and religion had lost much of its power 
 on his mind and his spirits. He never yielded to the 
 temptations which surrounded him. He was not only 
 strictly moral in his conduct; but eminently pure in his 
 principles. He was too high-minded to give countenance 
 to those who scoffed at religion and ridiculed its consistent 
 professors ; but his religion, bereft of vitality, became a 
 formal routine of duty, from which the warmth of holy 
 affection was entirely absent. At one time he appears to 
 have been led by the recklessness of speculation to the 
 verge of Unitarianism, and began to admit doubts of the 
 Divinity of the Saviour. But he was not satisfied with 
 himself : he felt a longing for some substantial foundation 
 on which to rest his religious views and hopes some 
 solid principles to regulate his conduct and to animate his 
 soul; and it was during the voyage to India that he 
 happily found the object of his search. Through the 
 instrumentality of a fellow-passenger, he was drawn to a 
 more earnest perusal of the Holy Scriptures, and led to 
 an exclusive and quickening reliance on the merits of the 
 Atonement. This happy change, which brought his soul 
 under the omnipotent influence of Divine truth and love, 
 and diffused joy and peace through his mind, is thus 
 described by himself: "It was while the writer was 
 sailing across the wide Atlantic towards Bengal, that the 
 Spirit of God came to him with its offer of peace and 
 mandate of love, which, though for some time resisted, at 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. T. 
 
 length prevailed. Then was wrought that great change 
 in his soul which has been productive of unspeakable ad- 
 vantage to him in time, and he trusts has secured him 
 happiness in eternity. The General Kyd, in which he 
 was embarked, conveyed to India Major Sale, destined 
 thereafter to defend Jellalabad : but she also carried 
 out a humble, unpretending man, James Gardner, then 
 a Lieutenant in the 13th Foot, now a retired Captain, 
 engaged in home missionary work, and other objects of 
 Christian benevolence, at Bath. This excellent friend was 
 most influential in leading Havelock to make public avowal, 
 by his works, of Christianity in earnest." 
 
 Lieutenant now Colonel Gardner, on discovering the 
 state of Havelock' s mind, entered into religious convers- 
 ation with him, and endeavoured to lead his thoughts 
 and inquiries into a right channel. Havelock borrowed, 
 in the first instance, the Life of Henry Martyn, and read 
 it with great interest. He then perused Scott's " Force 
 of Truth/ ' diligently comparing the extracts given from 
 the Scriptures with the context. Thus did Lieutenant 
 Gardner become his evangelical instructor, resolving his 
 doubts as they arose, and leading him gradually to em- 
 brace Christian truth in all its breadth, with simplicity 
 and affection. Before the voyage terminated Havelock 
 had added to the qualities of the man and the soldier the 
 noble spirit of the Christian ; and thus was he accoutred 
 for that career of usefulness and eminence which has en- 
 deared him to his fellow-countrymen. Vital religion 
 became the animating principle of all his actions, and a 
 paramount feeling of his duty to God rectified and invigor- 
 ated the sense of his duty towards man. 
 
 During the voyage Havelock was not idle. Lieutenant 
 Gardner and several other officers, discovering that he 
 had cultivated Hindostanee under so eminent a master as 
 Dr Gilchrist, solicited him to aid them in the study of 
 Havelock that language. He acceded to their request, and 
 t?on S to S Hin- consented to allot a portion of each day, Sundays 
 fn g st the e vS : excepted, to the lecture, but only on condition 
 age - that he should be formally recognized as the head 
 
1823.] EELIGIOUS EXERCISES DURING THE VOYAGE. 13 
 
 of the class, and that they should manifest the earnestness 
 of their purpose by punctual attendance, and yield implicit 
 obedience to his authority as professor. " No master," re- 
 marks Lieutenant Gardner, " could have been more form- 
 ally installed in his office, and no professor could have 
 exercised his authority more decidedly. This continued 
 without interruption to the close of the voyage, when we 
 presented him with a scarce and valuable Hindostanee dic- 
 tionary, in several volumes, with an appropriate acknow- 
 ledgment of his much-valued services, which he duly ac- 
 knowledged in terms suited to his dignity as professor/' 
 This incident, trifling in itself, is interesting as an index 
 of the character which he subsequently exhibited when 
 invested with higher responsibilities an amiability of 
 disposition, a rigid punctuality, and a determination to 
 enforce discipline. During the voyage it was remarked 
 that though he was anxious to contribute to the general 
 cheerfulness of the party, he sought no intimacy except 
 where he could receive or impart benefit. 
 
 The General Kyd reached Calcutta in May, 1823. The 
 barracks in Fort William were at the time so crowded 
 that it was found necessary to allot a single bed- Haveiock ar- 
 chamber and sitting-room to two subalterns, the u v tu. His C as- 
 senior having the selection of his companion. sodations - 
 Haveiock was annoyed at an arrangement which threat- 
 ened to inflict an unwelcome associate . on him, and to 
 interfere with his course of study and devotion. To avoid 
 this inconvenience, he requested Lieut. Gardner to be- 
 come the joint occupant of the rooms. They continued 
 thus associated for some weeks, enjoying the delightful 
 intercourse of kindred minds. Havelock's mode of stating 
 his opinions was always ardent, and sometimes peremp- 
 tory. From the innate ascendency of talent, he seemed, 
 with all his kindliness of disposition, to claim a natural 
 superiority over others ; and it required great tact and 
 prudence to guide his mind in the pursuit of divine truth. 
 In his companion, Lieut. Gardner, great judgment and a 
 large Christian experience were happily blended with the 
 highest respect for the character of his friend. Owing to 
 
U MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 this happy combination of qualities, their intercourse was 
 of essential benefit to Havelock, who, on taking leave of 
 him when he was furnished with a separate suite of apart- 
 ments, said, " Grive me your hand ; I owe you more than 
 I owe to any man Irving." In Calcutta, Havelock became 
 a regular attendant at the Mission church, under the minis- 
 try of the Rev. Thomas Thomason, and cultivated the ac- 
 quaintance of the venerated Dr Corrie, then Archdeacon of 
 Calcutta, and subsequently Bishop of Madras. He also had 
 the happiness of enjoying the ministry of Bishop Heber, 
 who was in the habit of preaching in a large barrack-room 
 in the fort, before the establishment of a separate churclj 
 and chaplain. Havelock likewise visited the missionaries 
 at Serampore, and took a special interest in their pious and 
 energetic labours. He was thus associated from the period 
 of his arrival in India with the most eminent members of 
 the religious community, and took a decided position as 
 the bold and unflinching champion of Christian truth. 
 There were some who did not hesitate to jeer him as a 
 religious enthusiast, but he stood so high in public esti- 
 mation, for his sterling attainments, and his strength of 
 character, that contempt for the methodist was lost in ad- 
 miration of the soldier. Having experienced the blessings 
 of religion on his own mind, he was anxious to communi- 
 cate them to others. During his residence of eleven 
 months in the fort, he assembled as many men of his own 
 regiment, the 13th, as chose to attend for religious in- 
 struction. He was thus enabled to acquire a beneficial 
 influence over the well-disposed men of the corps, and to 
 attach them to himself by the strong ties of respect and 
 affection, and diffuse among them the leaven of piety and 
 temperance. 
 
 Before Havelock had been a twelvemonth in India, the 
 note of war was sounded, and he was called to embark in 
 The first Bur- his first campaign. The British government in 
 inesewar. India had been at peace for five years. Lord 
 Hastings, notwithstanding the magnitude of his military 
 expeditions in Nepal and Central India, had bequeathed 
 an overflowing treasury to his successor, a blessing so 
 
1824.] THE FIKST BUEMESE WAR. 15 
 
 rare that it appeared to overwhelm the minds of the public 
 functionaries. Various schemes were devised to relieve 
 this superfluity ; and, among others, it was proposed to 
 pay off the debts of the Civil Service, which exceeded a 
 million ; but while this plan was under consideration, the 
 Burmese war came, and swallowed up all the savings of 
 former years, and converted the surplus into a deficit, 
 which has never been extinguished. It was about the 
 period of the battle of Plassey, while Olive was establishing 
 British authority in the valley of the Ganges, that an am- 
 bitious and successful chieftain, of the name of Alompra, 
 extended his authority through the valley of the Irawaddy, 
 and founded the Burmese empire, as it has been usually 
 termed, which stretched from the borders of China to the 
 Bay of Bengal. Of all Asiatic dynasties, that of Alompra 
 had uniformly manifested the most remarkable spirit of 
 arrogance in its foreign relations. Its intercourse with 
 neighbouring sovereigns was always marked by the most 
 contemptuous estimate of their strength, and by an over- 
 weening conceit of its own power. The presumption of 
 the court of Ava, in reference to the rulers of British 
 India, had reached its climax towards the close of Lord 
 Hastings' administration ; and Lord Amherst, on assuming 
 the government, may be said to have found a Burmese 
 war, as a legacy from his predecessor. The King of Ava, 
 after having conquered Assam, and overrun the little 
 principality of Cachar, on our eastern frontier, which was 
 known to be under our protection, proceeded to demand 
 the cession of the eastern districts of Bengal, which he 
 claimed up to the Pudma, as the ancient patrimony of the 
 Burmese crown. At the grand council held at the capital 
 of Ava, Bundoola, the greatest of their generals, declared 
 that from the moment of their resolution to invade Bengal 
 " it was taken from under the British dominions, and had 
 become, in fact, what it had ever been in right, a province 
 of the Golden King." There were also acts of positive 
 aggression the seizure of an island belonging to us on 
 the Aracau coast, and the capture of one of our European 
 pilots, which could not be overlooked; thus, the first 
 
16 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 Burmese war grew out of the insolent demands and the 
 ambitious aggression of the Burmese court. Lord Amherst, 
 therefore, issued a declaration of war in April, 1824, against 
 the Burmese monarch, and prepared to support it by a 
 powerful armament. An army of 10,000 men was em- 
 barked in a fleet of more than forty vessels, for the invasion 
 of Burmah, through the port of Rangoon, and placed under 
 the command of Sir Archibald Campbell. 
 
 Havelock's military talents had become known to the 
 members of Government during his residence in Fort 
 Haveiock re- William, and he was nominated to the post of 
 Sj^tanSt, Deputy assistant Adjutant- General of the expe- 
 for Ragoo r n. s dition. The ardent hope he had so long cherished 
 of active employment in his profession was thus accom- 
 plished, and the opportunity was now afforded him of 
 acquiring a practical knowledge of the art of which he 
 had been for nine years studying the principles. But 
 through some mismanagement in the marine department, 
 the vessel in which he was to embark did not leave the 
 river before the 29th of April, more than a week after the 
 fleet had sailed for the rendezvous at Port Cornwallis, in 
 the Andaman Islands. A succession of light winds and 
 calms retarded his progress down the Bay, and it was not 
 till the 12th of May that the vessel he was in came up 
 with a government cruiser off the Andamans, when he re- 
 ceived the mortifying intelligence that the expedition had 
 sailed to Rangoon on the 5th of the month. He hastened 
 onward with all sail, but found, on reaching Rangoon, that 
 the town had been captured a week, and that he had 
 missed the opportunity of being present at the opening of 
 the campaign. In a letter to his friend Lieut. Gardner, 
 who had been prevented from accompanying the expe- 
 dition by severe illness, he gave a vivid description of the 
 scene around him, which is interesting as conveying his 
 impressions and feelings when placed for the first time on 
 the theatre of war : 
 
 " After two hours' sail amidst a deep silence that convinced us 
 that Eangoon had fallen, suddenly we beheld the gilded spires of 
 
1824.] HAVELOCK AT KANGOOK 17 
 
 countless pagodas, mingling in the air, with a small 
 forest of masts, a fleet riding at its ease, which we S 
 could no longer doubt was a victorious one. warfare. 
 
 "To accoutre, collect baggage, and leap into boats was the 
 next task. We rowed on, and perceived that the centre of the 
 town was protected by a stockade, as it is the fashion to call it, 
 but in fact by a species of defence of which, I think, I may give 
 you some idea, by saying that it is most like a park paling in 
 England, forty or fifty feet in height, and loopholed at the top, 
 and fabricated of massive timbers instead of plank, platforms 
 within affording the garrison the means of pouring forth in safety 
 a deadly fire. "We see moored on shore captive war boats, and 
 the houses on the banks filled with all the speaking apparatus of 
 a military hospital ; while officers and men, wet and dirty, with 
 bespattered jackets and faded forage caps, are bustling on the 
 wharves and jetties. 
 
 " We land at a ghaut or quay, where dismantled guns with 
 shattered painted wheels, cracked and splintered pillars, and dis- 
 mantled cranes told half the tale of wreck and discomfiture. We 
 make our way to the best pucka, or brick-built house, and find 
 there the general officers and staff. Salutations and explanations 
 over, we hear from a hundred mouths the narrative which I will 
 endeavour to digest for your information. 
 
 " The Burmese government in Eangoon had not the slightest 
 intelligence of the meditated descent before the 10th of May, 
 the day on which the fleet entered the river. In the midst of 
 our success, therefore, let us remember that they have been taken 
 by surprise. There was no viceroy in the country, a new one 
 being on his way from Amerapoora. The command devolved on 
 the Keywoon or admiral. This worthy's first order was to cut 
 some strong spars of wood, to which to tie his expected captives ; 
 his next to seize the English in the city and the suburbs ; and 
 our American friends did not escape. His last order was at least 
 amply obeyed. The prisoners were chained two and two, their 
 hands bound behind them with cords, tightened until they be- 
 came implements of torture as well as of security. They were 
 led to the hall of execution, their clothes torn off, their necks 
 bared, the sharpened knives made ready, all in train for the 
 bloody business of decapitation. Mr Hough and Mr Wade, the 
 two missionaries, were chained together, and carried in 'this state 
 past their own house. Mid-day on the llth the fleet hove in 
 sight. The Liffey anchored opposite the central fort or jetty. It 
 
 2 
 
18 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 opened on her, firing about a shot a minute. In the hope that 
 they would speedily see the folly of continuing so unequal a con- 
 test, the frigate answered for some minutes shot for shot ; at 
 length, perceiving them thus bent on destruction, she commenced 
 in earnest, not by a salvo or broadside, but in one long, loud, 
 steady, continuous roar, killing, shattering, crashing, splintering, 
 and dismantling. At this moment the Lame took her station, 
 and bellowed forth in similar strains against an adjacent portion 
 of the town. In a few moments the guns of this fort of forts 
 were strewed about the platform. The Eeywoon took to horse, 
 and made off with his armed followers ; and the whole population 
 of Rangoon, partly from the force of panic, and partly in obedi- 
 ence to the spiteful orders of their chief, rushed after him into 
 the neighbouring jungles. An hour elapsed ere boats could be 
 procured in sufficient numbers to land simultaneously. The 
 41st was then pushed on shore below the town ; the 13th into 
 the ruined fort ; and the 38th above it. They met with little 
 opposition, and by dusk the army found itself in quiet possession 
 of Eangoon, with scarce any being but themselves within its 
 walls. Their first task was the joyful liberation of the English 
 and American prisoners. 
 
 " We see droves of bullocks in front of our lines, but cannot 
 venture far into the jungles to shoot them. Our own tables are, 
 indeed, now pretty plentifully supplied with the wild poultry 
 which throngs the woods, but this does nothing for the true ob- 
 ject of an officer's care, the strength of the private soldier. It is 
 in vain for those who admire the conduct of Eostopchin at Mos- 
 cow, to vituperate this barbarous Eeywoon, as far as the princi- 
 ple of his defence is concerned ; but he is said to have had re- 
 course to truly savage measures to compel the natives to adhere 
 strictly to his plan of migration. Their wives and children were 
 seized, and a cruel death inflicted on those whose fathers, hus- 
 bands, and brethren did not follow them. 
 
 " You will prefer to any details of petty warfare, some account 
 Haveiock's f the missionaries who are established in the suburbs 
 m'iSoniies 6 ^ this singular town. You have heard already the 
 in Burmah. trials to which they were subjected at the period of 
 our descent. The mission, on the whole, has not been rapidly 
 successful. They do not number more than eighteen converts 
 since its first establishment, but they have given proofs of deep 
 sincerity and piety. Mr Judson is now on his third visit to 
 Araerapoora, the capital. He is said to have established himself 
 
1824.] HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE OF WAR. 19 
 
 in the good graces of the monarch, but his friends tremble to 
 think of the fate to which the first rumour of hostilities may 
 subject him. But they have not forgotten the hope that cannot 
 die, effectually strengthened by the recollection of their own re- 
 cent and most providential escape. The political agent, Major 
 Canning, assures me that he does not consider him in danger, 
 and I did not venture to ask him for what multiplication of 
 salary he would be content to place himself in his situation. 
 
 " The boast of Rangoon is its suburb, eastward and northward. 
 Escaping by the eastern gate, you find yourself, for the And of the 
 distance of half a mile, on a good road, amidst groves 
 of palnirya, acacia, bamboo, mangoe, and a variety of 
 fruit trees. The road now begins to ascend, and for upwards of 
 a mile and a half is skirted by small pagodas and low arched 
 temples of Gaudama. Midway up the hill, which forms our 
 position, is a temple occupied by the head-quarters of the 13th. 
 It is a large square apartment, with vaulted ceiling, curiously 
 gilt, and adorned with clumsily carved cornices and ornaments. 
 A vast image of the god has now received, in its arms, the colours 
 of the corps, and the regimental jest is to introduce you to the 
 new ensign. . . . Half a mile on is the crowning splendour of 
 this haughty hill of 'devil worship' the grand pagoda, its 
 name, Dagon, reminds us of the rebuke of the uncircumcised. It 
 stands on a vast square platform of raised earth, faced with 
 brick, of 200 yards in every direction. The pagoda itself, of 
 burnished gilt, rises to the height of 360 feet above the level of 
 the platform. All around are the houses of the priests, and the 
 temples of the idol. This country, defective in laws, sciences, 
 and warlike resources, and civil government, seems to have 
 lavished all its wealth on its hierarchy. The whole slope of our 
 position is covered with houses for priests and sheds for devotees, 
 which afford shelter for 6000 men. We have scarcely a tent 
 pitched in our lines. Imagine for yourself our regiment in the 
 * sanctum sanctorum ' of Guadama. Desecrated by the purpose 
 to which it has been turned, this hill is yet delightfully healthy." 
 
 The temple of Gaudama was now, however, to be con- 
 secrated to the service of the living and true God. Amidst 
 his anxiety for the physical comfort of his men, Haveiockhas 
 
 TT iiTT LI , i t , Christian wor- 
 
 xlavelock did not neglect their spiritual inter- ship in the 
 ests. There was no chaplain with the British pagoda.** 01 
 
20 DEMOTES OF SIR HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP I. 
 
 force, either from Madras or Bengal, but Havelock was at 
 his post when in the field, as he had been in the barracks. 
 Amidst the general revelry of a conquering host, which no 
 effort can adequately restrain, he assembled the men whom 
 he had brought under his influence for devotional exer- 
 cises, and had obtained permission to occupy one of the 
 cloisters of the Great Pagoda. An officer who had accom- 
 panied the expedition, stated to the writer of this memoir, 
 that passing on one occasion round the temple, he heard 
 the sound of distant psalmody, and threading his way 
 through the passages to the spot from which it proceeded, 
 found himself in a small side chapel, with little images of 
 Boodha in the usual sitting posture arranged round the 
 room. An oil lamp had been placed in the lap of each 
 figure, and the pious soldiers of the 13th were standing up, 
 around Havelock, singing a Christian hymn amidst those 
 idolatrous associations. It would be difficult to picture to 
 the mind a more delightful or romantic episode in this 
 scene of warfare and desolation. 
 
 Rangoon had been occupied on the llth of May, and the 
 enemy had at once disappeared, but their presence in the 
 Action of the vicinity of the town was felt by stealthy attacks 
 28th of May. on our position from the thick and almost impe- 
 netrable jungle round it. They had made an incursion on 
 the 2 7th of the month, and it was resolved to send out a 
 force the next day, to chastise and dislodge them. Have- 
 lock was in high spirits in the prospect of being for the first 
 time in actual conflict with an enemy. ' Great was his dis- 
 appointment, therefore, when Colonel Tidy, the head of the 
 Adjutant's department, accosted him as he was proceeding 
 to join the column, and stated that as his own position re- 
 quired him to be in attendance on the Commander-in- 
 Chief, it was necessary for Havelock to return to Rangoon 
 and conduct the official details of the office. The enemy, 
 though contemptible in the open field, was valorous be- 
 hind stockades, and the engagement was well contested. 
 A contempt of the foe had led to the neglect of any recon- 
 naissance, and the troops toiled wearily through intricate 
 jungle arid brushwood, across drenched paddy fields, and 
 
1824.] HAVELOCK'S FIRST ACTION. 21 
 
 over swollen rivulets, amidst heavy rain. At one time, 
 the General himself had to wade through water up to the 
 shoulders, and the howitzer which accompanied the force 
 was buried in the mud. The enemy's position was for a 
 time concealed by a thick mist, and a spattering fire was 
 the only indication which the troops had of the proximity of 
 the Burmese. It was at length found that two large stock- 
 ades, on the edge of the jungle, bristling with advanced 
 abattis, strongly compacted of earth, were filled with 
 the enemy. The 13th and 38th, the two regiments which 
 bore the brunt of the campaigns, availing themselves of an 
 opening left for ingress and egress, rushed upon the stock- 
 ades, and carried them at the point of the bayonet, at the 
 same time setting fire to the wooded defences. The loss 
 of the enemy was great, for an order had been issued to 
 the troops, not to encumber themselves with prisoners. 
 " Lieut. Alexander Howard," wrote Havelock, " who 
 was a volunteer for the day, and had been seen cheering 
 on the men with very distinguished gallantry, unluckily 
 rushed upon an angle where the Burmese, pent like rats 
 in a corner, were struggling desperately to escape from the 
 British bayonet. As he pushed on, sabre in hand, three 
 balls struck him on the side, and at the same moment a 
 Burmese speared him in the back. Dennie tells me he 
 found him expiring, his. sabre yet clenched in his hand, 
 fallen and lying over a dead Burman, in whose skull was a 
 frightful gash." Howard's remains were interred the same 
 evening, in a corner of the enclosure of one of the pagodas. 
 As he lay before the door, it was proposed to strip and 
 reattire the body. Havelock pointed to his gory side, and 
 said, " You can affix no brighter ornament than that to 
 the body of a brave soldier ; had we but his own good 
 sword, and the spear of his enemy, his obsequies would be 
 complete." 
 
 On the 5th of July Havelock found himself for the first 
 time intrusted with the responsibilities of command. A 
 little before sunset, a party to which he had been Havelock 
 
 ,, -, -, r J i i ,,, -i i finds himself 
 
 attached was sent to capture a stockade, "which," for the first 
 
 1 T , n I ff i , 1 tlllle m C0m - 
 
 as he wrote to Lieut. Gardner, " was situated 
 
22 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 in the midst of a jungle horribly thick and tangled, 
 and most disrespectfully near our position. The senior 
 officer, who had just risen from a sick bed, was exhausted 
 by fatigue, and unable to act, and I, as the only staff 
 officer present, seized the reins at rather a critical moment. 
 The troops did not support me, as older soldiers would 
 have done; not that they evinced any disposition to go 
 about, but they stood wasting ammunition in an exposed 
 situation, when they should have pushed en avant, and used 
 their bayonets, as I bid them do. I had sixteen of my 
 friends of the 13th killed and wounded, and poor Barrett's 
 right arm shot off. After this my pioneers (Madrassees) 
 fairly flung down the ladders and would not budge, though 
 I coaxed, harangued, and thrashed them by turns, all under 
 the best fire our feeble enemy could keep up, and within 
 pistol-shot of the work. At length, with European aid, I got 
 my ladders fixed, and carried my point just when darkness 
 rendered the capture useless." On the 8th of July there 
 was " a grand field-day of stockades, the best which the 
 force had made/'' Havelock was personally engaged 
 throughout the day with his own corps, the 13th, which led 
 the column. It was in this engagement that Colonel Sale, 
 as Havelock wrote, broke his own sabre over the skull of 
 a leader, a man of rank and a noted swordsman, and then, 
 seizing his weapon, nearly cleaved his body at one stroke. 
 The rains had now set in with their usual violence at 
 Rangoon. The troops, cooped up in that unhealthy town, 
 Haveiock's soon fell victims to disease, which created greater 
 
 health fails, , , 1,1 . i > j.1 
 
 n'edto^eave kavoc in their ranks than the weapons of the 
 Bimnah. eaie enemy had done. By the end of July nearly one 
 half the force was in the grave or in hospital. Havelock 
 was prostrated by a severe attack of liver complaint, and 
 was ordered by a medical committee to quit the field and 
 return to Bengal. In Calcutta his complaint baffled the 
 skill of the ablest of the faculty, and they at length pre- 
 scribed* a visit to England, as affording the only chance of 
 saving his life. To return home at such a period, however, 
 was to relinquish all prospect of taking an active share in 
 the campaign, at a time when he was panting for profes- 
 
1825.] VOYAGE FOR HEALTH TO BOMBAY. 23 
 
 sional occupation. With great reluctance they yielded to 
 his importunate request to be allowed to substitute a short 
 trip by sea to Bombay for the voyage to England, on his 
 engaging faithfully to embark for Europe if the shorter 
 excursion failed to restore health. He hoped thereby to re- 
 cover sufficient strength to resume his place in the force be- 
 fore the war was brought to a close, which, in the dilatory 
 manner in which it was conducted, was not likely to be 
 accomplished for more than a twelvemonth. He embarked 
 for Bombay in January, and was received with great cor- 
 diality by the Governor, the Hon. Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone, and the Commander-in- Chief, Sir Charles Colville. 
 From Bombay he proceeded to Poonah, and passed several 
 weeks with his brother William, then in the 4th Dragoons. 
 Regular exercise, vacation of mind, and the society of one 
 dear to him, combined with skilful medical treatment, re- 
 paired the ravages made by toil, fatigue, and disease on 
 his feeble frame. From the time of his landing at Bom- 
 bay his progress towards convalescence, though slow, was 
 uninterrupted. The voyage seemed to give him a new 
 lease of life, and he was thus enabled to pass through 
 thirty-two years more of Indian labour. He left Bombay 
 on the 17th of May, 1825, reached Madras on the 29th, 
 and, after spending a fortnight there, found himself on the 
 22nd of June again on the soil of Burmah. In announcing 
 his return to his friend Lieut. Gardner, he remarked 
 
 " Thus have I lost sight of one of the most singular and im- 
 posing spectacles of barbaric strategy on record, in my absence, 
 during the investment of Eangoon by the levee en masse Letter to 
 
 , ., J ,, , -T. , , Lieutenant 
 
 oi the Burmese empire under the Muha Bunaoola. Gardner. 
 The rest of the campaign consisted of a series of jungle skirmishes, 
 some of them daring and brilliant, but the loss of my share in 
 which, I the less regret, as they promise hereafter to be abund- 
 ant. Let me not ungratefully forget to commemorate the abund- 
 ant compensation which a gracious Providence vouchsafed to 
 devise and work out for me, under the decree of loss- of health 
 and interruption of professional prospects, which, in mercy and 
 not in anger, was permitted to go forth against me. I may men- 
 tion as slight advantages the having been compelled within a 
 
24 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 few months to visit the three great capital cities of British 
 supremacy in the East ; the periplus of all the peninsula, and 
 the ancient island of Serendib (Ceylon), as it is called in the 
 Arabian fictions ; a sight of the greater ghauts of Malabar, the 
 Indian Apennines, the finest range I have seen since I left the 
 Alps. . . . And still greater than these, the having made the 
 acquaintance of two such men as the Hon. Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone and Eeginald Heber, both of whom I found at Bombay. 
 
 "Farewell. I have this moment received an order to move 
 on Prome. Write, and requite me for this tedious recital, by 
 just as ample an account of your own proceedings and prospects. 
 Rely on it you will not weary me. Meanwhile think of me as 
 of one who sincerely, I trust, faithfully prays for you, and who, 
 though he humbly endeavours to regard all men as brethren, is 
 to you, what he does not subscribe himself to many, and lightly 
 and without meaning to none, Your friend, 
 
 "HENRY HAVELOCK." 
 
 Havelock joined the army at Prome in the beginning of 
 August,, and omitted no opportunity which the intervals 
 He resumes of military duty allowed of collecting 1 his men 
 
 the instruc- p , . . J J . TTT1 - , 
 
 tionofhis lor religious exercises. Whatever reproach he 
 
 men on his . , P ,, ., . I-IT -1-1 -< 
 
 return. might incur tor nis metnodism, it was readily ad- 
 mitted that no men were more orderly and steady, or 
 more ready for duty, than those who met him to read the 
 Bible and sing psalms. This was singularly exemplified 
 on one occasion during the campaign. A sudden attack 
 was made on an outpost at night, and Sir Archibald 
 Campbell ordered up some men of another corps to sup- 
 port it, but they were not prepared for the call after a 
 carouse. " Then call out Havelock' s saints/' he ex- 
 claimed, <e they are always sober and can be depended on, 
 and Havelock himself is always ready. 1 " The saints got 
 under arms with promptitude, and the enemy were at once 
 repulsed. 
 
 The army continued to advance towards the capital, and 
 fought two engagements with the enemy at Napadee and 
 The army ad- Patanago, in both of which Havelock took an 
 eSSS^PoieB a ctive part. The Burmese were as usual de- 
 JSJHSS feated with great loss. The king, impoverished 
 lock at Ava. ^y ^ war> an( j humiliated by defeat, now found 
 
182C.] PROCEEDS TO THE COURT AT AVA. 25 
 
 it necessary to sue for peace. He released Dr Price, one 
 of the American missionaries at Ava, who had been placed 
 in confinement at the commencement of hostilities, and 
 treated with great barbarity, and sent him down to the 
 British camp, in company with his own plenipotentiaries, 
 to negotiate a treaty, which was at length, completed 
 and signed. But it soon became apparent that, with the 
 usual duplicity of Asiatic monarchs, he had entered upon 
 these negotiations only to gain time to assemble another 
 army for a final struggle. A body of 18,000 men, styled 
 " the retrievers of the king's glory," was sent down to 
 attack the British troops, and protect the capital. Sir 
 Archibald Campbell's force had been reduced by sickness to 
 1800, but he had with him twenty-eight guns, "which," ac- 
 cording to Havelock's description, "poured a continuous 
 storm of shot and shell among the enemy. The deafening 
 peals succeeded each other with a rapidity which .suggested 
 the image of unchecked vengeance falling in thunder upon 
 the heads of these deceitful barbarians." The Burmese 
 were signally defeated, all their standards were captured, 
 and they fled in dismay to the capital, with the tidings of 
 their own discomfiture. The king now found it necessary 
 to accept the terms of peace which had been proposed by 
 the British commander. Dr Price was again sent in all 
 haste to the English camp in company with Mr Judson, the 
 father of the American Mission in Burmah, who had also 
 been treated with atrocious severity during a long captivity 
 in Ava. " It was curious," remarks Havelock, " to see a 
 staunch republican, like Dr Price, thus converted into a 
 representative of the Burman despotism." The two Ameri- 
 can missionaries, and the Burmese envoys, at length com- 
 pleted the treaty of Yandaboo, which was signed on the 
 24th of February, and by which the king was compelled to 
 cede the provinces of Assam, Aracan, and Tenasserim, and 
 to pay an indemnity of one million towards the expenses 
 of a war which had cost us thirteen millions. Havelock was 
 selected by Sir Archibald Campbell to proceed to Ava, and 
 receive the ratification of the treaty from "the golden foot," 
 and with him were associated Captain Lumsden and Dr 
 
20 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 Knox. After many delays, the British representatives were 
 admitted into the royal presence. " The monarch of Ava," 
 says Havelock, " seated on his throne of state, surrounded 
 by the ensigns of royalty, environed by the princes of the 
 royal house and lineage, and attended by the high ministers 
 and chief officers of the realm, received, with every mark of 
 gracious consideration, our congratulations in the name of 
 the Commissioners, on the pacification happily concluded 
 between the two states, accepted their presents, directed 
 suitable returns to be made, and, in conclusion, caused the 
 British officers intrusted with this charge tobe invested with 
 the insignia of titles and honorary distinctions;" and thus 
 ended the first Burmese war. 
 
 The army immediately marched down to Eangoon, and 
 embarked for Calcutta and Madras. The force being thus 
 broken up, Havelock's appointment as Deputy 
 Assistant Adjutant- General ceased, and as there 
 was no recognition of his services, with the ex- 
 
 to Cawnpore. ce p t i on Q f fo Q fiH et Q f go [^ J ea f wllicn na d been 
 
 placed on his forehead at the Court of Ava, when he was 
 invested with the title of a Burmese noble, he prepared 
 to return to his duty as a Lieutenant of His Majesty's 13th 
 Foot. During the campaign, however, he had formed the 
 acquaintance of Colonel Willoughby Cotton, commanding 
 one of the divisions of the army, as Brigadier-General. The 
 Colonel had many opportunities of appreciating his great 
 military talents, and considered it a pity that a man so 
 highly gifted should be entombed among the subalterns 
 of a regiment of foot. Having been nominated to the 
 command of a large detachment of troops proceeding to 
 Cawnpore, Colonel Cotton obtained for his young friend 
 the temporary appointment of interpreter. Havelock, 
 after his return from Burmah, soon found his way to Seram- 
 pore, and renewed his acquaintance with the missionaries. 
 On his journey to Cawnpore, he commenced a correspond- 
 ence with the compiler of this memoir, which was con- 
 tinued for a period of thirty years, with unabated affection, 
 and ceased only the day before he was attacked by the 
 complaint which terminated his existence. 
 
1827.] ADJUTANT OF THE DEPOT AT CHINSURAH. 27 
 
 " My dear Marshman, T write to enclose a soldier's mite to- 
 wards the building of your new chapel at Serampore. Had the 
 British army on reaching Yandaboo manoeuvred in two columns 
 on both banks of the Irawaddy, instead of turning diplomatists, 
 I might by this time have been in a condition to have sent you a 
 larger offering, but could not have accompanied it with greater 
 solicitude for the success of all objects cognate to that to which I 
 beg you to devote this trifling one. I move in the humble post 
 of interpreter, which is not very flattering to the vanity of the 
 ex-Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the first British army 
 which extended our conquests beyond the Ganges eastward ; but 
 I am not in despair of something better awaiting me on our 
 north-west frontier. Do me the favour to present my kindest 
 regards to the whole of your kind and hospitable circle. Seram- 
 pore is one of the points in this land of my (I hope not dis- 
 honourable) exile, to which my thoughts will ever revert with a 
 feeling of very deep interest." 
 
 These expectations were not at the time to be fulfilled. 
 Our north-west frontier was to enjoy a period of repose 
 for eleven years. The " something better," which Have- 
 lock was looking forward to in 1826, did not arrive till 
 1838, when he found himself again under the command of 
 Colonel then Sir Willoughby Cotton, marching across 
 the Indus to the conquest of Cabul. This long period of 
 repose from the active duties of the field presents few in- 
 cidents of interest in Havelock's career, but it was not a 
 season of inactivity.. His mental constitution admitted of 
 no cessation of labour, and he only exchanged the labours 
 of the camp for the drudgery of the cantonment, or the 
 office. "With the arrival of the detachment at Cawnpore, 
 his appointment as interpreter ceased, and he returned to 
 his regiment at Dinapore, and resumed his duties as a 
 Lieutenant. To relieve the monotony of a subaltern's life, 
 he began to compile a narrative of the Burmese expedi- 
 tion, and had made some progress in his manuscript when 
 he was again appointed to the more agreeable duties of a 
 staff situation. Colonel Cotton had been placed in com- 
 mand of the depot of King's troops, then re- Appointed 
 cently established at Chinsurah, about twelve fifeStrt 
 miles above Serampore, and he solicited his Chinsurah - 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 cousin, Lord Combermere, the Commander-in-Chief, to 
 bestow the post of Adjutant on his friend Havelock. It 
 was one of the few staff appointments in India which could 
 be held by an officer of the Royal army, and it was con- 
 ferred not less as an acknowledgment of Havelock' s 
 services, than as the result of personal solicitation. He 
 left Dinapore on the 15th of March, 1827, and in the 
 course of the year sent the following letters to Serampore, 
 in reference to his proposed compilation : 
 
 " The course of events seems about to carry me again into your 
 neighbourhood. I have just been appointed to the adjutancy of 
 correspond- the King's depot at Chinsurah, and propose to start by 
 fngthe!i1s d " dawn on the 15th. This little appointment is pleasing 
 Bumes? 6 * me > as it relieves me from the tedium of regimental 
 campaigns, jjf^ as ft j s offered to me in some sort as a requital 
 for services, and as it will, I trust, afford me the opportunity of 
 cultivating my acquaintance with yourself and your kind family. 
 
 " I have for two months been condemned to rather a mono- 
 tonous state of existence in this very uninteresting cantonment. 
 Some portion of its weariness I have endeavoured to dispel by 
 attempting a sketch of the military events of the first war against 
 the barbarians of Ava. The scribbled pages have gradually in- 
 creased in number. At length I have been emboldened to think 
 of making their contents public. If I print I should like to see 
 my title-page sanctioned with the name of Serampore. Still, I 
 am half afraid of the storm of hostility which the free discussion 
 of recent .events might draw upon a subordinate officer. Men of 
 years and of rank are so unwilling ever to be proved in the 
 wrong ; and I cannot, in common honesty, attempt to show that 
 in 1824, '25, and '26 they were always in the right. I have in- 
 deed left the Government untouched. I have judged measures 
 by the rules of the only art which I pretend ever to have studied. 
 My details and criticisms are purely military. I believe that one 
 volume octavo will embrace all that I have written, or shall 
 write, on this topic. 
 
 " It would not, I presume, occupy many weeks to get it through 
 the press at Serampore. Public curiosity will not demand more 
 than 300 copies. I know no man whose advice I should value 
 more on such a subject than your own. Tell me what you think 
 of the state of public opinion in India. Do the Indian com- 
 
1828.] PUBLISHES " CAMPAIGNS IN AVA." 29 
 
 munity care one straw about the Burman war 1 Do they care 
 enough to induce them to read 300 pages about it 1 " 
 
 On the same subject he wrote again : 
 
 " 23rd April, 1827. 
 
 " I do not think I have in a single sentence of my work com- 
 mitted myself against the Government. The generals I have not 
 treated quite so well. As regards them, I shall perhaps have to 
 modify and soften down, before I can venture to print. But were 
 the manuscript carried in statu quo to the press, it is not impos- 
 sible that I might find my name omitted in the army list of some 
 subsequent month for having presumed to think that a brigadier- 
 general can do wrong ; but I should have no apprehension what- 
 ever of the peaceful shades of Serampore being disturbed by the 
 fulmination of the Bengal Government. 
 
 " Perhaps, however, I exaggerate the danger, rather than the 
 causes of offence. No man is a fair critic in his own case. No- 
 thing but despair of your being able to decipher my villanous 
 autograph prevents me from submitting the manuscript to your 
 judgment on this head. Your kind offer to usher my first his- 
 torical essay into the world demands my warmest acknowledg- 
 ments. I must mention to you, however, a difficulty which was 
 suggested to me in Calcutta : copyright, it appears, is not pro- 
 tected in India. If my work published here were to excite any 
 interest in England, the first copy which reached that country 
 wouM be reprinted in London, the work pirated, and the old 
 case occur 
 
 ' Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores, 
 Sic vos noil vobis,' &c." 
 
 "June 18th, 1827. 
 
 " I wish to print my pages uniformly with the Napoleon Me- 
 moirs. I hope neither you nor the world will attribute this 
 species of imitation to vanity ; I think it the best form of mili- 
 tary history. It is, in fact, a very trifling improvement on the 
 plan of the Commentaries of the Roman dictator. Each cam- 
 paign should form a book, of which the subdivisions are num- 
 bered in Roman capitals. Each left-hand page should be headed, 
 'Campaign of the Monsoon;' 'Campaign of 1825, 1826,' &c. 
 &c. Each right-hand page with the name of the scene of action, 
 Rangoon, Prome, Meeaday, Pagghan-myo." 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 " September 18th, 1827. 
 
 " Do me the favour kindly to correct the little bit of Homer 
 in the 114th page now returned. I have no copy of the original 
 in my possession, nor a Greek book of any kind. The passage 
 is, I think, in book A of the Iliad." 
 
 "January 12th, 1828. 
 
 " I wish the copies to be lettered on the back, ' Campaigns in 
 Ava ' above, and ' Havelock ' below. * Snodgrass's Burman War,' 
 or 'Havelock's Campaigns,' appears to me nonsense. It was 
 Lord Amherst's war, and they were Sir Archhibald Campbell's 
 campaigns." 
 
 Havelock' s first work, the " Campaigns in Ava," was 
 published at Serampore early in 1828. For thirteen years 
 publication ne na< ^ made the military art his constant study, 
 i! e s in Cam " an d ne had recently enjoyed the first opportunity 
 of testing his knowledge by the lessons of actual 
 warfare. The work was, therefore, not only a narrative 
 of military movements, but a record of the judgment which 
 he had been led to form of the strategy of the campaigns. 
 Though he had endeavoured to avoid the charge of pe- 
 dantry, it was freely brought against his work, partly 
 from its peculiar arrangement, but chiefly from the use of 
 the word " barbarian," which he had applied to the Bur- 
 mese, and which was treated as a conceited adoption of 
 the term employed by Caesar in designating the Gauls. 
 These, however, were but superficial defects ; the narrative 
 was not only clear, but luminous ; all cumbersome details 
 were avoided, and the reader was presented with the 
 salient points of each manoeuvre and action. In this, his 
 maiden work, he exemplified the remark of one of his 
 most distinguished commanders in after days, that more 
 knowledge was to be obtained of the real position of affairs 
 from six sentences of Havelock, than from as many pages 
 of another writer. The style was sententious and classical, 
 but would have been greatly improved if he had been en- 
 abled to give it some of the ease of his familiar corespond- 
 ence. It was considered so close an imitation of tho 
 models of antiquity, that Havelock was, either in joke or 
 
1828.] CHAEACTEE OF THAT WORK. 31 
 
 earnest, called the modern Thucydides. But the work was 
 chiefly remarkable for its bold strictures on the tactics of 
 the commanders. It did not fail to give offence by the 
 fearless exposition of errors which it is usual to gloss over 
 in official despatches. No military commander is disposed 
 to tolerate the criticism even of his victories, least of all 
 when their character is equivocal, and the errors of his 
 strategy have been retrieved by the cowardice of the 
 enemy, or the devotion of his own troops. Havelock had 
 reckoned upon a " storm of hostility," though he could 
 scarcely have anticipated its virulence ; but he was determ- 
 ined to brave obloquy in the cause of truth, and in the 
 performance of what he considered his duty. The book 
 made many enemies, and created a prejudice against him 
 which repressed his professional prospects. Some time 
 after its appearance, his brother William, having visited 
 England, and called at the Horse Guards, saw the " Cam- 
 paigns in Ava " lying on the table of the officer to whom 
 he addressed himself. "Are you the author of that 
 work ? " was the first inquiry. " It is from the pen of my 
 younger brother/' " Is he tired of his commission ? " 
 was the curt and significant rejoinder. The work was, 
 however, unquestionably one of the best models of military 
 history which had ever appeared in India, and its merits 
 were fully appreciated by those whose opinion was of any 
 real value. In his second military history, published 
 thirteen years after, he thus refers to the ' ' Burmese Cam- 
 paigns " : 
 
 " My former effort as an author had not met with that species 
 of reward which is commonly looked for in the present day. No 
 enterprising publisher had taken under his auspices my ' Memoirs 
 of the Three Campagins.' It had been printed in a distant land, 
 and thus placed beyond the reach of the praise or blame of the 
 constituted critics of Britain ; and in consequence of the short 
 memories of a large proportion of my subscribers, the proceeds of 
 the publication had scarcely defrayed the cost of giving it to a 
 limited number of readers. Yet a counterpoise to these morti- 
 fications was not wanting. A few officers of rank, whose discern- 
 ment and candour I could not doubt, even in my own case, had 
 
MEMOIKS OF SIR HENKY HAYELOCK. [CHAP, i, 
 
 characterized the performance as honest and faithful ; three com- 
 manders-in-chief in India had spoken favourably of it to others, 
 as well as to myself. And I have been deceived, if, when war 
 was likely to be renewed in the Burman empire, and information 
 regarding it had become valuable, a fourth general, placed in the 
 same situation of responsible control above adverted to, did not 
 find, or profess to find, in the pages of the neglected lieutenant, 
 developments of fact and reasoning which he had in vain sought 
 in books on the same topic, that had enjoyed the sunshine of a 
 more brilliant popularity." 
 
 The book brought him neither profit nor promotion. 
 It might reasonably have been supposed that in a service 
 like that of India, where the discovery and the employ- 
 ment of talent is essential to the success of government, 
 an officer who had exhibited no ordinary military abilities 
 during the war, and subsequently in his commentaries on 
 it, would not have been allowed to pine in obscurity. Yet 
 during the eleven years of neglect he was doomed to ex- 
 perience from this time, not a repining note ever escaped 
 his pen. He found ample solace in the conscientious per- 
 formance of the duties of his station. 
 
 Havelock remained at Chinsurah for three years, taking 
 charge of the recruits as they arrived from En gland, and 
 Haveiock's superintending their discipline and transport to 
 marriage. their regiments. He was a frequent visitor at 
 Serampore, and cultivated the society of Dr Carey, Dr 
 Marshman, Mr Mack, and the writer of this Memoir. On 
 the 9th of February, 1829, he was married to Hannah Shep- 
 herd, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr Marshman, 
 whose memory is revered by the Christian world, as one of 
 the Serampore missionaries, the great pioneers of Christian 
 civilization in the north of India. This connection was 
 the source of unalloyed happiness to him for twenty-nine 
 years. It was delightful to witness a man of Haveiock's 
 strong character, unbending himself amidst the endear- 
 ments of domestic life, and exhibiting the great soldier and 
 the stern disciplinarian, as the most affectionate of hus- 
 bands and the most exemplary of parents. But even 
 on his wedding-day he manifested that resolute submission 
 
1829.] HIS MARRIAGE. 33 
 
 to the claims of duty which was the main spring of his 
 conduct through life. On the morning fixed for the wed- 
 ding, he was summoned to attend a military court of in- 
 quiry in Fort William, which was to be held at noon. It 
 was in vain that his friends urged on him that so import- 
 ant an event as his marriage would be considered an 
 ample justification of his absence. He maintained that as a 
 soldier he was bound to obey orders, regardless of his own 
 convenience. The marriage was therefore solemnized at 
 an earlier hour, after which he proceeded to Calcutta in a 
 swift boat, attended the court, and returned to Serampore 
 in time for the nuptial banquet. From the period of 
 Havelock' s arrival in India, and the commencement of his 
 Indian allowances, he had determined to devote a tenth 
 of his income to objects of piety and benevolence. On his 
 marriage he resolved to adhere to the same rule, from 
 which he never swerved, even when his resources were 
 reduced to the scanty pay of a lieutenant. 
 
 For several years Havelock had been investigating the 
 question of infant and adult baptism. He had debated 
 the subject with Mr Judson, the American missionary, 
 
 after he ioined the English camp, on beinsr Havelock 
 v-i j r* ,. ., IT- joins the Bap- 
 
 liberated trom captivity, and his previous views tist commu- 
 
 were shaken. He endeavoured to bring the SSoiidain. 
 subject under discussion at Serampore, but found that 
 it was the only topic on which his friends were unwilling 
 to enter. They considered it their mission to evangelize 
 the heathen, not to bring Christians to the adoption of 
 their own denominational views, however conscientiously 
 they were maintained as a component part of Gospel truth. 
 Havelock was thus left to his own researches, and he was 
 at length led to the conviction that baptism by immersion, 
 after a confession of faith, was in accordance with Scrip- 
 ture teaching and apostolic practice. He determined, 
 therefore, to join the Baptist community,, and was accord- 
 ingly baptized by the Rev. John Mack, in the chapel at 
 Serampore. This change of views entailed the loss of 
 some cherished friendships, but he considered himself in 
 bhe path of duty, and, with his characteristic fearlessness, 
 
 3 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. r. 
 
 was equally proof against the displeasure of friends and 
 the raillery of enemies. But though his sentiments re- 
 garding this particular ordinance were thus changed, there 
 was no contraction of his Christian sympathies. Consort- 
 ing more intimately with those whose opinions on this 
 point coincided with his own, he was free from the restric- 
 tions of sectarianism, and rejoiced in the fellowship of all 
 those who held the same Christian principles, and were 
 animated with the same Christian hope. His views on this 
 subject were clearly enunciated in an address which he 
 delivered at a subsequent period at a meeting of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance at Bombay. 
 
 "But while he should part with his Baptist principles only 
 with his life, he declared his willingness cordially to fraternize 
 with every Christian who held by the Head, and was serving the 
 Redeemer in sincerity and truth. And here he would protest 
 against this being alleged, as adversaries would insinuate, that 
 where men of various denominations met, as this evening, in a 
 feeling of brotherhood, they could only do this by paring down 
 to the smallest portion the mass of their religion. On the con- 
 trary, he believed that all brought with them their faith in all 
 its strength and vitality. They left, he thought, at the door of 
 the place of assembly, the husks and shell of their creed, but 
 brought into the midst of their brethren the precious kernel. 
 They laid aside, for a moment, at the threshold, the canons, the 
 articles, and the formularies of their section of Christianity, but 
 carried along with them, up to the table at which he was speak- 
 ing, the very essence and quintessence of their religion." 
 
 Havelock's tenure of his Chinsurah appointment was 
 now drawing to a close. The debt entailed by the reck- 
 Haveiock less expenditure of the Burmese war had terrified 
 pSment^ the India House, and a system of the most strin- 
 
 and rejoins , ,, -, , -, , 
 
 his regiment, gent economy was enforced on the government 
 
 Illness of his P T , . / ~ ... i j rt "l 
 
 eldest child, in India. A Committee was appointed, in Cal- 
 cutta to devise plans of retrenchment, and to cut down 
 the public establishments ; and among other measures 
 of economical reform, the abolition of the depot of King's 
 troops at Chinsurah was recommended. It was a mea- 
 sure of very doubtful policy, because the recruits must 
 
1831.] REJOINS HIS KEGIMENT. 35 
 
 have been located on their arrival either in Fort William 
 or at Chinsurah, and the former was as unhealthy as the 
 latter was salubrious. But parsimony overruled expe- 
 diency ; the depot was removed to Fort William in the first 
 instance, and Havelock was required to exchange a com- 
 fortable residence at Chinsurah for ' ' two shell-proof dun- 
 geons on the ramparts of the fort/' to which he removed, 
 with his wife and child. " It is said," he wrote, " that the 
 decree for the extinction of the depot, or approving of its 
 suspension, has passed Council ; but the strong remon- 
 strances of Lord Dalhousie, and perhaps a sense of the 
 real injustice and impolicy of the measure, appear to have 
 made the Yice-President pause before he*carried it into 
 effect. My own opinion is that the establishment will 
 stand. 33 But it was nevertheless abolished, and at the 
 beginning of 1831 Havelock was sent back to his corps to 
 - fill the subordinate post, and live upon the limited pay of 
 subaltern ; but he hoped, he said, on his arrival at the 
 mtonment, " to put all things on a footing of exem- 
 )lary economy, which was more than had been achieved by 
 ly of his name, and to mark the effect of the great 
 inancial scheme in which you have offered me such hand- 
 some assistance." He travelled to the station by water, 
 and on entering the Ganges was alarmed by the illness of 
 lis child, then under twelve months of age. The danger 
 arose from approaching dentition ; and no medical aid was 
 nearer than forty miles. " To render the case more dis- 
 tressing," he wrote, "we were entirely destitute of the 
 only remedies which we believed likely to be effectual. 
 We had no calomel and no lancet, and no skilful hand to 
 use it ; and the young sufferer grew worse every hour. 
 The danger seemed imminent, and our distress was not 
 trifling. I therefore determined myself to try my skill as 
 an operator ; and with a very indifferent substitute for a 
 lancet, and, I fear, not a very steady hand, succeeded in 
 giving relief to my first patient. I should think this a 
 very tedious story to write to one who did not know how 
 the human heart, even the heart of one who has passed 
 through many scenes of suffering and danger, attaches 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. i. 
 
 itself to these little ones in their years of helplessness. 
 My clumsy attempts were certainly blessed beyond our 
 hope, for the little sufferer soon became calmer and calmer, 
 and his fever sensibly diminished." 
 
 Havelock had never allowed his active engagements in 
 India to deaden his interest in whatever could conduce to 
 H^eiock's the welfare of his native country ; and his exten- 
 Engiish^nd sive reading qualified him to form an accurate 
 poutrcs an judgment of the character of events at home. 
 In India, the party distinction of Whig and Tory is 
 but feebly appreciated, while a partiality for liberal mea- 
 sures in every department pervades all classes of so- 
 ciety. Havelock's political predilections were, therefore, 
 more Liberal than Conservative, and he hailed with de- 
 light the prospects of reform and improvement which at 
 this time dawned upon England and Europe. In his letter 
 to Serampore, on his way to Dinapore, after stating his 
 own enlarged views on parliamentary reform, he remarked, 
 ( ' It will be long, however, before an unreformed House 
 will vote for anything like this, and less ought not to 
 satisfy the people. The alternative, it is to be feared, is 
 to be found in the enactment of the ' three days/ or, some- 
 thing more terrific. A minister proposing real reform 
 might yet retrieve all. . . . The most glorious in- 
 telligence is, however, from Bologna and Modena. Let 
 us hope that the moment is not far distant which will ful- 
 fil the presage of the Italian poet : 
 
 ' Virtit contro al furore 
 Prendera 1'armi, et fia il combatter cor to ; 
 Che 1'antico valore 
 Negli Italic! cuor non e ancor morto.' " 
 
 On his arrival at Dinapore, he resumed the religious 
 instruction of his men, which he was enabled to continue 
 Religious in- without interruption for three years. His minis- 
 
 structionof , ,. ,-, 1 -, -, -i i j.x j. TV 
 
 1m men. trations are thus described in a letter to JUr 
 Marshrnan : 
 
 "The dissenting privates of the 13th meet for social worship, 
 morning and evening, in their chapel. There are also in the 
 
RELIGIOUS IKSTEUCTION OF HIS MEN. 37 
 
 building small places for retirement for private devotion, to 
 which many resort. There is also public worship on the sabbatli 
 before noon, and in the evening. I think the congregation on 
 the latter occasion fluctuates between fifty and sixty, sometimes, 
 however, exceeding this latter number; and it is admitted by 
 those who, without any prepossession in favour of the faith, have 
 the best opportunities of judging of the fact, that instances of 
 immorality or neglect of duty among this body in the course of a 
 year are very rare. The frequenters of this chapel are reckoned 
 among the best behaved men in the regiment. We have no 
 minister. Ward Lieutenant Ward of the 68th Native In- 
 fantry supplies the place of one on the sabbath morning, and I 
 do my best, ineffective as it is, for the men's instruction in the 
 evening. I have, I think, on three occasions read them a 
 sermon, but as often as seven times preached to them, that is, 
 read to them a discourse composed by myself. I would gladly 
 know from you what is your opinion. Is this an heresy 1 Is it 
 contrary to Scripture, since I have not been ' separated ' to the 
 work, but belong to a secular and active calling ? The men listen 
 gladly, and the rehearsing the sentiments of another from a 
 printed book appears to me to be a spiritless action, which does 
 not move and awaken as does the declaration of Ms own views in 
 an address indited by the speaker. This is all ' I have to say in 
 my defence, if the act needs one. We have no minister, or I 
 should not dream of intruding into the sacred office. I shall 
 esteem your opinion_a great favour." 
 
 Towards the close of 1831, the 13th moved up to the 
 cantonment at Agra. A second son was born to him on 
 the river/ and owing to the difficulty of obtain- g^ 1( J k , g 
 ing immediate medical aid, Havelock felt an Moadwm. 
 intense degree of anxiety. After all apprehensions had 
 been removed, he wrote, " It is wise not to over-contrive 
 things, or to be too careful ; doing our best to have much 
 left, trustingly, in the hands of Him who is wise. I have 
 in vain endeavoured to express before God, who knows 
 the heart, and I cannot, my dear Marshman, develope to 
 you my sense of the mercy of which we have been the 
 objects at this juncture, in regard to the arrival of the 
 young heir to vicissitude and trouble, and I hope to com- 
 passion and grace also. I can make nothing yet out of 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 the features of my younger hope, only that his nose is 
 large, and the cast of his countenance grave. But resem- 
 blance to either parent is not by me traceable, unless in 
 the fact of nasal longitude, which is a characteristic of my 
 father's family. Neither have we yet fixed on a name 
 for him. The lady says, Lionel, but that signifies ' little 
 lion/ and there have been lions and tigers enough, and 
 too many, of my race already. I wish the next genera- 
 tion to be lambs." 
 
 Soon after the arrival of the regiment at Agra, arrange- 
 ments were made by Government for the formation of a 
 camp of exercise ; on which Havelock remarks : 
 
 "In coming to Agra, you will remember that we reckoned on- 
 repose for some years, and, as usual, without our host. Orders 
 Expected have already been issued for preparing a spot, or two 
 tfieid 11 m spots, for one or two large camps. Two points are in- 
 Mrs U Have1ock dicated, one within seventy miles of Agra, another in 
 atGwaiior. the Dooab, in the vicinity of Mynpooree or Etawah. 
 The fact is, that there are all around extensive plains imperfectly 
 cultivated, so that the choice of the site of a camp of exercise can 
 only be embarrassing, if at all, from the number of eligible spots 
 which present themselves ; but there are rumours that the real 
 object of the gathering is a descent on the territories of Scindiah. 
 Now, in the terms of our strategetical cant, Agra and Etawah are 
 the natural points of concentration for the Meerut and Cawnpore 
 forces, as connected with the line of invasion by Attair and 
 Dhoulpore. I almost suspect that this is the thing projected. 
 However, whether to fight or to play at soldiers, I have little 
 doubt that the 1st of November will see us under canvas." 
 
 But there was to be no war with Gwalior for twenty 
 years. Lord William Bentinck's pacific administration was 
 interrupted by only one brief expedition, which ended in 
 making the Rajah of Koorg an exile, and his daughter a 
 Christian. The differences with Scindialr's cabinet were, 
 for the present, accommodated by negotiations. The Go- 
 vernor-General, accompanied by his lady, and escorted by 
 a splendid military array, of which the 13th formed a part, 
 proceeded to Gwalior, and completed his amicable arrange- 
 ments. Lord William Bentinck showed particular atten- 
 
1832.] HAVELOCK AT GWALIOK. 39 
 
 tion to that corps on the line of march, and became per- 
 sonally acquainted with the merits of the " neglected 
 lieutenant." Lady William likewise selected Mrs Have- 
 lock to accompany her in her interview with the princess, 
 and to act as her interpreter; and the intercourse thus 
 commenced exercised an auspicious influence on Have- 
 lock' s future prospects. It was on this occasion, in the 
 presence of a submissive court, that Lord William Ben- 
 tinck gave audience to the plenipotentiaries whom the 
 King of Ava had sent to Bengal. They had arrived in 
 Calcutta some months before, and Lord William directed 
 that they should be conveyed up the country,, and re- 
 ceived with distinction at the military stations. To im- 
 press them with a sense of our power, and deter their 
 Court from future hostilities, several regiments were 
 brought together, and the envoys were received in full 
 Durbar with an imposing appearance of military pomp. 
 It was in the state tent at Gwalior that Havelock renewed 
 his acquaintance with the "barbarian" ministers, with 
 whom he had exchanged the ratification of the treaty of 
 Yandaboo, six years before, at Ava. The pious soldiers 
 did not neglect their religious duties, on the line of march, 
 but assembled for devotional exercises under Havelock' s 
 directions, sometimes under the shade of a tree, and some- 
 times in the open air. Soon after the return of the regi- 
 ment to Agra, their little chapel was completed, and Have- 
 lock thus wrote to Serampore : " This and various other 
 little circumstances have created a considerable stir of 
 curiosity in the minds of men of various grades, regarding 
 the nature and pretensions of our little church. I never 
 seem to notice this, but I am convinced of the fact. We 
 have always met with kindness from our earthly superiors, 
 and I think there is a growing anxiety to discover our 
 secret for it is such to many ; what it is that enables us 
 to brave reproach, and keeps us together. ' Silver and 
 gold we have none,' and yet we grow and nourish. This 
 is in some sort regarded as an enigma/' 
 
 The dissenting soldiers had hitherto been required to 
 be present at the service of the Church of England, while 
 
40 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. I. 
 
 'g the Roman Catholic soldiers were exempted from 
 ous this compulsory attendance. Havelock was 
 
 liberty for the . J ., -i p T. 
 
 soldiers. anxious to secure the same privilege lor Pro- 
 testant nonconformists. On the 13th of October, there- 
 fore,, he presented a memorial on the subject to Lord Hill, 
 the Commander-in- Chief, through the officer commanding 
 his own regiment, by whom it was forwarded to Lord 
 William Bentinck. He stated in the memorial, that in 
 conformity with the requirements of the articles of war, 
 he had, when on duty with his own or any other regiment, 
 invariably attended Divine service according to the forms 
 of the Church of England. He did not pretend that this 
 constrained attendance had been in any respect painful to 
 him, inasmuch as he admitted that he had been enabled, 
 with very great delight and spiritual comfort, to join in 
 the greater number of the prayers of the Liturgy of that 
 Church ; still he had felt it a hardship to be deprived of 
 the privilege of assembling at the hour best fitted for the 
 purpose with the members of his own Church, and of the 
 benefit of attending the ministrations of his own minister ; 
 and to be constrained, on some occasions, to hear from 
 the pulpit a condemnation of the principles which he re- 
 vered. He further represented that he was not on this 
 occasion pleading his own cause alone, but that many 
 faithful soldiers of His Majesty would thankfully receive 
 the same relief which he now sought, and which was al- 
 ready secured to the Roman Catholic soldiers by the 
 regulations of the army. He stated that he had never 
 sought permission to absent himself from the worship of 
 the Church of England, of the officer commanding the 
 13th Light Infantry, but "now, under a firm conviction 
 that his gracious master, the King, was disposed to respect 
 the religious scruples of all his subjects, and to afford all 
 opportunities and facilities of which the nature of military 
 duty would permit, to worship Almighty God according 
 to their consciences, he humbly requested that the dis- 
 advantages under which he laboured in this respect might 
 be represented to His Majesty." 
 
 It was during this period that Colonel Sale, who com- 
 
1833.] HT$-fifiTOTDUS CHARACTER. 41 
 
 manded the 13th, made the remark which has been inad- 
 vertently attributed to Lord William Bentinck. Have- 
 lock's religious meetings among the men had irritated 
 some of his brother officers, and a strong feeling of op- 
 position to him had grown up in the regiment. On one 
 occasion, while Havelock was confined to his couch for 
 several days by illness, it was reported that one of his 
 " saints" had been found drunk, and it furnished matter 
 of triumph to his opponents. On his recovery he requested 
 a full investigation of the case in the presence of the 
 Colonel, when it was discovered that there were two men 
 of the same name in different companies in the corps, and 
 that the .man who had been intoxicated did not belong to 
 Havelock's company, or assemble with his little congre- 
 gation. It was then that Colonel Sale exclaimed, in his 
 blunt manner, "I know nothing about Baptists, but I 
 know that I wish the whole regiment were Baptists, for 
 their names are never in the defaulters' roll, and they are 
 never in the coagee or lock-up house." The influence 
 of Havelock' s Christian exertions, combined with his sound 
 judgment and vigour of mind, was powerfully felt, not 
 only in his own regiment, but beyond its circle ; and it 
 has been well remarked by a Presbyterian clergyman, who 
 enjoyed much domestic intercourse with him, that " he 
 was, in the highest and best sense of the word, a noble 
 Christian missionary, recommending, both by precept and 
 example, the gospel of Christ to all around. In him the 
 military character was so clear and so fully. developed ; 
 he was such a stern and rigid disciplinarian ; and his com- 
 mand over his soldiers was so absolute, that worldly men 
 easily tolerated the saint in their admiration of the soldier." 
 His character was well defined in one expressive sentence, 
 when Lord Hardinge said of him, he is every inch a sol- 
 dier, and every inch a Christian. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Havelock endeavours in vain to obtain a Company by Purchase. Is appointed 
 Interpreter to the 16th Foot; and Adjutant of the 13th Light Infantry. 
 Mrs Havelock' s Life endangered by the burning of her Dwelling. Havelock 
 is at length a Captain. The Afghan War. Eldred Pottinger at Herat. 
 Havelock accompanies the Army to Afghanistan. Candahar. Ghuznee. 
 Cabul. He publishes a Narrative of the Campaign. Appointed Persian In- 
 terpreter to General Elphin stone. His Eeligious Services at Cabul. Perils 
 of our Position in Afghanistan. He proceeds with General Sale's Brigade, 
 which is attacked throughout the Passes. Insurrection at Cabul. Murder 
 of the Envoy. Sale's Brigade advances to Jellalabad. 
 
 HAVELOCK had now been seventeen years in the army, and 
 was still only a junior lieutenant. " If I stand fast in the 
 Havelock en- world, however " he writes about this time, " I 
 
 deavours to , -, /> 1 1 r> ,-, 
 
 obtain a com- see that some oi the acquaintances ot mv vouth 
 
 panybypur- , . r < ^ ~ ., , .> > 
 
 chase. are pushing on. George Grote, the banker, was 
 
 about two forms above me at school, and I knew him in- 
 timately. Fox Maule, who has just married Abercromby's 
 niece, I knew as an urchin ; and Lord Edmund Hay, who 
 appeared in the last Gazette as a lieutenant-colonel by pur- 
 chase, was two steps below me, as second lieutenant, in the 
 Rifle Brigade. ... I am, I believe, one step nearer a com- 
 pany than when I wrote to yon last, and, perhaps, the 
 coronation may give me another. Any augmentation in 
 the army might possibly create a third, by restoring to the 
 13th the company cut off so cruelly in 1829, so that after 
 all I may be a real captain at forty ; at all events I am a 
 pretty contented brevet at thirty- seven." But he could 
 not fail to perceive how highly detrimental it was to his 
 prospects to find others continually purchasing over his 
 head. An effort was now made by his friends at Serarn- 
 pore to prevent this disheartening supersession, and 
 Messrs Alexander and Co., the most eminent of the great 
 
1834.] HAVELOCK ENDEAVOURS TO OBTAIN A COMPANY. 43 
 
 agency houses in Calcutta, consented to hold themselves 
 in readiness to make good the value of a company when- 
 ever it might be required. The engagement was duly 
 communicated to the regimental agent in England, and 
 the dread of being again superseded was removed. But 
 while Hav clock's letter of grateful acknowledgment was 
 on its way from Agra to Calcutta, the firm was swept into 
 the Insolvent Court by the commercial crisis which at this 
 time extinguished the chief mercantile establishments in 
 Calcutta. His friends then applied to Messrs Mackintosh 
 and Co. for similar aid, and it was cheerfully offered ; but 
 before their letter of credit could reach London they like- 
 wise had been obliged to suspend payment. A third appli- 
 cation was made to the house of Messrs Fergusson and Co., 
 rhich seemed likely to survive the general wreck, and 
 'tey cordially responded to the request. Havelock's pulse 
 low beat high with hope. He considered himself satis- 
 ictorily enrolled as a candidate for the first vacant com- 
 ly. ' ' Such/ ' he writes to Serainpore, ' ' are now my 
 prospects, and on a bountiful Providence we must rely to 
 guide us through all attendant difficulties, as he guards us 
 from the greater dangers of unbelief and presumption." 
 But the cup was dashed to the ground when it appeared 
 to approach his lips. Before his communication could 
 reach England this firm was likewise obliged to bend to 
 the adversity of the times. The disappointment was 
 grievous to Havelock's feelings, for supersession is perhaps 
 the most bitter ingredient in a soldier's lot. 
 
 Thus deprived of the prospect of a company in his own 
 corps, Havelock determined to seek an interpreter ship in 
 one of the royal regiments. With this view he IB appointed 
 endeavoured to perfect himself in the Hindo- thfwKot! 
 stance and Persian languages, and then appeared for exa- 
 mination before a Station Committee. He passed the 
 ordeal with credit, and then obtained permission to pro- 
 ceed to Calcutta and pass the higher examination at the 
 college of Fort William, while his family proceeded to the 
 sanatarium of Cherra-poongee, for the health of his third 
 and infant son, Ettrick. He was at once pronounced 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 qualified for the appointment by his knowledge of the 
 native languages. Soon after the interpreter ship of 
 H.M/s 16th Foot having become temporarily vacant, he 
 was appointed to the post, and started for Cawnpore in 
 June, 1834. He had scarcely reached the station when he 
 heard of the death of the infant, and immediately wrote to 
 Serampore : 
 
 "I have been favoured in having been actively occupied with 
 rather a troublesome court-martial, and it is probable that its 
 proceedings will keep me at work to-day and part of to-morrow. 
 This is better than having, in such seasons, too much leisure for 
 recalling past events and images. But I feel myself so entirely 
 surrounded by mercy that I could not under any circumstances ber 
 unhappy, though my human hopes have been so rudely dashed." 
 
 A few weeks after he wrote to a friend suffering under 
 a similar bereavement : 
 
 " On taking up the ' Hurkaru ' of the 20th this morning, the , 
 afflicting intelligence caught my eye of the death of your little 
 girl. I hasten to offer my condolences ; what are they worth ? 
 Positively nothing in the estimation of a father, since they cannot 
 restore to him his departed child, nor re verse the decree of 'Thou 
 shalt go to her, but she shall not return to thee.' Yet I have 
 felt the voice of friendship to be soothing under such circum- 
 stances, and the assurance of sympathy to relieve the feeling of 
 desertion and loneliness which with me has supervened on the 
 first shock of this bereavement. I have not adverted to higher 
 consolations, only because I know you have them ready at hand. 
 You will feel, as I have felt, in the midst of the like sorrow, that 
 I ought to check the sigh which intimated a desire to detain in 
 such a world one who was pure and sinless, but yet for whom 
 Jesus died, whose inheritance therefore was secure and imperish- 
 able, beyond doubt or surmise or misgiving, as glorious as ever- 
 lasting." 
 
 Havelock did not long hold the post of interpreter to the 
 16th. An officer of that regiment had qualified himself 
 Appointed to for its duties, and passed his examination in th.e 
 O f e the j i3th. cy College, and was accordingly nominated to the 
 
1834.] ADJUTANT OF THE 13TH L. I. 45 
 
 appointment. Havelock now prepared to return to the 
 duties of a subaltern in his own corps ; and on the 24th of 
 January wrote, " I have every prospect of reaching Agra 
 a full lieutenant of foot, without even the command of a 
 company, and not a rupee in the world besides my pay and 
 allowances, nor a rupee's worth, except my little house on 
 the hill, and some castles in the air, even less valuable. 
 Nevertheless, I was never more cheerful, or fuller of health 
 and hope, and of humble dependence on Him who has so 
 long guarded and guided me." 
 
 Meanwhile the adjutancy of the 13th became vacant, and 
 Havelock made official application for it, through his colonel, 
 to Lord William Bentinck, who, in addition to the office 
 of Governor- General, had recently been appointed Com- 
 mander-in- Chief. Lord William was no stranger to Have- 
 lock' s character as a Christian, or his merits as a soldier. 
 Havelock had been more particularly brought under his 
 notice by an application he had recently presented through 
 the commander of the regiment, that he and the Baptist 
 soldiers, whose numbers had increased, should be permitted 
 to assemble in their own chapel for Divine service, in ac- 
 cordance with their own tenets, instead of being marched 
 on Sundays at church parade to the service of the Church 
 of England. The memorial, to which reference has been 
 made at the close of the previous chapter, was transmitted 
 to the Commander-in-Chief in England, with, as it was 
 understood, a strong recommendation from Lord William 
 Bentinck, who was always in advance of his age ; but the 
 concession was not extended to dissenting soldiers before 
 the month of July, 1839. Mrs Havelook had in the mean 
 time returned from Cherra-poongee to Serampore, and 
 ventured to second her husband's request in a letter to 
 Lord William Bentinck, in which she pleaded his claim to 
 the vacancy, on the ground of his qualifications and his 
 past services. Lord William Bentinck requested her to 
 cross over to Barrackpore Park. She was received by 
 Lady William with the cordiality of a friend. While en- 
 gaged in conversation with her, Lord William Bentinck 
 entered the room with a packet of letters in his hand, and 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. u. 
 
 referring to the subject of her communication, stated that 
 he was anxious to read some letters to her which had been 
 placed in his hands on the matter. Perceiving Mrs Have- 
 lock's perturbation, he said, " Before I allude to this cor- 
 respondence, I give you the assurance that I have bestowed 
 the adjutancy of the 13th on your husband, because he is 
 unquestionably the fittest man in the corps for it." He 
 then proceeded to read portions of the letters which had 
 reached him. They were written by officers, whose ill- 
 will had been roused by Havelock's religious exertions. 
 They described him as a methodist and a fanatic, whose 
 character as an officer was lowered by familiar intercourse 
 with the men, and whose strong religious views would pre- 
 vent him from acting with impartiality as adjutant. Lord 
 William Bentinck said that from the inquiries he had made, 
 he found that the men who were under the influence of 
 Havelock's instructions were the most sober, and orderly, 
 and best behaved among the men ; he wished him to con- 
 tinue his religous exertions, and, if possible, convert the 
 whole regiment ; but, pointing to the letters with a smile, 
 he added, " The adjutant must not preach." 
 
 On receiving the appointment to the adjutancy, Have- 
 lock proceeded from Cawnpore, which he was subsequently 
 His exertions ^ enter as a conqueror, to Agra, where he was 
 as adjutant. goon a f ter j o i ne a by Mrs Havelock. He con- 
 tinued in the discharge of his duties as adjutant with ex- 
 emplary fidelity for three years and a half. A month or 
 two after, he wrote : ' ' I do not know whether you have 
 observed it, but it is a thing to be recorded, at last I 
 have got a regimental step. I am now second, without 
 expense or effort. We are now thinking of subscribing 
 to get old K. to purchase too. It is expected that two 
 more companies will shortly go in this way, which will of 
 course be picked up by two boys, if nothing is done to 
 prevent it. Yet the dread of getting ever so little in 
 debt deters me from taking any step. But if something 
 is not done, I must really live and die a lieutenant." It 
 will be readily believed that with Sale for its colonel, and 
 
1835.] HIS EXERTIONS AS ADJUTANT. 47 
 
 Havelock for its adjutant, few regiments in India were in 
 a state of higher efficiency than the 13th. He continued 
 his religious instruction among the men with unabated 
 zeal. But though he freely associated with them in the 
 sanctuary, there was no relaxation in the duties exacted 
 of them. Since the days of the Commonwealth, few men 
 have ever succeeded like Havelock in combining the 
 fellowship of religious communion with the strict disci- 
 pline of military command. No soldier who knelt at the 
 same altar with him was ever allowed to forget that, be- 
 yond that hallowed boundary, he was his master. The 
 affectionate devotedness of the men was never dissociated 
 from the awe with which he inspired them as their military 
 superior. Through his exertions, chapels were erected 
 near the regimental barracks, both for the Baptist soldiers 
 and for the members of the Church of England, at which 
 the attendance was large, as well on week days as on the 
 Sabbath. The chapels afforded the men opportunities for 
 devotional retirement and reading, which were to them 
 a source of great enjoyment ; and those who witnessed his 
 exertions, averred that the influence of his Christian cha- 
 racter, and the interest which he took in everything tend- 
 ing to the moral elevation of the men, had produced the 
 most gratifying results. He had always felt the import- 
 ance of sobriety to the welfare of the men, and to the 
 consummation of military discipline. When invested with 
 the authority of adjutant, he redoubled his efforts to pro- 
 mote habits of temperance among them. It was through 
 his influence that a Temperance Society was formed in the 
 regiment, of which Colonel Sale, and his own Christian 
 friend, Captain Chadwick a second Gardner in the corps 
 enrolled themselves as members. A coffee-room was 
 built, and every accommodation provided which could at- 
 tract the men from the canteen. In that coffee-room, 
 Havelock was accustomed frequently to address them, 
 with the view of encouraging sobriety and mental im- 
 provement. 
 
 Towards the end of 1836, the regiment having been 
 
48 MEMOIKS OF SIR H^NRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 removed to Kurnaul, Mrs Havelock proceeded with her 
 Mrs Have- infant family to the hill station of Landour. On 
 !owat b Lan- a " the 18th of October, on a calm moonlight night, 
 and r her r iife a Cr 7 of & Ye was raised, and she was suddenly 
 endangered. awa "k;ed from slumber by the crackling of bam- 
 boos and the blaze of the burning bungalow. She rushed 
 out with the infant in her arms, and endeavoured to 
 escape, but fell into the flames, and was rescued from de- 
 struction only through the exertions of a faithful native 
 servant, who lifted her up, and wrapping her in his own 
 blanket, conveyed her to a neighbouring hut ; but the in- 
 fant was so severely injured that she survived only a few 
 days. The native servant then rushed back to the house, 
 and at the imminent risk of his life, rescued the two boys, 
 the elder of whom was severely burnt before assistance 
 could reach him. Two of the servants, however, perished 
 in the flames. A brother officer at the station sent Have- 
 lock the first intelligence of the calamity, and informed 
 him that his wife was lying at the point of death. He was 
 astounded by the blow, and it required all the strength of 
 Christian principle to sustain his mind; but his letter to 
 her parents was written in a spirit of calm resignation to 
 the will of the Almighty. His men, on hearing of the 
 calamity, came in a body to condole with him, and solicit- 
 ed permission to contribute a month's pay to make up his 
 pecuniary loss. The offer was necessarily declined, but it 
 afforded him the most gratifying token of their affectionate 
 esteem. He hastened to the scene of desolation, but the 
 medical attendant gave him no hopes of Mrs Havelock' s 
 recovery ; and he wrote to Dr Marshman to prepare him 
 for the next communication, which would, in all proba- 
 bility, announce the loss to him of an affectionate daugh- 
 ter, and to Havelock himself of a most devoted wife. For 
 three days, during which he never left her couch, it ap- 
 peared as if every moment would be her last ; but, under 
 the blessing of God, some symptoms of convalescence 
 appeared on the fourth day, and she was at length com- 
 pletely restored to health. In the course of the ensuing 
 year he lost his father, at the age of eighty ; and his father- 
 
1830.] HAYELOCK PROMOTED TO A CAPTAINCY. 49 
 
 in-law, Dr Marshman, who died at Serampore at the age 
 of seventy, after thirty-eight years of service in the cause 
 of evangelization in India, to which he had devoted a for- 
 tune of forty thousand pounds.. 
 
 At length, the long-coveted grade of captain came to 
 the " neglected lieutenant/' at the age of forty-three, 
 without purchase. In his correspondence with iiaveiockis 
 
 _ .. . A . , , , -i promoted to a 
 
 the writer, after repeated disappointments, the captaincy, 
 couplet of Lord Byron 
 
 " Nought's permanent among the human race, 
 Except the Whigs not getting into place " 
 
 had frequently been the subject of a parody 
 
 " Nought's permanent among the human race, 
 Except that Havelock ne'er \vill get that place ! " 
 
 On his promotion to a company, in 1838, he wrote : 
 
 " You have already been made aware that our old poetic saw, 
 touching the contrariety in the nature of things to the attain- 
 ment of unbought promotion in the 1 3th has lost its edge ; and 
 seemed for some days to have given way to the old, and if not 
 infallible, yet piquant maxim, * It never rains, but it pours.' My 
 name, which had already remained in the grade of subaltern for 
 nearly twenty-three years, and in that of lieutenant seventeen 
 years, has been printed as captain in the ' London Gazette,' in 
 succession to two several vacancies within a month. I ought to 
 be thankful for the accession of rank, late as it has come, and 
 for the prospect of a better provision for my family during my 
 life-time and after my death. But how soon do the germs of 
 discontent spring up in the corrupt human heart. I am ready to 
 repine, did not faith forbid : 1st, Because I have only got ad- 
 vancement at last by the death of a dear friend ; 2ndly, Impa- 
 tience suggests that as things at present stand, it would have 
 been better that I should not have been promoted till this war 
 were over. As adjutant, I should have taken a great interest in 
 the discipline and conduct of my corps. I hope I may not take 
 less as a captain ; but as regards the field of exertion, a captain 
 is nearly as absolute a cipher as a lance corporal ; not so an ad- 
 jutant. I had reason to have expected superior staff employment 
 ^ knowing that I stood strongly recommended for the post of 
 
50 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. II. 
 
 brigade major to the brigade to which, my regimental commander 
 might succeed ; but it has been ordered otherwise, and Sir Henry 
 Fane has given the place to the claims of an older captain, who 
 had served in the Peninsular war. I have no right to repine at 
 this, but cannot help seeing that the safest rule is to allow com- 
 manders to select those whom they esteem fittest for the work ; 
 and if this had been adhered to, I should now have been the 
 brigade major of the 1st brigade. Thus have I scribbled on, 
 knowing that you take an interest in all that concerns me. 
 Understand me, I do not repine, and will not, by God's grace, 
 repine at aught that may occur ; I only wish you, as the friend 
 from whom I keep nothing, to know all about the bearings of 
 my state and progress. I have indeed most abundant cause to 
 be thankful. The sheet will never last at this rate. I must 
 condense. I am ordered to the wars, with my sixty light in- 
 fantry soldiers. What is to become of Hannah and my boys'? 
 This question has been debated in all possible forms, and. all 
 other plans being rejected, the choice now lies between Landour 
 and Serampore ; and the question will be decided in favour of 
 the latter, if you inform me that my hopes on one point are 
 likely to be fulfilled. The thing nearest to my heart of earthly 
 things is, the education of my boys. Mack is coming out. Will 
 he, can he be persuaded to take Harry in hand, and fit him for 
 the military college*? My views regarding the boy know no 
 divarication. I have one object, that he should be taught 
 Greek enough, in which I have already entered him, to read the 
 New Testament in the original, and be well crammed for Sand- 
 hurst." 
 
 Mr Mack, who reached India at the close of the year, 
 took both the boys under his care, and laboured assidu- 
 ously to impart to them the rudiments of Latin, Greek, 
 and the mathematics, while their father was engaged in 
 the field. 
 
 The war in which Havelock was now about to take part, 
 was the expedition to Afghanistan, which began in in- 
 The Affghan justice, and ended in the most signal disaster, 
 
 and which stands forth in the history of British . 
 India as the most stupendous act of fatuity to be found 
 on its pages. England and Russia are the two European 
 powers which exercise a paramount influence on the des- 
 
1838.] SIEGE OF HERAT. 51 
 
 tinies of Asia. By the impulse of progression inherent 
 in their position, while England had been extending her 
 Indian dominions westward, Russia had been advancing 
 eastward with a steady pace. Since the peace of Tilsit, 
 the influence of Russia had been steadfastly pushed on 
 towards our frontier in India, and some even of the most 
 sober of Indian politicians had predicted that the period 
 was not far distant, when it must be decided on the banks 
 of the Helmund, or the Indus, or the Sutlege, whether 
 the empire of Hindostan should be Anglo-Saxon or Cos- 
 sack. Russia had wrested some of her fairest provinces 
 from the feeble kingdom of Persia, and had acquired that 
 predominance in her councils which is conceded by fear 
 to an imperious neighbour. Every movement of Persia 
 in the direction of India was, therefore, considered by 
 the Indian authorities as bringing Russian influence and 
 intrigue nearer to our possessions in the East. In 1837, 
 the schemes of Russia assumed a more vigorous and de- 
 monstrative character, and the apprehensions of the 
 cabinet in Calcutta were concentrated on the movements 
 in Central Asia. 
 
 The city of Herat, which has been justly regarded as 
 the key of India, was at this time under the government 
 of Shah Kamran, an independent ruler, of the giege of 
 Suddozye branch of the ruling family of Aff- Herat - 
 ghanistan. That province lies on the confines of Persia, 
 and the King of Persia had for some time advanced a 
 claim, to it as the ancient patrimony of his crown ; the 
 acquisition of it thus became the salient point of Persian 
 politics. An unsuccessful attempt was made to obtain 
 possession of it in 1833. In 1837 the Persian monarch, 
 acting under the influence of the Russian ambassador, 
 determined to make another effort to acquire the city and 
 the principality. The expedition was considered through 
 Central Asia as the triumph of Russia, by whom it was 
 instigated, over the influence of England, by whom it 
 was deprecated. A large Persian army was collected for 
 the siege of Herat, and the ulterior views of the Shah 
 towards India were not disguised ; it became necessary, 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 therefore, for the British Government to look to the safety 
 of its north-west frontier. Captain Alexander Burnes, 
 Mission of wno had explored the regions of Central Asia, 
 Bum a eb n to ^d. was well acquainted with the character of 
 Ssianiu- its rulers, was deputed by the Government of 
 tngues there. j n( j-[ a t o Cabul, nominally on a commercial mis- 
 sion, but really with the object of watching the course of 
 political events under the new aspect of affairs. On his 
 arrival at Cabul, he found that the machinations of Russia 
 had been extended to the court of Dost Mahomed, the 
 Barukzye chief of Affghanistan. The Dost was at the 
 time smarting under the loss of the province of Peshawur, 
 of which Runjeet Singh, the ruler of the Punjab, had 
 recently despoiled him, and was anxious to obtain some 
 assistance from the Government of India against this 
 formidable neighbour. He had steadily resisted the over- 
 tures of Persia and Russia, and was anxious to connect 
 himself with the lords of India ; but Captain Burnes was, 
 unfortunately, without authority to conclude any political 
 arrangement with him. After two months had been 
 wasted in idle and tantalizing visits, he was startled by 
 the sudden appearance of a Russian envoy, with a direct 
 communication from the Emperor at Petersburg to the 
 chief of Cabul. Captain Burnes addressed the Govern- 
 ment of India with great urgency, and endeavoured to 
 arouse.it to the imminent danger of the negotiations thus 
 pushed up to the borders of India, and the necessity of 
 securing for England that alliance with the Dost which 
 Russia was so assiduously courting. But Lord Auckland 
 was led to reject the salutary counsel of Captain Burnes, 
 and instructed him to require Dost Mahomed to abstain 
 from all foreign alliances, promising in return, simply, 
 to restrain Runjeet Singh from all further aggressions 
 an offer without any value, for the Dost apprehended no 
 new encroachment on his barren and uninviting terri- 
 tories. The contemptible return offered for so weighty a 
 requisition at a time when Russian diplomatists were 
 scattering magnificent promises through Central Asia, 
 only served to irritate the Affghan ruler. He deter- 
 
1838.] CAPTAIN BURNES AND DOST MAHOMED. 53 
 
 mined, however, to make a final effort to conciliate Lord 
 Auckland, before he threw himself into the arms of 
 Russia ; and addressed a letter to him, couched in lan- 
 guage all but humiliating, and besought him to redress 
 the grievances of the Affghans, and " give him a little 
 encouragement and power/' But the Government of 
 India, acting under a most unaccountable spirit of infa- 
 tuation, turned a deaf ear to his advances. Captain 
 Burnes, finding that there was no prospect of any favour- 
 able result of his mission, quitted Cabul. The Eussian 
 envoy, who had been treated with studied neglect during 
 these negotiations, was now admitted to the Cabul durbar, 
 and caressed. He promised everything which the British 
 representative had been unable to grant. He engaged to 
 furnish Dost Mahomed with an .abundant supply of 
 money, and even to propitiate Runjeet Singh ; and thus 
 was Russian influence established in full vigour in Aff- 
 ghanistan. It is due to the memory of Havelock, and 
 others who defended the policy pursued by the Indian 
 Government towards Dost Mahomed, to state that they 
 were but partially acquainted with the real merits of the 
 question, and conscientiously believed that the ruler of 
 Affghanistan had, of his own free will, lent himself to the 
 designs of Russia, and become a participator in projects 
 incompatible with the security of our eastern dominions. 
 That opinion was fortified by the documents presented to 
 Parliament, which were garbled to such an extent as to 
 convey an impression of the policy and views of Dost 
 Mahomed diametrically opposed to the truth. It is only 
 within the last twelve months that the friends of the late 
 Sir Alexander Burnes have succeeded in obtaining from 
 Parliament an unmutilated edition of his despatches, by 
 which his character has been triumphantly vindicated, 
 and the folly of the Indian Government unequivocally 
 established. 
 
 The Shah of Persia sat down before Herat on the 23rd 
 of November, 1837. This event, coupled with f n ff ^ a fc <? n Rus 
 the arrival of a Russian envoy at Cabul, created .sian intrigues 
 the greatest sensation throughout India. The ia? nr 
 
54 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP, n 
 
 most exaggerated reports were industriously diffused ol 
 the approach of a mighty and invincible host of Persians 
 and Russians to the banks of the Indus. Inflammatory 
 papers, emanating from Persia, were distributed through- 
 out India. The feeling of alarm was greater than had 
 been felt since the threatened invasion of the Affghans 
 at the beginning of the century. In the remote provinces 
 of the Deccan, men began to bury their jewels in the 
 earth. The crisis was portentous, and demanded the 
 most decided measures. Unfortunately, the course which 
 was obvious and safe, and most likely to be efficacious, 
 was rejected, and the course which was tortuous, perilous, 
 and costly, was adopted. Had Captain Burnes been nom- 
 inated political envoy at this crisis, and authorized to 
 offer a moderate subsidy to Dost Mahomed, and a supply 
 of arms, as well as the interposition of our good offices 
 with Runjeet Singh, Affghanistan would have been her- 
 metically sealed against the machinations of Russia ; and 
 India would have been freed not only from danger, but 
 alarm. But in an evil hour, it was resolved to dethrone 
 Dost Mahomed, and seat a prince friendly to our interests 
 on the throne of Cabul. Shah Soojah, who had been 
 twice expelled from the kingdom, and had lived a pen- 
 sioner on our bounty for more than twenty years at Loo- 
 diana, was to be drawn from obscurity, and reinstated in 
 Affghanistan. A tripartite treaty was negotiated by Mr 
 Macnaghten at Lahore, between Runjeet Singh, the 
 British Government, and Shah Soojah, by which the two 
 former engaged to assist the latter in ascending the throne 
 of his ancestors. There was nothing in this treaty, how- 
 ever, to bind the English Government to send an army 
 across the Indus to effect this object. At first, the aid to 
 be given to Shah Soojah was limited to a supply of money, 
 an accredited agent, and a body of officers to drill his 
 levies. Shortly after, the assistance was swelled to the 
 loan of two regiments. At length, Lord Auckland 
 allowed his more sober judgment to be overruled by the 
 ambition of his secretaries, Mr Macnaghten and Mr Col- 
 vin, and it was resolved to send a grand expedition, con- 
 
1838.] LIEUT. POTTINGEE'S DEFENCE OF HERAT. 55 
 
 sisting of twenty thousand men, across the Indus, by the 
 most circuitous route and through the most difficult 
 passes, to seat Shah Soojah on the throne of Cabul, and 
 to raise the siege of Herat. On the 13th of September, 
 1838, the Cominander-in-Chief, Sir Henry Fane, pub- 
 lished his Orders for organizing the army of the Indus ; 
 but by the time the troops were assembled the original 
 and dominant cause of the expedition had disappeared. 
 
 A month before the investment of Herat by the Persian 
 army, a young English soldier, Eldred Pottinger, arrived 
 in the city, and took up his residence, unnoticed. Lieut. Pottin- 
 
 J ' . TT r ,. , . ,, ger's defence 
 
 in a caravanserai. He was a lieutenant in the pf Herat. 
 Bombay Artillery, a nephew of Colonel, after- rais e ed. ege 
 wards Sir Henry, Pottinger, the Kesident in Scinde, by 
 whom he had been sent to explore the various provinces 
 of Central Asia. He travelled at first in the disguise of 
 a horse-dealer, but on his arrival in Cabul, assumed the 
 character of a Mahomedan Syud, and made his way in 
 this dress through the wild district of the Hazaras to 
 Herat. The Shah Kamran, and his minister Yar Maho- 
 med, to whom he introduced himself as a British officer, 
 were but too happy to avail themselves of his military 
 skill for the defence of the city. For six months, he 
 enabled them to baffle all the efforts of the besiegers, 
 who found at the end of April that they had made no 
 progress in their operations, though a European army 
 might have mastered the city in as many hours. During 
 the month of April, Mr, now Sir John, McNeil, the 
 British minister to the Court of Persia, joined the besieg- 
 ing camp, presented his credentials to the king, and on 
 the part of his own Government, entered his protest 
 against the continuance of the siege. Soon after, Count 
 Simonich, the representative of Russia, arrived in the 
 camp, and not only encouraged the Persian monarch to 
 persist in his operations, but took an active part in them. 
 Mr McNeil, finding all his efforts counteracted by the 
 ascendency of the Russian minister, and seeing himself 
 treated with increasing indignity, sent a final remon- 
 strance to the Shah, and then retired from the scene. 
 
56 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. IT. 
 
 On tike 24th of June, the most vigorous assault in the 
 course of the siege was made,, under the immediate direc- 
 tion of a Eussian general, and the city was on the point 
 of being captured, when it was saved by the extraordin- 
 ary gallantry of young Pottinger. 1 The Persians were 
 repulsed with great slaughter, and the Russian officer 
 was killed. Under the advice of Mr McNeil, Lord Auck- 
 land, likewise, sent a small expedition, consisting of 
 two steamers and five companies of Sepoys, to take pos- 
 session of the island of Karrack, lying on the Persian 
 coast. Humour swelled the dimensions of the force, and 
 it immediately became current through Persia that the 
 English had captured the town of Bushire, and were in 
 full march on the capital. The fears of the Shah were 
 excited by the prospect of an English invasion in the most 
 vulnerable part of his dominions, where the allegiance of 
 his subjects was feeble, and, with the view of propitiating 
 the Governor-General, orders were issued to abandon the 
 siege. The Persian army was withdrawn from Herat on 
 the 9th of September, 1838, eight months and a half 
 after the commencement of the siege. The Russian 
 minister retired with the Shah to his capital, and the 
 fabric of Russian intrigue in Central Asia fell at once to 
 the ground. The disposition of Dost Mahomed towards 
 us ceased to be an object of any importance, and the ex- 
 pedition might have been relinquished with perfect safety. 
 It ought at once to have been renounced, but Lord Auck- 
 land had committed himself by a manifesto dated at 
 Simlah, the 1st of October, before the retirement of the 
 Persians from Herat was known, in which he announced 
 it to be the determination of Government " to raise up a 
 lasting barrier against hostile intrigues and encroachments 
 at Cabul ; " and it was determined that the expedition 
 should proceed across the Indus, to seat our puppet on 
 the throne. But the force was reduced to one half its 
 original proportions, and as there was no longer any 
 grand achievement in prospect at Herat, Sir Henry Fane 
 relinquished the command of the army, and the Bengal 
 division was intrusted to Sir Willoughby Cotton, who 
 
183.8.] THE BENGAL ARMY BREAKS GROUND. 57 
 
 immediately obtained permission to appoint Havelock as 
 his second aide-de-camp, all other staff appointments 
 having been previously filled up. Havelock was thus res- 
 cued from the uninteresting duty of commanding sixty 
 men, and placed in a position, on the staff of his old com- 
 mander, which afforded larger scope for his military talent. 
 The Bengal army, about 9500 strong, marched from 
 Ferozepore on the 10th of December, and moved down 
 the Indus to Bukker, where it crossed that river The Bengal 
 
 and pursued its route to Cabul ; but the obiect 
 
 f j.1 J-j.- Till xi lOthDecem- 
 
 or the expedition was not accomplished by the ber, isss. 
 capture of it, before the 8th of August, 1839. Eight 
 months were thus wasted on an expedition which might 
 have been completed in eight weeks. The direct route 
 from Ferozepore to Cabul lay through the Punjab ; but 
 though Runjeet Singh was not only our ally, but a party 
 to the tripartite treaty, he was little disposed to allow 
 British troops to march across his territories. The army 
 was, therefore, obliged to take a most circuitous route 
 through sterile and hostile countries, and to thread its 
 way through the most tremendous defiles, by which great 
 loss of time, and a still greater loss of money, was in- 
 curred. It would be foreign to the object of this work to 
 give the minute details of an expedition of which Have- 
 lock was only the historian. Those who are anxious to 
 understand this portion of our Indian career will find 
 their wishes amply gratified by the perusal of Kaye's 
 " History of the War in Affghanistan," the most interest- 
 ing of all the works which have hitherto appeared on 
 British Indian history. In addition to the charm of its 
 style, it is the only historical work as yet published which 
 is based not on glozing despatches and mendacious blue 
 books but on the original correspondence of the actors, 
 the only genuine source of history. The expedition was 
 marked by only one achievement of any interest, and the 
 movements of the troops were rendered memorable only 
 by the unexampled difficulties of the route, and the 
 obstacles created by the stupendous passes they were 
 obliged to traverse. 
 
MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 At length, after a toilsome march of four months and a 
 half, the force reached Candahar, on the 25th of April, on 
 Force arrives na lf rations and in a state of complete exhaustion. 
 fiaveiSk^' Happily for our interests, the city was found to 
 have been evacuated by the Affghan chieftains, 
 in consequence of the treachery of one Hajee Khan, a 
 traitor of the deepest dye, who had been induced by our 
 gold to desert his masters. Before reaching Candahar, 
 Havelock wrote thus to Serampore : 
 
 "Well, here we are, playing the game up to this hour of the 
 army without an enemy, and the enemy without an army. A 
 pretty considerable march we have made of it to Bukkur, and 
 through Shikarpore and Cutchee up the Bolan pass, and through 
 a most wicked defile, called the Kojuck pass, to these plains. 
 With reference to the object which induced our Government to 
 send us out of our own provinces, you will see that we have done 
 something. We are within jive marches of the western capital 
 of the patronized monarch, and all accounts concur in showing 
 that the Candahar chiefs have been unable to collect mofe than 
 two or three thousand horse to make head against us. Our siege 
 train is across the Kojuck pass ; the chiefs have no infantry, and 
 no guns, except those mounted on their walls. It is hardly to be 
 doubted that the game of the Barukzyes is up at Candahar. In 
 truth, my dear Marshman, it is time that we should have either a 
 battle, or that which I have grown wise enough to know is a 
 much better thing, a general break up of hostility in the way of 
 timely submission to the Shah. At Candahar, we hope to find 
 supplies, but at present grain sells in our camp at a seer and a 
 half the rupee a pound and a half for a shilling. Our Sepoys 
 are on half rations, and our camp followers on quarter rations, 
 and even at this rate we have not provisions for above ten days." 
 
 The army rested at Candahar for two months, waiting 
 for the gathering in of the harvest. In the mean time, Sir 
 March from John Keane, having come up with the Bombay 
 capr h e a of division, assumed the command of the expedi- 
 Ghuznee. tionary force. The army marched towards the 
 capital on the 27th of June, and on that same day death 
 closed Bunjeet Singh's checkered and successful career of 
 ambition at Lahore. The only fortress of importance 
 
1839.] MARCH INTO AFFGHANISTAN. 59 
 
 between Candahar and Calml was Grhuznee, the pride and 
 boast of the AfFghans, which, having never been captured, 
 was considered impregnable. During our inactivity at 
 Candahar its defences had been repaired and strength- 
 ened, its garrison increased to 3000 men, under the com- 
 mand of Hyder Khan, a son of Dost Mahomed, and pro- 
 visions laid in for six months. These preparations were 
 but imperfectly known to Sir John, and he was assured 
 by his political associate that the fort would be abandoned 
 on the first appearance of our troops, and he was there- 
 fore persuaded to leave his siege guns at Candahar. 
 Havelock, whose information was generally more accurate 
 than that of others, felt assured that the fortress would be 
 defended, and he endeavoured to impress on Sir John 
 Keane the importance of taking on the battering train. 
 These heavy guns had been dragged with vast labour 
 through the terrific defiles of the Bolan and Kojuck passes, 
 at it appeared preposterous now to advance without them 
 at a time when they might be invaluable. He adduced 
 the case of Napoleon at Acre, of Wellington at Burgos, 
 and of Lake at Bhurtpoje, " who had each found cause to 
 rue the hour in which they attacked fortifications, unpro- 
 vided with a sufficient number of -guns of breaching 
 calibre." Sir John Keane, however, listened to the 
 advice of the over-confident politicals, and left the guns at 
 Candahar. But it was found on reconnoitring Ghuznee 
 that the enemy were prepared to defend it to the last 
 extremity, and the wisdom of Havelock' s counsel was 
 discovered when it was too late. It was impossible to 
 breach the solid walls with the feeble artillery Sir John 
 Keane had brought with him. Any attempt to carry the 
 fortress by escalade must have occasioned great delay and 
 a fearful slaughter, and it would have been perilous to wait 
 for the arrival of the guns. In this dilemma the ready 
 genius of Captain Thomson, of the Bengal Engineers, 
 rescued the expedition from its perilous position. He 
 advised that a bold attempt should be made, under cover 
 of night, to blow up the only gate which had not been 
 walled up. Under his direction, nine hundred pounds of 
 
60 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 powder, enclosed in twelve bags, were conveyed during 
 the night of the 22nd July to the Cabul gate, while the 
 attention of the enemy was distracted by a simultaneous 
 discharge of guns and musketry in other directions. The 
 weather was boisterous, and the enemy were unable to 
 hear the trampling of feet,, or to discover the approach of 
 the party. Everything conspired to the success of the 
 project. " The powder exploded, shivered the massive 
 barricade in pieces, and brought down in hideous ruin, 
 into the passage below, niasses of masonry and fractured 
 beams.-" The forlorn hope rushed in, followed by the 
 main column under Colonel Sale, and the British standard 
 was planted on the citadel by the gallant Ensign Frere, of 
 the 13th. Sir John Keane was on a neighbouring eleva- 
 tion, watching with painful anxiety the success of the 
 attempt on which the fate of the expedition seemed to 
 hang. At the first streak of dawn he requested Havelock 
 to ride down to the gate and bring him tidings of the 
 progress of the project. He reached the spot immediately 
 after the explosion, and, plodding over the debris of the 
 battlements, entered the gate, and saw Colonel Sale on the 
 ground, struggling desperately with a powerful Afighan, 
 and calling out to Captain Kershaw, who came up at the 
 moment, to " do him the favour to pass his sword through 
 the body of the infidel." After seeing Sale in safety 
 Havelock rode back to Sir John Keane, and reported the 
 complete success of the enterprise. None of the excesses 
 which invariably attend the capture of a town by assault, 
 were committed on this occasion. " The self-denial, 
 mercy, and generosity of the hour," remarks Havelock, 
 " may be attributed to the fact of the European soldiers 
 having received no spirits since the 8th of July, and 
 having found no liquor among the plunder of Grhuznee. No 
 candid man of any military experience will deny that the 
 character of the scene in the fortress and citadel would 
 have been far different if individual soldiers had entered 
 the town primed with arrack, or if spirituous liquors had 
 been discovered in the Affghan depots." 
 
1839.] CAPTURE OF CABUL. 61 
 
 The force marched towards Cabul on the 31st of July, 
 but it met with no further resistance. The fall capture of 
 of Ghuznee sealed the fate of Affghanistan. Dost lock 'returns 
 Mahomed, deserted in his utmost need by his viiuJ! pr 
 mercenaries, as well as by his native troops, abandoned 
 his fine park of artillery, his capital, and his throne, 
 and fled westward towards the inaccessible passes of 
 Bameean. Shah Soojah entered Cabul on the 8th of 
 August, accompanied by British officers and surrounded 
 by the imposing array of military pageantry. From his 
 own subjects he received no demonstrations of loyalty. 
 The inhabitants of Cabul preserved a dead and ominous 
 silence. It was with a feeling of deep irritation that they 
 watched the long files of infidel soldiers, on whose shoul- 
 ders the Shah had been raised to the throne, defiling 
 through the streets of their capital. The object of the 
 expedition had now been accomplished. A friendly 
 power had been substituted for a hostile power in Aff- 
 ghanistan, and a barrier, which was fondly believed to be 
 permanent, had been established against schemes of ag- 
 gression on the north-west frontier. The time had, there- 
 fore, arrived when " Shah Soojah, being secured in power, 
 and the integrity of Affghanistan established, the British 
 army was to be withdrawn." But our difficulties in Aff- 
 ghanistan were only just commencing. ' Lord Auckland 
 found, to his great mortification, that if our army were 
 withdrawn the work which had been accomplished at so 
 vast a sacrifice of treasure would be undone in a month. 
 The throne, which had been established by British bay- 
 onets, must be maintained by the same agency, and at 
 the expense of the Indian treasury. It was found, when 
 too late, that it was easier to get into Affghanistan than 
 to get out of it. It became necessary, therefore, to retain 
 a British force in the country, to uphold the authority of 
 our protege, and to garrison the most important fortresses. 
 The command of the army of occupation was given to Sir 
 Willoughby Cotton, and he was allowed a Persian inter- 
 preter on his staff. With a generous importunity he 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [cHAP.'n. 
 
 pressed Havelock to accept the appointment, in conjunc- 
 tion with the post he then held of aid-de-camp, but he 
 was induced to decline the offer. 
 
 The position which Havelock had occupied on the 
 general's staff had given him the best opportunity of 
 tracing the origin and progress of events during the 
 Havelock de- campaign. He had kept a diary of the move- 
 
 tenmnes to \ & , , , \ J . -,-,, 
 
 publish anar- ments oi the force, and he was anxious to publish 
 campaign. a history of the war, before the interest attached 
 to these operations should subside. Sir John Keane, on 
 hearing of his design, gave him free access to the records 
 in his office. Instead, therefore, of accepting the proposal 
 of Sir Willoughby, he resolved to hasten to Calcutta, and 
 prepare his work for the press. 
 
 " As regards myself," he writes to Serampore, " I have once 
 more commenced the labours of authorship, and in a few weeks 
 hope to have ready for the press, ' Personal .Narrative of the 
 Marches of the Bengal Troops of the Army of the Indus.' I 
 have determined to publish in London. Burnes, of whom I see 
 much, and who is not going to publish himself, tells me that 
 Murray would give a good price if the work were despatched 
 speedily. The money is of course now the whole inducement. I 
 am too old for fame. Now, answer me on this topic shairp, as 
 the above-named traveller and diplomatist is wont to say. I 
 will, if you please, send the papers down to you, and you can 
 hastily look through them ; but, mind, shairp is to be the word 
 in the whole transaction. An early sale is the thing desired, as 
 "bare lucre for my boy's education is the only object. One topic 
 more ; in preference to every other plan and project, I would 
 like employment in another Burmese war, if there is to be an- 
 other, and if you can manage among your friends at the Presi- 
 dency to get me into it on the staff." 
 
 With this manuscript in his portfolio, Havelock turned 
 his back on Affghanistan, and hastened to Serampore. 
 Haveiock re- On his arrival at Ferozepore, in January, 1840, 
 India.* he had the happiness of making the acquaintance 
 of Captain Henry Lawrence, then an assistant of Mr 
 George Clerk, in the political department. The mutual 
 esteem contracted in this first interview gradually ripened 
 
1840.] HAVELOCK RETURNS TO INDIA, 63 
 
 into the most solid friendship. Men like Havelock and 
 Lawrence are naturally drawn towards each other by the 
 attraction of genius, but in this case there was the addi- 
 tional bond of a complete community of feeling on the 
 great question of religion. In the course of his journey 
 towards Serampore, Havelock reproached himself bitterly 
 with the step he had taken, and on his arrival at Lahore 
 on the 30th December, wrote thus : 
 
 " My last, dated Peshawur, will have informed you of my in- 
 tention of marching for the provinces the next day, and too late 
 have I found out that never in my life have I made so false a 
 move. I was long in doubt about it, and at last decided wrong. 
 From the moment it was decided that Sir Willoughby Cotton 
 was to assume the command in Affghanistan, I ought to have 
 made up my mind to remain there with him. Instead of this, 
 swayed by the lesser motive of sending off my unfortunate pub- 
 lication in proper form to England, I have made a sad sacrifice of 
 worldly advantages and military prospects ; neither am I satisfied 
 at all with the course I have taken as regards the claims of grati- 
 tude which Sir "Willoughby had on me. He always deprecated 
 my return to Hindostan, not only attaching a value to my services, 
 which my modesty was bound to repudiate, but pointing out the 
 step as highly injurious to my prospects. About this time the 
 aid-de-camps to brigadiers were abolished, and I much appre- 
 hended that I should not long stand as second aid-de-camp to a 
 major-general. This, and the desire to bring out my book, as 
 you had proposed, decided me, and I urged the measure of my 
 rook sut (leave to depart), and left Peshawur. I have by this 
 step lost my only military patron, my situation as aid-de-camp, 
 and a post as interpreter, which a day or two after was sanctioned 
 by the Governor-General, a place made purposely for me. The 
 two situations, with my pay and allowances, would have been 
 equal to 819 rupees a month. I have never been very fond of 
 money, but my children need it. Moreover, I am not quite free 
 from self-reproach in the matter, which of all things I dread." 
 
 In reply to this letter, he was advised to send down his 
 manuscript, and to return to Cabul ; to which he replied : 
 
 "Believe me sincere when I add that I am grateful for your 
 advice to myself; but, in a word, though I believe I shall regret 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 to the latest moment of my life having, under a false impression 
 as to my line of duty, left the army and Sir "Willoughby's staff, 
 yet I cannot see that any advantage would arise from my now 
 returning. I went away with the avowed intention of preparing 
 my book for publication at Serampore; and though Sir "Wil- 
 loughby might well, and doubtless did, reckon me a great fool 
 for taking my departure on such an errand, leaving, as it turned 
 out, such advantages behind me, yet he would esteem me little 
 less than a madman, I think, if I were to rush back again across 
 the frontier, my meditated purpose incomplete. He, moreover, 
 has nothing now, I apprehend, to give in the way of staff em-' 
 ployment. I may as well, therefore, wear out my leave of ab- 
 sence in preparing my unlucky memoir for transmission to Lon- 
 don, with the intent of then re-joining my corps, and taking the 
 command of a company of light infantry, amidst the mews of Cabul, 
 or going to its depot at Kurnaul, as I may be required to do." 
 
 The work was set in type at Serampore, and despatched 
 with all speed to England. So intensely did he give up 
 Haveiock his mind to this labour that, during his residence 
 lersonaTNai- at Serampore, he was generally at his desk be- 
 iand. ein ? fore four in the morning. It was published 
 by Colburn in London in two duodecimo volumes. But 
 it fell stillborn from the press. Parliament and the 
 public were satisfied by the assurances of the ministry 
 that the war was a just and necessary war. The laurels 
 of the expedition had been distributed. Lord Auckland 
 had been created an earl, Sir John Keane a peer, and Mr 
 Macnaghten a baronet ; and the interest in these trans- 
 actions had died out. The only feeling of disappointment 
 manifested by Haveiock was expressed in the following 
 sentence : " Thacker has evidently done his best in the 
 matter, and it is well to have had the publication, such as 
 it is, launched .at once ; but I think the whole affair from 
 beginning to end a pretty intelligible hint to me to stick, 
 for the remainder of my life, to my own trade, and have 
 nothing more to do with authorship." But, whatever may 
 have been Haveiock' s mortification at this want of success, 
 no one who can appreciate his military commentaries will 
 regret that he bestowed his time on the compilation of 
 this work, rather than on the dull duties of Persian inter- 
 
1840.] HAVELOCK EETUKNS TO CABUL. 65 
 
 preter at Cabul. It is the standard history of that expe- 
 dition, remarkable for the clearness of the narrative and 
 the style, its vivid descriptions, and the honesty and im- 
 partiality of its strictures on the tactics of the campaign. 
 In few military memoirs will be found passages more 
 attractive from their graphic touches than Havelock' s 
 record of the passage of the Bolan pass, the capture of 
 Ghuznee, and the entry of Shah Soojah into Cabul. It 
 was in reference to the memoirs of campaigns like his own, 
 by those who were personally engaged in them, that 
 Havelock subsequently remarked, " When the triumphs 
 of war have been achieved, I know no more ennobling 
 employment to which a man can devote the leisure of peace 
 than committing to paper, with the frankness of a soldier, 
 the candour of a gentleman, and the moral courage of a 
 freeborn Englishman, his recollections of the interesting 
 events in which it has been his good fortune to take part. 
 God be praised, the military commentator need not dread 
 in this land the secret dungeon of Biilow. Our institutions 
 and public opinion secure to us the liberty of printing ; 
 and common sense, unawed by a few who have not kept 
 pace with their age, recognizes in the nineteenth century 
 the perfect compatibility of the most implicit obedience in 
 the ranks and in the field, with thorough independence of 
 spirit in the republic of letters. Contemporary memoirs 
 are the means of which the future historian gladly avails 
 himself, or of which he bitterly laments the want, when he 
 comes to trace with an impartial hand the picture of events 
 which have influenced the happiness of large portions of 
 the human race. Thus only can posterity arrive at that 
 truth, which we fear it is, in these days, the almost recog- 
 nized task of despatches, manifestoes, blue books, speeches 
 in favour of parliamentary votes of thanks, and holiday 
 harangues after public dinners, to conceal from the 
 readers and auditors of our times." 
 
 In the month of June, 1840, Havelock returned to Cabul 
 in charge of a detachment of recruits for AfFghan- jjjjl 1 ^* lf> 
 
 istan. During* the voyage on the river he re- cabui. Let- 
 i i j. ^ i -i i -i ters to Gen - 
 
 newed Jus intercourse with his old commander in erai smith. 
 
66 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 the Rifle corps, Major-General Harry Smith, now Adjutant- 
 General of Queen's troops in India. 
 
 "Benares, September 5, 1840. 
 
 "My dear General, I cannot refrain from writing you one 
 line on the strange state of puhlic affairs. A pretty business 
 they have made of it beyond the Indus. So it appears that Shah 
 Newaz Khan, the Beloche, whom they set up in the place of the 
 former Begler Beg, Mihrab Khan, who fell sword in hand, has 
 turned traitor, and admitted his countrymen hostile to us into 
 Khelat, which we shall therefore have to retake. Nearer to our 
 frontier a young gentleman, politically employed, intelligent, but 
 wholly inexperienced, has been soldiering on his own account, 
 and got terribly thrashed, as the accounts say. So fresh exertions 
 must be made to enable us to hold Affghanistan, and a Beloche 
 campaign seems unavoidable. General Ventura, when I saw 
 him last year at Peshawur, held forth to me with much energy 
 on the importance of our tenure of Khelat, as the centre of 
 Belochistan. Look at the map, and you will see that he was not 
 far* wrong r for not only does it turn everything, defensively con- 
 sidered, which might advance against us from Herat, but it is to 
 be recollected that sooner or later the hour of conflict with Persia 
 will arrive, and then who can estimate the advantage of our 
 having Belochistan properly in hand I ...... But I forget in my 
 
 belligerent enthusiasm, that I am prating to my master, which I 
 pray you to pardon." 
 
 " October 3, 1840. 
 
 " If one of our majors would wisely consider himself passe, in 
 point of health, as others think him, I have the money ready for 
 him, and I am not sure that at this moment there is even one 
 before me prepared. But he is a game old fellow, and will I 
 suppose struggle on as long as there is war a-foot, and then 
 others will step in. I feel that it is time I ought to be trying to 
 ascend the ladder, if ever, for as the battle of Glasgow Green was 
 fought in 1820, I fear I must now be not very far from forty- 
 six. Having been just five times purchased over in my own 
 corps, it is not unfair to use money as an engine in my turn, if 
 opportunity offer." 
 
