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The operations which, during the long campaign of the
Mutiny, were carried on under Lord Clyde’s direct supervision were
confined to the region north of the Jumna; he himself never crossed that
river. But in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief he was mainly
responsible for the grand strategy of the campaign throughout the whole
area of military operations, the outlines of which he had laid down in
the scheme prepared during his voyage from England. Of this scheme an
essential feature was, it may be remembered, a great concentrated
advance upon the Central Indian States to be undertaken by the available
military forces of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The fulfilment of
this plan of campaign was retarded by various causes, but the wisdom of
the Commander-in-Chief’s conception was justified in the event.
Something had already been done in Central India before
Colin Campbell set foot on Prinsep’s Ghat on the strand of Calcutta. On
the 12th of July, 1857, there left Aurungabad for Mhow a little column
under the command of Brigadier C. S. Stuart, consisting of half of the
Fourteenth Dragoons, the Third Hyderabad Cavalry, Woolcombe's battery,
the Twenty-Fifth Bombay Native Infantry, and detachments of Bombay and
Madras sappers. On August 2nd this force relieved Mhow, but remained
there doing nothing until after the middle of October. On the 21st of
that month, accompanied by Colonel Durand, the acting Resident at Mhow,
and strengthened by the Eighty-Sixth regiment, Hungerford’s battery and
sundry details including a small siege-train, the column, now bearing
the title of the Malwa Field Force, marched on Dhar and on the 25th
prepared to bombard that strong fort. Its garrison abandoned it during
the night of the 31st. The main body marched northward on Mundasore on
the 8th of November, while Major Orris column of the Hyderabad
Contingent moved on Mahidpore, where the fugitives from Dhar had been
joined by the Mahidpore Contingent, which had killed the Europeans
attached to it. Orr overtook the mutineers at Rawul, and inflicted on
them a severe defeat with the loss of all their guns. On the morning of
the 21st the Field Force took up a position between Mundasore and
Neemuch, where it was attacked in force but routed its assailants with
heavy loss, and the cavalry drove them into Mundasore sabring them as
they fled. On the 23rd the column pushed on to Neemuch, where it was
known that the British people of that station had been shut up in the
fort for months surrounded by about ten thousand of the enemy. They had
beaten off two desperate attacks, but provisions and ammunition were
running short, and word had come from the fort that they could not hold
out many days longer. While on the march the rear of the column was
harassed by troops from Mundasore, and presently there became visible in
front a large mass of cavalry and two bodies of infantry which had come
out from Nee-much to resist the British advance. Those Rohillas were
exceedingly daring and stubborn, and fought to the last gasp. They held
with extreme obstinacy the village of Goorariah, from which they
maintained a constant heavy fire. As the night closed in the village
became one great blazing fire; death stared its occupants in the
face 1 yet they clung to it throughout the night. In the morning the
place was a mere shell into which was being poured a stream of heavy
missiles, yet the garrison held out until after mid-day, when at length
some two hundred and fifty survivors came out and surrendered. With the
storm of Ghorariah and the relief of Neemuch, Durand, scanty as the
force at his disposal was, had succeeded in crushing the rebellion in
the Malwa country and in cutting off the disaffected troops of Holkar
from the supports on which they had rested. Leaving the Hyderabad
Contingent at Mundasore under Major Orr he returned by way of Mahidpore
and Oojein to Indore, where he disarmed Holkar’s troops. With this
service ended the short Malwa campaign. On December 16th there arrived
at Indore Major-General Sir Hugh Rose, the officer who had been
nominated by Lord Canning to conduct the operations of the body of
troops thenceforth known as the Central India Field Force. Rose had seen
much war, and had displayed brilliant gallantry in the field as well as
great capacity in the cabinet. He was a man who wore the silk glove over
the iron hand, and while the suaveness of his manner seemed to the
superficial observer to indicate a lack of force, it was apparent to the
more clear-sighted that he possessed the former in which marked him as a
man of promptitude, determination, and vigour. His division, consisting
of five and a half infantry battalions, five cavalry regiments, six
batteries, detachments of Bombay and Madras sappers and a siege-train,
was divided into two brigades, of which, the second, which Rose himself
accompanied, marched on Rhatghur and Saugur, while the first moved on a
parallel line farther to the west heading for Goona and the Trunk Road
from Bombay to Agra.
Rose began his advance on January 6th and arrived in
front of the fortress of Rhatghur on the 24th. After two days’
bombardment it was evacuated by the garrison during the night of the
28th, an attempt on the part of the forces of the Rajah of Baunpore to
raise the siege having been easily frustrated. Rose then pushed forward
to Saugur, which had been beleaguered for the last eight months. The
place was relieved in the beginning of February, when the Europeans who
had been so long cooped up in their fort came out to welcome their
deliverers; by whom aud by the Thirty-First Bengal Native Infantry, one
of the few regiments of that army which had remained faithful, Rose was
escorted past the fort into the cantonment. On February 11th with part
of his force he was before the fort of Gurrah Kota, which was garrisoned
by the revolted sepoys of the Fifty-First and Fifty-Second Bengal Native
Infantry, One day’s bombardment sufficed to reduce the place. The
garrison escaped during the night of the 12th, but the fugitives were
pursued by cavalry for twenty-five miles and suffered considerable loss.
