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GENERAL 
 
 LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 (OF CAIRO), 
 
 G.C.B., G.C.M,G., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 
 A MEMOIR. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES RATHBONE LOW, LN., F.R.G.S., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'the history of the INDIAN NAVY,' ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 
 
 ittbiislters in (Drbiurtrji to ^}ci- ^Ustjestj) the O^uef n. 
 
 1883, 
 
 [A II Rights Reserved, j 
 
 
EU 
 
 D/\ tg-32 
 W7 
 
 .) .3 / 
 
 
 Ni 
 
 T 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This Memoir of Lord Wolseley, so far as it deals with his 
 career up to the time of his proceeding to Cyprus in the 
 summer of 1878, was published in that year. His conduct 
 of operations v\ Egypt appearing to call for a new edition, 
 I have written a sketch of his services from that date up to 
 the present time. 
 
 This volume contains the first published account of Lord 
 Wolseley's administration of Cyprus. It was his intention to 
 write an official report of his doings during the first twelve 
 months the island was under British rule, when he organized 
 the administration and guided the tottering footsteps of this, 
 the youngest of the Mother Country's Colonies. But his 
 hurried departure to Natal, to supersede Lord Chelmsford, 
 prevented the execution of this design. The account of 
 Lord Wolseley's conduct of affairs in South Africa, including 
 the operations in Zululand, his dealing with the Boers, and 
 the Secocoeni Campaign, are also published in this volume 
 for the first time, and, as with the Cyprus chapter, the 
 details may be relied upon, his lordship having kindly re- 
 vised the proof-sheets. 
 
 As with the Cyprus and South African rhapters, the last, 
 giving an account of the Egyptian Campaign, has been 
 
 f 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 written without any assistance from previously published 
 works, for mine is the first ;n the field. This will, perhaps, 
 be taken into consideration by critics and ?.n indulgent 
 public, whose pardon I crave for any shortcomings. These 
 will be amply atoned for when Colonel Maurice, R.A., the 
 accomplished writer and correspondent of the Times in 
 Egypt, has published the official account of the campaign, 
 in which I understand he is engaged. I take this opj)or- 
 tunity cf specially thanking him,* and also Colonel Herbert 
 Stewart, C.B., A.D.C. to the Queen, Major R. C. Lawrence, 
 who commanded the detachment of cavalry that occupied 
 the citadel of Cairo — one of the most dashing feats of the 
 war — and other officers who have afforded me information 
 when writing this portion of the work. 
 
 In the previously published chapters of this volume, we 
 have seen Lord VVolseley as a Regimental officer in Burmah, 
 leading a storming party and narrowly escaping with his life ; 
 as an Engineer in the trendies before S'^bastopol, fighting and 
 toiling, suffering and shedding his blood; as a Regimental and 
 Staff officer, participating in some of the most stii ring scenes 
 of the Indian Mutiny ; and on the Staff in the China Cam- 
 paign of i860; — thus building up that thorough acquaintance 
 with the art of war, which he has turned to such good 
 account. We have followed him as leader in the Red River 
 and Ashantee Expeditions, in both of which he displayed 
 his remarkable aptitude for command, his energy, resource, 
 and unflagging deitermination to succeed when everything 
 was against him, and failure appeared imminent to the most 
 hopeful. 
 
 In the last five ^ears of his eventful life we shall see him 
 as an administrator and lawgiver in Cyprus, which afforded 
 a virgin field for constructive statesmanship. We shall see 
 
 * Colonel Maurice was kind enough to peruse the proof-sheets of the 
 Egyptian chapter, and says, in a letter tome: 'I must congratulate you upon 
 the accuracy with which the account of the Egyptian Campaign is written.' 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 blished 
 erhaps, 
 diligent 
 
 These 
 .x\., the 
 imes in 
 mpaign, 
 
 oppor- 
 Herbert 
 Lwrenre, 
 iccupicd 
 3 of the 
 irmation 
 
 ume, we 
 
 Burmah, 
 
 his life; 
 
 ting and 
 
 ntal and 
 
 scenes 
 
 na Cam- 
 
 aintance 
 
 good 
 
 d River 
 
 splayed 
 
 esource, 
 
 rything 
 
 le most 
 
 ee him 
 fforded 
 lall see 
 
 ts of the 
 you upon 
 written." 
 
 :n 
 
 him in Zululand, as the solaicr who, by his combinations 
 and pertinacity, hunted down the Zulu King in the depth of 
 his African jungle, and as a Constitution-maker, partitioning 
 his kingdom, and dictating the terms of settlement. From 
 Zululand we shall follow him to the Transvaal, and his 
 duties change from coercing Zulus to the impossible task of 
 striving to conciliate Boers. But at least he kept the 
 peace, and the magic of his name awed the sturdy farmers 
 into submission. Again the scene changes, and we find him 
 once moro leading British soldiers to victory. Secocoeni, 
 the B: o chief, who had defeated the attempts alike of 
 Zulus, Boers, and British soldiers to capture his stronghold, 
 met his conqueror in Lord Wolseley, whose brief but 
 brilliant and successful campaign against that dreaded chief 
 astonished alike Native and European in South Africa, 
 and raised British prestige to a height it had never before 
 attained. 
 
 From South Africa, ."xC the peaceful precincts of the 
 Florse Guards, where he j^uided the military reforms insti- 
 tuted by Lord Cardwell and Mr. Childers, at the call 
 of his country he once more buckled on his sword, and 
 having organized the force that was to restore the authority 
 of the Khedive and put an end to military despotism in 
 Egypt, he carried through, to the letter, the programme of 
 operations he had marked out before leaving this country. 
 This punctuality is not the least surprising feature of his 
 conduct of the war, but, it is one that has always marked his 
 military career. 
 
 \\\ the Red River Expedition he took a force of 1,200 
 soldiers and 500 non-combatants, over an untrodden wilder- 
 ness, to Fort Garry, a distance of 1,200 miles from the point 
 of departure, and arrived at his destination within twenty- 
 four hours of the time fixed before quitting Toronto. He 
 marched into Coomassie on the day he designated before 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 quitting Cape Coast Castle ; and, as ne told us, drank his 
 afternoon tea in the fortress of Secocoeni, in the wilds of 
 the Lulu Mountains in the Transvaal, on the very day he 
 indicated, months before, in letters to the Secretary of 
 State for War and the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief. 
 Finally, as we have seen, he fought the decisive action of 
 the war and entered the capital of Egypt on the dates marked 
 out by him while in England ; — thus conducting the move- 
 ments of armies and the combinations of war with the regu- 
 larity of clock-work. As far as we are aware, in no age and 
 by no general has the practice of the art been reduced to 
 such conditions of mathematical precision, and been made 
 so closely to conform to the will of the Commander. 
 
 Before the victories of Prussia over Austria in 1866, and 
 of the combined German army over France four years later, it 
 was the custom in this country to sneer at studious officers as 
 doctrinaires^ but few now will be bold enough to gainsay the 
 truth of Don Quixote's saying, 'The sword hath never blunted 
 the pen, nor the pen the sword.' Tord Wolseley has ever been 
 one of those ardent but judicious reformers who, while re- 
 cognising with the Duke of Wellington the superiority of the 
 British officer to the same class in any other a/my, and ap- 
 proving generally our regimental system, have sought to 
 remedy defects in our military organization, which, if per- 
 mitted to exist unchecked, would land this country in 
 disasters more dire than those she met with in the Crimea. 
 An advocate of short service, not only with its concomitant 
 of young non-commissioned officers and soldiers, but of 
 young officers also, he dared to lay a sacrilegious hand on 
 the constitution of the British army, hitherto regarded as 
 the very Palladium of aristocratic privilege, and placed by 
 a constitutional figment under the direct control of the 
 Crown. When the new system did not, apparently, work 
 well, as during the Zulu War, when some of the battalions 
 
 \) 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Vll 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 were notoriously inefficient, he bluntly asserted that the 
 cause of the failure lay not in the system, though that was 
 not sufficiently developed to be fairly tested, but to the half- 
 hearted manner in which it was worked by the Horse Guards. 
 This assertion aroused a storm of abuse on the head of the 
 bold innovator, but the high state of discipline, and the 
 marching and fighting powers displayed by the army under 
 his command in Egypt, and the greater ease with which the 
 complicated machine having its motive-power in Pall Mall, 
 now moves under his guiding hand, proves that he had 
 warrant for his assertions. 
 
