But the end was now approaching. The rainy Reasons for
T . » . beginning
season was passing away. In one point ot view operations on
it would have been advisable to defer serious 13th 0ctober -
operations until it had actually passed. It was
feared, however, and not without reason, that on
the complete cessation of the rains, the rebels,
thoroughly aware of the preparations made against
them, would cross the Son and carry rapine and
the sword into the districts which had up to the
time been free from their presence. Conse-
quently Douglas resolved to begin operations on
the 13th October.
On the 9th of that month he set out from Onthei3th
Danapiir to carry into execution the plan he had Douglas
carefully and elaborately devised. The ground ™i™™™ n
was still swampy, but, though this was likely to converge near
. , \. n ° • *\i Jagdispur.
prove a material disadvantage in a campaign the
success of which depended upon the exact punc-
tuality of arrival at a given point of several con-
verging: columns, it was at least a guarantee that
the rebels were still within the district.* From
three opposite points of this district, Douglas set
in motion, on the 13th October, seven different
columns, the object of all being to drive the
rebels before them to the common centre of
* It mav I"- convenient to It was bounded on tin- north
stab.- thai fchedistrid in ques- by the Ganges, on the east
tdon may be ronghly described by the .Son, and on the west
as a triangle, each side of and south transversely by the
which measured fifty miles, billy districts of tfirzap&r.
486
THE PLAN FAILS.
Book XII.
Chapter III.
1858.
October.
The rebels
are pressed
within the
Jagclispur
jungles.
Douglas
orders the "
columns to
converge on
Jagclispur.
C ) wing to
Colonel
Walter's
mistake tin'
rebels escape
Jagdispur, there to fall upon them and finish
the campaign at one stroke.
Success crowned his earlier combats. On the
14th Douglas drove the rebels out of Karisat.
On the 16th, Durnforcl, leading the Baksar
column, defeated them, though after a deter-
mined resistance at Kampsagar. On the 17th
Turner's column headed and defeated them at
Pirii, and followed hotly in pursuit. These move-
ments had been so thoroughly executed that the
rebels, numbering four thousand five hundred,
were pressed in on all sides towards the centre,
and it was known on the evening of the 17th
that they were all within the circle, the outlets
on the outer ring of which were watched by the
seven converging columns.
Douglas believed that he had them, and he
had a right to believe it. Nothing but a mistake
on the part of one of the leaders of the seven
columns could save them, and he had impressed
his orders so strongly on those leaders, and had
made them see so clearly the issue at stake, that
he had every reason to feel confident. He fixed
the assault for noon of the following day. The
result showed the mistake of reckoning with abso-
lute certainty on the success of a manoeuvre, the
threads of which are in the hands of seven men,
the failure of any one of whom, whether from
accident or stupidity, would spoil the combina-
tion. The failure of one man out of the seven
effectively ruined Douglas's well thought out
plan. Six of the columns converged punctually
to the common centre, only to find the place
SIR HENRY HAVELOCK'S PLAN. 487
evacuated. The seventh column, commanded by Rook xn.
Colonel Walter of the 53rd, had been delayed Cha £!!l 1IL
five hours by inundation consequent on the cut- October
ting of embankments, and the rebels had escaped
by the outlet he had given them !
It was at this period that the staff officer to Haveiock's
whom I have alluded in a preceding page sub-
mitted to the general a plan which he believed
would meet the difficulties of the case. The
staff officer, who was no other than Major Sir
Henry Havelock, Deputy Assistant Adjutant-
General of the force, had, in his experience of
Franks's advance without cavalry from the eastern
frontier of Oudh to Lakhnao, noticed the enor-
mous service which a few mounted soldiers of the
10th Foot, carrying rifles on horseback, had been
able to render. Conceiving the idea, some time
before Douglas had set out from Danapur, that
the services of a few men might be advantageously
utilised in a similar manner, he had caused forty
riflemen of the 10th Foot to be hastily trained by
Captain Bartholomew of that regiment. He now approved aud
proposed to Douglas, and received permission, to ado P ted -
employ the men so trained as mounted infantry —
as men, that is to say, who could pursue and
overtake the enemy, then, dismounting, hold
them in check till the main force should arrive.
He increased the forty men to sixty by volunteers
from the 10th, and then, learning that the rebels Havelock
were marching towards the Son, lie set out to
head them, having three troops of the Military
Train and sixty cavalry as supports.
The orders given to Havelock were to en- his cam-
paign.
488
HAVELOCK PURSUES THE REBELS,
Book XII.
