Victoria’s Scottish Lion

by Greenwood, Adrian; Haythornthwaite, Philip;

  On 11 February Shere Singh made a last attempt to lure Gough into battle before Whish’s troops arrived. His Sikhs advanced in battle array, but Gough failed to take the bait, and so that night the enemy upped sticks and vanished. ‘All the tents at Russool have disappeared. There do not appear to remain any but irregular troops, who are formed in line along the crest of their entrenched position’, wrote Campbell. ‘By three o’clock the whole had withdrawn from Russool, and our officers were riding amongst the works they had abandoned.’ ‘I never saw a stronger position,’ recorded Campbell, ‘nor did I ever see one so well improved by works so admirably arranged.’

  The Sikhs next marched on Goojrat, with the intention of threatening Lahore. Gough saw his chance and set out in pursuit. He found the 60,000-strong Sikh army lodged a little south of Goojrat, arrayed in a long crescent, the eastern tip touching the Katela, a tributary of the Chenaub, and its west end on the Dwara, a nullah that snaked southwards. ‘The position of the enemy was plainly to be seen from the top of a high house in Koonjah’, wrote Campbell. ‘Their camp seems to go all round Goojrat, and close to it; their cavalry, infantry and artillery in a sort of semi-circle round the eastern and southern side of the town.’189 In front were a few trifling villages, strengthened by the Sikhs as outposts, and in the far distance the platinum saw edge of the Himalayas. ‘The sun shone bright, but not hot,’ recalled Mountain, ‘the snowy range was distinct and in great beauty, the country rich and green as England, interspersed with occasional trees. I never saw such a sheet of luxuriant crops … I felt as if I were treading down gold from the time we came within eight or ten miles of Goojrat.’190

  The natural beauty failed to lift Campbell’s spirits. After his mauling in the press, he was again melancholic. Already, he had decided it would be his last battle:

  I will endeavour to get home during the ensuing cold weather and there pass the few years that it may please the Disposer of events to assign to me in this world, in the society of the few persons still remaining whom I love most, away from details of military command, of which I have become very tired, and with which, when neglected by those under me, I find I have no longer the temper or patience to bear as I ought to do.

  First he had to defeat the Sikhs. Gough’s tactics were simple. ‘With my right wing I proposed penetrating the centre of the enemy’s line so as to turn the position of their force in rear of the nullah,’ Gough informed Dalhousie, ‘and thus enable my left wing to cross it with little loss, and in co-operation with the right to double upon the centre the wing of the enemy’s force opposed to them.’ It very much conformed to Gough’s preference for hitting the enemy smack-bang in the midriff, without much sophistication beyond that. ‘He mentioned generally his plan of attack,’ explained Campbell, ‘without giving any detail of movement or disposition of the troops.’191 Campbell was to deploy his men to the left of the nullah and ‘preserve my communications with the heavy guns, which were placed on the opposite bank’.192 He was to approach, but not to pass the nullah without further instructions. This time there would be no repeat of Chillianwala’s silent muskets. Campbell had been drilling the men to fire in files while advancing. Gough also seemed cured of his cold steel fixation. After one colonel declared that his regiment could storm the Sikh position at the point of the bayonet, the commander-in-chief replied, ‘That is the very thing I do not want you to do’.193

  Campbell’s men were in position a little after 7 a.m., with the light company of the 24th in the nullah. To his left was Dundas’s Bombay Column and the cavalry of Thackwell and White. In reserve was Hoggan’s infantry brigade. To the right was Gilbert’s force, followed by Whish’s division, with cavalry flanking them on the extreme right. At 7.45 a.m. Campbell advanced. ‘I formed my two brigades, commanded by Carnegie and McLeod, in contiguous columns of regiments,’ Campbell explained, ‘with a very strong line of skirmishers in front; the artillery in line with the skirmishers. When we arrived within long range of the enemy’s guns we deployed into line.’194 They still had several miles to traverse when, at 9 a.m., the Sikh cannon burst into life. Gough moved his guns up to answer. ‘The cannonade now opened upon the enemy, was the most magnificent I ever witnessed, and as terrible in its efforts’, reported the commander-in-chief.195 For the first time in the war, Gough’s artillery had the advantage, the British with ninety-six guns, many of them heavy, against the Sikhs’ fifty-nine, most little more than 9-pounders. Nevertheless, the Sikhs maintained a brisk rate of fire, picking off the British gunners and blowing up two ammunition wagons. Gough’s artillery gave a careful, rather slow, but deadly accurate fire in reply.