 Havelock, on arriving at Ferozepore with his recruits, 
 met with General Elphinstone, who had been appointed 
 to the chief command in Aft'ghanistan, on the 
 - retirement of Sir Willoughby Cotton. At this 
 
1840.] INTERPRETER TO GENERAL ELPHINSTONE. 67 
 
 period, there was no military post of greater g 
 responsibility in the Indian empire, or which re- Eip 
 quired more military experience and energy, than the 
 Command in Afghanistan ; and the appointment of Gen- 
 eral ^iphinstone to this important office by Lord Auckland 
 was one ot IA** most fatal errors of his reign. Though a man 
 of the most amiaMo disposition and the greatest personal 
 intrepidity, he was so Complete a martyr to gout as to be 
 physically incapable of any exertion, even if he had been 
 eminent for his professional qualifications. He immedi- 
 ately appointed Havelock his Persian interpreter, and ever 
 after placed the most perfect confidence in his military 
 judgment. Havelock never alluded to his urbanity and 
 generosity of feeling without lively gratitude, though he 
 could not but deeply regret that Government should have 
 thought fit to select for this weighty command an officer 
 who was utterly incapacitated for it by disease. 
 
 Havelock reached Cabul at the beginning of the year 
 1841, after an absence of fifteen months, and was astounded 
 at the measures which had been intermediately Havelock at 
 adopted. In his narrative of the war, and his CabuL 
 remarks on the course to be pursued for our security in Aff- 
 ghanistan, he had affirmed that the safety of our position 
 in the capital depended, in a military point of view, on 
 our retaining a firm hold on the Bala Hissar. He described 
 it as the key of Cabul, from which the troops who held it 
 ought not to suffer themselves to be dislodged but by 
 siege, awing the turbulent populace of Cabul by their 
 mortars and their howitzers. On his return, he found that 
 instead of being held in strength by our troops, it was oc- 
 cupied by the King's seraglio. The troops were lodged 
 in the cantonment which had been built at a little distance 
 from the city. It was scarcely capable of defence, being 
 surrounded by a low rampart easily surmounted, and com- 
 manded by neighbouring heights and buildings on every 
 side. The provisions of the force were, moreover, stored 
 in a small fort detached from the cantonment. Havelock 
 considered that an error of the gravest character had been 
 committed in the choice of such a position for the garrison, 
 
fi8 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 and Ms opinion was fatally verified before the close of the 
 year. 
 
 During the six months of Havelock' s second residence 
 in Cabul, he revived the religious services with his 
 JeHgiSiv ^ n wn ^ c -' 1 several of the officers of the jg^ 
 
 likewise assisted. Of the meet^8' s which he 
 held, and their interesting character, as well as their 
 beneficial result, there is a verj- pleasing record from the 
 pen of the late Sir John Login, one of the officers attached 
 to the Herat Mission, an intimate friend of Havelock, who 
 was passing through Cabul on his way to India : 
 
 "In May, 1841, Havelock was on the staff of General Elphin- 
 stone ; but as his old regiment, the 1 3th, was then at Cabul, he 
 was able to meet the men again, and, assisted by some officers of 
 artillery which will always, I trust, have good men and true in 
 its ranks, like many I could name, along with Henry Lawrence 
 he was able to assemble them on sabbath evenings for Divine 
 service, and to meet them occasionally during the week in a tent 
 which had been set apart for the purpose. On many of these 
 occasions I had the satisfaction of being present during my stay 
 in Cabul, up to September, 1841, and I have to this day a very 
 vivid recollection of the fervour with which all joined in the 
 service, and the heart with which they sung the hymns which 
 Havelock read out to them, and amongst others, 
 
 ' Ye nations round the earth, rejoice 
 
 Before the Lord, your Sovereign King ; 
 Serve Him with cheerful heart and voice, 
 With all your tongues his glory sing.' 
 
 " On the last sabbath evening that I was among them, among 
 the officers who were present on that occasion I cau remember 
 Dawes, Kichard Maule, Vincent Eyre, and, I think, Eldred Pot- 
 tinger of the artillery ; and I perfectly recollect thinking at the 
 time that I was among soldiers of the right sort, and that when 
 their services were required they might be depended on. That I 
 was not wrong in this confidence, the defence of Jellalabad by 
 these very men, a very short time afterwards, can testify. Many 
 of the men present were Serjeants and corporals, who had served 
 under Havelock when adjutant." 
 
 Our position in Affghanistan was now daily becoming 
 
1841.] PERILS OF OUR POSITION IN AFFGHANISTAN. 69 
 
 more perilous. The difficulties of that position may in- 
 deed be said to have begun when our success p er iiofour 
 was completed by the victorious occupation of SjS&j! 1 
 the capital. It was soon discovered that the tan - 
 whole expedition was an egregious and irretrievable 
 blunder. The restored monarch was from the first re- 
 garded with ill-disguised antipathy by his subjects, doubly 
 so from the foreign aid with which he had mounted the 
 throne and was maintained on it. As Christians, we were 
 regarded with that intense hatred which Mahomedans en- 
 tertain towards all Infidels, and the Shah was upbraided 
 with having been the instrument of introducing them into 
 the country. Our presence in Affghanistan was a source 
 of irritation which no exercise of political virtue could miti- 
 gate. The vigorous measures which we were constrained 
 to adopt to ensure any degree of tranquillity, served to 
 increase our unpopularity. The various tribes in that 
 region of mountains and defiles had for ages maintained a 
 lawless independence, and were indignant at the restraints 
 we imposed on their turbulence. The chiefs were in a 
 state of permanent hostility to us, and though they prof- 
 fered submission on the approach of our troops, resumed 
 their sullen opposition as soon as they were withdrawn. 
 In the thirty months in which we occupied Affghanistan, 
 there was no repose for our military or political officers. 
 Even when there was an occasional gleam of sunshine, 
 there always appeared to be a storm looming in the dis- 
 tance. In the course of the year 1840, Dost Mahomed, 
 after having encountered our troops at Purwundurra, sur- 
 rendered himself to the envoy and was conveyed to 
 Calcutta; but he left behind him a son, Akbar Khan, a 
 youth of restless and fiery disposition, who was incessantly 
 intriguing for our expulsion, and proved a more trouble- 
 some enemy than his father. Our Government, from first 
 to last, was a government of sentry-boxes. Most gladly 
 would Lord Auckland have washed his hands of the con- 
 nection so inauspiciously formed ; but in the false position 
 in which we had placed ourselves, we could not retire from 
 the country without disgrace, or continue to hold it with- 
 
70 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 out the prospect of insolvency. The original cost of the 
 expedition had been prodigious, but it was the continual 
 drain on the revenues of India that" was found to be insup- 
 portable. We were obliged to maintain an army of twenty 
 thousand men beyond the Indus, without the blessing of 
 security, or the prospect of a termination of our difficulties. 
 The revenue of the country was scarcely 150,000, and 
 the annual cost of our armament exceeded this sum ten- 
 fold. To add to these embarrassments, our troops were 
 separated from their own territories by many hundred 
 miles; the intervening space was occupied by doubtful 
 friends or positive enemies, and there was interposed be- 
 tween our garrison in Affghanistaii and the Indus, the 
 most formidable mountain passes, which a handful of re- 
 solute and well-equipped men might hold against a whole 
 army. 
 
 The Envoy, however, was full of confidence, and amidst 
 all the outbreaks and alarms of the year the third of our 
 sir wniiam occupation endeavoured to persuade himself 
 
 Macnaghten , , . - 1 . , ,.,. * -. . , 
 
 appointed that the country was settling 1 down into tran- 
 
 Governor of MTI TT i -t i i . -i , n 
 
 Bombay. quillity. He nad just been nominated to the 
 more dignified office of Governor of Bombay. He had 
 made arrangements for quitting Cabul in November, and 
 was desirous of bequeathing the Government he had con- 
 structed to his successor in the most secure and satisfac- 
 tory state ; and, though it was resting on a volcano, 
 seemed to resent every report of disaffection. General 
 Elphinstone, whose gout was excruciating, had sent in 
 his resignation, and was preparing to leave the country. 
 The Supreme Government was calling aloud for retrench- 
 ments. The treasury in Calcutta had been exhausted by the 
 demands of Affghanistan ; and the subscriptions to the 
 loan, which it had been found necessary to open, were 
 coming in but slowly, so general was the mistrust of our 
 policy. The Envoy was constrained to respond to the 
 call, and determined to relieve the military establishments 
 in Affghanistan of the charge of three regiments, whose 
 presence, in the assumed quietude of the country, was no 
 longer deemed necessary by him. At the same time, by 
 
1841.] THE INSUKKECTION BEGINS. 71 
 
 an act of unaccountable rashness, it was resolved to cur- 
 tail the allowances granted to the Ghilzye chiefs, to whom 
 the mountain-passes between Cabul and Jellalabad be- 
 longed. Of these mountaineers Havelock had remarked, 
 that " to the politics of Affghanistan they were magnani- 
 mously indifferent. They cared not which of their rulers, 
 whether Barukzye or Suddozye, lorded in the Bala Hissar, 
 provided they were left in the undisturbed enjoyment of 
 their ancient privileges of levying tribute from caravans, 
 or of mercilessly plundering all who resisted the exaction ; 
 or received from the existing Government a handsome 
 annual stipend, in commutation of the sums raised in 
 virtue of their prescriptive, rights/'' The native rulers at 
 Cabul had always found it more advantageous to subsidize 
 these mountaineers than to attempt to coerce them. On the 
 establishment of Shah Soojah, their annual stipend was 
 fixed at 8000. Their part of the compact had been ful- 
 filled with the most exemplary fidelity. " They had," as 
 Havelock remarked, " prevented even a finger from being 
 raised against our posts, courtiers, and weak detachments. 
 Convoys of all descriptions had passed through these 
 terrific defiles, the strongest barriers of mountains in the 
 world, with little or no interruption from these predatory 
 tribes. The transmission of letters to our own provinces 
 was as regular as between Calcutta and any station in 
 Bengal." 
 
 It was now resolved to reduce their stipends by one 
 half. The chiefs were summoned to Cabul, received the 
 intimation with apparent acquiescence, made The stipends 
 their salaam, and returned to their mountains, z{ 
 where they immediately blocked up the passes, 
 and plundered a caravan. The tocsin of alarm begin9> 
 and indignation was now sounded from peak to peak, and 
 all communication with India was at once cut off. The 35th 
 Native Infantry was under orders to return to Hindostan, 
 with a squadron of cavalry, and a detachment of Broad- 
 foot's Sappers, and two guns, and it was supposed that 
 this force would be sufficient effectually to chastise, as the 
 Envoy said, the "impudence of these rascals," and re-open 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 the communication with India. But the force was at- 
 tacked with great fury on the first night of its march by 
 the infuriated Ghilzyes, aided by a rabble which had 
 flocked from Cabul to the scene of plunder. This was the 
 first of that series of calamities which terminated in our ex- 
 pulsionfrom Cabul. Havelock had written to General Smith 
 two months before : " The Court of Directors is tired of 
 the expense of hostilities, and will back out as best it may, 
 and we shall rub on until fresh aggression forces us into 
 the field." We were now forced into the field in real 
 earnest. The crisis of our policy had arrived, but the 
 Commander of the forces, owing to physical weakness, 
 was in no condition to cope with it. ' f He had," as Have- 
 lock wrote, " been confined for five months to his couch, 
 or his chamber, by one of the most fearful visitations of 
 sicknesswhich mortal man ever endured. He obtained some 
 relief as the weather grew cooler, but the attack had re- 
 duced him to a state of the most pitiable debility of mind 
 and body, of which he was painfully conscious." Captain 
 Broadfoot, on the eve of his departure from Cabul with 
 the 35th, waited on him for instructions. He was in bed, 
 suffering intense pain, but insisted on getting up and 
 being helped into his sitting-room. He was greatly ex- 
 hausted by the exertion, and it was fully half an hour be- 
 fore he could fix his attention on business. On Captain 
 Broadfoot's taking leave of him, he said, ' ' In case you go 
 with the detachment, as I hope you will, pray clear the 
 passes quickly, and let me get away, for if anything were 
 to turn up, I feel myself unfit for it, body and mind, and I 
 have told Lord Auckland so." 
 
 As soon as the attack on the 35th was announced at 
 Cabul, General Sale, who had been appointed to command 
 General sale's the brigade returning to India, was ordered to 
 S a s d t e o p t r h e " move out with the 13th Light Infantry, and 
 Fo a ck e a s cc?m- e " assist in clearing the passes. Havelock had a 
 panics it. (( mos t indignant recollection of his absence from 
 Purwundurra in the previous year, when his regiment was 
 engaged, and he was determined not to allow the present 
 opportunity of active service to escape him." He, there- 
 
1841.] HE ACCOMPANIES SALE'S BRIGADE. 73 
 
 fore, "obtained permission of General Elphinstone to at- 
 tach himself temporarily to General Sale's brigade." The 
 force left Cabul at short notice, and indifferently equipped. 
 As soon as it entered the Khoord Cabul pass, a storm of 
 fire was poured down from the heights on both sides. 
 The General then sent up his skirmishers, who dislodged 
 the enemy, driving them from rock to rock, while the 
 main body pushed through the defile. This infuriated 
 onslaught of the enemy, in which General Sale received a 
 serious wound, gave him a foretaste of the opposition he 
 was likely to encounter as he ran the gauntlet of the fear- 
 ful defiles between Cabul and Peshawur. Leaving the 
 35th Native Infantry beyond the Khoord Cabul pass, he 
 marched back to Bootkhak, and from thence sent de- 
 spatches to the capital, with a report of his engagement 
 with the enemy ; stating, at the same time, that it was 
 impossible for him to move forward without reinforce- 
 ments and additional carriage cattle. Knowing the feeling 
 of security which pervaded the minds of Sir William Mac- 
 naghten and General Elphinstone, he requested Havelock 
 to take charge of his despatches, and in a personal con- 
 ference to enforce the necessity of immediate aid. It was 
 his importunity, aided by the conviction of the Envoy and 
 the General, that they could not leave Cabul till the passes 
 were clear, which procured a large reinforcement, and, 
 what was equal, if not greater, value, a plenteous supply 
 of cattle. After passing a week in Cabul, and seeing to 
 the despatch of men and supplies, Havelock again obtained 
 permission of General Elphinstone to join the fighting 
 brigade ; and he left the Envoy and the General, on the 
 morning of the 19th, " calmly busied in their preparations 
 to leave Cabul, the one for Bombay, and the other for 
 England." Not a syllable was breathed by either of any 
 expected insurrection at the capital, They both con- 
 sidered the Ghilzyes a race of hereditary robbers and 
 arrant cowards, and the rising a local and temporary emei de. 
 There was not even a ripple on the tranquil surface of the 
 waters, to indicate the approach of that tempest which 
 was so soon to lash them into fury. 
 
74 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK [CHAP. n. 
 
 During Havelock's residence of a week in Cabul, it 
 was an object of serious consideration whether it was his 
 duty to remain with General Elphinstone, or offer to return 
 to General Sale. On the morning of his departure, or of 
 Haveiock's a preceding day, he came, in the course of his 
 lonTfoHelv-" Scripture reading, to the passage in the 39th of 
 Jeremiah," Go and speak to Ebed-melech the 
 Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God 
 of Israel ; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city 
 for evil, and not for good ; and they shall be accomplished 
 in that day before thee. But I will deliver thee in that 
 day, saith the Lord : and thou shalt not be given into the 
 hands of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will 
 surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, 
 but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee : because thou hast 
 put thy trust in me, saith the Lord." It has been sup- 
 posed from this circumstance that Havelock opened his 
 Bible to divine the course he ought to pursue, from the 
 nature of the passage which might first catch his eye ; and 
 that having received some vague intimations from his 
 moonshee of the coming storm, he determined to provide 
 for his personal safety by leaving the city. It can scarcely 
 be necessary to defend a man of Haveiock's character from 
 any suspicion of such superstition or cowardice. He read 
 the 39th of Jeremiah on that morning simply because he 
 had read the 38th chapter on the preceding day. At that 
 time the post of danger was with General Sale's brigade 
 in the passes ; the abode of safety was apparently at the 
 capital, which was in a state of unruffled tranquillity. Sir 
 Alexander Burnes had assured him that there was no fear 
 of any insurrection. Havelock was anxious for action, and 
 he went where he thought it was most likely to be found, 
 to the Khoord Cabul camp. Writing to General Smith, 
 on the 25th of November, he says : ' ' Sir Boyle Eoche, 
 the Irish member, long since decided that a man could 
 not be in two places at once, unless he were a bird. As 
 I am an unfeathered biped I must be content to be here, 
 though I should like also to be at Cabul, where the crisis is 
 so interesting. If you have got any of my former letters 
 
1841.] SIR EGBERT SALE ADVANCES. 75 
 
 you will be aware that, while profound peace reigned in 
 that capital, I was permitted to attach myself to Sir 
 Robert Sale's column ; and that, the insurrection having 
 broken out while its head-quarters were at Gundamuck, 
 I have been inseparable from its fate and fortunes since." 
 But in after days, when the terrific scenes at Cabul rose 
 to view, and he recalled to mind the remarkable passage 
 which was incidentally presented to him on the morning 
 of the 19th of October, he could not help noticing its 
 singular, and to a certain degree, its prophetic corre- 
 spondence with subsequent events. 
 
 Strengthened by these reinforcements Sir Robert Sale 
 pushed forward, and having rejoined Colonel Monteith, ad- 
 vanced on the 22nd October, with the whole body Sir Robert 
 of troops, arranged to meet every emergency, Sale advances - 
 through seventeen miles of defiles, to the valley of Tezeen. 
 The force was incessantly attacked, and it now appeared 
 certain that throughout the whole range of mountains the 
 inhabitants were universally in arms, and determined to op- 
 pose the progress of our troops. Sir Robert Sale felt that 
 though everything appeared peaceful at the capital, he had 
 acted wisely in refusing to advance without reinforcements. 
 The next morning, the fort of Meer Afzul Khan was at- 
 tacked and carried, and he sent a submissive letter to 
 Captain Macgregor, the political agent, which led to a con- 
 ference with him and other Ghilzye chiefs. A convention 
 was patched up, and it was agreed that their allowances, 
 which had been curtailed, should be restored, and that no 
 chief should be held responsible for robberies committed 
 beyond his own boundary. Hostages were given by the 
 Affghans, ten in number, who subsequently accompanied 
 the force, and a supply of provisions and forage was sent 
 into the camp some little time after. At Tezeen, General 
 Sale determined to send back the 37th Native Infantry to 
 Cabul, together with half Broadfoot's sappers and half the 
 mountain train, partly from the deficiency of camels, and 
 partly in compliance with his promise to General Elphin- 
 stone. Havelock prepared to return to Cabul with this 
 detachment, and resume his duties with the General-in- 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP, n. 
 
 Chief. " But General Sale was lying at the time on his 
 pallet in the fort of Meer Afzul Khan at Tezeen, suffering 
 intense agony from the wound he had received at Khoord 
 Cabul. When he heard of my intention to return, he at once 
 interposed, represented to me that, rendered helpless in 
 some measure by the severe fracture he had sustained, and 
 invested with an important command, he could not consent 
 to be deprived of the services of an additional staif officer; 
 that General Elphinstone's permission to me was inde- 
 finite ; that the Cabul staff was large, and the capital still 
 tranquil; whereas the conduct of the Ghilzyes was in more 
 than one respect suspicious. My remonstrances were per- 
 petually met and overborne by the same arguments. 
 Finally, General Sale, loading himself with all the respon- 
 sibility of the measure, told me that I must accompany 
 him, and that Captain Paton should be the bearer of his 
 reasons for requiring this. Thus I was brought to take 
 part in the celebrated passage of the Ghilzye defiles by 
 General Sale." Such is the record of this transaction by 
 Savelock, but it may now be remarked, without any ap- 
 pearance of invidiousness, that General Sale's importunity 
 arose from the value he attached to Havelock's services at 
 this crisis. A braver soldier than the General never drew 
 sword ; he was not only distinguished by personal courage, 
 but was the cause of valour in others, for his undaunted 
 bravery never failed to inspire his men with enthusiasm in 
 the presence of an enemy. At the same time he was not 
 eminent as a strategist, and sometimes shrunk from the 
 responsibility of action, and was therefore anxious to retain 
 near him one on whose military judgment and spirit, 
 eighteen years of experience had taught him to place the 
 most implicit reliance. 
 
 The troops moved on from Tezeen through the Ghilzye 
 defiles, but it soon became evident that the treaty with 
 The brigade chieftains was so much waste paper ; the hostages 
 Tweekta m afforded no protection from attacks. " The 
 Gundamuck. mountaineers, writes Havelock, " attacked our 
 rear- guard in march on the 26th at Sei Baba, on the 27th 
 at Kutu Sing, and on the 28th on approaching Jugdulluk. 
 
THE BRI^^E BEACHES GUND AMUCK. 77 
 
 1841 ] 
 
 They were repulsed on every occasion ; but on nearing 
 Soorkab, a perfect ocean of baggage began to flow over 
 the mountain, and the rebels took heart, resumed the ini- 
 tiative in their fashion, and fell upon the rear. By the 
 praiseworthy exertions of Captains Backhouse, Broadfoot, 
 and Fenwick, order was restored, and the rear-guard ex- 
 tricated from the defile. Our bane throughout has been 
 our superfluous baggage and heavy camp equipage, which 
 may, and must in Afghanistan, be reduced in quantity and 
 form. Sepoys' pals sufficed for our British soldiers in Ava, 
 and might here, while the whole of the tents, baggage, and 
 ammunition ought to be carried on ponies (yaboos), not 
 camels, and the greater portion of all but the ammunition 
 left in depot, when a rapid dash into a mountainous country 
 is meditated." 
 
 At length, after eighteen days of harassing warfare 
 through these tremendous passes, the troops found a brief 
 repose at Gundamuck. It was one of the halt- The brigade 
 ing- stations of the rulers of Cabul on their way dlmuck.clp- 
 to the winter residence at Jellalabad; and the SS^KLa 
 troops were delighted to exchange the bleak and fort 
 barren rocks which they had been so long traversing, for 
 the verdant lawns and fruitful orchards of this valley. A 
 cantonment which had been erected there, was, at the 
 time, occupied by a corps of Khyber rangers, a regiment 
 of Janbazes, or Affghan horse, and some Afighan jezail- 
 chees, or riflemen. During this protracted mountain war- 
 fare, our troops had suffered severely, both in numbers and 
 morale. The conflict had been against a foe invisible till 
 his presence was felt, and whom it was difficult to pursue, 
 through the rapidity of his movements, in a region entirely 
 unknown to us, but in which he was perfectly at home. It 
 was with the view of counteracting the dejection . and 
 reviving the spirits of the men, as well as from military con- 
 siderations, that Havelock advised Sir Eobert Sale to at- 
 tack the fort at Mamoo Khail, about three miles from Gun- 
 damuck, belonging to Meer Afzul Khan. This chieftain 
 had received many favours from Shah Soojah, and had been 
 appointed to an office of dignity at his court, but had come 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF SlE HEN BY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 down from Cabul to aid tlie rebellion. The General rejected 
 Havelock's advice. About the 4th of November, informa- 
 tion was brought to Captain Macgregor, the political agent, 
 that though there were only thirty men in the fort, the 
 chief was making great efforts to provision and garrison 
 it, and that large reinforcements were expected, after which 
 the whole country would rise on us. Captains Broadfoot, 
 Backhouse, and Dawes were dining with him when this 
 notice was brought to him, and it appeared to the whole 
 party that the immediate capture of the fort was indispens- 
 able. Captain Macgregor went to the General's tent, and 
 endeavoured to persuade him to order the attack ; but he 
 met with no success. Returning to his friends, they con- 
 curred with him that another effort should be made to send 
 troops against the fort; and as it was known that the 
 General placed great dependence on Havelock's judgment, 
 " Backhouse and I," remarks Broadfoot, " though it was 
 midnight, went and turned out Havelock, who went to the 
 General. The immediate move he could not accomplish, 
 but he got us off on the afternoon of the next day," and 
 the fort was captured without much resistance. 
 
 The instructions of General Elphinstone to Sir Robert 
 Sale were, to await his further orders at Gundamuck. The 
 sir Robert force reached that place on the 80th of October. 
 damuck. im " It was expected that as soon as the preparations 
 of the Envoy and the General at Cabul were complete, they 
 would move down to Jellalabad through Gundamuck. Sir 
 Robert Sale adhered to the letter of his instructions, and 
 took up his position there. Early in November, the post 
 from Cabul was interrupted, and the most sinister reports 
 began to circulate through the country. They were un- 
 happily confirmed on the 10th. The insurrection had 
 broken out at Cabul on the morning of the 2nd of Novem- 
 ber, when Sir Alexander Burnes, his brother, and Lieut. 
 William Broadfoot were murdered. Two hundred resolute 
 British soldiers, well commanded, would have extinguished 
 the revolt in two or three hours ; but no troops were sent 
 to quell it from the cantonment, where a body of 5000 men 
 was stationed within two miles of the scene of massacre ; 
 
1841.] THE REVOLT AT CABUL. 79 
 
 and the small force sent by the orders of the Shah was re- 
 pulsed. An emergency which demanded union, energy, 
 and confidence, found Colonel Shelton, the second in com- 
 mand, at variance with his chief, the envoy at variance 
 with the General, and the General himself scarcely able to 
 move from an attack of gout. To add to the difficulties of 
 the crisis, the political and military authorities appeared 
 from the first to have resigned themselves to a feeling of 
 despondency. The revolt was thus allowed to grow to a 
 head, and within three days the cantonment itself was be- 
 sieged by an armed rabble, and the magazine fort, in 
 which the winter provisions of the force had been stored, 
 was captured. A letter was received by Sir Robert Sale 
 at Gundamuck, from the Envoy, referring to former letters 
 which had never arrived. It alluded in the most despond- 
 ing language to the progress of the revolt, described the 
 embarrassment of their position, and reiterated, in press- 
 ing terms, the request he had previously made for the im- 
 mediate return of Sale's brigade. There was a short post- 
 script from his secretary, Captain George Lawrence, simply 
 stating that "they were in a fix." At the same time, 
 General Elphinstone, in his communication to Sir Robert 
 Sale, directed him to return to Cabul, " provided the sick 
 and wounded could be placed in security with the irregu- 
 lars at Gundamuck." 
 
 The important question now arose, whether the brigade 
 should remain at Gundamuck or return to Cabul. A 
 
 council of war was held, and some of its members council of 
 
 & , . i -i , , r-i-i-iT war at Gun- 
 were tor retracing their steps to (Jabul : but damuck. 
 
 TT 11 i -i Tin i Havelock's 
 
 liavelock, whose opinion carried no little weight, advice, 
 though he had no vote in the assembly, urged the most 
 forcible reasons against such a movement. It was evident, 
 he said, that the British hold on Cabul was shaken, if not 
 from the force of circumstances, yet by the loss of moral 
 courage in those who were at the head of affairs. How 
 was the garrison of the cantonment to be aided, since it 
 apparently could not and would not aid itself? Yet, how 
 again could it be in peril ? It consisted of between five 
 and six thousand men, having a good artillery, and immense 
 
80 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 munitions of war. It could surely fight battles against an 
 arrned population, and maintain its superiority over them 
 with a high hand, dictating to the city, enforcing the sup- 
 ply of provisions by the terror of its arms, and rectifying 
 by the art of the engineer the defects of its military 
 position. The winter had set in at this time with unusual 
 rigour. The tops of the lower mountains, even of the 
 Suleiman range, were already white with snow. The cold 
 at Gundamuck was intense. The force was badly clothed; 
 it had lost a great portion of its camp equipage ; its camel- 
 drivers had nearly all deserted with their animals. The 
 brigade was without the means of transporting its ammu- 
 nition, provisions, or intrenching tools, except by giving 
 up, at this inclement season, the remainder of its tents. 
 It had not cartridges for more than three battles, and 
 might have to fight" its way every march out of eight. The 
 morale of the troops was yet low. They had reached 
 Gundamuck a dispirited if not a beaten force. On several 
 occasions, the Affghans, though worsted, had asserted in 
 the conflict their superior skill in mountain warfare. He 
 observed, finally, that it was not possible to deposit the 
 sick and wounded in safety. They exceeded three hundred 
 in number, and to leave them at Gundamuck, either with 
 or without the Affghan irregulars, was to abandon them 
 f o certain destruction. The council came to the conclusion, 
 therefore, that it was not possible to march back to Cabul. 
 Neither did Havelock consider it advisable to remain at 
 Resolution to Gundamuck. The country was so far open, that 
 jdlafabad it was not presently to be apprehended that the 
 Affghans would venture to attack the force; but it was in 
 their power to hem them in, to cut off their supplies, and 
 even to turn the watercourse which descended from the 
 Suleiman range, and eventually oblige them to decamp to 
 a disadvantage. Captain Macgregor had moreover re- 
 ceived intelligence, that the tribes around Jellalabad were 
 threatening to occupy it or to burn it down. The value of 
 this place, considering our military position at this time in 
 Eastern Affghanistan, was inestimable. We had a division 
 of troops, as Havelock remarked, at Cabul, in which an 
 
1841.] RESOLUTION TO ADVANCE TO JELLALABAD. 81 
 
 insurrection was now raging. Our nearest station in 
 India was Ferozepore, which was separated from the mouth 
 of the Khyber pass by a distance of thirty-five marches, 
 and the whole of this space was occupied by the cities, 
 forts, and armies of a powerful but doubtful ally, whose 
 troops were organizing yearly revolutions, whose politics 
 were as shifting as the sands of the Sutlege, and whose 
 government was fast verging to a state of servile subjec- 
 tion to its own instruments. The formidable pass of the 
 Khyber was held by one hundred Affghan riflemen, of 
 Captain Ferris's corps, at the fort of Ali Musjeed, in which 
 they had a scanty and uncertain supply of water. Three 
 marches in advance, and off the direct road, were the 
 head-quarters of Captain Ferris's regiment, in an open 
 cantonment and without ammunition for forty- eight 
 hours' contest. There was also a detachment at Gunda- 
 muck. Such were the military dispositions for linking 
 Cabul with India. Well might Havelock exclaim, on re- 
 viewing the subject some years later, that " a plain un- 
 varnished description of our position beyond the Indus, in 
 December, 1841, exhibited one of the most stupendous in- 
 stances of human rashness and imbecility on record in 
 history." The occupation of Jellalabad he stated to be 
 an object of immense advantage ; it would place the com- 
 munication with Cabul on the one side, and Peshawur on 
 the other, on a more secure footing ; it would create a well- 
 defended fortress, on which the Cabul garrison might re- 
 tire, and would prove the key of Eastern Afghanistan, if 
 the Government should send means and reinforcements 
 across the Khyber. It was, therefore, resolved to move 
 on Jellalabad. 
 
 With regard to the Affghan irregulars, to whose care 
 General Elphinstone at one time thought our sick and 
 wounded might be intrusted, Sir Robert Sale at first de- 
 termined to take them with his force, and to abandon the 
 
 cantonment of Gundamuck to its fate. But the The 
 
 IT T . . ii. ft ,-, irregulars at 
 
 messenger who brought intelligence of the out- Gundamuck. 
 break at Cabul had journeyed, for his own security, in 
 company with emmissaries sent from Cabul to excite the 
 
 6 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. n. 
 
 Affghan irregulars to rise against the infidel " Feringees." 
 The chief native officer of the corps, though he had been 
 brought up in the family of Shah Soojah, had been gained 
 over by the insurgents. Lieut. Dowson, their command- 
 ant, expressed his confidence in their fidelity; Havelock 
 and Broadfoot, however, urged that their complicity in 
 the conspiracy at the capital was so palpable, that Sir 
 Robert Sale would be fully justified in disarming and dis- 
 missing the whole body. He was finally persuaded, 
 contrary to the advice of these officers, to adopt a half- 
 measure, which met with the usual success of such expe- 
 dients. He deposited a considerable portion of his camp 
 equipage at Gundamuck, and left it, as well as the canton- 
 ment, to the guardianship of the irregulars, on whose camp 
 he had pointed his guns only the night before. The 
 brigade marched out of Gundamuck on the morning of 
 the llth November. During the day, a distant fire of 
 musquetry was heard behind, and then there was a lurid 
 blaze, followed by a violent explosion. It was the revolt 
 of the Affghan levies at Gundamuck, who threw off the 
 mask as soon as Sir Robert's force was out of sight. They 
 rose on their European officers, plundered their baggage, 
 set fire to the cantonment, and blew up the magazine, 
 sending a number of their own companions into the air. 
 Captain Burn and the other officers, though pursued by 
 the insurgents, succeeded in reaching the British camp. 
 
 Sir Robert Sale renewed his march the next morning, 
 but the whole armed population of the district was already 
 sir Robert on the alert. The Affghans crowned each height 
 jeifriaSad! 8 as soon as our picquets were withdrawn, swarmed 
 like hornets round the camp, and were only repelled by 
 the most strenuous efforts. They permitted the advanced 
 guard and the main body to pass through the town of 
 Futtehabad without interruption. Bodies of them even 
 came in the guise of unarmed suppliants to beg for pro- 
 tection. But no sooner had the rear-guard passed the 
 houses and fort of this town, than a destructive fire was 
 opened upon it. Captain Broadfoot and his sappers 
 turned fiercely round more than once, and inflicted venge- 
 
1841.] THE BRIGADE EE ACHES JELLALABAD. 8C 
 
 ance for this treachery, and Colonel Dennie in the end 
 drew the enemy away from their walls into the open plain, 
 and then the cavalry under Captain Oldfield and Lieut. 
 Mayne charging among the Affghans with headlong valour, 
 strewed the ground with a hundred and fifty slain. That 
 night the force encamped under the walls of Jellalabad, 
 and took possession of it the next morning. 
 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Defence of Jellalabad. Captain Broadfoot's Character and Exertions. Restora- 
 tion of the Fortifications. Repulse of the Enemy on the 1st of December. 
 Assassination of the Envoy at Cabul. Straits of the Garrison. The fatal 
 Capitulation. Extermination of the Army. Dr Brydon's Escape. Council 
 of "War at Jellalabad. Negotiations with the Cabul Chiefs broken off. 
 Reinforcements from India. Akbar Khan approaches Jellalabad. The 
 Earthquake of the 19th of February. Destruction and Restoration of the 
 Works. General Pollock's Approach delayed. Exhausted state of the 
 Garrison. Havelock advises -an Attack on Akbar Khan. Victory of the 7th 
 of April. Arrival of General Pollock. Proclamation of Lord Ellenborough. 
 Death of General Elphinstone. Advance on Cabul. Battle of Tezeen. 
 Cabul re-occupied. Release of the Prisoners. Victory at Istaliff under 
 Havelock's direction. Army breaks up and returns to India. 
 
 JELLALABAD was the winter residence of the Affghan rulers, 
 inferior in population and importance only to Cabul and 
 ^andahar. The valley in which it is situated is 
 about twenty-eight miles in length and three or 
 four in breadth, fertilized by three streams, the largest of 
 which is the Cabul river, and closed in by magnificent 
 ranges of mountains. It is also well wooded, though arid 
 and desert in the immediate vicinity of the town. The de- 
 fences of the town, on the 13th of November, are thus 
 described by Havelock, in the despatch he subsequently 
 wrote for Sir Robert Sale: "The walls of Jellalabad 
 were in a state which might have justified despair as to the 
 possibility of defending them. The enceinte was far too 
 extensive for our small force, embracing a circumference 
 of upwards of 2300 yards. Its tracing was vicious in the 
 extreme; it had no parapet except for a few hundred 
 yards, which there was not more than two feet high ; 
 earth and rubbish had accumulated to such an extent 
 about the ramparts that there were roads in various 
 directions across and over them into the country. There 
 
1841.] DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD. 85 
 
 was a space of 400 yards together, on which none of the 
 garrison could show themselves excepting at one spot. 
 The population within was disaffected, and the whole 
 enceinte was surrounded by ruined forts, walls, mosques, 
 tombs, and gardens, from which a fire could be opened 
 at twenty or thirty yards/-' Within the town was the 
 Bala Hissar, or citadel, which, though imperfectly fortified, 
 was surrounded with a wall. Sir Robert Sale, being un- 
 able from his wound to make a survey of the suburbs him- 
 self, sent round the senior officers and his own staff to exa- 
 mine and report on the state of the works. So great was 
 the mass of ruins which surrounded them, that only one 
 officer, besides Captain Broadfoot, was enabled to com- 
 plete the circuit. In reporting the state of the works to 
 Sir Robert Sale, the officers stated that they were not 
 defensible against a vigorous assault. It was then de- 
 bated whether it would not be more advisable to abandon 
 the town, and retire to the citadel. Havelock, Broadfoot, 
 and Dennie, endeavoured to dissuade the General from 
 relinquishing the town to a disloyal populace, because it 
 would be a dangerous indication of timidity, and increase 
 the embarrassments of their position. If they confined 
 their efforts to the defence of the citadel, their operations 
 would be cramped, and it would be difficult to obtain sup- 
 plies. Captain Broadfoot also assured the General, as the 
 result of his personal observation, that however dilapidated 
 the works were at present, they might be completely 
 restored by adequate exertions, and rendered secure against 
 the attacks of the Affghans. It was, therefore, resolved 
 to occupy the town, and improve the works. 
 
 The brigade was scarcely within the walls of the town, 
 when the plain was darkened by masses of the enemy. 
 Every valley had poured out its armed pea- Boldness of 
 santry to attack the ' ' Feringees." They had ^d e S y> 
 expected that the British troops would continue defeat> 
 their progress towards India, and they expected a rich 
 harvest from the plunder of their baggage in the passes 
 between Jellalabad and Peshawur. The occupation of the 
 town created surprise and mortification, and the Affghans 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 resolved to make a vigorous effort to dislodge the brigade. 
 During the night of the 13th, our troops were unable to 
 man the whole circuit of the walls ; a line of 400 yards was 
 without a soldier, and had the enemy attacked the works, 
 the defence must have been reduced to a street combat. 
 But the Affghans employed themselves, more advantage- 
 ously for our interests, in setting fire to the various sheds 
 and houses in the circle about the town. Around this 
 conflagration some could be seen dancing frantically in 
 groups, while others approached the walls, and poured 
 forth imprecations on the infidels. It was obviously im- 
 possible to commence the repair of the defences till the 
 plain was cleared of these hostile bands, which in the 
 morning appeared to number 4000 or 5000. It was de- 
 termined, therefore, to read them a salutary lesson regard- 
 ing our power and resources, and Colonel Monteith was 
 charged with the performance of this duty. He issued 
 from the gate on the morning of the 14th November, with 
 horse, foot, and artillery, 1100 in number, of whom 300 
 were Europeans, and fell on the enemy with such vigour 
 and skill, that the masses broke up and fled, leaving 200 
 dead on the field. At noon, not an Affghan remained on 
 the plain which had been covered with their ranks in the 
 morning, and all molestation ceased for fourteen days. 
 
 On the morning of the 15th the work of clearing away 
 the ruins and restoring the fortifications was commenced, 
 captain under the direction of Captain Broadfoot. In 
 Broadfoot ^ e anna l s o f British India, crowded as it is with 
 records of the military genius, energy, and valour by which 
 a great empire has been created and consolidated, there is 
 no name more illustrious than that of George Broadfoot. 
 Havelock, his bosom friend, remarks of him, " no person 
 of common discernment could have enjoyed opportunities 
 of knowing him intimately without perceiving that he was 
 eminently, as old Paoli described the youthful Napoleon, 
 ' one of Plutarch' s men/ a man formed, if his life had been 
 spared, to play a leading part in great events, and astonish 
 those who gazed around and after him, by the vigour and 
 grasp of his intellect, his natural talent for war and policy, 
 
1841.] CAPTAIN BROADFOOT AT CABUL. 87 
 
 Ms cool and sound judgment, his habit and powers of 
 generalization, his moral courage, and personal intrepidity, 
 and his uncompromising love of truth." Captain Broad- 
 foot was an officer of the Madras army, and had brought 
 himself into notice, in the first instance, by his exertions 
 in the commissariat at Moulmein. He was then selected by 
 Lord Auckland for a post in Shah Soojalr's force, and in 
 that position had accomplished the difficult task of convey- 
 ing the family of the Shah, consisting of 300 females be- 
 sides children, and a valuable portion of the crown jewels, 
 through the Punjab, then in a state of anarchy, and 
 through the more perilous passes of the Khyber, swarming 
 with hereditary robbers. " This measure," remarks Have- 
 lock, ' ' was particularly memorable, for, from the moment 
 that Shah Soojah had his women and numerous progeny 
 and relatives in his own hands, instead of being, as it were, 
 hostages in British India, he assumed an air of inde- 
 pendence with the envoy, foreign to him before. The 
 arrival, too, of his zenana was urged as the reason for the 
 British troops, their magazines, and arsenal, being turned 
 out of the Bala Hissar, the key of Cabul, an absurdity 
 which, more than any other act, weakened our military 
 position, and led to the ensuing disasters." Soon after 
 Captain Broadfoot's arrival in Cabul he commenced the 
 task of forming one of the most extraordinary regiments 
 that ever was arrayed on a battle-field, the sappers and 
 miners of Shah Soojalr's force. They were instructed in 
 all the duties of entrenching and siege operations, and 
 were encouraged to become superior light troops. In 
 their ranks were not only Hindostanees of every province, 
 but Ghoorkas, and men from Cabul, Peshawur, Eusofzye, 
 and Hazara. Many of the men thus enlisted were 
 desperate and intractable characters, but they were soon 
 moulded by the talent of their chief into daring, skilful, 
 and obedient soldiers. Captain Broadfoot was on his side 
 like a father to these men, in attention to their real wants, 
 while he exacted from them the most implicit obedience 
 to his orders, and punished their faults with a severity 
 which many would have deemed ferocious. It was his 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 practice, when men presented themselves for enlistment in 
 active times, to attach them to himself as probationers. 
 The ordeal was sharp ; for, ever foremost in danger him- 
 self, he led these expectants into the thickest of the fire, 
 and the slightest disposition to shrink from it was fatal to 
 their hope of enrolment. On the 7th of October, Captain 
 Broadfoot was directed to prepare a portion of his sappers 
 to accompany Colonel Monteith's column proceeding to 
 Hindostan. The arsenal at Cabul, under Lieut. Vincent 
 Eyre, though filled with vast stores of shot, shell, and 
 small arms, was deficient in entrenching tools. Captain 
 Broadfoot called on General Elphinstone to receive his 
 orders, but was told that Colonel Monteith had been 
 ordered out without consulting him, and that he was little 
 more than chief constable under the Lord-Lieutenant. 
 The General advised him to wait on the envoy, who would 
 inform him of the nature of the service on which he was 
 to be employed, and enable him to provide himself with 
 the requisite implements. The envoy said he had re- 
 solved to send Colonel Monteith simply as a demonstra- 
 tion ; he expected the submission of the rebels that even- 
 ing; there would be no fighting; it was a peaceable 
 march to Jellalabad ; and as to sappers, twenty men with 
 pickaxes would be enough all they were wanted for 
 would be to pick stones from under the gun-wheels. But 
 Captain Broadfoot was determined not to move without 
 his implements, and sent to some of the artificers of Cabul 
 to make him mining tools. They were found busily em- 
 ployed in forging arms for what purpose too soon became 
 evident and refused to work for the " Feringees." Captain 
 Broadfoot then applied for the aid of Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, who, though he assured him that he was going to 
 encounter a tempest in a teapot, issued orders to the work- 
 men, but they were scornfully rejected. Captain Broad- 
 foot then planted one of his own sappers over each smith, 
 and in a very short time obtained a large supply of the 
 best tools which had been seen in Cabul. These tools, 
 which were sufficient to supply the whole of the 13th when 
 that noble regiment became one large working party, 
 
1841.] REPAIR OF THE DEFENCES. 89 
 
 now proved the salvation of Jellalabad. Captain Broad- 
 foot himself remarks, " When the Cabul insurrection 
 broke out, it seemed as if Providence had stiffened my 
 neck on that occasion, for Burnes strongly advised me 
 not to take the tools, or I should make enemies." 
 
 Captain Broadfoot commenced his operations at Jellala- 
 bad on the 15th. He was indefatigable in his exertions ; the 
 dav was spent in superintending; the progress of Repair of the 
 
 * , * . -i I T -i defences of 
 
 the work, and the evening was devoted to his Jeiiaiabad. 
 
 . '- IT,' -\ICT i i feupply of pro- 
 
 plans and calculations. Working parties were visions. 
 
 told off, who laboured with little intermission, from dawn 
 to dusk. Officers and men worked with emulation^ and 
 in a few weeks the ramparts were ready to receive the 
 guns, and everything around the town that could afford 
 cover to the enemy was, as far as possible, cleared away. 
 An indefensible heap of ruins was, as if by a magic wand, 
 transformed into a fortification proof against any but siege 
 ordnance. On entering the town, it was found that 
 the provisions in store were sufficient only for two days, 
 and the men were put on half rations ; but happily there 
 was no liquor to stupefy them, and they were found to 
 work more energetically and cheerfully on half rations 
 without any artificial stimulant, than they could have done 
 on full rations and drams. Captain Macgregor, the politi- 
 cal agent, was, however, very successful in his negotiations 
 for provisions, which were the more readily supplied after 
 .the victory of the 14th of November. 
 
 There were not wanting, however, subjects of disquietude. 
 The Khyber rangers and jezailchees, who had hitherto con- 
 tinued faithful, and combated for us with much Losg of Pesh . 
 gallantry, began to waver ; and on receiving their ters^m ca- 
 pay, 400 of them went over to the enemy. In- bul< 
 formation was also received that Captain Ferris, who held 
 the post at Pesh-bolak, about twenty-five miles east of 
 Jellalabad, had been attacked by his Affghan mercenaries, 
 and obliged to abandon his encampment, with all the stores 
 and ammunition it contained. Thus one of the two posts 
 which protected the communication between Jellalabad 
 and Peshawur, was lost to us ; and it was doubtful whether 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 the other at Ali-musjid could be much, longer maintained. 
 A letter was at the same time received from General El- 
 phinstoiie, written after he had been made acquainted with 
 Sir Robert Sale's reasons for proceeding to Jellalabad and 
 not to Cabul, which he stated were satisfactory. It was 
 written in French, and concluded with the remark, " Notre 
 peril est extreme.-" He again implored Sir Eobert to come 
 to his assistance, " provided the sick and wounded could 
 be placed in safety with their allies, the Sikhs." Havelock, 
 in recording these events, adds, "God's special Providence 
 alone can extricate us from these difficulties. We trust, 
 through His goodness, that our spirits will rise, instead of 
 sinking under them, and that we shall be strengthened to 
 retrieve all gloriously." 
 
 On the 29th November, large bodies of Affghans poured 
 down upon the plain before Jellalabad from the lateral val- 
 Fresh attack leys, and opened a desultory fire on the town. 
 
 andrepulseof f? ' . ,. -. , J ,, -. 
 
 f . ,. -. , ,, -. 
 
 Uur troops were directed to stand on the de- 
 cember. fensive. The chief cause of anxiety to Sir Robert 
 Sale was the deficiency of ammunition, which a single 
 prolonged engagement would go nigh to exhaust. The 
 men were therefore directed to husband their cartridges, 
 and not to expend a single useless shot. This inactivity 
 emboldened the enemy, who approached the walls so near 
 as to interrupt the daily labours of the workmen, and it 
 became necessary to disperse them. Colonel Dennie there- 
 fore sallied out from the gates soon after midday on the 
 1st December, with 300 men from each regiment. The 
 Aifghans fired a single volley, and then broke and fled. 
 The troops followed them up ; the guns dealt destruction 
 among the fugitives ; the cavalry galloped in pursuit of 
 them, driving some into the river, and cutting down others, 
 till 150 bodies strewed the plain. As the result of this 
 spirited and successful repulse, the garrison enjoyed a 
 long period of repose. 
 
 On the 17th December the most unfavourable rumours 
 were current regarding the state of affairs at Cabul. It was 
 sinister ru- even reported that the British chiefs had entered 
 fr s into a convention with the enemy, and agreed to 
 
1841.] SINISTER RUMOURS FROM CABUL. 01 
 
 a compulsory evacuation of the country. These 
 reports were premature, but, coupled with the troops - 
 intelligence that the three regiments which had advanced 
 from Candahar to the relief of the capital, had been arrested 
 by the severity of the weather, and obliged to return, and 
 that the garrison at Ghuznee was besieged, produced no 
 little depression in the minds of the defenders of Jellala- 
 bad. On this occasion Havelock remarks : " There are 
 certainly indications of something extraordinary having 
 occurred. These are to be traced in the renewal of the 
 attempt to tamper with our sepoys, and the hints dropped 
 in the bazaars. If a compact has been entered into, no 
 faith will be kept by the Affghans, and our troops will be 
 attacked in the passes ; but whatever be the result of that 
 contest, it is our duty to die behind the walls of Jellalabad, 
 rather than abandon the country." 
 
 A day or two after, a letter was received from General 
 Elphinstone, congratulating the troops on the success of 
 their efforts on the 14th November and the 1st December. 
 Sir Robert Sale was advised by Havelock to take advan- 
 tage of the circumstance, and issue a General Order to the 
 troops, which might serve to infuse animation into their 
 minds ; and he penned the following notification for the 
 General : 
 
 "Major-General Sir Eobert Sale has much pleasure in com- 
 municating to the garrison of Jellalabad, the intelligence he has 
 received of the exhilarating effect produced on their comrades at 
 Cabul, by the news of their successes under these walls of the 
 14th ult., and the 1st instant. Engaged as they are in a most 
 arduous contest with superior numbers, it must have been en- 
 couraging to them to hear that we had beaten the same enemy 
 when opposed to us in the proportion of five to one of those 
 actually in the field. The Major-General has it in command 
 from General Elphinstone, to convey to the whole of the officers 
 and men his hearty congratulations and cordial approbation of 
 their conduct ; and in doing this feels assured, that no soldier 
 within this fortress will think any sacrifice or exertion too great 
 which has for its object to bring the present conflict against a 
 sanguinary and treacherous foe to an honourable and satisfactory 
 conclusion." 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ill. 
 
 On the 29th of December,, Havelock wrote to General 
 Smith, his old commander in the Eifle Brigade, and now 
 Stter 1 to k Gen- Adjutant -General of Queen's troops, in reference 
 erai smith, to his own prospects, on the appointment of 
 another commander in Afghanistan. " I do not hear who 
 is to be appointed chief in Affghanistan. He ought to be 
 a man of energy and large views. I am not ill pleased at 
 having been temporarily attached to Sir Eobert Sale, who 
 is a gallant old soldier, and has for a course of years al- 
 ways expressed himself satisfied with my poor services. I 
 should like much to be instrumental, in an honourable way, 
 in bringing this business to a successful close, and shall 
 be thankful if you will assist me in my being appointed to 
 aid General Elphinstone's successor. I have not youthful 
 zeal enough left for the command of sixty soldiers. Widen 
 my sphere a little, and I do not despair of being useful for 
 the next ten years, if spared so long, by God's blessing." 
 
 On the last day of the year a spy in the political depart- 
 ment brought intelligence of the murder of the envoy, 
 Assassination and of the capitulation of the Cabul force, but 
 
 of the envoy. .. * -, ..,. -IT, rm 
 
 Letter from it was received with incredulity. Ine envoy 
 " 
 
 , might have fallen by an act of treachery ; but it 
 
 ciamation appeared to the gallant garrison of Jellalabad 
 impossible that 5000 British troops, with arms in their 
 hands, should have consented to so dishonourable a sur- 
 render. All doubt, however, was soon after removed by 
 the receipt of a letter from Major Pottinger, on the 2nd of 
 January, relating to the assassination of Sir William Mac- 
 naghten, the state of starvation to which they had been 
 reduced, and the capitulation which had been entered into 
 under the pressure of imperious necessity. The feeling of 
 indignation created by this intelligence, was mingled with 
 the conviction that their own salvation must henceforth 
 depend, under Providence, solely on their own exertions; 
 and every officer and man in the garrison seemed to be in- 
 spired with the enthusiastic resolution to perish sword in 
 hand, rather than basely to lay down his arms. Havelock 
 sent the gloomy tidings to General Smith, and said, " And 
 now, my dear general, and captain of former days, one 
 
1842.] AKBAR KHAN'S PROCLAMATION. 93 
 
 word from myself. There is a force at Jellalabad, which, 
 would, I trust, sooner bury itself under its ruins than be 
 saved by a convention, and which ardently desires, when 
 reinforced, to be led against the treacherous and sanguin- 
 ary foe, which has butchered our ambassador, and must be 
 defeated, if we would save our own in India. Offer your 
 services to the Commander-in- Chief (if he does not come 
 himself), and place yourself at its head. I am sure our 
 soldiers would follow you everywhere/' A day or two 
 after a copy of the proclamation, which Akbar Khan had 
 been dispersing by stealth through the valley, was brought 
 to the garrison, and Havelock sent the purport of it to 
 General Smith. In it the Affghans were told that the 
 people of Islam had risen to a man against the infidels ; 
 that at the first outbreak of their just indignation, Sikun- 
 der Burnes Sahib Sir Alexander Burnes, and many 
 others, were slain; that between Cabul and Gundamuck 
 thousands of the Kafirs had perished, and around the 
 capital a Colonel Sahib and many other chiefs ; and finally, 
 the Lord Sahib Sir William Macnaghten had been 
 put to death. He declared his intention of extermin- 
 ating the intruders, the rule of the Koran never being 
 forgotten, ' ' Those who resist," he said, " I will kill ; those 
 who ask mercy, I will pardon." In conclusion, he called 
 on all Sirdars to muster their clans, and be careful that 
 the Feringees got no supplies ; and above all, to surround 
 Jellalabad, and cut off the retreat of Macgregor. 
 
 In letters written at the beginning of the year, Have- 
 lock stated his own views of the exigencies of the garrison 
 at Jellalabad. He had heard that four regiments Havei 
 of native infantry and a small body of irregular for j 
 horse had been sent across the Sutlege to their 
 relief. In addition to this reinforcement, they 
 required, in his opinion, eight 1 8-pounders, four mortars, 
 and a chaplain. " We have," he said, " no chaplain or 
 minister of God's word in this country. This aid ought 
 to be afforded us. An active, unencumbered man, who 
 would really labour to disseminate religious instruction 
 among our soldiers, would be useful. He must be one 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 who would not disdain to offer his exhortations in any 
 kind of hut, house, or tent, or the open air, sooner than 
 lose his opportunity. I do not build much on divine ser- 
 vice parades, but they are a part of our military system, 
 as it stands, and must not be neglected. But great good 
 is to be expected from the voluntary attendance of soldiers 
 on effective preaching ; and there is a disposition in this 
 force to take advantage of such openings, and I am happy 
 to say that it is manifested by some of the best soldiers 
 we have." 
 
 On the 8th of January a private letter was received from 
 Major Pottinger, written in French, dated the 28th De- 
 Privateand cember, in which he stated that their position 
 fr"m| C Major r wa s daily becoming more perilous, that they had 
 Pottmger. "b ee n obliged to surrender the forts around the 
 cantonments, and had been driven by the want of provi- 
 sions to enter into negotiations with the enemy, whose 
 promises deserved little confidence. The next day came 
 an official communication, signed by him as political agent, 
 and by General Elphinstone, and dated the 29th of De- 
 cember. It was brought into the cantonment by three 
 Affghans of some note. It stated that the British au- 
 thorities at Cabul had found it necessary to conclude an 
 agreement for the evacuation of Affghanistan, in pursuance 
 of which they requested that the troops at Jellalabad 
 would commence their return to India on the receipt of 
 the letter, leaving all guns, the property of Dost Mahomed, 
 with the new governor appointed by the existing author- 
 ities at Cabul, as well as such stores and baggage as they 
 were unable to carry away. <f Everything," it observed, 
 f ' had been done in good faith ; you will not be molested 
 on your way ; and to the safe- conduct which Akbar Khan 
 has given I trust for the passage of the troops under my 
 immediate orders through the passes." A council of war 
 was immediately held, and the question raised by this 
 letter was warmly debated. Havelock and Broadfoot 
 urged that obedience was not due to an order written 
 under compulsion, and by a superior officer who was no, 
 longer a free agent ; that a General who capitulated must 
 
1812.] FAILUEE OF CAPTAIN WYLDE. 95 
 
 be considered as having thereby abdicated his command, 
 and that his capitulation could be binding only on those 
 who were in the same predicament with himself. Sir 
 Kobert Sale energetically repudiated every idea of retiring 
 from Jellalabad ; and it was unanimously resolved not to 
 bring further disgrace on their country, by abandoning 
 the fortress they now held. As the communication from 
 Cabul was written under the dictation of Akbar Khan, 
 and the reply was intended for his eye, it dwelt more par- 
 ticularly on the truculent proclamation he had dispersed 
 through the valley. To avoid compromising the Cabul 
 garrison, it was moreover written in very guarded lan- 
 guage, and inquired what was the nature of the security 
 which was to be given for their safe conduct to Peshawur. 
 Scarcely had the reply been despatched than a letter 
 was received from Colonel Wylde, who had been sent with 
 reinforcements from India, as soon as the insur- Progress of 
 
 events from 
 
 , i i 11* j_i j_ 
 
 rection was known to the public authorities, 
 The expedition was sent in haste, without guns, SL 
 and without adequate equipment, and it proceeded with 
 the most provoking tardiness, at a time when hours were 
 invaluable. After a dilatory march, Colonel Wylde at 
 length arrived at Peshawur, but informed Sir Eobert Sale 
 in this letter, that he could not advance for want of car- 
 riage, and that he was, moreover, waiting the result of 
 certain negotiations which the political agent at Peshawur, 
 Captain Mackeson, had opened with the Afredees for a 
 free passage through the Khyber pass. The political 
 agent himself likewise wrote to Jellalabad, " that he con- 
 sidered it a false move to attempt to force the pass with- 
 out the aid of the second reinforcement expected from the 
 provinces, which included European troops and cavalry." 
 On the 10th a letter arrived from Cabul, stating that they 
 were in the most deplorable condition; their sick and 
 wounded had been sent into the city, their guns and am- 
 munition surrendered, and their funds, to the extent of 
 80,000, expended in endeavouring to purchase the for- 
 bearance of the Affghan chiefs ; they were completely in 
 the hands of their enemies, and the whole force was re- 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 duced to tlie lowest state of depression. On the llth, Sir 
 Robert Sale received a letter from Colonel Wylde, stating 
 definitively that it was out of his power to make any ad- 
 vance, and that the garrison of Jellalabad must provide 
 for its own safety. The disappointment was keenly felt, 
 more especially at this period of deep anxiety ; and the 
 conduct of the Government of India was severely repro- 
 bated, in having intrusted the relieving force to so incom- 
 petent an officer. Havelock, in particular, expressed his 
 great regret that the charge of the reinforcements had not 
 at this critical juncture been intrusted to a man of energy 
 like General Smith. There can be little doubt, that if, on 
 the first intelligence of the outbreak, a large force, of all 
 arms, had been equipped as Mr George Clerk would have 
 equipped it, and pressed forward, with the speed with 
 which General Smith would have marched, every obstacle 
 would have been overcome, and the relieving force would 
 in all probability have reached Jellalabad in time to save 
 the Cabul garrison. But there was no earnestness at head- 
 quarters ; and an inadequate force, wretchedly equipped, 
 was sent on leisurely, under a commander without spirit ; 
 and it broke down at the mouth of the first defile. On 
 the 12th of January a feeling of deep gloom, mingled with 
 an anticipation of some dire calamity, overspread the gar- 
 rison ; a letter was received from the retiring force, an- 
 nouncing that it had left the cantonments, but instead of 
 being allowed to push through the Khoord Cabul pass, on 
 which its safety depended, had been detained two days at 
 Bootkhak. The letter stated that the troops were escorted 
 by a thousand of Akbar Khan's horse, and that he had 
 sent messengers to the Ghilzye chiefs to rouse their fana- 
 ticism, and induce them to attack and plunder the now 
 helpless force. On the 13th of January, the worst fears 
 of the garrison were realized by the arrival of Dr Brydon, 
 the sole survivor excepting the few prisoners in the 
 hands of Akbar Khan of an army of 5000 men and 
 10,000 camp followers, who had fallen victims to the 
 treachery of the ASghans and the snows of the passes. 
 It is unnecessary to enter into any detail of this un- 
 
1842.] DEFEAT OF THE CABUL FORCE. 97 
 
 exampled calamity, which, is but too well known to all who 
 take an interest in the history of the Affghan war, or have 
 read Kaye's vivid description of the fatal retreat; but 
 Havelock's notes on the subject, in his memorandum-book, 
 will still be read with interest. 
 
 "About 2 P.M. on the 13th January, some officers were as- 
 sembled on the roof of the loftiest house in Jellalabad. One of 
 them espied a single horseman riding towards our walls. As he 
 got nearer, it was distinctly seen that he wore European clothes, 
 and was mounted on a travel-hacked yaboo, which he was urging 
 on with all the speed of which it yet remained master. A signal 
 was made to him by some one on the walls, which he answered 
 by waving a private soldier's forage cap over his head. The 
 Cabul gate was then thrown open, and several officers rushing 
 out, received, and recognized in the traveller, who dismounted, 
 the first, and it is to be feared the last, fugitive of the .ill-fated 
 force at Cabul in Dr Brydon. He was covered with slight cuts 
 and contusions, and dreadfully exhausted. His first few hasty 
 sentences extinguished all hope in the hearts of the listeners re- 
 garding the fortune of the Cabul force. It was evident that it 
 was annihilated. Countenances full of sorrow and dejection were 
 immediately seen in every corner of Jellalabad ; all labour was 
 suspended ; the working parties recalled ; the assembly sounded ; 
 the gates were closed, and the walls and batteries manned, and 
 the cavalry stood ready to mount. The first impression was, that 
 the enemy were rapidly following a crowd of fugitives in upon 
 the walls, but three shots only were heard in the direction of 
 tlhar Bagh; and when the effervescence in some measure sub- 
 sided, not an Affghan could be discovered in that quarter, though 
 numerous telescopes were directed to it. But the recital of Dr 
 Brydon filled all hearers with horror, grief, and indignation." 
 
 In the hope of recovering a few more fugitives, the 
 cavalry patrolled in the evening two miles beyond Char* 
 Bagh, but in vain. A large light was exhibited at night 
 on a bastion of the Cabul gate, and four buglers of the 
 13th sounded the signal to "advance" every half-hour for 
 three nights. The sound, which had so often awaked the 
 animation of the soldier, now fell with a melancholy 
 accent on the ear in the still night air. It was sounded 
 to the dead. 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 Within a week after the arrival of Dr Brydon, Have- 
 lock wrote to Serampore : 
 
 "A wide and sweeping destruction has overtaken our force 
 which formerly garrisoned Cabul. Their retreat was not a mili- 
 Haveiock-s tary operation in any way. Had they retired as a 
 thcaffs? n column, ever so late, they might indeed have lost their 
 irophe. cannon and one half their force ; but they could have 
 arrived under these walls with their colours, some show of disci- 
 pline, and the other half of the force of every arm. But they 
 credulously confided in Affghan faith, moved in the power and 
 at the dictation of Akbar Khan, took up the positions which he 
 pointed out, forbore to fire on the partisans whom he had arrayed 
 to destroy them ; and, as much to the last the dupes of intrigue 
 and treachery as the victims of the sword, cold, hunger, and fa- 
 tigue, have been engulfed in the eastern Ghilzye mountains. One 
 fugitive alone has reached us alive. 
 
 " This has rendered our task a difficult one, but I trust we 
 look its asperities in the face like soldiers. We can no longer 
 trust our Affghan Irregulars, and are getting rid of them. We 
 must, by God's help, strive to defend an extensive enceinte, of 
 which the parapets are not simply cannon proof, with an insuffi- 
 cient supply of ammunition, which can last only by being hus- 
 banded ; and only two, not strong, regiments of infantry, one 
 European and the other native, a good artillery, and 200 horse. 
 We have full six weeks' provisions, but forage for only about 
 three weeks longer than we can command the country around 
 us. We have embodied our camp followers already to upwards 
 of a thousand, and are arming them with muskets, jezails, swords, 
 spears, and even stones for the defence of the walls. Akbar 
 Khan has been at Lughman, and is now at Tigree, raising fol- 
 lowers. I think we can, by God's blessing, if besieged with 
 guns protract our defence full forty days. We are resolved on 
 every effort to save for Government JeUalabad and Eastern Aff- 
 ghanistan. If it cannot then relieve us, we sink, but we shall, I 
 trust, die like soldiers." 
 
 The events of this week of gloom produced a feeling of 
 the deepest solemnity on the minds of the garrison. No 
 Troops assem- such a disaster had ever befallen us in any period 
 service. J ae of our Indian history. An entire British army 
 Stt v era? kfi had disappeared; the corpses of the friends and 
 
1842.] TROOPS ASSEMBLE FOR DIVINE SERVICE. 99 
 
 comrades whom the troops had left three months before 
 at Cabul lay unburied in the snow, and they themselves 
 were in daily expectation that the enemy, glutted with 
 the slaughter and plunder of the Cabul army, would pour 
 down on the valley of Jellalabad and assault them. These 
 circumstances were well calculated to dispose the garrison 
 to devotional exercises. On the Sunday after the arrival of 
 Dr Brydon, the whole force assembled for Divine service 
 in one of the open squares of the Bala Hissar, and Have- 
 lock, standing up in the midst of men and officers, read 
 the Church service, only substituting for the Psalms of 
 the day the 46th Psalm, "which," he remarked, "Luther 
 was wont to use in seasons of peculiar difficulty and de- 
 pression." And as that band of heroes raised their voices 
 to heaven with the supplication, te God is our refuge and 
 strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will 
 we not fear, though the earth be removed," there arose 
 in their minds a sublime feeling of dependence on the God 
 of battles, a noble spirit of self-devotion, and a stern de- 
 termination to defend the battlements around them to the 
 last extremity. On the 25th of January, Havelock wrote : 
 "Our only friends on this side of the Sutlege are our 
 own and General Pollock's bayonets. Thus while Cabul 
 has been overwhelmed by the billows of a terrific insur- 
 rection, Candahar, Khelat-i-Ghilzie, Ghuznee, and Jellala- 
 bad stand like isolated rocks in the midst of an ocean 
 covered with foam, while against and around them the 
 breakers dash in wild fury, and the shrill cry of the sea- 
 fowl is heard above the roar of the tempest. . . . The 
 heart of our garrison is good, and we are ready, with God's 
 help, for a manful struggle, if the Government will sup- 
 port us with vigour. We are ready to fight either in open 
 field, or behind our walls, or both. But in March we 
 shall have famine staring us in the face, and probably 
 disease assailing us. Our position is, therefore, most 
 critical ; but there is not, I trust, an ounce of despondency 
 among us." 
 
 On the 26th of January, a public letter was received 
 from Shah Soojah at Cabul, written by the moonshee of 
 
100 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 the Cabinet in red official ink. It intimated that 
 side'r the sur- a treaty was subsisting;, which bound the English 
 
 render of Jel- , * t ty i , n . 
 
 laiabad. to evacuate Angnanistan ; and then inquired 
 what were the intentions of the English General. The 
 messenger who conveyed it was well known to Captain 
 Macgregor, and brought him a verbal message from the 
 Shah, that he was so far in the hands of the dominant fac- 
 tion at the capital, as to be compelled to act towards us 
 in a manner which seemed to be hostile, but he was anxious 
 to ascertain what were our real views, that he might se- 
 cond them to the extent of his ability. The next day a 
 council of war designated by Havelock their jackdaw 
 Parliament was called by Sir Eobert Sale, to give its 
 sanction to the evacuation of Jellalabad, on which he and 
 the political agent had resolved. There was, however, 
 nothing in the communication from Cabul to render it 
 necessary to discuss such a measure. The treaty was that 
 which General Elphinstone and Major Pottinger had 
 signed under compulsion, and both the military and poli- 
 tical chief had repudiated its obligation, even before it 
 was known to have been infamously violated by the Aff- 
 ghans. When the requisition which accompanied the copy 
 of the treaty, and which was received at Jellalabad on the 
 8th of January, became public in Sir Robert Sale's force, 
 there was a burst of indignation at the disgrace of the 
 capitulation, and a unanimous resolution was expressed 
 not to abandon Jellalabad, as Cabul had been abandoned. 
 To these views Sir Robert Sale had given his cordial ad- 
 herence. On the evening of Dr Brydon's arrival, more- 
 over, Captain Broadfoot had requested Havelock to discuss 
 the question of their position under its new aspect with 
 Sir Robert Sale, and to advise him, if he was not prepared 
 to defend Jellalabad to extremity, to retreat that night, 
 while it was still possible. Sir Robert Sale assured 
 Havelock that he had resolved to maintain his ground in 
 that fortress at all hazards, and a communication to this 
 effect was sent to the Commander-in-Chief in India. It is 
 difficult, therefore, to account for this change of opinion in 
 that brave soldier, but by a reference to the notice he had 
 
1842.] PUSILLANIMITY OF GOVERNMENT. 101 
 
 intermediately received of the views of the Government of 
 India regarding the course of policy which it was intended 
 to pursue in AfFghanistan. The first intelligence of the 
 insurrection at Cabul, of the murder of Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, and the siege of the cantonment, had completely 
 prostrated the spirits of Lord Auckland. The affairs of 
 Affghanistan had occupied his attention intensely for four 
 years. His Affghan policy was the only memorable trans- 
 action of his vice-royalty. He had been created an earl 
 for its success, and was on the eve of retiring from office, 
 which he hoped to hand over to his successor, who had 
 condemned his proceedings, under auspicious circum- 
 stances. Suddenly Affghanistan had become an active 
 volcano, and his whole policy had exploded. It was a 
 great crisis, not only for our position in India, but through- 
 out Asia. The, supremacy of England in the East had 
 been rudely shaken, and upon Lord Auckland devolved 
 the duty of restoring it. Unhappily, his mind, instead of 
 rising to a level with the crisis, sunk into a state of de- 
 spondency, and he contemplated these melancholy events 
 chiefly as they afforded a convenient opportunity for re- 
 tiring from all connection with that country. He seemed 
 to forget that to allow ourselves to be ignominiously 
 expelled from Affghanistan, without any attempt to re- 
 trieve our prestige, was to descend from the throne of 
 India. Instead of ordering troops and guns to the scene 
 of danger with energy and promptitude, he dwelt only 
 on the idea of withdrawing from Affghanistan with the 
 smallest amount of danger. He considered it impossible 
 that any succour he could send would be in time for the 
 relief of Cabul ; and even in reference to Jellalabad he 
 merely remarked that ff it might be well perhaps that two 
 or three regiments should be assembled at Peshawur. An 
 advance to Jellalabad could only be intended to give 
 security to Sale, and, with the aid of the Sikhs, one bri- 
 gade with artillery should be sufficient. If all should be 
 lost at Cabul, we will not encounter new hazards for re- 
 conquest." These sentiments show the depth of depress- 
 ion to which the mind of Lord Auckland was reduced by 
 
102 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 this calamity. The Commander-in- Chief, Sir Jasper 
 Nicholls, had always disapproved of the expedition to 
 Affghanistan, and was lukewarm in sending forward rein- 
 forcements in support of a policy he condemned. Both 
 the Governor-General and the Cominander-in- Chief were 
 thus opposed to any vigorous effort to retrieve our position 
 in that country. They were perfectly justified in repudiat- 
 ing every idea of sending a second expedition to support the 
 throne of our puppet, Shah Soojah ; but in their anxiety 
 to escape from a country in which our honour had been 
 entombed, they were not sufficiently alive to the necessity 
 of restoring our reputation in the eyes of Asia, and res- 
 cuing our officers and their wives from captivity. The mi- 
 litary and political chiefs at Jellalabad were necessarily 
 anxious to adapt their 'measures to the views which had 
 been communicated to them, and were thus induced to 
 propose the abandonment of Jellalabad, and to advocate a 
 measure which, under other circumstances, they woulu 
 have spurned with indignation. 
 
 At this memorable council of war, held on the 27th of 
 January, Sir Eobert Sale said that he had called the offi- 
 cers together to discuss the measure on which Captain 
 Macgregor and he were agreed. Captain Macgregor then 
 explained the circumstances in which they were placed, 
 without hope of any succour from their own Government, 
 and stated that, though he reserved his right to act as he 
 thought fit, he was anxious to hear the opinions of those 
 present on the question. Captain Broadfoot urged with 
 great vehemence that there was no ground for concluding 
 that the Government of India had abandoned them, though 
 its measures were very feeble. He insisted on the pro- 
 duction of the letter from Calcutta, which was accordingly 
 read ; and it was found that the expressions employed in 
 it were sufficiently strong to justify Captain Macgregor' s 
 assertion. The indignation against the Governor- General 
 and the Government, including the Commander-in- Chief, 
 but chiefly the Governor-General, went beyond all bounds. 
 To men who had been labouring for ten weeks under the 
 most appalling difficulties to hold Jellalabad for their Go- 
 
1842.] RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF WAR/ 103 
 
 vernment, and to maintain the honour of, their country, 
 it was intolerable to hear that their own rulers now coolly 
 contemplated the policy of abandoning them to their fate. 
 Captain Broadfoot urged that there was a new Governor- 
 General, Lord Ellenborough, expected from England, and 
 that the Duke, now in power, would never sanction so 
 feeble and disreputable a policy. His warmth, however 
 excusable under the excitement created by the Govern- 
 ment letter and the proposal for evacuation, served to 
 damage his cause, and to give an advantage to his op- 
 ponents who were in favour of a capitulation, and who 
 formed the great majority of the council. As the passions 
 of the members were too much excited for a calm delibera- 
 tion of the question, the council was adjourned to the next 
 day. Havelock had attended the meeting as a member 
 of the General's Staff, but he had no vote. His voice had 
 always been for holding out to the last extremity. In the 
 course of the evening Captain Broadfoot discussed the 
 subject anew with him, and at the request of his friend he 
 drew up a memorandum enumerating, in calm and forcible 
 language, all the reasons which led him to consider the 
 surrender of Jellalabad unadvisable and imprudent. For- 
 tified by this opinion, Captain Broadfoot renewed his 
 opposition to the , humiliating proposal when the council 
 met again. Captain Macgregor again produced and read 
 the reply which he proposed to send to Shah Soojah, the 
 purport of which was, that we held Jellalabad and the 
 country only for him, and were now ready to return to 
 India if he wished it. We proposed, therefore, to evacuate 
 Jellalabad and Affghanistan forthwith, and to march out 
 with our colours, arms, and ammunition, under an escort 
 commanded by one of the king's sons. We required that 
 Mahomed Akbar Khan should evacuate Lughman before 
 we retired from Jellalabad; we offered to give four hostages 
 as a token of our sincerity, and required that hostages should 
 be given to us, to be exchanged for our own at Peshawur ; 
 at the same time we were to be assisted with supplies and 
 carriage. Captain Broadfoot reprobated any treaty what- 
 ever with the treacherous Affghans, b*ut the majority of 
 
104 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 the members were opposed to his and Havelock' s views, 
 and it was voted to treat. Captain Broadfoot then com- 
 bated the terms of the reply, item by item, but succeeded 
 only in expunging the proposal to give hostages, though 
 Captain Macgregor had offered to become one of them. 
 Finally, he urged the necessity of insisting on the release 
 of all our prisoners, as an indispensable condition of our 
 retirement; but this proposal was overruled from the 
 assumption that they would assuredly be surrendered on 
 our reaching Peshawur. It was then determined that the 
 letter should be transmitted to Cabul, on which Captain 
 Broadfoot rose and ironically congratulated them on the 
 figure they would cut if a relieving force should be march- 
 ing into Jellalabad, as they were marching out of it. 
 
 These successive meetings of the council of war pro- 
 duced a depressing effect on the troops, who were imper- 
 pishearten- fectly acquainted with its proceedings. Colonel 
 thlcouncfis Dennie, on leaving the second council, very 
 imprudently announced to inquirers that it had 
 been resolved to retire from Jellalabad, and abandon the 
 country ; on which Havelock rushed after him, and en- 
 treated him to spare such discourse, remarking that it was 
 a most difficult task to keep up the spirits of the men, 
 notwithstanding the resolution manifested by the officers, 
 but if they were once possessed with the idea of our being 
 about to surrender the town to the enemy, they would 
 sink into a state of indifference, and thus enhance the 
 difficulties of our position. To counteract the despondency 
 of the men, Captain Broadfoot summoned them the next 
 morning to increased exertion, and set the whole garrison 
 to the completion of the ditch round the ramparts. 
 Arduous labours soon restored their cheerfulness. After 
 the letter had been despatched to the capital by the 
 political and military chiefs, the course which was to be 
 pursued when the reply arrived became a subject of earnest 
 debate. Havelock gave it as his opinion, that if the con- 
 ditions were accepted without hesitation, there was no 
 course left to them but to vindicate their character for 
 good faith by evacuating the town, and retiring to Pesha- 
 
1842.] NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN OFF. 105 
 
 wur, holding themselves ready to fight if any of the con- 
 ditions were infringed. But, if the answer was delayed, 
 or appeared to be evasive, or was clogged with any 
 restrictions or reservations, they should consider them- 
 selves at liberty to act according to their own discre- 
 tion. 
 
 The reply came from Cabul on the 8th of February, and 
 was to the effect that, if the officers were sincere in their 
 intentions, they must affix their seals to the Repiyfrom 
 document. Since the despatch of the letter, SSiST- 
 however, the members of the council had dis- enoff - 
 cussed their former proceedings among themselves. Some 
 of them had begun to feel a degree of compunction at the 
 pusillanimity which had been manifested, and were now 
 disposed to adopt the nobler resolution to hold out to the 
 last. To this happy result the incessant representations 
 of Havelock and Captain Broadfoot had in no small degree 
 contributed. -But it was doubtless promoted by the suc- 
 cessful issue of two recent forays, which had put the gar- 
 rison in possession of 1 70 horned cattle, and more than 
 700 head of sheep. A spirit of increasing confidence was 
 thus diffused through the force. Despatches had also 
 been received from Captain Mackeson at Peshawur, in the 
 postscript of one of which he announced the birth of the 
 Prince, of Wales. The garrison were determined that no 
 sense of difficulties should be allowed to damp their loyalty, 
 and at ten o'clock a royal salute, was fired from the 
 ramparts of Jellalabad. Before the echo of the salute from 
 hill to hill had died out, a council of war was held to de- 
 liberate on the reply from Cabul. General Sale and 
 Captain Macgregor requested the officers, in accordance 
 with the requisition of the Cabul chiefs, to affix their seals 
 to the document, but they were now found to be opposed 
 to any confirmation of the treaty, and were anxious to 
 break off the negotiations and retrieve their honour. 
 Captain Broadfoot urged that the reply, which implied a 
 doubt of their sincerity, liberated them from all obligations. 
 His views were adopted by the majority, and a letter 
 drawn up by Colonel Monteith was sent to Cabul, which 
 
106 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 left them free to act according to their own judgment, 
 without any breach of faith. 
 
 Thus a negotiation which at one time threatened to com- 
 promise both the national honour and the safety of the 
 garrison, was brought to a happy termination, chiefly, if 
 not entirely, through the firmness of Havelock and Broad- 
 foot. It was on this occasion, more especially, that the 
 correctness of Broadfoot's opinion of his friend, written 
 three months before in a letter to his family, was substan- 
 tiated : ' ' The whole of the officers in the garrison would not 
 compensate for Havelock's loss. Brave to admiration, im- 
 perturbably cool, looking at his profession as a science, and, 
 as far as I can see or judge, correct in his views." The 
 same day on which this wise and spirited decision was 
 adopted, intelligence was received from Peshawur, that 
 large reinforcements were coming up to the succour of the 
 garrison, through the Punjab. There was no more talk 
 of a surrender. 
 
 The Government of India, on receiving intelligence of 
 the entire annihilation of the Cabul force, was roused by 
 the magnitude of the calamity to some appearance of 
 energy. India looked with anxiety for the decision of its 
 Despatch of rulers at such a crisis. A proclamation was 
 
 Pollock a bn- -, . , , . i 'i ,*,/ /-i 
 
 gade. AP- accorcLinaflv issued, in which the (aovernor-(jren- 
 
 pearance of , % n , . n . ,~ , ', 
 
 Akbar^Khan. eral assured the subjects of the Crown, that he 
 tions. ra considered the calamity which had overtaken the 
 British arms only " as a new occasion for displaying the 
 stability and vigour of the British power, and the admir- 
 able spirit and valour of the British Indian army." But 
 after this spasmodic ebullition of vigour, the Government 
 relapsed into that faint-heartedness, which had from the 
 commencement of these difficulties reigned at the Council 
 Board in Calcutta. Lord Auckland soon after abandoned 
 every idea of retrieving our honour, or even rescuing the 
 captives, except, perhaps, by the humiliating device of a 
 ransom ; and wrote to the Commander-in-Chief, that his 
 sole object in sending on a second brigade under General 
 Pollock, was to withdraw the garrison at Jellalabad from 
 its perilous position, and to retire from the country. The 
 
1842.] APPROACH OF AKBAR KHAK 107 
 
 appointment of General Pollock, an officer of experience 
 and ability, to the command of this important expedition, 
 not only gave satisfaction, but inspired confidence. On 
 the 13th of February, intelligence was received in Jellalabad 
 of his arrival at Peshawur, invested with full military and 
 political powers in Affghanistan. 
 
 The spirited proclamation of Government, and the news 
 of General Pollock's advance, came most opportunely to 
 sustain the spirits of the noble garrison, for Approach of 
 their great foe, Akbar Khan, now made his ap- A k ar Khan - 
 pearance in the valley. Had he come down upon Jella- 
 labad fresh from his triumph at Cabul, with the guns he 
 had wrested from our army, and roused the fanatic moun- 
 taineers to a vigorous attack on the town, its peril would 
 have been indeed great. But his advance was provi- 
 dentially impeded for more than a month by differences 
 with the chiefs at Cabul, and during this period the de- 
 fences had been thoroughly repaired, the ditch all but 
 completed, provisions had been laid in, and reinforcements 
 under an able commander had reached Peshawur. When, 
 therefore, on the morning of the 15th of February, his 
 camp was descried on the hither bank of the river, its ap- 
 pearance excited more curiosity than apprehension. "At 
 length/' writes Havelock, " our redoubted enemy ap- 
 proaches." 
 
 " A single poled English tent is observed among others, which 
 is ascertained to be the canvas abode of Mahomed Akbar Khan. 
 Our telescopes distinctly notice three or four other tents of white 
 canvas ; the rest are of black felt " 
 
 "I ought before to have noticed that from the time of this 
 force entering Jellalabad, our British soldiers have had no spirit 
 rations, a great part of the not very ample supply of our Great tfem _ 
 commissariat having been lost in the descent of the perance of 
 Huft.Kotul. . . . Without fear of contradiction, it may 
 "be asserted, that not only has the amount of laborious work they 
 have completed without this factitious aid been surprising ; but the 
 State and the garrison have gained full one-third in manual exer- 
 tion by their entire sobriety. Every hand has been constantly 
 employed with the shovel and pickaxe. If there had been a 
 
108 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 spirit ration, one-third of the labour would have been diminished 
 in consequence of soldiers becoming the inmates of the hospital 
 and guard-houses, or coming to their work with fevered brain 
 and trembling hand, or sulky and disaffected, after the protracted 
 debauch. Now all is health, cheerfulness, industry, and resolu- 
 tion." 
 
 On the 19th of February, a letter was received from 
 General Pollock, in which he conveyed to Sir Kobert Sale 
 and Captain Macgregor the satisfaction with which the 
 The earth- Government had heard of the judicious and 
 i9 U th k ofreb- e spirited reply sent by them to the instructions 
 ruary. from Cabul to evacuate Jellalabad ; he also stated 
 
 that he would not hesitate to move on at once, at all risks, 
 if it were necessary, to save the garrison from annihilation, 
 but he considered it more advisable to concentrate his 
 whole force at Peshawur, provided the garrison could hold 
 out long enough to enable him to do so. Sir Eobert Sale 
 determined to send him a statement of his resources, and 
 his means of resisting an attack, and to point out, that in 
 a month the whole of the horses of his cavalry and artillery 
 must perish, after which a retreat, even upon the" ad- 
 vancing force of General Pollock, would be impossible. Sir 
 Kobert was seated by the side of Havelock who was em- 
 ployed in writing the letter and of Captain Wade, when 
 the house was violently shaken. The motion was pro- 
 longed and increased in vehemence. The books on the 
 writing-table began to dance before their eyes, and they 
 were obliged to sally forth to avoid being crushed under 
 the ruins of the house. The shocks continued without 
 intermission with frightful violence. A dense cloud of 
 dust obscured the sky. A confused rumbling sound was 
 heard around them, wildly mingled with the crash of fall- 
 ing houses, and the outcries of the garrison followers, and 
 the people of the town. The violence of the agitation 
 under their feet increased, and the very foundations of the 
 earth seemed to be shaken. Then there was a lull, and 
 the hope arose in every mind that the violence of the 
 phenomenon was expended. But in the twinkling of an 
 eye, the elemental uproar was renewed with indescribable 
 
1842.] EARTHQUAKE OF THE 19TH FEBRUARY. 109 
 
 fury, and every hope of their surviving to tell the tale 
 seemed to vanish. The earth was now agitated with a 
 kind of ground swell, so forcible, that it was impossible 
 for them to keep their footing. The wrench of nature 
 seemed so violent, that they looked for the earth to open 
 under their feet. All faces at this crisis " gathered black- 
 ness," and thoughts of the impending dissolution of nature 
 crowded into their minds. A sense of giddiness, blind- 
 ness, and bewilderment had seized on all, when, after 
 some long and fearful heaves, the agitation subsided. 
 They faltered thanks to Heaven for life, and as they rushed 
 out of the court-yard, thought what had become of the 
 labour of their hands, and where were their defences. The 
 effect produced on the fortifications was thus described in 
 the official despatch written by Havelock : 
 
 "The earthquake shook down all our parapets which had been 
 built with so much labour, injured several of our bastions, cast 
 to the ground all our guard-houses, demolished a third of the 
 town, made a considerable break in the rampart of a curtain in 
 the Peshawur face, and reduced the Cabul gate to a shapeless 
 mass of ruins." " We knew," he also wrote privately, " that the 
 enemy had seven miles to march from Umur Khail, and guessed 
 that he was not in less consternation than ourselves. His camp 
 could scarcely have escaped the shock ; but it was necessary to 
 guard against a sudden rush being made upon our walls by 
 parties of his people, who might have been concealed behind the 
 hills. As soon as the agitation subsided, the troops were as- 
 sembled at their alarm posts by sound of bugle ; but after a short 
 pause, to ascertain that no foes were near, piled their arms, re- 
 sumed their entrenching tools, and set themselves with determina- 
 tion to the task of restoring the defences. Temporary parapets 
 were thrown up of loose clods, the earth cleared out of the ditch, 
 gabions filled to block up the main breaches, and palisades fixed 
 to impede the progress of assailants through others. In a few 
 hours the walls wore a more encouraging aspect . . . The energy 
 with which our troops of all arms laboured in restoring the de- 
 fences exceeds all calculation, and beggars all commendation. 
 They worked like men struggling for their existence, but with as 
 much cheerfulness and good-humour as industry and perseverance. 
 They had no rum to paralyze their nerves, sour their tempers, or 
 
110 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCE. [CHAP, in; 
 
 predispose them to idleness and sullen discontent. A long course 
 of sobriety and labour has made men of mere boys of recruits, 
 and brought the almost raw levy, which formed two-thirds of 
 the array of the 13th, to the firm standard of the Roman disci- 
 pline. They are now instructed to entrench themselves nightly, 
 as well as to fight a battle every day." 
 
 Captain Broadfoot was standing on the ramparts when 
 the earthquake occurred, and on seeing the defences fall 
 Restoration^ one after another, said to a friend near him, 
 Effects of the " Now is the time for Akbar Khan." He hast- 
 in the vaiiey. ened down when the shocks had ceased, and 
 made immediate arrangements for repairing the injury. 
 Through his scientific genius and indomitable energy " the 
 parapets were entirely restored by the end of the month, 
 the Cabul gate again rendered serviceable, the bastions 
 either restored or the curtain filled in where restoration 
 was impracticable, and every battery re-established." So 
 rapidly were the works restored that the enemy, seeing in 
 a few days no trace of the effects of the earthquake, de- 
 clared that Jellalabad was the only place in the valley 
 which had escaped, and through the effect of English 
 witchcraft. The injury inflicted on Jellalabad was indeed 
 slight compared with that which was felt in the neighbour- 
 hood of Akbar Khan's camp, where houses and forts had < 
 been prostrated. More especially, in the valleys yet red 
 with the blood of our slaughtered officers, men, and fol- 
 lowers, there had been a general destruction of towers, 
 walls, and tenements, under the ruins of which no small 
 number of the cruel and treacherous inhabitants had 
 perished with their whole families. Akbar Khan, far from 
 being able to take advantage of the dismantled state of 
 Jellalabad, was scarcely able to keep his troops together, 
 and restrain them from quitting his standard to condole 
 with their suffering families, or to repair the injuries of 
 the catastrophe. 
 
 On the 7th of March a letter was received from the 
 durbar at Cabul, categorically demanding the evacuation 
 The garrison of Jellalabad. No council of war was held ; the 
 to a evacuate. ed reply which was sent simply referred the Cabul 
 
1842.] ATTACK BY AKBAR KHAN, REPULSED. Ill 
 
 cabinet to General 'Pollock, now the chief poli- 
 tical authority in Affghanistan. The messenger, atv. 
 a nobleman of Herat, who had accompanied Major Pot- 
 tinger to Cabul, and had frequently visited Havelock at 
 the capital, having now renewed his intercourse, informed 
 him that if the order was not complied with a large army 
 would be immediately sent from Cabul, with a powerful 
 artillery, to expel them from the town. Thus, in addition 
 to the assaults of Akbar Khan, they had now the pros- 
 pect of being attacked by another and more formidable 
 foe, the levy en masse of the capital, accompanied by the 
 guns taken from our force. Havelock, in noticing these 
 fresh difficulties, remarks, " Que de choses paraissent im- 
 possibles, et que cependant ont ete faites, par des hoinmes 
 resolus, qui n'avaient plus d'autre ressource que la mort ! " 
 At the same time a letter was received from Colonel 
 Palmer at Ghuznee, informing Sir Eobert Sale that after a 
 siege of four months he had been constrained, for want 
 of water, to capitulate ; and the officers of the 2 7th Native 
 Infantry, among whom was a nephew of Havelock, were 
 now in the hands of the enemy. 
 
 The subject of greatest anxiety in the garrison at this 
 time was the subsistence of the cavalry and artillery horses. 
 Foraging parties were sent out daily under an Jj a a gin s P ar - 
 escort, and constantly attacked by the enemy. ^fn b Bhl is 
 On the 10th of March the Affghans planted their repuM. 
 advanced parties so near the walls, that it was suspected 
 they intended to mine the fortress ; it was resolved, there- 
 fore, to make a vigorous sally. Colonel Dennie took the 
 command of a body of about 800 men, and issuing from 
 the gate, drove off the enemy, and ascertained beyond 
 doubt that there had been no attempt to undermine them. 
 Akbar Khan then drew out his whole army and advanced 
 to the attack. The guns from the ramparts poured a de- 
 structive fire on him, and our horse and foot attacked him 
 with such impetuosity that he was obliged to fly, leaving 
 more than a hundred dead on the field. The whole force 
 had now been employed without cessation for three weeks 
 in restoring the defences, and as it did not seem probable 
 
112 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. nr. 
 
 that the enemy would venture another attack after their 
 recent defeat, it was determined to permit the wearied 
 troops to enjoy the luxury of rest from their labours on the 
 Sabbath of the 13th of March, an announcement most 
 acceptable to the soldiers of the 13th, many of whom joined 
 Havelock in devotional exercises. 
 
 On the 17th of March, information was received from 
 General Pollock, of the 8th of the month, that he did not 
 General Poi- expect the arrival of the regiment of dragoons 
 Pro k achSe- which had been sent to reinforce him before 
 fayed. h e 20th, when he would certainly advance, 
 
 and hoped to achieve a signal victory under the walls 
 of Jellalabad. He wished to know whether Sir Eobert 
 could hold out to the last day of March. In a post- 
 script to his letter, he added that the only object of his ad- 
 vance was to rescue the garrison from its peril, and that 
 it was then to return with him across the frontier. This 
 was the last order issued by Lord Auckland before he 
 resigned the government. In the paroxysm of vigour 
 created by the unparalleled disgrace and disaster we had 
 suffered at Cabul, he announced to India that "active mea- 
 sures would be steadily pursued to assist such operations 
 as might be required for the maintenance of the honour and 
 interests of the British Government." That resolution 
 soon faded, and General Pollock was now instructed to 
 withdraw his own brigades and that of Jellalabad to India ; 
 leaving our officers and their wives, the widows and 
 the children, in the hands of the enemy; our prestige, 
 which had always been a tower of strength, annihilated ; 
 and our national honour trampled in the dust. " It is to 
 be feared," wrote Havelock, on hearing of this determina- 
 tion, "that Government is infected with the dangerous 
 timidity which teaches them to despair of regaining their 
 power in this country, and that they will adopt pusillanim- 
 ous measures, which will endanger their empire in India." 
 Sir Robert Sale's reply, dated the 17th of March, was sent 
 in French. 
 
 "Mon General, J'ai recu aujourd'hui votre lettre du 
 6 me , avec un post-scriptum du 8 me . Assurez-vous que je 
 
1842.] EXHAUSTED STATE OF THE GARRISON. 113 
 
 garderai secret le propos du Gouvernement. Je puis bien, 
 si le veut le bon Dieu, maintenir ma poste ici jusqu'au 
 dernier de Mars ; et quand vous arriverez avec les dra- 
 gons,, je serai pret a faire tout ce que vous ordonnerez ; 
 mais il faut encore vous prevenir que mes troupes man- 
 quent entierement des tentes et des animaux pour trans- 
 porter cet equipage et leur bagage." 
 
 The state of the garrison of Jellalabad was now daily 
 becoming more critical. The European troops had been 
 for many days on reduced rations of salt meat, Exhausted 
 
 without vegetables, and it was doubted whether ^Lon 
 even this allowance could be continued beyond J ellalabad - 
 the second week of April. The officers were also on short 
 commons. They had excellent bread, and plenty of good 
 water ; wine and beer were unknown ; roasted corn had 
 long been substituted for tea and coffee ; their sugar had 
 failed them, but there was no lack of tobacco. The native 
 troops were ill off with their diminished rations of ottah. 
 Akbar Khan did not venture to attack the garrison after 
 the severe lesson he had received on the 10th; but he 
 established so strict a blockade that it was no longer pos- 
 sible to obtain either provisions or forage. Sir Robert 
 Sale had directed all the camels to be destroyed, with the 
 view of preserving the bhoosa for the cavalry and artillery 
 horses. To crown their difficulties, a letter arrived from 
 General Pollock, with intelligence that the 3rd Dragoons 
 had been detained by rain, and that he could scarcely ex- 
 pect them before the 28th or 29th of March. He was 
 desirous of moving immediately on the arrival of that 
 corps ; but, as it would be necessary to maintain posts in 
 his rear as he advanced, it was desirable to await the 
 arrival of the 31st Foot, which was not expected to reach 
 Peshawur before the middle of April, and he was desirous 
 of knowing whether Sir Robert Sale could hold out till 
 the 26th of that month. The General in his reply pointed 
 out the privations and risks to which the garrison must in 
 that case be subject, but added, ' ' more than all this, we 
 dread failure on your part in forcing the passes." Have- 
 lock on receiving this intelligence recorded in his note- 
 
 8 
 
114 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 book : " It is hardly to be doubted that General Pollock 
 will await the arrival of the 31st before he advances. 
 Meanwhile we must be patient, and put our trust in God." 
 But when the prospect of relief was thus postponed, he 
 evidently considered their position all but desperate, and 
 the letter he wrote had all the appearance of a farewell letter 
 to his friends in India. It was addressed to General Smith. 
 
 " Jellalabad, 30th March, 1842, 
 
 " My dear General, Kindly forward this to Marshman, after 
 perusing it. We still hold our own, by God's blessing, but shall 
 have grain provisions on a reduced rate for men, and corn for 
 troops only to the 1 3th proximo. Existence may be supported 
 by one contrivance and another ten days longer, but the most 
 sanguine cannot hope to protract that term. You will see then 
 how much depends on General Pollock's success in forcing or 
 turning the Khyber ; the latter might, I think, be done by the 
 Kupper route ; but then, like Napoleon by the Great St Bernard, 
 the movement might be too late, and Jellalabad, like Genoa, be 
 lost. All is in the hands of God. I wish Marshman clearly to 
 understand, that if I fall in this struggle, which humanly speak- 
 ing is so probable, my wife and children will, as regards worldly 
 prospects, have to depend entirely on the money lodged for the 
 purchase of my majority, and the small pension of my rank. I 
 trust he will be able to make arrangements to prevent their ex- 
 periencing want, until the question of the issue of this siege and 
 of Havelock shall have been decided. He can write to England, 
 that I am at present in the highest health and spirits, and rely- 
 ing fully on the merits of the Eedeemer, and will be well 
 pleased, if it be His will, to end my days in so honourable an 
 enterprise as the defence of Jellalabad. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear General, 
 
 " Most faithfully, your old subaltern, 
 
 " HENRY HAVELOCK." 
 
 " The month of April," writes Havelock, " commenced 
 auspiciously ; for a long time large flocks of sheep have 
 capture of been seen grazing within cannon-shot of the 
 600 sheep. place, and hopes were sometimes entertained of 
 capturing them. It was, however, commonly observed, 
 that considerable bodies of horsemen were posted in some 
 secure place. The near approach of these cattle was, 
 
1842.] HAVELOCK URGES AN ATTACK ON AKBAR KHAN. 115 
 
 therefore, viewed as a means of decoying our troops into 
 an ambuscade. But on the 1st of April, the opportunity 
 seemed irresistible. The ' fleecy people ' were again seen 
 in large numbers on the Cabul side ; the ruined forts were 
 but thinly manned, and the enemy's parties of horse ap- 
 peared to be small." The gates were thrown open, and 
 as the bugle sounded, every trooper in their little body, 
 and 200 of the 13th, and the same number of the 35th, 
 with the Sappers, marched forth in the highest glee, and 
 after a very brief and feeble resistance on the part of the 
 enemy, drove in a flock of more than 500 sheep and goats, 
 a circumstance which elevated, in no common degree, the 
 spirits of the soldiers, who had been some days on half- 
 rations of salt meat. Two days after, a letter from General 
 Pollock announced that he had determined to advance to 
 the relief of the garrison, without waiting for the arrival 
 of the 31st; but from the report he gave of the temper of 
 his native troops, whose imaginations invested the Khyber 
 defiles with every image of terror, it was feared that the 
 attempt would be attended with no inconsiderable risk. 
 
 Havelock had for several days urged Sir Robert to 
 make a bold attack on Akbar Khan's camp, which had 
 been pitched within two miles of the town of Haveiock 
 Jellalabad, and thus raise the siege by their own RoSertto 
 exertions. But Sir Robert, though the bravest Khan. 
 of the brave, sometimes shrunk from the responsibility of 
 taking the initiative in a daring enterprise. This deficiency 
 was generally supplied by the well-tempered boldness and 
 consummate judgment of Havelock, but on this occasion 
 the General turned a deaf ear on his advice. On the 
 evening of the 5th of April, a Cashmerian, who had been 
 often employed as a spy by Captain Macgregor, and had 
 been made prisoner by Akbar Khan, escaped from his 
 camp, and came to Havelock with the intelligence that it 
 was generally reported and believed in the enemy's camp, 
 that General Pollock had met with a reverse. Trusting, 
 it was said, to the treacherous assurances of the Afredees, 
 he had advanced into the pass, and, after having been 
 engaged with the mountaineers the whole day, had been 
 
116 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. nr. 
 
 obliged to retreat. Towards midnight, another spy from 
 the enemy's camp asserted that General Pollock had lost 
 guns, and that the heads of some of his soldiers had been 
 brought to Akbar Khan. Havelock took the reports to 
 Sir Robert Sale in the dead of night, and again impor- 
 tuned him to move out with his entire force, and boldly 
 attack the enemy, but met with no success. On the 
 morning of the 6th, a salute was fired from Akbar Khan's 
 camp, in honour of the victory which was said to have 
 been gained over the English general. This circumstance 
 was well calculated to depress the minds of the garrison. 
 <e Coupled," writes Havelock, ' ' with the news of the pre- 
 ceding night, the event did at first create some feelings of 
 gloom. It seemed as if the tide of events had set in uni- 
 formly against us, and that our hopes of succour, which 
 had been some days sanguine, had once more vanished, 
 and that we were consigned to a new succession of priva- 
 tions and labours, terminating in inevitable and utterly 
 ruinous disaster. Destruction to the many and captivity 
 to the few, were the mildest terms we could hope from our 
 sanguinary foe. But with these painful feelings, there 
 sprang up in every breast a growth of brighter and more 
 worthy sentiments, and all burnt with the desire to be led 
 against the enemy, and try their mettle in the open field. 
 Sir Robert Sale in a few hours came to the decision, that 
 their ardour should not be damped, and as evening ap- 
 proached, issued his written orders for a general attack on 
 the enemy's camp the next morning." It has been sup- 
 posed that this attack was determined on in a council of 
 war ; but councils of war never vote for fighting. The 
 fact was that the senior officers were resolved to fight ; 
 and Abbot had even taken down his guns for the conflict 
 without orders. On the evening of the 6th they waited 
 on Sir Robert Sale, and, in strong language, urged an 
 attack on Akbar Khan. The two principal advisers of 
 Sir Robert, Captain Wade and Havelock, voluntarily ab- 
 sented themselves on this occasion. ' ' I love the old 
 soldier," wrote Havelock in a letter to Serampore, " and 
 rejoice that, though he did not listen to my single voice, 
 
1812.] PLAN OF ENGAGEMENT WITH AKBAR KHAN. 117 
 
 he was swayed by the united opinion of some older and 
 some younger men, since it redounded to his own reputa- 
 tion and to the good of his country." The plan of the 
 action was immediately drawn up by Havelock, and is 
 thus recorded in his note-book : 
 
 " Three columns of infantry were to be formed. The centre, 
 under Colonel Denrtie, was to consist of the 13th, 500 strong; 
 the left, of the 35th, under Colonel Monteith, mustering the 
 same number of bayonets ; and the right, under Captain Have- 
 lock, composed of one company of the 13th, another of the 35th, 
 and the detachment of Sappers under Lieutenant Orr, the whole 
 amounting to 360. Captain Broadfoot was lying on his couch, 
 unable to move, from the effects of a dangerous wound he had 
 received in a sortie on the 24th of March. These were to be 
 supported by the fire of six guns of the light field battery, to 
 which Captain Backhouse was temporarily attached, and with 
 which Captain Macgregor volunteered his services, as well as by 
 the whole of our small body of cavalry. The right column, 
 under Havelock, was to lead the attack ; and penetrating between 
 the restored works within 800 yards of the place, preserve the 
 appui of the river, strive to drive before it the enemy's skir- 
 mishers, and thus prepare the way for the uninterrupted advance 
 of the two other columns up to the centre of the enemy's posi- 
 tion. This they were to assault and endeavour to penetrate, 
 while the advanced column made . a simultaneous attack on the 
 extreme left of the Affghans. All three assailing columns were 
 then to work in combination towards our own left, since it was 
 supposed that on the enemy's extreme left his chief forces lay." 
 
 In the intermediate space between Jellalabad and the 
 enemy's encampment there stood several small forts,, which 
 had previously occasioned considerable annoyance., and it 
 was distinctly agreed that the order of operations should 
 not be disturbed by an attempt to attack any of them. 
 
 At early dawn, without bugle or drum, the troops fell 
 into their ranks and marched out of Jellalabad. Akbar 
 Khan, though he had sent several emissaries Engagement 
 during the previous night to spread a report April! 
 through the town that he was preparing to fly, was found 
 to be perfectly ready to receive them. His troops, about 
 
118 MEMOIES OF SIR HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 6000 in number, were drawn up before his camp, his 
 left resting on the Cabul river. Havelock moved on 
 rapidly in advance with his column, and, driving the skir- 
 mishers before him, pushed on towards the enemy's camp, 
 the other columns following him. At the distance of about 
 three-quarters of a mile from Jellalabad, however, a flank- 
 ing fire was opened from one of the forts on the centre 
 column, which Sir Kobert Sale accompanied. He directed 
 Colonel Dennie to storm it; rushing in with his men of 
 the 13th, he passed the outer wall through an opening, 
 but found himself exposed to a murderous fire from the 
 inner keep, where he was mortally wounded by an AfFghan 
 marksman, and in him fell one of the most gallant soldiers 
 in the British army. This false move deranged the order 
 of battle, and well nigh cost us the day. Sir Eobert Sale 
 sent orders to Havelock, whose column, owing to this di- 
 vergence, was greatly in advance of the others, to halt. 
 He replied, " that he would halt where he was, but that 
 he heard Akbar's drum beating, and should soon have his 
 whole force upon him." Akbar Khan, seeing Havelock 
 unsupported, brought down his formidable cavalry, said 
 to be 1500 in number, upon that feeble column of 360 
 men. Havelock posted the company of the 13th in a 
 walled enclosure on his right, to pour a flanking fire on 
 the enemy, and formed the rest into square. That he 
 might be able to command both parties, he himself re- 
 mained outside the square till the horsemen were close 
 upon them. His men commenced firing without orders, 
 and his horse, fresh from long confinement, and thus 
 placed between two fires, threw him, and galloped back ; 
 thereby creating an impression that he had been slain. 
 He must have fallen under the swords of the Aflghans, 
 had not a sapper and two men of the 13th rushed forward 
 and rescued him. The enemy's horse, who had charged 
 with much resolution, approached within thirty yards; 
 their leader was shot as his spear-head touched the 
 bayonets of the square, but exposed as they were to a 
 heavy fire in front and flank, they were shaken, pulled up, 
 and retired in confusion. Looking back, and seeing that 
 
1842.] SIGNAL DEFEAT OF AKBAR KHAN. 119 
 
 the centre column had now abandoned its unsuccessful 
 attempt on the fort, Havelock reformed his column and 
 resumed his advance for a few hundred yards. Again the 
 hostile horse came swooping down upon him. He cau- 
 tioned his men to reserve their fire till they were within 
 thirty yards of the enemy, and throwing the whole column 
 into one square, awaited the attack, which was more feebly 
 made and more easily repulsed than before. Sir Robert 
 Sale then sent Backhouse's guns to his assistance, and the 
 little column, loudly cheering them as they came on, ad- 
 vanced against the enemy's encampment, and penetrated 
 it, capturing two guns and driving the Affghans headlong 
 into the river. The other columns now came up ; Akbar 
 Khan's camp was attacked on three points : " in a short 
 time," says the despatch, {f the enemy were dislodged from 
 every part of their position, their cannon taken, and their 
 camp involved in a general conflagration. The battle was 
 over, and the enemy in full retreat in the direction of 
 Lughman by 7 A. M. We have made ourselves masters 
 of two cavalry standards ; recaptured four guns lost by 
 the Cabul and Gundamuck forces, the restoration of which 
 to our Government is matter of much honest exultation 
 among our troops ; seized and destroyed a great quantity 
 of materiel and ordnance stores, and burnt the whole of 
 the enemy's tents. In short, the defeat of Akbar Khan in 
 open field, by the troops whom he had boasted of blockad- 
 ing, has been complete and signal." The field was strewed 
 with the bodies of the Affghans, while the loss on our side 
 amounted to only ten killed and fifty wounded. The 
 victors conveyed in triumph to the town as much of 
 the baggage, horses, arms, and cattle, as they had occa- 
 sion for. Not the least valuable acquisition of the day 
 was the magazine, plentifully stored with powder, shot, 
 and shells. Anxiety was now exchanged for security, and 
 want for abundance. The chiefs throughout the valley 
 hastened to make their submission to those who were now 
 lords of the ascendant, and the villagers poured supplies 
 into the market which was established outside the walls. 
 Thus had the garrison of Jellalabad, after having been 
 
120 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 isolated in a hostile country for five months, surrounded 
 Remarks on with infuriated enemies, and menaced with de- 
 the event struction, achieved its own relief, unaided, ex- 
 cept by its own good sword. In the- previous history of 
 British India, there had been no example of such a siege, 
 or such a deliverance. In the contemplation of this 
 triumph, it is impossible to avoid contrasting the events 
 at Jellalabad with those at Cabul. In the one case 5000 
 British troops, with every advantage on their side, were 
 beleaguered by an armed rabble in their own cantonment 
 on the third day of the insurrection ; entered into a dis- 
 graceful capitulation at the end of six weeks, and were 
 eventually annihilated. In the other, 2000 troops of the 
 same mettle, after sixteen days of a severe conflict in the 
 most tremendous mountain defiles, took up a position in 
 a dilapidated fortress, and, after having repelled every 
 assault for five months, accomplished, their own deliver- 
 ance. The cause of disaster at Cabul, and of success at 
 Jellalabad, is to be attributed exclusively to the character 
 of the commanders. At Cabul there was a chief conspi- 
 cuous for his personal intrepidity, but enfeebled in mind 
 and body by disease, to a degree which incapacitated him 
 to act with the vigour which the crisis demanded. With 
 him was associated Colonel Shelton, an officer of rare 
 courage and many military virtues, but disqualified, by 
 infirmity of temper, from acting in concert with others. 
 There was, therefore, discord where unanimity was essen- 
 tial to safety. So completely was the force demoralized 
 by the incapacity and dissensions of the leaders, that even 
 the presence of the heroic defender of Herat could not 
 arrest its fate. On the other hand, the garrison of Jella- 
 labad was under a leader who, though sometimes morbidly 
 diffident when under the pressure of responsibilities, had 
 the good sense to avail himself of the counsels of the noble 
 spirits around him. It is no disparagement of the merits 
 of Macgregor and Monteith, of Abbott and Backhouse, 
 to say, that the successful defence of Jellalabad was due to 
 the surpassing genius of Broadfoot, and to the judicious 
 and bold counsels of Havelock. 
 
1842.] ARPJVAL OF GENEEAL POLLOCK. 121 
 
 While the garrison of Jellalabad was thus engaged in 
 vanquishing its redoubted foe. General Pollock was ad- 
 vancing through the passes to its succour. By Advance O f 
 one of the most masterly military manoeuvres e t r o a jS 
 ever witnessed in India, he forced his way labad - 
 through the gorge of the Khyber pass on the 5th" of April. 
 At early dawn two columns ascended the heights on either 
 side, and chased the astonished Afredees from hill to hill. 
 Their position, which they considered impregnable, was 
 thus turned ; the barricades they had established at the 
 entrance of the defile, attacked in rear and in front, were 
 thrown down ; and the army passed through with trifling 
 loss. Our troops had foiled them in their own mountain 
 warfare, and chased them from their own fastnesses, and 
 they offered little resistance to the subsequent progress of 
 the force. By the 10th, General Pollock, having reached 
 the midway station between Peshawur and Jellalabad, 
 heard how Sir Robert Sale had defeated Akbar Khan, and 
 become master of his position. He therefore moved for- 
 ward more leisurely, with his long convoy of munitions of 
 war and provisions. On the 16th of April, nine days after 
 the " crowning mercy," as Havelock termed the victory of 
 the 7th, the relieving force approached Jellalabad. Num- 
 bers of its garrison came out to welcome their comrades, 
 the band of the 13th playing the old Jacobite air, by nt> 
 means inappropriate to the occasion, " Oh ! but ye've 
 been long o' coming." It was a season of thrilling de- 
 light to both forces, but of peculiar exultation to the gar- 
 rison which had been so long beleaguered, and were now 
 enabled to receive their friends with all the animation of 
 victors. General Pollock had brought with him a large 
 supply of provisions for the famishing garrison, but found 
 that, with the exception of wine and spirits, they had 
 supplied their own wants by their own exertions. Their 
 bronzed countenances bore the stamp of robust health. 
 Constant exertion, combined with the absence of liquor, 
 and not less the consciousness of noble achievements, gave 
 them an air of life and confidence very different from the 
 depression which was expected to be seen in a body which 
 
122 MEMOIKS OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 had so long struggled for existence. Sir Eobert Sale had 
 generously written to General Pollock to appoint Have- 
 lock Persian interpreter on his staff, as a reward for his 
 services, and the General had cheerfully promised him the 
 office; but the Commander-in- Chief had selected him for 
 the more important post of Deputy- Adjutant- General of 
 the infantry division. By the death of Colonel Dennie, 
 and the retirement of the officer next in rank, Havelock's 
 position in his own corps, the 13th, now entitled him to 
 the command of it; but, actuated by the principle on 
 which he always acted, of endeavouring to extend as 
 much as possible the sphere of his public usefulness, he 
 made his choice of the more responsible office which had 
 been conferred on him by Sir Jasper Nicholls. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough, who had been appointed Governor- 
 General in succession to Lord Auckland, proceeded to 
 Lord Eiien- India by the Cape, and did not reach Calcutta 
 Go r ver g n h or- "before the 28th of February. His first state 
 His n proci7ma- paper in reference to the deferable events in 
 tions. Affghanistan was dated on the 15th of March : 
 
 he therein announced his determination to re-establish 
 our military reputation by the infliction of some signal 
 blow on the Affghans, which might make it apparent to 
 them, to our own subjects, and to our allies, that we had 
 the power of inflicting punishment on those who com- 
 mitted atrocities and violated faith. On hearing of the 
 victory gained by the Jellalabad garrison on the 7th of 
 April, he issued a notification, in which their services were 
 thus nobly commemorated : 
 
 " That illustrious garrison which, by its constancy in enduring 
 privation, and by its valour in action, has already obtained for 
 itself the sympathy and respect of every true soldier, has now, 
 sallying forth from its walls, under the command of its gallant 
 leader, Major-General Sir Robert Sale, thoroughly beaten in open 
 field an enemy of more than three times its numbers, taken the 
 standards of their boasted cavalry, destroyed their camp, and re- 
 captured four guns which, under circumstances which can never 
 occur again, had during the last winter fallen into their hands. 
 
 "The Governor-General cordially congratulates the army on 
 
1842.] INDECISION OF GOVERNMENT. 123 
 
 the return of victory to its ranks. He is convinced that there, 
 as in all former times, it will be found, while, as at Jellalabad, 
 the European and native troops, mutually supporting each other, 
 and evincing equal discipline and valour, are led into action by 
 officers in whom they justly confide. 
 
 " The Governor-General directs that the substance of this noti- 
 fication, and of Major-General Sir Robert Sale's report, be care- 
 fully made known to all troops, and that a salute of twenty-one 
 guns be fired at every principal station of the army." 
 
 But, on the same day on which this proclamation was 
 issued, a communication was addressed to the Commander- 
 in-Chief, desiring him to order General Pollock and 
 General Nott, commanding at Candahar, to withdraw 
 from Aflghanistan as speedily as possible. To narrate how 
 the Governor-General vacillated in his Affghan policy for 
 sixteen weeks, from the 15th of March to the 4th of July, 
 belongs to the province of the historian, and not of this 
 biographer. It is sufficient here to state that, after the 
 two Generals had been kept in a state of the most embar- 
 rassing anxiety regarding the future movements of their 
 troops, the 4th of July terminated all their doubts. On 
 that day an official letter was sent to General Nott, stating 
 that the determination of Government regarding his re- 
 tirement from Affghanistan remained without alteration, 
 but, in a private communication, he was authorized to use 
 his own discretion as to the route he should pursue, and 
 informed that he was at liberty either to retire backwards 
 by the way the army had entered Afighanistan, or forward, 
 by the route of Cabul and Jellalabad. This was the device 
 adopted for authorizing him to recapture Cabul, and to 
 restore the prestige of our arms, leaving the responsibility 
 of the movement on his shoulders. A copy of this letter 
 was sent to General Pollock, and permission was given 
 him " to advance to the capital and co-operate with Gen- 
 eral Nott, if he should determine to retire by that route." 
 The inconvenience of this policy is manifest, as General 
 Pollock was unable to make any movement in advance, 
 until he could learn the intentions of General Nott, whose 
 first letter announcing his determination to move on 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 Cabul, dated on. the 27th of July, did not reach. General 
 Pollock's camp before the middle of August. 
 