Rose was back in Saugur on the 17th, eager to prosecute his advance on
Jhansi distant one hundred and twenty-five miles farther north. He had
been informed that General Whitlock with the Madras column had reached
Jubbulpore, but he could not quit Saugur until he should be assured that
the Madras general had begun his advance towards that place. The
interval he utilised in gathering supplies, replenishing the ammunition
of his siege-train, and strengthening it by the addition of heavy guns,
howitzers, and mortars from the Saugur arsenal. At length tidings came
that Whitlock had left Jubbulpore, and Rose moved from Saugur on the
27th. A few days later, by a flank movement through the pass of
Madanpore, he turned the more formidable pass of Malthon by which the
enemy had been expecting him, and after some extremely hard fighting
entered the town of Madanpore. On March 19th he was within fourteen
miles of Jhansi, whither he despatched the cavalry and field-artillery
of his second brigade to reconnoitre and invest that place.
Jhansi was the chief stronghold of the rebel power in
Central India; and it was a place, moreover, in which the slaughter of
British men and women had been perpetrated in circumstances of peculiar
atrocity. It was of great strength, both natural and artificial, its
walls varying in thickness from sixteen to twenty feet. Town and
fortress were garrisoned by eleven thousand men, rebel sepoys,
mercenaries, and local levies under the command of the Ranee, a woman of
fierce and dauntless character. The cavalry having invested the place on
the 22nd, the siege operations began on the night of that day. The
batteries opened fire on the morning of the 25th, on which day the first
brigade came up into line, having on its march bombarded, breached, and
stormed the important fortress of Chandairee, situated about eighty
miles south-west of Jhansi. For seventeen days the duel between the
besieging batteries and the guns of the defence was incessant. By the
31st a breach had been effected, but it was barely practicable; and on
the same evening tidings came to Bose that Tantia Topee with twenty-two
thousand men and twenty-eight guns was on the march from the north to
the relief of Jhansi. He realised that his position, placed as it was
between two superior hostile forces, was critical in the extreme. But
Bose was the man to pluck the flower of safety out of the nettle of
danger. Maintaining his grip on the fortress, he resolved to take the
offensive against Tantia Topee on the following morning.
As the rebel army advanced, he struck both its flanks
simultaneously with cavalry and horse-artillery. As soon as that
evolution had manifested itself, his infantry advanced, poured in a
volley, and then charged. The first line of the rebels broke and fled in
disaster hotly pursued. Brigadier Stuart struck in upon the right flank
of the second line and hurled it into confused flight. Tantia fired the
jungle, and under cover of the smoke made for the Betwa. But the British
cavalry and horse-artillery pursued with ardour, and did not desist
until every rebel gun had been taken. Fifteen hundred of the mutineers
were killed or wounded. Tantia Topee and his discomfited host fled
towards Calpee. Bose took prompt advantage of the discouragement which
he realised that Tantia’s defeat must have -wrought on the garrison of
Jhansi. He stormed the fortified city at dawn of April the 3rd. It was
an arduous task. “The fire of the enemy waxed stronger, and amid the
chaos of sounds of volleys of musketry and roaring of cannon, of hissing
and bursting of rockets, stink-pots, infernal machines, huge stones,
blocks of wood and trees, all hurled on their devoted heads, the men
wavered for a moment and sheltered themselves behind stones.” Everywhere
fierce and bloody, the conflict was most severe near and inside the
palace, which had been prepared by the rebels for a centre of resistance
in the last resort. Four hundred men who had taken up a position outside
the fortress were surrounded by Rose’s cavalry and slain almost to a
man. Desultory fighting continued for thirty-six hours. The Ranee made
her escape and galloped straight to Calpee. The fortress was finally
occupied by Rose on the 5th. The loss sustained in its subjugation,
including that in the action of the Betwa, amounted to three hundred and
forty-three killed and wounded, of whom thirty-six were officers. The
enemy’s loss was reckoned to exceed five thousand.
