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THE BAYARD OF INDIA




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The Bayard of India



A LIFE OF



GENERAL



SIE JAMES OUTKAM, Bart

G.C.B., ETC.



BY



CAPTAIN LIONEL J. TROTTER

AUTHOR OF

' A LEADER OF LIGHT HORSE,' ' LIFE OF JOHN NICHOLSON,

SOLDIER AND ADMINISTRATOR,' ETC.



WITH PORTRAITS



WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MCMIII



All Rights reset-ved



THE BAYAED OF INDIA.

Ye who have joyed to read, in Spenser's lay,
How, in old time, a champion pure did ride,
Through twilight wood, at " heavenly Una's " side.

Guarding the meek one on her dangerous way ;

Ye who lament o'er past romance to-day,
Here see portrayed a " knight of holiness,"
Prompt to redeem the helpless in distress,

And for the weak his lance in rest to lay.

Bayard of India ! no reproach or fear

Stained thy bright scutcheon. Nor alone in fight

Pre-eminent wert thou, but couldst forbear
Valour's high guerdon, quit thy lawful right.

And bid a comrade's brow thy laurels wear ;
Thus manifest in all " a perfect Knight."

Pt. F. J.



TO THE "DOWAGER LADY OUTRAM, AND

HER SON, SIR FRANCIS OUTRAN, BART.

THIS VOLUME

IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

BY THE AUTHOR.



PEEFACE.



In all those qualities which mark the born leader
of men, James Outram had very few rivals among
the best and greatest of the soldier statesmen who
rose to fame in the service of the old East India
Company. From the day when " the little general "
speared his first boar in the jungles of Western
India, to the last hours of hard office work as a
leading member of the Calcutta Council, our Indian
Bayard won alike the confidence and the love of
all who served with or under him, by sheer force
of that personal magnetism which springs from
lofty impulses guided and sustained by a generous
disregard of self. His piety was deep, if unob-
trusive ; and a heart more steadily loyal, in every
sense of the word, — loyal to his country, his official
chiefs, his family, friends and comrades of every
degree, and not least of all to his own manly upright
self, — never beat, I think, in human breast.

In the following pages I have tried to set forth



X PREFACE.

within a moderate compass the story of a life so
memorable, so strenuous for all noble ends, so rich
in brave deeds and stirring adventures, that it
furnished one able Ijiographer witli matter enough
to fill two bulky volumes. The present memoir,
however, claims to be something more than a mere
abrido-mcnt of Sir Frederick Goldsmid's valuable
work. Throuo;h the unfailino- kindness of Sir
Francis Outram I have been enabled to extract
some interesting details from the mass of docu-
ments which passed through Sir Frederick's hands.
Some further information has been derived from
sources which will be found duly acknowledged in
the footnotes or the text of the present volume.

L. J. T.

ExMOUTH, September 1903.



CONTENTS.



CHAP. PAGE

I. BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS ... 1

II. SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN WESTERN INDIA . . 10

in. AMONGST THE BHILS OF KHANDESH ... 20

IV. FROM KHANDESH TO THE MAHI KANTA ... 36

V, PROM GUZERAT TO SIND . . . . .51

VI. WITH THE ARMY OF THE INDUS .... 62

VII. MAINLY AMONG THE GHILZAIS AND BILUCHIS . . 73

VIII. SIND, KHELAT, AND AFGHANISTAN .... 86

IX. WITH NAPIER IN SIND ...... 105

X. ON FURLOUGH AND AFTER ..... 123

XI. FROM SATARA TO BARODA ..... 133

XIL FROM BARODA TO EGYPT AND BACK AGAIN . . 147

XIIL ON THE PLOWING TIDE . . . . .161

XIV. NEW HONOURS AND WIDER OUTLOOKS . . .171

XV. THE PERSIAN WAR . . . . . .186

XVI. ON THE WAY TO LUCKNOW ..... 199

XVIL WITHIN THE LUCKNOW RESIDENCY .... 213

XVIIL ON GUARD IN THE ALAMbAgH .... 233

XIX. WITH THE ARMY OF OUDH ..... 249

XX. THE MILITARY MEMBER OP THE VICEROY's COUNCIL . 267
XXI. PROM CALCUTTA TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY . . 284



APPENDIX
INDEX



300
313



THE BAYAED OF INDIA.



CHAPTER I.
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS. 1803-1819.

