^>fe IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. (/ A f — ► <^ /a A VI S. e. 'eW/ c1 y M Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 w.- i/x 0, ut Id of V offered for earning distinction, he eagerly grasped at it, and — being blessed with a sound constitution and an equable temperament, the mens sana in corpore sano, so much lauded by the Roman poet — was enabled to pass with unbroken health through the hardships of campaigns conducted in the most deadly climates of the world, or to return to duty after being wounded, and that he received some ghastly reminders of the hot work in which he participated, will soon appear. As Sir John Cheape considered it desirable to give the enemy as little time as possible to strengthen still further the almost impregnable fortress they occupied, he directed Major "Wigston, of the 18th Royal Irish, to occupy a position of importance some three miles in advance, so as to enable the main force to move early on the following morning, without waiting for the clearing of the fog, which always lay thick at that hour. Major Wigston, accordingly, marched at two p.m., on the 17th of March, with the right wing, consisting of his own Regiment, the 80th, (with which was Ensign Wolseley,) the 4th (or Major Arm- strong's) Sikhs, a detail of Sappers, and some rockets. The road was found to be quite clear till within a mile of a breastwork, which was situated in the middle of the forest, and on the verge of a large lake ; but the last mile was full of obstructions, such as felled trees and abattis, which had either to be re- moved, or, wliere this was a labour of time, a new ])ath had to be made round the obstacles. Tlie breast- work was carried in good style by the l8th Royal VOL. I. C s 18 THE BURMESE WAR. f S i I Irish, who were leading, supported by the Sikhs, wliose gaUant commander particularly distinguished himself. Major Wigston bivouacked here for the night, and was undisturbed. Sir John Cheape moved early on the morning of the 18th, with the left wing — consisting of the 51st Light Infantry and the 67th Bengal Native Infantry in front, followed by the guns — the entire force* carry- ing seven days' provisions, the remainder being left behind, together with the sick, at Kyomtauo. After going about two miles through forest, and passing breastworks from which only an occasional shot was fired, the guides, instead of proceeding further by the road which had been followed on the 11th, turned sharp off to the left, along a path bristling with obstructions and felled trees, so that it occupied two hours to perform the distance of one mile. * From the *' East India Army Magazine and Military Register," it appears that the foUowuig was the exact strength of the force engaged : — Ettropeans. Bengal Artillery, 4 ofBccrs and 64 non-commissioned officers and men. Madras „ 11 )) » H.M. 18th R. Irish 9 )) 200 » » H.M. 51st Regt, 6 n 200 » » H.M. 80th Regt. 3 >i 130 Natives. >i M Madras Sappei's 1 9) 33 n >« 67th B.N.I. 8 » 380 »» }> ith Sikhs 3 )) 190 S) » Total force engaged, 605 Europeans and 22 officers ; 608 Sepoys and 12 officers. i*^ #- len. joys • MARCH ON MYAT'TOOirS POSITION. 19 • s m- * t^. ■V .»• As thej^ drew nearer to Myat-toon's stronghold, it was found that his dispositions for defence exhibited considerable skill, and were admirably adapted to the nature of his position. The entire country, or rather forest, was defended with strong works, such as stockades, abattis, stakes or fences, according as the 'nature of the ground seemed to require, while the presence of the enemy was constantly made apparent by a straggling and worrying fire on every side. They had not proceeded more than a mile from their mid-day halting place when a sharp fire opened from the left; but the troops, advancing with great gallantry, carried a breastwork. In this affair the 51st Liglit Infanty, and the 67th Native Infantry, distinguished themselves, Captain Singleton, of the 51st, leading the advance. Ensign Boileau, of the 67th, was killed while gallantly attacking the enemy on the left flank. The Burmese, who numbered one thousand, suffered severely ; and mifortunately, Myat- toon, who commanded in person, effected his escape to his main position about midway between the Bassein river and the Irrawaddy. Sir John Cheape lost no time in following up the enemy : but, after proceeding along the road for about a mile, thought it advisable to halt at a piece of water, the surrounding jungle being reported as full of the Burmese, At eight p.m. the General fired three rockets as a signal to Commander Rennie, I.N., who, with eighty blue-jackets from his ship, the Honourable Company's steam-frigate ' Zenobia,' and C2 20 TEE BURMESE WAR. Ciiptuin Fytche, with his Native levies, were acting in co-operation in the neighbourhood, and the shots were replied to by guns. All that night cholera raged in the camp, and the position of affairs looked very gloomy. At seven a.m. of the 19th of March the force moved, the right wing leading, with the 80th as the advance guard, followed by the Sappers clearing the road ; the left wing being in rear of the artillery. This eventful day was not to close without some warm work, in which young Wolseley was destined to play a prominent part. A storming party was told off, consisting of the 80th Regiment, supported by the 18th Royal Irish and the 4th Sikhs. On coming opposite the enemy's left flank, the firing commenced, and the rockets were advanced and opened fire. The Sappers worked away at the path, which was much entangled with wood, and the guns were shortly got into position and opened ; the enemy, however, were not idle, but com- menced a heavy, fire, under which both the senior officers, Majors Wigston and Armstrong, and many men, were wounded. " On reaching the front," says the General in his dispatch, " I found that Major Armstrong was also wounded, as well as many other oficers and men, and that the fire of the enemy on the path leading up to the breastwork was so heavy, that i/ur advanced party had not succeeded in carrying it ; ti..'^ TYi'-'^t strenuous exertions were made, and Lieu- i^j'.iUil JoLiison, the only remaining officer of the 4th Sil; K Local Regiment, persevered most bravely, but it THE STOBMING PARTY. 21 r .?!! I i I only increased the loss. The 80th and Sikhs then went on in the hope of getting round the extreme right of the enemy. The jungle, however, was so thick, and the abattis so strong, that our men got dis- persed, and could not get through it." Ensign Wolseley's personal share in this first eft'ort to storm the enemy's works was cut short, doubtless fortunately for himself, by a contretemps. He speaks with admiration of his associate in the perilous honour of leading the stormers, young Allan Johnson of the 4th Sikhs. He himself being well in advance of his men, had reached within twenty yards of the breast- work, when, suddenly, the earth gave way under him, and he found himself precipitated into a covered pit, technically known as a trou de loup having pointed stakes at the bottom, with which, among other ob- structions, the Burmese had studded the narrow entrance to their position. When his men were beaten back, he was in great danger of being killed by the enemy ; but after a time, he managed to rejoin the detachment, which had fallen back and got scattered. The task alloted to the 80th, was certainly a very trying one for a body of men consisting almost entirely of recruits who had never before been under fire ; to carry an almost inaccessible position, hell by a numerous and invisible enemy, was a duty that was calculated to put to the test the steadiness of veteran soldiers. The General now determined to try the 18th Royal Irish, but the fire of musketry and grape was so mmmmm 22 THE BURMESE WAR. lieavy, that they also fell back having sustained loss, including Lieutenant Cockburn,* who was wounded. Although it was difficult, from the dense smoke, and under so heavy a fire, to discern exactly what was between the assailants and the breastwork, the General — who was now joined by Major (now General Sir) Edward A. Holdich, of the 80th, who succeeded to the command of the right wing on Major Wigston being wounded — at length ascertained that there was no water, and no obstacle that could not be easily sur- mounted, if only the troops could pass through the enemy's fire, a distance of some thirty yards. The " assembly" was, accordingly, sounded, with a view of getting together as many men of the right wing as could be collected. In the meantime. Major Reid, of the Bengal Artil- lery, brought up, in the most gallant manner, his 24-pounder howitzer, which was dragged through the bushes by the hand, (chiefly by men of the 51st Regiment, who volunteered their services,) and opened with canister within twenty-five yards of the enemy, with deadly effect. The gun was, however, in a much exposed position, and Major Reid w'as almost imme- diately wounded, upon which the command devolved upon Lieutenant Ashe, who kept up the fire with spirit. " Finding," says the General, " the right wing much weakened from the loss they had sustained, and the number of men it was necessary to employ as * This gallant yoxmg ofBcer died shortly after of his woirnd. I THE STORMING PAIiTY. 23 gh .St ith 'I 'I I as skirmishers on the banks of the nullali ior the pur- pose of keeping clown the enemy's fire, I ordered a reinforcement from tlie left wing; they were joined by the men of the right wing that had been collected by Major Iloldich, and wlio were led by Ensign Wolseley, and the whole advanced in a manner that nothing could check. Tlie fire was severe, and I am grieved to say that gallant young officer, Lieutenant Taylor, 0th Madras Native Infantry, doing duty with Her Majesty's 51st Light Infantry, fell mortally wounded. Ensign Wolseley, Her Majesty's 80th Regiment, was also struck down, as well as many other gallant soldiers ; bnt the breastwork was at once carried ; and the enemy fled in confusion, the few who stood being shot or bayo- netted on the entrance of our men." In this second attempt to storm the enemy's posi- tion, which ended in a complete and glorious success, the chief honours were borne off by Lieutenant Taylor, wlio fell a sacrifice to his gallantry, and Ensign Wolseley, who nearly shared a like fate, though, happily for his country, a merciful Providence bore him through that terrible fire to increase her renown on many battle fields. Taylor led the men of the5l",t, and when Major Iloldich called for volun- teers of his own regiment, Wolseley immediately responded, and, though much shaken by his accident, oft'ered to lead the storming party. In a few minutes he had hastily collected such of his men as were within call, and was ready for a second attempt. The two young officers, without a moment's hesita- 24 THE BURMESE WAR. tion, made a rush up the path leadiug over the breastwork, which was so narrow that but two men could advance together. Abiiost at the same moment, while well in advance of their men, and racing for the honour of being first in the enemy's works, they were both shot down, and, strange to say, were wounded exactly in the same spot. A large iron jingall ball struck Wolseley on the left thigh, tearing away the muscle and surrounding flesh. Feeling the blood flow- ing from the wound, with great presence of mind he pressed his fingers on the veins, and so slightly staunched the bleeding. Fortunately, in his case, the artery, which was laid bare, was not severed, whereas, with poor Taylor the artery had been cut, and so he bled to death in a few minutes before assistance could come. As Wolseley lay helpless on his back, he, with un- abated resolution, waved his sword, and cheered on his men, and though some of them off"ered to carry him to the rear, he refused, and lay there until the position was gained by the gallant fellows, who emulated the example of their youthful leader.* Mr. Wolseley received the most prompt attention * Speaking of his own men, Wolseley says that, after he received his wound, Sergear'.t Quin greatly distinguished himself by the in- trepid manner in which he led the detachment. This gallant soldier, who afterwards served in the 78tl) Highlanders, was offered a commis- sion for his bravery on this occasion, which, however, he declined. The General wrote in his despatch : — " Lieutenant Trevor, of the Engineers, with Corporal Livingstone, and Private Preston, of Her Majesty's Slst King's Own Light Infantry, first entered the enemy's CAPTURE OF THE POSITION. 25 nn- liis iim ■ion the Lion jived iii- dier, mis- ned. the Her I at the hands of Assistant-Surgeon Murphy, who imme- diately ap])lied a tournaquet to the wound, and to his si\ill and care he attributes, under Providence, liis re- covery. YoY six montlis he had a sohlier in constant attendance upon him, as tliere was great danger of liis bleeding to death. During all that time his constitu- tional strength was severely taxed, owing to the sup- puration, which was constant and profuse, and he was given to understand that his condition was one of grave anxiety, for had the sloughing extended to the artery, which was much apprehended, nothing could have saved his life. But, thanks to a sound constitu- tion, unimpaired by youthful excesses and hard living, he gradually gained strength, and though he had to use crutches for some time after his arrival in England, no permanent injury was sustained either to his general health or to the limb affected. In the captured works were found the two guns which fell into the enemy's hands on the 4th of the previous month. They had been well served to the last, and in attempting to carry off one of them, twelve Burmese were killed by a well directed discharge from a 9-pounder gun. The enemy sustained heavy loss in killed and wounded. His whole force and means were concentrated in this position, and the General was of breastwork, the two former each shooting down one of the enemy opposing their entrance. The lead devolved on them and on Sergeant Preston, of Her Majesty's King's Own Light Infantry, and Sorgeant- Major Quin, of Her Majesty's 80th, when Lieutenant Taylor, Ensign Wolaeley, and Colour-Sergeant Donahoe fell in the advance." 2f) THE BURMESE WAR. Opinion tliat he mnst have had uhout four thousand nion in tlio hreastworkH, which extended some twelve Innidred yards in length. Myat-toon, tlic Burmese leader, e8ea})ed with about two hundred followers, and owin3 t 11 !l ! 84 THE CRIMEAN WAR. this time numbered fifty-eight thousand* men, of whom twenty-five thousand were English, and thirty- three thousand French. The former were under the orders of Lord Raglan, a tried veteran who had won the good opinion of his former chief, Wellington; and our Allies were commanded by Marshal St. Arnaud, who, dying soon after the Alma, gave place to General Cam-o^eri. The fleet of war-ships and transports formed ^iie most mighty Armada the world had seen ; but, on the element where Britain and Gaul had so often fiercely contended, there was none to oppose them, and the i;. nrels won by our sailors were gained on shore iu t'\> *ronciH\s before Sebastopol, or at the bombardments of j^ei'tch and Kinburn. On the 19th of Sc-ntoriber, •':• Allied Army quitted their encampment at Kaiamita J^a, -.I'ld, after a weary march, bivouacked on the right bank of the Bulganak. That night many brave men slept their last sleep, for, ere the morrow's sun had set, was fought and won the victory of the Alma. Six days later Balak- i * According to Mftjor Keilly, R.A., C.B., the number of tlie Allied Force was sixty-one thousand four hundred, with one hundred and thirty-two guns. Tlie British siege train consisted of eight companies of Artillery, with sixty-live pieces of ordnance, with about five hundred and twenty rounds per piece. To assist in the operations of the siege, a Naval Brigade of seven hundred and thirty-two seamen, and thirty- five officers, under Captain Lushington, was landed, with fifty guns, only tweive of whicli were at first got up to the front. Reinforcements continued to arrive, and at the first bombardment, on the 17th of October, of the seventy -three pieces of ordnance, the Eoyal Artillery manned forty-three, and the Navy thirty. THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT. 31 icn, of tbirty- ler the id won ;ngton ; iial St. e place ps and ! world id Gaul lone to I's were opol, or quitted weary ;anak. sleep, it and Balak- le Allied red and mpanies lumdred the siege, d thirty- fty guns, rcements 17th of Artillery f '-i lava surrendered after the memorable and much dis- cussed flank march, and the siege of Sebastopol was undertaken. On the 10th of October, the first parallel, about one tliousand yards in extent, was traced at a distance of one thousand three hundred and fifty yards from the Russian works ; and, soon after dark, a working party of one thousand two hundred men of the Line, under Captain (now Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick) Chap- man, ll.E., commenced work along the whole extent.* At half-past six a.m. of tlie 17th of October, the whole of the French and English batteries, the latter mount- ing seventy-three guns and mortars, commenced to bombard the Russian works, which replied with spirit, the nuuiber of guns opposed to the British batteries alone being no less than one hundred and nine. Tlie Fleet also attacked the forts on the sea face at one p.m., but, after most gallant exertions, withdrew towards dusk, having suffered more injury than they inflicted. At this time the Malakhoff had been reduced to a ruin, and the Redan was completely silenced, but unfortu- nately, although the troops were told off to storm, the attempt was not made. With wonderful energy and resource, the Russians repaired and strengthened their works, and, in a few days, possessed an artillery fully double that of the Allies. On the 25th of October was fought the Battle of * See " Journal of the Military Operations, conducted by the Corps of Royal Engineers." Part I. By Captain (now Sir Howard) Elphin- stone, RE, D 2 i ^! if •AC, THE CRIMEAN WAR. Biiliildava, and, on the following day, the Russians made their first sortie on a large scale, but were driven back with great loss. The 5th of November will ever be a glorious anniversary, for on that day took place the most sanguinary and hardly-fought battle of the war. The obstinate valour and bull-dog pertinacity of our soldiers never received a brighter illustration than in the desperate hand-to-hand conflict at Inker- man. As it was now apparent that the siege would be prolonged, probably, throughout the Winter, prepara- tions were made to withstand the onslaught of enemies far more dreaded than the Muscovite. Cold, the bitter cold of an almost Arctic winter, attacked the soldier without, while disease, the result of privation, gnawed at his vitals. After the Battle of Inkerraan, Lord Raglan made urgent requests for reinforcements to fill up the gaps caused by that sanguinary struggle and the demands of the siege. At this time that gallant soldier and ex- Governor-General of India, Viscount Hardinge, was Commander-in-Chief, and his Lordship had determined very wisely to abolish an exemption enjoyed by Light Infantry Regiments and the Rifle Brigade, by which they were relieved from service in the East. The 52nd and 43rd had gone out to India, and the 90th were warned for service there in the following; vear. How- ever. Lord Raglan's demand for every soldier that could be spared, shook the expressed determination of the Horse Guards' Chief that the 90th should go i TFOLSELEY SAILS FOR THE CRIMEA. 37 made gaps ands id ex- was mined Light which 52nd were How- r that ion of Id go nowhere, not even to the Crimea, until they had first served in India; and, yiekling to the inevitable, that Regiment, then quartered in Dublin, was ordered to embark forthwith for the seat of war. Lieutenant Wolseley was so disgusted by the prohibitory order regarding service in the Crimea, that he and a brother officer, Captain Barnston, had made all arrangements to exchange into a corps before Sebastopol, when the orders arrived for immediate embarkation. Mr. Wolse- ley describes how they were at church when the colonel received telegraphic news of Inkerman, accompanied by the peremptory orders of the Field-Marshal Com- manding-in-Chief. And so our hero, who had by this time quite recovered from his wound, was again placed in a position to win that distinction for which every soldier sighs. The Regiment sailed from Dublin on the 19th of November, 1854, and, landing at Balaklava on the 4th of December, immediately proceeded to the front. The first object that greeted Wolseley's eyes as he stepped out of the boat on to the inhospitable shores of the Crimea, was a firelock which lay half in and half out of the water. Lifting it up, he found it marked " G Company," and identified it as one of the Minie rifles that lately belonged to his own company. In those days when " Brown Bess," with her well-known proclivity of " shooting round corners," was the arm with which the British soldier was marshalled for battle, only a small proportion, about twenty men of each company, were supplied with the Minie rifle ; and. ii" ' 1 :)8 THE CRIMEAN WAR. as the dciniind for these weapons during the Crimean War was greater than the supply, the 00th gave up their rifles, and placed their trust once more in " Brown Bess." Probably this arose from their being destined for India, where, we suppose, our experiences during the Afghan War had failed to teach the authorities iiow infinitely superior was the native " juzail" to that antiquated, but, in the eyes of martinets of the old school. Infallible weapon. The 90th, accordingly, landed at Balaklava armed with the musket, and, on the following day, marched down to the trenches. The mismanagement which was so conspicuous in almost every military department, was apparent at this early stage of the Crimean experiences of the 90th Regiment. The distance from Balaklava, the base of operations, to the camps by way of the Col de Balaklava — which was the road we were forced to adopt in preference to the WoronzofF Road, after the Russians occupied the Turkish redoubts on the 25th of October — was about nine miles, and, until the construction of a tramway, the road was quite unformed, and without any metalling. The traffic was stated to be equal to that along Piccadilly, but yet to form and macadamize such a road, the working party consisted at first of four hundred, and subsequently only of one hundred and fifty sickly Turks, some of them too weak even to dig, and none working more than four hours a-day. Besides the difficulty of procuring labour, the road itself passed through a rich, alluvial soil, while the ARRIVAL AT BALAKLAVA. 39 mg. ong 1 a bur and to day. road the stones, which were only procurable about three-quarters of a niile distant, had to be carried by manual labour, the transport being insufficient to supply the troops with provisions. Such was the road along which the 90th Regiment marched when proceeding to the front, and such tlieir first experience of service before Sebastopol. Tiieir arrival, and that of other reinforcements, must have been hailed with joy by the troops investing this fortress, if that could be called an investment in which the enemy's forces were literally surrounding the position of the allies and blockading the base of supplies at Balaklava.* Before the landing of these reinforcements, the French Aruiy mustered thirtj'^-nine thousand four hundred and fifty men, while the British who held an extent of ground, including the Riglit and Left Attacks, of nine miles, numbered about twenty- two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine eff'ectives, there being no less than ten thousand and ninety sick on the 30th of November, 1854. When we contrast the numerical inferiority of the Allies with the strength of the Russians, we cannot but be filled with admiration at the constancy and courage that animated every man, from Canrobertand Raglan to the drummer and private in the ranks. Prince MenschikofF had under his orders, after the arrival of the 4th Corps d'Armee and other reinforcements, an army of eighty-two thousand men, and though, according to what Fluellen would call * In the last days of December, tlie Russians withdrew from the valley of the Tchernaya, and abandoned the old Turkish redoubts, con centrating their troops in Sebastopol. t- -. »' ■ i 1' ' I- i 4 1 h '11 »' III ll! i( 1 4I ! ;i?' li 40 THE CRT MEAN WAR. *' the triio disciplines of the wars," the investing force shoiihl be doiihle or treble that of the besieged, iho latter was more nninerous, and ])ossessed a more powerful artillery. At this time the Allied Generals had it in contemplation to storm Sebastopol as soon as the new armament of the French and English Attacks* had been completed. The latter, which was divided into the " Right Attack," under Major (the late General Sir) J. W. Gordon, and the "Left Attack,' directed by Captain (now General Sir) F. E. Chapman, was to be armed with ninety-six pieces of ordnance, exclusive of the armament proposed for the defence of the position above Inkerman ; and it was decided — after the re- jection of Sir John Burgoyne's proposalf that the * " Tlie English Left Attack begins," says Mr. 11. Russell, Corres- pondent of the Times, " on the rise of the ridge which springs up from the right of a ravine, as we face Sebastopol, and the advanced works in front of it run close up to the Garden Battery and to the Redan. The Attack itself faces those two Russian batteries, and is directly opposite tlie pile of Government offices and dockyard buildings. Between our Left Attack and our Right Attack is another deep ravine, along the right side of which the Woronzoff road zigzags into Sebastopol. On the ridge, on the right side of this ravine, is our Right Attack, and on the right and rear of it is the Sea Service Mortar Battery. To the right-front of this attack arc the works of the Round Tower, flanked by the Mamelon on the right. To the right of the Right Attack, springing from the plateau between the 4th and Light Divisions, there is another deep ravine called the Middle Picket Ravine, and the French works on their Right Attack begin ut the fall of the hill, at the right of this ravine, and thence spread away to the right of Inkerman." t See Sir John Burgoyne's Memoranda of the 23rd and 25tli of November, 1854i, Unfortunately, for the public service, the same iortune attended the proposals made by this sagacious veteran in his FIRST BAY IN THE TRENCHES. 41 |5tli of same liu his Eiiglisli attack should be diructed excliisivcly against tliu MalaklioiV Tower— that tliu British fire was to ho directed "as much as possible to the proper right of the salient of the Redan." The iM)th arrived in the lines before Sebasto])ol on the 5th of L)ecenU)er, anil, on the following morning, it down to the trenches. In those days staff ollicers .id not come np to the standard now exacted at Sand- hurst, and Wolseley recounts how when his Regiment was ordered to the front, no stall-officer appeared to show them the way to the trenches. However, they managed to find their way down, and proceeding to the foremost rifle-})its, four or five companies, including Wolseley's, at once became engaged with the enemy, who opposed their rifles to the antiquated Jiritish musket. Pres(!ntly the Russians opened fire with shot and shell, en the order came for the 90th to cease firing. Jhe fir-jt serious fighting that took place after Mr. Wolseley's arrival before Sebastopol, was on the night of the 11th of December, when the Russians made sorties against both the English and the French positions, and, again, on the 20th of December against the English lines. In this second sortie they managed to penetrate as far as the second parallel, on the Left Attack, but only obtained temporary possession of the third parallel on the Right Attack. Had the enemy Memoranda of the 11th and 20th of December, to the effect that the operations of the allies should bo directed against the quarter of Sebastopol containing tlie dockyards and arsenals, which side, when once in the possession of the Allies, would give them the command of the head of the harbour, so that their ships could be destroyed. W\ *'• J m Hi If ." i) ', n I- Hi 1* il 42 THE CRIMEAN WAR. been in sufficient force, they could have penetrated to the first parallel — for the entire guard of the trenches of the Right Attack did not exceed six hundred men — and might have succeeded in spiking the guns ; hence- forward, to guard against the possibility of a surprise rifle-pits were dug some distance in front of the third parallel, and occupied by sentries in the manner practised by the Russians. The remainder of this eventful year passed without any incident of note, and so 1855 was ushered in. Since his arrival before Sebastopol, Lieutenant Wolseley had been employed with his Regiment in trench duty, but was soon selected for the post of Acting-Engineer, the number of officers of that distin- guished corps being unequal to the severe work entailed upon them by the protracted siege. He was posted, accordingly, to the Right Attack on the 30th of December, and did duty for the first time as Assistant- Engineer on the 4th of January, 1855. On that day he was employed in " Gordon's Battery," and the working party, consisting of only thirty-one men and twenty-eight sappers, " finished laying two platforms, relaid the sleepers of a third, and cleared out the drains in the third parallel." On the 1st of January, 1855, the effective of the British Army, according to Returns furnished at the time to Lord Raglan, numbered only one thousand and forty-five officers and twenty-one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three men. The French Army, meanwhile, had received considerable reinforcements, ' I ENOINEEIiS BEFOME SEBASTOPOL. 43 the Ithe iiid ne Its, and mustered at the same date about sixty-seven thousand men. Their arrangements were also further advanced than ours. Their batteries were armed, their trenches had approached to within one hundred and eighty yards of the FLagstaff Bastion, and they ex- pected soon to be in readiness to assault Sebastopol in conjunction with their Allies. On our side, however, the insufficient number of workmen had retarded the construction of the defensive and offensive works, and the engineering operations were greatly hindered for want of such essentials as timber for the platforms and magazines, which could not be removed from Balaklavp* where it was stored, owing to the liniited supply of transport. Throughout the siege the Engineers had to carry on their duties under the greatest difficulties, and, generally without obtaining that support which was essential to the success of their operations. Irrespective of the inclemency of the weather, and the rocky nature of !^o soil, which rendered the construction of siege- works a ukS.. of great labour, the Engineers had to make up for their numerical paucity by increased exertions. The term of duty for Engineer officers was never less than twelve, and sometimes even twenty- four hours ; and, after returning from the trenches, they had to write the Report of tiie day's proceedings. Although skilled labour was in great demand for the construction of wharves, hospitals, and store-houses at Balaklava, also for the road to the front, and the hutting of the troops and horses, as well as to carry \ i , h 1! ' I SI ill Ir il: 44 THE CRIMEAN WAR. on the siege and defensive works, yet the total effective force of Engineers on the Ist of January, was only twenty-eight officers and three hundred and ninety-five non-commissioned officers and men. Between New Year's Day and the 13th of January, the weather was very unfavourable. At times the snow-storms and heavy drifts rendered it necessary to suspend the works entirely, and on the 13th of January, the frost set in with so much severity that it was difficult to make any impression on the ground even with a pickaxe. The snow lay un the plain from twelve to eighteen inches in depth, and the drifts were in some places dangerous. Owing to the disappearance of all fuel, even roots were eagerly grubbed up by the starving soldiers, and sold at a high price. The ap- pearance of the camp was cold, dreary, and miserable ; and no blazing fires could to seen to cheer the men or dry their clothes on their return from the trenches or other fatigue duty. Owing to this great scarcity of wood, the suff'erings of the troops on the exposed plateau of Sebastopol were mucli aggravated ; and when a large supply of charcoal arrived at Balaklava, as no means of transport vas available other than by manual labour, the Turks employed in the trenches were withdrawn from the Engineers, and the siege works in consequence suff'ered.* During the latter half of January the British Attacks * See Part II. of the " Journal of the Operations conducted by the Corps of Royal Engineers." By Major-General Sir Harry D. Jones, K.C.B., R.E. TEE GUARD OF THE TRENCHES. 45 |opol of |port irks the |ed* iicks tho lones, had been so feebly guarded, owing to sickness, that " the covering party for the entire Right Attack, upwards of a mile i.i extent, never had exceeded, during this period of the siege, three hundred and fifty men, and, on the night of the 21st of January, it mustered only two hundred and ninety men. The guards for the other attacks were equally small." As, according to Sir John Jones, the eminent Engineer officer of the Peninsular War, " the guard of the trenches ought never to be less than three-fourths of the garrison,", and allowing one half of the besieged, or between thirty-six thousand and forty thousand men, to have been opposed to the British Attacks, it follows that the guard instead of being three-fourths, was less than one-twentieth of the strength opposed to it. Such were the adverse circumstances under which this un- paralleled siege was prosecuted ! Fortunately the Russians were deficient in enterprize. The guard being so small, it often happened that all repairs of importance had to be performed by the Sappers alone ;* but when, on the 21st of January, a French Division relieved the Light and Second Divisions from the guard of the extreme right flank, they were enabled to furnish more adequate parties for the pro- tection of the batteries and the assistance of the Engineers. * Between the 16th and the 21ol of January, the number of work- men in tho Right Attack never exceeded thirty-nine. According to M. de Bazancourt's L' Expedition de hi Crimee : — "The French em- ployed daily four thousand men on the works, and sometimes the number exceeded six thousand." f 'I lj I'l v'l -ti ! * i I ■H 46 THE CRIMEA y WAR. The duty in tlie trenches* was also very severe, and the enemy, by frequent sorties during tlie night, kept the troops on duty constantly on the alert. The effective strength of the British Army before Sebastopol on the 1st of February, 1855, had dwindled to one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight officers, and eighteen thousand and twenty-one men of all arms, a force totally inadequate to undertake its part in the siege operations which the allied commanders had decided to prosecute. Pending, therefore, the arrival of the reinforcements, the Engineers employed the first few days of February in expediting the transport of their siege materiel. They transferred one hundred thousand sandbags to the French, prepared the platforms and magazines re- quired for the two batteries on the right, and carefully reconnoitred the ground along which approaches could be effected towards the Redan and Malakhoff. On the 8th of February, Major-General Jones, R.E., (the late Sir Harry Jones, K.C.B.), who had led the stormers at San Sebastian, and recently successfully conducted the engineering operations in the Baltic, landed in the Crimea, and took over the charge of his branch of the service from Majors J. W. Gordon and F. Chapman, R.E., who, subject to the advice of Sir John Burgoyne, had from the 2Uth of October up to that date, under the most trying circumstances, and with the most in- * In the month of January, Wolscley was on day duty in the trenches, on the 4th, 14th, and 24th j and on night duty on the 7th, 10th, 16th, 20th, and 27th. WOLSELEY AS A SURVEYOR. 47 te at he le v^ In, n- hiu efficient means in men and materiel, carried on the engineering works of this memorable siege. Two days before the arrival of General Jones, Lieu- tenant Wolseley, whose talent for sketching and for topographical studies, was well known, was requested to prepare for the General a plan of the position of Inker- man, including the trenches. It was required to be done in water-colours ; but so intense was the cold that the water froze on his brush, and he had to use char- coal to melt the ice and keep the water from freezing. He succeeded in completing the survey, and preparing the plan to the complete satisfaction of the General. The engineering work now commenced was in ac- cordance with the plan laid down in the paper of the 2nd of February, as proposed by the French Engineers, consequent upon the Council of War* held on the pre- vious day ; this plan embraced an attack upon the Malakhoff and Mamelon, as recommended bv Sir John Burgoyne. At this period the weather was very severe and unfavourable for siege operations, so that little progress could be made. The trenches were knee deep * About tlie middle of January, the late IMarslial Niel, a distin- guislied Engineer ollicor, and high in the confidence of the French Eaiperor, arri\ ed on a special mission at tlie French head-quarters ; and, immediately after, the Engineers-in-Chief of the Allied Armies held several conferences to consider the course it was most desirable to pursue. On the 2Gth of January, General Bizot, commanding the FitMU'li Knyineers, prepared a paper showing a proposed plan of attack, which was submitted to Generals Niel and Sir John liur^ovne. This Memorandum, as well as that of Sir John, in re])ly, dated the 30th of January, are published in Sir Ilarry Joues'a work. 48 TnH CRIMEAN WAR. \l 11 liii in snow, wliich, when a shower of rain came on, was converted into liquid mud, employing the men in clearing it out from the trenches, or cutting drains as outlets for the water. At this time occurred a singular circumstance in con- nection with Lieutenant Wolseley's promotion to a cap- taincy. He was gazetted to his Company in December 1854, but fourteen days after, the authorities, considering him too young— he was exactly twenty-one and a half years of age — cancelled the promotion they themselves had authorised. Considering this as a slur cast upon him, Mr. Wolseley at once wrote expressing his inten- tion to resign his commission unless he was immediately reinstated, and fortunately for his country, the order was rescinded. Some time afterwards. Captain Wolseley learned the true cause of this extraordinary freak of the authorities ; and it was this. The father of an officer of the 77th, went to the Horse Guards, and asked why his son, who was older than Captain Wolseley had not been promoted to his Company. The answer the anxious parent received was, that his son was too young, and that Captain Wolseley's pro- motion was an exception to the rule, because he rose from the ranks. Subsequently finding out the blunder they had committed, and that Wolseley had not risen from the ranks, the said authorities cancelled his pro- motion, only to reinstate him as before mentioned, and so ended this Comedy of Errors. On the night of the 3rd of February, Captain Wolseley was employed with a working party of fifty ii DUTY IX THE TliLWCJIES. 49 id in y- is r [se '11 ill ^y men and four Sa])p(?r8 ; he was again on duty on the 7tli of February,* and tlie worlving party, whicli since the beginning of tlie month, had been greatly strengthened, was divided into two reliefs, and was under the command of himself and an Engineer officer. During that day the men were engaged in improving the trench of the right communication, building ban- quettes on it, and getting more cover on the left of the advanced work ; while tlie Sappers widened the rocky parts of the trenches, and excavated for the mortar magazine, and the Turks cleared up the 21-gun battery and carried gabions from the park. The night of the 11th was very stormy, and so inclement was the weather that no work was done in the Left Attack. Captain Wolseley, who was in sole charge of a small party of men in his (the Right) Attack, was busily em- ployed, but on applying to the field officer on duty for a larger number of men, his request was refused on the ground of the inclemency of the weather. On the 13th of February, Captain 11. C. Owen, R.E. arrived from England, and was appointed to duty witli the Right Attack. On the first occasion of his pro- ceeding to the trenches, which was in company witii * The day duty was generally from eiglit or nine a.m. to four or six p.m. ; and the night duty from seven p.m. to four a.m. During tin- month of February, Captain Wolseley was on duty in the trenclle^ — day, 7th, 15th, 22nd ; night, 3rd, 11th, 18th. The working party on this night, the 7th of February, which may be considered of an average strength, was constituted as follows : — Line, fh-st relief, one hundred and thirty-four men; second relief, one hundred and forty men. Sappers, four brigades, or thirty-two men. Turks, fifty-two men. VOL. T. E 'i I if 1 ' ; » 50 THE CRIMEAN IV AR. I Captain Wolseley, the gallant ofTicur proposed that they sliould ])rocee(l at once to trace out a new battery, the work tlien in hand. Wolseley vainly tried to dis- suade him, as it was still light and the attempt might draw the enemy's fire upon them. However Captain Owen was full of ardour, and Wolseley was not the man to throw cold water on any adventure, however risky ; so they set to work. But, speedily, the Russians opened fire from all the surrounding rifle-pits ; two men were killed, and Wolseley's coat was pierced by a ball. So the work was postponed till nightfall, when it was successfully accomplished. On the 15th of February, when Captain Wolseley was on duty with Captain Craigie, R.E., the weather being more favourable, the working parties were in- creased to four hundred men (besides one hundred French troops employed at No. 9 battery) and six brigades of Sappers, or forty-eight men ; and on the 18th and 22nd, when an almost equal number were employed, the work in the trenches progressed rapidly. On their part the Russians were not idle in their works facing the Right Attack. On the night of the 22nd, they threw up a redoubt* (Selinghinsk) which the French attacked on the night of the 23rd of February ,t * These, witli other works, were afterwards known by the name of "Oiivrages Blancs," from the colour of the earth, which being white, made them very conspicuous throughout the siege. t During tlie mojith of February, the Russians assumed the offen- sive at Eupatoria, which had been fortified, but their attack of the 17tli of February, thougli made with nearly forty thousand men, was repulsed with considerable loss. While the hostile cannon were PROGRESS OF TJTE SIEOE WORKS. 