The details of the operation have been so fully entered into
in my previous despatch, and in the annexed reports and
returns from the various commanding officers, that little re-
mains for me to say but to again express my unqualified
approbation of the conduct and spirit of the whole of the
troops not only on this occasion but during the entire period
they have been in the field.

For four months of the most trying season of the year this
force, originally very weak in number, has been exposed to the
repeated and determined attacks of an enemy far out-number-
ing it, and supported by a numerous and powerful artillery.
The duties imposed upon all have been laborious, harassing,
and incessant ; and, notwithstanding heavy losses both in action
and from disease, have been at all times zealously and cheerfully
performed.

I beg to add my most cordial concurrence in the commenda-
tions bestowed by officers commanding brigades, columns and
detachments on the officers and men named in their several
reports ; and I have to express my own deep obligations to
those officers themselves for the valuable assistance I have at
all times received from them.

To Major F. Gaitskell, who recently assumed command of
the artillery in the field, consequent on Brigadier Garbett
having been disabled by a wound, and to the officers and men
of that distinguished arm, to whose energy and untiring zeal
the successful issue of the operations is so largely attributable,
I have to offer my hearty thanks ; and particularly am I in-



GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH. 227

debted to that excellent officer, Lieut.-Colonel C. Hogge,
Director of the Artillery Depot, who volunteered his services
as commissary of ordnance with the siege train, through
whose able superintendence of the park and arrangements for
the supply of ammunition to the batteries, our artillery was
able to deal out the destruction which was effected ; as also to
Capt. T. Young, Deputy-Commissary, and Mr. J. Stotesbury,
Assistant-Commissary of Ordnance, for their exertions during
the whole siege.

.To Lieut.-Colonel Baird Smith, Chief Engineer, who in ill
health, and whilst suffering from the effects of a painful w r ound,
devoted himself with the greatest ability and assiduity to the
conduct of the difficult and important operations of the siege,
to his gallant and eminently talented second, Captain A.
Taylor, and to the whole of the officers and men of the
Engineer Brigade, my thanks and acknowledgments are espe-
cially due for having planned and successfully carried out in
the face of extreme and unusual difficulties an attack almost
without parallel in the annals of siege operations.

To that most brilliant officer, Brigadier-General J. Nichol-
son, whose professional character and qualifications are so well
known and appreciated, I am under the greatest obligations for
the daring manner in which he led his column to the assault ;
and I deeply deplore that his services are for the present lost
to the State.

To Brigadier Hope Grant, C.B., commanding the Cavalry
Brigade, and to Brigadiers J. Longfield and W. Jones, C;B.,
commanding Infantry Brigades, I am deeply indebted. And I
have to offer my best thanks to Colonel C. Campbell, command-
ing Her Majesty's 52nd Light Infantry, and to that intrepid
and excellent officer, Major C. Eeid, of the Sirmoor Battalion,
both wounded whilst gallantly leading columns of attack ; as
also to Colonel J. Jones, commanding the 1st Battalion 60th
Royal Rifles, a regiment which has shown a glorious example
both in its daring gallantry and its perfect discipline to the
whole force, for the ability with which he covered the advance
of the assaulting columns.

I have pleasure also in bringing favourably to notice the

Q 2



228 GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH.

services rendered by Lieut. -Colonel H. P. Burn, attached as
field officer to the 1st Brigade of Infantry, and by Captain
Seymour Blane, Her Majesty's 52nd Light Infantry, Major of
Brigade to Brigadier-General Nicholson.

Colonel J. L. Denniss, of Her Majesty's 52nd Light In-
fantry, whom I placed in charge of the camp during the
operations, is entitled to my thanks and acknowledgments for
the able disposition he made with the troops under his
command for the due protection of his important charge.