  By 9.30 a.m. Campbell’s skirmishers were within range of the Sikh guns. Ahead ‘the right wing of the enemy’s army was plainly to be seen, formed directly in our front, beyond a turn in the nullah which seemed to run parallel to the front of their position’. Two heavy Sikh guns and several 6- and 9-pounders opened fire. Rather than charge them, Campbell deployed twelve 9-pounders to pitch into the enemy infantry and cavalry beyond.

  At 12 noon, after a marathon three-hour bombardment, Gough ordered a general advance. As Campbell’s brigades drove forward, enemy cavalry and infantry began to bear down upon them, but the Sikh horsemen appeared hesitant and the foot soldiers disordered. Campbell’s guns fired into their side, while the Bombay horse artillery pummelled them head on. ‘This double fire in front and flank caused them to waver,’ wrote Campbell, ‘and finally to give way.’ Meanwhile, the Scinde Irregular Horse and the 9th Lancers fought off attempts by 4,000 enemy cavalry, including 1,500 Afghans, to turn Campbell’s left flank.

  As the Sikh infantry retired to the nullah, Gough ordered Campbell to storm the position, but in Campbell’s opinion:

  to have done so with infantry would have occasioned a very useless and most unnecessary sacrifice of life. And seeing that this end could be obtained by the use of the artillery without risking the loss of a man, I proceeded upon my own responsibility to employ my artillery in enfilading the nullah … After succeeding in driving the enemy out of every part of it, I had the satisfaction of seeing the whole left wing of our army, including my own division, pass this formidable defence of the enemy’s right wing without firing a musket or losing a man.196

  Aside from a struggle at the villages east of Campbell’s position, Gough’s advance was proceeding well. As the infantry pushed forward, so the British heavy guns moved up behind to fire over their heads onto the enemy. ‘The roar of more than a hundred pieces of artillery shook the very earth, pitching round shot and shells into the enemy from less than three hundred yards’, wrote one officer:

  they returning our fire with great spirit and precision … The fire was very hot on us, carrying off three men at a time, shells bursting over us, or burying themselves in front, scattering the earth in our faces. There was a constant line of dhoolies from our regiment to the hospital as, one after another, the men were carried off.197

  The right portion of the British army had now swept so far ahead that it was with some difficulty that Gough managed to get them to stop and wait until Campbell’s left wing caught up. A gap appeared in the middle of the British line as the two wings diverged and, spotting the weakness, the Sikhs thrust forward. At the sight of British horse artillery unlimbering and preparing to fire, the enemy hesitated, but after a pause without reports, they realised the British were out of ammunition and had just been going through the motions. The Sikhs pressed on again but Campbell deployed guns on their flank to enfilade them, allowing the British line to re-establish itself and resume its steady march.

  After this last counter-attack the Sikhs lost heart completely. ‘The body of the enemy was completely broken, and driven from the field, with considerable slaughter and in utter confusion’, recorded an official memorandum.198 Gough now ordered Campbell to skirt Goojrat to the east and follow the troops in the right wing, while the Bombay Division circled west. Having left the artillery to do the hard work, Campbell’s infantry only ha
d to occupy the battlefield. ‘I did not fire a musket,’ wrote Campbell, ‘and I thank God, which I do with a most grateful heart, that our loss has been altogether insignificant. The army is in high spirits. It was like a beautiful field day, the whole day’s work.’