51 idred six lithe I were )idly. 'orks !2iid, the |ary,t i.me of rhite, loffen- If the , was were Itut were repulsed witli great loss ; and, on the 2-Sth, they commenced a redoubt (Volhynian) in advance. Early in March, upwards of three thousand yards of parallel and approach had been made in the Right Attack; and, in the Left, upwards of four thousand two hundred yards. All this had been done on very rocky ground,* with the enemy's works only six hun- dred yards distant at the nearest point. On the night of the 10th of March, the Russians established themselves upon the Mamelon, which we had neglected to occupy, erecting thereon heavy batteries, with trenches, rifle pits, and screens running replying to each other on the phitcau of Sebastopol, smooth-tongued envoi's were discussing " points " at Vienna, which, however, were only taken up to be dropped. During tliis month a railway was con- structed between Balaklava and tlie trendies, tliereby greatly facilitating the transport of war materiel. A Council of War was held on the fjtli of March, and, on the 8th, Sir John Burgoyno prepared two Memoranda, one on the plan of operations then agreed on, and the other on the circumstances of the operations against Sebastopol. General Bizot's paper of the 28th of February, and Sir John Burgoyne's Memoranda, may be found in Sir 11. Jones's work. * The country was intersected with deep ravines, whoso sides being nearly inaccessible, afforded an additional strength to the place by breaking the Attacks into distinct portions, and interfering with the communications of the besieging force. It was also extremely difficult to establish enfilading batteries, owing to the gullies and ravines. The French works at this time extended from our left to tlie sea at Quarantine Bay, and upon our right from the ravine of the Careening Creek to the causeway across the Inkerman Valley ; this latter formed the first parallel, and a second had been made in advance of it. The total extent of the first parallel, French and English, from Quarantine Bay to the extreme right on the Inkerman Heights, was eleven tliousaud yards, or six and a quarter miles. E 2 I Li.. THE CRIMEAN WAR. down to tlio foot of tlio hill witliin one liundrod yards of tlie Frencli parallul. These works, from their coni- maiidiii^ position on the rijj^ht flank of the English Attack, seriously retarded the operations of our Engi- neers, and a line of the same description was thrown lip between the Mamelon and Great Redan opposite the English works. This completely altered the jiosi- tlon of affairs, and lengthened the duration of the siege. Captain Cralgie, R.E., the Engineer officer in charge of the trenches on the 13th of March, was killed in a somewhat singular manner. Captain Wolseley, on relieving him, asked if anything particular was going on. "No," said Craigie, "matters are much as usual." And so, bidding each other " good night," they parted, he to return to his quarters, and Wolseley to take charge of the trenches. At this time an Artillery duel was in progress, bnt the Russian practice was wild and their shells mostly burst short, causing the officers and men much diversion. They were in the middle of their merriment, greeting each discharge with roars of laughter, when a sergeant came running back, say- ing that Captain Craigie* was killed. He was several hundred yards in rear of the batteries, and was in the act of giving a light to a sapper from his pipe, when one of these erratic shells killed him instantly. * Of this ofGcer, Major Gordon, R.E., says :—" Throughout the whole of the operations of the Army in tlie Crimea, this officer has never once been absent from his post. Ofteuer on duty in tlie trenches than any other officer of his rank, he never even during the worst of the Winter, allowed a murmur to escape his hps." A DAY'S WOItK IN THE TRENCHES. 53 % on going siial." arted, take duel wild cers leof roars say- I'eral 1 the vhen lit the ir has Inches Irst of Oil the inoniing of the 17th of March,* when (Jap- tain Wolseley, accompanied by Captain King of tlie Engineers, went on duty, it was discovered that the enemy had formed new rifle pits in front of tlie Frencii on our right, which enfihided tlie Hritisii new rigiit advance. As it was impossible to employ the working partyt of one lunidred and fifty men, application was made to the officers commanding the Koyal Artillery and Naval Brigade batteries, to open fire on these })its. The former fired only a few shots, but the sailors made such good practice with their 8-inch guns, that they knocked over the parapet, and sent the occupants flying out of the pits. A good day's work was then begun, under the directions of Captains Wolseley and King, *' improving cover in right advanced parallel ; form- ing magazine in 21-gun battery ; a new lO-inch mortar battery, No. 7 ; altering line of fire of 8-inch gun in 21-gun battery, and bringing two 24-pounders to bear on Russian rifle pits. The working party of the Line also filled eight hundred and twenty sandbags and cleared drains." The Russians^ continued to receive reinforcements, * Captain Wolseley was on duty during this month ; day duty, 10th and 17tli ; night duty, 13th, 19th, and 30th. t The total number of men employed in the trenches at this time, was two thousand one hundred, from wliich were furnished tlie work- ing parties, as well as the guards necessary for the defence of the batteries and parallels. % The Russian Infantry in Sebastopol, in April, numbered thirty- six thousand six hundred. There were besides, near the town, tliirty- five thousand four hundred ; at Eupatoria, thirty-four thousand six ' If 1 Si THE CRIMEAN WAR. while tlu'ir supply of guns Wtas practiciiUy in- exliHUHtlblL' ; their fire on the Right Attack during the latter part of March, was oilicially described as *' very heavy," and among the casualties was Major J. W. Gordon, second in connnand of the siege opera- tions, who was severely wounded on the night of the 22nd, when the Russians made a determined sortie, not inaptly styled '* Inkerman on a small scale," but were repulsed. During the early part of April, the Engineers were very busy preparing for the bombard- ment, which had been decided on by the Allied Com- manders. On the 3rd, when Captain AVolseley was on duty, the enemy kept up a heavy fire, one of the casualties being Captain Bainbrigge, R.E., who was killed during the night by the explosion of a shell. At this time, Captains Stanton and Armit, R.E., being respectively in charge of the Right and Left Attacks, Major Chapman, replacing Major Gordon, being in command of the whole, Major-General Jones notified, in General Orders of the 4th of April, his " great satisfaction with the manner in which the works were executed, reflecting great credit upon them, and the other Assistant-Engineers employed under them." On the morning of the 9th of April, the whole of the Allied Artillery opened fire. The Lritish batteries, which at the first bombardment mounted seventv-three guns and mortars, were now armed with twenty 13- liundred ; and in other parts tliirteen thousand. Total, including fifteen thousand cavalry, and eight thousand artillery, one hundred and forty-two thousand six hundred men. THE .SKCOMJ BOMIiARDMEyT. 55 in- Ivere the the iree lis- ping land inch, and sixtuen lO-incli mortars, and eighty-seven ^lUiH, giving a total of one hundred and twenty-three pieces of ordnance, — of wiiich forty-nine were manned by tiie Naval Brigade, and seven ty-ibur by the Koyal Artillery. The French, on their [)art, opt^ied tire with three hundred and three pieces on the left, and fifty on the right. The morning of the 9th of April broke in thick fog and drizzling rain, but shortly before half-i)ast five the mist partially rolled away, permitting the out- lines of the Kedan and Malakhofl' to be seen. Exactly an hour later, the first gini was fired from the British batteries, and, in a few seconds, the whole of both Attacks, with the exce[)tion of one battery, were in action ; shortly afterwards the French opened fire, and the south side of Sebastoj)ol, from the sea to Inkerman, was encircled in what Prince Gortschakoff well called, ^ feu (£enfer. The Russians appeared to be taken by surprise, but, about six o'clock, their batteries began to reply ; though at no time of the day was their fire heavy or effective. The continuous rain and bad weather made the work very laborious, some of the platforms being under water and all very slip})ery. At dusk the fire tm both sides ceased, with the exception of an occasional shell from the mortars. On the follovv- ip"- 'jn ,1 our batteries opened fire at daylight, the ' -eplying with spirit. Some heavy rain fell ig f early morning, but, about ten, the weather cleared up, and the sun shone bright and warm. The iire of the Mamelon was soon checked, and that of the : I Ql ! I'll ■I |l' 1'' ■ 56 THE CRIMEAN WAR. Malaklioff Tower slackened ; but, according to tlie report of the Engineer officers of the Riglit Attack, " our fire made no material impression upon the Redan and Garden Batteries, by which alone it was answered. Much damage was done to the embrasures, magazines, traverses, &c., by the eneiny's fire, which can, how- ever, be easily repaired. The Sappers behaved very well in repairing the embrasures, and even recon- structing them, under f^'-e." Lieutenant Graves,* R.E., who, with Captains Owen, R.E., and Wolseley, was on duty, was wounded, and Wolseley himself had a narrow escape. The Russian fire had been very heavy, and the Artillery officers reported an embrasure as unserviceable. This, of course, it was the duty of the Engineer officers to repair, but, from the proximity and precision of fire of the Russian batteries, it was a service of extreme hazard, for directly a man sliowed himself above the parapet, he became a mark for the Russian gunners. However, Graves and Wolseley, with two or three Sappers, set to work to repair an embrasure, and while they were building up one cheek with gabions, a round shot from the enemy carried away the other cheek, to which Wolseley had his back turned, killing a Sapper. At the t^me he was holding on to a handspike, prizing up one sandbag to put another under it, and it was, in racing parlance, " a near thing" tor him ; indeed, he received a sli^^ht * This gallant young oQicer was killed bj a rifle bullet, on the iSth of June, in the Assault on the Redun. A NARROW ESCAPE. 57 wound from the ilehris scattered by the round sliot, tliongh he did not report himself as wounded, it being a point of honour among the P]ngineers not to leave their post until disabled. On the nigiit of tlie I2th, Wolseley was again on duty, the working party consisting of three hundred Linesmen and forty-one Sappers ; much was done in eft'ecting repairs, laying platforms, and other necessary work. Though our batteries had kept up a hot fire all day, little permanent effect was visible ; and, so inexhaustible were the Russian resources, that fresh guns opened fire from embrasures whose guns hud been dismounted or silenced. When next on duty, the night of the 15th of April, with a working party of three hundred men and thirty-two Sappers, the enemy were very active, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden, K.E., in charge of the liight Att-^^'k, re- ported : — " Captain Wolseley, Assistant-Engineer, wlio was in charge of the working party in the advanced trenches, retired the party from the most advanced part between twelve and one, finding it impossible to keep the men at work under the fire tiie enemy poured in." Our loss on this occasion was heavy, being three officers killed, and one officer and twenty rank and file wounded. The following incident, which happened on this night, is one of many such during the siege : — Captain Wolseley was with Captain (now Lieutenant-Oeneral) E. Stanton, R.E., who was sitting behind the Engi- neer park giving orders to two Sa[)pers standing at ■ ■A:\ J'- ^' ■•SI 'a 1 i 1 ; ' ; 1 ft t If 11 I li! I 1 1^ , I" ii! I I'- 1 1 I! li'i ' ill! If '. ii 1 TEE CRIMEA y WAR. attention before him. Suddenly a round shot took one man's head off, and drove his jaw bone into the other man's face, to which it adhered, bespattering the party with bUiod. Men got into the way of con- sidering these incidents as almost common-place, and scarcely noteworthy, but, though such horrors bred a feeling of indifference to danger and death, few could lay claim to the possession of such imperturbable sang-froid as Captain W. Peel, R.N , of Her Majesty's ship 'Diamond,' then serving on shore in the Naval Brigade. Wolseley, who saw much of Peel and his sailors, confesses that he never saw any man so in- different in the presence of seemingly certain death as this gallant sailor, and gives the following instance, among others, of this characteristic, lie was walking one day during the bombardment with Captain Peel, in rear of the line of batteries, when a 13-inch shell, hurtling through the air, lit on the entrance of a maga- zine and crushed it in. Just for a passing second, Wolseley stood still, paralysed as it were, while he waited for the whole party to be blown to atoms, a fate which seemed imminent. But Peel's undaunted heart quailed not even for that infinitesimal portion of time, and he dashed into the magazine, full as it was of powder, without a moment's hesitation or a thought of danger. A second later and Wolseley was by his side, and they were engaged pulling down the sand- bags, which guarded the entrance, and were all on fire, and soon the magazine was built up again. The subject of this Memoir has, however, a more ':W INSTANCES OF COURAGE. bO ]' modest opinion of his courage than other people who know him well, and have seen him un(l«u- tire. A distinguished officer of Engineers, who served in the trenches with Captain Wolseley, perhaps on more oc- casions than any other man, and therefore had more ample opportunities of observing his bearing under the most trying circumstances, declared to us that he considered him "the bravest man he ever knew." lie also mentioned that he was noted for always turn- ing his face towards an approaching Russian shell ; and on being interrogated as to his reason for doing so, replied, that in the event of his being killed it could not be said of him, that he turned his back on the enemy, or fell while running away from a shell. Such little traits as these give the cbie to a man's character. After eight days' incessant firing, the second bom- bardment ceased on the 17th of April, without any decisive result having been achieved, and, though the Mamelon and Malakhoff suffered considerably, the guns destroyed, or silenced, by day, were replaced at night. On our side, twenty-six pieces of ordnance were dis. abled, and our expenditure of ammunition amounted to forty-seven thousand eight hundred and tifty-four rounds, of which upwards of fifteen thousand were shell.* * During tho bombardment the Artillery lost five killed and eighty- six wounded ; and the Naval Brigade, which suH'ered more severely, owing to their practice of not retiring behind the para])ct after liring, lost two olTieers and twenty-four men killed, and six ollieers and niaety-two v.ounded. P'l If If llh I I, t 60 THE CRIMEAN WAR. On the 19th of April, the 77th Regiment, led by Colonel Egerton, carried, by assault, the rifle pits in advance of the Right Attack. These they most gallantly maintained, notwithstanding a determined attempt b}^ the enemy to recover the ground. In this affair, the gallant leader and Captain Lempriere were killed, and, of the Engineer officers on duty. Captain Owen, R.E., lost a leg, and Lieutenant Baynes received a wound, from the eff'ects of which he died in a few days. Ten rank and file were also killed, and four other officers and fifty men wounded. The dearly- won pits were always known throughout the siege, as " P^gerton's Pits," in compliment to the gallant colonel of the 77th. During the month of ]\Iay^* the Russians, who had increased the number of rifle pits and screens in front of the Right Attaci\, and connected them by lines of trenches, thus forming a regular parallel, made two determined sorties on the advanced parallel of the Right Attack, which, as Lord Raglan reported, " were on each occasion most nobly met, and repulsed with considerable loss owing chiefly to the judicious arrange- ments of Colonel Trollope." On the 18th of May, Lord Raglan, accompanied by General de la Marmora, in command of the newly arrived Piedmontese Division of seventeen thousand men, and General Jones, in- ;;; ! t During this montli, Captain Wolselcy was ou ^uty : day, Ist, 5th, 14th, and 18th ; niglit, 25th, 28tli, and Slst. On the tliree last occasions lie was the only Engineer oflicer with the working partiesj which nuuihered one hundred and lil'ty men, and twenty Sappers. THE Ti^IRD BOMBARDMENT. Gl m spected the works of the Left Attack; aiRl, oi) tlie ISth, wlien Captain Wolseley was on duty, those of the Right Attack. On the following day, General Can- robert resigned the command of the French Army to General Pelissier, who had earned great distinction on the 22nd and 23rd of May, by his pertinacity and valour. The working parties of the Right Attack having completed the new communication with the right of the third parallel, the troops were able to circulate freely without being exposed to the musketry fire from the enemy's works in advance of the Mamelon. On the 28th of I^Fay, it was decided, at a meeting held at General Pelissier's head-quarters, that, after the Russian works had been bombarded, the French should assault the Mamelon, and the "Ouvrages Rlancs" which supported it, and the English, the Quarries in front of the Redan ; and, on the 31st, General Jonos handed to Lord Raglan a Memorandum of the proposed attack, which was approved by his Lordship, and conununicated to Generals Pennefather and Codrington, from whose Divisions the assaulting columns were to be drawn. On the 6th of June, when the third bombardment took place, the English batteries mounted one hundred and fifty-four mortars and guns. Of these, there were in the Right Attack fifty-five pieces, twenty-two of which were manned by the Naval Brigade; and ninety- nine in the Left Attack, of which thirty-six were worked by the sailors. The whole fire of the right of THE CRIMEAN WAR. ;i ill .!:: I i ! r A I! ■I: I HI I! I the Right Attack was to be directed on the Mainelon and the MalakhofF, whilst the left of the Right, and the Left Attack engaged the Redan and Barrack Battery. The Englisii batteries opened fire at half-past two p.m. of the Gth of June, on the Russian works, which stood out in bold relief inider a cloudless sky, offering a strong contrast to the dismal circumstances of the last bombardment. ^J'he enemy replied vigorously at first, but about h.df-past four the Mamelon and JMalakhoff were almost silenced, and at dusk, when our fire, exce[)t from the mortars, ceased, the Russian works showed unmistakable evidences of the severe handling they had undergone. Our batteries reopened on the 7th, and, on that evening, w\as delivered the memorable assault on the Quarries by our troops, and that on the ]\Iamelon by our Allies. All that day a heavy cannonade was kept up ; but, tit six o'clock, when the French and English assault- ing cohnnns were formed in the trenches, it burst forth with an intensity literally unparalleled. Major Reilly, R.A., says, " The sailors and gunners, rivalling each other in their exertions, worked the heavy guns and mortars with almost incredible rapidity. For the hour that it lasted, the fire was the heaviest during the siege."* The Russians had massed men on the Redan, evidently anticipating an assault, and so tremendous was the fire directed on that work, that "the shells * During the day the Royal Artillery had forty-seven killed and wounded, and the sailors forty ; being the heaviest loss on one day during the siege. jliii CAPTURE OF TEE QUARRIES. 63 \ : the able the ing .ins tlie the an, )ns Ills Ud lay could be seen phmt^ing and cutting gaps in the ranks, blowing the bodies of their victims into the air." At half-past six the French captured the Mamelon, and the " Ouvrages Blancs," which had been rendered almost untenable by the fire from our batteries, but, advancing towards the Malakhoff, were driven back. The Mamelon was now retaken by the enemy, but, after a renewt'or- tionatel}' heavy as the result attained was ;^lorions. Ten oflicers and one hniidred and seventeen rank and file were killed, and thirty-six officers and four hundred and eig"hty-six men were wounded, besides eigliteen missing. Of the six Engineer oflicers engaged during the ()th and 7th of June, two were killed, and one was wounded. Captain Wolseley's personal share in the dangers and glories of this memorable day was arduous, and no officer was exposed for an equal length of time, or to a similar extent, to the perils incident to a bombard- ment and an assault. The cause of his having this double share of duty, entailing a corresponding increase of fatigue and exposure, we will now detail, as well as his experience of the assault of the (Quarries. For twenty-four hours before the time named for the at- tack on the llussian works, all the officers detailed for service were kept off duty, so as to be fresh for the perilous work in store for them. Among them, of course, was Wolseley ; but in the morning. Captain Dawson, who had gone on duty for the first time that day, was killed by a round shot, and he was ordered to take his place. Wolseley was, therefore, all day hard at work as the only Engineer officer of the Right Attack, and the bombardment was in full progres*;, who have fallen upon this memorable occasion, and sympathises most siuccrelv in the sull'erinss of the wounded." F 2 It TJIE CRIME. ty WAR, n.'quiriiig all his cncrgicH, bosidos entailing that great iLieiital wear whieh is incidental to the performance of" duties under such a terrific fire as raged on that day. When evening came, and the hour named for the assault arrived, most men would have had enough ol' it, but not HO Wolseley ; and though ho had never quitted the trenches, when the hour struck — big with the i'ate of so many gallant hearts throbbing with eager expectancy, ^vhile they waited for the signal to quit the protection of their batteries to run the gamitlet of the open space ploughed by the death-dealing shells and bid lets — Captain Wolseley took liis ])lace with the small band of Kngineer officers, whose perilous duty it was to accompany the assaulting column. There were two communications to be made — one between the parallel on the right and the Quarries, which he was directed to carry out ; and tlie second direct between the Quarries and the parallel in rear, under the direction of Lieutenant Lowry. The difficulty of doing much towards effecting the lodgment and communications was enhanced by the fact that of the eight hundred men detailed as a working party, only two hundred and fifty were actually available, the remainder being engaged with the enemy. And so it was throughout this unparalleled siege ; the British Army was expected to perform, and, as a matter of history, did actually perform duties that required the exertions of a force at least treble their numbers. It was a dictum of Nelson's that a British sailor was equal to three Frenchmen, and the saying certainly wo LS EL FA' AT TITIC QU.lRRIFfi. (iO IhCllt it of |ii'ty, the lo it itisli of the It iwas inly hohls ^{)0(1 of till' n'liitivti vuhio of thu Hritisli soldier atirotection they would have denied while living. Just before daybreak, Wolseiey saw a dense column of * Guimcr and Driver Tliomas Artlnir received the Victoria Crops for " carrying barrels of infantry auunuuition for the 7th Fusiliers several times during the evening across the open." On this very "open," Captain Wolseiey and the other Engineer ollicera and Sappers were engaged throughout the night. 70 THE CRIMEAN WAR. Ill >' I lj:'j m In liiKssians " so long that he coukl not see the end of it," issue from out of their works with the object of niuk- in^ a final dasii to recover the lost Quarries; and had they known the real position of affairs they might have accomplished their purpose, temporarily at least. Our soldiers were so overcome with fatigue by tiie night's fighting and hard woik, that it was in vain the officers made the utmost efforts to rouse them from their sleep to resist tiie enemy. British officers have seldom failed to do their duty under the most trying circumstances, and they did not belie this characteristic of the race on this occasion. Finding their efforts useless, the officers, to the number of twenty, with some few non-com- niissioned officers and men, certainly not more than sixty, openeen a relief to them both, as it was a cause of thaid^fulness \o Wols(dey, when they met Abijor (now Lieutenant- rjeneral) Ahixwell, who dismounted and lent him his horse, on which, with assistance!, he rode the i-emainder of the way, often nearly tund)linture of the (Quarries, ('aj»tain W Olseley was again on duty,* accompained by Li(Mitenant Darrah, U.K. The working party wa^. as usual, divided into two reliefs, consisting r<-y tliem during tlie assault, tiiougii two or three sid)se(iuently exploded, wlien several uien were wounded. At daylight on the morning of the 17tli of June, the British batteries* opened lire for tlie Iburtli general bombardment of the (h'fences of Scbastoj)ol, the lleet * In the Ri^ht Atmck wertr iiiouiitccl sixty-two pieci's of ordnance ; and in the Left Attack oiie liinulred and four. Total one liundred and sixty-six guns and mortars. Tlie followiui,' was the ealil)re of these pieces : eight 10-ineh guns, eight GK-|)ouiulers, forty-six H-inch gunsi forty-nino 32-pounders, thirty 13-ineh mortars, seventeen lU-inch njortiirs, und eight 8-ineh uiortars. 1. 1} *; 76 TITE CRIMEAN WAR. also co-()i)cniting against the seu dcfoiKH's. Tlie Ueyal Artillery were directed, us they luid been tliroiigliout the siege, by Major-CJeiierul (now Sir Kieiiard) Dacres ; and the Naval Brigade by (^aptain Sir Ste])hen Lush- ington, K.C.H., who, on liis promotion to ilag rank, was succeeded, on the 21st of ,J(ily, by Ca})tain Honourable (now Admiral Sir) Henry Keppel. Our efforts were chiefly directed against the Redan and its flaidcing works, although tiie British gunners alForded })owert'ul aid v.'ith tlie mortars of tht' Right Attack against the MalakiiofV Tower. Tlie Russians replied f'roui both these works with a steatly fire. The French battery of the Manielon, assisted by our mortars, told with great effect against the ^Malakholf, whicli was silenced about nine o'clock, sending only an occasional shot during the rest of the day. The Ri'dan almost ceased firing an hoin* before noon, but caused a con- siderable number of casualties in the (,^)uarries by its fire from Coeiiorns and showers of hand grenades.* But though the Redan j)resented a sliatteretl appear- ance, it was only temporarily silenced, for at night fresh guns were mounted wherever they were disabled by our fire during the day. In the evening. Captain AVolseley, accompanied by Lieutenants Graves and Murray, both of whom fell in the assault on the Redan on the following day, w'ent on duty with a working party of four hmidred men and twelve Sappers. * " Account of the Artillcrj Operations before Sebustopol," by Major M. JJ. Rcilly, C.B. The responsibility of the engineering duties, even upon un " olF clay," devolving upon a young ollleer in his twenty-second year, may be gathered from the report of the day's work: — "One hundred and forty men and two Sappers, with j\Iaj(jr ('anij)bell of the 4('>th Keginient, were employed carrying materials; one hundred and twenty men with Lieutenant (J raves, one hundred men and two Sappers with Lieutenant Min-ray. All these parties were employed carrying materials to the places assigned for them ; twenty men and four Sapjiers revetting embrasures in 21-gun battery ; twenty men and four Sappers revetting embrasures in Nos. *.>, L), and 14 batteries. These i)arties worked until two o'clock, a.m., after which none were em- ployed. There were three considerable fn-cs in the town in the rear of the Flagstaff Hattery. Tiie enemy were working all night at the lledan, and seemed to be strengthening the abattis in its front." The night of the 17th passed without anything remarkable occurring; a heavy lire was kept up on the works from the mortars, and at daylight all the guns joined in the bombardment. It had been arranged at a meeting held at Lord liaglan's head-cpiarters on the L">th, that the assault should not take place until the obstacles in advance of the works had been destroyed, and the works themselves, wliieh had been strengthened during the night, subjected for three hours to a heavy fire. The assault was, accord- ingly, fixed for the 18th of June, a singular choice, for though the anniversary of Waterloo is a day the ifl L 'i f -J 78 77//; cii/Mic.ty jr.tif. memories of wliich must always exercise an iiispiritiii"; efTuct on lU'itisli soldiers, tiie influence must be cor- respondingly depressing, not to say exasperating, to our Allies when acting in concert with us. However this may be, at the last moment the French General made a change in the ])lan, which exercised a potent inllu- cnce for evil on the result. Late in the evening of the 17th, (xenerul Pelissier, after having explained to hisCienerals who were to connnand the several colunnis, the details of his plan of attack, sent word to Lord liaglan that he should assault the works at three on the lollowing morning. Though Lord Kaglan had worked with the utmost loyalty with the French Com- mander-in-Chief, this disarrangement at the last moment of a plan adopted after much discussion, boded ill for tlx' success of the movement of the morrow, and never did the evils of a divided command receive a more impressive and disastrous illustration. Before three a.m., Lord liaglan was at the sigiuil post, accomj)anied by the Head-Quarter Stafl', Genenvls .Jones and Dacres and their respective staffs, Colonel Warde, commanding tSiege Train, and Captain Lush- ington, U.N., connnanding Naval 15rigade. Captain Wolseley was also there, having charge of the third parallel of batteries, in which Lord Raglan and staff were assembled. From this position he witnessed {;ne of the njost gallant attempts to carry an enemy's works, and at the same time one of the most sanguinary repulses of which we have any record in the annals of war. 1 'J\ Till': ASSAl'LT OF THE \Slh ()F JULY. No sooner had the three assaulting cohinins • shown themselves he^ond the trendies than tliey were assailed by a most murderous fire of grape and musketry, such as Lord Kaglan declared he had never witnessed before. The superiority of the fire of the Allied batteries on the previous 17th, had led the Allied Commanders, as Lord Kaglan wrote in his des- patch, " to conclude that the Russian Artillery was, in great measure, subdued," whereas it appears, from Prince OortschakolFs voluminous Report to the Emperor Alexander, that the Russians expected and were fully 1 T * Till' following were tlie arrangements for the assault. The Englisli were formed into three colunnis, drawn from the Light, Seeond, and Fourth Divisons, under Lieutenant-General Sir (jieorge 13rown. The right eolunni was to attaek the left faee of the lledau, between the ilankiug batteries; the centre, the salient angle; while the left was to move upon the re-entering angle formed by the right face and Hank of the work ; the first and last preceding the eentre eohunn. Eai-li eolunni was to consist of one thousand seven hundred and lllty men, of whom four hundred were for the assault, a working party of four hundred to cover them iu case of a lodgment and to reverse the work, eight hundred men as a support, and one hundred rillemen preceding tlie assaulting column to keep down the enemy's fire. On a given signal the columns advanced, each preceded by covering parties of the Kille Jirigade, and by sailors carrying ladders, and fifty soldiers with wool-bags. The ladder-men consisted of four parties of sixty sailors each, of whom only two, or one hundred and twenty nu-u wore engaged : of these fourteen were killed, and forty-seven woiuuled, being more than one half. Among the wounded was the gallant I'eel, who volunteered to lead his men, and himself carried the 'irit luilder ; and Mr. Midship- man Wood, now Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C, 'JOtli Kcginieiit, who has since played a prominent part under Wolseley during the Ashautee '\y W ar. 80 THE CRIMEAN WAR. W pivpiirc'd to meet tliu assault witli a tletcniiinod rL'sistuncc. Those in advance were eitlier killed or wonnded, and the remaindi-r foinid it impossible to proceed. The Light and Fourth I )i visions were the chief sulVerers. ]Major-(jrenera1 Sir .lohn (.^ampbell, who led the Left Attack, (jolonel Shadforth, of the OTth, who com- mandi'tl the stornnn<.' party under that Cieneral, and (volonel Yea, of the 7th Fusiliers, who led the right column, were killed. While the direct attack upon the Redan was in progress, JNIiijor-^'foneral W. Eyre* moved down the Havine, separating the left of the British from the riirhl of the French advanced works, and made a demonstration on the head of the Dockyard Creek. 'IMiis service was performed with the utmost gallantry, and, notwithstanding that they were ex- posed to a most galling fire, his troops maintained themselves in the position they had taken up during the day, and, in the evening, withdrew unmolested, leaving a post at the Cemetery, which had been one of the objects oi' the attack. The French were not more I'ortunate than ourselves in the result of their ojjerations. Generals iMayran and Urunet, commanding Divisions, were killed, and thougii the eneiente of the Malakhoft' was entered, and the French eagles j)lanted on I lie llussian works, the enemy brought up ])owerful reserves, and Marshal Pelissier ordered a retreat. The French loss, in * Tlio latt! ^Injor-GiMioral Sir William ^yvc, whoso son was killtvl in the Ashantec War. BRITISU LOSSES. 81 In.l llie lal ill kllk'cl alone, was thirty-nine officers and one thousand five iiundred and forty-four men. In this disastrous affair tlie Russians,* no less than the Allies, lost heavily. Our casualties were, twenty- one officers and two hundred and thirty men killed ; seventy officersf and one thousand and fifty men wounded ; two officers and twenty men missing ; total casualties, exclusive of the Naval Brigade, ninety-three officers and one thousand three hundred and eighty men. The Engineers sufiered heavily on this occasion. Three officers. Captain Jesse and Lieutenants Graves and ]\Iurray, were killed ; and Major-General Jones, Major Bourchier (Brigade-Major), and Colonel Tylden, Director of the Right Attack, were wounded. The latter officer, who had taken part in the Engineering operations from the commencement of the siege, was shot through both legs while directuig the assault of the Redan, and died from the effects of these wounds on his passage to Malta in the following August. Captain Wolseley was near General Jones when he re- ceived his wound. He was standing at the time in * Prince Gortachakoff givos the Russian loss as follows : two superior officers, fourteen subaltern officers, and seven hundred and eighty-one men killed ; four superior officers, forty-three subaltern officers, and three thousand, one hundred and thirty-two men wounded ; five superior officers, twenty-nine subaltern officers, and eight hundred and fifteen men contused ; fourteen superior officers, fifty-seven subaltern officers, and eight hundred and seventy-nine men slightly wounded, but not sufficiently to quit the ranks. t Among the wounded were General Eyre, Colonel (now General Sir) Daniel Lysons, of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers ; and Colonels Johnstone, 33rd j Gwilt, Sith ; and Cobbe, 4th Regiments. VOL. I. G .V <>/'^ % '^>. o^. \t>Tv^. vVH> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 U f Itt IIIIM jm si£ mil 2.0 1.8 1-25 1.4 1.6 ■9 6'' ► i9 'W /2 ^ /a V c^. v^ a ^m y /A Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ « ;\ \ % V € <^? 6^ ^"^ .^>^ ^^ ^i> 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 m M fe (/x ^ Il' i iw V' '■- il 1 : ,^^i «) !> i •t; ' %< j Ml' p 1 82 TEE CRIMEAN WAR. rear of Lord Raglan, with whom General Jones was in conversation, when the latter, whose head was over the parapet, received a bullet wound in the temple, which, with his white hair, was all dabbled with blood. Almost at the same time another officer received a severe wound. Wolseley was in conversation with Captains Beresford and Browne of the 88th, when a round shot carried off the arm of the latter, covering a new jacket Wolseley had put on that morning with blood. Captain Browne jumped up from the ground, and actually did not know of the loss he had ex- perienced. To Wolseley's hurried question, " What's the matter?" he replied, "Nothing." So exposed was the position occupied by Lord Raglan, that officers and soldiers as they passed, cried out to his staff, " If you want Lord Raglan to be killed, you'll let him stop there." The disastrous failure of the 18th of June told severely on the already failing health of Lord Raglan, and though he was assured of the sympathy of his Sovereign,* he grieved over the loss of so many gallant officers and men, and expired on the 28th of June, four days after the death of General Estcourt, his Adjutant- General. His death, which was unexpected, evoked expressions of regret and sympathy from all quarters, * Her Majesty, on receiving news of the repulse, telegraphed the following message, which was read to the troops by order of the Com- mander-in-Chief. •' I have Her Majesty's commands to express her grief that so much bravery should not have been rewarded with success ; and to assure her brave troops that Her Majesty's coufidence in them is entire." DEATH OF LOED BAG LAN. M m, is nt ur t- ed ;he m- er th ce and Pelissier ivssued a General Order to the French Array, in which he spoke of the " calm and stoic grandeur of the character " of the late Field-Marshal. Thus, one by one, all the chief actors of this tremendous drama, had been removed. Nicholas, Menschikoff, St. Arnaud, and finally, Raglan, all were gone ; while the world watched with breathless interest, the struggle progressing in that hitherto obscure peninsula. Lord Raglan was succeeded in the chief command by Lieutenant-General Simpson,'* his " Chief of the Staff," although there was present with the Army a soldier who had served with distinction in almost every war in which our troops had been engaged from the Battle of Corunna to Chillianwallah ; while at the Alma and Balaklava he had showed that he possessed military capacity of a high order. But the " seniority" system, which had been the curs^: of this war, placing in the highest commands, officers whose sole claim to lead our soldiers rested on the accident of birth, or service forty years before in the Peninsula, prevailed at this critical emergency, and General Simpson was requested, by the Ministry at home, to retain the chief command. The return to England of Sir George Brown and General Pennefather necessitated other changes, and General Codrington succeeded the former, and General Barnard the latter officer, in the command of the Light and Second Divisions respectively. * General Simpson was a Peninsular officer, and served as second in command to Sir Charles Napier in his famous campaign in Scinde. Both Napier and Lord EUenborough entertained a high estimate of the capacity of General Simpson, though he scarcely justifled their opinion. G 2 m ■i- M ■it 'I I i!i l! N I J .^1 84 rZTE CRIMEAN WAR. Captain Wolseley was on duty in the trenches on the 2l8t of June, and again on the 23rd, 26th, and 28th of June ; but nothing of exceptional importance occurred, except a violent storm on the 23rd, which caused great damage to the batteries and trenches, which were inundated with water. After the assault of the 18th, he and the other Engineer officers were employed in effecting the necessary repairs to the parapets and platforms consequent upon the damage they had sustained ; a trench was also dug from the left of the Quarries to the edge of the Woronzoff Ravine, and a Russian trench was altered so as to afford cover to our advanced pickets. The parapets of the fourth parallel were improved, and a battery for three guns (No. 14) was constructed. The enemy, on their side, were busily employed in retrenching the Redan, and strengthening the fronts between the Malakhoff and Careening Bay. Large convoys were seen daily entering the town from the north, bringing in supplies and munitions to any extent. As the siege progressed, the place increased in strength; and never, perhaps, was an investment carried on under such disadvantages, but still the determination of the Allied Commanders to prosecute the enterprise to a successful conclusion never faltered ; like Cato, whose only cry was " Delenda est Carthago," the British and French Generals, rendered more obstinate by resistance, resolved that the great strong- hold in the Chersonesus must fall. During the month of July, the efforts of the Engi- ^ THE RUSSIAN DEFENCES. 