Chapter III.
1858.
October.
Havelock
heads the
rebels ;
who try to
escape by-
pushing
westward.
The mounted
riflemen
overtake
them,
deavour, by a forced march, to interpose between
the rebels and the Son, whilst two columns of
infantry should be despatched in the same direc-
tion, one north, the other south, of their line of
flight, so that should he succeed in turning them
they would find themselves surrounded.
Havelock set out from his post near Jagdispur
at a little past 8 o'clock on the night of the
18th ; he reached Arah at 1 o'clock in the morn-
ing of the 19fch, halted there for six and a half
hours, and starting again at half-past 7, reached
the Son before the rebels. The latter, finding
themselves headed, halted, remained irresolute
for twelve hours, and then retraced their steps
south-westward.
Havelock's mounted column followed, main-
taining by patrols a constant communication with
the infantry detachments, and guiding their
movements. The mutinous sepoys, now fairly
aroused to a sense of their danger, put forth
their best efforts to out-march their pursuers,
and, after an ineffectual attempt to re-enter the
Jagdispur jungle, pushed directly westward. But
the mounted riflemen were sadly embarrassed
by rice-fields, inundated to a depth of from one to
two feet, making one continuous swamp for miles.
These the rebels on foot avoided by moving along
the "bands," or ridges used to confine the water.
Still Havelock gradually gained on them. Over-
taking their rear-guard of four hundred infantry
on the afternoon of the 20th of October near
Nonadi, he succeeded, by a dismounted rifle-fire
on two faces, one towards the main body, one de-
AND ACHIEVES SIGNAL SUCCESS. 489
taining the rear-guard, in cutting them off from Book xil
., & . , , to , ' . -,.,,! -i Chapter III.
the mam body, and hemming them into that vil-
lage till the arrival of Colonel Turner's infantry October.
column. Turner then stormed the village, and and cut them
slew three hundred rebels. About one hundred, up *
desperately breaking out, were " ringed " in an
adjoining field by Havelock's mounted riflemen,
who shot them down till their numbers were so
reduced that the supporting cavalry, bursting in
on them, sword in hand, sabred almost every
man. Only three or four, amongst whom was
Ammar Singh himself, disguised, found safety in
a neighbouring cane-crop. This was the most
efiective blow that had been struck against the
Shahabad rebels. Its success is to be attributed
solely to the new use of the mounted riflemen,
without whose presence the enemy would, as on
every former occasion, have escaped unscathed
through their superior speed.
The main body of rebels had meanwhile con-
tinued its flight, after several doubles, finally due
west. Following on its track, Havelock again
overtook it after a forty miles' march, on the
afternoon of the 21st. The infantry column, Havelock
under Brigadier Douglas's personal command, suited pur "
guided by reports from the mounted rifles, had J£J|j5lt ke8 the
been able to follow the foe in straight lines from
point to point of his numerous twistings and
doublings, so that when the sepoys, thoroughly
fagged, halted on that afternoon to cook, it was
sufficiently near to be expected to take part in
the combat. Havelock's column came on the
rebel- while thus employed. Passing beyond
490 THE REBELS ONCE AGAIN ESCAPE.
Book xii. tliem by a circuit, it again headed them towards
the infantry, drove them from their cooking, and
October, circling them in on three sides with skirmishers,
kept them in check for three hours in the plain,
waiting for the infantry to come up. There was
now every hope that the success of the previous
day would be repeated, but this expectation was
who escape, not realised. By a mistake of the person guiding
take of a " Douglas's infantry, they were brought up in
at d n']5»w et the rear of Havelock's force instead of behind
start. that of the rebels, who at once availed themselves
of this error, and slipped out of the opening left
for them. Evening, setting in at the same time,
gave them ten hours' darkness to cover their
flight. But, thoroughly terrified now at finding
that they could not shake off their pursuers, they
abandoned all attempt to do mischief in the dis-
trict, and confined all their efforts to the one
object of escape. Favoured by the long hours of
darkness, and by the whole population of the dis-
trict, who constantly and systematically misled
the pursuers by false information, they marched
in the next forty hours sixty-three miles further
without being overtaken, making for a range of
hills which bound the south-west of the district,
and are accessible from the plain only by three
difficult passes.
