Victoria’s Scottish Lion
Page 46
65 Colebrooke, 70.
66 Shadwell, I, 342.
67 Austin, 23.
68 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 95.
69 Shadwell, I, 368.
70 Waterfield, G., 253.
71 Clark, F., 45.
72 Wolseley, Story of a Soldier’s Life, I, 143.
73 Greville, VII, 82.
74 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 116.
75 Figes, 273; Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 119.
76 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 120.
77 Munro, 46.
78 Russell, The War, 266.
79 Calthorpe, 115; Munsell, 182.
80 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 151.
81 Munro, 48–9.
82 Cameron, 79; Munro, 52, 66.
83 Munro, 58.
84 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 125.
85 Campbell, C.F., Letters, 97.
86 Munro, 37.
87 Munro, 61–2.
88 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 132.
89 Windham, Crimean Diary, 85.
90 USM, February 1855, 268.
91 Marx, 506.
92 Hansard/HL/Deb. 14/5/55. Vol.138 cc. 466–556.
93 Munro, 63.
94 Martin, W., 86.
95 Kinglake, VII, 167.
96 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 132, 162.
97 Shadwell, I, 365.
98 Stanmore, I, 237.
99 Heath, 205.
100 Marsh, 152.
101 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 185.
102 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 169; Robertson, A., 21; Martin, W., 94.
103 Munro, 55.
104 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 129.
105 Shadwell, I, 350–2.
106 Kinglake, VII, 178.
107 RA/VIC/ADDE/1/203a.
108 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 156.
109 The Times, 23 December 1854.
110 Munsell, 201.
111 Maurice, II, 104.
112 NLS/MS.2257.
113 Shadwell, I, 366.
114 Hansard/HC/Deb.26/1/55. Vol.136 cc. 979–1063.
115 Shadwell, I, 366.
116 Fortescue, XIII, 157.
117 RNRM/44.2.4.
118 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 196.
119 Paget, 87.
120 Romaine, 129.
121 RA/VIC/ADDE/1/280.
122 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 124, 217.
123 Shadwell, I, 368.
124 Eckstaedt, I, 148.
125 Calthorpe, 165.
126 Romaine, 134, 132.
127 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 247, 261.
128 Shadwell, I, 373.
129 Calthorpe, 213.
130 Greig, 102.
131 Nightingale, 132.
132 Dallas, 50.
133 Ewart, I, 359.
134 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 194, 203.
135 Russell, The Great War with Russia, 292.
136 Romaine, 182, 199.
137 Bell, G., 263.
138 Hansard/HL/3/5/55. Vol.138 cc. 1–9.
139 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 287, 321, 349, 294.
140 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 286.
141 Douglas, I, 309.
142 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ(W).19/7/55.
143 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 290, 168.
144 Seaton, A., 208.
145 Ranken, Six Months at Sebastopol, 32.
146 RNRM/44.2.4.
147 Colebrooke, 92.
148 Wolseley, Story of a Soldier’s Life, 176.
149 Murray, D., III, 45.
150 Bazancourt, II, 450.
151 Milton Small, 185.
152 RNRM/44.2.3.
153 Vieth, 32.
154 RNRM/44.2.3.
155 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 337, 334.
156 Ranken, Canada and the Crimea, 208.
157 Shadwell, I, 382.
158 Steevens, 277.
159 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 339.
160 Pack, 208.
161 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 331.
162 Murray, D., III, 44.
163 Windham, Crimean Diary, 211.
164 Wolseley, Story of a Soldier’s Life, I, 197.
165 Murray, D., III, 44; Shadwell, I, 383–4; RNRM/44.2.3.
166 Paget, 114.
167 Ross-of-Bladensburg, 256.
168 Stuart, 161.
169 Spilsbury, 316.
170 USM, December 1855, 540.
171 The Times, 29 September 1855.
172 Marx, 584.
173 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 336.
174 Shadwell, I, 378; RNRM/44.2.3.
175 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ/(W).6/11/55.
176 RNRM/44.2.4.
177 Campbell, G., Autobiography, I, 585.
178 Reid, 129.
179 Campbell, G., Autobiography, 1, 585.
180 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 413.
181 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ(W).5/10/55.