85 neers were directed towards working up to the enemy's entrenchments. The French, considering that the state of the Russian works from the MalakhofF to Careening Bay. presented smaller difficulties against entering the town on this side, and that there were fewer obstacles to overcome before reaching the gorge of the Malakhofif Tower, decided to make their great attack on this side, while not abandoning the intention previously entertained of assaulting the Great Redan and works on the town side. Meanwhile, our troops, situated as they were be- tween the two Attacks of the French, and exposed to heavy artillery fire on both flanks, also from the Garden, Malakhofl", and intervening batteries, including that of the Redan, could make but little progress in their Attack. The enemy, guided by the genius of Todleben, did not fail to profit by the time thus afforded them for strengthening their works, and strong parties were constantly to be seen employed upon the Malakhofi" and retrenchments in rear of the Little Redan, extending towards the Great Harbour ; thus they formed, in this part, an interior and second line of defence, which every day presented a more formidable appearance. Captain Wolseley was on duty on the 1st of July,* each relief of the working party numbering four hundred men and twenty-four Sappers, and the works were carried on under a heavy fire, the enemy shell- * During this month Captain Wolseley was on day duty Ist, 6th, 12th, 15th, and 22nd j night duty, 3rd, 8th, 15th, 19th, and 22nd. ■ m I 'Mi' ^m II : l! !' , fti ■y , ■■'') I VI I' i' ' I ^' • W 51 i ■i ■ SG THE CRIMEAN WAS. ing the Quarries and the Dew fourth parallel. On the 8th of July, when he was on night duty in the trenches, the working party numbered nine hundred and fifty men, besides twenty Sappers ; on this occa- sion Lieutenant Graham, of the Engineers, was severely wounded. He says in his Report, the original of which is lying before me : — " Lieutenant Graham having been, unfortunately, struck in the face with some stones from a round shot, and, consequently, forced to leave his party on the Left advanced sap, the officer of the 62nd Regiment, who commanded the party, withdrew his men, telling the Sapper then in charge, that he considered it too dangerous for Lines- men. The enemy kept up a continual fire of shell and grape, and then a number of light balls, which greatly interrupted our work." TheEngineersof the Right Attack completed battery No. 18, for six mortars, and commenced No. 19. They also converted, for the occupation of our troops, the Russian trench nearest the third parallel, a work of great labour, many parts being of rock, and requiring the addition of earth to form a parapet ; and extended the right of the advanced works in front of the Quarries, to form a junction with this trench, which now became a fourth parallel, a perilous and difficult task, owing to the numerous light balls, which burnt nearly half-an- hour. Traverses were thrown up in the Quarries to protect the working parties and guard of the trenches, from the fire of the Garden batteries and Bastion du Mat. The casualties were heavy, owing to the THE ENGINEERS AT WORK. 87 \ of proximity of the British works to the Redan, from which the enemy maintained a vertical fire from mortars, and discharges of ^rape and grenades. As this cannonade continued day and night, causing great loss to our troops, and hindering the pro- secution of the Engineering works, all our batteries that bore upon the Redan opened fire on the 10th of July, which had the desired elFect- The Engineers now being more free from annoyance, extended the fifth parallel as far as the small Quarry, and ran out a sap from its left. The works were pushed on with the utmost alacrity, and at no time of the siege were the Engineer officers harder worked, Wolseley being the only one on duty, on the 12th of July, to direct the two reliefs of the working party, each of which numbered four hundred men, with twenty-four Sappers. In conjunction with Major Stanton and Lieutenant Somerville, he was on duty, for twenty-four hours on the 15th of July. During the afternoon, the enemy opened a very heavy, well-directed fire on the right of the fifth parallel, and the working party was obliged to be partially withdrawn. Most of the damage was, however, made good during the night; but the labour was very great in consequence of the party having to carry the earth some distance, and there were several casualties from grape and case-shot fired from the left of the Redan. The night of the 19th, when Wolseley was again on duty, passed off" more quietly, and the working parties were enabled to do a fair average of work. The para- 1 ' :^i 1 -r % i i ■ .i ' '' II! i! li '^ !l 88 TEE CRIMEAN WAR. pets and batteries were put in a thorough state of repair during the latter part of July, and the platforms for the guns were removed to batteries more in advance, while new communications were made from the third parallel and the Quarries to Battery No. 19. At this time, orders were issued by General Simpson, that the night- guard in the trenches of the Left Attack was to be increased to one thousand four hundred men, and in the Eight Attack to two thousand four hundred, under a General of the day, and three field-officers. Of this number, six hundred were to work, if required by the Engineer officers, from four to eight a.m., when they were to return to camp, if they could be spared ; the remainder were to furnish working parties during the day. There v/as also to be a special working party of four hundred men, independently of the guard, who were to return to camp at daybreak. On the 22nd of July, Major Stanton and Captain Wolseley were on duty for twenty-four hours.* There were no less than one thousand and fifty men at work in the trenches under their orders, besides fifty-two Sappers and sixteen carpenters, and the work was very heavy. During the day, the Bight Attack kept up a fire on the Redan for some hours with mortars, and a shell from the enemy, foiling among a heap of carcasses * The ofBcer commanding the Royal Engineers in his Remarks on the progress of the siege, says : — " The young officers of Engineers and of tlie Sappers lately joined from England, suffer very much from the heat. They soon fall ill with fever. This makes the duty in the trenches very severe upon those -who are able to bear the fatigue." ^-'^^ ILLNESS OF WOLSELEY. 89 \'u in the new batteries of the Right Attack, ignited about fifty of them, and the gabions being very dry, they also were set on fire ; but the flames were extinguisiied by earth being shovelled over tlie'a. Again, during the day and night of the 22nd, when Wolseley was on duty for twenty-four hours, there was hot work, and his exertions, under constant fire from cohorns, and grape, and shell, were too much even for his constitu- tion. He had been suff'ering for some time from dysen- tery, but with that devotion to duty whieii had characterised him since he joined the besieging force in December of the previous year, he battled against his ailment, and could not be induced to go on the sick list. This arduous and prolonged duty of twenty-four hours, however, quite incapacitated him for further exertion, and the medical authorities directed his removal to Balaklava, thence to proceed on board ship for a period of a fortnight at least, or until the restoration of his health had been established. But Wolseley could not be persuaded to remain beyond a week, and returned to duty not much better than when he quitted the scene of his labours. The Home Ministry, impatient at the delay in the capture of Sebastopol, and urged by political considera- tions, telegraphed instructions to the Commander- in-chief, forthwith to " hold a Council with General Pelissier and the Admirals, to consider the actual state of the siege, thechances ofarrivingatthe destruction, or the capture of the southern side of the town, and what it will be possible to do failing these two alternatives." I" >A p r^ I 90 THE CRIMEAN WAR. Accord in<;ly, on the 15th of xVuguat, it was decided that the necessary batteries being on the eve of com- pletion, the fifth bombardment should be opened on the 17th of August, without waiting for two hundred mortars which were on their way from France, and fifty from England, the batteries for which were nearly ready. The Kussians, meantime, maintained a heavy fire of shot, shell and grape, causing numerous casual- ties in the guard of the trenches and working parties. On the lOth of August, Prince GortschakolF made a desperate assault on the lines of the French and Sar- dinians on the Tchernaya,* in the hope of raising the siege, but was driven back with a loss of five thousand men, that of the victors being one-fifth of the number. Captain Wolseley was in charge of the trenches, with a working party of four hundred men and twenty Sappers, on the night of the 16th of August, and on the following morning, when the fifth bombardment of Sebastopol commenced. He says — " The enemy ap- peared to be working at, and in the neighbourhood of the 6-gun Battery to their left of the Karabelnaia Ravine. Their vertical fire was heavier than usual, as they fired salvoes from three mortars on the left flank of the Redan. Upon a signal of three mortar eh3ll8 from No. 13 Battery, fire was opened this morning at daybreak from all our batteries." During the night there were thirty-nine casualties in the Right Attack. * The Black Eiver, or river of the Tchernaya, after leaving tlie valley of Baidar, runs from enst to west through numerous ravines, and falls into Sebastopol roads. TUE FIFTH BOMRARDMENT. Ul 11 At this time, the British batteries mounted one hundred and eighty-six pieces of ordnance, of which seventy- seven were in the Right Attack, and one hmidred and nine in the Left Attack. Our gunners directed tlieir fire chiefly against the Redan and Mahikholf, so as to enable the saps to advance, and soon obtained a decided superiority over tlie Mahikhoft* ; but so heavy was the fire from the Town, Garden, and J5arrack batteries, that our advanced batteries in the Left Attack were partially destroyed, and at noon the detacliments were withdrawn. During the day, the casualties in the Royal Artillery were thirty ofiicers and men, and in the Naval Brigade, twenty-four. At daybreak on the 18th of August, fire was re- opened on the enemy's works from all the batteries, with the exception of the advanced batteries of the Left Attack, until the morning of the 19th, when the Redan being much damaged, and the jMalakhofT almost silent, orders were issued to cease firing.* During the 21st of August, Captain Wolseley was on duty with two reliefs of three hundred men each, besides a strong body of Sappers and carpenters, the latter being engaged in making platforms and placing frames for magazines. The men worked well and nnich progress was made, though under a brisk fire from the '.'■1: HA * During tho forty-eight hours between the morning of the 17th, and six a.m. of the 19th of August, the British batteries had expended no less than twenty-six thousand two hundred and seventy rounds of ammunition, of which eleven thousand, two hundred and forty-three were 10 and 13-inch shell , the total weight being eighty-one tons. rM hm li i •! V , I', H 1' i il li tt Ht 99 THE CRIMEAN WAR. enemy. lie was again on duty on tlie night of the 23rcl of August, when tliey were on tlie qui vive^ as the Ilusisians made a sortie upon the French in front of the Malakhoff. On the previous evening a sap was com- menced from tlie fifth parallel in advance upon the capital* of the Kedan. Fifty-eight yards were executed without interruption from the enemy, and during the night of the 23rd, Wolseley managed to execute about fourteen more yards, but under a heavy fire from the Redan. In consequence of their proximity to this work, there v>'ere fifty-two casualties among our men on this day. Captain Wolseley was on duty in the trenches, with a working party of eight hundred men from five a.m. to seven p.m. on the 27th of August, when, under orders from General Sinipson, a heavy fire was opened by the batteriesf of both Attacks on the salient angle of the Redan. Of the effect of this fire, Wolseley says in his Report : — " The salient of the Redan was con- siderably injured towards the evening by our fire. The enemy's fire during the day was heavier than usual, and they kept up a continual fire upon the several working parties." Preparations for the final assault were pushed for- ward with much energy, and the Engineer staff were * The capital is the centre line which divides a bastion into two equal pivrts. t The return of guns and mortars in position on the 27th of August, signed by Colonel St. George, commanding the siege train, showed that there were seventy-seven pieces of ordnance in the Right Attack, and one hundred and twenty in the Left Attack. THE SECOND ILIAD. worko(] to tlio utmost, inakiup^ up by their good will jind indoinitiiblo perseverance for their numerical inferiority. The time since the repulse of the 18th of June had been utilised by the Allies, and an incredible amount of work had been performed. The French had a very difficult task before them, but by dint of perseverance, and regardless of great loss of life, aided by the power- ful and well directed lire of our artillery, they succeeded in establishing themselves close to the crest of the counterscarp of the MalakhofT, the key of the position. Scarcely less diflicult was the task our troops under- took in their advance against the Redan, while, owing to the features of the ground, the fire from the Malakhoft* and the Bastion du M.^t could not be silenced by counter batteries on the glacis, or by enfilade fire from distant batteries. During the month of August, the Russians, rendered desperate by the sight of the iron ring which was growing in strength day by day, made repeated efforts to break through the toils thus encircling them within its fatal embrace. Frequent sorties were made all through the month, and the fighting in that confined and blood-stained arena became ftist and furious. The genius of a second Homer — "whose verses," says Bacon, " have a slide and easiness more than the verses of other poets," — would be worthily taxed in describing the numberless heroic deeds of our gallant soldiers and their Allies. Failing the pen of " the blind old bard of Scio's rocky isle," we will, in homely prose, depict an event in the life of our hero who, like Achilles in his I r i*. 94 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 'f\ ' V. ill \i '1 Hj .'1' i -I 4 •111 - « ardour for the figlit, was "impiger, iracundus, inex- orabils, acer." In any future rpic having for its theme this war of the giants, the achievements of the Allied Army miglit be compared with that of the Grecian host beleaguering the classic city on the banks of the Scamander; while the Russians in their valour and the obstinacy of their defence, would worthily fill the role of their Trojan prototypes. Again some of our leaders would compare not unftivourably with the Homeric heroes. Raglan, whose " antique heroism " at the Alma extorted the admiration of St. Arnaud, was an Agamemnon, the "king of men," and no braver warriors landed from the Grecian ships than Gordon and Lysons, Peel, whose fire-eating proclivities were in- satiable, and Hewett, of Lancaster battery renown, and Blake and Yea, who fell in "the imminent deadly breach," and Egerton, Cathcart, and the three Camp- bells—Sir Colin, Sir John, and the young Colonel of the 90th — and numberless others whose self-sacrificing devotion will live for all time in the memory of their countrymen. However, to our account of an event in AVolseley's life which, at length, after his many narrow escapes, incapacitated him from taking part in the closing scene of the struggle in which he had been engaged since the preceding December. At eight p.m. on the night of the 30th of August, Wolseley, accompanied by Lieutenant Dumaresq, R.E., proceeded on duty, and had charge of the advanced flying sap, which he was directed to carry on as far towards the Redan as the time at his disposal A RUSSIAN SORTIE. 95 before daylight, and the endurance of his working party of four hundred men and twenty Sappers, would permit. The work progressed as satisfactorily as could be ex- pected, but there was very little earth, and most of the gabions had to be filled with rubble and stone as substitutes. However, he managed to place sixty gabions when the* moon rose, and her unwelcome light put a stop to all further proceedings for that night, when, taking advantage of this enforced period of idle- ness, he proceeded to make a sketch of the ground in order to give his successor an idea of the topography, so that lie might carry en the work in hand. Wolseley was tiius engaged, when suddenly the Russians made a sortie, and he found himself surrounded by the uncouth visages and strange forms of the soldiery of the Czar, who looked more formidable by the pale and uncertain moonlight. The sortie was made under circumstances and at an hour to call for the exercise 'of that prompti- tude and presence of mind which the great Napoleon once described as " two o'clock in the morning courage," and said he rarely found even among the bravest of his soldiers. This serious state of affairs had arisen through the neglect of the field-oflScer in command, who could not be induced to cover the working party properly, notwithstanding the repeated representations of Captain Wolseley, who begged him to take a rifle-pit that was annoying his men, and showed how it might be done with most advantage. However, this ollicer would not do as he was requcrtcd, and as the Ilussians kept firing volleys from it all night, ^Wolseley's men had to work t\ -i fit "V. iU; i 1 l| II i 1 ■ 'M 1 i -i ■' , : 1 1 96 THE CRIMEAN WAR. lying down. As a furtb(3r consequence, the front was not protected by sentries, so that a sortie or surprise of some sort was just what might have been anticipated. As we have seen, there was a sortie, and the surprise was complete, but Wolseley was equal to the occasion. In a moment the working party of one hundred and fifty men, finding themselves surrounded, cast down their tools or arms and bolted to a man. In vain the officers did all they could to stop the stampede. Wolseley seized by the belt one man who was in the act of flying, but was instantly knocked down by another fellow who took this irregular method of releasing his comrade. On recovering his feet, Wolseley found there was nothing between himself and the Russians but the gabions, which they were pulling dowai with all celerity. Looking about him with the intent of making an eff'ort to rally his men, he found that he was alone ; all had fled, the officers, recognising the futility of resistance without their men, being the last to retire. Another moment's hesitation on Wol- seley's part and it would have been too late for him to secure his own safety, and he had barely time to spring over the work and run back to the nearest parallel about one hundred and fifty yards in the rear. British soldiers do not often, or for any length of time, forget themselves; and the same men who, taken by surprise, had just fled in panic from the face of their enemies, rallied in a few minutes, and, led by their officers, drove the Russians pell mell out of the advanced sap."'*^ * " At about half-past twelve a.m. a party of the oueniy, apparently A NIGHT ENCOUNTER. 97 1^ The field-officer whose negligence had caused this unfortunate business, now asked Captain Wolseley, "What was to be done?" " I will do nothing," replied Wolseley, " until you have carried the rifle-pit I requested you to take before." A gallant officer. Captain Pechell,* of the 77th, who was standing by, hearing this colloquy, said, " I will take the rifle-pit." And this he did with a small party of his own men, who carried it with a rush, about twenty or twenty-five in number, made an attack on the advance, up the little ravine from the fifth parallel. The working party retired in great confusion, in spite of repeated attempts on Captain Wolseley's part to rally them, and tlie Russians threw down about fifty gabions into the trench ; they then retreated, keeping up a fire of musketry, which caused considerable loss. The guns also from the batteries below the Malakhoff opened and caused numerous casualties by stones. Amongst the wounded, I regret to say, was Captain Wolseley, who was severely cut in the face and leg by stones. The guard of the trenches was very strong in the fifth parallel, and there were abimdance of men near the entrance to the sap ; but the attack was 80 sudden, that unless the working party themselves repulsed the enemy, the mischief done to the trench could not be prevented. Cap- tain Wolseley had placed about fifty gabions, and was proceeding to fill them when the attack took place, all of which, and a considerable quantity besides, were overturned into the trench by the enemy. No more work was done there, on account of the precision of the artil- lery fire from the Malakhoff batteries, and also the incessant fire of muBuetry, as the enemy only retired about two hundred yards down the ravine. The casualties among the working party were very great, amounting to twelve out of sixty-five, and these in a very short space of time." {See Official Narrative) * Two nights afterwards this promising ofllcer was killed when re- taking this same pit. VOL. I. H 98 TEE CRIMEAN WAR. is III m li'i M The Russians had not only pulled up some of the gabions, which had been filled at such great cost of time and labour, but they had rolled others down the hill ; Wolseley, therefore, taking with him a strong party of men, recovered most of these gabions, and was engaged in the task of putting up and refilling them when he received his wound, lie was at the end of the sap talking to two Sappers, who were assisting him to fill with stones one of the gabions ; one hand was stretched back, and the other was resting on a spike of the gabion, when a round shot dashed into the middle of the group. He had just time to call "Look out !" when down went both the Sappers, while he felt him- self hurled to the ground with resistless force. The round shot had struck the gabion, which was full of stones, and scattering its contents with terrific violence, instantaneously killed the poor fellows by his side, the head of one man being taken off while the other was disembowelled. As for himself, he lay senseless until a sergeant of Sappers picked him up, and, after a time, he rallied sufficiently to avail himself of the assistance of this man and of Prince Victor Hohenlohe,* who, coming up, helped him to walk towards the doctor's hut in the trenches. He just managed to totter so far, and * nis Serene Highness is a sailor wlio has shown liigh courage at the hotly-contested boat action at Fatshan Creek in China, in May, 1857, as well as in the batteries before Sebastopol. When, after the lapse of many years, Prince Victor again met Sir Garnet at a public dinner, afvor his return from the G-old Coast, he reminded the suc- cessful Gene he circumstances of their last meeting. I WOLSELEY IS WOUNDED. 99 m at llic » I was laid clown outside the hut in a seuii-uncoiisciou.s state. Prince Victor called the attention of the surgeon to his newly arrived patient, and the reply was, after a hasty glance, for he was too busy just then to examine him, "He's a dead 'un." This roused up tlie wounded oliicer, who, thougli half-unconscious, seemed to regard the remark in the light of a reflection; and turning himself as he lay there all smothered in blood, he made answer, " 1 am worth a good many dead men yet." This remark caused the doctor, wlio fancied from his appearance that his injuries were mortal, to turn his attention to Captain Wolseley, and from the nature of the wounds, and the shock to the s- m their number and extent would have caused ii» uiost cases, it seemed as if tlie surgeon had only been a little premature in his rougli and ready diagnosis. Wolseley's head and body presented a shocking appearance. His features were not distinguishable as those of a human being, while blood flowed from in- numerable wounds caused by the stones with which iir had been struck. Sharp fragments were imbedded all over his face, and his left cheek had been almost cur completely away. The doctor fancied, after probing the wound, that his jawbone was sliattered, but Wolseley made him j)ull out the substance in his mouth, when a large stone came away. The surgeon then lifted up and stitched the cheek. Roth his eyes were completely closed, and the injury to one of them il 2 ' i-#^ 100 THE CRIMEAN WAR. was so serious that the siglit has been permanently lost. Not a square inch of his face but what was battered and cut about, while his body was wounded all over, just as if he had been peppered with small shot. He had received also a severe wound on his right leg, so that both limbs had now been injured, the wound in left thigh, received in Burmah, rendering him slightly lame. P'or many years afterwards the wound on the shin, received on this 30th of August, caused him much suffering, and, when on duty in Canada, nearly ten years after the event, he was under the necessity of returning to England for medical advice regarding the bone which was exfoliating. Considering the extent of his wounds, which in many cases would have caused collapse, or induced erysipelas or other seqitelw, Captain Wolseley's recovery must be chiefly attributed to his wonderful constitution, and, in a scarcely less degree, to his strong vitality and buoyant courage. After the surgeon had dressed his wounds, Captain Wolseley was placed on a stretcher, and carried by four soldiers to St. George's Monastery, situated on the sea- coast not far from Balaklava, and there he passed some weeks in a cave, as the sight of both eyes was too much injured to subject them to the light. While he was pent up in this gloomy cavern, meditating on the sad prospect of being totally blind for the remainder of his days, news arrived of the fall of Sebastopol. The great Russian stronghold which had, for so many weary months, defied the utmost efforts of two Great Powers, was, at length, carried by assault on the 8th of Sep- NATURE OF HIS WOUNDS. H»l w , )tain four sea- borne buch was sad his The iary I'ers, Sep- tember, and Captain AVolseley had the additional morti- fication of feeling that all his devotion and sutTerin^s:: had not received the reward he most coveted — tliat of participating in the storm of the Russian strongliold.* Tlie Siege of Sebastopol stands in many respects without example in tlie annals of war. The Russian works extended for nearly fifteen miles, while tlie besiegers' trenches were no less then fifty-two miles in length, and comprised one hundred and nine batteries, armed with eight hundred and six pieces. The expen- diture of ammunition during the siege, according to the estimate of our Artillery officers, nearly amounted to one million five hundred thousand rounds. The trenches were open three hundred and thirty-four days, and the batteries, in the most advanced of which were placed guns and mortars of a calibre seldom before used in siege operations, were open for three hundred and twenty-seven days. The Russians opposed to the * Our loss on the 8tli of September was twenty-nine officers, tliirtj. six sergeants, and three hundred and twenty rank and file killed ; one hundred and twenty-four ofGcers, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men wounded ; and one officer and one hundred and seventy-five men missing ; total loss, two thousand four hundred and forty- seven. The French lost five general officers killed, four wounded, and six contused; twenty-four superior officers killed, twenty wounded, and two missing ; one hundred and sixteen subaltern officers killed, two hundred and twenty-four wounded, and eight missing ; also one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine non-commissioned officers and men were killed, four thousand two hundred and fifty-nine wounded, and one thousand four hundred missing ; grand total, seven thousand five hundred and fifty- one. ltd . :g-ti ■iiU In m a m liii 102 THE CHIME AN WAR. Allies an army mirnerically superior, intrenched behind torniidable defences, mounting no less than one thou- sand one hundred caimon, and protected by the guns of tlieir fleet. hu mediately on learning the news of the fall of Sehastopol, Captain Wolseley resigned his post of Assistant-Engineer, and his name was removed from the list from the 7tli of November. He had been ordered to England for the recovery of his healtli and to seek the best medical advice for his eyes, the sight of both of which it was feared was permanently lost. Sir llarrv Jones, in a confidential ^lemorandmn to the Secretary of State for War, brouglit to his Lord- ship's notice the names of the ollicers whom he recom- mended for promotion, among them being that of Captain Wolseley. Throughout the siege the duties of the trenches fell with great severity on the Engineer officers, of whom the General said he " could not speak too highly in praise of the zeal and intelligence they displayed ;" day and night they were constantly under fire in the most advanced positions, directing the work- ing parties, and it is surprising that any of those who, like Wolseley, served continuously for many months escaped with their lives. The total number of non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal Engineers employed throughout the siege, amounted to only nine hundred and thirty-five ; of these two hundred and eighteen were killed or died, and one hundred and nineteen became non-effective from various causes, leaving five hundred and ninety- ind Ithe of led, live ty- LOSSKS OF THE KNOIXEKRS. 103 eight in the Crimea on the lUh of September. During the same time, sixty-nine ollicers of the Royal En- gineers, and nineteen otlier olKcers acting as Assistant- Engineers, served witli tlie corps; of the former, eighteen were killed or died, (exclusive of Lieutenant 11. G. Teesdale, who died of wounds received at the Alma,) and fourteen were wounded, while two Assistant- Engineers were killed and six wounded.* During the nine months he served uninterruptedly before Sebastopol — with the exception of a week's sick leave at Balaklava— Captain Wolseley, was, perhaps, us often on duty in the trenches as any officer in the British Army; while as one of the Engineer officers of the Right Attack, he was in the post of the greatest danger, as evidenced by the fact that of the fourteen officers killed at the siege, twelve belonged to the Right Attack, or were killed when doing duty there.f * The total loss of the British Army in the Crimea was one liundred and fifty-seven ofDcers, one hundred and sixty-one non-commissioned officers, and two thousand four hundred and thirty-seven drummers and rank and file, killed in action ; and eighty-six officers, eighty-five non-commissioned officers, and one thousand eight hundred and forty- eight drummers and rank and file, died of wounds. The wounded numbered five hundred and seventy-seven officers, six liundred and forty-five sergeants, and ten thousand one hundred and fifty-five men ; the missing, tliirteen ofllcers, twenty-three sergeants, and four liun- dred and sixtj^-eiglit men. The Naval Brigade, out of a total force of one hundred and thirty-five ofllcers and four thousand three hundred and tliirty-four seamen and marines, liad five officers and ninety-five men killed, and thirty-eight officers and four hundred and thirty-seven men wounded. + The reason is obvious why the mortality in the Right Attack was U m Til ^1 * r;i !'l i • '■i is] • 101 THE CHIME AN WAR. The preceding pages sliow the nature of the duty per- formed by Captain Wolseley during those eight months. In the dreary Winter of 1854-55, lie, in common with every oflicer and man, suffered tlie pangs of hunger and cold, but though for weeks his diet was an in- sufficient allowance of unwholesome biscuit, and still more unwholesome water, he cheerfully p(^rformed his tour of duty in the trenches, and faced tlie Russian fire and the biting cold of an Arctic AV inter, wliich proved fatal to so many gallant officers and men. AVhile the jireater than in the Left. The Right Attack wag on tlie slope of the Redan, while a ravine intervened between the Russian batteries and the Left Attack. The following are the names of the twenty Engineer and Assistant-Engineer officers who were killed before Sebastopol, or died of their wounds, or of illness contracted during the operations, with the dates of their deaths. Captain A. D. Craigie, 13th of March ; Lieutenant E. Bainbrigge, 4th of April ; Captain J. F. Crofton, (wounded 12th of April) died 15th of April ; Captain F. W. King, (wounded 17th of April) died 22nd of April ; Lieutenant C. E. Baynes, (wounded 19th of April) died 7th of May ; Lieutenant J. S. Carter, (Left Attack) 2nd of May ; Captain J. F. Dawson, 7th of June; Lieutenant J. G. Lowry, 7tli of June; Brevet-Colonel R. Tylden, (shot through both legs on 18th of June) died in August ; Captain W. II. Jesse, 18th of June ; Lieutenant J. Murray, 18th of June; Lieutenant J. M. Graves, 18th of June; Captain Anderson, (Slst Regiment) 5th of September ; Major S. Chapman, (Left Attack, 20th Regiment) wounded on the 8th of September, died 20th of September. Died of disease, or by accident— Brigadier-General V. B. Tylden, of cholera, on the 22nd of September, 185 1 ; Lieutenant- Colonel Alexander, of apoplexy, 19th of October, 1854 ; Captain W. M. Inglis, drowned in ' Prince' on the 14tli of November, 1854 ; Captain Belson, of typhus fever, on the 5th of August, 1855 ; Lieu- tentant Somerville, of typhus fever, on the 3rd of September ; Major Rankcn, killed by the fall of a wall on the 27th of February, J 856. it of E. it; of lu- lor I ESCAPES DURING THE SIEOE. 105 Army was perisliing from wiiut iiiul cold in the trendies, ship after ship arrived at 15ahiivlava, stowed with boots too small for use, and great-coats that would not button : and when oflieers, even at head-quarters, were fain to be thankful for mouldy biscuit, preserved meats and vegetables were rotting on the quays of Balaklava. Routine and red-tapeisra reigned supreme, and the world wondered at the astounding display of mismanagement in every department of our complicated military raachine. The one satisfactory feature was the valour and patience of our soldiers, who doggedly fought on, and never murmured when affairs looked their blackest. It was a point of honour among the Engineer oflieers and Sappers to bear up against sickness, and hold out as long as they could stand on their legs; and Wolseley, though he frequently suffered from illness and over- work, with the exception of a brief interval in July, remained at his post until severe wounds incapacitated him for further duty. Speaking of the oflieers and men of the Royal Engineers, he has expressed an opinion that, " he never saw men work like them," and considers their conduct in this unparalleled siege, as " beyond all praise." During its progress, Captain Wolseley w\is wounded severely on the 30th of August, and slightly on the 10th of April and 7th of June. On the loth of February his coat was pierced by a ball ; on the 10th of April a round shot struck the embrasure at which he was working, and his trousers were cut; and, on the 7th of June, a ball passed through his forage cap from 1 1 t ' m ;>f- ' :t ^ \ 1 > M J 106 TEE CRIMEAN IVAli. S 1' i.!|i H 1 1 / the peak to tlie back, knocking it oil' his liead. It may bo said, without exa;j:,i;(.'i'atioii. that lie bore, a charmed life, for, at the termination of the Kiege, of tiiree messes of four meiidx'rs eacii to which \w liad bchtngcd, lie was tile only ofliciT remaining in the Crimea, all the others being either killed or forci.'d to leave through wounds. Captain Wolscley was about to return to England for tile recovery of iiis healtii, when lie was ofViired an a})pointment in tlie Quartermaster-Oenerars* Depart- ment. As tiiere was a great improvement in the sight of one of his eyes, tlioiigli he regarded tliat of tlie otiier as h()j)elessly gone, lie resolved to remain in the Crimea, and. accordingly, accepted the olVer. lie was employed on the (^iiartermaster-Cenerars stall", in conjunction with two other oflicers of the 9()th Light Infantry, Major Harnston, (who, in December, 1857, died of wounds received at the l^elief of Lucknow, of whom Wolseley speaks as " the best oilicer he ever knew,'") and Captain ("realock, whose gallantry on the disastrous 8th of September, and in the China Cam- paign of 1860, and whose skill as an accomplished artist, have made his name famous. Captain Wolseley and I\Iajor Barnston were attached, for surveying duties, to a French Army of twenty thousand men and a small force of I^lnglish Cavalry, which had taken up a * Sir Eichard Airey, who had been Quartermaster-General through- out the War, was succeeded in November by Colonel I'ercy Herbert wlio hud been head of that Department in Sir De Lacy Evans' Division. ox sHiiricK n'lTii the fiikscii. 107 7, f r e position in tho valley of the Ik'lbec, nionaciiii:: tlie lef- Hank of the Itussians, wiio, after tlie fall of the south side of Sel)astoi)ol, occupied a line extending from tho Star Fort to the extreme left on the Mackenzie Heights. At this time the Allies had in the Crimea an army of about two hundred and ten thousand men, of which the 15ritish portion numbered, on the Itllh of October, iil'ty- six thousand men,* of whom oidy four thousand five Iiundred were ineft'ective through wounds or sickness. While employed with the French covjis d'arniee iu the valley ol" the lielbec on surveying duties, (Japtain Wolseley had many narrow escapes of being captured. Every morning, he and Major l>arnston would leave tl.o French camp on their expeditions, cither alone, or escorted by a few troo[)ers, and many a hot chase they had when the Russians, annoyed at seeing British ollicers reconnoitring and sketching close up to their advanced posts, sent some of their hardest-riding Cossacks in pursuit. AViien the French Force fell back, and it became too cold for surveying, Wolseley was appointed Deputy Assistant-Quartermaster-General to the Light Division, then nnder the command of * This total was composed of fourteen regiments of Cavalry, about five thousand sabres; fifty-two battalions of Infantry, about tliirly- three tliousand bayonets ; and fourteen batteries of Artillery and nine companies of Sappers, about nine thousand men. Tlio renuiining ten thousand were made up of non-combatants, as Land Transport, Army Works, and Medical Statf. Besides tho Turkisli Contingent of twenty thousand men, there were in the United Kingdom only seven regi- ments of Cavalry, exclusive of the Household Brigade, and eight regi- ments of Infantry, besides five in the Mediterranean. ;! ' ^L HI 111 i: - i- ■ 5 ?1 f -, 5 • ^1 ■; ?■''' i ■ ■ '! 1 108 THE CRIMEAN WAR. Lord William Paulet, its former leader, Sir William Codrington having succeeded to the chief command on the resignation of Sir James Simpson. Captain Wolseley remained in the Crimea until, on the conclusion of Peace with Russia, the Allied Army was directed to return home. As Deputy Assistant- Quartermaster-General he assisted Colonel Hallowell at Bulaklava in despatching homewards the troops of his Division, a great portion of the Army embarking at Kasatch Bay, nearKamiesch, where the Fleet lay. On 5th of July, 185G, Marshal Pelissier, with his staff, sailed from Kamiesch, under a salute of nineteen guns from our ships in port; and, on the 12th of July, Sir William Codrington, having made over the Dockyard of Sebastopol and Port of Balaklava, to the officer in command of the Russian troops, (a Colonel of Gendar- merie at Kamiesch), embarked on board Her Majesty's Ship ' Algiers.' The honour of handing over the town w^as delegated to a wing of the 50th — the famous "dirty half-hundredth," which had been one of the first Regiments to land in the Crimea, — and, under the usual salutes, they gave place to a Russian Guard, composed of about sixty Cossack cavalry, and an equal number of Cossack infantry. After the departure of all the Regiments, Captain Wolseley embarked for England, being one of the last men to quit the land where he had done and suffered so much in his country's service. ' CHAPTER III. THE INDIAN MUTINY. '■;.-i Captain Wolseley proceeds on Service to India — Wrecked at Banca — Arrival at Calcutta — Proceeds up-countrj — In Action near Cawn- pore — March to Alumbagh — The Relief of Lucknow — Wolselcy storms the Mess-house — Occupies the Moteo Maluil, and effects Communication with the Eesidoncy of Lucknow — The Defence of Alumbagh — Campaigning in Oude — Actions at Bareo and Nawab- gunge — Service on the Nepaul Fro ntier. ON his return from the Crimea, Captain Wolseley* rejoined the 90th Regiment, then stationed at Aldershot, but was soon after employed in reporting on a new system of visual telegraphy. For this purpose, he came up to London in order that he might acquire a knowledge of the system from the German Professor, who sought, but unsuccessfully, to introduce it into our * For his meritorious services during the Siege of Sebastopol, and notwithstanding that he had been specially mentioned in Despatches by Lord Raglan, and recommended for promotion by Sir Harry Jones, K.C.B., Wolseley did not receive the brevet-majority to which he might have been considered entitled. The French Emperor nominated him a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and the Sultan conferred on liim the Fifth Class of the Medjidie. 5 :. I* 110 THE INDIAN MUTINY. iiii ^ Army. On his return to Aldershot, he was attached to the staff of Lord AVilliam Paulet, then coiunianding a Brigade at the camp, as " galloper," which, to the un- professional reader, may be defined as an extra aide-de- camp without, however, the extra pay. In the beginning of February, LSoT, the 90th, being one of the Regiments under orders to proceed to India, was sent for a few months to Portsmouth to enjoy the pleasures and relaxation of a garrison town, to which it had certainly earned a title after its sufferings in the Crimea. The Regiment, however, had only been a few days at that famous seaport, when orders were received for it to proceed to India at a "week's notice. But the authorities at the War Office altered their determina- tion, and a reprieve of a week was allowed ; finally, the officers, who had all been hastily recalled from leave, were given to understand that positively the Regiment would not embark for foreign service until June, the usual period for the despatch of Indian re- liefs, so that the troops might land after the monsoons, in the cool season. But we were too hasty in penning the word " finally" above ; a British soldier, who may be called upon at any moment to defend the most distant dependency of an empire '' upon which the sun never sets," can never, even for a few months, consider his destination "finally" settled, while the War Office twenty years ago — there is more consideration for officers and men now-a-days — habitually hated finality in making up its mind to anything, and cared little for the expense and incou- WOLSELEY EMBARKS FOR CHINA. Ill venience it caused to officers wlio drew the munificent pay of a grateful country. Tiie present afforded a notable instance of this h)rdly disregard of other people's comfort ; for about three weeks after all had been settled, the Regiment received orders toehold itself in readiness to proceed forthwith to China. At this time the 90th w^s commanded by Colonel Campbell, an officer whose brilliant defence of the Quarries on the night of the 7th of June, — when our troops, acting alone and without the assistance of our Allies, achieved almost the only striking success throughout the siege— gained him the well-merited honours of the Bath. The Regiment now mustered a thousand bayonets, and it was a goodly sight to see the 90th on parade, as smart a corps as any in Her Ma- jesty's service. Captain Wolseley's company, like all the others, numbered a hundred non-commissioned officers and men, and he had three subalterns, Li(!U- tenants Herford and Carter, and P]nsign Haig. Of the entire strength of the Regiment, seven hundred men, with head-quarters, embarked in the ' Himalaya,' under command of Colonel Campbell, C.B., and Major Barnston, with the three remaining companies, under Captains Wolseley, Guise, and Irby, sailed in the 'Transit,' whose history from her cradle to her grave, bore a singular resemblance to that of the ill-fated ' Megoera.'