The family of which James Outram was to be so
illustrious a member can be traced back as far as
the fifteenth century, when Thomas Outram was
Eector of Durton, near Gainsborough, about 1435.
In the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey is a
monument to William Outram, D.D., Archdeacon
of Leicester, Prebendary of Westminster, and Court
Chaplain to Charles II. He appears to have been,
in the words of Samuel Pepys, " one of the ablest
and best of the Nonconformists, eminent for his
piety and charity, and an excellent preacher."
Early in the eighteenth century we come upon
James's grandfather, Joseph Outram, of Alfreton
in Derbyshire, " a well-to-do surveyor and manager
of estates, and himself possessor of some property
in land and collieries, in whose marked vigour of
character, shrewd sense, and kind heart, we begin
to discern qualities which his sons and grandsons
were destined to develop in a wider sphere."^

^ James Outram : a Biography. By Major-General Sir F. J. Gold-
smid, C.B., K.C.S.I. Smith, Elder, & Co., 1880.

A



2 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

Among Joseph's intimate friends was the cele-
brated Benjamin Franklin, who in 1764 stood god-
father to Joseph's eldest son, Benjamin. As a
civil engineer Benjamin Outram played his part
in the construction of canals and tramways, and
crowned a successful career by founding the Butter-
ley Ironworks in his own county. In this under-
taking he had sunk the greater part of his capital
when his untimely death in May 1805 involved
his young widow and five small children in a
tangled coil of unforeseen disaster.

But Mrs Outram faced her broken fortunes with
amazing courage, clear aims, and proud strength of
will. Married at the age of twenty, Margaret
Anderson had lost her husband after only five
years of wedded happiness. Her father, James
Anderson, LL.D., who died three years later, was
a man of rare ability in many branches of agri-
cultural science. At an early age he appears to
have invented a small two -horse plough without
wheels, commonly called the Scotch plough. For
many years he rented a farm of 1300 acres in
Aberdeenshire, and spent much of his leisure time
in writing essays upon planting and other agri-
cultural topics. In 1780 he obtained the degree of
LL.D. in Aberdeen University. Four years later
the Government engaged him to make a survey
of the western coast of Scotland, for the purpose
of developing the national fisheries, to which one
of his pamphlets had drawn their attention. In
1797 Dr Anderson went up to London, where he
pursued his literary labours with a zeal so un-
tiring that his health gradually gave way.^

^ Chambers's Encyclopaedia, " Dr Andei^son."



BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS. 3

From such a father Mrs Outram must have in-
herited some of those qualities which afterwards
reappeared in both her sons. When she was barely
seven years old she had lost her mother, a grand-
daughter of Sir Alexander Seton, Lord Pitmedden,
a Scottish judge, whose great-grandson, Colonel
Alexander Seton, commanded the wino- of the 78th
Highlanders which met death so heroically in 1852
on board the sinking Birkenhead} Owing to her
father's absorption in his own pursuits, the edu-
cation of his little maid was left, on the whole,
to look after itself. But Margaret Anderson showed
no lack of brains, energy, or common-sense ; and
these, combined with her strong motherly instincts,
helped the widow of Benjamin Outram to guide
her fatherless children over the rough places in
their altered lot.

Her husband had died so suddenly that his affairs
remained in irretrievable disorder. Assets and lia-
bilities were mixed up in such hopeless confusion
that the estate was finally thrown into Chancery,
" to await," says Sir F. Goldsmid, " a tardy and
unprofitable compromise." With the aid of £200
a-year granted by her relatives, and the little she
could realise from the wreck of her husband's per-
sonal property, Mrs Outram contrived to support
her growing family for several years. After five
years of wandering from one place to another, she
settled down in Aberdeen, where schooling was
good and cheap.

By this time her slender means were increased
by a small annuity, which the Government after
much pressing had bestowed upon her in acknow-

1 Dictionary of National Biography. Goldsmid.



4 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

ledgment of her father's public services. In order
to obtain this pension the brave lady went up to
London, where she pleaded her cause in a private
interview with Pitt's old friend and colleague, Lord
Melville.

Bending before the rush of her wrathful eloquence
— "To you, my lord," she said, "I look for the
payment of my father's just claims. If you are an
honest or honourable man, you will see that they
are liquidated ; you were the means of their being
incurred, and you ought to be answerable for them " ^
— Lord Melville used his influence with the Govern-
ment of that day to obtain for Mrs Outram the
needful pension. As he afterwards told her, he
"never was so taken by surprise, or got such a
lecture in his life."

