city side of the canal on a line stretching
from the Grumti to Banks's house. Whilst the
Chief Engineer, Brigadier Robert Napier, main-
tained a heavy fire from Banks's house on the
works in front — especially on the block of
palaces known as the Begam Kothi — Lugard,
bringing forward his right, occupied, without
The Sikandar opposition, the Sikandar Bagh — famous in Sir
Bagh occu- r\ \' t n i c
pied. Colin s nrst advance for the splendid gallantry
MEDLEY, LANG, AND CAENEGY. 383
of Ewart and Cooper and their dozen followers, Book xi
r .. Chapter IX.
Highlanders and Sikhs — and then prepared to
work his way to the Shah Najif. His operations u ^' w .
were greatly facilitated by the noble daring of
three engineer officers attached to his column,
Medley, Lang, and Carnegy.
From three to four hundred yards to the right l^^ J oi
front of the Sikandar Bagh stood an isolated three engi-
building high on a mound overlooking the river,
called the Kaddam Rasiil. Beyond this again,
but in close vicinity to it, was the Shah Najif,
the building which, in Sir Colin's first advance,
had almost made him falter, and the capture of
which was due to the keen observation and happy
audacity of Sergeant Paton* and Adrian Hope.
Both these posts were immediately outside the
enemy's third line of works, which ran in front of
the Moti Mahal, the old Mess-house, and the Tc4ra
Kothi. Lang, noticing that the two posts I have
referred to, the Kaddam Rasiil and the Shah Najif,
were very quiet, proposed to his companions that
they should reconnoitre, and possibly occupy, them.
The three officers at once set out, followed by
four native sappers. Creeping quietly up to the §?™J*£ e
Kaddam Rasul, they found it abandoned. Enter- Rarf]
ing it and ascending the little winding staircase,
they looked down into the garden of the Shah
Najif. This seemed also abandoned. But not
liking to make, with four men, an attack, which,
if the interior of the place were occupied, would
certainly fail, the engineers, leaving the four
* Vide page 194.
384 THE SHAH NA.TIF IS GAINED.
Book xi. sappers to guard their conquest, returned to the
- — Sikandar Bagh to ask for men to take the Shah
March 10 Najif. The officer commanding at that post de-
clined, however, to take upon himself a responsi-
bility from which, in the case of the Kaddam
Rasill, the engineers had not flinched, where-
upon Medley rode to Banks's house to obtain an
and the Shah order from Lugard. This was at once granted,
Naiff . .
and Medley, returning, had placed at his disposal
one hundred men. With these and fifty sappers,
the engineers entered the place and found it
abandoned. As it was but two hundred yards
from the line of intrenchments already spoken of,
the engineers at once set to work to make it de-
fensible on the side nearest the enemy, and, at
Medley's suggestion, one hundred men were
thrown into the place.*
Lugard Whilst this operation was successfully con-
breach in the ducted on the right, the guns from the heavy
BegamKothi. batteries on the left were pouring shot and shell
on the Begam Kothi. The contiguous palaces
known under this designation were extremely
strong, capable, if well defended, of resisting for a
very long time even the fighting power sent against
them by Sir Colin Campbell. But in warring
against Asiatics, the immense moral superiority
which assault gives to an assaulting party is an
element which no general can leave out of con-
* This deed of happy auda- verbatim from the statement
city was not mentioned in the of one of the actors, to whom
despatches. It was, however, it is unnecessary further to
well known in camp. My ac- refer,
count of it is taken almost
A BREACH IS MADE IN THE BEOAM KOTHI. 385
sideration. It is true that on this occasion, about
half -past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a breach was
effected which opened a way to stormers ; but the
breach was so narrow, and the defences behind it
were so strong, that if the men who lined them had
been animated by a spirit similar to that which
inspired the assailants, no general would have
dared to attempt an assault.* As it was, though
unaware of the extreme strength of the inner
defences, Lugard, on the breach being pronounced,
gave, without hesitation, the order to storm.
The storming party consisted of those com-
panions in glory, the 93rd Highlanders and the
4th Pan jab Rifles. It was indeed fit that to
the men who, in the previous November, had
stormed the Sikandar Bagh and carried the Shah
Najif should be intrusted the first difficult enter-
prise of Sir Colin's second movement on Lakhnao.
Fortunate in their splendid discipline, in their tried
comradeship, in their confidence each in the other,
the 4th Pan jab Rifles and the 93rd Highlanders
enjoyed the additional privilege of having as their
leader one of the noblest men who ever wore
the British uniform, the bravest of soldiers, and the
most gallant of gentlemen. Those who had the
privilege of intimate acquaintance with Adrian
Hope will recognise the fitness of the description.