* * Lieuteuant (now retired Captain) J. S. A. ITerford, to whoso work, " Stirring Times under Canvas," and information, always readily accorded, I am much indebted, describes the ship in the following \ ' *'U 1 m 1 1 ^i > 112 THE INDIAN MUTINY. Besides three hundred men of the DOth, the ' Transit' embarked for Hong Kong a detachment of the 59th Regiment and two hundred men of the Medical Staff Corps, a body recently organised for furnishing military hospitals with attendants ; the whole party being under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel St(3phenson, who had been appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the China Expedition, then fitting out under the command of the late Major-General the Honourable T. Ashburn- ham, C.B. The troubles of the ' Transit ' commenced before she had lost sight of land. Directly after quit- ting Spithead, a dense fog coming on, Commander Chambers, her Captain, brought-to in the Solent ; and, on weighing anchor the following day, found the ship making water so fast that he had to run back to Spit- head, flying the ensign " with the Union down," as a signal of distress. The ' Transit ' managed to creep terms: — " Tlie 'Transit' had always been an unfortunate ship. Bought, if not literally on the stocks, yet in an unfinished state, from a private company, she was completed by the Eoyal Navy authorities, by which ingenious plan, whenever anything afterwards went wrong, the original builders and the finishers were able to shift the blame on eacli other. She was continually breaking down in her various voyages to and from the Crimea with troops. Those who were so unfortunate as to be embarked in her knew well enough that something was certain to happen in the course of the voyage. Yet the Autliorities had still a firm belief in her merits ; so, putting a new pair of engines in her, they determined to send troops in her a short way — only to China! The new engines were smaller, but more powerful, than the last had been, and, to steady the ship and keep her together, two large iron beams, running fore and aft, were added. To these beams we, probably, at a later period, owed our lives." 5> ;cs Ite lin lie in, I AN UNLUCKY SHIP. 113 into Portsmouth Harbour, and, discharging the troops into a hulk, hauled oflf to the dockyard, nearly sinking before she could be pumped out and docked. It was then discovered that she had knocked a hole in her bottom, which was probably occasioned by her settling on her anchor at low water when in a tideway. On the necessary repairs being effected, the ' Transit,' having re-shipped the troops, and the guns and military stores which formed her cargo, once more proceeded on her long voyage. But it was only to encounter furthei ill- luck. A strong gale came on in the " chops of the Channel," and the rigging having been loosely set up, the masts swayed about to such an extent that the Captain made all preparations to cut them away. The gale moderating, the ' Transit ' put into Corunna, where Captain Wolseley and the other officers pro- ceeded ashore, and visited the grave of one of England's bravest and best soldiers, Sir John Moore. The rig- ging having been set up, the * Transit ' proceeded once more to sea, and, on May-day, anchored at St. Vincent, where they were joined by the 'Himalaya,' which had sailed from Portsmouth a few days after the ' Transit.' On their arrival at the Cape on May the 28th, it was discovered that the ship had sprung a leak near her stern-post, but, on examination by a diver, it was pronounced as of no consequence, and so the * Transit ' proceeded on her long flight across the Indian Ocean, her donkey-engine working the whole lime to keep the leak under. When near St. Paul's, the island on which the 'Megoira,' of evil memory, left VOL. I. I m 1m •|;|i J 'llj w' ' ■If I! m ij lU TEE INDIAN MUTINY. her bones, the 'Transit' encountered a hurricane, and it seemed as if the ship was to add another to those mysteries of the deep which are every now and then chronicled in the public papers. Wolseley says : — " For three days and three nights the cyclone lasted. All our sails were carried away, and the mainyard went to pieces. An enormous leak showed itself; some plates were supposed to have burst so that the water poured in like a sluice. We had on board the ' Transit ' nearly nine hundred souls, and it was as much as all hands could do, by constant pumping, to keep her afloat."* But Providence des- tined the gallant hearts on board the ' Transit ' to fight their country's battles in a great crisis, and the gale moderated, when matters looked so serious that it only seemed a question of how many hours they could keep afloat the worn-out hull in which " the authori- ties " had so perversely sent them to the other side of the world. By dint of hard pumping the leak was kept under, and the ship, having passed through the Straits of Sunda, headed north for Singapore, when officers and men began to count the days before they might expect to sight the rich and varied foliage amid which * Captain Herford, after describing the havoc aloft, writes of the stale of affairs : — "Tlie sliip strained and groaned like a chained giant in o^ony. Soon we began to notice the long faces of some of the ship's .;ificer8. It turned out that there was a rent, twenty-four feet long, in the ship'c side, and that the water was r\ shing in ! The heads of some -»■' .!t!^ •:.' uts iiadcomeoff; one might have passed half-a-crown through ,\i ^))erling easily. Five hundred tons of water were pumped out in < Lf; dnv." THE SHIPWRECK. iir. that city is embosomed. Soon they were steaming rapidly through the Straits of Banca, whose well- wooded shores and sandy coves excited their admira- tion, as we remember it did ours when cruising in those seas. But their acquaintance was destined to be not altogether of a pleasurable tinge, for at ten o'clock on the morning of the 10th of July, as the ' Transit' was passing through the Straits, the Island of Banca being on the starboard hand and Sumatra on the port side, and the sea as smooth as a mill-pond, the crazy old ship suddenly crashed on a coral reef, on which she remained immovable. Then it was seen what dis- cipline could effect among men whose lives were not passed, like sailors, amid the perils incidental to a nau- tical profession, but who suddenly found themselves confronting a novel danger. " The majority of the troops," says Captain Herford, " were on the main-deck at the mess-tables. On feel- ing the first shock they naturally rose en masse^ and were about to rush on deck, when JMajor Barnston — who was quietly writing in his cabin — appeared before them, and lifting his hand, said in his usual undisturbed voice, ' It's all right, men ; stay where you are !' These few words coming from an officer who inspired confidence and was generally beloved, acted like mngic. The men, like so many children, obeyed and sat down." The ship's comp>any, meanwhile, lowered the boats, and it was found on taking soundings that there was not less than nine fathoms all round. In the mean- time the ship began to settle by the stern, and there I 2 r m !1 ! 1 '^ 1 1 J ' 1 f ■ i 1] i ■• i 1 1 t =: m 1 m ii 1 li 1 1 I; »,"■ ; 1 i«ff ■t i \ I 1 i 116 THE INDIAN MUTINY. was great danger of her sliding off the rock and sinking iu the deep water alongside, when a lamentable loss of life must have ensued. The engine-room was soon full of water, which rushed in with great velocity. While the soldiers were busy bringing up on deck the provi- sions and arms, the sailors lowered the remaining boats, and prepared them for the reception of the troops, who were landed on a reef distant about a mile and a-half, as it was considered desirable to remove all hands from the wreck with the utmost dispatch, the Island of Bauca being about two miles further away. When this had been completed, the crew first proceeded to the mainland with what provisions they could save, and, having deposited these on the sandy beach, re- turned to the reef, which was now nearly submerged by the advancing tide, and removed the soldiers to the neighbouring shore. Here large fires had been lit, and, as a fine stream of water was close at hand, the gallant light-hearted fellows of both Services were soon making themselves merry over biscuit and water, thankful that they had escaped with their lives. Captain Wolseley lost everything he possessed in the world except the clothes on his back, for strict orders had been issued by Captain Chambers that nothing was to be passed into the boats except pro- visions, so that officers and men saved only their arms, each man taking with him also four rounds of ammu- nition. This was the first time Wolseley had suffered this misfortune, one of the most trying of the chances of war, but it was not destined to be the last, for, not ^1^ ON SHORE AT BANC A. 117 many months later, when the rebels defeated General Windham and burned Cawnpore, he and his brother officers lost the second kit they had provided them- selves with in Calcutta ; among his losses at Cawnpore were his Legion of Honour and Crimean medal, whicli were afterwards found on the body of a dead " Pandy." Again, during his absence from England on his Ashan- tee Campaign, Wolseley had the misfortune to lose all his furniture and goods, which he had warehoused in the Pantechnicon, in the great fire which, in a few hours, reduced to ashes that vast building and its costly contents. On the following morning, when it was found that the bows of the ' Transit' were still visible above water, an attempt was made to secure some baggage and necessaries, but the salvage from the wreck was inconsiderable and almost valueless. The spot on which the shipwrecked crew and pas- sengers of the 'Transit' had landed, was not without a certain historical interest for soldiers and sailors, for, on examination, there were found among the trees and brushwood, the remains of ditches and embankments, indicating that it was at this spot the British con- structed a fort during the Expedition to Java in 1811. The Island of Banca is under the protection of the Dutch, whose settlement at Minto was some eight miles distant. To this place Captain Chambers, on the morning after the disaster, sent the cutter to ask for assistance ; and the Governor immediately des- patched one gunboat to Singapore to advise the autho- V ' V « 118 THE INDIAN MUTINY. rities thcro, and anotlier to protect the wreck from the (lepredcitions of tlie natives, who had commenced seiz- ing all they could pick ii}). As all the fresh provisions and live stock had heeL|( lost, the shipwrecked })eoplo had to subsist on salt meat and biscuits, a fare which was varied by the flesh of baboons which they shot, and made into a nutritious, if not very palatable, soup. The natives also drove a good business in the sale of pine-apples, yams, bread, eggs, and poultry, though the supply was limited, and the price demanded so great as to be almost prohibitory. With such eatables, and sheltered by the sails of the ' Transit,' which were spread between the trees, oflicers and men passed a not unpleasant Robinson Crusoe sort of life for (Mght days ; and, just when the sense of novelty had worn off, and this mode of existence began to pall. Her Majesty's gunboat *Dove' arrived from Singapore, and brought some startling new^s that altered the destina- tion of the 9()th Regiment, and opened a new chapter in the adventurous career of Captain Wolseley. This was the announcement that the Bengal Native Army was in full mutiny, and had inaugurated the movement by the destruction of Meerut and the seizure of Delhi, while massacres were perpetrated throughout the land, coupled with an urgent demand for the aid of every European soldier to uphold the banner of British supremacy and withstand the mighty uprising to "drive the British leopard into the sea,'' as Napoleon would have styled it. Already the head-quarters of the Regiment, which had sailed in the ' Himalaya,' had . I n ARRIVAL AT CALCUTTA. 119 been despatchod to Calcutta, and, at oiicc proceeding up-country, formed part of the reinforcenients brought up by Sir James Outram, when that most distinguished of Indian Generals, fresh from his Persian triumphs, marched to joined llavelock, then battling against tremendous odds ; and thus a portion of the llOth were fortunate enough to participate in the first Helief of Lucknow, Two days after the arrival of the 'Dove,' Her Majesty's ship ' Acta3on,' Captain liates, steamed up to Banca, and embarked the three companies of the i)()th, which, on arriving at Singapore on the 23rd of July, were quartered in some large roomy huts about three miles outside that picturesque-looking town, whose situation on one of the chief highways of commerce, surely marks it out for a great future. On the 29th, Her Majesty's ship ' Shannon,' Captain William Peel, with Lord Elgin on board, arrived from Hong Kong, and, on the following day, she and Her Majesty's ship ' Pearl,' Captain Sotheby, embarked the 90th for Calcutta, Captain Wolseley's company sailing in the latter ship. The arrival of these reinforcements was most oppor- tune. Delhi had not yet been captured, and Lucknow was closely besieged by the enemy, while every day brought fresh news of rebellion, and the air was thick with rumours of disaster. Men's hearts failed them for fear, and Fort William itself presented the aspect of a fortress in an enemy's country. On the morning after their arrival at Calcutta, the detachment proceeded in a river steamer to Chinsurah, mn mn\ \m 120 TJIK INDIAN MUTINY. and here they remained for Home weeks, (hiring which the fiohliers received a new outfit, and exclianged tlicir arms, which liad heen damaged, for more Hcrviceablo weapons. 'I'he oIKcers ordered new outfits in Calcutta, and Captain \Volseh;y expended =£100 in restoring his lost kit; but though they sent in their claims for compensation for lost haggage, which, according to the War Ofiice Regulations, would he immediately honoured, three years elapsed before the expenses they had incurred were refunded. At length, all the arrangements for the transport of the detachment being complete, on the 29th of August Captain Wolseley's company left Chinsurah by rail for the long journey up-country. The first halting-place was Raneegunge, about one hundred and twelve miles from Calcutta, and as the rail went no further, the com- pany started in bullock "gharees" for Benares. The detachment marched by companies, each "bullock- train" accommodating eighty men, and each " gharee" either six men, or two officers with their baggage ; one-third of the men with an officer, as a guard, proceeded on foot. The average pace was about two miles an hour, and the bullocks were changed every ten miles. Thus the company marched until, on the following morning, a halt was made for some hours at the staging bungalow; as time was of importance, and they were occasionally delayed by the rivers, which were swelled by the heavy monsoon rains, forced marches had sometimes to be made during 1 MARCH UP-COUNTRY 121 the lu-'Jit of tho (Ijiy, which, ut first, wuh fuimd to bu very trying to unaccliiiiatized sohlierH. After passing Dehrcc, burnt bungalows and devas- tated vilhiges afforded signs that they were approaching the scene of operations, and, on the lOth of September, Captain Wolseley and his company crossed tiie (iaiiges in a pa(hlle-boat worked by manual, or ratlier pedal, labour, and proceeded to a palace of the Rajali of Benares, situated about three miles from that city, which had been prepared for their reception. The Holy City of the Hindoos was, at this time, the hot-bed of sedition. p]arthworks mounted with gims com- manded the town, and it was intimated to the irdiabi- tants that any overt act of rebellion would be the signal for the destruction of their chief temple. On the following day the company started from Benares, again by bullock-dak, and, after two days' marching, re-crossed the Ganges, and entered the fort of Allahabad, which, situated at the junction of that sacred river with the Jumna, is a place of the greatest strategical importance, though, like Delhi and other arsenals in Upper India, at the time of the Mutiny it was denuded of white troops by the insane policy that dictated our military dispositions. Proceeding by forced marches through Futtehpore, Captain Wolseley arrived about the 27th of September at Cawnpore, whose very name arouses sad memories in the minds of every one who was in India in that terrible year, 1857. Formerly one of the largest and finest military stations in India, Cawnpore now pre- 122 TEE INDIAN MUTINY. sented a desolate appearance. On every side were burnt cantonments and bungalows, and the company passed the entrenchment defended with so much per- tinacity by Sir Hugh Wheeler and his handful of British troops, and the small low-roofed row of houses in which was consummated the butchery of the helpless women and children, and the neighbouring well in whi(,h their still palpitating corpses were cast by the orders of the monster Nana Sahib. All these sights were viewed by the officers and men of the 90th, and aroused in them, as in every Regiment, which, on arriving up-country had visited in succession the accursed spot, feelings of hate and revenge, which found ample vent at the Relief and Siege of Lucknow in the following November and March. In October Captain Wolseley had his first brush with the Pandies. A report reached Cawnpore that the insurgents were mustering in force at Sheo Rajpore, some miles from Bhitoor, the residence of Nana Sahib. At midnight on the 17th of October, Brigadier Wilson,* of the 64th Regiment, taking with him a field battery, a few Native horse, and six hundred and fifty bayonets, — made up of detachments of the Madras Fusiliers and the 64th and 90th Regiments — carrying four days' provisions, moved oflf rapidly towards Bhitoor. It was the time of the Native festival of the Dewalee, or Feast of Lamps,and hopes were expressed of inflicting a severe blow on the rebels. The force proceeded all night, the * This gallant officer fell on the 27th of November, when the Gwalior troops attacked General Windham in hie entrenchments at Cawnpore. ' 'illl ACTION AT BHITOOR. 123 *1 lUsh iliat ve, liib. Ill,* ry, ts, Dd .ys' as St re he Uor |}re. infantry being mounted on elephants and camels ; at daybreak they dismounted, and, marching briskly, approached Bhitoor early in the morning. On the way they learned that the enemy occupied a grove of trees half a mile in front, with two guns, a 9-pounder and a 24-pounder, in position. The British column was marching along a hard " pucka "* road, when, the enemy beginning to open fire. Brigadier Wilson de- ployed his force. Wolseley's company — which, with the detachment of Native cavalry, formed the advanced guard — was marching in column of sections, when the round shot and shell began to fly down the road pretty freely. One shell passed through his files, and, bursting in front of the other companies of the 9()th, which wore in the rear and in the act of deploying, killed and wounded seven men. The cavalry thereupon turned and bolted, charging through AVolseley's company. He now quickly threw his men into skirmishing order, and Major Barnston proposed to the Brigadier that he should advance upon the guns, for like most soldiers who had served at Sebastopol, and had been daily under shell fire, he had not that dread of attacking guns which generally characterizes inexperienced soldiers. But Colonel Wilson, though personally as gallant a soldier as any in Her Majesty's service, feared to incur the responsibility of the act, and, though Wolseley was already advancing on the guns, countermanded the * " Pucka" is a word of very general use and many significations in Hindostanee ; here it denotes " permanent," as opposed to cutcha, raw or new. m ^■» , ,1 H'l il 124 THE INDIAN MUTINY, attack, and, halting his force, brought up his battery and opened fire on the enemy. This occupied some time as the guns were drawn by bullocks, and, before he had fired many rounds, the enemy had limbered up and made off with their guns, leaving behind only two waggons and three country carts with ammunition. During this action, which lasted about an hour, our casualties were two killed and six severely wounded, all, with one exception, belonging to the 90th ; while the loss of the enemy was computed at about one hundred. The 19th of October was occupied in destroying Bithoor, the troops bivouacking that night in Nana Sahib's compound, and the " bawachee " of Wolseley*s mess cooked his masters' dinner by means of the legs of the Nana's billiard tables. On the following day the column returned to Cawnpore, having first destroyed Sheo Raj pore, where a party of the 64th bayoneted some rebels they found concealed in straw\ At this time, though Delhi had fallen, and a portion of the Army — which, at the time of the assault, numbered less than ten thousand effectives — was free for ulterior operations, the position of affairs at Lucknow was still most critical. On the 25th of September, General Havelock and Sir James Outram had effected the relief* of the Residency, but little had been accomplished beyond increasing the strength of the garrison, whereby * In this desperate affair the chief sufferers were the 78th who had forty-five killed and eighty-one wounded, and the 90th, which lost thirty-seven killed and forty-nine wounded. !'•' i TEE ALUMBAGE. Iz5 { I had llost all immediate dcanger of its being overpowered was averted, and occupying the Furreed Buksli and Cliuttur Munzil Palaces, and other buildings. The entire British Force only numbered three thousand effectives, and the rebel hordes were swelled to some seventy thousand fighting men ; still had there been no convoys of women and children, and sick and wounded, Outram, who now resumed the command, would have cut his way out, and retired upon Cawnpore, and he was only dissuaded from adopting this desperate course by his sagacious chief of the staff, Colonel Napier (now Lord Napier of Magdala) who expressed his opinion that any attempt to encounter once more the perils of a mile and a half of street fighting, with a convoy of some three thousand non-combatants, would most probably involve the destruction of the entire force. On the day preceding his entry into Lucknow, liavelock left at Alumbagh (" Garden of the World ") all his baggage and some one hundred and thirty sick and wounded, under a guard of four hundred men, with some guns, under the command of Colonel Mclntyre, of the 78th Highlanders. On the 3rd of October a convoy of provisions was thrown into Alumbagh, and, on the 11th, orders were issued that five hundred men, under Major Barnston, including the detachment of the 90th, with four guns, was to march to Alumbagh with supplies ; as they were to return iu a few davs, this force was ordered to leave behind at Cawnpore all their impedimenta, which, how- 's, M il -. 1 ; 126 TEE INDIAN MUTINY. ever, none of the officers were destined to be encum- bered with any further. Accordingly, on the 21st of October, three hundred waggons, hiden with stores, and eight camels, were sent across the river ; and, early in the ensuing morning, the column crossed over the bridge of boats, and, after a march of a few miles, halted under some trees, no tents being taken for the same reason that the baggage was left behind. At midnight Major Barnston started again, and marched till eight in the morning. On the second day he learnt that the rebels, seven hundred strong, with two guns, intended to dispute the passage of the river Sye, at the Bunnee Bridge, the centre arch of which they had undermined. Having made his dis- positions. Major Barnston advanced his small force, Captain Guise's company forming the advanced guard ; " but," writes Captain Herford, " Wolseley, who fol- lowed, told Guise that he must let him go in and take one of the guns." However the gallant officers were disappointed of their game this time, for on reaching the Sye it was found that a battery had indeed been built, but the birds were flown I Nothing remained but to cross the river without the excitement of performing the opera- tion under fire, and this was a work of much difficulty, and requiring considerable time. It took eight hours of hard work before the long train, which covered nearly two miles of ground, was transported across the river and pulled up the steep bank on to the road on the opposite side. Proceeding three-quarters of a mile I TEE MARCH TO ALU MB AGE. 127 ider of of jas Ihe he la- e further on, the force halted Ahimbagh was only about eight miles distant, and the small column marched on the following morning, Cap- tain Wolseley's company forming the rear-guard, which was destined to be the post of honour. The force had just cleared two topes and debouched on a large plain, when the enemy opened fire upon the rear-guard. The road along which they marched was a " pucka" road, and extended through the centre of a vast plain forming a dead level, and admirably adapted for the operations of cavalry. The enemy's horse galloped up in a threat- ening attitude, but Wolseley received them with a volley, and they hung back. Some desultory fighting then ensued, and the Enfield proved its efficiency at long ranges. Major Barnston ordered the centre column to fall back and assist Wolseley's company ; this was done, and the enemy, after a show of resistance, re- treated, deserting two stockades they had constructed. Soon after the long convoy was passed in safety into Alumbagh. Alumbagh, which stands almost three miles due south of Lucknow, was formerly a palace standing in a beau- tiful garden, and had been a favourite residence of one of the Queens of Oude. At this time it consisted of a walled enclosure, five hundred yards square, and having a turreted building at the four corners, in each of which were mounted two guns. Its defences consisted of an abattis of felled trees, a trench of earthworks, and the walls were loop-holed, while a 32-pounder at the prin- cipal entrance commanded the road ; but the place was 11 \ 128 THE INDIAN MUTINY. V' '4 V ■ IH -^Y incapable of resisting artillery, had the rebels possessed sufficient enterprise to attack it. From the turrets of the building in the centre, were visible the domes and minarets of Lucknow, as well as the Residency, to which the garrison cast many longing eyes as the goal of their aspirations. The maintenance of this post proved of esser^* 1 benefit to the beleaguered garrison, as it was the means of securing their communications with Cawnpore : one set of " kossids" carried corres- pondence, worded in French, but written in the Greek character, from t^^e Kt'Si'rlency— a work of the greatest difficulty and dang.i "i which only very large bribes could induce natives to undertake— and another set performed the cor:parativt!_ .-.vfe task of conveying messages thence to Cawnpore. Major Barnston had received orders to return to Cawnpore three days after his arrival at Alumbagh ; but Colonel Mclntyre, requiring the aid of the column to defend the post, obtained leave for them to remain with him. This officer, who was deficient in enter- prise, considered that he was only justified in conform- ing to the exact letter of his instructions. It was his duty to defend Alumbagh, and consequently, notwith- standing the representations of his officers, he refused to undertake any offensive operations. Thus the enemy, emboldened by the pusillanimity of the British, planted heavy guns within range of the enclosure, and very greatly annoyed the garrison, who, though anxious to sally out and capture or spike the cannon, were not permitted to quit the walls, except on foraging expedi- W' ! ADVANCE ON LUC KNOW. 129 to imn lain er- •m- Ihis ;h- ;cd ;he Ind us jot lli- tioiis for the supply of the half-starved herd of camels and elephauts. So passed a short period of inactivity, until, at length, the hearts of the 90th were cheered by the news that when the army, assembling at Cawnpore under the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell, was ready to make a forward momement on Lucknow, they were to form part of the relieving force. Brigadier-General (the late General Sir) Hope Grant crossed the Ganges on the 30th of October, with some four thousand men, and, on the 4th of November, the road to Cawnpore being open, all the waggons, with the camels, elephants, and other animals, which were in a half-starved state, were sent thither from Alumbagh, while the convoy of provisions escorted by Grant was thrown into the place. On the 9th of November, a semaphore communication was opened with the Lucknow Residency from the roof of the building in the centre of Alumbagh, and the first use to which it was put was to announce, on the follow- ing day, the arrival of Mr. Kavanagh, of the Uncove- nanted Civil Service, who, disguised as a Native, carried a message from Outram to Sir Colin Campbell. It was a most gallant deed, and Kavanagh received the Victoria Cross, was admitted into the Covenanted Service, and awarded a grant of c£2,000. On the 12th of November Sir Colin Campbell arrived at Alumbagh with some additional troops, and, on the following afternoon, the detachment of the 90th re- ceived the welcome order to march out of Alumbagh, VOL. I. K III m 180 THE IXDI.iX MUTINY. ii llil and join tlie 4tli lirigiule camping outside, under the coininand of Brigadier Honourable Adrian Hope, of the l>,">rd Highlanders. The brigade was composed of the 63rd, 93rd, and a battalion of about six hundred men, made up of companies of the DOth, 84th, and Madras Fusiliers, under the command of Major J3arnston. The Alumbagh garrison was relieved by the 75th Regiment, which had seen much hard fighting and suf- fered heavily at Delhi. The Commander-in-Chief had under his command, for the proposed operations for the relief of the Residenc}-, only some four thousand five hundred and fifty men and thirty-two guns. A direct route, known as the Cawnpore Road, by which Havelock advanced on the 25th of September, runs due north from Alunibagh, crosses the canal at right angles at a point called the Charbagh ("four gar- dens") Bridge, and, leading through the heart of the city, stops at the Residency, which abuts on the River Goomtee. The canal, which runs nearly east and west, falls into the river, where it makes abend towards the Martiniere School. From this there is a route through tortuous streets past the Barracks, Secundra- bagli, Shah Nujeef, and 32nd Mess-house, to the Motee Mahul and other palaces. The enemy, expecting that Sir Colin Campbell would adopt the same route as Havelock, and pass through the heart of the city, had not strengthened the south side of the Martiniere with any care, and Sir Colin resolved to reduce it with artil- lery fire from the Dilkhoosha (" heart's delight"), a brick palace composed of two rectangular buildings, forming A S UD DEX A TTA CK. i.n half a square, situated near the banks of the Gooiiiter, about two miles from Lueknow. On the 14th of November, about nine a.m.. thcs British Army started on its momentous mission of etTeeting the final relief of our countrymen, the Fourth Brigade bringing up the rear of the main cobnnn. The Dilkoosha and Martiniere were carried with small loss, and the latter was occupied by the 90th. Wolsel(^y, on ascending to the roof, had presented to him for the first time a magnificent view of tlie superb Eastern city spread at his feet. A little later, the i)()th were directed to encamp in a tope in rear of a mud wall, behind which the rebels had taken up a position, and the men were about to dine, when a heavy musketry fire denoted that the enemy was making an attempt, in great force, to retake the position. The battalion were at once hurried off to su})port the i)3rd Highlanders, who were out skirmish- ing to their left, and, forming line, advanced to where two heavy guns of the Shannon Brigade, under Captain Peel, were pounding away at the enemy. Wolseley, profiting by the halt, was snatching the luxury of a ""tub," when he was summoned to the front. Hastily dressing himself, he turned out with his company, and came up just as Peel began firing. As he passed between the guns the charge in one of them exploded — owing to the vent not being " served '' — and carried off the head of a sailor. Bullets began to fly about plenti- fully, and a brass shell rolled down and exploded quite close to Wolseley; round shot were also fired from some K 2 ; 1 1,2 THE INDIAN MUTINY. guns posted over the canal, and the 90th received orders to advance and take them. On reaching the canal, however, it was found that the rebels had dammed it at this point, and, instead of being only ankle deep, the water came up to a man's shoulders. It was now getting dark, and as Sir Colin determined to bivouac on the banks of the canal for the night, Captain Wol- seley received orders to "picket" his company on the spot, the rest of the force retiring. Sentries were placed on the canal bank, and Wolseley enjoined the greatest silence as they were so close to the rebel sen- tries posted on the opposite side, in front of Bank's house, that every word these latter said could be heard. So passed the night, which was dark and cold, for though the sun was overpoweringly hot during the day, the temperature fell very considerably after night- fiill. All the following day, during which the troops remained stationary, waiting for a fresh supply of ammunition, Major Barnston's battalion was on picket, retiring a few yards into a hollow, while musketry fire raged over their heads. At length, after being on con- tinuous duty for thirty-six hours, Wolseley was relieved, and he and his men enjoyed a night's rest. On the following morning (IGth of November) the Commander-in-Chief, having left all his baggage at Dilkhoosha, crossed the canal and resumed operations. At ten o*clock, he rode up to Major Barnston, and, calling the officers of his battalion together, told them that when fired at in the streets it was best not to stop and return the fire, but to fix bayonets and rush on. A WARM CORSER. 13:» lie lat 111 P It was decided that Barnston's battalion was to have the honour of being tiie first of tlie main body, but, subsequently, this was changed, and Hrigiulier Hope arranged that they were to follow the IK'Jrd, the h'M\\ forming the advance-guard. At twelve o'clock the battalion started, and, crossing the canal, made a detour to the right; soon they were in the thick of the firing, but Barnston pressed on, and reached some houses on the edge of an open space, across which ran a road, now commanded by the guns of the rebels. (>aptain Wol- seley was directed to double across this open, a run of about three hundred yards, and occu{)y some ruined houses on the other side. This he did amid a perfect shower of shot and bullets. After keeping up a mus- ketry duel from behind the remains of some walls scarcely breast high, Wolseley advanced with the inten- tion of driving out the enemy. Marching rapidly along a narrow lane, his company led into the town. The enemy retired, keeping up a hot fusillade, and, as they gave ground, the guns were brought forward, Wolseley, with a party of his men, himself assisting in dragging them to the front through the sand, which lay ankle deep. At this time, he says, the enemy's fire was so hot that '' the bullets hopped off the tires of the guns like peas off a drum." How any man of the score or so of his company, who assisted him, escaped with their lives was marvellous. Among those who particularly distinguished themselves, were Sergeant Newman (now Quartermaster of the 90th), and another of Wolseley's sergeants who, though m \:i\. THE IXDIAN MUTINY. wounded l»y u iiiiisket ball, \vlii(tli carried away his upper lip, and passed clean tlirougli his face, refused to leave, and remained till the close of the action. Wolseley was now ordcired to protect the flank of (-aptain I'limt's troop of Horse Artillery, which came into action in brilliant style. While the rest of Major l^arnston's battalion advanced towards the Secundra- bagh, he pushed past that enclosure, and, leavin*; it untaken in the rear, advanced to a line of huts. Here he remained for the rest of the; day, protecting the flank of the forces engaged in taking the Shah Nujeef, and fighting from house to house. That night Wolseley \s com})any bivouacked outside the Secundrabagh. "Jlius he had his share of the hard fighting that rendered this day the most memorable during the operations con- nected with the Relief. When he retired in the evening with his company, and joined the rest of the battalion, he was grieved to learn that his friend and brother officer, Major Barnston, had been severely wounded in the thigh. Like so many others who were wounded, he ultimately sank under the effects of climate, and, though he spoke cheerfully of his recovery to the last, was destined never more to draw his sword in his country's service. Meanwhile Sir Colin Campbell had been conducting the main operations of the Army with signal success. The enemy had fortified the Secundrabagh, a garden, one hundred and tw^enty yards square, surrounded by a high wall of solid masomy, which had been carefully loopholed. The artillery having effected a breach, the 77//; sKcrsnii.iiiAan. 135 %\\\\ IIIglilandtTs and 4tli Siklis stormcil the enclosure, iiiid the rebels, iiiustly Sepoys of the regular service, were shiughtered like ruts in a barn. In the evenin^^ when the bayonet had completed its fatal work, the men were euiployed in burying the dead in two large pits, (,'aptain Wolseley, who was engaged on this unpleasant tusk, mentions us a singular coin- cidence, that when coiniting the corpses, us they were flung into the pits, it was found that they numbered one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, the date of the year; this number was exclusive of others who were killed outside when seeking to make tlieir escupe. From the Secundrubagh, Sir Colin proceeded uguinst the Shah Xujeef, u tomb ol" one of the kings of Oude, und here ensued the sternest struggle of the Uelief. Lieutenunt Wynne und Ensigi I'owell, of the 9()th, were wounded, und it was while bringing up the re- mainder of his buttulion, thut Mujor Burnston received his death-wound from u shell. Pe jl now battered the place with his heavy guns, ufter which the 93rd stormed it. On the morning of the 17th operutions were resumed, and the services of Captain Wolseley during the day were of so marked u character thut he hud the coveted honour of seeing his nume speciully mentioned in the Communder-in-Chief 's Desputch. This wus in con- nection with the uttuck on the 32nd Mess-house,* .i^ * The late Mr, Martin Gubbins, at this time Financial Commissioner if- 136 TEE INDIAN MUTINY. formerly known as the Khoor-slieyd Munzil, (" Happy Palace") a building of considerable size, defended by a ditch and loop-holed wall. During the morning of the 17th. Sir Colin was engaged in pressing back the enemy, and, about noon, (^aptain Peel brought up his guns, and kept up a heavy fire on the Mess-house. After the building had been battered for about three hours, Sir Colin deter- mined to storm, and s(3lit for Captain Wolseley, whom he had known by repute in the Crimea. The Com- mander-in-Chief, addressing him, said that he had selected him to command the storming party, and that he would be supported by a company of Sikhs and the detachment of his Regiment, which was led by Captain Guise, the officer next in seniority to Major Barnston. On Wolseley's expressing his extreme gratification at being selected for this honourable task. Sir Colin des- cribed the work as being surrounded by a ditch, about twelve feet broad and scarped with masonry, and beyond that a loopholed mud wall ; there were also drawbridges, but he did not know whether they were down. His instructions were that, in the event of the drawbridges being up, and his not being able to effect of Lucknow, in his " Mutinies in Oude," describes the Mess-house in the following terms : — " Its structure is massive ; all the windows on the ground-floor are furnished with strong iron gratings, and it is sur- rounded by a moat all round, passable only at the two entrances, of which the principal immediately faces us. All those windows are briclced-up inside the iron grating for three parts of their height, and the masonry is most carefully loopholed." lliilf WOLSELEY STORMS THE MESS-HOUSE. 137 an entrance, he was to leave his men under cover and return and report to him.* Wolseley left the Chief, and proceeded to carry out his instructions. Captain Peel, who was battering tlie Mess-house with his heavy guns, was requested to cease firing, but just as Wolseley gave tlie order, " Double," to his men. Peel, characteristically turned to Sir Colin Campbell, and asked leave just to give "one more broadside." The favour granted, Wolseley, amid a hot fire from the neighbouring buildings, out- stripping his men with the fierce energy that distin- guished liim in the assault of Myat-toon's position, ran over the intervening space ; arrived under the garden wall, he halted to get breath, and then clam- bered over it. Inside the garden he found many matchlockmen, who fired at him, but, though the bullets flew about him, he ran on unscathed and entered the Mess-house without opposition. As he gaincJ !.^"" drawbridge, which was down, he called to the bugler to sound the advance to show that lie had done the work entrusted to him, and then bounded u]) the steps to the roof of the building, on which he planted the British flag. The enemy opened fire from every * We have been assured by an olllcer of the OOtli, wlio acoonipanied Wolseley on tliis occasion, that the Commander-in-C'hiif promised him the Victoria Cross before lie dismissed him from his presence. While on this subject of the Victoria Cross, we may mention that, during the Crimean War, the late Sir W. Gordon, of " Gordon's Battery," recommended Captain Wolseley for the distinction, for his conspicuous gallantry on the 7tli of June, and on the occasion of his receiving his wound, on the 30th of August. HI It If i 'ii «'.: V=. liiw n If > i in d n;: ^1 13S THE ISDLiy MUTINY. gun they could bring to bear on the Mess-house, and so lieavy was the fire that twice tlie flag was struck down, only to be re})laced, and, finally, he had to retire with his men under cover.