 On the 28th of April, Havelock conveyed to General 
 Smith the intelligence of the death of General Elphinstone : 
 
 " I fear," my dear General, " you will think I am growing a 
 bad correspondent, but you are aware that Adjutant-generaling 
 Death of for nine regiments is not quite a sinecure. We are 
 Elphinstone. resting on our oars, to be sure, but, in India, when 
 they spare the cartridge paper, they begin to pull away upon the 
 
 foolscap On the evening of the 25th, Captain Mackenzie, 
 
 a very noble fellow of the Madras army, rode into this camp on 
 two days' parole from the Affghans, and gave us the melancholy 
 intelligence that General Elphinstone had expired on the 23rd, 
 in a fort in the Ghilzye hills, to the southward of Tezeen. To 
 that secluded spot, Mahomed Akbar Khan had removed his 
 prisoners by short marches after his defeat on the 7th instant. 
 The poor General felt himself unequal to the effort in his weak 
 state, but could obtain no respite from his jailors. Heavy rain 
 fell in the valley. Mahomed Akbar, though wounded, displayed 
 so much of gallantry and humanity, as to descend from his chou- 
 pan, and give place in it to Ladies Macnaghten and Sale. But 
 General Elphinstone rode on horseback, supported by an AfFghan 
 on either side. His ailments had fearfully increased when he 
 reached the destination of the party, and it soon became apparent 
 that he could not survive. His mind was wrought into a frame 
 at least of resignation and submission to the Divine will by 
 prayer and reading the Scriptures. He had committed an error 
 fatal to his worldly reputation in so long delaying to leave Cabul, 
 after his dreadful fit of sickness had reduced him to a state of 
 bodily infirmity which could not fail to superinduce more or less 
 of imbecility of purpose. But Mackenzie, himself a very gallant 
 fellow, assures us that the General's conduct during the insur- 
 rection was personally intrepid in the extreme. He wavered, 
 however, in his resolutions, or rather plans, and fell back per- 
 petually for advice and support on councils of war. The moment 
 of action seems perpetually to have been lost ; and the insurrec- 
 tion, which might have been crushed at first, by one vigorous 
 effort, increased daily in strength and importance. Small de- 
 tachments were sent out to effect considerable things, and not 
 very well handled on many occasions. The troops lost confidence 
 to a degree unheard of in our armies, and a strict blockade ef- 
 
1842.] HIS VIEWS ON THE COUKSE TO BE PUESUED. 125 
 
 fected the rest, and brought on the sad events of the convention, 
 the daring seizure and murder of the envoy, the evacuation of 
 the cantonment, and the destruction of the force." 
 
 The force to which Havelock was attached remained 
 inactive in the valley of Jellalabad from the 1 5th of April 
 to the 10th of August, waiting till the decision H aveiock' S 
 of Government and of General Nott should enable jfSSSd* 
 it to advance. In this interval he maintained a Smith - 
 constant correspondence with General Smith. On the 
 6th of May he wrote : 
 
 " Our fourth brigade came in yesterday, and the force of all 
 arms, with the exception of a battering train, is fully sufficient 
 for the conquest of eastern Afghanistan, but then it must be 
 managed secundum artem, not on the basis of little political 
 schemes. The safest way to act (in the humble opinion of a 
 captain of foot) is, to conquer and keep the whole country ; in 
 every event it is best to manoeuvre as if this was our object ; for 
 all bridle-in-hand plans will involve something faulty in strategy. 
 The first object is, to subdue the Khyber ; the second, to van- 
 quish and beat down the eastern Ghilzyes. When we may be 
 said thus to have battered the great gate of Cabul, and blown in 
 its intrenchments, the insurgents at the capital will succumb like 
 mice. But the Affghans are shrewd fellows, and will smile at 
 our advancing on their great city, while the Khyberees and Ghil- 
 zyes are in force in our rear. Remember, in this country there 
 are no standing armies ; but a large and well-armed population 
 is ready to start up and defend the tract of country it belongs to 
 at the nod or beck of an influential chief. Hence it is to be in- 
 ferred, that we must subdue these militias, destroy their forts, 
 and disarm them, before we can push on safely against the Bala 
 Hissar." 
 
 "June llth, 1842. 
 
 " Most truly you may say, ' three's about ' ought not to be the 
 word, but I fear it is the only one we shall get. If public ac- 
 counts do not wholly deceive us, this will not satisfy the desires 
 of a high-spirited nation, which will be broken-hearted when it 
 hears that its armies have retired, leaving behind their cannon, 
 standards, sick and wounded, and helpless women in the hands 
 of a barbarous enemy, whom it has been shown, by God's bless- 
 ing, it could beat in the proportion of full four to one. I know 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 not what insanity can have seized our civil ruler and military 
 leader ; but I must be silent, though in grief and shame." 
 
 " June 14th, 1842. 
 
 "I will state the views of your second lieutenant of 1819 
 1820. Presuming that the Government is invincibly averse to 
 the conquest of Afghanistan, I would say that they might thus 
 with safety and honour confine themselves to the object of com- 
 pelling the Affghans to restore all they took from us in the day 
 of successful treachery. Let them complete the equipment, with 
 carriage, of the forces at Jellalabad and Candahar, give each a 
 battering train, and authorize the leaders to push the war to ex- 
 tremity, provided the Affghans do not accede to terms the most 
 moderate. Say to the ruler de facto, whomsoever he may be, It 
 is our desire to leave your country, nor further intermeddle with 
 your factions, but surrender to us our cannon and other materiel, 
 our colours, hostages, and prisoners, and we depart. If not, war 
 to extermination. Eemember too that a single shot fired at our 
 retreating columns will bring us back to Cabul to exact retribu- 
 tion for the insult. It would be worth the while of the ruling 
 Barukzyes, whether Akbar Khan, or Mahomed Zeman Khan, to 
 purchase our absence at this price. A battering train, cattle, and 
 the will on the part of Government to persevere, are all that we 
 require to carry through this limited project. We have troops, 
 field artillery, and supplies in abundance." 
 
 A letter from General Nott, dated the 27th of July, at 
 length reached General Pollock about the middle of 
 General Poi- August, announcing his determination to retire 
 towardJ ances by way of Cabul ; in other words, to advance to 
 cabui. jjke ca pital and recover our honour. Ample sup- 
 plies of every description had been poured into General 
 Pollock's camp, through the energetic efforts of the 
 Governor- General, and Mr George Clerk, the political 
 Resident on the north-west frontier, and Mr Robertson, 
 the Lieutenant- Governor of Agra, and the General was 
 enabled to advance towards Cabul on the 20th of August. 
 His force, consisting of about 8000 men, was concentrated 
 at Gundamuck on the 23rd. In the adjoining valley of 
 Mamoo Khail, about two miles distant, the chiefs, having 
 sent away their women and children, collected the inhabit- 
 ants, and prepared for a stout resistance. These men had 
 
1842.] ACTION AT JUGDULLUK. 127 
 
 been among the most ferocious butchers of our country- 
 men in their retreat from Cabul, and it was deemed ad- 
 visable to inflict a severe retribution on them. Captain 
 Broadfoot and Havelock accompanied the expedition de- 
 tached for their punishment, the one with his spirited 
 Sappers, the other as Adjutant-General of the division. 
 The forts were captured with little difficulty. The villagers 
 were hunted out of the valley, and the smoke of every 
 fort, village, and hut ascended to heaven. Then came the 
 destruction of the crops, vines, orchards, watercourses, and 
 whatever had contributed to the loveliness of the valley in 
 which "man alone was vile." General Pollock halted at 
 Gundamuck till the 7th of September, waiting for intelli- 
 gence of General Nott's movements, in order that they 
 might reach the capital simultaneously. 
 
 On the 8th of September, the first division of General 
 Pollock's army approached the hills which overlook he 
 pass of Jugdulluk. Eight months before, the Action at, 
 Affghans had on this spot gloated on the mas- Ju s dulluk - 
 sacre of the Feririgees, and they now assembled again in 
 large numbers to dispute the entrance of the pass, and 
 to renew the scene of slaughter. But they had a different 
 General to deal with, and a victorious and not a dispirited 
 army to encounter. They were driven like sheep from 
 hill to hill, and totally discomfited. The victory on this 
 occasion was won almost exclusively by the soldiers of 
 the 13th, many of them the raw recruits whom Havelock 
 had brought up from Calcutta in the preceding year, and 
 whom five months of hard service at Jellalabad had turned 
 into veterans. This defeat filled Akbar Khan and his con- 
 federates with dismay, and he sent Major Troup, one of 
 his prisoners, to open a negotiation with General Pollock, 
 and prevent his advance on the capital, but he found that 
 it was too late. The two Generals, the one from Jellala- 
 bad, and the other from Candahar, were now running a 
 race for Cabul, and it was not to be expected that any 
 proposals from the trembling chiefs would arrest their 
 progress. 
 
 Akbar Khan sent his prisoners towards the inaccessible 
 
123 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. TIL 
 
 regions of the Hindoo Koosh, and collected his entire 
 Defeat of force for a final and decisive conflict. He. had 
 at Tezeen. determined to select the formidable defiles of the 
 Khoord Cabul for this life or death struggle, but General 
 Pollock having advisedly rested at Tezeen on the 12th of 
 September, the halt was attributed to pusillanimity, and 
 Akbar Khan was induced to forego the advantage of 
 those defiles, and advance to meet him, where the ground 
 was less favourable to his operations. As the British 
 columns moved forward, they found the road strewed at 
 intervals with the mangled remains of their fellow- soldiers, 
 who had been slaughtered in the retreat, and the sight 
 seemed to inflame their minds almost to frenzy. It was 
 in this state of frantic excitement that they encountered 
 the army of the chief who had been the principal instigator, 
 if not actor, of that bloody tragedy. The valley of Tezeen 
 is completely surrounded with hills, and they now swarm- 
 ed with Affghans, who had hastened from Cabul and the 
 surrounding country, to play their last stake. Their 
 horse, intent on plunder, was the first to advance to the 
 conflict, but the European dragoons and the Native 
 cavalry speedily routed them with great slaughter. Then 
 the artillery was brought to bear on the enemy, both in 
 the valley and on the heights, and did the greatest execu- 
 tion. The infantry in two divisions, the Jellalabad column 
 on the right and two other regiments on the left, clamb- 
 ered up the hills with the utmost alacrity. The enemy 
 with their long range jezails poured a murderous fire on 
 them as they ascended, but our troops continued to ad- 
 vance with a steady pace, and drove the Afighans from 
 every point till the hills were perfectly clear of them. 
 The finest sight of the day was Captain Broadfoot and the 
 diminutive Goorkahs of his corps of Sappers pursuing the 
 enemy from crag to crag, and climbing heights which 
 appeared inaccessible, till they stood on the highest point 
 of the Huft Kotul, and were enabled to look down on the 
 enemy they had chased. Havelock was in his element, 
 and was described by those who were in the field, as 
 present wherever the fire was hottest, and the resistance 
 
1842.] RELEASE OF THE PRISONERS. 129 
 
 most resolute. The enemy fought not only with valour, 
 but with the energy of despair, but nothing could with- 
 stand the onslaught of our troops. One such day at 
 Cabul, and there would have been no capitulation and no 
 extermination. The victory was complete ; the last hope 
 of the insurgents had vanished, the doom of the capital 
 was sealed, and its inhabitants, so brave in the hour of 
 our depression, as Havelock had predicted, " cowered like 
 mice." Two days after, General Pollock' s force was 
 triumphantly encamped at Cabul, on the spot which had 
 so recently been the scene of our humiliation. 
 
 Akbar Khan, after his defeat at Tezeen, fled to the 
 Ghorebund valley, intending to retire to the region of the 
 Hindoo Koosh, whither he had previously sent The release of 
 the prisoners. The first object of General Pol- the prisoners - 
 lock, after reaching Cabul, was to deliver them from cap 
 tivity. Accordingly, Sir Eichmond Shakspeare, his 
 military secretary, who had already acquired a European 
 reputation by the romantic deliverance of the Russian 
 captives at Khiva, whom he conducted across the steppes 
 of Tartary to Orenberg, was despatched with 600 horse to 
 overtake the convoy of prisoners. Fearing that he might 
 be attacked on the route, a second force was sent, and 
 Sir Robert Sale started immediately after, with his brave 
 13th, to rescue his wife and daughter, and their com- 
 panions in adversity. " Who could have dreamt," writes 
 Havelock, " that Akbar Khan, who had shown himself so 
 accomplished in every art of Affghan stratagem, in de- 
 stroying our troops, and getting these very people into 
 his power, should have intrusted his treasure to a man 
 like Saleh Mahomed, a twice-sold traitor, who had been 
 the native commandant in Captain Hopkins 5 s corps, and 
 deserted him on the appearance of Dost Mahomed Khan ! " 
 The prisoners, under the conduct of this man, were con- 
 veyed from fort to fort, each more comfortless than the 
 last. While they were confined at Bameean, Saleh Ma- 
 homed produced a letter from Akbar Khan, directing him 
 to convey them to Kooloom, and make them over to the 
 chief of that principality. The prisoners had now no pros- 
 
 9 
 
130 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK, [CHAP. in. 
 
 pect before them but that of a hopeless captivity among 
 the Usbegs, but the feeling of despair was of short dura- 
 tion. Saleh Mahomed had some time before sounded 
 Captain Johnson as to the reward he might expect, if he 
 procured the release of the captives. He now produced 
 a letter from Mohun Lall, an eleve of the Delhi College, 
 who had been Sir William Macnaghten's moonshee, offering 
 him a donation of 2000, and a pension for life of 1200 
 if he would restore the prisoners. He said he was willing 
 to accede to the proposal if three of the gentlemen, whom 
 he regarded as the chiefs of the party, would swear by 
 their Saviour to make good to him the sum which had 
 been offered. The engagement was readily signed by 
 four of them. Saleh Mahomed now openly avowed his 
 defection from Akbar Khan. The commander of the fort 
 was deposed, and Major Pottinger, taking the conduct of 
 affairs into his own hands, began to provision it and to 
 prepare for its defence, and issued proclamations calling 
 on the surrounding chiefs to make their submission. On 
 the 15th of September, a horseman galloped in from 
 Cabul, with the news of Akbar' s defeat at Tezeen, and his 
 flight. The prisoners now determined not to lose a day 
 in starting for General Pollock's camp. They commenced 
 their joyous march on the morning of the 16th, and three 
 hours after noon the next day perceived a body of horse- 
 men winding down the pass, in front, and immediately 
 after Sir Richmond Shakspeare was in the midst of them. 
 All their anxieties were now at an end, and they pushed 
 forward with a light foot and still lighter heart towards 
 the capital. On the morning of the 20th a cloud of dust 
 was seen in the distance. It was raised by the troops 
 who accompanied Sir Robert Sale, and in a few moments 
 the gallant old soldier was locked in the embrace of his 
 wife and daughter. On the 21st, the little band of 
 prisoners, on whose fate the eyes of India had been fixed 
 with the most intense and painful interest for eight 
 months, passed through the city towards the cantonment. 
 Havelock came out to greet them, and to inquire whether 
 his nephew, Lieut. Williams, the grandson of Dr Marsh- 
 
1842.] OPERATIONS IN THE KOHISTAN. 131 
 
 man, who had been besieged for four months with his 
 corps, the 27th, at Ghuznee, and had, on its fall, been 
 transferred to Akbar Khan, was among them. A tall 
 figure clad in an Affghan dress, with a beard which had not 
 been touched for many months, stepped forward and 
 shouted " Here I am, uncle. 1 " 
 
 In the mean while, Ameenoollah, one of the most inve- 
 terate of the Affghan leaders, had collected the scattered 
 remnants of the Affghan troops in the Kohistan, operations in 
 
 . J.T. AT > j.i -i 1 the Kohistan 
 
 or mountainous region to the north or tne capital, -istaiiff. 
 with the intention of continuing the struggle. It was in 
 the Kohistan that Captains Kattary and Coddrington had 
 been murdered and the Goorkah regiment annihilated 
 during the insurrection. It was deemed necessary to 
 break up this hostile gathering, and to inflict some signal 
 retribution on those who had so treacherously murdered 
 our men and officers. General M'CaskilFs division was 
 therefore sent to attack Istaiiff and reduce the Kohistan. 
 This valley, for the salubrity of its climate, the luxuriance 
 of its orchards, and the loveliness of its aspect, was con- 
 sidered one of the most delightful in that part of Affghan - 
 istan. The beautiful town of Istaiiff, built on terraces on 
 the slope of a hill, was esteemed the virgin fortress of the 
 country. The Affghans, considering it a retreat secure 
 from assault, had therefore collected in it their treasure, 
 their wives, and their children. Since the appointment 
 of Havelock as Deputy- Adjutant- General of the division, 
 General M/Caskill had conceived the highest opinion of 
 his abilities, and, not having sufficient confidence in his 
 own military judgment, had intrusted the entire manage- 
 ment of this expedition to his superior skill. The fol- 
 lowing is the memorandum drawn up by Havelock : 
 
 " Camp, near Istaiiff, Sept. 28, 1842. 
 " Memorandum for the operations of to-morrow" 
 " At four in the morning the reveille will sound, upon which 
 tents will he struck, and the baggage be loaded. As soon as it 
 is daylight the assembly will be heard, when regiments will fall 
 in on their own parades. The baggage and camp equipage will 
 then proceed under Quarter-master sergeants to the fort on the 
 
132 MEMOIES OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. in. 
 
 right flank of the encampment. The whole will be guarded by a 
 wing of the 42nd Native Infantry, and two Ressalehs of Captain 
 Christie's cavalry, under an European officer, Major Clarkson 
 commanding. 
 
 " The force will then be formed in two columns of attack, con- 
 sisting, the right, of Brigadier Tulloch's brigade, and the left of 
 that of Brigadier Stacey. Captain Backhouse's mountain train 
 will be attached to the former, and Captain Blood's whole battery 
 and the two 18-p6unders to the latter, which will take up a posi- 
 tion on the Charekar road. The cavalry, united under Major 
 Lockwood, will form the reserve, to which will be added a wing 
 of Her Majesty's 41st regiment, under Major Simmons. 
 
 " The attack will be made from our right by Brigadier Tul- 
 loch's brigade, in columns at quarter distance with deploying 
 intervals, covered by skirmishers, endeavouring to seize the ridges 
 of the hills on the enemy's left, and thus turning by that flank 
 bis whole position. 
 
 " Brigadier Stacey's brigade will adopt a similar formation in 
 the plain, but will not attack, until it sees the AfFghans' left 
 turned, when it will move on and co-operate with the right 
 column in mastering the hills. The cavalry and reserve will be 
 ready to support this movement and protect the guns. 
 
 " Captain Blood's battery will in the mean time have opened 
 as heavy a fire as possible on the most favourable points, with 
 the view of diverting the attention of the enemy. 
 
 " If the hills are carried the columns will be steadily reformed 
 and await further orders. 
 
 "Lieutenant Mayne will accompany the right column, and 
 point out its track, and Major Sanders w.ill be pleased to aid in 
 directing the left." 
 
 The force was accompanied by Captain Broadfoot, who 
 advanced to the front with his noble Sappers, and drove 
 the enemy before him. " The enemy's position/' writes 
 Havelock, " in gardens and behind enclosures and walls, 
 backed by a town the flat roofs of which were occupied by 
 rifle-men, and behind which rose tremendous ridges of 
 mountains, was strong, and the levies congregated for its 
 defence were numerous and full of audacity and excite- 
 ment, but the rapid advance of one column, aided by the 
 manoeuvres of another, quickly dislodged them. The 
 
1842.] THE VICTORY AT ISTALIFF. 133 
 
 ground would not permit the use of artillery (except the 
 little mountain train), but the pace of the Sappers, the 
 26th N. L, and the gallant old 9th, was so good that the 
 Affghans could not face them in the vineyards, and, once 
 thrown into confusion, could never be rallied. Our 
 troops indeed behaved everywhere well, and there was 
 far less of outrage of every kind, and above all to the 
 women, than is seen ninety-nine times out of one hundred 
 in cases of towns and cities stormed/' Ameenoollah was 
 the first to decamp, and he was followed by the whole 
 body of his troops, and by the entire population, men, 
 women, and children, who were seen in their white dresses 
 covering the slope of the hill in their precipitate flight. 
 The victory, which was most complete, was due as much 
 to military strategy as to military valour. It was one of 
 the most brilliant episodes of the expedition, and Have- 
 lock regarded it with a feeling of just exultation. It was 
 the first opportunity he had enjoyed of directing, The victory 
 under his own exclusive control, the military ila^Ss 
 operations of a force in the field upon a large own - 
 scale. The General did not interfere with the operations 
 of the day. During the action he was seated under a 
 tree with a basket of Cabul plums near him, and when the 
 officer sent by Havelock galloped down to announce the 
 victory, said, " Indeed ! Will you take a plum ? " For 
 Istaliff General M'Caskill was decorated with the cross of 
 the Bath, but Havelock got nothing. To this neglect he 
 sometimes facetiously alluded by quoting the words in 
 Ecclesiastes, (( Now there was found in the city a poor 
 wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city ; yet 
 no man remembered that same poor man." But those 
 who were aware that both the plan and the execution of 
 this successful engagement were his own, were led to 
 entertain the highest opinion of his professional abilities. 
 Major Pottinger, who had witnessed his masterly move- 
 ments during the day, came up to him after the action, 
 and said, " Oh, if we had only had you with us at Cabul 
 things would have worn a very different aspect/' Have- 
 lock replied with his usual modesty : ' ' I will not under- 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. m. 
 
 take to say that I could have saved Cabul, but I feel con- 
 fident that George Broadfoot would have done it." The 
 town was partially burnt, while Charekar, where the 
 Goorkah regiment had been butchered, and Lughmanee 
 and Oppian, the ancient Oppiana, as Havelock observes, 
 were destroyed, and the expedition returned to Cabul on 
 the 7th of October. 
 
 Our national honour having now been vindicated, our 
 military prestige restored, and the captives recovered, the 
 Return of troops were to bid adieu to Afighanistan, in the 
 India. fervent hope that they might never see it again. 
 The most memorable tokens of retribution were inflicted 
 on the capital which had witnessed the assassination of 
 our Envoy, and exulted in our humiliation, and the army 
 commenced its return to India on the 16th of October. 
 Lord Ellenborough awaited the return of the victorious 
 troops on the banks of the Sutlege, and received them at 
 the foot of the bridge of boats over that river with all the 
 pomp of a Roman ovation. On the 17th of December the 
 "illustrious garrison of Jellalabad" defiled over the 
 bridge. " I crossed it," wrote Havelock, " in the suite of 
 Sir Robert Sale, borrowed for the hour as a part of the 
 triumphant pageant with which India's ruler greeted him 
 who was truly regarded as, under Providence, its preserver. 
 Thus auspiciously terminated my four years' connection 
 with Aflghanistan." And thus terminated the Affghan 
 war, in which every principle of equity and justice was 
 sacrificed to considerations of policy, and that policy so 
 fatally false that its success only served to augment our 
 danger. The expedition is memorable in our Indian 
 annals as having inflicted on us the most astounding 
 disaster which had ever befallen our arms, and entailed on 
 the Indian exchequer the loss of thirteen millions. 
 
135 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Havelock returns to his Eegiment. Appointed Persian Interpreter to the 
 Commander-in- Chief. The Gwalior Campaign. Battle of Maharajpore. 
 The Mutinies. Origin of the first Sikh War. Battle of Moodkee of 
 Ferozeshuhur of Sobraon. Havelock's Description of the Sikh Sirdars. 
 He is appointed Deputy- Adjutant-General at Bombay. Extracts from his 
 Bombay Correspondence. The Second Sikh War. Havelock's Remarks on 
 the Campaign. Death of his Brother, Colonel Havelock. Havelock's Re- 
 marks on the Battle of Chillian wallah. Havelock endeavours to join the 
 Army in the Field. Battle of Goojerat. 
 
 THE army which, had re-established our reputation in 
 Afghanistan and in Central Asia, returned to the pro- 
 vinces of India and was broken up. Havelock's J^ 1 ^' 
 practical knowledge of the science of war had corps. 
 been greatly enlarged, and his military judgment ma- 
 tured, by the conflicts in which he had borne a share. 
 But there was no recognition of his services on the part 
 of Government. The credit of all that he had done at 
 Jellalabad belonged to Sir Robert Sale; the merits of 
 Istaliff were necessarily ascribed to General M'Caskill. 
 The closing of the campaign brought valuable appoint- 
 ments, most richly deserved, to Broadfoot, Macgregor, and 
 Lawrence. To Havelock it brought only the loss of his 
 appointment, which was abolished, as being no longer 
 necessary, and the prospect of a reduction of allowances 
 from 800 to 400 rupees a month. In the anticipation of 
 this visitation he wrote to General Smith, as the troops 
 were marching back from Cabul : te Now in a word I will 
 tell you what I want. I desire not to have to starve on 
 400 rupees a month when I return to the provinces, and 
 to have some better employment than looking at the 
 shirts and stockings of No. 4 company of the 13th, though 
 they did pitch it into Akbar Khan's horse in such good 
 
. 136 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 style in tlie hour of need. I desire also to go down to 
 Allahabad to meet my wife, if the 13th is to be in the 
 upper provinces. If you can aid me in these two matters 
 I know you will. I shall also be glad if you can send one 
 single line down to Serampore, which will inform them 
 where the 13th is likely to be, and my wife will shape her 
 course accordingly/' But this application was of no avail, 
 and, after crossing the Sutlege, Havelock was doomed to 
 return to regimental duties. After four years of active 
 service amidst the most animating scenes, in which it had 
 fallen to his lot to devise and execute important military 
 operations, there was nothing for him but to rejoin his 
 corps, and assume " the oversight of the shirts and stock- 
 ings of No. 4 company of Her Majesty's 13th Light 
 Infantry." At the station to which the regiment was 
 sent on its return from AfFghanistan, he at once recom- 
 menced the religious instruction of the soldiers. He had 
 laboured to sustain their minds by the truths of the 
 Gospel amidst the dangers of Jellalabad, and he now 
 drew the survivors around him, and endeavoured to 
 strengthen their Christian principles amidst the more 
 ^dangerous leisure of the barrack-room. It was while 
 thus employed in his regiment that he wrote to Major 
 Broadfoot : 
 
 " Let me ask, my good friend, what it is you mean by pre- 
 judices against me. Tell me plainly ; I am not aware of any. 
 *01d and others used to tell me that it was believed at the 
 Horse Guards and in other quarters, that I professed to fear God, 
 as well as honour the Queen, and that Lord Hill and sundry 
 other wise persons had made up their minds that no man could 
 be at once a saint and a soldier. Now, I dare say such great au- 
 thorities must be right, notwithstanding the example of Colonel 
 ' Gardiner, and Cromwell, and Gustavus Adolphus (all that I cari 
 think of just now) ; but if so, all I can say is, that their bit of 
 red ribbon was very ill bestowed upon me, for I humbly trust 
 that, in that great matter, I should not change my opinions and 
 practice, though it rained garters and coronets as the rewards of 
 apostasy. So, if these be the grounds of prejudice, they are 
 likely to be sempiternal." 
 
1843.] HE OBTAINS A REGIMENTAL MAJORITY. 137 
 
 After Havelock had been some time with his regiment 
 he was joined by Mrs Havelock. She had embarked with 
 the children for England at the beginning of the Return of Mrs 
 preceding year, and heard of the assassination of Havelock - 
 Sir William Macnaghten, and the increased perils of the 
 garrison of Jellalabad, by the last post which reached the 
 vessel before the pilot left her at the Sandheads. The 
 voyage was therefore a period of deep anxiety, and it was 
 with no ordinary feelings of gratitude and joy that she 
 was now enabled to rejoin her husband after the dangers 
 which he had encountered. In the month of April they 
 proceeded on leave to Simlah, and in the repose of that 
 sanatarium he contemplated the publication of a supple- 
 mentary volume of his history of the first Affghan cam- 
 paign. " I am most desirous," he says, i{ of writing 
 something about our late affairs in Affghanistan, but I feel 
 like a man worn out, after the prolonged harass of past 
 events." But he was effectually dissuaded from his pur- 
 pose at the time by the opinion of his friend Major Broad - 
 foot, who said that if he "intended to write the whole 
 truth regarding their doings at Jellalabad- he must quit 
 the army; if any portion of the- truth was to be withheld,, 
 his memoir had better not be published/' " I believe," he 
 writes to Major Broadfoot, ' ' your advice is good as to 
 memoir writing, and I have almost resolved finally to act 
 on it, and publish nothing." Those facts have now been 
 fully submitted to the public in Mr Kaye's sa^pnd edition, 
 of the l( War in Affghanistpji ; " but it will at once be ap- 
 parent to every reader of that admirable work, that if any 
 officer had ventured the year after the events to publish 
 the facts it discloses, he must have resigned his com- 
 mission. 
 
 Havelock was now in his forty-eighth year and the 
 twenty-eighth of his service, but still among the captains 
 of his corps, and he was naturally anxious to Haveiock's ef- 
 obtain the grade of field-officer. One of the i^SeSua 1 
 majors of his corps then in England had ex- ma -> orit y- 
 pressed a wish to retire on half-pay, and Havelock made 
 an effort to obtain a majority by purchase. In this he was 
 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 not successful ; but in the course of the year he obtained 
 the great object of his desire, a regimental majority, by 
 the retirement of an officer above him. Before the close 
 of the year he was unexpectedly relieved, by the exercise 
 of private friendship, from the routine of regimental duty, 
 to which he was never afterwards obliged to return. On 
 the retirement of Sir Jasper Nicholls, the Commander-in- 
 Chief, his appointment was conferred on Sir Hugh Gough, 
 as the reward of his services in the expedition to China. 
 Lord Ellenborough being at the time absent in the upper 
 provinces, Mr Wilberforce Bird, the senior member of 
 council, took his place at the head of the Government in 
 Calcutta. Mr Bird was one of the oldest and most cordial 
 friends of the compiler of these Memoirs, and, at his 
 is^pointed especial solicitation, recommended Havelock 
 terpreterto for the post of Persian interpreter to the new 
 
 the Comman- ~ * _ , .~- . i i /~i -i 
 
 der-m-chief. Uommanaer-in-Umei on nis arrival in Calcutta. 
 Mr Bird's influence was successful, and Havelock was 
 nominated to the post, which, though one of subordinate 
 importance, placed him at the head-quarters of the army 
 in an interesting and advantageous position, at one of the 
 most stirring periods of our Indian history. 
 
 After eight months of repose at Kussowlie and Simlah, 
 Havelock joined the camp of the Commander-in- Chief at 
 Havelock takes Cawnpore on the 23rd of October, and found 
 FiorVamptn. a ~ himself again involved in all the excitement of 
 active service. The Mahratta court at Gwalior had been 
 led to adopt a line of policy inimical to British interests, 
 and in opposition to existing engagements. The tone of 
 the princes of India had, in fact, become more lofty and 
 assuming after we had lost our prestige in the denies of 
 Affghanistan, and the antagonism which we could have 
 afforded to despise in the days of our unimpaired grandeur 
 assumed a serious aspect when it was founded on the idea 
 of our abasement. Lord Ellenborough had directed a 
 force to be assembled on our frontier facing the Mahratta 
 territory, to be styled the Army of Exercise ; but when it 
 was gradually increased to three divisions of infantry, 
 three brigades of cavalry, with six troops and batteries of 
 
1843.] THE GWALIOK CAMPAIGN. 139 
 
 field artillery, there could be little doubt that active opera- 
 tions were intended. The negotiations proved unsatisfac- 
 tory, and the army was ordered to take the field. The 
 arrangements of the campaign were thus made by the 
 Commander-in-Chief : General Grey was to take the lead 
 with a division of infantry and a brigade of cavalry, and, 
 crossing the Jumna at Calpee, to threaten the Gwalior 
 territory from the south. Two divisions of infantry and 
 two brigades of cavalry, with suitable artillery, were to be 
 united under the personal command of Sir Hugh Gough, 
 and move down on Gwalior from the northward. This plan 
 of operations appeared toHavelock's experienced eye liable 
 to serious objections, and his views were thus recorded in 
 his note-book before the campaign opened : 
 
 " When it was determined to act on a double line of operations, 
 it was much to be desired that the two lines should be con- 
 tiguous. But when Sir Hugh resolved himself to move by Agra 
 and Dholepore, directing General Grey to act from Calpee, he 
 gave the Mahrattas all the advantages of their central position. 
 An additional chance was afforded by dividing General Grey's 
 force between Koonch and Jhansi. They had thus the oppor- 
 tunity of leaving a garrison at Gwalior, and falling successively 
 on General Grey's brigades, while they were separated from each 
 other seven marches, with the whole force of Scindia's army, ex- 
 ceeding 20,000 men. Thus the rule was doubly sinned against 
 which asserts, that it is contrary to all true principles to make 
 corps which have no communication act separately against a 
 central force whose communications are open. By the plan de- 
 vised, General Grey and Sir Hugh Gough were from the begin- 
 ning out of communication, and unable to assist each other. 
 Their forces separately amounted to 12,000 and 7000. Why fight 
 the Mahratta with 12,000 when 19 might have been united to 
 crush him ; and why separate 7000 men which might have been 
 opposed "by 20,000, on two several lines of operation? Moreover, 
 by moving on Koonch and Jhansi, General Grey exposed his left 
 flank and rear to the hostile chiefs of Bundelkund. If reverse 
 overtook either of his brigades (and ' in war, discomfiture must 
 always be reckoned possible) what security had he for being able 
 to operate a retreat on Calpee 1 " 
 
 The campaign, however, proved eminently successful. 
 
HO MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 There was no military talent at Gwalior, and, in fact, no 
 General-in- Chief, to take advantage of this defect in our 
 Battles of arrangements. General Grey was attacked bv 
 
 Punmaraud R, . / i * -i c -i 
 
 Maharajpore. a small section oi the Mahratta force, and de- 
 feated it at Punniar on the same day on which the battle 
 of Maharajpore was fought by Sir Hugh Gough. Accom- 
 panied by the Govern or- General, he advanced from the 
 north towards the capital. The enemy awaited his ap- 
 proach at the position they had selected, which was recon- 
 noitred on the 28th of December ; but during the night, 
 they unwisely, and without any ostensible reason, quitted 
 that strong position, and took up another three or four 
 miles in advance of it. No second reconnaissance was 
 made on the morning of the 29th, and our army thus en- 
 countered them much earlier than was expected. So com- 
 pletely was our force taken by surprise, that the ladies rode 
 into the field on elephants ; but the cannon of the enemy 
 soon obliged them to retire. The Mahrattas fought with 
 the most determined gallantry, and fully sustained the re- 
 putation of their army, which had been disciplined by 
 French officers. Havelock was in the thickest of the en- 
 gagement by the side of the Commander-in- Chief, and the 
 cool intrepidity with which he moved on amidst the balls 
 which ploughed up the ground around him was especially 
 remarked. The 56th Native Infantry, who had been bri- 
 
 faded with H. M/s 39th, were advancing on the enemy, 
 ut at so slow a pace as to exhaust the patience of Sir 
 Hugh. " Will no one get that Sepoy regiment on ? " he 
 repeatedly exclaimed. Havelock offered his services, and 
 riding up, inquired the name of the corps. " It is the 
 56th Native Infantry." " I don't want its number," re- 
 plied he. "What is the native name?" "Lamboorun- 
 ke-pultun Lambourn's regiment." He then took off his 
 cap, and placing himself in their front, addressed them by 
 that name; and in a few complimentary and cheering 
 words, reminded them that they were fighting under the 
 eye of the Commander-in-Chief. He then led them up to 
 the batteries, and afterwards remarked that ' ' whereas it 
 had been difficult to get them forward before, the difficulty 
 
1843.] THE GWALIOR CAMPAIGN. 141 
 
 now was to restrain their impetuosity." The field was 
 bravely contested our loss exceeded a thousand men in 
 killed and wounded but the victory was complete, and it 
 placed the crown of Scindia at our feet. The kingdom 
 was not dismembered, and the dynasty was spared; but 
 the well-equipped army of the Gwalior state, which had 
 always been a source of anxiety to our Government from 
 the proximity of its head-quarters to Agra, the capital of 
 the North- West Provinces the distance being only sixty 
 miles was disbanded, and its formidable artillery trans- 
 ferred to our own arsenals. Havelock was always opposed 
 to wars of aggression or aggrandisement, but he consi- 
 dered it both just and politic, when we were forced into 
 hostilities by the conduct of native rulers, to complete the 
 work, and remove all occasion for a second war. " As re- 
 gards politics," he wrote soon after the battle, "I was at 
 first angry enough at the old raj " government " not 
 being smashed outright ; and in a conversation with the 
 great lord over the grave of General Churchill who had 
 fallen in the action told him with a magniloquent empha- 
 sis that this ought to have been a war of subjugation; but 
 the fact is, that he could not go farther than his minis- 
 terial friends at home would support him in advancing." 
 Havelock had evidently no share in the Maharajpore de- 
 spatch ; it wanted his fine Roman hand. He was suspected 
 of having contributed some military strictures which had 
 recently appeared in the papers, and, though he was en- 
 tirely innocent of the charge, it rendered his position at 
 head-quarters embarrassing ; but his discretion after the 
 engagement was as exemplary as his gallantry during its 
 continuance. " Seeing a disposition," he writes, " to 
 identify me with any remarks on military matters you 
 might publish, I felt compelled to apply to myself, until 
 the storm had blown over, the advice of Matthew Prior's 
 stroller 
 
 ' Mind neither good nor bad, nor right nor wrong, 
 But eat thy pudding, slave, and hold thy tongue.' 
 
 Some day or other I may be able to give you my opinion 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 at large both of the strategy and tactics of our brief and 
 brilliant campaign, and its principal fight." 
 
 The affairs of Gwalior having thus been satisfactorily 
 settled, and a British contingent established in the room 
 Haveiock at of the Mahratta army which had been disbanded, 
 Koseram-" t n Commander-in-Chief made a tour through 
 the independent states of the north-west, and 
 Haveiock marched in his suite. The whole party then 
 retired for the season to the cool mountain retreat at 
 Simlah, where he again enjoyed a brief interval of repose. 
 In one of the letters written from that sanatarium to Se- 
 rampore about the middle of the year, he said : 
 
 " Yesterday, we got a long and kind letter from you, from 
 which I learned with pleasure that you had resolved, God willing, 
 on a period of vacation in September or October. But Egypt was 
 named as your destination. Now I hasten to say, let Pharaoh 
 and his host, or his worthy, if not lineal, successor, the old 
 Pasha, take care of Egypt. That country, honoured of late by 
 being made a type of Scinde, will remain where it is, until the 
 time arrives, in God's mercy, for your overland journey to Eng- 
 land. It lies in the way to that object of your desires, but the 
 Himalayan mountains, which are yet more worthy of a visit, do 
 not, aud to them you must bend your steps, and not to Egypt, 
 when the holiday time comes. Steam and night dawks will 
 bring you speedily to their base, and we will soon jampan you 
 up from Kalka to Simlah. There is a small but not comfortless 
 apartment in our cottage for you, and need I say to the kindest 
 friend of my days of humility, and the steady friend of those of 
 comparative prosperity, that he shall there find a hearty welcome 1 
 October is here the most delightful month of the whole year. 
 You will see Simlah in perfection, and not soou forget it. So let 
 the dust of Cheops rest, and defer the day when from the . top of 
 those pyramids forty centuries shall look down upon you, and 
 come to us when you keep holiday." 
 
 At Simlah, Haveiock had the happiness of renewing his 
 intercourse with Major Broadfoot. On the termination of 
 Haveiock-s the Affghan war, Lord Ellenborough had ac- 
 iv Broad- knowledged his services by conferring on him the 
 foot. valuable and lucrative office of Commissioner of 
 
1844.] MUTINOUS STATE OF OUR AKMY. 143 
 
 theTenasserim Provinces. After holding it for about fifteen 
 months, he was appointed to. the more distinguished post 
 of Governor- General' s Agent on the North-west Frontier, 
 at that period a most arduous and responsible office. It 
 embraced the management of our relations with the go- 
 vernment of the Punjab, where a feeble and dissolute court 
 and an insubordinate army, striving to obtain the ascend- 
 ancy, imperilled the tranquillity of our own provinces. 
 Major Broadfoot had thus raised himself by the buoyancy 
 of his own genius in the course of four years from the ob- 
 scure rank of a lieutenant, escorting Shah Soojah's family 
 to Cabul, to the most important post in the North-west, 
 after that of the Lieutenant- Governor. But the situation 
 was not above his merits, nor were his talents unequal to 
 the situation. The period of Major Broadfoot' s sojourn 
 at Simlah was passed in the society of the friend he most 
 esteemed, and to whom this intercourse afforded the high- 
 est enjoyment. When temporarily separated, they main- 
 tained an uninterrupted correspondence ; and it was in 
 one of his letters to Broadfoot that Havelock remarked, 
 "You are quite right; in public affairs, as in matters 
 eternal, the path of popularity is the broad way, and that 
 of duty the strait gate, and few there be that enter there- 
 in. I shall have been half a century in the world if I am 
 spared another month, and I end in opinion where I be- 
 gin. Principles alone are worth living for, or striving 
 for." 
 
 After the close of the Gwalior campaign, a spirit of in- 
 subordination began to manifest itself among the Sepoys 
 of the native army. For several years a feeling 
 of disaffection had been growing in their ranks. 
 They had no grievances to complain of, but they had been 
 placed in a false position by the mistaken kindness of Go- 
 vernment. No troops, no Asiatic troops at least, can 
 stand being pampered. But the Sepoys had been sur- 
 feited with flattery, and sweetmeats, and donations, to 
 keep them in good humour. They had thus been en- 
 couraged in the supposition that they were necessary to 
 the State, and became less amenable to control when in- 
 flated with this conceit of their own importance. The 
 
144 MEMOIES OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. rr. 
 
 spirit of insubordination was soothed when it should have 
 been crushed at once ; and it therefore burst forth repeat- 
 edly from time to time, till at length the whole of the 
 Bengal army was extinguished in a blaze of mutiny. On 
 the present occasion the most lenient measures were 
 adopted, when the exigency required the most stern and 
 uncompromising energy. Havelock, always an unflinch- 
 ing disciplinarian, was indignant at the feeble course which 
 was pursued, and in his intercourse with his superiors, as 
 well as his correspondence, urged the necessity of adopt- 
 ing the mode pursued by Sir Edward Paget, the Com- 
 mander-in- Chief in 1824, by whose orders the mutinous 
 47th Native Infantry had been decimated at Barrackpore. 
 " It is believed," he writes on the 20th of August, " that 
 thirty-nine of the 64th mutineers are capitally sentenced. 
 At least, the course of their trials justified this expecta- 
 tion. They ought all to be executed." But only six of 
 them suffered the extreme penalty of the law, and an im- 
 pression of the timidity of Government was thus diffused 
 through the native army, which laid the foundation of 
 future calamities. 
 
 In June, 1844, Lord Ellenborough was recalled, and 
 the war with the Sikhs was postponed for a twelvemonth, 
 i of Lord To explain the antecedents of a campaign in 
 
 orSnoth g e h ' which Havelock bore so conspicuous a share, it 
 first sikh war. ma y be expedient to remark that when the paci- 
 fication of Europe, on the downfall of Napoleon, deprived 
 the officers of the French army of a sphere of active em- 
 ployment, Allard, Court, Ventura, Avitabile, and other 
 officers, men of enterprise and genius, proceeded to India 
 in quest of service among the native princes, and found 
 their way to the court of Eunjeet Singh, who hastened to 
 employ them in organizing his army. The Sikhs are 
 without question the finest soldiers in India, as much su- 
 perior to the Eajpoot as the Eajpoot is to the Bengalee. 
 The Punjab army, after receiving the advantage of Eu- 
 ropean instruction and equipment, became the most ef- 
 ficient body of troops which had ever served under any 
 native prince. With their aid Eunjeet Singh had been 
 
18-13. J ORIGIN OF THE FIRST SIKH WAR. 145 
 
 enabled to subdue all his rivals, and establish a powerful 
 monarchy in the country of the five rivers. Both he and 
 his native commanders, with every confidence in them- 
 selves and in their troops, continued to entertain a pro- 
 found dread of British prowess, and shrunk from collision 
 with the power which had demolished every other throne 
 in India. But the prestige of British power had been 
 lost in the mountains of Affghanistan ; we had ceased to 
 be considered invincible, and the Khalsa army, as Runjeet 
 Singh's troops were designated, became daring and de- 
 fiant, and eager to try conclusions with us in the field. 
 The Sikhs had humbled the Aftghans, and wrested the 
 province of Peshawur from them ; the Affghans had baffled 
 the English, and destroyed an entire army; the conclu- 
 sion was inevitable, that the Sikhs might encounter the 
 English with perfect confidence. Runjeet Singh died 
 while the British force was marching towards Cabul, and 
 the government of the Punjab, no longer controlled by 
 his iron hand, fell at once, as usual in India, into a state 
 of the most direful confusion. Revolution succeeded re- 
 volution, and at every successive stage the army became 
 more audacious, and the feeble court more pusillanimous. 
 At length, the troops ceased to yield obedience to the 
 civil power; they established an organization of their own, 
 and their movements were regulated by punches, or coun- 
 cils of five, of their own selection, who dictated their own 
 terms to the ruling, but no longer governing, authorities 
 at the capital. The youthful son of Runjeet Singh occu- 
 pied the throne, the queen-mother was regent, and her 
 brother the chief minister. But he had rendered himself 
 generally contemptible by his debaucheries, and was de- 
 tested by the soldiery, who put him to death with the 
 most revolting barbarity. The queen whom Sir Henry 
 Hardinge was accustomed to style the Messalina of the 
 north then resigned herself to the ascendency of her 
 paramour, Lall Singh, and the question of invading the 
 British territories began to be openly discussed in the 
 cabinet. In these difficult circumstances, Major Broad- 
 foot exhibited talents of the highest order as a diploma- 
 
 10 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. IY. 
 
 ; 
 
 tist. But, notwithstanding all his tact, he could obtain 
 only evasive answers to his representations, and he warned 
 his Government to prepare for a conflict which appeared 
 to him inevitable. Lord Eilenborough had been suc- 
 ceeded as Governor- General by Sir Henry Hardinge, a 
 Peninsular hero, who came out to India with the firmest 
 resolution to avoid war. While these portentous deliber- 
 ations were openly carried on at Lahore, he continued to 
 cherish the hope of being able to maintain peace. He 
 massed twenty-five regiments of cavalry and infantry, and 
 a powerful artillery, on points some miles within our 
 frontier ; but he sent no additional troops to guard the 
 banks of the Sutlege, lest he should afford the Sikhs a 
 pretext for commencing hostilities, and incur the charge 
 of having precipitated the war by his own military de- 
 monstrations. The queen repeatedly importuned him to 
 aid her in curbing her insubordinate troops ; but, of course, 
 without success. Their demands on the paralysed Go- 
 vernment became at length so pressing and exorbitant, 
 that there appeared no other alternative for preventing 
 the dissolution of all government in the Punjab, and the 
 establishment of a military despotism, than to find them 
 occupation across the Sutlege. It was resolved, therefore, 
 to launch them on the British provinces, and endeavour 
 to avert the plunder of Lahore by the sack of Delhi. The 
 plan of operations was settled in the Durbar on the 17th 
 of November, and four divisions of troops, each consisting 
 of 12,000 men, were ordered to move down on four points 
 to the Sutlege. To stem the torrent of invasion, Major 
 Broadfoot recommended the most prompt and energetic 
 measures to his Government ; but Sir Henry Hardinge, 
 still clinging to the hope of peace, informed him that he 
 should not consider the advance of the Khalsa army to 
 the banks of the Sutlege as a justification of hostilities, 
 and troops which had been ordered from Meerut towards 
 the banks of that river were countermanded. Major 
 Broadfoot was instructed to send another remonstrance 
 to the Sikh Durbar, and Sir Henry determined to allow 
 full time for a reply, before he adopted further measures 
 
1845.] THE FEROZEPORE CANTONMENT. f U7 
 
 of precaution. The only reply to Major Broadfoot's re- 
 monstrance was an order to the troops to cross the Sut- 
 lege. On these transaction s, Havelock remarks that 
 " Sir Henry Hardinge had delayed to the latest hour, 
 compatible with the safety of the British dominions, his 
 declaration of hostilities, and out of his extreme jealousy 
 of the reputation of his country for justice and good faith, 
 had exceeded in moderation the boundaries of pru- 
 dence." 
 
 The exposed and isolated position of the Ferozepore 
 cantonment had, from the time of its occupation, been an 
 object of apprehension to Government. It was The Ferozepore 
 evident to any military eye, that the Sikhs could cantonment - 
 at any time cross the river above it, and envelope it with ^ 
 
 their troops before any succour could reach it. Lord El- 
 lenborough had wisely intended to strengthen it by forti- 
 fications; but was not at liberty to carry the plan into >' 
 execution. Sir Henry Hardinge, having resolved on his 
 arrival to avoid every appearance of hostility at which the 
 Sikhs might be expected to take umbrage, was not in a 
 position to remedy the evil. The cantonment at Feroze- 
 pore was therefore liable at any moment to fall into the 
 hands of the Sikh soldiery stationed within fifty miles of 
 it. It was at this time occupied by Sir John Littler, with 
 a body of troops not exceeding 5000 ; and it was filled 
 with the wives and families of British officers and soldiers. 
 The Sikh army, estimated at 60,000, with a magnificent 
 artillery sufficient to crush Sir John Littler' s force, or at 
 least so to cripple it as to render it a woeful day for Brit- 
 ish India, crossed the river, and found our Government 
 totally unprepared for the invasion; and, if any of the 
 French generals, who had one by one quitted the service, 
 had been at the head of the expedition, it might have 
 swept unchecked down to Delhi. 
 
 The British force was collected, or collecting, at Umba- 
 la, a military station a hundred and eighty miles from Fe- 
 rozepore, when the news arrived that the Sikh army had 
 crossed the Sutlege, and established itself on British terri- 
 tory. Major Broadfoot, with an energy that overleaped 
 
148 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 The British all obstacles, threw provisions into the various 
 
 force advances , . , , x , . , 
 
 toward the places on the route which our army must ne- 
 harte. 6 * ] cessarily pursue. The Governor- General and 
 the Commander-in- Chief started with the troops which 
 had been hastily assembled, with the addition of some 
 corps drawn by forced marches from the hills, and the 
 garrison of Loodiana, an accession obtained on the route, 
 and moved down with rapid strides to the rescue of Sir 
 John Littler. Such a march had not been known in India 
 since the days of Wellesley and Lake. Hours and even 
 moments were deemed precious, and the distance of a hun- 
 dred and eighty miles was accomplished, by an army hea- 
 vily encumbered with baggage, in seven days. All guns 
 of larger calibre than field artillery were left behind. 
 
 The force reached the walled village of Mqodkee on the 
 18th of December. The cavalry and infantry came up in 
 The battle of succession, the infantry completely exhausted 
 Moodkee. ^y a jj^ch o f several leagues over a sandy 
 plain, the most fatiguing of all ground for an army. In 
 front of Moodkee there was a tank, or pond, to which men, 
 horses, and camels rushed impetuously under the pressure 
 of a thirst which appeared to be insatiable. The camp was 
 marked out, pickets were posted, and the troops, who had 
 been fasting since the preceding evening, began to pre- 
 pare their meal. But it was not to be an evening of re- 
 pose. A hasty note from Major Broadfoot, who had been 
 scouring the country, announced that the enemy's horse 
 was approaching. "The news," remarked Havelock, 
 " produced the electric effect which it is apt to cause even 
 in the breast of old soldiers at the opening of a campaign. 
 How thrilling then the sensation in the hearts of novices ! 
 The ideas are wonderfully concentrated, and visions of 
 glory and of slaughter, of distant home and its endear- 
 ments, of duty sternly performed and nobly rewarded, of 
 wounds, death, and of judgment, pass rapidly through the 
 brain." The main body of the Sikhs had entrenched them- 
 selves at Ferozeshuhur, about eight miles from Moodkee, 
 while a large force under Tej Singh blockaded Sir John 
 Littler at Ferozepore. 
 
1845.J BATTLE OF MOODKEE. 149 
 
 Lall Singh, commanding at Ferozeshuhur, had been led 
 to suppose that the British force now approaching con- 
 sisted only of the advanced guard, accompanied by the 
 Governor- General and the Commander-in- Chief. He there- 
 fore pushed forward with his horse, and four companies 
 from each battalion of foot, to surprise the camp of the 
 civil and military chief of British India. Major Broadfoot, 
 who had ridden forward to reconnoitre, far in advance of 
 our army, scanning with his practised eye the scene be- 
 fore him, divined what the rolling clouds of dust rising to 
 the sky betokened, and galloped hastily back and warned 
 the General to be ready for immediate action. Many were 
 incredulous, but the Major emphatically repeated that 
 the dust was raised by ' ' many squadrons and many bat- 
 talions;" and "there," said he, " is the whole Sikh army 
 in the midst. My political functions have now ceased, and 
 I make over the frontier to the military authorities." The 
 flower of the Sikh infantry took up a position in a dense 
 low forest, with guns in the intervals of their masses, and 
 flanked by cavalry. Sir Hugh Gough was partaking of a 
 late breakfast, with Havelock and the rest of the staff, 
 when the approach of the Sikhs was announced. He im- 
 mediately leaped on horseback, rode to the front, and made 
 his dispositions. Our horse artillery and cavalry were 
 pushed forward, on either flank, and the infantry ad- 
 vanced in the centre. It was verging towards four o' clock, 
 and scarcely an hour of daylight remained. The horse 
 artillery opened fire, and it was steadily replied to by the 
 well-trained and most efficient horse artillery of Runjeet 
 Singh. Our cavalry attacked the enemy's horse on either 
 flank and drove them back into the forest, where it got 
 entangled and suffered rather severely. Then came the 
 conflict, the first which had taken place between the re- 
 nowned infantry formed under Allard, Court, and Ven- 
 tura, and our own native battalions ; and the superiority of 
 the Sikh over the Sepoy became at once palpable. One 
 native regiment turned suddenly to the rear, notwithstand- 
 ing the most strenuous efforts of its officers. Havelock 
 was sent by the Commander-in- Chief to bring it back ; and 
 
150 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 lie did SO) sarcastically assuring the Sepoys tliat "the 
 enemy was in front and not behind them." Even one of 
 her Majesty's regiments staggered under that deadly fire ; 
 but Sir Hugh Gough, with his staff, placing himself in 
 front, led it on again to the conflict. The intensity, ra- 
 pidity, and precision of the hostile fire, dealing unexam- 
 pled destruction through our ranks, proved that we had a 
 foe to cope with such as we had never encountered in In- 
 dia before, and that the struggle before us was to be no 
 child's play. Sir Hugh Gough, with Havelock by his side, 
 was seen everywhere, rallying the disheartened, encourag- 
 ing the steadfast, and leading on the impetuous to victory. 
 The evening now suddenly closed, and the fire of the Sikhs 
 ceased at once. Lall Singh and his cavalry fled, and the 
 Sikh infantry withdrew under cover of night, leaving the 
 British masters of the plain, of the forest, and seventeen 
 guns. In this engagement Havelock had two horses shot 
 under him. His favourite charger " Feroze," which had 
 carried him at Jellalabad and through the Affghan cam- 
 paign, was struck down by a round shot. As he disen- 
 tangled himself 'with some difficulty from his prostrate 
 charger, Major Broadfoot came up, condoled with him on 
 the loss, and mounted him on a pony belonging to one of 
 his escort. He had not proceeded far when this animal 
 was also disabled by a musket ball in the mouth. Major 
 Broadfoot, happening to come up again, mounted him a 
 second time, jocularly remarking that it " appeared to be 
 of little use to give jpim horses, as he was sure to lose 
 them." 
 
 The army rested two days at Moodkee, and was rein- 
 forced by two regiments brought down by forced marches 
 Battle of Fe- from the hills. On the 20th of December, Sir 
 rozeshuhur. H eni y Hardinge, who had placed himself under 
 Sir Hugh Gough, and taken the second command, intimat- 
 ed to Sir John Littler at Ferozepore that it was intended 
 the next day to manoeuvre on the enemy's right, to enable 
 ' him, if he found it practicable, to unite his division with 
 the main army. The camp equipage was left at Moodkee, 
 and the troops advanced, light and unencumbered, but 
 

 1845.] BATTLE OF FEROZESHUHUK. 151 
 
 without food or tents, towards the Sikh encampment at 
 Ferozeshuhur, which they reached a little before noon, 
 after a heavy march over a sandy plain. Sir John Littler, 
 leaving a regiment in the entrenchment at Ferozepore, 
 and another in the fort to guard his munitions of war and 
 his female charge, marched out unperceived by Tej Singh's 
 beleaguering force, and joined Sir Hugh Gough about 
 noon. The divisions advanced with great steadiness upon 
 their camp, about half-past three in the afternoon; but the 
 fire from the enemy's batteries, mounted, not with ordin- 
 ary field artillery, but with siege guns of large calibre, 
 proved to be destructive beyond all expectation. Each 
 brigade, as it advanced up to the batteries, was met by a 
 tremendous fire, which could be silenced only by the cold 
 steel. The 62nd, which formed the European portion of 
 one of Sir John Littler' s brigades, mowed down by grape 
 and round shot, was checked and ordered to retire. " It 
 was beaten, but not in the eye of candour, disgraced. It 
 left seven brave officers and seventy- six men prostrate, 
 within fifty paces of the entrenchment." Sir John M. f Gas- 
 kill's brigade stormed the battery before it, the 9th Foot 
 losing Colonel Taylor, who had fought so bravely in Ame- 
 rica, in Ava, in the Khyber, at Mamoo Khail, and Istalif. 
 General Gilbert's brigade obtained possession of two bat- 
 teries ; but when this and the other brigades had mastered 
 these fearful obstacles at the point of the bayonet, and at 
 a terrific sacrifice of life, they found themselves exposed 
 to a musketry fire, which was a very tempest of iron hail. 
 The entrenchments were at length carried at three points, 
 but everywhere a deadly fire was maintained by the Sikhs. 
 General Sir Harry Smith's division was then called up, 
 and, overcoming every obstacle, penetrated to the village 
 of Ferozeshuhur, in the centre of the hostile camp, where 
 he planted the colours of the 50th with his own hand. 
 Night had now set in, and in some measure parted the 
 combatants. The expense magazines of the enemy were 
 exploding in every direction, their camp was on fire in 
 several places, and the troops who had won the entrench- 
 ment were compelled to retire. The British battalions, 
 
152 , MEMOIRS OF SIE HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 shattered, wearied, and dispersed, bivouacked on the edge 
 of the position of which half an hour more of daylight 
 would have put them in full possession. Havelock, con- 
 stantly by the side of the chief, was in the thickest of the 
 engagement ; and when night put an end to it, Sir Henry 
 Hardinge remarked to him, "Another such action will 
 shake the empire/'' Havelock, writing the next day to 
 Serampore, to assure his friends of his safety, said, "India 
 has been again saved by a miracle." 
 
 The morning dawned heavily, after this "night of hor- 
 rors," as it was justly termed, on the scattered and dis- 
 Engagement pirited troops, who had thrown themselves on 
 
 ofthe22ndDe- , i -ji L /> i j_i 
 
 cember. the ground, without food or water, the wea- 
 ther also being intensely cold. The Governor- General 
 and the Commander-in- Chief, who had not broken their 
 fast for many hours, collected the dispersed troops at the 
 earliest dawn, and led them a second time against the 
 enemy's entrenchments. But the second action was more 
 brief and decisive than the first. * Lall Singh, the com- 
 mandant, had lost heart, and after a show of resistance, 
 fled to the Sutlege with his whole force ; and by eleven in 
 the morning the victory was complete. The Governor- 
 General and the Commander-in- Chief passed in front of 
 the ranks, and received a hearty cheer from the victorious 
 troops ; but it had hardly died out when a cloud of dust 
 announced the approach of another foe. This was Tej 
 Singh, who, finding that Sir John Littler had eluded his 
 vigilance, marched down to Ferozeshuhur at three in the 
 morning ; but he was too late for the succour of Lall Singh. 
 He found the British reposing under their blood-stained 
 laurels ; Ferozeshuhur was won ; the Sikh general's tre- 
 mendous batteries, his ample munitions of war, his camp, 
 his treasure, and his standards, were all in the hands of the 
 victors. The legions which had defended this Roman en- 
 campment with a Roman courage, were scattered like 
 chaff before the wind, and the army of Ferozeshuhur was 
 in full flight to the fords of the Sutlege. The British 
 troops, who had tasted no food for a day and a half, and 
 were completely exhausted with two engagements, were 
 
1845.J HIS EEMAKKS ON THE ENGAGEMENTS. 153 
 
 totally unprepared for a third encounter with 30,000 fresh 
 troops. Their ammunition, moreover, was entirely ex- 
 hausted; but, happily, Tej Singh was ignorant of these 
 circumstances, and, through the special mercy of Provi- 
 dence, after having made a hasty and unsuccessful attempt 
 to regain the position at Ferozeshuhur, withdrew his army 
 to the Sutlege, and passed over as soon as he found that 
 all the Sikh fugitives were safely across. 
 
 This double engagement had cost us 909 killed, and 
 2378 wounded; and of this number 1875 belonged to the 
 eight European regiments who were engaged. Haveiock's 
 
 . r . ,i remarks on the 
 
 bo sanguinary an action gave rise to much engagements. 
 animadversion. But Havelock maintained that the com- 
 manders had only a choice of difficulties before them, and 
 adopted that which appeared to be least perilous. It was 
 said that the object of the advance having been accom- 
 plished by the relief of Sir John Littler' s division, the 
 army might have retired to its' encampment at Moodkee, 
 prevented the march .of the enemy on Delhi, and, on the 
 arrival of the reinforcements, constrained the Sikhs to 
 move out to certain destruction, or have stormed the en- 
 trenchment, with the aid of battering guns and a larger 
 force. " But," he observed, " though such a plan offered 
 great advantages, the nature of our original defence of the 
 frontier rendered it hardly feasible, for it would have 
 hazarded the safety of Ferozepore, with its indifferent en- 
 trenchments, guarded by only one regiment, and its de- 
 fenceless town, garrisoned only by another. Within the 
 field-work were valuable munitions, and our women." It 
 was objected, moreover, that the attack of the enemy's en- 
 trenchments after the junction of Sir John Littler, when 
 the troops were jaded by a long march, was totally un- 
 advisable. But Havelock considered it of the last conse- 
 quence to strike a blow at the Ferozeshuhur force in the 
 full confidence of success before it could be reinforced by 
 the army blockading Ferozepore. ' ' Attack," he said, ' ' in 
 the forenoon of a long march ! It was one of those cases 
 in which it would have been better to have attacked at mid- 
 night, rather than not to have anticipated the junction of 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
154: MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. rv. 
 
 the two armies. The object was to defeat the one before 
 the other could come to its aid. No sacrifice is too great 
 to complete such a manoeuvre. Every risk must be run, 
 and every fatigue endured to attain such an object in war. 
 The entrenched camp was attacked and carried. The re- 
 sistance was, indeed, terrific, and the loss on our side tre- 
 mendous. But this is war." " Nor," he remarked, 
 "must it be forgotten, that though Sir Hugh Gough's 
 army, after a harassing march, was not in the best condi- 
 tion for so serious an encounter, its condition for fighting 
 would not have been improved by a bivouac, through a 
 night of bitter cold, without food, shelter, or water ; dur- 
 ing which time the Sikh army of Ferozepore might have 
 joined that of Ferozeshuhur, and thus diminished the 
 chance of success." It was well remarked by Havelock 
 that another half hour of daylight would have made us 
 complete master of the enemy's entrenchments, which we 
 were obliged to abandon after they had been carried. Sir 
 John Littler' s force joined the main body at noon ; yet, on 
 the shortest day of the year the engagement did not begin 
 till half-past three, though the affair at Moodkee, three 
 days before, might have taught the value of moments of 
 daylight. The cause of this fatal procrastination has never 
 been satisfactorily explained. 
 
 In these battles Havelock was deprived of two of his 
 most intimate friends, Sir Robert Sale and Major Broad- 
 Death of sir foot. It was under Sir Eobert that he had 
 Jnd Major 16 commenced his military career in India twenty- 
 Broadfoot. ^ wo y ears "before. They had shared together the 
 dangers of the Burmese campaign. They had fought 
 side by side in the terrific defiles of Affghanistan, and in 
 the defence of Jellalabad, and it was with no ordinary 
 sense of affliction that Havelock now stood over his grave. 
 Broadfoot had been wounded early in the action, but re- 
 fused to retire while he could sit on his horse; a second 
 shot terminated his existence, and he fell in the entrench- 
 ment he was attacking, by the side of Sir Henry Har- 
 dinge, who, in announcing the sad event to his family, said, 
 " You and I have sustained an irreparable loss. Your able 
 
1845.] DEATH OF BKOADFOOT AND SALE. 155 
 
 and distinguished brother fell by a grape shot in the battle 
 of Ferozeshuhur, while bravely animating his troops to do 
 their duty. The first shot threw him off his horse by my 
 side. I in vain entreated him to retire. His invincible 
 courage induced him to remount,, and he was killed as we 
 took the battery in our front. His abilities were of the 
 highest order, and in all the relations of life, whether 
 public or private, the force of his character was felt and 
 appreciated. I never can replace "him. . . . Scarcely a 
 day passes in the midst of these stirring scenes which does 
 not remind me of the loss the service has sustained. The 
 Arab on which he was mounted has had two balls ex- 
 tracted, and will recover. I am now the owner of the 
 animal, and he will always be a favourite of my stud." 
 Havelock always considered Broadfoot the foremost man 
 of his age, both as a soldier and a statesman. Though 
 differing in their religious views, they both possessed the 
 same nobleness of soul, the same indomitable energy and 
 courage, and the same strength of character ; the tie 
 which bound them to each other was the sympathy of 
 great and kindred minds. Both were formed to act a 
 prominent part in great events. 
 
 The important office of Governor- General' s Agent on 
 the North-west Frontier, vacant by the death of Major 
 Broadfoot, was conferred on another of Havelock' s friends, 
 Captain Henry Lawrence, whose qualifications for this 
 post he thus describes : 
 
 " When the fatal volley out of the Sikh tents at Ferozeshuhur, 
 which terminated the mortal career of George Broadfoot, deprived 
 captain Law- Sir Henry Hardinge of the services of that eminent 
 c^ds Major man > he called to his counsels Henry Lawrence, en- 
 Broadfoot. lightened, virtuous, energetic, experienced, and reso- 
 lute, for nothing more distinguished than his friendly feelings 
 towards the Sirdars and people of the Punjab. He had laboured 
 among the Sikhs as assistant to Sir George Clerk, a diplomatist 
 second to none who came before him or went after him in prac- 
 tical knowledge of the country of the five rivers, or influence over 
 its chiefs. In his school, Lawrence had studied and become in- 
 timately acquainted with the history, polity, statistics, habits, 
 
15G MEMOIRS OF SIE HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 and prejudices of the Sikhs, and, like Malcolm in Persia, and 
 Pottinger in Scinde, and other generous and distinguished men, 
 whose fortune has led them to prolong their intercourse with, the 
 populations of India, he had learned to regard them with feelings 
 of partiality, as men in some sort confided to his protection." 
 
 The tide of invasion had thus been stemmed. Of the 
 60,000 Sikhs who had poured down on the British, terri- 
 Reinforce- tories a month, before, none remained on the 
 fd e up!a r nd er " left bank of the Sutlege on the 23rd of Decem- 
 fromDdhT 111 ^ er ' But we had been so severely crippled in 
 the actions of Moodkee and Ferozeshuhur, in 
 which a fifth of the force had been killed or wounded, as 
 to be unable to ^follow up these hard-won victories. 
 Orders were therefore despatched in all haste for rein- 
 forcements, and a requisition was made for the siege train 
 from Delhi. The army was condemned to a long period 
 of inaction, while the train was moving up ; and the 
 Sikhs, attributing our inertness to fear, crossed the Sut- 
 lege again, insulted our posts, and threatened the canton- 
 ment of Loodiana. Sir Harry Smith was sent with a 
 large force to dislodge them. He encountered the Sikh 
 army at Aliwal, and inflicted a signal defeat on it; the 
 invaders were driven into the Sutlege, in which no small 
 number of them perished. 
 
 The Sikhs were, however, permitted a third time to 
 cross the river, and establish themselves in our territory, 
 Battle of so- near tne village of Sobraon. They erected the 
 braon. most formidable entrenchments on both banks of 
 
 the Sutlege^and mounted them with seventy pieces of 
 cannon, connecting the two camps by a bridge. It was 
 necessary to dislodge them, and the morning of the 10th 
 of February was fixed for the battle. Though .the army 
 had for seven weeks been waiting the arrival of the siege 
 guns from Delhi, they were, after all, left behind at Fe- 
 rozepore, and the mortars and howitzers alone taken into 
 action. They did great execution, but unfortunately the 
 ammunition was soon exhausted, and it was necessary to 
 bring the issue of the conflict to the arbitrement of mus- 
 ketry and the bayonet. The engagement begun at nine 
 
1810.] BATTLE OF SOBRAOK 157 
 
 in the morning, and in two hours the Sikhs were in full 
 flight across the bridge, which was swept by our field 
 artillery. The first fugitives, regarding only their own 
 safety, destroyed its connection with the farther bank. 
 Our field artillery and infantry pushed the crowded and 
 helpless masses, thus cut off from all hope, into the stream, 
 and mercilessly plied them for upwards of an hour with 
 grape and volleys at half musket range. The Sutlege 
 was choked up with the bodies of the slain. So fearful a 
 carnage had not been seen in India for a century ; but the 
 victory was dearly bought by the loss of 2400 on our side ; 
 and it was painful to reflect how large a portion of these 
 casualties might have been spared if our heavy guns, and 
 mortars, and howitzers, had all been brought to bear for 
 a sufficient time on the batteries of the enemy. Have- 
 lock was engaged throughout the action, and his horse 
 was shot under him. It was a hair-breadth escape, as 
 the ball struck the saddle cloth, and passed within an 
 inch of his thigh. The charger fell dead, but he himself 
 escaped unhurt. At a subsequent period Havelock wrote 
 in reference to this action : " The latter events on the 
 Chenab convince me more strongly than ever, that if a 
 plan which I put on paper, with a diagram, had been 
 followed in February, 1846, the victory of Sobraon would 
 have been achieved with a third of the loss on our side. 
 It embraced the project of turning the right by a bridge 
 at Ferozepore, and communicating with the turning co- 
 lumns higher up by means of pontoons." 
 
 This was the last of the four battles of the Sutlege, 
 which, in the space of fifty-five days, broke the power of 
 the Khalsa arinv, and placed the Punjab at our Haveiock's 
 
 j i mi -i -i p j opinion re- 
 
 disposal. Ine unprovoked invasion ot our ter- garding the 
 
 , r . -,11 f r> T ' ', i Punjab. The 
 
 ntories, with the obiect ot sacking our cities and. native GO- 
 
 i . . t ' 3 vernmeut re- 
 
 su everting our power, gave us a clear and. un- tamed. 
 equivocal right, after our successive victories, to incor- 
 porate the kingdom of the five waters with our own em- 
 pire. Haveiock's views extended to the entire and im- 
 mediate annexation of the country. He was convinced 
 that this must be the eventual issue of our conflict with 
 
158 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 the Sikhs, and lie was anxious to avoid the cost and car- 
 nage of a second war. But while he advised the subju- 
 gation of the country, he fully appreciated the circum- 
 stances which recommended a different course. The 
 morale of the British army at this juncture was low. The 
 European regiments had been fearfully thinned in these 
 actions, and their military spirit greatly diminished in 
 spite of their successes " exhausted, rather than sunk." 
 The season of heat and prostration was rapidly approach- 
 ing. How was this large army, between the Sutlege and 
 the Ravee, to be sheltered and fed during the period when 
 the climate would reduce it to a state of inaction ? Even 
 after the battle of Sobraon, the Sikh army was 14,000 
 strong, with forty pieces of cannon. These questions 
 were the subject of frequent discourse between Sir Henry 
 Hardinge and Havelock, who records, that, " scrupulous 
 in his integrity, he was willing rather to defer conquest 
 to a distant day, when he could personally gain nothing 
 by it, than permit his country to incur the odium of 
 ambitious projects. Moderation, after as well as before 
 victory, was the prevailing feature of his policy/' The 
 Government of the Punjab, therefore, obtained a respite. 
 The settlement made by the Governor-General provided 
 that the Sikh Durbar should pay a million and a half to- 
 wards the expenses of the war ; that the Jullunder Dooab 
 and the cis- Sutlege districts should be ceded to the 
 Honourable Company ; that Golab Singh should be re- 
 warded with Cashmere, and be raised to the rank of an 
 independent sovereign; and that the rest of the Punjab 
 should remain with Duleep Singh, the son of Ruujeet 
 Singh, to be administered by a Council of State. The 
 British troops were to occupy the capital for some months, 
 to effect the consolidation of the new system of Govern- 
 ment; and Captain Lawrence was nominated the repre- 
 sentative of the Government of India at Lahore. 
 
 Havelock proceeded in the suite of Sir Henry Hardinge 
 and Sir Hugh to Lahore, and had an opportunity of witness- 
 ne ceremonies by which the new Govern- 
 
1846.] HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE SIKH SIRDARS. L~9 
 
 ment was installed; and his graphic description 
 of the scene will be read with no little interest. dars> 
 
 " The treaty was ratified in full Durbar on Monday, the 9th 
 March, under a salute of siege ordnance. Commonly, field artil- 
 lery suffices for such purposes, but this compact may be esteemed 
 one of the great guns of the Company bahadoor ; and twenty-four 
 and thirty-two pounders have risen in estimation since first we 
 felt the force of such arguments in conflict with the Sikhs at 
 Ferozeshuhur. Maharaja Golab Singh was present at this Dur- 
 bar, and as he is no more to be seen but as an independent 
 sovereign, I may as well describe to you the ruler of Jummoo, 
 now lord of the mountains from Mundee to Cashmere. He is 
 neither so handsome as either Dhyan Singh, the pink of Lahore 
 courtiers, or his brother Soochet, or his nephew Heera Singh, 
 but he is like both brothers. His dress is remarkably plain, even 
 slovenly, but the checkered volume of his life is to be read in 
 his astute and glozing countenance. If a painter sought to em- 
 body all the smooth cunning of Asiatic intrigue in one face, he 
 would throw away his sketches as soon as he saw that of Golab 
 Singh, cease to draw on his imagination, and limn the counte- 
 nance of the Eae Sahib, as the people of Lahore call him, with 
 minute fidelity. He would feel that he never could surpass the 
 mock humility, the insinuating smile, the pride subdued by cun- 
 ning, of the physiognomy before him. On the morning of the 
 10th, the troops were a second time reviewed. This time all the 
 Sikh Sirdars of distinction attended, and saw the 22,000 soldiers 
 and the 101 pieces of cannon of their victors pass by them in 
 gallant yet grim array. The centre of attraction was the Eae 
 Sahib in his plain suit of yellow, and his unadorned, but no 
 doubt carefully loaded and capped, pistol stuck in his belt. . . . 
 Sir Charles Napier returns to Scinde the day after to-morrow. I 
 paid my respects to him finally on Monday morning. He was 
 very courteous, and chatted about my brother Will., whom all 
 Peninsular officers know, and dear old Sir Eobert Sale, and the 
 volunteers of the 13th, who fought so gallantly in Beloochistan. 
 It is impossible to conceive, without seeing it, a frame so at- 
 tenuated and shattered, and yet tenanted by a living soul, as this 
 old soldier's. He speaks readily and fluently, and will, if spared, 
 and again actively employed, shine more and more, in, I think, 
 the second rank of commanders. Of Sir Henry Hardinge, it was 
 
160 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 remarked to me by George Broadfoot, before his heroic death, I 
 am myself only a learner in war, but here we have a fine and 
 finished soldier. He is saving India.' " 
 
 He then proceeds to describe the chief men of the 
 Durbar : 
 
 " 1. Eaja Lall Singh Misr is a man of low extraction. He is 
 the paramour, or rather the most favourite paramour, of the Mu- 
 haranee. He is the Orlof I would rather say, the Potemkin 
 of the Punjab. He is marked with the small-pox, and rather 
 what we should call in England an ugly dog ; but tall and grace- 
 ful, with a winning smile, which shows constantly an indifferent 
 set of teeth, and insinuating manners. He has no reputation for 
 talent ; but his position in the affections of the Ranee will make 
 him "Wuzeer. 2. Dewan Deena-nath will look after the finances, 
 which will certainly require careful watching. He is a heaven- 
 born Muhajun (banker) and trader. His countenance looks like 
 the rectangular columns of a Hindoo account-book. 3. Tej Singh 
 is of small stature, and his lineaments, which are more scarred 
 by small-pox than those of Lall Singh, are not pleasing, but he 
 is the best soldier of all the Sirdars. When at Peshawur he 
 executed a brilliant chupao against the robber chief who had de- 
 fied Avitabile for years ; and, to be just to an enemy, the manner 
 in which he covered the retreat of the Sikh army, after their de- 
 feat at Ferozeshuhur, was really able. He would perhaps have 
 tried to crush Sir John Littler at Ferozepore, but that his co- 
 adjutor was Lall Singh, whose only firm resolution was never to 
 fight when he could help it. 4. Runjoor Singh, brother of 
 Lehna Singh, for whose benefit Sir Harry Smith established an 
 * ecole de natation ' at the ghat near Aliwal, is an ass, and looks 
 like one. He is young, and of that order of mind which experi- 
 ence will not improve. 5. The Fukeer Noorooddeen, brother of 
 the celebrated Azeezooddeen, has all the courtly eloquence for 
 which that mouthpiece -of old Runjeet was renowned. He is a 
 shrewd and wealthy man, and will be useful to the Government. 
 The people whom I have described are not very good materials 
 even for Asiatic rule ; but there are no better to be found. It 
 remains to be seen whether the army can be so remodelled as to 
 cease to be dangerous to its own master and mistress. It will 
 hardly attempt anything against us. If a tolerable discipline can 
 be substituted for the power of the deliberative committees, the 
 
1846.] DEPUTY ADJUTANT-GENERAL AT BOMBAY. 161 
 
 Punches, things may go on in the Punjab as in any other Asiatic 
 Government, which is not saying much." 
 
 He concludes this picture of the Punjab dignitaries with 
 this remarkable postscript : 
 
 " I entered upon this campaign, fancying myself something of 
 a soldier. I have now learnt that I know nothing. Well ! I am 
 even yet not too old to learn." 
 
 Havelock returned from Lahore to Simian in the suite 
 of Sir Hugh Gough. It was not unnatural for him to ex- 
 pect that, after having fought side by side with 
 his chief in three of the severest battles in the g 
 annals of India, he would have been recommended at Bombay. 
 to the Horse Guards for one of the vacancies created by 
 the casualties of the campaign, but he forbore from mo- 
 tives of delicacy to solicit it. Sir Henry, now created 
 Lord Hardinge, entertained the same expectation ; but not 
 seeing it likely to be realized, addressed the Duke on the 
 subject, and suggested that some suitable token of acknow- 
 ledgment should be bestowed on Havelock for his public 
 services, and his extraordinary military merits. The Duke, 
 who had previously given a commission to his eldest son, 
 responded at once to the request, and nominated him to 
 the post of Deputy Adjutant- General of Queen's troops at 
 Bombay. Havelock immediately proceeded toward Cal- 
 cutta, spending a week at Serampore with his friends and 
 relatives. Mrs Havelock' s mother, Mrs Marshman, then 
 in her eightieth year, was descending gently into the 
 tomb, after forty- six years of active and continuous exer- 
 tion in the cause of Indian benevolence. The parting fare- 
 well between her and Havelock was solemn and affec- 
 tionate. They both felt that it was their last interview on 
 earth. He embarked for Bombay in January, in company 
 with Sir George Clerk, whom he had known and learned to 
 appreciate during the Affghan war, and who had now been 
 appointed Governor of the Bombay Presidency. On his 
 arrival there, Havelock assumed the duties of his office, 
 which he continued to discharge, for nearly three years, 
 
162 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 with a degree of punctuality and promptitude seldom ex- 
 ceeded. Nothing could be more effective than the mode 
 in which the business of the office was conducted. He 
 was as exact in the performance of his duties at the desk 
 as he had been in the field, and never allowed any arrears 
 to accumulate. This period was marked by no event of 
 any note, and a few brief extracts from his correspondence 
 will serve to show the state of his health and feelings. 
 Three months after he had settled at Bombay, he experi- 
 enced a very severe attack of intermittent fever, which 
 drove him at once to the sanatarium of Muhabuleshur. 
 The cool and bracing air of the mountain, and the cessa- 
 tion of official toil, restored his vigour for a time, but he 
 was soon after attacked by a fever of a different type, at- 
 tended with alarming congestion of the liver. On the 
 29th of April he wrote : 
 
 " I am thankful to Almighty God that I am enabled to say 
 that, by His blessing, I am now decidedly better ; but I must be 
 Haveiock's off to England early in 1848. The fact is, my con- 
 en e w p hi?e d at stitution has been insensibly but deeply undermined 
 Bombay. by eight years' heavy and harassing work : and a con- 
 tinued residence of twenty-four years in India, and ( abominable 
 eating and drinking/ as Abernethy used to call luxurious feed- 
 ing ; fo-r I have passed from the most ascetic habits, to feasting 
 with rulers, and from cold water and three fasts in the week, to 
 washing down pomfret and iced delicacies with champagne and 
 golden sherry. My Simla physician, and others, recommended 
 a generous diet, as an antidote against the periodical returns of a 
 complaint which they considered constitutional, but which only 
 arose from a course of the worst water which was ever drunk by 
 an army, during our contests with the Sikhs. I certainly took 
 some draughts of fluid out of the central well of Ferczeshuhur, 
 which my horse refused with a shudder of disgust." [He always 
 considered that the well had been poisoned.] "The sense of 
 thirst was intolerable : but I am digressing. It is now plain, 
 that, whatever may be the cause, my liver has been much af- 
 fected, and that the genuine and strong drink, though adminis- 
 tered quite secundum artem, was so much poison. The recovery 
 of my health, and with it I hope of my finances, is now in the 
 hands of a higher power. . . I see that the rumour of Lord Har- 
 

 1847.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE FROM BOMBAY. 163 
 
 dinge's return to England is revived. The Punjab being so far 
 settled, it might be a happy time for retirement in next cold 
 weather, leaving the affairs of Lucknow and Hydrabad to be 
 settled by the new Governor-General. Misrule has proceeded to 
 such lengths at both capitals, that some remedy must be soon ap- 
 plied. Treaties are sacred things, but no treaty can bind the 
 British Government to connive so long at villany, as to become 
 an accomplice in it. . . I have felt during some portions of this 
 sickness a longing for a Christian's rest, relying on the Christian's 
 hope ; but the sight and the thought of my unprotected wife and 
 children makes me wish for life, though with labour and vexation, 
 until their lot is more settled." 
 
 Soon after Havelock's arrival at Bombay, Sir Wil- 
 loughby Cotton was appointed Comrnander-in- Chief, and 
 Havelock was thus a third time placed under his command. 
 On the 8th of July he writes : " I was once more hailed 
 by my ancient master, Sir Willoughby, on the 2 7th ultimo. 
 He is of more portly dimensions than of yore, but looking 
 far better than when I met him last on the Ravee." 
 
 On the 27th August he writes : 
 
 "August 27, 1847. 
 
 "Hannah is quite convalescent, though still thin; the girls 
 are healthy, and the boy grows fat ; all which are causes of 
 gratitude to God. For myself, I cannot boast. I am presently 
 convalescent, and see little of doctors, get on pretty well with 
 easy time of peace work, take a good deal of exercise, and am 
 happy in the use of a tolerable public library, and have improved 
 in flesh and spirits since I descended from the mountains to the 
 table land of the Deccan. But I have no doubt whatever that 
 my old liver, and probably other viscera beyond my anatomical 
 skill to particularize, have sustained serious, if not fatal, injury, 
 from the circumstance of long, and rather, on the whole, arduous 
 service in India ; and that I have no business in that country 
 beyond the going home time by the Eed Sea, of next cold season, 
 and no right ever to return to it, if a year's residence or two, at 
 the utmost, does not restore me to perfect health. So, as far as 
 both will and duty are concerned, I should say, to England I 
 must go. But as for the means of going, difficulties accumulate 
 around me every day. I shall not be out of the hands of the 
 Simlah Jews before February next. The expense of living and 
 
164 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. TV. 
 
 marching here, though conducted with the utmost economy, are 
 necessarily heavy ; and Harry and Joshua have to be provided 
 for and educated. Moreover, I lost, by accidental rupture of the 
 intestines, in fourteen hours, my ever to be lamented horse * Ma- 
 gician,' for whom I gave 1400 rupees last year on the banks of 
 the Sutlege, and his place has to be supplied, where, I know 
 not. So that if there were not an over-ruling Providence to untie 
 knots, it would be Macbeth's case : " There is nor flying hence, 
 nor tarrying here." 
 
 " September 18, 1847. 
 
 " The whole of the members of the faculty whom I have con- 
 sulted since 1824 have assured me that the functions of the great 
 organ in question, the liver, were deranged ; and hard work, 
 great exposure to the sun, or any untoward accident of climate, 
 would soon finish the story in ruptured abscess and death. But 
 it behoves me to consider that this catastrophe may happen in 
 England as well as in India. There I should die in poverty and 
 among strangers. Here I am at least known, and have the means 
 of living, while my life is spared, in comfort ; and from the mo- 
 ment that I embark for England, what is to become of the edu- 
 cation of my children 1 Nevertheless, I believe I shall see it my 
 duty to be oif, if I am spared so long, in March next. I do not 
 think my health will much improve in India until I have tasted 
 of a change. So I suppose I must endeavour to go, and leave 
 the event to God. I have backed out of every expense that can 
 be spared ; see no company, and never dine even with a secretary, 
 with no one, in short, but the Commander-in-Chief and the Go- 
 vernor. But my unavoidable expenses are heavy. Horses, uni- 
 form, houses at three several places, and long tours, eat up money 
 awfully ; and then supervene education bills, and the allowance 
 to my ensign of foot." 
 
 " September 28, 1847. 
 
 " I do not doubt that the advantages of sea air round the Cape 
 would balance the irritation which a long sea voyage would pro- 
 duce on the spirits of one who has ever hated that element ar- 
 dently, and not less, confinement in any shape. The Red Sea, 
 the Mediterranean, and the waters between the Straits of Gibraltar 
 and the pier at Southampton, will be quite enough of salt water 
 for me. I wish this measure could be avoided, but the wish is 
 vain. I shall not be fit again for Indian service without two 
 years' cooling and quiet in England. Lord Hardinge writes to 
 me that he has 52,700 men and 120 guns (ten regiments of 
 
1847.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE FROM BOMBAY. 1G5 
 
 European cavalry and infantry) between Meerut and Lahore. 
 But all is tranquil, and he looks forward to seeing the country, 
 when he is gone, nourish, after the completion of the Bengal 
 Railway and the Ganges CanaL" 
 
 " October 2, 1847. 
 
 " Why is it supposed that Sir Harry Smith's nomination to 
 the Cape is a questionable appointment 1 ? The private feeling 
 that I have in his favour is the recollection that, when I was a 
 boy, he was one of the few people that ever took the trouble to 
 teach me anything ; and while all the rest around me would 
 have persuaded me that English soldiering consisted in blacken- 
 ing and whitening belts with patent varnish and pipe clay, and 
 getting prematurely* every kind of mercenary manoeuvre, he 
 pointed my mind to the nobler part of our glorious profession. 
 But as a public man I shall ever acknowledge his merits. He is 
 an excellent soldier, one of the few now extant among us who 
 have set themselves to comprehend the higher portions of the 
 art. He has a natural talent for war, and it has been improved 
 by the constant reflection of years, and much experience. To 
 conclude that because he has been educated in camps, he is unfit 
 for civil government, is as premature as the prophecy of some, 
 that the Duke could never make an effective minister of the 
 Crown, or a useful parliamentary leader. He has done both, and 
 there is no species of business which Harry Smith's mental tact 
 will not enable him to grasp. So I venture to predict that if his 
 life be spared, and health preserved, he will be, perhaps not a 
 popular (oh ! how I detest that word ' popular ' as applied to 
 public men and acts), but a good Governor, both as regards 
 the views, if they be sound, of the Home Government, and the 
 interests of the colonists." 
 
 " November 24, 1847. 
 
 " Now I must tell you, that at the 'very outset of our tour, 
 from mismanagement of flannels, and sleeping in wet tents, and 
 in very bad encamping ground, I have had, I think, the worst 
 attack of liver I have ever experienced. The symptoms were not 
 remarkably violent or troublesome, but they were more clearly 
 indicated than during any previous illness. So, though I am 
 now very much better indeed, thanks to God's preserving mercy, 
 yet I feel quite sure that I cannot remain another year in India 
 without running the greatest risk of leaving poor Hannah and 
 my five boys and girls without a sixpence in the world but my 
 
 * Not distinctly legible. 
 
1G6 MEMOIES OF SIE HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 major's pension, 70 per annum, and a thousand pounds in the 
 funds. But I feel it my duty to be off in March. I feel myself 
 to be in the hands of a gracious God, and, relying on the merits 
 of the Redeemer, look forward calmly and joyfully to the event 
 of my own departure and dissolution ; but it behoves me to 
 think of the interests of your dear sister and the rest whom God 
 has given me. If I were to die to-morrow, the Queen's Widows' 
 Fund would send home Hannah and the three children here in 
 India, and land them in any spot in England they would name ; 
 but here the advantage would cease. If I can raise the means of 
 returning to England, the doctors seem to think that a year's 
 absence would entirely restore my health, and that two would 
 make me as good a man for Indian work as I have ever been. 
 To my post I could then return without let or hindrance. The 
 difficulty lies in going to, returning from, and living in England. 
 There my sixteen shillings, my pay per diem, will give us bread 
 and salt, but would not give my boy education, or my girls in- 
 struction of a tolerable kind. If I go to England at all, I must 
 lay my account in finally sacrificing my prospects in the army by 
 purchase, by expending before I returned the thousand pounds 
 placed in the funds for that purpose. I am, as regards worldly 
 goods, in an evil case somewhat, and also in a strait between 
 two ; but a merciful God will solve the enigma, and I trust, if 
 He wills that I die in India, give me a death of hope, and eternal 
 life after earthly dissolution, and will put it into the hearts of 
 others to devise something for those whom I leave -with a 
 bleeding heart I write it almost penniless. 
 
 " If it pleases G-od to spare me to return to India, to the one 
 object of doing something for those dear children putting aside 
 all thought of war or policy, with reservation only to my eternal 
 hope my life should be devoted. But what are human resolves 
 or aims ? All is in the hands of God, and He will deal mercifully 
 and wisely with us for His Son's sake." 
 
 "February 16, 1848. 
 
 " I have had the satisfaction of paying the Simla bank its last 
 instalment, and am panting for the luxury of feeling that I do 
 not owe a sixpence in India ; and if life be spared me, this shall 
 by God's blessing be achieved. An elephant load of office papers 
 is awaiting for me, and I must close." 
 
 "March 18, 1848. 
 
 " Now I must announce to you briefly, but at once, that I have 
 given up my passage for the first of April, and determined, by 
 
1848.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE FROM BOMBAY. 167 
 
 God's help, to try another year in India. It would take much 
 time fully to explain this change. But the chief reason is, that 
 I found myself, at the last moment, or, at least, in the last month, 
 so much better, that my doctor gave me the opinion that I might 
 stay without much risk ; so I thought it to be my duty to try 
 and spend one year more in India, a year of the strictest self- 
 denial and economy, for my children's sake. I have been told, 
 however, that I must remain! constantly ready to start at a fort- 
 night's notice, or less, if my constitutional disorder should unfor- 
 tunately blaze out." 
 
 " March 31, 1848. 
 
 " If I remain well at Mahabuleshur, I hope to finish my sketch 
 of Broadfoot, and then take in hand the defence of Jellalabad 
 and the Gwalior (Maha raj pore) campaign. Meanwhile, I who 
 never before addressed a more formidable body than the soldiers 
 of the old 1 3th, or the guests at a mess-table, have been seduced 
 into making a speech, and in a crowded town-hall. At the re- 
 quest of Mr Legeyt (a relative of the Conollys), I gave Sir 
 Erskine Perry a memorandum of all I knew of Sir George Clerk, 
 and was then asked to second the address to him." In seconding 
 the address Havelock said : " Now, of the defenders of Jellala- 
 bad, Sir Kobert Sale, Colonel Dennie, and greater than either 
 greater than any and all that fought for the defence of that 
 old wall Major George Broadfoot, are in their soldiers' graves ! 
 But if it were possible to recall them (for the sake of India, 
 would it were !), or if I could summon round this table my sur- 
 viving comrades of Jellalabad, by acclamation they would cor- 
 roborate that which I now tell you, that in moments such as I 
 have endeavoured to describe, the hopes and expectations of that 
 garrison of succour from beyond the Sutlege were mainly built 
 on the energy, perseverance, and address of him who is known 
 to you, gentlemen, and admired by you, as the Governor of Bom- 
 bay ; but who was best known to that garrison, as he will pro- 
 bably be best known in historv, by the title of George Clerk of 
 Umbala." 
 
 The second Sikh war, which Havelock' s knowledge of 
 Indian politics, and his singular foresight, led him to pre- 
 dict in March, 1846, overtook the Government T h e second 
 within two years. The arrangement made by Sikhwar - 
 Lord Hardinge, of the government of the Punjab under 
 native rulers, was not, from the nature of the case, likely 
 
168 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 to be permanent. A year had scarcely elapsed, before the 
 administration was threatened with dissolution by intrigues. 
 The Sirdars felt that the presence of a British army was 
 indispensable to the support of their authority, and the 
 British Government felt that it was necessary to assume 
 the direct control of affairs if the country was not to be 
 abandoned to anarchy. A new convention was, therefore, 
 formed in 1847, by which the entire supervision of the 
 administration was confided to the British Eesident, Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, and his council. Havelock expressed 
 his deep regret that the new arrangement was not con- 
 solidated by placing British garrisons in Govindgur, 
 Attock, Peshawur, and Mooltan, by levelling every other 
 fortification, and disarming the whole population. More 
 especially did he consider it an act of great indiscretion to 
 leave a formidable Sikh force at Peshawur, on the Affghan 
 frontier, bound to us by no other tie than its own doubt- 
 ful sense of fidelity, or its attachment to its able com- 
 mander, Colonel George Lawrence. At the beginning of 
 1848 Lord Hardinge returned to England, with such en- 
 tire confidence in the stability of his policy, that he stated, 
 on embarking, that another shot would not be fired in 
 India for seven years. This confidence he was fully 
 justified in entertaining, inasmuch as he had passed the 
 year before his departure in making arrangements for se- 
 curing the tranquillity of the Punjab, and for the instant 
 repression of the first movements of rebellion. He had 
 judiciously disposed 52,700 troops and 120 pieces of can- 
 non between Meerut and Lahore, and had drawn up an 
 admirable paper of instructions for the guidance of the 
 Kesident at Lahore, which seemed to embrace every pos- 
 sible contingency. The failure of his health constrained 
 Sir Henry Lawrence to relinquish his post at Lahore, and 
 he accompanied Lord Hardinge to England. To supply 
 his place, it was determined to adopt the unusual course of 
 deputing a member of the Supreme Council to manage the 
 administration of the Punjab, and Sir Frederick Currie 
 was selected for the post. 
 
 Sir Frederick Currie, on his arrival at Lahore, found 
 
1848.] SECOND SIKH WAK. lf>9 
 
 himself reposing on no velvet cushion. Sawun Mull, the 
 governor of Mooltan, was assassinated in 1844, outbreak at 
 and his son, Moolraj, was allowed to succeed him Hav!& 8 
 on the payment of a large fine. He had ex- opinion - 
 pressed a wish to be relieved of the Government, and two 
 English officers accompanied the new Sikh Governor to 
 receive charge of the province. They were murdered on 
 their arrival, and before the end of April the province of 
 Mooltan was in a blaze of insurrection. This was the first 
 overt act of opposition to the Government we had estab- 
 lished in the Punjab, and should have been met with 
 promptitude and decision. Contrary to the advice of Sir 
 Frederick Currie, it was treated with levity and irresolu- 
 tion, and a second Sikh war soon became inevitable. 
 Havelock remarks on this event : 
 
 " The opposition might have been foreseen ; why was it preci- 
 pitated ] If we were not prepared to go to war in April, we 
 ought not to have meddled with the affairs of the successor of 
 Sawun Mull who was, in his own estimation, little less than an 
 independent sovereign till October. But, in fact, the whole of 
 the dispositions of Lord Hardinge for the support of his policy 
 had reference to the very case of such a rebellion. He had put 
 it fully in the power of the Resident to environ the walls of 
 Mooltan in June, at the latest, with four European battalions, 
 and a due proportion of native troops : some two European regi- 
 ments might then, as afterwards, have been drawn from Scinde ; 
 the rest, as Napoleon said of Saragossa, ' would have been an 
 affair of artillery.' But the authorities doubted and consulted ; 
 and the result of their deliberations was for delay, and a cam- 
 paign on a grand scale, at a favourable season. The question 
 was important, and may be thus stated : If Mooltan were 
 promptly besieged and taken, the rebellion would be at once 
 trampled out. But the march up through Scinde and Lahore, in 
 May, would have decimated the troops. The little war at Mool- 
 tan neglected, might in a few months assume formidable propor- 
 tions, and burst out into a conflagration, the flames of which the 
 whole armies of two Presidencies might find it difficult to extin- 
 guish. 
 
 ' The military Commander and the Resident had scarcely 
 ceased to bandy arguments, when a man of genius, acting in the 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. IT. 
 
 spirit of Lord Hardinge's instructions, cut the gordian knot. A 
 lieutenant in the Company's service Herbert Edwardes em- 
 ployed as a political assistant in a remote part of the country, 
 with an energy and military enterprise to which India had af- 
 forded no parallel since the days of Clive, and evincing a rn^ral 
 courage just so much greater than that of Clive, as his position 
 was inferior to that of the wonderful founder of our eastern em- 
 pire, when he ventured on the overwhelming responsibility of 
 his greatest achievement, the march on Moorshedabad this 
 gifted lieutenant, overleaping all considerations which could em- 
 barrass him in the discharge of an important duty to the state, 
 raised an auxiliary force, united it to a portion of the Khalsa 
 troops, called to his aid an allied native sovereign, encountered 
 Moolraj in the open field, and drove him within his fortress." 
 
 The Resident at Lahore was constrained to second this 
 daring effort. A small division of British troops, under 
 siege of Mooi- General Whish, with a battering train, at length 
 
 tan. Eevoltof , n ,* i/* i i 
 
 Shere eingh. marched against Mooltan, accompanied by a 
 large Sikh contingent under Shere Singh, whose father, 
 a chief of doubtful allegiance, commanded a still larger 
 force at Peshawur. Moolraj defended himself against 
 these united forces with admirable skill and resolution. 
 The siege languished ; the Punjab wavered, and the tide 
 appeared to be turning against us. Shere Singh went 
 over with all his troops to the enemy, and the British 
 
 General was in his turn besieged in his camp. But Shere 
 ingh did not long remain with his new ally. He had 
 plans of ambition of his own, and inarched northward to 
 join his father, who had by this time raised the standard 
 of revolt. He plan ted 'himself between the Chenab and 
 the Jhelnm, invited to his camp the disbanded soldiers of 
 the old Khalsa army, and the numerous disaffected spirits 
 throughout the Punjab, and soon found himself at the head 
 of a formidable force in theheart of the country. At length, 
 at the beginning of the cold season, the Commander-in- 
 Chief took the field in person, and began to draw his forces 
 The com- ^ a head. His army was essentially weak in in- 
 oh^kesthe fantry. The continued siege of Mooltan , de- 
 fieid in person, tained a large and important body under its walls. 
 
1848] HIS REMARKS ON THE CAMPAIGN. 171 
 
 to which point the Bombay reinforcement was also march- 
 ing up through Scinde. Lord Gough had around his 
 standards only four regiments of British infantry, and 
 eleven native regiments. In artillery, the balance, which 
 in Hie first Sikh war inclined towards the enemy, was now 
 restored with a great superiority. Sixty-four field pieces, 
 and a tremendous battery of eighteen-pounders and large 
 howitzers were attached to the force. Three noble regi- 
 ments of British horse, and five regiments of native light 
 cavalry and irregular horse, completed the equipment. 
 But the deficiency of infantry was undeniable and irreme- 
 diable, save at the hazard of endangering the safety of 
 Lahore. 
 
 On the general plan and first movements of the cam- 
 paign, Havelock recorded the following remarks: 
 
 " Shere Singh, with a considerable force of Khalsa troops and 
 armed peasantry, and gaily equipped, and effectively, though not 
 handsomely mounted Ghorchurras, and supported by a Haveiock's 
 formidable artillery, boldly assumed the Hue of the tiTSno? 
 larger river, the Chenab. It seems strange that the the campaign. 
 Commander-in-Chief should not have been impressed with a con- 
 viction of the extreme hazard of the attempt to force successively 
 the banks of three great rivers, since Peshawur might be con- 
 sidered the objective point, with the aid of an infantry, gallant 
 and disciplined, but numerically so inadequate to carrying on war 
 with a high hand. Shere Singh, by moving to the northward, 
 had compelled the British to operate upon two lines. They were 
 combining at once from Bombay and Bengal against Moolraj, and 
 at the same time had to confront the insurrection in the superior 
 delta of the five rivers. For this extenMve and dangerous opera- 
 tion the force of infantry was visibly feeble. Rivers too had to 
 be passed, and the pontoon train was glaringly deficient. Under 
 these circumstances, the Commander-in-Chief would, it may well 
 be argued, have exercised a sound discretion if he had determined 
 to act offensively on one line only at a time ; if he had restricted 
 his own efforts to preventing Shere Singh from detaching a single 
 soldier to the relief ^f Moolraj, awaited its fall, which was a 
 matter of calculation, and then, as was ultimately done in fact, 
 have thrown his united forces with irresistible power on Shere 
 Singh. If any such plan ever presented itself to his mind, or 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. rv. 
 
 was suggested to him, it may be easily supposed that a leader of 
 his sanguine temperament rejected it with disdain. Doubtless, 
 he thought of bursting with headlong force the barriers of the 
 Chenab, the Jhelum, and the Attock ; and his ultimate success 
 will suffice in the eyes of the unreflecting to justify this resolve. 
 But fair military considerations seem to lead to a different con- 
 clusion, and to teach, that it was precisely because he persisted 
 in thus operating on a double line, with insufficient forces and 
 remarkable want of caution, that the period between approaching 
 the Chenab and conquering at Goojerat, exhibited such a spec- 
 tacle of abortive exertion and useless slaughter. While he com- 
 bated alone, the power of the British in India, and the reputation' 
 of their arms, was exposed to m> small hazard. It was only when 
 reinforced by the troops which the fall of Mooltan set free, that 
 the British leader marched to easy and assured victory. In esti- 
 mating, however, the advantages of cautious and defensive 
 manoeuvres on the Chenab, it is not to be forgotten how tre- 
 mendous a clamour would have been raised against such a cam- 
 paign by idle cavillers, and the press of India, which constitutes 
 a power not to be despised, because its influence stealthily com- 
 municates itself to the Government. The most enlightened critic 
 of Indian military history always used to laud to the skies the 
 gradually progressive operations of Ochterlony against the Goor- 
 kahs. But he would add with emphasis, 'Eemember, even 
 Ochterlony could not have carried out his plan if India had then 
 had a press.' Yet neither he nor I ever doubted that the freedom 
 of the press had proved an inestimable blessing to India, as well 
 as England, though in time of war it had its inconveniences." 
 
 The British army was now advanced towards the Chenab. 
 Shere Singh, with his large body of Khalsa troop s, armed 
 Engagement peasantry, and well- equipped horsemen, and a 
 De?Wwi?' powerful artillery, occupied both banks of that 
 Ham Haveiock. r i ver> jji s main body was encamped on the 
 right bank, protected by batteries mounting not fewer than 
 twenty-eight guns, which were well covered from any fire 
 that could be opened from the left bank, and indeed in- 
 visible from it. Having boats on the river, and the com- 
 mand of the ford, he had pushed a considerable body of his 
 troops across the river. The British army having arrived 
 in front of his position, there was a reconnaissance in force, 
 
1848.] DEATH OF HIS BROTHEE WILLIAM. 173 
 
 with cavalry and horse artillery. We were provoked by 
 the Sikh fire into a contest under every possible disadvan- 
 tage, on ground where nothing but disaster could occur. 
 Our troops were bewildered, and the State was deprived 
 by death of the services of Colonel Cureton and Colonel 
 William Havelock. The death of his brother was a most 
 severe stroke to Havelock, and immediately after hearing 
 of his loss, he sent the following letter to his intimate 
 friend, Colonel Birch, the Judge- Advocate- General of the 
 Bengal army. 
 
 ''Bombay, Dec. 7, 1848. 
 
 " My dear Birch, Your letter of the 23rd ultimo only reached 
 me yesterday. Your kind heart had anticipated my wishes ; for 
 on the 4th instant, having seen a hurried newspaper account of the 
 affair of the 22nd, I wrote to ask of you to give me every particular 
 of my brother's death. My will has been wholly resigned to that 
 of God since I first heard of the event ; and my mind supported 
 by his Spirit, though harassed and thrown for a moment into sus- 
 pense by the doubts which succeeding statements expressed of 
 William's fate. To me it did not appear doubtful, though many 
 of those numerous persons who knew and esteemed him here were 
 striving to persuade me to hope. As regards the operation, it 
 must be clear to any unprejudiced persou that it ought never to 
 have been undertaken. You may remember our pickets being 
 driven in some weeks before Sobraon ; it was the commeucement 
 of the enemy's successful attempt to establish himself ou the left 
 bank. The reason which I gave then against attempting counter- 
 manoeuvres is perfectly applicable to the case of the Chenab. The 
 enemy had a powerful artillery on the right bank, and until its 
 fire could be subdued, were fairly to be considered the proprietors 
 of the stream, and of as much ground beyond it as could be swept 
 by the fire of their guns. * 
 
 " Their horse, pushed forward on the left bank, were intended 
 to bravado and decoy, and should have been simply let alone, or 
 cannonaded when convenient aud possible, by guns out of reach 
 of those of the enemy. 
 
 " The stream of the Chenab is, according to my recollection, 
 not more than four hundred yards in width, perhaps less. A 
 battery of twenty-eight guns, intrenched on its right bauk, is 
 therefore a front of fortification, covered by a ditch of ; the 
 specified breadth, and not to be approached by armed bodies. 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 The same reason exists for not attacking its outwork on the left 
 bank I mean, the little intrenchments in the broken ground. 
 I see that you, and possibly others, have formed the opinion that 
 my brother's impetuosity led him farther than he ought to have 
 gone. It may have been so. Old Will was a fox-hunter before 
 he was a soldier, and has been a hog-hunter since, and would 
 lightly esteem a ditch or nullah, manned by a few irregulars, 
 which would have made others pause. The case of "White pulling 
 up, and Havelock dashing on, finds a parallel which will suggest 
 itself to all readers of military history, in the story of Talavera, 
 where Arentschild would not make the plunge, and Seymour 
 would, losing all but Portarlington's squadron of the 23rd in the 
 onslaught. 
 
 " It was natural that an old Peninsular officer, who had not seen 
 a shot fired since Waterloo, should desire to blood the noses of 
 his young dragoons. But his proposal should have been negatived 
 at once, if not according to military rule, which it is clear it was 
 not. Whether he went too far or not, and whether the scheme 
 of the attack originated with him or not, are minor questions. 
 The Commander-in-Chief, and the General of Division, were both 
 in the, field, and, as I believe, on the spot. Neither the public 
 nor posterity will consent to fix the responsibility on any shoulders 
 but those of the seniors ; it is the irreversible decree of military 
 responsibility that there it must rest, and history will have it 
 so. The faults of execution, if it be clear there were any, do 
 not account alone for the disaster, since it can be shown that 
 to attack at all was objectionable on fair military grounds. I 
 do not make these remarks in a carping or selfish spirit, irritated 
 at a loss which comes home to my own door ; but because all 
 these events are lessons to soldiers, which they must not lose, 
 and all military matters must be judged of by certain unchange- 
 able rules. 
 
 " I may well grieve for the loss of the brother who was brought 
 up with me in the nursery, and was nine years my schoolfellow ; 
 but though it be decided in Bengal that the same acts which 
 would be lauded as heroism in Anglesey, or Joachim Murat, or 
 Auguste Caulincourt, are mere rashness in Will Havelock, I 
 cannot quite think so ; nay, strange old man that I am, my 
 grief is more than half-absorbed in admiration ; and I proudly 
 parody the saying of the English nobleman, and would scarcely 
 give my dead brother for any living soldier at the three Pre- 
 sidencies. 
 
1849.] HIS REMARKS ON HIS BROTHER'S DEATH. 175 
 
 " Brave officers have fallen, but the mode of retrieving this 
 surely lies on the surface. I trust no attack will be made in 
 front on Shere Singh's position. But if a force were intrenched 
 at Ramnuggur, with heavy guns that could take care of themselves 
 and reach and repress the insults of bodies of horse, a place to cross 
 would easily be found. There are in all rivers spots where the 
 salient bend is towards the advancing party. If one of these were 
 selected, twelve miles above Shere Singh's encampment, and the 
 circumference surrounded by a rapid march with horse artillery, 
 and the pontoon bridge quickly thrown while the Shere was 
 amused at Ramnuggur, there would be a noble force across, and 
 leave the Singh little chance but having his intrenchment taken 
 in reverse, or coming out to fight a battle which would be fatal to 
 him, while an attack in front would be nearly so to us. Cureton 
 is indeed a loss. His long experience had made him a first-rate 
 out-post officer ; and few others in India, or in England, could 
 move bodies of cavalry better. 
 
 " Ever, my dear Birch, faithfully yours, 
 
 "H. H." 
 
 A few months after his brother's death Havelock drew 
 up a memoir of his career, after he had received a more de- 
 tailed report of the action in which he fell ; and Haveiock-s re- 
 it was published in Dr Ernst's Annals of the year. S S of n hS ie 
 It combined in one portraiture the warm afiec- brother - 
 tion of a brother with the lofty enthusiasm of a soldier, 
 and the impartial judgment of a military critic. The 
 termination of his career on the sands of Ramnuggur is 
 thus mournfully described : 
 
 " On the morning of the 22nd of November he seemed a good 
 deal excited. This may be pardoned in an old sabreur, whose 
 enthusiasm had been pent up without vent or safety-valve in his 
 bosom since the battle of Waterloo. He is said to have worried 
 Cureton with entreaties to be allowed to attack the Sikh horse, 
 who were caracolling in front of the 14th, and more than once to 
 have exclaimed, that this day ' he hoped to win his golden spurs.' 
 Alas, he won nothing but his soldier's grave, and every brave 
 man's sympathy. A troop of our horse artillery had, by opening 
 against the right bank, showed the position of the enemy's guns ; 
 and a steady charge of the 3rd Light Dragoons, aided by light 
 cavalry, had chastised on one point the presumption of the Sikhs. 
 
176 MEMOIES OF SIR HENEY HAVELOGK. [CHAP. ly. 
 
 Cureton had given his consent to another body of these being at- 
 tacked by the 14th ; and the Commander-in-Chief, riding up to 
 "Will Havelock, had said, ' If you see a favourable opportunity of 
 charging, charge.' ' The gallant old Colonel,' remarks one who 
 was present, 'soon made the opportunity.' And so it was ; fSr 
 not many minutes after, "Will Havelock, ' happy as a lover,' sitting 
 as firmly in the saddle as when he overleaped the abbatis on the 
 Bidassoa, placed himself in front of his cherished dragoons, and 
 remarking, ' We now shall soon see whether we can clear our front 
 of those fellows, or not,' boldly led them forward to the onset. All 
 who beheld it have spoken with admiration of the steadiness and 
 the gallantry of this glorious gallop. The Sikhs made a show of 
 standing the charge, a pied ferme, and some of them must have 
 stood well, for sabre cuts were exchanged with effect Captain 
 Gall, while grasping a standard, had his right hand cut through 
 by the stroke of a Sikh, which he delivered with the hissing sound 
 of an English pavior driving home a stone. Young Fitzgerald's 
 skull was cleft to the brain by another blow from one of the enemy ; 
 but the mass of the Sikhs opened out right and left, and gave way 
 before their victors. 
 
 " Thus the first charge seemed to have ended, in which Havelock 
 was not even wounded. We pretend not certainly to know by 
 whose order a second was hazarded, but it seemed certain tljat it 
 was executed ; and even regarding the first there had been misap- 
 prehensions, for, as Cureton watched its progress, he exclaimed, 
 ' That is not the body of horse I meant to have been attacked ; ' 
 and riding to the front, received in his gallant breast a fatal match- 
 lock ball. 
 
 " We hasten to the end, narrating as it has to us been narrated. 
 Again the trumpets of the 1 4th sounded, and, overturning at first 
 all that opposed them, onward in the direction of the island they 
 took their course. The Sikh battery opened on them a heavy 
 fire, and there was a descent of some four feet into the flat j but 
 Havelock, disregarding all opposition and all difficulties, and 
 riding well ahead of his men, exclaimed, as he leapt down the de- 
 clivity, * Follow me, my brave lads, and never heed their cannon- 
 shot.' These were the last words he was ever heard to utter. The 
 dragoons got amongst broken ground, filled with Sikh marksmen, 
 who kept up a withering fire on the tall horsemen, throwing 
 themselves flat on their faces whenever they approached them. 
 After many bold efforts the 14th were withdrawn from the 
 
1849.] HIS REMARKS ON HIS BROTHER'S DEATH. 177 
 
 ground, but their commander never returned from that scene of 
 slaughter. 
 
 " It is not yet known exactly how he fell. Probably his charger 
 was struck down by a cannon-shot, and then he would have to 
 contend against fearful odds : in fact, his orderly has related that 
 he saw him lying in the nullah with several dead Sikhs around 
 him, and that, being wounded himself, he could not go to his 
 Colonel's aid. Another dragoon beheld him contending against 
 several of the enemy. Havelock died, and his body remained in 
 the sandy level, in the power of the Sikhs. He is said to have 
 slain several of them with his own hand on this day. We need 
 not be supposed to borrow from the romantic tale of Eoland and 
 Amadis if we -credit this assertion, for even the stag at bay will 
 fiercely turn upon his hunter what, then, the lion in the tiger's 
 den ! And we know that few had learnt in youth to wield sabre 
 or rapier like Will Havelock, and at fifty-six his eye had lost 
 nothing of its native quickness. 
 
 " When Lord Gough's operations had put the British in pos- 
 session of the right bank of the Chenab, and not till then, Have- 
 lock's body was found. It was recognized fully by the pious care 
 of the Eev. W. Whiting, chaplain with the force. Deep cuts on 
 one leg, both arms, and the fingers of the right hand, attested the 
 severity of the conflict in which he had sunk. The Sikhs had in 
 their barbarous fashion decapitated the gallant slain, and eleven of 
 his noble dragoons who had fallen around him. In one of three 
 tombs which are to be seen near the Imambarah at Eamnuggur, 
 from which Runjeet Singh used to review his troops the two 
 other sepulchres being those of Cureton and Fitzgerald, lies the 
 mortal body of William Havelock. 
 