182 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 418.
183 Campbell, G., Autobiography, I, 586.
184 Greville, VII, 222.
185 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 261.
186 Romaine, 199.
187 Skene, 104.
188 Kinglake, IV, 234.
189 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ(W).28/11/55.
190 Hodge, 137.
191 Romaine, 230.
192 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 354.
193 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 423, 194.
194 Hansard/HL/23/1/55. Vol.136 cc. 899–910.
195 Wood, E., The Crimea, 83.
196 Fenyo, 60, 85.
197 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 374.
198 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ(W).16/10/55.
199 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 421.
200 Kennaway, 73.
201 Dallas, 209.
202 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 454, 477, 483; RA/VIC/MAIN/G/39/114.
203 Reid, 129.
204 Brown, 88.
205 Paget, 142.
206 Pakenham, VI, 20.
207 York Herald, 17 November 1855.
208 Morning Post, 26 November 1855.
209 Reynolds’s Newspaper, 2 December 1855.
210 Hodge, 135.
211 The Times, 9 November 1855.
212 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 267.
213 RA/VIC/MAIN/G/39/114.
214 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 494.
215 Shadwell, I, 393.
216 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 497.
217 Sheppard, I, 140–1.
218 Victoria, III, 194.
219 RA/VIC/MAIN/QVJ(W).21/11/55.
220 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 369.
221 Douglas and Dalhousie, I, 503.
222 Barnston, 148.
223 Blackwood, 250.
224 Shadwell, I, 398.
225 Longmore, 8.
226 Calthorpe, 266.
227 NAM/1968-07-379 (16 February 1856).
228 Sterling, Story of the Highland Brigade, 370.
229 Munro, 72.
230 Imlah, 244.
231 Shadwell, I, 400.
232 RA/VIC/MAIN/E/7/24.
233 St Aubyn, 103.
234 RA/VIC/MAIN/E/8/11; PRO/WO/3/577/192.
235 Bartle, 304.
236 Ridley, 631.
237 Douglas and Dalhousie, II, 363.
238 RA/VIC/ADDE/1/591.
239 Fortescue, XIII, 232.
240 The Times, 27 May 1857.
241 Reynolds’s Newspaper, 16 August 1863.
242 Sheppard, I, 188.
243 Wantage, 139.
244 Percy, 203.
245 Campbell, G., Autobiography, II, 80.
246 David, The Indian Mutiny, 53.
247 Khan, 102.
248 Khan, 83.
249 Russe
ll, My Diary in India, I, 180.
250 Calcutta Review, Vol. XXIX, 404.
251 PP.H/C.East India 1857–58, Vol. XLII, 102–5.
252 Calcutta Review, Vol. XXIX, 393.
253 Pandey, 117.
254 Khan, 67.
255 Victoria, III, 299, 29 June 1857.
256 PP.H/C.East India 1857–58, Vol. XLII, 105.
257 PP.H/C.Papers relating to mutiny in Punjab, Vol. XVIII, 307.
258 Raikes, 151.
259 Douglas and Dalhousie, II, 391.
260 Malmesbury, II, 75.
261 Douglas and dalhousie, II, 423.
262 Pandey, 112.
263 Llewellyn-Jones, 102.
264 Hare, II, 157.
265 Reynolds’s Newspaper, 2 August 1857, 1.
266 Douglas and Dalhousie, II, 399.
267 Dasent, I, 263.
268 NLS/MS.2257, Haythorne.
269 Shadwell, I, 406.
9
Commander-in-Chief
* * *
‘Everyone knows that if the people of India could be unanimous for a day they might sweep us from their country as dust before a whirlwind’
Sir Richard Burton
* * *
The government had done all it could to deny Campbell overall command in the Crimea, yet now it was happy to hand him control of the empire’s largest army. This change of heart was partly due to royal favour. Campbell was by now a regular dinner guest at Windsor and his promotion met with the queen’s approval,1 while the Duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief at Horse Guards, idolised him. ‘I love that fine soldier and respect him more than words can describe,’ he confessed.2 Press and public still adored him, and it was lucky that on the very day news of Delhi’s fall reached London, Campbell was on parade at the VC ceremony in Hyde Park. ‘What we require is the presence in British India of the most competent officer who can be found’, declared The Times that morning. ‘In such a crisis the appointment of Sir Colin Campbell is the most inspiriting measure that could be adopted’, observed the Bury and Norwich Post.3
What’s more, in terms of campaigning, India was strictly second division, needing neither the best commanders nor troops. At least, that was the accepted wisdom. When Cambridge suggested sending the Guards, Palmerston replied, ‘If there were a real war going on in India, for instance against a Russian invasion, or a French Army, it might be right to send some.’4 Since this was just fractious Asians, infantry of the line and a below-stairs general would pass muster.