Haveiock a But Havelock's mounted riflemen, not to be
third time , , „„ . ,
overtakes the shaken on, again overtook the enemy on the even-
punfshef in g of the 23l ' d - The nors es were by this time so
them. exhausted that it was impossible either to head or
to charge the rebels, who, drawing up in two solid
squares flanking each other, steadily continued
BUT AEE FINALLY DEIVEN INTO THE HILLS. 491
their way to the hills. But at every step men and b°°k xii.
horses fell in their very midst under the long-range
rifles of the pursuers, who, while thus inflicting October
a severe punishment, were themselves beyond
reach of the enemy's muskets. Not a minute but
witnessed the capture of baggage-animals, includ-
ing Ammar Singh's elephant, carrying a howdah
containing" his suit of chain armour. The rebels Terror of * he
. . . rebels at the
continued their hurried flight to the Kaimur hills, practice of
But so great had been the terror inspired by the EnfiekTrifle.
new arm, now for the first time in India employed
against them, and from which escape seemed im-
possible, that even the telegraph wire, which it
had always been their main object to destroy, re-
mained uncut along the trunk road which they
crossed in their flight ; and the whole of the depot
establishments there — of vital importance to the
regular supply of troops and stores to the army
under Lord Clyde — remained uninjured. Have-
lock's loss in this singular pursuit, which covered
two hundred and one miles in five days and nights,
was only three men killed and eighteen wounded.
But forty-three horses died of fatigue. The rebel
loss in the three actions of the 19th, 20th, and
21st October was not less than five hundred killed,
including those hemmed in and subsequently de-
stroyed by Colonel Turner's column at Nonadi.
Thus sixty men, organised on a novel plan, and Success of
aided by a handful of cavalry, had effected, with p ia U e f
almost nominal loss, in five days, what three "Jâ„¢ 1 ^
thousand regular troops hud for six months failed
to accomplish — viz. the complete expulsion of
four thousand five hundred rebels from the pro-
492 FINAL COLLAPSE OF THE REBELS.
book xii. vince, and the infliction on them of a punishment
a L!L ' the impression of which has not to this day been
OcSov effaced. When once the inhabitants of the dis-
trict became aware that the enemy was opposed
by troops against whom they could not only hope
for no success in the field, and whom it was im-
possible for them to shake off in flight, their
confidence in British power returned, and the
restoration of order was an easy task.
Complete Meanwhile, the Jagdispiir jungle had been cut
the rebels. down and cleared away. The rebels were gra-
dually driven from place to place, their hiding-
places being occupied as the pursuers advanced.
It is true that in the long pursuit the rebels
managed once or twice to pounce upon the
baggage of their enemies. But, in its results,
the plan inaugurated by Havelock was most
successful. On the 24th November Douglas sur-
prised, by a night march, the main body of the
rebels at Salia Dahar, in the Kaimiir hills, killed
many of them, and took all their arms and am-
munition. Before the year ended he could boast
that the districts under his command had been
completely cleared. The campaign had been more
trying, more fatiguing than many which are
counted more glorious in their results. Never
had troops in India made longer, or more con-
tinuously long, marches. On one occasion, I may
repeat, the British infantry marched twenty-six
miles a day for five days ; and the average daily
march of Havelock' s cavalry was scarcely less
than forty miles.
493
BOOK XII.
CHAPTER IV.
I return once more to Laklmao. Of the army
which conquered that city, one division, that com-
manded by Sir E. Lugard, has been disposed of
in the preceding pages. There remain still the
corps aVarmee under Hope Grant, and the divi-
sion under "Walpole. I shall deal first with the
former.
On the 9th April, Sir Hope Grant, command- Ho P e Grant
,» L .. -i * t • • * 8 ordered to
mg the torce already noted,* received instructions the districts.
in person from the Commander-in-Chief, to march
at once with a column to Bari, twenty-nine miles
from Laklmao, to drive thence a body of rebels
who had collected there under the famous Moulvi ;
then marching eastwards to Muhammadabad and
following the course of the Ghagra, to reconnoitre
a place called Bitaoli, where it was rumoured the
* Vi'i' page 168, note
494 HOPE GRANT MARCHES TO BARI.
Book xii. Begam of Lakhnao with six thousand followers had
Chapter IV. J _ & . J _, ,
taken post ; thence to march to Kamnagar to cover
April'. the march of the Nipalese troops on their return
to Nipal.
Composition To carry out these instructions, Hope Grant
inarched from Lakhnao on the morning of the
11th April. He took with him Middleton's bat-
tery, Mackinnon's troop of horse artillery, two
18-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, two 5^-inch
Cohom mortars, the 7th Hussars, one squadron
2nd Dragoon Guards, Wale's Panjab Horse, the
2nd battalion Rifle Brigade, the 38th Foot, the
1st Bengal Fusiliers, five hundred men of
Vaughan's Panjab Corps (the 5th), one hundred
sappers and miners with a proportion of engineer
officers — in all, about three thousand men.