To the officers of the general staff of the army, and to
those of the staff of the field force, my cordial acknowledg-
ments are due for the admirable manner in which they have
performed their responsible duties ; to that very distinguished
officer, Brigadier General W. Chamberlain, Adjutant-General
of the Army, who, though still incapacitated by a severe
wound previously received, proceeded to the ridge at Hindoo
Rao's, and performed essential service after Major Reid had
been wounded, and it became necessary to resume that position
to Captain H. M. Norman, Assistant Adjutant-General of the
Army, who on this, as on each and every occasion, has been
distinguished by his gallantry, zeal, and professional ability ;
to that experienced officer, Major R. S. Ewart, Deputy
Assistant Adjutant-General, and his gallant and energetic
coadjutor Captain D. M. Stewart, Deputy Assistant Adjutant-
General, who have conducted the duties of their important
department with the force, much to my satisfaction ; and to
Captain E. B. Johnson, Assistant Adjutant-General of Artil-
lery, who volunteered to command the 24-pounder Breach-
ing Battery, most ably and effectually carried out the duty
assigned to him, and who rejoined my personal staff on the
morning of the assault, aad who has throughout these opera-
tions given me the most zealous and efficient support ; I am
greatly indebted for the assistance they have afforded me.

I also beg to bring very favourably to notice the officers of
the Quartermaster-General's Department, Captain D. C. Chute
and Captain H. M. Garstin, and Captain W. S. R. Hodson,
who has performed such good and gallant service with his
newly-raised regiment of Irregular Horse, and at the same



GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH. 229

time conducted the duties of the intelligence department under
the orders of the Quartermaster-General with rare ability and
success : also that active and gallant officer, Lieutenant F. S.
Roberts, attached to the Artillery Brigade in the capacity of
Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General.

Lieutenant-Colonel Keith Young, Judge Advocate General,
also, and his Deputies, Captain F. C. Maisey, and Captain
H. W. Wilson, most zealously assisted me in carrying my
orders.

~To the officers of my personal staff, Captain C. H. Barchard,
who has served with me first as my orderly officer, and subse-
quently as Aide-de-Camp, and to whose zealous and untiring
exertions I m deeply indebted ; to Captain J. R. Turnbull,
Second Aide-de-Camp, Captain R. A. Lowe and Lieutenant
R. C. Lowe, Extra Aide-de-Camp, I am under great obliga-
tions for the zeal and readiness with which they on this and
all other occasions have performed their duties. My thanks
are also due to Major II. A. Ouvry, who attended me on the
day of assault.

For the valuable aid at all times rendered by officers of the
Civil Service, who have been attached to the force, I have to
record my warm acknowledgments ; to Mr. Hervey Greathed,
Agent to the Lieutenant-Governor North-West Provinces
(whose subsequent sudden death I deeply lament), and Mr.
C. B. Saunders, both of whom attended me in action, and
made themselves most useful ; Sir T. Metcalfe, Bart., whose
gallantry in conducting Colonel Campbell's assaulting column
through the city was conspicuous ; and Mr. R. W. Clifford,
who was also in attendance on me, are all entitled to my
thanks.

Whilst, however, in acknowledging the services of those
officers whose good fortune it was to be present at the assault
and in the action of the 14th, I have only performed a grateful
duty. I should be greatly wanting if I failed to record the
names of those who have previously distinguished themselves,
but who, incapacitated by wounds or sickness, were unable to
join in the operations of that day. Amongst these I have
specially to notice Brigadier St. G. D. Showers, whose cool



230 GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH.

gallantry on the numerous occasions in which he has been
engaged has been conspicuous ; also Colonel A. W. M. Becher,
Quartermaster-General of the Army, who, though prevented
by a severe wound received in June last from taking an active
part in the field, has at all times rendered me zealous assistance.
Lieutenant-Colonel T. Seaton, C.B., of the 35th Native
Infantry, attached to the force, a most valuable and expe-
rienced officer, of whose services I have been deprived owing
to a wound received by him on the 23rd July ; that admirable
officer, Lieutenant- Colonel Murray Mackenzie, commanding
the 1st Brigade of Horse Artillery, of whose services I have
also been deprived by a wound which lie received when in
charge of the heavy batteries at an early stage of our opera-
tions ; that officer so distinguished in our frontier warfare,
Major J. Coke, commanding the 1st Punjab Rifles, severely
wounded at the head of his regiment on the 12th August;
and the gallant commander of the Guides, Captain H. D.
Daly, who was very severely wounded leading a most daring
charge on the enemy's guns in the action of the 19th June.