 It is easy, after success has been won, to make light of 
 the difficulties encountered by our army in Egypt, and to 
 depreciate the fighting qualities of the men opposed to us; 
 but the former were very great, and afforded to an incom- 
 petent general — and recent events in South Africa have 
 shown the race is not extinct — vast possibilities of failure 
 and disaster, while the resistance made by the Egyptian 
 army during the brief struggle at Tel-el-Kebir, when it was 
 surprised out of sleep by the fierce onslaught at all points 
 of an apparently endless line of British red-coats, was by no 
 means so despicable as was made out. Sir Edward Hamley 
 does justice to the gallantry of the enemy opposed to his 
 Highlanders, who, at one point, actually gave ground, and 
 were driven back to the first line of the intrenchments they 
 had Cciiried. 
 
 It was on all grounds, political no less than military, 
 essential that the campaign should be 'short, sharp, and 
 decisive.' Delay meant not only vast expenditure, but in- 
 creased probabilities of political complications with Turkey, 
 France, and Russia, no less than a great uprising of the 
 Arab race. Had Arabi won even a partial success, or held 
 his opponents temporarily in check, the power of the move- 
 ment he headed would indeed have become more than 
 
vHi 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 national, and the Mussulmans of the Arabian desert, and of 
 'I'unis and Tripoli, no less than the malcontents from the 
 Soudan, would have thrown in their lot with the leader of 
 the rebellion. Then the physical difficulties were great, and 
 the time of year was unfavourable ; and when we consider 
 the heavy sick-list of our troops in Egypt, the result, accord- 
 ing to the doctors, of the hardships of the brief campaign, 
 some calculation may be made of the losses we must have 
 encountered had it been prolonged. Thus while the croakers, 
 who always make their voices heard on the outbreak of a 
 war, had many grounds for their pessimistic vaticinations, 
 the most sanguine never anticipated such a rapid and com- 
 plete success. 
 
 Marching and fighting under a tropical sun in the strip 
 of desert between Ismailia and the cultivated Delta was 
 nothing to the Indian Contingent, some of whom had 
 accompanied Sir P>ederick Roberts in his celebrated march 
 through Afghanistan ; but it was otherwise with the soldiers 
 fresh from Aldershot and the Wellington Barracks. Faint- 
 ing under the stifling heat, the Guards and the rest of the 
 army marched and worked like navvies with an unmurmur- 
 ing spirit worthy their ancient renown. Like the immortal 
 ' Ten thousand' Greeks, — ' whose glory,' says the poet Thom- 
 son, ' not the prime of victories can reach :' 
 
 ' Deserts, in vain, opposed their course.' 
 
 Not the least brilliant operation of the war was the seizure 
 of the Suez Canal, which was exclusively the work of the 
 British navy. M. de Lesseps acted on the impression that 
 his 71071 possumus and bluster would paralyze the action of 
 the British commanders so far as operations on the Canal, 
 the offspring of his genius, were concerned. But he exag- 
 gerated the extent of his power, and his indignation was 
 almost ludicrous when Admiral Hoskins and Captain Fitzroy 
 met his hysterical protests by courteously but firmly carrying 
 
^. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 IX 
 
 rt, and of 
 from the 
 leader of 
 Treat, and 
 consider 
 t, accord- 
 ampaign, 
 lust have 
 croakers, 
 reak of a 
 cinations, 
 and com- 
 
 i the strip 
 Delta was 
 horn had 
 ed march 
 e soldiers 
 Faint- 
 st of the 
 miurmur- 
 immortal 
 et Thom- 
 
 e seizure 
 c of the 
 sion that 
 iction of 
 e Canal, 
 he exag- 
 tion was 
 Fitzroy 
 carrying 
 
 out their orders. As matters turned out, the eminent French 
 engineer not only rendered incalculable service to civiliza- 
 tion and his Canal, but conduced to the rapid success of the 
 campaign, by hoodwinking Arabi into the belief that his 
 guarantee of the neutrality of that passage would be respected 
 by the British commanders, for a small portion of the 7,000 
 labourers whom Arabi impressed to throw up the lines of 
 Tel-el-Kebir could, in a few hours, have rendered the Canal 
 impassable to the transports conveying the troops. 
 
 When the difficulties of transport had been overcome, 
 and the force was massed at Kassassin, the critical moment 
 for proving his capacity had arrived for Lord Wolseley. He 
 had to decide by the light of insufficient information — for 
 he had no reliable intelligence of the real strength of the 
 army concentrated behind the lines in his front — the method 
 by which he was to assault the works — whether by shelling 
 them preparatory to an assault, by turning them, or by sur- 
 prise. A doctrinaire general would have adopted the first 
 course, which would have prepared his enemy to give him 
 a warm reception, and might have ended in a failure. The 
 second method, even if successful, would have involved 
 tedious movements and the dispersion of his force, and 
 both courses would have been attended with a prolongation 
 of the campaign. The assault with the bayonet, delivered 
 as a surprise, was the course that alone remained, and its 
 adoption showed military genius of a high order, which was 
 not belied by the manner in which it was carried into execu- 
 tion. No such feat has been performed in recent times, 
 except at Shenovo, when Skobeleff stormed the Turkish in- 
 trenchments ; but that was after the capture of Plevna had 
 demoralized his enemy. In adopting this method of attack. 
 Lord Wolseley displayed the judgment which forms a correct 
 estimate of the resistance to be overcome, the self-reliance 
 nhich is willing to risk the chance of failure in order to 
 
I 
 
 X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 attain an ade(iuate result, and the confidence in his troops 
 which induces a reciprocal feeling. 
 
 It was said by the iJuke of Wellington that there were not 
 half a dozen generals in the British army who could march 
 a body of 10,000 men into and out of Hyde Park without 
 confusion ; and if this is so, few indeed are the generals in 
 ours or any other army who would undertake to march a 
 force of 14,000 men and 60 guns, forming a line nearly four 
 miles in length, for a distance of eight miles over the track- 
 less desert, guided only by the glimmer of the stars. To per- 
 form this operation so that, at tlie moment of attack, the 
 whole line should have taken uj) their assigned positions 
 with absolute accuracy, is a feat unprecedented in ancient or 
 modern warfare. With such judgment was the time for the 
 final rush selected, that had it been a few minutes earlier it 
 would have been too dark, and had it been a few minutes 
 later the surprise would have failed ; while, as planned, the 
 exact moment was chosen when the assault could be de- 
 livered with the smallest loss, the distance to be crossed 
 under fire was moderate, and the leaden hail mostly passed 
 over the heads of the stormers. 
 