* At this time Captain Irby came up v;ith his company of the 9()th, and Wolseley directed him to take some houses to the left, while he proceeded to attack those to the right, the fire being heavy from both directions. * Mr. Gubbins, who, in company with General Ilavelock, witnessed this exploit from their post of observation, the roof of the Chuttur Alunzil Palace, tliws grapliically describes it : — " It is now three o'clock, and if the enemy have any men concealed in that massive pile, the Mess-house, we shall soon see, for the red-coats are approaching ; they are moving down in regular order along the road leading from the Sliah Nujeef, and now are lost to view. Presently a part of them are seen advancing in skirmishing order. They have reached tlie enclosing wall ; they are over it, through the shrubbery, and now the leatling ofliccr enters at the door which we have been watching ; and while a larger body follow, rushing at a double up the building, he reappears upon the roof, and presently a British ensign floats on the riglit-hand tower of the Khoorslieyd Munzil. It is Captain Wolseley, of the 90th, who has placed it there. " The building was indeed, as we supposed, abandoned, but the fire is 80 heavy from tlie Tara Kotee and adjacent buildings that it is no easy work that our noble fellows have to do. See ! the ensign is s^^ruck down, and now it is again raised and fixed more firndy than before. But again a shot strikes it down, and probably the stall' is damaged, for they have taken it down through the garden to that group of oflicers — probably Sir Colin himself and staff, whose caps are visible inside the enclosing compound wall. To the right, this wall is lined by the captors of the Mess- house, and a lieavy fire of musketry, with occasional shot and shell, is directed from the Kaiser Bagh upon them ; and now tliey cross the wall, enter the Tara Kotee enclosure, charge up its main avenue, and are hid from us by the trees." ADVANCE ON THE M )TKE MAHL'L. l.'i'J Irby succeeded in occupying tlie Tara Kotliie,* or con- servatory, without meeting with any opposition, thougli during the latter part of tiie day he had hard work in holding the position. And now one more task remained— the occupation of the Motee Mahul,t situated on the banks of the ( Joom- tee, the last post which separated the besieged and their deliverers While Irby held the Tara Kothie, Wolseley proceeded to the attack of the Motee Mahul, and the success he achieved with only his company, forms one of the extraordinary episodes of the War. Quitting the garden of the Mess-house, he ran the gauntlet across the road under a heavy fire, but, on arriving at the Motee ]\Iahul, found that the gateway was built up and loopholed. He was met by a volley, but proceeded with his company to subdue the enemy's fire, and, at 'M * Tara means " stars," and Kothie, " pucka," or permanent buikling. t This Motee Mahul (" Pearl of Palaces"), whicii, like all similar edifices, is enclosed within a higli wall, is one of tlie moat spacious and graceful buildings of its kind in Lucknow. Here the king was wont to regale his European guests ; and it was within a walled passage, on the south side of this enclosure, that, on the 25th of September, during Havelock's advance, our wounded, under escort of the yOth, were left ; and here fell many gallant ofTictrs and men, including Major Cooper and Captain Crump, cf the Artillery, killed ; also Colonel Campbell, of the 90th, wlio received a severe wound in the leg, which necessitated amputation, from the etfects of which he expired on the 13th of November. Close to the Motee Mahul stood a building, called Martin's House, the enclosure of which was separated from the advanced garden post of the Lucknow garrison by a small open space, swept by the fire of the Kaiser Bagli, distant about four hundred and fifty yards. ft - I' 140 TnE INDIAN MUTINY. 4 ! i 'I ik length by dint of hard fighting, won the loopholes, though with the loss of many of his brave fellows. He now sent back an officer with a few men, to bring up crowbars and pickaxes to force the newly-made brickwork of the gateway. This was a service of some danger, as the road was still swept by musketry and canister. In the meantime, Wolseley kept his company as much under cover as possible. Soon the men were seen returning with the tools, and private Andrews, a gallant fellow who had been Wolseley's servant in the Crimea, ran out from under shelter to show his com- rades the way across. No sooner, however, had he darted into the street, than he was shot through the body from one of the loopholes. Wolseley had a par- ticular regard for this fine fellow, and, though he was lying out in the street within five or six yards of the loophole from whence he had been shot, sprang out and bore him back in his arms. As he was carrying Andrews, a Pandy took deliberate aim at the officer, but the bullet passed through the body of the soldier.* At this time, while Wolseley was busy with his men in knocking a hole in the wall of the Motee Mahul, Mr. Kavanagh arrived on the scene and offered to guide him to a place where an entrance could be effected. * Andrews, we may observe, still lives, and, for his services and wounds, enjoys the magnificent pension of eightpence per diem. Like the greater portion of the 90th, of Crimean and Indian Mutiny days, he was a cockney, as the regiment recruited largely in the metropolis ; and, in the opinion of Wolseley, your Londoner is peculiarly adapted for light infantry work, by reason of his superior intelligence and general smartness. WOLSELEY CAPTURES TEE MOTEE MAEUL. 141 Wolseley gladly closed with the proposal, and, leaving injunctions with his subalterns to get on as fast as they could with the work in hand, accompanied Kavanagh on their perilous mission. Proceeding down the street about one hundred yards with the " whish" of a rifle-bullet occasionally ringing in their ears, they passed through broken walls, and gardens, and deserted courts, but their endeavours to And an entrance into the palace were unsuccessful. After an absence of about ten minutes, during which Kavanagh found that all the entrances he knew of were built up, they returned, and arrived just as Ensign Haig was wrig- gling through an aperture knocked in the wall. Soon the hole was sufficiently enlarged for Wolseley and all his men to make their way into a court- yard of the Motee ^Mahul, whence, proceeding into the Palace, they drove the enemy from room to room, and from yard to yard, firing and receiving their fire as the fight progressed towards the river, on the banks of which the Palace was built. At length they drove them all out of this great agglomeration of buildings, and, closely following the fugitives, forced them into the Goomtee, where a number of them were shot as they tried to swim across.* Having cleared the Motee Mahul, Wolseley proceeded with his company, which nobly responded to the calls * Kavanagh sajs of Wolseley, in his work " How I Won the Victoria Cross :" — " Captain Wolseley, who delighted in dash and danger, loll upon the enemy as they tried to escape, and in half an hour he was Seen on the top of the iuuer buildings, waving the British banner." , V ■ ,-^ f ^ i \'- ' k- [f^ ■ ' ': ; 1 . '>? ,H* , ■R .'. .^ i" 1 ! \ iiW Wti 'fi 142 THE IXDIAN MUTINY. i: i t \' - i } made upon thcMn by their chief, tc force liis way into the liesidency itself. Now it so happened that the 90th, which, under the command of Colonel Purnell, the successor of the lamented Colonel Campbell, formed a portion of the Lucknow garrison, held the most ad- vanced post in the Residency; and, just at this time, a company of the Regiment made a sortie, so that, strange to relate, the first of the relieved and their deliverers to join hands, were the officers and men of the gallant 9()th Light Infantry ! It was a singular coincidence, and "terque, quaterque, beatus," to borrow a Virgilian phrase, was Captain Wolseley, in ben- the undoubted claimant to the distinction of first effecting a junction with the heroic garrison of the Lucknow Residency. And now the three noble chiefs. Campbell, Outram, and Havelock, at length met, and there was presented the group delineated by the artist, ^Ir. Barker, in his great painting of the Relief of Lucknow.* Fortune had certainly smiled on Wolseley. It was so at the Quarries, when he participated in almost the only successful assault of the English Army, and now on this memorable occasion, the " fickle jade " again favoured her favourite child ; on his part, this young * The engraving of this painting, with the heads of Hope Grant, Mansfield, Napier, Tnglis, Gi'cathed, Peel, Adrian Hope, Alison, Little, David Russell, Hope Johnstone, Nonnan, Anson, Hodson, Probyn, Watson, Kavanagh, and other gallant .^oldiers, i^ well known to old Indians. The painting iteelf fetched, on the 21th of April, 1875, at the Mauley Hall Sale, £1,018. THE RELIEF OF LUCKSOW. 143 'as the )W liin ng Lnt, lie, In, lid ut Holdiur eagerly seized each opportunity for winning her favours as it was presented to him, and, by his judg- ment and impetuous valour, justified the choice. All was now gratulation and hand-shaking ; and the British soldiers and sailors of the relieving force eagerly greeted their comrades and the women and children they had dared so many perils to rescue from the clutches of the rebellious Sepoys surrounding them. The detachment of the 90th, which lately had Major Barnston for its leader, welcomed their comrades, who, embarking in the ' Himalaya,' had marched up-country with Sir James Outram, and earned for the old Regi- ment immortal renown by their bearing throughout those trying days in September, when Havelock forced his way through the heart of Lucknow with only two thousand six hundred men. Wolseley now learnt, with sincere regret, of the death of Colonel Campbell, who had expired only four days before, and also of other friends and gallant soldiers of humbler rank. The loss sustained by the Relieving Army, which only numbered four thousand five hundred and fifty men, between the 14th and 25th of November, was ten officers and one hundred and twdvemen killed, and thirty-five officers (of whom three died) and three hundred and seventy-nine rank and file wounded. It will be allowed that Wolseley had good reason to anticipate the congratulations and thanks of the Com- mander-in-Chief for his conduct, but what was his astonishment on learning from his Brigadier, the Hon. Adrian Hope, that Sir Colin was furious with him for 'I ■SI JjKl T II I 1 !' '- t i:. ■ .i"""' v'l 1 ' \ ill ■ 144 THE INDIAN MUTINY. having exc(;(jdi;d tliu lutter of iiistnictions, in that when lie was only ordered to take the Mess-house, he actually, of his own motion, had driven the eneujy out of the ]\Iotee Mahul. The Brigadier advised him to keep out of the way as the Chief was asking for him, and he never saw a man more enraged in his life. Capiain AVolseley's company passed the night of the 17th of November in the Shah Nujecf, where the Com- mander-in-Chief and his Staff had taken up their quarters; the building was con, luanded by the enemy, who still occupied the Kaiser Bagh, from which they kept up a cannonade, but the British soldiers slept the sleep of the weary, having learned to disregard such interruptions provided they were not too personal. * Wolseley's adventures on this 17tli November did not end when he efi'ected a junction with Captain Tinhug's company of his regiment. Being desirous of showing in a practical form his regard for his old comrades, he had brought with him soQie tobacco, which he distributed among the ofliccrs and men of this company, to whom it was a real godsend. But there waa still one desideratum wliich was requisite to make the gallant fellows happy, and that was— rum. This also their thoughtful comrade had not forgotten, but the hquor, being bulky, had been left behind at the place from which he had started in the morning, when proceeding to storm the Mess-house. It was now between six and eight in the evening, and getting dark, but Wolseley, though his exertions had been of a sufficiently arduous character to tire most men, started off on his charitable errand, with four or live men, who volun- teered to accompany him. At length, having secured the rum, he slung it on a pole between two men, and commenced his return march. It was pitch-dark as he passed through the Mess-house gardens, and suddenly, as he was proceeding along, himself leading the way, he heard a scream. Turning round, he found that one of the pole-bearers had been run through the body by a Pandy, who was prowhng about A " WIGOINOr 115 I when luent. is uld uted real te to their had six 1 his en, lun- he irch. land he ers out After tho warning lie had received from his Briga- dier, Wolseley, on tlie following morning, kept out of the way of the " Lord Sahib," but Sir Colin espied him, and calling to him, began to administer a severe ' wigging.' He commenced by asking him what he meant by exceeding his instructions; that ho had ordered him to take the Mess-house, and how dared he attack the Motee Mahul ? He then told him that he was very angry with him on the previous night; indeed he did not think he was ever so much incensed against any man in his life, and it was lucky for him that he the grounds, and whom he had himself just passed. In the dark Wolseley lost liis way, and it was some hours before ho gained the garden of tho Furreed Buksh, where he was told his brother ofTicers were assembled, in a summer-house in the centre of tho grounds. Proceeding there, he put his head in and glanced round the room, where he saw a number of men sitting at a table in the centre, but he did not recognise any of them. As ho was going away, one of the number, Captain (now Sir Harry) Goodrickc, called out : •' Why, that's Wolseley." Ho turned, and then recognised his old mess-mates, who were so altered by privation and constant duty that, at first, he actually did not know them. An amusing circumstance happened during the night. Wolseley heard Lieutenant Carter raging and swearing at some one, and, on inquiring tho exciting cause of his subalteni's wrath, learned that, in tho dark, some "beastly nigger" had attempted to place one of the legs of a chai-poy, or light wooden bedstead, on his stomach. Lieutenant Carter naturally resented this indignity, but the language in which he couched his protest was far from parliamentary, or complimentary to the native in question. After a laugh at this sliglit contretemps, tho officers went to sleep. On awaking in the morning. Carter's consterna- tion may be imagined when he discovered that the "beastly nigger" of the previous night was none other than His Excellency the Com- mander-in-Chief, the lord of many legions. VOL. L L I iM ' >: 146 THE INDIAN MUTINY. ni conk] not 1)0 found. Tlio ire of the old Cliiof now began to cool, {in ^^1 It 1 I fi'W 1 ' i |.:|| it t: ; vw I 152 THE INDIAN MUTINY. view of the surrounding country. After the recent hard service before Lucknow, the week's tour of duty in the Jellalabad fort, with its well-wooded and pictu- resque enclosure, was regarded in the light of a pleasant interlude. On the north side of the fort was a jheel, or large piece of water, the fiivourite resort of wild fowl, to which the officers would occasionally resort with their guns, and agreeably vary the regi- mental fare. To place the fort in a state capable of resisting a sudden attack, Brigadier Napier, who was busily employed putting the outposts in the extended position in a proper condition of defence, erected a battery at the principal entrance, and repaired the breach made by our gunc.'rs during the advance on Lucknow. In the middle of December, a convoy arrived from Cawnpore, and then Wolseley and his brother-officers who sailed in the ' Transit,' learned that the kit which they had deposited there, had all been burnt by the Gwalior mutineers who first defeated General Windham — " Redan Windham," as his admirers called him — and then besieged him in his entrenchments. Thus for the second time, Wolesley was a heavy loser by the chances of war. On the 20th of December, information was brought to Sir James Outram by his spies, that the rebels in- tended surrounding his position, with the object of cutting off his supplies and intercepting his communi- cations with Bunneo ; and that with this view they had taken up a position at Budroop. He also learned on the 1^1 ACTION OF THE 22nd DECEMBER, 1857. 153 following (lay, that they had been reinforced to a strength of four thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry, and four guns. Outrani determined to anticipate them and strike a blow, and, at half-past two, a.m., of the 22iid of December, a column of a thousand men, including cavalry, and two guns, marched out under his personal command to attack the enemy, who, having left a space of about half a mile intervening between their position and the gardens skirting the canal and the Dilkhoosha, Outram, seeing his advantage, resolved to take tiiem by surprise, and cut off their retreat from Lucknow. It was very cold and rather dark when Captain Wolseley proceeded with his Regiment, which formed the right column of the attackiiig force. Favoured by a heavy mist, Outram was enabled to approach quite close to the left flank of the enemy, whose cavalry vedettes challenged, and then, firing their carbines, galloped off to the main body. Outram gave the order to deploy, and with a loud hurrah, the right column, under the connnand of Colonel Purnell, of the 9()th, charged the enemy in line, and, in spite of a heavy fire of grape and musketry, carried the position with a rush. The left column, under Colonel Guy, of the /)th Fusi- liers, was equally successful, and soon the rebels were in full retreat across the plain, pursued by the cavalry, until they found refuge in a village, from which they opened a heavy fire of grape and nnisketry. Olpherts now came into action with his guns, and s})eedily dis- lodged the enemy, who, changing their line of retreat, endeavoured to reach the city by the Dilkhoosha. The -m i^' y. hi] '-^ 1 ^ '^y II 3 ; ". I'l-. fi T' f.tl: IM ri?^ INDIAN MUTINY. Military Train, detached to make a flank raovement, followed thein up so rapidly that they dispersed their cavalry, and drove their guns into a ravine, where they were captured. The British loss was only three killed and seven wounded, that of the enemy being fifty or sixty killed, besides four guns and ten ammunition waggons, with elephants and baggage, which fell into our hands. Outram's arrangements were rewarded with the success they merited ; the surprise had been complete, and in the village were found the children and women cooking their chupaftiei*, or oat-cakes. The houses wf^'-e fired after the non-combatants were driven away, and the column returned, the men carrying vege- tabhis and dragging or leading away all the live stock they could lay their hands on, such as goats, sheep, and bullocks. As they were moving off, a large body of the enemy advanced towards the burning village, but finding that they were too late to be of assistance, halted and retraced their steps to Lucknow. Before noon Ontram had returned to his camp, having taught the Natives a severe lesson regarding the danger of attempting to interfere with his communications. On the following day. Captain Wolseley proceeded to Cawnpore, with his company, to escort supplies. The journ(^y occupied three days, the force marching about fifteen miles a-day. The fir"t night the escort halted at l^unnee, up to which point tuere was desultory fighting with the enemy. The second night they halted at Busserutgunge, a walled village with a high road running through the centre. On arriving at Cawnpore, ACTION OF THE I2th JANUARY, 1858. 153 Wolseley learnt with deep sorrow the death of Major Barnston,* who had been wounded five weeks before. The escort returned immediately to Alumbagh with the convoy, and, on New Year's Day, there was a great exhibition of athletic sports on the open space to the left of the camp, Sir James Outrani and the officers having subscribed liberally for prizes for the men. On the 12th of January, 1858, the rebels made a most determined assault on Sir James Outram's posi- tion. On the previous evening he had received inform- ation from his spies that the enemy would attack at sunrise on the following morning. He, therefore, made the necessary dispositions, and, at daybreak, the troops breakfasted, and were held in readiness for immediate service. About sunrise, lar^^e masses of the eneni' calculated by Outram to amount " at the lowest estimate to thirty thousand men," were seen on the left front, and they * Tliough young in years, Major Barnston had displayed during his service in the Crimea and India, many of the quaUties wo recog- nize as peculiarly the attributes of those who are leaders of men. Calm and composed in the presence of imminent danger, ho possessed a thorough mastery of his profession, and inspired complete confidence in all those placed under his command. In peace time he had gained the love of his men by his kindly manner and thoughtful consideration for their comfort and well-being ; and, in the stern ordeal of battle, recognizing in him a superior genius, they would, at his bidding, have followed him anywhere. Among his brother officers Major Barnston was beloved as an amiable and accomplished companion, and respected as a liigh-bred gentleman and first-rate officer. Wolseley sincerely mourned his death, and felt that in him he had lost his dearest and most intimate friend. y m 1JJ6 THB INDIAN MUTINY. h<' i' ■ I ! ;-i ; ■',.IP gradually surrounded the whole front and flanks of the position, extending from opposite the left rear outpost, to the right near Jellalabad, a distance of at least six miles. As soon as their movements were sufficiently developed, Outram marshalled his small array, which was decreased by the absence, on convoy duty, of five hundred and thirty men and four guns, in front of their lines — two brigades, the right mustering seven hundred and thirteen Europeans, and the left, with whicli was VVolseley's company, seven hundred and thirty-tliree bayonets, with one hundred of Brasyer's Sikhs. Fight- ing commenced all along the line about half-past eight a.m., and it was not until four p.m. that the enemy, who suffered very considerably from t!ie fire of the guns, finally withdrew, and returned to Lucknow or to their original positions in the gardens and villages in front of the British camp. Again, only four days later, the rebels made a deter- mined attempt to overwhelm the small band of English- men whom it must have been most galling to them to see entrenched within a few miles of the great strong- hold of rebeldom. Captain Wolseley was on picket at the left-front village, on the morning of the IGth of January, when the enemy were seen advancing in great numbers. They made repeated attempts throughout the day to carry the village, but were driven back with severe loss by the small force under the command of ]\Iajor Gordon, 75th Regiment. After dark they assembled in great strength 11 front of the village, and, about eight o'clock, ACTION OF THE ICyth JANUARY. 157 " screwing their courage to the stickiiig-phace," advanced to the attack to the inspiriting calls of many bugles, sounding the "assembly," the "advance," and the " double." They were distinctly heard encouraging one another with " Chelow-bhye," (go on quick, brother,) and other exclamations by which the "mild Hindoo" is wont to prompt his neighbour to deeds of gallantry, and keep np his own failing heart. They occupied a "■ tope " of trees, to the left of the village, and advanced into the open as if to carry the battery of three guns, which as yet made no sign. On they came in dense array, but the guns and the infantry reserved their fire; at length, when they had approached to within seventy yards of the position, thoy were met by discharges of grape and shell from the battery, and a volley from one hundred rifles delivered with fatal precision. Still they hesitated, thus giving time to reload to their oppo- nents, whom they might have annihilated, had they mustered only sufficient pluck to charge at this critical moment, when only one hundred British bayonets inter- vened between them and the revenge they thirsted for. That hesitancy of a moment was fatal. A second volley of grape and rifle bullets swTpt through their ranks, when they broke and fled in the utmost con- fusion, carrying away, according to custom, most of their killed and W'ounded. " After they had retired," says Lieutenant Ilerford, "we wandered over the ground near the topes, and found a few dead bodies, some pools of blood, and heaps of shoes, which had been kicked off, lying about everywhere." 168 THE INDIAN MUTINY. Ill' \w W\ vi i . On the same inorning the enemy also made a sudden attack on the JelUilabad picket, led by a Hindoo devotee, who was attired as Hunooman, the " monkey god," but were repulsed. An attack was expected on the 22nd, but the day passed without a shot being fired on either side; and so the month of January "dragged its slow length along," and February was ushered in. The two enemies from whose attacks the gallant Alumbagh garrison most suffered at this time were ennui and dust. The former was irksome, after the excitement of long marches and hard campaigning ; but the latter was un- bearable, and caused the greatest discomfort, almost amounting to positive misery. The dust, which lay some six inches deep, was blown in great clouds and eddies, which swept over the plain, searching out every chink and crevice of the flimsy tents, and filled the mouth and eyes and entered into the composition of every dish. Nothing of importance occurred until the 21st of February, when the enemy made the long threatened " grand attack," which was not only carefully designed, but was so well matured that had they evinced deter- mination the Alumbagh garrison would have been hard pressed. The Moulvie, Mansoob Ali, and the Begum, Huzrut ^lahul, wife of the ex-King of Oude, agreed to set aside their differences for that day ; and the Oude local troops, and the regulars, entered heart and soul into the matter. The plan was to surround the British Force by making a detour to the rear of Alumbagh. ATTACK ON TEE ALUMBAOH OAIililSON. 159 When the circle was completed, wliich tlieir great numerical superiority would enable them to accomplish, they were to close upon their prey, and desperate assaults were to be made simultaneously at five or six different points, while demonstrations against the inter- mediate portions of the wide-extended enceinte were to prevent a concentration of Outram's troops, and, at the same time, distract his attention and embarrass his defensive operations. But Outram was not the man to wait quietly on the defensive and allow the enemy to develop their plans. He had received intelligence the night before of the intended attack; and, though he could not learn their detailed plan of operation, ho intuitively guessed what it would be, and took steps to baffle the designs of the rebel leaders. He moved out with cavalry and guns to meet both their right and left advances, taking care to let them complete their intended circle till it formed a horseshoe, when he attacked with spirit, and a rout ensued. Meantime some sharp fighting took place at Alumbagh, where Wolseley was stationed. Trenches and zigzags coimected the centre building with the front gateway and the corner towers, and the enclosure had now be- come a strong position. The first intimation the gar- rison received of the advance of the enemy, was the firing of heavy guns at three in the morning. A few shots struck the centre building, and soon the whole camp turned out, and every man was at his post. At seven o'clock the enemy came on at all points, lining every shrub and tree where they could get cover. r It ii; I Ml i 100 TUB INDIAN MUTINT. But tlic'v were deficient in spirit and dispersed under the musketry fire und discharges of grape. Towards evening the enemy withdrew, and the rebel commanders coniessed to the Durliar that their losses were between fv)ur liundred and fiveinnidred ; but their intentions were ])raiseworthy and their prej)arations complete, for Outram's 8})ies reported tliat they had sealing ladders all ready ^or storming Alum- bagh. Sir James Outram went out with some cavalrv and guns on the 24th of February, and, again, on the fol- lowing day, proceeded beyond Jellalabad, when he en- countered and defeated the enemy, who had come out nnder the leadership of the Begum. During the night the rebels attacked all along the ])ritish front and left flank, where Wolseley's company was posted, and were bold enough to fire grape from the *' tope " on the left front picket where the fighting took place on the IGth of January. They, however, soon retreated, and this was the last time the xMumbagh Force, as such, received molestation from the enemy. In the meantime, Sir Colin Campbell had been organizing his "grand army"* for the reconquest of * On the 2ik1 of Marcli the effectivo force consisted of: Artillery, one thousand six hundred and thirteen officers and men ; Engineers, two thousand and two ; Cavalry, three thousand bix hundred and thirteen; Infantry, eleven thousand nine hundred and forty ; Total — nineteen thousand seven hundred and seventy-one. On the 5th of March it was joined by Q-eneral Franks' Division, numbering five thousand eiglit liundred and ninety-three effectives, the Goorka por- V LUCKSOir. IGl I Lncknow and Oude, and on learning that Rose's and Whitlock's columns were well on their march towards Jliansi, he pushed his troops across the Ganges, and arrived at ]5nntara, about four miles from Alumbagh, on the 1st of March. During the latter part of Feb- ruary, Generals Grant and Franks had been operating in Oude, and, on the morning of the 2nd of March, Sir Colin, who had visited Sir James Outram on the })re- vious day, moved up from Buntara to Dilkhoosha with the Second Division of his Army under (xeneral Lugard, and the cavalry connuanded by (General (irant, who had joined him on the previous day. In the meantime, Jellalabad had been formed into a commissariat depot on the largest scale, there being attached to the ad- vancing army no less than sixteen thousand camels, a siege train park covering a square of four hundred or five hundred yards, with twelve thousand oxen, and a following of sixty thousand non-combatants. Since the Commander-in-Chief had evacuated Luck- now, taking with him the women and children of the Residency, the rebels had fortified the city with no little care and skill. 15ehind the canal they had thrown up earthworks, while the Martinicre, Secundrabagh, Shah Nujeef, Mess-house, and Motee ^lahul, were for- tified ; the Kaiser Bagh also was a perfect citadel, and the streets and houses had been loop-holed. tion of which, three thousand bayonets, joined the Neptuil MaliarMJah wlien he arrived before Lucknow with his division, nine thousand strong. VOL. I. M 'm vf . m 102 TIIK INDI.tN MUriNV. Bt!tw('eii tlio 'iSY(\ iiiul 4t]i of Mardi, the Third Divi- sion, iiii(l(;r (luiiiinii W;ii|)()Ic, ciiiiie up to Alinnl)ii<^h, and, at tlie sanio time. Sir Janies Out ram was directcnl to tal\e command of the corpa (Caruteey whicii tlie Com- mander-in-Ciiief had determined to detaeii across the (roomteo to operat<' on Lncknow from that side. And so I he ilOth was parted from the General with whom tiiey had associated, to their mutual satisfaction, during many months, and whoso name will ever be held in affectionate reverence by every officer and man of the Uegiment, who were engaged in the defence of Alum- bagh.* Even after thus was severed the connection that had been cemented on the battle-Held and the bivouac, the good General showed that he did not forget the gallant fellows who had fought and bled under him, for he used regularly to send the OOth a liberal supply of newspapers and periodicals for the use of the men. * The garrison of Jellnliibad in Af},'lianistan, gained the title of " ilhistrious " from Lord Eilenborouah for their gallant defence of a position protected by walls and bastions. Though the Afghans are a fiercer race than the natives of India, yet the 37th Bengal Native Infantry — which mutinied in 1857 — repeatedly encountered and de- feated them ; and Akbar Khan, in his great ellbrt against the Jellala- bad garrison, on the 7th of April, 1842, only mustered six thousand warriors to his standard, while Outram's force was assailed by thirty thousand, including some of the finest regiments of the Sepoy army. Again, the Afghans were unprovided with artillery, while the Lucknow rebels had among them guns and experienced artillerymen. Sir Vincent Eyre, in a letter addressed some years ago to the author, then employed on a biographical article on Sir James Outram, says : — " Outram's prolonged occupation of Alumbagh plain, comprising a V A LONG MARC IT. U'ui Oil thu uf'turiioon of the (Ufi of ^lurch, the lH)th left tlicir old cainj)iiig {ground at Aliimba^li, ai»d started to join tlio Coininaiider-iii-C'liicf at Dillilioo.slia. The night was very dark, and the road bad, and, being en- cumbered with baggage and ammunition, it was not until the morning, after a uiarch of nearly twelve hours, that they readied the camping ground marked out for tlieni in rear of the artillery park. Scarcely had they arrived, and were counting upon breakfast and a little rest, than they received fresh orders to move again, as it was decided that the *.K)th should be brigaded* with the 42nd, 'J3rd, and 4th Punjaub Rifles. frontage of two miles, and a circuit of seven, with a small army of occupation never excet'iling three thousiind live hundred men, within cannon runj^e of Luoknow, to hold in check an enemy mustering one hundred thousand strong within the walls, was a masterpiece ot cautious warfare, to which justice has never yet been done, because his pi*ccarious position tiiore, in obedience to Sir Colin Campbell's commands, has never up to this moment been properly understood." Again, Lord Napier of Magdala, when unveiling the Out ram statue at Calcutta, said in reference to this defence of Alumbagh : — " No achievement in the events of 1857 surpassed in skill and resolution tlie maintenance of the position of Alumbagh with a mere handful of troops against overwhelming numbers, well supplied with artillery. There were no walls or rami)art8, merely an open camp, protected by a few weU-selected intrenched out-jjosts, and a scanty line of bayonets, ever ready, day and night, to repel attjiek." Tiie Alumbagh Force and its heroic chief have never had justice rendered to them, for their defence of this position. * This Brigade formed part of the Second Division under Major- Geueral Lugard, which consisted of the above Brigade, and the Third Brigade, composed of the 34th, 38th, and 53rd Kegiments, M 2 ^/i: r? ■ .t : ^ f li ' [> 1 1 I ) ' il 164 THE INDIAN MUTINY. fonniii^ the 4ih Br'^^iule, under the coinniaiid of their ok) Ivrigadier, tlie Hon Adrian Hope. On the follow- in f; (hiy,the whole Kcgiinent was sent on pieket ahout five p.m., witii orders to line some of the walls surrounding the Dilkhoosha Park. During the ?iorning of the Dth of IMareh a heavy fire was maintained on the Martiniere, by six mortars and ten heavy guns and howitzers, manned by the artillery and sailors ;* and GeneralLugard received instruetionsto hold his Division in readiness to carry the position in the afternoon. The Commander-in-Chiefs t)rder8 specified that "the men employed in the attack will use nothing but the bayonet. They are absolutely for- bidden to fire a shot till the position is won." Fortius duty the 42nd Highlanders and 4th Pun jaubees were selected, supported by the r>ord and DOth, which was relieved from the position it had occupied in the Mahomed Bagh, near the Dilkhoosha, by the l)7th, from General Franks' Division. The first intimation the DOth received that they were to be specially en- gaged, was the order to go to dinner at twelve o'clock ; and, after finishing the meal, they were drawn up, with the other Regiments, in rear of the Dilkhoosha. At two o'clock the Jligldanders and Sikhs stormed the Martinitic, Avith slight loss, and the *,UHh, who were supporting the Highlanders and Sikhs, did not fire a * During tlio day Sii* William Peel was voiiiulcil in tlic Ihigh by a niiilcli-lcjk ball, and soon ufter nniybt the emall-pux, to ^bioL bo succumbed. THE KAISER BAOII. 10.-. shot, only loslnj^ one man from a discharge of grape. During tiie afternoon, Hope's Brigade, inelnding tin* 90th, seized on the enemy's aban(k)ne(i works, searched by Outram's fire from the opposite bank of the Goom- tee, and pickets were establisiied on the canal parapet though the advance towards Banks' House was checked by their fire. The 90th passed the night of the Dili in the Martiniere, and, on the following day, was divided into detaciiments, which were placed on picket in different places. At sunrise of the 10th, tiie heavy guns opened fire from a battery outside tiie Martiniere Park, on Banks' House, and, by noon, the enemy evacuated tlie position, which was occupied by our troops. Thus the rebels were steadily driven back to tlieir second line of de- fence, the Mess-house, barracks, and otiier buildings. Captain Wolseley was employed with his company during the day, covering the pontoon bridge which hail been thrown across the Ooomtee just beyond thr enemy's first line of works. While the('ommandi'r-in- Chief was pushing on slowly but steadily, Outrani kept up a vertical and direct fire on the defences in tli*^ interior of the Kaiser Bagh. from ten mortars and ten guns, while two more enlihided the Me— .-house. The engineering operations of tlie army were under the direction of Brigadier Nai)ier, who displayed liis wonted capacity in pushing the approachi-s througii the line of buildings towards the Kaiser Bagh, without exposing the troops to any great loss. During the night of the «•• I'' I ^ ■ I 5:: 166 THE INDIAN MUTINY. if li 10th, tlie r)lircl and 90th, with the exception of Wol- fseley's and two other companies, were sent in advance to occupy a building near the Secundrabaj^h ; and, on the following morning, the Secundrabagh itself was seized by the 53rd, without any opposition, the rebels, probably, having a lively recollection of the terrible scenes in this Golgotha, when one thousand nine hun- ilred Pandies bit the dust in a mauvau quart ifheure. P]arly on the morning of the 11th, Wolseley's (the I (Jompany) with two others of his Regiment, was directed to cover some horse-artillery guns engaged in the open. While thus employed a round shot carried away the end of an elephant's trinik, when the poor beast, frantic with rage and pain, came rushing down through the skirmishers. After this service, Wolseley proceeded on picket in the open space in front of the Secundrabagh,* where he remained all night. The Begum Kothie was stormed on the 11th by the 93rd Highlanders, supported by the 4th Sikhs and one thousand Goorkhas. Nothing of great importHnco occurred during the 12th or 13th. Tin British were now inside the first line of works, and the Engineers, under Brigadier Napier, proceeu8- looking projectile which droppei' near him, Tukin<5 it u\\ No fom'id that it was a large eui glass knob, which the native gunners, biing hard pushed for round shot, had doubt!oi»s broken ort'lVmn one of the magnificent chandeliers of the Kaiser Bagh. This singular projectile* he presented to Sir Hope Grant, by whom it waa u«etl as a K'tter- weight. Ill Kothie to sap up through the adjacent oncdosures, towards the Iiiiaiiinbaria, or Great Mosque, which was tlie next stronghold to be assaulted. During the niglit of the 13th, a very heavy fire was kept up on the Kaiser Bagh and Iniaumbarra, wliich latter was carried with little opposition by the 10th Foot and Brasyer's Sikhs, who, pressing on, followed the flying enemy through the detached houses and courts, and with them entered the Kaiser Bagh itself; and thus on Sunday morning, the 14tli of March, the chief stron^.;hold of Liicknow was won. The 53rd, and the three detached companies of the 90th, having been relieved by the 97th, were ordered to proceed to the Kaiser Bagh in suj)port. Passing up loopholed streets, round by batteries, the guns of which still threatened them, and over a bridge of loose j)lanks past burning timber, they reached the enclosure of the Kaiser Bagh, where they found that the re- mainder of the 9Cth Regiment were already estab- lished, they having rushed in by one entry while the Sikhs and lOth Foot effected an entrance by another. Th sr.»ne that preserated itself within the building, or rather c.cAU :i'X'\on of palaces, coiu'ts, and gardens, which, for magiiiLcence and costliness of iittings, enjoyed a reputation that was not belied by the reality, baffles description.* • Mr. Howard Ruseell, who entered the Kuisor Bagh soon after Wolseley, says: — "Our men wpreju> # % n,^ ^ ^^ .