  The Sikhs were in complete disarray. ‘They are dropping their guns and tumbrils along the road, getting rid of every encumbrance to hasten their flight,’ Campbell told Henry Lawrence. ‘They were, as an army, one vast mass of fugitives, all crowded together in one heap.’199 ‘Everything was in confusion,’ reported one officer:

  tumbrils overturned, guns dismounted, waggons with their wheels off, oxen and camels rushing wildly about, wounded horses plunging in their agony, beds, blankets, boxes, ammunition, strewed about the ground in a perfect chaos; the wounded lying there groaning, some begging to be despatched, others praying for mercy, and some, with scowling looks of impotent rage, striving to cut down those who came near them, and thereby insuring their own destruction.200

  Thackwell and Hearsay’s cavalry was despatched to hunt down the routed enemy while the infantry cleared the field of materiel. That night the countryside reverberated with the crash of controlled, and not so controlled, explosions. One party of European soldiers pulled out their pipes to have a smoke, oblivious to a nearby Sikh ammunition wagon. The explosion decapitated one and set the uniform of another on fire. ‘No one dared go near him, as his ammunition pad was ablaze and had not yet exploded. It was fearful to see the flames eating into his vitals.’ At length, an officer threw a piece of tent over the man.201 Another cart detonated when a soldier, examining some Sikh shot, tossed one ball back and its rough edge sparked off another, igniting some gunpowder, killing one man and wounding a second.202

  The next day, as Gilbert’s infantry headed north-west, Campbell’s division marched with the 9th Lancers* and the 8th Bengal Light Cavalry to Bhimbur to mop up any enemy escapees. Campbell scoured the area for three days but, finding nothing except two abandoned guns, returned to Goojrat on the 25th. ‘I concluded my fate would be to remain with the commander-in-chief until the breaking up of the army of the Punjab,’ he wrote, ‘and that I should have no more campaigning in India.’203 But Gough needed Campbell to take over Mountain’s brigade. An accident had placed the brigadier-general hors de combat.’A bearer ran up with my double-barrelled horse pistol. I put it into the holster; one bang, and I was a helpless cripple. The ball went through the palm of my left hand, passing slanting through, and came out under the wrist joint, breaking a metacarpal bone’, explained Mountain. ‘I thought of the Redeemer’s hand nailed to the cross, and tried to be patient.’204

  Leading his expanded division, Campbell set out on 6 March to catch up with Gilbert, who was already bearing down on 16,000 Sikhs camped near Rawal Pindi. The enemy had no more stomach for the fight, and by 9 March Shere Singh was making conciliatory noises. Three days later Gilbert took the official surrender. Each Sikh soldier handed over his tulwar, matchlock and shield. ‘There was nothing cringing in the manner of these men laying down their arms’, wrote Campbell:

  They acknowledged themselves to have been beaten, and that they gave in because they were starving. They were without money, food or ammunition … Each man as he laid down his arms received a rupee, to enable him to return to his home … The greater number of the old men especially, when laying down their arms, made a deep reverence or salaam as they placed their swords on the ground, with the observation ‘Ranjeet Singh is dead, or has died, today’. This was said by all of them with deep feeling. They are undoubtedly a fine and brave people.205

  At a cost of ninety-six killed and 700 wounded, Gough had pulled off a victory which ‘placed the coping stone on the edifice of the British Empire in India’, as one Indian historian put it.206 His enemy had lost 3,000 men and fifty-three guns. ‘Hurrah! We have gained a great success’, wrote Campbell.207 ‘This time we have got a victory – and a sniffer!’ declared Dalhousie.208 ‘That which Alexander* attempted, the British Indian Army has accomplished’, announced Gough.209 ‘In the presence of what cannot but be felt to be a great deliverance, as well as a great triumph, past errors and indiscretions are forgotten’,210 reported The Times. ‘Had the Battle of Goojrat been Lord Gough’s first battle in India,’ declared the Mofussilite, ‘no amount of carnage at Chillianwala or elsewhere would have interfered with his fame.’211 The Bombay Times, meanwhile, managed to be utterly mean-spirited: ‘The field exhibits few features in which the marks of Generalship could be traced; with such an army as that under Lord Gough, victory on the present occasion was certain.’212

  Unfortunately for the commander-in-chief, Goojrat came too late for him to avoid being stripped of command. His replacement, Sir Charles Napier, was already en route. A contrite government gave Gough a viscountcy but his reputation was forever blackened, his tactics dismissed as those of ‘a cavalry officer attacking a tank’.213 Some simply could not credit him with the victory. One story doing the rounds was that Gough’s staff officers had locked him in a windmill so that the artillery could finish their work before he ordered a precipitate advance.