The block of buildings to be stormed consisted
Book XI.
Chapter IX.
1858.
March 10.
and sends
Adrian
Hope's
brigade to
storm it.
* " At the Be gam' s palace
t be defences were found, after
tin' capture of I be place, so
much si ranger I ban could be
obsen ed or bad been believed,
iliat tin- General said that
II.
had he known what lav before
the assaulting column he
should have hesitated 1" give
the order for advance." —
Twelve Years of a Sol<H' r's
Life in India, page 393, note.
25
Descripi ton
of i lie Begam
Kothi.
386 THE STORMING OF THE BEGAM KOTHI.
Book XI.
Chapter IX.
1858.
March 10.
The assault.
The Begam
Kothi is
gained.
of a number of palaces and courtyards, one within
the other, surrounded by a breastwork and deep
ditch. The artillery fire had breached the breast-
work and the wall of the outer courtyard, but some
of the inner walls had not been seriously injured.
They were occupied by a considerable body of
sepoys, probably exceeding rather than short of
five thousand.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon Adrian Hope led
his men to the assault, the 93rd leading, the 4th
Panjab Rifles in support. The sepoys, not yet
daunted, met their assailants in the breach, and
for a short time their greatly superior numbers
offered an obstacle difficult to pierce. But indi-
vidual valour, inspired by a determination to
conquer, was not to be withstood. The Adju-
tant of the 93rd, William McBean, cut or shot
down eleven of the enemy with his own hand.
His example was followed by many others. The
Panjabis, pressing on from behind, added to the
weight of the attack. Their behaviour excited
the admiration of everyone. When a Highlander
chanced to fall, his native comrades rushed for-
ward to cover his body and avenge his death. The
splendid rivalry of the two soon made itself felt.
Forced back from the breach, the sepoys scarcely
attempted to defend the strong positions yet re-
maining to them. They seemed to have but one
object — to save themselves for a future occasion.
But the Highlanders and the Panjabis pressed
them hard. Quarter was neither asked for nor
given, and when the Begam Kothi was evacuated
by the last survivor of the garrison, he left be-
NAPIER PROCEEDS THENCE BY SAP. 387
hind him, within the space surrounded by the book xi.
deep ditch of which I have spoken, six hundred a L!l
corpses of his comrades ! It was " the sternest Mareifio
struggle which occurred during the siege." *
The capture of the Begam Kothi opened to the Robert
Chief Engineer, Brigadier Napier, the means of ceeds by the
dealing destructive blows against the remaining heavy guns,
positions of the enemy. It brought him inside the
enemy's works, and the enclosures the assailants
had stormed now served as a cover from the
enemy's fire. " Thenceforward," says Sir Colin,
in his report, " he pushed his approach, with the
greatest judgment, through the enclosures by the
aid of the sappers and of heavy guns, the troops
immediately occupying the ground as he advanced,
and the mortars being moved from one position
to another as ground was won on which they
could be placed."
The storming had been effected with compara- Death of
tively small loss on the side of the British. But
amongst those who fell was one who had made a
name for himself as a most daring and able
soldier. Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, was mor-
tally wounded on this day. He had joined the
storming party, had entered the breach with
Robert Napier, and had been separated from him
in the melee. He was not wounded during the
storm ; but, after the breach had been gained, he
pushed forward to hunt for sepoys who might be
concealed in the dark rooms and corners of the
palace. Coming suddenly upon a party of these,
* Bir Colin Campbell's Official Report.
05 *
388 POSITION ON THE EVENING OF THE llTH.
book xi. he was fired at and mortally wounded. The
Highlanders avenged his death, for they bayo-
MarchTo-ii. neted every man of the group which had fired at
him.
My opinion of Hodson has been recorded in an
early page of this volume. I have little to add
to it. His abilities were great. As a partisan
soldier he was not to be surpassed. But the
needless slaughter of the princes of the House
of Taimur would seem to indicate that he was
born more than a hundred years after the era when
all his qualities would have obtained recognition.
Trenck and his Pandours were too bloody and too
savage for the civilisation of 1756 ; and Trenck
was never accused of shooting unarmed prisoners.
Position of The position of the assailing force on the even-
the evening ing of the 11th was in considerable advance of
of the nth. j.]^ •£ k a( j occupied in the morning. It was now
pushed forward to the Shah Najif on the right,
and it held the Begam Kothi on the left. Before
the Kaisar Bagh could be assailed, the Mess-house,
the Hazrat Granj, and the Imambara had first to
succumb.