Neither was it so politically sensitive a post. While Campbell’s appointment in the Crimea would have been both a coup for British radicals and an admission of the failure of patrician generals, sending him to India was much less controversial. Indian Army officers were generally middle class, so if they failed to keep their sepoys under control, it was not the fault of the British aristocracy. And if Campbell knocked heads together it would shake the Company in Calcutta, not the government in London.
Once word of Campbell’s appointment got out, everyone wanted to say goodbye from the queen downwards, so he did not catch the boat train until Sunday evening. After stopping in Paris next morning for breakfast with General Vinoy, he was soon in Marseilles, aboard the P&O steamer Vectis, which had been held back specially. She would take him to Egypt for the overland journey to Suez, from where he would catch another steamship to Calcutta.
The journey gave Campbell a month to ponder the task ahead. He had left London sharing Palmerston’s optimism, half expecting, like Napier in 1849, to find India at peace. ‘If Delhi be quietly disposed of, the whole outbreak will immediately terminate, in my opinion, and I should have nothing to do but to reorganise the Bengal army’, he wrote from the Vectis,5 but the closer he got to Calcutta the more unsettling the reports became. ‘Newspapers from India, and men from thence on their way home, told us here that many additional regiments … had mutinied,’ wrote Campbell, ‘showing that the disease was beyond the power of remedy or arrest by any officer of the Bengal army.’6 On 31 May Shajahanpore and Bareilly had fallen to the rebels, followed by Budaon and Moradabad, Nimach, Jhansi and Furruckabad. The British were on the back foot, and the rebels triumphant. The mutineers ‘boasted of the deeds they had done and how the Sahibs had been so easily killed, or frightened into the jungle like hares’, wrote one native officer. ‘They were soon fully persuaded that the English rule had come to an end throughout India … They all thought they would be made princes for what they had done.’7
After stopping briefly at Madras, Campbell landed in Calcutta on 13 August 1857. He found the town panic-stricken. ‘Each week steamers full of fugitives arrived from up the country,’ recorded one diplomat, ‘with additional horrors to recount and more disaffection to report.’8 ‘Many timid ladies slept each night in Fort William, and it was said that some always carried poison about them to take in case of emergency’, recalled Wolseley. ‘Others went to bed with revolvers under their pillows, and practised with them daily.’9 As in Demerara, civilians lodged in ships moored in the river, ready to make a quick getaway.