 " The best and bravest of England's chivalry need not disdain 
 to make a pilgrimage to this spot. They will see there the remains 
 of a gallant young soldier a gallant soldier's son. There, too, 
 lie Cureton and Havelock, whom so many Peninsular dangers had 
 spared. Neither of these men was perhaps fitted to be a general, 
 in the highest sense, or understood the higher tactics ; but Cure- 
 ton had few equals in all the duties of a regiment, a brigade, or a 
 divisional command few could move considerable bodies of 
 cavalry like him : and if in these particulars Havelock was his 
 inferior, he was not unskilled in them, and possessed above most 
 men the valuable power of imparting to others the ardour which 
 ever burnt in his own bosom. Therefore it was that, on the 
 
 12 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 day of, Kamnuggur, his beloved dragoons so cheerfully mingled 
 their blood with his blood, and so nobly followed wherever 
 their commander led, though it was into the gulf of inevitable 
 destruction ! " 
 
 After the unfortunate action of the 22nd November, the 
 Commander-in-Chief waited the arrival of his heavy guns, 
 Battle of sa- which came up on the 30th. He then wisely de- 
 
 doolapore. . -. , r T rr . in..* 
 
 shere Singh termmed to send bir Joseph Jnackwell to cross 
 MS position, the Chenab at a ford higher up. This movement 
 was effected on the 2nd of December. As soon as the 
 intelligence reached Lord Gough, he commenced a 
 heavy cannonade on the enemy's encampment across the 
 river, and the Sikhs were obliged to withdraw two miles 
 from the river-bank. Under cover of the night, the Brit- 
 ish batteries were pushed so close to the margin as to com- 
 mand the ford. "This advance/' remarked Havelock, 
 " by successive lodgments, whereby the mastery of the 
 river was transferred from the hands of the Sikhs to those 
 of the British, and the ford hermetically sealed, is to be re- 
 garded as a very splendid military operation." Sir Joseph 
 pursued his march, on the 3rd of December, and was at- 
 tacked about two in the afternoon by the enemy. At the 
 village of Sadoolapore he sustained for two hours the 
 heavy cannonade of the Sikhs ; his artillery then opened 
 with deadly effect, and by half-past four the hostile cannon 
 began to slacken, aud then ceased. Sir Joseph, having 
 the example of Moodkee and Ferozeshuhur before him, 
 wisely determined to avoid storming the enemy's position 
 at night. " He had profited by experience," remarked 
 Havelock, " and would not, amid the shades of night, pre- 
 cipitate his brave troops, broken and wearied, into a laby- 
 rinth of tents, waggons, and tumbrils, among exploding 
 mines and expense magazines." About midnight it was 
 apparent that the Sikhs were in full retreat. They moved 
 off in silence, but the barking of dogs in their rear be- 
 trayed the movement. At daybreak on the 4th, Sir Joseph 
 put his troops in motion, but found that Shere Singh had 
 already deserted his camp, blown up his magazines, and 
 
1849.] THE BATTLE OF CHILLIANWALLA. 179 
 
 was in full retreat on the Jhelum. " Thus," wrote Have- 
 lock, "were the Sikhs dislodged from the banks of the 
 Chenab. The British career in India has been attended 
 with such great and wonderful successes, as entirely to 
 vitiate the judgment of the European community. No- 
 thing but a grand victory, whenever there is collision with 
 the enemy, will satisfy a public mind so marvellously spoilt 
 by good fortune. Howbeit, war is not a romance, but al- 
 ways matter of nice calculation, of fluctuating chances ; a 
 picture not seldom crowded with vicissitudes, and often- 
 times a season of patient waiting for small advantages. 
 So the passage of the Chenab to the politicians of India 
 was a great disappointment. But it may be predicted 
 that the deliberate judgment of those who have meditated 
 much on military operations will be widely different from 
 this crude condemnation. They will recognize in Lord 
 Gough a laudable combination of enterprise and caution, 
 presenting a favourable contrast to the school-boy skirm- 
 ish at Eamnuggur; and Sir Joseph Thackwell will be 
 adjudged to have most meritoriously carried out his por- 
 tion of the operation." 
 
 For four weeks after the successful action at Sadoola- 
 pore, and the retirement of Shere Singh, the British army, 
 still waiting for the troops which would be re- Battle of CMI- 
 leased by the capture of Mooltan, remained in a H^lSt's 
 state of inactivity. After various movements, it remarks - 
 was encamped at Dinghee, on the 12th of January. Shere 
 Singh, with an army which had been in the mean time 
 augmented in numbers and confidence, had taken up one 
 of the strongest positions which could be found, with his 
 back resting on the Jhelum. The 13th witnessed the 
 battle of Chillianwalla, the most sanguinary and the most 
 unsatisfactory which we had ever fought in India. Have- 
 lock's commentary on this memorable engagement will be 
 deemed valuable by all military readers : 
 
 " Fortune," says Havelock, " so to speak, has ever favoured the 
 leader, Lord Gough, and never smiled on him more propitiously 
 than now. The advance beyond Dinghee was a false move. He 
 was about to attack with an insufficient force one of the strongest 
 
180 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 positions the Sikhs had ever taken up, but now a counter-move of 
 the enemy gave him a grand and unexpected advantage ; for as he 
 got closer to Chillianwalla it became evident that the rebel force 
 had abandoned their intrenchments, and marched forth to meet 
 the British in the field. A picket of the Sikhs was driven in from 
 a^low bare hill, and when this was ascended by the staff, a distinct 
 view was obtained of the enemy's line ; covered indeed by thick 
 jungle, but ready to combat without the aid of intrenchments. It 
 had been determined to defer the attack till the next morning, and 
 to make a careful reconnaissance before the assault; and the 
 Quarter-Master-General had been ordered to mark out a position 
 for the encampment. This duty was already commenced and in 
 progress, when a few shot from the horse artillery the enemy had 
 pushed to the front fell near the British commander, and the order 
 was issued for an immediate attack." 
 
 This decision Havelock was unable to commend. 
 
 "In 1845, before a sword had ever been drawn against the 
 Sikhs, the natives best acquainted with them had warned the 
 British that they were not to be dreaded as assailants, but that 
 they always defended a position with an obstinacy hardly to be 
 overcome by human effort. At Moodkee, at Eerozeshuhur, and at 
 Sobraon, the justice of this remark was fully confirmed. It was 
 always therefore desirable so to manoeuvre as to force the Sikhs to 
 take the initiative. Now at the village of Chillian this advantage 
 had been fortuitously gained. But the advantage was neglected. 
 There can be no doubt that if the British army had taken up the 
 most favourable ground, as Sir Joseph Thackwell had done at 
 Sadoolapore, with its infantry and cavalry screened as much as 
 possible, and our powerful artillery used in answer to that of the 
 Sikhs, to which it was numerically and in calibre superior, the 
 happiest results would have followed. The Sikhs would have 
 threatened and cannonaded, but not attacked ; the artillery would 
 have been ruined, and if they had not decamped during the night 
 they might, at daylight perhaps, have been assailed in their turn 
 with much advantage. But orders were given to prepare for 
 immediate action. The Sikhs had now opened a continuous roar 
 of fire from a jungle so thick that nothing was offered as a mark 
 to the British artillery, which loudly replied, but the flash and 
 smoke of the hostile cannon. This cannonade lasted, according to 
 the official despatch, about an hour. About half-past three P.M., 
 
1849.] EEMARKS ON THE BATTLE OF CHILLIANWALLA. 181 
 
 in the middle of January, General Campbell's division was ordered 
 to advance against the enemy's line. At Moodkee the troops had 
 fallen into confusion in a fight protracted after nightfall. At Fe- 
 rozeshuhur an encampment nobly stormed by the British had 
 slipped through the grasp of its victors, through the disadvantage 
 of night settling down upon the last efforts of the troops, yet the 
 same risks were to be here again encountered." 
 
 Though the particulars of this disastrous day are fully 
 known to the public, yet Havelock's description of the rout 
 of Penny cuick's brigade and of the cavalry division will be 
 read with interest : 
 
 " The brigade of Pennycuick was, however, destined to meet 
 with a terrific repulse. Its advance was daring in the extreme, 
 but over-impetuous. Its British regiment, the 24th, advanced with 
 an ardour that seemed to promise victory; but while yet at a 
 distance from the enemy it broke into too rapid a pace, outstripped 
 its native regiments, and rushed breathless and confused upon the 
 enemy's batteries. Close to the position it received a deadly 
 shower of grape, and, while shattered by its fatal effects, was torn 
 to pieces by a close fire poured in by the Bunnoo troops from 
 behind a screen of jungle. The native regiments, when they came 
 up, were unable to restore the battle. The brigade was thrown 
 into utter confusion. The most desperate efforts of the officers 
 availed not to restore order. Brigadier Pennycuick was slain in 
 the forepart of the fight. Colonel Brookes, the commander of the 
 24th regiment, fell among the guns. The Sikhs, seeing their ad- 
 vantage, rushed forward sword in hand, cut down their wounded 
 opponents with savage fury, and speedily converted the rude 
 repulse into incurable rout. The colours of the gallant 24th fell 
 into the hands of the enemy, but not until 23 officers and 459 
 non-commissioned officers and privates had fallen or received 
 wounds." 
 
 In regard to the movement of the cavalry brigade at 
 Chillianwalla, Havelock has remarked : 
 
 " To protect the extreme flanks of the infantry, it was deter- 
 mined to bring up the fine cavalry into first line. This col- 
 location of horse has hitherto been deemed faulty in tactics, 
 though circumstances of ground may render it unavoidable. It 
 has ever been deemed preferable to keep cavalry in second line, and 
 
182 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 sheltered as much as possible from the influence of artillery and 
 musketry fire, until the moment of rapid action arrives. But the 
 brigades of horse were in first line at Maharajpore and here again, 
 as it would appear, at Chillian, on a field of battle covered wijfch 
 dense forest. Now cavalry is essentially an attacking, no "h, 
 defensive force. It gives no fire that is worthy of the name. Its 
 mode of operation is rapid, vehement, advancing in compact order 
 whether of line or column, thereby bearing down and sweeping 
 away the resistance opposed to it. If, therefore, it be used in 
 ground where this powerful action cannot be sustained, it is 
 rendered inoperative or worse. Its province is to meet hostile 
 cavalry on a plain, sometimes to charge in unfavourable ground in 
 a mass upon a point, but above all to improve and complete 
 victory by riding down defeated or disordered infantry* If these 
 first principles are undeniable, it may be deduced how little was to 
 be expected from the co-operation of horse in this forest fight, in 
 which it was the destiny of the British to be engaged. It needed 
 no prophetic glance to anticipate that some of the evils which 
 arose at Ramnuggur from the exposure of a valuable cavalry 
 regiment to unapproachable artillery fire might at Chillian once 
 more result from their entanglement in the recesses of a forest. 
 But the actual mischief certainly exceeded any estimate that could 
 have been previously formed, and in the sequel it will be seen how 
 marked is the difference even on the most unfavourable ground 
 between the ignorant and the skilful handling of brigades of 
 cavalry." "The cavalry commander advanced his four cavalry 
 regiments into a dense forest at a wall formed in one line. The 
 forest was thick, yet not a skirmisher was sent forward to explore 
 the way. The twelve pieces of artillery were so disposed in rear of 
 the left of the cavalry, that they could not open fire from a single 
 gun. No reserve, second line, or supporting column provided 
 against temporary reverse, though this is an indispensable rule in 
 cavalry arrangements, and not only did the extended line overlap 
 the infantry, but the line was by the trees and clumps of brush- 
 wood speedily broke into an infinite series of small sections doubled 
 behind each other. . . . This was the state of things when a small 
 body of Ghorchurras, intoxicated with the stimulating drug which 
 Asiatic heroes called to the aid of their valour, rode in a mass upon 
 the centre, wounded the brigadier, and caused a sensation of terror 
 among the native troops. The cavalry soldier that deliberates is 
 lost. From alarm not checked by nobler considerations, and con- 
 verted on the instant into bold advance, by the example of 
 
1849.] REMARKS ON THE BATTLE OF CHILLIANWALLA. 183 
 
 superiors, the transition is as easy and seductive as the deceitful 
 path which leads to the shades of Avernus ; and in this crisis, from 
 the centre, whence it ought to have come, there issued no rallying 
 word. But by some mortal man, whether, according to one nar- 
 rative, an officer of light cavalry, or another the serjeant-armourer, 
 or Vulcan of the dragoons, the fatal order ' Threes about ! ' was 
 given. The British line turned to the rear, moved off confusedly, 
 and there, while the Ghorchurras followed in their track, fairly 
 galloped through the forest in panic as shameful as that of Preston 
 Pans, or the ' canter of Coltbrigg.' Nor was their flight the end 
 of the disaster, for the able and original disposition, on which it 
 had supervened, having posted twelve guns, where the British 
 dragoons were alone in their line of fire, the mass of fugitives of 
 the 14th came at racing speed headlong amidst the cannon and 
 waggons ; and the Ghorchurras, rapidly pursuing, entered the 
 
 ranks of the artillery along with the flying dragoons It is 
 
 but just at the same time to record that irrefragable and most 
 circumstantial evidence has been adduced that Lieut. -Col. King 
 did all that the bravest of men could do to rally his panic-stricken 
 men. When they fled, he kept ever during the miserable rout 
 nearest to the foe, and re-formed his squadrons the moment they 
 could be halted. His conduct throughout the campaign was 
 consistently gallant." 
 
 After having described the part sustained by each por- 
 tion of the force in this furious struggle, Havelock pro- 
 ceeds to remark : 
 
 " Such in its chief details was the battle of Chillianwalla, one 
 of the most sanguinary ever fought by the British in India, and 
 the nearest approximation to a defeat of any of the great conflicts 
 of that power in the East. The British drove the Sikhs from their 
 position, but they were unable to hold the ground which they had 
 won. The victors retired some hours after the close of the day to 
 their own camp ; the vanquished traversed in detachments the 
 scene of the conflict throughout the night. Twelve pieces of can- 
 non were the trophies of British yalour ; four guns of the Horse 
 Artillery were captured by the Sikhs, and the colours of three 
 regiments were lost in the action. The battle had been fought 
 with the view of ' effectually overthrowing the army of Shere 
 Singh ' before it could be reinforced by the troops under his father. 
 That army was not effectually overthrown. It sustained a heavy 
 loss, but retired without interruption not more than three miles 
 
184 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 from the field of battle, and Chutter Singh joined his son three 
 days after the fight. Eighty-nine officers and 2357 fighting men 
 was the price paid by the British for these doubtful advantages. 
 If moral superiority be regarded, the results of the battle were yet 
 more disheartening to our countrymen. The character of th& 
 Sikhs for prowess was considerably elevated ; the reputation of the 
 British cavalry was grievously tarnished. In India, nevertheless, 
 Chillianwalla was declared by the highest authority to be a victory, 
 and the sound of cannon announced the triumph at every station 
 in the three Presidencies. But even here we were anticipated ; 
 for Shere Singh fired his salute on the evening of the fight. His 
 great guns again shook the welkin when his father joined him. 
 But if in India Chillianwalla was decked out by the trappings 
 of victory by the Government, while public opinion deplored it as 
 a calamity and a reverse, in England the intelligence of this great 
 combat excited in every breast, from the court to the cottage, 
 sentiments of alarm and indignation. British cannon had been 
 captured, British standards had been lost, British cavalry had fled 
 before the enemy. The Indian press had spoken in no measured 
 terms of the conduct of the fight, indeed, of the whole campaign, 
 and its deepest tones of vituperation were echoed by the journal- 
 ists of England. The common people, whose guesses at truth are 
 often shrewd, felt that they had lost sons, brothers, relatives, and 
 friends, and suspected, though they could not define the grounds 
 of their belief, that in this instance deficiency of skill was the cause 
 of their bereavement. The higher classes were not less loud or 
 unanimous in their condemnation. Many individuals knew that 
 after the battle of Maharajpore, the great captain of the age had 
 highly applauded the gallantry of the troops, but freely criticised 
 the manoeuvres of the General. The Court of Directors saw already 
 in terrific vision their glittering empire escaping from their grasp, 
 and had become willing, in their perplexity and dismay, to accept 
 of the services of that general, who, in the exultation of victory, 
 had scoffed at their authority, defamed their civil servants, and 
 arraigned themselves of incapacity. The ministers of the Crown 
 and the illustrious head of the army were agreed on the necessity 
 of a change in that command. Within three days of the arrival in 
 London of the details of the sanguinary engagement, Lord Gough 
 had been doomed to taste the bitterness of recall. Revert we now 
 to the theatre of war on which the object of all this distrust and 
 obloquy was destined still to play a glorious part and achieve a 
 victory over his enemies in the field, and to magnify himself at 
 
1819.] HE ENDEAVOURS TO JOIN THE ARMY. 185 
 
 the expense of those who, acknowledging his private virtues, and 
 admiring his martial qualifications, his quick perceptions, his 
 untiring energy and indomitable valour, yet doubted whether 
 nature had designed, or education or experience had qualified, him 
 for extended and independent command." 
 
 Havelock had exchanged from the 13th into the 39th, 
 and then into the 53rd, in which regiment he was second 
 maior. at the beginning of 1849. On the 5th of Haveiock en - 
 
 T-I V , 1 ii J.T A. i deavours to 
 
 Feb. it was reported in the papers that his corps, join the army 
 the 53rd, was to be immediately ordered into the jab* he 
 field, to take part in the Punjab campaign. He was de- 
 termined, he said, " that no one of his name should ap- 
 pear to be slow to answer the call of duty," and he made 
 immediate arrangements for joining the regiment. The 
 report was confirmed a week after, and he received intel- 
 ligence that six companies had actually proceeded towards 
 the camp ; he, therefore, sought and obtained permission 
 from Sir Willoughby Cotton, the Commander-in- Chief at 
 Bombay, temporarily to relinquish his staff-appointment. 
 He started for the Punjab without delay, and on reaching 
 a staging bungalow on the 3rd of March, wrote : " Thus 
 far have I got on my way towards the Punjab, and thus 
 far, thank God, in good health. I have only one stray 
 military remark to make on the campaign ; throughout, 
 Lord Gough has not had troops enough. Doubtless this 
 has arisen from the error in judgment of not at once 
 finishing off Mooltan, which would either have obviated 
 a campaign on the rivers of the Punjab, or have left us 
 abundant forces for a single line of operations. We have 
 been operating on two at once, and for this we lacked 
 troops. Chillianwalla has been a dead loss to us in forces 
 and in reputation." On the 12th of March, half way be- 
 tween Indore and Agra, he received an official letter from 
 head- quarters, peremptorily ordering him back to Bom- 
 bay, and censuring Sir Willoughby Cotton for having 
 permitted him to quit his post, and reprimanding him for 
 having done so, without Lord Gough' s leave. Had he 
 been allowed to reach the army, his rank would have en- 
 titled him to the command of a brigade. The reason as- 
 
186 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 signed in the official communication for remanding him 
 to Bombay, was that if he joined the force about to cross 
 the Jhelum, it would interfere, owing to his army rank, 
 with the arrangements already completed under Lord 
 Gough's orders ; t( in other words," said Havelock, " I am 
 not wanted as a Major, and shall not be appointed as a 
 Brigadier." However severe the disappointment, Have- 
 lock took the whole blame of it to himself. 
 
 "I have no cause," he writes, "to arraign Lord Gough's con- 
 duct in ordering me back to Bombay. I have coolly weighed the 
 matter, and as I never like to lie myself out of scrapes, I freely 
 confess the fault has been my own. The fact is, I allowed my 
 mind to be biassed on the subject of the 53rd going on service 
 without me, aud acted wrong, though under the strongest sense 
 of duty. On hearing the first report of my regiment beiug 
 ordered forward to Lahore, I ought to have simply written 
 through Sir Willoughby for Lord Gough's permission to join it. 
 All this I see clearly now, but what is the use of after wisdom ? 
 Neither Sir Willoughby nor I saw it at the time. My pecuniary 
 loss will be most heavy, and my position deteriorated, as, besides 
 the loss of reputation attending every error, I have got a repri- 
 mand, and shall get another from the Horse Guards. The latter 
 might displace me, but I do not think they will carry matters so 
 far, the error being on the side of fight. But now, am I to sit 
 down in despair ? Not I, by God's blessing. If health and life 
 be spared I hope to retrieve all yet. I will labour hard, aud cut 
 down my expenditure to the lowest scale." 
 
 The second Sikh war was brought to a triumphant issue 
 by the decisive victory of Goojerat. The British army, 
 Battle of GOO- which from the first had been deficient in in- 
 iock*a re^ ave " fantry, was so seriously weakened by the casual- 
 marks. j es a Chillianwalla, that the Commander-in- 
 Chief was obliged to confine himself for a time to defensive 
 operations, while he awaited the fall of Mooltan and the 
 accession of the besieging troops. At length, Moolraj, 
 after having sustained in the citadel of Mooltan, to which 
 he had retired, the most awful fire of ordnance, direct and 
 vertical, which had ever in India been concentrated upon 
 the same narrow circuit, had been constrained to sur- 
 
1849.] THE BATTLE OF GOOJEEAT. 187 
 
 render. The army of Mooltan was brought up by rapid 
 marches to reinforce Lord Gouglr's force, and enable it to 
 attack the Sikh phalanx, which had broken up from Rus- 
 sool, and after various marches and counter-marches in the 
 Dooab of the Chenab and the Jhelum, had taken up a 
 strong position at the town of Goojerat. Strengthened 
 by the addition of the troops from Mooltan, the British 
 army now, combined under the command of Lord Gough, 
 was sufficiently strong to crush any opponent. Happily, 
 with the army from Mooltan came General Cheap of the 
 Engineers, who had conducted the scientific branch of the 
 second siege of that fortress with consummate skill 
 and brilliant success. He now took charge of the en- 
 gineering department in the action about to be fought. 
 On this, the occasion of our last struggle, for the time, 
 with the Sikhs, we enjoyed the advantage of a complete 
 reconnaissance, and it was determined to reverse the prin- 
 ciple of our previous engagements, and instead of trusting 
 the issue of the conflict to " cold steel/' to bring our ar- 
 tillery, the most powerful which had ever been deployed 
 by us on any field in India, into full play. The army of 
 Shere Singh was estimated at 60,000 ; but we again bor- 
 row Havelock's vivid description of the engagement : 
 
 "At half-past seven in the morning of the 21st of February, 
 the British advanced to the combat in the most perfect order, and 
 as they approached Goojerat, the drums of the Sikhs were heard 
 to beat to arms. The morning was clear and cloudless, and the 
 sun shone brightly on the extended line of bayonets and sabres. 
 The Singhs, ever ready with their guns, seemed as usual anxious 
 to have the first blow, and opened their batteries on the British 
 at an unusually long range. The infantry was halted beyond the 
 reach of their round shot, and the artillery, protected by skir- 
 mishers, pushed boldly to the front. A cannonade was com- 
 menced about nine A.M., of which the oldest and most experienced 
 soldiers in the army had never witnessed the parallel for magni- 
 ficence and effect. It continued somewhat more than two hours 
 and a half, the field artillery firing at the rate of about forty 
 rounds each sixty minutes, and its results exceeded the most 
 sanguine expectations, even of those who had most boldly advo- 
 cated this mode of reading warriors, who piqued themselves on 
 
188 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 their artillery powers, a great and abiding, it might be, a final 
 lesson. Notwithstanding the quickness with which the Sikh 
 guns were served, it was soon seen that neither human fortitude 
 nor the best material could permanently withstand the storm,. 
 Numerous guns were dismounted, and the fire of the formidable' 1 
 line, before a musket had been discharged, evidently slackened. 
 Then the infantry deployed, and commenced a steady advance, 
 the heavy guns as well as field batteries keeping pace w#h the 
 troops, and unlimbering for effective action in successive posi- 
 tions. . . The cavalry, which had been wisely restrained from 
 taking too prominent a part in the action until the enemy's centre 
 was forced, and his infantry signally defeated, was at length 
 called upon to exercise its most terrific function of improving 
 victory. The Sikh line was broken and in flight, and its frag- 
 ments pursued by four steady divisions of infantry. Then from 
 either flank the horse, unbroken and in perfect order, swept for- 
 ward to do the work of final retribution. The two columns 
 speedily got into communication. Onward they moved in union, 
 cutting down, dispersing, riding over, and trampling the flying or 
 scattered infantry, capturing guns and waggons, strewing the path 
 with dead and dying ; forward they moved in their irresistible 
 course, and converted a beaten army into a shapeless, hideous 
 mass of helpless fugitives. It was not until half-past four that 
 they drew rein and halted, by which time the army of Shere 
 Singh was a wreck, deprived of baggage and standards, its camp 
 given up to the spoiler, and fifty-three pieces of its cannon in the 
 hands of its pursuers. Such was the battle of Goojerat, of which 
 we may fully confirm Lord Gough's own unassuming judgment, 
 when, in privately announcing his resignation to' the chairman of 
 the Court of Directors, he called it ' his last battle and his best.' 
 "We may say much more of it. Compared with any of the con- 
 flicts and achievements of Clive, of Coote, of Cornwallis, or any 
 other commander, it stands out in very bold relief indeed, not 
 only as regards the importance of its results, the utter quelling 
 and quenching the power and spirit of Eunjeet Singh's great 
 armament, terrible in the death-throes of its expiring wrath, but 
 with reference to the magnitude of the forces arrayed on either 
 side, and the great confidence which had been imparted to the 
 enemy by preceding events. The most striking point of contrast 
 in which it can be viewed, is with some of the previous actions 
 of the same noble and distinguished commander. For here the 
 ground had been deliberately and effectively reconnoitred, an early 
 
1849.] THE BATTLE OF GOOJEKAT. 189 
 
 hour in the morning was chosen for the period of attack, the 
 troops were brought up fresh to the mighty contest, and if in 
 their disposition there was nothing of the originality of genius, if 
 there was none of that combination which doubles the power of 
 every soldier in the field, yet the imposing array of the British 
 took its field in a grand and magnificent manner, and the means 
 employed were all calculated to produce the desired effect, and 
 did produce it. Above all, the arm in which the English host 
 had, beyond a dispute, a preponderating power, the artillery, was 
 well posted, and allowed ample time to develope its irresistible 
 strength. In fact, by it this battle was won. Although the 
 enemy was pursued with skill and enterprise by Sir Walter 
 Gilbert, yet the game of real war was at an end. Goojerat had 
 smitten the rebellion with paralysis. Civilized nations which 
 have fortresses and organized military establishments, are often 
 seen to rally and to prolong the contest, after the most stupifying 
 defeats. There is a principle of cohesion in the European cha- 
 racter, which renders this possible. Asiatics, more easily excited 
 by success, sink into utter prostration under calamity. Goojerat 
 had driven the rebels to despair. Indeed it was no small glory 
 to them to have so long resisted the British power, but a review 
 of the last events of the campaign fully corroborates the opinion, 
 that though more caution at its commencement might not have 
 shortened the duration of the struggle by a day, it would have 
 diminished the British losses by more than half, and saved their 
 army from disaster little short of defeat." 
 
 With this battle fell the throne established by Runjeet 
 Singh. So rapidly had our success at Goojerat followed 
 our disappointment at Chillianwalla, that Lord Dalhousie 
 was without instructions from England regarding the 
 course he was to pursue. Constrained thus to choose his 
 own policy, he wisely determined to annex the Punjab 
 to the British dominions, to dismantle the fortresses and 
 disarm the people. For several years he devoted himself 
 most assiduously to the construction of a system of legis- 
 lation and administration, in which the errors we had 
 fallen into in the older provinces should be avoided, and 
 the experience we had been acquiring for a century, em- 
 bodied. A form of government was thus established, 
 simple and vigorous, under the influence of which the 
 
190 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 prosperity of the country and the welfare of the inhabit- 
 ants have been promoted beyond precedent. So com- 
 pletely was the Punjab amalgamated with our empire, 
 that eight years after a hostile Sikh army had streamed- 
 over the Sutlej and shaken our empire to its centre, 
 another Sikh army was seen to cross that river to re- 
 store our authority in the provinces which had revolted 
 from us. Under the admirable arrangements of Lord 
 Dalhousie and Sir John Lawrence, the country which had 
 been the source of danger became the element of our 
 strength, and Delhi was saved from Lahore when Calcutta 
 could afford no aid. 
 
391 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Ilavelock is obliged by ill Health to visit England. His Correspondence after 
 his Arrival. Presented at the Levee by the Duke. His Opinion of Sir 
 Robert Peel. Meeting with Sir "W. Norris and Archdeacon Hare. Letter 
 from the Archdeacon. Visits the Baths of Germany. His Opinion of the 
 Court of Directors, and the Court of Proprietors. Endeavours to obtain the 
 Bank of Brevet-Colonel, but in vain. Returns to Bombay. Seeks Employ- 
 ment in the Burmese "War. Appointed Quarter-Master-General of Queen's 
 Troops in India. Visits Serampore for the last time. Proceeds to Simla. 
 Promoted to the Rank of Brevet- Colonel. Appointed Adjutant-General of 
 Queen's Troops. His Letters to his Family. Returns to Calcutta. Tours 
 with the Commander-in-Chief, General Anson. 
 
 IN the month of April, Mrs Havelock was constrained, in 
 consequence of the alarming indisposition of her eldest 
 daughter, to embark with her family for Eng- 
 land. Had Havelock been in a position to follow 
 the dictates of prudence, which the state of his 
 health strongly recommended, he would have accompanied 
 her. He had been twenty-six years in India without any 
 opportunity of recruiting his strength by a visit to Eng- 
 land. His constitution, which was feeble when he landed, 
 had been shattered by six years of severe military cam- 
 paigning. Indeed, the marvel was, that with the seeds of 
 disease in him, he should have been enabled to survive 
 the wear and tear of the Sikh and Affghan wars. At 
 Bombay, as he said, " he could act for himself, and live as 
 a Christian ought to do ; " but it was a life of extreme, 
 perhaps also of imprudent, abstemiousness, as well as of 
 incessant official toil. In September of the present year, 
 however, he experienced so serious an attack of illness, 
 that his medical advisers considered it no longer safe for 
 him to remain in India, and he was obliged, therefore, 
 though not without great reluctance, to make up his mind 
 to return forthwith to England. On the 10th of Septem- 
 ber he wrote to Serampore : 
 
192 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 " I am feeling very feeble to-day, and must therefore be brief. 
 I wish my last letter from India could impress on you the necessity 
 of not doing that which I have done, wearing mind and body to 
 rags with over hard work in a bad climate. I have had a severe 
 return of my vertigo and palpitation of the heart. Two doctors 
 had before agreed that I must go to England at once. It was now, 
 therefore, decreed to assemble a board, and to make me strike work 
 without delay. So, I have got leave, and propose, if life and 
 strength be spared, to embark for Suez on the 1st of October. I 
 am now paying the penalty for three years of carelessness for the 
 future at Simla. At Bombay I have done my best to retrieve all, 
 but sickness or death, as God shall order, has overtaken me in the 
 midst. The doctors do not tell me that they suspect any organic 
 disease of any kind, but that my disorder is an enfeebled constitu- 
 tion, the result of upwards of twenty-seven years of hard work 
 under an Indian sky. I have for the present saved the life of my 
 dear Pussy [the eldest daughter] by sending her home in April, 
 and if I sink myself here, or on the journey, I still hope to pay 
 everybody. For Hannah and my children there will remain my 
 pension of 100 per annum and faith in God." 
 
 Havelock embarked for England in October, 1849, and 
 reached London on the 5th of November. The following 
 Haveiock em- extracts from his correspondence, during his re- 
 uSdf f mf cfr- sidence of two years in England, and on the con- 
 respondeuce. tinent, will serve as an index to his feelings and 
 opinions : 
 
 "London, 7th Nov., 1849. 
 
 " I have much cause to be thankful for the circumstances of my 
 voyage and journey. I reached this truly splendid capital on the 
 anniversary of the meditated treason by gunpowder, some hours 
 short of one month and two days after leaving the Apollo Bunder 
 at Bombay. The Eed Sea was like a mill-pond, but hot as had 
 been the rocks at Aden. In Egypt I found the fervours of an 
 Indian sun. But tired in Alexandria of being cooped up on board 
 ship, I took the French steamer to Malta and Marseilles, travelled 
 through France to Boulogne, and by steamer across the channel, 
 and up the Thames by Ingress Park (now the seat of Alderman 
 Harmer) to London Bridge. In health and strength I have, by 
 God's blessing, greatly improved." 
 
 His earliest visit was to his sister, Mrs Creak, at Ply- 
 
1849.] HIS LETTER TO COLONEL GARDNER. 193 
 
 mouth. He also lost no time in renewing his corre- 
 spondence with his old friend, Gardner, who has been 
 already mentioned as his fellow-passenger to India in 
 1823, from whose spiritual counsel he had derived so much 
 benefit. 
 
 "Plymouth, 24th Nov., 1849. 
 
 " My dear Gardner, I hope you will not judge of my senti- 
 ments on receiving yours of the 19th, with reference to the length 
 of time it remained without an answer. It is indeed a delight to 
 me to be once more in the same land and neighbourhood with you, 
 and to communicate with you again. But I wished to be able to 
 say something approaching to decision on the subject of migrating 
 to Bath, before I wrote to you. 
 
 " I will confess I do not like either the climate or the localities 
 of this town, and the damp and constant rain are not very 
 pleasing to one who has already got through one monsoon in the 
 year 1849. But I find that some arrangements have been made 
 regarding the education of my children, which bind us almost 
 irrevocably to the spot until the end of the year, if we are so 
 long spared. After that time, I shall be at liberty to think of a 
 change, and I shall indeed rejoice if it be one which brings me 
 nearer to you. 
 
 " We have ordinances here and faithful preaching, no slight 
 blessings. But of the climate, I think as I thought of Devon- 
 shire twenty-seven years ago, it is relaxing and enervating even 
 in winter. Be assured that, as an old Indian, I have learnt the 
 necessity of taking good care of my health. It has improved by 
 my return to England, but had been so shattered by the last 
 three years in the East that the faculty did not promise me any con- 
 siderable change for the better for the first six months. I seem, 
 however, to myself, to gain strength daily, though the progression 
 is not rapid. 
 
 " I sympathize sincerely in all your distresses, bereavements, and 
 losses. I too have my cares, regrets, and troubles. But we are 
 journeying on, I trust, to the land where none of these exist, and 
 to which the Saviour, who has been our hope on earth, shall there 
 give us a glorious welcome. 
 
 " Should we finally be able to emigrate in your direction, Mrs 
 Havelock and I will ask your kind assistance in obtaining for us 
 such information as we may stand in need of. I have returned 
 from India as poor, the increased claims on me considered, as I 
 
 13 
 
194 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 went to it ; but as full of hope, for time and eternity, as in the 
 year in which our acquaintance first commenced." 
 
 " Plymouth, 3rd January, 1850. 
 
 " The 25th of December and the 1st of January, of which I wish 
 you and yours holy and happy returns, have found Hannah and 
 me, and all our tribe still here. I am not enamoured of the locality 
 as such, at all, at all ; but it is recommended by various considera- 
 tions. I ought, though I fear I do not, class first in my heart and 
 mind, the excellent preaching of the Gospel which we enjoy under 
 Mr Nicholson. In purity, faithfulness, and simple eloquence, it 
 is not to be anywhere surpassed. Ne^fc, though the climate is 
 damp and relaxing, yet my physician doubted, and we also doubt, 
 whether we could venture to face the severer cold of any more 
 northern or eastern county. 
 
 "Plymouth, 21 Feb., 1850. 
 
 " Lord Hardinge having in a letter to us given me renewed en- 
 couragement to come and see him, I accepted the invitation of 
 some kind friends of George Broadfoot, who reside in Regent's 
 Park, and set out for a week's visit to London. Lord Hardinge 
 received me very kindly the next day. He had just been visited 
 by Sir William Gomm, whom he asked me to meet on the follow- 
 ing Monday. The Viscount is looking stouter than when he was 
 in India, though there he was not in bad case. I saw the proof 
 prints of the picture of himself, sons, and nephew, on the field of 
 Perozeshuhur, and had a good deal of chat about Indian affairs. 
 He complained of Captain Cunningham's ' History of the Sikhs,' 
 yet urged me to plunge into histories. I could only reply that I 
 could not afford to part with my bread." 
 
 Havelock was presented at* the levee in March, by the 
 Duke of Wellington. He was also elected a member of 
 Presented at ^ e Senior United Service Club, and invited to 
 theDuklof meet Lord G-ough at a public dinner. He was 
 Wellington. a | so p resen t a t the banquet given to him by the 
 Court of Directors at the London Tavern. The following 
 letter describes his feelings on these occasions : 
 
 " Plymouth, 4th April, 1850. 
 
 " I have made two very interesting visits to London, the exciting 
 cause in chief being my desire to do something for my son Joshua. 
 The late reductions have so clogged the wheels of appointment and 
 promotion at the Horse Guards, that I resolved to besiege the 
 India House. I have personally asked the aid of eighteen of the 
 
1850.] HIS OPINION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 195 
 
 directors. This is a pretty extensive canvass, and though I have 
 got little but civil speeches, without the slightest promise of an 
 appointment, I am resolved, by God's blessing, to persevere. I was 
 elected unexpectedly a member of the Senior United Service Club, 
 and invited to meet Lord Gough, by whose side I had ridden in 
 four general actions, at the banquet given him by the Court of 
 Directors. I cannot describe to you my feelings at finding myself 
 among so many old acquaintances, many of whom I had not 
 seen for nearly thirty years, at the levee and at these two great 
 dinners. There was also interest of another kind. In looking 
 at the Duke of Wellington, and listening to his speech, His re marks 
 nearly all that we have read of the ruined powers of ^ e n he 1 f )U tlJe 
 Marlborough, after his first paralytic seizure, seemed da y- 
 to be realized. I never witnessed so affecting a spectacle of 
 mouldering greatness. He is so deaf, that he seemed to me to 
 utter prolonged inarticulate sounds without being aware of it. 
 He begins, but rarely concludes a sentence, and where he breaks 
 off in a period, the spectator doubts from his manner whether he 
 will commence another, or fall down apoplectic in the next effort 
 to begin one. The Marquis of Anglesea* spoke clearly and with a 
 fine aristocratic intonation and emphasis. Lord Hardinge's voice 
 was sonorous as a bell, and his few short sentences put you in full 
 possession of all that he meant to say. At the London Tavern, 
 Lord John Russell delivered himself in brief, slow, and measured 
 periods, taking time to think as he spoke ; it was a pleasure to 
 listen to him. But when Sir Robert Peel arose, and began to 
 wind forth his classical and persuasive words, easily, fluently, 
 rhetorically, and energetically, you saw before you at once the 
 man fitted to govern this great country, ever ready for every 
 emergency, with a large and strong grasp of mind, and inward 
 sense of superiority, calculated to subdue everything but the 
 prejudices of the pocket. You could hardly be restrained from 
 exclaiming aloud, Why is not that man perpetual Prime Minister 
 of England? 
 
 " England appears to me to be more intensely aristocratic than 
 ever. The great changes are, the rapidity of communication by 
 locomotives, the extraordinary increase of the power of the press, 
 the improved morality and decency of habits of the middle and 
 lowest classes, and the accumulation of unions for the promotion 
 of industry, comfort, and decidedly of religion. Into the midst 
 of this, a conqueror, old or young, a Lord Gough, or a Major 
 Edwardes, dropt suddenly, becomes, as formerly, a nine days' 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 wonder, but the mercurial surface of society will not long retain 
 the impression. The wealthy and the great, under any pretext, 
 are entirely wrapt up in themselves and their own interests. 
 Avarice is the great idol, greater even than fame just now." 
 
 " Plymouth, 6 June, 1850. 
 
 " You will be sorry to hear that I have not since March been 
 favourably advancing towards recovery. There seem to be para- 
 doxes in the frame as well as the mind of man. Winter was 
 pointed out to me by the faculty as my great enemy. But I faced 
 the cold weather manfully and improved every day. Spring has 
 brought back my Bombay enemies, a disordered liver and shivering 
 ague fits. I am now better, however, and have on the whole gained 
 strength, so will not despair of being once more fit for service in 
 India, though I must not be sanguine." 
 
 A few months after his arrival in England, he received 
 Renewal of the following letter from his old schoolfellow 
 course with at the Charter House, Sir William Norris, who 
 Norran had retired from public life, after having filled 
 Hare. ac in succession the offices of Chief Justice of Cey- 
 lon, and Recorder of Penang : 
 
 " Barrow Green House, 
 
 22nd May, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Havelock, After a separation of nearly forty years, 
 about half of which I have passed in the far East, and you I 
 dare say a larger portion, I address you with the familiarity of an 
 old friend and schoolfellow, of whose existence you may be 
 ignorant, and whose name may perhaps have faded from your 
 memory. And yet why should I suppose you have forgotten me, 
 since you, as I left you at the Charter House in 1810, are to this 
 moment as fresh in my mind's eye as if I had seen you but 
 yesterday 1 Nor were your own gallant exploits, or those of your 
 brother, ' poor Billy,' at all necessary to keep you alive in my re- 
 collection. If then you feel disposed for a brief renewal of our 
 ancient fellowship, I trust you will contrive to pay me a visit here, 
 there being no probability of my wandering to your distant locality, 
 while business or pleasure must, I suppose, be occasionally calling 
 you to London. 
 
 " I opened a communication some time ago with our old friend 
 and schoolfellow Hare, now Archdeacon of Lewes, and Eector of 
 Hurstmonceaux, from whom I was grieved to learn that our poor 
 dear Sam Hinds (whose cousin and namesake is the lately pro- 
 
1850.] HIS LETTER TO SIR WILLIAM NORRIS, 197 
 
 moted Bishop of Norwich) departed this life little more than two 
 years ago. Hare gave me an interesting little history of some of 
 our old schoolfellows, Thirlwall, Grote, Waddington, and others, 
 and spoke in his letters with great interest of you, whom, until 
 he heard the contrary from me, he had supposed to be no longer 
 in the land of the living." 
 
 " Plymouth, 25 May, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Norris, Since my return to my native land in 
 November last, after an absence of only two months short of 27 
 years, I have met with no more refreshing incident Letter to sir 
 than the receipt of your friendly letter of the 22nd in- M^stiTisso. 
 stant. It assured me that the lapse of forty years had not sufficed 
 to efface from your remembrance the traces of our early amity, and 
 at the same time touched to strong vibration a chord which the 
 damps and heats of India have not deprived of sensation, by the 
 mention of so many names sacred to recollection, as associated 
 with the trials and enjoyments of the period between the cradle 
 and twenty, which many maintain to be the most arduous period 
 of existence. I can truly say that I have not forgotten any of the 
 Carthusian demigods of my early veneration ; and you, Sir Re- 
 corder, as little as any of them. Our friends are in fact to us ever 
 the valued epitome of our kind. The rest may, and ought to be, 
 the objects of our Christian benevolence, but it is only in the 
 society of a chosen few that we ever feel quite at home, and I 
 have often therefore ventured to repine that in the lands in which 
 my lot has been cast, I have never been permitted to meet a single 
 associate of my youth.* So be assured I do not exaggerate the 
 estimate of my privilege in at last hearing from you. Of you I 
 had heard before, for Marshman, whom I hastily visited on my 
 way to Bombay, narrated to me the circumstance of meeting with 
 you in Calcutta, and I then rejoiced to hear that you had not for- 
 gotten me. As he gave you the outline of my struggles in India, 
 this will obviate the necessity of any egotistic detail. I will only 
 say, that I wish I had in my heart a hundredth part of the thank- 
 fulness to Almighty God which is due to Him who shielded my 
 head in twenty-two Indian fights, among them four of Gough's 
 smashing combats, and has brought me back alive to this island, 
 after enduring for more than a quarter of a century the fervours of 
 an Indian sun. If I continue to mend, I hope to be in London 
 in June, and then I will say, with the same frankness with which 
 you have invited us, that nothing can give Mrs Havelock and my- 
 
 * He appears to have inadvertently forgotten Sir William Macnaghten. 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 self greater pleasure than to come down on a visit to Lady Norris 
 and yourself to Barrow Green. 
 
 " I am most curious to hear all that you have learnt of those 
 who, boys in our boyhood, have since become distinguished 
 men. Thirl wall, Grote, and "Waddington, as historians, have 
 taken a high rank. You would hear how far Sir William 
 Macnaghten had reached in his line when he wa$ cut off. I 
 think often of the quintet who used to read a sermon by stealth 
 in the dormitories. Pindar, the only one of them to whom I 
 have not already referred, is, I hear, or was lately, residing at 
 Bath ; and all, even poor Hinds, have been spared to complete 
 half a century. 
 
 The following letter was addressed to Mm by his old 
 schoolfellow, Archdeacon Hare : 
 
 " Athenaeum, Waterloo Place, 
 
 June 3rd, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Phlos, What a joy it is to know that you are in 
 England, and that I may really hope to see you again, after a 
 Arch e del r con se P ara tion of nearly thirty-eight years, for so long is it 
 Hare. ea( since we parted at the Charter House ; and though I 
 did see you for a few moments at dear Sam's lodgings five or six 
 years after, that brief meeting has never counted as a reality in 
 my memory. I have continually longed to know what had be- 
 come of you, to know what fruit the bright and noble promise of 
 your boyhood had borne. But I could learn nothing, except that 
 you were in the army and had gone to India, which has been the 
 grave of so many of our noblest English youth, as well as the field 
 in which so many have unfolded the great qualities of their 
 character ; and as I did not hear of you among the latter, I con- 
 cluded you must have been among the former. Once, indeed, 
 your name reached my ears from thence. In Lushington's ad- 
 mirable book on the Affghan wars (as I thought it), he spoke of 
 a work by a Lieutenant Havelock, if I remember rightly, but I 
 felt sure your rank would have been higher ; and though he spoke 
 highly of the ability of the book, what he said of the manner in 
 which the writer regarded the natives, pained me so that I made 
 up my mind that the book could not be yours, and therefore never 
 read it. Many a time have I read over the three letters I had 
 from you in former years, in 1812 and 1813, but I became fully 
 persuaded at length that they were the only traces I should ever 
 find of you, till last Christmas brought me a letter from our dear 
 
1850.] LETTER FROM ARCHDEACON HARE. 199 
 
 excellent friend Daphne IsTorris, whom I had also long numbered 
 among the departed, but who I found had been rising to the 
 highest eminence in the Indian law, and whose letter showed that 
 he had retained all the beautiful simplicity and modesty of his 
 boyhood. From him I heard that you were living, that you were 
 a Lieutenant-Colonel, and had had much to do in these grand 
 Indian wars ; that you had married the daughter of that excellent 
 man, Marshman ; and that you were coming to England before 
 long. I have just heard from him, that you are living at Plymouth, 
 having been in England since last November. It is a great shame 
 that you should have been at home six months without letting 
 me know of your return ; you ought to have known that, even after 
 a separation of thirty-eight years, it would be an exceeding delight 
 to me to see again the dearest of all my old school friends. How 
 soon will that be 1 Are you to be in London before we leave it 1 
 At all events you must bring your wife and children to Hurst- 
 monceaux, and pay us a long visit in proportion to your absence. 
 I long to see what you look like after so many years, and fancy 
 you something like Lord Hardinge, whom I saw the other day at 
 the grand dinner given to your noble old hero, Lord Gough, at 
 the Mansion House. It was a magnificent sight, and many of 
 your comrades were there. For myself, my life has been greatly 
 blest in many ways. I have, of course, had my share in the 
 sorrows of this life. You know that I went to Cambridge in 
 1812. There I continued with an interval of two years, partly as 
 student, and partly as tutor, till 1832. Then I became Eectorof 
 our old family living, Hurstmonceaux, the place where I had spent 
 my childhood ; and there hope, God willing, to continue till I 
 exchange the pulpit in the church for a bed in the church-yard. 
 Meanwhile, I have been bearing my part in adding to the number 
 of books under the weight of which men are acquiring a universal 
 intellectual dyspepsia, and some of these I will send you when 
 I know more of your whereabouts, that you may know, after so 
 many years, under what constellation of thought you may expect 
 to find me. 
 
 " God bless you. Tell me how your health has borne the 
 Indian climate. Give my love to your wife and children, and 
 believe me, 
 
 " My dear Col. Phlos, 
 
 " Ever your affectionate friend, 
 
 ' J. C. HARE." 
 
200 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 In July Havelock paid a visit to his friends, Sir William 
 Norris and the Archdeacon, and Sir William commem- 
 Norris orated, with poetic elegance, " the meeting of 
 the three friends." In this tasteful effusion 'he 
 three e iwends e brought up in review the names and the bright 
 inverse. ^ career of the most eminent Carthusians of his day. 
 Havelock thus describes his feelings on meeting with 
 his old friends : 
 
 " Barrow Green House, 17th July, 1850. 
 
 " Here Hannah and I have been sojourning with my excellent 
 friend Sir William JSTorris, Archdeacon Hare and his lady being 
 also inmates of this delightful old country residence. This meet- 
 ing with the kind and valued associates of my youth, who have 
 lived on into advanced years, useful in their generation, honoured 
 and worthy of more honour, has been to me and mine a source 
 of much pure delight. My friend Hare resides in the rectory of 
 Hurstmonceaux, which is very prettily situated, and has been 
 decorated by his fine taste with works of art, not ordinarily seen 
 in the abode of a country clergyman. He has a library of about 
 12,000 volumes. Norris resides in an old manor house, the pro- 
 perty of a family of the name of Masters. It is situated in the 
 most beautiful part of Surrey. Both have been kind beyond de- 
 scription to us all." 
 
 " 12 August, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Norris, As regards autobiography, or a few memorials 
 of my somewhat chequered life, it has been my ofttimes deferred 
 and renewed purpose to do something of the kind in a didactic 
 way ; for though I am nobody, it has pleased God to make me the 
 partaker of the fortunes, at various periods and in various climes, 
 of men who have established their claim to be reckoned, each in 
 his way, somebody. A little sketch for you I will at all events 
 set about at once." 
 
 Havelock resided for some weeks at 16, Albert Terrace, 
 Bayswater, and was then ordered by his medical adviser 
 iiaveiock goes * repair to Schwalbach, situated between Ems 
 to Germany. an( j Wiesbaden, the last new favourite of the 
 German springs for the restoration of debilitated consti- 
 tutions. He started for the continent in the middle of 
 August, and his first letter was from the 
 
1850.] HE VISITS GEKMANY. 201 
 
 "Field of Waterloo, August 17, 1850. 
 
 " I have lived, after twenty-two fights, to write to you from this 
 spot, where a battle was fought which was, perhaps, worth them 
 all. We have given a day to the field. There we found Hougue- 
 mont looking nearly as it must have looked the day before the 
 great conflict, excepting that the low forest has been cleared away, 
 from which Prince Jerome's troops issued against it. La Haye- 
 Sainte, Braine-la-Leud, La Belle-Alliance, and Fischermont, do 
 not in reality destroy a single vision of the reader of the bulletins, 
 the despatches, Siborne, and Alison ; but the gasconading Belgians 
 have perpetrated an awful atrocity against one of the fairest monu- 
 ments of history. They have cut down and scooped out the earth 
 of the position between the points of Houguemont and La Haye- 
 Sainte, for the purpose of building it. up into a vast pyramidal 
 mound, which they have surmounted with their national lion." 
 
 " Ems, 27 August, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Nonis, As soon as we had reached this place of 
 our temporary sojourn, I set apart a few hours to give you, accord- 
 ing to your desire, a short sketch a sketch or map of my rather 
 busy life. I have dotted things down most hastily, without the 
 least pretension to lucid arrangement or attention to style, jump- 
 ing as you see from the first to the third person, and back again, 
 ' wild without rule or art.' Very much indeed is left to the 
 imagination, but if this sketch were filled up with details, even in 
 the hasty manner of my short memoirs of my late brother, it might 
 make a volume, perhaps not wholly without interest." 
 
 " Ems, 14 Sept., 1850. 
 
 " I was in such haste to get to the waters, that I passed by 
 Bonn without stopping an hour, though Hare had given me an 
 introduction to Chevalier Bunsen, whom I should have found there 
 or at Cologne, holiday-keeping. All our party were as much de- 
 lighted with the banks of the Rhine as Childe Harold had prepared 
 us to be. I have placed myself under the medical charge of Dr 
 Soest, whose praises were sung to me by Sir Willoughby Cotton, 
 in the Deccan, when I proposed to come home early in 1848. I 
 found him at Ehrenbreitstein, and he visits this place daily. I 
 have gone, and am going, through a course of Homburg saline 
 and Ems alterative waters, and take the mineral baths. Soest 
 fixed Saturday week for the termination of this act of the training, 
 and then dictates a fortnight's residence at the new place of resort, 
 
202 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 Langen-Schwalbach ; which, is now pronounced to possess in the 
 fountain of the Stahl-brun the finest tonic in Europe. The last 
 stage of cure is to devour all the grapes of all the vineyards be- 
 tween Frankfort and Baden-Baden ; but as I must return to Eng- 
 land to look after my son Joshua's interests with the Court of 
 Directors, I shall not perhaps be able to perpetrate this last finish- 
 ing enormity of fashionable empiricism." 
 
 " Bloomsbury Street, Bedford Square, 
 
 5th Nov., 1850. 
 
 " You will perceive that we have changed our residence, which 
 is soon explained. This is the time for the distribution of the 
 patronage of the East India Company. So, after drinking the 
 waters of Ems and Schwalbach, and taking baths at Schlangenbad 
 with much advantage, and visiting Frankfort, Mayence, and Wies- 
 baden, we descended the Rhine to Bonn, where we found the oppor- 
 tunity of leaving our three younger children under the kind charge 
 of Mrs Brooks, the widow of an officer of the Bombay army. We 
 are not without hope of obtaining a cadetship for my second son, 
 and I expect to get audience of the ohairman, Mr Shepherd, the 
 
 day after to-morrow. You shall hear the result I have 
 
 said that I have profited much in point of health by the waters 
 and baths of Nassau. Yesterday I saw Martin, who approved of 
 all Soest's treatment, and thought me much, indeed wonderfully, 
 better, but he and the German sage both agree that another year's 
 drinking and bathing is indispensable to my complete restoration. 
 We are close to Bloomsbury chapel, and not very far from the 
 India House, and when I am in aristocratic mood, I can migrate 
 occasionally to the Senior United." 
 
 " Bloomsbury Street, 12th Nov., 1850. 
 
 " My dear Noras, I was present last evening at the very in- 
 teresting ceremony of commencing the building of a new chapel 
 Letter to Sir of our denomination, at Hammersmith. I have had 
 NOV. isTisso. few opportunities of witnessing such things since I 
 came to England, and was pleased with the earnestness of all in 
 the great cause of vital religion. My impression was, that while 
 such a spirit pervades even a portion of the people, the Pope has 
 not a chance, and that we do not need the patronage of Her 
 Majesty's ministers and of acts of parliament, coadjutors whom I 
 ever regard with suspicion." 
 
1350.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 203 
 
 " Bloorasbury Street, 12th Nov., 1850. 
 
 " My dear Norris, Your kind letter of the 9th duly reached 
 me, and Mrs Voigt soon after brought me up your thoughts in 
 blank verse. They are very modest thoughts of your- letter to sir 
 self, thoughts certainly not beyond the deservings of our NOV. iim. 
 valued friend the Archdeacon, and very flattering and even exalt- 
 ing thoughts of the old Major of Foot. It is in great truth a solid 
 encouragement to any man to find himself thus remembered and 
 scanned through the softening and improving medium of an en- 
 during friendship, after a separation which it almost makes one 
 giddy to think had stretched out through forty years well told. 
 Well nigh forgotten by the Government which I have served 
 thirty-four years, and requited by the ill-will of some of the 
 ' geese whom I have helped to make half eagles,' it is consolatory 
 to me to receive the cordial hero worship of the muse of Barrow 
 Green." 
 
 "13th November, 1850. 
 
 " My dear Norris, I have let my unfinished letter run into 
 another day, whilst I was wooing the Directors, I fear, without 
 prospering in my suit. . . . The honest and reasonable portion of 
 the indignation excited at the present moment against the inter- 
 ference of the Pope, is, as it appears to me, national and not reli- 
 gious. Our sturdy middle and lower classes, in particular, de- 
 precate in high strains the exercise of any power emanating from 
 an Italian prince in these realms. But as regards religion, there 
 is no fair ground for interposition. ... As there hath been long, 
 is now, and probably will be for much time to come a Pope, I see 
 not, if he be a conscientious Pope, how he could neglect the duty 
 of interference with his numerous and increasing family of Papists 
 in England. He does not appear to have presently meddled with 
 any one else but those who call him their spiritual father. As for 
 the matter of future conversion, he is perpetually bound to attempt 
 it. I do not see that he has done anything against the Queen's 
 supremacy. She is supreme in religion only over the members of 
 the Established Church, not the Papists. But when Parliament 
 meets, I hope the bench of bishops may be invited to lay their 
 hands on their hearts, and say whether they verily believe that 
 the forward movement on the part of Rome has, or has not, been 
 brought about by acts of some of their own body, or of some of 
 their own clergy, with their connivance, or in consequence of their 
 supineness ; whether the movement is not to be accounted for in 
 a very different way from that of the false prophet to the mountain, 
 
2(H MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. V. 
 
 and whether it is not precisely because they would go to Eome 
 that Rome has come to them. 
 
 " Badly have I repaid your soft verse with my crabbed prose ; 
 yet believe me, ever your faithful friend, 
 
 " H. H." 
 
 * " Bonn, Prussia, 16th January, 1851. 
 
 " Your letter of the 20th November has found me once more 
 established on the margin of the truly noble Ehine. I was grati- 
 fied to find from it how pleasant and interesting your visit to 
 Ceylon had bean. The hearts of all well-wishers to India are with 
 you when it is announced that you have at last commenced your 
 railway, and that there will soon be a station within three quarters 
 of mile of the old house at Serampore. The advantages of an 
 electric telegraph in keeping the affairs of your vast Indian empire 
 in hand, may be appreciated by comparison, when I advert to the 
 fact of our having yesterday, the 15th of January, got by such 
 means, via Trieste to London, and thence to us by rail, a precis 
 of intelligence from Bombay of the 17th December. 
 
 " I told you in my last letter, how well the chairman of the 
 court, Mr Shepherd, had behaved to me in nominating my son 
 Joshua a Bengal cadet. But no sooner had I received this boon, 
 than farther reflection convinced me that, under the present cir- 
 cumstances, chiefly with reference to my expected return to India, 
 I ought to have sent the boy to Bombay. So I determined not 
 to permit the dread of being accused of vacillation to prevail over 
 my conviction, and went down to Shepherd again. He was 
 closeted with Lord Hardinge, as it happened, and when his Lord- 
 ship came out, he congratulated me on my good fortune in having 
 got a Bengal cadetship, and when I told him my change of pur- 
 pose, fought the battle of the Supreme Presidency manfully. But 
 I would not give in. An exchange was effected, and on the 20th 
 Joshua took his departure for Bombay. 
 
 " I have had very serious thoughts of retiring altogether. The 
 sale of my majority would only give me 5000, and on the 
 interest of this I could not live. But I might get from the regi- 
 ment about 2000, to retire on full pay for life, to which privilege 
 a limited number of old officers are admitted. I could just exist 
 on it, shut out, of course, from all further hope of promotion or 
 
 * It may be necessary to remind the reader, that all Havelock's letters which 
 are given without any distinct address, were addressed to the writer of this 
 JVlernoir. 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 L OF 
 
 1851.] HIS OPINION OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. 205 
 
 or professional exertion ; and in case of my death, my family would 
 still be entitled to the same scale of pension, viz. 70 per annum 
 for Hannah, and 20 to each of the three young children till they 
 reached the age of fourteen. To adopt this course may appear to 
 be prematurely throwing up the game, but it is to be considered 
 on the other side that the expense of my return to India will be 
 considerable, and that the result might be, I will not say, death 
 in harness in a few months, but the even more appalling alternative, 
 as far as the interests of my family are concerned, of being com- 
 pelled to return once more to England by absolute inability to 
 work. I have no active disease of any kind, and eat, drink, sleep, 
 and walk like a man of forty ; but I have too good ground for 
 fearing that the sun of India would at once bring back my nervous 
 affections, which have been coaxed away by a change of climate, 
 but not subdued. I trust I shall be guided to act aright. 
 
 " My frequent visits to the India House during the last year 
 have made me pretty well acquainted with the leading men and 
 the constitution of the Government. Shepherd, though only a 
 ship-captain of yore, brought forward by Sir Charles Forbes, is 
 decidedly one of the best men of business among them, perhaps 
 the best. The intervention of the Court, as a body, between the 
 Ministers and India, is advantageous to the country as preventing 
 party influences reaching it, saving the patronage from being 
 entirely jobbed away for votes in parliament, and affording a 
 chance of some knowledge of India being brought to the task of 
 governing it. But the privileges of the proprietors of stock are a 
 pure and unmixed mischief. As a Court their proceedings are, 
 and ever have been, absolutely ludicrous ; as a constituency, they 
 are disposed rather to elect jobbers than the many great and good 
 men who have subserved the interests of their country in India, 
 and would display the most useful talent in managing its affairs 
 if they belonged to its home government. The Company has long 
 since ceased to trade, yet city interest continues to return merchants, 
 bankers, shipowners, and captains, with now and then a petulant 
 old soldier, who never commanded in any battle in India, but is 
 connected with the proprietorial families." 
 
 " Bonn, 4th February, 1851. 
 
 " Personally I have much reason to be grateful for the usage I 
 met with at the India House. Though a Queen's officer, my 
 claim on the score of services was everywhere listened to with 
 attention, and my name and career seemed to be more familiar to 
 
206 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 the bankers, merchants, civilians, and ship-captains of Leaden- 
 hall-street, than to the martinets and aristocratic soldiers of the 
 Horse Guards, whose more immediate concern they were. Shep- 
 herd, to whom I was personally unknown, I must ever praise v for 
 the handsome, disinterested way in which he took my case 'in 
 hand. My success was after all a ( near thing.' The chairman 
 had promised his last disposable cadetship to Coutts Majoribanks, 
 of the great banking shop in the Strand, and it was only through 
 that gentleman's accepting for the youth he patronized an Indian 
 navy appointment, that Shepherd could at last serve me. I shall 
 ever look back on the period of my solicitation among the circular 
 cells of the twenty-four with sentiments of gratitude for their 
 consideration, and patient attention to my claims, even when they 
 were unable to do anything to meet my wishes. The chairman 
 was particularly kind. He not only took much trouble to hunt 
 up an appointment for me, but bore my change of mind with * 
 exemplary patience. He invited me down to the Addiscombe 
 examinations, which interested me much, and where I met Frede- 
 rick Abbott, Herbert Edwardes, and many other old acquaint- 
 ances. . . . All this notwithstanding, and though Alison has praised 
 the constitution of the Court of Directors as the best form of 
 government that human ingenuity could devise for the supervision 
 of a distant, extensive, and growing empire, it does appear to me 
 that these rulers ought to be elected by a larger and more inde- 
 pendent body of electors. At present, a considerable number of 
 the votes is, under the name of the * house interest,' in the hands 
 of the body already elected. Each director, too, comes into office 
 laden with promises and engagements, and a class of persons is 
 elected who may be characterized as honest, painstaking, right- 
 minded, and even able men, but in many cases devoid of that 
 local information so needful for the discharge of their duties. We 
 have lately been given to understand that the Board of Control 
 undertakes to do the peace and war business, but this only in- 
 creases the necessity for having men in the Court who might 
 have minds large enough to form their own opinions on great 
 political questions. But no one can feel more deeply than my- 
 self how valuable the body is, as interposing between the utter 
 misgovernment of a Secretary of State's office, and preventing the 
 patronage from being wholly bartered for party interests. I would 
 desire only to see the composition of the Court improved, which I 
 think can only be effected by a change in the elective constituency. 
 As to the qualifications of the elected, it might also include the 
 
1851.] DECLINES THE LIEUT.-COLONELCY OF HIS COKPS. 207 
 
 lawyers and merchants of the Presidencies, as well as the servants, 
 civil, military, and naval, covenanted and uncovenanted, of the 
 Company, "but a specific residence in India should be held indis- 
 pensable. Perhaps election for life would after all be preferable, 
 and the evil of superannuation be more tolerable than that of con- 
 tinual change." 
 
 " Bonn, 19th April, 1851, 
 
 " I mentioned in one of my letters that I had escaped the 
 horrors of being once more purchased over in my old age, by the 
 kindness of Norris, who had lodged the money for my lieutenant- 
 colonelcy. "We were too late however. Byrne had already come 
 under an engagement to retire, and Major Mansfield had, as I am 
 informed, unconditionally paid him all the money over and above 
 the regulated price. When I became aware of this, I was of course 
 in a dilemma. It would have been hard upon old Byrne, who is 
 about half a degree more broken than myself, to stop the purchase 
 in this stage, and if I had taken the lieutenant-colonelcy, it must 
 have been at the expense of Major Mansfield, who had without 
 reservation paid heavily for it in hard cash, and would not have 
 got it after all. Fortunately there was time to withdraw my name 
 once more from the purchase list. I suppose Byrne's resignation 
 will arrive via Southampton, and that on the Friday thereafter I 
 shall see a youth of some sixteen years standing in the army, 
 gazetted over my head as lieutenant-colonel. Major Mansfield is, 
 as I am told, for I never made his acquaintance, a clever man and 
 a good officer. I was purchased over, as I used to say, by three 
 sots and two fools, so that I presume I must persuade myself that 
 it is a pleasant variety to be superseded by a man of sense and 
 gentlemanly habits. Be this as it may, the horror of an old soldier 
 on the point of having his juniors put over him is so sensitive, 
 that if I had no family to support, and the right of choice in my 
 own hands, I would, not serve one hour longer. As the case 
 stands, I have only to reconcile myself as speedily as possible to 
 the _ dispensation. The thing is of the Lord. My health, God be 
 praised, is considered to be firmer ; I myself almost hope it is so. 
 But a week's Indian sun may tip me over again. However, it 
 seems to be my duty, if I can find the means, once more to re- 
 new the struggle at Bombay. As soon as I succeed in paying off 
 every claim, and accumulating a small sum over and above my 
 full pay, or the price of my commission, I shall consider I have 
 laboured enough, and have a right to get into some little nook 
 
208 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP, v 
 
 like this which, we now inhabit, to wear away my remaining days 
 in peace, arid in hopes of a better kingdom." 
 
 "Kissengen, 19th July, 
 " Here I and mine are in a new locality. Up to the beginning 
 of this month, or thereabouts, I had made such advances in health, 
 that every one around me was remarking how stout, young, and 
 hale I was looking. But it was soon observed that I was getting 
 too stout, and I began to suspect myself that there was disorder 
 lurking under the rapid increase of embonpoint. At last, after a 
 short excursion up the Rhine, and walking with great delight up 
 to the top of Drachenfels and back, inflammation made its ap- 
 pearance in one of my feet, and the German leech whom I con- 
 sulted, considered it to be a critical demonstration of something 
 wrong in the constitution, and he was of opinion that the waters 
 of this place were the only sovereign remedy in this case. I have 
 now been drinking the waters and taking baths at intervals for a 
 week, but these processes and the strict regimen on which I am 
 kept, have lanked my cheeks again effectually, and I am looking 
 once more the image of Bombay in the month of May. But I 
 trust I have made some advances towards cure, though I cannot 
 hope for any permanent result under a month. It was so utterly 
 inexpedient that I should return to India in the first week of 
 October, the very worst month of the year at Bombay, that I wrote 
 to the Adjutant-General to extend my leave to the end of 1851, 
 proposing to leave England on the 20th November. To this the 
 great iron Field Marshal at once assented, ' with the understand- 
 ing that he embarks in the November steamer,' being however 
 appended as a ' but ' subjunctive." 
 
 " Nuremberg, 16th August, 1851. 
 
 " We came from Kissengen in alternate sunshine and storm up 
 .the valley of the Main and Eeignitz to Bamberg, from one of the 
 towers of which poor Berthier, ' the goose converted into half an 
 eagle ' by Napoleon, broke his neck, and passed on at once by 
 rail to this far more illustrious Jellalabad of Gustavus. It has 
 recovered the horrors of the thirty years' war, anal is now nourish- 
 ing. I have seen Wallenstein's position at Zindorf. The efforts 
 made for the defence of the city are truly astonishing. The Im- 
 perialist and the Swede, the latter much the greatest man, were 
 both, I suspect, rather resolute and enterprising warriors than 
 grand masters of their art. But Gustavus's upholding the Pro- 
 
1851.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 203 
 
 testant faith by his determined hold on this place as a centre of 
 operation, ranks full as high as an achievement, as either the fights 
 of Leipsic or Lutzen, which were simply parallel assaults in line j 
 or the passage of the Lech, which indicated successful daring rather 
 
 than skill." 
 
 "Bonn, August 17th, 1851. 
 
 " My dear Morris, The secret of the intended brevet of the 
 9th November has already so far transpired, as to justify its 
 being accepted as truth, that it will be large, and lead to the 
 vacating of a great many good situations, and create much regi- 
 mental promotion. Four or five Queen's A. D. C. will almost 
 without doubt reach the rank of Major-General, and therefore 
 vacate their posts in the suite of Her Majesty. I really am not 
 ambitious enough to desire such an eminence, if there were any 
 other road by which I could attain the rank of Colonel before 
 extreme old age, or even hope to enjoy the competence of a 
 Major-General. But there is none. My obtaining this step by 
 special brevet would leave me just where I am as to staff employ, 
 and I should be no worse off as to regimental promotion. While 
 on foreign service in India, the ceremony even of attending 
 at court is dispensed with ; so the thing resolves itself into the 
 honour and the rank of Colonel. I hope I am not disloyal when 
 I attach the higher value to the latter ; for whatever my rank, I 
 am Her Majesty's servant, which I ought to consider honour 
 enough ; but the rank of Colonel improves the hope of ultimate 
 promotion and command in India. I believe if votes were col- 
 lected from among those with whom I have served in India, the 
 majority would decree that my services entitle me to ask for the 
 step I almost think the opinion would be unanimous. But this 
 will little avail without some powerful intercession. Will you 
 venture on trying what can be done through the Chancellor? 
 He must have had many a more hopeless case in hand during his 
 experience. His personal influence with the Queen is good, 
 owing to his connection with the late Duke of Sussex, and this is 
 a species of interest to which the Horse Guards cannot turn a 
 deaf ear, though to claims of service they often, alas, do ! Hart's 
 Army List tells better than I can tell, where I have been, and 
 what done and won. So I can only say, I leave my case in your 
 hands, if you think you can do anything in it." 
 
 "Bonn, September 2nd, 1851. 
 
 " I must not attempt to form a judgment of what the delude 
 
 14 
 
210 MEMOIKS OF SIE HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 of saline water which I swallowed at Kissengen has done for me, 
 as I am told the effects are not to be appreciated until a full 
 month has elapsed from the period of being steeped in diurnal 
 brine, and pouring muriate of soda fresh from the bowels of the 
 earth down the human throat. But I have to be thankful^o 
 Almighty God for feeling at the time present as well as an old 
 Indian and not very youthful person can hope to feel at his years, 
 and under his circumstances. If it be the will of Providence, I 
 shall embark at Trieste on the 27th November, and hope to land 
 at the Apollo Bunder (' erit rnihi magnus Apollo ') on or about 
 the 26th December. ' Let not him who putteth on his armour 
 boast like him who putteth it off.' But we will see what can be 
 done to work our way to freedom from liabilities, and the pros- 
 pect of repose in a Swiss or Tyrolese cottage thereafter. Of 
 England I must never venture to think. 
 
 Havelock did not, however, obtain the rank of Colonel 
 on this occasion. If it had been bestowed upon him, he 
 would have been placed in a position in the army to entitle 
 him, six years after, in the height of the India mutiny, to 
 a higher command than that of Brigadier- General. He 
 paid a parting visit to England, took leave of Lord Hard- 
 inge, Sir W. Norris, and other friends, and returned to 
 Bonn to prepare for his voyage to India. He felt that it 
 would be imprudent for him to take out his family, con- 
 sisting of two daughters, whose education was not finished, 
 and his youngest son, under five years of age, whose edu- 
 cation had not begun. It was, therefore, determined that 
 Mrs Havelock should remain for some time in Europe. 
 To a man of Havelock' s warm domestic sympathies, this 
 separation was a source of the most poignant regret ; but 
 he submitted to it with resignation, as a matter of Chris- 
 tian duty. With a heavy heart he quitted Bonn on his 
 way to Trieste, and travelled leisurely through Germany, 
 visiting the battle-field of Leipsic, the gallery at Dresden, 
 the monuments at Prague, and the objects of interest at 
 Vienna. He wrote daily to his wife during the journey, 
 and in his letter from Frankfort, said : 
 
 " I arrived here this evening, and hope to get on to Leipsic to- 
 morrow ; but have really lost all desire to see anything, or inquire 
 
1851.] HE KETUKNS TO INDIA. 211 
 
 about anything, for I have no one to whom I can communicate 
 my feelings of pleasure or pain. I ought not to write thus, how- 
 ever, "because it will grieve you. I have commenced this journey 
 under God's guidance, and not an effort on my part shall be 
 spared to do something for you and my little ones. If you knew 
 what I have endured since I parted with you, I fear it would give 
 you pain, but my God will support me. Remember, I am not 
 the only one who sinks thus when separated from those dearest 
 to him. Read the account of the great Marlborough under such 
 circumstances. But I have Jesus Christ to trust to, and His 
 presence to comfort me; yet in this mortal state we do feel 
 keenly. Pray for me." 
 
 He wrote to Mrs Havelock in the same strain from 
 Leipsic on the 30th October : 
 
 " The bitterness of parting, my position after so many years, 
 which renders it unavoidable, and, I fear, not a few doubts about 
 the worldly future, passed in rapid succession through my brain, 
 which, without being in the least fevered, was so wrought upon 
 that I never slept a single second. But I did indeed find sweet 
 relief in the thought of meeting you in that better kingdom, for 
 all earthly meetings are uncertain, and only terminate in longer 
 or shorter separations. ... I know not what lies before me, but 
 I do feel that we are both in the path of sacred duty." 
 
 On reaching Vienna he wrote to her again : 
 
 " Vienna is a very splendid capital in population and extent 
 the streets well-built and clean; the public buildings stately, 
 though generally without architectural beauty ; and the environs 
 highly picturesque. The churches are many of them magnificent ; 
 and the cathedral of St Stephen's, the spire of which I ascended 
 this morning, is far finer than Cologne or Ulm. The presence of 
 the mighty Danube gives the city a noble air. The Belvedere 
 palace and its gardens are grand, though not highly tasteful. 
 The gallery in it is filled with a very numerous collection, in 
 strikingly good preservation, rich in two splendid Raphaels, two 
 excellent Correggios, a masterpiece of Titian, and a perfect galaxy 
 from the studios of Rubens, Vandyke, and the great Venetians ; 
 one very fine Murillo ; and numerous pictures of Jordaens, and 
 the Bolognese and Flemish schools. There is likewise a charming 
 Pietro Perugino, and a good Francia. But the collection is too 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 numerous, that is, it has too many second and third-rate pictures 
 in it. But tell my girls I have now done with pictures, and 
 begin to wish that I had left Europe without seeing any, for I 
 fear such sights may unfit me for the stern duties which lie be- 
 fore me. Let them turn their hearts and minds to the great busi- 
 ness of salvation, and learn to be practical persons, building their 
 hopes of earthly satisfaction only on a sense of duty faithfully 
 discharged, and their expectations of eternal blessedness on the 
 merits of the Saviour. 
 
 " Now though the word tears my heart-strings adieu ! May 
 God grant us a happy meeting sooner than we expect ! but if 
 never on earth, in the presence of Jesus I trust we shall meet." 
 
 Havelock reached Bombay in December,, 1851. The 
 voyage had improved his health, and he resumed his duties 
 in high spirits. 
 
 " I am thankful to say," he writes on the 6th of January, 
 " that my general health has been good since I reached India. 
 Havelock re- My work, too, has been light, indeed the mere pretext 
 
 turns to .. J -I 1 , T i_ -j j ^ MI 
 
 Bombay. for work ; but I suppose hard work and harass will 
 come in due time, whilst my nervous distemperature can end 
 anywhere, but especially in a tropical climate, only in sudden 
 death, or the loss of faculties and all bodily activity. Presently, 
 however, I am well, and ought for this to be abundantly thank- 
 ful, leaving future evils to the ordering of our great task-master. 
 I allude to them only because it is my old soldier's habit never 
 to suffer myself or friends to be taken by surprise. The Com- 
 mander-in-Chief came down from Muhabuleshur a few days after 
 I landed. He is certainly not so fresh and active as when, a 
 major at the head of a battalion of the 5th, he repulsed the 
 French cavalry at Elboden (see Napier) ; but this I am the less 
 careful to remark, as all my sensations assure me that I am not 
 quite the same man who, on the 7th April, 1842, with a handful 
 of troops, held in check the flower of the Affghan horse. I can 
 hardly guess how I should feel now with my back to the Urbab's 
 fort, where Dennie fell." 
 
 The allusion here made is to the battle of Jellalabad on 
 the 7th of April, 1842, and it shows how keenly Have- 
 lock appreciated, after ten years, the hazardous position 
 in which he was placed on that day when Sir Robert Sale 
 
1852.] SEEKS EMPLOYMENT IN THE BURMESE WAE. 213 
 
 diverted the troops to the attack of the fort, and left him 
 with only a single company of Europeans to face Akbar Khan' s 
 force, and to sustain the charge of his AfFghan cavalry. 
 
 Havelock had not been more than a month at Bombay 
 before all his military ardour was revived by the reports 
 which came from Calcutta, of misunderstandings He seeks em _ 
 with the Burmese, and the prospect of imme- 
 diate hostilities. It was on the plains of Bur- 
 mah that he had earned his spurs, and his bosom swelled 
 with the hope of being again employed on active service 
 in that country. On hearing that an expedition was in- 
 evitable, he drew up a plan of the campaign, as he would 
 have arranged it, and sent it to Serampore. It combined 
 a thorough knowledge of the country and of the enemy, 
 with that larger military experience which he had more 
 recently acquired on so many fields. He concluded by 
 saying, " As regards my being employed, I can only say 
 that, old as I am, I am quite ready, at the shortest notice, 
 for an encounter with the new generation of Woongees, 
 Muha Mengees, Muha JFhilwas, Bundoolas, and Thara- 
 waddys. But I suppose Government will employ the 
 Queen's troops nearest at hand, that is, on or near the 
 coast, and their brigadiers will, of course, be selected from 
 those regiments. This is the invariable custom, from 
 which I cannot expect that the consideration of my local 
 experience or renown would induce Lord Dalhousie to 
 deviate. I am, however, ready for anything." He con- 
 sidered it his duty to offer his services to Government, but 
 with little chance of success. His application did not 
 reach Lord Dalhousie who was his own war minister 
 throughout this brief campaign, and brought it to a suc- 
 cessful issue in eight months, at a cost of less than a 
 million till after all the arrangements had been completed, 
 and it consequently fell to the ground. 
 
 In April Havelock writes to Serampore : " Of the hospi- 
 tality of the people of Bombay I have every reason to 
 speak with gratitude since mv return. I sro Haveiocks 
 
 ., -i . , v SOD appointed 
 
 quite as mucn into society as is good for me, and to th e wtiu- 
 believe that I have benefited in health and spirits corps. 
 
2H MEMOIES OF SIR HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 from seeing something of the world once or twice a week 
 around the festive board. Balls I wholly repudiate, and 
 make up for my absence from Government-house on such 
 occasions, by being very regular in attendance at recep- 
 tions. By the ' Aukland ' just in, came, God be praised, 
 good news of all dear to you and dear to me at Bonn. By 
 that vessel came also the Gazette, announcing my son 
 Harry's nomination to the adjutancy of the 10th Foot. 
 He may well be glad to get that before twenty- two, which 
 I gladly accepted at forty. He leaves me for Kurachee, 
 whence he will steam to Mooltan, and dawk to Lahore and 
 Wuzeerabad on the Chenab, where Colonel Franks a 
 hero of Sobraon, Mooltan, and Goojerat, and who recom- 
 mended Harry to Lord Fitzroy Somerset and his band 
 of heroes are to be found." 
 
 The affection which he bore to his children is vividly 
 Haveiock's exhibited in the following letters to the "mighty" 
 
 letter to his ~ , , , , ., p ,, . & -j Y . 
 
 boyGeorgy. Georgy, as he was in the habit of calling his 
 youngest boy : 
 
 " 5th June, 1852. 
 
 " My dear George, This is your birthday, and I sit here in 
 sight of the house in which you were born, five years ago, to 
 write you a letter. My office is gone to Poonah, and I have 
 nothing to do but to think of you. But your brother Joshua is 
 very busy in the next/ room, reading Mahratta with his pundit. 
 However, he says that he too will scrawl a note for you as soon 
 as his daily studies are over. I dare say Harry is remembering 
 you too, hut he, you know, is a long way off from us now, in the 
 Punjab. 
 
 " Now, though a little boy, you ought to have wisdom enough, 
 when you get these lines, to call to mind how very good God 
 was to you on this day, in preserving the life of your dear mamma, 
 who was so sick that no one thought she would recover. At 
 that time, too, I was in very poor health, but am now so much 
 better, by God's mercy, that I have not had any suffering to 
 complain of since I returned to India, or indeed since I saw you 
 last, when I got on board of my steamer at Bonn, to go up to 
 Mainz, on my -way to India. They tell me that now-a-days it is 
 the fashion for little boys like you to do no work until they are 
 seven years old. So if you are spared, you have two more years 
 
1852.] HIS LETTERS TO HIS SON GEORGE. 215 
 
 of holiday ; but then you must begin to labour in earnest, and I 
 will tell you what you will have to learn : the first thing is to 
 love God, and to understand his law, and obey it, and to believe 
 in. and love Jesus Christ, since he was sent into the world to do 
 good to all people who will believe in Him. Then, as it is likely 
 you will be brought up to be a soldier in India, you will have to 
 be taught to ride well, and a little Latin, and a great deal of 
 mathematics, which are not very easy ; and arithmetic, and Eng- 
 lish history, and French and German, and Hiiidostanee, and 
 drawing and ' fortification. Now, you will say, this is a great 
 deal, quite a burden, and a cart-load of learning. But, if you 
 are, from the very first, very industrious, and never let any day, 
 but the sabbath, pass over without four hours' diligent study, at 
 least, you will soon find that the mountain of learning before you 
 is cut down into a very little hill indeed. 
 
 " 5th June, 1856'. 
 
 "Do you, my little George, though you should be the lowest 
 man in India, in rank and worldly endowments, take care that 
 you have Jesus for your friend, and He will exalt you to share 
 His glory in His kingdom. I am gratified by all that your 
 mamma tells me of your conduct and application to your studies. 
 But remember that this is a fast age. Every one is going at a 
 tremendous gallop, so you must not move slowly, if you would, 
 like your brothers, become an officer, and be a credit to your 
 name and country. . . I have just returned from the tomb of 
 the great man after whom you are named Major George Broad- 
 foot. He is called in the inscription on it, from the pen of his 
 friend Colin M'Kenzie, ' the foremost man in India,' and truly in 
 intellect and resolution he was. 
 
 " Read all the accounts of the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and 
 Inkermann, and if by God's blessing we meet again, I will ex- 
 plain them to you." 
 
 Havelock was now placed under a new master. The 
 Commander-in- Chief, Sir John Grey, whom he describes 
 as ' ' the descendant of the Grey of Groby, who Lord Fred. 
 signed his name to the warrant for the execution pomnmnder- 
 of Charles the First, immediately under that of Bom h ba at 
 Cromwell/' was obliged, by an apoplectic visitation, to 
 return to England. He was succeeded by Lord Frederick 
 Fitzclarence. "We are all pleased with our new chief/' 
 
216 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 writes Havelock. "Like his uncle Frederick, who did 
 not make much of his French and Dutch campaigns, but 
 managed affairs well at the Horse Guards, he is exceed- 
 ingly energetic and persevering. I like a man who bg- 
 gins by trying to establish a normal central school for a 
 hundred soldiers' children at Poonah, and is going to see 
 three stations, in a parenthesis, next week. He has the 
 duties and the interior management of a regiment at his 
 fingers' ends, and is at once most zealous and most gentle- 
 manly in his deportment." 
 
 The writer of this Memoir haying returned to England 
 at the beginning of 1853, Havelock thus wrote to him on 
 the 23rd of February : 
 
 " As I am resolved to keep up a regular correspondence with 
 you during your furlough, as the Honourable the East India Coin- 
 
 Haveiock's P an 7 ca ^ s ^' " ^^ KO * r ^ s ^ failure by not beginning 
 correspond- well. So without delay I reply to the first letter re- 
 
 ence with the , P J , nj * J 
 
 writer in ceived irom you since you leit the snores of India. I 
 ind ' most cordially sympathize in your delight at having got 
 rid for a while of Indian labour, and seeing Egypt and England 
 before you. Does it not look like a dream ? To me it seemed 
 like a most lovely vision, though I was ill, and my prospects in 
 every way depressing. ... I think you will find it pleasant 
 and convenient to belong to the Oriental Club, or the Athenaeum, 
 if you can get into the latter in reasonable time. But you will 
 judge for yourself. Eemember only, I forewarn you, England is 
 as coxcombical as ever. Nobody knows anybody without an in- 
 troduction ; and the first thing is the purse, the second the tailor, 
 and the third the address on your card." 
 
 Three months after, the India bill having been mooted 
 in Parliament, he writes again : 
 
 " If I had 2000 a year, I would live as my wife and children 
 are now living, in a fraction of a house in a town on the Con- 
 tinent. "Wealth and luxury in England outstare and outvote 
 every other qualification. It is a land for millionnaires only. 
 All others lose caste the moment they touch its shores, as the 
 chains of a slave are said to fall off by a similar contact. ... As 
 regards the future government of India, I confess my predilection 
 
1853.] HIS OPINION OF THE INDIA BILL. 217 
 
 in favour of some such plan as Lord Ellenborough proposed, 
 getting rid of the double government, putting an English poli- 
 tician if acquainted with India, so much the better at the 
 head (what a head Lord Dalhousie would make !), and giving 
 him advisers selected by the Crown from the services for life, in- 
 dependent, and exercising the patronage. But I see clearly that 
 we are to have no such thing ; and we must therefore be thank- 
 ful for having a third of the Directors men of experience, and 
 appointed, that is, selected, not elected by that most despicable 
 constituency, the proprietors, whose elections are the essence of 
 ill- working jobbery, and the meetings in their Court a very ill- 
 enacted farce. As for the Bill itself, there are good principles in 
 it, but they are not carried far enough. The appointment of a 
 proportion of old Indians in the Court is good. But the truth 
 is, that the best measure would have been abolishing the Court 
 of Proprietors and. their powers, and constituting a council, 
 nominated by the Crown, of men of experience, independent be- 
 cause possessing the patronage, and headed by a minister who 
 could not have bullied them while their hands were so strong." 
 
 Towards the close of the year, another brevet was talked 
 of " so loudly, that it was difficult to disbelieve it," though 
 Havelock hardly credited it. "'If," he writes, Expected br<^ 
 
 ,1 < 11 -i f T i i -i i vet of the 9th 
 
 "it went to the extent talked of, I should be November. 
 at once well up among- the full colonels. It would also 
 promote Mountain, and create a vacancy in the adjutant- 
 generalship. This mail, therefore, carries a few straight- 
 forward lines from me to Lord Hardinge, asking, in such 
 case, not to be forgotten." There was, however, no 
 brevet. 
 
 "Your interview," he writes on this occasion, "with Lord 
 Hardinge on my behalf demands my thanks; my mind is re- 
 lieved by the results. If a, junior officer had been made Adjutant- 
 General for want of due representation of my claims, I think I 
 should for half an hour have been very miserable. All now is as 
 right as it can be, under the circumstances. If there had been a 
 brevet, it might, and probably would, have lifted me to the rank 
 of full Colonel, and perhaps have made me Adjutant-General. 
 Three years hence, if I survive, I shall be sixty-two, so that I 
 could not hope to be Major-General before seventy-one, an age I 
 have no right to look to reach. ; for though I find sharp riding at 
 
218 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 our recent Chobham agreed with me as well as in 1846, yet I do 
 not think so well of my physical constitution. ... I am glad 
 you like Bonn, a place which, like its sister city of Cologne, is 
 susceptible of improvement by a diligent system of conservancy, 
 as we call it in India ; but which, nevertheless, I am happy "t6 
 find you agree with me in liking, on the score of the beauty of its 
 vicinity, and you might have added, the salubrity of its atmo- 
 sphere, and having within its walls some estimable people. It 
 must have been a great happiness to Hannah to have had you 
 and your wife, even for so short a period, in the scene of our 
 many tranquil days. She will have told you how like an accident 
 it was that we ever came to reside there. But now you will have 
 returned to London, or its ' saz/-bathing ' suburb Brighton ; how 
 different now from 
 
 ' Brighton, resource of the town-jaded lass, 
 With waters as clear and pellucid as glass, 
 But not quite so fit for reflection,' 
 
 as Horace Smith sung in 1812." 
 
 Within six weeks of the date of this letter Colonel 
 Mountain was no more. A nobler or more accomplished 
 Haveiock soldier, and a more amiable and estimable man, 
 men!o p f p Ad nt ' ^as seldom adorned the ranks of the British 
 SSJS%" army. He died, as Oglander of the same corps, 
 troops. ^e Cameronians, had died some years before, 
 amidst the regrets of all who had enjoyed opportunities of 
 appreciating his singular worth. Haveiock looked forward, 
 not without some hope, to the succession. Lord Frederick 
 Fitzclarence generously offered to back his application at 
 Court, if, as he said, Haveiock " really thought his words 
 could prevail beyond his own deeds." He had already, 
 he said, when the question of the brevet was under con- 
 sideration, taken the liberty of telling Lord Hill, that 
 though he should much regret to lose him, he hoped that 
 consideration would not prevent his lordship's giving him 
 higher place. "I hope," writes Haveiock to the com- 
 piler of this Memoir, " that you will see Lord Hardinge. 
 A very few words are sufficient. ' Mountain is no more ; 
 there is the vacancy ; you know Haveiock' s services, now 
 is the time to promote him.' Alas ! Lady Lawrence died 
 
1854.] SEEKS ADJ.-GENERALSHIP OF QUEEN'S TROOPS. 219 
 
 at Mount Aboo on the 14th of January. What words to 
 write ! " 
 
 At the interview which Havelock had urged in' this 
 letter,, -and which would have been solicited and granted 
 even if he had not suggested it, Lord Hardinge, with a 
 
 fenerous cordiality, admitted the claim of Havelock, from 
 is long services and his military abilities, to the post of 
 Adjutant-General of her Majesty's forces in India. He 
 said that, when Cureton fell in 1849, he had represented 
 to the Duke that Havelock was the fittest man for this 
 office. But now there were other claims pressed on him 
 from influential quarters. Colonel Markham, he remarked, 
 was a formidable competitor. His conduct before Mool- 
 tan had given him a high position in military estimation, 
 and made him aide-de-camp to the Queen, which of itself 
 seemed to place him in the foremost rank of candidates. 
 The claims of Colonel Lugard were also backed by the 
 Commander-in- Chief in India, who had nominated him 
 temporarily to the vacant appointment. Lord Hardinge 
 said, in conclusion, that he would give his best consider- 
 ation to the matter, but was unable to bind himself by 
 any promise. This was understood to dispose finally of 
 the question, and Havelock was advised to prepare him- 
 self for disappointment. He wrote in reply, on the 26th 
 of April, 1854: 
 
 " I have to thank you for the gallant and judicious fight you 
 have made for me at the Horse Guards. Every point in my 
 favour you pressed home and handled well. Nevertheless, I see 
 almost beyond a doubt that Markham is to be the man. He is 
 the son, I believe, of a bishop, or archbishop, who was a tutor to 
 some of the Eoyal family, and is, moreover, I fancy, backed by 
 Lord Eaglan. I saw him at Bombay, and a fine chivalrous fellow 
 he certainly is ; and we fully agreed, that we were not to quarrel 
 about it, whichever might be appointed. So I am bent up to 
 make the most of Bombay, if three years more of Indian life 
 should be vouchsafed to me, and then I must endeavour either to 
 get the value of a lieutenant-colonelcy and retire, or seek home 
 employment, a recruiting district, with 700 a year, or a home 
 staff appointment. . . . You see, I take at last a mercantile view 
 
220 MEMOIES OF SIE HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 of the profession of arms. How can I help it 1 I have soldiered 
 with heart and soul for thirty-nine years, and my country's generals 
 
 neglect me 
 
 " I was inexpressibly shocked by Talfourd's sudden death .pn 
 
 the bench. He was born, like myself, in 1795, and in April, 
 
 Death of 1813, he repeated to me, on the spot where it was 
 
 Taifourd. written, Wordsworth's sonnet on Westminster Bridge, 
 
 which made me a Laker for life. Old Thompson too is gone 
 
 the alderman and member of parliament, who reposed in the 
 
 same apartment with my brother Will, Macnaghten, Babington 
 
 the physician, Grote the historian, and myself." 
 
 Lord Hardinge, finding himself under the necessity of 
 appointing Colonel Markham adjutant- general, was deter- 
 Havdock^ap- mined, however, not to neglect Havelock. He 
 maTte e r-gener- made arrangements by which the Quarterma ster- 
 
 al of Queen's i i e j.i r\ ) T T i 
 
 troops. generalship ol the Queen s troops in India be- 
 came vacant, and nominated Havelock to the post. At 
 the same time Colonel Lugard was made aide-de-camp to 
 the Queen, and received the appointment of deputy ad- 
 jutant-general at Bombay. When communicating this 
 arrangement to the writer of these Memoirs, at the Horse 
 Guards, Lord Hardinge facetiously remarked, " You used 
 to say in India that there were only two sinecures there, 
 a lady's watch and the Quartermaster- generalship of 
 Queen's troops. I have appointed your own brother-in- 
 law to the latter. There's poetical justice for you." On 
 hearing of the appointment, Havelock wrote : 
 
 " Our express has just brought me yours of the 8th April, an- 
 nouncing that I am appointed the successor of Mcholls, Whit- 
 tingham, and Sale, an elevation which I did not look for when I 
 was lacqueying the heels of the last-named, as his adjutant, or 
 writing his despatches. I thank God for the provision which 
 this; in His goodness, promises for my family ; and as I see there 
 is a little disappointment lurking in your mind because I was 
 not made adjutant-general (perhaps in my mind also), I must 
 hasten to say, that if the Bengal pay and audit book, and my 
 recollections, are to be trusted, the pay is precisely the same as 
 that of adjutant-general. I may reckon it an additional mercy, 
 that in my sixtieth year I am, for once in my life, to have no 
 work, with nearly 3000 a year." 
 
1854.] QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL OF QUEEN'S TROOPS. 221 
 
 On receiving the appointment, Havelock left Bombay 
 by the first steamer for Calcutta. ' ' Yesterday," he writes 
 on the 30th of May to Mrs Havelock, " I took Haveiockpro- 
 my leave" of Joshua. I put him on board his cutta. and vi- 
 boat, and he and I parted with 'words and pore. er 
 thoughts,' as Wordsworth says, ' too deep for tears/ God 
 bless him. If I were a beggar on a dunghill, it ought to 
 be riches to me to have such a son. He is pious, without 
 an ounce of affectation ; a genuine child of God's own son- 
 ship. He has very good abilities, good health, good 
 habits. He is laborious, modest, self-denying, conscien- 
 tious to the last scruple/' On his way from Calcutta to 
 Simla, Havelock called at Serampore, and visited " all its 
 well-known spots; the printing-office, the manufactory, 
 the college, all venerated scenes." But of all the friends 
 who had welcomed him on his first visit in 1824, there 
 was not one left. To him Serampore had been the mag- 
 netic pole of attraction for thirty years, the source of sym- 
 pathy in sorrow, and of gratulation in prosperity ; and it 
 was with painful solemnity of feeling that he "now moved 
 from spot to spot, amidst its hallowed recollections, the 
 only survivor of a generation that was past. " I went," 
 he wrote to Mrs Havelock, " to the chapel, and saw the 
 monumental slab to your dear mother's memory, on the 
 same wall with that of Carey, Marshman, Ward, and Mack. 
 I read two chapters in the Bible at the table before the 
 pulpit, and prayed alone." 
 
 While Havelock was proceeding to Simla, the London 
 Gazette of the 20th of June announced the Havelock ro- 
 brevet which brought him on the roll of full ff 
 colonels. He reached the head- quarters of the 
 army on the 8th of July, and was duly installed loneL 
 in the office of Quartermaster-general. 
 
 " My duties," he writes, " are literally nil. My work averages 
 two returns and two letters per mensem ; but time never hangs 
 heavy on my hands. I ride, when it does not rain a deluge, 
 and when it does, am never without indoor occupation. Books 
 attract me, even more than when I was a boy. But I am 
 seriously thinking of your grave proposal of setting to at posthum- 
 
222 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. V. 
 
 ous histories Markham is a fellow whom one knows 
 
 in three minutes, and likes all one's life afterwards. He is a 
 rough-going, off-hand soldier. I have learned up here how well 
 Lord Hardinge behaved about the adjutant-generalship, when 
 Mountain's promotion was expected. When no option was left 
 him as to appointing Markham, he secured me the other berth, 
 which, under the circumstances, was doing much. Lugard has 
 great claims, and, to make amends for his disappointment, has 
 been very deservedly made A. D. C. to the Queen, which brings 
 him in at the tail of the brevet, and gives him a rank he might 
 otherwise not have attained for the next eight years. Lord 
 Hardinge wrote him a very handsome letter on the occasion, 
 which I have seen here. 
 
 "The Dissenters have indeed gained a victory in the Oxford 
 affair, which was the Sebastopol of High Church, rather, I 
 should say, the Cronstadt. In 1850, Peto drove Brock and me 
 home in his carriage, after laying the first stone of the Hammer- 
 smith chapel. I opened out about the Baptists claiming the 
 right of education and its fruits for their children at the two old 
 universities. Brock thought they had enough in London ; and 
 Peto, then member for Norwich, assured me that such a propo- 
 sition would not command six votes in the House of Commons. 
 
 " I approach with pain the subject of Hannah's desire to come 
 out to India. If it could be treated as a matter of inclination, I 
 presume there could be no doubt, and would be no delay ; God 
 knows, I have had enough of solitary life. : But as a matter of 
 duty, the question is far less tangible. . . . But the strongest 
 objection to any one coming out, is the precarious state of my 
 health ; the question is not, when they are to corne to me, but 
 when shall I be compelled to return to them. I am quite ready, 
 if it be God's will, to die in India for my family ; but I cannot 
 esteem it wise to bring them out to return on . the Queen's 
 Widows' Fund and my pension. I dare not now tell my doctor 
 all my symptoms, lest he should send me summarily to England." 
 
 Colonel Markham did not long retain the office of Ad- 
 jutant-General. He was promoted in a few months to 
 d- tne rank of Maj or- General, which obliged him to 
 vacate it, and Lord Hardinge immediately nomi- 
 orc nated Havelock to the post. In March, 1855, 
 con Hare. w hile at Simla, he heard of the death of Arch- 
 
1855.] HE KETUENS TO CALCUTTA. 223 
 
 deacon Hare, and immediately wrote to Sir William Nor- 
 ris : 
 
 " A fortnight ago, the Home News apprized me of the death 
 of our dear friend Hare, an event which deeply affected me, 
 though I feel that our loss is his exceeding great gain. Yes, 
 the quintet who read sermons together is now reduced to a trio, 
 I think of sexagenarians ; at least, I shall enter that rank, if 
 spared to the 5th of April next. I had written to Mrs Havelock, 
 on learning that the archdeacon had left us for a better world, 
 expressing my desire to know the particulars of his being called 
 away. With these, and the mournful tale of his being committed 
 to the earth, you have now supplied me; and much food for 
 meditation, and many topics for faithful prayer, they afford. He 
 has been taken away from the evil to come ; for he was frail in 
 body, and, as 1 could see when we were with him in Sussex, 
 deeply pained by the theological strifes and backslidings of many 
 with whom he was associated. Yet who shall forbid you and 
 me to mourn for our old schoolmate, whose society was restored 
 to us so unexpectedly, after a separation of forty years ! On my 
 last flying visit to Hurstmonceaux, he told me, as I left his 
 house, that he thought we should ( next meet where we should 
 part no more.' These were his very words, I trust to be 
 verified." 
 
 On the anniversary of his wedding day in 1855 he writes 
 thus to his wife : 
 
 " 9th Feb., 1855. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the reproach under which I live of being 
 nonobservant of notable days, I have not forgotten that, twenty- 
 six years ago, not having been able to muster moral Letter to Mrg 
 courage to run away against the tide in an Indian ^rweddin 011 
 canoe, I consented to give ' hostages to fortune,' and dly. we 
 braved the worst dangers and difficulties of domestic life. I have 
 not repented, that I will seriously assert and maintain. On the 
 contrary, my submission to the ' yoke ' has been the source of 
 nearly all the satisfaction and happiness which retrospect presents 
 to me on the chequered map of my sixty years' existence. So, 
 madam, all hail ! best of mothers and not worst of wives ; accept 
 my congratulations, and give me credit for the sincerity and warmth 
 of the affection which urges me this day to pray for your temporal 
 and eternal blessedness, and points to you as the foundation of my 
 best recollections and hopes." 
 
224 MEMOIES OF SIE HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 On the expiration of Sir William Gomm's term of ser- 
 vice as Commander-in-Chief, General Anson was ap- 
 Haveiockre- pointed his successor. The Governor- General, 
 cutta-wscor- having determined that the Commander-in-Chief 
 respondence. g^ou^ henceforth remain at Calcutta, instead of 
 proceeding to the north-west provinces and Simla, all the 
 establishments at head- quarters were directed to move 
 down to Calcutta, to await General Anson's arrival. On 
 the 29th of January, 1856, Havelock writes from Delhi : 
 " Here we are, on our way to the City of Palaces. I only 
 wait to see my ponderous office establishment fairly started 
 by bullock train, to be off myself in the somewhat lighter 
 carriage, which may carry me in six days to General 
 Anson's antechamber. He was sworn in, I hear, on the 
 24th instant/' 
 
 Havelock reached Calcutta in the beginning of Febru- 
 ary, and found his new chief a man of the most active 
 habits and untiring industry ; but c ' since he came here he 
 has been so exhausted by supreme and legislative council 
 work, as to have scarcely time or strength to glance at the 
 discipline and wants of my poor regiments." . . . On his 
 route he wrote to Mrs Havelock' s sister, Mrs Brandis, 
 who was on her way to Burmah, Dr Brandis having been 
 appointed superintendent of forests : " So you are by this 
 time on your way to the Shwey-dagon pagoda, which for 
 many months was the first object I gazed upon on arising 
 in the morning. You must let me know how you like 
 Rangoon, and your husband his new, and I should say 
 interesting, appointment. I do not consider Rangoon an 
 unhealthy place. Our armies suffered there from causes 
 which affect great masses, indifferently cared for ; but not 
 individuals in civil life. If I am promoted to Major- 
 General I hope to see Hannah and the girls ; but to that 
 beautiful place, Calcutta, if it please God, they do not 
 come ever. It is only fit for Government secretaries and 
 pariah dogs. I, as a soldier, go whither I am ordered ; 
 but I will not, if I can help it, bring them to that Elysium." 
 
 About the same time Havelock wrote thus to Colonel 
 'Franks, who had in 1852 selected his eldest son, then 
 
1830.] HIS RANK AS COLONEL. 225 
 
 Lieutenant in the 86th Foot, for the adjutancy of Letter to Col . 
 his own regiment, the 10th Foot. Shattered onel Frallks - 
 health, and a young soldier's not censurable desire to take 
 part in the Crimean war, had induced him at this time to 
 seek leave of absence to England. 
 
 " Camp Kalka, 9th Jan. 1856. 
 
 " My dear Colonel, Your letter of the 2nd instant has 'found 
 me here. 
 
 " I have ever considered it a great privilege for my son to have 
 served under a commanding officer whose praise, when earned, I 
 should consider valuable, as coming from one who has really 
 maintained a strict and effective discipline in his regiment, and 
 despised that factitious reputation too often obtained in our 
 army by the contemptible arts of concealing and conniving at acts 
 of indiscipline. 
 
 " Your letter to my son would reach him at Bombay, fpr he was 
 not to embark till the 4th of this month. He will parry it as a 
 proud, and I trust useful, testimonial to the Horse Guards, and lay 
 it before Lord Hardinge. Should you be employed in Russia, I 
 should form the hope, from what I saw of him at Simla, that he 
 would make an effective staff officer." 
 
 It has been already stated that Havelock at one time 
 despaired of reaching the rank of Major-General before 
 the age of seventy ; but, now, at the close of Haveiock's 
 1855, it threatened to come upon him earlier than coionei. 
 was desirable, in reference to his position as adjutant- 
 general. 
 
 " I am just now," he writes on the 27th December, " at a mo- 
 ment of great interest as regards promotion. A certain reading of 
 the Horse Guards circular of the 5th of May, 1855, would make 
 me a Colonel of the year 1850, upon my Muharajpore brevet ; 
 that is, put me at once up to very near the top of the list, and 
 bring me far nearer the rank of Major-General than would be 
 financially desirable for me. But there is no waiving rank in the 
 army, and a reference was made through Sir William Gomm on 
 the point by the last mail. Now supposing that I am thus 
 created * le general malgre lui,' my next endeavour would of course 
 be to get employment, for I cannot afford to be on the shelf a 
 week. Go therefore to Lord Hardinge on the receipt of this. He 
 
 15 
 
226 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK [CHAP. v. 
 
 have learnt how I stand, and if I am to "be put up under the 
 memorandum, ask him, first, whether he would object to my re- 
 taining my present office with the rank of Major-General, against 
 which there is no rule in our service, for my term of five yearg ; 
 and if he deems this impossible, solicit him to appoint me Majof- 
 General in Bengal. I feel that I can and will look after the re- 
 giments as sharply as any other. If this cannot be, then I am 
 ready for employment in the Crimea, or at home. I have named 
 the appointments in the order in which I may be supposed to be 
 fit for them, but I am ready for any, or all, and have served an 
 apprenticeship for all." 
 
 Lord Hardinge, with his wonted kindness, set Have- 
 lock's mind at rest on the subject, dating his colonel's 
 commission from a period which would enable him to en- 
 joy the office of adjutant-general for the full period of five 
 years. On receiving this intimation Havelock wrote : 
 
 " Calcutta, 21st April, 1856. 
 
 x " I thank you for the trouble you have taken in seeking an in- 
 terview with Lord Hardinge. I have got the official decision 
 that my commission as colonel is not to be antedated, which I 
 suppose settles the question. But I could, if it were worth while, 
 set his Lordship right as to my having first asked for the boon, 
 and then deprecated it. * Deprecate/ quotha, why if I had got 
 this lift up, which I must have done, if the brevet of June 1854 
 had not taken me in, it would have made up for all the evil 
 success of my forty-one years of service, for I should have got the 
 rank of Major-General in decent time after all, and before some 
 twenty Crimean heroes are put up over my head at the end of 
 the war, which may keep me a colonel all my life. But there is 
 no getting you civil gentlemen to take any but a mercantile view 
 of these affairs ; so I must be content and cheerful, if I can, 
 having bread to eat while I have got a few teeth to eat withaL . . . 
 They pay me some four hundred per mensem less here than in the 
 mountain ; and I need not tell you what a cool pleasant climate 
 it is in April, and everything here, rent and every other charge, 
 though I live just like the subalterns at the club, is more ex- 
 pensive than at Simla \ yet I hope to accumulate a little month 
 by month." 
 
 On the subject of his' son George's education he writes 
 to Mrs Havelock in May of this year : " I wish to draw 
 
1856.] HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 227 
 
 your attention particularly to the boy's military HIS 
 education. The Germans are good mathemati- tton. 
 cians ; but every nation has its own peculiarities, and an 
 English officer would, I suspect after all, be best trained 
 in England. I wish this boy to have advantages I never 
 possessed, in a really good military education ; and let his 
 riding be well attended to." 
 
 On the 3rd of July Havelock writes : " The supreme 
 council has accorded to General Anson a rather reluctant 
 permission to tour in a scrambling way from Sep- The Con} . 
 tember 1856 to March 1 857, promising to extend SSth'or- 
 the term to March 1858, if, on reference, the izedtotour - 
 Court approves. So, I suppose, in September we start 
 by steam. Thank God, my health remains good, and I am 
 too old a soldier, so long as I have health, to trouble my 
 head about any change ; but I will not bring Hannah and 
 the girls to such a scene of perpetual transition, nor to 
 Calcutta, where I rub along well enough at a club, but 
 could no more afford to set up house in Chouringee, than 
 to buy a deer park in Staffordshire.-" He wrote again on 
 the 16th of July, 1856 : 
 
 " We are to steam up to Berhampore, Dinapore, the studs, 
 Benares, and Allahabad. Thence dawk to Cawnpore, and visit 
 Lucknow. Then again dawk to Meerut, and, taking it for a 
 centre, visit Agra, Delhi, Umbala, and Ferozepore. The next 
 year to Pesliawur, returning to Calcutta in March, 1858. If by 
 God's goodness I live through all this, and two years in Calcutta 
 after it, I shall be entitled to say, * Enough of India for this second 
 visit.' Something goes up to book steady ; but, as usual, em- 
 broidered tunics, expensive houses, and perpetual locomotion, eat 
 into the vitals of the purse. I hope you will thoroughly enjoy 
 your progress to the Eternal City, and I think you are quite right 
 in contesting Ipswich, if there is a dissolution." . ..." I scrape 
 together something towards keeping my wife and children out of 
 the Union when I can no longer labour, but slowly, and at some 
 expense of constitution ; though, God be praised, I have not looked 
 at a doctor since I left Simla last year. But I am grey-bearded, 
 and nearly toothless." 
 
 During his progress up the river he wrote to Mrs Have- 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. v. 
 
 lock by every mail. On the 27th September he writes : 
 StteXtoMis " Since the 22nd we have been slowly steaming 
 Haveiock. this sacred stream, or rather buffeting the waves 
 of this inland sea, the banks of which you and I knew in 
 the days of our humility. I pointed out, as we passed, 
 every well-known spot in Serampore to Seymour ; walked 
 over every foot of Chinsurah with General Anson and 
 suite, and we coaled this morning at the ghat of .William 
 Carey, the Missionary. You well remember our visit of 
 1834. The same God protects us now. . . . May God, 
 if it be His pleasure, grant us once more on earth a happy 
 meeting ; if not, may we meet and be for ever united/-' 
 
 On the 13th of October he wrote to her : " I am cut 
 to the heart by the poor account you still give of your 
 health ; but I trust your projected trip in Switzerland 
 will, by God's blessing, give you strength again, and that 
 you will many years be enabled, in His good providence, 
 to watch over our two dear girls, and the mighty George's 
 education. . . . God knows how my heart yearns to see 
 you all again ; but my duty is here, and I have several 
 difficulties. If by God's aid I can surmount them all, I 
 shall, at the end of my three years' labour and self-denial, 
 feel entitled to look upon you again. God grant it may 
 be in health, tranquillity, and competency ; if it be God's 
 pleasure, may you and I have one more happy meeting on 
 earth ; if not, a far happier in heaven ! " 
 
 On the 5th of November he writes again : " I hold to 
 my purpose as strongly as ever, I trust, in drawing on the 
 Bank of Faith, but have learned in my old age that there 
 is another establishment, too much before neglected, to 
 which God's Spirit strongly invites attention, viz. the 
 Bank of Providence." His last letter, before embarking 
 on the Persian expedition, was dated from Delhi, the 13th 
 of December : " You have done your duty nobly to your 
 children, as ever, so especially since I left you for India in 
 October, 1851. This I fully acknowledge on earth, and 
 God's righteous verdict will corroborate it in heaven. But 
 you must postpone all plans of coming out to India." 
 But Haveiock was not to meet on earth the object of his 
 
1856.] HIS COKKESPONDENCE. 229 
 
 affectionate solicitude. When all further expectation of 
 active duty had vanished from his mind, he was suddenly- 
 called into the field ; and the last year of his life was dis- 
 tinguished by a series of military exploits, which have 
 rendered his name a " household word " in every circle in 
 his native land, and surrounded his memory with the 
 histre of national gratitude. 
 
230 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Origin of the Persian War. Havelock recommends General Outram for the 
 Command of the Expedition. Is appointed to command the Second Division. 
 Battle of Khooshab. Havelock arrives at Bushire. Expedition up the 
 Euphrates. Mohumra Strength of the Fortifications. Havelock 's Plan of 
 Attack Its successful Result. Expedition to Ahwaz. Peace with Persia. 
 Havelock returns to Bombay. Hears of the Revolt of the Bengal Army. 
 Origin and Character of the Mutiny of 1857. Mutiny of the 19th and 
 34th. Outburst at Meerut. Occupation of Delhi by the Insurgents. 
 
 Havelock embarks in the Erin, and is wrecked off Ceylon Reaches Madras, 
 
 and accompanies Sir P. Grant to Calcutta. His Memorandum on the Ben- 
 gal Mutinies. Is appointed to command the movable Column. His Opinion 
 of the 78th Highlanders. 
 
 AT the beginning of the year 1857, Havelock was unex- 
 pectedly called into active employ, and for the first time, 
 Havelock em- after forty-two years of service, and in the sixty- 
 Perefan n ex- e second year of his age, was placed in a position 
 pedition. which afforded scope for his extraordinary mili- 
 tary talents. While he was touring with the Commander- 
 in-Chief in the north-west provinces, Lord Elphinstone, 
 the Governor of Bombay, despatched a telegram to 
 General Anson, to request that he might be nominated to 
 the command of a division in the expedition which Go- 
 vernment was sending to Persia. Havelock accepted the 
 appointment with alacrity. 
 
 It has been already stated, that the war in Affghanistan 
 in 1838 grew primarily out of our differences with the 
 
 court of Persia. Under the encouragement of 
 d5puto f wuh Russia, the Shah had been induced to lay siege 
 
 to Herat ; it was abandoned, in compliance with 
 the demands of the British Government, which were en- 
 forced by the occupation of Karrack. But the influence 
 of England was not restored at the court of Teheran by 
 this accommodation of differences ; the counsels of Russia 
 
1856.] ORIGIN OF THE PERSIAN WAR. 231 
 
 still continued to predominate, while we were regarded 
 with feelings of repugnance, bordering on hostility. The 
 Persian monarch was still bent on the acquisition of Herat, 
 and the British Government was equally determined to 
 prevent the occupation of that town by a power so subser- 
 vient to the views of Russia. In 1852, in spite of the re- 
 monstrances of our minister at Teheran, a Persian army 
 was a second time despatched against Herat, and the town 
 and province were annexed by proclamation to the Persian 
 dominions. England again protested against this pro- 
 ceeding, and threatened to take possession of Karrack. 
 In January, 1853, the dread of hostilities with England 
 induced the Shah to yield to our wishes, and relinquish 
 his hold on Herat. By the treaty which was then con- 
 cluded, he bound himself not to send troops into that 
 principality, except when it might be invaded by a force 
 from Cabul, Candahar, or any other foreign territory, and 
 not to interfere in its internal affairs, and to abandon every 
 claim of sovereignty over it. 
 