TheNipai On that day the Nipal troops, led by the Ma-
haraja Jang Bahadur, were brought into line.
This reinforcement enabled Sir Colin Campbell,
as I shall show, to extend the plan of his opera-
tions on the succeeding days.
Franks's The following day, the 12th, was a day chiefly
comes to the for the engineers. Their work proceeded steadily
lSth! ° n the an d surely. Some changes, however, were made
in the disposition of the troops. Lugard's divi-
sion, the 2nd, which had hitherto been in the
the 12th and 13th aee engineers' days. 389
front, was relieved by Franks's, the 4th. The bookxl
Nipal troops, too, were brought into line, and ap
ordered to advance on the British left, so as Mardf^ia.
to hold the line of the canal beyond Banks's
house.
The 13th was likewise an engineer's day. Napier
.,. . -, i • l Hi presses
Avoiding the mam road, which was well de- forward with
fended by the enemy's batteries, Napier pressed sap '
forward on a line about one hundred and twenty
yards to its left and parallel to it, sapping
through the houses, out of the line of the
enemy's fire. When necessary, the heavy guns
opened breaches for his advance, and the sap-
pers, supported by the infantry, pushed on
slowly but steadily, enlarging the breaches com-
municating with the rear, so as to have a way
ready for supports, should they be required. The
overwhelming superiority of the British artillery
fire, supported as it was by Outraui's enfilade
and cross fire from the other side of the Giimti,
effectually prevented any serious annoyance from
the enemy's guns. The rebels maintained, how-
ever, from the neighbouring houses, a hot fire of
musketry on the advance, to which the men
forming the latter replied effectively.*
This day, too, the Nipal force, crossing the TheNipSiese
-. • iii 'j i_i operate on
canal, moved against the suburb considerably to the extreme
the left of Banks's house. This operation drew left -
the attention of a portion of the rebel force to
that quarter at the same time that it covered the
left of the British army.
* A Years Chmpaignmg in India* — Medley.
390
FRANKS STORMS THE IMAMBARA.
Book XI.
Chapter IX.
1858.
March 13-14.
Position on
the evening
of the 13th.
The morning
of the 14th.
Franks
storms the
Imambara.
By the evening of the 13th the task assigned
to the engineers had been completed. All the
great buildings on the left up to the Imambara
had been sapped through. The battery which
had been playing on the massive walls of that
building had effected a breach, and it was hoped
that it would be sufficiently practicable on the
morrow to permit an assault.
Early on the morning of the 1 4th, the heavy
guns, at a distance of thirty yards, were still
pounding at the breach — " the 8-inch shot, at
this short distance, walking through three or four
thick masonry walls in succession as if they had
been so much paper."* The enemy were reply-
ing from the walls with musketry fire. At length,
about 9 o'clock in the morning, the breach was
reported practicable ; and the stormers, who had
been drawn up, awaiting the signal, received the
order to assault.
The storming party was composed of sixty men
of Brasyer's Sikhs and two companies of the 10th
Foot, supported by the remainder of the two
regiments. These men, gallantly led, dashed at
the breach with all the impetuosity of their pent-
up energies. The defenders waited to receive
them ; nor was it until after a very sharp struggle
that they were forced back in disorder. Once
forced back, they fled as though panic-stricken,
and in a few minutes the Imambara was in the
possession of the stormers. The support and
reserve followed, completing the lodgment. In
* Medley.
THE STORMERS PURSUE THEIR ADVANTAGE. 391
the assault there fell a very gallant officer of the Book xi.
regiment of Firozpiir, Captain Da Costa, who had
volunteered for this special service. He had lived March 8 i4.
a life "which had brought him many enemies, but
the hostility of the bitterest of them would have
changed to admiration had they witnessed the
heroic manner in which he led his men to the
assault.
The gain of the Imambara did not quench the The stormers
r> mi 11 • ^ S a ^ n a P os i-
zeal of the stormers. Ihe rebels were in such tionoom-
haste to save themselves' that, emerging from the ™ *°k)n lithe
Imambara through the great gateway into the road, Kaisar Bii s h -
they ran as fast as they could to the Kaisar Bagh.