 Again Lord Wolselcy displayed his military genius,* which 
 in him is almost an instinct, in dividing his operations into 
 two distinct attacks, so that in the event of one failing, the 
 chance of the second succeeding would not be lessened. 
 Between the two attacks the artillery was massed ; on the 
 right flank was the whole of the cavalry, to profit by suc- 
 cess or cover a retreat ; and on the left flank, south of the 
 Canal, marched the Indian Contingent, which moved one 
 hour and a half after the main body, in order that it might 
 
 * A writer of acknowledged originality and graphic power, Mr. Kinglake, 
 in his latest j)ublished (tlie seventh) volume of tlie ' Invasion of the Crimea,' 
 goes out of Ills way to compliment Lord Wolscley anil liis army for their 
 achievements in Egypt. Tiie ])assage is as forcibly and picturesquely written 
 as any tiling from the pen of the aullior of ' Eothen.' 
 
 i* 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 XI 
 
 lis troops 
 
 were not 
 id march 
 c \Yithout 
 nerals in 
 march a 
 iarly four 
 Lhc track- 
 To per- 
 ttack, the 
 positions 
 mcient or 
 :ie for the 
 ; earher it 
 V minutes 
 nned, the 
 Id be de- 
 crossed 
 y passed 
 
 * which 
 tions into 
 tiling, the 
 esscned. 
 on the 
 by suc- 
 1 of the 
 ved one 
 it might 
 
 Kinglako, 
 le Crimea,' 
 ly for their 
 .lely urittea 
 
 l)ress home its attack only in the event of success. Lord 
 Wolseley knew that if one of the attacking brigades could 
 establish a footing within the enemy's works, all would be 
 lost for the Egyptians; and so it proved when the High- 
 landers crossed the ditch and scaled the intrenchments. 
 
 It was the chief characteristic of Napoleon that he gave 
 no time to a beaten enemy to rally, but followed up a victory 
 with crushing effect. In this crucial test of a great general 
 Wolseley is not wanting. Having defeated the Egyptian army, 
 he gave no thought to his rear or transport — these had been 
 sufficiently provided for in the busy days since landing at 
 Ismailia ; but he directed his undivided attention to crush- 
 ing the enemy In his front beyond the power of his again rally- 
 ing, and seizing the strategic points, above all the cai)ital, 
 menaced with the fate of Alexandria. Within forty-eight 
 hours of his victory, he had reaped the full fruits of that 
 surprising success. The country had been overrun, the 
 army dispersed, and, with the surrender of Cairo and of the 
 rebel leaders, the resistance to the authority of the Khedive 
 collapsed. 
 
 Lord Wolseley has had to pay the penalty of greatness, 
 and cavillers have sought to detract from the credit due to 
 him for the uniform success he has achieved ; but since his 
 last surprising performance the voice of envy and detraction, 
 which, in former campaigns, attributed success to fortune, or 
 to his staff (who repudiated the honour), has been silent 
 under the unanimity with which foreign as well as home 
 critics have lauded the originality of his plans for the con- 
 quest of Egypt, and the boldness and promptitude with 
 which he put them into execution. From a political point of 
 view the services he has rendered to his country by the 
 rapidity and completeness of his success can scarcely be 
 exaggerated, and will become more ai)parent with the 
 lapse of time. That trite phrase of Julius Caesar — Vcni^ 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 vidi, vici — has never been more aptly applied than to the 
 conquest of Egypt by the British General. To have over- 
 run and subdued in twenty-five days the country of the 
 Pharaohs and Ptolemies — the classic land that has witnessed 
 the glories of Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon — must be a 
 proud recollection to Lord Wolseley, to the brave army he 
 has led to victory, and to the country that gave them birth. 
 
 C. R. LOW. 
 
 Kensington, January, 1883. 
 
 Ill 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 -»<*- 
 
 Some explanation appears necessary in publishing the 
 Biography of a man still living. On the 6th of May, 1874 
 immediately on the return of Sir Garnet Wolseley from 
 Ashantee, I commenced to write this Memoir of his military 
 services. The task was a difficult one, for Sir Garnet had 
 lost all his papers and journals. During the Indian Mutiny 
 they were stolen, and what remained to him were burnt 
 at the great fire at the Pantechnicon, where all his furniture 
 and effects were consumed. When, therefore, I applied to 
 him for assistance, he expressed his regret that he had no 
 private papers whatever in his possession, but consented to 
 give me all the information in his power. Thus, at numerous 
 interviews, whenever he had a spare hour from his duties at 
 the War Office, as head of the Auxiliary Forces, he told me 
 
 ' The story of his life, 
 From year to year ; the battles, sieges, fortunes. 
 That he had passed. 
 
 He ran it through, even from his boyish days, 
 To the very moment that I bade him tell it." 
 
 As I was not unfamiliar with the military events of the 
 
 wars in which he had participated, I was enabled to put to 
 
 I him what lawyers call 'leading questions;' and these, as he 
 
 frequently owned to me, assisted a naturally retentive memory 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 in reviving his recollections of the past. In this story of an 
 eventful life, he 
 
 • Spoke of most disastrous chances. 
 Of moving accidents by flood and field ; 
 Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach. 
 
 By correspondence and personal acquaintance with officers 
 of his Staff, and others who had served under his orders, I 
 learned anecdotes illustrative of traits of character, which 
 will lend an additional interest to the narrative. In this 
 manner the book was written, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, after 
 perusal, testified to its absolute veracity in a letter addressed 
 to me. The Memoir, especially the earlier portion, may, 
 therefore, almost be regarded as an Autobiography. 
 
 The Memoir was passed through a military magazine, but 
 it was not until early in the present year, when war with 
 Russia was imminent, and Sir Garnet was placed under 
 orders as Chiet of the Staff to the Expeditionary Army, that 
 I decided to republish, in book form, the military experi- 
 ences of an officer whose name was in everyone's mouth, 
 as that of a General of established reputation, from whom 
 great things were expected. The Press and periodicals of 
 the day were full of speculations as to his chances of success, 
 and the events of his past career, so far as they were known, 
 were eagerly discussed, thus showing the public interest in 
 him. I accordingly revised the work, and completed it up 
 to date, including an account of the Natal Mission, derived 
 from papers supplied by Sir Garnet Wolseley. However 
 well or ill, from a literary point of view, I may have acquitted 
 myself of the task, at least I may claim for the book the 
 merits of authenticity and completeness, and trust it may be 
 found interesting, as the hero's life has been a changeful 
 scene of adventure, such as falls to the lot of few men in 
 this prosaic age. 
 
 In writing of one still among us, it would be unseemly to 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 XV 
 
 "ew men m 
 
 speak in the terms of eulogy warranted by the circumstances 
 of his career; but it is allowable to quote despatches and the 
 opinions of those who have served with him. As a young 
 officer, wherever the danger was greatest and the fire hottest, 
 there he was to be found. In Burmah he led two storming- 
 parties in one day, and was dangerously wounded at the 
 moment of victory. In the Crimea he was once so severely 
 wounded, that the surgeon passed him over for dead, and 
 he was twice slightly wounded, while he was, perhaps, oftener 
 in the trenches than any officer in the British army. 
 
 At the Relief of Lucknow he again led a storming-party ; 
 and, in the China Campaign, he was in the thick of the fire at 
 the capture of the Taku Forts. The bare enumeration of 
 the occasions on which he courted death and won ' the 
 bubble reputation,' shows that he was possessed in a con- 
 spicuous degree of the first of military virtues. More admir- 
 able than the fierce courage which inspires during the heat 
 of battle is the calm lofty spirit that retains its equanimity 
 when failure appears certain and all men despair of success. 
 That Sir Garnet Wolseley possesses this noblest of the 
 attributes of those who claim to be leaders of men, is testified 
 by those who served with him in the Red River and Ashantee 
 Expeditions. A distinguished officer assured us that when, 
 in the advance through the Canadian wilderness, everyone 
 resigned all hope of reaching Fort Garry, so many, and 
 seemingly insurmountable, were the natural obstacles, the 
 Commander alone retained his sanguine anticipations of 
 success, and nerved all hearts by his encouraging words and 
 example. The same we know was the case in the Ashantee 
 Cam[)aign, when, at one time, it appeared that the task of 
 reachmg Coomassie and returning to the coast within the 
 limited period available for hostilities, was an impossibility. 
 But his indomitable will surmounted all obstacles, and the 
 campaign was a brilliant success. 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
xvi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 We are accustomed to applaud such acts of heroism 
 and devotion when told of the warriors of Greece and 
 Rome, but they are not less worthy of chronicle and 
 admiration when narrated of our fellow-countrymen and 
 contemporaries. Moreover, the narrative of deeds such as 
 we are about to recount is useful as an example to the rising 
 generation of young Englishmen, who will learn that the age 
 of chivalry, notwithstanding Burke's magnificent lament, is 
 not yet over, but will last as long as there are brave hearts 
 to illustrate the page of our history, and generous instincts 
 to applaud them. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley carries self-reliance almost to a fault, 
 if that is possible ; though the absolute confidence he inspires 
 in his Staff, who rally round him as he passes from one 
 triumph to another, willing tools in the hands of the master 
 workman, shows that it is founded on just appreciation of 
 his own powers. Swift to form his plans, he executes them 
 with unfaltering tenacity of will, and the correctness of his 
 judgment amounts almost to instinct. 
 