^4> m 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. MS80 (716) 872-4503 C/j 176 THE INDIAN MUTINY. Nawabgunge Bara Baiikee,* a village on the Fyzabad road, about eighteen miles from Luci^novv, Sir Hope, at eleven o'clock on the night of the 12th of June, formed up his column on the Fyzabad road, and, having left his baggage and supplies in charge of Colonel Purnell, proceeded across country with great rapidity, his inten- tion being to accomplish the distance of twelve miles while his movements would be shrouded by darkness, and his men would escape the fearful eff(^cts of a forced march in the hot sun. Major Wolseley had a busy time making the necessary inquiries regarding the route, procuring guides, and seeing to the other arrangements of his department. The enemy, who numbered sixteen thousand men, had taken up a strong position on a large plateau, sur- rounded on three sides by a stream, which was crossed by a stone bridge at a little distance from the town, on the fourth side being a jungle. The General's object was to turn their right, and to interpose between tlicm and the jungle. The forced^ march across country was made with the loss of several men from heat apoplexy, and the stone bridge was reached about half-an-hour before daybreak. After a short rest, the troops fell in at daylight, and the advance having crossed the stream, the enemy were soon driven from their first position, upon which Sir Hope immediately advanced against what appeared to * The "big" Nawabgungo, so called to distinguish it from the Nawabguuge on the Cawnpore Eoad. TEE ACTION OF NAWABGUNOE. %n be the centre of the position. Though the enemy had been surprised by the celerity of the attack, they opened fire with much determmation on the front and both flanks, and tried to surround the force, but they were repulsed by Johnson's guns, supported by the Bays, while their attack on the right rear was met by the third Battalion of the Rifle Brigade and Hodson's Horse, which had just crossed the stream. A severe struggle ensued, and the enemy stood their ground well, but they were driven back, the Rifles attacking with the bayonet, and Hodson's Horse charging over broken ground in gallant style. Meanwhile Mackinnon's troop and the 7th Hussars, were hotly engaged to the front, and, supported by the remainder of the Rifle Brigade, under Colonel Glyn, drove the enemy with serious loss from their position on the left. At this time a body of Ghazees displayed the most desperate courage ; after sustaining the fire of Major (Jarleton's battery, they withstood two charges of two squadrons of the 7th Hussars, led in gallant style by Sir William Russell, and some one hundred and twenty-five corpses were strewed round two guns they defended. During the action Brigadier Horsford attacked the enemy on the extreme left and captured two guns, and Colonel Hill with the second Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, pro- tected the rear. The action lasted three hours, and the troops wei thoroughly exhausted, having been under arms from ten p.m. on the previous night, to nine a.m. on the VOL. I. II 178 TEE INDIAN MUTINY. llfHji morning of the 13th, when the enemy finally quitted the field of battle, on which they left six hundred dead and nine guns. The British loss in killed and wounded was sixty-seven ; and, in addition, thirty-three men died from sunstroke, and two hundred and fifty were taken into hospital. In his despatch, the General, who had before specially mentioned the services of Major Wolseley during the action at Baree, speaks of him as having again afforded him great assistance. After the battle, Major Wolseley surveyed the ground, and drew a plan which was sent to the Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, at Baree, and after every action throughout the campaign in Oude, of which province there were no maps in existence, Wolseley executed plans, which were for- warded to head-quarters, and were of essential use to Lord Clyde when he went over the same ground.* After gaining this important success, which had a * Wolseley was in the liabit of keeping a journal of all the marches and movements, which were posted up daily, the book being stowed away in a large pocket on his person. In this journal he entered the hours of marching and halting, and minute details of the towns and villages, their inhabitants and capabilities. These particulars were transferred to a weekly report, which was sent to the Quarterinaster- Gcnei*al of the Army ; but it was so injured by damp while kept in store, that some years after, upon his applying to the Quartermaster-General in Oude, portions of the writing were found to be obliterated ; what could be deciphered was copied out, at his request, and sent to England, but unfortunately it was destroyed, with the rest of his papers and effects, at the fire at the Pantechnicon. Wolseley also kept a private journal of his Indian experiences, but this he unluckily lost in China. SIR ROPE GRANTS STAFF. 119 K int Id, ts, al marked moral effect upon the rebels, greatly dispiriting them and their leaders, the column emcamped on the large sandy plain in rear of the village of Nawabgunge, where they erected huts with straw-thatched roofs. But Sir Hope's energy was untiring, and, thanks to a strong constitution and a spare habit of body, he appeared to be exempt from the evil effects of cam- paigning during the four monsoon months. While his forces melted away under the fervent heat, and the members of his personal and divisional staff, one after another, suffered from its effects — the gallant Anson, his aide-de-camp, being ill with dysentery, and Hamil- ton, his Assistant-Adjutant-General, dying while pro- ceeding to Calcutta on his way to England — the veteran General knew not what it was to have a day's illness, an immunity also enjoyed by Wolseley, whom wounds and exposure to Arctic cold and torrid heat appeared to have hardened to the point necessary for a soldier whose fortune it was to fight his country's battles in the four quarters of the globe. On the 21st of July, Sir Hope Grant marched to Fyzabad to the assistance of Maun Singh, a powerful chief, who, after being one of the main-spriugs of the rebellion, had deserted a failing cause, and was besieged by a large body of the enemy at Shahgunge. But before the arrival of the British column at Fyzabad on the e rebels had July, ispersed, Hope pushed on to Ajudia, four miles lower down on the Gogra, where his guns opened fire on a portion of tlie N 2 m\ I 180 THE INDIAN MUTINY. ¥• ■ I fugitives as they were crossing the river. On the 9th of August, the General despatched Brigadier Hors- ford towards Sultanpore to follow up the rebels, who had been besieging Maun Singh. The Brigadier drove the enemy across the Goomtee, and occupied that town, but as the rebel forco, which was increased to a strength of twenty thousand men and fifteen guns, opposed his passage to the right bank of the river, Sir Hope marched from Fyzabad, to which he had returned, with the main body of his troops, and after an irksome march across cultivated fields and through marshes, in which the guns siunk to the axle, joined Brigadier Horsford at Sultanpore on the 22nd inst. The Engineers having constructed a raft from some small boats and canoes, the General crossed the greater part of his force over the Goomtee, between the 25th and 27th of August, an operation which was skilfully performed in the face of the enemy, who, led by Bene Madhoo, opened fire with their guns posted on high ground on the opposite bank. At three a.m. on the 2lHh of August, Sir Hope, after repulsing an attack on the previous night, moved on the enemy., who, however, evacuated the position they had taken up. Sir Hope entrusted all the arrangements for the pas- sage of the river, which, owing to the heavy rains, was greatly swollen, to Major Wolseley, who had no rest for two nights and one day, while superintending the transport of the little army. The manner in which was accomplished the difiScult operation of crossing a CROSSING THE GOOMTEE. 181 swiftly-flowing and broad stream (the Goomteo at Sultanpore being four hundred feet wide), in the face of a strong rebel array, with a powerful artillery, anil with only three rafts made from dinghies, was creditable to the General, his two Engineer officers. Lieutenants Scott and Raynsford, and particularly to Major Wolesley, " v;ho," says Sir Hope Grant, " as Deputy Assistant-Quartermaster-General, had the superinten- dence of the arrangements for crossing the river, and who performed them to my perfect satisfiiction." The country was now tolerably clear, and the force remained at Sultanpore, further operations against the rebels being deferred until the cold weather in October. The interval was employed in throwing a bri^ige ' cross the Goomtee, in which Wolesley gave i is advi 3 and assistance to the Engineer officers. Sir Hope Grant marched on the 11th of October with a small column towards Tanda, but returned to Sultanpore on the 23rd, proceeding thence again to Kandoo Nuddee, were four thousand of the enemy were posted with several guns. But the rebels fled on the approach of the British force ; and, a few days later, the column returned to Sultanpore. The Lucknow Field Force was not allowed a lengthy period of repose, and, on the 3rd of November, Sir Hope marched to Amethie to operate against the rebel Ilajah, in conjunction with Lord Clyde, and, ac- companied by Major Wolseley and his staff, recon- noitred the fort, which he found to be of great strength II tl 182 THE INDIAN MJTINT. \i\ .\'i !l \x \ and extent. However, the Kajah surrendered on tho following day, and Sir Hope proceeded to Purseedapore on the 11th of November, and, on the following morn- ing, took possession of the strong fort of Shiinkerpore, belonging to Bene Madlioo, whom he had defeated at Nawabgunge. Under instructions from Lord Clyde, Sir Hope proceeded to Fyzabad, on the Gogra, which he crossed before daylight on the 27th of November, and, under fire of his heavy guns, carried the enemy's position. The cavalry and field-artillery went in pur- suit, and six guns were captured and brought into camp. On the 3rd of December, the column, which had returned to Nawabgunge, marched in the direction of Bunkussia, and, whilst proceeding to reconnoitre, sud- denly came upon the main body of the Gondah Rajah's troops, about four thousand men. The enemy opened fire from three guns, upon which Sir Hope advanced and drove them through the jungle, a distance of two miles, capturing two guns. On the 7th, the column reached Bunkussia, the principal fort of the Gondah Rajah, which was destroyed, after which Sir Hope crossed the Raptee, and visited Bulrampore and Tool- sepore. As his great object was to prevent the enemy escaping to the Goruckpore district, he marched to Dulhurree, close to the Nepaul frontier, where he awaited Brigadier Rowcroft's column, which had been employed preventing the rebels from passing between the hills and the north of tho Goruckpore district. Sir CAMPAIGNiyO IN OUDE. 183 Hope then proceeded to Pushuroa, and, after disposiiif^f two small colinmis under Brigtidiers Kowcroft and Taylor, to cut oil the escape of Bala Rao, who, with a force of six thousand raen and fifteen guns, had retreated to near Kundakote, moved forward to attack the rebel chief on the 4tli of January, 1850. "While a small column advanced through the jungle in a westerly direction towards Kundakote, the General, shortly after, followed in the same direction with the main b^dy, until he came to where the principal force of the rebels was posted in thick cover. The enemy were, however, so thoroughly disheartened by the continuous defeats they had sustained, that neither Bene Madhoo, Bala Rao, nor any other of their leaderp (the Fyzabad Moulvie, the most able of them, having fallen) could succeed in bringing them to face our troops, and they once more adopted their usual tactics, and fled, leaving fifteen guns in the hands of the victors. Thoroughly discouraged at the loss of their guns, the force, led by Bala Rao, now dispersed, most of them making their way into Nepaul. As, notwithstanding Jung Bahadoor's proclamation to them to lay down their arms and submit themselves to the British, the rebels continued to occupy a menac- ing position near the Sitka Ghat beyond the first pass. Sir Hope Grant, accompanied by Major Wolseley, marched to Fyzabad, whence he proceeded by boat to Amorha, on the opposite side of the Gogra. Here he received information that four thousand of the enemy mi: 'I' f> 18t THE INDIAN MUTINY. liiid taken up a position near Bunkiissia, and another party of one thousand eight hundred had made for the Gogra. The General, determined to give the rebels, who were moving from Nepaul into the Terai, " no rest for the sole of their feet," continued to chase and harry them, laying plans, in conjunction with his staff, to head them off a ford or a village with one or more columns, while he made a dash on them with his main body. Now dividing his forces, he sent one portion by Kampore Thana to scour the jungles, himself following in their track along the banks of the Gogra, while a third column was despatched into the jungle about Bunkussia. At midnight of the 20th of May, the General marched from Burgudwa, and arrived soon after sunrise at the jungle covering the entrance to the Jerwah Pass, with Colonel Beauchamp Walker's Field Force. Here he received information that the Nana and Bala Rao, with two guns and two thousand men, were at the mouth of the Pass, and Mummoo Khan, with five hundred followers, a little to the west, on the same ground where he had inflicted a severe defeat on Bala Rao on the 4th of January. Sir Hope, having ordered the cavalry and artillery to encamp, sent Colonel Brasyer with his Sikhs against Mummoo Khan, who, however, dispersed on his approach, and himself moved with the 7th Punjaubees into the Pass. The enemy occupied the spurs of the mountain stretching into the jungle on either side of the Pass, from the gorge of which their two guns opened fire. One company of THE LAST STRUGGLE. 185 f f f the Punjuubees climbed the hill to the left and drove the enemy before them, and the remainder of the Regi- ment cleared the ridge on the right and captured the guns, but owing to the troops having marched twenty miles, the}'' were not able to overtake the retreating enemy. Sir Hope writes in his Journal: — "1 sent a compan}' up the hill to turn the enemy's right ; but finding they were not clever in their ascent, I directed Biddulph, together with Wolseley and Wilmot, both on ray staff, to lead them up. These three officers did their work well." Thus ended almost the last conflict of this great and memorable struggle, which had lasted two years, as it was on Sunday, the 10th of May, 1857, that the 3rd Bengal Cavalry mutinied at Meerut. As the last band of the rebels, deprived of their only remaining guns, was now driven into the Nepaul frontier, the General, leaving some small columns to meet any attempt on their part to break through, proceeded to Lucknovv on the 4th of June, and, with his staff, took up his residence in the Dilkhoosha. In the distribution of honours on the conclusion of the Mutiny, Wolseley received the brevet of Lieute- nant-Colonel. He was young to have attained so high a rank, for it was on the twenty-sixth anniver- sary of his birth, that, in company with his chief, he entered Lucknow, and, for a brief period, enjoyed the " blessings of peace." He was now employed in t the new cantonments, those fori M I 'k ■I ■■I laying rly 186 THE INDIAN MUTINY. use by our troops having been utterly destroyed by the rebels. Henceforth it was decided that Europeans should form a large proportion of the garrison of this important city, and his experience in quartering troops was of essential service when this question of the new cantomnents came up for consideration. Wolseley had only been established some five months in his comfortable quarters in the fine old palace near Lucknow, when he was once more offered a position on tlie staff of an army about to take the field, and, action being to him as the breath of life, he gladly accepted the proposal. Early in October, Sir Hope Grant was informed by Lord Clyde, then at Cawnpore, that the Duke of Cam- bridge had nominated him to the command of the troops about to proceed, in conjunction with a French army, to the north of China, to bring to terms the Imperial Government. Sir Hope Grant was desirous of appointing Colonel Wolseley to the head of the Quartermaster-General's Department, but Lord Clyde nominated the late Colonel Kenneth McKenzie, a most able and distinguished officer, and Wolseley went as Deputy Assistant-Quartermaster-General in charge of the topographical department. Had it not been for the sudden outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, Wolseley would have been serving during the past two years in China, to which country, by a singular coincidence, he found himself once more under orders. And what an eventful period in the ■iWlWIIil ' I INDIA AT PEACE. 187 history of this country, and of her great Asiatic de- pendency, as well as in his own life, had heen those two years just concluded I India has ever aftorded the grandest field for the display of those talents and qualities which ha\'e ren- dered this country the Rome of modern history. In India, whether in war or statesmanship, the Anglo- Saxon race has appeared to the greatest advantage ; this may in part be due to the superiority over natives, which we share with all European nations, but we do not think we should be guilty of self-laudation, if we chiefly attribute it to that peculiarity of the Anglo- Saxon family, by which resistance and difliculties only increase the determination to succeed. It is morally certain that no other Power save England could have retained her hold of India during the year 1857, with a military force which, at the time of the outbreak, only numbered thirty-eight thousand soldiers in the three Presidencies. To use Canning's phrase, " India is fertile in heroes," and probably at no previous period of our history have the attributes which peculiarly dis- tinguish our countrymen and countrywomen received a more striking illustration. Our women were heroines, and our incomparable rank and file nobly did their duty ; while as for the officers throughout the long- drawn hardships, the dramatic episodes, and the glori- ous triumphs of the Indian Mutiny, we cannot do better than repeat the saying of that great leader who may be regarded as the type, as he was the greatest represeuta- :i ! ^i^l m \\ 1 188 THU INDIAN MUTINY. *■!:'■ tive, of the class. " Brave," would the great Duke of Wellingcon impatiently say, when any one spoke in commendatory terras of the courage of British officers, "of course they are; all Englishmen are brave; but it is the spirit of the gentleman that makes a British officer." Those who were privileged to take part in those glorious feats of arms, the Siege and Storm of Delhi and the Defence and Relief of Lucknow, may be con- gratulated in having been actors in one of those his- toric scenes, the record of which — like the deeds of "the three hundred" at Thermopylaj, and the "Re- treat of the Ten Thousand" under Xenophon — will never fade from the page of history. i CHAPTER IV. THE CHINA WAR. "mil i The Occupation of Chusan — The Disembarkation at Peli-tang — The Action at Sinho — The Capture of the Taku Fo.ts — The Advance on Pekin — Narrow Escape of Colonel Wolseley from Capture — The Looting of the Summer Palace, and Surrender of Pekin — Wolseley'a Visit to Japan and Mission to Nankin — Return to England. COLONEL WOLSELEY accompanied Sir Hope Grant to Calcutta, and, with the other members of his staff, sailed on the 26th of February, 1860, in the 'Fiery Cross,' one of Jardine's steamers, which cast anchor at Hong-Kong on the 13th of March. As the transports arrived from England, India, and the Cape of Good Hope, the troops were disembarked and en- camped at Kowloon, opposite Hong-Kong, which Colonel Wolseley surveyed, the other officers of the Department, under Colonel Kenneth ]\Iackenzie, being engaged in clearing out and preparing the ground for the reception of the British troops. In a very short time, with the assistance of the Engineers, the required space was converted from a rocky waste, having a few patches of : • )'i II !'P 1^ _! 190 THE CHINA WAR. \ garden cultivation, into a neat camp, with tents and lines for the horses and batteries. There was some uncertainty at first as to whether an ultimatum, couched in very mild terms, and addressed by our Minister, ]\Ir. Frederick Bruce, to the Imperial Govern- ment at Pekin, would have the effect of averting a war, but all doubts were soon set at rest by the receipt of an insolent despatch, rejecting the British demands. The first step was the joint occupation, by the British and French Forces, of the island of Chusan, which was accordingly undertaken under instructions from the Home Government, who, in this, followed the precedent of the war of 1840-42, though Colonel Wolseley has expressed his opinion that the step was of little use, either from a military or political point of view.'^ The expedition rendezvoused off King-tang, opposite the town of Chin-hai, at the mouth of the Ning-po, and, on the 21st of April, dropped anchor in the noble harbour of Ting-hai, the capital of Chusan, which immediately capitulated. On the following day, the naval and military com- manders, with their staffs and a small guard, landed and made an inspection of the town and its vicinity, at which Wolseley, being the only officer of the Quarter- master-General's department, was present ^vith the General. * See Colonel Wolselcy's valuable and trustworthy '• Narrative of the "War with China, iu 1860," written daily while the operations were in progress. »{ THE SURRENDER OF CHUSAK 191 One thousand soldiers only were landed, there being great difficulty in finding accommodation in the various yamuns, or official residences, and three hundred ]\Iarines were placed in the Custom-house and adjoining buildings. Wolseley took over the requisite buildings from the native officials, and made the necessary arrangements, in conjunction with the French staff- officer, for the quartering of the garrison. He returned with Sir Hope Grant to the ' Grenada,' on the evening of the 23rd of April, and, on the following morning, the steamer proceeded to Poo-too, an island lying to the east- ward of the Chusan group, and which, it was considered, might be suitable for a military sanatarium. Wol- seley proceeded on shore with the General, and visited the temples and monasteries, of which this sacred city alone consists. In the evening the party returned to the 'Grenada,' wdiich then proceeded to Hong-Kong. One of the chief difficulties that had to be encoun- tered in the organization of the Army destined to pro- ceed to the north of China, was thdt of transport, but at length, in May, every preparation being completed, some sailing transports left Hong-Kong for the seat of war, with a portion of the Infantry, and the main body followed on the 8th of June. The British Armj^, of which the Divisional Com- manders were Sir Robert Napier and Sir John Michel, Brigadier Pattle, being in command of the Cavalry, numbered about fourteen thousand men, and that of the French, under General Montauban, which was mustering \i I I 'HIU' 1 1 llSi \%M k i ill ,i i 1 ' i i ' f r|: 192 THE CHINA WAR. at Shanghai, about seven thousand. The fleet, under Admiral Sir James Hope, consisted of seventy ships of war, including gunboats, and the hired transports num- bered one hundred and twenty sail. On the l()th June, the ' Grenada,' in which Colonel Wolseley had embarked with the Commander-in-Chief, and some troop- ships, proceeded to sea, and put in at Shanghai, where, at the earnest entreaty of the Euro- pean residents and Chinese authorities, some troops were landed to protect the town against tlie rebels, better known as Taipings, who, for the past eight years, had desolated the country. Three days after quitting Shanghai, the ' Grenada ' cast anchor off the town of Wei-hei-wei, on the western shore of the Gulf of Pechili, the transports, with the greater portion of the troops, having already arrived at Talien-wan, on the eastern side. Wolseley and other officers landed at Wei-hei-wei, and visited the town, which is of considerable extent. On the following morning he explored the neighbouring country, but its capaoilities for supplying water were unpromising in the extreme. According to the plan of operations agreed upon between the allied commanders, the French were to rendezvous at Cliefoo,* in the province of Shantung, and the British at Talien-wan. * Clie-foo and Talieuwan were fixed upon as the respective bases of perations of the Frencli and Englisli armies, because it was known that along the coast near Takoo the ice in winter prevented all approach UNDER WEIQE FOR THE PEIEO. 193 Sir Hope Grant, with his staff, remainetl on board the ' Grenada,' in Victoria Bay, whence a small steamer daily went the round of the great bay or harbour, carrying orders to the various encampments. Lord Elgin arrived at Talien-wan on the 9th of July, in the Indian Navy steam-frigate ' Feroze,' and, after many conferences, it was decided by Sir Hope Grant and General Montauban that both Armies should sail for Peh-tang on the 2()th July. Accordingly, on that da}', the vast Armada weighed anchor, and started with a fair wind for the general rendezvous, twenty miles south of the Peiho, affording a grand and soul-inspiring sight ; and in the evening of the ne day, the French fleet of thirty-three sail hove x sight, passing round the Meatow Islands. On Saturday, the 28th of July, the entire P^xpedition was assembled at the appointed rendezvous, and, on Monday, weighed and stood in for the mouth of the Peiho river. A Memorandum was issued by the Quartermaster- General for the guidance of the officers superintending the disembarkation of the troops, and, on the 1st of August, the Honorable Company's ship ' Coromandel,' having on board Sir James Hope and Sir Hope Grant, with his staff, including Colonel Wolseley, led the way, followed by the gunboats, with tlieir de(.'ks crowded with men, each towing six launches, full of troops. t. \\> w 1 i 1 1 1 .■ ■i,i of n for 8evei*al months ; but there was deep water at these places, which were free from ice all the year round. Colonel Wolsoley visited Che- foo, and speaks in the liighest terms of the order and regularity that existed in the Fi-euch Camp near that town. VOL. I. 194 THE CHINA WAR. if'" The French flotilla also put off" at the same time. Soon after two o'clock, the gunboats anchored about two thousand yards from the famous Taku forts, all the embrasures of which were masked, and no troops visible. These forts are about three miles from the mouth of the river, the passage of which they command, the town standing immediately in their rear. It was decided by Generals Grant and Montauban that a reconnaissance should be made in the direction of a causew^ay running towards Taku, and four hundred men, drawn equally from the English and French armies, were landed on a soft, sticky, mud flat, through which, for nearly a mile, the men floundered and struggled be- fore reaching a hard patch of ground. " Nearly every man," says the Times correspondent, " was disembar- rassed of his low^r integuments, and one gallant brigadier led on his men with no other garment than his shirt." The Tartars now retreated along the cause- way, and the rest of the force was disembarked by five o'clock. " Never," says Mr. Bowlby, " did more hopeless prospect greet an army. Mud and water everywhere, and ' not a drop to drink.' Pools of brackish water were scattered about here and there, but perfectly un- drinkable, and not a well or spring could be found. " The English Army then advanced, ihe Rifles to the right, the 15th Punjaubees in the centre, and the 2nd Queen's on the left. They were on an island cut off from the causeway by a deep ditch forty feet wide, through which the tide flowed. In plunged the ' i less jre, liter m- the Ind loff le, Ihe TEE LANDING AT PEETANG. 195 brigades, and sank middle d(;ep in the vilest and most stinking slush; but the men struggled gallantly on, and in a few seconds the whole force was on the road." The bridge and gate of the town were occupied, but the greater portion of the troops rested for the niglit on the causeway, and Colonel Wolseley and a large party halted on the hard ground cut off from it by a deep ditch. They were all in a plight calculated to try the temper of Mark Tapley himself, for not only were they destitute of water, every man having long before consuuied the pint he carried in his water bottle, but they were cold and wet, and had to lie on the damp ground. It is under such circumstances that the real nature of a man reveals itself. As Wolseley says : — • " The noble-hearted come to the front, at once ready to help others, and being themselves generous and jolly, make the best of untoward events ; whilst the selfish man stands out in his true colours, whining and pining like an ill-tempered child, a picture of misery himself, and likely to make others so, by his captious ill-humour. We were a large party of people, odds and ends, of all sorts, including some who, in the dark, could not make their way any further to the front. All were horribly thirsty. To go back to the boats for water, through the slush, was really a fatiguing journey; but the task had to be accomplished, and never did the weary traveller in an arid desert hail a spring with greater joy than we all did our Judgc- Advocate-General's return with a small barrel of water, after his trip there. Subsequently the invaluable 2 r -^ ' m\ / 4 ■■ { i ■ , 1:*; ■ ' M'i ! ! \: Ax: i^^r,' f& .1- 19G TiZS CJT/2^^ ITJiZ. Coolie corps* made their appearance with breakers of a like nature, which supplied every one." But Wolseley in his published work omits to men- tion that he accompanied ]\Iaj()r Wilmot on his errand of mercy — for such it really was, as many of the men were so fiitigued and overcome by thirst, that their tongues were hanging out of their mouths — and on their return from their long tramp through the mud, laden with the precious licpiid, the gallant ollicers were cheered heartily by their comrades. The night was as unpleasant a one as Colonel Wol- seley ever spent, even bearing in mind his Crimean and Indian bivouacs. He had, of course, no bedding, and it was impossible to lie down on the wet mud with any hope of obtaining rest. So he walked about and shivered through the night without closing his eyes. In the morning the town Avas occupied, but " looting " -was strictly prohibited, and any men found indulging in the unlawful pursuit, were instantly tied up and flogged on the spot. Our men landed with three days' provisions, but after the fourth day, supplies of food and water were regularly issued to them. The French arrangements not being so complete or successful, our gallant Allies had exciting sport in chasing and killing all the pigs they could lay hands on, not even disdaining to regale themselves on such deceased porkers as they found in * The Coolie corps, wliicli was organised and led by Major Temple, of the Indian Army, consisted of two thousand five hundred Chinamen, recruited at Canton and Hong-Kong. i ^ 'i TUE RECONNAISSANCE— 2rd AUGUST. 197 dltcliL's ; indeed, for the first week, they seemed to subsist on little else. Our inilitar}' system also ap- peared in favonrahle contrast to that of our Allies, as regards strictness of discipline and employment of the troops, for while their officers and men were saunterin|LC about the town with their hands in their pockets, our men, of all ranks and arms of the service, were busily employed constructing wooden wharves and piers, and improving the principal thoroughfares for the passage of guns. The Allied Generals having decided on a recon- naissance in force of the enemy's position, on the 3rd of August, a strong column, consisting of one thousand French and as many English, under the connnand of General Collineau, moved out along the raised cause- way leading towards the Taku Forts. Colonel Wol- seley was selected by Sir Hope Grant to accompany the force, and indeed throughout this war, so highly did the General estimate his services, that whenever he decided to undertake some duty requiring tact or capacity, he would always inquire, " AVhere's Wolseley '? Send him." And Wolseley, ever ready to midertake any charge entailing responsibility, would respond to the call with cheerful alacrity. His duties as the officer in charge of the topographical survey of a country totally unknown, naturally required his presence in the van of the Arm}'', and whether there, or sweeping round the flanks with a handful of Native Cavalry for an escort, he carried his life in his hand and narrowly escaped capture, which would have in- n i ■ m i 1U8 r^J? CiZ/iV'.l IFAR. volved torture or deatli at tin hands of the barbarous enemy ; on one oecasion, the fate tliat be(el another lamented oflieer of his Department, Captain Brabazon, would have been his, but for an accidental circum- stance, or rather shoidd we sa\ , having regard to the services he was spared to render to his country, by the interposition of that Divinity which, says Hamlet, " shapes our ends, rough-how them how wo may." The Allied force started at four a.m., and, after a march ofabout four miles, came upon the main body of the enemy, who were waiting just beyond a bridge, about half a mile further on. As soon as the French, who led the advance, had passed the bridge, the enemy opened fire, and a large body of Tartar Cavalry threatened the flanks of the Allies, when General Collineau opened tire with two guns, and, having forced them back, advanced, the French on the right, and the English on the left, towards a large entrenchment about a mile distant. The force now halted, and Brigadier Sutton sent Colonel Wolseley to Sir Hope Grant to apprise him of the state of affairs, and request reinforce- ments if the enemy's position was to be forced. Wol- seley galloped back, and, having given the necessary information, returned with two guns, and the Allied Generals immediately followed with a reinforcement, but the reconnoitring party was already on the return march to Pehtaug, and the day's proceedings ended somewhat abortively, the Tartars, in their ignorance of the object sought to be attained, claiming a victory, TJIE 1iEC02iNAliiiSANCE—'dth AUGUST. 199 and Kciuling fliuiiin^jj reports to Pekiii of tlioir luiving I'urcud tlic white soldiers to retreat. On the i)th of August,* Colonel Wolseley was selected to conmiaiid a second reconnoitring party, con- sisting of two hundred Cavalry and one hundred Infantry, and Sir Hope gave him positive instructions, before starting, on no account to bring on an engage- ment. Proceeding along the causeway for two miles, he placed his infantry in position in a ruined farm- house, usually held by a cavalry picket of the enemy, while he moved olf to reconnoitre with the cavalry, whose exposed ilank was thus protected. Leaving the causeway to his left, Wolseley made a long circuit, until he approached within a mile of the enemy's works on the Peiho, and, having surveyed the whole of the enemy's position, and the line on their Hank by which the advance was to be made, and having further ascertained that the country in that direction was practicable for all arms, and abounded in pools of fresh water, he returned without having exchanged a shot with the enemy. Immediately on his arrival in camp, Wolseley made a report of the survey he had com- pleted, and having that night executed a plan, he had copies struck oft' from a steel plate of the size of a sheet of foolscap, aud by an early hour on the I'oUow- \i I ''ill • On tlie 4th of August, Sir Robert Napier lauded, and took up his residence in a temple in the town ; General Michel, who had come aslioro with the landing party of his Division, oeeupying another.' Sir Hope Grant, with his staff, resided in the fort, under canvas, and General Montauban in the town. 3- ■] "■ I 200 THE CIITNA WAR. ing morning, these copies wore in the hands of every stall' ollieer of both anniea. On Sunday, the 12th of August, the Allied Army began its march towards the 'Vwkw Forts, and everyone was in high spirits at leaving that detestable place with its inodorous smells. It was arranged that the 2nd, or Sir Robert Naj)ier's, Division, should move out along the track reconnoitred on the i)th, guided by Wolseley, who had laid down the route by which the Division, when attacking in flank, should march so as to avoid the swamps and quicksands which abounded on both sides of the causeway, and yet at the same time keep intact the communications with the main body. Sir Robert Napier was directed to turn the left of the enemy's position, whilst the 1st Division and French, advancing along the causeway, should attack the enemy's works in front. As tho ground on the right was admirably adaj)ted for the operations of Cavalry, the whole of that arm were at- tached to Napier's Division. At four a.m. the march began through slush and mud which was terribly heavy for the Artillery horses. After advancing for three miles from the causeway, Napier opened fire on the enemy with fifteen guns, and he expressed his admiration of the unflinching fortitude with which the Tartar Cavalry stood the iron hail at four hundred and fifty yards' range. A portion of them charged our Cavalry, but were met half way, and utterly routed by the Sikh horse, led by those gallant i THE FREXCn AliMY IN CHIXA. 201 sahreiirs Fano and Probyii, supported by a squadron of Dra;^()()n (Juards. In tlio meantime, tlio Ist Division antl tiie French, movin<; along tlio causeway leading from Pehtang towards the enemy's entrenched camp before tlie village of Sinho, deployed within one thousand foiu* hundred yards of these works, and, after a brief artillery fire, the whole army advanced and occupied the place. Throughout this China War, our Allies, notwithstand- ing their gallantry, did not show to advantage, which was chiefly due to the incapacity of General Cousin do IMontauban, who was a gasconading, self-opiniated man, witiiout a particle of military talent. At no time throughout the campaign did the French Division muster more than four thousand effectives, while we had in China a well-appointed Army numbering nineteen thousand men, of whom fourteen thousand were at the seat of war. Thus the co-operation of the French was quite unnccessar}'', but Lord Palmerston, sacrificing military considerations to the political requirements in- volved in the maintenance of the entente cordiale, accepted the proffered assistance of the Emperor Napoleon. The campaign had not been inaugin-ated many hours before ]\Iontauban gave evidence of his military incompetence, which went so far in assisting to wreck his country in the memorable days preceding the catastrophe of Sedan.* • Wolscloy was in the heart of the American Continent, conducting his Red River Expedition, in the Autumn of the memorable year, 1870, when ho received inteUigcuco that the Count do PaUkao had been HI I wi m f!^«.l 202 TEE CHINA WAR. M From the Allied position, distant about two miles and a half, was visible the large entrenchment around the village of Tangku, having a long, narrow causeway, with ditches, leading tiom Sinho towards it; the country to the north of this causeway was very swampy, and quite impassable for all arms, but, on the south side, the ground appeared sufficiently firm to bear guns. Round the village of Tangku, which is situated in a bend of the Peiho, was a crenellated mud wall, about ten feet in height. General Montauban was very desirous of advancing at once upon the enemy'y position ; but Sir Hope met the proposal with a decided negative, and expressed his intention of moving on the morrow, after bridges had been thrown across the canals which separated the roadway and village from the open, firm, ground to the south of the causeway. But though it was evident to the merest tyro in the art of war, that, without these bridges, an advance could only be effected along this narrow causeway, which was commanded by the enemy's guns, Montauban resolved to attempt the task alone. Accordingly he sallied out with his Division, but after two hours spent in a purposeless cannonading, returned to Sinho, re infectd. On the following day, bridges were thrown across the several canals, and roadways made over the marshy places in the line of advance, while Colonel Wolseley, nominated Ministor-at-War, tlius receiving charge of the destinies of his country at a most momentous crisis. Turning to his officers, he exclaimed : " Then it is all over for poor France ! " I TEE ACTION OF TEE lith AUGUST. 203 )f e :■< and other officers of his Department, made a reconnais- sance up the banks of the Peiho, which resulted in sliowing that the enemy had retired to the southern bank of the river, with the exception of the troops gar- risoning the forts. On the morning of the 14th, the First Division, with all the Artillery, having their right flank resting on the Peiho, advanced to attack the enemy's entrenchments. Our Allies, having taken up a position on our left, their left flank resting upon the Tangku causeway, tlie whole line of Artillery, consisting of twelve French and twenty-four British guns, opened Are, under wliich the Infantry advanced, and soon a party of the (lOth Rifles, under Lieutenant Shaw, entered the enemy's entrench- ments and hoisted the Union Jack. Although the French guns were at this time still pounding away, they had the eff"rontery to claim the merit of being the first within the hostile works, and General Montauban promoted the soldier who hoisted the tricolour. About forty-five guns, of various calibre, between four and 24-pounder8, of which sixteen were brass, and the remainder iron, fell into the hands of the victors. Colonel Wolseley accompanied the Commander-in- Chief in his reconnaissance towards the Taku Forts, but not much information was gained, as the enemy opened fire on the escort. Sir Hope Grant now busied himself in perfecting his arrangements for the attack on these formidable works; heavy guns and ammunition were brought to the front, and ten days' provisions collected at Sinho. The British w I 204 THE CHINA WAS. \\ i and French Ministers were also busy negotiating with the enemy, who sent a flag of truce ; but as was fore- seen by all but the diplomatists, the Chinese Govern- ment, represented by Ho, the Governor-General of Pechili, only wanted to delay, and had no real intention of acceding to our terms, or of executing any treaty not extorted and enforced at the cannon's moutli. And now came up for consideration the knotty point of the attack on the Taku forts, and it was one upon which the British and French Commanders-in-Chief were divided. Sir Hope Grant, who was strongly sup- ported in his views by Sir Robert Napier, proposed to operate against the northern fort, which enfiladed the southern forts, and was the key to the position, but General Montauban was loud in favour of crossing the river and assaulting the southern forts.* Finding his colleague determined to abide by his own judgment, Montauban made a formal protest, and then, * Wolsclcy treats of tliis vexed question in his book in detail, and con- cludes by saying : " If wo had operated by the southern bank of the Peiho, as our Allies wished, and supposing that everything had turned out in the very happiest manner, we could not possibly have been by the Ist of September as far advanced in the woi'k of the campaign as we actually were upon the evening of the 21st of August, when, in pursuance of Sir Ho]ie Grant's plan of attack, wo had stormed and taken the northern forts. I need scarcely remark that time was every- thing to us. We had opened the campaign later than was expected at home, having been delayed a month at TaUen-wan, so that every day was of the greatest value to us. The cold weather was reported by all to commence towards the middle of October, and the climate in November was said to be most intolerable, the rivers being then frozen, and ico for some two or three miles out to sea along the coast." THE ASSAULT OF TEE TAKU FORTS. 