Brasyer's Sikhs, burning to avenge Da Costa's
death, dashed after them as they fled, and a few
men of the 10th joined in the pursuit. Following
in a parallel line, a portion of the 90th, guided by
the Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the
Division, Henry Havelock, forced their way into a
palace which commanded three bastions of the
Kaisar Bagh. Once in that position, they brought
to bear upon the enemy's gunners below them a
fire so withering that one by one the guns were
deserted, the last to fire being an 8-inch howitzer,
which was only abandoned under pressure not to
be withstood. This daring act had the most im-
portant consequences. By it the second line of
the enemy's defences, the line stretching from the
Gumti, in front of the Mess-house, to the [mam-
bar;!, was turned. Its defenders, panic-stricken
at seeing their position thus taken in reverse,
bad no thought but to save themselves. Aban-
doning, then, the second line, they run into the
392 THE THIRD LINE OP DEFENCE IS TURNED.
Book xi. buildings yet intervening: between the Imambara
Chapter IX. , ,- V' -r. / ! i c ^ ! • t i
and the Kaisar Bagh, and trom behind the walls
March 8 i4. °^ these endeavoured to stay the further progress
of our troops. Then it was that the engineers
proposed to suspend operations for the day, and
Brasyer's to proceed by the slower process of sap. But the
comiyfrd™ *&©n, the Sikhs of Brasyer's regiment especially,
Skar's/h 6 were n °t to ^ e restrained. The joy of conquest
had mastered every other feeling. Led by
Brasyer and Havelock, they effected an entrance
into a bastion by a vacant embrasure, and forced
their way, cheering, under a terrible fire into a
courtyard adjoining the Kaisar Bagh, driving the
enemy before them.
The Sikhs Seeing the possibilities before him — the chance
ton 1 t°h t e hF ° 0t of gaining the Kaisar Bagh at a blow— Havelock
third line of ran back to the detachment of the 10th Foot,
the defences. „ 7
commanded by Captain Annesley, and ordered it
to the front. Obeying with alacrity, the 10th
dashed to the front and joined the Sikhs. A
portion of these latter, led by Brasyer, diminish-
ing by casualties as they went, pushed daringly on,
nor did they halt until, expelling the enemy before
them, they had penetrated to the Chini Bazar, to
the rear of the Tara Kothi and Mess-house, thus
turning the third line of the enemy's works.
Iva^uatShat ^ e enem y' congregated in numbers at not less
line. than six thousand in the Tara Kothi and the Mess-
house, now finding themselves taken in reverse,
evacuated these buildings, and endeavoured to
re-enter the city by an opening in the further
gateway of the Chini Bazar. Had they succeeded
in so doing, they would have cut off Brasyer and
THE SUPPORTS JOIN THE STORMERS. 393
his gallant band, which must then have been book xi.
overwhelmed. But Havelock, advancing with
sixty Sikhs, in support of Brasyer, promptly ^^'u
seized two adjoining bastions, and, turning the
six guns found there on the enemy, so plied their
masses, issuing from the positions above named,
with round shot, grape, and musketry, that he
stopped their dangerous movement and turned
them back.
This action assured the posts won by the ad-
vanced party. Gradually Havelock' s small body
was strengthened by a company of the 90th,
brought up by Colonel Purnell himself, and from
that moment success was certain.
By this time the fourth note sent by Havelock Supports
urging him to come on reached Franks, and that
gallant officer at once pushed forward with every
available man to aid the advanced parties. His
arrival shortly after with his supports, accom-
panied by the Chief Engineer, made the position of
the attacking party completely solid. The only
question now to be solved was, whether the ad-
vantages already so wonderfully achieved should
or should not be turned to account by the storm-
ing of the Kaisar Bagh.
Every consideration seemed to urge the attempt. Bhaii the
Although that morning it had been intended to pursued?
storm only the inianibara, events had moved so
quickly, the assailants had displayed so much energy
and daring, the enemy had been so mastered by
panic, that it seemed advisable to push on whilst t be
stormers were still eager, the rebels still dejected.
Accordingly, after a brief consultation, Franks
394
THE KAISAR BAGH IS STORMED.
Book XI.
Chapter IX.
1858.
March 14.
The Kaisar
Bagh is
stormed.
The plunder-
ing which
followed.
and Napier resolved to push on. Reinforcements
were sent for from the rear, and an order was
despatched to the troops at the Sikandar Bagh
and the Shah Najif on the right to push forward.
The reinforcements soon came up, and whilst the
troops on the right advanced and occupied, with
but little resistance, the Moti Mahal, the Chattar
Manzil, and the Tara Koti, Franks sent his men
through the court of Sadat Ali's mosque into the
Kaisar Bagh itself. The Kaisar Bagh is a rect-
angular enclosure, made up of a series of courts
and gardens, interspersed with marble summer-
houses. These were still full of sepoys, who,
from the roofs and from the summits of the
houses in the adjoining enclosure, poured a
heavy musketry fire on the invaders. But the
British once within the garden, the game for
which the rebels were struggling was lost, and,
in a comparatively short space, those of them
who had failed to escape lay dead or in death's
agony.