 C. R. LOW. 
 
 Chelsea, /w/y, 1878. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BURMESE WAR. 
 
 Introduction. — Parentage. — Early Life. — The Burmese War. — The Ad- 
 vance on Myat-toon's Position. — Ensign Wolseley leads the Storming 
 Party on the 19th of March, 1853. — Is wounded. — Returns to Eng- 
 
 ■AGE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 The Crimean War. — Captain Wolseley proceeds to Sebastopol. — Work 
 in the Trenches. — The Bombardment of the 9th to the 17th of April. 
 — The Attack on the Quarries. — Gallant Services of Captain Wolseley. 
 — The Assault of the i8th of June. — The Third, Fv^urth, and Fifth 
 Bombardments of Sebastopol. — The Affair of the 30th of August. — 
 Captain Wolseley is severely wounded. — Service in the Quarter- 
 master-General's Department. — Return to England . . .22 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 
 Captain Wolseley proceeds on Serv ce to India. — Wrecked at Banca. — 
 Arrival at Calcutta. — Proceeds up-Country. — In Action near Cawn- 
 pore. — March to Alumbagh. — Tne Relief of Lucknow. — Wolseley 
 storms the Mess-house. — Occupies the Motee Mahul. and effects 
 Communication with the Residency of Lucknow. — The Defence of 
 .Mumbagh. — Campaigning in Ot.de. — Actions at Baree and Nawab- 
 gunge. — Service on the Nepaul Frontier , . . .66 
 
 
 
xvin 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TIIK CHINA WAR. 
 
 PACE 
 
 The Occupation of CHusan. — The Disembarkation at Peh-tang. — The 
 Action at Sinho. — The Captuie of theTalcu Forts. — The Advance on 
 Pekin. — Narrow Escape of Colonel Wolseley from Capture. — The 
 Looting of the Summer Palace and Surrender of Pekin. — Colonel 
 Wolseley's Visit to Japan and Mission to Nankin. — Return to Eng- 
 land . . . . . . . . .119 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 
 SERVICE IN CANADA. 
 
 The Trent Affair. — Colonel Wolseley embarks for Canada, and is em- 
 ployed on Transport Duty. — His Visit to the Headquarters of 
 Generals Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet, and Impressions of the 
 Confederate Armies. — Colonel Wolseley's Services during the Fenian 
 Invasion in i866 ....... 154 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 
 
 The Red River Expedition. — The Organization of the Force, and Start 
 for Thunder Bay. — The Road thence to the Shebandowan Lake. — 
 Down the Lakes, and across the ' Portages' to Fort Frances. — Running 
 the Rapids of the Winnipeg River to Fort Alexander. — The Arrival 
 at Fort Garry, — Success of the Expedition. — Return of Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley to England ....... 
 
 185 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE ASHANTEE WAR. 
 
 Preparations for the War. — Arrival at Cape Coast. — Operations South 
 of the Prah. — The Action at Essaman. — Defence of Abrakrampa, and 
 
 - Retreat of the Ashantees. — Illness of Sir Garnet Wolseley. — Prepara- 
 tions for crossing the Prah. — The Advance into Ashantee, — Battle of 
 Amoaful. — Action at Ordahsu. — Capture of Coomassie. — Return to 
 Cape Coast. — The Treaty of Fommanah. — Sir Garnet Wolseley re- 
 turns to England.— The Welcome Home ... 
 
 241 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 XIX 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NATAL MISSION. 
 
 I'AGK 
 
 Visit to the Cape. — Reception at Durban and Maritzburg. — Natal 
 Politics and Parties. — The Constitution Amendment Bill. — Triumph 
 of Sir Garnet Wolseley's Policy. — Progress through Natal. — Return 
 to England. — Is appointed High Commissioner and Commander-in- 
 Chief of Cyprus ........ 328 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF CYPRUS. 
 
 Occupation of Cyprus by the British Troops. — Condition of the Island 
 and its Inhabitants. — The Reforms introduced by Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley. — His Opinion of the Healthiness of Cyprus. — Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley recasts the Administration of the Island. — Visit of some 
 Members of the British Government to Cyprus. — Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 and the War in Afghanistan. — Condition and Prospects of Cyprus. — 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley retums to England in May, 1879 . . 347 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SERVICES IN ZULULAND AND THE TRANSVAAL. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley is appointed to the Chief Political and Military 
 Command in Natal and the Transvaal. — Arrival in Zululand. — Pur- 
 suit and Capture of Cetcwayo. — The Settlement of Zululand. — De- 
 parture of Sir Garnet Wolseley for the Transvaal. — His Reception at 
 Pretoria and the other Towns of the Transvaal. — Declaration of 
 British l^olicy with respect to the Country, and its Effect on the Boers. 
 — The Campaign against Secocoeni. — Capture of the Chief's Strong- 
 hold on the 28th November, 1879. — Sir Garnet Wolseley and the 
 Boers. — His Opinion on the Basuto Question. — Return to England of 
 Sir Garret WolsJey ....... 361 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley as Quartermaster-General. — Attends the German 
 Autumn Military Manoeuvres. — Is appointed Adjutant-General. — 
 Nomination of Sir Garnet Wolseley to the Command of the l-^xpedi- 
 tion to Egypt. — He proceeds to Alexandria.— Change of the Base of 
 Operations to Ismailia. — Transport Difficulties. —Advance of Sir 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Garnet from Ismailia.-The Action at Tcl-(i-Mahuta.— Capture of 
 Mahsameh.— The Action at Kassassin of 23th August.— Preparations 
 for the final Advance.-The Action of the 9th September.— The Night 
 March on the 12th September. -The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir.-The 
 Surrender of Cairo. -Operations of the Cavalry.-Sir Garnet Wolscley 
 in Cairo.— Return to England.— Conclusion . . . • 
 
 399 
 
rAGE 
 
 399 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 (OF CAIRO), 
 
 G.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 
 • -c^^ Cak> «v~— ^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BURMESE WAR. 
 
 Introduction. — Parentage. — Early Life. — The Burmese War. — The Ad- 
 vance on Myat-toon's Position. — Ensign Wolseley leads the Storming 
 Party on the 19th of March, 1853. — Is wounded. — Returns to England. 
 
 Lord Wolseley is one of the foremost and most trusted of 
 England's soldiers. In his conduct of the Ashantee and 
 Egyptian Expeditions he presented a rare combination of 
 dash and foresight, patience and energy, strategical skill and 
 administrative capacity. These pages will show that, alike 
 in the planning and execution of both these campaigns, he 
 took a just view of the difficulties to be encountered, and of 
 the time and measures necessary to overcome them. 
 
 But not only for the skill with which he conducted the 
 Ashantee and Egyptian Wars does Lord Wolseley merit the 
 thanks of his countrymen, and the commendation of mili- 
 tary critics. He had seen much and varied service since he 
 entered the Army, and the galaxy of medals and stars he 
 
LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 wears on his breast, attests the fact that in every quarter of 
 the globe, and in every great and ahiiost every 'Httle' war 
 in which the British soldier has been engaged since his entry 
 into the Service, he has participated ; while the official records 
 of these campaigns and sieges show that he has always earned 
 the encomiums of his commanding officers and the thanks 
 of his Government. 
 