Daring recon. A curious incident, emblematic of the progress
the Sis 7 made by the rebels in the art of daring yet crafty
reconnoitring, occurred on the night of the fol-
lowing day. Hope Grant had encamped about
three parts of the way between Lakhnao and Bari.
As he lay there that night, a troop of irregular
cavalry penetrated within the line of pickets,
which at that point were drawn from Wales's
Horse. When challenged, they replied, with the
most absolute truth, that they belonged to the 12th
Irregulars. They did not add that their regiment
had mutinied so far back as July of the previous
year, and murdered their commandant.* The
pickets, replied to in this confident manner, sus-
pected nothing, and allowed them to pass on. The
* Vol. i. page 72.
THE MOULVI DEVISES A SKILFUL PLAN, 495
mutineers, having seen all they cared to see, Bookxii.
quietly slipped out and returned to Bari. Chapter iv.
The plan which the rebel leader, who was no ^ 8 ^"
other than the Moulvi, adopted on receiving the The MouM's
information which the men of the 12th had ac- plan
quired, did credit to his tactical skill. He at once
occupied a village about four miles on the Bari
side of the British encampment with his whole
force. This village was covered all along its
front by a stream, the banks of which on the side
nearest to it were high, and the ground leading up
to which was honeycombed. It was a very strong
position. The idea of the Moulvi was to hold
the village with his infantry, whilst he sent his
cavalry by a circuitous route to fall on the flanks
of the attacking force. It was really a brilliant shows great
idea ; for the British force, he was aware, would
march at daybreak, entirely unsuspicious of his
presence, and, could he but conceal his infantry
from view till the British were well within ransre,
and restrain his cavalry till the resistance
from the side of the village had begun, the
chances of success seemed to be all in his
favour.
But the brilliant idea was spoilt by the mode in Hi s cavalry
which it was executed. Hope Grant did indeed trspoint. ed
march at daybreak, unsuspicious of danger. The
bulk of the enemy's cavalry, avoiding the line of
march, was rapidly gaining a position on his rear,
there to fall upon the six thousand carts which
were carrying the baggage of the force, when
their leaders were tempted by the sight of two
guns in the British advance, lightly guarded
496
WHICH IS SPOILT IN THE EXECUTION.
Book XII.
Chapter IV.
1858.
April.
Their easy
is changed
into defeat.
The rebels
are forced to
retreat,
and evacuate
the village.
by Wale's Horse, to throw to the winds the plan
of their general and attempt to capture the guns.
For a moment fortune seemed to favour them.
They surrounded the picket, wounded the officer
commanding it, Lieutenant Prendergast, and had
the guns in their power. Just as they were about
to carry them off, however, they caught sight
of a troop of the 7th Hussars, led by Cap-
tain Topham, on the point of charging them.
Without awaiting the charge, they abandoned
their prey, galloped off, and endeavoured to recur
to the original plan. But they had spoilt it. The
British were now thoroughly awake. Hope Grant
made prompt arrangements for the protection of
his rear guard, and though the enemy made two
considerable efforts to capture the baggage, they
were baffled, first by a splendid charge of the 7th
Hussars troop under Topham, and secondly by a
volley, delivered within thirty yards of them, by
two companies of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. Com-
pletely defeated in their plans, they then retreated.
Meanwhile, Hope Grant pushed forward with
his infantry to the village. He noticed the strength
of the position, the difficulty it might give him
were it well defended. But the premature action
of the cavalry, while it had ruined the plan of the
Moulvi, had taken all the heart out of his fol-
lowers. Prepared to surprise the British force
and even to resist should the cavalry charge
throw it into disorder, they did not care to meet
the assault of the troops which had already re-
pulsed the cavalry. Under the circumstances
they preferred to wait for a more favourable
STATE OF JUNG BAHADUR'S ARMY. 407
opportunity, and evacuated the village without BookXii.
T - J Chapter IV.
firing- a shot. —
Pushing on to Bari and eastward from that Apr f{
place, Hope Grant reached Muhammadabad on Hope Grant
the loth, and Ramnagar on the 19th. Ramnagar J^lLSigar.
was but six miles from Bitaoli, the spot where it
was rumoured the Begam and her followers had
taken post. But the Begam, wise in her genera-
tion, had not awaited the arrival of the English
general, and Bitaoli was found evacuated.