205 with a proper soldierly feeling, acted in loyal concert with the British General. During the halt at Tangku, the Engineers had been busy constructing a road to- wards the forts, also bridges or causeways over the canals, and batteries, which were armed, during the night of the 20th, with sixteen guns and three mortars. At daybreak, on the following morning, twenty-three pieces of ordnance, including four of the French, opened fire on the forts, which replied with spirit. The British Force detailed for the assault, was drawn from Sir Robert Napier's Division, and numbered two thousand five hundred men.* The French assaulting column, numbering one thousand men, was under the command of General Cullineau. About six o'clock, a tremendous explosion took placo in the nearest fort ; half an hour later, a second ex- plosion occurred in the larger northern fort, and, by seven o'clock, most of the enemy's guns had bet^n dis- mounted. The field-guns were advanced to within five hundred yards of the fort, and the fire of the ^vorks having been silenced, a breach w%as commenced near the gate, and the storming party advanced to within thirty yards, keeping up a hot fire, the French Infantry being on the right, and the English on the left. Under * The assaulting column consisted of a wing of tlic 41tli, under Lieutenant-Colonel McMalion, a wing of the 67th, under Lieutenant- Colonel Thomas, the other wings of these regiments acting as supports; the Koyal Marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel Gascoigne, and a detach- ment of the same corps carrying a pontoon bridge for crossing the wet ditches, under Lieutenant-Colonel Travers ; and Major Graliam with hia company of Royal Engmeers. >.. II i 1 206 TEE CHINA WAR. :i l;l i' St 'H-: m} U 'm a heavy musket ly fire from the enem}', who quitted their cover on the troops forming up for the assault, our men advanced straight to their front towards the gate of the fort, the French advancing by the right, and approaching the angle of the work resting on the river's bank. It very soon became apparent that our engineering arrangements had been faulty, for, instead of using a number of light ladders, or a small plank bridge resting on wheels, on which to cross the wet ditch, a pontoon bridge had been taken, and a round shot, passing through one of the metal pontoons of which it was constructed, rendered it unserviceable. The French, with great dash, succeeded in crossing the wet ditches and dragging over three or four ladders, which they placed against the walls, and after many attempts at escalading, at length planted the tricolour on the summit, and entered the works. Almost simul- taneously the British flag waved over the main gate, the men having forced their w^ay through the breach in single file, the foremost being Ensign Chaplin, of the 67th, who planted the colours on the top of the parapet, and Lieutenants Rogers (44th), Lenon and Burslera (G7th). In seeking to lay down the pontoon bridge, no less than fifteen Sappers were almost instantaneously placed hors de combat, and, by an unlucky round shot, the bridge was rendered useless. Wolseley was with the advance party at the time, and used his utmost endeavours to withdraw the bolt by which the damaged portion was fastened to the superstructure ; this, how- . ,1 ANECDOTES OF THE ASSAULT. 207 ever, was a work of extreme difficulty, as owin<; to a portion of the bridge being in the water, a great strain was brought to bear on the bolt, which could not be withdrawn. Wolseley recounts some instances of gal- lantry that attracted his attention, which was always interested in observing the exhibition of that greatest of military virtues in others. While our men were endeavouring to cross the ditches, he was standing by Major Graham, V.C. — an old comrade in the dreary days in the trenches before Sebaslopol — who, on the present occasion, being almost the only mounted officer, offered an easy mark to the Chinese matchlockmen ; so deafening was the uproar of great guns and small arms at this time, that Wolseley, having some remark to communicate to Graham, placed his hand on that officer's thigh to draw his attention. " Don't put your hand there," exclaimed Major Graham, wincing under the torture, " there i« a gingall ball lodged in my leg." It was the first notice he had taken of his wound. Colonel Mann, commanding the Royal Engineers, was one of the first to cross the two ditches, and Major (the late Colonel) Honourable A. Anson, aide-de-camp, on reaching the other side, which was covered with pointed bamboo stakes, proceeded to swarm up a pole, to the suuunit of which the rope drawing up tiie draw- bridge was made fast. The daring act attracted the fire of the enemy's marksmen, but the gallant officer, nothing daunted, hacked away with his sword, until he cut the rope, when down fell the drawbridge with a great clang. It was so shattered by shot that it seemed Hi v\ m I': 3*»r '.; ■ i' ;! f MilH^ i' 208 THE CHINA WAR. scarcely capable of sustaining any weight, but our men managed to cross a few at a time. The scene presented by the interior of the captured work, evinced the determination with which the gar- rison had held the place, and among the dead, who were estimated to number about two thousand, was a General and tlie officer commanding all the northern forts. The losses incurred by the Allies in achieving this really brilliant triumph, were moderate, considering the strength of the defences they had stormed. Our loss was seventeen killed and one hundred and sixty-one wounded, of whom twenty-two were officers. The French had about one hundred and thirty casualties. Without loss of time, preparations were C'ommenced to attack the large northern fort, dist; ;*; I'xactly one thousand yards, which had a raised car. -May running towards it, with wet ditches on either side. Colonel Wolseley proceeded, with a small escort, under a heavy fire, to reconnoitre the ground to the north of the causeway, and slowly advancing his party in skirmishing order towards the space, ascertained its fitness for the purposes required. But the Chinese had no heart for further resistance, and as the Allied troops advanced towards the north fort, the garrison, numbering two thousand men, threw away tlieir arms and surrendered at discretion. A little later the enemy evacuated the southern works, and in the evening, Mr. (now Sir Harry) Parkes received the unconditional surrender of the whole country on the banks of the Peiho as far as Tientsin. The day closed with a tre- THE RETURN TO CAMP. 209 menclous storm of wind and rain, and soon tlio roads by which the troops had advanced, were quite submerged. The camp was flooded, and, under such depressing influences, Wolseley rode back a distance of five miles, to find the interior of his tent a pond, witli every article therein floating about as if another flood had covered the face of the earth. Thus, without light or fire to dry the wet clothes on his back, and after a frugal supper of biscuit and brandy-and-water, he turned in, ruminating, doubtless, on the changes and chances of this mortal life when it happens to be that of a soldier. The first phase of the War was completed by tlie capture of the famed Taku forts, which, though taken by our sailors in 1858, had, in the following year, successfully n^sisted a naval force, under Admiral Sir James Hope, when conveying the British Minister to Pekin, for the purpose of exchanging the ratification of the Treaty concluded at Tientsin in June, 1858. Our Government now determined that the violated treaty should be ratified at Pekin, as this would imply a sense of defeat and humiliation which the Imperial Government, skilled as it was in sophisms, could not argue away in the lying proclamations it was in the habit of addressing to its many millions of subjects. Sir James Hope pushed on to Tientsin on the 23rd of August, and, so demoralised were the enemy, that the forts at that place were occupied without a shot being fired. Two days later Lord Elgin and Sir Ho})e VOL. T. P 210 THT" CHINA WAR. f ;< ; m itii t , j; - lit"" Grant followed with the troops, leaving a garrison at Takii and Sinlio. Eight days were wasted at Tientsin in negotiations with unaccredited envoys, and, at length, it was decided to corameiiCe the march towards Tung- chow. But there were difficulties to be overcome ; the road between Tientsin and Pekin was little known, as also the capabilities of the country to furnish supplies for the large number of soldiers, non-combatants, and animals. It was Colonel Wolseley's duty to collect information on these points, and the topographical department, of which he had been in charge from the outset of the campaign, was, at this time, reorganised. It now consisted, besides himself, of Lieutenant Harri- son, R.E. — who had served at Alumbagh and Lucknow — and Mr. Robert Swinhoe, Interpreter in the British Consular Service, who had hitherto been acting in that capacity on Sir Robert Napier's staff. Owing to the difHcuity as to supplies, it was arranged that the two Armies should advance by detachments. Brigadier Reeves started on the 8th of September, with his Brigade, and, on the following day. Lord Elgin and Sir Hope Grant, and Wolseley with his assistants, quitted Tientsin. The French troops, about three thousand, quitted Tientsin on the 10th of September, and Sir J. Michel marched with the remainder of the First Division on the 12th, Sir Robert Napier remaining behind with the Second Division to garrison the place. On their arrival at Yangtsun, the head-quarters camp remained immov- able, owing to the flight of the drivers with the mules i I WOLSELEY AS A SUSVEYOR. 211 r and ponies.* Parties were sent out into the country to try and recover the lost animals, or procure others, but without success, and, at length, as no other nieiins of transport were available, several junks were seizeil into which the greater portion of the stores and luggage was stowed. Colonel Wolseley commenced his surveying duties immediately upon quitting Tientsin; he himself, ac- companied by the interpreter, proceeded along the road, Lieutenant Harrison taking the course of the Peiho for his part of the survey. The country on either side of * During tlio niglit of the lOtli, all tlie Chinese drivers of the carts of Lord Elgin's and Sir Hope Grant's establishments had decamped, taking with them the whole of their mules and ponies. Wolseley alone retained his drivers, and that he did so was owing to an amusing cir- cumstance. While riding out of Tientsin, he was conversing with tlie Kessaldar, or native commissioned officer, in command of his escort, and told him to impress upon his men that unless he and they looked sharply after the native drivers and prevented them from deserting, they would be left behind, and could not participate in the capture of Pekin. The native officer and his sowars took the hint, and, on the following morning, there was not a driver in the camp, except his own, who had all been tied together by their tails, and then made fast to the tent pole ! Thereafter, this was done every night, and Wolseley arrived at Pekin with the carts and drivers and ponies ho had started with, the only officer who did so. " The small camp of our Department," says Mr. Swinhoe, " consisted of one Indian tent and two bell-tents. The Chinese servants and carters generally built huts of mats and millet stalks, and the two native servants were accommodated witn a tente d'abri. Besides our three horses, picketed in a row, there were six luggage ponies belonging to the carts, and the carts themselves, and in the group hard by, the eleven Sikh troopers detailed to us as guard, with their tents and horses. The whole made quite a conspicuous little group to the observation of passers by." P 2 I iJi M 'it ■■(:■ ; m I '\ :■ ' '» I '^'^ ! K I'- fS If 1: 1 It II; 212 THE CnTNA WAn. ■;/■■ ^l^ 'M^ the Peilio, which is feiic(;(l in Avitli artificial dykes, ia one vast level plain, covered as far as the eye could reacli, with crops of maize and millet; and were it not for occasional brick-kilns and watch-towers, an ac- curate survey of the road would have been most arduous. As it was. Colonel Wolseley, in order to insure ac- curacy, paced the road, and afterwards compared the distances so noted with the revolutions of the peram- bulator. On their first day's march to Pookow, about twelve and a-half miles from Tientsin, several distant large villages were passed, the names of Avhicli may be found in the survey maps of the road to Pekin executed by Colonel Wolseley and Lieu- tenant Harrison. On the lltli he proceeded on to Yangtsun, on the 12th to Nantsai, and on the loth to Ilo-se-woo, where he was engaged upon the survey of the river, and his assistant worked on the road. As this town appeared to be a good half-way station between Tientsin and Pekin, being about forty miles distant from each, a hospital and a depot were established here. At a meeting held at Tungchow between Messrs. Wade and Parkes and some Imperial Commissioners, it was decided that the Allied Army should march to within one and a-half miles of Chang-kia-wan, whence Lord Elgin, with an escort of one thousand men, was to proceed to Tungchow, and, after signing the Con- vention, to the capital for the purpose of ratifying the 1858 Treaty. On the 17th of September, the British Force, with one thousand French, marched to SIMPLICIir OF THE POLITICALS. 213 Matow, a distance of twclvo miles, and "Wolseley re- sumed las snrv(!y of the road, hut eneounterod great difliculty in procuring information, as the native viUagers lied on the approach of their invaders, and had to be chased and run down by the Sikh escort. The following day, the 18tli of September, was destined to be a memorable one in the history of the campaign, and, before the sun went down, convincing proofs were afforded — though, indeed, none were re(iuired save to enligliten the understanding and open the eyes of tiie diplomatists — that the Chinese Government and its Connnissioners were acting with their wonted dupli- city and treachery. Speaking of the 8im[>licity dis- played by the representatives of our Foreign Ollice, Wolseley observes: — " ^lilitary men are far less con- fiding than civilians in dealing with uncivilised nations. The little experience that I have bad, goes to prove that the latter are far more rash and less liable to take the precautions which ordinary military knowledge would indicate as necessary. How often have I known civilians, accompanying an army, scoff at the caution of general officers, forgetting altogether that any com- mander who fails to provide against every possible mistake, or probable contingency, is deeply culpable. By the strange contrariety of human nature, it is generally these irresponsible gentlemen who are first loudest in their abuse of officers who fail in anything through rashness, or want of caution." The Army marched at daylight on the 18th of Sep- tember; but Wolseley remained behind during the fore- ifiti 'I .■>! I!) *li. in 21 1 THE CHINA WAR. V. i m pi', I' i t j m^''^ -t'i V 1 noon, having obtiiiiK'd pennisHion from Sir Hope Grant, on tL'3 previous night, to halt at Matovv, and continue the survey of the road, promising, on its completion, to join him at Chang-kia-wan. After being busy for some hours, he was sitting in his tent, when Captain Gunter, of the King's Dragoon Guards, galloped up, calling out to him to be on his guard. " The General," he said, " had sent him with orders to move up the rear-guard, which had charge of the baggage, with all despatch, as there was a large body of cavalry ahead." Soon after Wolseley, who had betaken himself to the raised road, saw puft's of smoke in the air, denoting the firing of shells, and clouds of dust, such as are caused by cavalry charges. The thought flashed across him of the precarious position in which he and his party were placed, as in that open plain their white tents were visible a long way, and would, doubtless, draw upon them the observation of some of the Tartar cavalry, which was even now clearly carrying out the tactics of surrounding the Allied Army, which Sang-ko-lin-sin was always able to adopt, by reason of his numerical superiority. With the utmost dispatch, he caused the tents to be pulled down and packed, himself and his officers assisting, and, in a few minutes, the party was on its way to join the Army. Wolseley says that he never spent a more anxious time in his life than while making that march of four miles. It was not that he feared for himself and his mounted followers, but his soldier-servant and the corporal of Engineers were on foot, and he could not desert them in the event of an ^i:.;-; A NARROW ESCAPE. 215 attack by the Tartar liorse. He had made up IiIh iniiitl to throw himself and liis men into the tirst house they passed on tlie road, and defend themselves to the hist extremity with tiie guns and pistols they could muster. But, at length, he began to breathe more freely as he a})proached a village in which was the baggage in charge of a strong rear-guard ; and, in a few minutes, he had the satisfaction of seeing in safety, not only the persoimel of his detachment, but also all the results of his surveys which had cost him so much labour, and were almost equally precious to him. To show how critical was the position of the party, and how near they were sharing the sad fate that overtook some of our countrymen, who were tortured to death by the savage foe, it may be mentioned that a large force of Tartar cavalry had actually passed between them and the rear-guard, and crossed the river less than half an hour before their arrival. Leaving his baggage along with the rest, Colonel Wolseley's party galloped along the road, turned off to the left along the bank of the Seau-ho ("little river"), and pioceeded to the sp^t where Sir Hope Grant was resting under the shade of some trees. They now learnt that the Allies had encountered and driven from their positions, a Chinese Army of about twenty thousand men, which barred their progress towards Tungchow, and captured seventy-four guns, with but slight loss. But the elation consequent upon this great success, was dimmed by the consideration that the enemy had in their hands many of our country- 41 % m. 216 TJTE CHINA WAR. men, and fuars were entertained for their safety, wliieli ])r()ved bnt too well founded. Captain Brabazon, Lieutenant Anderson, Messrs. Bowlby and Do Norman, and many of the sowars and Frenchmen, died a cruel death, which Wolseley was near sharing, as Sir Hope Grant had sent for him to acconii)any Mr. Loch, of the Embassy, to proceed to Tungcliow, to bring back the party there, and it was in consequence of his absence in the rear, completing the survey of the road, that Captain Brabazon was directed to proceed in his place. On the 20th September, Colonel Wolseley rode back to Matow, and having completed the survey of the road between that village andChang-kia-wan, returned in time to move out with the Allied Army, which, at daybreak on the following morning, marched to engage the enemy, who were drawn up about two miles distant from the town. Colonel AVolseley attended Sir Hope Grant during the day, and, with the rest of the staff, had a narrow^ escape of falling into the hands of the enemy. He says : — " AVhen we had marched a mile, we found our- selves in presence of a large army, their cavalry stretching away to the right as far as we could see, and endeavouring to turn our left flank ; their infantry strongly posted in the numerous clumps of trees and enclosures which lay between us and the canal. As soon as we came within range, they opened fire upon ns from hundreds of jingalls and small field-pieces, to which our Allies replied with their rifled cannon. Sir TEE ACTION OF TEE 21st SEPTEMBER. 217 [le ir- Hop(3 Grant rode forwarcl towards the French for tlio purpose of examining tlie position, and having advanced beyond our line of slsirniishers,rode almost in amongst the Tartars, mistaking them for the Frencli. Upon turning back to rejoin our troops, the 'J'artar cavalry, seeing him and liis numerous staff cantering away from them, evidently thought it was some of our cavalry running away, and at once gave pursuit with loud yells. Stirling's guns, however, opened heavily upon them when they were about two hundred and iifty yards from our line, saluting them well with canister, whicli sent them to the right-about as brisklv as thev bad advanced." Soon after the Tartar cavalrv tried to outflank the Allies, upon whicli our Cavalry charged them ; and, says Wolseley, " riding over ponies and men, knocked both down like so many ninepins." Sir Hope Grant now moved in pursuit to the left, and captured several camps, with tents standing, which were all burnt. The enemy having disappeared from the front and flank, he retired towards the wooden bridge over the Yuliang-ho canal. The French had meanwhile caj)tured all the camps which lay near the Pa-le-clieaou* Bridge, over which they drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet, with great slaughter. Here GeJieral Paou, counnanding the Tartar cavalry, received his mortal wound, in revenge for wdiich he caused the execution of our unfortunate * Gcnenil Montuubiin took his title of Count do I'alikao, from this bridge, wliicli iiieiins " 8 le liridge," so culled because it is 8 le, or 2} miles, aloug the paved road from Tung-chow. 218 THE CHINA WAR. IfESi If countryman, Captain Brabazon, though according to other accounts, his fate was never ascertained. To- wards the evening, the French encamped close to the canal upon the British right. Sir Hope Grant, though within sight of Pekin, was unable to push his advantages and compel the surrender of the capital, as, relying upon the assurances of the diplomatists, he had left his siege guns at Tientsin. However, Sir Robert Napier, to whom he had sent word after the action of the 18th, advanced by forced marches, and arrived on the 24th of September. Five days later the siege guns came into camp, and, by the 3rd of October, all the available troops from the rear had arrived. During the halt. Colonel Wolseley was very busy surveying the country between Chang-kia-wan and Pekin, and also reconnoitring about the capital and obtaining information from the villagers as to the movements of Sang-ko-lin-sin's Army, which was re- ported to be in position to the north of the city. Proceeding almost daily with a small party of cavalry as an escort, he, and other staff officers, advanced occa- sionally within a few hundred yards of the walls of Pekin. On the 3rd of October, the camp at Pa-le-cheaou was broken up, and the British Force, six thousand strong, crossed the canal by the bridge of boats prepared for the purpose, and encamped on the paved road leading to Pekin ; and two days later, the French having received the reinforcements for which they had been waitings TEE ADVANCE ON PEKIN. 219 the combined Army, numbering about ten thousand combatants, carrying three day's cooked rations, and without tents, advanced in lines of contiguous columns. After a march of between four and five miles, our Army halted at a strong position to the north-east of Pekin, and, at the request of General Montauban, whose troops had made a longer march, Sir Hope Grant prepared to bivouac. Colonel Wolseley located himself and Department in an old broken-down homestead, the sole occupant of which was a deaf and imbecile old woman ; and, ere " the early village cock had twice done salutation to the morn," was only too glad to be astir and quit his squalid quarters. The enemy's vedettes retreated as the Allied troops advanced ; and, a halt being called for breakfast, the Commanders-in-Chief conferred and arranged their plans. From some high brick-kilns they could command a good view of the surrounding country, also of the gates of Pekin, and the towers and minarets of the Imperial Palaces. After breakf\isting, the Allied Armies advanced ; the English moving on the right, and making a slight detour so as to attack tiie line of ruined earthen ramparts upon their northern face, whilst the French, advancing direct to the left, entered them at the salient angle. Our cavalry, at the same time, moved away to the extreme right, with orders to cut off the retreat of the enemy from the Teh-sing 'gate, north- wards towards Zehol. The British column advanced about three miles, and gained the earthen embankment, which was found to i 9 ir .; *: 'i 220 TUJE CniXA TTAR. m If: J I :^i be deserted. Sir Hope now sent a message to General Montanban, informing liim of tlie retreat of the enemy, and of his intention to push on for Ynen-ming-ynen, whither the Tartar Army was said to liave gone. The British continned to advance and soon came upon the main road leading to the Anting gate of the city. As nothing coidd be seen of the French, wlio, witliout knowing it, had passed in rear of l\is troops, and as evening was approacliing, Sir Hope Grant halted for the night close by the ground upon which Sang-ko- lin-sin's Army had been encamped. Meanwhile, the British Cavahy, commanded by Bri- gadier Battle, arrived at the large Beh-ting Temple, some three miles from the Tey-shun, or second gate of the north face of the city, close to which they found the French had halted ; and the French General inti- mating his intention to advance on the Sunmier Balace, the ]>rigadier offered his co-operation, which was accepted. The French arrived about sunset at the central gate of the Sunnner Balace, which is distant about six miles in a north-westerly dir'j:• ■■f' CHAPTER V. CANADIAN SERVICES. The Trent Affair— Wolseley Embarks for Canada, and is employed on Transport Duty— His Visit to the Head-quarters of Generals Lee and Longstreet, and Impressions of the Confederate Armies— Wolseley's Services during the Fenian Invasion in 1866. IN this politically hard-living age— when, within a decade, empires are founded and subverted, ancient despotisms humbled to the dust, and new republics given to the European system; when wars of the first magnitude are waged, resulting in battles and sieges, wherein hundreds of thousands of combatants are engaged, only, however, to lay down their arms— it has, perhaps, escaped the memory of many among us that, in 1861, this country was on the verge of hostilities with the United States, then not long entered upon that " War of Secession" which demonstrated the vast resources of the Great Republic, and the warlike spirit which only slumbered within the breasts of her citizens, who, '^1 fjx 'V^ % 2k) TJfK Jfi:i) RirKK KXPEDITWN. wliether as Confederates or Federals sliowed, themselves no unworthy scions of the Anglo-Saxon stock. In the winter of 18()1, nothing looked more cer- tain on the political horizon, than the embroilment of this country in that tnomentous struggle, the issues of which would, in that event, have been far different from what history records. At that time the destinies of England were still wielded by the aged statesman, Lord Palmerston, who ex- hibited in this crisis all the warlike spirit and energy for which his name was almost a synonym, until the Dani.sh business, when what Lord Derby called the " meddle and muddle " policy of the Foreign Secretary, caused it to be associated with something like pusillanimity. *S^«^ magni nominis umbra might have been written of his Lordship after that fiasco. The incident which nearly precipitated this country into war, was that known as the " Trent Affair," when, on the 8th of November, Commodore Wilkes, commanding the United States' ship-of-war, ' San Ja- cinto,' boarded the British Mail Company's steamship ' Trent,' on the high seas, and seized Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Confederate Agents accredited to the Courts of London and Paris. Though the act was a clear violation of national rights and international law, Com- modore Wilkes was raised to the height of popularity among the rowdy writers of the American press, who R ELBA SE OF MESSRS. MA SON A ND SLID ELL. 2 11 imliilged in that spt'cius of " tall" talk oxpresslvely known as "spread eagleism ;" and even an eminent statesman like Everett, who had been Secretary of State to President Fillmore, and previonsly Minister in England, gave Wilkes' conduct the sanction of his approval. Tlie CommoJore had, however, by his rash deed, landed the Federal Government on the horns of a dilemma. Either it was a belligerent })ower or it was not. If it was engaged in merely putting down a rebellion of its own subjects, as President Lincoln maintained, it was not belligerent, and tlierefore had not even the right of search to ascertain whether the neutral vessel carried contraband of war or not. England was seized with a patriotic mania, and the most pacific were fired with a determination to uphold the honour of the flag and avenge this outrage, if reparation were not promptly made by the surrender of the Confederate Envoys. But the American press and public were equally outspoken against the possibility of concession, and for some weeks a war seemed in- evitable. Our Government displayed the utmost energy in the preparations they made to meet the con- tingency, and — while the country waited with feverish anxiety the reply to Lord Russell's ultimatum of the 80th of November, addressed to Lord Lyons, requiring " the liberation of the four gentlemen and their delivery to your Lordship in order that they may again be placed under British protection, and a suitable apology for the aggression which has been committed," — the dockyards resounded with the din of workmen fitting VOL. I. R 213 THE RED niFER EXPEDITION. ■>' it vessels for sea, troops vvuro (k'spiitchcd to Caniula with all possible duspatcli, and that colony, with the loyalty for which it has ever been remarkable, called out its militia and volunteers, so as to be ready to defend its borders from ag^^ression. Happily, however, wiso coinisels prevailed in the Lincoln Cabinet ; it was sccu by the American Goverinnent and people, that John Bull was really in earnest this time and meant to fight ; all the Governments of Europe were as one upon the merits of the question, and the cabinets of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, addressed weighty remonstrances to the Washington Government, recommending them to make the amende and release the prisoners ; and, finally, after an irritating delay, a despatch was received through Lord Lyons, from Mr. Seward, dated 26th of December, who, after arguing the case at most innnoderate length, stated that "the four persons in question are now held in military custody at Fort Warren, in the State of Masachusetts. They will bo cheerfully liberated. Your Lordship will please indi- cate a time and place for receiving them." This was done by placing them on board Her Majesty's ship 'llinaldo,' Commander (now Admiral Sir William^ Ilewett, who was specially sent out to receive them ; and they arrived at Southampton, on the 2'.'tli January, 18(52, in the ' La Plata.' On the 17th of November, the day the new of th( 'Trent' outrage reached London, a Cabinet Cuunc'l was held, and, on the following day, the War Office ordered the despatch to Canada of a battery of Arm- WOLSELEY PROCEEDS TO CANADA. 2i3 :lic Rtrong gmiH, a largo supply of arms and accoutremcntH for the Colonial Militia, and a vast (piantity of shot, shell, powder, ammunition, and otlior warlike Btoros. The Controller of Transports chartered the steamer * Melbourne,' but he could scarcely have made a more unfortunate selection, as she was old and worn out, and incapable of resisting the ice, which is sometimes met in the St. Lawrence afler Ihe month of October. How- ever, she was readily available, being in the Port of London, and, on the 7th of December, sailed with a Battery of Artillery, thirty thousand stand of arms, and between eight and nine hundred tons of stores. The War Dei)artment having deterniined to send out Special Service ollicers to prei)are for the re- ception of the troops, which were to be despatched in large swift steamers, Colonel IMcKenzie was appointed Quartermaster-General, and he immediately asked for the services of Colonel Wolseley. At this time Wolseley, who was on leave, was hunt- ing in the County Cork. lie had just bought two horses, and had enjoyed one day's sport on each animal, when a telegram came from Colonel McKenzie offering him em])loyment on active service as Assistant Quartermaster-General. Not many hours were sull'ered to elapse before the hunters were given away, and Wolseley was in London. Colonel McKenzie proposed to the War OfTice that he, and the other selected ofKcers, should proceed to Camida by the next mail steamer, but, with singular obtuseness, it was directed that they r R 2 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. should embark in the * Melbourne,' which was notorious during the China War, where it was employed as a transport, for its slowness and a habit it had of breaking down. In vain Colonel McKenzie, who knew from experience the steamer's imseaworthy qualities, pointed out that the object for which the Special Service officers were proceeding to Canada, namely, to prepare for the reception of the troops under orders for that country, would be best attained by their embarking in a swift mail steamer. It was all to no pm-pose, and the influences which were paramount when the question of embarking valuable lives in the ' Transit,' and, more lately, in the ' Megaera,' was under consideration, again prevailed. Tiie 'Melbourne' had on board, besides Colonels McKenzie and Wolseley, Colonel Lysons,* (selected to organize the Canadian INIilitia.) Captain Stoddart, R.E., and the late lamented Sir William Gordon, R.E., of " Gordon's Battery," a man of the true heroic mould, who proceeded in command of the troops. No sooner * The ground to be traversed h^ the troops proceeding to Quebec was familiar to Colonel Lysons, who, in 1843, when a young ofllcer in the Royal Scots, on the occasion of the wreok at Cape Chat, near the mouth of the St. Lawre loe, of the ' Premier,' sailing transport, convey- ing his Regiment from Canada, volunteered to proceed on snow-shoes to Quebec, a distance of three hundred miles. This distance he actually accomplished by walking and travelling in carts, within six days. A ship was started off to tlie rescue immr'-ately on his arrival, and was just in time to embark the troops Lelore the river was frozen over. On the occasion of the wreck it was mainly by his gallantry and devotion that the lives of some luiudreda of men, women, and children were saved. fl THE PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 215 had the 'Melbourne' sailed than she showed her un- seaworthy qualities. After a weary passage, the ship, according to orders, tried to get through the ice to Bic, on the St. Lawrence, but this being found wholly inipracticable, she bore up, under stress of weather and want of coal, for Sydney, Cape Breton Island. The miseries of that passage had been paralleled before by Wolseley in his ' Transit' ex- periences, but still it was a peculiarly hard fate that forced him and his shipmates to pass the Christmas Day of 1801, coiled up on tables and benches in the cuddy, while the " green seas " washed at their sweet will through that apartment, and the ship laboured heavily against the wintry gale. The 'Melbourne' was thirty days performing a voyage which the 'Persia,' carrying a portion of the reinforcements, for whose reception they had been despatched to prepare, made in nearly one-third of that time. While at Sydney, a telegram arrived from Halifax, announcing the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and that all chance of war was at an end. The ' Melbourne ' then proceeded to Halifax, where she found three transports which had disembarked their troops, the War Oflice having deter- mined to send to Canada ten thousand men and four batteries of Artillery. From Halifax Colonel Wolseley and other officers proceeded, by a Cunard mail steamer, to Boston, on their voyage to Montreal. It was feared that the Boston people would be uncivil, and the officers were warned that the lower classes, in the excited state of it' 246 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. iti,' 1 1 fl H 1;; i I'll *' i ii'ii 'l ' '■M • 1 V \,-.i\ •'t: ,;«': li!l 4j; ■ 5 it- - , : public feeling, might even offer violence were they to display the British red coat in the streets. On their arrival, however, they found it was far otherwise ; they were treated most respectfully while walking about during their afternoon's stay, looking at the lions of the city, and were regaled sumptuously by a private citizen. The same night they started for Canada, and, after a cold journey d.-r'ng the depth of an inclement winter, arrived at Montreal on a Sunday. On the following morning Colonel Wolseley started off on a journey of three hundred miles, down the river to Riviere du Loup, situated on the terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway, where the troops coming from St. John's, New Brunswick, including a battalion of the Scots P'usilier Guards and two batteries of Artillery, which arrived out in the ' Hibernian,' were transhipped from sleighs, or sleds, in which they had travelled, via Fredericton, to the railway by which they proceeded to their destinations at Quebec, Montreal, Hamilton, Kingston, or Toronto. Colonel Wolseley was the only staff officer at Riviere du Loup, and had to make all the arrangements for the accommodation and passage of the troops, who, after sleeping one night at the village, continued their journey on the following morning. During his stay at this cheerless little place, the troops passed through at the rate of nearly two hundred men a day. It was his task to lodge, feed, and clothe them from the stores placed under his charge ; and then to start thera oflf on their long journey by rail. I fi ;*'«g" ON DUTY AT RIVIERE DU LOUP. 217 These duties were fulfilled without a hitch or a single accident, and of the large force that passed through his hands, only one man deserted, although during the transit they passed close to the American frontier, at one place only a frozen river forming the boundary, and inducements were held out to them to forsake the flag of their country. In the middle of March, on the completion of his duties at Riviere du Loup,Wolseley returned to Montreal, the head-quarters of the Army in the Dominion, then under the command of Sir W. F.Williams (of Kars). Soon after these events Colonel IMcKenzie proceeded to England, and Wolseley acted for some months as Deputy Quartermaster -General, until relieved by Colonel Lysons, who, soon after his first arrival in Canada for the purpose of organising the Militia, had returned to England, upon the rejection by the Oppo- sition, led by the late Sir George Cartier, of the Government Militia Bill, a measure founded upon the scheme elaborated by Colonel Lysons at Quebec, and brought forward by the Ministry of that able and patriotic statesman, Sir John Macdonald, who resigned upon failing to pass his bill. Colonel Wolseley went on leave in the latter part of August, 18()2, but like many great actors, who, they say, on taking a holiday, may generally be found in the stalls of a theatre scrutinizing the performance of a brother artist, his strong professional proclivities in- duced him, instead of enjoying a little well-earned re- laxation, to repair to the seat of war then raging in its ' 218 TEE RED EIVER EXPEDITION. \ ■•t ■ ■ I . h. fiercest intensity between the Federal uiid Confederate States. While living at Montreal with his friend, Inspector-General (now Sir William) Muir, Chief Medical Officer in Canada, they decided the question as to which of them should join the head-quarters of the Northern, and which those of the Southern, Army, with the view of comparing notes afterwards, by the familiar method of "tossing up." Wolseley"won the toss," and elected to proceed South, in order to seek instruction under that unequalled master of the art of war. General Robert Lee — " unequalled," we say advisedly, for it is Wolseley's opinion that in military genius Lee has had no superior since the great Napoleon, and he even places him above the great German Generals of the War of 1870. But to join a Confederate Army in the field, or even to enter Richmond, was not only a most difficult, but an extremely hazardous, adventure, for, even if he escaped the toils of the Northerners, and avoided being seized as a spy, the British Government highly reprobated such proceedings on the part of their officers, and the experiment was one that entailed the risk of his commission. However, such considerations were not likely to deter Wolseley from carrying out any scheme on which he had set his heart, so he pro- ceeded to lay his plans, and procure letters of intro- duction to leading Soutl. ^ners from sympathisers and correspondents. Having first proceeded to New York, he left that city for Baltimore on the 11th of September, and there made arrangements, in conjunction with his friends, for crossing the frontier by " underground \k WOLSELEY'S VISIT DOWX SOrTH. 219 railway," as the method by which comimiiiication was kept up between the North and Secessia, was called. Armed with letters of introduction, he prepared to follow in the footsteps of the adventurous messeugers, who were wont to " run the blockade of the Potouuie," when conveying information between Richmond and the Northern States. There was, however, a dilliculty in his case, for his " patois English," as the Yankees called it, would inevitably betray his nationality, and all our countrymen were under a ban in the North, as " rebel sympathisers ;" then there was the inevitable portmanteau of civilised life, without which an English gentleman, who has a regard for personal cleanliness and a change of linen, would not care to travel in country places where hotels are unknown, but which was not considered a necessity in a land where your "free-born American" thinks himself amply provided with a few paper collars and a pocket-comb. When preparing to leave Baltimore he met the Honourable Frank Lawley, a brother of Lord Wen- lock's, at that time one of The Times correspondents in America, a clever and adventurous gentleman, and they soon agreed to run the blockade together. But in the first instance, it was a matter of difficulty to reach the banks of the Potomac, whose broad stream, again, patrolled by numerous Federal gunboats, offered an almost impassable barrier to any seeking to cross over into Dixie's Land. Though the Federal gunboats patrolling the river, were not as numerous as between S60 Tni: RED RIVER EXPEDITION. !;■ •4 ■ I}ii! m July, 18G3, when the battle of Gettysbnrgh was fought' and April, 18()5, at the close of the War, on the other hand, at this time, as Mr. Lawley observes, " there was DO such organization for running the blockade between Baltimore and Richmond as was established during 1863, and as was available for those rightly initiated into its mysteries until the spring of 18G5." The Potomac at the point of crossing, is rather an arm of the sea than a river, and varies between ten and thirteen miles in breadth, so that during the prevalence of south-cast winds, its broad bosom is scarcely less agitated than the Atlantic outside the Capes of the Chesapeake. Mr. Lawley says : — " It was necessary for the boatmen connected with the Signal Service of the Confederate Government to be well acquainted with the moods of the mighty and dangerous river, in order to understand the seasons when it was safe for a row-boat with muffled oars to cross. In addition, the phase of the moon had to be closely watched, in order that a dark night might be selected. But even during the blackest night there were the Federal gunboats, which were at last no less thick upon the stream than policemen in the Strand between midnight and sunrise. Each of these boats was armed with a calcium or lime-light, and, if the slightest sound was heard at night upon the surface of the stream, a broad luminous ray of light was shot forth from the sentinel vessel, which illu- mined the river for a quarter of a mile, so that the head of a swimming otter was discernible." But before the Potomac could be crossed, the two :,i;j n. 