by V. A. Stuart
“The rest of the column will reform,” Havelock ended, “with the 78th leading.We shall move out through the courtyard and make straight for the Bailey Guard gate of the Residency. God grant that we may succeed in gaining our objective!”
It was to be General Havelock’s finest hour.With Outram at his side, he took his place at the head of the column and, thus exposed but bearing charmed lives, the two commanders set an inspiring example as they rode toward their goal. Cheered on by defenders on the Residency ramparts, the 78th emerged from the sheltering walls of the palace and, beneath a tall archway teeming with rebel sharpshooters, into an inferno of cannon and musketry fire. From every housetop, door, and loopholed wall poured a tempest of shot and the well-sited guns to their rear and mounted at every street crossing unleashed a deadly hail of grape and canister and round shot, scything down the ranks of the advancing Highlanders. But they came on, a single piper playing them home, the Sikhs and the Blue Caps—their comrades throughout the long, heartbreaking campaign, close on their heels.The 64th and the 84th prepared to follow them, bayonets glinting as they charged through the smoke and flames now filling the courtyard, the 5th Fusiliers and the remaining companies of the 90th waiting their turn to run the terrible gauntlet of fire.
The leading regiments could not reply to the fire of their enemies, could not wait even to succor or pick up their wounded comrades. Their orders were to advance to the Residency and not halt until it was reached and they obeyed these orders to the letter.
Their casualties were appalling. Out of the 2,000 men who made the assault, 535 fell dead or wounded, among them James Neill, shot through the head at point-blank range by a rebel sniper. Havelock and Outram reached the Residency unscathed—although Outram had earlier suffered a wound in the arm—to find themselves the center of a crowd of cheering, exultant defenders, who sallied forth, rifles at the ready, to assist them over a low mud wall in front of the Bailey Guard gate, just as darkness fell. After five long and anxious months, the Residency at Lucknow had been relieved and, as one of the garrison described it afterward: “From every pit, trench and battery, from behind sandbags piled on shattered houses, from every post still held by a few gallant spirits, rose cheer on cheer—even from the hospital many of the wounded crawled forth to join in the glad shout of welcome to those who had so bravely come to our assistance. It was a moment 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.”
During the night, stragglers from the column and some of the walking wounded gained the safety of the Bailey Guard; Lousada Barrow’s Volunteers and young Johnson’s Irregular cavalry sowars brought in more of the wounded, making several daring sallies into the pitch-dark streets in order to do so, and the field guns were guided to their destination by Captain Moorsom. With the coining of daylight, several hundred more men of the assault column joined their comrades in the Residency but many of them were wounded and, in the Moti Mahal Palace a mile away, the small rear-guard of 100 men of the 90th commanded by Colonel Campbell, Eyre’s two heavy guns, and the bulk of the wounded were in imminent danger of capture.Throughout the night, they had been under a constant bombardment and, with the coming of daylight, they found themselves surrounded and under attack by a large force of rebels.
Major General Sir James Outram, as chief commissioner for Oudh in succession to Sir Henry Lawrence and senior military officer, formally took command of both the relief force and the garrison on the morning of September 26. It was evident even then that the original plan—which had been to evacuate the Residency garrison to Cawnpore—would have to be abandoned.There were 470 women and children and, to the garrison’s sick and wounded had now been added those of the relief force, making a total of some 1,500, for whom there was insufficient carriage available.The original defenders had been reduced to 750 gaunt and famished men, of whom half were Sikhs and loyal sepoys but, their ranks swelled by the addition of the relief force, Outram decided that he could hold Lucknow until the troops Sir Colin Campbell was gathering arrived to reinforce him. Food was a major problem; rations, already barely at subsistence level, would have to be still further reduced, although a supply of grain—of which Colonel Inglis had not known—was subsequently found hidden beneath the Residency and considerably eased the problem.
GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS
Boorkha: all-enveloping cotton garment worn by purdah women when mixing with the outside world
Brahmin: high-caste Hindu
Chapkan: knee-length tunic
Charpoy: string bed
Daffadar: sergeant, cavalry
Din: faith
Doolie: stretcher or covered litter for conveyance of wounded
Ekka: small, single-horse-drawn cart, often curtained for conveyance of purdah women
Fakir: itinerant holy man
Feringhi: foreigner (term of disrespect)
Ghat: river bank, landing place, quay
Godown: storeroom, warehouse
Golandaz: gunner, native
Havildar/Havidar Major: sergeant/sergeant major, infantry
Jemadar: native officer, all arms
Ji/Ji-han: yes
Lal-kote: British soldier
Log: people (baba-log: children)
Moulvi: teacher of religion, Moslem
Nahin: no
Nana: lit. grandfather, popular title bestowed on Mahratta chief
Oudh: kingdom of, recently annexed by Hon. East India Company
Paltan: regiment
Pandy: name for mutineers, taken from the first to revolt, Sepoy Mangal Pandy, 34th Native Infantry
Peishwa: official title of ruler of the Mahratta race
Pugree: turban
Raj: rule
Rajwana: troops and retainers of native chiefs
Rissala: cavalry
Rissaldar: native officer, cavalry
Ryot: peasant landowner, cultivator
Sepoy: infantry soldier
Sowar: cavalry trooper
Subedar: native officer, infantry (equivalent of Captain)
Sweeper: low-caste servant
Talukdar: minor chief
Tulwar: sword or saber
Vakeel: agent
Zamindar: landowner
Zenana: harem