For some years Mrs Outram lived in a small
cottage on the outskirts of Aberdeen. Thence in
due time she migrated to an upper flat in Castle
Street, with a view to provide her daughters with
the best tuition which she could aff"ord. Many off"ers
of assistance were made to her by her more intimate
friends, ofl"ers which she persistently declined, for
her proud spirit could brook no dependence on the
charity of others.

Francis Outram, the elder of her two sons, was
sent at an early age to Christ's Hospital, whence
after seven years he was transferred to Marischal
College, Aberdeen. The ofl'er of an Indian cadet-
ship brought his stay there to a speedy close.
Three terms in the East India Company's College
at Addiscombe suflB.ced to win for him the rank
of an oflicer of Engineers, and to send him on to

1 Goldsmid.



BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS. 5

Chatham to complete his training for the Com-
pany's service.

James Outram, the second son, was born at
Butterley Hall, Derbyshire, on January 29, 1803.
In his twelfth year his mother placed him at Udny
school, near Aberdeen, under the care of Dr Bisset.
He is described by that gentleman as somewhat
pale, but quite healthy, and of prepossessing coun-
tenance. He had his mother's black glossy hair.
" His dark hazel eye kept time, as it were, with
whatever was going on, and marked his quick appre-
hension of, and sympathy with, every scintillation
of wit, drollery, or humour." At the same time
" his usual manner was quiet and sedate." ^ The
boy appears, from the same informant, to have made
fair progress in classical and other studies, but
devoted himself with a special zeal to mathematics
and the exact sciences.

One of his favourite indoor amusements was the
carving of figures with a penknife out of any
materials that might come to hand. For many
years the figure of an elephant carved by young
James adorned the mantelpiece of the Udny drawing-
room, and drew forth the admiring comments of all
who could appreciate skilful and artistic work. In
quest of suitable subjects for his purpose he would
visit the menageries which came to Aberdeen, and
carve faithful likenesses of the animals that took
his fancy. The monkeys seem to have been his
favourite study, and his success in mimicking their
various attitudes surprised all beholders. His
mother sometimes thought of him as a possible
sculptor, " but having no friends in that line," says

^ Goldsmid.



6 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

one of her daughters, "she did not make any
endeavour to follow up this view."

But it was in all kinds of outdoor pastimes that
James Outram especially excelled. Even in his
fourteenth year, according to Dr Bisset, he had
become a recognised leader of the school in cricket,
football, shinty, and bowls. An expert swimmer
and diver, he would bring home pebbles and other
trophies from the bottom of a deep pond in the
school grounds. His feats in wrestling and climbing
trees are also recorded by his master. " He was
always kind to me," says a younger schoolfellow,
" protecting me from the bullying of older boys ;
and I believe he was equally generous and just to
the others. ... In every adventure of daring he
was the leader, and frequently he exposed himself to
great danger." ^

His sister, Mrs Sligo, tells us how his playtime
at home was spent in active exercise, gardening,
mechanics, and every athletic sport. "He had the
courage and fortitude of a giant, with the body of a
pigmy (being ver}^ small for his age). I never
remember his evincing the slightest sign of bodily
pain." On one occasion when he and his sisters
were scrambling among the rocks by the river Dee,
a crab caught hold of James's forefinger. The blood
streamed from his finger as he calmly held it up
without moving a muscle, until the creature let go
its hold. " I thought he'd get tired at last," was
his cool remark as he wrapped his handkerchief
round the wound.

Nothing, however, pleased him better than going
among the soldiers in the barracks, or the sailors at

* Goldsmid.



BIKTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS. 7

the docks. " I recollect," adds Mrs Sligo, " our
surprise one evening when, on returning from our
walk and glancing at the soldiers going through
their exercises, we saw our own little Jemmy at
their head, as perfect in all the manoeuvres as any
among them. He was the delight of the regiment,
but even still more, if possible, the sailors' pet.
There was a mutiny among the latter — I can't
remember the date, but I think he must then have
been about twelve or thirteen years of age. All
Aberdeen was uneasy ; my brother, of course, not at
home. The sailors were drawn up in a dense body
on the pier. The magistrates went down to them,
backed by the soldiers, whose muskets were loaded ;
and they were held in readiness to fire on the
mutineers, if necessary. Between the latter and
their opponents Jemmy Outram was to be seen, with
his hands in his trouser- pockets, stumping about
from one side to the other, like a tiger in his den,
protecting his sailor friends from the threatening
muskets ; resolved to receive the fire first, if firing
was to be.