 Lord Wolscley served as a subaltern officer in the Bur- 
 mese War of 1852-53, and showed in his 'first appear- 
 ance ' on that stage where soldiers achieve distinction — the 
 field of battle — that he was made of the stuff of which 
 heroes are fashioned. Again, in the trencher before Sebas- 
 topol, which ran with the blood of some of England's 
 bravest sons, he manifested, under the most trying circum- 
 stances, a calm intrepidity which extorted the admiration of 
 all witnesses. He participated in some of the most striking 
 episodes of that terrible struggle known as the Indian 
 Mutiny, which, doubtless, future historians will regard as 
 exhibiting in their strongest light the patient endurance and 
 stubborn valour of the British soldier ; and again, the 
 orders and despatches of the General Commanding in the 
 China War of i860, show the estimation in which he was 
 regarded by his military superiors. In the Expeditions to 
 the Red River and the Gold Coast, when Lord Wolseley 
 was first entrusted with independent command, he mani- 
 fested talents for organization and practical knowledge of 
 the art of war, as well as that peculiar aptitude for inspiring 
 confidence in those under his command which is among 
 the chief attributes of military genius. His successful con- 
 duct of these arduous operations placed him in the foremost 
 rank of that small band of Generals from whom any Govern- 
 ment, jealous only of the honour of its country, without any 
 regard to aristocratic connections or political claims, would 
 feel bound to select the Commander of an army, in the 
 
PARENTAGE AND FAMILY. 
 
 or of 
 ' war 
 entry 
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 hanks 
 
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 gland's 
 
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 ition of 
 
 striking 
 
 Indian 
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 cc and 
 
 lin, the 
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 ions to 
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 jdge of 
 ispiring 
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 )remost 
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 would 
 in the 
 
 event of political complications embroiling this country in 
 an European war. 
 
 Lord Wolseley is the eldest son of the late Major G. J. 
 Wolseley, of the 25th King's Own Borderers, and was born 
 at Golden Bridge House, County DubUn, on the 4th June, 
 
 1833- 
 The family of Wolseley is one of the most ancient in the 
 
 county of Stafford, the manor of Wolseley having been in 
 their possession before the Conquest. Among their i)ro- 
 genitors was Sewardus, Lord Wisele, fifth in descent from 
 whom was Robert, Lord of Wolseley in 1281 ; and Ralph, 
 another descendant, was a Baron of the Exchequer in the reign 
 of Edward IV. There are two baronetcies in the Wolseley 
 family. The senior title was among the first creations of 
 James I., and dates from the year 1628. Sir Charles Wolseley, 
 the second baronet, represented the county of Stafford in the 
 Parliaments of Charles I. and Charier^ II. ; he was also high 
 in favour with the Protector, and waj a man of much con- 
 sideration in those times. Richard Wolseley, a younger son 
 of the second English baronet, was a captain in the service 
 of King William III., and had three sons, the eldest of 
 whom, on the death of his uncle, succeeded as fifth baronet 
 to the English title and estates. Captain Wolseley devised 
 his Irish property to his youngest son, Richard, who, in 
 1744, was created a baronet of ' Mount Wolseley, Carlow,' 
 in Ireland. His eldest son, Sir Richard, succeeded to the 
 title and estates ; and the younger, William, Sir Garnet's 
 grandfather, entered the Army and became a captain in the 
 8th Hussars, in which regiment he served on the Continent. 
 Subsequently he retired from the Service, look holy orders, 
 and became Rector of Tullycorbet, County Mono^haii. 
 
 Lord Wolseley is not the first of his family who h, ,s won 
 military fame; his ancestor, Colonel William AVolseley, having 
 
 I — 2 
 
LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 greatly distinguished himself during the Irish war teinp. 
 William III. This officer,* on the 29th of July, 1689, re- 
 lieved the hardly pressed garrison of Enniskillen, defended 
 by General Gustavus Hamilton, and advancing with tne 
 Enniskilleners, numbering about 3,000 men, defeated the 
 Irish army, 5,000 strong, with guns, commanded by Ma- 
 earthy (Lord Mountcashel) at Newtown Butler. In those 
 fanatical days ' The sword of the Lord and of Gideon ' was 
 the watchword ahke among Protestants and Papists; no 
 quarter was given by the stout colonists of Ulster, and 1,500 
 of the enemy fell by the sword, and 500 were driven into 
 Lake Erne, where they perished miserably. Colonel Wolse- 
 ley also commanded the Enniskillenersf at the ever memo- 
 rable battle of the Boyne, on the ist of July, 1690, when the 
 star of King William, of 'pious, glorious, and immortal 
 memory,' rose in the ascendant, and that of his pusillani- 
 mous rival, James II., set for ever in defeat and ruin. 
 
 Lord Wolseley was educated at a day-school near Dublin, 
 and later had private tutors. As a boy he was remarkable 
 for his studious habits, and when a mere child had read all 
 
 * Lord Macaulay (see his ' History of England* vol. iii. p, 242) write^. 
 of Colonel Wolseley : ' Wolseley seems to have bnen in every respect well 
 qualified for his post. He was a staunch Protestant, had distinguished 
 liimself among the Yorkshiremen who rose up for the Prince of Orange and 
 a free Parliament, and had, if he is not belied, proved his zeal for liberty 
 and true religion, by causing the Mayor of Scarborough, \.hj had made a 
 speech in favour of King James, to be brought into the market-place and 
 well tossed there in a blanket. This vehement hatred of Popery was, in 
 the estimation of the men of Enniskillen, the first of all qualifications of 
 command ; and Wolseley had other and more important qualifications. 
 Though himself regularly used to war, he seems to have had a pecuhar 
 aptitude for the management of irregular troops.' 
 
 f The Enniskilleners commanded by Colonel Wolseley consisted of horse 
 and foot, and are now known as the 6th Dragoons and 27th Regiment. 
 They were raised, respectively, by Colonel Cole (afterwards Earl of Ennis- 
 killen) and Gustavus Hamilton (son of Sir Frederick Hamilton, one of the 
 Generals of Gustavus Adolphus, the great Protestant ch.ampion), who, for 
 his great services as Governor of Enniskillen, at the Boyne, and the capture 
 of Athlone (which he effected by surprise), was raised to the peerage as 
 Baron Hamilton and Viscount Boyne. The author may perhaps be for- 
 given for noting his own descent from this nobleman, with whom Wolseley's 
 ancestor was so closely associated, Richard, fourth Viscount Boyne, being 
 
 <. 
 
 liis great-grandfather. 
 
EARL V LIFE. 
 
 the chief works on military history. It was always his own 
 wish and that of his parents that he should enter the mili- 
 tary profession, and his name was put down for a com- 
 mission when fourteen years of age. His predilection for 
 study was not confined to a likmg for one branch of learn- 
 ing, and he was remarkable for proficiency in mathematical 
 studies, and used regularly to go out four or five times a 
 week surveying and acquiring a knowledge of the art of 
 military engineering. He was also versed in fortification 
 and astronomical science, and exhibited his versatility by the 
 proficiency he acquired in such practical pursuits as car- 
 pentering and the use of the lathe. His aptitude for mili- 
 tary engineering and fortification, and the practical knowledge 
 he acquired of these sciences, as well as of the cognate 
 study of land-surveying, were of great service to him during 
 his career in the Crimea, where he performed the duties of 
 Assistant-Engineer during the siege of Sebastopol, and 
 afterwards when employed surveying in the Quartermaster- 
 General's Department. A high historical authority has said 
 that no * commander-in-chief is fit for his post who is not 
 conversant with military engineering,' and certainly the 
 successes achieved by Lord Napier in Abyssinia, and Lord 
 Wolseley in the Red River and Ashantee campaigns, may 
 be greatly attributed to their practical knowledge of the 
 science of militpry engineering. 
 