 Soon after, a new cause of discord arose between the 
 Persian court and Mr Thompson, who had been left in 
 charge of the British mission during the absence of our 
 minister. It grew out of the appointment, as first Persian 
 secretary of the embassy, of one Mirza Hashem, a young 
 Persian, connected by marriage with the royal family. The 
 Persian Government refused to recognize the nomination, 
 on the ground that, having once been in the employ of the 
 Shah, the Mirza could not accept any other service till he 
 had received a formal discharge. Mr Thompson then an- 
 nounced his intention to send him as British agent to 
 Shiraz. Mr Murray, who had been appointed British 
 minister at the Persian court, gave his sanction to this ap- 
 pointment on his arrival at Teheran, but was informed by 
 the Persian Government that if the Mirza attempted to 
 proceed to Shiraz, he would be apprehended and detained. 
 This threat was followed up by the seizure of his wife. 
 Mr Murray demanded her immediate release, but the prime 
 minister refused to entertain any question regarding a lady 
 of the royal family. On Saturday, the 17th of November, 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 1855, Mr Murray informed Mm that if the lady was not 
 surrendered by Monday morning, he should suspend 
 friendly relations with the court. No regard was paid to 
 this intimation, and on the 20th Mr Murray struck his flag.*" 
 The Persian ministers then published a vindication of their 
 own proceedings, in which they affirmed that these alter- 
 cations had their origin in the personal attractions of the 
 Mirza's wife. They stated that they could not consent to 
 the dishonour of sending a Persian lady to the British 
 mission, and that Mr Murray had made this the pretext for 
 withdrawing the mission towards the Turkish territories. 
 These slanderous insinuations, which were subsequently 
 supported by the Shah himself, were indignantly and suc- 
 cessfully repelled by Mr Murray. It was, however, much 
 to be regretted that the British representative should have 
 been mixed up with this wretched affair, and that any pre- 
 text, however flimsy, should have been afforded to the 
 Persian cabinet to proclaim through Central Asia that the 
 diplomatic relations between the courts of London and 
 Teheran had been broken off by negotiations which had 
 reference to a Persian beauty. 
 
 During these transactions the town of Kars, after a 
 heroic defence by General Williams, was obliged to capi- 
 FaiiofKars, tulate. It was known throughout Asia that 
 wWoVof^ England and Russia had for some time been at 
 p e e reians. y e war, and the fall of this town was represented in 
 Persia and the surrounding countries, as the triumph of 
 Russia over England. Under the influence of this event, 
 and of the irritation occasioned by Mr Murray's retirement, 
 the king of Persia determined to repudiate the treaty of 
 1853, and despatch an army again for the conquest of 
 Herat. The original dispute regarding Mirza Hashem and 
 his wife was thus thrown into the shade by a more weighty 
 transaction. The negotiations of Persia and England were 
 now transferred to Constantinople, where the Persian re- 
 presentative placed himself in communication with Lord 
 Stratford de Eedcliffe. After several notes had passed 
 between them without any satisfactory result, Lord Clar- 
 endon, on the llth of July, 1856, stated in peremptory 
 
185G.] WAK WITH PERSIA. 233 
 
 language, that unless reparation was promptly made for 
 this breach of treaty and the hostile occupation of Herat, 
 and the Persian troops were immediately withdrawn from 
 that territory, the British Government would adopt other 
 measures. 
 
 Instructions were soon after forwarded to India, to make 
 preparations for an expedition to occupy the island ofKar- 
 rack and the city of Bu shire; and as there ap- War with 
 peared no disposition on the part of Persia to Persia - 
 comply with the demands of the British Government, the 
 Governor-General issued a declaration of war on the 1st 
 of November. 
 
 While the organization of this expeditionary force was 
 under discussion in Calcutta, the Commander-in- Chief, 
 General Anson, requested Haveiock' s sentiments Haveiock 
 as to the fittest man to command it, and men- General out- 
 tioned the name of General Stalker. Haveiock command of 
 stated that, without any disparagement of the tion. 
 merits of this officer, he considered General Outram to be 
 suited above all other men for this important enterprise ; 
 and it was partly under the influence of this suggestion 
 that the offer was made to him by the Home Government. 
 He was an officer of the Bombay Presidency, and had been 
 employed for a quarter of a century in various military and 
 diplomatic functions, which he had executed with such 
 zeal and success as to secure the confidence of the public 
 authorities, both in England and in the East. Eighteen 
 years before this period he had attracted the admiration of 
 India by the pursuit of Dost Mahomed after the capture of 
 Cabul. In his history of the Affghan campaign, Have- 
 lock had said of this exploit : " Captain Outram followed 
 the fugitives from the 3rd to the 9th of August (1839). 
 'Vhe British troops endured the greatest privations, having 
 lived on parched corn for several days, their horses pick- 
 ing up scanty and indifferent forage in the small spots of 
 cultivation in a mountainous tract. Holding cheap these 
 difficulties, Captain Outram pursued his arduous course 
 . . . and tracked the footsteps of the Ameer by Kaloo, 
 up the tremendous passes of Hajee Guk to Bameean, leav- 
 
234 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 ing close on his right the awful eminences of Koh-i-baba, 
 twenty thousand feet in height/' General Outranks 
 chivalrous bearing in the field had procured for him 
 throughout India the title of the Bayard of the East ; but 
 he was as much distinguished by his high sense of honour 
 as by his courage. His valour was conspicuous in the 
 campaign which terminated in the annexation of Scinde, 
 though he reprobated the policy in which the war origin- 
 ated. But when the prize money came to be distributed, 
 he refused to accept his share of it, as having been ac- 
 quired in a quarrel which he deemed unjust, and he divided 
 the whole amount, about 3000, among the different be- 
 nevolent institutions in India. General Outram, who was 
 in England when the war with Persia broke out, was at 
 once appointed by the Court of Directors to the chief com- 
 mand of the expedition, and at the same time invested 
 with political powers. The appointment was the most 
 judicious which could have been made. While his military 
 talents qualified him to direct the operations of the army,, 
 his diplomatic experience eminently fitted him for the 
 management of negotiations with an oriental court. It is 
 not unworthy of notice that our diplomatic relations with 
 Persia have always been most successfully maintained 
 when entrusted to a soldier, and moreover to a soldier who 
 has served in India. 
 
 General Outram, on receiving the appointment, lost no 
 time in proceeding to Bombay. In common with all those 
 sir James wno were acquainted with Havelock, he enter- 
 ?ommndt tained the highest opinion of his military abili- 
 Sfcomma^d ties. Though entirely ignorant of the fact that 
 of a division. j^ s own appointment had been recommended by 
 Havelock to the Commander-in- Chief in India, he advised 
 Lord Elphinstone to propose that he should be appointed 
 to the command of the second division, the first having 
 previously sailed under the orders of General Stalker, and 
 occupied Bushire with little opposition. Havelock felt that 
 the offer would place him in a sphere of action according 
 with his own aspirations, and afford him that chance of 
 useful service in a more enlarged and important sphere, 
 
1857.] HE IS APPOINTED TO COMMAND A DIVISION. 235 
 
 which he had so long coveted. He therefore accepted it 
 with great delight. 
 
 On the 6th of January he wrote to the compiler of this 
 Memoir : " Lord Elphinstone, at Sir James Outranks re- 
 quest, has telegraphed to General Anson to offer ^aveiock^ 
 me the command of a division in the Persian ex- appointment. 
 
 E edition. I accepted it, and expect to start immediately, 
 f, by God's blessing, I succeed, I trust they will make me 
 a major-general, which is 400 a year, with the hope of a 
 regiment, or 500 a year more. If I am unfortunate, I 
 need not tell you the fate of a British general under such 
 circumstances. I trust in God and will do my best. The 
 inducement is the hope of promotion in days when fifteen 
 Crimeans, ten junior to me, have been made major-generals 
 at one swoop." Writing on the same subject to Mrs 
 Havelock, he said : " The command is responsible, but 
 my trust is in God. It is a rare thing for an officer in the 
 Bengal Presidency to be summoned to command Bombay 
 troops. I never should have solicited such a command, 
 and would, in truth, rather have been employed in the 
 north-west provinces, where it is not unlikely that a force 
 may hereafter be employed. But when the post of honour 
 and danger was offered me by telegraph, old as I am, I did 
 not hesitate a moment. The wires carried back my un- 
 conditional and immediate acceptance." Having com- 
 pleted his arrangements, he started from Agra on the 12th 
 of January, and was expected to reach Bombay on the 
 26th, and Lord Elphinstone had made provision for his 
 last day's journey accordingly. But he was so anxious to 
 enter upon his work, that he pushed on night and day, 
 travelling in an open mail cart, without springs, upwards 
 of 100 miles a day. Undeterred by accidents, in one of 
 which he received bruises and contusions, which might 
 well have afforded an excuse for delay to a much younger 
 man, he surprised his friends by his arrival in Bombay on 
 the 21st, where he was cordially greeted and most hospit- 
 ably entertained by Lord Elphinstone. Sir James Out- 
 ram had embarked two days before, and Havelock, though 
 prepared himself to start immediately, was detained in the 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 harbour to the 29th, by an accident to the engines of the 
 steamer. As the vessel steamed out the usual salute was 
 fired from the battery ; ' ' the first expense of the kincl/' 
 he remarks, " to which I have ever put the Government. 19 ' 
 He did not reach Bushire before the 15th of February. 
 
 'Sir James Outram had arrived at that port with the 
 greater part of the second division on the 31st of January, 
 sir James I n ms usual spirit of enterprise, he determined 
 theinterio? to advance at once into the heart of the country, 
 ene d my e at stlle and strike a blow at the enemy. The Persians 
 Khooshab. we re posted at Brasjaon, about fifty miles from 
 Bushire, in an intrenched camp defended by eighteen 
 guns. The General appeared before their encampment on 
 the 5th of February, when, to the disappointment and 
 chagrin of his troops, they were seen in full retreat, at a 
 pace which rendered pursuit hopeless. The whole of their 
 camp equipage, grain, and munitions of war fell into the 
 hands of the General, who reserved what he was able to 
 carry, and destroyed the remainder, blowing up 36,000 
 pounds of powder. The force commenced its return to 
 Bushire on the evening of the 7th of February. The 
 enemy, however, commenced an attack on the British line 
 of march shortly after midnight, at the village of Khooshab, 
 and the next morning suffered a signal defeat. 
 
 The troops returned to Bushire, where Sir James was 
 constrained to await the arrival of reinforcements. He had 
 intended seen enough of the country to render it evident 
 toiohumra. tnat tne difficulties of the route into the interior, 
 in the direction he had pursued, and the want of 
 carriage, would render an advance impracticable. It was 
 therefore determined to transfer the scene of action to the 
 Euphrates, which^app eared to present greater facilities for 
 striking a heavy and decisive blow at the power of the 
 Persians. They were known to have established strong 
 fortifications at Mohumra, a position on the Shat-ool-arab, 
 the name given to the Euphrates after its junction with 
 the Tigris. The right bank of that stream was, moreover, 
 Turkish territory, where ample supplies of provisions and 
 cattle could be procured. Arrangements were therefore 
 
1857.] EXPEDITION AGAINST MOHUMRA. 237 
 
 made to transport the army to Mohumra, to operate on the 
 Euphrates, and endeavour to penetrate to Ispahan by that 
 route. In the prospect of this expedition Havelock wrote 
 to Mrs Havelock : " Our expedition against that point 
 will sail in a few days. Pray that I may faithfully dis- 
 charge every duty to the end. I have good troops and 
 cannon under my command ; but my trust is in the Lord 
 Jesus, my tried and merciful friend. ... If I fall in the 
 discharge of my duty the sovereign will provide for your 
 wants." While lying at Bushire he received a letter from 
 Major Balcarras Ramsay, of H.M.'s 75th, to which he re- 
 turned the following reply : 
 
 " My dear Ramsay, I am much gratified by your kind, and I 
 am sure sincere, congratulations on my nomination, unsought and 
 unexpected, to the command of a division with this force. The 
 enterprise in which we are engaged is interesting in the highest 
 degree, and unless cut short by some caprice of public opinion, or 
 unsound political combination, is almost sure to lead to important 
 results. Nearly half my two brigades are still on the sea, but the 
 absent regiments drop in by degrees, .in spite of adverse winds, 
 tempestuous weather, and imperfect steam power. 
 
 " You must not repine if denied for the present the opportunity 
 of encountering the risks of actual service. What if you should 
 behold a force assembled to penetrate to Herat by the Bolan 1 
 The 75th would then have a chance, and who more likely than 
 yourself, when called to the front, to obtain staff appointment and 
 win distinction in the field 1 I beg my kindest regards to Mrs 
 Ramsay, and remembrances to all friends in Calcutta, Birch in 
 particular, and Eice, and Thompson, and all that remember me at 
 the United Service Club. 
 
 " Ever believe me most sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. H." 
 
 The Persians had been improving the fortifications of 
 Mohumra for several months. Batteries had been erected, 
 of solid earth, twenty feet thick, and eighteen strength of 
 feet high, on the northern and southern points of Mohumra - 
 the angle formed by the junction of the Raroon with the 
 Shat-ool-arab. These, with other earthworks, armed with 
 cannon, commanded the entire passage of the latter river, 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 and were so skilfully and judiciously placed as to sweep 
 the whole stream, and command the opposite shore ; in- 
 deed, everything that science could suggest and labour 
 accomplish in the time appeared to have been done by the 
 enemy, effectually to prevent any vessel from passing 
 above their position. The troops had been gradually for- 
 warded from Bushire, in vessels which anchored several 
 miles below the fortification at Mohumra, and they were 
 joined by Havelock on the 15th of March, in the Berenice, 
 with the head-quarters of the 78th Highlanders and the 
 staff of his division. He was in daily expectation of the 
 arrival of Sir James Outram and the rest of the force ; 
 but on the 16th intelligence was received that he had been 
 detained at Bushire by the death of General Stalker, whom 
 he had intended to leave in command of that post. This 
 unexpected calamity determined Sir James to remain at 
 Bushire ; but, happily, he was joined immediately after 
 by General Jacob, an officer of surpassing ability, with his 
 far-fained Scinde horse, which was the admiration of India. 
 The charge of this important post was at once placed in 
 his hands, and Sir James prepared to proceed forthwith to 
 Mohumra. 
 
 Meanwhile, Havelock had strained every nerve to collect 
 the most accurate information regarding the position and 
 strength of the enemy. He obtained important 
 details from the commander of the French frigate 
 ^ Sibylle, who had visited the Persian encamp- 
 ment ; but that officer considered the position of the enemy 
 too strong to be carried by the naval and military force 
 now assembled. On the 18th of March Havelock invited 
 the gentlemen who were possessed of the most accurate 
 local knowledge, to a conference ; Captain Kemball, the 
 political agent ; the Rev. George Badger, chaplain at Aden, 
 distinguished by his acquaintance with the language, habits, 
 and customs of the neighbouring tribes; and Captain 
 Selby, of the Indian navy. On the strength of the inform- 
 ation derived from them, he drew up the following plan 
 of operations, which is valuable as exhibiting that high 
 
1857.] PLAN OF ATTACK OX MOHUMRA. 239 
 
 order of military talent, in which every detail is pre- 
 arranged, and every contingency provided for : 
 
 " 1. At a conversation this morning on board the II. C. ship 
 * Comet,' with Captain Kemball, the Eev. George Badger, and 
 Captain Selhy, Indian Navy, much information was given by these 
 gentlemen regarding the enemy's troops and batteries, at and 
 near Mohumra ; and the following plan of attack appeared 
 feasible to the naval 'and military officers. The substance of Cap- 
 tain Kemball's information has been drawn up by that officer, who 
 has promised me a copy of it, to be hereafter appended to this 
 memorandum. 
 
 " 2. The enemy has thrown up a work containing four guns on 
 the river's edge at Buerda. This must be silenced and dismantled 
 by the combined fire of the whole of the armed vessels with us. 
 This is considered very easy of accomplishment. 
 
 " 3. The armed vessels, transports, &c., would then proceed up 
 the river, and at the point marked A on the plan (a sheltered spot 
 on a high bank), the infantry and artillery of the force would be 
 transhipped into vessels as under-mentioned : 
 
 Steamer, Victoria . . . . 140 horses. 
 
 ,1 Assyria .... 60 horses, artillery, and staff. 
 
 Napier .... 90 artillery. 
 
 Berenice .... 180. 
 
 Comet and boats . 260 of the light battalion. 
 
 Lady Falkland . 300 of the 26th K I. 
 
 Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy 300 of the 26th K I. 
 
 Hugh Lindsay . . 600 of H. M. 64th regiment. 
 
 Pioneer .... 700 light battalion. 
 
 Flat Ethersey 860 of the 78th. 
 
 Meteor 200 sappers. 
 
 Boats from Transports . . 750 Doolie wallas, or native 
 
 bearers, attached to the 
 hospital litters. 
 
 Paddle-box boats from Ajdaha 28 horses, staff. 
 
 " Doolies to be lashed to the sides of small steamers, or taken 
 in the Berenice. 
 
 " 4. The transhipment of the horses during the day, that of the 
 men the next morning at 2 o'clock, each soldier having with him 
 
240 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, [CHAP. vi. 
 
 his arms, ammunition, canteen filled with water, great coat, blanket, 
 and three days' provisions. 
 
 " 5. At daylight the following men of war will proceed to 
 their stations, and commence to batter and shell the enemy's 
 fortifications at the intersection of the Hafir, and the Shat-odi- 
 Arab. 
 
 H. C. S. S. Clive South battery. 
 
 H. C. S. F. Assaye Is T orth 
 
 H. C. S. F. Semiramis .... 
 
 H. C. S. Falkland 
 
 and the H. C. S. frigates Feroze and Ajdaha will protect, at 
 points B and C, the disembarkation of the troops, on the inter- 
 mediate bank. 
 
 "6. The opening of the cannonade of the armed vessels is to 
 be the signal for the steamers and boats conveying troops to weigh 
 and proceed, led by the H. C. S. Comet up the track designated 
 in the plan. The steamers Berenice and Victoria, will at the 
 same time proceed with the utmost despatch up the track 
 marked h, k, I. The troops will land and form as quickly as pos- 
 sible, and as soon as they are established on shore, will be put in 
 march against the Shahzada, under instructions to be delivered on 
 the ground. 
 
 " 7. The general idea of my attack would be to manoeuvre to 
 gain the right flank of the Mirza, when the left brigade, under 
 the protection of the twelve guns massed in our centre, would 
 assail that point, our right being refused. As soon as the left 
 brigade should produce a decided impression on the enemy, the 
 right brigade would in its turn advance and attack. The light 
 infantry battalion and the detachment of Scinde horse would be 
 kept in second line, to act when the favourable moment arrived, 
 and protect the rear. 
 
 " I entertain the strongest opinion of the success which might 
 reasonably be expected from such a combined attack. 
 
 " H. HAVELOCK, 
 
 " Brigadier-General." 
 
 This outline of operations was sent to Sir James Out- 
 
 ram and received his sanction, though the distribution of 
 
 sir j.out- the troops among the vessels was subsequently 
 
 ram approves .. ^ _ _ o 1-1 i i 
 
 of the plan, modified. In the letter which accompanied the 
 
 Instructions . .. i i i n 
 
 for the action, plan Havelock said, that the means which had 
 
1857.] INSTRUCTIONS FOE ATTACK ON MOHUMRA. 241 
 
 been originally destined for this object were ample ; that 
 with twelve guns, and a little cavalry, he trusted the vic- 
 tory would be ours ; but " the more cavalry the better." 
 On the 19th he was informed that the encampment of the 
 enemy, two miles from the fort, was not intrenched, but 
 that large reinforcements were hourly expected, and he 
 therefore urged the utmost expedition on the G-eneral. 
 Sir James was again detained at Bushire by the death of 
 Commodore Ethersey, the chief of the naval department, 
 and did not reach the rendezvous on the river before the 
 22nd. He brought with him some additional Scinde horse, 
 and a detachment of the 14th Dragoons; the arrangements 
 for the attack were, therefore, made without delay. The 
 whole force consisted of 4886 men, of whom, independently 
 of the artillery, 1623 were Europeans. The troops were in 
 the finest health and spirits, and eager to be led against 
 the enemy. The 25th was employed in the transhipment 
 of horses and stores ; and when all the dispositions were 
 completed, Havelock issued the following instructions re- 
 garding the movement of the troops the next morning : 
 
 " 1. The troops on landing will he formed in two lines, the 
 first consisting of the two brigades of infantry, with the artillery 
 in the centre between them ; the second of the cavalry, a squadron 
 in rear of the inner flank of each brigade, at three hundred paces 
 distant. 
 
 "2. As soon as the troops have reached ground on which they 
 can freely manoeuvre, the left brigade to advance transversely to 
 their original front in open column of companies, left in front, the 
 artillery following in column of half batteries. 
 
 " 3. The right brigade to be moved in the same order, until the 
 head of the column reaches the left of the original line, when it 
 will wheel into line, and advance in that order. 
 
 " 4. Thus the troops will be conducted to the attack of two 
 sides of the camp, the right brigade being held in reserve, until 
 the left, having wheeled into line, has successfully assaulted the 
 enemy, the artillery opening on the enemy in the space between 
 the two brigades. 
 
 " 5. The cavalry will move in second line, a squadron in rear 
 of the centre of each brigade of infantry, whether in line or in 
 column." 
 
 16 
 
242 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 At daybreak On the morning of the 26th, four mortars, 
 which had been placed on a raft anchored in the river under 
 Sdc^oSi^- 4 " sne lter of a low island, and exposed, if dis- 
 humra. covered, to immediate capture, opened fire, aud 
 continued the action for an hour and a half. Soon after 
 sunrise the frigates were abreast of the works, but the Se- 
 miramis, the leading vessel, grounded as she attempted to 
 enter the Hafir channel. The other vessels poured an in- 
 cessant shower of shot and shell into the enemy's in- 
 trenchment for two hours, and it was a matter of surprise 
 that the Persians were able to stand this awful fire for so 
 long a period, our artillery being, at least, four times as 
 powerful as theirs. The 68-pounders were seen to cut 
 large date trees, eighteen inches in diameter, as though 
 they had been mere twigs, and the effect of their rushing 
 sound in that dense wood must have been appalling. By 
 nine, the enemy's fire, which had been visibly slackening 
 for some time, ceased almost entirely, and the steamers, 
 with troops on board, moved up the river to the point of 
 debarkation. The Berenice, with Havelock and the High- 
 landers and a company of Sappers, led the way. Her decks 
 were crowded, and he took his station on the paddle-box, 
 that he might be able more effectually to command the 
 men, and keep them down while passing within a hundred 
 yards of the enemy's batteries. A single round shot would 
 have created no little havoc in that dense mass of defence- 
 less men, but no lives were lost, though the hull of. the 
 vessel was repeatedly struck and the rigging cut. The 
 other vessels and boats followed in excellent order, and 
 Sir James came up as the Highlanders were landed. By 
 half-past one all the troops were ready to advance, with the 
 exception of a portion of the Dragoons and four horse ar- 
 tillery guns, detained on a spot which had become isolated 
 by the rising of the tide. Just at this time, according to 
 some accounts, a shell from one of the steamers struck the 
 great magazine in the centre of the north fort, and it blew 
 up with a tremendous explosion, and contributed to in- 
 crease the confusion and dismay of the enemy. Our troops 
 were immediately formed, and began to advance towards 
 
1857.] VICTORY A.T MOHUMRA. 243 
 
 the Persian encampment, in which the Shahzada, a prince 
 of the blood royal, commanded in person. But they had 
 no sooner made their appearance than the enemy were 
 seized with a panic, and precipitately abandoned their 
 camp and fled. The white tents were standing, but the 
 tenants had vanished, as if by the stroke of a magic wand. 
 Previous to decamping the Persians blew up some of 
 their magazines; but several others, together with im- 
 mense stores of grain, and all their tents and baggage, fell 
 to the victors. Sixteen guns were also captured on the 
 fortifications ; but, owing to the deficiency of cavalry, from 
 the detention of the dragoons, contrary to Havelock's ex- 
 pectations, it was impossible to pursue the enemy with effect, 
 though the Scinde horse followed them for several miles. 
 Havelock gives the following description of the engage- 
 ment in a letter to his wife on the 28th of March : 
 
 " Our expedition against this place has been entirely successful, 
 but the victory was won by the Indian navy ; the troops of my 
 division, which landed in the best order, and in the H aveiock's 
 highest spirits, had not a shot to fire. The Persians thl cr lngage- f 
 were commanded by the Shahzada," a prince of the ment. 
 blood, " and their works were formidable \ but in three hours 
 and a half they were so hammered by our Avar-ships, that the 
 enemy abandoned them in dismay, suffering great loss ; and before 
 my regiments and carmon could be landed in the date groves, in- 
 tersected by water-courses, and my columns formed, they were in 
 full retreat, followed by a handful of cavalry. I had not a single 
 casualty in my crowded troop-ship, and in the Scindian, in which 
 Harry was embarked, the only man killed was his head servant. 
 I had hoped that my troops would have won laurels, but Provi- 
 dence decreed it otherwise. We must be ever thankful for the 
 preserving mercies of this day, the 26th of March. The cannon- 
 ade was warm, and my steamer, the Berenice, crowded with 
 Highlanders, led the troop-ships to the point where we landed. 
 I felt throughout that the Lord Jesus was at my side. . . . The 
 work inspires and animates me, and God is with me. I never 
 
 felt better in my life, praised be God Sir James Outram 
 
 commands in chief, both naval and military forces, the troops 
 being all under my immediate orders. He and I are the best 
 friends." 
 
244 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 In a letter of the same period to the compiler lie says : 
 ' ' The Shahzada had four and a half miles the start of us, 
 and as I had only a mere handful of Irregular Cavalry^ it 
 was impossible to bring him to action against his wifl. 
 His army was speedily in a state of dissolution. The 
 whiz of his bullets in passing over my crowded steamer, 
 and the sense of the same protecting and guiding Pro- 
 vidence was all that I had to remind me of former days. 
 It is waxing hot in the plains, under the mere ghosts of 
 tents such as we pitch in Bengal. Harry and I have kept 
 our health so far; I am sixty- two, but I think can cam- 
 paign as merrily as in 1846. The recoil on the constitu- 
 tion may however be more severe. I have written to 
 General Anson, that I am ready for China as soon as this 
 is over." 
 
 Three days after the engagement at Mohumra, an expe- 
 dition was sent a hundred miles up the Karoon to Ahwaz, 
 Expedition to which the enemy was reported to have re- 
 to Ahwaz. treated. It was successful beyond expectation. 
 The Arab tribes in the vicinity, who had hastened to wit- 
 ness the conflict, beheld the extraordinary spectacle of 
 7000 Persian infantry, with five or six guns, and a host 
 of cavalry, flying in dismay from a detachment of British 
 infantry only 300 strong, with three steamers and three 
 gunboats. The report of this success had scarcely reached 
 Mohumra, and raised the expectation of future triumphs 
 over the Persians, when intelligence was received from 
 Europe which at once extinguished all these hopes. As 
 Havelock had drawn up his troops for church parade on 
 the morning of Sunday, the 5th of April, Sir James rode 
 Peace with U P an( ^ informed him that a treaty of peace had 
 Persia. been signed with the Persian ambassador at 
 Paris, on the 4th of March, and that their labours in the 
 field were at an end. " The intelligence," writes Have- 
 lock, " which elevates some and depresses others, finds 
 me calm in my reliance on that dear Redeemer who has 
 watched over me, and cared for me when I knew him not, 
 threescore and two years," it was the anniversary of his 
 birthday. Thus ended this expedition to Persia, which, 
 
1857.] PEACE WITH PERSIA. 245 
 
 in the course of six months, had cost England and India 
 a sum little short of two millions, with no result but that 
 of demolishing the reputation of the Persian army, and 
 demonstrating its utter inability to cope with the troops 
 of a European power. In the three actions at Khooshab, 
 Mohumra, and Ahwaz, the Persians had fled disgracefully 
 at the sight of a British force. 
 
 The conclusion of peace with Persia was a most provi- 
 dential event for the interests of our eastern empire. The 
 small body of European troops in India, though The peace for . 
 inadequate to the protection of our vast territo- intemtsof 18 
 ries, had been weakened by the withdrawal of Britiah India - 
 two regiments of horse to the Crimea, and had now been 
 still further reduced by the despatch of four other Eu- 
 ropean regiments and the greater part of the 14th Dragoons 
 to Persia. The storm which was about to burst on Brit- 
 ish India, and render the services of European troops 
 inestimable, was already lowering. The first intimation 
 of it was received by Havelock in a letter from General 
 Anson, dated " Head-quarter Camp, the 15th of March :" 
 "We have been," he writes, " and still are in trouble 
 here with disaffection in regiments, on account of the 
 cartridge question. The 19th Native Infantry are in open 
 mutiny, a stronger case than any I know on record in 
 India ; the Government will deal with it, I hope, judici- 
 ously. I only know the facts, but very few particulars, as 
 to who or what is to be blamed. There are generally in 
 these matters faults everywhere ; but open mutiny cannot 
 be passed over, or even partially excused." Fortunately 
 for the interests of India, while the impending danger 
 was treated with the most contemptuous indifference in 
 Calcutta, Lord Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay, was 
 fully awake to the greatness of the crisis. A month be- 
 fore the outbreak at Meerut, he sent a pressing request to 
 Sir James Outram to send back all the European troops 
 without a moment's delay, peace having been concluded 
 with Persia. His letter was accompanied by a communi- 
 cation from the Governor- General, authorizing Sir James 
 to use his own discretion in the matter; and he deter- 
 
246 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 mined at once to send back every European regiment, 
 with the exception of the artillery ; retaining the native 
 troops till the treaty was ratified and Herat evacuated. 
 The second division, which Havelock had commands^ 
 was thus broken up, and as no Queen's troops were to re- 
 main in Persia, his occupation necessarily ceased. On 
 the 9th of May, Sir James Outram issued a " Field Force 
 Order," in which he returned " his thanks to the officers 
 and men, and more especially to Brigadier- General Have- 
 lock, C.B., for the zealous and valuable assistance he has 
 afforded at all times in command of the second division/' 
 Havelock quitted Mohumra on the 15th, and reached 
 Bombay on the 29th of May, where he heard, as he said, 
 
 Havelock " the astounding intelligence that the native re- 
 quits MO- . 1 T , T . Tl *- -T< 
 
 humra,and cnments had mutinied at Meerut. Jb erozepore, 
 
 reaches Bom- i T\ vi -i j i i n r , t T\ n 
 
 bay. and Delhi ; and that the tortress ot Demi, one 
 
 of the few we possessed in India, was in the hands of the 
 military insurgents, while disaffection seemed to be spread- 
 ing throughout the upper provinces." His first impulse 
 was to join the Commander-in- Chief, General Anson, then 
 marching on Delhi, with the least possible delay, and re- 
 sume his duties as Adjutant- General of the army. But 
 the monsoon had set in above the Ghats, the garrison of 
 Agra had been disarmed, and great doubts were enter- 
 tained of the fidelity of the troops in Central India, through 
 which his road would lie. After long consultation with 
 Lord Elphinstone and Colonel Melvill, the military secret- 
 ary to the Government, it was decided that the route by 
 Indore was not safe without a strong escort, which could 
 not be spared. The 64th and 78th Highlanders, which 
 had formed a part of his division in Persia a month be- 
 fore, had been sent round to Calcutta without landing at 
 Bombay. " So I am proceeding," he writes, " by sea, 
 prepared to give Lord Canning and Birch strong advice, 
 if they consult me. This is the most tremendous con- 
 vulsion I have ever witnessed, though I was in the thick 
 of Cabul affairs : the crisis is eventful." 
 
 The Sepoy mutiny of 1857 was the most stupendous 
 event in the annals of British India after the sack of Cal- 
 
1857.] ORIGIN OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. 247 
 
 cutta, a hundred years before, and the battle of gjjfa^ 
 Plassey, which gave the sovereignty of India to a mutiny. 
 Great Britain, and established the supremacy of Europe 
 in Asia. Indeed, it would be difficult to find in the history 
 of any nation a similar instance of the revolt of an army 
 of a hundred thousand men against a well-established 
 Government, whose only fault was that of having mani- 
 fested too great a deference to their prejudices and hu- 
 mours. There is no previous example of an army thus 
 proclaiming a war of extermination against its indulgent 
 masters, and requiting their kindness by acts of the most 
 atrocious barbarity. In any attempt to trace the origin 
 of this convulsion, it must not be overlooked that there is 
 no satisfactory evidence to connect the native princes 
 with it. Some of the landholders of inferior note un- 
 doubtedly abetted the revolt, after it had become success- 
 ful. When the strong Government which had held the 
 passions of men in check was dissolved, many dreams of 
 ambition were unfolded, and some of the zemindars in 
 disorganized districts made a bold stroke for power and 
 plunder. They fancied that the old days had returned, 
 when daring spirits might take advantage of public com- 
 motions to carve out principalities for themselves. But 
 all the great princes of India, with the exception of the 
 King of Delhi, remained faithful to us, and to their own 
 interests. The mutiny was simply a revolt of the army 
 against the constituted authorities ; and if there had been 
 no military rising, there would have been no appearance 
 of any social insurrection. 
 
 Various grounds of national discontent have been dis- 
 covered since the mutiny, and set down as concurrent 
 causes of it, with the view of condemning the Govern- 
 ment of India. But it was impossible for a foreign and 
 civilized and progressive rule like ours to be established 
 in a semi-barbarous country like India, without coming 
 into collision with the prejudices of the natives. Aliens 
 in race and religion, in language and in habits, there could 
 be no common bond of sympathy, and no link of attach- 
 ment between the conquerors and the conquered. A 
 
248 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 certain degree of disaffection was therefore inseparable 
 from the existence of a Government such as ours. We 
 could not take a step in the career of improvement with- 
 out rousing the indignation of influential classes, whose 
 happiness and dignity were identified with the perpetuity 
 of institutions which we considered barbarous. But all 
 these causes of alienation might have existed without 
 creating an insurrection, though they would doubtless 
 have increased our difficulties whenever it broke out. 
 Nor were the causes of disaffection towards us stronger 
 than those which must always have existed towards the 
 tyrannical Government of the Mahomedans. Some have 
 been so venturesome as to charge the mutiny on our al- 
 leged interference with the religion of the people. But, 
 in a country where the Mahomedan conquerors had offered 
 the most flagrant insults to the religion of the vanquished 
 Hindoos, demolishing their shrines, and treading their 
 most revered images under foot, without having for cen- 
 turies excited even an emeute, it would be preposterous to 
 suppose that forty millions of Hindoos would, on religious 
 grounds, rise in revolt against a Government which had 
 been neutral, even at the expense of its own character and 
 dignity, and had carried the principle of toleration even 
 beyond the limits of rectitude. Notwithstanding these 
 assumed causes of disaffection, there was throughout the 
 country a general feeling of acquiescence in our adminis- 
 tration, ander which India had enjoyed a degree of gen- 
 eral prosperity, unknown for eight centuries. Life and 
 property, which had always been insecure under former 
 dynasties, were placed under the safeguard of the law ; 
 wealth was more generally diffused among the people ; 
 and at the period of the outbreak, there was every reason 
 to believe that the various provinces of our Indian empire 
 were settling down into the same state of permanent 
 tranquillity and consolidation, which had characterized the 
 Eoman empire for more than two centuries. 
 
 The rule of England in India was suddenly shaken to 
 its foundation by the revolt of the army. The immediate 
 cause of that revolt was the greased cartridges ; but many 
 
1857.] CHAKACTER OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. 249 
 
 predisposing causes had been gradually at work, and had 
 prepared this body of mercenary soldiery for the crown- 
 ing act of rebellion against its foreign masters. In India, 
 the principle of military subordination is rather the ex- 
 ception than the rule. From time immemorial the native 
 princes have been accustomed to dread their own armies, 
 who were found to be less obedient in proportion to the 
 laurels they had gained. Kunjeet Singh, the last success- 
 ful soldier of fortune in India, always declared that he 
 dreaded the instruments of his elevation more than he 
 dreaded his rivals or his enemies. No sooner was the 
 iron hand of his despotism removed by death, than his 
 army revolted against his feeble successor, and was pre- 
 vented from plundering Lahore only by having the cur- 
 rent of its cupidity dexterously turned upon the British 
 provinces. Our own Sepoy army had been for more than 
 twenty years in a state of chronic mutiny. In 1824, the 
 47th Native Infantry refused to march to Burmah, but, 
 through the energy of Sir Edward Paget, was decimated 
 before it was disbanded. The next exhibition of a mutin- 
 ous spirit was unfortunately handled with less resolution, 
 and the spirit of insubordination gained strength. At 
 each successive act of indiscipline the Sepoys became more 
 exacting, and the Government more yielding ; till at length 
 the obedience of the native army was little more than 
 nominal. Our native troops were cajoled by concessions, 
 and pampered by sweetmeats. The flattery distilled into 
 their ears would have turned the heads of any body of 
 troops, even if they had not been the Asiatic mercenaries 
 of a foreign conqueror. They were encouraged in the be- 
 lief that it was to their prowess alone that we owed the 
 empire of India ; and they came at length to the conclu- 
 sion, that as they had once conquered India for us, they 
 might now conquer it for themselves. 
 
 For this audacious attempt our Government had created 
 the most tempting facilities by reducing the strength of 
 its European force. To provide against the dis- Paucity of 
 affection of the native soldiery, it had always troops. 6 * 
 been considered prudent to maintain a due proportion of 
 
250 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 European troops ; but in the augmentation of the native 
 army, which the expansion of our dominions had rendered 
 necessary, this precaution had been gradually lost sight 
 of, and no corresponding addition had been made to thi* 
 European corps. Success and tranquillity had engendered 
 a presumptuous confidence, and in the hundredth year of 
 the empire we believed it to be impregnable. Even after 
 the proportion had been reduced to the ratio of one Eu- 
 ropean corps to five native corps, and two regiments had 
 been permanently established in Burmah,itwas not deemed 
 hazardous to send two corps to the Crimea, and four on 
 the Persian expedition. At the beginning of 1857, the 
 number of European troops in Bengal and the north-west 
 provinces, among a population of fifty millions, did not 
 exceed 4500, and nearly all the treasuries and the arsenals 
 were without the protection of Europeans. The danger 
 of revolt was, moreover, indefinitely increased by the con- 
 stitution of the native Bengal army. High-caste Brahmins 
 and Rajpoots were gradually allowed a numerical pre- 
 ponderance in each regiment. They were exceedingly 
 difficult of management, from their lofty religious pre- 
 tensions, which continually clashed with the requirements 
 of military discipline. Unhappily, Government had always 
 considered it less troublesome, and perhaps more safe, to 
 humour than to control their caste prejudices. The low- 
 caste men in each corps yielded a more implicit obedience 
 to those who thus stood above them in the social scale 
 than to their military superiors, and a more powerful in- 
 fluence than that of the commanding officer was thus 
 established in the bosom of every regiment. To crown 
 the difficulty of governing such an army, more than forty 
 thousand of the troops had been recruited from the single 
 province of Oude, and they were drawn not only from the 
 same district, but often from the same village and the same 
 family ; and that powerful bond of union which is created 
 by local associations, and the ties of relationship, was 
 thus firmly established in the Bengal army. It was, in 
 fact, composed of groups of brotherhoods. The same 
 sympathies pervaded the whole mass ; the 1 chord which 
 
1857.] THE GREASED CARTRIDGES. 251 
 
 was touched in one regiment immediately vibrated through 
 every other ; and a community of feeling on any question 
 affecting their privileges or prejudices might be created 
 within ten days between the Sepoys at Peshawur and 
 those at Barrackpore, though separated from each other 
 by a distance of fifteen hundred miles. 
 
 The year 1857, destined to be one of unexampled 
 atrocities, dawned tranquilly on the rulers of India, and 
 the empire was supposed to be in a state of the most pro- 
 found repose. Suddenly, from a cause apparently insig- 
 nificant, the spark was applied to the mine on which we 
 had been slumbering, and in a few months India was in a 
 blaze. It had been determined to improve the efficiency 
 of the native army by the introduction of the Enfield rifle, 
 the cartridges of which required to be lubricated. They 
 were made up for the rifles in the laboratory at Dumdum. 
 On the 22nd of January, Captain Wright informed Major 
 Bontein, commanding the depot of musketry at that station, 
 that a very unpleasant feeling existed among the Sepoys 
 who had been sent there for instruction, regarding the 
 grease used in preparing the cartridges. It appears that 
 a mechanic attached to the magazine, had asked a Sepoy 
 of the 2nd Grenadiers for water from his lotah, or brass 
 water-pot ; the Sepoy refused it, on the ground that he 
 did not know to what caste he belonged ; when the me- 
 chanic immediately retorted, "You yourself will soon have 
 no caste left, for you will be required to bite cartridges 
 smeared with the fat of pigs and cows." However in- 
 different a Hindoo may be on the subject of his religious 
 belief, he is frantic on any question of caste ; and the man 
 who would not hesitate to lampoon his g'ods for a con- 
 sideration, would regard the attempt to touch his lips with 
 a piece of beef as an inexpiable offence. It was then dis- 
 covered, for the first time, that a report had been dis- 
 seminated through the native army, that it was the design 
 of Government to destroy the caste of the Sepoys by con- 
 straining them to bite off the end of greased cartridges. 
 General Hearsay, commanding the Presidency division, 
 fully estimating the gravity of the crisis, lost not an hour 
 
252 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 in addressing the Deputy Adjutant- General of the army 
 on the subject ; and with the view of eradicating this im- 
 pression from the minds of the Sepoys, proposed that the 
 ingredients used in the preparation of the musket car^ 
 tridge should be procured from the bazaar,, and the Sepoys' 
 be allowed to make it up themselves. The Deputy Ad- 
 jutant-General allowed three days to elapse before he for- 
 warded the letter to the Military Secretary to Government,, 
 who replied on the 27th, that the Governor- General in 
 Council sanctioned the proposal, and that it might be 
 carried into effect, not only at Dumdum, but also at the 
 stations of Umbala and Sealkote in the north-west. It 
 was now, however, too late to remedy the mischief. By 
 means of that active correspondence which was main- 
 tained with each other by men of the same caste and 
 family in the various regiments, the alarm had already 
 spread throughout the army, and it was universally be- 
 lieved that the greased cartridges were intended to de- 
 stroy their caste, with the view of compelling them to 
 embrace Christianity. General Hearsay held a court of 
 inquiry at Barrackpore, to ascertain the cause of this 'uni- 
 versal disaffection, and he informed Government that 
 although the men expressed themselves perfectly satisfied, 
 the conviction that grease was used in the composition of 
 the cartridges was now so deeply rooted in their minds, 
 that it would be both idle and unwise to attempt to remove 
 it. The spirit of mistrust and disaffection had, in fact, 
 reached that point at which every effort to correct it by 
 explanation only tended to confirm it, with the additional 
 mischief of being regarded as an index of pusillanimity. 
 On the 10th of February, the Sepoys at Barrackpore held 
 a meeting on the parade ground at night, to concert a 
 general rising, when they proposed to murder all the Eu- 
 ropeans, plunder the station, and proceed where they 
 liked. General Hearsay again addressed the Supreme 
 Government in Calcutta in urgent terms, and affirmed 
 that they had been dwelling at Barrackpore on a mine 
 ready for explosion. He pointed out the extreme danger 
 arising from the presence of four or five disaffected native 
 
1857.] MUTINY AT BERHAMPOKE. 253 
 
 regiments so close to the metropolis, and quoted Sir 
 Charles Metcalf s memorable remark, that we should 
 wake some morning and find India lost to the Crown of 
 England. 
 
 At length, on the 19th of February, the mutiny burst 
 forth at Berhampore. The 19th Eegiment broke out into 
 open revolt, seized their muskets, and rushed Mutiny of the 
 with loud shouts on the parade ground. Colonel hampore. 
 Mitchell, who commanded the regiment, had not a single 
 European in the cantonment; but, with the aid of two 
 guns, and a hundred and sixty irregular horse, who, from 
 the circumstance of their enlistment and organization, 
 were, in the early stages of the mutiny, better affected 
 towards Government than the Sepoys of the line, managed 
 to smother the flame without bloodshed. Government 
 determined to make a signal example of the mutineers, 
 and to crush this insubordinate spirit in the bud. Her 
 Majesty's 84th Foot was ordered up from Rangoon, and 
 on its arrival in Calcutta, the 19th was directed to pro- 
 ceed from Berhampore to Barrackpore. All the regi- 
 ments at Barrackpore were, however, tainted with disaf- 
 fection, but the 34th took the lead in the revolt ; and on 
 Sunday, the 29th of March, a Sepoy of the name of Mun- 
 gul Panday, infuriated with intoxicating drugs, rushed on 
 the parade ground, and called on his comrades to come 
 forward in defence of their religion. The European ser- 
 geant-major of the regiment advanced to seize him, while 
 the quarter-guard witnessed the scene without moving. 
 The adjutant of the regiment then came to the rescue, but 
 the Panday shot his horse, and then commenced a hand- 
 to-hand conflict with both European officers. The Sepoys 
 of the regiment, instead of supporting their officers, at- 
 tacked them from behind, and they must have fallen vic- 
 tims to this murderous onslaught, had not General Hear- 
 say rescued them by his personal resolution and gallantry. 
 
 On the arrival of the 19th at Barrackpore, the Queen's 
 84th, a wing of the 53rd, two batteries of artillery, Le niency to- 
 and the Governor- General's body-guard were ut?ne?w of 
 assembled on parade. General Hearsay, in tUel9th - 
 
254 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 obedience to the orders of the Governor- General, then read 
 the public Order which had been passed on the occasion. 
 It stated that the native officers and men of the regiment 
 had been guilty of open and defiant mutiny, and that the** 
 punishment decreed by the Supreme Government was, 
 that they should be discharged from the service, be de- 
 prived of their arms, receive their arrears of pay, and be 
 required to take their departure from the cantonment. It 
 was, moreover, directed, that this sentence so utterly in- 
 adequate to the offence should be read at the head of 
 every regiment in India. Five weeks were then allowed 
 to pass over without any decision on the conduct of the 
 34th Eegiment. During this period of inaction the spirit 
 of insubordination was rising to maturity throughout the 
 Bengal army. On the 9th of May all the disposable troops, 
 European and native, were assembled at Barrackpore to 
 witness the punishment of the mutinous 34th. Four hun- 
 dred of the most culpable in that corps were ordered on 
 the parade ; their crime, which was described to be the 
 most heinous of which a soldier could be guilty, was then 
 circumstantially detailed, after which they were paid up 
 their arrears, and discharged from the public service, with 
 orders to be conveyed to Chinsurah, to which place their 
 families and their baggage were to be sent after them. 
 Thus, on the spot where, thirty-three years before, the 
 mutinous 47th had expiated their crime under showers of 
 grape and the sabres of the cavalry, the 19th and the 
 34th, guilty of a more atrocious revolt, were punished 
 only by discharge from the service, accompanied by the 
 receipt of all their arrears to the uttermost farthing ! The 
 conduct of Government in 1824 nipped mutiny in the bud, 
 while the conduct of the public authorities in 1857 rendered 
 a revolt throughout the army, in the existing state of feel- 
 ing, inevitable. Government now considered the mutiny 
 at an end, and arrangements were made for sending the 
 84th back to Eangoon, when the telegraphic wire flashed 
 the portentous news from Meerut, that the storm, which 
 had been lowering for three months, had burgt forth, and 
 that the revolt of the Bengal army had begun. 
 
1857.] MUTINY AT MEERUT. 255 
 
 On the 8th of May, cartridges were served out to the 3rd 
 Cavalry at Meerut. They refused to accept them, though 
 it was distinctly explained that they had not Mutill yat 
 been smeared with grease. In fact, the army was Meerut - 
 now ripe for mutiny. On the 9th, eighty-five of the re- 
 cusants were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to im- 
 prisonment with hard labour for terms varying from five 
 to ten years. All the troops, European and native, were 
 drawn up on parade, and the delinquents were stripped of 
 their uniform and ironed. They were then marched off 
 to jail, uttering imprecations on the Government. A 
 deep feeling of resentment was manifested by the native 
 troops while the irons were placed on their comrades ; but 
 no attempt at resistance was made. There were at the 
 time two native infantry regiments at that station, and 
 one of cavalry, and two European corps, with two troops 
 of European horse artillery and a field battery. The Eu- 
 ropean troops could easily have exterminated the native 
 force ; but, unhappily, the station was under the command 
 of a worn-out and imbecile septuagenarian, General Hew- 
 itt, whose name has obtained a most unenviable notoriety 
 in Indian history. Though it was evident that the native 
 troops were in a state of the most perilous excitement, no 
 precautions were adopted to prevent mischief, and thirty- 
 two hours were passed in a state of total inactivity, while 
 the Sepoys were planning the revolt. At length, at six 
 in the evening of Sunday, the llth of May, as the bell 
 was tolling for church service, incendiary fires became 
 visible in various directions. The incensed troopers of 
 the 3rd Cavalry rushed to the jail, where no European 
 guard had been stationed, knocked off the irons of their 
 companions, and proceeded to liberate all the prisoners. 
 Simultaneously with the forcing of the jail, the two in- 
 fantry regiments assembled tumultuously on their parade, 
 seized their arms, and massacred Colonel Finnis and other 
 officers, who were endeavouring to appease them. The 
 Sepoys, and the convicts, joined by the mob, now rushed 
 into the houses of the Europeans, and indiscriminately 
 massacred all they could seize, without regard to sex or 
 
256 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 age, aggravating murder by outrages still more revolting. 
 After they had plundered or destroyed the property, they 
 set fire to the bungalows, and the cantonment was soon 
 in a blaze. With two thousand European troops, wbo 
 could have quelled the insurrection within an hour, the 
 station was for two hours the scene of unchecked plunder, 
 massacre, and havoc. When the destruction was com- 
 plete, and every European man, woman, and child, within 
 reach of the native troops, had been mercilessly butchered, 
 they prepared leisurely to leave Meerut, and take the road 
 to Delhi, distant about forty miles. It was at this stage 
 of the catastrophe that the European troops were first 
 brought into action ; but it was now too late. The dra- 
 goons and the riflemen overtook and shot down a few of 
 the mutineers in the rear, but without impeding the pro- 
 gress of the mass. Handled with the most ordinary skill, 
 the European troops at the station might have effectually 
 prevented the march of the mutineers to Delhi ; but they 
 were under the command of General Hewitt. Though 
 the intervening country was most favourable for the action 
 of cavalry and artillery, the two arms in which we had the 
 preponderance, and the route lay over two rivers, at each 
 of which their progress might have been easily arrested, 
 they were allowed to proceed to Delhi without a blow. 
 On their arrival, they found no difficulty in persuading 
 the two regiments stationed there to unite with them, and 
 enact the same scenes of violence which they had per- 
 petrated at Meerut. Every European found in the city, 
 with here and there an exception, was put to death under 
 circumstances of unexampled barbarity. There was not 
 a single company of British troops to guard the arsenal, 
 the second in magnitude and importance in the Bengal 
 Presidency ; and after a brief defence by the feeble hand- 
 ful of Europeans who hastened to its protection, it fell 
 into the hands of the insurgents, with its almost in- 
 exhaustible stores and munitions of war. The pensioned 
 King of Delhi was drawn from his obscurity, and pro- 
 claimed emperor of India ; and a notification was issued, 
 announcing that the Mogul dynasty again occupied its 
 
HE IS WRECKED OFF CEYLON. 257 
 
 ancient capital. Delhi thus became the seat of a rival 
 power, and the centre of attraction to the revolted army. 
 The native regiments at the stations in the neighbouring 
 districts broke successively into revolt, and marched to 
 Delhi, which soon contained within its walls a body of 
 more than twenty thousand mutineers. Within a month 
 after the outbreak at Meerut, the British authority had be- 
 come extinct throughout the north-west provinces. From 
 Meerut to Allahabad, among a population of 30,000,000, 
 and through a territory many hundred miles in extent, 
 there did not exist the vestige of a Government which on 
 the 1st of January was considered unassailable with the 
 exception of the fort of Agra, and the closely beleaguered 
 intrenchment at Cawnpore. 
 
 Havelock embarked on the 1st of June, in the Erin 
 steamer at Bombay, for Galle, in the hope of meeting with 
 the steamer proceeding from Suez to Calcutta. Havelock em- 
 On the nigvht of the 5th, the vessel approached ivinatBom- 
 
 j/i f r\ i j_ J.T j. i bay, and is 
 
 the coast or Oeylon, going at the rate ot eleven wrecked. 
 knots an hour; when, on a fine moonlight night, after 
 Havelock had retired to his cabin, he felt a smart con- 
 cussion, about one in the morning, which was repeated a 
 moment after, and convinced him that the ship had struck. 
 Immediately after, his son, who had accompanied him and 
 was sleeping on deck, came down into the cabin and said, 
 " Get up, sir, the vessel is ashore." He arose, and having 
 dressed himself, proceeded on deck, and found that the 
 vessel, after having struck on a reef of rock, had glided 
 into deep water. The forepart had at once filled, and it 
 was expected that she would go down head foremost; 
 but she was driven on by the waves, and struck again 
 and again, and at length one long surge fixed her firmly 
 on the reef. The deck presented a scene of wild con- 
 fusion. The commander had sprung from his bed, over- 
 whelmed by the misfortune. The crew of Lascars would 
 obey no orders; indeed, few were given, and nothing 
 could induce them to go aloft, and send down the upper 
 masts and yards. Havelock is reported by one who was 
 on deck to have addressed the few European sailors 
 
 17 
 
258 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vr. 
 
 on board, " Now, my men, if you will obey orders, and 
 keep from the spirit cask, we shall all be saved." The 
 vessel continued to strike heavily for four hours, and those 
 on board, momentarily expecting her to go to pieces, 
 looked anxiously for daylight. Guns were fired, and blue 
 lights burned, which brought the judge of the district and 
 a crowd of men to the beach. One bold native was pre- 
 vailed on to swim through the roaring surf with a line to 
 the vessel. A hawser was then drawn on shore, and com- 
 munication established with it. At dawn canoes pushed 
 off to the vessel, and the passengers, crew, and specie 
 were all saved. On reaching the land, Havelock, accord- 
 ing to the statement of an eye-witness, called on those 
 who had accompanied him to kneel down, and return 
 thanks to Almighty God for their deliverance. " The mad- 
 ness of man," he wrote, " threw us on shore ; the mercy of 
 God found us a soft place near Caltura." From that 
 town he proceeded to Galle, and finding the Fire Queen 
 which had been sent from Calcutta in quest of any avail- 
 able troops, lying in the harbour and about to return, 
 immediately embarked in her. 
 
 On his arrival at Madras, on the 13th of June, the flags 
 of the shipping and on Fort St George, flying half-mast 
 Haveiock n ^g n ^ g ave nmi * ne fi pst intimation of the death 
 drls h fncuc- of General Anson, the Commander-in-Chief. He 
 SickGrant had sunk under an attack of cholera on the 
 to Calcutta. 26th of May, at Umbala, on his way to the siege 
 of Delhi, and the Governor- General had telegraphed to 
 Madras to request Sir Patrick Grant, the Cormnander- 
 in- Chief at that Presidency, to come up to Calcutta with- 
 out delay, and assume the direction of military operations 
 at this eventful crisis. Sir Patrick was an officer on the 
 Bengal establishment, and had raised himself in former 
 years, by his own talents and merit, to the important post 
 of Adjutant-General of the Bengal army. After having 
 retired to England, he was selected to command in chief 
 at Madras, and was the first soldier in the service of the 
 East India Company ever elevated to a post which had, 
 
1857.] HIS MEMOKANDUM EEGAEDING THE MUTINIES. 259 
 
 to that time, been invariably conferred on an officer of the 
 royal army. His large military experience, more especially 
 of the character and peculiarities of the native army which 
 was now in a state of revolt, recommended him as the 
 fittest man to assume the command of it at this emergency. 
 He was an old comrade of Havelock's, and they had fought 
 side by side at the battle of Maharajpore, and in the Sut- 
 lege campaign. He entertained, and had often expressed, 
 the highest opinion of his friend's military abilities, and 
 now requested him to proceed to Calcutta, and assist in 
 quelling the mutiny, instead of returning to Bombay. 
 Havelock's post of Adjutant -General of Queen's troops 
 required him to be at the side of the Commander-in- Chief 
 in India, wherever he might be. By the death of General 
 Anson, Sir Henry Somerset, who was at the head of the 
 Bombay army, succeeded to the supreme command by 
 virtue of his rank, and it then became Havelock's duty to 
 join him ; but he was induced by Sir Patrick to proceed 
 to Calcutta. The convulsion which now shook our Indian 
 empire to its foundation, had been the subject of deep re- 
 flection with Havelock, and his mind revolved the means 
 of restoring it to its former integrity. He had employed 
 the leisure of the voyage from Bombay to Galle, in draw- 
 ing up a memorandum on the subject, which he intended 
 to transmit on his arrival in Calcutta to General Anson ; 
 but on hearing of his death, and the appointment of Sir 
 Patrick Grant to the command of the Bengal army, he 
 submitted it to him, after having added two paragraphs 
 at Madras. It must be borne in mind that this paper was 
 written only three weeks after the mutiny had broken out, 
 and before it was known to have extended to more than 
 half a dozen of the military stations at the Bengal Pre- 
 sidency. Keeping this fact in view, it will readily be ad- 
 mitted that the memorandum affords strong evidence of 
 that grasp of mind which enabled him habitually to com- 
 prehend at a glance the full bearing of a military ques- 
 tion, and, on this occasion, of his clear perception of the 
 exigencies of the present crisis. 
 
260 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 "Memorandum regarding the Mutinies of the Native Soldiery 
 in Bengal. 
 
 " Steamer Erin, Malabar Coast, 
 
 June 3, 1857. 
 
 " Lord Elphinstone communicated to me at Bombay the con- 
 tents of a series of telegrams from the Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Haveiock's Agra, and from Colonel Durand, officiating Governor- 
 dum on a the General's agent for Central India, with copies of de- 
 mutiny, spatches from the Chief Commissioner in the Punjab, 
 and from the Adjutant-General of the Bengal army, the latter in- 
 cluding several military reports, as well as letters from the 
 Commissioner in Scinde, and the Major-General commanding at 
 Kurachee. The purport of these does not differ much in 
 substance from the newspaper statements. It is evident that 
 there has been mutiny and devastation at Ferozepore, where the 
 native regiments doubtfully contended for the mastery with H. 
 M.'s 61st regiment, and that there has been a bloody massacre at 
 Meerut. The perpetrators of this infernal outrage marched upon 
 Delhi in the night, where the same scene of lawless violence and 
 murder was repeated by the garrison, who, in conjunction with 
 the Meerut mutineers, have taken possession of the fortress and 
 arsenal, after destroying the bridge of boats and attempting to 
 seize the powder magazine, which was blown up to save it from 
 their hands. A detachment at Muttra has possessed itself of the 
 treasure. The same has been done at Boolundshuhur, by some 
 body of the mutineers. The native troops at Agra have been 
 disarmed; those at Mhow are distrusted. The mingled vigour 
 and moderation of Sir Henry Lawrence have hitherto kept tran- 
 quil the province of Oude. The Nusseree battalion, charged with 
 the duty of escorting the siege train from Philour, marched to 
 Syree, and then mutinously returned to Jutog, where it remained 
 moody and suspected within a few miles of Simla." 
 
 After some remarks on the siege of Delhi, he proceeds 
 to observe : 
 
 " After retaking Delhi, his Excellency should despatch a suf- 
 ficiency of British troops to Ferozepore, to enable Brigadier 
 Innes to take the initiative, and attack and annihilate the native 
 troops there. The British troops, including the 61st, should then 
 march towards Delhi, and onward to Cawnpore, whither his 
 Excellency would have proceeded, to support that important and 
 
1857.] HIS MEMORANDUM REGARDING THE MUTINIES. 2G1 
 
 ill-protected point. The British troops must continue to . cam- 
 paign, regardless of season. 
 
 "The insurrection must have assumed a new phase before I 
 can reach Calcutta. Much that I have above counselled, or 
 something similar to it, may have been carried out. But some 
 general principles may be laid down for the suppression of the 
 insurrection. It is clear that no regular Native Infantry regiment 
 can now be trusted. All are in heart implicated in the treason, 
 if not in act. All must henceforth be jealously watched by the 
 British . troops. Every overt act must be visited with prompt 
 attack and bloody overthrow. To enable Government to do this, 
 it must at once establish an ascendancy of British infantry 
 and artillery at the head-quarters of all the divisions, especially at 
 Calcutta and at Allahabad, where the forts must be intrusted 
 entirely to British troops \ and at Dinapore and Cawnpore, where 
 the British troops must be strongly reinforced. No piece of 
 cannon must be henceforth intrusted to a native. 
 
 "I would recommend that the three battalions of the Hon. 
 Company's European infantry should be called on to volunteer 
 into the artillery with a liberal bounty, that the regular cavalry 
 should be dismounted, and their horses reserved for the additional 
 cavalry regiments that ought to be demanded from England ; * 
 that the detached corps of Native Infantry should everywhere be 
 drawn into division head-quarters, and encamped in assailable 
 positions within the stations, without access to any means of 
 transport, the British troops, foot and artillery, remaining in 
 barracks, but on the qui vive, and plentifully supplied with car- 
 riage (camels, &c.). Many regiments are necessary for these ar- 
 rangements ; for there should be two regiments at or near Fort 
 William, two at Dinapore, one at Allahabad, three or four at 
 Cawnpore, two or three at Meerut, one at Benares, two at least at 
 Agra. The most unusual means must be resorted to, in order to 
 shelter these troops, which must be put up in private bungalows, 
 stables, &c., or kept under canvas, without reference to the season. 
 The whole of the Enfield rifles must be given over to the British 
 troops. It must be proclaimed, that if the disbanded Sepoys are 
 harboured in any of the invalid villages, or by invalided soldiers, 
 the sponge will be applied to the pensions of the harbourers. 
 These men must report themselves periodically to collectors, 
 
 * Havelock, in a note in the margin of the copy, has written in his own 
 hand, " Erase their conduct has been hitherto good." 
 
262 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 under pain of summary commitment to jail with hard labour 
 for a year. But there must be no more disbandments for mutiny. 
 Mutineers must be attacked and annihilated ; and if they are few in 
 any regiment, and not immediately denounced to be shot or 
 hanged, the whole regiment must be deemed guilty, and given*up 
 to prompt military execution. It may be hoped that the Punjab 
 will remain tranquil, and if so, the reinforcements from Bombay, 
 Pegu, Ceylon, and the force destined for China, will suffice to 
 overpower all resistance from Fort William to the Sutlege. But 
 much depends on prompt action. The time for threats or 
 promises is gene by ; the slightest overt act must be followed by 
 the same retribution which in 1824 Sir Edward Paget dealt out 
 to the 47th Native Infantry, thereby putting back mutiny in 
 Bengal eighteen years. 
 
 " It is easy to dispose of the greased cartridge question. It has 
 Jbeen said that no native soldier should again be trusted with the 
 charge of a piece of ordnance. Neither can he be safely trusted 
 with an Enfield or Minie rifle. All these weapons should be 
 given over to the British troops, and, as an earnest of this inten- 
 tion, the native portion of the details at the depots of instruction 
 be at once sent back to their regiments. As they are to have no 
 rifled muskets, the native soldiers will not need greased cartridges ; 
 and to put an end to all suspicion as to the preparation of the 
 musket cartridges, the practice might be resumed of sending the 
 materials to regiments to be made up. The new instruction to 
 tear, not bite, the cartridge, seems under such arrangements 
 supererogatory. 
 
 " A movable column has been established to keep the Punjab 
 in awe ; Sir Henry Barnard's force will perform this office from 
 the Sutlege to Allahabad. It might perhaps be desirable to form 
 a third, to overawe the lower provinces." 
 
 After his arrival at Madras, he added two paragraphs to 
 the memorandum : 
 
 "The measure of success reported from Delhi to Madras is 
 gratifying ; but much evidently remains to be done in order to 
 restore even a temporary ascendancy of our arms. It seems more 
 probable that battering in breach and a bombardment of the town 
 should be tried, instead of an effort against the gates ; and these 
 are the safer modes of acting. 
 
 " The death of General Anson on the 26th of May is a heavy 
 misfortune, let faction view it as it may ; but the Government 
 
1857.] COMMANDER OF THE MOVABLE COLUMN. 263 
 
 have met the crisis with the utmost sagacity and promptitude by 
 summoning to Bengal the Commander-in-Chief at Madras, the 
 officer in India who has by far the most extensive and varied 
 knowledge of the composition and peculiarities of the Bengal 
 army ; and by appointing Sir Henry Barnard, an officer of Cri- 
 mean experience and reputation, to command the besieging army." 
 
 The two Generals landed in Calcutta on the 17th of 
 June, five weeks after the outburst at Meerut, and found 
 that it had been followed by the defection of all ThetwoGen- 
 
 ., ii ii rm er&la reach 
 
 the troops in the nortn-west provinces. Ihe Calcutta. 
 advice they were enabled to give to the Government 
 amidst these scenes of confusion and bewilderment was 
 most important and valuable. In the memorandum which 
 Havelock had drawn up on board the Erin, a fortnight 
 before, he had recommended the formation of a movable 
 column to overawe the lower provinces. Since that sug- 
 gestion was penned, the British authority had become 
 extinct in the districts above Allahabad, except in the 
 little garrison of Cawnpore, which was menaced with in- 
 stant destruction, and the Eesidency at Lucknow now 
 threatened by an insurgent force. The organization of 
 this movable column had now become a question of im- 
 mediate necessity, and it was required, not so much to 
 maintain, as to restore our authority in the revolted dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 Three days after Havelock' s arrival in Calcutta, he was 
 selected for the command of this column, which was to be 
 formed at Allahabad, and to consist of the 64th Havelock ap- 
 and the 78th Highlanders, in addition to other command the 
 
 rj,, , . , . -i c movable co- 
 
 troops. Thus, by a singular coincidence of cir- lumn. 
 cumstances, the gallant soldiers whom he had commanded 
 on the Euphrates, and whom the cowardice of the Persians 
 had deprived of laurels at Mohumra, were now reassembled 
 under his command, on the banks of the Ganges, to en- 
 counter a foe more worthy of their steel. Of the 78th 
 Highlanders Havelock had formed a very high estimate, 
 and in his confidential report of that corps, made before 
 leaving Persia, a copy of which was found among his 
 papers, had said : 
 
*64 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vi. 
 
 " There is a fine spirit in the ranks of this regiment. I am given 
 to understand that it behaved remarkably well in the affair at 
 Have ' Khooshab, near Bushire, which took place before I 
 opinion of the reached the army ; and during the naval action on the 
 ' Euphrates, and its landing here, its steadiness, zeal, Had 
 activity under my own observation were conspicuous. The men 
 have been subjected in this service to a good deal of exposure, to 
 extremes of climate, and have had heavy work to execute with 
 their intrenching tools, . in constructing redoubts and making 
 roads. They have been, while I have had the opportunity of 
 watching them, most cheerful ; and have never seemed to regret 
 or complain of anything but that they had no further chance of 
 meeting the enemy. I am convinced the regiment would be 
 second to none in the service, if its high military qualities were 
 drawn forth. It is proud of its colours, its tartan, and its former 
 achievements." 
 
 The opportunity was soon to be afforded to Havelock 
 to draw forth those high military qualities which he had 
 so confidently predicted, and the succeeding narrative will 
 show that the achievements of the Highlanders in 1857 
 added fresh lustre to the renown they had acquired at 
 Maida and Assaye. The object of Havelock's appoint- 
 ment was thus described in the instructions he received 
 in Calcutta: that "after quelling all disturbances at Al- 
 lahabad, he should not lose a moment in supporting Sir 
 Henry Lawrence at Lucknow, and Sir Hugh Wheeler at 
 Cawnpore ; and that he should take prompt measures for 
 dispersing and utterly destroying all mutineers and in- 
 surgents." It was likewise stated to be of the utmost 
 importance that no delay should arise in carrying out these 
 measures. " It was not possible at the moment to give 
 him any more precise or definite instructions, but he must 
 necessarily be guided by circumstances ; and the Com- 
 mander-in- Chief had entire confidence in his well-known 
 and often proved high ability, vigour, and judgment." A 
 cursory view of the scene of action in which Havelock 
 was now to be engaged, and the position of affairs at 
 Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, may be 
 useful in elucidating his movements. 
 
265 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Position of Affairs at Benares at Allahabad at Cawnpore at Lucknow. 
 The Oude Mutiny. Resources placed at the Disposal of General Havelock. 
 He reaches Benares, and assumes the Command of the Army. Proceeds 
 to Allahahad. Letter from Sir Henry Lawrence. Detachment sent on to 
 Cawnpore. The Cawnpore Massacre. The General starts for that Place. 
 March of the first three Days. Battle of Futtehpore, Remarks on it. 
 Order of the Day. Disarming of the Irregular Cavalry. Action at Aong 
 at Pandoo nuddee. The Battle of Cawnpore. Final'Charge and Rout of 
 the Enemy. Remarks on the Battle. Night of the 16th July. The Order 
 of the Day after the Battle. The General's private Letters respecting it. 
 
 IN the great revolt which now convulsed the empire, it 
 was naturally to have been expected that the turbulent 
 city of Benares would be among the first to rise Positioner 
 against us. That city is considered the most lenses. 
 sacred spot in India, the citadel of Hindooism, crowded 
 with magnificent temples, and filled with wealthy devotees, 
 nobles, and princes from every province in Hindostan. It 
 had always been the focus of political intrigue among the 
 Hindoos in the north-west. It was inhabited by a mar- 
 tial and irritable population, little short of two hundred 
 thousand. It contained no fortress, or other defensive in- 
 closure, and the chief post of authority was necessarily an 
 office of pre-eminent difficulty. Happily, it was at this 
 crisis in the hands of a man fully equal to its exigencies, 
 Mr Henry Carre Tucker, a member of the Civil Service, 
 to whose judgment, resolution, and energy the Govern- 
 ment was indebted for the maintenance of its authority 
 in the city and surrounding district during the rebellion. 
 The native force consisted of the 37th Native Infantry, 
 the Loodiana Sikh corps, and a detachment of the 13th 
 Irregular Cavalry. To check their disposition to frater- 
 nize with the mutineers, there were only three guns of 
 
?66 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. YII. 
 
 Major Olpherts's battery, and 190 European Infantry of 
 H.M/s 10th Foot. It was of the utmost importance that 
 this small force should be strengthened without delay, as 
 the loss of Benares at this juncture would have involved 
 the most momentous consequences. The 1st Fusiliers 
 colonel Neiii na oL been ordered up from Madras, and they ar- 
 FusnFers h to he rived in Calcutta towards the end of May, under 
 Benares. ftiQ comman d of Colonel Neill. It was determined 
 to push them up the country without delay, and they were 
 forwarded a hundred and twenty miles by rail to Ranee- 
 gunge, and from thence by other conveyances to their 
 destination. Colonel Neill inaugurated his arrival, and 
 gave the public the first promise of that promptitude and 
 decision of character, which have since earned him the 
 high position he occupies in the annals of the mutiny and 
 the esteem of his fellow-countrymen, by a display of vigour 
 which was at the time as invaluable as it was appropriate. 
 Reaching the terminus opposite Calcutta with his men just 
 as the train was starting, and the railway officials refusing 
 to wait a moment, he directed his soldiers to seize the 
 engine driver and stoker, and detain them until his troops 
 had taken their seats. This energetic act, apparently in- 
 significant at the time, is said to have proved the salva- 
 tion of Benares. The Colonel arrived at that station, with 
 forty men of his regiment, in the forenoon of the 3rd of 
 June. It was not a moment too soon ; the native troops 
 had planned a general rising for the next night. Briga- 
 dier Ponsonby, commanding the station, was incapacitated 
 by illness from acting with the energy which the crisis re- 
 quired. Colonel NeilPs arrival threw matters into strong 
 hands, and before dusk in the evening the outbreak was 
 quenched in the blood of a hundred of the insurgents slain, 
 while twice the number were disabled by wounds. 
 
 After having, by examples of extraordinary severity, and 
 the unrestrained use of the gallows, struck terror into the 
 state of af- malcontents at Benares, Colonel Neill proceeded 
 fairs at A i- ^ Allahabad, eighty miles distant, which had in 
 the mean time become the scene of one of those awful 
 tragedies which had hitherto marked the progress of 
 
1857.] STATE OF AFFAIKS AT ALLAHABAD. 267 
 
 the mutiny. Allahabad, situated at the junction of 
 the Ganges and the Jumna, had always been considered 
 the key of the lower provinces. The fortress contained 
 an arsenal second in importance only to that of Delhi, 
 with 40,000 stand of arms, and a vast collection of can- 
 non and military stores. The treasury at the station was 
 also rich and tempting. In that spirit of fatal security 
 which preceded and accelerated the mutiny, this import- 
 ant post had been left without any European artillerymen, 
 and, excepting the magazine staff, without a single Eu- 
 ropean soldier. At the period of the mutiny the garrison 
 consisted of the whole of Brasyer's Ferozepore regiment 
 of Sikhs, and 100 men of the 6th Native Infantry; the 
 remainder of the corps being cantoned in the station with- 
 out the fort. Thus from the llth of May, the date of the 
 outbreak at Meerut, this great fortress and most import- 
 ant strategical point had been at the mercy of the native 
 force. If they had made up their minds at once to cast 
 in their lot with their comrades who were contesting the 
 empire at Delhi, and had taken possession of the fort, 
 there would have been no base of operation for the force 
 destined to reconquer the north-west provinces farther 
 north than Benares. Happily, at the distance of sixty 
 miles lay the fortress of Chunar, garrisoned by a small 
 body of European artillerymen, invalided from active 
 service, but still effective for garrison duties^ On the 19th 
 of May, the authorities in Calcutta were advised to order 
 about seventy of these men, the youngest above fifty years 
 of age, to proceed by steamer to Allahabad. Their arrival 
 saved the fort. 
 
 The 6th Native Infantry had manifested an ostentatious 
 loyalty by volunteering to march to Delhi and fight their 
 mutinous comrades. The Governor- General Re voitofthe 
 directed his thanks to be publicly conveyed to iSantr^at 
 them for their fidelity to the Government ; the Allahabad - 
 troops were assembled on parade on the evening of the 6th 
 of June, and gave three cheers as the Order was read to 
 them. The officers then left the parade with the strongest 
 confidence in their men, and with a feeling of pride that 
 
2G8 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 their regiment should have been conspicuous for its good 
 faith amidst universal disaffection. Four hours after- 
 wards, fourteen of them paid the penalty of their generous 
 credulity with their lives. They were barbarously mur 
 dered as they sat at dinner, or shot down as they hastenecT 
 to their lines, on an alarm raised to decoy them there by 
 the treacherous Sepoys. The fort was saved by the 
 veteran invalids, under their commander, Captain Hazle- 
 wood, and Lieut. Brasyer, who was in command of the 
 Sikhs. In the outbreak at Benares, two days before, the 
 Loodiana corps of Sikhs, under the influence either of 
 premeditated design or an unaccountable panic, had 
 opened fire on the European troops, which was returned, 
 and great numbers of them had been shot down. Their 
 brethren at Allahabad had been exasperated by the 
 report of this slaughter, and, being doubtful of the treat- 
 ment they themselves might receive, were disposed to 
 turn against us and join the insurgents. But Lieut. 
 Brasyer' s extraordinary influence over them and his great 
 personal intrepidity kept them steady ; and through their 
 instrumentality, and the aid of the invalid artillery, the 
 100 Sepoys of the 6th, who were in the fort and ready to 
 open the gates to their comrades, were disarmed. Imme- 
 diately after the mutiny, the native soldiers liberated the 
 inmates of the great jail, who joined them in massacring 
 all the Europeans whom they could discover. The demon 
 of destruction seemed now to be let loose on the unfortun- 
 ate station, and the greatest atrocities were committed 
 without any check, till the arrival of Colonel Neill. 
 Every European house and establishment was plundered 
 or burnt. The rails of the railway were torn up, the 
 station committed to the flames, and the engines battered 
 to pieces with shot, the ignorant natives being afraid to 
 approach them. But the greatest of all losses was that of 
 1600 bullocks, which had been collected by the Com- 
 missariat and which disappeared in the confusion, thus 
 crippling to a fatal extent the means of locomotion for the 
 troops to be employed in the restoration of order. After 
 five days of unrestrained licence, Colonel Neill arrived at 
 
1857.] POSITION OF AFFAIRS AT CAWNPOEE. 269 
 
 Allahabad, and a wing of the Fusiliers was soon after 
 collected there ; 2000 of the rebels, who had intrenched 
 themselves near the fort, were immediately attacked and 
 dispersed, and the wavering Sikhs confirmed in their 
 loyalty. The disaffected portion of the town was burnt, 
 every malignant who could be identified was executed, 
 and a salutary dread was diffused through the neighbour- 
 ing country, and along the great trunk road. 
 
 At the distance of 120 miles from Allahabad, on the 
 right bank of the Ganges, lay the military cantonment of 
 Cawnpore, one of the most important stations in J^}^ ".^ 
 the Bengal Presidency, the connecting link be- Qurapom. 
 tween Allahabad and Agra and Delhi. It had never 
 hitherto been left without a European regiment, and was 
 often protected by two. In June, 1857, however, there 
 were only 200 European soldiers and ten guns. It was 
 under the command of Major- General Sir Hugh Wheeler, 
 a soldier of great Indian experience, in whom Govern- 
 ment reposed high and well-merited confidence. About 
 the middle of May, perceiving a growing spirit of dis- 
 affection in the four native regiments under his command, 
 he had taken the precaution of throwing up an intrench- 
 ment as a place of resort in case of extremity ; but so 
 great was his confidence in the loyalty of the troops in 
 whose ranks his life had been passed and his honours 
 gained, that he regarded this intrenchment rather for its 
 moral effect than as a refuge for safety in danger, the 
 possibility of which his faith in the native soldier pre- 
 vented him from entertaining. The work was therefore 
 never rendered actually defensible, nor was it adequately 
 provided with water and supplies. His position in a 
 military point of view was, moreover, embarrassed by the 
 women and children of the 32nd Foot, quartered at Luck- 
 now, the ladies of the station, and other female fugitives 
 from the surrounding districts. On the night of the 6th 
 of June, the native regiments broke out into open mutiny, 
 burnt down the lines, and plundered the treasury of 
 170,000. Glutted with this booty, they proposed to 
 inarch to Delhi, which had become the magnet of the dis- 
 
270 MEMOIRS OF SIE HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 affected, and join their mutinous brethren; but they were 
 persuaded by Nana Sahib to take service under his stand- 
 ard, and complete the extermination of the English. > 
 Nana Sahib, whose name will ever be conspicuous in the" 
 annals of crime, as the personification of perfidy and cruelty, 
 was the adopted son of Bajee Row, the Peishwa, 
 or head of the ancient Mahratta confederacy. 
 In the year 1818, while at peace with the British Govern- 
 ment, the Peishwa, by an act of the basest treachery, had 
 endeavoured to destroy Mr Mountstuart Elphinstone, the 
 Resident at his court, at Poonah ; but the assault was gal- 
 lantly repelled, and he was obliged to fly from his capital, 
 and was hunted through the country for several months, 
 by Sir John Malcolm. His power was finally crushed at 
 the battle of Ashtee. But just at the period when he was 
 brought to bay, and must have surrendered at discretion, 
 he was admitted to terms, and by an act of unwise prodi- 
 gality pensioned with an annuity of 90,000. This pro- 
 vision he lived to enjoy for thirty-two years, and, after 
 having received from the British Government a sum ex- 
 ceeding two millions and a half sterling, died at Bithoor, 
 about sixteen miles above Cawnpore, which had been as- 
 signed as the place of his residence. Of these accumula- 
 tions, he bequeathed a large portion to his adopted son, 
 Nana Sahib, who had the assurance to demand the con- 
 tinuance of the pension. It was, as a matter of course', 
 refused, and from that time he conceived the most frantic 
 hostility to the English. His feelings were, however, art- 
 fully dissembled, and he freely associated with and gave 
 entertainments to the European community at Cawnpore, 
 by whom he was regarded as a liberal and enlightened 
 native nobleman. When the spirit of disaffection first 
 appeared among the native troops at Cawnpore, the Nana 
 manifested the most friendly disposition towards Sir Hugh 
 Wheeler, and at his request afforded every assistance for 
 the safeguard of our treasury, which remained for several 
 days under the protection of 600 of his men and two of 
 his guns. But no sooner had the Sepoys at Cawnpore 
 broken into open mutiny, than he threw off the mask 
 
1857.] NANA SAHIB. 271 
 
 and took the lead in the hostile movement. Having ob- 
 tained the larger share of the plunder of the treasury, and 
 persuaded the mutineers to place themselves under his 
 command, he proclaimed himself Peishwa, and raised the 
 ancient national Mahratta standard. The indiscriminate 
 destruction of the European and native Christians, under 
 every form of barbarity, who had not taken refuge in the 
 intrenchment to which Sir Hugh Wheeler had retired, 
 now became the pastime of this fiend in human shape. A 
 hundred and twenty-six fugitive English ladies, and Eng- 
 lish gentlemen, and children had escaped from the in- 
 surgents at Futtyghur, and were proceeding down the 
 river to Allahabad, when the boats were descried by the 
 Nana's followers at Bithoor and brought to, and the whole 
 party was ruthlessly murdered. The revolted Sepoys, 
 swelled in number by the recruits enlisted by Nana Sahib, 
 and aided by the large resources of theCawnpore magazine, 
 which Sir Hugh Wheeler had attempted in vain to blow 
 up, now closed round the intrenchment. The sufferings 
 of the ill-sheltered inmates, from the combined effect of 
 exposure, privation, and ceaseless watching night and day 
 under arms, and of the fire incessantly concentrated on 
 them from a powerful artillery, present perhaps the most 
 dismal page in the history of British India. On the day 
 on which General Havelock in Calcutta received his ap- 
 pointment to the command of the column collecting at 
 Allahabad for the relief of Cawnpore, the garrison was 
 driven, after a defence the record of which is imperish- 
 able, to entertain thoughts of a capitulation, not for their 
 own sakes, but for that of the helpless women and chil- 
 dren. Four days afterwards, this band of Englishmen, 
 bright in their valour, and of English women, still brighter 
 in their fortitude, by an act of the most atrocious perfidy, 
 Had ceased to exist. 
 
 Turning now to Lucknow, the capital of Oude. That 
 kingdom was annexed to the British dominions at the be- 
 ginning of 1856, under the express orders of the Position of 
 home authorities, after the receipt of a report 
 lade by Sir James Outrani, the Resident. The 
 
272 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 equity of this proceeding has been questioned by some, 
 and vindicated by others, and as arguments are advanced 
 on both sides of the question, it will probably continue 
 for some years to exercise the ingenuity of those honfte 
 politicians who take, or affect, an interest in Indian politics. 
 The settlement of this doubtful point, must, therefore, be 
 left to the future historian, whose judgment will be free 
 from contemporary prejudices or sympathies. The salient 
 points of the case are these ; that we made a treaty with 
 the reigning family in Oude, by which the ruler bound 
 himself to govern the country with justice and equity, and 
 we engaged to support his throne with the full weight of 
 our authority, which was then omnipotent in India. But 
 for many years the obligations of the monarch had been 
 entirely forgotten. The sovereigns of Oude had been punc- 
 tiliously faithful in their allegiance to the paramount power, 
 but they had totally neglected the corresponding duty they 
 owed to their own subjects, and resigned themselves to 
 voluptuous indolence. The -talookdars had covered the 
 land with fortresses, which they filled with their adherents, 
 and were thus enabled to resist the public authorities, and 
 oppress the people with impunity. They created a soli- 
 tude around them ; and the province, which is justly es- 
 teemed the garden of India, was fast relapsing into a desert. 
 There had been no example of such misgovernment in Hin- 
 dostan for a century. The only effective check on the 
 oppression of native rulers in India is the dread of insur- 
 rection, but this had been entirely removed in Oude by 
 the presence of our troops. Eepeated warnings had been 
 given to the kings of Oude by the Governor- General, but 
 without effect. The increasing anarchy of the kingdom 
 at length threatened the tranquillity of our own contigu- 
 ous provinces. It became necessary for the Government 
 of India to proceed from advice to action, and it was re- 
 solved to annex the province to the British dominions and 
 assign a suitable pension to the King. An attempt has 
 been made to connect the mutiny of the Bengal army with 
 the policy of annexation, but it has failed, chiefly from the 
 incontrovertible fact, that in the existing condition of our 
 
1857.] STATE OF AFFAIKS IN OUDE. 273 
 
 native army, there must sooner or later have been a mutiny, 
 whether Oude had been annexed or not. At the same 
 time it was manifest that, whenever it did occur, there 
 would be a convulsion in this province, which was in- 
 habited by the families of 40,000 of our native soldiers. 
 As soon, therefore, as our authority was subverted in the 
 north-west provinces, the native army in Oude, which we 
 had taken .over with the kingdom as it stood, and re- 
 organized as a local force, manifested the strongest sym- 
 pathy with their relatives in our own revolted army, and 
 went into rebellion. It was part of the policy of Lord 
 Dalhousie to disarm the population, and dismantle the 
 fortresses of the talookdars ; but he left India within two 
 months of the annexation, and that precautionary measure 
 was not carried out. When our prestige in Oude was 
 once shaken, the talookdars were among the first to rise 
 against the foreign power which threatened to restrain 
 their violence. Five thousand European troops would 
 have been amply sufficient to maintain our ascendency, 
 but there were not a thousand British bayonets and sabres 
 to hold in check a local army of 20,000 men, an insub- 
 ordinate nobility, and a disaffected city with a population 
 of 300,000, every male of whom possessed arms, and had 
 been trained to their use from his childhood, in the chronic 
 warfare which was the normal state of the province. Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, one of the ablest officers of Government, 
 and animated by the most benevolent sympathies towards 
 the natives, was offered the post of Resident, and, though 
 broken in constitution, had too high a sense of duty to 
 refuse the responsibility. He entered on his duties to- 
 wards the end of March, 1857, while the discontent on ac- 
 count of the greased cartridges was ripening into revolt. 
 He was indignant at the leniency shown to the mutinous 
 19th, and began to draw from it a gloomy foreboding for 
 the future. The effect of that fatal measure was more 
 particularly felt in Oude, where our authority was not yet 
 firmly established; and the spirit of insubordination was 
 rapidly stimulated when the fact became known. ' ' Is it 
 true/' said a native officer of one of the local corps to his 
 
 18 
 
274 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 European superior, " that the mutinous regiment has been 
 paid up and dismissed ? Within two months there will 
 be mutiny from Calcutta to Peshawur." 
 
 On the 2nd of May the first symptoms of mutiny wre 
 exhibited at Lucknow among the native troops, but they 
 Mutiny at were suppressed without bloodshed, by the tact 
 th u e c 3o n t h w of on and resolution of Sir Henry Lawrence. He saw 
 the storm lowering, and endeavoured to prepare 
 for it with his usual forethought, by collecting supplies, 
 and fortifying the Residency and Muchee Bhawun as 
 military posts ; while at the same time he omitted no op- 
 portunity of conciliating the influential men in the city, 
 and the faithful among the troops, by holding Durbars 
 and distributing dresses of honour. But nothing could 
 now avert the headlong progress of revolt. The explosion 
 at Meerut, and the establishment of a rival authority at 
 Delhi, spread the contagion of mutiny among the Sepoys 
 in Oude ; and on the 30th of May, the regiments at the 
 capital appeared in open rebellion. Their example was 
 followed by the troops at the out-stations in the province, 
 which fell one by one into the hands of the insurgents ; 
 and our authority in Oude, which had been supreme for 
 eighteen months, was soon confined to the circle round 
 the Residency. 
 
 The rebel troops, from 20,000 to 25,000 strong, gradu- 
 ally collected at Nawaubgunge, about eighteen miles north- 
 Action at east of Lucknow. Mr Gubbins, the Financial 
 Commissioner, and second in position to Sir 
 Henry, who rendered the most important services during 
 the subsequent protracted siege, which have not hitherto 
 been appreciated as they deserve, had charge of the in- 
 telligence department, and received information early on 
 the 29th of June, that about 3000 of the enemy's force 
 had advanced to Chinhut, eight miles from the Residency. 
 He recommended an immediate attack on this body, be- 
 fore it could be reinforced, under the impression that to 
 defeat it by a vigorous blow would produce a great moral 
 effect, and improve the position of affairs at the capital. 
 A reconnaissance was accordingly made, but the attack 
 
1857.] FATAL BATTLE OF CHINHUT. 275 
 
 was unhappily delayed for many hours, during which time 
 the whole body of the enemy, with more than twenty 
 guns, had joined the encampment at Chinhut. Our troops 
 marched out rather late on the morning of the 30th of June; 
 and being exposed without food to the scorching rays of 
 the sun, were exhausted before they reached the scene of 
 action. Some of the native artillery drivers deserted to 
 the enemy with their guns, or treacherously overturned 
 them, and the whole of the native cavalry took to flight. 
 Our small body of troops, exposed to twenty times their 
 number, encountered a serious reverse. Sir Henry Law- 
 rence, who accompanied the force, did all that the greatest 
 valour or the most brilliant personal example could effect, 
 but the troops were overpowered and discomfited, and re- 
 treated fighting every inch of the way, closely pursued by 
 the enemy, who were checked only as they reached the 
 iron bridge by the guns from the Residency. The effect 
 of this action was disastrous beyond calculation. Our 
 authority in the city, which had hitherto been well main- 
 tained, was extinguished ; all the workmen deserted the 
 Residency fortifications on which they had laboured 
 steadily; the collection of supplies was stopped ; and with- 
 in a few hours the Residency itself was placed in a state 
 of siege, from which it was not relieved for four months 
 and a half. 
 
 Such was the torrent of revolt which Havelock found 
 himself suddenly called upon to stem. The resources 
 which the Government of India were able to place Resources 
 at his disposal for the accomplishment of this ar- S^sa! of he 
 duous task were singularly inadequate to the Havelock - 
 exigency. His column was to consist of four European re- 
 giments, to be gradually collected at Allahabad ; but when 
 he marched out of that station to the recapture of Cawnpore 
 on the 7th of July, he had not more than 1400 European 
 bayonets under his command ; and, until the arrival of 
 reinforcements with General Outram, ten weeks after, was 
 never able to muster a larger number around the colours. 
 Of these only one-fourth were armed with the Enfield rifle, 
 the remainder still carried the old musket. Not only had 
 
276 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 lie no horsed guns, but no cavalry. Captain Maude, who 
 commanded the artillery, had been directed to leave his 
 guns at Ceylon, and brought only thirty men with him, 
 and he was obliged to equip six guns hastily taken fern 
 the arsenal at Allahabad as he best could. To supply the 
 deficiency of artillerymen, thirty- one privates were selected 
 from the 64th Foot, who happened to have some knowledge 
 of gun drill; and it was with the&e half- trained gunners 
 and the sexagenarian Chunar invalids, and the handful of 
 royal artillerymen, that the force took the field. The guns, 
 moreover, were drawn by undersized cart bullocks, unac- 
 customed to the work, and totally unfitted for it; and 
 neither the commanding officer nor his subordinates, 
 from their ignorance of the language, were able to com- 
 municate with the native drivers, except through an in- 
 terpreter. To crown Havelock's difficulties, the season 
 of the year in which he was obliged to march was the 
 month of July, when sweltering heat alternates with 
 drenching rain, and which had always been considered 
 impracticable for military operations. He was thus re- 
 quired to open a campaign at a time when it had been 
 deemed necessary, according to immemorial usage in In- 
 dia, to bring it to a close. But he had now attained the 
 summit of his wishes, the independent command of a 
 force which he could wield according to his own military 
 judgment, and the difficulties of the enterprise only 
 served to strengthen his ardour. He entered upon his 
 duties in the same spirit of dependence on Divine aid, and 
 of personal resolution, which had marked hisprevious career 
 in subordinate positions. "I was yesterday" (June 20th), 
 he writes to Mrs Havelock, " reappointed Brigadier- General, 
 and leave for Allahabad by dawk as soon as possible. Sir 
 Patrick Grant lost no time in recommending me for this 
 important command, the object of which is to relieve Cawn- 
 pore, where Sir Hugh Wheeler is threatened, and Luck- 
 now, where Sir Henry Lawrence is pressed. May God 
 give me wisdom to fulfil the expectations of Government, 
 and to restore tranquillity in the disturbed districts ! " 
 He selected Lieut.- Colonel Eraser Tytler for the post of 
 
1857.] HIS PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 277 
 
 Deputy-Assistant-Quarter-master General, and Captain 
 Stuart Beatson for that of Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant 
 General, and appointed his son, Lieut. Henry Havelock, 
 Adjutant of the 10th Foot, his aide-de-camp. Knowing 
 that the large supply of commissariat draught cattle at 
 Allahabad had been entirely lost during the sack of the 
 cantonment, he feared lest the progress of his column 
 should be delayed for want of carriage, and he repre- 
 sented to Government that the carts and bullocks on 
 the grand trunk road were no longer necessary for the 
 transport of troops, as there were no more to forward 
 at present. He also stated, that the rains having now 
 set in and the rivers being open, the water route would 
 be preferable for the subsequent conveyance of rein- 
 forcements. On the road between Calcutta and the 
 Soane there were three large rivers, always subject 
 during the rains to the most violent freshes, on the 
 banks of which troops might be detained for several days, 
 wet, hungry, and possibly sick; whereas in the steamers 
 they would reach Allahabad in eighteen days, with their 
 baggage and tents, and in health and spirits. He there- 
 fore proposed that the carts and bullocks should be made 
 over for the transport of ammunition, stores, and perhaps 
 food, for the use of his column. He even went so far as 
 to suggest that it might be advantageous to forward the 
 entire establishment of conveyances from the different 
 stations to Allahabad. At all events, he requested per- 
 mission to appropriate all such as he found collected at 
 and about Benares, as ' ' he felt confident that unless every 
 measure be adopted in anticipation, to render the column 
 perfectly and instantly efficient in this most important 
 respect, delay was likely to occur at a moment when every 
 hour was precious, and pregnant with the fate of our coun- 
 trymen." He likewise solicited orders to make a liberal 
 but discreet use of secret service money, to be accom- 
 panied by a voucher from himself, on honour. It is partly 
 to this circumstance that the singular accuracy of his in- 
 formation is to be attributed, as he was thus enabled to 
 keep his scout department in a state of the highest effi- 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK [CHAP. vn. 
 
 ciency, through the bountiful rewards lie bestowed on his 
 spies. 
 
 Havelock left Calcutta on the evening of the 25tl^ of 
 June, and reached Benares on the 28th, the day after "the 
 Cawnpore garrison had been annihilated. At 
 tna ^ station he assumed the command of the ex- 
 28th June, pedition, and saw the first of the troops who 
 were to compose his column, and minutely inspected their 
 condition. A few hours after his arrival he telegraphed 
 to Sir Patrick Grant, that he had no cavalry on which he 
 could depend ; that such a force as his, on such an enter- 
 prise, must be seriously crippled for want of this arm, 
 since without a body of horse he should be unable even 
 to reconnoitre. His first duty was to endeavour to supply 
 this deficiency, and he asked permission to form a corps 
 of volunteer cavalry, consisting of " officers of regiments 
 which had mutinied, or had been disbanded ; of indigo 
 planters, of patrols, of burnt- out shopkeepers; in short, 
 of all who were willing to join him." The same evening 
 he despatched a special messenger to Captain Maude, 
 commanding the small detachment of Royal Artillerymen 
 whom he had passed the previous day on the road, re- 
 questing him to hasten his progress, and authorizing him 
 to seize and appropriate the first seven carriages of the 
 Transit Company he should meet ; to put four artillery- 
 men in each, allowing them only to halt for cooking, and 
 directing the drivers to gallop with all good speed to Al- 
 lahabad. Till they arrived he was unable to man a single 
 inspects and g un - The next morning he inspected the troops 
 trolpTIt the a ^ the station on parade, and congratulated those 
 Benares. w | 10 ^^ distinguished themselves in suppress- 
 ing the outbreak on the 4th of June. By that day's post 
 he brought to the notice of the Commander-in- Chief the 
 gallant conduct on that occasion of the artillery under 
 Major Olpherts, and of the detachment of the 10th Foot, 
 under the command of Captain Norman, whose united 
 efforts appeared, from the concurrent testimony of the 
 officers who were present in the action, to have been the 
 means of saving the station. He particularly noticed the 
 
1837.] LETTER OF SIR H. LAWRENCE. 279 
 
 exemplary conduct of Staff- Sergeant Bird of the Artillery, 
 and expressed his hope that some suitable acknowledgment 
 might be bestowed on him. He was soon after rewarded 
 with a commission. After having examined more par- 
 ticularly the condition of the small body of European 
 troops to be left at the station, and given instructions for 
 their guidance in case of emergency, he started in the 
 evening for Allahabad, in company with Mr Eiddell, the 
 Postmaster-General, and reached it early on the morning 
 of the 30th of June. 
 
 On the night of his arrival at Allahabad, Havelock re- 
 ceived a letter from his old friend and companion, Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, written immediately on hear- Haveiockre-- 
 ing of his appointment. It conveyed to him a Sm"artt^ 
 very accurate picture of the position of affairs at Lawrence - 
 Lucknow, before the unfortunate affair at Chinhut, which 
 occurred three days after its date. 
 
 "Lucknow, 27 June, 1857. 
 
 " My dear Havelock, Captain Barrow's letter to Mr Gubbins 
 of the 23rd, enclosing one to Mrs Court from Colonel Neill, giv- 
 ing the G. G.'s message, has just arrived. I recommend that no 
 more than two Goorkah regiments come from Nepal. Indeed I 
 would rather not see more than one regiment in Oude, and would 
 rather have none yet ; it may be injurious that they should wit- 
 ness the disorganized state of the country. Once we have a 
 thousand more Europeans here we shall be all right. It will be 
 a different thing if we are allowed to recruit in Nepal. In 
 that case, I should be happy to have 2000 or 3000 of them, but 
 that will take time. I wrote to you fully to-day " [the letter 
 never reached the General], " so need only repeat that we are 
 snug enough in the city, and still hold the cantonment with 200 
 Europeans, and about 150 Sepoys. This enables us to get sup- 
 plies. Two irregular corps still stand by us, and will probably 
 continue to do so, as Delhi has fallen,* but we do not reckon on 
 them. I am very glad to hear you are coming up : 400 Euro- 
 peans with four guns, 300 Sikhs, with 100 cavalry, will easily beat 
 everything at Cawnpore, as long as Wheeler holds his ground; 
 but if he is destroyed, your game will be difficult. I have a long 
 letter from him of the 24th ; he had then provisions for eight or 
 
 * It did not fall, however, before the 14th September following. 
 
280 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, [CHAP. vn. 
 
 ten days. I am offering large "bribes to parties to supply him, 
 but am not sanguine of success. It is therefore most important 
 that your detachment should not lose an hour. This is important 
 on your own account, and of vital importance on Wheeler's. >JV"e 
 are threatened by about ten regiments, which are concentrating 
 about eighteen .miles off. The talookdars and zemindars are feed- 
 ing them, but few have openly joined them. They have two of 
 our nine-pounder batteries, and many native guns. Our position 
 is safe enough, though they may knock the houses about our ears. 
 If the irregulars and police are staunch, we will save the city 
 from plunder. On your approach to Cawnpore, I will endeavour 
 to co-operate with you ; but as long as so strong a force of muti- 
 neers is close by, it will be impossible, as I have two positions to 
 hold, and am unable to concentrate into one. Endeavours have 
 been made to induce me to send 200 Europeans to Cawnpore, 
 which would have been simply sacrificing the whole, and en- 
 dangering Lucknow. I have been very anxious for the health of 
 Europeans coming up at this season, but your long experience 
 prevents the necessity of a word of advice. I enclose a memoran- 
 dum of events ; kindly send this on to the G. G. Eead and pass 
 on the enclosed to the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " Your detachment should be quickly followed by another 300 
 or 400 Europeans, with four guns. Recollect that you cannot 
 reckon on supplies at Cawnpore. 
 
 " Yours, very sincerely, 
 
 "H. M. LAWRENCE. 
 
 " Pray see to the Europeans having proper clothing. The 84th 
 came here in clotk Our full strength is now 630 H. M.'s 32nd ; 
 50 H. M.'s 84th; and 64 European artillerymen; total 744 
 Europeans." 
 
 In the memorandum which accompanied this letter, Sir Henry 
 Lawrence stated that " the rebel force at Cawnpore, according to 
 all accounts, was composed of about 3000 infantry and 1000 
 cavalry. Wheeler had written to him in a most determined tone, 
 and would no doubt hold out to the last. Please God the force 
 from Allahabad, now we hope on its way " [this alluded to the 
 force which Colonel Neill had promised on the 18th to send], 
 "may arrive in time .to save his gallant band. "Wheeler men- 
 tions having sent off five different communications to Allahabad. 
 We hold the Residency, Muchee Bhawun, and the cantonments, 
 and are strong in the two former positions. Would that we could 
 
1857.] A DETACHMENT SENT TO CAWNPORE. 2S1 
 
 succour Wheeler, but the enemy hold all boats on the Cawnpore 
 side. We are threatened on all sides by mutinous regiments of 
 all arms, the nearest force being nineteen miles off, at Nawaub- 
 gunge, and daily increasing in numbers. The whole of Oude is 
 more or less in a state of anarchy ; all our outposts are gone ; and 
 Lucknow and its vicinity is the only position which represents 
 the British Government. An addition of one European regiment 
 and 100 artillerymen would enable us to go anywhere, and re- 
 establish order in Oude ; but till this reinforcement arrives, we 
 can only maintain ourselves in Lucknow alone." 
 
 The General found on reaching Allahabad that,, under 
 the express sanction of the authorities in Calcutta, arrange- 
 ments had already been completed by Colonel T 
 
 XT -IT / -i -i -if -i i j_j_ Despatch of a 
 
 JN em, tor the despatch ot a strong detachment to detachment 
 the relief of Cawnpore, and it had been ordered 
 the evening before his arrival to march on the afternoon 
 of the 30th. It was placed under the command of Major 
 Kenaud, of the Madras Fusiliers, a judicious and most 
 enterprising officer, and consisted of 400 Europeans, 300 
 of the Ferozepore Sikhs, 120 Native Irregular Cavalry, 
 and two 9 -pounders. The whole body commenced its 
 march at 4 P.M. of the 30th. On the 3rd of July the 
 General sent 100 Europeans, in the only steamer at his 
 disposal, up the Ganges, to communicate with Major Ke- 
 naud' s column during its progress, and to cover its flank. 
 The equipment of that column had exhausted all the car- 
 riage at the station. The districts to the west and north 
 of Allahabad were in the hands of the enemy, and it was 
 only in the direction of Benares, that a supply of carts, 
 bullocks, hackeries, camels, and other means of transport 
 could be procured. They came up tardily, notwithstand- 
 ing the exertions of the local and commissariat officers, 
 and the General was impatiently detained at Allahabad 
 for seven days after the departure of Renaud's column. 
 
 Meanwhile, authority was received from Calcutta to 
 raise a body of Volunteer Cavalry, and it was placed 
 under the command of Captain Lusada Barrow, The y olun . 
 of the 5th Madras Light Cavalry. The 78th t'ercavairy. 
 Highlanders had left India for the Persian expedition in 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. 1 [CHAP. vn. 
 
 their woollen clothing, and arrived with no other dress in 
 Calcutta ; but no arrangements were made there to furnish 
 them with garments suited to the month of July, although 
 there was the complete establishment of the army clothing 
 agent at the Presidency. Every exertion was therefore 
 made by the General to supply them with a lighter dress, 
 fitted to a march with the thermometer above 100. Na- 
 tive contractors were set to work with all promptitude, 
 but in spite of every exertion, many men were obliged to 
 leave Allahabad in their woollen tunics; and the 78th 
 Highlanders fought every battle in this campaign in that 
 dress. The morning after his arrival at Allahabad, the 
 General made the circuit of the fortifications in company 
 with Lieut. Patrick Stewart, of the Engineers, and after 
 having diligently inspected them, gave minute instructions 
 for strengthening certain weak points, of which he left 
 written details with Colonel Neill. 
 
 At 1 A.M. on the 3rd of July, Lieut. Chalmers of the 
 45th Native Infantry, and one of the first of the officers 
 intelligence wno na( i volunteered to serve as a private in the 
 poremassa?" Volunteer Cavalry, rode in from Major Renaud's 
 cre - detachment with intelligence of the destruction 
 
 of Sir Hugh Wheeler's force at Cawnpore. In the after- 
 noon of the same day, two spies, who had been sent by 
 Sir Henry Lawrence to Cawnpore, and had witnessed the 
 massacre, came into Allahabad, and confirmed the dismal 
 intelligence. They were separately and minutely ex- 
 amined by the General and the officers of his staff, and as 
 no discrepancy was discovered in their testimony, it was 
 considered to be authentic. Sir Hugh had informed Sir 
 Henry Lawrence, on the 24th of June, that his provisions 
 would last for eight or ten days ; but the incessant shower 
 of balls and red-hot shot which the insurgents poured into 
 the intrenchment became intolerable, and the besieged 
 were driven at last most reluctantly to a compromise, by 
 the heart-rending sight of the torture endured by the 
 women and children, and by the absence of any intelli- 
 gence of an attempt to relieve them. There is no record 
 of such fearful sufferings as that garrison endured with 
 
1857.] MASSACRE AT CAWNPORE. 283 
 
 the most exemplary fortitude during the last ten days of 
 its existence. Of the 870 persons who had survived the 
 desolating cannonade of more than three weeks, 330 were 
 women and children. When reduced to the last extrem- 
 ity, Nana Sahib sent a message to Sir Hugh Wheeler, 
 offering the garrison a safe-conduct to Allahabad, with 
 permission to take their baggage, arms, and ammunition 
 with them, on condition that he would capitulate. Sir 
 Hugh most reluctantly accepted the overture, but only 
 because it held out a hope of saving the heroic women 
 and the tender children from a lingering death. The Nana 
 took an oath on the water of the Ganges, the most sacred 
 that a Hindoo and a Brahmin can utter, to be faithful to 
 his engagement. Boats were provided by him, and the 
 women and children were conveyed to them in vehicles, 
 in some cases with every expression of sympathy and so- 
 licitude for their welfare. Every heart now beat high 
 with the certainty of deliverance ; but no sooner had the 
 whole party been seated in the boats, than three signal 
 guns were fired, and a destructive fire was opened on the 
 helpless fugitives from cannon planted on the shore, and 
 hitherto concealed along the bank, as well as from the 
 firelocks of the Nana's soldiers. The shrieks of the women 
 and cries of the children were drowned by the rattle of 
 musketry, and the roar of the guns, and the yells of the 
 hell-hounds now let loose on them. The massacre was a 
 preconcerted perfidy ; it has since become evident, by the 
 discovery of the document, that an order had been sent 
 to the commandant of the mutinous 17th Native Infantry, 
 and some irregular cavalry then on the Oude bank, to fire 
 on any of the fugitives who might attempt to land. The 
 whole party was treacherously butchered, with the ex- 
 ception of two hundred and ten women and children, who 
 were taken back to the town and reserved for future de- 
 struction. This atrocity was perpetrated on the 27th of 
 June, before General Havel ock had assumed charge of 
 his column, and while he was on his journey from Cal- 
 cutta to Benares. It appears that Colonel Neill had writ- 
 ten to Sir Henry Lawrence from Allahabad, on the 18th 
 
284 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 of June, and again on the 23rd, to announce his intention 
 to despatch immediately a force of 400 Europeans and 300 
 Sikhs for the relief of Cawnpore. That force did not 
 march out of Allahabad before the 30th. Whether"^ 
 would have been in time to avert the massacre if it had 
 been sent forward according to Colonel Neill's original 
 resolution, may be a questionable point. 
 
 Immediately on receiving what he considered indubit- 
 able evidence of this massacre, the General telegraphed 
 the dismal tidings to Sir Patrick Grant. 
 
 " If the report," he said, " be correct, which there is too much 
 
 reason to believe, we have lost Cawnpore, an important point on 
 
 the great line of communication, and the place from 
 
 The General . & r 
 
 communi- which alone JLucknow can be succoured, lor it would 
 intelligence hardly be possible at this season of the year to operate 
 San h d e er-hT on the cross roads. My duty is therefore to endeavour 
 to retake Cawnpore, to the accomplishment of which 
 I will bend every effort. I advance along the trunk road as 
 soon as I can unite 1400 British infantry to a battery of six well- 
 equipped guns. Lawrence is confident of holding out for a 
 month. Lieut. -Col. Neill, whose high qualities I cannot suffi- 
 ciently praise, will follow with another column as soon as it can be 
 organized, and this fort left in proper hands. I should have 
 preferred to move the whole of the troops together, but the relief 
 of Lucknow is an affair of time, and I cannot hazard its fall by 
 waiting for the organization of Neill's column. We urgently 
 want here more artillerymen, both for the equipment of field 
 batteries, and the defence of this place. I would also observe 
 that, with every hope of ultimate success, it appears to me on the 
 cards, that for some weeks or months we might possess nothing 
 within the Jumna but the forts of Agra, Allahabad, and Chunar. 
 I would therefore suggest that gun-boats and armed steamers be 
 sent up speedily to aid in keeping open the navigation of the 
 Jumna and the Ganges. The arrival of the troops from China, 
 and the complete success of Sir Henry Barnard, would speedily 
 change the whole state of affairs. . But we cannot fix a date for 
 either of these events, and it seems reasonable to provide against 
 the worst that may happen in the mean time." 
 
 Lieut. Chalmers was sent back to Major Kenaud, with 
 an acknowledgment of his letter of the previous day, which, 
 
1857.] MAJOR KENAUD DESIRED TO HALT. 285 
 
 as the General remarked, appeared to leave no doubt of 
 the destruction of the Cawnpore force. " Halt, there- 
 fore/' he said, " at Lohanga, and keep a good look-out to 
 rear, front, and flanks. I will then strongly reinforce you 
 with the column that is to march to-morrow, the 4th in- 
 stant. Burn no more villages, unless actually occupied 
 by insurgents, and spare your European troops as much 
 as possible/' But the General had reckoned without 
 his host, when he determined to start on the 4th. The 
 carriage cattle, which was indispensable to the success of 
 his operations, came in slowly by driblets, and it was be- 
 yond his power to expedite the collection of them. Im- 
 patient as he was to advance, he was detained three days 
 longer at Allahabad, during which time he received a 
 small reinforcement of the 78th Highlanders, fresh from 
 the banks of the Euphrates, under the command of Colo- 
 nel Hamilton. But he was mortified to discover that the 
 officer in command of the irregular cavalry which had ac- 
 companied Major Renaud, had been permitted to take 
 with him from Allahabad more than thirty of the best 
 Government stud horses for the use of his men, in lieu of 
 their own hacks, and to mount any recruits he might pick 
 up on the route. The horses thus made over to men of 
 doubtful fidelity were urgently required by the General 
 for the teams of his guns, as well as for his volunteer ca- 
 valry, the ranks of which had begun to fill, as soon as 
 Government had sanctioned its formation. 
 
 It was felt to be a very serious misfortune, that at this 
 critical juncture the rail from Allahabad to Cawnpore was 
 not found complete. The work might have been i nc0 mpietion 
 finished, without any difficulty, at the beginning roaJtVclwn- 
 of the year, but it had been retarded by the pore> 
 injudicious interference of the controlling officers of Go- 
 vernment, who were simply military engineers, with the 
 civil engineers of the railway establishment. If the Com- 
 pany had been in a position to open it at the expected 
 time, it is possible that the massacre of Cawnpore might 
 have been prevented, and the relief of Lucknow effected 
 before the whole country was in a state of revolt. Only 
 
286 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP, m 
 
 forty miles had been completed to Lohanga ; but the por- 
 tion of the line near Allahabad had been seriously injured 
 by the insurgents. The General considered it of the great- 
 est importance to his future operations to keep even t&is 
 limited section open for the transmission of stores and 
 troops. Mr Betagh, the resident engineer, was therefore 
 directed to proceed on a tour of inspection, and on his 
 return from Lohanga was officially complimented by the 
 General on the judgment, promptitude, and vigour which 
 he had exhibited in this enterprise. Owing to the de- 
 struction of the engines, it was impossible to use the line 
 as a railway, but it was found invaluable as a tram-road ; 
 and a corps of native labourers was organized for the 
 draught of the carriages. 
 
 During his detention at Allahabad, the General had 
 omitted no effort to provide for the efficiency of the force. 
 The General He attended himself to the minute details of 
 
 starts for , n 
 
 cawnporeon every arrangement. Two or three times during 
 July. the day he received reports from the heads of 
 
 departments, and likewise personally inspected the pro- 
 gress of equipment. His orders were always distinct and 
 concise, and generally conveyed in writing ; but he saw 
 to the execution of them himself. On the 7th, the organ- 
 ization of the force was completed ; the baggage lay on 
 the ground ready packed, and only awaiting the means of 
 transport ; and the distribution of the carriage, as it ar- 
 rived, was finished only a few moments before the column 
 commenced its march. The force consisted of about a 
 thousand bayonets, from four European regiments; the 
 64th, the 78th Highlanders, the 84th Foot, and the 1st 
 Madras Fusiliers, with 130 of Lieut. Brayser's Sikhs, 
 about eighteen Volunteer Cavalry, and six guns. This 
 little band was at length enabled to start on the expedi- 
 tion at four o'clock in the afternoon. It was a dull and 
 dismal day, and the force began its march under the most 
 unpromising auspices. As the column denied through 
 the town, the natives are said to have hastened to their 
 doors, and greeted it with malignant scowls, though the 
 remembrance of Colonel NeilFs executions effectually pre- 
 
1857.] MARCH OF THE FIRST THREE DAYS. 287 
 
 vented any tangible demonstration of hatred. But the 
 troops were soon subjected to a more serious inconveni- 
 ence than the malice of a disaffected population. They 
 had not marched a quarter of a mile before they encoun- 
 tered " the soldier's greatest enemy/' a deluge of rain. 
 The column was halted for the night, after it had marched 
 about three hours. The draught cattle, entirely unused 
 to work, had not been able to keep up with the troops ; 
 the tents had not all arrived ; and too many of the men 
 were constrained to pass the night without shelter on the 
 saturated earth. 
 