‘We had a very great surprise when the Mail Steamer telegraphed that Sir Colin Campbell was on board as Commander-in-Chief’, explained Lady Canning, the governor-general’s wife. ‘We had no idea that it was possible for the news of poor General Anson’s death to have arrived so soon … The speed of Sir Colin’s departure was wonderful: he was here one month and a day after leaving England.’ Lady Canning sent Her Majesty an enthusiastic appraisal. ‘I am delighted to hear that that most loyal excellent veteran Hero Sir Colin Campbell is well and that you like him’, the queen replied. ‘I was sure you would, for it is impossible not to do so … I am glad to hear that he does not share the indiscriminate dislike of all brown skins, which is very unjust.’10
The governor-general, Charles Canning, had been in his post for just eighteen months (see Plate 22). Like Dalhousie, he had been shoehorned first into parliament and then into the cabinet at a young age, but unlike his predecessor he displayed tact and sensitivity, some would say to excess. ‘There was to my mind always something tragic about Lord Canning’s countenance,’ observed one official, ‘a look about him of Hamlet distraction, that he, the muser, should have fallen on days demanding masterly action.’11
He found Campbell a distinct improvement on Sir Patrick Grant, the interim commander-in-chief. ‘Grant is admirable in the way of preparation and organisation,’ remarked Canning, ‘but as a leader in the field Sir Colin inspires me with more confidence.’12 For his part, Campbell was impressed with his new boss. ‘I am delighted with Lord Canning’, he wrote. ‘Very clever and hard-working, and gets through an amount of it which few could accomplish; and with the highest courage, so simple and gentlemanlike … I cannot be too thankful for the good fortune which has placed me under such a chief.’13
Nevertheless, the Indian press eagerly cast Campbell as Canning’s nemesis, spreading rumours that the new commander-in-chief had nearly resigned after landing, that Palmerston had given him special powers to overrule Canning, even that the governor-general had been recalled.14 They pounced on anything that smacked of a rift. While staying at Government House, Campbell, exhausted from writing despatches all day, and feeling too tired to dress for dinner, ‘strolled across to a neighbouring hotel’ to take ‘a quiet chop and a bottle of claret. The next day, it was all over Calcutta that Sir Colin has so serious a misunderstanding with Lord Canning that he had actually left Government House’, reported a civil servant.15 Though the governor-general ‘could contentedly bear imputations of being a “blunderer” or a “vacillator” from those who were tricked by false or imperfect information’, as Lady Canning told the queen, ‘it was most painful to him to be accused of thwarting and obstructing the Commander-in-Chief when he was exerting himself to the uttermost to give him every assistance and support.’ ‘We never for a moment credited the shameful lies of disagreement between him [Campbell] and Lord Canning’, replied Her Majesty.16
Camp
bell’s goodwill towards the governor-general did not extend to the Company.* ‘Sir Colin said that the East India Company had been given a long trial, and that its rulers, civil and military, were directly responsible for the Mutiny’, wrote Wolseley.17 Slackers and bureaucrats were in his firing line. According to one soldier, ‘Sir Colin Campbell came like a whirlwind’ into Fort William. Having bawled out one officer, he ‘then sent for the next in command, a jolly individual, who came downstairs in exuberant spirits, with his hat well on the back of his head. “If anything goes wrong under your command, I will try you, sir, by court-martial, as I intend to try your major”. And glaring fiercely at us all, he added, “I will try everybody who is incapable.”’18
To avoid relying on Company officers Campbell had brought his own staff, but they were not immune to his tirades either. Although Lady Canning assured the queen that her favourite Highland general had no ‘more hot temper than is very useful to keep those under him on the alert’,19 supreme command made it worse. On one occasion, furious at an ADC, Campbell picked up a heavy bag of rupees (Campbell’s monthly pay) and ‘shied it at him’. Immediately ashamed, he said, ‘Now you have got it, you had better keep it.’ As Rokeby observed in the Crimea, ‘His violence at times is nearly that of a maniac, but it only lasts a minute, unless aggravated by contradiction.’20 ‘If Sir Colin had been simply a low-bred passionate tyrant, I should never have given the matter another thought,’ wrote another officer after crossing swords with him, ‘a thing very easy to do with a man of low moral calibre, but this was not so. Under a rough and unpolished exterior, I felt persuaded there was a kind, generous and warm-hearted nature – not only that, but a highly sensitive one.’21
The one man spared the flak was Chief of Staff Major-General Mansfield, who had served as his ADC in Balaklava. Though ‘distasteful to the Court of Directors’, Campbell had made his appointment a condition of his accepting the post of commander-in-chief.22 In Mansfield he saw a rising talent. When asked by Queen Victoria which officer he would single out ‘as one of most promise’, Campbell had assured her ‘Mansfield was without comparison the one from whom great services could be expected.’23 Though a man ‘possessed of a rare ability that would have placed him high in any non-military walk of life’, his ‘cold, calculating and logical brain’ made him terse and sermonic, ‘very much the grand seigneur in his communications with junior officers’, as one soldier put it. According to Wolseley, ‘Numbers hated him as supercilious and inclined to presume upon the acknowledged fact of his great general ability … No one liked him, indeed many averred not even Sir Colin’, but, as another officer pointed out, Campbell ‘stuck to the men who were useful to him, although he did not like them’.24