Then began a scene of plunder, of which it is
difficult to give an adequate description. The
glowing words of an eye-witness, then in the
zenith of a literary fame which still lives,
mellowed by time and increased by experience,
brings it, however, as vividly before the reader
as words can bring a scene so rare and so
terrible. "The scene of plunder," wrote Dr.
Russell, " was indescribable. The soldiers had
broken up several of the store-rooms, and
pitched the contents into the court, which
was lumbered with cases, with embroidered
THE SCENE OF PLUNDER. 395
cloths, or ld and silver brocade, silver vessels, J* 00 ? x }-
' o ' ' Chapter IX.
arms, banners, drums, shawls, scarfs, musical
instruments, mirrors, pictures, books, accounts, March 14.
medicine bottles, gorgeous standards, shields,
spears, and a heap of things which would make
this sheet of paper like a catalogue of a broker's
sale. Through these moved the men, wild
with excitement, ' drunk with plunder.' I had
often heard the phrase, but never saw the thing
itself before. They smashed to pieces the fowl-
ing-pieces and pistols to get at the gold mount-
ings, and the stones set in the stocks. They
burned in a fire, which they made in the centre of
the court, brocades and embroidered shawls for
the sake of the gold and silver. China, glass,
and jade they dashed to pieces in sheer wanton-
ness ; pictures they ripped up, or tossed on the
flames ; furniture shared the same fate. . . .
Oh the toil of that day ! Never had I felt such
exhaustion. It was horrid enough to have to
stumble through endless courts which were
like vapour baths, amid dead bodies, through
sights worthy of the Inferno, by blazing Avails
which might be pregnant with mines, over
breaches, in and out of smouldering embrasures,
across frail ladders, suffocated by deadly smells
of rotting corpses, of rotten ghee, or vile native
scents ; but the seething crowd of camp-followers
into which we emerged in Hazratganj was some-
thing worse. As ravenouSj and almost as foul as
vultures, they were packed in a dense mass in
the street, afraid or unable to go into the
palace-, and, like the birds they resembled,
396 OUTRAM DESIRES TO CROSS THE IRON BRIDGE.
Book XI.
Chapter IX.
1858.
March 14.
Result of the
day's work.
Outram
proposes to
cross by the
iron bridge.
waiting till the fight was done to prey on their
plunder."*
The day's work was over. A work great, un-
expected, and, in every sense of the word, mag-
nificent. The line which in the morning had
stretched from the Shah Najif to Hazratganj
now ran from the Chattar Manzil to the Eesi-
dency side of the Kaisar Bagh. Two strong
defensive lines of works, garrisoned by thirty
thousand to forty thousand men, had been turned,
and the great citadel on which the second of
those two lines rested had itself been stormed !
It was a great, even a magnificent work, but it
might, and ought to, have been greater. Its
greatness and magnificence were due mainly to
the Sikhs and the 10th Foot, to the gallant
leading of Havelock and Brasyer, the confident
daring of Franks, and the skill of Napier — its
want of completeness is attributable solely to Sir
Colin Campbell and Mansfield. How this was so
I shall explain in a few words.
In a previous page I have narrated how, on
the 13th, 14th, and 15th, Outram continued to
occupy his positions on the left bank of the Giimti
commanding the direct approaches to the iron
bridge, but restricted from further movement in
that direction by the orders of the Commander-
in-Chief. The iron bridge led across the river to
a point not far from the Residency. Now, when,
on the 15th, the stormers under Franks attacked
the Imambara, and, pushing onwards, dashed
* My Diary in India, by William Howard Kussell.
SIR COLIN REFUSES PERMISSION. 397
against the Kaisar Bagh, the enormous effect bookxi.^
which would have been produced by the crossing &1 —-
of the river and the penetrating into the very MaiSfu
heart of the enemy by Outram's division, may be
imagined. Outram wished to carry out such an
operation, and applied to the Commander-in-Chief
for permission to do so. In reply he was informed
by the Chief of the Staff that he might cross by
the iron bridge, but "that he was not to do so
if he thought he would lose a single man" A more Unsatisfac-
t . . -, , tory reply of
extraordinary proviso never accompanied an order the Com-
to advance given to a general in the presence chie? 1 m
of the enemy. It was tantamount to an absolute