Bitaoli evacuated, Hope Grant proceeded to JungBaha-
1 T darsmpa-
look after Jung Bahadur s JNipalese. He round iese.
them at Masaoli, midway between Ramnagar
and Nawabganj. In his journal, the general
gives a vivid description of the condition of
our allies. "The European officer in com-
mand," he writes, " had great difficulties to
contend with in marching through a country so
filled with rebels. His force consisted of eight Their condi-
° tion described
thousand men with twenty guns ; yet he could by Hope
only reckon on two thousand men for actual
fighting purposes. He had two thousand sick
and four thousand carts ; and each of the latter
being filled with tents, private property, and loot,
required, according to the usages of these troops,
a man to guard it." * From this place Hope
* Hope Grant's ///>•/,/,„/* it without molestation. They
of the Sepoy War. reached Grorakhpur early in
these troops took no May, and resumed their
further pari in the war, i1 march thence on the 17th
ln;i , be convenient to Btate idem, [n consequence of the
here that they continued their number of their carts bhej
retreat Erom Masaoli towards experienced some difficulty in
their own country and effected crossing the Oandau a1 Ba-
II.
32
498 PLANS TO RECONQUER ROHILKHAND.
Book xii. Grant marched sutliwarcls to protect the road
' a ^_!l ' between Kanhpiir and Lakhnao, then threatened
JJJfy' at Onao. After some skirmishes of no great
Hope Grant moment, in which the rebels were invariably dis-
Lak™iao.° persed, he reached the fort of JallalaMd, near
Lakhnao, on the 16th May. Here, for the present,
I must leave him to follow the plans of the Com-
mander-in-Chief with respect to Rohilkhand.
SirCoiin's Jt had been determined by the Governor-
reconquest of General, the reader will recollect, that the recon-
Rohiikhand. q Ues t f this province should follow the recapture
of Lakhnao, and, in a flying visit paid by Sir
Colin Campbell to Allahabad after the storming
of Lakhnao, he had found Lord Canning still
firm in this respect. He accordingly at once
arranged to converge three columns, starting
from different points, on the doomed province.
One of these columns, commanded by General
Penny, was directed to cross the Ganges at
Nadaoli and march on Miranpiir Katra. At this
place it would join Walpole's division, ordered
to advance thither from Lakhnao along- the
Ganges, whilst Brigadier-General Jones, starting
with another division from Riirki and making for
Moradabad, would penetrate into the province
from the north-west. Connected, to a certain
extent, with these operations was the force I
have left at Fathgarh under Brigadier Seaton,
guarding there the south-east entrance into Ro-
hilkhand on the one side, and the districts between
gaha. Marching thence by they crossed the Nipal fron-
way of Bhetia and Sigaoli, tier early in June.
POSITION OF SEATON AT FATHGARH. 499
the two o-reat arteries, the Granges and the Jamna, bookXH.
. , °, Chapter IV.
on the other. —
Seaton, left by Sir Colin Campbell, as previously JJJJ
narrated,* at the end of January, as Brigadier in seatonat
command of the Fathgarh district, had employed Fath * arh -
the time which passed till the fall of Lakhnao in
strengthening the fort of Fathgarh, in removing
the bridge of boats to a point under the walls of
the fort, and in practising his artillery at marks
on the other side of the river near the positions
which an advancing enemy would be likely to take
up. The rebels meanwhile continued to threaten
him from the Rohilkhand side of the Ramganga,
though they took care to keep out of the range
of his guns.
But, as time went on, and Seaton made no The rebels
move, whilst reinforcements nocked into the rebel resuming the
camp, the situation became critical. Still more ° ensive -
so when the rebel Raja of Mainpiiri, Tej Singh,
entered their camp, and incited them to profit by
the supineness of the British at Fathgarh to cross
the Ganges and raise the Doab.
But Seaton, supine as apparently had been his ^'£° a fcheir
action, had been neither blind nor indifferent to proceedings.
tin proceedings of the enemy. He had held
his hand so long as it seemed probable that they
would remain on the left bank of the river;
but the moment they showed ;i disposition to
attempl to bursl the door of the Doab, he
resolved to attack I hem.
Bazardous as it was, with Ins slender force, to ^X^" '*
* Rtge 81 1 .
32 *
500 SEATON DEFEATS THE REBELS AT KANKAR.
Book XII.
Chapter IV.
1858.
April.
remained