 As the General had no doubt that Cawnpore had fallen, 
 and Sir Henry Lawrence's exigency did not appear from 
 his letter of the 27th of June, written before the March of the 
 conflict at Chinhut, to be pressing, the troops day* 
 advanced leisurely for the first three days, making only 
 ordinary marches of about eight miles a day. The 64th 
 and the 78th Highlanders were robust and well-seasoned 
 soldiers, but they had been cooped up in steamers for 
 more than six weeks, and required some practice to regain 
 the facility of marching. Among the Madras Fusiliers, 
 however, there were nearly three hundred recruits, totally 
 unaccustomed to the hardships of a campaign, and the road 
 was lined with the disabled and foot-sore men of this re- 
 giment on the first march ; it became necessary therefore 
 gradually to inure them to the severe duties before them. 
 The report of the fall of Cawnpore, which the General had 
 telegraphed to Calcutta, was not at first credited by the 
 public authorities there. Colonel Neill had at the same 
 time telegraphed to Sir Patrick Grant, that he believed the 
 report to be a mere artifice of the enemy, to prevent the 
 advance of our force. The Commander-in- Chief, adopting 
 this view of the case, had requested the General to order 
 Major Kenaud to push on with his detachment ; and he 
 accordingly proceeded cautiously beyond Lohanga. But 
 fresh evidence of the truth of the report was now brought 
 in, and the position of Major Kenaud became an object of 
 much solicitude to the General, who had received accurate 
 intelligence of the movements of the enemy after tho 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 massacre, and he considered it necessary to advance with 
 forced marches to his support. And here it may be re- 
 marked, that the General always regarded his intelligence 
 department of paramount importance, and spared nO**Vf- 
 fort to obtain the most authentic reports of the position 
 and movements of the enemy. By a liberal use of the 
 secret service money which had by his forethought been 
 placed by Government at his disposal, he was able to 
 command the services of numerous spies, whose reports 
 were collated and sifted with great judgment by himself 
 and his staff, more especially under the active and intelli- 
 gent superintendence of Colonel Tytler, the Deputy- As- 
 sistant Quarter-Master-General. This department was, 
 therefore, seldom at fault, and he was never taken by sur- 
 prise. Indeed, it was found on more than one occasion 
 that, notwithstanding the superior advantages possessed 
 by the enemy for obtaining information from their sym- 
 pathizing countrymen, they were often less accurately ap- 
 prized of his movements than he was of theirs. He was 
 now informed that the insurgents were advancing in great 
 force and with rapid strides on Major Renaud's column. 
 Nana Sahib, after the massacre of Sir Hugh Wheeler's 
 force, had proclaimed himself Peishwa, or sovereign of 
 the Mahrattas, and had fired a royal salute on his acces- 
 sion to that dignity. He had advised the troops collected 
 around his standard to advance, and annihilate the hand- 
 ful of Englishmen moving up towards Cawnpore ; to take 
 possession of Allahabad, and then to sweep down on Cal- 
 cutta, and assist him in establishing a Hindoo dynasty in 
 our own metropolis. The General considered it imprudent 
 to order Major Renaud to fall back on the main body, 
 lest the moral effect of any such retrograde movement at 
 this juncture should prove injurious. He directed him, 
 therefore, to halt immediately on the arrival of his com- 
 munication. The enemy's force now moving down to 
 Allahabad was estimated at the time at 3500 regular Se- 
 poys, strengthened by a mass of new levies, with guns 
 freely drawn from the magazine at Cawnpore. Major 
 Renaud's force consisted only of 400 Europeans, some 
 
1857.] DANGER OF MAJOR RENAUD'S DETACHMENT. 289 
 
 irregular cavalry, and 300 Sikhs. The fidelity of the lat- 
 ter, which had not been tested in a conflict with the enerny, 
 was doubtful, and the fact of their forming nearly one half 
 the force was supposed by the General to present a strong 
 temptation to go over to the enemy ; the irregular horse 
 was more than suspected of sympathy with the mutineers, 
 and half the gunners were natives. The destruction of 
 Major Renaud's column appeared, therefore, inevitable, if 
 it came into collision with the rebel force ; and such a 
 disaster at the commencement of operations might be 
 irretrievable. On the llth of July the General's little 
 band had marched fifteen miles from Synee, and the men 
 had suffered severely from fatigue and exposure. The 
 medical officers urgently advised him to halt, and allow 
 them to rest, but he felt the preponderating necessity of 
 rescuing the advanced column from its perilous position. 
 The troops therefore struck their tents at eleven P.M., and 
 marched at midnight; and about an hour after, in the 
 clear moonlight, came up with the Major's detachment, 
 which, after the junction, marched on with them to Be- 
 linda, about four miles short of Futtehpore, reaching it 
 about seven in the morning. 
 
 After these fatiguing marches, the General, no longer 
 anxious regarding Major Renaud's detachment, was de- 
 sirous of halting on the 12th, and giving the troops the 
 repose they needed before their first encounter Battle of 
 with the enemy. There was an impression in Futteh P re - 
 the camp that the rebels might be expected to arrive at 
 Futtehpore in the course of the day, and halt there. Colo- 
 nel Ty tier was sent on to reconnoitre, and having advanced 
 two miles, met two spies who had been sent by Sir Henry 
 Lawrence to Cawnpore, with instructions to proceed on to 
 General Havelock, and deliver the information they could 
 collect. They related that the enemy had just arrived at 
 Futtehpore, and were employed in encamping themselves. 
 Colonel Tytler sent them on immediately to the General, 
 and continued his own advance towards the enemy's po- 
 sition. As soon as he and his escort were perceived, the 
 rebels, supposing that they had before them only the 
 
 19 
 
290 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 weak column of Major Renaud, rushed forward to engage 
 it, without giving themselves time for any formation. 
 This precipitation proved fatal to them. Our men had 
 been marching and under arms for nine hours, and were 
 preparing to cook a meal; the two spies were making 
 their report to the General, when a 24-pounder shot, which 
 the enemy aimed at Colonel Tytler, came on with its whiz- 
 zing sound, and struck the ground within two hundred 
 yards of the spot where the General was standing. The 
 troops immediately left their cooking utensils and flew to 
 arms, and fell into their ranks. The enemy's horse then 
 came rushing across the plain in frantic haste, with loud 
 cheers and shouts, till they were near enough to perceive 
 the British phalanx. Instead of the handful of which 
 they expected to make an easy prey, they suddenly dis- 
 covered the British regiments and eight guns, drawn up 
 in perfect order, and steadily awaiting the attack, on which 
 they at once drew rein, as if struck by a palsy. " It would 
 have been injurious to the morale of my troops," wrote the 
 General, " to allow them to be thus bearded, and so I de- 
 termined at once to bring on a general action." But the 
 report of this, the first of the General's series of victories, 
 must be given in the words of his own despatch. After 
 noticing his junction with Major Renaud, he proceeds to 
 say : 
 
 " Our information had been better than that of the enemy, for 
 when Lieut. -Col. Tytler pushed a reconnaissance up to the town 
 DCS atch on ^^J evidently supposed they had only Major Renaud's 
 the battle of gallant but small force in their front : for after firing 
 
 luttehpore. 6 , , T . ~ , , , . '- i .- 
 
 on the Lieut. -Col. and his escort, they insolently 
 pushed forward two guns, and a force of infantry and cavalry 
 cannonaded our front, and threatened our flank. 
 
 " I wished earnestly to give our harassed soldiers rest, and so 
 waited until this ebullition should expend itself, making no 
 counter-disposition beyond posting a hundred Enfield riflemen of 
 the 64th in an advanced copse. But the enemy maintained his 
 attack with the audacity which his first supposition had inspired, 
 and my inertness fostered. It would have injured the morale of 
 
1857.] THE BATTLE OF FUTTEHPORE. 291 
 
 my troops to permit them thus to be bearded ; so I determined at 
 once to bring on an action. 
 
 " Futtehpore constitutes a position of no small strength. The 
 hard and dry grand trunk road subdivides it, and is the only 
 means of convenient access, for the plains on both sides are covered 
 at this season by heavy lodgments of water, to the depth of two, 
 three, and four feet. It is surrounded by garden enclosures of 
 great strength, with high walls, and has within it many houses of 
 good masonry. In front of the swamps are hillocks, villages, and 
 mangoe-groves, which the enemy already occupied in force. 
 
 "I estimate his number at 3500, with twelve brass and iron 
 guns. 
 
 " I made my dispositions. The guns, now eight in number, 
 were formed on and close to the chaussee in the centre, under 
 Captain Maude, E.A., protected and aided by one hundred 
 Enfield riflemen of the 64th. The detachments of infantry were, 
 at the same moment, thrown into a line of quarter distance 
 columns, at deploying distance, and thus advanced in support, 
 covered at discretion by Enfield skirmishers. The small force of 
 volunteers and irregular cavalry moved forward on the flanks on 
 harder ground. 
 
 " I might say that in ten minutes the action was decided, for 
 in that short space of time the spirit of the enemy was entirely 
 subdued. The rifle fire, reaching them at an unexpected distance, 
 filled them with dismay ; and when Captain Maude was enabled 
 to push his guns through flank and swamps, to point blank range, 
 his surprisingly accurate fire demolished their little remaining 
 confidence. In a moment three guns were abandoned to us on 
 the chaussee, and the force advanced steadily, driving the enemy 
 before it at every point. 
 
 " Major Eenaud won a hillock on the right in good style, and 
 struggled on through the inundation. The 78th in extension 
 kept up his communication with the centre ; the 64th gave 
 strength to the centre and left ; on the left, the 84th and regi- 
 ment of Ferozepore pressed back the enemy's right. 
 
 " As we moved forward, the enemy's guns continued to fall 
 into our hands, and then in succession they were driven from the 
 garden enclosures, from a strong barricade on the road, from the 
 town wall, into, and through, out of, and beyond the town. 
 They endeavoured to make a stand a mile in advance of it. My 
 troops were in such a state of exhaustion, that I almost despaired 
 
292 MEMOIES OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vii. 
 
 of driving them farther. At the same time, the mutineers of the 
 2nd Cavalry made an effort to renew the combat by charging, 
 with some success, our irregular horse, whose disposition through- 
 out the fight was, I regret to say, worse than doubtful.*%3ut 
 again our guns and riflemen were with great labour pushed to 
 the front. Their fire soon put the enemy to final and irretriev- 
 able flight, and my force took up its present position in triumph, 
 and parked twelve captured guns. 
 
 "I must endeavour in this hasty despatch to do justice to 
 those who led the troops to this easy victory. First on the list, 
 I must place Major Eenaud, whose exertions at the head of the 
 advanced column I cannot sufficiently praise. His coolness and 
 conduct in the action are equally entitled to my highest commend- 
 ation. I hope that it will be in the power of His Excellency 
 the Commander-in-Chief to bring speedily to the notice of his 
 Eoyal Highness, the General Commanding-in-Chief, the courage 
 and skill of Captain Maude, RA. I have seen some artillery 
 fights in my time, but never beheld guns better served, or 
 practice more effective than that of my battery under this officer. 
 
 " Colonel Hamilton led his Highlanders well, and they fol- 
 lowed him full of spirit and devotion. T have every reason to be 
 satisfied with the conduct in this combat of Major Sterling at the 
 head of the 64th; of Lieutenant Ayton, in command of the 84th 
 detachment ; of Captain Brasyer, of the regiment of Ferozepore ; 
 of Captain Barrow, leading the Volunteer Cavalry; and Lieut. 
 Palliser, at the head of the Irregular Horse. 
 
 " I have next to speak of the staff : Captain Beatson, Deputy 
 Assistant Adjutant-General, has given me entire satisfaction in 
 the performance of his ordinary duties, and I was much gratified 
 by his boldness and activity in the fight. Lieut. -Colonel Tytler 
 is indefatigable and most intelligent in a sphere of duty entirely 
 new to him. Captain M 'Bean's commissariat arrangements, 
 chiefly with the advanced column, have hitherto been every way 
 successful. My orders were conveyed in the field boldly, 
 actively, and intelligently by my aid-de-camp, Lieut. Havelock, 
 10th Foot, and the following officers : Lieut. Morland, 1st 
 Fusiliers; Lieut. Moorsom, H. M. 52nd Light Infantry; Captain 
 Sheehy, H. M. 81st regiment ; Captain Eussell, Engineers ; and 
 Captain M'Bean. 
 
 " I enclose the list of casualties, the lightest, I suppose, that 
 ever accompanied the announcement of such a success. Twelve 
 British soldiers were struck down by the sun, and never rose 
 
1857.] REMARKS ON THE BATTLE OF FUTTEHPORE. 293 
 
 again. But our fight was fought, neither with musket nor 
 bayonet, nor sabre, but with Enfield rifles and cannon : so we 
 lost no men. 
 
 " The enemy's fire scarcely touched us ; ours, for four hours, 
 allowed him no repose." 
 
 The battle of Futtehpore was the first action with the 
 rebel soldiery in which our arms had been triumphant. 
 Hitherto events had gone uniformly against us. Remarks on 
 
 , , -, IT-IT the battle of 
 
 For two months the insurgents had. spread, de- Futtehpore. 
 solation through our fairest provinces, and a feeling of 
 deep despondency pervaded the whole of the European 
 community in India. This victory was the first check in 
 their rampant career which they had received in the open 
 field, and it brought the first ray of hope to the minds of 
 our fellow-countrymen in India. To use the emphatic 
 language of Lord Ellenborough in his notification after 
 the battle of Jellalabad, in which, though unknown to him, 
 Havelock had borne so great a share, " Victory now re- 
 turned to the ranks of the army/'' This was, moreover, 
 the first engagement in which Havelock had been his own 
 general, and not merely the military mentor of others. 
 He immediately sat down and wrote thus to his wife on 
 the Rhine : 
 
 " One of the prayers oft repeated throughout my life since my 
 school days has been answered, and I have lived to command in 
 a successful action. I must refer you for the particu- Letter to 
 lars to my despatch. I will here only say, that I ,*' 
 marched down on this place yesterday morning, Sun- the battle< 
 day the 12th (battle of the Boyne), with harassed troops, intend- 
 ing to attack the enemy next day ; but their fate led them on. 
 Out they sallied and insulted my camp ; whereupon I deter- 
 mined to try an immediate action. 
 
 " We fought, and I may say that in ten minutes the affair was 
 decided ; for in that short time our Enfield rifles and cannon had 
 taken all conceit of fight out of the mutineers. Among them 
 was the 56th, the very regiment which I led at Maharajpore. I 
 challenged them : ' There's some of you that have beheld me 
 fighting ; now try upon yourselves what you have seen in me.' 
 
 " But away with vain glory! Thanks to Almighty God, who 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 gave me the victory. I captured in four hours eleven guns, and 
 scattered the enemy's whole force to the winds. I now march to 
 retake Cawnpore, where, alas ! our troops have been treacherously 
 destroyed ; and to succour Lawrence at Lucknow. Norris ^ould 
 have rejoiced, and so would dear old Julius Hare, if he hacTsur- 
 vived to see the day. Harry was in the thickest of the fight, 
 but, God be praised, escaped unhurt." 
 
 The troops, wearied by a inarch of twenty-four miles, 
 and an engagement of four hours, without having tasted 
 food since the preceding afternoon, sank down exhausted 
 on the ground, a mile beyond the spot where the 
 enemy had made their last stand. The next day, the 
 order of the 13th of July, the force obtained repose, and the 
 tr a o y ops after General issued the first of his spirit-stirring 
 the battle. orders : 
 
 " General Havelock thanks his soldiers for their arduous exer- 
 tions of yesterday, which produced in four hours the strange re- 
 sult of a rebel army driven from a strong position, eleven guns 
 captured, and their whole force scattered to the winds, without 
 the loss of a single British soldier. To what is this astounding 
 effect to be attributed ? To the fire of British artillery, exceeding 
 in rapidity and precision all that the Brigadier has ever witnessed 
 in his not short career ; to the power of the Enfield rifle in British 
 hands ; to British pluck, that great quality which has survived 
 the vicissitudes of the hour, and gained intensity from the crisis ; 
 and to the blessing of Almighty God on a most righteous cause, 
 the cause of justice, humanity, truth, and good government in 
 India." 
 
 It was a novelty in India to see an Order of the day 
 ascribing victory to "the blessing of Almighty God;" 
 but if any were disposed to ridicule this revival of Crom- 
 well's Puritanism, they were soon satisfied that it was also 
 accompanied with no small portion of the military genius 
 and energy of the Puritan generals. The General pro- 
 ceeded to promote Kalka Singh, a private in the Native 
 Artillery, to a superior grade for his conspicuous gallantry; 
 and he ordered the gratuity of a month's pay to be issued 
 to the bullock-drivers, who were not enlisted soldiers, but 
 natives picked up by the commissariat officers wherever 
 
1857.] HE SENDS BACK A HUNDEED SIKHS. 295 
 
 they could be found, for their excellent conduct in action; 
 and a larger donation to their sirdars, or chiefs, " whose 
 behaviour had been particularly conspicuous." The day 
 of repose was passed by the General in reorganizing his 
 Artillery. Eleven guns had been captured from the 
 enemy ; and those of larger calibre were now exchanged 
 for the lighter pieces brought from Allahabad. Two 
 9-pounders and a 24-pound howitzer were added to the 
 train, which brought its strength up to ten serviceable 
 guns ; the rest of the captured cannon, for which he had 
 no draught cattle, were burst. 
 
 Colonel Neill was apprehensive of an attack on Allaha- 
 bad, and had importuned the General to send back the 
 invalid artillerymen and the Sikh regiment. But Hesendsback 
 he considered that the defeat of the enemy at 2!fS?tfcS 
 Futtehpore would greatly diminish the risk of an tiller y men - 
 attack on Allahabad from above, while the arrival from 
 time to time of small detachments of European troops 
 from Calcutta would serve to increase its security. He 
 was anxious, moreover, to spare his European troops all 
 unnecessary exposure to the sun, and required the Sikh 
 troops for fatigue duties. He, therefore, sent back only 
 a hundred of them, directing that one half the number 
 should be employed in guarding the railway station at 
 Lohanga, and the other in reinforcing the garrison at Al- 
 lahabad. But he peremptorily refused to part with a 
 single artilleryman, although the Commander-in- Chief, 
 not acquainted with the exigencies of his position, had 
 expressed his hope that " the veteran artillerymen, whose 
 infirmities, poor fellows, disabled them from any exertion 
 in rapid marching, might have been sent back to Allaha- 
 bad, and their places supplied, if necessary, from the Eu- 
 ropean Infantry, who were the greatest proficients in the 
 gun drill." But the General had now ten guns with his 
 force, and only seventy regular artillerymen, including 
 the invalids, and thirty-one trained infantry. He replied, 
 therefore, to Sir Patrick Grant, that he could not dispense 
 with the services of the old gunners, and that he had always 
 husbanded their strength, never allowing them to be fa- 
 
296 MEMOIES OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vu. 
 
 tigued by marching, but conveying them on ambulances 
 in the rear of their guns, thus bringing them up fresh and 
 vigorous into action. 
 
 On the 14th, the troops marched forward without meet- 
 ing an enemy. The misconduct of the small body of Ir- 
 Disarmament regular Cavalry had now become so palpable, 
 
 of the Irregu- , , ~ f_ , , . P , , i 
 
 lar cavalry, that the breneral deemed it no longer sale to take 
 them into action. In the engagement of Futtehpore, they 
 had been ordered to charge the mutinous 2nd Cavalry, 
 but only twelve followed their commanding officer, Lieut. 
 Palliser, whose blind confidence in his men and gallant 
 spirit carried him headlong into the midst of the enemy, 
 without a glance behind to ascertain if he was supported. 
 There he was overpowered, and knocked off his horse, and 
 would inevitably have been cut to pieces, had he not been 
 rescued by the devoted gallantry of his native Ressildar, 
 who sacrificed his own life in endeavouring to save that 
 of his leader. The remainder of his corps either turned 
 to the rear, or joined the ranks of the enemy. This ex- 
 hibition of treachery produced a hasty order from Captain 
 Beatson to the skirmishers of the Madras Fusiliers, to fire 
 upon them, but it was immediately recalled. On the line 
 of march, on the 14th, the Irregular Cavalry were placed 
 over the baggage; but they created a false alarm, and 
 endeavoured to drive it to the rear, evidently with the 
 view of plundering it, and making off to the rebels. When 
 the force halted on the 14th, the General directed that 
 they should all be dismounted and disarmed, and that their 
 horses should be made over to Captain Barrow, for his 
 Volunteer Cavalry. The composition and the services of 
 this gallant body are thus graphically described by one 
 of its own officers : " New to the country, new to the 
 service, unaccustomed to roughing it, brought up in every 
 luxury, and led to believe that on their arrival in India 
 they would have the same, these young officers (deprived 
 of employment by the mutiny of their regiments) willingly 
 threw themselves into the thick of the work, often with- 
 out a tent or cover of any sort to shelter them from the 
 rain or sun, with bad provisions and hard work. Side by 
 
1857.] ACTION AT AONG. 297 
 
 side with the privates they took their turn of duty, and 
 side by side with them they fought, were wounded, and 
 some of them died. When we got into Lucknow, and 
 were useless as cavalry, they cheerfully took the musket, 
 and night and day, at one of the most important posts, 
 did sentry duty with the men. Well and nobly they did 
 their duty ; and proud may those boys be when they point 
 to the medal on their breast and say, ' I won this while 
 serving as a private in the field/ " 
 
 Early on the morning of the 1 5th, the little force again 
 began its march, and arrived in front of the village of 
 Aong a little after daybreak, when it was found Action at 
 that the enemy were in position, with two 9- Aong * 
 pounders, behind an intrenchment thrown up across the 
 road. After a reconnaissance, the General gave Colonel 
 Tytler the command of a strong advanced guard, consist- 
 ing of about a third of the force, while he himself took 
 charge of the main body to protect the baggage, which 
 the enemy's cavalry, hovering on both flanks, showed a 
 determination to attack. Colonel Tytler found the enemy 
 strongly posted in gardens and enclosures. On the 
 advance of the Volunteer Cavalry, the two guns of the 
 enemy behind the intrenchment opened fire. Some delay 
 having necessarily occurred while the Colonel was com- 
 pleting his dispositions, the rebel Sepoys, misinterpreting 
 the cause of it, advanced boldly to the attack, as if con- 
 fident of victory, and took the initiative by moving forward 
 to a village about 200 yards in front of their position. The 
 Madras Fusiliers were ordered to drive them out, which 
 they quickly accomplished in the most gallant style, under 
 the command of Major Kenaud. But the success was 
 dearly purchased by the loss of that able and intrepid 
 soldier, who received a wound in his thigh, of which he 
 died three days after. Colonel Tytler then gradually ad- 
 vanced his whole force, and plying the rebels with his 
 superior artillery, whenever the ground would admit of 
 its use, drove them from their position, which they aban- 
 doned with precipitation. Meanwhile large bodies of the 
 enemy's cavalry repeatedly essayed to cut in on the main 
 
298 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 force, under the personal command of the General, and 
 plunder the baggage, but every assault was repelled, and 
 not a single article was lost. The cavalry of the rebels, 
 seeing the infantry routed, followed them in their flight, 
 and the road was thickly strewed for miles with abandoned 
 tents, carts, baggage, and military stores. It was on 
 such occasions that the want of cavalry was most acutely 
 felt. Two squadrons of British dragoons on this day 
 would have been worth a brigade of infantry. 
 
 The troops were .now halted for breakfast, for which a 
 five hours' march and a fatiguing action had given them 
 a keen relish. From the commencement of his 
 ?andoo f iud- advance from Allahabad, the bridge over the 
 Pandoo nuddee, or river, which lay in his route to 
 Cawnpore, had been an object of great anxiety to the 
 General. This little stream, though only sixty or seventy 
 yards wide, and generally fordable, was now swelled by 
 the periodical rains, and had become impassable. In a 
 military point of view it was still more formidable from the 
 circumstance of its flowing at the bottom of a deep ravine. 
 The General had no pontoons, and, amidst a hostile popu- 
 lation, there was no hope of being able to procure boats. 
 If therefore the fine masonry bridge over it were broken 
 down, his progress to Cawnpore might be indefinitely 
 retarded. The appearance of the enemy at Aong, a few 
 miles distant from it, assured him that up to the period of 
 the engagement the bridge was entire. But while the 
 force halted for its meal, information was brought by his 
 spies, that the enemy, after having been routed by Colonel 
 Tytler, who had lost sight of them while halting for the 
 main body, had rallied at the bridge head, on the farther 
 side of the river, and were preparing to blow it up. He 
 felt that not a moment was to be lost ; and though the 
 troops were completely exhausted by a long march and a 
 severe action under a nearly vertical sun, and had been 
 unable to prepare a meal, he called on them to rise and 
 advance. In the unquestioning spirit of confidence which 
 his well-known care for their welfare, equally with his own 
 self-denying example, inspired, they sprung up with the 
 
1857.] BATTLE OF PANDOO NUDDEE. 299 
 
 greatest alacrity. Those who know British soldiers can 
 estimate the value of the cheerful obedience which they 
 now displayed, and which is always exhibited under a 
 leader who has shown himself worthy of the men he com- 
 mands. After another march of two hours, they came 
 suddenly under fire from the bridge head, and found that 
 the enemy were fully prepared to receive them, and to 
 dispute the passage of the river. The rebels had for some 
 days been diligently employed in intrenching themselves 
 on the opposite side of the stream, where they had planted 
 a 24-pounder gun, and a 24-pouuder carronade, which 
 swept the bridge and the great trunk road for 2000 yards 
 beyond it. The approach to the bridge and the position 
 of the enemy were immediately reconnoitred, and the 
 plan of attack decided on. At Captain Maude's sugges- 
 tion, it was resolved to envelope the bridge in an artillery 
 fire, for which its position on a salient bend afforded great 
 facilities. Three guns were therefore posted in front of 
 it, and two on the right, and three on the left. The 
 Madras Fusiliers, as being the best marksmen in the force, 
 and, moreover, armed with the Enfield rifle, were pushed 
 on through the ravines ; and lining the bank above and 
 below the bridge, opened a galling fire, and picked off 
 the enemy's gunners, among whom and a large body of 
 horse supporting them, the bullets were seen with glasses 
 to fall like a shower of hail ; our guns at the same time 
 did great execution, and increased the confusion of the 
 rebels. Suddenly a cloud of white smoke was seen to 
 arise from the bridge, and float for some seconds over it. 
 It was caused by the attempt of the enemy to blow it up, 
 but their train had been hastily and clumsily laid ; the 
 effect of the explosion was therefore incomplete, and no 
 other damage was done but to create a cavity in one of 
 the arches. Our shrapnell bullets soon after smashed the 
 sponge staffs of the rebel gunners; or, as some who were 
 present affirmed, they themselves broke their staffs and 
 spiked the guns. Be that as it may, their fire, hitherto 
 steadily maintained, suddenly slacked, and the right wing 
 of the Fusiliers, seizing the moment, rapidly closed, and, 
 
300 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vii. 
 
 nobly led by Major Stephenson, who liad succeeded Major 
 Renaud in the command of the regiment, dashed across 
 the bridge amidst a shower of bullets, and captured th^ 
 guns. The day was now won, and the enemy in full* 
 retreat on Cawnpore. Had the advance of the General 
 been delayed a single hour, the passage of the river would 
 have been rendered impracticable, except after a serious 
 and perhaps fatal delay. In these two actions fought on 
 the same day, our loss in killed and wounded did not 
 exceed twenty-five. At two in the afternoon, the troops, 
 now utterly exhausted, threw themselves on the ground, 
 a mile on the Cawnpore side of the river. The bridge 
 was unhappily very narrow; the partial damage it had 
 sustained increased the difficulty, and it was long before 
 the commissariat cattle, slowly defiling across it, could 
 reach the encamping ground. Night had set in before 
 the bullocks could be slaughtered and skinned, and the 
 meat delivered to the men, who were, in many cases, too 
 wearied to rise and care for a meal. Many of them were 
 obliged to content themselves with biscuit and porter. 
 The night was insufferably hot, and much of the meat 
 which had thus been neglected to be cooked was spoiled be- 
 fore morning, and then thrown away by the men in disgust. 
 The resistance which the General had already experi- 
 enced from the mutineers in three encounters, led him to 
 apprehend that it would be more determined in 
 n?g e es G Gener- proportion as he advanced. He therefore wrote 
 send* "rein*- to Colonel, now created Brigadier-General Neill, 
 nts ' whom he had left in charge of Allahabad, to make 
 the most strenuous exertions to push up a reinforcement 
 of 300 Europeans, and if that number could not be spared, 
 of 200 at the least. He said it was his intention to ad- 
 vance towards Lucknow, without any loss of time, but a 
 small force must be left at Cawnpore to maintain the line 
 of communication, an(J he was unable to spare a single 
 soldier from his force, which was scarcely adequate to the 
 task before it. After the two engagements at Aong and 
 Pandoo, he wrote again in more pressing terms for rein- 
 forcements. By sickness, the result of fatigue and ex- 
 
1857.] HE UKGES THE DESPATCH OF REINFORCEMENTS. 301 
 
 posure, by sun-stroke, and by casualties in the field, his 
 little army had been materially weakened, and if he had 
 to leave a detachment at Cawnpore, he feared he should 
 not have a sufficient force of British bayonets for so diffi- 
 cult an enterprise as the invasion of Oude. Since his 
 previous communication, the Enfield rifle had been used 
 so unsparingly in the two engagements of the day, that 
 his stock of Enfield ammunition was beginning to run 
 short, and an ample supply must therefore, if possible, be 
 sent on. The stores of rum were also greatly diminished. 
 " If the road behind me," he said, te is open, as I believe 
 it to be, I trust, with the assistance of the rail, you will 
 be able to prevent the necessity of our being reduced to 
 half-rations of rum, which would be a most trying depriv- 
 ation to troops exposed to the fatigue and hardships that 
 my men have endured, I am happy to say, hitherto, with 
 the most creditable cheerfulness. In conclusion, I reca- 
 pitulate my immediate and pressing wants. They are, 1. 
 Enfield ammunition. 2. Gun ammunition. 3. European 
 soldiers. 4. Field artillery. 5. Commissariat stores." 
 This requisition for spirits may appear inconsistent with 
 the opinion which the General had formerly expressed on 
 this subject. But it may be remarked that while, as a 
 general rule, he considered that the habitual use of rum 
 was not indispensable to the vigour of the soldier, and 
 tended rather to diminish his efficiency, he felt that the 
 rule must bend to circumstances. The abstinence which 
 was highly beneficial in a Jellalabad winter might be 
 fatally imprudent, under peculiar circumstances, in the 
 month of July on the plains of India. His men had been 
 accustomed to the stimulant ; he was now obliged to tax 
 their strength to the utmost limit of human endurance, 
 and he considered the aid of spirits necessary to sustain 
 their physical powers. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 16th the troops rose and 
 fell into- their ranks. It was reported in the camp that 
 the women and children, 210 in number, who 
 had survived the massacre of the 27th of June, cawnpore, 
 were still alive at Cawnpore, and that town was 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vil. 
 
 only twenty-three miles distant. The animating hope of 
 rescuing them from destruction, banished every sense of 
 fatigue. As the day advanced, the heat became more in- v 
 tense than had been experienced since the troops marched"" 
 from Allahabad, and the rays of the sun darted down as 
 if they had been concentrated through a lens. But they 
 marched sixteen miles before they came to a halt at the 
 village of Maharajpore, where they rested for three hours 
 and obtained a meal, though in too many cases it con- 
 sisted, as before, where the meat had become offensive, 
 only of biscuit and porter. 
 
 The Volunteer Cavalry, who had been thrown out as an 
 advanced picket, sent in two travellers they had met in 
 their progress. They turned out to be two Sepoys of the 
 Bengal army, who continued faithful to the Government. 
 One of them had come down from Delhi, and gave the 
 latest account of the progress of the siege; both had 
 marched with the rebels from Cawnpore the previous day, 
 and spent the night in their camp. They were intimately 
 acquainted with the force and position of the enemy, of 
 which they gave the minutest details. The Nana had 
 come out in person with a body of 5000 men and eight 
 guns, to play his last stake for power. The position which 
 he had chosen was most formidable. His left, covered by 
 the Ganges, a mile distant, and by the high ground sloping 
 towards it, was defended by four 24-pounders. The road 
 to the cantonment of Cawnpore divided his left from his 
 centre, which was posted in a low hamlet. Here a 24- 
 pounder howitzer and a horse 6-pounder were planted and 
 intrenched. The great trunk road ran between his centre 
 and his right, which was behind a village encompassed 
 with mangoe groves, surrounded by a mud wall, and de- 
 fended by two 9-pounders. The railroad embankment 
 lay to the right of it. The two roads converged about 
 800 yards in front of the enemy's position, which extended 
 over a mile and a quarter in the form of a crescent, the 
 centre more retired than the flanks. The Nana calculated 
 that our force would necessarily come up the grand trunk 
 road to this point of convergence, and all his artillery was 
 
1857.] BATTLE OF CAWNPOKE. 303 
 
 laid and pointed to sweep it, the range having been care- 
 fully measured and marked off. His infantry was massed 
 in support of the guns to defend this strong position, and 
 the mutinous 2nd Cavalry was placed in the rear of the 
 enemy's left. It was evident that any attempt to carry 
 this position by a coup-de-main would entail a most serious 
 loss of life, for the artillery of the enemy equalled our own 
 in number, and outweighed it in calibre, and they enjoyed 
 the immense advantage of an entrenched cover. It would 
 have been the case of Ferozeshuhur over again ; the 
 General, therefore, determined to turn their position. The 
 Volunteer Cavalry was directed to bring in some of the 
 neighbouring villagers, who were minutely and separately 
 questioned as to the nature of the ground on both the 
 enemy's flanks, and the by-roads leading to their camp. 
 From a careful collation of these reports, it appeared that 
 the ground lying between the enemy's left and the river 
 was more elevated, while that on their right was low and 
 swampy, and moreover commanded by the railway em- 
 bankment. The General resolved, therefore, to select 
 their left flank for his attack, and to leave his field hos- 
 pital, baggage, and camp followers in an enclosure at 
 Maharajpore, with a strong guard and two guns. This 
 conclusion was apparently opposed to the rules of war, 
 from which, under ordinary circumstances, he never de- 
 viated. He must thus abandon all communication with 
 his rear, and leave it exposed, with his carriage, to the 
 assaults of the enemy, and at the same time fight with his 
 back to a river. But he considered the present as one of 
 those exceptional cases which creates its own rule. More- 
 over, in front of the enemy's left, and nearly parallel with 
 it, ran a line of thick groves, which would effectually 
 screen the turning movement from view; and most skil- 
 fully were his plans laid to take advantage of this circum- 
 stance. Having determined on his course of operation, 
 commanding officers of detachments were summoned ; and 
 the General, standing in the midst of them, rapidly traced 
 a rough diagram of the projected movements on the 
 ground with the point of his scabbard, and in a few brief 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 words explained Ms intentions. After this exposition of 
 his plan, he satisfied himself by questions that it was 
 clearly comprehended by the officers, and invited the 
 fullest inquiry from them as to any point which remained 
 doubtful. They then returned to their respective corps, 
 and the troops fell in. With a commander so bold and 
 yet so perspicuous in his orders, the troops marched as to 
 assured victory. During the three hours' halt they had 
 taken a hasty meal. Porter had been served out equally 
 to all the regiments, but some of the recruits of the 
 Madras Fusiliers, not as yet inured to campaigning, and 
 who had tasted no meat for forty-eight hours, found the 
 porter too strong for them, and staggered under the 
 effects of it. But no one who heard their cheers as they 
 marched off, and marked their invigorated step, when they 
 subsequently came into close contact with the enemy, 
 could doubt the beneficial result of this stimulant. 
 
 A column of subdivisions was now formed in front, one 
 wing of the Madras Fusiliers heading it, the other cover- 
 ing the left flank in skirmishing order ; then came in suc- 
 cession, with the guns at intervals, the 78th Highlanders, 
 the 64th, 84th, and the Sikhs. The Volunteer Cavalry 
 advanced in front of the infantry with orders, when they 
 reached the point of divergence, to continue their march 
 deliberately along the road to attract the attention of the 
 enemy, and lead them to believe that our troops were 
 moving onward in the teeth of their guns. For three 
 miles the column moved steadily on the road, and then 
 wheeled to the right, while the Volunteer Cavalry drew 
 the fire of the enemy^s guns on itself. The infantry 
 marched for a thousand yards under shelter of the 
 groves, and unperceived by the enemy ; but a gap in the 
 trees at length betrayed the movement, and they opened 
 with every gun that could bear on the flank of the 78th 
 Highlanders, and the 64th, and inflicted some loss. Not 
 a shot, however, was fired in return ; the column advanced 
 silently and compactly as if on parade, and the stillness 
 was only broken by the bursting shells of the enemy, and 
 the imprecations of the bullock -diivers, as they urged 
 
1857.] CHARGE OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 305 
 
 tlieir cattle to the utmost speed. At length, the move- 
 ment became intelligible to the enemy, who appeared to 
 be filled with surprise and consternation, and made a 
 hasty attempt to change front and meet it ; but it was 
 now too late. The rear of our column having cleared the 
 groves, the companies wheeled at a bound into line. The 
 force at once advanced in direct echellon of battalions from 
 the right, the 78th, the leading battalion, being supported 
 by four guns on each flank, and by the whole of the Ma- 
 dras Fusiliers in skirmishing order. Our artillery at once 
 opened fire, pushing forward as rapidly as the exhaustion 
 of the cattle and the broken nature of the ground would 
 permit. By this master-stroke, the fire of the enemy's 
 centre and right was neutralized, as they could not use 
 their guns without endangering their left. But it soon 
 became evident to the General that this action must be 
 decided, not by artillery, but by the bayonet. The three 
 24-pounders of the enemy's left, rapidly and skilfully 
 served, carried death through the ranks. Sheltered as 
 they were by the trees and buildings amidst which they 
 were posted, our light pieces in vain endeavoured to si- 
 lence them. To delay the advance of the infantry would 
 have been to afford the enemy the opportunity they 
 coveted of changing their position, and bringing their 
 remaining guns into action. The General felt that the 
 result might confidently be committed to that splendid 
 regiment, the Highlanders, now pressing on in a compact 
 mass without firing a shot. While the guns continued to 
 vomit forth grape, they advanced with a firm tread directly 
 upon them, and, when within eighty yards of the muzzle, 
 changed their pace into a charge. Then, with their gal- 
 lant old commander, Colonel Hamilton, a dozen paces in 
 their front, and their bagpipes blowing the pibroch in 
 their rear, they raised a shout which thrilled through the 
 hearts of all who heard it, and hurled themselves as one 
 man on the village, and silenced the guns. This charge, 
 one of the most magnificent in this campaign, is thus de- 
 scribed by the General : " The opportunity had arrived 
 for which I have long anxiously waited, of developing 
 
 20 
 
306 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vil. 
 
 the prowess of the 78th Highlanders. Three guns of the 
 enemy were strongly posted behind a lofty hamlet well 
 intrenched. I directed this regiment to advance, and 
 never have I witnessed conduct more admirable. Tfi'ey 
 were led by Colonel Hamilton, and followed him with 
 surpassing steadiness and gallantry under a heavy fire. 
 As they approached the village, they cheered and charged 
 with the bayonet, the pipes sounding the pibroch. Need 
 I add that the enemy fled, and the village was taken, and 
 the guns were captured? The enemy's left was now 
 crushed. Rushing in confusion to the rear, their infantry 
 appeared to break into two bodies ; one taking the road 
 to the Cawnpore cantonment, and halting at the distance 
 of a few hundred yards, the other falling back to the 
 centre of their position, and rallying round and behind 
 the howitzer placed there. Five minutes elapsed in re- 
 forming the troops, breathless and broken by the rush. 
 The General then placed himself in their front, and point- 
 ing to the masses of the enemy, and to the howitzer, said, 
 " Now, Highlanders, another charge like that wins the 
 day." It was answered with a shout. Bursting at a run 
 from the shelter of a low bridge and causeway, behind 
 which they had been re-formed, the Highlanders, now 
 aided by the 64th, fell on the village and captured the 
 howitzer. The Volunteer Cavalry, who had been steadily 
 advancing on the Cawnpore road, came up at this moment, 
 burning with impatience for an opportunity to distinguish 
 themselves. Captain Beatson, the Deputy- Assistant Ad- 
 jutant-General, had been attacked with cholera early in 
 the day, but was determined not to lose his share of the 
 engagement; and, being too ill to mount his horse, had 
 placed himself on a tumbril in rear of the Volunteer Ca- 
 valry ; and ordered them to charge the body of the enemy 
 now presented to their view. They were only eighteen 
 sabres, all told ; but not a man paused to count the odds. 
 Led by their noble commander, Captain Barrow, with 
 waving swords and loud cheers they dashed on, and deep 
 did they dye their swords in the blood of the enemy. At 
 length the little band was obliged to pull up, when they 
 
1857.] CHARGE OF THE VOLUNTEER CAVALRY. 307 
 
 found their number diminished by one-third.; one trooper 
 had been killed, and another wounded ; two horses were 
 killed, and two unable to move from wounds. As they 
 drew rein, they were rewarded for their gallantry by the 
 ringing plaudits of the infantry, who had witnessed their 
 exploit, and the approving smile of the General as he ex- 
 claimed, "Well done, Gentlemen Volunteers; you have 
 done well. I am proud to command you." At the same 
 time the 64th and 84th, and the Sikhs, pushing further to 
 the left, encountered the right of the enemy's position, 
 overcame all opposition, and captured the two guns which 
 strengthened it. 
 
 The bullocks exhausted with dragging the guns through 
 swamps and over heavy ground, were scarcely able to 
 move, and fell gradually into the rear, and the Volunteer 
 Cavalry was left to support them, and to protect the 
 captured guns. As our troops were halted for a few 
 moments to re-forni, a heavy fire was opened on them 
 from the village in which the fugitives had rallied. " The 
 General," says Major North, " who seemed to be gifted 
 with ubiquity, and the clear tone of whose voice raised to 
 the highest pitch the courage of the men, hurried towards 
 the Highlanders, and said, ' Come, who'll take that village, 
 the Highlanders or the 64th ? ' There was no pause to 
 answer. The spirit of emulation was a-flame in every 
 breast, kindled by his calm words. We (the Highlanders), 
 eager for approval, went off quickly in the direction indi- 
 cated, moving onward in a steady compact line, our front 
 covered by the Light company, and pushing the enemy's 
 skirmishers through the village, from whence they were 
 compelled to fly. The Madras Fusiliers drove them from 
 the plantation." 
 
 One effort still remained to be made, as arduous as any 
 of the struggles of the day. The enemy appeared to be 
 in full retreat to Cawnpore, followed by our ex- The final 
 hausted troops, when a reserve 24-pounder Sutoah 1 ^ 
 planted on the road, and aided by two smaller enemy> 
 guns, reopened a withering fire on our advancing line. It 
 was here that the Nana had determined to make his final 
 
308 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vil. 
 
 stand for the possession of Cawnpore, from which fresh 
 troops had poured forth to his assistance. He was seen 
 riding about among his soldiers, the band and the buglers 
 striking up as he approached. The greatest animation 
 pervaded the enemy's ranks. The din of their drums, the 
 shouts of their cavalry, and the booming of their guns, 
 were sufficient to affect the minds of the troops, lying 
 down as they were to afford time for our own guns, which 
 were a mile in the rear, to come up. This temporary 
 pause in our advance emboldened the enemy ; their in- 
 fantry prepared to advance; and the cavalry stretching 
 out in the form of a crescent menaced the small body of 
 our troops, whom the casualties of the day, and large de- 
 tachments, had reduced to about 800. The General's 
 horse had been shot, but he mounted a hack, and coming 
 up in front of that rain of fire, in a clear and firm tone 
 issued the order to rise for a last advance. " At the word 
 forward/' says an eye-witness, " the ardour and impetu- 
 osity of the troops rose to a height almost resembling 
 frenzy. The 64th was the leading regiment of the echellon, 
 and as it advanced, the gun swept its ranks, and from 
 thirty to forty fell before the corps reached the muzzle." 
 The General, describing the scene, said : 
 
 "But the final crisis arrived. My artillery cattle, wearied by 
 the length of the march, could not bring up the guns to my 
 assistance, and the Madras Fusiliers, the 64th, 84th, and 78th 
 detachments, formed in line, were exposed to a heavy fire from 
 the 24-poufider on the road. I was resolved this state of things 
 should not last ; so calling upon my men, who were lying down in 
 a line, to leap on their feet, I directed another steady advance. 
 It was irresistible. The enemy sent round-shot into our ranks 
 until we were within three hundred yards, and then poured in 
 grape with such precision and determination as I have seldom 
 witnessed. But the 64th, led by Major Sterling and by my aid- 
 de-camp, who had placed himself in their front, were not to he 
 denied. Their rear showed the ground strewed with wounded ; 
 but on they steadily and silently came, then with a cheer charged 
 and captured the unwieldy trophy of their valour. The enemy 
 lost all heart, and after a hurried fire of musketry gave way in 
 
1857.] VICTORY OF CAWNPORE. 309 
 
 total rout. Four of my guns came up, and completed their dis- 
 comfiture by a heavy cannonade ; and as it grew dark the roofless 
 barracks of our artillery were dimly descried in advance, and 
 it was evident that Cawnpore was once more in our possession." 
 
 Such was the battle of Cawnpore, in which 1000 British 
 soldiers and 300 Sikhs, fighting under a deadly sun, with 
 the aid of only eighteen horse, against a superior 
 
 ... .Jo IT c Remarks on 
 
 artillery and numerous cavalry, drove from a po- g^battie of 
 sition skilfully selected and strongly intrenched, 
 a body of 5000 native troops trained and disciplined by 
 our own officers. The mutineers rallied twice after their 
 first discomfiture. Their heavy artillery was admirably 
 served, and their cavalry, though never trusting them- 
 selves within sword's length of our troops, made several 
 attacks on our detachments, and throughout the fight 
 hovered on our rear, and slaughtered the wounded who 
 fell behind in the rapid advance. Still cherishing the 
 dream of empire, which their success against Wheeler' s 
 little band had inspired, they fought with a determination 
 which they have not subsequently displayed since their 
 cause became hopeless. But nothing could overcome the 
 steady courage of our indomitable infantry ; fasting, foot- 
 sore, and scarcely able to bear the weight of their arms, 
 under a sun which claimed its victims almost as fast as 
 the enemy's grape-shot, they fought and conquered with- 
 out a moment's check, strong in their confidence in them- 
 selves and in their leader, and animated with the hope of 
 rescuing their tender country-women and the helpless 
 children from destruction. The defeat of the 16th of 
 July was the heaviest blow the mutiny had yet received, 
 and it taught the natives of the north-west that they had 
 to deal with a nation that might be surprised, but could 
 not be conquered. It is no exaggeration to say that in 
 no engagement ever fought by us in India, was there a 
 greater combination of heroic valour and consummate 
 generalship. With 10,000 such troops under such a 
 leader as Havelock, whose glance sufficed to rouse the 
 enthusiasm of his soldiers, the mutiny would scarcely have 
 survived the year in which it arose. 
 
310 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 The troops bivouacked on tlie night of the 16th on the 
 bare ground, without food or tents. When the arms were 
 Night of the piled, the General called the officers of the Hjgh- 
 leth ot July. i an aers together, and assured them that he had 
 never seen a regiment behave more steadily or gallantly, 
 and that if ever he reached the command of a regiment, 
 it would be his request that it should be the 78th, 
 and he desired them to convey this assurance to their 
 men. No fire was lighted, and a dead silence per- 
 vaded the line. The baggage had been left at Maharaj- 
 pore, and as it would have been imprudent to move it 
 during the darkness, in the presence of the enemy's su- 
 perior cavalry, it did not come up till the next morning. 
 The only food which the General tasted was part of a 
 biscuit which happened to be in his son's pocket, and of 
 a bottle of porter which Colonel Tytler gave him. To be 
 ready for any emergency that might arise during the 
 night, he slept with his bridle on his arm, his horse stand- 
 ing ready saddled behind him. The bugler who had 
 accompanied him on horseback through the perils of the 
 battle, lay near him. He belonged to the 78th High- 
 landers, and an anecdote regarding him is not undeserv- 
 ing of remembrance amidst the events of the day: As the 
 enemy's first gun was fired, the General gave him his 
 watch to mark the time. The bugler noted the moment 
 before he put it into his pocket, and as the last shot was 
 sent after the retreating enemy, took the watch out again, 
 and coolly said, ' ' Two hours and forty-five minutes, Sir ! " 
 The men lay on the ground behind their piled muskets. 
 About midnight there was an alarm that the enemy were 
 advancing, and the whole line instantly stood to arms 
 without noise or confusion. It proved to be false, but the 
 instantaneous readiness of the men showed the admirable 
 state of discipline which the force had attained. 
 
 It has been remarked that the General ought to have 
 
 entered Cawnpore immediately after the action, 
 not entering instead of bivouacking two miles from it; but 
 o n f this was physically impossible, and it would have 
 
 been an act of indefensible temerity to have at- 
 
 
1857.] HIS ORDER OF THE DAY AFTER THE BATTLE. 311 
 
 tempted it. The battle did not terminate till after dark. The 
 loss during the day amounted to one-tenth of the force : 
 a large detachment had been left at Maharajpore to pro- 
 tect the baggage, which was repeatedly threatened by the 
 enemy's cavalry during the engagement : one whole regi- 
 ment and part of another was guarding the captured guns 
 far in the rear, some of the men had straggled, and others 
 were attending the wounded. From these various causes, 
 the number collected together at the halting ground did 
 not exceed 800. The enemy when last seen were massed 
 together, and their cavalry had been riding about in the 
 rear, sabring the wounded who fell in their way. The 
 men had marched twenty miles in the hottest day of the 
 hottest season of the year, and had been engaged for 
 nearly three hours in a severe action. Many had received 
 no sustenance for four and twenty hours beyond a biscuit 
 and some porter ; and the Fusiliers, young in the field, 
 and not so well accustomed to provident arrangements as 
 the two Persian regiments, had been without a meat meal 
 for more than double that period. The whole force was 
 in truth so completely " done up/' that it was impossible 
 for them to advance a step farther. Under these circum- 
 stances the General did not deem it prudent to peril the 
 safety of his men, in the narrow and intricate streets of a 
 military cantonment in a dark night. 
 
 The following is the Order of the day issued by the 
 General after the battle of Cawnpore : 
 
 " Cawnpore, won by Lord Lake in 1803, has been a happy and 
 peaceful place ever since, until the wretched ambition of a man 
 whose uncle's life was, by a too indulgent Government, 
 spared in 1817, filled it, in 1857, with rapine and S&?K? a 
 bloodshed. When, soldiers, your valour won the bat y tie n of he 
 bridge at the Pandoo nuddee, you were signing the Cawn P re - 
 death-warrant of the helpless women and children of your 
 comrades of the 32nd. They were murdered in cold blood by 
 the miscreant, Nana Sahib, whose troops fled in dismay at the 
 victorious shout of your line, on the evening of the memorable 
 16th. 
 
 " Soldiers ! your General is satisfied, and more than satisfied, 
 
312 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vn. 
 
 with you. He has never seen steadier or more devoted troops ; 
 hut your lahours are only "beginning. Between the 7th and the 
 16th you have, under the Indian sun of July, marched 126 miles, 
 and fought four actions. But your comrades at Lucknow are-%i 
 peril ; Agra is besieged ; Delhi is still the focus of mutiny and 
 rebellion. You must make great sacrifices if you would obtain 
 great results. Three cities have to be saved ; two strong places 
 to be deblockaded. Your General is confident that he can effect 
 all these things, and restore this part of India to tranquillity, if 
 you only second him with your efforts, and if your discipline is 
 equal to your valour. 
 
 " Highlanders, it was my earnest desire to afford you the op- 
 portunities of showing how your predecessors conquered at 
 Maida ; you have not degenerated. Assaye was not won by a 
 more silent, compact, and resolute charge, than was the village 
 near Jehajmow on the 16th instant. 
 
 " 64th, you have put to silence the jibes of your enemies 
 throughout India. Your fire was reserved till you saw the 
 colour of your enemy's mustachios this gave us the victory." 
 
 In his letter to Mrs Havelock on the subject of this 
 engagement, written at Cawnpore, he said : 
 
 " On the 1 6th I recaptured this place, defeating the usurper, 
 !N"ana Sahib, in a pitched battle, and taking all his guns. I lost a 
 The General's hundred men. I never saw so brave a youth as the 
 Si 0*0 the ^oy Harry ; he placed himself opposite the muzzle of 
 engagement a g un that was scattering death into the ranks of the 
 64th Queen's, and led on the regiment, under a shower of 
 grape, to its capture. This finished the fight. The grape was 
 deadly, but he, calm as if telling George stories about India. 
 Lawrence had died of his wounds. Mary Thornhill the 
 General's niece is in great peril at Lucknow. I am marching 
 to relieve it. Trust in God, and pray for us. All India is up in 
 arms against us, and everywhere around me things are looking 
 black. Thank God for his special mercies to me. "We are 
 campaigning in July." 
 
 To the compiler of this narrative, he wrote on the same 
 subject : 
 
 " I consider Cawnpore my best fight, not only on account of 
 its results, but because it was won, by God's blessing, non vi sed 
 
1857.] HIS LETTERS ON THE BATTLE OF CAWNPOBE. 313 
 
 arte. I had good information derived from my spies. The 
 enemy had established heavy batteries at the intersection of the 
 grand trunk road with the direct route to Cawnpore cantonment. 
 If I had attacked them in front I should have lost 300 men. 
 But pursuing the direct road from the village of Maharajpore 
 where I had halted, I diverged near Ahirka, and, like old Frede- 
 rick at Luthen, marched in open column across the country against 
 the rebel's left. Their surprise was great when they saw my force 
 steadily debouching in that direction. The manoeuvre compelled 
 them to withdraw their heavy guns to a new position, and place 
 them in reverse. Meanwhile I fell successfully on the several 
 villages in which they had artillery, and captured them. Their 
 force renewed the fight with increased numbers and fresh guns 
 for the defence of the cantonment, and my wearied troops were 
 at one time overtasked a little. But they moved steadily on, and 
 the mutineers dared not cross bayonets with them. Again there 
 was a lull, for our artillery had fallen far into the rear. The 
 enemy's reserve guns were telling severely on our soldiers, and 
 they had a long line. I saw that the longer the men looked at 
 it, the less they would like it. So I called them to spring to 
 their feet and advance. Harry wheeled his horse in the centre of 
 the leading regiment, right opposite to a 24-pounder, which 
 poured forth round-shot and then grape. On we went, the nig- 
 gers took to flight, and Cawnpore wa's ours. Our artillery came 
 up and completed the confusion by a fierce cannonade. I had 
 only a handful of Volunteer Cavalry, or few would have escaped 
 from that field. I bivouacked in good spirits, though without 
 dinner, my waterproof coat serving me for a couch on the damp 
 ground. 
 
 " So you see I am become my own trumpeter, in my old age." 
 
3H 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The third Cawnpore Massacre. Death, of Sir Henry Lawrence. Bithoor 
 evacuated by the Nana. Death of Captain Beatson. Intrenchment con- 
 structed at Cawnpore. The Force crosses the Ganges. Difficulties of the 
 Advance into Oude. Action at Onao at Busseerutgunge. The General 
 retires to Mungulwar. He is disappointed in Reinforcements. Mutiny of 
 the Dinapore Sepoys. The General's second Advance. Second Battle at 
 Busseerutgunge. The General constrained to retire a second time. Corre- 
 spondence with Sir Patrick Grant on the subject. The Goorkah Auxiliary 
 Force. Communication established between the two Banks. Action at 
 Boorhiya. The Troops recross the Ganges. Battle at Bithoor. Remarks 
 on the Campaign. Captain Havelock and the Victoria Cross. A Christian 
 Minister joins the Force. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after the force had bivouacked for the night, 
 
 spies were sent into Cawnpore to ascertain the position of 
 
 affairs. They returned before daybreak, with the 
 
 The troops , ., ~ , . ITT t. -i -, 
 
 enter Cawn- report that the insurgents had abandoned the 
 town and cantonment, and with the heart-rend- 
 ing intelligence that the women and children, for whose 
 rescue the troops had made such extraordinary efforts, 
 had been massacred. The General was not, however, 
 without his suspicions that the disappearance of the 
 enemy 's force might have been contrived to ensnare his 
 troops, and Colonel Tytler was sent forward with two 
 companies of the 84th and some horse to ascertain the 
 truth of the statement. He had advanced to a point 
 within a mile of the great magazine, at the western limit 
 of the cantonment, when there was a sudden concussion 
 resembling that of a violent earthquake, and a dense 
 cloud of smoke was seen to rise in the air, followed by a 
 deafening report, as if a hundred cannon had been dis- 
 charged simultaneously by an electric current. It was 
 the explosion of the magazine, blown up by a body of 
 the enemy's horse, who had been left behind for this 
 
3857.] THIED CAWNPORE MASSACRE. 315 
 
 object, and who galloped off immediately after they had 
 fired the train. Colonel Tytler returned to the General 
 and announced that the rebels had entirely evacuated the 
 town, and that the mournful report brought by the spies 
 of the slaughter of the captives was too strongly corrobor- 
 ated by his inquiries. The troops now advanced to the 
 Sevada plain east of Cawnpore. Some of them hastened 
 to Wheeler's encampment, and to the building The tMrd 
 where the women and children had been confined, cawnpore 
 and were struck with horror at the sight which 
 met their eyes. The pavement was swimming in blood, 
 and fragments of ladies' and children's dresses were float- 
 ing on it. They entered the apartments, and found them 
 empty and silent, but there also the blood lay deep on the 
 floor, covered with bonnets, collars, combs, and children's 
 frocks and frills. The walls were dotted with the marks 
 of bullets, and on the wooden pillars were deep sword 
 cuts, from some of which hung tresses of hair. But neither 
 the sabre-cuts nor the dents of the bullets were sufficiently 
 high above the floor to indicate that the weapons had been 
 aimed at men defending their lives ; they appeared rather 
 to have been levelled at crouching women and children 
 begging for mercy. The soldiers proceeded in their 
 search, when, in crossing the court-yard, they perceived 
 human limbs bristling from a well, and, on further ex- 
 amination, found it to be choked up with the bodies of 
 the victims, which appeared to have been thrown in pro- 
 miscuously, the dead with the wounded, till it was full to 
 the brim. The feelings of those who witnessed this 
 spectacle it is easy to conceive, but impossible to describe. 
 Men of iron nerve, who, during the march from Allahabad, 
 had rushed to the cannon's mouth without flinching, and 
 had seen unappalled their comrades mowed down around 
 them, now " lifted up their voices and wept." But the 
 feeling of anguish which this sight created in their breasts 
 soon gave place to sterner thoughts, and a burning desire 
 was kindled in their minds to avenge these foul murders 
 on their inhuman authors. It is related that the High- 
 landers, on coming to a body which had been barbarously 
 
316 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 exposed, and which was supposed to be that of Sir Hugh 
 Wheeler's daughter, cut off the tresses, and reserving a 
 portion to be sent to their own families, sat down an 
 counted the remainder, and swore that for every hair one 
 of the rebels should die. 
 
 It was ascertained on further inquiry that when intelli- 
 gence reached Cawnpore of the second defeat of the 
 insurgents on the 15th of July, and the forcing of the 
 Pandoo-nuddee, and, also, of the steady and irresistible 
 advance of the British force, the Nana and his adherents 
 were filled with the deepest consternation. In a hurried 
 council which was held, various plans of action, all dic- 
 tated by terror, were discussed by the men who now felt 
 that the hour of retribution was approaching. The Nana, 
 actuated by a feeling of revenge for the defeat of his army, 
 resolved to wreak his vengeance on the helpless women 
 and children in his power. The Cawnpore rebels were 
 equally anxious to remove out of the way all who could 
 identify the perpetrators of previous atrocities, and it was 
 determined to put the defenceless prisoners to death. An 
 order was sent to % the Sepoys on guard to butcher them, 
 but they refused to carry it into execution, though they 
 are said to have fired one random volley on them. The 
 men of the Nana's guard were then sent down, and they 
 massacred in cold blood two hundred and twelve unresist- 
 ing women and children. In the annals of human guilt, 
 there is no blacker page than that in which the atrocious 
 murders of Cawnpore are inscribed. And it can be no 
 matter of surprise that those feelings of goodwill towards 
 the natives, which a long period of kindly intercourse had 
 created in the minds of their European masters, should 
 have given place to feelings of mistrust and even detesta- 
 tion after the deliberate perpetration of such crimes. A 
 century will scarcely suffice to restore that confidence in 
 the native character which the atrocities committed during 
 the mutiny at various stations, and more especially at 
 Cawnpore, have so completely obliterated. 
 
 The General had no sooner arrived at Cawnpore than 
 he received intelligence of the death of Sir Henry Law- 
 
1857.] DEATH OF SIR HENRY LAWRENCE. 317 
 
 rence. Their acquaintance had commenced six- 
 
 -,n 'iiii T i Death of bir 
 
 teen years before, amidst the embarrassments in Henry Law- 
 Affghanistan, and it had gradually ripened into 
 a sacred friendship, under the influence of that mutual 
 appreciation and esteem by which great minds are at- 
 tracted to each other. The one was more distinguished as 
 a soldier, the other, as a statesman ; both were equally 
 conspicuous for generosity of disposition, a lofty and 
 disinterested public spirit, and a high tone of religious 
 character. After the death of Broadfoot, there was no 
 one, beyond the circle of his own family, in whom the 
 General reposed such entire confidence, or to whom he 
 could so unreservedly unbosom himself, as Henry Law- 
 rence. The last letter which the General wrote to his 
 friend was dated from Allahabad the 6th of July : ' ' I 
 march towards Cawnpore to-morrow with a thousand 
 Europeans and six guns, and if safely united to Major 
 Renaud's force, shall muster about 1 500 Europeans and 
 eight guns. With these I am ready to fight a battle to 
 relieve Cawnpore, and, holding that place with a detach- 
 ment, to march to your aid." He little thought at the 
 time that the friend whom he was addressing and to 
 whose succour he was hastening was already in his grave. 
 Sir Henry Lawrence was struck on the morning of the 2nd 
 of July, while seated in his room, by the fragment of a 
 shell from the howitzer which had been lost at Chinhut. 
 It soon became apparent that the wound was likely to 
 prove mortal, and Sir Henry immediately called together 
 the chief officers of the garrison, and, in the most calm 
 and collected manner, dictated a series of instructions on 
 every point connected with the defence of the Residency, 
 and delegated the command to Major Banks and a military 
 council. In this remarkable document he likewise directed 
 that no inscription should be placed on his tomb but this : 
 " Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. 
 May God have mercy on him/'' Seldom has a nobler 
 sentiment been uttered by a statesman and a soldier in 
 the prospect of dissolution. Great as Sir Henry had 
 shown himself in all the arduous and responsible positions 
 
318 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vui. 
 
 lie occupied during life, lie was still greater in his last 
 moments, as lie lay on the couch of death, writhing with 
 pain, yet thinking only of the perils of those he was abou^ 
 to leave, and labouring to provide for their safety. He* 
 lingered for two days, and expired on the morning of the 
 4th of July. The death of his bosom friend deeply 
 affected the mind of the General. He had hastened on by 
 forced marches, in the hope of being able to advance 
 promptly to the relief of the garrison of Lucknow, and 
 grievously was the exultation of his triumphant entry 
 into Cawnpore damped by the intelligence that Sir Henry 
 Lawrence was no more. 
 
 The troops entered Cawnpore on the morning of the 
 1 7th, and the men were sheltered in the stables of the 2nd 
 f Cavalry, till the tents could come up from Maha- 
 th? mh m of rajpore. The Genera? s first care was to visit the 
 sick and wounded many of whom were suffering 
 from fearful mutilations and consequent amputations to 
 attend to the supply of their wants, and to speak words 
 of consolation to the brave men who had fought three 
 actions in thirty-six hours. Standing beside the litter of 
 a soldier of the 64th, whose thigh had been awfully shat- 
 tered, and whose recovery the surgeon mournfully pro- 
 nounced to be hopeless, he said aloud, in that tone which 
 had so often animated his men in the heat of battle, ' ' He 
 will recover, doctor, he has a heart in that chest," point- 
 ing to the sufferers stalwart frame, " as big as a cart- 
 wheel ; that will yet carry him through/-* The evening 
 of the 17th brought with it a general depression of spirits, 
 now that repose had succeeded the over-strained exertions 
 of the last four days. The hearts of the men were op- 
 pressed with the remembrance of that well of horrors. 
 Their thoughts reverted to the officers and the dear com- 
 rades struck down by their side, whose faces they should 
 never see more. A deep silence pervaded the encamp- 
 ment, except when it was broken by the melancholy 
 sounds of the Highland pipes, as the burying parties con- 
 veyed the bodies of those who had fallen by the sword, 
 or by cholera, to their last home. It was, moreover, re- 
 
1857.] VOLUNTEER CAVALRY KE- ORGANIZED. 319 
 
 ported in the town that the Nana had established himself 
 at Bithoor, with forty-five guns and 5000 men. The an- 
 nouncement was sufficient to appal the stoutest heart, for 
 the little force had been fearfully reduced in numbers by 
 the casualties of the field, by sun- stroke, and disease. 
 The General deemed it impossible, with the light artillery 
 of the column, to make any impression on a position such 
 as Bithoor had probably been converted into, when 
 strengthened by the resources of the Cawnpore magazine, 
 with its hundred guns. As he sat at dinner with his son, 
 on the evening of the 1 7th, his mind appeared for the first 
 and the last time to be affected with gloomy forebodings 
 of the possible annihilation of his brave men in a fruitless 
 attempt to accomplish what was beyond their strength. 
 After musing long in deep thought, his strong sense of 
 duty, and his confidence in the justice of the cause, re- 
 stored the buoyancy of his spirits, and he exclaimed, " If 
 the worst comes to the worst, we can but die with our 
 swords in our hands ." 
 
 The Nana's movements were at this time unknown, but 
 it appeared not improbable that, with the strong force he 
 was reported to possess, he might make an at- R e0 rganiza- 
 tempt to regain Cawnpore ; the General, there- vohmteer the 
 fore, marched his troops, on the morning of the Cavalr y- 
 1 8th of July, to the civil station of Nawaubgunge, to the 
 west of Cawnpore, where he took up a position which 
 might defy all the attacks of the enemy. It interposed 
 between Bithoor and Cawnpore, covering the city and its 
 resources in its rear, with the Ganges on its right and the 
 canal on its left, while a network of ravines in front ex- 
 tended down to the river. On the 15th he had directed 
 the officers commanding the infantry detachments to 
 select a hundred of their men, who appeared to be best 
 suited for cavalry. He now inspected them in person, 
 and made choice of forty-one, to whom the horses of the 
 Irregular Horse were made over, and his cavalry was thus 
 raised to sixty. When the whole body was drawn up on 
 parade, the General complimented those who had accom- 
 panied him from Allahabad on the noble spirit they had 
 
320 MEMOIRS OF SIE HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. viil. 
 
 exhibited in the field, and more particularly on the bril- 
 liant charge they had made in the battle of Cawnpore ; 
 and he held out to the emulation of those now joiningat 
 the example of the Agra Volunteer Horse, whose gallant 
 conduct in recapturing the guns of the revolted Kotah 
 Contingent had just been announced from that station. 
 
 The General was, moreover, determined that the tend- 
 ency to dysentery and cholera, which had appeared in 
 He buys up the camp, should not be aggravated by intemper- 
 iSdapiiTtefn aiice, to which the town of Cawnpore presented 
 Cawnpore. no ordinary temptation, filled as it was with the 
 plunder of the European shops, and of large private 
 stores of beer and spirits. He issued orders, therefore, 
 to the commissariat officer to buy up, without any 
 delay, all the wine, beer, spirits, and liquor of every de- 
 scription which could be found in the town. In the tele- 
 gram which announced this order to Sir Patrick Grant, 
 he said : " It will thus be guarded by a few men. If it 
 remained in Cawnpore it would require half my force to 
 keep it from being drunk up by the other half, and I 
 should scarcely have a sober soldier in camp/' During 
 the morning of the 18th two messengers came in with 
 letters from Delhi, the first the General had received from 
 the north-west since he left Calcutta. From them he 
 learned that the city had not fallen, that Sir Henry Bar- 
 nard had died, and that General Reid, who succeeded him, 
 had been obliged, from ill-health, to relinquish the com- 
 mand, which had thus devolved on General Wilson ; that 
 little progress had been made in the siege, and that he 
 must dismiss all hope of receiving any reinforcement from 
 that quarter. He likewise received letters from Agra, 
 announcing the disastrous result of the sortie made by 
 Brigadier Polwhele on the 6th of July. 
 
 But these depressing tidings were counterbalanced by 
 the reports brought in at night by the spies whom the 
 Bithooraban General ^ a< ^ sent * Bithoor immediately on 
 donedbythe taking up hi s position at Nawaubgunge. They 
 stated that the defeat of the Nana in the battle 
 of Cawnpore had completely broken up his army. The 
 
1857.] DEATH OF CAPT. BEATSON. 321 
 
 panic-stricken Sepoys deserted his standard in crowds, 
 and hastened across the river, and the Nana himself fled 
 from the field on a swift elephant, with a few followers 
 who still adhered to him, and hastened to take refuge in 
 Oude. Bithoor was evacuated. The son of the Peishwa's 
 old general, Narayun Rao, who had been placed in con- 
 finement by Nana Sahib, had regained his liberty on the 
 flight of his oppressor, and now sent messengers with the 
 spies to make his submission to the General, and to invite 
 him to take possession of the town. On receiving this 
 intelligence, the General directed Major Stephenson to 
 proceed thither on the morning of the 19th, with his 
 Madras Fusiliers, the Sikhs, and the newly organized 
 cavalry, with two guns. He found the town abandoned 
 by the enemy, with every appearance of haste. The 
 Nana's palace was filled with the plunder of the canton- 
 ment and civil station of Cawnpore wearing apparel, 
 kid gloves, portmanteaus, books with the names of the 
 owners, and champagne and domestic stores of every de- 
 scription ; but neither the treasure which he had appro- 
 priated to his own use from the plunder of the Cawnpore 
 treasury, nor his personal jewels, were to be found; they 
 had been thrown into wells, and were not discovered till 
 several months afterwards. Major Stephenson burnt 
 down the palace, blew up the magazine, and returned to 
 Cawnpore with twenty guns of various size and calibre. 
 
 On the morning of the 1 9th of July the little force had 
 to deplore the loss of one of its most valuable officers, 
 Captain Beatson, the Deputy- Assistant Adjutant- Death of Cap . 
 General. His exertions in the action of the 16th tain " Beatsou - 
 aggravated his complaint, and he expired three days 
 after ; as gallant and noble a soldier as any recorded in 
 the annals of the Indian army. It was only a month 
 before his death that he returned to Calcutta from the 
 Persian Gulf, when deprived of the hope of distinction by 
 the sudden termination of the war, and heard of the 
 mutiny of a wing of his regiment. In the hope of ob- 
 taining an opportunity of field service at this period of 
 action, he lost no time in addressing his friend, Captain 
 
 21 
 
322 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 George Delane, in command of the Governor-General's 
 body-guard. The letter is interesting as an indication of 
 his zeal and energy. ^ 
 
 " My dear Georgius, I shall soon have no regiment, as the 
 other wing is sure to go- What then is to be done 1 No troop, 
 no appointment, no employment. What is Havelock's army 
 going to do when is he going up of what is it to be composed ? 
 Are there any appointments vacant in it? Does he want a 
 Deputy Adjutant-General, or an extra aide-de-camp, or a Deputy 
 Judge- Advocate- General 1 I want something to do, and if some- 
 thing does not oifer within forty-eight hours, I sball get up to 
 Allahabad, the best way I can, and serve as a volunteer with any 
 other fellows I can get to join me." 
 
 Captain Delane sent the letter to the General, who 
 though personally unacquainted with Captain Beatson, 
 was no stranger to the high character he bore in the army 
 as an able as well as a gallant officer and an accomplished 
 scholar. It was just such spirits as Stuart Beatson, with 
 a combination of military ardour and professional experi- 
 ence that the General required for his daring enterprise, 
 and he immediately nominated him to the head of his 
 Adjutant- General's department, an appointment which 
 the judgment and gallantry exhibited during his brief 
 career with the force more than justified. In his despatch 
 after the battle of Cawnpore, the General thus refers to 
 his loss. After recording that "Lieut. -Colonel Tytler's 
 zeal and gallantry had been beyond all praise,'' he says, 
 " It was my desire to have offered my thanks in like terms 
 to Captain Beatsou, Deputy-Assistant Adjutant- General, 
 but I can now only record my opinion over his grave. He 
 was attacked by cholera on the morning of the fight, and 
 though he did his duty throughout it and bivouacked with 
 the troops, he sunk in three days under the violence of 
 the disorder." 
 
 The General now found it necessary to adopt the most 
 stringent measures to check the spirit of plun- 
 
 Provost-Mar- -. 'A . . -j-i Tfr> il i 
 
 shai ap- der. A victorious army can with dimculty be 
 
 prevent piun- restrained from the licence of depredation; but 
 
 in the present instance the spoliation of the 
 
1857.] HIS EFFORTS TO PREVENT PLUNDER. 323 
 
 natives assumed a meritorious character in the eyes of the 
 European troops. They were exasperated beyond bounds 
 by the perfidious and brutal massacre of their fellow- 
 countrymen and women, and they considered the plunder 
 of the town in which these atrocities had been perpetrated 
 an act of righteous retribution ; but the General was de- 
 termined to subdue this propensity, not only among his 
 European troops, but more especially among the Sikh 
 soldiers, the most adroit and inveterate plunderers in 
 India. He appointed Lieut. Morland, of the 1st Fusiliers, 
 Provost-Marshal, with full powers to inflict the penalty of 
 death on any soldier, European or native, who might be 
 detected in plundering. But the licence was not so easily 
 bridled, and the General was obliged to reiterate the 
 order in sterner language. "The marauding in this 
 camp exceeds the disorders which supervened on the 
 short-lived triumph of the miscreant Nana Sahib. A 
 Provost-Marshal has been appointed, with special instruc- 
 tions to hang up, in their uniform, all British soldiers that 
 plunder. This shall not be an idle threat. Commanding 
 officers have received the most distinct warning on the 
 subject/' 
 
 General Neill arrived at Cawnpore, from Allahabad, on 
 the 20th of July, but was unable to bring with him any 
 larger reinforcement than that of 227 men. The 
 General was impatient to hasten to the relief of thedeSeof 
 Lucknow, but he felt that to leave Cawnpore 
 before he had made adequate provision for its defence 
 would be an act of signal imprudence, and involve the 
 most serious risk to his own operations. At the distance 
 of seventy miles, the Nawaub of Futtyghur, after having 
 massacred all the Europeans, men, women, and children, 
 within his reach, had raised the standard of revolt, and 
 assembled under it two regiments of native infantry, some 
 of the revolted Oude troops, and a rabble of armed fol- 
 lowers. Before the revolt, Futtyghur was the great mili- 
 tary workshop of the north-west provinces, filled with 
 large establishments for the manufacture more particularly 
 of gun-carriages, and for the supply of clothing; and from 
 
824 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 these stores the Nawaub was enabled to furnish himself 
 amply with munitions of war of every description. Nana 
 Sahib, moreover, was across the Ganges at Futtehpore 
 Chourassee, where he was endeavouring to reassemble~his 
 scattered troops. Though he was not likely again to try 
 conclusions with the General in the field, he might take 
 advantage of his absence and endeavour to regain posses- 
 sion of Cawnpore. On the opposite bank of the river the 
 district of Oude teemed with a martial and a hostile popu- 
 lation. The General apprehended that if Cawnpore, thus 
 exposed to danger on various sides, were left without the 
 means of defence, it might again fall into the hands of the 
 insurgents, in which case, his communication with Allaha- 
 bad and the lower provinces would be cut off, and his 
 return across the river, if it should become necessary, very 
 seriously impeded. 
 
 The General was unable to spare more than 300 men 
 for the defence of Cawnpore, and he resolved, therefore, 
 construction * construct a field-work, which, with even so 
 trenchment small a garrison, might bid defiance to any hostile 
 at Cawnpore. a ttack, as well as guard the passage of the river. 
 Happily a spot was found admirably adapted for both 
 these objects. At a little distance from the common ferry 
 there was an elevated plateau, about two hundred yards 
 in length and a hundred in breadth, situated on the bank 
 of the river, and likewise sufficiently raised to command 
 the surrounding country. At the distance of about five 
 hundred yards from it there was an island in the river, 
 partly submerged at this season of the year. Between it 
 and the Oude bank lay two smaller islands of alluvial 
 land, thrown up by the action of the river, but covered 
 with water two or three feet deep, and visible only from 
 the reeds which sprung up on them. The General was of 
 opinion that these islands might be turned to good account, 
 if he was obliged to recross the river, while the in trench- 
 ment on the right bank would effectually cover that oper- 
 ation. On this mound, accordingly, a field-work, capable 
 of accommodating, and also of being defended by, 300 
 men, was commenced on the 19th, and pushed on with 
 
1857.] DIFFICULTY OF CKOSSING THE GANGES. 325 
 
 extraordinary vigour. Native labourers, to the number of 
 3000 or 4000, were engaged from the town, and their 
 punctual services secured by the order which the General 
 enforced, that they should be regularly paid every evening. 
 Those among the European soldiers who possessed any 
 mechanical skill were sent to their assistance, and en- 
 couraged by a gratuity of sixpence a day. The Irregular 
 Cavalry, who had been disarmed for their disaffection on 
 the line of march, were likewise set to work on the in- 
 trenchment. The progress which had been effected by 
 the evening of the 20th was sufficient to satisfy the General 
 that by the time the troops, stores, and baggage had been 
 crossed into Oude, the field-work would be strong enough 
 to protect itself. He determined, therefore, to send over 
 the first detachment the next morning. 
 
 The passage of the Ganges was a most difficult and 
 hazardous undertaking. It was upwards of 1600 yards 
 wide, and at this season swelled by the rains to 
 
 . -, -, . A -M ji Difficulty of 
 
 a rapid and impetuous torrent. Ail the means crossing the 
 and appliances which would ordinarily have been 
 available for this operation, at a large military station like 
 Cawnpore, were now wanting. The bridge of boats 
 established by our Government, which was entire on the 
 3rd of June, was broken up by the rebels after the com- 
 mencement of the mutiny, and the materials were scat- 
 tered. AlHhe ferry-boats had likewise been destroyed or 
 removed. Fortunately, the little steamer, the "Berham- 
 pooter," which had been sent up with a hundred of the 
 Madras Fusiliers, under Captain Spurgin, to co-operate 
 with the land column, had reached the station, and was 
 now employed up and down the river in endeavouring to 
 collect boats. Not more than twenty, however, could be 
 obtained where they were formerly counted by hundreds ; 
 and the boatmen, who had been actively engaged in aid- 
 ing the mutineers, were prompted to conceal themselves 
 from the dread of punishment. To have committed the 
 management of the boats to inexperienced peasants, on a 
 broad river running like a sluice, would have been to ex- 
 pose them and their precious freight to the risk of de- 
 
326 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 struction. After considerable difficulty a small number of 
 the old boatmen were collected, and induced to accept 
 service on the tacit understanding that their past sais- 
 conduct would be overlooked. To secure their services 
 they were embodied as a corps, upon fixed pay. 
 
 Soon after midnight of the 20th of July rain began to 
 pour, and continued without intermission for the next 
 crossing of three days. It had been arranged that the 
 the troops. Highlanders should cross at daybreak, and the 
 General was so anxious to obviate every obstruction, that 
 he determined to superintend their embarkation himself. 
 Leaving General Neill in charge of the encampment, he 
 rode down to the ferry, a distance of four miles, in a 
 deluge of rain, at one in the morning, and did not return 
 till he had seen the troops and three guns safely across. 
 Owing to the small number of boats available, the detach- 
 ment was weak, too weak to furnish a baggage guard, 
 and it was thought imprudent to hamper it with tents. 
 Indeed, the enterprise of crossing the river with so weak 
 a force, into a province filled with a hostile and armed 
 population, was one of the boldest movements of the 
 General during this campaign. For aught he knew, there 
 might be an insurgent army hovering about the bank, and 
 the little force might at any moment be attacked by over- 
 whelming numbers ; he therefore gave the officer in com- 
 mand of the detachment the most precise instructions for 
 his guidance under any emergency that might arise. The 
 spot at which the Highlanders landed was a swamp imme- 
 diately under a ridge of low sand hills, and they crept for 
 shelter from the rain into some fishermen's huts. The 
 second detachment was not landed before the evening of 
 the 21st. During the operation the steamer was found 
 to be so deficient in power, and so unmanageable in the 
 impetuous current of the Ganges, that it became neces- 
 sary to dispense with her services, and to depend entirely 
 on the boats, though they were generally eight hours in 
 accomplishing the trip. The 84th and three additional 
 guns were sent across on the 22nd. The Madras Fusiliers, 
 
1857.] THE GANGES CROSSED. 327 
 
 being armed with the Enfield rifle, had been employed as 
 skirmishers, and had thus borne the brunt of fatigue in. 
 the four preceding actions ; it was, therefore, deemed ad- 
 visable to afford them as much rest as possible to recruit 
 their strength, and they were accordingly sent over with 
 the last detachment. While the troops were thus engaged 
 in crossing the river in successive parties, the works at 
 the intrenchment were pushed on with the utmost speed. 
 In it were deposited the guns and stores which had been 
 dug out of the ruins of the magazine, as well as the com- 
 missariat supplies which the town and the country around 
 had furnished. On the 25th the General visited it for the 
 last time, and feeling confident that it was sufficiently ad- 
 vanced to resist any attack, crossed the river himself, and 
 joined the force on the Oude bank. The next morning 
 he marched the troops, among whom the cholera was be- 
 ginning to make great havoc, to a more healthy position, 
 three miles in advance. Meanwhile, Colonel Tytler, aided 
 by Lieut, Moorsom, who had been appointed by the 
 General to act as deputy Quarter-master- General, was 
 employed on the right bank night and day, sometimes 
 under a broiling sun, and then in a drenching rain, in 
 superintending the transport of the stores and the materiel. 
 At length, after a week of incredible difficulties, overcome 
 only by the indomitable energy and perseverance of that 
 officer, the whole of the force and the munitions of war 
 were assembled on the Oude bank, prepared to advance 
 to Lucknow. Some of the General's staff were anxious 
 that General Neill should accompany the column, to take 
 his place if he were disabled by any casualty; but, after 
 carefully weighing the importance of the position at 
 Cawnpore, the necessity of receiving, equipping, and for- 
 warding reinforcements, and completing the establishment 
 of a communication across the river, and, generally, of 
 maintaining our authority on the right bank of the Ganges, 
 he determined to leave General Neill in charge of the in- 
 trenchment, with the sick and wounded, there being no 
 other officer to whom he could intrust these responsibilities 
 
328 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 with equal confidence. Lieut. Moorsom was at the same 
 time directed to construct a road, or rather causeway, 
 across the islands. 
 
 The enterprise on which the General now entered was 
 one of no common difficulty, and, but for the great object 
 Difficulties of Before n i m j> that of rescuing the beleaguered gar- 
 tne advance rison from destruction, must have appeared rash 
 
 into Oude. . -v-r i '* - M* i 
 
 even to presumption. JNo one but an oincer who 
 combined military genius with inflexible resolution and 
 the strongest self-reliance, would have ventured on such 
 an expedition. But however inadequate his force might 
 be to the magnitude of the object, the men had unbounded 
 confidence in the General, notwithstanding, perhaps even 
 in consequence of, his iron discipline ; and he had perfect 
 confidence in men whose valour, energy, and spirit of en- 
 durance had been demonstrated in their arduous march to 
 Cawnpore, and four severe engagements with the enemy. 
 The following letter will show that the General himself 
 was not unconscious of the difficulties before him. It was 
 written on the 28th of July, in reply to a telegram, in 
 which Sir Patrick Grant had inquired whether the risk 
 he incurred in leaving a large and rapid river in his rear, 
 with the most imperfect means of crossing it, was not 
 too much for him to attempt : 
 
 "In reply to your Excellency's telegram of the 26th, I beg to 
 state that I should consider it certain that I must incur the risk 
 of serious loss in an attempt to recross the Ganges to Cawnpore, 
 even supposing that I had been reinforced by the remnant of the 
 garrison of Lucknow. The chances of relieving that place are at 
 the same time hourly multiplying against us. I will not now 
 enter into all the details, but specify only that Nana Sahib has 
 succeeded in collecting 3000 men and several guns, and is on our 
 left flank at Futtehpore Chourassee, with the avowed intention 
 of cutting in upon our rear, when we advance towards Lucknow. 
 The difficulties of an advance to that capital are excessive. The 
 enemy has intrenched and covered with guns the bridge across 
 the Sye at Bunnee. and has made preparations for destroying it 
 if the bridge is forced. I have no means of crossing the canal 
 near Lucknow, even if successful at Bunnee. A direct attack at 
 
1867.] BATTLE OF ONAO. 329 
 
 Bunnee might cost me a third of my force. I might turn it by 
 Mohan, unless the bridge there also were destroyed. I have this 
 morning received a plan of Lucknow from Major Anderson, 
 engineer in that garrison, and much valuable information in two 
 memoranda, which escaped the enemy's outpost troops, and were 
 partly written in Greek character. These communications, and 
 much information orally derived from spies, convince me of the 
 extreme delicacy and difficulty of any operation to relieve Colonel 
 Inglis, now commanding in Lucknow. It shall be attempted, 
 however, at every risk, and the result faithfully reported. Our 
 losses from cholera are becoming serious, and extend to General 
 Neill's force, as well as my own. I earnestly hope that the 5th 
 and the 90th can be pushed on to me entire, and with all de- 
 spatch, and every disposable detachment of the regiments now 
 under my command be sent on. My whole force only amounts 
 to 1500 men, of whom 1200 are British, and ten guns imperfectly 
 equipped and manned. I am very thankful for your Excellency's 
 kind interposition at the Horse Guards regarding my promotion 
 to Major-General." 
 
 The whole force was assembled at Mungulwar on the 
 28th. This village is situated six miles from the river, on 
 a ridge extending five miles, and elevated about Battle of 
 200 feet above the surrounding country. It was Onaa 
 a position of great strength, where our little force might 
 have defied all the armies of Oude. The column started 
 at daybreak on the morning of the 29th, and advanced to 
 the town of Onao, a distance of about three miles, and 
 seldom had the General been so staggered by any diffi- 
 culty as by that which now presented itself to his view. 
 In his despatch, he has thus described the enemy's po- 
 sition : " His right was protected by a swamp which 
 could neither be forced nor turned; his advance was 
 drawn up in a garden enclosure, which in this warlike 
 district had purposely or accidentally assumed the form 
 of a bastion. The rest of his [advance] force was posted 
 in and behind a village, the houses of which were loop- 
 holed. The passage between the village and the town of 
 Onao is narrow. The town itself extended three-quarters 
 of a mile to our right. The flooded state of the country 
 precluded the possibility of turning in this direction. The 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 swamp shut us in on the left. Thus an attack in front 
 became unavoidable. It was commenced by the 78th 
 Highlanders and 1st Fusiliers, with two guns, and so.n 
 became exceedingly warm. The enemy were driven oufc 
 of the bastioned enclosure; but when our troops ap- 
 proached the village, a destructive fire was opened upon 
 them from the loopholed houses. It became necessary to 
 bring up the 64th, under Colonel Wilson, K.H. Here 
 some daring feats of bravery were performed. . . . The 
 village was set on fire ; still its defenders resisted obsti- 
 nately. Finally, the guns were captured, and the whole 
 force was enabled to debouch between the village and the 
 town of Onao." Meanwhile, the main body of the enemy, 
 with a numerous artillery, was hastening forward to oc- 
 cupy Onao. It became evident to the General that unless 
 he could establish his force beyond the town, before the 
 enemy entered it, he should run every risk of being 
 arrested on his first day's march. His troops pushed 
 forward and gained a space of dry ground, about half a 
 mile in extent ; besides this spot and the high-road, the 
 eye could discern nothing but swamps for miles around. 
 It was to the occupation of this position, on the Lucknow 
 side of the town, before the enemy could reach it, that the 
 success of this action was to be attributed. The General 
 drew up his force in line, with four guns in the centre 
 and two on each wing, all bearing on the high-road in 
 front, by which the insurgents were rapidly rushing down 
 in great confusion. He had invariably acted on the 
 maxim, that when the enemy are committing an error, it 
 is an act of folly to arrest their progress. Our fire was, 
 therefore, reserved till they halted in front of the line, and 
 began the action. Our artillery was admirably served, 
 and tore through the dense column of the enemy's in- 
 fantry and guns massed on the narrow road. They now 
 perceived their error, and endeavoured to correct it by 
 deploying their force ; but the impracticable marshes on 
 either side engulfed their cannon as soon as they were 
 drawn off the road. Our Enfield rifles were rapidly empty- 
 ing the saddles of the enemy's cavalry; the artillery kept 
 
1857.] BATTLE OF BUSSEERUTGUNGE. 331 
 
 up an incessant fire on their infantry, and they began to 
 retreat in great haste. To allow them no time to recover 
 themselves, two guns were pushed forward, and the skir- 
 mishers, wading up to the knee and sometimes to the 
 waist, on both sides of the road, completed their discom- 
 fiture. Their artillerymen, however, stood to their guns 
 to the last. This was the first occasion on which our 
 troops had come in contact with the artillery of the Oude 
 force, now in rebellion, and the high opinion which 
 General Anson had expressed of their efficiency when he 
 reviewed them the previous year at Lucknow was fully 
 justified. After the annexation, no effort had been spared 
 by the government of the province to bring this artillery 
 to a state of the highest efficiency, and some of the ablest 
 of our artillery officers had been employed in giving in- 
 struction to the gunners of three batteries attached to the 
 " Oude Irregular Force," as it was termed, who now 
 turned against us, and afforded us an opportunity of test- 
 ing the excellence they had attained under this tuition. 
 Fifteen guns were captured in the action at Onao, but 
 they were necessarily destroyed, there being no carriage 
 for their conveyance. The loss of the rebels was com- 
 puted at 300. 
 
 After pursuing the enemy for some distance, the troops 
 halted for three hours and partook of a meal. The bugle 
 then sounded again, and they fell into their ranks, Battje rf 
 and marched forward about six miles, to Bussee- Busseerut- 
 rutgunge, a place which has been rendered 
 memorable in this campaign as the scene of three actions. 
 It was a walled town, intersected by the high-road to 
 Lucknow. In the rear of it lay a jheel, or sheet of water, 
 about 1 50 yards in width, and six or seven feet deep, over 
 which the road was carried by a causeway. The main 
 gate, at the hither entrance of the town, was defended by 
 an earthwork, a trench, and four guns, and flanked on 
 each side by turrets, which were loopholed, as were also 
 the walls. The gate was likewise completely covered by 
 a large building within the town. It was a formidable 
 position, and it became manifest to the General that an 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 attempt to assail it in front, unsupported by a flank move- 
 ment, would entail a serious loss of life. He, therefore, 
 directed the 64th to march round the town on his left, an 
 endeavour to interpose itself between the farther gate and" 
 the causeway. Three guns, posted on the high-road, were 
 now brought to bear on the earthwork and the gateway 
 in front, while a converging fire was directed on the same 
 point from the other guns on the right and left. It was 
 arranged that as soon as our guns appeared to tell on the 
 enemy's defences, and the 64th had reached a point on a 
 line with the town, the 78th Highlanders and the Madras 
 Fusiliers, always companions in these actions, should en- 
 deavour to storm the gateway, while the 84th and the 
 Sikhs stood ready to support either the storming or the 
 turning party, as occasion might require. As the High- 
 landers and Fusiliers advanced, the enemy's' guns sent 
 repeated and heavy discharges into their ranks, and they 
 were ordered to lie down, while our cannon again plied 
 the defences with energy. The enemy's fire appeared 
 now to slacken, and the two corps, having received the 
 order to rise, sprang to their feet, and with a shout which 
 struck terror into the rebels, cleared the trench and rushed 
 in at the gate. 
 
 The enemy, bewildered by the impetuosity of the 
 charge and the flank movement of the 64th, became 
 utterly disheartened, abandoned their guns, and fled in 
 confusion through the town, and over the causeway, hotly 
 pursued by the victors. If the 64th had continued to 
 advance, as the General had expected, the loss inflicted 
 on the enemy during their retreat would have been more 
 signal. But that regiment was annoyed by a fire from 
 the walls, and paused to return it; and, acting under 
 some mistake regarding fresh instructions, failed to reach 
 its appointed destination. The General sent his aide-de- 
 camp at full gallop to hasten its advance, but the oppor- 
 tunity was lost, and could not be recovered. With the 
 exception of three hours given to rest and refreshment, 
 the troops had now been incessantly engaged in marching 
 and fighting from sunrise to sunset ; the night was closing 
 
1857.] HIS ORDER AFTER THE TWO VICTORIES. 333 
 
 in, and the General did not deem it prudent to allow them 
 to proceed in pursuit of the enemy over the causeway, 
 though he himself rode to a considerable distance in ad- 
 vance, in search of a position for his advanced cavalry 
 post. As he returned to the causeway, the weary soldiers 
 who were grouped on it, leaning on their arms, suddenly 
 caught a glimpse of him, and in an instant there was an 
 enthusiastic shout through their ranks, " Clear the way 
 for the General ! " A bright smile stole over the stern 
 features of the old chief, as he exclaimed, ' ' You have done 
 that well already, men." This unexpected compliment 
 electrified the troops, and as his form gradually disap- 
 peared, " God bless the General ! " burst from a hundred 
 lips. This was the second instance, during the campaign, 
 of two actions and two victories on the same day. The 
 troops bivouacked for the night between the jheel and 
 the town. On retiring to his tent, the General penned 
 the following Order of the day, which was issued the next 
 morning : 
 
 " Soldiers, your General thanks you for your exertions to-day. 
 You have stormed two fortified villages, and captured nineteen 
 guns. But he is not satisfied with all of you. Some The General's 
 of you fought as if the cholera had seized your minds the d two ftei 
 as well as your bodies. There were men among you, engagements. 
 however, whom he must praise to the skies. Private Patrick 
 Cavauagh, of the 64th, died gloriously, hacked to pieces by the 
 enemy when setting a brilliant example to his comrades. Had 
 he survived, he should have worn the Victoria Cross, which never 
 could have glittered on a braver breast. But his name will be 
 remembered as long as Ireland produces and loves gallant 
 soldiers. 
 
 " Lieut. Bogle, 78th Highlanders, was severely wounded while 
 leading the way at Onao into a loopholed house filled with 
 desperate fanatics. A special report of his gallantry will be sent 
 to His Eoyal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. The ' hero of 
 Inkermann ' well knows how to appreciate heroes. 
 
 " Major Stephenson, in command of the regiment which the 
 rebel chiefs know and fear as ' the Blue Caps,' showed through- 
 out the day how the calmest forethought can be united with the 
 utmost daring. 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 "Lieut. Dangerfield has merited the cross reserved for the 
 brave. He was the first to mount the barricade at this place." * 
 
 The evening passed cheerily in the camp, amidst 
 exultations of this double triumph, but the morning brought 
 The General gloomy tidings and revelations, which constrained 
 the General to reflect on the propriety of con- 
 tinuing to advance under existing circumstances. 
 The opposition he had encountered in these, his first 
 operations in Oude, was likely to increase as he penetrated 
 into the province. During the engagement of the previ- 
 ous day, a large body of troops had been perceived hover- 
 ing on his left, without taking any part in the action, and 
 were now reported to consist of the force which Nana 
 Sahib had been collecting at Futtehpore Chourassee. He 
 also learned that the insurgents in our own provinces had 
 been strengthened by the revolt of three Native regiments 
 at Dinapore ; and the hostile force in his rear thus assumed 
 a more formidable appearance. It was, moreover, reported 
 that a third of his gun ammunition had been expended m 
 the attack on Onao and Busseerutgunge, and the army 
 had as yet advanced only one-third of its way to Lucknow. 
 Eighty-eight had been killed and wounded in the two ac- 
 tions of the previous day, and as many disabled by fatigue, 
 exposure, and the ravages of cholera. These invalids and 
 the wounded required the whole of the sick-carriage of 
 the force ; there was not an unoccupied doolie in the camp. 
 This was by far the most serious difficulty which presented 
 itself to the mind of the General. It was impossible for 
 him to advance without conveyance for the wounded, un- 
 less it was intended to abandon them to destruction on 
 the road. Under the influence of these considerations, 
 and more especially of the last and most important of 
 them, he felt it to be his duty to retire to his impregnable 
 position at Munguiwar, send back his sick and wounded 
 to Cawnpore, and augment his force by all the reinforce- 
 ments he could obtain, before he again advanced to Luck- 
 
 * In his report to the Madras Government Major Stephenson stated that this 
 honour was equally divided between Lieuts. Dangerfield and Hargood. 
 
1857.] THE DINAPOEE MUTINY. 335 
 
 now. This decision was fortified by the assurance he had 
 received that the besieged garrison at the Residency was, 
 for the present, sufficiently supplied with provisions, and 
 that the pressure of the siege would be in some measure 
 relaxed by the diversion of a large body of the rebels to 
 watch his movements. On his return to Mungulwar, he 
 wrote to General Neill that, though everywhere success- 
 ful, he urgently required another battery and a thousand 
 British bayonets before "he could do anything for the 
 real advantage of Lucknow." He requested him to keep 
 Captain Crommelin well supplied with workmen to com- 
 plete the bridge ; and urged him to push forward every 
 available soldier and gun, as it was his intention to ad- 
 vance to Lucknow on their arrival. 
 
 The reinforcements which he expected to receive con- 
 sisted of the 5th Fusiliers from the Mauritius, and the 90th 
 Foot, originally embarked from England for The General 
 
 m . 11 -i i* disappointed 
 
 China, and the remaining' detachments ot the in ins hopes 
 
 *. -II- i -r , i of remforce- 
 
 corps then under his command. >ut he was ments. 
 destined to a bitter disappointment. He was informed 
 by Sir Patrick Grant that there was other work cut out 
 for the 5th and the 90th, and that he could expect no re- 
 inforcement for some weeks. To explain the Mutinous dis- 
 
 /,.,., iii , position of 
 
 cause ot this lamentable occurrence, it is neces- the three re- 
 sary to advert to the progress of events at Dina- SSore? 
 pore. That military station is in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of Patna, the old Mahomedan capital of Behar, 
 a province filled with bigoted Mahomedans, who had al- 
 ways manifested a spirit of haughty disaffection to our 
 rule. In the cantonment at Dinapore there were three 
 Native regiments, an entire European corps the 10th 
 and a wing of the Queen's 37th. In the paper which 
 General Havelock drew up on the 3rd of June, on board 
 the Erin, when he had heard of the revolt of only a fourth 
 of the Native army, he recorded his opinion that no con- 
 fidence could any longer be placed in any regular corps 
 of Native Infantry. The same conclusion was likewise 
 forced on the public, as regiment after regiment joined 
 the insurgents ; but the Government of India continued 
 
336 MEMOIRS. OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 to cherish more favourable views, and believed tliat every 
 regiment which had not actually revolted was faithful, 
 though scarcely a week elapsed without some new de- 
 fection. In no instance was this fatal credulity irfore 
 disastrous than in the case of the Dinapore regiments. 
 Unfortunately that station was at this time under the 
 command of General Lloyd, who, though. not without some 
 claim to consideration for his recent services in the easy 
 suppression of the Santal insurrection, was unfitted for 
 any military responsibility at this eventful crisis. While 
 the disaffection of the Native regiments at Dinapore was 
 manifest to all around him, he continued to assure Govern- 
 ment that their fidelity was beyond suspicion. The mer- 
 chants of Calcutta, who had made advances on the produce 
 of Behar to the extent of nearly a million sterling, neces- 
 sarily became anxious for the safety of their property, if 
 3000 Native troops, with arms in their hands, should 
 break out into open mutiny, and disperse over the country. 
 They, therefore, presented a memorial to Government, 
 entreating that the Native corps, which were ripe for 
 mutiny, should be disarmed. The European troops at 
 the station might at any time have effected this object, 
 but if a stronger force was deemed necessary, it would 
 have been easy to detain at Dinapore, for two or three 
 days, some of the detachments proceeding upwards in the 
 steamers. But the Government placed confidence in the 
 flattering reports of General Lloyd, and the request of 
 the merchants was disregarded. 
 
 The mutiny, which the Sepoys at Dinapore had long 
 planned, at length c&me to a head. On the 25th of July 
 an order was issued to remove the percussion caps from 
 Revolt of the the regimental magazines, and the Sepoys at 
 
 three regi- , , i IT r\ 
 
 ments. once broke out into open rebellion. One regi- 
 ment rushed to the tumbrils which contained them and 
 prevented their removal, retiring to their lines with de- 
 risive shouts. The European troops ought to have been 
 called out at once, and the mutinous regiment subjected 
 to immediate execution ; but General Lloyd gave the Se- 
 poys four hours to consider whether they would obey his 
 
1857.] REVOLT OF THE THREE REGIMENTS. 337 
 
 orders or not, and then retired to a steamer, and took 
 lunch and a siesta. The Sepoys availed themselves of 
 this interval to fill their pouches with ammunition, and 
 then prepared to leave the station. The 10th Foot and 
 the wing of the 37th were then called to arms, but there 
 was no one to direct their movements ; the General was 
 not to be found, and the second in command was gone in 
 search of him. Some of the European officers of the Na- 
 tive regiments went down to the lines and endeavoured to 
 reason with their men, but they were fired on, and obliged 
 to retire. As the mutinous corps were leaving the station, 
 the 10th Foot moved out against them with artillery, but 
 the main body was already beyond their range. The 
 guns opened upon their rear, but did no serious damage. 
 There were no cavalry to pursue the mutineers, and they 
 spread over the district, swelling the tide of revolt, and 
 indefinitely increasing the embarrassments of the time. 
 
 The position of General Havelock was greatly imperilled 
 by this fresh mutiny. An addition of 3000 troops, well 
 armed and disciplined, was thus made to the S maii rein- 
 body of insurgents, and the European troops JeK e SS 
 which were on their way to reinforce him, and GeneraL 
 enable him to advance to Lucknow, were detained to 
 protect the districts and towns menaced by this new 
 brood of rebels. Instead, therefore, of receiving an ac- 
 cession of two regiments, with which he might have re- 
 lieved the Residency, the whole of the additional force he 
 was able to obtain from Cawnpore did not exceed 257, a 
 number barely sufficient to fill up the casualties created 
 by the sword and the pestilence. On the 3rd of August 
 the General received half of Captain Olpherts' battery, 
 consisting of three-horsed 9 -pounders, and likewise two 
 24-pounders. The men who now joined him were re- 
 ported to have conducted themselves in a satisfactory 
 manner, with the exception of the native Gun Lascars, 
 whose conduct on the line of march had been mutin- 
 ous ; and he felt that he could not afford to have a 
 single traitor in his camp. The whole detachment was 
 therefore drawn up on parade, when he came forward and 
 
 22 
 
338 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 congratulated the British artillerymen on having joined a 
 body which had six times encountered the enemy, and 
 defeated them on every occasion. " Men," said he, ' ' jpu 
 may go from left to right of that line, and every soldier 
 you meet is a hero." Then, turning to the native Lascars, 
 he upbraided them as miscreants and traitors to the fos- 
 tering Government which supported them. The European 
 troops were ordered to disarm them, and they were sent 
 across the Ganges to General Neill, to be employed in 
 working at the intrenchment. 
 
 Although the General's column was no stronger with 
 these reinforcements than when he started for Lucknow 
 The General's the first time, he determined to make another 
 vance. effort to reach it. He considered it a paramount 
 
 duty not to relinquish the enterprise while there appeared 
 the remotest possibility of success. The detention of the 
 5th and the 90th, on whose assistance he had calculated, 
 so far from shaking his determination, only served to 
 confirm it. Having been assured, after the Dinapore 
 mutiny, that he was not to expect any reinforcements for 
 two months, he felt that if the Residency was to be re- 
 lieved ' at all, the attempt must be made with the troops 
 then under his command. While the General was en- 
 camped at Mungulwar, General Neil! reported that the 
 insurgents were again gathering at Bithoor, that they 
 were supported by the zemindar of Sheorajpore, and that 
 he was consequently beginning to feel some anxiety for 
 his own position at Cawnpore. He hoped, therefore, that 
 an effort would be made to disperse the rebels before the 
 second advance to Lucknow was commenced. But the 
 General informed him that he would not allow his mind 
 to be diverted from the great object before him, which 
 Government continued to press on him with much earn- 
 estness, and which he was resolved, if possible, to accom- 
 plish at all hazards, and that he could not engage in two 
 operations at the same time. The zemindar and the other 
 insurgents " he would smash on his return." The troops 
 left with General Neill to guard the intrenchment, now 
 approaching completion, amounted to 300, and they would 
 
1837.] SECOND BATTLE OF BUSSEEKUTGUNGE. 339 
 
 be augmented by detachments coming from below. This 
 force the General considered sufficient to defeat an enemy, 
 even in the open field. But he cautioned General Neill 
 against assaulting forts, as likely to entail defeat. He 
 concluded by saying, " I simply hold you responsible for 
 the defence of my communications, while I advance to and 
 return from Lucknow." 
 
 On the evening of the 4th of August the General moved 
 from his encampment at Mungulwar, and bivouacked for 
 the niefht a mile beyond Onao. The column second battle 
 
 . , , - J . -i -i T> of Busseerut- 
 
 marched the next morning and approached JDUS- gunge. 
 seerutgunge, when the videttes of the enemy were descried 
 by the Volunteer Cavalry, who led the advance. The 
 troops were then halted, and a reconnaissance pushed up 
 to within musket-shot of the town. The information thus 
 gained, combined with the knowledge of the locality which 
 the General had acquired after the first engagement, en- 
 abled him to form his plan of action with confidence. On 
 the right of his force, as it approached the town, there 
 was a strip of land beyond the marsh, of greater con- 
 sistency than was usually found in this part of the coun- 
 try during the rains. He determined to take advantage 
 of this circumstance to send detachments to sweep round 
 the town, and take up a position behind it between the 
 farther gate and the causeway, as had been attempted 
 without success in the first action at this place. The left 
 wing was, therefore, directed to engage the enemy in front, 
 while the right made the circuit, and advanced on their 
 rear. The turning force consisted of the 78th High- 
 landers, the 1st Fusiliers, and the Sikhs, with Captain 
 Maude's battery, and a troop of the Volunteer Cavalry. 
 When its leading subdivision had advanced to a point 
 parallel with the town, the heavy guns, which had been 
 playing on the defences in front, were pushed along the 
 road and brought within three hundred yards of the gate, 
 and their shot and shell swept through the town, or ex- 
 ploded within it. It may here be remarked that the Ge- 
 neral invariably avoided an assault in front, except when 
 the swampy nature of the ground at this season of the year 
 
340 MEMOIES OF SIE HENEY HAVELOCK [CHAP. vni. 
 
 permitted no other mode of attack. He always endea- 
 voured to protect his infantry from the enemy's guns, and 
 never allowed them to move to the charge until his -0wn 
 artillery had performed its work, by silencing, as far as 
 possible, the enemy's fire. Acting on this rule, his ar- 
 tillery thundered at the gateway without pause, and the 
 enemy, bewildered by this fierce cannonade, and by the 
 flank movement towards their rear, began to fly through 
 the town. As they rushed out at the farther gate, they 
 came under the fire of the turning column commanded 
 by Colonel Hamilton, while Captain Maude's four guns 
 poured a withering fire on the fugitives as they were massed 
 on the causeway, or endeavoured to save themselves by 
 plunging into the swamps. Then the left, consisting of 
 the 64th and 84th, were pushed to the front, leaped over 
 the trench, and bayonetted those who still continued to 
 defend the gate. 
 
 The enemy were now in full retreat, but as our troops 
 defiled over the causeway in the pursuit, they were galled 
 by a fire from the village of Beejpurree, where a portion 
 of the enemy had rallied to defend the passage and brought 
 a heavy cannonade to bear upon it. At the same time 
 they showed a disposition to make a stand in a village on 
 the left, which the 84th were directed to attack, while the 
 Fusiliers, who had been in the rear, were ordered to storm 
 Beejpurree. Attached to the turning column, they had 
 enjoyed no opportunity of taking an active share in the 
 labours of the day, which they had invariably done here- 
 tofore. As Lieut. Havelock rode up to them with the 
 General's orders to advance, a voice exclaimed, "Ah, 
 thought they could not do without us in front, at last." 
 Under the command of their gallant leader, Major Stephen- 
 son, the men rushed with a shout on the village and speed- 
 ily cleared it of the enemy. In consequence chiefly of the 
 admirable manner in which Captain Maude's guns were 
 handled, our loss in this action did not exceed twenty-five, 
 of whom only two were killed ; while the rebels, on their 
 part, lost about 250. They did not pause till they had 
 put five miles of ground between themselves and their 
 
1857.] HIS INCREASING DIFFICULTIES. 311 
 
 conquerors, who, having no cavalry, were unable to com- 
 plete the victory by the capture of the cannon, which the 
 enemy were thus enabled to carry off. On this occasion, 
 perhaps, more than on any other, was the want of cavalry 
 bitterly deplored. It was owing to the absence of the 
 means of pursuit, that the enemy, though completely dis- 
 comfited, were still enabled to retire with impunity to 
 another position previously chosen and strengthened, and 
 had leisure to prepare for another engagement. Immedi- 
 ately after the action, the General wrote to General Neill, 
 " I owe the Blue Caps" the Madras Fusiliers " thanks; 
 they owe me nothing. If I might select for praise with- 
 out being invidious, I should say they and the Highlanders 
 are the most gallant troops in my little force, and from 
 their superior weapons they are the most effective." 
 
 While the troops halted for their meal, about two miles 
 beyond the scene of action, the General deliberated on his 
 present position, and the prospects before him. T he General 
 In the action of the morning the enemy, though on'wffut^re 
 signally defeated, had succeeded in carrying course - 
 off their guns, and had established them five miles dis- 
 tant, at Nawaubgunge. Unfortunately the General pos- 
 sessed no map of the route on which any dependence 
 could be placed. While in Calcutta he had sought for 
 one in the Quart er-master- General's office, but nothing 
 could be discovered except a rough plan of the high-road 
 to Lucknow, sketched ten years before, which was not 
 only imperfect, but so inaccurate as to be worse than 
 useless for military purposes. The line from Cawnpore 
 to the capital of Oude had been scientifically surveyed 
 four months before by the engineer of the Oude Railway 
 Company, but he perished with General Wheeler's force", 
 and all his papers and plans were destroyed in the sack 
 of Cawnpore. The General was, therefore, obliged to de- 
 pend for his knowledge of the route on the report of his 
 scouts. They stated that the position at Nawaubgunge 
 was as strong as that at Busseerutgunge, and that the 
 entire line of road to Lucknow was dotted with posts 
 equally difficult, that the bridge over the Sye at Bunnee 
 
342 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. Tin, 
 
 was broken up, and the passage of the river guarded by 
 a large force and heavy artillery. The General calculated 
 that he had three strong positions to force before he coa^d 
 reach the city of Lucknow, and that his losses would pro- 
 bably fall little short of 300, thus leaving him only 700 
 British bayonets for the attack on that city, with its en- 
 circling canal, its intrenched and barricaded streets, its 
 loopholed houses, temples and palaces defended by a war- 
 like population, and an army of soldiers disciplined to per- 
 fection by our own officers. Every village was opposed 
 to us, and the landholders of which class many of those 
 who had fallen in the action of the morning consisted 
 had universally risen against us, and collected bands of 
 two and three hundred partisans to oppose our progress. 
 The aspect of affairs in the rear was equally gloomy. 
 The General's force was too small to permit him to leave 
 detachments for the maintenance of posts as he advanced, 
 and Nana Sahib, who was in force within a distance of 
 twelve miles, would not fail to occupy Busseerutguuge 
 and intercept his communication with Cawnpore. The 
 Gwalior Contingent, moreover, had now mutinied in a 
 body. It was a compact little army in itself, with horse, 
 foot, and twenty-four field guns, thoroughly organized and 
 equipped, and the native subalterns, owing to the paucity 
 of European officers, took a more active share of the 
 government of the different corps, and were consequently 
 more efficient. It was, therefore, a more formidable 
 enemy than any mere assemblage of single regiments of 
 the line. It was now said to be approaching Culpee, on 
 the Ganges, within fifty miles of Cawnpore. The Dina- 
 pore mutineers were likewise reported to be advancing 
 westward by Mirzapore to join the standard of Nana 
 Sahib. The General had been warned to expect no rein- 
 forcements for two months, and, to crown his difficulties, 
 the cholera had broken out in his camp with increased 
 virulence. His men were dying hourly around him, and 
 while he was deliberating on his course, the survivors 
 employed the brief halting time in digging graves for 
 their comrades who had fallen victims to it during the 
 
1857.] RELINQUISHES THE ENTEKPKISE FOB A TIME. 343 
 
 day. Thus surrounded by difficulties, and assailed by an 
 irresistible enemy within his camp, the mind of the 
 General was a prey to conflicting anxieties. To relinquish 
 the attempt to relieve Lucknow was to abandon the garri- 
 son, the women, and the children to destruction, to sacrifice 
 the soldier's brightest hope of distinction, and to tarnish 
 by a single act the reputation of a whole life of honourable 
 exertion. The Government and the public might dwell 
 more on his last failure than on all his previous victories. 
 On the other hand, he reflected that his own little army 
 was the only body which represented the authority of 
 Government throughout the north-west provinces. It 
 was the nucleus of the force to be hereafter collected to 
 re-conquer them, and its destruction in a fruitless enter- 
 prise would send every wavering chief into the ranks of 
 rebellion, and render the restoration of our power tenfold 
 more arduous. At the same time, the extinction of his 
 column would so greatly embolden the besiegers of the 
 Residency, and at the same time so completely cripple its 
 defenders, as to render their ruin inevitable. 
 
 After carefully weighing all these considerations, the 
 General came to the painful conclusion, that it was his 
 paramount duty to relinquish the attempt to He re ii n - 
 relieve Lucknow till he was adequately rein- 2nSprJe h for 
 forced. He never called a council of war. In- a time - 
 dependently of his own spirit of self-reliance, his ex- 
 perience of the mischief which had attended these councils 
 in Affghanistan was sufficient to deter him from any such 
 attempt to divide the responsibilities of his post. But he 
 did not act without conferring with the officers on his 
 staff, Colonel Tytler, Lieut. Havelock, and Captain Crom- 
 melin, on whose judgment he set great value. He called 
 them together after the action, and inquired their views, 
 and they unanimously concurred with him in the opinion 
 that to advance to Lucknow under present circumstances 
 would be a gainless sacrifice of the lives of men who had 
 so heroically maintained the honour of the British army in 
 seven engagements. Colonel Tytler was especially opposed 
 to the advance, and maintained that however urgent the 
 
344 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY EAVELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 Government might be for the relief of the Residency, they 
 could never desire or expect him to risk the destruction 
 of his force in a case like the present. It was, therefoi^ 
 determined to retire to Mungulwar. 
 
 The little army retraced its steps with ill- suppressed 
 reluctance. This was the only occasion on which any 
 Regrets ofthe appearance of discontent was manifested in its 
 toSnefin- ranks. The men could not comprehend the ne- 
 cessity of a retrograde movement, when they 
 had beaten the enemy in every encounter, and were burn- 
 ing with impatience to advance to Lucknow. The General 
 immediately on reaching Mungulwar sent a communica- 
 tion to Colonel Inglis, stating that stern an<J inevitable 
 necessity had constrained him to retire to that position 
 and wait for reinforcements before he again attempted to 
 advance to Lucknow. " When further defence," he wrote, 
 " becomes impossible, do not negotiate or capitulate. Cut 
 your way out to Cawnpore. You will save the colours of 
 the 32nd, and two-thirds of your British troops. Blow 
 up your fortifications, treasure, &c., by constructing sur- 
 charged mines under them, and leaving slow matches 
 burning/' 
 
 On his return to Mungulwar, the General immediately 
 telegraphed the intelligence of this movement to the 
 Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " I must prepare your Excellency for my abandonment, with 
 great grief and reluctance, of the hope of relieving Lucknow. 
 The only three staff officers in my force whom I ever consult 
 Con-es ond- confidentially, but in whom I entirely confide, are un- 
 KrPatXck animously of opinion that an advance to the walls of 
 Grant on this Lucknow must involve the loss of this force. The 
 movement. ^^ jj^^jy q ues tion that remains, therefore, is, 
 whether that, or the unaided destruction of the British garrison 
 at Lucknow would be the greatest calamity to the State at this 
 crisis. The loss of this force in a fruitless attempt to relieve 
 Colonel Inglis, would of course involve his fall. I will remain, 
 however, to the latest moment in this position, at Mungulwar, 
 strengthening it, and hourly improving my bridge communica- 
 tion with Cawnpore, in the hope that some error of the enemy 
 
1857.] SEASONS FOR NOT ADVANCING TO LUCKNOW. 345 
 
 may enable me to strike a blow against them, and give the gar- 
 rison an opportunity of blowing up their works and cutting their 
 way out. 
 