'm.. FROM BALTIMORE TO THE POTOMAC. 251 Englishmen had to sinnggle themselves from Baltimore to the northern bank, every road and path leading to whicli was patrolled by bodies of Federal troops. The start was made in a waggon and pair, driven by a trusty agent, who had been well paid for the trouble and risk. In this conveyance they contrived to slip from the country-house of one Secession sym})athiser to another, and as bodies of patrolling Cavalry and Infantry had at that time regular beats and fixed hours for traversing them, which were well known to the farmers in that part of Maryland, who were nearly all Secessionists, they managed to eluded the patrols while proceeding from house to house. " I travelled," says Colonel Wolselcy,* " about thirty miles a-day, until I reached the village from which I had arranged that m}'' final start should be made, and where I was informed certain people, with whose names I had been furnished, would arrange all matters for me. "For the first few nights of our journeyings we stopped at diff'erent gentlemen's houses, where wo were entertained with patriarchal hospitality. It was interesting in some instances to hear the history of these homesteads; many of them liad been built before tho Declaration of Independence, and more than one was of brick imported from England. All the proprietors boasted of their English descent from good families, '0 * Sco an article in " Blackwood's Magazine " for January, 1863, entitled "A Mouth's Visit to the Confederate Head-quarters, by an English OfBcer." This is not the only article Colonel Wolseley has written in " Old Ebony." TEE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. Jt tori and seemed to attach far greater importauco to blood and ancient pedigree than even we do." At length they arrived at a farm-house on the river, but had great difficulty in procuring a boat ; and after many disappointments they were directed to a smuggler on the river, who had a craft of his own, in which he consented to take them over. " We remained," says Wolseley, "for a night at his abode, sleeping in a garret destitute of windows, but abounding with rats which sadly disturbed my friend's rest, thougli I slept soundly being accustomed to rough it in every part of the globe." They were astir early, and embarked in the smuggler's boat. " The creek," says Wolseley, " into which we had hoped to run on the Virginian shore, was about a couple of miles higher up than the point from which we started, but, unfortunately, a gunboat lay off the entrance to it, and there were two others at no very great distance. After due deliberation, it was deter- mined that we should make for a spot about five miles higher up, and endeavour to get there by running close along the left bank of the river, so as not to attract attention, and, when clear of all gunboats, to push out into the centre of the stream, and then watch a favour- able opportunity for steering into the desired haven. The tide being in our favour, we dropped slowly up on it, until about mid-day, when it turned, and, the wind dying away, we were obliged to make close in for shore and anchor. My friend and I had landed, and spent the day in an old ruined shed surrounded by reeds BUXNIXa THE BLOCKADE. 253 and rushes. Large steamers and gun-vessels of various sizes kept passing and re-passing all day ; but none ot them seemed to notice our little craft. On one occasion we saw a boat put off from one of the gunboats and come in our direction; but instead of visiting us, its crew boarded a small cutter which lay becalmed in the centre of the river, and then returned to their own vessel. At sunset a slight breeze arose, before which we glided directly up the river. AVlien we passed the mid-stream and approached near the Virginian shore, the owner of the boat became quite nervous, and began lamenting his fate in having to turn smuggler; but the hard times, he said, had left him no alternative, his farm having been destroyed by the Northern troops. lie seemed to have a superstitious awe of gunboats, too ; and told us he had heard that the officers on board of them possessed telescopes through which they could see distinctly for miles at night. Several steamers passed us when we were about two-thirds of the way over, but although the moon every now and then emerged brightly from behind the drifting clouds, we had got under the shade of the land, and managed so that she always shone upon our sails on the side away from the 'enemy.' We could hear the steamers for about twenty minutes before we caught sigiit of their light, and during that time the anxious face of the smuggler would have made a glorious study for an artist of the Rembrandt school. The cargo consisted of coffee and sugar, and, if safely landed, would be in itself a small fortune to the owner of the boat ; that 184 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. '■'h. \k H." ho should fool iilarined for its safety, therefore, was not 8iir[)rising. As we approaclied the sliore, the whid died away, so we were ohliged to punt tiio little craft along; the men thus employed taking off their boots, lest they should make any noise in moving upon the deck. Now and then one of the gunboats, anchored off the neigh- bouring creek, would throw a light along the waters in all directions ; once we all fancied that it was ap- proaching nearer to us, and on another occasion we thought we heard the sound of oars, and as then^ vv'as not a breath of wind to help us along, and punting is a slow process, we felt far from comfortable. Half-past ten found us safe in a little creek almost land-locked, so there was no danger of discovery there ; and a run of about a mile and a half up it took us to the point of landing. After a dreary walk of about five miles over a forest road, we reached a small village, and, having spent a considerable time in knocking at the door of the house to which we had been directed, we at last succeeded in gaining admittance. The landlord was absent, being in concealment at a farm-house in the neighbourhood; but his niece, a very nice girl, did the honours in his stead. She told us that the Yankees had made a descent upon the village, and carried off several of the inhabitants as prisoners to Washington. The place was suspected of containing smugglers, consequently the Federal troops frequently visited it in search of contraband goods." Mr. Lawley thus describes the passage across the Potomac, and an interview in the smuggler's cottage b; RUNNING THE BLOCKADE. 255 of ast as he bo 'es fF n. s, it le re with a Federal officer coinmaiuling a patrol, which, hut for the presence of mind they both displayed, must have proved fatal to the success of their inidertakin<;, if not to their liberty: — "We succeeded, one evening at night- fall, in making our way to a cottage which looked down upon the broad and trancpiil river. Its owner was a fisherman, who told us that his house was usually visited during the night by a patrol, and that it would be unsafe for us to sleep there ; but ho promised that, if we would return on the morrow at noon, he would have a friend named Hunt to meet us, with whom we might probably make a bargain. Mean- time, we adjourned to a village some two or three miles distant, where, what between heat and insects, wo passed an awl'ul night. At noon, we were again at our friend's house, and covenanted with a son of Hunt, tlio fisherman, for twenty dollars a piece in gold, that his father's boat would take us on board that night at ten o'clock in an adjoining creek, and would land us before daybreak on the Virginian shore. But the intervening afternoon brought with it fresh adventures. We were forbidden by our host to leave the house, becaur.e the telescopes of the Federals in the neighbouring gunboat were said to be constantly sweeping the shore, and would infallibly detect the presence of strangers in tho little hut Shortly after two o'clock, we were horrified by the sight of a Federal officer, in the well-know?; blue uniform of the United States' Army, who was ascend- ing on foot by a little path which led to the house from the river. In his hand he carried a revolver, and 2M THE RED UTVEn EXPEDITION. '.'I I', i" ii. lit-; behind him followed Koven soldiers, who, with their leader, liad just got out of a boat. The coiisteriuitiou of our host during the few seconds of suspense before the Federals reached the iiouse, was pitiable in the extreme. There was scant time for consultation, and when the oflicer looked into the hut and descried Colonel Wolseley and myself, he seemed scarcely less disquieted than our host. Having in previous years shot canvas-backs and blue-wings on the Potomac, I stepped forward as spokesman, and asked the officer whether it would be possible for us to hire a boat, as I had often before done, with a view to doing some * gunning' on the river. The officer answered that no 'gunning' was now permitted on the river. I then asked him how it would be possible for my companion and me to get back to Washington. Just as he was hesitating about his answer, Colonel Wolseley adroitly advanced, cigar-case in hand, and offered him a 'regalia.' That judiciously proffered cigar turned the balance in our favour. The officer answered that a steamboat would call the following morning about four o'clock at the neighbouring wharf, by which we might take passage to Washington. We parted the best friends, in spite of the whispered remonstrances of a sergeant, who probably thought our appearance sus- picious, and remarked that we had no guns with U8. Long before four o'clock of the following morning, Hunt and his two sons had landed us in Virginia. Colonel Wolseley and I had to lie down and conceal ourselves below the gunwale, and I remember how tei: ARRIVAL AT RICHMOND. m lia. lal )VV long tlio trajet seemed to us, as the fisliin<;.l)()at taeked hither and tliitlier while casting its nets, and ap- proached uncomfortably near the Federal gunboat. After I had passed two or three months at Richmond, and become intimate with the officers of the Signal Service, I heard that poor Hunt liad been 8ubse(iuently caught in carrying passengers across the Potomac— that his boat had been seized, and himself sent to prison. But I have often thought how severely the Federal authorities, and especially Mr. Seward, would iiave blamed the young gentleman who thus allowed so distinguished a British officer as Colonel Wolselev to slip through his fingers." On landing in Virginia, Colonel Wolseley and his friend walked to the village of Dumfries ; it was dark and the roads were bad, but they were light-hearted and contented at having crossed the dreaded Potomac and eluded the Federal cruisers. At Dumfries they procured a farmer's cart without springs, drawn by two mules, and in this comfortless conveyance, which jolted along over "the very worst road" Wolseley had seen even in all his Indian and China experiences, they drove into Fredericksburg, crossing the Rappahannock river. Early on the following morning they again started, and, taking the road leading under Mary's Heights, which, three months later, was the scene o)f one of the most sanguinary struggles of the War, reached Beaverdam station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, in time for the afternoon train, which took them to Richmond. VOL. I. S 258 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. m Colonel Wolseley says : — " All the carriages were crowded with passengers, of whom a large proportion were the sick md wounded coming from General Lee's Army at ^^'^inchester. They had be(.'n all day on the railroad, and some of the poor fellows seemed cpiite worn out with fatigue. ^ly filend and I stood on what is called the platform of the car, during the journey of two hours and a-half, as the regular passenger-cars were full, and those containing the sick and wounded were anything but inviting, as men with legs and arms amputated, and wliose pale, haggard faces as- sumed an expression of anguish at even the slightest jolting of the railway carriages, lay stretched across the seats. At every station where we stopped, a rush for water was niade by the crowds of men carrying the canto'iis and calabashes of those whose disabled con- dition prevented then; from assisting themselves. The filth and stench within those moving hospitals were intolerable, and, though well inured to the sight of human suffering, I never remember feeling so moved by it as during that short railway journey. " Upon reaching Richmond we found a dense crowd on the platform, men and women searching for brothers, fathers, husbands, and lov'ers. A military guard, with fixed bayonets, was endeavouring to keep onler and a clear passage for those on crutches, or limping along with the aid of a stick or the arm of some less severely wounded comrade. Wo drove off to the Spottiswood Hotel, but were informed that there was not even one room vaca.it. The same answer was given at the I RICHMOND DURING THE WAR. 259 pwd liers, kith lid a [oiig •oly [ood lone the 1 I AiiK'rican ; but at the Exchange we obtained a little double-bedded apartment up four fliglits of ytairs. Congress was sitting, so the best rooms at most liouses were engaged by the Members of tlie LegisUiture, and wounded men occupied abnost all the other available bedrooms. When black tea is selling at sixteen dollars a-pound, and everything else, except bread and meat, is proportionately expensive, it may be readily imagined that the iare is far from good. Four dollars a-da}', however, for board and lodging, is not very exor- bitant ; but no wine or spirits is to be procured at any hotel, tlie manufacture and sjde of all intoxicating liquors having been prohibited by Governmetit." On this question of spirits as it concerns the health of soMiers on active service, Colonel Wolselcy has always entertained opinions in consonance with those of Sir Wilfred Lawson, and, though no teetotaller, has ever been averse from serving out spirits to troops in the field.* This view he has studiously * lie remarks : " When the Coiil'ederato Army was first enrolled, each man received a daily ration of spirits ; but this practice luis been long since discontinued, and, strangle to say, without causing any dis- content amongst tlie men — a practical refutation of the assertion tliat a certain amount of stimulants is absolul'ly necessary for soldiers, and that without it they cannot endure the fatigues of active service. For wiiat army in modern times has made tlie long marches, day after day, that Jackson's corp? of foot cavalry,' as they are facetiously calli" I, have accomplished? Doubt lo-^s there are circumstances when an allowance of gro^ is very beneficial to healtli — such as bivouackitig in swampy plai-es, and during lieavy rain* ; but in ordinary cases, and in fine weather, I am convinced that men will go througli as mueii con- tinuous hard work without any stiumlants whatever as with them." S 2 T 260 TBE BED EIVEE EXPEDITION. I;'ii I I ml m ill'! m carried out in the two campaigns which he himself has conducted, and he attributes the health enjoyed by the troops in the Red River and Ashantee Expedi- tions, in no small degree, to the fact of their absten- tion from spirituous liquors. Wolseley and his friends were received with open arms by the Southern leaders, and such letters of introduction as they had managed to retain, having previously sewn them up in their clothes, proved an "open Sesame" in society. They were received and hospitably entertained by the members of the CJovern- ment, including Mr. Iknjamin, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and General Randolph, the Secretary at War, who was most obliging in furni.ihing iben^ with passes to go wherever they pleased, ami ^" ith letters to the various military authorities. The first Confederate officer who called upon them at their hotel, was the late General John B. Magruder, who, when in Canada, had made many friends among the Briti:5' officers. One can scarcely realise the intensity of the pas- sionate fervour with which the gallant SoutlnTners maintained the unequal conflict with their gigantic opponent. Whatever had \wu the original cause the \A'ar, it was now, as Lord Russell stated, " a contest for dominion on the part of the North, and for independ- ence on the part of the South," a c\>ncUision which the Itnies endorsed on the U)th of January, lbi)2, when it declared that the War waJ* ^'fs purely political quarrel," adding, " that as th^ v\^usc of Italy against Austria is FEELING OF TEE SOUTEERyERS. 261 the cause of freedom, so also the cause of the South gaHantly defending itself against the cruel and deso- lating invasion of the North, is the cause of freedom."* a is * Early in tho struggle it was manifest tliat the Northern statesmen and Congress would sacrifice principle to retain the seceding States, for on the 3rd of March, 1861, after the formation into a Confederacy of tho six States and tho inauguration of JelTerson Davis, and on the day preceding the installation of Abraham Lincoln, President Uuchanau and the Congress amended the Constitution in these terms : — " That no amendment shall be made to the Constitution wliich shall authorise or give Congress power to abolish or interfere within any State with the institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labour or servitude by the laws of the said State." Also in March, 1862, Presi- dent Lincoln presented to Congress a " proposition," which was " sub- stantially to end the ReheUion " by purcliasing the slaves of those States that would rotunatothe Union ; but, wisely conceiving that th ecountry — unlike England, which, in 1831', paid twenty millions sterling to buy up the slaves of tho West India Islands — would prefer the cheaper expedient of coercing the South, and freeing the slaves, to the enormous expense of purchasing four millions of Jiegroes at £100 per head— which was the sjum the little State of Delaware, with its one thousand eight hundred slaves, magnanimously asked for washing its liands of the "accursed thing" — President Lincoln observed that if his proposal *' dcHW not meet with the approval of Congress and tho country, it is at an end." Cordially hating slavery as we do, wliether in its v arst fonn, as we have seen i^ on the east co«i*t of Africa, or as a " donustic insti- tution," ad it appeared in the Southern States, we cannot but rejoice that it was crushed out once and for ever from the American Conti- nent. Englishmen should remember, with humility and shame, that all the misery and bloodslied of this great Civil War was the damnosa het'pditax bequeathed by our ancestors to our American colo- nies. Though slaves were first imj)orted iiito America by the Spanish missionary, Las Ca«a« (who was horrified by the cruelty with which the Aborigines were treated by the European settlers), it was in 1562, 1 ng before the settlement of Virginia, that Queen Elizabeth foi nded If 1 n 1 ■ If Si' \l I is i ,i. 2G2 rirjs: jzjjz) RIVER expedition. At the time of Wolseley's arrival at Richmond, the Confederate Army had just returned from the Expedi- tion into Mary kind, after having fought, on the 17th of September, the sanguinary but indecisive battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg ; and he mentions, as an interesting fact, that during a conversation with General Lee, he assured him that throughout the day he never had more than thirty-five thousand men engaged, and with these he fought a drawn battle with McClellan's host of ninetv tho'isand men, General Stonewall Jackson being engaged in reducing Harper's Ferry with the remainder of the Confederate Army which had crossed the Potomac. While at Richmond, Wolseley visited the scene of the seven days* desperate fighting which took place in its vicinity in the previous June, when, in his opinion, General Lee showed him- self as consummate a master of the art of war as Napoleon himself. He says of these battle-fields : — " In some places the numerous graves and pits filled with dead bodies but slightly covered over, testified to the severity of the fighting there. The dehns of all things pertaining to an army, which lay strewn about on the ground camped on by McClellan's troops, was immense. Tn VAany places the blackened embers of flour-barrels, clothing-cases, and commissariat stores covered large spaces, showing the haste with which the a company for its promotion, while Charles II. made grants of lande to the colonists in projwrtion to the number of their slaves. William III. gave further encouragemcDt to slavery, and finally, iu ihe reign of George II., free trade iu slaves was declared. WOLSELEl' AT RICHMOND. 263 general retreat was commenced, and the great quantity of stores which it had heen found necessary to destroy. In some parts the very trunks of the trees were riddled through, huge pines being cut down by round shot, and great branches torn off by bursting shells." His com- ments of the strategy of the rival Commanders, as coming from a master of the art, and one who had studied the ground, are of great interest and no little value. Before leaving Richmond, Colonel Wolseley and Mr. Lawley spent a day at Drury's Bluff (or Fort Darling, as it was called in the North), whicli was attacked by the ' Monitor,' ' Galena,' and some other Federal iron- clad gunboats, when McClellan's Army was on the peninsula. Captain Lee, formerly of the United States Navy (brother to General R.Lee, and father to General Fitzhugh Lee), was in command of the troops and posi- tion, and was most obliging in showing them round the works, and pointing out all the new improvements in guns, carri;iges, and projectiles. Wolseley also inspected the ' Richmond ' (or ]\Ierri- mac No. 2), and was astonished at the success of the CiForts of the Southerners in the art of shipbuilding and the manufacture of gunpowder and other munitions of war. Having been furnished by General Randolph, the War Minister, with letters of introduction to General Lee, and the necessary passes, they left Richmond by the Virginia Central Railroad, and reached Staunton In the evening. This place, owing to the War, was in a 264 THE RED RirER EXPEDITION. forlorn condition ; no business was doing, and Wolseley searclied in vain tiiroii^h a number of shops for so common a domestic utensil as a teapot or kettle of any description. Iking the railway terminus, and the com- mencement of the turnpike-road line of communication with the Army, Staunton had become an entrepot for stores, waggons, and ambulances, and most of th j best houses had been converted into hospitals. No other means of transport being available, they succeeded, with some difficulty, in getting permission to proceed in an ambtdance cart, one of a large number going up to carry back sick and wounded men. It was four-wheeled, fitted with a tarpaulin hood, and drawn by two horses, the body of the cart being made to carry two men on stretchers, with room for another man beside the driver. The cart was mounted on very tolerable springs, but being one of a batch lately made in Richmond after the Yankee pattern, and having been hastily put together by unskilled workmen, its con- struction was so bad, and the wheels so weak, that it m'ust have tumbled to ])ieces in one day's march over the ordinary country roads of Virginia, though, fortu- nately, the road down the Shenandoah Valley was Macadamised, being the only regularly metalled road in the State. There were thirteen ambulance carts in the train with which they travelled, but they had not proceeded more than about six miles when two or three of them had to halt at a smith's shop for the purpose of having the wbeel-tires cut and reduced in size, the dry weather having so atfected the new wood, that the JOURNEY TO LEE'S HEADQUARTERS. 265 WliS ppokes were rattling loosely about. Owing to this doUiy not more than fiv 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 I &>< Wr Vl 1[ 270 TEE BED RIVER EXPEDITION. very small allowance of whisker ; a cleanly-shaven upper lip and chin ; and a pair of fine greyish-bine eyes, rather sunken, with overhanging brows, which intensify the keenness of his gaze, but without impart- ing any fierceness to it. Such are the general charac- teristics of his face ; and I have only to add, that a smile seems always lurking about his mouth when he speaks ; and that though his voice partakes slightly of that harshness which Europeans unjustly attribute to all Americans, there is much unmistakable cordiality in his manner : and to us he talked most affectionately of England, and of his brief but enjoyable sojourn there. The religious element seems strongly deve- loped in him; and though his conversation is perfectly free from all puritanical cant, it is evident that he is a man who never loses sight of the fact that there is an omnipresent Deity ever presiding over the minutest occurrences of life, as well as over- the most important. Altogether, as one of his soldiers said to me when speaking of him, " he is a glorious fellow I " and, after I left him, I felt that I had at last solved a mystery and discovered why it was that he had accomplished such almost miraculous feats. With such a leader men would go anywhere, and face any amount of difficulties. " For myself," adds Wolseley, with the enthusiasm of a soldier, " I believe that, inspired by the presence of such a man, I should be perfectly insensible to fatigue, and reckon on success as a moral certainty."* * Wolseley tlm^ r.rialjses tlie different nature of feeling with which WOLSELET ON THE CONFEDERATE AHMT. 271 The Army at Winchester was composed of two corps (Tarmee under the command of Generals Jackson and Longstreet, each consisting of four divisions. Wolseley was present whilst the latter officer inspected one of his divisions, and was highly pleased with the appearance of the men, and the manner in which they marched. He says: — "I remarked that, however slovenly the dress of the men of any particular Com- pany might be, their rifles were invariably in good serviceable order. They marched, too, with an elastic tread, the pace being somewhat slower than that of our troops, and seemed vigorous and healthy. I have seen many armies file past in all the pomp of bright cloth- ing and well-polished accoutrements ; but I never saw one composed of finer men, or that looked more like work, than that portion of General Lee's Army which I was fortuiiate enough to see inspected." Wolseley saw but little of the Confederate Cavalry, as General Steuart had left for his raid into Pennsyl- vania the day he reached head-quarters, and only these two remarkable soldiers inspired their devoted followers : " Whilst Lee is regarded in the light of the iTifallible Jove, a man to be reverenced, Jackson is loved and adored with all that childlike and trustful affec- tion which the ancients are said to have lavished upon the particular deity presiding over their affairs. The feeHug of the soldiers for G-eneral Lee resembles that which Wellington's troops entertained for him — namely, a flxed and unshakable faith in all ho did, and a calm confidence of victory when serving under him. But Jackson, like Napoleon, u idolised with that intense fervour which, consisting of mingled personal attachment and devoted loyalty, causes them to meet death for his sake, and bless him when dying." 272 TEE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. returned a couple of days before he commenced his homeward journey. He remarked, however, " that though their knowledge of drill is limited, all the men rode well, in which particular they present a striking contrast to the Northern Cavalry, who can scarcely sit their horses, even when trotting." Colonel Wolseley had quitted New York for his trip " down south" on the 11th of September, and had to report himself at Montreal on the expiration of his six weeks' leave. The short time at his disposal was the great drawback to the enjoyment of this visit to the head-quarters of the Confederate Army, but he made the most of it, and altogether he never passed a pleasanter time than when " running the blockade,"' with its at- tendant excitement, while as an enthusiastic soldier he considered himself amply repaid for any discomfort by his conversations with Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose deeds will live long in song and story, as long as high character, spotless patriotism, and brilliant military genius, command the admiration of the human race. After his return to Canada, Colonel Wolseley suffered greatly from the wound in the right leg he had received m the Crimea seven years before. His exertions on foot caused the wound to open afresh, and, under medical advice, he was constrained to pro- ceed to England. Heie he placed himself under the eminent surgeon, Sir AVilliam Fergusson. There was considerable exioliution of the right shin bone, and he did not begia to mend until after Sir William had cut ::%rfM THE CAMP OF INSTRUCTION. 273 out the part affected. Wolseley returned to Canada in the spring of 1863, and resumed his duties as Assistant Quartermaster-General, under Colonel Lysons. In the Autumn of 1865 the Fenians in the United States, by their threatening attitude, gave cause for anxiety to the Dominion Government, and Colonel (now General) Sir Patrick McDougall, who came out to the Dominion to organise and superintend the local forces, established a Camp of Instruction for cadets, in order to test the efficiency of the training imparted by the Canadian military schools. At his request, the services of Colonel Wolseley were placed at his disposal by Sir John Michel, Commanding the Forces, and he appointed him to command the first Camp of Instruc- tion ever established in Canada. The place selected for this experiment was La Prairie, about nine miles distant from Montreal, on the opposite side of the river. A General and Regimental staff were placed under Wolseley's orders, and quartermasters and sergeant- majors were appointed permanently to battalions from among the discharged non-commissioned officers resi- dent in Canada. The remaining battalion officers and non-commissioned officers were furnished by the cadets themselves in rotation, except that two cadets were named permanently as sergeants, and two as corporals to each company. The force was formed into three battalions ; and, to avoid all possible jealousy as to posts of honour, they were disposed in the order they would assume, facing the frontier of Canada, to repel an invasion. Thus the VOL. I. T 274 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. cadets of the Toronto school, and the schools west of Toronto, were formed into the right battalion, (three hundred and sixty-six men) ; the cadets of the Kings- ton school, and the English-speaking cadets of the Montreal and Quebec schools, composed the centre battalion (three hundred and thirty-four men) ; and the cadets of French-Canadian origin composed the left battalion (four hundred and five men). By utilising the small barrack at La Prairie, Colonel Wolseley was enabled to place each battalion under canvas during two weeks, and in quarters one week. The cadets, among whom were three French-Cana- dian Members of Parliament, and one Upper Canadian Member, also Lord Aylujer, and several gentlemen holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Seden- tary Militia, and officers who had served in the Regular Army, fell into the usual routine of camp life with sur- prising readiness ; and though their duties were precisely the same as those performed by soldiers of the Regular Army in camp, their demeanour throughout was beyond praise. Every cadet had an opportunity for showing his ability in drilling a squad or company, as well as for acting as captain and covering sergeant of a company in battalion ; and the aptitude and knowledge they generally displayed was a matter of surprise to Colonels McDougall and Wolseley, and afforded a gratifying testimony to the value of the Iklilitary Schools which had been established in the Province. The late General, the Honourable Sir James Lindsay, THE CAMP OF INSTRUCTION. 276 then commandin;g^ the Montreal Division, marched into La Prairie on the 4th of October, with tlie Montreal garrison of regular troops, and held two divisional field days, when the Montreal garrison acted as one brigade, and the cadets, with a battery of Royal Artil- lery temporarily attached, formed a second brigade under Colonel Wolseley. The second field day was held in the presence of Sir John Michel, and, says Colonel McDougall, "I can fully corroborate Colonel Wolseley's opinion that the cadets compared most favourably with the regular troops, an opinion that was shared in and expressed by both Sir John Michel and the Major-General, and that they executed all the movements of a sham fight with the same precision and quickness." Wolseley performed his arduous duties during the three weeks the camp was established, to the entire satisfaction of his superiors, and Colonel McDougall reported in the following terms :— " I desire to record as strongly as possible my sense of the ability and energy with which the immediate command of the Camp was exercised by Colonel Wolseley, and to which is attributable a large share in the success of the experiment. It was a charge requiring unusually delicate management; but in Colonel Wolseley's qualifications tact is combined with firmness, and both with an intimate knowledge of his profession in an unusual degree." At length, after many "scares," on the nightof the Slst T 2 £76 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. Ill: of May, the Fenian leader, " General " O'Neil, crossed the Niagara river with about twelve hundred men, and, having captured Fort Erie, some three miles from Buffalo, advanced towards Ridgeway, where he threw up breastworks and awaited reinforcements. On receipt of news of this daring act, the whole Dominion was thrown into a perfect fever of indigna- tion and patriotic ardour. The call to arms was re- sponded to by all classes and conditions of people, and had the necessity arisen, the whole Volunteer Militia force could have been collected in a few days. On the 31st of May, Colonel McDougall, Adjutant-General of Militia, received instructions to call out for actual ser- vice fourteen thousand Volunteers, and within twenty- four hours, the companies were all ready, and many had moved to the stations assigned them. On the 2nd of June, the whole of the Volunteer Force, not already called out, was placed on actual service, and, on the following day, the Province had more than twenty thousand men under arms. Notwithstanding that the season of the year entailed heavy sacrifices on those of the Volunteers who were business men, all joined with eagerness ; and, at Toronto, sixty young Canadians joined from Chicago. '' Experience has shown," wrote the Adjutant-General, "that, in the event of a regular invasion, a hundred thousand men, in addition to the Volunteer Force, would eagerly come forward in forty- eight hours to aid in defending the country." When the news of the Fenian invasion arrived at Montreal, Colonel Wolseley— under orders from Sir J \ V THE FENIAN INVASION. 277 » > John Michel, Commander-in-Chief— started thence for Toronto, where he placed himself at the disposal of Major-General George Napier, commanding the Division. On his arrival he found a Force of regular troops, consisting of a battery of Artillery and the 16th and 47th Regiments, under the command of Colonel Lowry, of the 47th, about to start to attack the Fenians. Wolseley accompanied the column which arrived that night at the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara river ; but on reaching Fort Erie, on the following day, they learnt that a fight had already taken place, with indecisive results, at Ridgeway.* Far diflferent must it have been had the inexperi- enced commander of the Militia awaited the arrival of the regular troops under Colonel Lowry, or a second column under Colonel Peacock, which, unfortunately, had taken the wrong road. Wolseley was sent on the following day to Stratford — a railway station near Georgian Bay, on Lake Huron — to take command of a brigade, consisting of a battery of Artillery, a battalion of the 16th Regiment, and two battalions of Canadian Militia. * At 8 a.m. on the 2nd of June, two battalions of Canadian Militia, the "Hamilton" and "Queen's Own" Volunteers, marching from Toronto, attacked the Fenians at Ridgeway, between Forts Cockbum and Erie ; but, though there was no lack of enthusiasm and gallantry, the commander was inexperienced, and the ammunition failed. The Canadians got into some confusion, and were forced back, but again attacked the Fenians, and drove them back, many being killed and wounded on both sides. The Fenians now retreated across the river, when many of them were captured by an United States' war- steamer. ■ I 278 TEE RET) RIVER EXPEDITION. But tliere was no further attempt at invasion by the Fenians, and when Wolseley's brigade was broken up, ho returned to Montreal. He liad scarcely resumed his duties when, in the Autumn of this year (ISGG) he was placed in command of a Camp of Observation, consisting of the IGth Regiment, two troops of Volunteer Cavalry, and three bat- talions of Militia, at Tliorold, near St. Catherine's, on the Welland Canal, which the Fenians had ex- pressed their intention to destroy. The large and wealthy city of Buffalo, on the American side, was at this time the centre of the Fenian military organiza- tion, and Wolseley had very responsible duties in watching the frontier between Fort Cockburn and the Niagara Falls. He remained at Thorold about a month, exercising his troops, and during this time nearly all the Militia of Upper Canada passed through his hands. Three battalions, of about a thousand men each, were drilled a week at a time, and the work was arduous for Wolseley, who was in the saddle all day and every day. On the approach of Winter the camp was broken up, and he returned once again to Montreal : but, during the succeeding months, there were constant Fenian alarms, and the Generals and Staff Officers were kept on the qui vive. Indeed, in January, 1867, the alarm of threatened invasion was so great that field brigades were established in all the princi'^;al military centres, fully equipped, and in constant readiness to turn out should their services be required. Colonel Wolseley THE "SOLDIERS' POCKET-BOOK. 279 don by Je was scarcely of this L Camp gimcnt, 3e bat- lerine's, bad ex- rge and was at rganiza- jtiea in ind the about a IkS time through md men ork was 1 all day )ken up, ;, during Fenian I kept on ilarm of brigades centres, turn out /Volseley was sent to Toronto, wore he organized the Toronto IJrigade, but, in April, 1807, when matter looked more settled, he proceeded to England, being relieved as Assistant Quartermaster-General, by Sir Henry Havelock. Wolseley's services in Canada had been so meritorious, and his claims for promotion were so generally acknow- ledged, that he was abnost immediately nominated to succeed Colonel Lysons as head of the Department in which he had acquired such vast experience in the Crimea, India, and China, irrespective of the special knowledge of its working gained in Canada during the past five years. Colonel Lysons' terui of buxvice expired in the Autumn of 18(57, and, in September, Wolseley returned to the Dominion as Deputy Q:uarter- raaster General, being, as we were assured by his pre- decessor, the youngest officer who was ever nominated to fill that responsible post, lie came home to Eng- land, on two months' private leave, in 1868, and during his stay, occurred an important event in his life, his marriage with Miss Erskine, who accompanied him on his return to Canada. In the following year was published his " Soldier's Pocket Book for Field Service,"* which is considered in the Army a standard authority. This invaluable * The preface to the first edition of the " Soldier's Pocket Book " was written in Canada, and dated " Montreal, March, 1869." A second edition of this work was issued in 1871, and a third and revised edition in 1875. Wolseley is also the author of a " Field Pocket Book for the Auxiliary Forces," a work of more recent date. 280 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. little work offers— in a handy form, as its name implies — information on every subject of a professional nature, and to every rank in the Array, — from the private, who wants information how to keep his accoutrements clean, or to cook a beefsteak, to the " non-combatant " officer in search for a " form " for indenting for stores, or the General in the field who seeks to solve some knotty point in military law, or in the manoeuvring of the " three arms." It is, in short, a most trustworthy and indispensable vade mecuiriy and its value has been universally acknowledged. Much of the information embodied in its pages, with the brevity and conciseness of style becoming a soldier, is original ; and the articles on Staff duties, such as reconnoitring, surveying, and other duties of an officer of the Quartermaster-General's Department, embody the results of the writer's own lengthened experience in what was, before the new organization at the Horse Guards, and the establishment of an Intelligence Department, the most important section of the Military Staff. v' END OF TUE FIRST VOLUME. / London: Printed by A. Schulre, 13, Poland Street. (L.) (L.)