 Lord Wolseley's military career commenced in March, 
 1852, when he was appointed Ensign in the 80th Regiment, 
 at that time engaged in the Second Burmese War. As re- 
 inforcements were required for the regiment owing to the 
 great losses it had sustained by disease more than at the 
 hands of the enemy, he was ordered out from the depot to 
 the seat of war with a detachment of recruits. Ensign 
 Wolseley, therefore, had not been many months in the 
 Army before he left England on foreign service. 
 
 PS; 
 m 
 
 ■8:1 
 ■I: 
 
Ih 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 Since those early days in his career, the subject of this 
 memoir has voyaged over many seas, to China and India, 
 to America, the West Coast of Africa, Cyprus, Natal, and 
 Egypt \ but at this period of his life, the sea, with all its 
 terrors and fascinations, was novel to him. This his first 
 voyage was made in a sailing-ship, steamers as transports 
 being at the time unknown, for the Hiftialaya^ the first of 
 the class, was yet in the ship-builder's yard. His experi- 
 ences of this long voyage were therefore similar to those of 
 most of us who have voyaged to India by the Cape route in 
 a sailing-ship, and are well summed up by Lord Macaulay 
 in that passage in his biography of Warren Hastings 
 wherein he gives the monotony of the sea as the reason 
 for the first of the famous Viceroys of India doing any- 
 thing so commonplace as falling in love with the Baroness 
 Imhoff. 
 
 'There are few people,' says the great essayist, 'who do not 
 find a voyage which has lasted several months insupportably 
 dull. Anything is welcome which may break that long 
 monotony — a sail, a shark, an albatross, a man overboard. 
 Most passengers find some resource in eating twice as many 
 meals as on land ; but the great devices for killing the time 
 are quarrelling and flirting.' 
 
 As regards our hero, he passed his time in neither 
 quarrelling nor flirting; for as to quarrelling, though a very 
 fire-eater in the presence of the enemy, he was far from 
 being of a quarrelsome disposition ; and as to flirting, why 
 that was out of the question, for the sufficient reason that 
 there were no ladies to flirt with. 
 
 Ensign Wolseley arrived in Burmah at a time when the 
 almost unbroken series of successes achieved by the British 
 land and sea forces was dimmed by a sad disaster — the 
 failure at Donabew, which necessitated retributive opera- 
 tions, in which Mr. Wolseley first exhibited those soldierly 
 
ARRIVAL IN BURMAH. 
 
 en the 
 
 British 
 
 the 
 
 opcra- 
 
 Idierly 
 
 :r 
 
 qualities which have made his name renowned in our mili- 
 tary annals. 
 
 A noted Burmese leader, Myat-toon by name — whom it 
 was the fashion of despatch-writers to style a * robber-chief- 
 tain,' though his countrymen doubtless regarded him as a 
 self-sacrificing patriot — having established himself near 
 Donabew, a force of 272 seamen and marines and 300 
 Sepoys, under Captain Loch, C.B., of H.M.S. Winchester^ 
 was despatched against him. On the 3rd of February, 
 1853, the column marched through fifteen miles of jungle, 
 and on the following morning, after advancing five miles, 
 came to a deep and broad nullah, from the opposite bank of 
 which the enemy, concealed behind a breastwork, opened a 
 heavy musketry fire. Captain Loch made repeated but un- 
 availing efforts to cross the creek, and received a mortal 
 wound; at length, when Mr. Kennedy, First Lieutenant of the 
 Fox^ ani many brave men had fallen, the force retired, and 
 after a fatigumg march of twelve hours, reached Donabew. 
 
 General Godwin and the whole army were eager to wipe 
 out the stain of this disaster, and to that able soldier, the 
 late Brigadier-General Sir John Cheape, of the Bengal 
 Engineers (the same distinguished corps that has produced 
 Lord Napier of Magdala), was entrusted the arduous task. 
 Every European soldier that could be spared from Rangoon 
 or elsewhere was hurried up to Prome, and Ensign Wolse- 
 ley, who had arrived in November with a detachment of 
 about 200 men of his regiment, chiefly recruits, found him- 
 self under orders to embark Irom Rangoon. On the i8th 
 of February, previous to Wolseley's arrival at Prome, Sir 
 John Cheape had left that place, with 800 men, for the pur- 
 pose of attacking Myat-toon's stronghold ; and four days later 
 quitted Henzadah, on the Irrawaddy, some thirty-five miles 
 north of Donabew, and began the march inland, but owing 
 to defective information, and a failure of supplies, he was 
 
 
 R 'f 
 
8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ■I'll 
 
 ■ if 
 i \ 
 
 ■ 'X 
 
 obliged to fall back on the river, and reached Zooloom on 
 the 28th of February. Thence, on the following day, the 
 greater part of the force moved to Donabew, where they 
 were joined, on the 6th of March, by reinforcements, in- 
 cluding 130 men of the 80th Regiment, under the command 
 of Major Holdich,* with whom was Ensign Wolseley. 
 
 Again, on the 7th of March, the Brigadier-General started 
 to beat up the quarters of Myat-toon, who had shown him- 
 self the most redoubtable of all the leaders of the * Golden 
 Foot,' as the monarch of Burmah styled himself. The 
 British force consisted of about 600 Europeans and 600 
 natives, 2 guns, 3 rocket-tubes, and 2 mortars, with a de- 
 tachment of Ramghur Horse, and 70 Sappers. Being now 
 assured that three days' march would bring them in front of 
 Myattoon's stronghold, General Cheape started at two p.m., 
 on the 7th, taking seven days' provisions with him, but with- 
 out tents. 
 
 About five p.m. the column reached the bank of a broad 
 nullah ; at least 130 yards wide, seven miles distant from 
 Donabew. Here the enemy opened a fire of jingals and 
 musketry, and Ensign Wolseley first smelt powder in 
 earnest. The guns having silenced the enemy, the troops 
 passed the night behind a belt of jungle parallel with the 
 nullah ; and rafts having been put together by the Sappers, 
 the following day was occupied in passing across the guns and 
 baggage, which operation was not concluded till late at 
 night. The force marched on the 9th, but, about noon, it 
 was said they were on the wrong road ; ti\e guide was ac- 
 cordingly flogged, sent to the rear, and another one called 
 up to take his place. The new guide turned to the left, 
 and, after a most tedious round, under a glaring sun, brought 
 the wearied troops back to the identical spot from which 
 they had started. After a halt of two hours, the column 
 
 * Now General Sir Edward A. Holdich, K.C.B. 
 
 .1 
 "4 
 
 % 
 
 
at 
 ,it 
 ac- 
 Ued 
 left, 
 ight 
 lich 
 imn 
 
 S 
 ■$ 
 
 ■# 
 
 MARCH ON M YA T-TOON'S POSITION. 9 
 
 marched to a nullah at Kyomtano, where they encamped. 
 During the night the Burmese showed themselves from the 
 jungles on the left, but the guns opening on them, they 
 soon disappeared ; they then came down under cover of 
 the fog, and fired into the camp at a point where the nullah 
 was about fifty yards wide. On the following morning a 
 bridge was extemporized by connecting the rafts with planks, 
 and the troops and baggage were passed across. 
 
 On the nth, the force started at the usual hour (nine 
 a.m.), and everyone expected to reach Myat-toon's position 
 that day. During the march the rear-guard was attacked. 
 The road lay through a thick forest, where the Burmese 
 had only to throw down a tree or two with their usual skill 
 in such matters in order to require a new road to be cut 
 round the obstacle. As they had done this in several places^ 
 there was very hard work, and the advance was tedious. 
 Shortly after entering the forest, a small breastwork was 
 taken, and at length, as the Artillery horses were staggering 
 in their harness, the General determined to encamp near 
 some water. Cholera made its first appearance in camp 
 this night. 
 