I need not observe how largely the success and efficiency of
the army depends on the regularity of its supplies. L T nder
circumstances of peculiar difficulty, in a district the population
of which has been inimical, and in which civil authority has
ceased to exist, this force has from the commencement been
kept well and sufficiently provisioned with supplies of every
description, the issue of rations to the soldier having been as
regular, both in quantity and quality, as in cantonments. My
wannest thanks are, therefore, due to Lieutenant-Colonel
W. B. Thompson, Deputy-Commissary-General, the admirable
and indefatigable head of that department in the field ; as also
to Lieutenant T. H. Sibley, Principal Executive Officer ; to
Lieutenant Waterfield, and to the other officers serving in that
department.

With the medical arrangements of Superintending- Surgeon
E. Tritton I have every reason to be satisfied, and he is
entitled to my cordial acknowledgments. At such a trying
season of the year, and in a notoriously unhealthy locality, the
sickness and mortality have of course been heavy. In addition



GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH. 231

to those suffering from disease, the hospitals have received
almost daily accessions of wounded men. The labours, there-
fore, of the medical , department have been unceasing. Not-
withstanding there has not been at any time the slightest
failure in the arrangements for the care and comfort of the
very numerous patients.

Amongst those medical officers whose unwearied zeal and
superior ability have come prominently before me are Offi-
ciating Superintending Surgeon C. McKinnon, M.D., who has
been in medical charge of the 1st Brigade Horse Artillery;
Surgeon J. H. Ier Innes, 60th Royal Rifles; Surgeon E.
Hare, of the 2nd Fusiliers ; Assistant-Surgeon J. J. Clifford,
M.D., of the 9th Lancers; and Assistant- Surgeon W. F.
Mactier, M.D., on the personal staff of the late Commander -
in- Chief.

Credit is also due to Assistant- Surgeon D. Scott, M.D.,
Medical Storekeeper.

The duties and offices of Provost Marshal to the force have
been conducted by a very deserving old non-commissioned
officer, Sergeant-Major Stroud, 3rd Brigade Horse Artillery,
whom I recommend to favourable consideration for a commis-
sion. The names of other non-commissioned officers, deserving
of a similar reward, I shall have the pleasure of submitting
hereafter.

I should neither be fulfilling the repeatedly-expressed wishes
of the artillery officers attached to this force, nor following the
dictates of my own inclination, if I failed to acknowledge the
valuable assistance which has throughout the operations before
Delhi been most cheerfully given by the non-commissioned
officers and men of Her Majesty's 9th Lancers and the 6th
Dragoon Guards in working the batteries ; without it, owing
to the comparatively small number of artillerymen, I should
have been quite unable to man the batteries efficiently, or
keep up the heavy fire which, aided by these men, I have
happily been able to do. To these regiments, therefore, and
to Brigadier Grant, who so readily placed a certain number of
his men at my disposal for such purpose, I tender my best
thanks.



232 GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH.

It would be an omission on my part were I to pass over in
silence the good services and loyal conduct of one who has
already been rewarded by the Government for the friendly
assistance he rendered to our army in Afghanistan I allude
to Xawab Jan Fishan Khan, who, with his brave nephew,
Sirdar Bahadoor Meer Khan, and their retainers, accompanied
me from Meerut, was present at the actions on the Hindun,
and has since taken part in nearly every action in which this
force has been engaged.

Of the loyal services rendered to the State by the Rajah of
Putteeala, which must be so well known to the Government, it
may not be considered necessary for me to speak ; but it is
incumbent on me, in my capacity as Commander of this force,
to acknowledge officially the great assistance the Rajah's troops
have aiforded me in enabling the numerous convoys of ammu-
nition and stores to travel in security and safety to my camp
under their escort and protection.

It is my duty to bring prominently to the notice of Govern-
ment the admirable service performed by the Jheend Rajah
and his troops, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel H. F.
Dunsford ; they have not only had very harassing duties to
carry out in the constant escort of convoys of sick and wounded
men, ammunition, &c., but they have also aided me in the field
on more than one occasion, and finally participated in the
assault of the city.