 " The enemy is in such force at Lucknow, that to encounter 
 him, five marches from this position, would be to court annihila- 
 tion." 
 
 The next day he again wrote as follows : 
 
 " I have not troubled you with requisitions for troops, but 
 cholera is making fearful ravage among my people. I could not 
 for the little enterprise of yesterday muster more than 1018 
 British infantry. I have had ten fresh cases of this dreadful dis- 
 order to-day in one regiment. Work, your Excellency tells me, 
 is cut out for the 5th and the 90th. Can I not have the 10th 
 Foot, which the outbreak at Dinapore has set free? If 1 had 
 them I could smash everything around me, and then move on to 
 Agra, and effect something that would be valuable. At the 
 present rate of my losses I shall soon be reduced to inactivity. 
 Could not the wing of the 90th be sent me ; or if no new regi- 
 ments can be pushed up, cannot, as originally proposed, the 6 4th, 
 the Highlanders, and the Fusiliers, entire, be placed at my 
 disposal 1 " 
 
 A day or two after he again wrote : 
 
 " If reinforcements of the 10th, the 37th, and of the regiments 
 now with me, could be sent up, I may hope to do much. With- 
 out them, I will do my best. It cannot be much. The garrison 
 of Allahabad is reduced to 358 men ; far too low. But how am 
 I to reinforce them 1 Cholera still continues to ravage my ranks. 
 My bridge communications are nearly complete. Then I shall 
 be in a position to act on either bank. I will not to the last 
 abandon all hope of relieving Lucknow, if accident should render 
 it possible." 
 
 A few days subsequently he wrote more fully on the 
 subject, in reply to a letter from Sir Patrick, and clearly 
 explained his reasons for having retired : 
 
 "I have this morning received your letter of the 8th instant. 
 It was with the deepest reluctance that I was compelled to relin- 
 quish, as impracticable and hopeless, the enterprise of the relief 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 of Lucknow, but my force, diminislied to 900 infantry, was daily 
 lessened by the inroads of cholera. I should have had at least 
 two battles against superior forces to fight, before I could ha^e 
 approached the Dil koosha park, which is the direction in which 
 I would have endeavoured to penetrate ; and to win my way up to 
 the Residency through a fortified suburb would have been an 
 effort beyond my strength. The issue would have been the de- 
 struction of this force, as well as of the gallant garrison ; a second 
 loss of Cawnpore, and the abandonment of all this portion of the 
 Dooab [or, the tract of country lying between the Ganges and the 
 Jumna], to the insurgents. I have, therefore, judged that I was 
 consulting the best interests of the State by attempting only that 
 which my force was capable of accomplishing, left as it was with- 
 out the hope of reinforcement. Had I prolonged my operations 
 in Oude, General Neill would have been in danger of being over- 
 powered here, and thus my line of communication with Allahabad 
 have been entirely interrupted. The resolution which I took 
 was the most painful I have ever had to form in my life ; but 
 imposed on me by imperious circumstances I could not control. 
 .... With any hope of reinforcement I would have made the 
 attempt ; without it I felt assured that it would be madness. 
 The whole of my staff concurred in this view of the case. 
 My retirement from Oude was in every way prosperous. 
 
 " My force was indeed so low, that it barely sufficed to guard 
 the artillery. Sickness had so weakened the men that they were 
 not capable of an ordinary march of ten miles, and afterwards of 
 fighting a battle. The spirits of two of my regiments have sunk 
 under privation and sickness. When I have overcome the 
 enemy's artillery fire, my wearied infantry can scarcely muster 
 strength to capture their guns, and, as I have no cavalry, the 
 mutineers resist as long as they have the power, and then retire 
 without fear of pursuit. Each battle cost me from fifty to a 
 hundred men, and I should have reached the capital of Oude with 
 a mere skeleton force. When I finally advanced, resolved if 
 possible to win, General Neill sent me the most pressing repre- 
 sentations regarding his danger from the Saugor troops, which 
 were assembling at Bithoor in his front. To have lost Cawnpore 
 while I was endeavouring to regain Lucknow, would have been 
 an irreparable calamity. I had not force to carry out the task 
 intrusted to me. If troops can be sent me I will answer for suc- 
 cess in every direction, but I cannot accomplish anything without 
 reinforcements. 
 
1857.] THE GOORKAH AUXILIARY FORCE. 347 
 
 " Of Tytler's gallantry and sound judgment I have given my 
 sincere opinion on all occasions, and I have derived the greatest 
 assistance from him. He was even stronger than myself in his 
 conviction of the hopelessness of attempting, with my means, to 
 penetrate to Lucknow. Every step that I took towards that capital 
 exposed me to the danger of having my flanks and rear irretriev- 
 ahly jeopardized. The people have unfortunately never "been 
 disarmed, and every zemindar has guns and muskets at his dis- 
 posal. I could not have won my way back through the strong 
 positions of Busseerutgunge and Onao, which it had cost me so 
 dear originally to win." 
 
 At the same time he wrote to Mrs Havelock : 
 
 " I know not when I may have leisure to write a line to you 
 again, so I shall avail myself, not of a Sabbath day's rest, for 
 that I have not, but of an accidental cessation of work, to give 
 you my views. I have fought seven fights with the enemy, and 
 
 by God's blessing have beat him in every one of them 
 
 Things are in a most perilous state. If we succeed at least in 
 restoring anything, it will be by God's special and extraordinary 
 mercy. Harry is safe and well. He is my Deputy- Assistant 
 Adjutant-General, and my right hand. His talents, courage, 
 activity, and energy, exceed everything that I ever witnessed at 
 his age. ... I must now write as one whom you may never see 
 more, for the chances of war are heavy at this crisis. Thank God 
 for my hope in the Saviour. "We shall meet in Heaven.' 
 
 While the General was encamped at Mungulwar, he 
 was informed by Mr Tucker, the Commissioner of Benares, 
 that Mr Wingfield, who was the representative The Goorkah 
 of our Government with the auxiliary force of force! ar5 
 Goorkahs, whom Jung Bahadoor, the de facto ruler of 
 Nepal, had placed at our disposal, had determined, on 
 hearing of the halt at Mungulwar, and the consternation 
 created in Behar by the Dinapore mutiny, to march this 
 contingent direct to Allahabad. Mr Tucker stated that 
 if the Goorkahs could be induced to leave their sick, who 
 amounted to several hundred, in hospital, and push forward 
 with speed, they might afford the General substantial 
 assistance ; but they insisted on dragging their sick and 
 
348 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vrn. 
 
 their "baggage of every description with them, and, there- 
 fore, crept on at the rate of about six miles a day. Though 
 their effective force did not exceed 2000, he had no doubt 
 that, if once united to his army, they would prove ilu 
 valuable. But it was much to be doubted whether they 
 would not have proved rather a hindrance than a help. 
 However valiant before an enemy, it was scarcely to be 
 expected that they would have submitted to the long 
 marches, the severe privations, and the strict discipline 
 to which the General's little army had been accustomed 
 for more than a month, and which had brought it up to 
 such a state of efficiency as few soldiers had ever before 
 attained in India. Since the commencement of the 
 mutiny, moreover, the General had contracted an incura- 
 ble mistrust of all native troops. In his reply to Mr 
 Tucker, therefore, he said that he had received no in- 
 structions regarding the Goorkahs, and would not inter- 
 fere with the movements of troops who had not been 
 placed under his command. "I have/' he said, "no 
 confidence in these or any other native troops at this 
 crisis. There is only one way in which faithful adherence 
 could be hoped from them. If their sick and wounded 
 were kept as hostages they would not dare to desert or to 
 betray us. They shall not enter Allahabad, or any place 
 under my control, until I receive Sir Patrick Grant's in- 
 structions. I will this day instruct Colonel O'Brien, the 
 commandant at Allahabad, to this effect. I will not have 
 that fortress betrayed to the enemy. I will write at once 
 to the Commander-in- Chief for orders regarding them." 
 In his letter to Sir Patrick he said, " I think just this of 
 the Nepalese Goorkahs. They may or may not obey their 
 own government, and it may or may not be faithful to us. 
 Thus there is a double ground of suspicion. But I am 
 told they are brave troops. If their sick and wounded 
 were in a depot of mine, say Allahabad, as hostages, I 
 should but partially trust them. I could march with them, 
 the Sikhs, and a small British reinforcement, to Lucknow, 
 or to Agra, and thence to Delhi ; but they must march 
 with me, and not on a separate line of operations. Shall 
 
1857.] COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TWO BANKS. 349 
 
 I summon them to join me?" The Goorkahs, however, 
 remained at Goruckpore, and neither came to Allahabad, 
 nor took any part in the Genera? s campaign. 
 
 It was now the General's intention to hold Mungulwar, 
 which was secure from any attack the enemy might make 
 with any force, and also gave him the opportu- Communica 
 nity of operating, at his own choice, on either tjon estab- 
 
 _ i AT 1 j ~1 j 1 A *J_ 118(16(1 06 s - 
 
 bank. As long as he continued in the territory tween the 
 of Oude he felt that the pressure on the Kesidency 
 would be alleviated by the dread of his movements, and 
 the necessity of detaching a large body of the insurgents 
 to watch them. - At Mungulwar he was prepared, if rein- 
 forced, to advance to Lucknow, or to 'send over a detach- 
 ment, if needed, to the succour of Cawnpore. To secure 
 the easy passage of the river, Lieut. Moorsom had been 
 diligently employed for a week in constructing a road 
 across the island swamps, and in establishing bridges of 
 boats between them. Captain Crommelin, now relieved 
 from field duty, assumed the superintendence of the works 
 on the 7th of August, and urged them forward with that 
 indomitable energy which had characterized all his exer- 
 tions since he joined the force. While the workmen were 
 employed in completing the roads and connecting the three 
 islands with each other and with the Oude bank, rafts 
 were constructed of the strongest , boats that could be 
 procured for the passage over the main channel, about 
 five hundred yards wide, between the larger island and 
 the Cawnpore bank. Four boats lashed together, and 
 covered with planks, formed a floating platform, which 
 could accommodate an entire battery, and which the 
 steamer was to be employed in towing across. This 
 work will not fail to be regarded as one of the greatest 
 triumphs of field engineering over natural difficulties ever 
 exhibited in India. It was carried on for the most part in 
 the water, and . either under a broiling sun, or amidst in- 
 cessant rain. But from the day the column started from 
 Allahabad, there had been no relaxation of toil in any 
 department, in sun or in rain, by day or by night, except 
 what was indispensable for repose. The General allowed 
 
350 MEMOIRS OF SIE HENRY HAVELOCK [CHAP. vm. 
 
 himself no respite and little rest, and Ms example seemed 
 to animate all those who were under his command. 
 
 The communication between the two banks of tlfo 
 General Neiii Ganges was now complete. The General was par- 
 the^sui-g- ticularly anxious to remain in Oude, but General 
 Neill was menaced by the 42nd Native Infantry, 
 which had rebelled at Saugor, and by other insurgents, 
 who were collected about eight miles from his position, 
 and he urgently demanded a reinforcement. The General 
 replied that ill as he could spare a detachment, he was 
 prepared to assist him with 300 bayonets and three guns, 
 but the troops must cross the river under cover of the 
 night, lest the movement should be discovered by the 
 enemy ; the blow must be struck the next morning, and 
 the troops returned without any delay. " The operation," 
 he remarked, " on both banks of this river is one of great 
 delicacy, an,d a miscalculation of time, even of twelve 
 hours, may endanger both detachments, as the enemy 
 would be sure to attack me as soon as they heard that 
 the force had been weakened by a detachment." The 
 next day General Neill informed him that the insurgents 
 were reported to have retired to some distance, and that 
 the reinforcement was no longer necessary. But on the 
 llth he despatched the following communication in all 
 haste. " One of the Sikh scouts I can depend on has just 
 come in, and reports that 4000 men and five guns have 
 assembled to-day at Bithoor, and threaten Cawnpore. I 
 cannot stand this ; they will enter the town, and our 
 communications are gone ; if I am not supported I can only 
 hold out here ; can do nothing beyond our intrenchments. 
 All the country between this and Allahabad will be up, 
 and our powder and ammunition on the way up, if the 
 steamer, as I feel assured, does not start, will fall into 
 the hands of the enemy, and we will be in a bad way. 
 J. E. N." 
 
 The General was now constrained to submit to the 
 necessity of breaking up his position at Mungulwar, and 
 Reasons for recrossing 1 the river with his whole force to 
 
 recrossing the .~ TT r> T , i t , i 
 
 river. Cawnpore. Having formed this determination, 
 
1857.] BATTLE OF BOOKHIYA. 351 
 
 he lost no time in carrying it out. On that same day he 
 proceeded to send across the baggage and spare ammuni- 
 tion, and, in fact, everything, with the exception of the 
 men, their arms, and bedding, and the guns. But in the 
 course of the day a succession of spies brought him 
 information that about 4000 of the enemy, with some 
 guns, had come down to Busseerutgunge. To have 
 attempted to cross the river with his artillery, while so 
 large a hostile force hung upon his rear, would have been 
 fraught with difficulty, if not with hazard, as the enemy 
 would not have failed to attack his column during the 
 operation of crossing. It would, moreover, have been 
 universally reported through Oude that the British troops 
 had been ignominiously chased out of the province by 
 the insurgents. The moral effect of such a report, to 
 which the sudden disappearance of his force from the left 
 bank would have given credibility, must have been 
 detrimental in the highest degree to our interests. He 
 determined, therefore, to take the initiative and strike a 
 blow at the enemy, which should convince them that it 
 was from no dread of their prowess that he retired to 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 On the afternoon of the llth the little army moved on 
 to Onao, and bivouacked under trees, in a deluge of rain. 
 Marching again at dawn, the General found the Aciion at 
 enemy prepared for the third time to meet him Boorhi y a - 
 on the old battle-field of Busseerutgunge. But they 
 varied their mode of defence by intrenching the village 
 of Boorhiya, about a mile and .a half in advance of it. 
 This position had been chosen with great skill, and 
 fortified with more than usual assiduity. Their right 
 rested on a village on the main road, where they had 
 established a battery ; their left on a mound about 400 
 yards distant, on which they had posted three guns. The 
 78th Highlanders, the Fusiliers, the Sikhs, and a portion 
 of the Volunteer Cavalry, formed our right wing, and 
 steadily advanced till their progress was suddenly arrested 
 by an unforeseen obstacle. In front of the enemy's left 
 lay a morass, covered with green vegetation, which pre- 
 
352 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vin. 
 
 sented tlie deceptive appearance of dry ground. The 
 snare thus laid by the rebels was not discovered till the 
 troops were on the verge of the swamp. They w^re 
 immediately withdrawn; the 78th Highlanders moving on 
 to the main road, while the Fusiliers, supported by four 
 guns, passed round to the right. The enemy's guns were 
 admirably served, and their fire was the severest our men 
 had hitherto encountered. All the efforts of our artillery, 
 .though superior in number, were unable for some time to 
 make any impression on them, sheltered as they were by 
 earthworks, and it was found necessary at length to have 
 recourse to the bayonet. The infantry of the enemy, 
 posted behind the guns, continued to maintain a gallingfire, 
 but nothing could withstand the impetuosity of our troops. 
 The Highlanders, now reduced in number to about a 
 hundred, marched up to the guns, and when within a 
 hundred yards of them, changed their pace into a rush, 
 with their usual cheer, and, aided by a flank movement of 
 the Fusiliers, mastered them, and bayonetted the gunners. 
 The rebel infantry broke and fled, and the Highlanders 
 instantly turned the captured guns on them and increased 
 the confusion and slaughter. Our troops pursued them 
 with unslackened energy through the town of Busseerut- 
 gunge, and over the causeway, which was now a third 
 time the scene of their defeat. The loss on our part 
 amounted to thirty-two, while that of the enemy fell little 
 short of ten times that number. 
 
 The object of the General having now been attained 
 by the discomfiture of the rebels who were pressing on 
 The force him in Oude, his troops immediately retraced 
 Ganges. their steps to Mungulwar. During the night 
 the remainder of the ammunition and the heavy guns 
 were sent across the river, and on the morning of the 13th 
 the troops marched down to the ferry. Just before day- 
 break the rain poured down in torrents, as if the windows 
 of heaven had been opened, and the ground was so com- 
 pletely saturated, that the greatest difficulty was experi- 
 enced in drawing the guns through the mire. The Madras 
 Fusiliers, the Volunteer Cavalry, and four guns formed a 
 
1857.] THE GENERAL RETURNS TO CAWNPORE. 353 
 
 rear-guard to cover the embarkation; but so effectual 
 had been the lesson of the previous day that not a single 
 rebel Sepoy ventured to make his appearance. Owing to 
 the skilful exertions of Captain Crommelin, and the 
 admirable arrangements of Colonel Tytler and Captain 
 Moorsom, the whole force crossed the river in as many 
 hours as the operation had three weeks before required 
 days, and without a single accident. As the last division 
 of the troops denied over the bridges, they were success- 
 ively broken up, and such of the boats of which they 
 were composed, as were not embedded in the mud, were 
 conveyed, together with the rafts, to the Cawnpore bank, 
 and laid up for future use. Immediately on reaching 
 Cawnpore the General issued the following Order of the 
 day: 
 
 " The exertions of the troops in the combat of yesterday 
 deserve the highest praise the Brigadier can bestow. In this, 
 our eighth fight, the conduct of the artillery was The Gener- 
 admirable. The Fusiliers and the Highlanders were, of the day. 
 as usual, distinguished. The Highlanders, without firing a 
 shot, rushed with a cheer upon the enemy's redoubt, carried 
 it, and captured two of the three guns with which it was armed. 
 If Colonel Hamilton can ascertain the officer, non-commissioned 
 officer, or soldier, who first entered this work, the Brigadier will 
 recommend him for the Victoria Cross." 
 
 Colonel Hamilton reported that it was difficult to decide 
 to whom this honour belonged, as it appeared to be 
 divided between Lieut. Campbell and Lieut. Crowe. The 
 gallant Campbell was smitten down the next day by 
 cholera, and the distinction fell to the lot of Lieut. Crowe. 
 
 On the 14th of August the General transmitted the 
 following telegram to Sir Patrick Grant : 
 
 " Brigadier-General Neill brought me this morning a telegram 
 from the Commander-in-Chief, in which his Excellency, after 
 mentioning that he had heard of my return to within Conference 
 six miles of Cawnpore, desired him to deliberate Sli. 661 
 with me and report the result of our deliberations. The 
 subject of these was evidently to be the feasibility of my attempt- 
 
 23 
 
354 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 ing the relief of the garrison of Lucknow with my present force. 
 I told General Neill that if his Excellency required it absolutely, 
 or he thought it practicable, I would order my bridges over the 
 islands of the Ganges to be restored, and march immediateiy. 
 He replied that he conceived the attempt without reinforcements 
 could only terminate in disaster, without the possibility of re- 
 lieving the garrison, which would be injurious to our interests in 
 this part of India. I concurred in this opinion." 
 
 During the 14th and 15th the cholera continued to rage 
 without cessation among the troops. The Superintending- 
 AssemWape Surgeon represented to the General that, at the 
 eut^at'Bi^ present rate of casualties, the whole force would 
 be annihilated in six weeks, and he urged some 
 repose for the troops; but the General felt that there 
 could be no repose while 4000 of the insurgents were col- 
 lected at Bithoor and threatened Cawnpore. Having dis- 
 posed of the enemy on the left bank of the Ganges, and 
 effectually divested them of all desire to meet him again 
 in the field, he determined to crush the rebels on the right 
 bank, and free the city of Cawnpore from annoyance. He 
 telegraphed the medical report to Sir Patrick Grant, re- 
 marking that there had been ten fatal cases of cholera on 
 that day, the 15th, in one regiment alone, and that of the 
 British force with him, numbering 1415, no fewer than 
 335 were disabled by sickness or wounds. "But," he 
 added, " I do not despair. I march to-morrow against 
 Bithoor, but it seems advisable to look the evil in the 
 face ;; for there is no choice between reinforcements and 
 gradual absorption by disease. The medical officers 
 yesterday recommended repose ; but I cannot halt while 
 the enemy keeps the field, and, in truth, our health has 
 suffered less fearfully even in bivouac than in Cawnpore." 
 
 Nana Sahib was still across the Ganges in Oude. In- 
 deed, after the signal defeat inflicted on him on the 16th 
 Battle of BI- f ^^Jj ne H6ver ventured to place himself 
 tboor. within reach of the General. But the mutineers 
 
 of the 17th, the 42nd, and a few of the 31st Native In- 
 fantry, with the troopers of the 2nd Cavalry, and the 3rd 
 Irregulars, strengthened by a portion of the Nana's troops, 
 
1857.] BATTLE OF BITHOOR. 355 
 
 and two guns, had taken possession of Bithoor, and it be- 
 came necessary to defeat and disperse this force, prepara- 
 tory to marching upon Lucknow. To protect his men from 
 the fatal effects of the sun, the General had invariably 
 commenced his marches during the night ; but after their 
 arrival in Cawnpore, they were unavoidably dispersed in 
 various localities. Hence, some time was lost in as- 
 sembling the whole body of the troops on the morning of 
 the 16th of August, and they were unable to move from 
 the ground till within half an hour of sunrise. The march 
 was long, and the column was eight hours in reaching 
 Bithoor. The rays of the sun during that day were found 
 to be more fierce than on any previous occasion, and the 
 men were consequently prostrated by the fatigue of their 
 long march. 
 
 Bithoor was found to be one of the strongest positions 
 the enemy had yet taken up. The plain before it was 
 covered with dense plantations of sugar-cane and castor- 
 oil, interspersed with villages. A nullah or rivulet, not 
 fordable, flowed in front of the town, and after describing 
 a curve, emptied itself into the Ganges. It was spanned 
 by a narrow stone bridge, which was defended by a breast- 
 work thrown up on its flank, and completely commanded 
 by some elevated ground and strong buildings beyond it. 
 Contrary to their usual practice, the enemy had neglected 
 to avail themselves of the military advantages of this 
 position, and, instead of disposing their main force behind 
 the stream and the bridge, had committed the great error 
 of placing their troops in front of it in the thickets, with 
 the bridge, which afforded them the only means of retreat, 
 in their right rear. On the advance of the troops a con- 
 siderable body of horse appeared on our left. Some shells 
 were immediately sent among them to drive them back, 
 and also to unmask the number of the enemy's artillery, 
 which at once returned the fire, and showed that there 
 were only two guns in position. The General now de- 
 termined to advance in direct echelon from his right. The 
 78th Highlanders, the Madras Fusiliers, and Captain 
 Maude's battery formed the right wing ; the 64th, the 
 
356 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vui. 
 
 84th, the Sikhs, and Captain Olpherts' battery, the left. 
 As the Fusiliers moved in extended order on the extreme 
 right, they were suddenly assailed by a sharp fire frcaygL 
 some high cultivation, and a village which had been con- 
 cealed by it. Their gallant commander, Major Stephen- 
 son, at once wheeled two companies to the right, and came 
 to a hand-to-hand conflict with some companies of the 
 42nd, who fought with the greatest resolution, and are 
 said to have even crossed bayonets with their European 
 opponents. But they were speedily routed with great 
 slaughter, and the Fusiliers rejoined the right wing which 
 was now pressing on to the intrenchment. The enemy 
 retired behind the defences they had thrown up, from 
 which they maintained a steady fire with the two guns, 
 which were admirably and obstinately served. The four- 
 teen guns, on our side, including the 24-pounders, poured 
 an incessant fire on them, advancing up gradually till the 
 intervening space did not greatly exceed four hundred 
 yards, but they were still unable to make any impression 
 on the enemy's pieces another instance of the tenacity, 
 so often exhibited during this campaign, with which the 
 natives of India cling to their guns when in a sheltered 
 position. At the same time, so severe a storm of mus- 
 ketry was poured on our troops from the rifles of the 
 enemy behind the breastwork, that the General remarked 
 that he had seen nothing to equal it since the day of 
 Ferozeshuhur. It was necessary now to have recourse to 
 the bayonet, which in a short time drove the enemy over 
 the bridge and through the town. " I must do the mu- 
 tineers,^ writes the General in his despatch, " the justice 
 to pronounce that they fought obstinately; otherwise 
 they could not for a whole hour have held their own, 
 even with such advantages of ground, against my 
 powerful artillery fire." The enemy was now in full 
 retreat, but our troops were too exhausted to pursue them. 
 Here again the General had reason to deplore the want of 
 cavalry. " Had I possessed cavalry," he said in his de- 
 spatch, "not a rebel or mutineer would have reached 
 Sheorajpore alive." He had been indefatigable in his 
 
1857.] REMARKS ON THE CAMPAIGN. 357 
 
 efforts to augment his handful of Volunteer Horse, which, 
 though not exceeding eighteen when first formed, had 
 now been increased to the number of eighty. But this 
 gallant little squadron was too valuable to be hazarded in 
 an unequal contest with the enemy, though it was im- 
 patient to be let loose on them. After the engagement 
 the General rode along the line, and though the men were 
 scarcely able to stand from exhaustion, they sent forth the 
 most enthusiastic cheers. " Don't cheer me, my men," 
 he exclaimed, " you did it all yourselves/' The troops 
 bivouacked for the night in the gardens of the house 
 erected for the British representative, who resided at 
 Bithoor in the days of Bajee Row. 
 
 The General now received intelligence from his spies 
 that the main body of the insurgents had fled towards 
 Futtyghur, but that a large detachment had The troops 
 
 i -i j en & i -i return to 
 
 branched off to Sfreorajpore, about twelve miles cawnpore. 
 from Cawnpore. He would willingly have given his men a 
 day of rest, and they never needed it more, but he was 
 apprehensive lest the rebels in that village should cut in on 
 the town and plunder it during his absence, and he deemed 
 it important to retrace his steps without delay. The 
 little army, therefore, moved back to Cawnpore on the 
 morning of the 17th. Though it was a march of only 
 sixteen miles, so completely were the men exhausted by 
 previous exposure and fatigue, that many fell on the road 
 never to rise again, the victims of cholera and coup de 
 soleil. On reaching Cawnpore, the troops were at first 
 encamped on the Sevada plain, but as the situation was 
 found to be damp and unhealthy, they were speedily re- 
 moved to the stables of the Light Cavalry, which, by 
 drainage and other sanitary arrangements, had in the 
 mean while been rendered not only habitable but comfort- 
 able. There they gradually recovered their health and 
 strength, but not before five or six officers and a still 
 greater number of the men had fallen a prey to disease. 
 The day after the action at Bithoor the General issued the 
 following Order of the day, which has a peculiar and melan- 
 choly interest, as being the last which came from his pen. 
 
358 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vra. 
 
 " The Brigadier-General congratulates the troops on the result 
 of their exertions in the combat of yesterday. ' The enemy were 
 driven, with the loss of 250 killed and wounded, from one of the 
 strongest positions in India, which they obdurately defend ecb 
 They were the flower of the mutinous soldiery, flushed with the 
 successful defection at Saugor and Fyzabad ; yet they stood only 
 one short hour against a handful of soldiers of the State, whose ' 
 ranks had been thinned by sickness and the sword. May the 
 hopes of treachery and rebellion be ever thus blasted ! And if 
 conquest can now be achieved under the most trying circum- 
 stances, what will be the triumph and retribution of the time 
 when the armies from China, from the Cape, and from England 
 shall sweep through the land 1 Soldiers ! in that moment, your 
 labours, your privations, your sufferings, and your valour will not 
 be forgotten by a grateful country. You will be acknowledged 
 to have been the stay and prop of British India in the time of 
 her severest trial." 
 
 With the battle of Bithoor the General's first campaign 
 for the relief of Lucknow may be said to have closed. 
 Remarks on With it also terminated his independent com- 
 paign cam mand, and the freedom of acting on his own 1 in- 
 dividual and unfettered judgment. This brief campaign, 
 extending from the 12th of July to the 16th of August, 
 has no parallel in the military history of British India. 
 On no former occasion had European troops been required 
 to march and fight in circumstances so adverse, under a 
 deadly sun or amidst torrents of rain, often fasting for 
 twenty-four hours, and generally without tents, with no 
 bed after their victories but the saturated ground, and 
 no shelter but that which the trees afforded, carry- 
 ing with them their sick and their wounded, and all their 
 supplies, and suffering more from pestilence than from 
 the weapons of the enemy. It was under all these dis- 
 advantages that, in this brief period of five weeks, they 
 had fought nine actions against overwhelming odds, with, 
 troops disciplined, and for the most part armed, like them- 
 selves, and had been everywhere victorious, without a 
 single check. A large portion of the Fusiliers consisted 
 of raw recruits, who had never before heard the whistle of 
 
1857.] HIS SON RECOMMENDED FOE VICTORIA CROSS. 59 
 
 an enemy's bullet, but such marching and such fighting 
 had turned the survivors into hardy veterans, ready for 
 any exigency. So great was the confidence the men had 
 acquired in themselves, in their comrades, and in their 
 leader, that they never considered a discomfiture possible, 
 and never marched to action without the confident as- 
 surance of victory. These men have truly been described, 
 by one of the officers who served under him, as " Have- 
 lock's Ironsides." With a sufficient body of such troops, 
 he would, probably, have been enabled to justify the re- 
 mark made to the writer by Lord Hardinge, when re- 
 turning to England in 1848, " If ever India should be in 
 danger, the Government have only to place Havelock at 
 the head of the army, and it will be saved." This great 
 opportunity did not fall to his lot ; still, the spectacle of 
 this little band of British heroes,* which never exceeded 
 fourteen hundred, isolated in the centre of revolted pro- 
 vinces, pressed by a mutinous and successful army, yet 
 victorious in every encounter, and nobly sustaining the 
 national honour in this fiery trial, was calculated to fill 
 every British bosom with exultation, and to give renewed 
 animation to the Government in this contest. Nothing, 
 moreover, served more effectually to impress the natives 
 of the north-west provinces with a conviction of the supe- 
 riority of the English race, and of the certainty of its 
 ultimate triumph, than the attitude and the victories of 
 General Havelock, by which the prestige of British power, 
 which they supposed to have becoma for ever extinct, was 
 not only restored but augmented. 
 
 After the action of Cawnpore on the 16th of July, the 
 General determined to recommend Lieut. Havelock, his 
 
 * Since the publication of the work, the author has received from a political 
 officer, who held one of the highest official positions at Agra during the mutiny, 
 the following remarks on the effect produced hy Havelock's victories in the 
 north-west Provinces : " Our position at Agra enabled me to estimate the 
 heroism of that unparalleled advance, and to estimate also the magical effect it 
 produced throughout northern India. The advance of that forlorn hope to 
 Cawnpore, the further attempt to march to Lucknow, the little band beating 
 back the hosts of rebels, and scattering them like spray before the bows of a 
 ship, the prudence which dictated a retreat on Cawnpore, and the final relief of 
 Lucknow, are passages which, for depth of interest, have no equal in our annals." 
 
3GO MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 Recommend- aid-de-camp, for the Victoria Cross for his con- 
 
 ationof Lieut. -, -. " . . ._ _ . _^ 
 
 Havetockjor duct on that occasion. But Lieut. Havelock, 
 cross. 10 ( fearing that his father might be suspected^of 
 partiality, prevailed on him to suppress the telegram 
 which he had prepared for the Commander-in-Chief. On 
 the return of the troops to Cawnpore after the battle of 
 Bithoor, the General resolved no longer to withhold this 
 act of justice from his son, who did not, however, become 
 acquainted with the fact till after his death, when he heard 
 of it for the first time from his aid-de-camp, Lieut. Har- 
 good. The telegram ran thus : " I recommend to your 
 Excellency, for the Victoria Cross, Lieut. Crowe, of the 
 78th Highlanders, who was the first to enter the redoubt 
 at Boorhiya, the intrenched village in front of Busseerut- 
 gunge, on the 12th instant. I also recommend for the 
 same decoration Lieut. Havelock, 10th Foot. In the 
 combat at Cawnpore he was my aid-de-camp. The 64th 
 regiment had been much under artillery fire, from which 
 it had severely suffered. The whole of the infantry were 
 lying down in line, when, perceiving that the enemy had 
 brought out their last reserved gun, a 24-pounder, and 
 were rallying around it, I called up the regiment to rise 
 and advance. Without any other word from me, Lieut. 
 Havelock placed himself on his horse in front of the centre 
 of the 64th, opposite the muzzle of the gun. Major Stir- 
 ling, commanding the regiment, was in front, dismounted ; 
 but the lieutenant continued to move steadily on in front 
 of the regiment at a foot pace, on his horse. The gun 
 discharged shot till the troops were within a short dis- 
 tance, when they fired grape. In went the corps, led by 
 the lieutenant, who still steered steadily on the gun's 
 muzzle until it was mastered by a rush of the 64th." 
 
 The Victoria Cross was conferred on Lieut. Havelock 
 in March, 1858, and affixed to his breast by her gracious 
 Majesty, in person, at Buckingham Palace, on the 8th of 
 June, 1 859, on his return from India, after he had attained 
 the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel. The officers of the 
 64th, on seeing the notification of this honour in the 
 Gazette, which reached India after Major Stirling, as well 
 
1857.] MR HEADLEY ON THIS SUBJECT. 361 
 
 as General Havelock, had passed from the scene, addressed 
 a letter of expostulation to Sir Colin Campbell, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in India, by whom it was forwarded to 
 his royal highness the Duke of Cambridge, apparently 
 without further inquiry. Sir Colin' s communication to 
 the Duke conveyed reflections on the conduct both of 
 father and son, which in a Life of the General may not be 
 passed over without examination. But it would be diffi- 
 cult for the writer of those pages to offer any remarks on 
 so delicate a subject, which could be considered altogether 
 exempt from the bias of affection to his brother-in-law and 
 nephew, and he gladly avails himself of the observations 
 published on this question by one to whom no such sus- 
 picion can possibly attach, and whose impartiality writ- 
 ing as he does from the opposite side of the Atlantic 
 cannot but be considered unimpeachable. The following 
 extracts are, therefore, offered to the reader from the ad- 
 mirable " Life of General Havelock," recently presented 
 to the world by Mr Headley, an American military writer 
 of great and just celebrity. 
 
 " This decoration was an object of great ambition among the 
 younger officers, and often stimulated them to deeds of desperate 
 daring ; the selection therefore of his son, by Havelock, Mr Headiey's 
 as one worthy to receive it, naturally caused dissatis- thiTtrans^- 
 faction among some . . . The officers of the 64th tion - 
 Eegiment pretended that the despatch reflected on them, and 
 finally made their grievances known to the Commander-in- 
 Chief, Sir Colin Campbell. They complained that young 
 Havelock, who was entirely disconnected with the corps, had 
 taken advantage of his position, as member of the staff, to usurp 
 the place of their proper officer, and, in so doing, had robbed the 
 regiment of its well-deserved honours. Besides, they said it 
 reflected on the courage and ability of Major Stirling, as if he 
 were not doing his duty, or that his regiment refused to follow 
 him. He was on foot, they said, because his horse had been 
 wounded by a shell bursting near him. In reply to a statement 
 embodying these views, Sir Colin Campbell sent a letter to the 
 Adjutant-General, which was laid before the Duke of Cambridge, 
 in which he requested that some step should be taken to relieve 
 
362 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vnr. 
 
 Major Stirling from the implied censure contained in Havelock's 
 despatch. He took occasion also to reflect very severely both on 
 young Havelock and his father. - He says, ' This instance is |e 
 of many in which, since the institution of the Victoria Cross, 
 advantage has been taken by young aids-de-camp and other staff 
 officers to place themselves in prominent situations for the purpose 
 of attracting attention. To them life is of little value, as com- 
 pared with the gain of public honour, but they do not reflect, 
 and the generals to whom they belong do not reflect, on the cruel 
 injustice thus done to gallant officers, who, beside the excitement 
 of the moment of action, have all the responsibility attendant on 
 this situation.' Further on, referring to Havelock's despatch, he 
 says, ' By such despatches as the one above alluded to, it is made 
 to appear to the world that a regiment would have proved want- 
 ing in courage, except for an accidental circumstance ; such a 
 reflection is most galling to British soldiers, indeed, is almost in- 
 tolerable, and the fact is remembered against it by all the other 
 corps in Her Majesty's service. Soldiers feel such things most 
 keenly. I would, therefore, again beg leave to dwell on the in- 
 justice sometimes done by general officers when they give a 
 public preference to those attached to them, over old officers who 
 are charged with the most difficult and responsible duties.' This 
 certainly is severe language in a Commander-in-Chief, when 
 applied to any Major-General, but doubly so when used towards 
 one who has just closed a long and brilliant career in death. 
 With regard to the censure passed on young Havelock, we have 
 nothing to say, for if he never has any more serious charges 
 brought against him than that, in a critical moment, he placed 
 himself in front of a regiment, and walked his horse straight up 
 to the muzzle of a twenty-four pounder, he will need no defend- 
 ers. The more complaints of that kind the better. 
 
 " But with regard to the implied censure of the noble old 
 veteran, whose lips, dumb in death, could make no reply, there 
 is much to be said. Sir Colin Campbell could have corrected 
 any wrong impression, and healed any wounded feelings of the 
 regiment, if they really existed, without casting disrespect on one, 
 around whose grave the tears of the civilized world were yet 
 falling. 
 
 "There is no need, however, in this case, to appeal to that 
 generosity which spares the dead, nor that chivalric feeling which 
 screens the brave. Havelock in life would not have wished 
 the one, and dead, he needs not the other. Let us see whether 
 
1857.] MR HEADLEY ON THIS SUBJECT. 363 
 
 there is any truth in the charge, that Havelock ' made it appear 
 to the world that the regiment would have proved wanting except 
 for an accidental circumstance.' In his despatch reporting the 
 "battle of Cawnpore, Havelock says : ' Nor was the gallant 64th 
 "behind. Charging with equal bravery another village on the 
 left, and firing four volleys as they rapidly advanced up the 
 rising ground, they soon made the place their own, and captured 
 its three guns.' Again : * But the 64th, led by Major Stirling 
 and my aid-de-camp, who had placed himself in their front, 
 were not to be denied. Their rear showed the ground strewed 
 with wounded ; but. on they silently and steadily came ; then, 
 with a cheer, charged and captured the unwieldy trophy of their 
 valour.' And in the General Order issued the morning after the 
 battle, he says, ' 64th, you have put to silence the jibes of your 
 enemies throughout India. Your fire was reserved till you saw 
 the colour of your enemies' moustaches this gave us the victory.' 
 Now, after such eulogiums, both in public despatches and 
 General Orders, how can it be said that Havelock had ' made it 
 appear to the world, that the regiment would have proved want- 
 ing in courage, except for an accidental circumstance ? ' It will 
 require more acute optics than even Sir Colin Campbell pos- 
 sesses, to discern how a regiment ' can be galled by such public 
 eulogiums, or how such disparaging language can be remembered 
 against it by all the other corps of Her Majesty's service.' He 
 intimates that Havelock had done this regiment injustice, when 
 the truth is, he covered it with glory, and that he had ' given 
 occasion for other corps to speak against it,' when he openly 
 declared to them and the world that they had 'for ever put to 
 silence the gibes of their enemies' Neither a few envious officers 
 of the 64th Regiment, nor the letter of Sir Colin Campbell, can 
 alter the record. It is to be feared that this gallant chief, whose 
 deeds have been the admiration of the world, received the state- 
 ment of officers, not as complaints which should be investigated, 
 but as a verdict to be published . . . 
 
 "This whole matter, when investigated, instead of showing 
 that Havelock deserved censure, furnishes another illustration of 
 his inflexible justice and truth. In his first public despatches 
 he lavishes praise on the 64th Regiment, and caused their com- 
 mander to be promoted to the rank of Lieut. -Colonel. What 
 more could be done 1 Did the troops wish for more glowing 
 eulogiums 1 Did Major Stirling expect more than one promo- 
 tion for one battle ] The Victoria Cross was designed especially 
 
364 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 for deeds of personal heroism ; and who ever presumed to say- 
 it was not well bestowed on young Havelock 1 Major Stirling 
 received the substantial honour of preferment young Haveftjek 
 only the empty one of a badge ; and what inducement, indeed, 
 would the latter have to peril his life in the desperate onset, and 
 furnish a lofty example to troops, if, because his father happened 
 to be the Commander-in-Chief, he was to be entirely overlooked 1 
 Havelock felt that in recommending his son to the Victoria 
 Cross, which he had so nobly earned, it was incumbent on him 
 to go more into particulars than in any other case, in order to 
 relieve himself from the suspicion of partiality. His straight- 
 forward soul never dreamed that his truthfulness would be 
 
 tortured to his discredit If an officer never gets worse 
 
 treated after a battle than to be immediately promoted, and a 
 regiment has no heavier load of obloquy to carry than the lavish 
 praises which Havelock bestowed on the 64th, they may rest 
 quite easy about their reputation." * 
 
 * Nothing could be more foreign to the General's character than the spirit 
 of nepotism. On this point he was sensitive to the verge of injustice. This 
 feeling was fully exemplified on the occasion of the hattle of Futtehpore. In 
 the original draft of his despatch he had written, " I shall incur risk of 
 imputed partiality when I further record that the boldness, and activity, and 
 quick perception of Lieut. Havelock, 10th Foot, my son and A.D.C., on this 
 his first action on shore, inspired me with the hope that he will do his country 
 good service long after I am in my grave." But the fear of being supposed 
 to be swayed by feelings of paternal partiality induced him to omit it in the 
 revised despatch. 
 
 It required, moreover, the strongest solicitation on the part of Sir James 
 Outram to prevail on the General to recommend his son for the Victoria Cross 
 for his gallantry at the Charbagh bridge. On the 12th of October Sir James 
 wrote to him to recommend as " deserving the high distinction of the Victoria 
 Cross two officers of whose heroic gallantry, on the 25th September, he was 
 an admiring witness, but who, having on that occasion been under his the 
 General's command, could only through himself receive the reward they so 
 justly merit." One of the officers was the ever intrepid Captain Maude, of 
 the Royal Artillery. After detailing his great services on the 25th, Sir James 
 remarks : " This was no reckless or foolhardy daring, but the calm heroism 
 of a true soldier, who fully appreciated the importance, the difficulties, and the 
 dangers of the task he had undertaken. But for his nerve and coolness on this 
 trying occasion, the army could not have advanced ; and I shall be glad to 
 learn that you agree with me in considering that he has fully and honourably 
 earned a right to the Victoria Cross, which our gracious sovereign has insti- 
 tuted as a reward for valour." 
 
 To support his recommendation of Lieut. Havelock for the same honour, he 
 writes : " Not less deserving of this proud distinction, in my opinion, is Lieut. 
 Havelock ; and I trust I may, without giving offence, beg you, as my friend 
 and comrade, as well as my official colleague, not to allow the name of this 
 
1857.] , A CHRISTIAN MINISTER JOINS THE FORCE. 365 
 
 Throughout this campaign the General had reason to 
 lament the absence of any provision for the spiritual wants 
 of his soldiers, at a time when they more particularly 
 stood in need of the consolations of religion. A Christian 
 
 . .- , n f, ,-, ji minister-joins 
 
 The chaplain at Cawnpore had fallen in the the force. 
 massacre, and it was impossible, during the present 
 emergency, to obtain the services of another. Mr Henry 
 Carre Tucker, on hearing of the General's return from 
 Oude, inquired by telegram whether it would be agreeable 
 
 gallant young officer to militate against his just claims. Throughout the tre- 
 mendous fire of guns and musketry which the enemy directed across the Char- 
 bagh bridge, Lieut. Havelock, with the Madras Fusiliers, stormed the bridge, 
 took the guns, and cleared the streets sufficiently to allow of the troops in rear 
 closing up. I cannot conceive a more daring act than thus forcing the bridge ; 
 and the officers who led the Fusiliers on that occasion, in my opinion, most 
 richly deserve promotion. But hazardous as was their position, they, being on 
 foot, and therefore not readily distinguished from their men, risked little com- 
 paratively with Lieut. Havelock, the only officer on horseback, who cheered 
 the men on at their head, and became the target of the enemy's musketry. I 
 shall feel truly delighted to learn that you accept my recommendation of this 
 brave officer, and I shall deeply regret having divested myself of the command 
 during the advance on Lucknow, if, from what I must regard as a morbidly 
 sensitive delicacy, you withhold from Lieut. Havelock, because he is your re- 
 lative, the reward to which as a soldier he has so unmistakably established a 
 first claim." 
 
 This testimony of Sir James is equally honourable to father and son, and 
 may serve to relieve the memory of the one, and the character of the other, 
 from the unfriendly remarks of Sir Colin. The General replied " that when 
 the merits of his son were thus pointed out to him, he ought not to deprive him 
 of that reward from any consideration of his relationship, and that the value of 
 the decoration would be much enhanced to him by its being virtually awarded 
 by an unprejudiced judge, as well as by one, he trusted he would permit him 
 to add, whose proved gallantry and devotion to the service peculiarly fitted him 
 to judge of these qualities in another." The General accordingly recommended 
 Capt. Maude and Lieut. Havelock for the Victoria Cross. His recommenda- 
 tion was successful in one case, but not in the other. Intermediately, the 
 Cross had been bestowed on Lieut. Havelock for his services at the battle of 
 Cawnpore, but Sir James, in a letter to him of the 16th August, 1858, ex- 
 pressed " his disappointment on seeing Maude alone honoured with that high 
 distinction," and remarked, " True, it had intermediately been conferred on 
 you for previotts services, but I had hoped that the brilliant action which I had 
 brought to notice would have secured for you the additional clasp or bar, 
 which is authorized under the provisions of the Royal Warrant of the 29th 
 January, 1856, for those who, after having received the Cross, shall again 
 perform an act of bravery." Whether this omission originated in India or in 
 England is immaterial, 'but this transaction will be sufficient to show that 
 when Sir Colin Campbell taxed General Havelock with favouritism, he adopted 
 a harsh and hasty conclusion, which will not stand the test of investigation. 
 
866 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HA.VELOCK. [CHAP. vm. 
 
 to him to receive the aid of one of the missionaries at 
 Benares, to which he immediately replied in the affirma- 
 tive. Mr Tucker then telegraphed that Mr Gregson^ a 
 Baptist missionary, was ready to proceed to his encamp- 
 ment. " I cannot," said he, " get a Church of England 
 man. There is a good moderate Baptist, the Rev. John 
 Gregson, who would, I believe, volunteer to attend your 
 force, and give spiritual advice to the sick and the 
 wounded, without touching on mere denominational dis- 
 tinctions. He is a pious good man, and if you will take 
 him as chaplain, I will pay his salary and expenses, as it 
 would not be fair to his Missionary Society to let them 
 pay for him whilst he is not employed on missionary 
 work. He would, I think, be popular with the soldiers." 
 The telegraph clerk ignorantly changed the word Baptist 
 to Papist, an error similar to that which had occurred at 
 the beginning of the century in the case of the Serampore 
 missionaries. The G.eneral felt some surprise that no 
 Protestant minister should have offered his services, but 
 he had as much consideration for the claims of the Roman 
 Catholic soldiers, who composed the greater part of his 
 force, as for those of another creed, and he telegraphed 
 in reply, " Send him up immediately ." Mr Gregson was 
 detained for some days at Benares for a steamer. On his 
 arrival at Cawnpore the General asked him to breakfast, 
 and was agreeably surprised to find that his new chaplain 
 was a Protestant and of the same denomination as himself. 
 Mr Gregson immediately entered on his duties, and was 
 indefatigable in his labours, both in the cantonment and 
 in the hospital. The men gratefully availed themselves 
 of his ministrations, and he soon acquired their confidence 
 and affectionate esteem. When the troops subsequently 
 marched on their arduous enterprise to Lucknow, he was 
 particularly anxious to accompany them, but the General 
 deemed it more advisable for him to continue his services 
 among the many sick and wounded, whom he left in the 
 intrenchment at Cawnpore. 
 
807 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 Sir Colin Campbell arrives in Calcutta as Commander-in-Chief August 13th. 
 The General, returning from Bithoor, hears that he has been superseded. 
 Sir James Outram appointed to command the Force. Remarks on this 
 Transaction. The General is pressed by the Enemy, and contemplates the 
 necessity of retiring to Allahabad. Sir Colin pushes on Reinforcements. 
 The General's valedictory Correspondence with Sir Patrick Grant, Other 
 Routes for reaching the Residency proposed and abandoned. Detention of a 
 portion of the Reinforcements. The General's Remarks on the Cause of the 
 Mutiny. Arrival of Sir James at Cawnpore with Reinforcements. He 
 restores tbe Command to the General. The Force crosses the Ganges. 
 Action at Mungulwar, and at the Alumbagh. The three Modes of entering 
 Lucknow. Determination to advance over the Charbagh Bridge. 
 
 ON the 13tli of August Sir Colin Campbell arrived in 
 Calcutta, to assume the office of Commander-in-Chief of 
 the Indian army. He was one of the veterans gir c C amp- 
 of the Peninsula, and had also served for many comiSie s 
 years in various posts of importance in India, in m - chlef - 
 which he had obtained much local experience and a high 
 military reputation. He subsequently distinguished him- 
 self in the Crimea, where he acquired that position in the 
 estimation of the public and of the military authorities in 
 England which led to his present appointment. When 
 intelligence of the death of General Anson reached 
 London, the vacant post in India was at once offered to 
 Sir Colin, and he embarked for Calcutta at twenty-four 
 hours' notice. On hearing of his arrival the General sent 
 him a telegraphic communication, with a brief narrative 
 of the labours and successes of his little force since he 
 had left Allahabad, and a report of his present position 
 and his future prospects. The telegram concluded with 
 these words : " I am ready to fight anything, but the 
 above are great odds, and a battle lost here would do the 
 State infinite damage. I solicit your Excellency to send 
 
S68 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 me reinforcements. I can then assume the initiative, 
 march to Lucknow, to Agra, to Delhi, wherever my serv- 
 ices may be required. With 2000 British soldiers 
 nothing could stand before us and our powerful artillery. 
 I shall soon have equipped eighteen guns, six of siege 
 calibre. But I want artillerymen and officers." 
 
 Sir Colin immediately sent back the following tele- 
 gram : 
 
 "I received your despatches by telegraph of the 12th instant 
 and of the 6th instant, reporting the successful results of the at- 
 tacks made on the enemy by the force under your command, of 
 those days respectively. The sustained energy, promptitude, and 
 vigorous action by which your whole proceedings have been 
 marked, during the late difficult operations, deserve the highest 
 praise, and it will be a most agreeable duty to me to make known 
 to his 'Lordship, the Governor-General, the sense I entertain of 
 the able manner in which you have carried out the instructions 
 of General Sir Patrick Grant. I beg you to express to the 
 officers and men of the different corps under your command, the 
 pride and satisfaction I have experienced in reading your reports 
 of the intrepid valour they have displayed upon every occasion 
 they have encountered the vastly superior numbers of the enemy, 
 and how nobly they have maintained those qualities for which 
 the British soldiers have ever been distinguished high courage 
 and endurance. 
 
 " I entirely concur in the soundness of the view you have 
 taken of your position in your telegraph of the 6th instant from 
 Mungulwar, and of all the reasons which influenced you to defer 
 for the present active operations." 
 
 The first intelligence which reached the General on 
 his return from Bithoor, after his ninth triumph over the 
 The General rebels, was, that the Government of India had 
 his pr Sarate thought fit to deprive him of his command. A 
 command. CO p V o f th e Government Gazette was received at 
 Cawnpore, from which he learned that he had been placed 
 under the directions of an officer of superior rank. Sir 
 James Outram had recently arrived from Persia, and on 
 the fifth of August was gazetted to " the military com- 
 mand of the united Dinapore and Cawnpore divisions," 
 
1857.] THE GENERAL SUPERSEDED IN THE COMMAND. 369 
 
 the latter being the old military circle in which the sphere 
 of the General's operation lay. This appointment neces- 
 sarily gave rise to an impression in India that Govern- 
 ment resented his having failed to accomplish the relief 
 of Lucknow, when he retired for the first time to Mun- 
 gulwar, and had taken the earliest opportunity of placing 
 the control of the expedition in other hands. A feeling 
 of indignation was aroused by this supersession of a 
 General in the midst of his victorious career, and there 
 were some who went so far as to arraign what they con- 
 sidered the injustice of Government in visiting him with 
 their displeasure for not accomplishing an object which 
 could not be accomplished without the reinforcements 
 which that Government had neglected to supply. The 
 supersession likewise created no little disgust in England, 
 where the announcement of victory on victory by each 
 successive mail had begun to attract public attention to 
 the merits of the General. But there does not appear to 
 have been any intention on the part of Government to 
 supersede him. Three days after Sir James Outram had 
 been placed over his head, Sir Patrick Grant wrote to 
 him, " I leave you to the unfettered exercise of your own 
 judgment, assured that you will do whatever is best for 
 the public service ; and God grant that you may be able 
 to avert from Lucknow the frightful atrocities committed 
 at Cawnpore." Lord Canning is known to have enter- 
 tained the same high sense of the value of his services, 
 and to have expressed the confidence reposed in him in 
 still stronger language. The adoption of this harsh 
 measure, which could be interpreted only as a withdrawal 
 of confidence, at a time when the hopes of Government, 
 as well as of the public, were centred on the Genera? s 
 exertions, and his uninterrupted success was the object of 
 general admiration, can be explained only by regarding it 
 as one of the most inconsiderate acts of this year of con- 
 fusion and error. 
 
 It has been subsequently stated, in explanation, that 
 Sir James Outram, being at the time Chief Commissioner 
 in Oude, it was in the natural course of things to invest 
 
 24 
 
370 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 him with military authority in that province also. But it 
 Rekarks on does not appear that he was considered as the 
 
 this transac- ~, . _ ~ *r . 
 
 tion. umei Commissioner on the date 01 nis milnjary 
 
 appointment, since he was "re-appointed to be Chief 
 Commissioner in Oude, vice Major-General Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, K.C.B., deceased," on the llth of September, 
 five weeks afterwards. There was, moreover, at the time 
 no occupation for a civil commissioner, Government 
 having resolved to withdraw the garrison from the 
 Residency, and to leave the re-establishment of its 
 authority in the province to a future campaign. Some 
 consideration was, unquestionably, due to the feelings of 
 the General, who had brought back victory to the British 
 standards, and this step was calculated to wound them 
 to the quick. Neither was this supersession softened by 
 any explanatory communication, and the General was 
 left to learn from a printed copy of the " General 
 Orders " that he had ceased to direct the future move- 
 ments of his victorious army, and was henceforth to 
 act under the orders of another. The circumstance, 
 likewise, of appointing Sir James Outram, at the same 
 time, to the command of the Dinapore and the Cawn- 
 pore divisions, appeared to place in the same category 
 of censure the general whose imbecility had occasioned 
 the mutiny at Dinapore, and the general whose valour 
 had given the first check to the rebels. No such indignity 
 was intended, but the inference was inevitable. The 
 appointment was still more liable to objection from the 
 effect it might have on the fortunes of the campaign at 
 this critical juncture. It was impossible for General 
 Havelock, when placed under the control of another, to 
 act in the same spirit of daring enterprise which he had 
 exhibited when acting on his own responsibility. The 
 presence of a superior reduced him to the subordinate 
 position of a general of brigade, and necessarily neutralized 
 those qualities which had given so peculiar a character of 
 mingled boldness and caution to his career. No two men 
 could have been selected more likely to act in harmony, 
 and to obviate the effects of this egregious blunder, than 
 
1857.] QUESTION OF RETIRING TO ALLAHABAD. 371 
 
 Outram and Havelock. General Havelock's zeal and 
 public spirit, and more especially his deep sense of duty, 
 would not allow him to slacken his efforts, though they had 
 been so ill-requited ; but there was little political wisdom 
 in thus shackling his movements. If, instead of making 
 this uncalled-for appointment, Government had pushed 
 on the 5th, and the 90th, and other detachments, and 
 Havelock had found 2500 men assembled under his com- 
 mand on his return from Bithoor, he could have resumed 
 his advance to Lucknow before the enemy had recovered 
 from the four heavy blows which he had recently inflicted 
 on them in Oude, the siege of the Residency would 
 probably have been raised, and the beleaguered garrison 
 withdrawn, three months earlier. 
 
 Notwithstanding the appointment of a superior officer 
 to command the force, there was no relaxation of the 
 General's preparations for the relief of Lucknow. 
 But the difficulties which were accumulating constrained 
 around constrained him to contemplate the pain- piatethecon- 
 ful contingency of being- obliged to abandon retiring to 
 
 n JJi-J-All-U-UJriTU -U Allahabad. 
 
 Cawnpore and retire to Allahabad. Inese embar- 
 rassments arose from the continued diminution of his own 
 troops, and the increase of the rebels in his rear and front 
 and on both flanks. Soon after his return from Bithoor, 
 it was found that, exclusive of the garrison maintained in 
 the intrenchment, and 100 men sent to destroy the boats 
 of the Oude insurgents at Dalamow, his effective European 
 strength did not exceed 685 bayonets. This was the 
 whole number left out of 1700 who had successively 
 joined his column. The sword and disease had destroyed 
 or disabled the rest. After the last fight at Bithoor, 
 scores of men, who had hitherto been kept up by the 
 excitement of action, and by the hope of striking a blow 
 for their besieged countrywomen, sunk under the reaction 
 of that compulsory inactivity which had succeeded to 
 tension almost too great for the human frame. At the 
 same time, large bodies of the enerny were preparing to 
 assail his position from Futtyghur, from Culpee, and from 
 the districts to the south. These difficulties were aggra- 
 
372 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 vated by the continued detention of the reinforcements, 
 upon which he had been led to calculate. Sir Colin 
 Campbell assumed the command of the army on the l^th 
 of August, and two days after communicated by telegram 
 to the General the admiration with which he regarded his 
 proceedings and the conduct of the men under him. The 
 General seized the opportunity of placing before him the 
 exigencies and perils of his position, and of importuning 
 him for reinforcements. 
 
 " Cawnpore, August 21st, 1857. 
 
 " I cannot express the gratification with which I have perused 
 your Excellency's telegram of the 19th instant, which has just 
 The General reacne d me. The approbation of so distinguished a 
 difficulties to 3 so ^ er ^ mv operations and views, thus conveyed to 
 Sir Colin me, more than repays me for the labours and responsi- 
 bilities of this arduous campaign, undertaken, of neces- 
 sity, at a most unpropitious season. My soldiers will as highly 
 value and deeply feel the value of your Excellency's commendation. 
 
 " I find I have not sufficiently explained the danger to which 
 I am exposed, should the enemy at Gwalior take the initiative, 
 and move on Culpee with his imposing force. It is to my left 
 rear ; and a force is at the same time endeavouring to cross from 
 Oude to Euttehpore. This would cut in on my rear, and prevent 
 even the advance of my reinforcements. I have sent a steamer 
 down to destroy his boats, but have no news of its success. The 
 Eurruckabad force would also assail me in front, and this column, 
 hitherto triumphant, would be destroyed. The Gwalior force 
 already on the Jumna is 5000 men, with 30 guns. The force 
 threatening Futtehpore by Dalamow ghat, may at any moment, 
 by the fall of Lucknow, be sweUed to, 20,000, with all the dis- 
 posable artillery of the province. The Furruckabad force is 
 12,000 men, with 30 guns. If I do not get any promise of re- 
 inforcement from your Excellency by return of telegraph, I must 
 retire at once towards Allahabad. I have no longer here a de- 
 fensible intrenchment ; that on the river being taken in reverse 
 by the enemy now assembling on the right bank of the Ganges. 
 I am for the present enabled to give them shelter from the extreme 
 inclemency of the weather, and some repose, of which they stand 
 in need ; but sickness continues to thin our ranks ; we lose men 
 by cholera to the number of five or six daily. 
 
1857.J SIK COLIN HASTENS KEINFORCEMENTS. 873 
 
 " I will frankly make known to your Excellency my prospects 
 for the future. If I can receive prompt reinforcements, so as to 
 make up my force to 2000 or 2500 men, I can hold this place 
 with a high hand ; protect my communications with Allahabad, 
 beat anything that comes against me, and be ready to take part 
 in active operations on the cessation of the rains. I may be 
 attacked from Gwalior by the mutinous contingent, with 5000 
 men and 30 guns, or by the large forces which are assembling at 
 Eurruckabad under its rebellious Nuwaub, which has also a for- 
 midable artillery; but as they can hardly unite, I can defeat 
 either, or both, in successive fights. But if reinforcements cannot 
 be sent me, I see no alternative but abandoning for a time the 
 advantage I have gained in this part of India, and retiring upon 
 Allahabad, where everything can be organized for a triumphant 
 advance in the cold season. It is painful to reflect that, in this 
 latter event, Cawnpore and the surrounding country, in fact the 
 whole Dooab, would be abandoned to rapine and misrule, and 
 Agra will feel unsupported. I do not consider that our force 
 before Delhi would be compromised, for in truth the base of its 
 operations is, strange to say, the Punjab. 
 
 " I have endeavoured fairly to state my case, and must leave 
 the decision of the important question involved in it to your 
 Excellency. I do earnestly hope that you will be able to decide 
 for prompt reinforcements. * My communications with Allaha- 
 bad, at present endangered, will be quite safe as soon as detach- 
 ments begin again to press upwards towards me." 
 
 Sir Colin had anticipated the General's request for rein- 
 forcements. As soon as he had taken over the command 
 of the army, it was determined that the troops sir coim 
 despatched to his aid should no longer be di- hastens 6 on 
 verted from the great object of relieving Luck- men^ 06 " 
 now, and. frittered away in the protection of towns and 
 districts. To use the expressive language of one who was in 
 a position to learn the real cause of the detention of these 
 troops, " Herculean were the efforts of the Commander- 
 in-Chief to tear the 5th and the 90th Eegiments from 
 the reluctant grasp of the civil authorities." The earnest- 
 
 * This despatch does not exactly correspond with the telegram published in 
 the Blue Book, but I have preferred to give the version found in the General's 
 papers. 
 
374 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, [CHAP. IX. 
 
 ness and energy of Sir Colin overcame every obstacle; 
 and in reply to the General' s representation, he was 
 enabled to inform him that a steamer, with the hea^J- 
 quarters and about seven companies of the 90th had left 
 Dinapore for Allahabad on the 14th, and were to reach 
 that station on the 21st or 22nd. He had also telegraphed 
 orders for a considerable portion of the 5th, which had 
 been detained at Mirzapore, to proceed to Allahabad, if 
 General Outram had not given instructions to the con- 
 trary. He likewise informed the General that a battalion 
 of Madras Infantry, and six 6-pounders, would leave 
 Raneegunge the railway terminus immediately, and 
 proceed by land to Benares. The letter was couched in 
 the most friendly terms, and assured the General that it 
 was ' ' an exceeding satisfaction to have the pleasure of 
 renewing his acquaintance with him, and to find himself 
 associated with him in the present service, and that he 
 was most sensible of the advantage and value of his pre- 
 sence in the very important position in which he was 
 placed at this moment." It concluded with the remark, 
 <{ the interest felt for you is of the warmest kind, and for 
 the brave troops who have proved themselves worthy of 
 having you for their chief. May God speed you, my dear 
 General ! 
 
 Having thus obtained the assurance of prompt reinforce- 
 ments, the General no longer meditated the necessity of 
 The General retiring: to Allahabad, which, indeed, he would 
 
 resolves to , . -, , i i/i 11 
 
 hold his posi- have strained every nerve to avoid, though ne 
 pom. J " felt himself compelled to lay it before the Com- 
 mander-in- Chief, as one of the possible contingencies of 
 his position. He offered his cordial thanks to Sir Colin 
 for the succour which was promised, and hoped that it 
 would only prove the advanced guard of a stronger force, 
 which was most urgently needed. He required another 
 company of artillery to work his heavy guns, and cavalry 
 to improve success. His infantry was good, but worn by 
 the war, and suffering fearfully from cholera and dysentery. 
 He expected shortly to have eighteen guns equipped, six 
 of siege calibre^ drawn by elephants, but to man them he 
 
1857.] VALEDICTORY LETTER FROM SIR PATRICK GRANT. 375 
 
 had been obliged to draw on the infantry. Happily, he 
 had discovered that twenty Sikhs in the Ferozepore regi- 
 ment had formerly been attached to Runjeet Singh's 
 well-trained artillery. They were at once incorporated 
 with his own gunners, and he designed to leave them to 
 work the guns in the intrenchment at Cawnpore, while 
 he marched to Lucknow. To fill up the ranks of his 
 Volunteer Cavalry,, he had been obliged to put foot soldiers 
 on such horses as he could pick up. He added : 
 
 "As I have been forty-two years a soldier, and made things 
 military my study all that time, I hope I may be permitted to 
 say that I should have deprecated beyond anything the late dis- 
 semination of our forces in Behar. We were strong enough to 
 hold the fortresses of Fort William, Allahabad, and Agra, and to 
 keep open our communications to Allahabad, and the Grand 
 Trunk Road, but no more. . . . The facility with which I could 
 strike one blow at Busseerutgunge on the 12th of August, and 
 another at Bithoor, on the 16th, will show how deadly the 
 attacks of our British troops become where the force is kept to- 
 gether. Whenever my reinforcements arrive I can renew my 
 attempts to relieve Lucknow, and I should hope for success, by 
 God's blessing. I only fear that the place may fall before my 
 operations can be resumed." 
 
 Sir Patrick Grant, having put Sir Colin in full posses- 
 sion of all the military arrangements which had been made 
 during his tenure of office for the suppression of valedictory 
 the mutiny, embarked to resume the command S e8 $th d ~ 
 of the army at the Madras Presidency. On leav- Sir R Grant - 
 ing Calcutta, he sent the following valedictory letter to the 
 General : 
 
 " Calcutta, August 18th, 1857. 
 
 "My dear Havelock, I have made over the command of the 
 army to Sir Colin Campbell, who was appointed Commander-in- 
 Chief in India within one hour of the receipt in London of the 
 intelligence of General Anson's death ; that is to say, on the 
 afternoon of the 1 1th of July, and on the forenoon of the day 
 following the hardy veteran was on his way to Marseilles, to 
 catch the packet. I have remained here for a few days to make 
 Sir Colin au fait of all that has been done during my short 
 
376 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 period of office. I have now accomplished that purpose, and 
 shall start for Madras on the 22nd instant. I have not failed to 
 place before the Commander-in-Chief your explanation of^he 
 reasons which determined you a second time to fall back upon 
 the Ganges, instead of prosecuting your advance to relieve Luck- 
 now, and they have satisfied him, as they did me, that you have 
 exercised a wise military discretion, and have chosen the lesser 
 of two great evils. It is now quite clear to me that you could 
 not have relieved the garrison of Lucknow, and it is equally 
 evident, that a failure would have consummated the destruction 
 of both forces. God grant the garrison may be able to hold out 
 till you can be sufficiently reinforced to relieve it effectually ! 
 If, unhappily, this may not be, we shall at least have the satis- 
 faction of feeling that every possible effort to save them has been 
 made, and that we have nothing with which to reproach our- 
 selves. In a few months we shall have some 20,000 British 
 troops 'in India, when our supremacy will be established more 
 firmly than ever ; but still we shall require native troops of some 
 description. The nature of the climate is such that we cannot 
 do without them, though the old feeling of confidence between 
 us and them can never be restored. It is still incumbent on us, 
 as a measure of sound policy, to treat them with considerate, 
 even-handed justice, and to avoid subjecting them to uncalled-for 
 degradation. And now, my dear Havelock, allow me to thank 
 you heartily and cordially for your invaluable services while we 
 have acted together on this occasion; and pray believe me, 
 always, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 "PATRICK GRANT." 
 
 Before this letter reached the General, he had already 
 sent his farewell communication to Sir Patrick : 
 
 " Cawnpore, August 23rd, 1857. 
 
 " My dear Sir Patrick, The General Orders announce to me 
 your return to Madras, and I cannot refuse myself the satisfaction 
 of offering to you my grateful acknowledgments for the honour- 
 able position in which your kind selection placed me, which has 
 given me the gratifying opportunity of nine times meeting in 
 fight and defeating the enemies of British India. As deeply do 
 I feel the fair, honourable, and soldier-like support you gave me 
 at a painful crisis, when imperious circumstances compelled me 
 
' OF TM 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 1857.] SOMTTEmFOECEMENTS REACH ALLAHABAD. 377 
 
 to retire from Oude, a movement to be justified on the soundest 
 principles, and executed without disaster, but sure to be misre- 
 presented by all the malevolent in the land. 
 
 " The Colonel Colonel Tytler continues well, and has fairly 
 earned my commendations and entire confidence. 
 
 " Ever I remain, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " H. HAVELOCK." 
 
 '" I had just finished and closed my letter of this morning to 
 you, when yours of the 18th was put into my hands. I have 
 little more to add to my former communication, and I will not 
 wander into needless repetitions. The support you and Sir Colin 
 have given me when I most needed it, demands my gratitude 
 through life. I consulted nothing in shaping my movements but 
 the honour and interests of my country, and the lasting reputation 
 of our arms. It is matter of the highest satisfaction to me that 
 my resolutions have received the stamp of your approbation. I 
 have only to add my sincere wishes that your career at the head 
 of the Madras army may be as successful as I am sure it will be 
 honourable, and that you may return to your native country as 
 happy and prosperous as your efforts to serve the State have been 
 faithful and persevering. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. HAVELOCK." 
 
 The first instalment of the reinforcements, which the 
 General had been expecting with deep anxiety, at length 
 arrived at Allahabad. But there seemed to be a Attempt to 
 fatality attending all their movements. No icemen' 
 sooner had they reached that station than the atAllahabad - 
 commandant informed him that their services were 
 required to protect his position against the Dinapore 
 mutineers, who were said to be hovering about it. The 
 General immediately sent him the most positive orders 
 not to detain them " for an hour, for any purpose what- 
 ever. Push them on with all speed. I will not permit 
 the troops of this column being diverted to the purpose 
 of casual operations by the officers under my command." 
 But the commandant still continued to urge the import- 
 ance of attacking and dispersing the mutineers, on which 
 
378 MBMOIKS OF SIR HENEY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 the General sent him a second telegram in language still 
 more peremptory : t( Whatever may be your opinion of 
 the probable success of your operations against dfe 
 Dinapore mutineers and its consequences, I consider I am 
 the best judge how the reinforcements sent to me by the 
 Commander-in- Chief are to be employed, and I desire that 
 they may be pushed forward without any delay, or further 
 remonstrance or remark.-" The troops were accordingly 
 sent on. An insurgent chief had, in the mean while, col- 
 lected 1000 men and four guns on the Oude bank, oppo- 
 site Futtehpore, with the view of crossing the Ganges 
 and cutting off the communication between Allahabad and 
 Cawnpore. The steamer, which was sent down with a 
 hundred men, succeeded in capturing or destroying the 
 whole 'flotilla of boats "which had been collected for this 
 object. The reinforcements, therefore, reached Cawnpore 
 without any interruption. 
 
 On the 23rd of August the General received a letter 
 Letter from from Colonel Inglis. dated the 16th of that 
 
 Colonel Inglis , i i i ^ i i i i n 
 
 atLucknow. month, which gave a most deplorable account or 
 the position of the Lucknow garrison : 
 
 "A note from Colonel Tytler to Mr Gubbins reached last 
 night, dated Mungulwar the 4th instant, the latter part of which 
 is as follows, ' You must aid us in every way, even to cutting 
 your way out, if we cannot force our way in.' We have only a 
 small force. This has caused me much uneasiness, as it is quite 
 impossible, with my weak and shattered force, that I can leave 
 my defences. You must bear in mind how I am hampered ; 
 that I have upwards of 120 sick and wounded, and at least 220 
 women and about 230 children, and no carriage of any description, 
 besides sacrificing twenty-three lacs of treasure, and about thirty 
 guns of sorts. 
 
 " In consequence of the news received, I shall soon put this force 
 on half rations. Our provisions will last us then till about the 
 1 Oth of September. 
 
 " If you hope to save this force, no time must be lost in push- 
 ing forward. "We are daily being attacked by the enemy, who 
 are within a few yards of our defences. Their mines have already 
 weakened our posts, and I have every reason to believe they are 
 
1857.] ANOTHER ROUTE TO LUCKNOW PROPOSED. 379 
 
 carrying on others. Their 18-pounders are within 150 yards of 
 some of our batteries, and from their position, and from our in- 
 ability to form working parties, we cannot reply to them, and 
 consequently the damage done hourly is very great. My strength 
 now in Europeans is 350, and about 300 natives, and the men are 
 dreadfully harassed ; and, owing to part of the Eesidency having 
 been brought down by round shot, many are without shelter. 
 Our native force having been assured, on Colonel Tytler's 
 authority, of your near approach some twenty-five days ago, are 
 naturally losing confidence, and if they leave us, I do not see how 
 the defences are to be manned. Did you receive a letter and 
 plan from me from this man, Ungud] Kindly answer this 
 question. 
 
 " Since the above was written, the enemy has sprung another 
 mine, which has caused us a great deal of trouble and some loss. 
 I trust that you will lose no time in coming to our assistance, 
 regardless of any letters you may receive from Mr Gubbins. 
 Military men are unanimous regarding our position. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " I. INGLIS, 
 
 " Brigadier. 
 
 " To General Havelock." 
 
 To this communication the General immediately re- 
 plied : 
 
 " My dear Colonel, I have your letter of the ] 6th. I can 
 only say, hold on, and do not negotiate, but rather perish sword 
 in hand. Sir Colin Campbell, who came out at a day's notice to 
 command, on the news arriving of General Anson's death, 
 promises me fresh troops, and you will be my first care. The 
 reinforcements may reach me in from twenty to twenty-five days, 
 and I will prepare everything for a march on Lucknow." 
 
 Sir James Outram arrived at Dinapore on the 17th of 
 August. Sir Colin Campbell assumed the command of 
 the army in Calcutta on the same day, and on 
 the 1 8th urged Sir James, in a telegram, to send out 
 on the 90th and the 5th to Allahabad without yore 
 delay. But there was to be a fresh disappoint- 
 ment. The 90th, which was despatched upwards tc 
 in the steamers on the 14th, had been recalled, and relanded 
 
380 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 by tire civil authorities, under the influence of some new 
 panic. On the 19th Sir James addressed a letter to the 
 Governor- General, stating that as General Havelock-^ad 
 " again retired from the attempt, and recrossed the 
 Ganges to Cawnpore, unable, he imagined, to cross the 
 Sye in the face of the enemy, the bridge having been 
 destroyed, he intended, if practicable, to organize a column 
 to advance to Lucknow through Juanpore, between the 
 Sye and Goomtee rivers, as the only course now left by 
 which there could be any hope of relieving our garrison 
 in Lucknow/' Having despatched this communication by 
 post, unwilling to trust it to the telegraph wires, Sir 
 James proceeded in the steamers with the troops to 
 Benares, where he expected to receive the decision of the 
 civil and military authorities in Calcutta. The route from 
 Benares to Lucknow, through Allahabad and Cawnpore, 
 was one of 250 miles ; while the direct line through Juan- 
 pore was only 150 miles in length ; but at this period of 
 the year the country was under water, and the shorter 
 route was altogether impracticable. Sir James's letter 
 appears to have reached Calcutta on the 24th, and Sir 
 Colin Campbell lost no time in sending his opinion on the 
 subject by telegraph as well as by the post. 
 
 To this plan of Sir James's there appeared to be two 
 serious objections ; the first arose from the extreme 
 exigencies of General Havelock's position. te So inade- 
 quate," says the Commander-in- Chief, "does General 
 Havelock consider his force to be for the defence of his 
 post, that he states in his telegraph, dated August 21, 
 J2.30 P.M., that if not assured of reinforcements by return 
 of telegraph, he will retire to Allahabad ; hope of co- 
 operation from him (by a force equal to accomplish the 
 movement you propose, by crossing the Ganges at Futteh- 
 pore), is not to be entertained." The second objection 
 was thus urged : " The march from Benares, by the most 
 direct route to Lucknow, is a long one, some 150 miles, 
 and the population, through which you would pass, 
 hostile. Its great recommendation, I presume to be, that 
 you would turn, or rather, come in rear of the many 
 
1857.] ANOTHER PLAN FOE RELIEVING THE RESIDENCY. 381 
 
 nullahs, which I am told interpose between Cawnpore 
 and Lucknow; this would be an important advantage. 
 But if the force you propose to collect at Benares were to 
 be moved by the river to Cawnpore, and united to Have- 
 lock's reduced numbers, do you think it would be equal 
 to force its way over the numerous nullahs, full of water 
 at this season, on the road from the latter place to Luck- 
 now ? By this route all encumbrances, such as sick, &c., 
 would be left at the different stations or posts along the 
 road, and the troops, in being conveyed by steam, would 
 suffer less than if obliged to march, and reach Cawnpore 
 many days earlier, besides relieving Havelock's anxiety 
 about his post." Sir Colin stated that " these remarks 
 or suggestions were not made with any view to fetter Sir 
 James's judgment or perfect freedom of action," and that 
 " the measures he might deem most advisable to pursue 
 would, he might venture to say, receive the approval of 
 the Governor-General." The Governor-General, likewise, 
 in a telegram of the next day, laid the same objections to 
 the adoption of the Juanpore route before Sir James, 
 adding, " the road by Juaupore may have advantages of 
 which I am not aware, and I am confident that your de- 
 liberate judgment will decide for the best." As the 
 direction of the expedition had now been taken entirely 
 out of the hands of the General, it was not deemed neces- 
 sary to make any communication to him regarding this 
 project, although it must have most materially affected 
 his plans. 
 
 Another plan which was contemplated for the relief of 
 the garrison was incidentally communicated to him by 
 Mr Tucker, at Benares, on the 23rd of August : " It is the 
 intention of Sir James- Outram to ascend the second plan 
 Gogra, and relieve Lucknow by Fyzabad, and the Rest viIJg 
 Sir James desires your co-operation, by making dency - 
 a demonstration of recrossing the Ganges." The Gogra 
 falls into the Ganges a little above Patna. The General 
 perceived many objections to this project, and still con- 
 sidered that the most effectual mode of relieving Lucknow 
 was to concentrate all the troops at Cawnpore, and ad- 
 
382 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 vance along the high-road to the capital, to which there 
 was no physical obstacle, except the Sye, if it was found 
 that the bridge on that stream had been broken d&rn. 
 But, having now been entirely superseded in his com- 
 mand, he did not offer any strictures on the scheme, and 
 simply informed the Commander-in-Chief that " if speedily 
 and strongly reinforced, he might even do more by 
 striving to regain his strong position at Mungulwar, or 
 more nearly approaching Lucknow, but he must have 
 fresh troops to enable him to do either of these." 
 
 But both these plans were given up as soon as Sir 
 James Outram learnt that the General might be obliged 
 to retire to Allahabad if not reinforced, and that it was 
 impossible for him, with his weak force, to cross the 
 Ganges and co-operate in either of them. The 90th and 
 the oth were, therefore, ordered to proceed forthwith to 
 Allahabad. 
 
 The cholera still continued to rage in the encampment 
 at Cawnpore, and the minds of men who had been un- 
 Ravagesofthe daunted by the enemy's cannon, were beginning 
 TOUdTsenuo ^ sink under the oppression of this pestilence. 
 Allahabad. g o gevere was fl^Q visitation, that the General 
 was under the necessity of sending an unofficial memo- 
 randum to the commanding officers of regiments not, 
 however, to be entered in the order-book desiring that 
 funeral ceremonials should be abridged, as a " contrary 
 course, in times of epidemic, was calculated to depress 
 the spirits of the troops." As soon, moreover, as the high- 
 road to Allahabad was freed from danger, the General 
 determined to send his invalids to that station ; it would 
 afford them superior accommodation, and his force would 
 thus be enabled to advance with greater confidence to 
 Lucknow. The arrangements, made under his own eye, 
 for their convenience and comfort on the line of march 
 were precise and particular, and the instructions provided 
 for every emergency. The party consisted of 212 Euro- 
 pean and twenty- eight native invalids, who were conveyed 
 in sixty-three country carts and twenty commissariat 
 waggons, under the escort of Captain Brasyer and his 
 
1857.] OEDER KEGARDING TEMPLES AND MOSQUES. 383 
 
 Sikhs. Two European surgeons, thirteen native doctors, 
 and nine native compounders, accompanied the detach- 
 ment, which was directed to proceed in four marches to 
 Lohanga, at which place they would obtain the conve- 
 nience of the railway carriages. The convoy reached 
 Allahabad in safety, and the rapid convalescence of the 
 men testified to the wisdom of this measure. 
 
 The General throughout his march had strictly repressed 
 every attempt to offer violence to the religious feelings 
 and prejudices of the natives. He had repri- 
 
 Tii rr* t> i J.T i .LI i Order regard- 
 
 manded two officers for having thoughtlessly ing temples 
 
 ~ , 9 , ,, G . J and mosques. 
 
 entered a temple at Onao, which the natives 
 considered an act of desecration. An anonymous com- 
 munication was at this time placed in his hands, evidently 
 from a native pen, that a Highlander had spit in the face 
 of an idol set up in the bazaar at Cawnpore, and he con- 
 sidered it advisable to issue an order prohibiting insults 
 to any object of idolatrous veneration : 
 
 " It having been reported to the General that a soldier while 
 on sentry offered an insult to some object of idolatrous worship in 
 the town of Cawnpore, the troops are warned to abstain from 
 such practices in the case either of Hindoo temples or Mahom- 
 medan mosques. The brutal villany of the population of this 
 place has been evinced by their having reduced to ashes and 
 otherwise desecrated three Christian churches during the brief 
 licence which supervened on the usurpation of Nana Sahib, 
 happily cut short by our victory at Cawnpore. But we must not 
 imitate these wretches. It has always been the wise policy of the 
 British Government to refrain from interference with the super- 
 stitions and false religions of the land, and recent provocations 
 and atrocities must not lead us to depart from this line of conduct. 
 
 " The assertion that Enfield rifle cartridges were given to the 
 native troops with a view 'of compelling them to violate by their 
 use the rule of caste, is the lying pretext of deliberate mutiny. 
 But real cause of jealousy and alarm is afforded to the inhabitants 
 of towns and villages, whenever their idols and their temples 
 (however degraded and vile in themselves) are subjected to wan- 
 ton insult and outrage." 
 
 A letter from the General to his family will exhibit the 
 
384 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK [CHAP. ix. 
 
 state of his mind during this period of excitement and 
 danger. On the 27th of August he wrote to Mrs Have- 
 lock : ^ 
 
 " It is an age since I have had a letter from any of you ; none, 
 I think, since I left Calcutta. Here I am in the midst of most 
 Letter from ex iting affairs, which hardly give me breathing time, 
 hSSf/y kut I snatch half an hour to tell you that, by God's 
 blessing, Harry and I are still alive and well. We 
 have fought nine fights with the enemy, everywhere defeated him, 
 and captured forty-two pieces of cannon. Sir Henry Lawrence, 
 the most amiable of men, was badly wounded on the 2nd of July, 
 and died on the 4th. . . . Troops are coming up to me, but I fear 
 it will be too late, and that the place will fall before I can enter 
 Oude. . . . This campaigning in the rains is trying work. Cholera 
 carries off my brave British troops, and it is only here that I 
 have 'been able to give them a little repose from the most harass- 
 ing duties and operations. I have had for two months the power 
 of life and death in my hands, for all the provinces are under 
 martial law. I trust God has enabled me to use it discreetly. . . 
 . . . Love to the dear children." 
 
 The General had been in constant communication with 
 Mr Muir, the Secretary to Government at Agra, a relative 
 Letter to Mr of his niece, Mrs Thornhill, then in the garrison 
 Muir - at Lucknow, and on the 25th of August wrote 
 
 to him, " For reasons which I cannot at present divulge, 
 the relief of Lucknow became, as a military operation, 
 impracticable. I was obliged, as a General, to come to 
 this painful conclusion, however, as a man, my feelings 
 might prompt me to a different course. May that Provi- 
 dence which, in its inscrutable decrees, has imposed on 
 me this necessity, continue to watch over those most dear 
 to us. I gave the troops in Oude a parting thrashing on 
 the 12th; and at Bithoor, on the 16th, dispersed the 
 mutineers from Saugor and took their guns." 
 . The General had inquired of Mr Tucker, at Benares, 
 sir James where a communication was likely to reach Sir 
 ?ounc t a e" James Outram, under whose command he had 
 remforce- f been placed, and immediately on learning that 
 reacne d that station, took the initiative 
 
1857.] APPKOACH OF KEINFORCEMENTS. 385 
 
 in communicating with him relative to the arrangements 
 for advancing to Lucknow. On the 28th of August a 
 telegram from Sir James gave him the most exhilarating 
 intelligence he had received for many weeks. It an- 
 nounced the approaching departure of the reinforcements 
 which had been so long and so anxiously looked for, and 
 which consisted of 1268 men of the 90th and the 5th 
 Fusiliers, including 66 artillerymen, as well as the detach- 
 ments which had hitherto been detained at Mirzapore and 
 Chunar. On hearing of the arrival of Captain Peel of the 
 Shannon in Calcutta, with his naval brigade, the General 
 advised that it should be pushed on to Allahabad, and 
 thus enable some of the troops employed in guarding that 
 fortress to take the field. He was now informed that a 
 body, little short of 500, would be relieved and sent for- 
 ward to join his force as soon as the marines arrived at 
 Allahabad. It was in this, his first communication with 
 the General, that Sir James announced his determination 
 to leave the relief of Lucknow in his hands. " I shall 
 join you with the reinforcements. But to you shall be 
 left the glory of relieving Lucknow, for which you have 
 already struggled so much. I shall accompany you only 
 in my civil capacity as commissioner, placing my military 
 service at your disposal should you please, serving under 
 you as volunteer." In reply to this communication, the 
 General remarked that the reinforcements enumerated in 
 the telegram would ' ' reduce the relief of Lucknow to a 
 certainty, if the garrison could hold out in the mean time." 
 He also stated that whenever the first detachment reached 
 him, he proposed to recross the Ganges, and resume his 
 strong position at Mungulwar, which would constrain the 
 insurgents to send a large force against him, and thus 
 bring immediate relief to the besieged garrison. 
 
 Sir James Outram reached Allahabad on the 1st of 
 September, but his first telegram to the General conveyed 
 the disheartening news that a considerable por- Detention of 
 tion of the reinforcements he had announced th p e reinfore- 
 was no longer available, as it was now required mente - 
 for local exigencies near Allahabad. The unfortunate 
 
 25 
 
386 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 mutiny at Dinapore was destined to entail a long succes- 
 sion of difficulties, and to hamper the operations for the 
 relief of Lucknow at every stage, and thus afford another 
 exemplification of the remark, that it is never possitife to 
 calculate the extent of mischief which may arise from a 
 single error. The revolt of those regiments let loose the 
 disaffected in the Behar districts, who had been held in 
 Bevoit of check for ten weeks after the outburst at Meerut. 
 Koer Singh. Among others, Koer Singh, the zemindar of 
 Jugdespore, in the province of Behar, who had been per- 
 mitted by the injudicious kindness of Government to 
 surround himself with the military array of a chieftain, 
 though only a simple zemindar, was emboldened by the 
 defection of the Dinapore troops to appear in open revolt, 
 and proclaim himself King of Shahabad. Though verging 
 on eighty years of age, he buckled on his armour with all 
 the ardour of a young warrior, boldly took the field, and 
 during the twelvemonth in which he baffled the strategy 
 of more than one of our generals, exhibited astonishing 
 military talent. Two detachments which were sent 
 against him were destroyed almost to a man, and he 
 proved to be the most formidable enemy the Government 
 had encountered in the lower provinces. He was now 
 reported to be approaching Allahabad, and it was deemed 
 necessary to leave a portion of the newly-arrived troops 
 to watch his movements. The General was, therefore, in- 
 formed by Sir James that he could bring with him only 
 the 5th and the 90th; and, as a portion of this latter 
 corps had not yet arrived at Allahabad, he would be un- 
 able to advance before the 5th of September. The entire 
 strength of the detachments now about to proceed to 
 Cawnpore the first effective reinforcement the General 
 was to receive during the two months which had elapsed 
 since he started on his expedition amounted, including 
 artillerymen, to 1449. But to the arm in which he was 
 deplorably weak there was no addition. Not a single 
 cavalry sabre accompanied the column. 
 
 Sir James took his departure from Allahabad with the 
 detachments during the 5th September, determined to 
 
1857.] SIR JAMES'S PROGRESS TO CAWNPORE. 387 
 
 push on to Cawnpore by forced marches, in 
 
 order, if possible, to accomplish the distance of 
 
 126 miles in six days. Considering the valuable time 
 
 which had been lost in forwarding these reinforcements, 
 
 this resolution was wise, and it was moreover strengthened 
 
 by the information which the Commander-in- Chief had 
 
 given Sir James, that, according to the latest advices 
 
 from Lucknow, the relief must be accomplished on or be- 
 
 fore the 10th. But the General immediately wrote to 
 
 him representing, as the result of his own experience, 
 
 that it would be impossible at this season of the year to 
 
 make marches of such length, without throwing a number 
 
 of the men into hospital, and rendering it necessary to halt 
 
 the troops after their arrival, and recruit their strength. 
 
 Whatever time might be gained by the rapidity of the 
 
 march, would thus be lost by subsequent detention. His 
 
 own little army was now freed from cholera, and the men 
 
 had derived great benefit from the repose they had en- 
 
 joyed. The advance to Lucknow would not, under exist- 
 
 ing circumstances, be a difficult operation, but it could 
 
 only be undertaken with the view of relieving the gallant 
 
 garrison. The reconquest of the province would require 
 
 a full division of British troops. This letter did not reach 
 
 Sir James till after he had commenced his march, and the 
 
 advice it contained had been anticipated by the early 
 
 occurrences on the route. Forty men of the 90th had 
 
 been disabled, and three had sunk under fatigue and 
 
 disease. Sir James had, therefore, been already compelled 
 
 to curtail his marches, and he informed the General that 
 
 as he should move on more leisurely, he did not expect 
 
 to reach Cawnpore before the 15th of the month, but he 
 
 was prepared to advance with greater speed if the pre- 
 
 sence of his troops at Cawnpore was urgently required. 
 
 To this communication the General replied, " I entirely 
 
 agree with you on the expediency of sparing the 5th and 
 
 the 90th Light Infantry on the line of march. If they get 
 
 knocked up by sickness, or even fatigue, we shall at least 
 
 have to halt them here for some days, which will in itself 
 
 be an evil. When last in Oude I had no tents, but put 
 
388 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 up my men under trees or in villages. As we shall, 
 however, have unacclimated troops on this occasion, I 
 think it would be best to pub them under canvas, ^ut 
 that point can scarcely be settled until I learn what op- 
 position we are likely to meet with in crossing. I will 
 only further add that in marching with them myself, I 
 should closely watch the sick list, and the appearances of 
 our John Bull troops, and reduce their marches so that 
 the great point may be secured of their reaching Cawn- 
 pore in pluck and strength for a short but arduous cam- 
 paign in Oude." 
 
 On the 8th of September the General received a com- 
 munication from Colonel Inglis, dated the first of the 
 Letter from month, with a detail of the lamentable condition 
 SKfth^ist an ^ the dismal prospects of the garrison. It was 
 September. un <Jer the influence of the information conveyed 
 in this letter that all the General's subsequent movements 
 were regulated. 
 
 " Lucknow, Sept. 1st, 1857. 
 
 " Your letter of the 22nd has duly reached me, in reply to 
 mine of the 1 6th ultimo. 
 
 " I regret your inability to advance at present to our relief ; 
 but in consequence of your letter I have reduced the rations, and 
 with this arrangement, and our great diminution in numbers 
 from casualties, I hope to be able to hold on from the 20th to 
 the 21st instant. Some stores we have been out of for the last 
 fifteen days, and many others will be expended before the same 
 date. I must be frank, and tell you that my force is daily 
 diminishing from the enemy's musketry fire, and our defences 
 grow weaker daily. Should the enemy make any determined 
 efforts to storm this place, I shall find it difficult to repulse them, 
 owing to my paucity in numbers and the weak and harassed state 
 of the force. Our loss, since the commencement of hostilities 
 here, has been, in Europeans alone, upwards of 300. We are 
 continually harassed in countermining the enemy, who have above 
 twenty guns in position, many of them heavy ones. 
 
 " Any advance of your force towards this place will act bene- 
 ficially in our favour, and greatly inspirit the native part of my 
 garrison, who hitherto have behaved like faithful and good 
 soldiers. 
 
1857.] HIS LETTER ON THE CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. 389 
 
 " If you can possibly give me any intimation of your intended 
 advance, pray do so by letter. Give the bearer the pass-word 
 * Agra,' and ask him to give it to me in person, and oblige me by 
 forwarding a copy of this to the Governor-General." 
 
 While the General was waiting for reinforcements at 
 Cawnpore, he communicated to the compiler The General's 
 of these memoirs his own views of the cause of SKSe 
 the mutiny, and of the course to be adopted for andTh U e tin: 
 restoring and maintaining British authority in p r e e ssfng f it up " 
 India. 
 
 " I consider that the whole Bengal army, the Contingents in- 
 cluded, has mutinied ; that the Bombay army will mutiny, and 
 that the Madras army has a good mind to mutiny, which it will 
 do or not, as things are managed here." After alluding to the 
 siege of Delhi, he proceeds to remark : " If I could get 4000 
 men together, and move up the Allyghur road, I should not 
 despair of changing the face of affairs. But my lot is cast for 
 Lucknow. The enterprise of crossing the Ganges, opposed by 
 double my numbers, is not without hazard. But it has to me, at 
 sixty-three, all the charm of a romance. I am as happy as a 
 duck in thunder. 
 
 " I conceive the causes of this grand mutiny to be pretty much 
 as your letter describes them. The fact stated in a few words is, 
 that this vast body of mercenary soldiery felt its power, and 
 formed the guilty determination of using it. It was met with 
 words when it should have found bayonets and grape-shot, and 
 the peril of its temporary successes has been and is great. 
 
 " I know it is proposed, when the danger is over, to reconstruct 
 the Native army. The attempt is ridiculous. British troops can 
 keep the field, as we have shown. So they can hold India. But 
 it would ease them to embody some Sikhs and Afighans, and 
 other borderers, to be employed at a distance from their own 
 land (I have a small Sikh' battalion with me). Thus we may 
 govern the land. The completion of the rail will multiply the 
 British force by ten. This is far better than to be again be- 
 trayed by men who should be disarmed and compelled to re-enter 
 and be absorbed in the rural population." 
 
 Sir James Outram continued to advance by moderate 
 marches, but he was not to reach Cawnpore without an 
 
390 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. ES. 
 
 The enemy attempt on the part of the enemy to obstruct 
 
 endeayour to,. m /-^ T / -i i 
 
 obstruct s his course. The General informed him that 
 sraV." ~ ' some of the Oude zemindars had crossed ^pver 
 in the neighbourhood of Futtehpore, with the view of 
 cutting in between his column and Cawnpore, adding, in 
 a postcript, " forewarned is forearmed." Major Eyre, 
 who had won the admiration of all India by his brilliant 
 relief of Arrah, and now commanded Sir James's artillery, 
 was sent against these insurgents, with 150 of the oth 
 Fusiliers, mounted on elephants, and two guns. At Hut- 
 gaon he was joined by Lieut. Johnson the commandant, 
 and Lieut. Charles Havelock, the second in command of 
 the remnant of the 12th Irregular Cavalry, forty in num- 
 ber, who had continued faithful to Government. They 
 had hastened from Benares by forced marches to overtake 
 Sir 'James Outram, and when they joined Major Eyre had 
 been twenty-four hours in the saddle, and required rest. 
 The Major halted his little force till an hour after mid- 
 night, when it recommenced its march, and came up at 
 daybreak with the enemy, who immediately fled to their 
 boats, and endeavoured to recross the river. Lieut. John- 
 son, with prompt decision and great judgment, dismounted 
 the greater portion of his men, and by a continued carbine 
 fire, succeeded in preventing the removal of the boats till 
 the European Infantry could come up. They arrived soon 
 after, and plied their rifles on the thickly crowded boats 
 with deadly effect. But the insurgents continued to de- 
 fend themselves with great vigour, till the guns were 
 brought to bear on them, which constrained them to leap 
 into the river, in which nearly the whole body perished. 
 In announcing this brief and brilliant action to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, Sir James stated that a general insur- 
 rection would have followed throughout the provinces of 
 the Dooab, had the enemy not been destroyed, as they 
 were the advanced guard of a more formidable body of 
 invaders. 
 
 Meanwhile, the General, who had maintained a daily 
 correspondence with Sir James since his arrival at Al- 
 lahabad, was indefatigable in his endeavours to provide 
 
1857.] PREPARATIONS FOR ENTERING OUDE. 391 
 
 against every contingency which might retard 
 his advance. Strenuous endeavours were made to 
 complete the equipment of his artillery. By dint Oude - 
 of exertion his little band of Volunteer Cavalry had been 
 increased to 109, and to them would now be added the 
 forty Irregular Horse under Lieut. Johnson. Four of the 
 iron boats of the Ganges Canal had happily been dis- 
 covered, which he determined to take with him to cross 
 the Sye and the Goomtee, and suitable carriages were 
 constructed for them to be drawn by twenty bullocks. 
 His spies constantly supplied him with reports of the 
 number and the movements of the enemy on the op- 
 posite bank. They were said to amount to 8000, with 
 eighteen guns, strongly intrenched at Mungulwar. He 
 had now before him the task, at all times hazardous, of 
 crossing a broad and rapid river, in the face of a superior 
 force. He carefully reconnoitred the Oude bank for many 
 miles up and down the stream ; the insurgents were thus 
 induced to develope their numbers, and he came to the 
 conclusion that he should not fail to encounter opposition, 
 at whatever point he might land. After repeated com- 
 munications with Sir James on the subject, it was decided 
 to select the route across the islands over which a road 
 had been formed and which might easily be connected 
 with each other and with the opposite shore, by the float- 
 ing bridges constructed by Captain Crommelin. 
 
 The General was anxious to make up for the valuable 
 time which had been wasted during the month of com- 
 pulsory inactivity, and determined that not a Arran g e . 
 moment should be lost in advancing to the Re- SSfnfthe 
 sidency, where, according to the latest account, Gan & es - 
 Colonel Inglis could not hold out beyond the 20th or 21st. 
 But the enemy had collected a large force on the opposite 
 bank, and might be expected to bring their guns to bear 
 on the workmen while employed in laying the bridge, who 
 would, in that case, have deserted their work, and the 
 progress of the force would have been seriously impeded. 
 The General, therefore, resolved to send over in succession 
 two strong detachments to occupy the sand-hills, and cover 
 
392 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 the construction of the bridge. Boats were accordingly 
 collected and prepared for the immediate embarkation of 
 the men, and the guns and ammunition were placedvxm 
 board. Meanwhile, the first detachment of the reinforce- 
 ments reached Cawnpore early on the 15th, and the Gen- 
 eral issued orders for the troops to embark at daybreak 
 the following morning. No tents were to accompany the 
 column, and the officers were to instruct their native fol- 
 lowers to take seven days' provisions with them. The 
 General had previously submitted to Sir James the plan 
 which he had drawn up for the organization of the force. 
 He advised that Colonel Wilson should be left in com- 
 mand of the intrenchment, with about 300 Europeans, 
 and a sufficient body of invalid and sick gunners to serve 
 the artillery, in conjunction with the Sikh artillerymen, 
 who had now been brought up to a high state of efficiency. 
 The relieving force was to be formed into two wings, as 
 their strength did not appear to justify their being called 
 brigades; one was to be placed under the command of 
 General Neill, the other under that of Colonel Hamilton 
 of the 78th Highlanders. Sir James, on the receipt of 
 this sketch, renewed the assurance that he intended to 
 leave the command of the expedition in the hands of the 
 General, and that every arrangement regarding the force 
 should be regulated by his judgment ; but he was anxious 
 that the two divisions of the force, instead of being de- 
 signated wings, should have the organization of brigades. 
 Sir James Outram arrived at Cawnpore after the last 
 division of the reinforcements, at dusk on the 15th. The 
 Arrival of sir "veterans of nine fights welcomed their comrades 
 ram wi?hre- w ^ n enthusiasm, and a feeling of the highest 
 inforcements. an i ma tion and confidence pervaded the encamp- 
 ment that night. The meeting between the two generals 
 was most cordial. Three months before they had parted 
 on the banks of the Euphrates, on the abrupt termination 
 of the Persian expedition, little dreaming that they should 
 next be associated in the more arduous task of restoring 
 British supremacy in our own revolted provinces. After 
 the arrival of Sir James, the order for the advance of the 
 
J857.] THE COMMAND RESTORED TO THE GENERAL. 393 
 
 troops on the following morning was countermanded, and 
 it was arranged that the passage of the river should be 
 postponed till the bridge communications had been com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The next morning, the 16th of September, Sir James 
 issued his first and his last Division Order, before the oc- 
 cupation of Lucknow. After detailing the ar- sirjames 
 
 f j/i j_-j_ j.- I f Outram re- 
 
 rangements for the constitution of the force, stores the 
 
 1 -I -I -i i i , n i t n r\ IT command of 
 
 which had been sketched by the General, he theexpedi- 
 
 n . i -i /> 1 1 i tlon to Gener- 
 
 transferred the command or the enterprise to ai Haveiock. 
 him. " The important duty of first relieving the garrison 
 of Lucknow has been intrusted to Brigadier- General 
 Haveiock, C.B. ; and Major-General Outram feels that it 
 is due to this distinguished officer, and the strenuous and 
 noble exertions which he has already made to effect that 
 object, that to him should accrue the honour of the achieve- 
 ment. Major-General Outram is confident that the great 
 end for which General Haveiock and his brave troops 
 have so long and so gloriously fought, will now, under 
 the blessing of Providence, be accomplished. 
 
 "The Major- General therefore, in gratitude for, and 
 admiration of, the brilliant deeds in arms achieved by 
 General Haveiock and his gallant troops, will cheerfully 
 waive his rank on the occasion ; and will accompany the 
 force to Lucknow in his civil capacity as Chief Com- 
 missioner of Oude, tendering^ his military services to Gen- 
 eral Haveiock as a volunteer. 
 
 " On the relief of Lucknow, the Major- General will re- 
 sume his position at the head of the force." 
 
 The General made his grateful acknowledgments for 
 this act of generosity in the following Order : " Brigadier- 
 General Haveiock, in making known to the co- The General's 
 lunm the kind and generous determination of mentor ec 
 Major- General Sir James Outram, K.C.B., to leave to 
 it the task of relieving Lucknow, and of rescuing its gal- 
 lant and enduring garrison, has only to express his hope 
 that the troops will strive by their exemplary and gallant 
 conduct in the field, to justify the confidence thus reposed 
 in them." In confirming this Order, Sir Colin Campbell 
 
394 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 thus expressed his admiration of the conduct of Sir James : 
 " Seldom perhaps never has it occurred to a Com- 
 mander-in-Chief to publish and confirm such an Orders 
 the following one, proceeding from Major- General Sir 
 James Outram, K.C.B. With such a reputation as Major- 
 General Sir James Outram has won for himself, he can 
 afford to share glory and honour with others. But that 
 does not lessen the value of the sacrifice he has made with 
 such disinterested generosity, in favour of Brigadier- Gen- 
 eral Havelock, C.B., commanding the field force in Oude." 
 This act of generosity has been the theme of general 
 applause, and it is certain that the moral elevation which 
 Bemarkson & g ave * Sir James's character has been incal- 
 culably more valuable than any military renown 
 which he could have acquired by the most brilliant success 
 in command of the expedition. Even his warmest admirers 
 were not prepared for an act of such singular disinterest- 
 edness. As long as the memorable events of the mutiny 
 live on the page of history, and the memory of Havelock 
 continues to be cherished as a national heritage, this deed 
 will be held in grateful remembrance. The names of the 
 two generals are inseparably linked together by this as- 
 sociation of military genius with professional magnanimity. 
 We even cease to regret the conduct of the Government 
 of India, in capriciously taking out of the hands of Have- 
 lock "the crowning glory " of relieving Lucknow, since 
 it afforded an opportunity for the display of such rare vir- 
 tue in restoring it to him. It is gratifying to our national 
 feelings to see this noble conduct as warmly appreciated 
 in the United States as it has been in England, Mr 
 Headley, the American biographer of Havelock, thus al- 
 ludes to it in his own glowing language, and we willingly 
 accept his verdict as the suffrage of his countrymen : 
 
 " Never before was so remarkable an Order issued to an army 
 by its commander the days of chivalry can furnish no parallel 
 to it. There is a grandeur in the very simplicity and frankness 
 with which this self-sacrifice is made, while the act itself reveals 
 a nobleness of character, a true greatness of soul, that wins our 
 unbounded admiration. To waive his rank and move on with 
 
1857.] CROSSING THE GANGES. 395 
 
 the column as a spectator would have shown great self-denial, 
 and elicited the applause of the world ; but not satisfied with 
 this, he joined the Volunteer Cavalry, and though covered with 
 well-earned laurels, stood ready to win his epaulettes over again. 
 All his illustrious deeds in the field, which have rendered his 
 name immortal, grow dim before the glory of this one act. When 
 they shall be forgotten, it shall remain the best eulogium that 
 could be pronounced on his name. Kings may confer patents 
 of nobility, but the loftiest titles can add nothing to the grandeur 
 of such a character. Men, by their illustrious deeds, often excite 
 the admiration of the world, but few ever win its affections. 
 Decorations and external honours may dazzle and attract the eye 
 but they do not gain the heart. Outram has won the love of 
 all true men in both hemispheres, and sits enthroned where out- 
 ward signs of greatness pass but for little." 
 
 The operation of re-establishing the floating bridges 
 commenced on the morning of the 1 6th, and was com- 
 pleted in three days, by the energetic exertions crossing the 
 of Captain Crommelin. Fortunately the enemy, Gdn s es - 
 contrary to all expectation, offered no molestation, and 
 the communication with the Oude bank was effected with- 
 out any attempt to interrupt the work. The force now 
 about to make the third attempt to reach Lucknow con- 
 sisted of the Genera? s veterans, fearfully reduced in num- 
 ber, a detachment of 200 or 300 men who had come up 
 with Colonel Stisted, and the reinforcements brought by 
 Sir James, constituting in all a force of 2500 men, besides 
 about 400 left to guard the intrenchment. The troops 
 took fifteen days' provisions with them. So complete 
 were the arrangements for crossing the river that the 
 whole force passed over on the 19th without a single 
 casualty. No sooner had the troops been established on 
 the Oude bank than a letter was received from Colonel 
 Inglis at Lucknow, written on the 16th of September : 
 
 "The last letter I received from you was dated the 24th ulti- 
 mo, since when I have received no news whatever from your 
 camp, or of your movements, but am now daily expecting to re- 
 ceive intelligence of your advance in this direction. Since the 
 date of my last letter" that of the 1st of September 
 
396 MEMOIES OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 "the enemy has continued to persevere unceasingly in their 
 efforts against this position, and the firing has never ceased night 
 or day. They have about sixteen guns in position around* us, 
 many of them 18-pounders. On the 5th instant they made a 
 very determined attack, after exploding two mines, and succeeded 
 for a moment in almost getting into one of our "batteries, but were 
 eventually repulsed on all sides with heavy loss. Since the above 
 date they have kept up a cannonade and musketry fire, occasion- 
 ally throwing in a shell or two. My weekly losses continue very 
 heavy, both in officers and men. I shall be quite out of rum for 
 the men in eight days, but we have been living on reduced rations, 
 and I hope to be able to get on as . * till about 1st proximo. 
 If you have not relieved us by that time, we shall have no meat 
 left, as I must keep some few bullocks to move my guns about 
 the position. As it is I have had to kill almost all my gun bul- 
 locks, for my men could not perform the hard work without ani- 
 mal food. There is a report, though from a source I cannot im- 
 plicitly rely on, that Man Sing has just arrived at Lucknow, 
 having left part of his force outside the city. It is said that he 
 is in our interests, and that he has taken the above step at the 
 instigation of British authority. But I cannot say for certain 
 whether such is the case, or whether he is really in Lucknow at 
 all, as all I have to go upon is bazaar rumour. I am most anxious 
 to hear from you of your advance, to enable me to reassure my 
 native soldiers." 
 
 The enemy who were expected to dispute the landing 
 of the troops,, only brought down two guns, and the re- 
 sistance they offered was little more than nominal. The 
 First opera- 5th Fusiliers, who were well-trained riflemen, 
 tionsinoude. goon succe eded, with, the aid of the guns, in 
 driving the advanced guard of the enemy back to their 
 encampment. The heavy guns, consisting of four 24- 
 pounders, and two 8-inch howitzers, together with the 
 baggage, were safely crossed over on the 20th. The two 
 brigades of the force occupied an alignment, with the 
 right centre behind the sand hills, and the left resting on 
 the Lucknow road. The Volunteer Cavalry was sent out, 
 under Colonel Tytler, to reconnoitre, and came upon the 
 
 * This word is illegible. 
 
1857.] ACTION AT MUNGULWAR. 397 
 
 enemy's advanced position at Sainjunnee, about two miles 
 in front of Mungulwar; they were fired on by two guns, 
 and then retired leisurely to camp. The object of the re- 
 connaissance was complete, it having been found that the 
 enemy still held Mungulwar. The camp-. followers, who 
 were grazing the cattle in the rear, between the column 
 and the river, hearing some talk about sowars, or horse- 
 men, fancied that the enemy's cavalry was coming down 
 on them, took fright and rushed in wild confusion into 
 the camp, and the General was obliged to take immediate 
 steps to ascertain the cause of alarm, and to repress it. 
 
 Towards the evening the force was visited by its old 
 enemy, a deluge of rain, from which the Sepoys' " pals," 
 which had been substituted for the large Euro- Action at 
 pean tents, afforded them some shelter. The Munguiww. 
 men sprung to arms at the appointed time the next morn- 
 ing all bugle calls having been prohibited during the 
 march and advanced against the enemy's position. 
 Their right rested in a village and walled enclosure ; 
 their centre and left were covered by a line of breast- 
 works, behind which six guns were posted, the high-road 
 intersecting their position. The General, according to 
 his usual tactics, determined to turn their flank. The 
 heavy battery was deployed on and across the road, to 
 engage them in front, supported by the 5th Fusiliers as 
 skirmishers. The main force then diverged to our left. 
 Under this double attack the enemy soon lost heart and 
 took to flight. Sir James Outram then placed himself at 
 the head of the little troop of horse, with as much ardour 
 as when he started in pursuit of Dost Mahomet nineteen 
 years before. The mist which had obscured the morning 
 now resolved itself into a merciless torrent of rain, but 
 nothing could check the impetuosity of this gallant little 
 band. Raised now for the first time to a strength which 
 gave them the hope, so long denied, of being able to 
 close with their slippery foe, they rapidly overtook a large 
 mass of the fugitives, and dashing in among them, com- 
 pleted their discomfiture. After some pause, they re- 
 sumed and continued the pursuit almost up to Bussee- 
 
398 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 rutgunge, a distance of eight miles, and came on two of 
 their field pieces. The defenders were cut down, and the 
 guns captured. A hundred and twenty of the en&aay 
 perished under their sabres, and the regimental colours of 
 the 1st Bengal Native Infantry were recovered. From 
 this gallant and important exploit, it may readily be 
 inferred how much more complete would have been the 
 General's previous triumphs if he had been able to reap 
 the full fruits of victory by such pursuit of the enemy. 
 Thus were the rebels driven, with trifling loss on our 
 part, from a position which a thousand British troops 
 could have defended against the whole army of Oude. 
 
 The troops bivouacked for the night beyond Busseerut- 
 gunge, and on the 22nd marched, through a deluge of 
 progress of rain, to the Sye. After their defeat at Mungul- 
 SfeAiium- war, the enemy fled with such precipitation 
 bagh. towards Lucknow, that they cast many of their 
 
 guns into wells, and neglected to destroy the bridge over 
 that stream ; and our force was thus delivered from one 
 of the most formidable difficulties on the route. The men 
 were sheltered partly at Bunnee and partly at a village 
 beyond the Sye. A royal salute was fired at the halting 
 ground, in the hope that the sounds might reach the 
 Eesidency, about sixteen miles distant, and cheer the 
 hearts of the garrison by the prospect of immediate assist- 
 ance, but in this hope the General was disappointed. 
 The force recommenced its march on the morning of the 
 23rd, and encountered no opposition till it arrived in the 
 vicinity of the Alumbagh, when the cavalry, which was 
 in advance, came in sight of the strong position the 
 enemy had taken up, and immediately retired to the main 
 body to announce it to the General. The troops were at 
 once halted for a reconnaissance. The centre and right 
 of the enemy were found to be posted on some mounds, 
 and their left rested on the Alumbagh, a pleasure -gar den 
 of one of the princes of Oude. It contained a large 
 palace, and a park laid out with great taste, and the 
 usual number of out-offices for a numerous body of follow- 
 ers and dependents. It was enclosed by a high wall, 
 
1857.] ACTION AT THE ALUMBAGH. 399 
 
 with turrets at each angle. Its tranquil and lovely aspect 
 formed a singular contrast to the fierce warfare of which 
 it was now to be the scene. 
 
 The enemy's line extended nearly two miles, and was 
 supposed to consist of 10,000 men, while a body of 
 cavalry, estimated at 1500, was massed on their Action at the 
 right. The General was anxious to turn their Alumba s h - 
 right flank, but they had planted themselves, as on other 
 occasions, behind a morass, and the turning movement 
 could only be accomplished by a considerable circuit. 
 To cover this operation, the General brought up his 
 heavy battery of 24-pounders and his two 8-inch howitzers. 
 The enemy's guns, which were masked by trees, had 
 preserved silence during the reconnaissance ; but as the 
 advancing column came within their range a withering 
 fire was opened, from which our troops suffered to some 
 extent. But the heavy battery came up, and deploying 
 on a dry spot to the left of the road, soon succeeded in 
 silencing the rebel artillery and in driving back their 
 cavalry. They stood the shock of this heavy ordnance 
 so rarely seen in the field only for a few moments, 
 and then broke up in confusion. Our troops and guns 
 followed them as closely as the nature of the ground 
 would permit. But one of their guns, planted on the 
 road, and admirably served by the well-trained artillery- 
 men of the Oude force, still continued to send destruction 
 among our troops, when Lieut. Johnson, by an act of gal- 
 lantry not surpassed in any action during this campaign, 
 without waiting for orders, made a charge with twenty 
 troopers of his Irregular Cavalry, sabred the gunners, 
 and silenced the gun. Finding himself unsupported a 
 thousand yards in advance of the force, and the enemy 
 keeping up a galling fire from a neighbouring cover, he 
 was compelled to abandon it and retire ; but the dread 
 inspired by this dashing charge deterred the enemy from 
 serving it again, and the troops were free from molesta- 
 tion during their farther advance. The enemy were soon 
 in full retreat ; two of their guns, withdrawn from the 
 field, were hastily placed in embrasures made through the 
 
400 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK.' [CHAP. ix. 
 
 wall in the Alumbagh^ and for a time continued to fire 
 on our troops, but were speedily silenced by our field 
 artillery; after which the insurgents, driven out by4^.e 
 5th Fusiliers, hastily abandoned the building, and joined 
 the fugitives, who were pressing back to the city. Five 
 guns were left as trophies with the victors. As the rebels 
 hurried across the country, Sir James Outram again 
 placed himself at the head of the Volunteer and Native 
 Cavalry, and pursued them to the Charbagh bridge, which 
 spans the canal on the margin of the city. But as this 
 position was well defended and fed with fresh troops 
 from Lucknow, and night was, moreover, coming on, he 
 prudently retired with his squadron. By the success of 
 the day the force had obtained a firm base, from which its 
 further operations towards the Residency could be con- 
 certed. 
 