 Myat-toon's position was said to be only two miles to the 
 left, but no reliable information could be gained of the road 
 through the jungle. As provisions were failing, it was 
 thought prudent to return to Kyomtano, about nine miles 
 from Donabew. On the 13th March, all the hackeries (as 
 also the sick and wounded) went into Donabew for pro- 
 visions, and, on the i6th, returned with ten or twelve days* 
 rations. 
 
 It would be hard to exaggerate the difficulties and 
 obstacles encountered on this march. When the small 
 force had, with infinite toil, and suffering severe privations 
 owing to the intense heat and want of water, commenced 
 to close in towards Myat-toon's stronghold, it was found 
 
 my- 
 
 ■ 
 
 -1 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 that the approaches had to be made through a dense forest, 
 or thick jungle and heavy brushwood, through which it was 
 necessary to cut every inch of the paths along which the 
 hackeries (or bullock-carts), the guns, and the troops had 
 to pass. This dangerous and fatiguing duty had to be 
 performed under a hot sun, for throughout the entire time 
 occupied by the operations, it was impossible to march until 
 nine a.m., on account of dense fogs, which rose about two 
 in the morning, and wet the men's clothes as effectually as 
 rain, and as there was no such luxury as a change of linen 
 in the camp, the clothes had to be dried on their wearers' 
 backs, only to be drenched again on the succeeding night. 
 There was not a single tent with the force, and the men 
 bivouacked in the fog and dew all night, and marched and 
 fought under the tropical sun all day. But all was of no 
 avail, and owing to the unwillingness or treachery of his 
 guides and the failure of provisions. Sir John Cheape was 
 compelled to retrace his steps to Kyomtano. The heat 
 and hardships the troops had endured during this trying 
 march, induced fever, dysentery, and, worse than all, 
 cholera; 13 succumbed in one day, and over 80 perished 
 from this fell disease, which is the invariable accompani- 
 ment of Indian campaigns in which the troops are much 
 exposed. 
 
 While halting at Kyomtano, Sir John Cheape ascertained 
 that the jungle to the westward was quite impenetrable, and 
 that there were only two routes to the position occupied by 
 Myat-toon at Kyoukazeen, one to the southward, and the 
 other to the northward by Nayoung-Goun. As there was 
 no choice between these routes as regarded distance, and 
 the same obstacles and opposition were to be anticipated, 
 Sir John resolved to adopt the northerly route. 
 
 As Sir John Cheape considered it desirable to give the 
 enemy as little time as possible to strengthen his almost im- 
 
 ^ 
 
AN ARDUOUS MARCH. 
 
 II 
 
 pregnable works, he directed Major Wigston,* of the i8th 
 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. Major ^Vigston accordingly 
 marched at two p.m., on the 17th oi March, with the right 
 wing, consisting of 9 officers and 200 men of the i8th Royal 
 Irish, 3 officers (including Ensign Wolseley) and 130 men of 
 the 80th Regiment, 3 officers and 190 men of the 4th Sikhs, 
 and 33 Madras Sappers. A breastwork in the forest was 
 carried in good style by the i8th Royal Irish, who were 
 leading, supported by the Sikhs, and the column 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 6 officers and 200 men of 
 the 51st Light Infantry, and 8 officers and 380 men of the 
 67th Bengal Native Infantry, followed by the guns — the 
 entire forcef carrying seven days' provisions. 
 
 After going about two miles through the forest, and passing 
 breastworks from which only an occasional shot was fired, 
 the guides, instead of proceeding farther by the road which 
 had been followed on the nth, 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. 
 
 As they 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 posi- 
 tion. 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 appa- 
 rent by a straggling and worrying fire on every side. 
 
 • The late Colonel Wigston, who died in September, 1882. 
 t The total force engaged was 605 Europeans and 22 officers ; 608 Sepoys 
 and 12 officers. 
 
 if 
 
12 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 li 
 
 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 Ensign Boileau, of the 67th 
 Native Infantry, was killed, but the enemy suffered severely, 
 though, unfortunately, 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 Burmese. At eight p.m. 
 the General fired three rockets as a signal to Commander 
 Rennie, I.N., who, with 80 blue-jackets from his ship, the 
 Honourable Company's steam-frigate Zenohia^ and Captain 
 Fytche, with his Native levies, was acting in co-operation 
 in the neighbourhood. The rockets 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. In his life had 
 arrived that most critical and anxious time for which every 
 soldier yearns — the hour had struck in which he was to 
 receive his ' baptism of fire.' Every man who has worn a 
 sword knows full well how many gallant hearts there are in 
 both Services, who have prayed for this most honourable 
 opportunity, but have been denied the distinction they 
 would have earned had a hard fate been more propitious. 
 In his incomparable ' Elegy,' Gray sings how 
 
 ' Hands tliat the rod of empire might have swayed,' 
 
THE STORMING PARTY, 
 
 13 
 
 .\^ 
 
 ,'ing 
 
 to 
 
 ley 
 
 ad 
 
 v'ery 
 to 
 
 "n a 
 
 are bent only on the plough in the painful struggle, continued 
 day by day, to gain a bare subsistence. So, in some remote 
 country town or cheap watering-place, may be seen gallant 
 gentlemen on the Half- Pay or Retired List, who drag out 
 their remaining years in obscurity, 'unhonoured,' as far as 
 medals and decorations go, and ' unsung ' by the Muse of 
 History, but who, had they been born under a luckier star, 
 would have been immortalized in history as the possessors of 
 qualities that we recognise in a Napoleon, a Wellington, and 
 a Lee. 
 
 If Ensign Wolseley was fortunate in the circumstances of 
 his military career, it is equally certain that he never missed 
 an opportunity. Whenever a chance offered for earning 
 distinction, he eagerly grasped at it, and — being blessed 
 with a sound constitution and an equable temperament, the 
 mens sana in corpora 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, and to return to duty after receiving 
 severe wounds. 
 
 A storming-party was told off, consisting of the 80th Regi- 
 ment, supported by the i8th Royal Irish and the 4th Sikhs. 
 On coming opposite the enemy's left flank, the firing com- 
 menced, and the rockets were advanced and opened fire. 
 The Sappers worked away at the path, which was much en- 
 tangled with wood, and the guns were shortly got into position 
 and opened fire. Then the storming-party advanced, 
 but were met by so heavy a fire that both the senior officers. 
 Majors Wigston and Armstrong, and many men, were 
 wounded. ' On reaching the front,' says the General in his 
 despatch, ' I found that Major Armstrong was also wounded, 
 as well as many other officers and men, and that the fire of 
 the enemy on the path leading up to the breastwork was so 
 heavy, that our advanced party had not succeeded in carry- 
 
 \ :■ 
 
 (. . 
 
 !■•■•' 
 
 { 
 I 
 
 ifr 
 
 r 
 
f: S 
 
 H 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 M 
 
 ing it ; the most strenuous exertions were made, and Lieu- 
 tenant Johnson,* the only remaining officer of the 4th Sikh 
 Local Regiment, persevered most bravely, but it only in- 
 creased 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 dispersed, and could not get through it.' 
 
 Ensign AVolseley's personal share in this first effort to 
 storm the enemy's works was cut short, doubtless fortunately 
 for himself, by an accident. He speaks with admiration of 
 his associate in the perilous honour of leading the stormers, 
 young Allen Johnson of the 4th Sikhs. He himself being 
 well in advance of his men, had reached within twenty yards 
 of the breastwork, when, suddenly, the earth gave way under 
 him, and he found himself precipitated into a covered pit 
 (technically known as a troti de toiip\ having pointed stakes 
 at the bottom, with which, among other obstructions, 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 scat- 
 tered. The task allotted to the 80th was certainly a very 
 trying one for a body of rnen consisting almost entirely of 
 recruits who had never before been under fire ; to carry an 
 almost inaccessible position, held by a numerous Jind in- 
 visible 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 heavy, that they 
 also fell back having sustained loss, including Lieutenant 
 Cockburn,t who was wounded. Although it was difficult, 
 from the dense smoke, and under so heavy a fire, to discern 
 
 * Now Major-General Allen Johnson, C. B., Military Secretary to the 
 Secretary of State for India, 
 f This gallant young officer died shortly after of his wound. 
 