Lastly, I trust I may be excused if I thus publicly acknow-
ledge the all-important and valuable aid for which I am
indebted to the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, Sir John
Lawrence, K.C.B., to whose indefatigable exertions, in rein-
forcing me with every available soldier in the Punjab, the
successful result of our operations i?, I unhesitatingly pro-
nounce, attributable ; and I take this opportunity of recognising
the advantage derived from the presence of the troops of bis
Highness the Maharajah Runbeer Singh, in alliance with the
British force, the moral effect of which has been great ; and
although unsuccessful, I regret to say, in the actual accomplish-
ment of that part of the operations in which the Jummoo
Contingent was engaged on the 14th, I can attach no particle



GEN. WILSON'S SECOND DESPATCH. 233

of blame to those troops, as I consider, under the circum-
stances in which they were placed, the very strong position
which they had to attack, and the prolonged and determined
resistance which they encountered from an enemy superior to
them in number, arms, training, and experience, that they
behaved under their gallant commander, Captain R. Lawrence,
and the other British officers serving with them, to whom my
best thanks are due, as well as they could have been expected
to do.

Captain Lawrence's report of his operations is annexed.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) A. WILSON, Major- General,

Commanding Delhi Field Force.



234



CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUDING REMABKS.

IT is to be feared that many excellent actions,
much private heroism, and moral as well as physical
chivalry, have, from necessarily contracted private
sources of information, escaped merited notice: to
such incidents history will do justice; but if any
palpable omission has been made, the compiler offers
his apologies to those aggrieved.

The Punjab Government make no pretensions to
infallibility in their counsels or finality in their
administrative machine; much less would it claim
credit for prophetic political foresight, because of the
extraordinary fidelity, loyalty, and even attachment,
shown to their rulers generally by the Punjab people
in the past perilous conjuncture. Still whatever
credit is due for the success attending the determined
pursuit of an original and bold line of policy, is fairly
theirs. The impression of inherent invincibility was
kept up ; and the ignorance of the Asiatic as to the



POLICY OF THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT. 235

universality and overwhelming nature of the danger
was boldly counted on. The announcement of
the speedy arrival of vast reinforcements from
England was as calmly made, as if the proverbial
apathy of the British Parliament was to be roused
from its sleep of a hundred years on Indian subjects
by a single summons, however black the tidings.
The full force of the danger, and. the form in which
it would approach, were to them matters of conjec-
ture, but anxiously and justly enough appreciated by
Indians. To have ever acted on the defensive ever,
much less then would have ruined our prestige,
and only staved off the evil day for the Punjab for
a few short weeks. Further, without securing
certain tranquillity it would have lost us the im-
portant political advantage of using the hereditary
and inextinguishable aversion of the Sikhs to the
Poorbeah, as the strongest and most malevolent
weapon in the fight. The outbreak had been pre-
cipitated by about ten days ; and in those days every
golden moment was used.

The reader has seen what the decision and nerve
of a Montgomery accomplished at Lahore ; how his
example was followed at Peshawur ; what Sir John
Lawrence has done finally for the resumption of
empire in Hindoostan ; and what the Punjab could
have done for it (but for the first decisive step of the



236 DESIGNS OF THE REBELS.

13th May), with forty thousand Poorbeali soldiers in
simultaneous revolt.

It was a rough awakening, but a complete one.
The universality of the design was obvious. The
Queen's Regiments on the 24th of May fired a " feu
de joie " with blank ammunition on parade, and the
unsuspecting Europeans were to have been massacred
before reaching their lines. The sepoys at Fort
William, Allahabad, Lahore, Govindgurh, Phillour,
were to have seized those strongholds, while the
green flag was hoisted at Delhi and the empire of
Bahadoor Shah proclaimed. He was, it is believed,
to have been endowed with the empire of his
ancestors ; the licentious Nawab of Moorshedabad
was to have assumed the vice-royalty of Oudh ; and
to the protection of the ex-King of Oudh was to have
been confided the care of Bahar and Bengal, while
he assumed the purple, superseding the Governor-
General of India.

Rapidly surveying the aspect of affairs, Sir John
Lawrence at once foresaw the necessity of pro-
viding additional force for the Punjab : he predicted
to the Governor-General, in a telegram of the 12th
of May, the certainty that the greater portion of the
native regular army would have to be disarmed !
The Governor-General promptly accorded full pleni-
potentiary powers to the Chief Commissioner. The



MEASURES OF SIR JOHN LAWRENCE. 237

latter forthwith stopped all private leave; recalled
all officers from Cashmere ; directed the concentra-
tion of Europeans at all important places ; and depre-
cating the error of detaching small bodies in various
directions, commenced the raising of one thousand
Mooltanee horse. He acquiesced in the valuable
suggestion of Colonel Edwardes of calling in the
hill tribes ; ordered all mounted police into station
head-quarters ; calmly and courteously thanked, and
directed such thanks to be offered, to the petty Sikh
Chiefs who had at once pressed forward with offers of
aid ; and after these preliminary steps, sternly and
manfully set himself to the stupendous task which,
from the terrible delays in the original march of the
army of Delhi, he felt convinced was in store for
him.