 The pickets of our force were now posted in a walled 
 garden, about a thousand yards in advance, and the 
 position of troops prepared to bivouac for the night. As 
 Se3t s in r - the line was formed, Sir James Outram caused 
 theSof 0f t be announced to the troops the glorious 
 Deiw. tidings he had just received that Delhi had been 
 
 successfully assaulted on the 14th of that month, and that 
 the greater part of that city was in our possession. The 
 intelligence was received by the men with repeated and 
 hearty cheers. It came most seasonably to animate them 
 in the arduous enterprise before them of rescuing the 
 beleaguered garrison, the booming of whose guns from 
 time to time told with what resolution they still held their 
 own. As night set in the rain, which had held up during 
 the day, came down again in torrents. The baggage and 
 tents were considerably in the rear, and there was no 
 shelter for the exhausted troops, who were constrained, 
 after a hard day of marching and fighting, to seek what 
 rest they could find on the soaked ground, with no cover- 
 ing but their great-coats. The General, who had ordered 
 an extra ration of grog to the men, remained for two 
 hours superintending the disposition of the line, placing 
 the heavy guns in position to repel any night attack, and 
 
1857.] HALT AT THE ALUMBAGH. 401 
 
 looking personally to every arrangement necessary for the 
 security of the force now brought into immediate contact 
 with the great body of the insurgents collected in Luck- 
 now. In these labours he was most effectually aided by 
 the energetic efforts of Colonel Tytler, and' his two assist- 
 ants, Captain Maycock and Lieut. Moorsom. With the 
 first dawn of day he was again on horseback visiting the 
 bivouac, which had been established on a ridge, as being 
 better drained than the surrounding lowland. But, as 
 the sun rose, the ridge became visible from the enemy's 
 post in the gardens about the Charbagh, and they opened 
 a heavy fire from guns screened by the trees. This fire 
 did much damage, disabling eight men of the 78th High- 
 landers at two successive shots, and the line was, there- 
 fore, retired to a more secure position. 
 
 It was determined to halt the force at the Alumbagh 
 on the 24th, to afford the troops some repose after the 
 fatigues of the three previous days, and to com- Halt at the 
 
 ,* 7 ' . , Alumbagh on 
 
 plete the arrangements for advancing to the the 24th. 
 Residency. The tents were pitched about 11 A.M., and 
 the men thus obtained the first opportunity they had en- 
 joyed since they began their march on the morning of the 
 21st, of changing and drying their garments. The train 
 of baggage and commissariat carts, extending over a mile 
 and a half, was slowly wending its way up to the Alum- 
 bagh, when, a little after 11, a body of about 1500 of the 
 enemy's horse, who had issued from the eastern suburb 
 of the city, and passed round our rear, under cover of 
 the trees and tall crops, and were not perceived till they 
 were within 600 yards of the convoy, made a sudden rush 
 on it. The men of the 90th, who formed the guard of 
 that portion of the baggage which was now assailed, being 
 new to the country, mistook the enemy's horse for our 
 own Irregular Cavalry, and hesitated to fire on them. An 
 officer and several men of the escort were sabred in the 
 first moment of surprise. But as soon as the error was 
 discovered, the rear-guard, rapidly reinforced from the 
 camp, drove off the assailants, who left thirty men and 
 horses on the field to attest the accuracy of our rifle fire. 
 
 26 
 
402 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 The enemy's horse gave no further molestation during the 
 day, though they continued to hover round the encamp- 
 ment till sunset, displaying a large green flag by way^f 
 bravado. Far greater annoyance was experienced from 
 two of the enemy's 9 -pounders placed near the Charbagh 
 bridge, in a thick wood which afforded no mark to our 
 guns but the white puffs of smoke as they rose above the 
 trees. Our six heavy guns endeavoured to silence them 
 from daybreak till near .evening, but with little success. 
 Fired with double charges, at a great elevation, the balls 
 ricochetted through the camp, causing many casualties. 
 
 The 24th was passed by Sir James Outram in con- 
 sidering the route to be adopted for reaching the Resi- 
 modes dency. There were three modes of advancing 
 
 thI a S to it from the Alumbagh. The first led direct 
 , from the Charbagh bridge through the heart of 
 the city, for a mile and a half to the Bailey guard gate. 
 But deep trenches had been cut across this road, and it 
 was lined on both sides with strongly-built and loopholed 
 houses filled with musqueteers, who likewise swarmed on 
 the roofs. This route, generally known as the Cawnpore 
 road, was at once abandoned, in consideration of the 
 fearful sacrifice of life which the adoption of it must in- 
 evitably entail. 
 
 The second plan of approach was to make a detour from 
 the right of the Alumbagh to the Dil-koosha palace and 
 park, seize the strong defensive position which its massive 
 building and encircling wall afforded, and, under this 
 cover, bridge the Goomtee below the palace, where a 
 salient bend, with its apex towards the city, would per- 
 mit our guns to command the opposite bank by a cross 
 fire. After crossing that river, the force would, on this 
 plan, have skirted the left bank of the Kookrail nullah, 
 or rivulet, gained the Fyzabad and Lucknow road at the 
 Kookrail bridge, and following this route up to the iron 
 bridge, have established itself on the northern bank of the 
 Goomtee, within rifle-shot of the Residency. The con- 
 centrated fire of the Residency guns, and of the formidable 
 24-pounders of the General's force, would then have been 
 
1857.] THREE MODES OF APPROACHING THE RESIDENCY. 403 
 
 able to overcome all opposition to a free intercourse with, 
 the garrison over the iron bridge. This route presented 
 manifest advantages. The left flank of the force would 
 throughout its march be covered by the river, while its 
 right, abutting on the open plain, and supported by its 
 powerful artillery, would be able effectually to subdue all 
 resistance. The northern suburb of Lucknow does not 
 present the same density of buildings or population as 
 either of the other sides, and the houses consist chiefly of 
 low mud huts. It had been repeatedly demonstrated 
 during this campaign, that in anything like an open field 
 fight the enemy were utterly unable to withstand our force, 
 though their resistance in streets and houses was often 
 most formidable. 
 
 North of the Goomtee, about 1200 yards from the head 
 of the iron bridge, stood the Badshah-bagh, an enclosed 
 palace and garden, which offered an admirable defensive 
 position. The outposts of the Residency were within 
 500 yards of the iron bridge, and when the intervening 
 space had been cleared of the enemy by a cross fire, the 
 garrison might have beeu withdrawn over it to the Bad- 
 shah-bagh without difficulty. At the same time, the 
 occupation of that position would have enabled the Vo- 
 lunteer Cavalry, when increased by the junction of the 
 fifty Sikh horse at the Residency, to make distant forays, 
 and command supplies of food and carriage. If the gar- 
 rison could once be extricated from its vicious position at 
 the Residency, which exposed it night and day to a close 
 musketry fire, the operation of retiring leisurely to Cawn- 
 pore would have presented no insuperable difficulty. The 
 General had received an accurate map of the town and 
 suburbs from Colonel Inglis and the engineer officers at 
 the Residency in the beginning of August, and from that 
 time had determined to adopt this route by the Dil-koo- 
 sha. It was to carry out this object that he had brought 
 with him four of the canal boats to cross the Goomtee. 
 The feasibility of this plan was demonstrated in March, 
 J 858, when Sir Colin Campbell advanced a second time 
 to Lucknow. Sir James Outrani, then commanding one 
 
404 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 wing of his army, was detaclied by this circuitous route, 
 and gained the iron bridge with little opposition and 
 trifling loss. The position of the Badshah-bagh cor^e- 
 sponded in every respect with that of the Alumbagh, and 
 it may serve to illustrate the probable success of this mode 
 of relieving the garrison, to refer to Sir James Outranks 
 subsequent occupation of the isolated position of the 
 Alumbagh for four months, during which period the whole 
 army of Oude was unable to make any impression on it, 
 or to hinder him from receiving convoys from Cawnpore, 
 or foraging around, and drawing supplies from the ad- 
 jacent country. 
 
 It appears evident, therefore, that if the General had 
 been enabled to execute his plan of advancing to - the 
 relief of the Residency along the northern bank of the 
 Gooiritee, the march might have been accomplished with 
 a small sacrifice of life. No power of the enemy could 
 have dislodged our force from the Badshah-bagh; nor, after 
 the iron bridge, by a simple engineering operation, had been 
 converted into a safe means of transit for the garrison, 
 could they have prevented our retiring to Cawnpore. 
 Even if this retirement had not been deemed advisable at 
 the time, the immediate pressure on the garrison would 
 have been relieved by throwing in fresh troops, stores, 
 and provisions, while our main body, keeping the open 
 field, would have created a powerful and important diver- 
 sion. But circumstances appeared to militate against the 
 adoption of this course, which the General had contem- 
 plated for many weeks. The three days of incessant 
 rain, which had annoyed the force on its progress, had 
 soaked the ground, and after a reconnaissance, made 
 under the directions of Sir James Outram on the 24th, it 
 was reported to be absolutely impossible to move even 
 the light field pieces across the country. This route was, 
 therefore, abandoned. It might still have been adopted, 
 if the force could have remained at the Alumbagh three 
 or four days, till the ground had attained sufficient con- 
 sistency for the transit of the guns. But the exigency of 
 the garrison was believed to be so pressing, and its peril 
 
1857.] KOUTE OVER THE CHARBAGH BRIDGE ADOPTED. 405 
 
 so imminent, as not to admit of the delay of a single day. 
 It was known to be on reduced rations ; it was in hourly 
 danger from the mines of the enemy, and still more from 
 the defection of the few native Sepoys who yet remained 
 faithful, and who might be expected to desert it any hour, 
 if relief appeared to them hopeless. 
 
 There remained only the desperate alternative of forcing 
 the passage of the Charbagh bridge, and advancing by a 
 circuitous lane along ..the left bank of the canal, Determina- 
 te the group of well-fortified palaces and build- I* 5 ] the 
 ings which lay to the east of the Residency. It g^the 
 was well known, from the reports of spies, that bridge. 
 the farther bridge-head at Charbagh had been strongly 
 intrenched, and that a battery of six guns had been estab- 
 lished to sweep the approach to it. The lofty houses in 
 its vicinity had been loopholed and barricaded, and the 
 rebels evidently conceived that the entrance into the city 
 at this point was thus hermetically sealed. This hazard- 
 ous undertaking could be justified only by the hourly 
 peril in which the garrison was supposed to stand. With 
 any other troops than those now grouped around the 
 Alumbagh, burning with impatience for the signal which 
 should take them, at all hazards, to the rescue of 
 their fellow- country women and children, even the most 
 sanguine commander might have paused before he com- 
 mitted his force in an enterprise in which the least check 
 must involve not only its own annihilation, but likewise 
 that of the garrison. But the victors of Cawnpore, of 
 Onao, and of Bithoor, had shown themselves equal to any 
 demand on their valour, and the reinforcements which had 
 recently joined them were inspired with a feeling of the 
 most ardent emulation. 
 
 In the course of the day, therefore, Sir James resolved 
 to enter the city over the bridge, and then turning to the 
 right, to advance to the Residency by this route. The 
 baggage, the sick and wounded, and the hospital, were to 
 be left at the Alumbagh, under the charge of Colonel 
 M'Intyre, of the 78th Highlanders, with six officers, 
 forty- two non-cominissioned officers, and 250 European 
 
406 MBMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. ix. 
 
 soldiers, chiefly footsore men, who had been disabled 
 during the march. Owing, however, to some confusion 
 in withdrawing the pickets on the morning of the 25ftp, 
 the number left in the Alumbagh fell little short of 400. 
 The troops were directed to take sixty rounds of ammu- 
 nition in their pouches, and a reserve of the same quantity 
 per man was to be conveyed on camels. The G-eneral 
 had not forgotten Ghuzni, where the Affghan expedition 
 had well nigh proved abortive from the absence of the 
 heavy guns, which Sir John Keane had left behind him at 
 Candahar, and he succeeded in overcoming Sir James 
 Outranks objections to take the 24-pounders with the 
 force. The parole of the day was " Patience." 
 
407 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Advance to the Charbagh Bridge and into the City. The Generals rush to 
 the Residency, and enter it in the Dark Losses in the Rear-guard, and 
 among the Wounded. Remarks on this Occurrence. The General's De- 
 spatch on the Operations of the 25th. Sir James assumes the Command of 
 the Force. Determines to remain at the Residency. The Blockade. Ad- 
 vance of Sir Colin Campbell's Force. The General's operations to aid him. 
 His last Despatch. The Meeting of the three Generals. Sir Colin de- 
 termines to retire to Cawnpore. The General's Letters to his Family, No- 
 vember 19th. His Illness. His Death and Burial. His Military Character. 
 His moral Courage. His Christian Character. Honours paid to his 
 Memory in England, in France, in America. 
 
 ON the morning of the 25th September the General rose, 
 as usual, before dawn, and passed some time in devotional 
 exercises, commending his troops and himself 4e T ch2rba h 
 to the Divine protection. To allow the men bridge. 
 time for a cooked meal, as a preparation for the arduous 
 duty before them, and to complete the arrangements for 
 clearing off the camp ground into the Alumbagh, eight 
 o'clock had been fixed for the hour of march. The troops 
 were drawn up in front of the Alumbagh, and formed for 
 the advance. "Toil, privation, and exposure/' says Major 
 North, "had left traces on the forms of the men, yet 
 daring, hope, and energy seemed depicted in their coun- 
 tenances." A small table had been placed in the open 
 field, at which the General and his immediate staff partook 
 of a breakfast. A few minutes before eight Sir James 
 Outram came down with his staff from the Alumbagh, 
 and informed the General that he had thought it advisable 
 to modify the plan resolved on the previous day, which 
 provided that one of the brigades should diverge to the 
 right ; and it was. now his intention that both brigades 
 should proceed direct to the Charbagh. The map of the 
 city was then spread out on the table, and as the two 
 
408 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 Generals and their staff bent over it and traced the route, 
 a nine-pound shot, from the enemy's battery, coming 
 straight towards the table, fortunately struck the ground 
 at the distance of about five yards from it, and rising, 
 bounded over their heads, leaving them uninjured. Be- 
 tween eight and nine the welcome order to " advance " 
 was given. Sir James Outram took the command of the 
 first and leading brigade, with all the artillery, heavy 
 and light. The second brigade, under the General, 
 followed in support. Scarcely had Sir James's brigade 
 passed our own advanced picket, than it was assailed by 
 a heavy fire in front, and on either flank, and more 
 especially by two guns planted near a house, called, from 
 its colour, the Yellow House. " The enemy/' says Sir 
 James^ Outram, "had on that occasion flanked his road 
 under cover of long high grass, and a murderous fire was 
 poured on the column from a double- storied house, full of 
 musqueteers, and from the loopholed walls of the large 
 surrounding gardens, from two guns that raked the road 
 from the right flank, and another that commanded his 
 front. But steadily and cheerily Captain Maude pushed 
 on with his brave men, and in the face of this desperate 
 opposition did he bring them through, though not with- 
 out the loss of one-third of his artillery force. . . . But for 
 his nerve and coolness on this trying occasion, the army 
 could not have advanced." The road leading from the 
 Alumbagh to the city bends to the right, till it comes 
 into a direct line with the bridge which spans the canal. 
 It was here that the enemy had determined to make their 
 stand, and dispute the entrance to the city. The bridge 
 was defended by six guns on the Lucknow side one of 
 them a 24 -pounder which completely swept the passage 
 across it, as well as the approach to it. All the houses 
 near it were loopholed and filled with musqueteers. On 
 coming under this destructive fire in front, while they 
 were at the same time assailed from the wall of the 
 Charbagh enclosure on the right, the troops were halted, 
 and directed to lie down under such cover as they could 
 find. The breadth of the road would only permit two 
 
1857.] ADVANCE TO THE CHARBAGH BRIDGE. 409 
 
 guns to be deployed. Two of Maude's guns were, there- 
 fore, brought up and planted, necessarily without cover, 
 to reply to the fire of the six pieces of the enemy, well- 
 sheltered behind a breastwork, and which poured grape 
 on them at a distance of less than 150 yards. Sir James 
 Outram, with one regiment, entered the enclosure to the 
 right, resolved to clear it of the enemy, and to emerge on 
 the margin of the canal, which there commands the 
 opposite bank, and thus bring a flanking fire to bear on 
 the defenders of the bridge. But it became every moment 
 more apparent that Maude's two guns would not be able 
 to silence the superior artillery of the enemy in their front. 
 Almost every man at them was either killed or wounded, 
 while Captain Maude himself, and his subaltern, Lieut. 
 Maitland, each pointing a gun, remained unscathed ; but 
 he had repeatedly to call for volunteers from the infantry, 
 to replace the gunners who fell around him. There was 
 no appearance of the turning force under Sir James, 
 which, having made a wider detour than was intended, had 
 not then reached the point on the canal whence its fire 
 would tell on the enemy. It was evident that this state 
 of things could not last, and that recourse must be had to 
 the bayonet. General Neill, who commanded the first 
 brigade in Sir James's absence, was at length persuaded 
 to allow a charge, and the 1st Madras Fusiliers were 
 ordered to advance. Lieut. Arnold, a young officer ever 
 conspicuous even among the daring spirits of that noble 
 regiment, had been impatiently watching for the signal. 
 At the first word, and without waiting for the regiment 
 to rise and form, he dashed on to the bridge with some 
 ten of his men. This act probably saved the regiment 
 from a heavy slaughter. The enemy, suspecting from 
 the movement among our troops that a rush was about to 
 be made, reserved a full discharge of grape for the moment 
 when the head of the column should appear on the bridge. 
 Mistaking this little band, and the two mounted staff 
 officers who accompanied it, for the main body, they fired. 
 Arnold himself fell, shot through both legs ; and his 
 devoted followers were swept down almost to a man. 
 
410 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP, x, 
 
 Colonel Tytler, the Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster- 
 General, had his horse shot under him. Lieut. Havelock, 
 the Deputy- Assistant Adjutant -General, alone remaned 
 on the bridge, the mark for a hundred bullets. In this 
 position he waved his sword, and called on the Fusiliers 
 to advance. Thus animated, and nobly led by their 
 regimental officers, they dashed forward with a cheer, 
 without giving the enemy time to reload, advanced over 
 the prostrate bodies of their comrades, and rushing on 
 the guns amidst a storm of bullets, wrested them from 
 the enemy, and bayonetted the gunners. Sir James, at 
 the same moment, emerged from the Charbagh garden, 
 on the margin of the canal, just in time to witness the 
 rush of the Fusiliers, and the capture of the guns. 
 
 Tfye attempt of the enemy to defend the entrance to the 
 city was thus overcome; our troops had entered it. The 
 Advance from 78th Highlanders were pushed forward on the 
 
 the Charbagh ^ i -n i 
 
 bridge. Gawnpore road towards the .Residency, to cover 
 the passage of the troops and baggage, and allow of the 
 captured guns and ammunition, which could not be 
 removed, being thrown into the canal. The remainder of 
 the troops turned short to the right, and began to thread 
 the narrow lane before alluded to. The 78th Highlanders 
 held their position at the head of the street, as the baggage, 
 the wounded, and the followers denied over the bridge. 
 As soon as the enemy perceived that it was an unsupported 
 rear-guard, it was assailed by overwhelming numbers, but 
 continued firmly to hold its own. In this unequal struggle, 
 which lasted nearly three hours, its ammunition was more 
 than once exhausted and renewed. On one occasion the 
 enemy, becoming more bold, brought two brass 9-pounders 
 to bear on the Highlanders, but they immediately left the 
 shelter of the houses, captured the guns, hurled them into 
 the 'canal, and then calmly resumed their defensive posi- 
 tion. Eepeatedly tried through this campaign, and 
 always found worthy of its high reputation, never did the 
 valour of this gallant regiment shine brighter than in this 
 bloody conflict. Two Victoria Crosses rewarded its 
 exertions, and they were given by the election of the 
 
1857.] ADVANCE TO THE RESIDENCY. 411 
 
 corps. One was assigned to Lieut, and Adjutant, now 
 Captain, Herbert M c Pherson, for his conduct in the 
 splendid charge on the two guns ; the other was bestowed 
 by the universal acclamation of the soldiers on Assistant- 
 Surgeon Valentine M c Master, for the devoted gallantry 
 with which he risked his life in binding up the wounds 
 and securing the retreat of the men under his charge, 
 disabled by the bullets of the enemy. Lieut. Havelock, 
 who had been directed to look to the safety of the convoy 
 as it denied over the bridge, had just seen the last waggon 
 across, and given orders for the Highlanders to be with- 
 drawn, when he received a wound in his arm, and was 
 carried forward insensible in a doolie. 
 
 The main body, after having crossed the bridge, turned 
 sharply to the right, and skirting the left bank of the 
 canal, advanced slowly, but without any material opposi- 
 tion, till it had reached a point between the Motee muhal 
 and the building which had been the mess-house of the 
 32nd. It was between this spot and the Eesidency, a 
 distance of about three-quarters of a mile, that the 
 strength of the enemy was concentrated, and here the real 
 struggle of the day, after the forcing of the bridge, took 
 place. At the Begum Kothee and the King's stables, 
 which was the entrance of the main street from the east 
 to the Residency, the enemy made a firm stand, but were 
 soon driven in by the fire of the heavy guns. The troops 
 then moved on amidst a fire from the Kaiser-bagh, or 
 King's palace, "under which/' as the General remarked, 
 " nothing could live." Two of the heavy guns, under 
 Major Eyre, opened on the Kaiser-bagh battery, and 
 twice silenced it for a time. The troops then crossed a 
 narrow bridge over a little nullah, which was completely 
 commanded by the mess-house, the roof of which was 
 swarming with musqueteers. The force was halted under 
 the shelter of a wall of one of the palaces, to allow the 
 long column, the progress of which had been impeded by 
 the narrowness of the streets and by the heavy guns, to 
 come up, and the troops obtained some respite. The 
 Highlanders now came up to the position occupied by the 
 
412 MEMOIRS OF SIK HENRY HAVELOCK, [CHAP, x 
 
 Generals. Having lost all trace of the main body, they 
 had taken a more direct route to the left, which brought 
 them up to the gate of the Kaiser-bagh, where they ijook 
 the battery which was playing on the Motee muhal. It 
 was at this time that the General first heard that his son 
 had been wounded, but of the nature of the wound he 
 could learn nothing. 
 
 The main body of the troops was now in the vicinity of 
 the Fureed Buksh palace, about 500 yards from the Resi- 
 The Generals dency. They had been fighting throughout 
 Residency. 6 the day, with little rest and no refreshment, 
 and were impatient to be led on to the goal of their 
 hopes. Lieut. Moorsom, who had been sent to seek a 
 safe line for farther advance, had not returned. Night 
 was setting in, and Sir James was desirous of halting 
 wher"e they were, collecting the guns and wounded, and 
 advancing to the Eesidency the next morning. But the 
 General strenuously urged the importance of achieving an 
 immediate communication with the beleaguered garrison, 
 and his advice prevailed. The ever-ready and gallant 
 Highlanders as many of them as had survived the 
 sanguinary conflict of the day were called to the front, 
 as well as the regiment of Sikhs. The General and Sir 
 James, notwithstanding the wound the latter had received 
 in the early part of the day, placed themselves at the head 
 of this little band of heroes, accompanied by Lieut. 
 Hudson, Lieut. Charles Havelock, and Lieut. Hargood, of 
 the staff. As soon as this detachment had started, the 
 1st Madras Fusiliers were moved on in their wake, and 
 as the last men of this corps were defiling through the 
 arch into the street called the Khas bazaar, some rebels, 
 who were secreted in a room above, and had not ventured 
 to fire while our troops were passing, lest they should be 
 discovered and slaughtered, began to ply their muskets, 
 and one of them, distant only a few feet from General 
 Neill, shot that gallant officer through the head as he 
 approached the arch. The General fell from his horse, 
 and never spoke more, and thus had the service to mourn, 
 
1857.] THE TWO GENERALS REACH THE RESIDENCY. 413 
 
 at this critical juncture, the loss of one of its noblest and 
 most valuable officers. 
 
 The Highlanders and Sikhs, with the two commanders 
 at their head, pushed on to the Residency through an in- 
 cessant storm of shot. The loopholed houses on ThetwoGen- 
 either side poured forth a stream of fire as they thftuS? 1 
 advanced. Every roof sent down a shower of dency - 
 missiles on them. Deep trenches had been cut across the 
 road to detain them under the fire of the adjacent build- 
 ings. At every angle they encountered a fearful volley. 
 Seldom have troops had such a gauntlet of fire to run, 
 but officers and men, animated by the Generals, sternly 
 moved on. " At length/' writes the General, " we found 
 ourselves at the gates of the Residency, and entered in 
 the dark in triumph. Then came three cheers for the 
 leaders, and the joy of the half-famished garrison, who, 
 however, contrived to regale me, not only with beef cutlets, 
 but with mock-turtle soup and champagne. I had little 
 relish for delicacies, for you may conceive my anxiety 
 about Harry. Till morning there were no tidings of him, 
 when his cousin, young Bensley Thornhill, who had never 
 seen him, volunteered to go out and look for him. He 
 brought him in on a stretcher, carried by four Highlanders; 
 but, alas ! the gallant Thornhill paid dearly for his in- 
 trepid exertions. One ball struck him under the right 
 eye and injured his skull ; another smashed his right fore- 
 arm to pieces. It was amputated, but he died, after 
 lingering nine days in hospital, leaving my niece a young 
 widow. . . . Harry had been shot by a musket-ball 
 through the left elbow joint; but the wound healed 
 wonderfully, and he will recover the use of the limb." 
 
 The scene within the Residency has been eloquently 
 described by a staff officer : 
 
 " Once fairly seen, all our doubts and fears regarding them were 
 ended ; and then the garrison's long pent-up feelings of anxiety 
 and suspense burst forth in a succession of deafening cheers. From 
 every pit, trench, and battery from behind the sand-bags piled 
 oil shattered houses from every post still held by a few gallant 
 
414 MEMOIRS OF SIE HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. X. 
 
 spirits, rose cheer on cheer even from the hospital many of the 
 wounded crawled forth to join in that glad shout of welcome to 
 those who had so bravely come to our assistance. It was ajjno- 
 ment never to be forgotten. The .delight of the ever -gallant 
 Highlanders, who had fought twelve battles to enjoy that moment 
 of ecstasy, and in the last four days had lost a third of their 
 number, seemed to know no bounds. The General and Sir James 
 Outram had entered Dr Fayrer's house, and the ladies in the gar- 
 rison and their children crowded with intense excitement into 
 the porch to see their deliverers. The Highlanders rushed forward, 
 the rough-bearded warriors, and shook the ladies by the hand 
 with loud and repeated gratulations. They took the children up 
 in their arms, and fondly caressing them, passed them from one 
 to another in turn. Then, when the first burst of enthusiasm 
 was over, they mournfully turned to speak among themselves of 
 the heavy losses they had sustained, and to inquire the names of 
 the numerous comrades who had fallen in the way." 
 
 Sir James Outram and the General having thus led the 
 way to the Residency with the 78th Highlanders and the 
 Losses in the Sikhs, the other portion of the force at the Fu- 
 and r fmi ree( * Buksh began to follow them. But the road 
 the wounded. wag f oun( j ^0 ^Q intersected by numerous 
 trenches, which the enemy had dug, and it was manifestly 
 impossible to bring on the heavy artillery. Lieut. Moor- 
 som, who was thoroughly acquainted with the localities, 
 and who accompanied the remainder of the column, find- 
 ing the progress of one of the guns thus arrested, offered 
 to point out another and a safer path. The troops and 
 guns were, therefore, withdrawn, and conducted by him 
 through a route, which enabled them to reach the Resi- 
 dency during the night without loss. The rear-guard, 
 consisting of the 90th, under Colonel Campbell, had been 
 left with two of the heavy guns at the Motee muhal, to 
 aid the advance of the 78th Highlanders, who had, appar- 
 ently unknown to them, taken a different path, and 
 joined the main body under the Generals. With this 
 rear-guard were the spare ammunition waggons and the 
 wounded. During the night of the 25th Lieut. Johnson, 
 whose brilliant charge in the action at the Alumbagh has 
 
1857.] SLAUGHTER OF THE WOUNDED. 415 
 
 already been mentioned, dismounted half his troop of 
 Irregular Cavalry, and issuing from the Residency with 
 the led horses, proceeded of his own accord, in the direc- 
 tion of the Motee muhal, to bring in as many of the 
 wounded as he might find. He discovered no trace of an 
 enemy in any direction, and it is highly probable that if 
 advantage could have been taken of this circumstance, 
 which, unhappily, was not known, the whole of the rear- 
 guard, with the guns, the ammunition, and the wounded, 
 might have reached the Residency before the morning in 
 safety, and the unhappy loss which partially dimmed the 
 triumph of the day, would have been avoided. On the 
 morning of the 26th, Mr Bensley Thornhill, of the civil 
 service, the husband of the General's niece, volunteered 
 to proceed and bring in his cousin Lieut. Havelock, and 
 the rest of the wounded. It was arranged that he should 
 take the road contiguous to the river, which was wholly 
 screened from the fire of the enemy, except on two points. 
 Pursuing this route, he reached the Motee muhal in safety, 
 but in guiding his charge to the Residency, lost his way, 
 and inadvertently entered a square, where the convoy of 
 litters was immediately enveloped by the enemy's fire. 
 The escort, with a few noble exceptions, thinking only of 
 their own safety, rushed on through the street faster than 
 the litters could follow them. The doolie bearers threw 
 down their burdens and fled, and the insurgents dashed 
 forward and slaughtered the wounded to the number of 
 thirty or forty. Two of the leading doolies were, how- 
 ever, forced on through the fire, and reached the Resi- 
 dency. One of them contained Lieut. Havelock, and a 
 wounded soldier of the 78th Highlanders. They were 
 saved from destruction by Private Henry Ward, who re- 
 mained at the side of the doolie under an awful fire, and 
 prevented the bearers from dropping their double load. 
 For this act of intrepid gallantry the Victoria Cross has 
 been awarded to him. The doolies which had not entered 
 the square when the massacre commenced, immediately 
 turned back, regained the right path, and reached the 
 Residency later in the day without loss. 
 
416 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 The enemy appeared to have been staggered by the 
 bold and impetuous movements of the Generals on the 
 25th, and all opposition ceased at nightfall. But dayjight 
 disclosed to the rebels that the rear-guard at the Motee mu- 
 hal was separated from the Residency and unsupported. A 
 heavy fire was immediately opened on that position from the 
 Kaiser-bagh and the neighbouring buildings which com- 
 manded it, and the troops were exposed to imminent peril. 
 Reinforcements were promptly sent from the Residency, 
 under the command of Colonel, now Sir Robert, Napier, 
 who reached the scene of danger without difficulty, under 
 the skilful guidance of Lieut. Moorsom. Of the heavy 
 guns remaining with the rear-guard, one had been left in 
 the road in front of the palace-gate, exposed to a fire from 
 the enemy's riflemen, which nothing could survive. 
 During the day, every gunner who approached it was shot 
 down, and the attempt to withdraw it was abandoned till 
 night. Under the able directions of Captain Olpherts, 
 private Duffy, of the 1st Madras Fusiliers, by an act of 
 the most extraordinary valour, crept out after nightfall 
 and succeeded in attaching a drag rope to the gun, by 
 means of which it was extricated from its perilous position. 
 He thus earned the distinction of the Victoria Cross. 
 During the night of the 26th the whole of the rear-guard, 
 with the guns and the ammunition waggons, left the 
 Motee muhal in silence, guided by Lieut. Moorsom, and 
 reached the Residency, unperceived by the enemy, two or 
 three hours before sunrise on the 27th, without a single 
 casualty. Its previous loss was computed at sixty killed 
 and wounded. 
 
 This was the only mischance which attended the Gen- 
 eral's progress from Allahabad to Lucknow, and it has 
 consequently attracted a degree of notice dispro- Remarks^ 
 portioned to its intrinsic importance in a long rence. 
 series of military operations. Two of his movements on 
 that day have been considered open to objection; but 
 these are purely military questions, which must be decided 
 by military authorities. It would be presumptuous for a 
 lay writer to usurp their office, and his duty must be 
 
1857.] EEMARKS ON THIS MISCHANCE. 417 
 
 limited to a simple notice of the reasons which appear to 
 have swayed the General's mind, and which must, there- 
 fore, be candidly taken into consideration. It has been 
 questioned whether it was wise to bring on four heavy 
 guns and the cavalry through the narrow streets of a 
 populous and hostile city, at the risk of impeding the ad- 
 vance of the force. But the General considered that any 
 inconvenience which might be occasioned by the guns 
 would be counterbalanced by their value in the progress 
 of the column through a series of fortified palaces and 
 buildings which possessed the strength of fortresses. He 
 always held a strong opinion on the question of heavy 
 artillery, based on the manifest difficulties which the want 
 of it had entailed on Napoleon at Acre ; on Wellington 
 at Burgos ; and on Lake at Bhurtpore. This view was 
 fortified by his own observation of the all but fatal result 
 of having left the heavy guns at Candahar when the army 
 marched to Ghuznee. He had, therefore, formed the fixed 
 determination on no occasion to leave them behind him 
 when there might possibly be occasion for their use. He 
 was imperfectly acquainted with the localities through 
 which the force must pass, and Sir James Outram, who, 
 on the strength of his superior local knowledge, had at 
 first dissuaded him from this step, did not finally appear 
 to oppose it with much determination. Moreover, those 
 who attribute the loss sustained by the force to the en- 
 cumbrance of these four guns, should not lose sight of the 
 fact that, but for the aid of their powerful fire, the pro- 
 gress of the column might have been more than once 
 completely checked during the day, or if success had been 
 achieved by the bayonet alone, it would probably have been 
 at a more serious sacrifice of life. With regard to the 
 cavalry, it must be borne in mind that the object of this 
 expedition was simply to withdraw the garrison to Cawn- 
 pore, and although the General was not able to accomplish 
 his purpose of entering the Residency from the north, 
 through the open country, he still considered that this 
 would be found the most feasible mode of withdrawing 
 from it. In that case the cavalry, raised to the strength 
 
 27 
 
418 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 of 200 by the addition of tlie Sikli horse in the Residency, 
 would have been found invaluable in making forays and 
 obtaining supplies. a^ 
 
 In reference to the successful importunity of the General 
 with Sir James Outram to push forward to the Residency 
 on the evening of the 25th, it is to be remarked, that he 
 had no doubt, from the letters of Colonel Inglis, that the 
 garrison was reduced to the greatest straits. They were 
 exposed to the most serious danger from the enemy's 
 mines, which might be sprung at any time. But their 
 greatest peril arose from the anticipated desertion of the 
 native troops, whose fidelity had hitherto been maintained 
 by the hope that the garrison would be placed beyond all 
 risk by the arrival of reinforcements, but who were likely 
 to lose heart and desert when they found those reinforce- 
 ments checked, and, for aught they knew, annihilated 
 when almost within reach of them. Colonel Inglis had 
 likewise stated that in their enfeebled state, they would 
 not be able to resist any determined assault of the enemy. 
 The General dreaded, therefore, lest the insurgents, find- 
 ing the relieving column apparently brought to a stand- 
 still, should redouble their exertions, and by one vigorous 
 onslaught overpower the garrison, and thus defeat the 
 object for which such sacrifices had been made. He 
 thought it would have been more advisable not to advance 
 at all on that day, than after advancing, to stop at the 
 threshold of the Residency. The rebel Sepoys, moreover, 
 appeared for the moment to be panic-struck by the 
 rapidity of our movements ; and the General, taught by 
 long experience the importance of following up such an 
 impression, was anxious to take advantage of their terror, 
 which he knew might as rapidly subside through our in- 
 action. In that case, they might be emboldened to re- 
 occupy the intervening buildings in great force, and render 
 the approach to the Residency more perilous. These are 
 among the reasons which appear to have influenced the 
 General in deciding on these measures, and they will serve 
 to assist professional judges in coming to a sound con- 
 clusion on them. The apprehension he entertained re- 
 
1857.] DESPATCH ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE 25TH. 419 
 
 specting the explosion of the mines appears to have been 
 verified by the disclosures subsequently made at the 
 Residency, which are thus described by Sir James Out- 
 ram : " Still much opposition had to be encountered ere 
 we attained the Residency just in time, apparently ; for 
 now that we have examined the outside of the defences, 
 we find that two mines had been run far under the garri- 
 son's chief works ready for loading which if sprung, 
 must have placed the garrison at their mercy." 
 
 The loss of life on the 26th is greatly to be deplored, 
 but the massacre of the wounded cannot be attributed 
 with equity to this movement, inasmuch as it would have 
 been altogether avoided if Mr Thornhill had not missed 
 his way. The contest to which the rear-guard was ex- 
 ppsed was exceedingly severe, but it served to demon- 
 strate the strength of opposition which the whole force 
 would have encountered the next day, and to illustrate 
 the peril which might have attended its remaining cooped 
 up during the night between walls where it could not act, 
 and where its numbers might only have served to render 
 the effect of the fire opened on it at daybreak the more 
 destructive. The question may therefore arise, whether 
 the aggregate sacrifice of life would not have been greater 
 if the movement to the Residency had not been accom- 
 plished on the evening of the 25th. 
 
 A day or two after the force had entered the The General's 
 Residency the General sent the following de- thl pa opera- on 
 spatch to the Commander-in-Chief : 25th. 
 
 " Residency, Lucknow, Sept. 30th, 1857. 
 
 " Sir, Major-General Sir James Outram, having, with charac- 
 teristic generosity of feeling, declared that the command of the 
 force should remain in my hands, and that he would accompany 
 it as Civil Commissioner only, until a junction could be effected 
 with the gallant and enduring garrison of this place, I have to 
 request that you will inform his Excellency the Commander-in- 
 Chief that this purpose was effected on the evening of the 25th 
 instant. But before detailing the circumstances, I must refer to 
 the antecedent events. I crossed the Sye on the 22nd instant, the 
 bridge at Bunnee not having been broken. On the 23rd I found 
 
420 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 myself in presence of the enemy, who had taken a strong position, 
 his left resting on the enclosure of the Alumbagh, and his centre 
 and right drawn up behind a chain of hillocks. The head o&yny 
 column at first suffered from the fire of his guns, as it was com- 
 pelled to pass along the trunk road between morasses ; but as soon 
 as my regiments could be deployed along his front, and his right 
 enveloped by my left, victory declared for us, and we captured 
 five guns. Sir James Outram, with his accustomed gallantry, 
 passed on in advance, close down to the canal. But as the enemy 
 fed his artillery with guns from the city, it was not possible to 
 maintain this, or a less advanced position for a time taken up ; 
 but it became necessary to throw our right on the Alumbagh, and 
 refuse our left, and even then we were incessantly cannonaded 
 throughout the 24th; and the enemy's cavalry, 1500 strong, crept 
 round through lofty cultivation, and made a sudden irruption upon 
 the baggage massed in our rear. The soldiers of the 90th forming 
 the baggage guard received them with great gallantry, but lost 
 some brave officers and men, shooting down, however, twenty-five 
 of the troopers and putting the whole body to flight. They were 
 finally driven to a distance by two guns of Captain Olpherts' battery. 
 " The troops had been marching for three days under a per- 
 fect deluge of rain, irregularly fed, and badly housed in villages. 
 It was thought necessary to pitch tents, and permit them to halt 
 on the 24th. The assault on the city was deferred until the 25th. 
 That morning our baggage and tents were deposited in the Alum- 
 bagh under an escort, and we advanced. The 1st brigade, under 
 Sir James Outram's personal leading, drove the enemy from a 
 succession of gardens and walled enclosures, supported by the 
 2nd brigade, which I accompanied. Both brigades were estab- 
 lished on the canal at the bridge of Charbagh. 
 
 " From this point the direct road to the Eesidency was some- 
 thing less than two miles ; but it was known to have been cut by 
 trenches, and crossed by palisades at short intervals, the houses 
 also being all loopholed. Progress in this direction was impos- 
 sible ; so the united column pushed on, detouring along the nar- 
 row road which skirts the left bank of the canal. Its advance 
 was not seriously interrupted until it had come opposite the 
 King's palace, or the Kaiser-bagh, where two guns and a body of 
 mercenary troops were intrenched. From this intrenchment a 
 fire of grape and musketry was opened, under which nothing 
 could live. The artillery and troops had to pass a bridge par- 
 tially under its influence ; but were then shrouded by the buildings 
 
1857.] DESPATCH ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE 25TH. 421 
 
 adjacent to the palace of Fureed Buksh. Darkness was coming 
 on, and Sir James Ontram at first proposed to halt within the 
 courts of the Mehal for the night ; but I esteemed it to be of such 
 importance to let the beleaguered garrison know that succour was 
 at hand, that with his ultimate sanction I directed the main 
 body of the 78th Highlanders and regiment of Ferozepore to ad- 
 vance. This column rushed on with a desperate gallantry, led 
 by Sir James Outram and myself, and Lieuts. Hudson and Har- 
 good, of my staff, through streets of flat-roofed loopholed houses, 
 from which a perpetual fire was kept up, and, overcoming every 
 obstacle, established itself within the enclosure of the Residency. 
 The joy of the garrison may be more easily conceived than de- 
 scribed ; but it was not until the next evening that the whole of 
 my troops, guns, tumbrils, and sick and wounded, continually 
 exposed to the attacks of the enemy, could be brought step by 
 step within this enceinte and the adjacent palace of the Fureed 
 Buksh. To form an adequate idea of the obstacles overcome, 
 reference must be made to the events that are known to have 
 occurred at Buenos Ayres and Saragossa. Our advance was 
 through streets of houses such as I have described, and thus each 
 formed a separate fortress. I am filled with surprise at the suc- 
 cess of the operation, which demanded the efforts of 10,000 good 
 troops. The advantage gained has cost us dear. The killed, 
 wounded, and missing, the latter being wounded soldiers, who I 
 much fear some or all have fallen into the hands of a merciless 
 foe, amounted, up to the evening of the 26th, to 535 officers and 
 men. Brigadier-General Neill, commanding 1st brigade ; Major 
 Cooper, Brigadier, commanding Artillery ; Lieut.-Colonel Bazely, 
 a volunteer with the force are killed. Colonel Campbell, 
 commanding 90th Light Infantry; Lieut.-Colonel Tytler, my 
 Deputy- Assistant Quartermaster-General ; and Lieut. Havelock, 
 my Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General, are severely, but not 
 dangerously, wounded. Sir James Outram received a flesh wound 
 in the arm in the early part of the action near Charbagh, but 
 nothing could subdue his spirit ; and though faint from loss of 
 blood, he continued to the end of the action to sit on his horse, 
 which he only dismounted at the gate of the Residency. As he 
 has now assumed the command, I leave to him the narrative of 
 all events subsequent to the 26th. 
 
 " I have, etc. 
 
 "H. HAVELOCK, 
 " Brigadier-General, Commanding Oude Field Force." 
 
422 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. X. 
 
 the s ^ite e ron A few days after, the General sent the follow- 
 thesamesub- i ng letter to the writer, on these operations: 
 
 " Sir James Outram brought me up my reinforcements o 
 14th and 15th of September. I threw a noble bridge of boats 
 across the Ganges, and reached the farther bank with 2500 men, 
 and eighteen guns, the troops in the highest order. Sir James 
 announced that he would, after my former successes, leave to me 
 the renown of relieving Luckriow j that he would accompany my 
 force only as Chief Commissioner and as a volunteer. I beat the 
 enemy on. the 21st at Mungulwar, and again at the Alumbagh on 
 the 23rd. The last is within four miles of the capital of Oude. 
 .... I had brought up canal boats from Cawnpore, intending 
 to bridge the Goomtee, and coming round by its left bank to the 
 north-west of the city, to have seized the iron and stone bridges, 
 thus placing myself on the enemy's communications. I should 
 have . hoped from this plan great results. But it was doomed 
 never to be tried. On the 25th we went to work in quite a 
 different way. Sir James determined to move down straight to 
 the Charbagh bridge across the canal, and thence turning to the 
 right, to half circle round the city, and establish himself in the 
 Fureed Buksh, a palace adjacent to the Eesidency. The Charbagh 
 and its bridge was carried after a fierce struggle. Outram told 
 me that Harry's conduct in leading the men across the canal was 
 as gallant as anything at the bridge of Lodi, and, on his recom- 
 mendation, the Victoria Cross has been awarded to him. 
 
 " We got on without much difficulty until opposite the Kaiser- 
 bagh, the palace of the late king. There a fire was opened on us 
 of grape and musketry, from an intrenchment, under which no- 
 thing could live. Fortunately, we were protected first by an em- 
 bankment, and then by some lofty walls. But many men and 
 officers fell, and among them General Neill. Just at this moment 
 intelligence was brought me that the Assistant Adjutant-General 
 (Harry) was wounded in the arm. The horse I rode was hit in 
 two places, and I was compelled to mount another. Night was 
 coming on, and Sir James was desirous of halting, and passing 
 the dark hours in the palace of Fureed Buksh. But I so urgently 
 represented the importance of achieving at once a communication 
 with the beleaguered garrison, and restoring their confidence, that 
 I prevailed. The Highlanders and regiment of Ferozepore Sikhs 
 were called to the front. Outram and I and three of the staif 
 rode at their head, and on we dashed through streets of loop- 
 
1857.] SIE JAMES OTJTKAM ASSUMES THE COMMAND. 423 
 
 holed houses, from the flat roofs of which a perpetual fire was 
 poured. But our troops were not to be denied. We soon found 
 ourselves at the great gate of the Residency, and entered it in 
 the dusk in triumph. ... I have only space to say that Mr 
 Martin Gubbins has been to me and to my staff the kindest of 
 men. Colonel Tytler and Harry, both wounded, have been cared 
 for in his house like his children. I dine with him once a week, 
 and he sends me excellent sherry, without which the doctors tell 
 me I should not pull through. I came in with one suit of clothes, 
 which I have hardly put off for six weeks." 
 
 On the morning of the 26th September Sir James as- 
 sumed the command of the force. The functions which. 
 the General had exercised for twelve weeks sirjames 
 ceased, and he fell back into a subordinate wanes the 8 " 
 
 ... TT i T I*T a j.1 i L. command of 
 
 position. He had accomplished the object 
 originally intrusted to him. He had relieved the 
 garrison from the pressure under which it had so long 
 suffered, and the imminent danger to which it had been 
 daily and hourly exposed. His responsibility now termin- 
 ated, and the history of subsequent operations must be 
 viewed without reference to his agency. On the 2 6th the 
 force at the Residency was reorganized. The troops were 
 formed into two divisions, the one, commanded by Colonel 
 Inglis, consisted of H.M. 32nd, the Madras Fusiliers, the 
 78th Highlanders, and the Volunteer Cavalry. The other 
 division was given to Havelock, and comprised the regi- 
 ments which had come up with Sir James Outram. To 
 Colonel Inglis was assigned the charge of the old Resi- 
 dency, while Havelock's circle embraced the edifices, 
 palaces, and gardens to the east of it, through which the 
 relieving army had forced its way. From these buildings 
 he was directed to expel the enemy, and the operation 
 was completed in two or three days. In those gorgeous 
 palaces the men, who had so recently been exposed to 
 the severest hardships, now revelled in the enjoyment of 
 luxuries, and one of the most poetical episodes of this ex- 
 pedition is the picture which has been drawn of the rough, 
 soldier reclining for a time on silken couches, and eating 
 his reduced and miserable pittance of food out of dishes 
 
424 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. z. 
 
 of the most costly and magnificent china. By the occu- 
 pation of these buildings, the enemy were thrown back a 
 thousand yards, and the Bailey guard gate, which ]jad 
 previously formed the extreme post of the Residency to 
 the eastward, now stood in the centre. Greater accom- 
 modation was thus obtained for the augmented number of 
 troops. But this extension of the circuit of defence was 
 not without the serious disadvantage of requiring a large 
 force to guard it. The position which Havelock was ap- 
 pointed to hold consisted of " a line of gardens, courts, 
 and dwelling-houses, without fortified enceinte, without 
 flanking defences, and closely connected with the build- 
 ings of the city .... and it was exposed to a 
 close and constant musketry fire from loopholed walls 
 and windows, often within thirty yards, from every lofty 
 building within rifle range, and from a frequent and 
 desultory fire of round shot and grape from guns posted 
 at various distances, from seventy to five hundred yards/' 
 All the buildings lying between the Residency and the 
 river were also occupied. 
 
 It was the original intention of the government of India 
 and of Sir James Outram to withdraw the garrison and 
 Determina- the sick and the wounded forthwith to Cawnpore. 
 jamesto S gfve With this view the provisions, the baggage, and 
 
 wa! of the the bulk of the ammunition of the relieving 
 d column had been left at the Alumbagh, and the 
 troops came on with nothing but the clothes on 
 their backs and three days' sustenance. But the obstacles 
 to the retirement of the garrison appeared constantly to 
 multiply. Since the force had crossed the Granges on the 
 19th it had been diminished by the loss of 535 killed, 
 wounded, and missing, more than one-fifth of its entire 
 strength. The number of women and children at the 
 Residency amounted to 700, that of the sick and wounded 
 exceeded 500; without carriage they could not be re- 
 moved, and every effort to obtain it by negotiation from 
 the city or the country was found to be unavailing. So 
 completely had the garrison become isolated, that all 
 communication with the city had ceased. On the 2nd of 
 
1857.] DISCOVERY OF GRAIN AT THE RESIDENCY. 425 
 
 October Sir James was constrained to write, that "his 
 hopes of a re-action in the city had been disappointed. 
 The insurgent Sepoys had inspired such terror among 
 all classes, and maintained so strict a watch beyond our 
 pickets, that he had not been able to communicate with a 
 single inhabitant of Lucknow since his arrival/' On the 
 other hand, the fears which had been raised regarding the 
 exhaustion of the provisions in the Residency were found 
 to be premature. Havelock had pressed forward in 
 breathless haste, expecting to find the garrison scarcely 
 less in peril from famine than from the weapons and mines 
 of the enemy. But the head of the commissariat had 
 been disabled by severe wounds early in the siege, and 
 the dying injunction of Sir Henry Lawrence, " Take daily 
 average of expenditure after the inventory of all supplies 
 and food has been made," had consequently fallen into 
 abeyance. Hence the pressing calls of Colonel Inglis for 
 early relief were founded on the belief of imminent starv- 
 ation ; but on a more careful examination it was dis- 
 covered that this alarm was entirely groundless. The 
 grain in store sufficed not only to feed the old garrison, 
 increased by 2000 new comers, for fifty-three days, but it 
 is related that when Sir Colin Campbell withdrew from 
 the Residency, he carried away a remnant of 160,000 Ibs. 
 of corn. It was found, moreover, that the additional gun- 
 bullocks which acccompanied the reinforcements would 
 furnish a good supply of meat rations. Taking all these 
 circumstances into consideration, Sir James came to the 
 determination, apparently on the sixth day after his arrival, 
 to remain at the Residency and await further reinforce- 
 ments. 
 
 The position of the small detachment left at the Alum- 
 bagh created no small anxiety, and it was determined to 
 make an effort to establish a communication with Attempts to 
 it. Sir James selected the Cawnpore road, which cpmmunica- 
 ran through the heart of the city, from the Resi- A^wnbagh. e 
 dency to the Charbagh bridge/for his operations. The 
 troops were obliged to work from house to house with the 
 crowbar and pickaxe, and to contest every inch of the 
 
426 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 ground. But on the 6th of October it was found that a 
 large mosque, strongly occupied by the enemy, required 
 more extensive operations for its capture than igere 
 deemed expedient ; and after three days of energetic ex- 
 ertion, which entailed considerable loss of life, it was 
 deemed advisable to abandon the design. The principal 
 houses on the Cawnpore road, from which the garrison 
 had been annoyed by musketry, were blown up, and the 
 troops were gradually withdrawn to the circle, beyond 
 which no subsequent effort was made to dislodge the 
 enemy till the approach of Sir Colin Campbell. The 
 great loss of life in the desultory operations between the 
 26th of September and the 6th of October, at several 
 points of an extended circuit, and the reduction of the 
 effective force by the numbers required to guard the new 
 and extensive positions, left a remnant inadequate to the 
 task of withdrawing the garrison, and from this time all 
 attempts to break up the blockade were abandoned. The 
 plan entertained from the first hour of entry, and frequently 
 recommended by Havelock, for restoring our communica- 
 tions with the open country, and recovering our ascend- 
 ency in the field, will not here be considered undeserv- 
 ing of notice. He was anxious that the whole weight of 
 the available force should be thrown towards the iron 
 bridge to the north-west. Our outposts had been ad- 
 vanced to within 300 yards of it, and the artillery of the 
 Residency completely commanded the passage to it. The 
 strength of the enemy in that direction was insignificant, 
 and the opposition was not likely to be serious. The 
 acquisition of the iron bridge would at once have given 
 us access to the open country to the north of the city, 
 where the cavalry might freely forage and collect supplies ; 
 and, with the Badshah-bagh as a base, arrangements 
 might gradually have been matured, even for the with- 
 drawal .of the whole garrison. Once in the open field with 
 more than 2000 British bayonets, and 200 cavalry, and an 
 irresistible artillery, the force would have been master of 
 its own movements. The plan might or might not have 
 been feasible, and there doubtless appeared impediments 
 
1657.] THE BLOCKADE OF THE EESIDENCY. 427 
 
 to its execution, but a record of it could not be omitted in 
 a memorial of the life and military opinions of Havelock. 
 In writing of their position after the 6th of October, 
 Havelock stated that " they were as closely blockaded as 
 Marshal Lannes's troops would have been if any T f he t ^ e loc j^ 
 portion of them had forced their way into Sara- dency e 
 gossa, and been there shut in by the Spaniards." During 
 this period, the enemy made no attempts to advance their 
 batteries, and the garrison obtained considerable relief 
 from their attacks. The old post in the Kesidency, placed 
 under Colonel Inglis, was kept on the alert by the mus- 
 ketry fire of the enemy on exposed points, and a distant 
 cannonade. But their chief attention was directed to the 
 new position which had been intrusted to Havelock, where 
 the close contact of buildings still occupied by them 
 afforded opportunities of constructing mines, and imposed 
 on our officers. the incessant duty of undermining them. 
 " I am aware," says Sir James Outram in his despatch, 
 " of no parallel to our series of mines in modern warfare. 
 Twenty-one shafts, aggregating 200 feet in depth, and 
 3921 feet of gallery, have been executed. The enemy 
 advanced twenty mines against the palaces and outposts-; 
 of these they exploded three, which caused us loss of life, 
 and two which did us no injury ; seven have been blown 
 in ; and out of seven others the enemy have been driven, 
 and their galleries taken possession of by our miners ; 
 results of which the engineer department" under the 
 able direction of Colonel Napier and Captain Crommelin 
 " may well be proud. The reports and plans forwarded 
 by Sir Henry Havelock will explain these operations." 
 At length the powder of the garrison began to run short, 
 and, with the view of economizing it, and, at the same 
 time, of detecting and counteracting the efforts of the 
 enemy, a gallery was constructed around the most ex- 
 posed portion of Havelock's position, under the shelter of 
 which the engineer officers could watch the progress of 
 the enemy's operations and take measures to frustrate 
 them. In these occupations passed the period of six 
 weeks till the approach of Sir Colin Campbell. Havelock 
 
428 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAYELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 visited his posts every morning on foot, a circuit of about 
 two miles, and then proceeded to the residence of Sir 
 James to make his report. Placed now in an inferior 
 position by the supreme authority in the State, he en- 
 deavoured to do his duty as earnestly and as conscientiously 
 as when the chief command was in his hands. No mur- 
 mur of repining at the decision of his superiors ever 
 escaped him. That spirit of cheerful subordination, which 
 it had been his study to manifest throughout his military 
 career, was never more strongly exhibited than when his 
 devotion and obedience were so severely tested in this 
 closing passage of his life. The influence of this example 
 on those under him cannot be more eloquently described 
 than in the letter of one of the officers, Lieut. Moorsom, 
 who had daily opportunities of observing it : " Lucknow 
 ought 'not to lessen your opinion of us, ' so noble, so en- 
 during, so devoted, and so brave/ for all these were more 
 fully exhibited there, and without a gloomy face or a grum- 
 ble too, even when affairs looked gloomiest, and the poor 
 fellows were smoking the bark and leaves of trees, drink- 
 ing only water, and giving six shillings for two pounds of 
 flour. In fact, they starved on three-quarter rations of 
 meat and flour alone ; worked like men working for their 
 own and others' lives ; were not a night off duty ; perished 
 with cold in their scanty summer clothing ; and did all, 
 and suffered all, with a cheerful face, inspirited by the 
 General whom that two months killed." The compara- 
 tive leisure which the General now enjoyed he devoted 
 to reading, and more especially to Macaulay^s History of 
 England, which he borrowed from Mr Gubbins's library, 
 and studied with intense pleasure. 
 
 The opportunities of communicating with our own pro- 
 Letter to Mrs vinces during the blockade were scanty, and 
 wthNo C vem- Havelock's correspondence with his family was 
 ber - necessarily irregular. On the 10th of November 
 
 he despatched a letter to Mrs Havelock, which did not, 
 however, reach her till after the intelligence of his death. 
 
 " You will wonder at not receiving a letter by the last two 
 
1857.] LETTEE TO MRS HAVELOCK. 429 
 
 mails. It will be best to begin at the beginning of the story. 
 Sir James Outram brought up my reinforcements on the 14th 
 and 15th of September. I threw a noble bridge of boats across 
 the Ganges, and reached the farther bank with 2500 men. Sir 
 James announced that I should have the honour of relieving 
 Lucknow, and that he would accompany my force only as Civil 
 Commissioner and as a volunteer. I beat the enemy on the 21st 
 at Mungulwar, and again at Alumbagh on the 23rd. . . . We 
 penetrated through a long suburb, and passed, under the cover of 
 buildings, a fire from the Kaiser-bagh, or king's palace, under 
 which nothing could have lived. About this time an orderly 
 brought up intelligence that Harry was severely wounded. Night 
 was coming on, and Sir James wished to put the troops into a 
 palace, and rest them ; but I strongly represented the necessity 
 of reinforcing the garrison, lest it should be attacked and sur- 
 prised in the darkness. So the 78th Highlanders and the Sikh 
 regiment of Ferozepore were called to the front. Sir James and 
 I and two of the staff put ourselves at their head, and on we 
 charged through streets of loopholed houses, fired at perpetually, 
 and over trenches cut in the road, until we reached in triumph 
 the beleaguered Residency. Then came three cheers from the 
 troops, and the famished garrison found mock turtle soup and 
 champagne to regale me with as their deliverer. But the rest of 
 my force and the guns could not be brought in until the evening 
 of the 26th, and by that time I had lost 535 killed, wounded, 
 and missing. jSince that night we have been more closely 
 blockaded than in Jellalabad. "We eat a reduced ration of 
 artillery bullock-beef, chupatties, and rice, but tea, coffee, sugar, 
 soap, and candles are unknown luxuries. . . . The noble conduct 
 of Mr Gubbins T must next record. My head-quarters were 
 established in the house of the late Mr Ommaney, who was killed 
 during the siege. Gubbins sent to invite me and all my staff to 
 come and live in his better house. To this I would not consent, 
 but recommended to his care my two wounded officers, Colonel 
 Tytler and Harry, and he has cared for them as if they were his 
 children. I dine with him once a week, and he keeps me sup- 
 plied with excellent sherry, without which it would have gone ill 
 with me, for I find it not so easy to starve at sixty-three as at 
 forty-seven. The enemy fire at us perpetually with guns, mortars, 
 and musketry, but our casualties are not very numerous. I 
 should have told you that Bensley Thornhill volunteered to go 
 out and bring Harry in. Alas ! he received one bad wound over 
 
430 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 the eye, which injured the skull, while another hall hroke in 
 pieces his right arm. It was amputated. He lingered many 
 days, and then died in the hospital, leaving Mary a young widtgy. 
 Their only infant had died some time before. "We are now daily 
 expecting Sir Colin Campbell. ... I visit the whole of my posts 
 in the palaces and gardens with my staff on foot daily but my 
 doctor has advised me to take something strengthening until we 
 can get upon good diet again." 
 
 At length, after many weeks of anxious expectation, 
 the long-enduring garrison were gladdened by the ap- 
 Advanceofsirproach of the Commander-in-Chief. He arrived 
 beiis force, in the neighbourhood of the Alumbagh, with a 
 thoroughly-equipped force of 5000 men, on the 10th of 
 November. Mr Cavanagh, an officer in the civil service 
 of Government, volunteered to proceed from the Resi- 
 dency to his camp, with plans of the city and suggestions 
 from Sir James Outram regarding the route which he 
 should adopt in entering it. The number of the enemy's 
 posts and pickets which Mr Cavanagh was required to 
 pass rendered the enterprise one of very great hazard, 
 but, having disguised himself as a native, he succeeded, 
 after a series of perilous and romantic adventures, in 
 reaching the Alumbagh, and it was with no small delight 
 that the garrison beheld the signal hoisted at the palace 
 which announced his arrival there. A sernaphoric com- 
 munication was soon after established between the Alum- 
 bagh and the Residency, under the direction of Lieut. 
 Moorsom, and Sir Colin was enabled on the 12th to 
 announce his intention to advance to the Residency by 
 the Dil-koosha, at seven in the morning of the 14th. 
 
 Sir James Outram had determined, on hearing of the 
 approach of the Commander-in-Chief, to co-operate with 
 preparations n i g force, by taking possession of the Hureen 
 withsir erate khana, or Deer house, and the steam-engine 
 house, then occupied by the insurgents, which 
 intervened between our extreme post and the Motee 
 muhal. With this view Havelock was directed to estab- 
 lish a battery in his most advanced position, in a garden 
 which was screened from the observation of the enemy 
 
1857.] PREPARATIONS TO CO-OPEPiATE WITH SIR COLIN. 431 
 
 on two sides by a high. wall. A mine had been con- 
 structed under it, which it was intended to explode when 
 the time arrived for unmasking the position. Sir Colin 
 commenced his march towards the Residency on the 14th, 
 and in the course of the day took possession of the Dil- 
 koosha, and the Martiniere, which adjoined it, but not 
 without a severe struggle. On the 15th he remained 
 stationary, but was again in progress on the TGth, and 
 encountered the most determined resistance from the in- 
 surgents, who were resolved to dispute every inch of the 
 ground. On approaching the Secunder-bagh, it was dis- 
 covered to be filled with rebel Sepoys, who, finding them- 
 selves hemmed in, fought with greater desperation than 
 they had hitherto displayed, but were at length over- 
 powered. The small enclosure was choked up with two 
 'thousand bodies ; and thus were the atrocious massacres 
 at Cawnpore considered to be avenged. After the 
 capture of the Secunder-bagh, Sir Colin advanced to the 
 Shah-nujeef, which was also strongly fortified and ob- 
 stinately defended. That edifice was within a few 
 hundred yards of the garden in which. Havelock's sup- 
 porting battery had been established. Orders were im- 
 mediately given to explode the mines, but the effect was 
 only partial. They had been charged on the 13th, in the 
 expectation that Sir Colin would arrive at the Residency 
 on the following day. During the three intervening 
 days in which the bags remained under-ground, the 
 powder became damp, and only two breaches were made 
 by the explosion, which left a long strip of the wall still 
 standing. It was necessary to bring the guns to bear on 
 it, but, owing to their proximity, the balls passed' through 
 without shaking it, and it was not till after a long cannon- 
 ade with reduced charges, that it crumbled away and left 
 a clear field for the operation of the artillery, which now 
 began to batter the Hureen khana and the steam-engine 
 house. At the same time, a mine which had been run 
 under the former exploded with effect. Columns had 
 been formed to assault these buildings, after the heavy 
 guns had rendered the breaches practicable. At half- 
 
432 
 
 MEMOIRS OF SIB HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. z. 
 
 past three the bugle sounded the advance, and was 
 answered by a loud cheer from the men, who were burn- 
 ing for action, after many weeks of confinement^ A 
 heavy fire of musketry was now opened from the KaiSer- 
 bagh, on the right, but the troops rushed forward and 
 cleared the steam-engine house of the enemy. The Deer 
 house and the adjacent buildings were next assaulted, and 
 were speedily in our possession. Night was now coming 
 on, and the detachments were left to occupy the build- 
 ings, after Havelock had made suitable arrangements to 
 protect them from any nocturnal attempt of the enemy. 
 Sir Colin's force bivouacked for the night in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the mess-house ; and this building and the 
 Motee muhal alone now intervened between the two forces. 
 On his return to the Residency Havelock wrote the 
 following despatch, detailing the operations of the day. 
 It is interesting as being the last he ever penned. 
 
 "Lucknow, November 16th, 1857. 
 
 " Sir, I beg to report, for the information of Major-General 
 Sir James Outram, G.C.B., the complete success of the operations 
 Haveiock's in which the troops of my division were employed 
 
 despatch on -i -i j_i_ j_ 
 
 his operations, under his own eye this evening, m capturing a suc- 
 cession of houses in advance of the palace of Fureed Buksh. 
 
 " I have given in the margin the details of the detachments 
 employed. 
 
 "The nature of the enterprise may be shortly described as 
 follows : 
 
 " The progress of the relieving force under his Excellency the 
 Commander-in-Chief was anxiously watched, and it was deter- 
 mined that as soon as he should reach the Secimder-bagh, about 
 three miles from the Eesidency, the outer wall of the advanced 
 garden of the palace, in which the enemy had before made several 
 breaches, should be blown in by mines previously prepared ; that 
 two powerful batteries erected in the enclosure should then open 
 on the insurgents' defences in front ; and, after the desired effect 
 had been produced, that the troops should storm two buildings 
 known by the name of the Hureen khana, or Deer house, and 
 the steam-engine house. Under these also mines had "been driven. 
 
 "It was ascertained about 11 A.M., that Sir Colin Campbell 
 
1857.] THE DESPATCH ON THESE OPERATIONS. 433 
 
 was operating against the Secunder-bagh. The explosion of the 
 mines in the garden was therefore ordered. Their action was, 
 however, comparatively feeble, so the batteries had the double 
 task of completing the demolition of the wall, and prostrating and 
 breaching the works and buildings beyond it. Brigadier Eyre 
 commanded in the left battery, Captain Olpherts in the right. 
 Captain Maude shelled them from six mortars in a more retired 
 quadrangle of the palace. The troops were formed in the square 
 of the Chuttur munzil, and brought up in succession through the 
 approaches. At a quarter-past three two of the mines at the 
 Hureen khana exploded with good effect. At half-past three the 
 advance sounded. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm 
 with which this signal was received by the troops. Pent up in 
 inaction for upwards of six weeks, and subjected to constant 
 attacks, they felt that the hour of retribution and glorious exer- 
 tion had returned. 
 
 " Their cheers echoed through the courts of the palace, respons- 
 ive to the bugle sound, and on they rushed to assured victory. 
 The enemy could nowhere withstand them. In a few minutes 
 the whole of the buildings were in our possession, and have since 
 been armed with cannon, and steadily held against all attacks. It 
 will be seen by the enclosed return, that the loss has been small. 
 
 "I received throughout the operations the most effective aid 
 from my staff: Lieut. Hudson, Acting Deputy-Assistant Ad- 
 jutant-General; Lieut. Moorsom, 52nd Light Infantry, Acting 
 Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General ; Lieut. Hargood, 1 st 
 Madras Fusiliers, my aid-de-camp ; and Lieut. C. W. Havelock, 
 12th Irregular Cavalry, my Orderly Officer. 
 
 " The officers of artillery, Brigadier Eyre, and Captains Olpherts 
 and Maude, have earned my best thanks. 
 
 " I must commend all the officers in charge of detachments ; 
 but most prominently Colonel Purnell, 90th Light Infantry, 
 whose conduct throughout the affair evinced the most distinguisn- 
 ed gallantry, united to imperturbable coolness and the soundest 
 judgment ; as well as Lieuts. Russell, Hutchinson, and Limond, 
 of the Engineers, and Captain Oakes (attached), who showed the 
 way to the several points of attack. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 
 "Sir, 
 "Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 " H. HAVELOCK, 
 
 "Major-General, Commanding Oude Field Force." 
 28 
 
434 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, [CHAP. X. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief s force was in motion on the 
 morning of the 17th. The mess-house had been occupied 
 operations of on the previous day by the enemy's matchlock 
 November, men, who were constrained by the shells thrown 
 by Sir Colin' s guns to abandon it. But it was believed 
 to have been reoccupied by the insurgents during the 
 night, and a heavy cannonade was accordingly opened 
 upon it on the 17th from Sir Colin' s batteries, and from 
 the Residency, as well as from Captain Peel's 24-pounders. 
 The balls and the shells fell on the devoted house with 
 little intermission for six hours. At length the advance 
 of Sir Colin' s troops approached it, and leaping over the 
 surrounding wall, rushed in at the door, and planted the 
 British ensign on the roof. A heavy fire was still kept 
 up by the enemy from the Tara-kotee, or observatory, 
 in the vicinity of the mess-house, but they were speedily 
 expelled from it. It only remained to clear the Motee 
 muhal, which was found to be occupied by not more than 
 a hundred of the rebels, who were soon overpowered, and 
 obliged to make for the river, which some of them suc- 
 ceeded in crossing, but several were shot down by our 
 riflemen as they endeavoured to wade through the stream. 
 The enemy, however, continued to maintain a heavy fire 
 from the Kaiser-bagh, at the distance of about 450 yards, 
 which intervened between the Motee muhal and the 
 Residency. Lieut. Moorsom, one of the ablest and most 
 enterprising of the men whose military talents were de- 
 veloped by the mutiny, but whose bright career was soon 
 after cut short by death, was the first to open a commu- 
 nication between the Residency and the relieving force. 
 He crept cautiously along the road, which was commanded 
 by the guns of the Kaiser-bagh, and, after having reached 
 Sir Colin' s post, returned with two officers. 
 
 Immediately after, the two Generals, with their respect- 
 ive staff, went forth on foot to greet the Commander-in- 
 Chief, and passing unhurt through the first fire Meeting of 
 from the Kaiser-bagh, reached the Motee muhal tbe Generals - 
 in safety. There Havelock found some of the soldiers of 
 his old regiment, the 53rd Foot, who, immediately on 
 
1857.] MEETING OF THE GENERALS. 435 
 
 seeing him, raised an enthusiastic cheer, and he addressed 
 them " in that concise and soul-stirring language for which 
 he was so well known to the soldiers." In passing on 
 through the passages and courts of the Motee muhal, 
 Havelock had the most narrow escape of his life from the 
 enemy. A shell fell near him, and bounding against a 
 wall, burst at his feet. He was prostrated by the con- 
 cussion, but happily sustained no other injury. The party 
 now rushed on one by one from the Motee muhal to the 
 Commander-in- Chief's post in the mess-house, across an 
 open road of about twenty yards, which was completely 
 swept by the fire of the Kaiser-bagh. The Generals passed 
 over unhurt, but Colonel Napier and Lieut. Sitwell were 
 both wounded. The meeting between Sir Colin Campbell 
 and Sir James Outram and Havelock was most cordial ; 
 but while Havelock was congratulating Sir Colin on his 
 success, his aid-de-camp, Lieut. Hargood, who had fol- 
 lowed him, came up and informed him that his son had 
 just been struck down as he was crossing the dangerous 
 passage. Though his father's heart must have been beat- 
 ing with anxiety to know the nature of the wound, he con- 
 tinued to converse with Sir Colin with singular self-com- 
 mand as though nothing had happened. The gallant and 
 attached Hargood,* eager to relieve the distress which 
 
 * It would be unjust to pass over the reciprocal attachment which grew up 
 between the General and his aid-de-camp, "William Hargood. He was a lieu- 
 tenant in the Madras Fusiliers, formed by nature for a brilliant career, which 
 was unhappily cut short by death, after long privations and exposure. This 
 officer's many noble qualities, his ardent courage, his constant readiness with 
 pen or in the saddle, his untiring zeal, combined with his unselfish and amiable 
 disposition, had gained the General's admiration and esteem. To such a height 
 did this reciprocal regard grow, that the young aid-de-camp seemed to have no 
 object in life so dear to him as the approbation of his chief, whose wishes he 
 always endeavoured to anticipate, and whose words he hung on with the af- 
 fectionate solicitude of a son. When Lieut. Havelock, as stated above, was 
 struck down between the Motee muhal and the mess-house, at the meeting of 
 the Generals, young Hargood, without the knowledge of the General, twice 
 risked his life, by crossing and recrossing the stream of fire that poured from 
 the Kaiser-bagh on that passage, to relieve the father's anxiety, by bringing 
 him tidings of the nature of his son's wound. To others unbending, and 
 sometimes stern, to him the General was always unreserved, the pledge of a 
 confidence, which, if seldom given, knew no limit when it was found to be 
 worthily bestowed. 
 
436 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 lie knew the father must feel, dashed across the exposed 
 road to ascertain the nature of the wound,, and recrossed 
 it to give him the welcome intelligence that it was not 
 dangerous. *W 
 
 The final relief of the beleaguered garrison was now 
 accomplished. The casualties in Sir Colin' s force during 
 these operations were equal in number to the loss which 
 Havelock had sustained in the two actions at Mungulwar 
 and the Alumbagh, and in fighting his way to the Re- 
 sidency ; but there was no power in the insurgent pro- 
 sir coiin vince and in the capital of Oude able to cope with 
 tne 6000 British bayonets and the powerful ar- 
 tillery now assembled in Lucknow. The Kaiser- 
 bagh was still held by the enemy, but it was cannonaded 
 for three 'days by Peel's battery from the position of the 
 Commander-in- Chief, and by Eyre's battery on the side of 
 the Residency. Three effectual breaches were made, and 
 it was the opinion of some of the officers of the garrison 
 that it might at this time have been carried with ease. 
 Lucknow would then have been at our feet. It is known 
 that a Sikh spy brought intelligence to the Residency that 
 the enemy had packed up whatever they deemed valuable, 
 and were prepared to evacuate it on the first assault. 
 This fact, however, was not generally known, or was not 
 credited. Sir James Outram and Havelock were anxious 
 that an attack should be made on the palace, which they 
 felt would be successful, and that we should then continue 
 to hold the town, for which they considered that two bat- 
 talions of 600 men would be sufficient. They both waited 
 on Sir Colin to represent their views, but he was of opinion 
 that ' ' four strong brigades would be required, unless it 
 was wished that the garrison should be again besieged." 
 He considered that "a strong movable division outside 
 the town, with field and heavy artillery, in a good military 
 position, was the real manner of holding the city of Luck- 
 now in check:" In addition to these general reasons, he 
 was swayed more particularly by " the fact, that his force 
 was deficient in infantry, and was in want of sufficient 
 field and musket ammunition for prolonged operations." 
 
1857.] WITHDRAWAL OF THE GARRISON. 437 
 
 He had started with three hundred rounds for his heavy 
 guns, and he had now only eighty rounds left. This ob- 
 jection he considered unanswerable. Another and per- 
 haps the strongest reason for his immediate retirement, 
 was furnished by the perilous position of the garrison left 
 at Cawnpore, which was now menaced by the whole of 
 the Gwalior Contingent. This difference of opinion be- 
 'tween Sir James Outram and Sir Colin was referred by 
 telegraph to the Governor- General. Lord Canning im- 
 mediately replied, that " the one step to be avoided was 
 the total withdrawal of the British force from Oude, and 
 that Sir Colin's proposal to leave a strong movable di- 
 vision, with heavy artillery, outside the city, and so to hold 
 the city in check, would answer every purpose of policy."" 
 
 Preparations were, consequently, made for the immedi- 
 ate removal of the women and children, the sick and the 
 wounded, from the Residency, in which they had withdrawal 
 been besieged for four months. This movement son. 68 
 was not unattended with risk, as the convoy would be re- 
 quired to cross the line, commanded by the guns of the 
 Kaiser-bagh, while at the same time it would be exposed 
 to a sharp fire from the enemy's batteries across the river. 
 But by a masterly arrangement, which reflects the highest 
 credit on Sir Colin' s strategy, the whole body was con- 
 veyed in safety through these dangers to Sir Colin' s en- 
 campment, where they received the most cordial welcome 
 from the gallant old chief and his staff. 
 
 The determination of the Commander-in- Chief to with- 
 draw his main body from Lucknow leaving Sir James 
 Outram with a powerful force at the Alumbagh proved 
 to be most opportune. On his arrival at Bunnee, on the 
 evening of the 27th, the distant sound of heavy guns was 
 heard in the direction of Cawnpore. Sir Colin hastened 
 forward, and arrived there just in time to succour the 
 force of General Windham, which had experienced the 
 most disastrous reverses, and to save from destruction 
 the bridge of boats, which was the sole means of com- 
 munication. 
 
 On the termination of the blockade, and the evacuation 
 
438 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 of the Residency, Mr Gubbins thus recorded in his journal 
 MrGubbins his opinion of the important benefit which had 
 
 on the result A - - - 
 
 , -. . -.,, TT i i - , -i 
 
 of_Generai been derived irom Havelock s spirited 
 advance. cessful exertions to relieve the Residency, and 
 which he was in a position the most favourable for appre- 
 ciating : "We learned this morning, to our great satisfac- 
 tion, that General Havelock had been informed by the 
 Commander-in-Chief that the honour of Knight Com- 
 mander had been conferred on him. He is now, there- 
 fore, Sir Henry. Never was this distinction more nobly 
 earned. It is impossible to over-estimate the value of the 
 services rendered by that gallant officer, and the army of 
 heroes which he commanded, at that most critical period 
 of the mutinies, the months of July and August. In 
 braving the inclemency of the season, they, as well as the 
 army of Delhi, achieved what it was till then believed that 
 no Englishmen or other Europeans could do; and in put- 
 ting to flight, with their small numbers, the masses of 
 troops opposed to them, supported by so powerful an ar- 
 tillery, they taught all British soldiers to despise the foe ; 
 and thereafter, whatever the disparity of numbers, they 
 always advanced to assured victory. A corresponding 
 terror was struck into the ranks of the mutineers. As 
 for our garrison, we owe our safety, under Providence, I 
 feel assured, to the exploits performed by Havelock's 
 army, for it was the knowledge of what they had effected, 
 viz. the repeated defeats of the Nana and the occupation 
 of Cawnpore, that kept up the hearts of our native troops, 
 and prevented their deserting us. Long, therefore, will 
 the recollection of the name of Havelock, and of the 78th 
 Highlanders, the 1st Madras Fusiliers, and the 84th and 
 64th regiments, be cherished by all who formed part of 
 the garrison of Lucknow. Little did we then think how 
 soon our congratulations on this well-earned honour 
 would be turned into mourning for the General's un- 
 timely death." 
 
 Havelock was apparently in good health when, on the 
 19th of November, he wrote to Mrs Havelock : " Sir Colin 
 Campbell has come up with some 5000, and much 
 
1857.] HAVELOCK'S LETTEES TO HIS FAMILY. 439 
 
 altered the state of affairs. The papers of the Haveiock's 
 26th September came with him, announcing my l^iy \lth a 
 elevation to the Commandership of the Bath for Noveniber - 
 my first three battles ; I have fought nine since. . . . Dear 
 Harry has been a second time wounded in the same left 
 arm. He is in good spirits and doing well. Love to the 
 children. ... I do not, after all, see my elevation in the 
 Gazette, but Sir Colin addresses me as Sir Henry Have- 
 lock. Our baggage is at the Alumbagh, four miles off, 
 and we all came into this place with a single suit, which 
 hardly any have put off for forty days." On the same 
 day he wrote to the same effect, and nearly in the same 
 language, to his present biographer. The letter was the 
 mournful close of a correspondence of thirty years, in 
 which there had never been a discordant note. He added : 
 " We are getting out our women, children, ladies, and 
 Martiniere boys, which will be a great load off our minds. 
 Our treasure and crown jewels also go out to-day. The 
 vicinity of the Grwalior force and other circumstances will 
 prevent our keeping troops at Lucknow for the present, 
 I fear; but reinforcements are approaching, which may 
 alter the state of affairs." 
 
 The close of Haveiock's career was now approaching. 
 When he left Calcutta on the 23rd of June to assume the 
 command of the expedition, those who saw his Haveiock's 
 emaciated figure confidently predicted that he illness - 
 would be unable to stand the fatigue and exposure of the 
 campaign for a single week. Yet, for ten weeks, he was 
 the hardiest man in the force; and though his physical 
 powers were taxed to -the verge of human endurance, he 
 was never incapacitated for duty a single hour. But when 
 in Persia he said that he dreaded the recoil on his consti- 
 tution when rest should succeed to labour ; and his an- 
 ticipation was fatally verified at Lucknow. During the 
 blockade of the Residency he appeared gradually to lose 
 his former vigour. The privations to which he was sub- 
 jected, and the hard fare on which he was constrained to 
 subsist, weakened his frame, and rendered it incapable of 
 resisting the shock of any attack of disease. On the even- 
 
410 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 ing of the 19th the wounded were removed to the Dil- 
 koosha, and Lieut. Havelock, on leaving the Residency 
 with the convoy,, stopped his litter to take leave dftjiis 
 father, and found him seated alone in his chamber, read- 
 ing Macaulay's History by lamp-light. On the morning 
 of the 20th symptoms' of diarrhoea made their appearance, 
 but yielded to medicine. On the 21st, soon after dawn, 
 his aid-de-camp, Lieut. Hargood, rode down to the camp 
 for some arrow-root and sago, luxuries long unknown at 
 the Eesidency. During the day, Havelock's complaint 
 assumed a more serious aspect, and he was removed after 
 nightfall in a doolie to the Dil-koosha, where a soldier's 
 tent was pitched for him. He suffered severely from the 
 jolting of the journey, though the change of air appeared 
 at first to produce a beneficial result. On the 22nd, some 
 of the enemy made an attack on the Dil-koosha ; the bul- 
 lets fell around his tent, and he was removed in his doolie 
 to a more sheltered position. During the day he received 
 the letters from his family, which had been detained at 
 Cawnpore during the blockade, and his conversation was 
 enlivened by allusions to the objects of his affection. He 
 did not appear to be in any imminent danger, but he 
 calmly assured those around him that it was the convic- 
 tion of his own mind that he should not recover. 
 
 Early on the 23rd Mr Gubbins went to Havelock' s tent, 
 to inquire what benefit he had derived from his removal 
 to the Dil-koosha. " I was directed," he says, " to a com- 
 mon soldier's tent, which was pitched near the one in 
 which we had found shelter. Entering it, I found the 
 General's aid-de-camp, Lieut. Hargood, and his medical 
 attendant, Dr Collinson, lying down. They whispered to 
 me in mournful accents the grievous news that Sir Henry's 
 case was worse, and pointed to where he lay. It was in 
 a doolie, which had been brought inside the tent, and 
 served as a bed. The curtain on my side was down. I 
 approached, and found young Havelock seated on the fur- 
 ther side, upon the ground by his dying father. His 
 wounded arm still hung in a sling, but with his other he 
 
1857.] HAVELOCK'S ILLNESS AND DEATH. 441 
 
 supplied all his father's wants. They told me that the 
 General would allow no one to render him any attendance 
 but his son. I saw that to speak was impossible, and 
 sorrowfully withdrew." On this day Dr Collinson, his 
 medical attendant, held a consultation with Dr Fayrer. 
 Havelock was evidently worse, and he himself declared 
 his case hopeless. His mind was calm and serene, sup- 
 ported by the strength of that Christian hope which had 
 sustained him through life. Belying firmly and exclusively 
 on the merits of the Redeemer, in whom he had trusted 
 with unwavering confidence, he was enabled to look 
 forward to the hour of dissolution with cheerfulness. 
 Throughout the day he repeatedly exclaimed, " I die 
 happy and contented." At one time he called his son to 
 him, and said, " See how a Christian can die." In the 
 afternoon, Sir James Outram came to visit his dying com- 
 rade, when he said, " I have for forty years so ruled my 
 life, that when death came I might face it without fear." 
 He enjoyed little sleep during the night of the 23rd. The 
 next morning he appeared to revive, but at eight there 
 was a sudden and fatal change; and at half-past nine, 
 on the 24th of November, he calmly resigned his Haveiock'a 
 spirit into the hands of his Redeemer, in the death - 
 blessed hope of immortality. Immediately after his death, 
 the troops began their march to the Alumbagh, and con- 
 veyed with them, in the litter on which he had expired, 
 the mortal remains of the noble chief who had so often 
 led them on to victory. " On the low plain by the Alum- 
 bagh," says a writer in Blackwood, evidently on the in- 
 formation of one who was present, " they made his humble 
 grave ; and Campbell, and Outram, and Inglis, and many 
 a stout soldier who had followed him in all his headlong 
 march, and through the long fatal street, were gathered 
 there to perform the last rites to one of England's noblest 
 dead. As long as the memory of great deeds, and high 
 courage, and spotless self-devotion is cherished amongst 
 his countrymen, so long will Havelock's lonely tomb in 
 the grave beneath the scorching Eastern sky, hard by the 
 
442 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. s. 
 
 vast city, the scene alike of his toil, his triumph, and his 
 death, be regarded as one of the most holy of the many 
 spots where her patriot soldiers lie." ^ 
 
 Havelock died at the advanced age of sixty-three, but 
 in the noontide of his glory, before " envy had time to 
 dim his laurels, or malice to tarnish his renown." His 
 sun set amidst a constellation of victories, rendered more 
 bright by the gloom which surrounded them. He affords 
 the rare instance of a man, conscious of his own powers, 
 and eager for an opportunity of exerting them, constantly 
 beaten back by adverse influences, and, at the eleventh 
 hour, when hope was well-nigh extinct, and he was look- 
 ing forward only to the retirement of " a Tyrolese cottage, 
 or a box on the Rhine/' suddenly raised to supreme com- 
 mand, and reaching at once the summit of professional 
 eminence. Even then, the adversity of circumstances 
 with which he had been struggling through life, seemed 
 to pursue him, and he returned from his ninth triumph 
 only to hear that the direction of the enterprise he had so 
 nobly conducted was taken from him. In other instances in 
 India, with rare exceptions, the credit of successful opera- 
 tions, which is officially ascribed to the general -in- chief, 
 has been assigned by those behind the scenes to the 
 talents or the suggestions of subordinates. But it was 
 the rare distinction of Havelock's career that the merit of 
 his successes was never attributed to aught, but his own 
 individual genius, seconded most ably by the talents of 
 his staff, and the valour of his troops. Throughout his 
 brilliant career, from Allahabad to Lucknow, it was his 
 mind that planned every movement, provided for every 
 exigency, and improved every advantage. 
 
 Forced by circumstances to embrace the profession of 
 arms, an honourable ambition led him to aspire to the 
 His military highest distinction in it. By dint of severe ap- 
 character. plication he obtained a complete mastery of the 
 art of war. Nature had pre-eminently endowed him, 
 among other military gifts, with a talent for strategy. In 
 youth he delighted to marshal his mimic battalions, and 
 fight the battles of Napoleon over again. This gift was 
 
1857.] HAVELOCK'S MILITARY CHARACTER. 443 
 
 improved by study. So familiar was he with the evolu- 
 tions of great commanders, that whatever combination, 
 was required during the events of the day, he could at 
 once call to mind, for his own guidance, the course they 
 had pursued under similar circumstances. Hence he was 
 never staggered by any difficulty, however unexpected, 
 and was prepared for every emergency. He possessed 
 what was considered by Napoleon whose maxims were 
 his favourite manual the first qualification of a general, 
 " a clear head." His perception was quick, and he pos- 
 sessed the peculiar quality of judging soundly while he 
 thought rapidly. Amidst the din and confusion of battle, 
 he was, if possible, more cool, collected, and imperturb- 
 able than in ordinary circumstances, and though often 
 taciturn in society, was remarked to be chatty and cheer- 
 ful under fire. The most prominent feature in his military 
 character was his self-reliance. He courteously accepted 
 the advice and suggestions of others, though his inferiors, 
 but he never doubted for a moment the soundness of his 
 own decision, and he was thus enabled always to act with 
 vigour and promptitude. 
 
 He was, in Carlyle's phrase, an " earnest man," and he 
 possessed, in a singular degree, the power of communi- 
 cating his own earnestness to others. His enthusiasm 
 infected all those under him, and there was no danger 
 his men would not encounter when animated by the clear 
 tones of his voice or the glance of his eagle eye. Every 
 man felt that he was acting under the eye of a master 
 spirit, whose approbation, from being rarely, and never 
 undeservedly, bestowed, was the most valuable reward he 
 could desire. The unbounded confidence which his sol- 
 diers felt in him inspired them with confidence in them- 
 selves. Even at the most difficult crisis he exhibited an 
 example of serenity and calmness which buoyed up and 
 inspirited others. Though by nature of a fiery temper, 
 he had acquired, under the influence of religious principle 
 and by conscientious habit, a spirit of self-control which 
 nothing could disturb. His personal endurance of hard- 
 ships was unflinching ; and nothing served more to attach 
 
444 MEMOIRS OF SIE HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 the men to him., in spite of his stern and uncompromising 
 character, than the constant evidence that the self-denial 
 he exacted of others he invariably practised himself. Al- 
 ways a strict, and sometimes a stern, disciplinarian, by 
 some he was deemed to err in being too severe in his ex- 
 actions from those under his command. Yet, if he did 
 not spare them when duty required the sacrifice, neither 
 did he spare himself ; and no general ever took greater 
 precautions to husband the strength of his soldiers, or to 
 prevent a needless waste of life, or more diligently strove 
 to alleviate their sufferings and improve their condition. 
 As an instance of his rigid adherence to the rules of 
 military discipline, it may be stated, that although his son, 
 Lieut. Havelock, as Sir James Outram remarked, had af- 
 forded valuable assistance to the General in the operations 
 of the 16th and 17th, and was severely wounded on the 
 latter day, his father never mentioned him in his despatch 
 with the rest of his staff, and would not permit his name 
 to be entered in the list of casualties, because he was not 
 then officially released from the surgeon's list. Havelock 
 never displayed any impatience of authority. The im- 
 plicit obedience he exacted from those under him he un- 
 hesitatingly accorded to his own superiors. 
 
 In every military disposition he always calculated the 
 possibility of failure, and endeavoured to provide again&t 
 it. He thus incurred on some occasions the charge of 
 over-caution when anticipated difficulties did not arise. 
 Yet few men have ever so thoroughly combined the 
 utmost daring with the utmost prudence. It was the 
 rapidity and the dash of his movements from Allahabad, 
 when he followed up the enemy without allowing them 
 breathing time, and beat them in nine fields in five weeks, 
 that gave the first check to the mutiny, and turned the 
 tide of events in our favour. It was remarked of him by 
 one of the most distinguished of his subordinates, General 
 Neill, that "nothing could be more admirable or more 
 instructive than the way in which he handled his troops/' 
 The little army under his command, notwithstanding its 
 defective organization, resembled a machine over which 
 
1857.] HAVELOCK'S MOEAL COURAGE. 445 
 
 lie had the most complete mastery, and which he worked 
 with perfect ease. He did not, like his brother William, 
 love danger for its own sake, but he manifested the 
 greatest contempt for it when it was to be incurred in 
 the execution of duty. His personal intrepidity in action 
 was so prominent, that it was often said of him that there 
 was little merit in his courage, because he did not know 
 what the quality of fear was. Yet, those who knew him 
 intimately affirmed that the reverse was the case, and that 
 this intrepid bearing was only another proof how com- 
 pletely a paramount sense of duty could overcome all con- 
 stitutional tendencies. 
 
 Regarding the higher and more important quality of 
 moral courage, however, there could be no diversity of 
 opinion. There was more moral courage in HIS moral 
 assembling his men to read the Bible and to coura ^ e - 
 sing psalms, amidst the jeers of his brother officers, than 
 in leading them to storm a battery, amidst the bullets of 
 the enemy. It demanded more moral courage to re- 
 linquish the advance on Lucknow than it required personal 
 courage to encounter the greatest dangers in prosecuting 
 it. In both cases he was actuated by a predominant 
 sense of duty. His moral courage was proof against all 
 censoriousness. When he felt himself in the path of 
 right, everything else was a matter of indifference to him. 
 He invariably maintained that if it were right to do a 
 thing, it was right to face all its consequences. This 
 sense of duty was the pole-star of his course through life. 
 He had brought himself so habitually to act under the 
 influence of this high principle, that his private feelings, 
 tastes, and inclinations, and his personal comfort and 
 convenience, became entirely subordinate to it. He was 
 not insensible to military distinction; he valued more 
 than most men the honours earned by military virtue 
 and success, but even the brightest prospects of the 
 soldier were light when weighed in the balance of duty. 
 This imparted to his character that elevation which 
 gave him so great an ascendancy over others. It was the 
 conviction that he was a " man of principle " not less 
 
446 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 than his high professional qualifications, which gained 
 for him the confidence of others, whether above or below 
 him. 
 
 Havelock' s religion underlay his whole character. ?or 
 thirty -five years of his life religion was the great principle 
 Haveiock's which pervaded his mind and regulated all his 
 religion. conduct. It was this which enabled him to 
 overcome the innate defect of his character, and to become 
 eminent for qualities which nature had denied him. In 
 all circumstances, in prosperity as well as in adversity, he 
 was the bold and unflinching champion of Christian truth, 
 though he never obtruded his religious views on others. 
 The strength of his Christian character, aided by his high 
 mental endowments and his great consistency of conduct, 
 insured him the respect and esteem of those who slighted 
 his religious feelings. His invariable dependence on 
 Divine aid enabled him to exhibit the greatest serenity 
 and vigour in the midst of difficulties. It was his constant 
 aim to adorn his religious profession, and to demonstrate 
 that spiritual-mindedness was not incompatible with the 
 energetic pursuit of a secular calling that " a saint could 
 be a soldier." More than any other chief did he appear 
 to combine the great military talents of the generals of 
 the Commonwealth with the fervour though not the 
 fanaticism of their religious feelings ; and it is, perhaps, 
 owing in a great measure to this identity of character, 
 that the name of Havelock is so warmly cherished by his 
 fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Havelock was a man of thought as well as action. His 
 literary tastes were as strong as his military. He was well 
 His literary rea ^ in English literature, and more particularly 
 per?onl?a in history. His English style was pure and 
 pearance. classical, and his despatches were models of 
 military composition. To his knowledge of the ancient 
 classics, which he continued to cultivate through life, he 
 added a fair acquaintance with French and Italian, acquired 
 by study, and improved during his continental tour. He 
 possessed a most retentive memory, great powers of 
 reasoning, a ready wit, and a natural aptitude for criticism. 
 
1857.] EFFECT OF HAVELOCK'S VICTORIES IN ENGLAND. 447 
 
 His taste in youth was for poetry and the drama ; as he 
 advanced in years his partiality for literature was in a 
 great measure confined to military history, which had the 
 same charm for him in the last days of his life as it had in 
 his boyhood. All his habits were, regular and active. 
 From the period of entering the army he was habitually 
 an early riser, and he acquired to a remarkable degree 
 the power of waking at a predetermined moment, and of 
 taking sleep at any time by snatches. He was not only 
 temperate but abstemious, perhaps beyond the bounds of 
 prudence. His figure was slender, but well knit, erect, 
 and graceful. His height five feet six inches. His 
 countenance was an index of his mind. His features 
 were regular, the forehead high and broad, the nose 
 aquiline, the chin well developed, and the eyes of piercing 
 intensity. His voice was clear and powerful, and audible 
 to a great distance, no small qualification in a general. 
 Of his domestic virtues, as a devoted husband, an affec- 
 tionate father, and a constant friend, no better evidence 
 will be required than that which is afforded by the letters 
 quoted in this volume. 
 
 The report of Havelock's early victories produced a 
 burst of enthusiastic feeling through England. A bright 
 ray of hope relieved the gloom of the mutiny. Effect mEng- 
 Even the dreadful intelligence of the Cawnpore news of Have- 
 tragedy was in some small degree alleviated tones. 
 by the report brought by the same mail, that the 
 miscreant Nana Sahib had been routed, and Cawn- 
 pore recaptured by Havelock. His name at once flew 
 through the land, and became familiar to every circle. 
 " Nothing," said one of the most popular journalists, 
 " surpasses, and few things can equal, his eight days' 
 incessant march to Cawnpore, his winning four victories 
 in twice as many days, his terrific strides across a swampy 
 region, blistered by the heats of the Indian midsummer, 
 his succession of rapid and overpowering blows." As 
 each successive mail brought news of fresh victories, his 
 fifth, his seventh, his ninth, he became the idol of the 
 nation. The public eagerly inquired into his past his- 
 
448 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. s. 
 
 tory, and found that he was a man of great military en- 
 dowments, who had been distinguished in many fights, 
 but had till this time been repressed by the cold shacjg of 
 adverse influences. Even his Methodism was deemecHo 
 brighten his renown. " We implicitly believe," said an 
 influential journalist, " that none fear men less than 
 those who fear God most. No soldiers ever show them- 
 selves more invincible than those who can pray as well as 
 fight, nor have any swords proved more resistless than 
 those wielded by the right hands that know their way 
 through dog's-eared Bibles. This is evidently a Christian 
 warrior of the right breed a man of cool head and 
 resolute heart, who has learned that the religion of war is 
 to strike home and hard, with a single eye to God and 
 his country." His exploits became the theme of admira- 
 tion'in every journal throughout the country. Meetings 
 were at this period held in the principal towns in England, 
 to organize auxiliary committees for the Indian Eelief 
 Fund, and on every occasion the name of Havelock was 
 brought forward to stimulate exertion, and never was it 
 mentioned without eliciting rapturous applause. Men of 
 all ranks and classes, the statesman, the noble, the 
 minister of religion, and above all, the middle class, who 
 claimed him as their own, vied with each other in doing 
 honour to the man who had so nobly maintained the 
 honour of his country ; and in a few weeks the " neglected 
 lieutenant" rose by national suffrage to the pinnacle of 
 renown. The military authorities, on the first report of 
 his successes, bestowed on him a good service pension of 
 100 a year ; but the nation murmured at the inadequate 
 remuneration of services which it was declared at public 
 meetings would in France have been honoured with a 
 marshal's baton. Honours now poured thickly on him. 
 On the 26th of September he received the distinction of 
 Knight Commander of the Bath. On the 29th of that 
 month he was raised to the rank of Major-General. On 
 the 26th of November, two days after his death, which 
 was at the time unknown in England, the dignity of a 
 baronet was conferred on him ; and on the meeting of 
 
1857.] NATIONAL LAMENTATION FOE HIS LOSS. 449 
 
 parliament her Majesty sent the following gracious message 
 to the House of Commons : " Her Majesty, being desirous 
 of conferring a signal mark of her favour and approbation 
 on Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, Bart., K.C.B., for 
 the eminent and distinguished services rendered by him in 
 command of a body of British and native troops in India, 
 and particularly in the gallant and successful operations 
 undertaken for the relief of the garrison at Lucknow, 
 recommends to the House of Commons to enable her 
 Majesty to make provision for securing to Sir Henry 
 Havelock a pension of 1000 per annum for the term of 
 his natural life." A similar message was sent also to the 
 House of Lords, and the annuity was cheerfully and 
 unanimously voted. But before the news of these honours 
 the first excepted could reach India, Havelock had 
 passed beyond the reach of human applause. He lived 
 long enough to hear of his elevation to the honours of the 
 Bath ; and, after forty-two years of unacknowledged 
 service, the heart of the veteran seemed to experience a 
 glow of delight at the announcement of this unexpected 
 dignity, but the honours conferred by his sovereign, and 
 the applause of his countrymen, only served to render 
 his loss more deplorable. 
 
 On the 7th of January, while the nation was eagerly 
 expecting some fresh achievement from the great hero 
 whom God had raised up at a great crisis, the The national 
 telegram from India announced that " General forUiiow. 
 Havelock died on the 24th November from dysentery, 
 brought on by exposure and anxiety." The national 
 hopes were at once quenched in death, and one common 
 feeling of grief pervaded the whole land, from the royal 
 palace to the humble cottage. There has been no example 
 of so universal a mourning since the death of Nelson. It 
 was felt in every bosom that England had sustained the 
 heaviest loss by the removal of one of her noblest sons. 
 Every journal hastened to pay homage to his memory. 
 In hundreds of discourses from the pulpit, on the suc- 
 ceeding sabbaths, ministers of every denomination made 
 this national bereavement the subject of mournful com- 
 
 29 
 
450 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 rnent. The most eminent statesmen of the day, with- 
 out distinction of party, united in paying the tribute of 
 their respect to the memory of the General. It was^the 
 tears of a nation which bedewed his grave. 
 
 In his native town of Sunderland the news of his death 
 created a feeling of intense regret. The minute-bell of 
 the parish church was tolled throughout the day, and the 
 union-jack was hoisted half-mast high on the tower. Her 
 Majesty was graciously pleased to confer on Lady Have- 
 lock the rank of a baronet's widow, and to bestow the 
 baronetcy, which the father did not live to receive, on his 
 eldest son. On the assembly of parliament the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, Mr Gladstone, proposed that an annuity 
 of 1000 a year should be granted to Lady Havelock, 
 and an annuity of equal amount to the present Sir Henry. 
 The vote was unanimously and cordially agreed to in both 
 Houses. The Common Council of London, on the motion 
 of Alderman Hale, directed that a bust of the General 
 should be placed in the Guildhall. On the 19th of March 
 a large meeting of noblemen and gentlemen was held at 
 Drury Lane, to raise a Havelock Memorial Fund, of which 
 his Koyal Highness the Duke of Cambridge consented to 
 become president. Subscriptions flowed in rapidly ; and 
 it was resolved to erect a statue of Havelock, on the site 
 most cheerfully, granted by Government in Trafalgar 
 Square, side by side with that of our greatest naval hero. 
 
 This memorial of the career of Henry Havelock would 
 justly be deemed incomplete without some record of the 
 estimation in which his merits were held, after death had 
 closed his labours, by the most eminent public writers of 
 the day. To quote the eulogies which were pronounced 
 on him in the various journals of England would, however, 
 swell this work to a second volume. A few selections 
 have, therefore, been made from the publications which 
 represent the different shades of political opinion in the 
 country, from which it will be apparent, that however 
 
EULOGY OF PUBLIC WRITERS. 451 
 
 diverse their views on public questions, in the homage 
 paid to the deceased General there was a feeling of perfect 
 unanimity. 
 
 The following is an extract from an article in The 
 Times : 
 
 " The case of General Havelock was, indeed, in many respects, 
 a remarkable one. He was a soldier from his youth upwards ; 
 every thought of his clear mind, every emotion of his energetic 
 will, for forty years had been devoted to the discharge of the 
 duties of his profession. He had not attained to high rank or 
 high command, for he had no family influence nor political in- 
 terest at his back. It seemed pretty certain that he had reached 
 the limits of any advancement possible under the circumstances 
 of his peculiar case. In the early part of last year, Colonel 
 Havelock was already far advanced in life, and India was to all 
 appearance profoundly tranquil. He could have but little ex- 
 pectation that any great responsibility or any command of special 
 importance would ever devolve on him. Duty, however, supplied 
 the motive which ambition denied. What he had been when a 
 humble subaltern, that he remained till the last. The great idea 
 which ruled his life was to discharge his duty without sloth or 
 stint. It was not very material to him that his capacity should 
 ever be recognized, or his faithful service rewarded ; the one point 
 was that his duty should be discharged, and that he should ever 
 
 be found ready for action when summoned to the work 
 
 It is idle to suppose that any desperate effort of frantic valour 
 would have achieved the results which were obtained by this 
 great soldier when the pinch arose and the pressure came. It 
 was by consummate skill that Havelock turned the tide of battle 
 in India ; it was by an intimate knowledge of the duties of his 
 profession in the highest and in the minutest points. ... It is 
 mournful to think that even that spare sinewy frame, hardened, 
 not weakened, by forty years of military service under an Indian 
 sun, should at last have sunk under the anxiety of a struggle so 
 prolonged. If Havelock did not actually fall under the death- 
 shot of the enemy, he perished by disease aggravated by unspar- 
 ing exertion. We must think of him upon his death-bed at the 
 Dil-koosha, when he was about to resign his devout and fearless 
 spirit into his Creator's hands, as we think of Wolfe on the heights 
 of Abraham, of Abercrombie on the Egyptian sands, of Moore on 
 
452 MEMOIRS OF SIR HENRY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 the cliffs of Corunna. Never was there a more glorious death 
 than that of this most gallant soldier, when he sank to his long 
 rest, his duty discharged to the last." 
 
 The Examiner thus commemorated the merits of Have- 
 lock : 
 
 " When parliament was voting inadequate rewards to this 
 brave and triumphant soldier, his admiring country little dreamed 
 that he was already gone where the voice of honour, though never 
 louder or more universal, will not reach him. The tidings of his 
 sad fate have afflicted the public more intensely than any event 
 of the Indian struggle, if we except the news of its worst tragedies. 
 We doubt if the people of England, in any of their wars, ever 
 took a deeper interest in the fortunes and career of a general in 
 the field than they took in Havelock's. In him they admired 
 the union of the greatest qualities, both of the man and the 
 soldier they saw the achievements of sheer personal merit ; an 
 eminence due neither to wealth, patronage, or connections ; a 
 man of genius and energy, winning the highest professional dis- 
 tinction with nothing but the brave heart and the wise head, 
 proceeding from service to service, and victory to victory, proving 
 his ability and prowess in a hundred Asiatic fields, until he 
 reached the crowning honour of the post in which he fell, 
 covered with as much glory as ever surrounded the name of a 
 British hero." 
 
 The Daily Telegraph did not come behind any of its 
 contemporaries in its admiration of the General : 
 
 " General Sir Henry Havelock is dead, and a whole nation 
 mourns his loss. JS"o words less emphatic would express the pro- 
 found and universal sorrow created by the announcement of his 
 untimely fate, and which will long abide in the hearts of millions. 
 The people had adopted him ; they had honoured him ; they 
 saw and recognized a hero ; they generously acknowledged his 
 great acliievements, and for his ten victories won within a few 
 weeks, his glorious march upon Cawnpore, and his succour of 
 Lucknow, they had ranked him amongst the noblest in England's 
 history. In cold and stolid language the telegraphic despatch 
 informs us that this gallant spirit yielded to fatigue and anxiety 
 on the 24th November. ... To a memory so illustrious is due 
 
EULOGY OF PUBLIC WKITEES. 453 
 
 the tribute of a national elegy. The plumes of ten brilliant 
 triumphs nodded over the hearse of Havelock ; the praise and 
 gratitude of the rescued garrison, the applause of the whole army, 
 the deep and proud emotion of a hundred brothers in arms, and 
 the regrets of noble-hearted women, solemnly accompanied him to 
 the grave, and he lies where Lawrence, Neill, and Nicholson lay 
 before him. . . . He it was who gave an example to the soldiers 
 of British India, conquering dangers day by day, and hour by 
 hour, with whatever means were at his disposal, exercising at 
 once foresight, vigilance, promptitude, unwearying strength, and 
 indomitable courage. . . . The reputation of Sir Henry Have- 
 lock will not decay with the generation that has witnessed his 
 heroism. The baronets of his line may point centuries hence to 
 the name of the noble warrior whose march from Allahabad to 
 Lucknow was like the passage of a fiery star, swift, sweeping, 
 irresistible, and they may well esteem such an origin as equivalent 
 to that of the Nevilles and the De Burghs." 
 
 Even the humorous Punch became serious and solemn 
 under the pressure of this national loss, and sounded this 
 requiem over the hero's grave : 
 
 " HE is gone. Heaven's will is best : 
 Indian turf o'erlies his breast. 
 Ghoul in black, nor fool in gold 
 Laid him in yon hallowed mould. 
 Guarded to a soldier's grave 
 By the bravest of the brave, 
 He hath gained a nobler tomb 
 Than in old Cathedral gloom. 
 JSTobler mourners paid the rite 
 Than the crowd that craves a sight. 
 England's banners o'er him waved 
 Dead, he keeps the realm he saved. 
 
 " Strew not on the hero's hearse 
 Garlands of a herald's verse : 
 Let us hear no words of Fame 
 Sounding loud a deathless name : 
 Tell us of no yauntful Glory 
 Shouting forth her haughty story. 
 
454 MEMOIES OF SIR HENRY HAVELCCK. [CHAP. X. 
 
 All life long his homage rose 
 
 To far other shrine than those. 
 
 * In Hoc Signo] pale or dim, ^ 
 
 Lit the battle-field for him, 
 
 And the prize he sought and won, 
 
 Was the Crown for Duty done." 
 
 In a masterly article in Blackwood's Magazine on Lord 
 Clyde's campaign, remarkable for its graphic descriptions, 
 which none but an eye-witness could have drawn, the 
 character of Havelock is thus depicted : 
 
 " A true soldier in the highest sense of the word was Havelock. 
 Severe in discipline and rigid in command, he looked for and ex- 
 acted from all the full performance of their duty. "When hard- 
 ships, were to be endured, he expected that they should be met 
 without a murmur. Oftentimes regarded as unpitying by his 
 men, he yet ever strove to alleviate their sufferings and improve 
 their condition. Thoroughly acquainted with the principles of 
 military science, he was able to combine the greatest daring with 
 the greatest prudence ; and greater even was his merit when, 
 heedless of the clamours of his soldiers, he refused to move upon 
 Lucknow until joined by Outram's reinforcements, than when, at 
 the head of their united force, he poured along his ' march of 
 fire.' For he too was assailed by the voice of calumny, and 
 taunted with prudence and faint-heartedness by men who could 
 neither emulate his courage nor fathom the high motives of his 
 conduct. Though victorious in every action during his first ad- 
 vance, as soon as he became convinced that the masses with which 
 he was hurtling were too numerous for his little band, he drew 
 them back ; and when the Gwalior Contingent first set out on 
 their march towards Calpee, he was prepared, had he not been 
 promised instant support, to have fallen back on Allahabad, rather 
 than risk the fate of the empire which was intrusted to his keep- 
 ing. In that resolution he showed a greater moral courage than, 
 and equally great military genius as, when, bursting through the 
 iron barrier of Lucknow, he wrested the sinking garrison from 
 the hand of fate. Worn in body, high of courage, pure in 
 heart, of an energy which no difficulties could daunt, of a re- 
 solution which no disasters could shake, he sealed his devotion 
 to his country by his blood; and when the good labourer's 
 
 
EULOGY OF PUBLIC WRITERS. 455 
 
 work was done, he went to receive his reward in the far distant 
 land." 
 
 The Quarterly Review likewise came forward with the 
 imost hearty commendation of his virtues : 
 
 " Among the invalids was General Havelock, now showing 
 dangerous symptoms of dysentery, and there, on the 24th of 
 November, he died. He had said to the young English volun- 
 teer, Lord Seymour, ' Tell them in England that here we fight in 
 earnest.' His last letter was written on the 19th ; it mentions 
 that he had heard of his Commandership of the Bath for his first 
 three battles ; and he adds, ' I have fought nine since.' The last 
 victory over the great destroyer yet remained, and it was com- 
 plete. * For more than forty years,' he said to Sir James Out- 
 ram, ' I have so ruled my life, that when death came I might 
 face it without fear.' The telegram told the sad news to Eng- 
 land on the 7th of January. It seemed to dash down every 
 satisfaction, to dim every triumph. Of itself, without favour, 
 and without suggestion, public opinion, perhaps with some ex- 
 clusive injustice, had made him the hero of the hour. It seemed 
 as if all men felt a self-reproach that he had not been known be- 
 fore, and now, when he came back, how they would make it up 
 to him ! But this was not to be. Like so many regrets, these 
 were only of use to those who felt them. Britain had lost not 
 only a great defender in arms, but a man whose fame it would 
 have been good for her to have been able to celebrate. The 
 simplicity of his character, the absence of the gaudiness and 
 glitter which too often accompany even true glory, the strong 
 Puritan element which the dignity of his life at once attested 
 and made respected, the self-reliance and patient duty of his 
 whole career, made him perhaps the safest object of popular 
 idolatry that the course of events ever offered to a free and moral 
 nation." 
 
 A still higher compliment as coming from a foreigner 
 was paid to the merits of the General by one of the 
 greatest and most eminent men of France. In an article 
 on the Indian debate, Count Montalembert says of 
 him : 
 
 " They have before them the example of the noble Havelock, 
 
456 MEMOIKS OF SIR HENKY HAVELOCK. [CHAP. x. 
 
 who, in a proclamation which he addressed to the soldiers whom 
 he was leading against the murderers of Cawnpore, declares that 
 it becomes not Christian soldiers to take heathen butche^ for 
 'their models. This name of Havelock recalls and sums ujT all 
 the virtues which the English have exercised in this gigantic 
 strife .... and on which there would be cast a stigma 
 for ever by an obstinate perseverance in too cruel a measure of 
 chastisement. Havelock, a personage of an antique grandeur, 
 resembling in their most beautiful and irreproachable aspects the 
 great Puritans of the seventeenth century, and who had arrived 
 at the portals of old age before he shone out to view, and was 
 thrown suddenly into a struggle with a great peril before him, 
 and insignificant means wherewith to overcome it, surmounted 
 everything by his religious courage, and attained, by a single 
 stroke, to glory and that immense popularity which resounds 
 everywhere where the English language is spoken ; then died 
 before he had enjoyed it, occupied, especially in his last moments, 
 as he had been all his life, with the interests of his soul, and the 
 propagation of Christianity in India." 
 
 But the most grateful tribute to the memory of this 
 British hero, was the spontaneous homage paid to his 
 character by the cities of New York, Boston, and Balti- 
 more, where the flags of the shipping were hoisted half- 
 mast from 9 A.M. to sunset. The feelings of the American 
 branch of the Anglo-Saxon family on this occasion are 
 thus described in the New York Times : 
 
 " A mark of respect was shown yesterday to the memory of 
 General Havelock, which was worth more than a peerage. The 
 flags of the shipping in our harbour and on our public buildings 
 were displayed at half-mast during the day, as a token of grief 
 for his loss. It was a purely voluntary tribute paid to his 
 memory by a people to whom he was a stranger, who were in no 
 way interested in his career, and to whom even his name was 
 unknown six months since. It was a tribute of respect which 
 even the Duke of Wellington did not command, and which we 
 believe was never before paid to a foreigner. But ' one touch of 
 nature makes the whole world kin ; ' and the bravery and manli- 
 ness of this true hero have touched the hearts of the people of 
 this country, who have watched his career with eager solicitude 
 
HONOURS PAID TO HIM IN AMERICA. 457 
 
 since the stirring events of the East Indian revolt have rendered 
 his name as familiar here as it is in his own country ; and the 
 intelligence of his death has produced as deep a feeling of regret 
 as though he had been a countryman of our own. Six months 
 ago Havelock was an unknown colonel in India, where he had 
 nobly done his duty, and by slow degrees and hard fighting, at 
 the age of sixty-two, had reached an elevation in military rank 
 which many a young man has attained without fighting at all. 
 But for the Sepoy revolt it is not likely that his name would ever 
 have been heard in the !New World. His position was an acci- 
 dental one ; the command of the army was forced upon him by 
 circumstances, and not conferred by the appointing power. But 
 he proved himself equal to the emergencies ; the heroic qualities 
 of his nature and his capacities as a soldier must often have been 
 exhibited during his long and eventful military career, but they 
 were never appreciated or acknowledged, and he would have 
 passed away in the great caravan of undistinguished dead but for 
 the Sepoy revolt. Certainly no English soldier ever before 
 excited so marked a feeling of sympathy among the American 
 people as has been done by General Havelock ; and we may feel 
 proud that no considerations of national jealousy prevented a 
 spontaneous expression of such generous impulses." 
 
 30 
 
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 
 
. 
 
 20W-1.' 22 
 
YC 41 131