"All ended peacefully, however, much to the
general satisfaction, and to our particular thankful-
ness, when we were told how our brother had
exposed himself."^

One day James Outram, then a boy of thirteen,
was walking with a schoolfellow beyond Aberdeen
when a large mastifi" attacked them both. In a
moment James ran at the furious brute, and beat
him ofi" with a shower of well-planted blows from
his fists and feet. About two years later young
Outram, who had meanwhile been transferred to a

^ Goldsmid.



8 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

another and higher school, appeared one day at
home with a face so disfigured that his sisters at
first could hardly recognise him. In reply to their
anxious questioning, he merely said, " Never mind,
Anna ; I've licked the biggest boy in the school in
such a manner that he'll not ill-treat any of the
little boys again, I'll be bound." ^

In 1818-19 we find him studying mathematics
and attending lectures on natural and experimental
philosophy at Marischal College, where his brother
Frank had been studying before him. The officials
reported him as "An attentive and well-behaved
student, evincing good abilities and an amiable dis-
position."^ It was not long, however, before these
studies gave place to preparations for his future
career. On hearing that his mother wanted him
to enter the service of the Church, he exclaimed
to his sister, " You see that window ; rather than
be a parson, I'm out of it ; and I'll 'list for a common
soldier ! " From one of her friends Mrs Outram
received the offer of a direct cadetship in the Indian
army, while another proposed to send her son out
to India by way of that same Addiscombe through
which his brother had already passed.

Between these alternatives James himself at once
selected the former. "My brother Frank," he re-
marked, " when only half the allotted time at
Addiscombe, gained all the highest prizes there,
and got into the Engineers. If I remain the whole
three years, I shall at the best come out only as
cadet for the infantry. It's much better, therefore,
that I should go out as a cadet ; I choose Captain
Gordon's appointment." He had already learned to
' Goldsmid. 2 Ibid.



BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND SCHOOL-DAYS. 9

know something of himself and his own limitations.
His mother also felt that he had done wisely in pre-
ferring the direct cadetship to a course of prelim-
inary training, which in his case would almost
certainly have led to no adequate results. On May
2, 1819, James Outram, then little more than six-
teen years old, embarked on board the good ship
York as a qualified cadet of infantry on the Bombay
establishment.



10



CHAPTER 11.

SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN WESTERN INDIA.

1819-1824.

After an uneventful voyage of nearly three months
and a half, Ensign Outram landed at Bombay on
August 15, 1819. Among his shipmates was a cadet
named Stalker, who was destined many years later
to serve as Outram's second in command throuahout
the Persian war of 1856-57. Shortly after his land-
ing Ensign Outram found himself posted to do duty
wath the 1st Battalion of the 4th Native Infantry,
then stationed at Poona. From that place he marched
with his regiment a few days later to the hill fort of
Savaudrug in the Bangalore district. On December
2 he proceeded to join the 2nd Battalion of the 1st
Grenadier Native Infantry at Sirur in the Poona
district, which had lately passed for ever under
British rule.

With the close of the year 1819 had begun a new
era of peace, order, and prosperity for nearly the
whole of India, under the strong and beneficent rule
of the Marquis of Hastings. In the course of seven
years that Governor-General had done great things
in that vast peninsula, which for more than a hun-
dred years had been given over to every form of



SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN WESTERN INDIA. 11

anarchy, pillage, and armed strife. After teaching
the Nepalese a long -needed lesson of respect for
their British neighbours, Lord Hastings had made
up his mind to crush out once for all the growing
power of the Pindari freebooters, and to baffle the
intrigues of those Maratha princes who still dreamed
of reducing all India under their sway. In one
bold and decisive campaign the great Maratha power,
which had survived the slaughter of Panipat and
the blows dealt against it b}^ the Marquis Wellesley,
fell shattered to pieces by the same hand which
crushed the Pindaris and raised an English mer-
chant company to the paramount lordship of all
India, from the Satlaj and the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin.

In 1 819 the last of the Maratha Pdshwas had ceased
to reign at Poona ; the Eajah of Berar was a dis-
crowned fugitive, the Rajah of Satara a king only in
name, while Sindhia, Holkar, and the Nizam of
Haidarabad thenceforth reigned only by sufferance
of an English Governor-General at Calcutta. The
old Mughal Empire lingered only in the palace of
Delhi ; and the proudest princes of Rajputana cheer-
fully bowed their necks to the yoke of masters
merciful as Akbar and mightier than Aurangzib.
With the capture of Asirgarh in April 1819, the
fighting in Southern India had come to an end.
The large tract of country conquered from the last
of the Peshwas had been placed under the fostering
care of Mountstuart Elphinstone, who presently, as
Governor of Bombay, completed the healing work
which he and his Me subalterns had begun from
Poona.