The Chief Commissioner had already earnestly
suggested the recall of the Persian troops, and the
interception of the Chinese expedition; using the
expression that every available European was neces-
sary to save the country ! He had empowered Colonel
Edwardes to carry out the extreme sentence of the
law ; had ordered the director of public instruction
(while leaving the English press entirely unfettered)
to prepare sedative articles for the native journals,
to allay public excitement ; he had issued the most
minute and varied orders on all sides for the pro-



238 NATIVE CHIEFS PROPITIATED.

vision of transport, and on the regulation of caste
and sects, which should compose the new levies ;
orders containing suggestions replete with wisdom
and the maturest insight into the Asiatic element.
He had declined to permit any native chieftain to
raise troops for us ; at the same time accepting their
aid for the district officers.

Such is a brief outline of the preliminary
steps. A foremost one, however, was to secure
the cordial allegiance of the chieftains in the most
dangerous proximity. The Dost was subsidized into
quiescence; Goolab Singh was cajoled into active
allegiance ; the Nawab of Bahawulpore was intimi-
dated into neutrality; the Maharajah of Putiala
required no summons : he was already in the field.
His aid secured, or rather his " role " in the drama,
confirmed the attitude of every other wavering chief-
tain. The Jheend Rajah outri vailed even the
Putiala chief by the activity of his movements. The
news from home showed that the crisis had been
either under estimated or weakly palliated ; whereas
every day became more menacing. The Government
nerved itself in the Punjab to greater and greater
efforts, and reinforcements poured down to the fast
thinning ranks before Delhi.

All semblance of Government in the North-West
Provinces was nearly at an end. The exaggerated



STATE OF^THE K-W. PROVINCES. 239

elaboration of its routine, and ramification of its
legal defences distasteful to tliose who had to
administer it, and incomprehensible to the people
furnished no hope that any district could be held
by moral force, founded either upon its merits,
or upon affectionate reminiscences of its modes
of procedure. In Mozaffernugger and other dis-
tricts the first thing the populace did was to burn
all the records. Devout aspirations were breathed,
even by high authority, that in the Agra conflagra-
tions might be included all the criminal and civil
records. Thus district after district, though not
occupied by a single mutineer, after a stagger broke
up. The scattered and isolated instances of indi-
vidual devotion and official loyalty, only showed in a
more appalling light the total want of real sympathy,
the time-serving policy of the revenue-paying masses,
and the alienation of the half-educated population.

In some of the oldest conquered provinces, the
popular resentment on the natural principle of
liberty implanted in man against usurpation, and the
popular contempt of the real power of the usurper
has been most marked. In the North- West
Provinces the civil establishments suffered nearly
instantaneous collapse ; and yet in almost every
district, as it is recovered and submits to sway,
every individual in official employ will be realizable,



240 THE PUNJAB SYSTEM.

with dread secrets and unctuous stories in his heart;
but not a fact to show as a set-off to the million
plausible excuses for his absence when danger was
near. Centralization exists together with divided
responsibility, and the result is neutralization of force
and waste of power. The Judge moved in the same
social circle, but breathed a different popular and
official atmosphere to that of the collector ; and their
" sets " revolved in separate systems. The fortunate
absence of a superior officer enabled a Spankie at
Saharanpore to hold his own in the teeth of unsur-
passed difficulties, Goojur villages rampant, and
Rohilkund in insurrection ; and at Mirzapore a
Tucker again maintained the reputation of the
family. There may be others, but how few I

Under the Punjab system there is a recognized
responsible head to each district, who originates,
harmonizes, adopts, and acts. He is the authorized
exponent of the political position of the Govern-
ment, as well of its laws and institutions. Hence
he is the referee in the first instance in every
matter, domestic, social, or public. He enjoys, in
common with the commandants of the Irregular
Corps (which have generally proved successful expe-
riments), the reality, as well as the responsibility
of power. All his vigilance, tact, influence, if he