It now only remained for Sir Hugh Rose to march on Calpee,
and to exterminate from that important position the mutinous bodies
which had so long threatened Sir Colin Campbell’s main line of
communications. He began his advance in the end of April and on May 7th
reached Koonch, where the rebels were in an entrenched position covering
the Calpee road. That position he turned, stormed the town, and pursued
the rebels for eight miles along the road to Calpee, capturing eight
guns and a quantity of ammunition and stores. He had now been joined by
the Seventy-First Highlanders, and continuing his advance reached the
Jumna at Gowlowlee six miles below Calpee. The Commander-in-Chief had
sent to co-operate with him Colonel Maxwell with the Eighty-Eighth
Foot, some Sikhs and the Camel Corps, part of which crossed the river
and joined Rose’s force on the right bank. After four days of constant
skirmishing Maxwell’s batteries opened fire from the left bank on the
fort and town, and Rose determined to strike the decisive blow on the
22nd. But the rebels anticipated him. On the morning of that day they
came out in great masses to attack him. There was a critical moment when
the thin British lino momentarily yielded. But Sir Hugh brought up the
Camel Corps, dismounted the men, and led them forward in person to the
charge. The victory was won; Calpee was evacuated during the following
night, and the rebel force, pursued by the horse-artillery and cavalry,
lost formation and dispersed, losing all its guns and baggage. “This,”
writes Dr. Lowe, “was a glorious success won over ten times our number
under most trying circumstances. The position of Calpee; the numbers of
the enemy, who came on with a resolution and' display of tactics we had
never before witnessed; the exhausted and weakened state of Sir Hugh
Rose’s force; the awful, suffocating hot wind and burning sun which the
men had to endure all day without time to eat or drink; combined to
render the achievement one of unsurpassed difficulty. Every soul engaged
suffered more or less. Officers and men fainted away, or dropped down as
if struck by lightning in the delirium of sunstroke. Yet all this was
endured without a murmur, and in the cool of the evening we were
speculating on the capture of Calpee on the morrow.” The speculation was
justified. Calpee was occupied, fifteen guns and several standards were
taken; and Sir Hugh Rose, considering the campaign ended, issued a
complimentary order to his troops and prepared to proceed to Bombay on
sick certificate.
But in the first week in June he had suddenly to alter
his plans. The main body of the Calpee mutineers had reached Morar, the
cantonment of the old Gwalior Contingent, situated close to Scindiah’s
capital. Remaining steadfast to the British cause the young Maharajah
moved out from Gwalior on June 1st and engaged the enemy in the Morar
position. It was obvious from the first that Tantia Topee had been
successfully tampering with the Maharajah’s troops, who went over in a
body to the rebels and Scindiah had to seek safety in flight to Agra.
The daring project of the Ranee had thus far succeeded, and she and her
confederates were prompt to take advantage of the temporary good fortune
which had come to them. They took possession of fortress, treasury,
arsenal, and town, and proceeded to form a regular government. Nana
Sahib was proclaimed as Peishwah and Rao Sahib as Governor of Gwalior.
The royal property was declared confiscated. The command of the troops
outside the city was vested in the Ranee; those inside were under the
command of Tantia Topee.
On receiving intelligence of this extraordinary state of
things, Sir Hugh Rose resumed his command and advanced on Gwalior by
forced marches, gathering up reinforcements as he moved. Of his two
brigades one was commanded by Brigadier C. S. Stuart of the Bombay Army;
the other by Brigadier R. Napier of the Bombay Engineers. Approaching
Gwalior on June 18th, the ninth day from Calpee, he attacked the
insurgents on the following morning, drove them out of the cantonments
and pursued them vigorously. Smith with the Sipree column joined by Orr
with his people of the Hyderabad Contingent, fought his way through the
defile of Kotah-ke Serai after a stout defence on the part of the enemy,
in which the Ranee of Jhansi lost her life while attempting to escape.
Reinforced by Smith and Orr, Sir Hugh advanced on the 19th with the
combined force against the heights in front of the city. In face of a
heavy fire of artillery the assaulting columns carried the heights
gallantly, capturing all the twenty-seven guns of the enemy. Then the
rebels lost heart and fled pursued by the cavalry, while Rose advanced
on the city. That same evening Scindiah, who had accompanied a force
from Agra, found himself once more sovereign of the Gwalior State. The
rock-fortress of Gwalior was daringly captured on the morning of
the 20th by a couple of lieutenants at the head of a handful of men,
after a hand-to-hand struggle with the garrison in which the gallant
young Lieutenant Rose met his death. A flying column of cavalry
organised by Sir Hugh was placed in command of Brigadier Napier, who on
the morning of* the 21st, after a ride of twenty-four miles, struck the
enemy at Jowra Alipore. He had barely six hundred men all told, and only
six guns ; the enemy were reckoned twelve thousand strong—the remnants
of the Calpee force with additions picked up at Gwalior. Lightfoot with
his troop of horse-artillery galloped to the enemy’s left flank, fired a
couple of rounds, and then dashing forward at full speed with Abbott’s
cavalry rolled up the enemy’s line and drove him from his guns. The
mutineers, stricken and demoralised, dispersed, abandoning sixteen guns
which Napier brought in. The Central India Field-Force was now broken
up, and the troops composing it were distributed at Gwalior, Jhansi,
Sipree, and Goona. Its gallant chief repaired to Bombay, there to
recruit his health impaired by the triumphant march he had accomplished
through Central India. The doings of Whitlock with his Madras column in
the Banda and Kirwee territories were not brilliant and need not be
summarised. With the pacification of Gwalior began what Sir Colin
Campbell described as “that hunt of the rebel leaders which was finally
brought to a conclusion by the capture and execution of Tantia Topee in
April, 1859,” after a chase which lasted nearly ten months. |