Early in 1820 James Outram was transferred to



12 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

the 1st Battalion of the 12th Native Infantry,
which had just been embodied at Poona. Only six
months later he was appointed to act as adjutant of
the same regiment. " I have now acted," he writes
to his mother in October, *' upwards of three months,
and expect to act one month longer, as I believe the
adjutant will not join till that time. It is of no
immediate advantage to me, otherwise than that
it teaches me my duty ; but my having acted as
adjutant four months will give me strong claims
for that appointment when it becomes vacant. . . .
Should a vacancy happen to-morrow, I would not
hesitate a moment about applying for the situation,
as I would feel confident (without flattery to myself)
that I would be equal to the task, with a little
application and trouble on my part."

He was still acting as adjutant when, in February
1821, the regiment began its march to Baroda. By
this time he had begun to discover that the duties
of his office were not quite so light or easy as he
had imagined. Writing to his mother in April
from Baroda, he thus excuses himself for his long
silence : " Many difficulties were thrown in my way
which I had not foreseen. Several officers who
were removed from the corps had charge of a com-
pany each, all of which were thrown upon my hands,
and I had to make out the papers of almost all the
companies, besides all the battalion ones. Almost
all adjutants have two writers, one which Govern-
ment allows — a sergeant — and one which he keeps
at his own expense. Now I have been altogether,
I daresay, five months without one at all, and have
never had more than one at any time. At first a
sergeant was not procured (as it is a new corps)



SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN WESTERN INDIA. 13

till about seven montlis after I had begun to act.
I had now and then a writer for a few days, but
I daresay I was five months without one altogether ;
and when I got the sergeant I found him more a
burden than a help to me, as he had everything
to learn. ... I have also been latterly acting
quartermaster. I am to be relieved by the regular
adjutant, I suppose, on the 1st of next month, as
he has been relieved from the corps which he ha&
been obliged to remain with till this time. I shall
then have done the duties of adjutant exactly ten
months."

During the monsoon rains of that year, a serious
attack of fever drove Outram on sick-leave to Bom-
bay. The doctors were of opinion that he should
return to England to recruit his health, but Outram
was eager only to rejoin his regiment, which had
been ordered on active service in Kathiawar. In
February 1822 he embarked from Bombay in a
native boat, which had not gone far when an un-
foreseen disaster compelled his immediate return.
Besides his necessary baggage, he had laid in a
stock of fireworks in honour of some festival to
be kept that evening at Bombay. By some mis-
chance the fireworks exploded, and the vessel was
blown to pieces. Outram's horses were either killed
or drowned, and the whole of his kit was irre-
trievably lost ; but he himself was picked up float-
ing, half-dead, and so disfigured that no one at
the moment could have recognised him as a white
man. A charitable Parsi found him lying helpless
on the shore, and conveyed him in a palanquin to
his own house, whence the wounded officer was

^ Goldsmid.



14 THE BAYARD OF INDIA.

finally transferred to that of Mr Willougliby, a
civil servant in Bombay.

The explosion appears to have spoiled his beauty,
while it served to do away with all traces of the
jungle fever. Writing to his mother two months
later, Francis Outram, then a lieutenant in the
Bombay Engineers, declared that the results of the
accident might have been much worse. " James,
however, has luckily escaped with a good scorching,
and will be more careful with gunpowder for the
future." ^

His letters to his mother during this year attest
not only the depth of his filial love, but also a full
and abiding sense of all that Mrs Outram had done
and endured for her children in the past.

" You used to say you were badly off"," he wTote
in July ; " but as I had been used to poor Udny,
I thought we were very comfortable at our humble
home. Now, when I see how many privations you
had to put up with, I think you made wonderful
sacrifices for your children, whose duty it is to
make you as comfortable as they possibly can.
I, for one, am certainly sorry that I have not been
more prudent, for I certainly ought by this time
to have been able to send you, at least, something ;
for I got the allowances of the acting adjutancy
for eight months out of the ten in which I acted,
after a reference to Government. . . . When I re-
join my corps I shall be in the receipt of 600 Rs.
per mensem, as the corps is at present in the field,
out of which I shall at least be able to save 300 Rs.
a-month, which is about £350 a-year. I am obliged