  Dalhousie, already an earl, was bumped up to a marquess, though he insisted that he preferred ‘to be a Scottish earl of 1633 to being an English Marquis of 1849’.214 Campbell was knighted. ‘I would rather have got a year’s batta’,** he wrote in similar vein.215 The mistakes of Chillianwala were forgiven, and in April 1849, along with the other generals, he received the thanks of parliament. In due course, Dundee’s greatest bad poet, William McGonagall, honoured him:

  Twas in the year of 1849, and on the 20th of February,

  Lord Gough met and attacked Shere Singh right manfully,

  The Sikh Army numbered 40,000 in strength,

  And showing a front about two miles in length

  The chief attack was made on the enemy’s right

  By Colin Campbell’s brigade – a most magnificent sight.

  Though they were exposed to a very galling fire

  But at last the Sikhs were forced to retire

  (just two of the twelve verses)

  For many back home the Punjab revolt exposed the foolish romanticism of the informal supervision of native princely states. The United Service Magazine hoped that ‘puppet satraps are about to disappear from the Company’s dominions,’216 the Punjab being first on the list. ‘I can see no escape from the necessity of annexing this infernal country’, agreed Dalhousie,217 despite strong objections from its Resident. ‘Lawrence has been greatly praised and rewarded and petted, and no doubt naturally supposes himself a King of the Punjab,’ wrote Dalhousie, ‘but … I object to sharing the chairs.’218 Victory in war had made the governor-general virtually unassailable. ‘I begin to think a friend of mine was right when he lately wrote and congratulated me “that I and the Emperor of Russia were the only two autocrats left in safety”’, he boasted.219 It was a foretaste of what, two years later, Henry Lawrence was to call an ‘imperativeness … that would be unbecoming if we were his servants’.220

  With his realm annexed, Duleep Singh was forced to abdicate in return for a pension. The riches of the Lahore treasury were seized, and to Campbell’s great good fortune, much of it divided as the spoils of war. However, there was one item lying in a Chubb safe in the maharajah’s strong room, set aside. According to the third clause of the peace settlement, the Koh-i-noor was to be presented to Queen Victoria. ‘It is not every day that an officer of their government adds four millions of subjects to the British Empire, and places the historical jewel of the Mogul Emperors in the crown of his sovereign’, crowed Dalhousie.221 ‘The Koh-i-noor*** has become in the lapse of ages a sort of historical emblem of conquest in India’, he wrote. ‘It has now found its proper resting place.’222

  Notes

  * Mainly British and Irish, they were described as ‘Europeans’ to distinguish them from HM’s troops.

  ** Indo-Arabic term for a chieftain or commander.

  *** His famous one-word telegra
phic victory despatch, ‘Peccavi’ (Latin for ‘I have sinned’), greatly amused the Victorian public, though in fact it was the work of a Punch contributor.

  * Because brigadier was a local rank, when Campbell left China he had reverted to colonel.

  ** She was noted for her belligerence. When asked for ammunition by a delegation during the First Sikh War, she took off her ‘petticoat’ and threw it over her Durbah screen shouting, ‘Wear that you cowards! I’ll go in trousers and fight myself!’ (Pearse, 272–4). She also used to request portraits of all new British officers for her perusal.

  * Technically speaking, suttee refers to the woman about to burn herself to death rather than the practice.

  * The cool summer retreat used by Indian civil servants and officers, which resembled Surrey transplanted to the Alps.

  ** Later Campbell’s chief of staff during the mutiny, and eventually Baron Sandhurst and commander-in-chief in India.

  * His father was the lacklustre general who appeared late at the Battle of Vitoria.

  ** The first was described by Henry Lawrence as ‘the most imprudent man in the residency’ (Bal, 193), the second as ‘most inflammable’ (Lawrence, J., 159).

  * The extent of Moolraj’s complicity is unclear. Currie was convinced of his guilt (Ahluwalia, ‘Some Facts’, 8, and Maharani, 83). John Lawrence was having none of it (Diver, 345).