 WOLSELEY IS WOUNDED. 
 
 15 
 
 an 
 
 exactly what lay between the assailants and the breastwork, 
 the General — who was now joined by Major Holdich, of the 
 Soth, 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 couid not be easily 
 surmounted, 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 Artillery, 
 brought up, in the most gallant manner, his 24-pounder 
 howitzer, which was dragged through the bushes by 
 hand (chiefly by volunteers from the 51st Regiment), and 
 opened with canister within 25 yards of the enemy, with 
 deadly effect. The gun was, however, in a much ex- 
 posed position, and Major Reid was almost immediately 
 wounded, upon which the command devolved upon Lieu- 
 tenant 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 skirmishers on the 
 banks of the nullah for the purpose of keeping down the 
 enemy's fire, I ordered a reinforcement from the left wing ; 
 they were joined by the men of the right wing that had been 
 collected by Major Holdich, and who were led by Ensign 
 Wolseley, and the whole advanced in a manner that nothing 
 could check. The fire was severe, and I am grieved to say 
 that gallant young officer. Lieutenant Taylor, 9th Madras 
 Native Infantry, doing duty with H.M.'s 51st Light Infantry, 
 fell mortally wounded. Ensign AVolseley, H.M.'s Soth 
 Regiment, was also struck down, as well as many other 
 gallant soldiers ; but the breastwork was at once carried ; 
 and the enemy fled in confusion, the few who stood being 
 shot or bayoneted on the entrance of our men.' 
 
i6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE Y. 
 
 In this second attempt to storm the enemy's i)osition, 
 which ended in a complete and glorious success, the chief 
 honours were borne off by Lieutenant Taylor, who fell a 
 sacrifice to his gallantry, and Ensign W'olseley, who nearly 
 shared a like fate, though, happily for his country, a merciful 
 Providence bore him through that terrible fire to increase 
 his renown on many battlefields. 'J aylor led the men of 
 the 51st, and when Major Holdich called for volunteers from 
 his own regiment, Wolseley immediately responded, and, 
 though much shaken by his accident, offered 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 
 hesitation, made a rush up the path leading over the breast- 
 work, which was so narrow that but two men could advance 
 together. Almost at the same moment, while well in ad- 
 vance 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 
 jingal ball struck Wolseley on the left thigh, tearing away 
 the muscles and surrounding flesh. Feeling the blood 
 flowing 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 unabated 
 resolution, waved his sword, and cheered on his men, and 
 though some of them offered 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.* 
 
 * Speaking of his own men, Wolseley says that, after he received his 
 wound, iSergeant-Mnjor Quin greatly distiriguished himself by the intrepid 
 
RESULTS OF THE VICTOPW 
 
 17 
 
 ted 
 Ind 
 Ihe 
 
 the 
 ful 
 
 liis 
 
 Mr. Wolseley received the most prompt attention at the 
 hands of Assistant-Surgeon Murphy, who immediately ap- 
 plied a tournicjuet to the wound, and to his skill and care 
 he attributes, under Providence, his recovery. For six 
 months he had a soldier in constant attendance upon him, 
 as there was great danger of his bleeding to death. During 
 all that time his constitutional strength was severely taxed, 
 owing to the suppuration, 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 constitution, unim- 
 paired by youthful excesses or 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 ? 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, 12 Burmese were killed by a well- 
 directed discharge from a nine-pounder gun. The enemy sus- 
 tained heavy loss in killed and wounded. His whole force 
 and means were concentrated in this position, and the 
 General was of opinion that he must have had about 4,000 
 men in the breastworks, which extended some 1,200 yurds 
 in length. Myat-toon, the Burmese leader, escaped with 
 
 manner in which he led the detachment. This gallant soldier, who after- 
 wards served in the 78th Highlanders, was offered a commission for his 
 bravery on this occasion, which, however, he declined. The General wrote 
 in his despatch : ' Lieutenant Trevor, of the Engineers, witii Corporal 
 Livingstone, and Private Preston, of the 51st Light Inlantry, first entered 
 the enemy's breastwork, the two former each shooting down one of the 
 enemy opposing their entrance. The lead devolved on tiiem and on Ser- 
 geant Preston, of the 51st, and Sergeant-Miijor Quin, of the 80th, when 
 Lieutenant Taylor, Ensign Wolseley, and Colour-Sergeant Donahoe fell in 
 the advance.' 
 
 
18 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 about 200 followers. Owing to the assistance of Captains 
 Tarleton, R.N., and Rennie, I.N., by one p.m. of the 21st, a 
 sufficient number of boats was ready in the nullah for the 
 conveyance of the artillery, and the sick and wounded, 
 Ensign Wolseley being of the party. The whole were 
 shipped on board the steamer on the following morning, 
 and arrived at Donabew the same day. Mr. Wolseley, with 
 all the bad cases of the sick and wounded, was then tran- 
 shipped to the Phlegethoti^ which was despatched to 
 Rangoon. 
 
 On the evening uf the 24th of March, the whole force 
 had arrived at Donabew, and thus ended the last service of 
 importance of the Burmese War. The loss in killed and 
 wounded during the operations, between the 27th of Feb- 
 ruary and the 19th of March, was 2 European officers* 
 killed, and 1 2 wounded ; i Native officer killed, and i 
 wounded; 18 non-commissioned officers and rank and file 
 kjibd, and 93 wounded. Of these casualties, 11 were 
 killed, and 9 officers and 75 men were wounded, in the 
 action of the 19th of March, when the fire was pronounced 
 by Sir John Cheape — a veteran who had conducted the 
 engineering operations at the second siege of IVIooltan in 
 1849, ^"d was present at the 'crowning mercy' of Goojerat 
 • — to be 'the most galling he had ever seen.' Myat-toon, 
 styled a robber, and for whose head a reward of 1,000 rupees 
 was offered, though he asserted that he had a commission 
 from his sovereign, displayed military capacity of a high 
 order in the choice of his position, the manner in which he 
 
 * The following were the officers killed and wounded :— Killed : Lieu- 
 tenant , Taylor, 9th M.N.I. ; Ensign Hoileau, 67th B.N.I. Wounded: 
 Bengal Artillery, Major Reid, severely. Madras Artillery, Lieutenant 
 Magraih, slightly. Bengal Engineers, Lieutenant Trevor, slightly. i8th 
 Royal Irish, Major VVigston, severely; Lieutenant Cockburn, mortally; 
 and Lieutenant Woodwright, slightly. 8oth Regiment, Lieutenant Wil- 
 kinson, severely; Ensign Woheley, severely; and Assistant -Surgeon 
 Murphy, slightly. 67th B.N. I., Lieutenant Clarke, severely. 4th Sikhs, 
 Major Armstrong, severely ; and Lieutenan* Rawlins, severely. 
 
ANECDOTES OF WOLSELEY. 
 
 19 
 
 strengthened it, and the resolution with which he withstood 
 the assaults of a disciplined force with guns. He inflicted 
 on the first Expedition the severest check and the heaviest 
 loss we had experienced throughout the war, and was not 
 routed by Sir John Cheape without heavy loss, and then 
 confessedly only by a final d. sperate effort. Though the 
 arena of the encounter was in a remote jungle, where 
 special correspondents, unknown in those days, had not 
 penetrated, it is certain that British gallantry has not often 
 received a brighter illustration than in the stubborn efforts, 
 at length crowned with victory, made by that handful of 
 soldiers.* . . 
 
 This service, which was the last performed by Sir John 
 Cheape, was also the first seen by young Wolseley, who re- 
 ceived here a scar which he will carry to his grave, the first 
 of those honourable mementoes of valour and patriotism. 
 It was a service that merited the Victoria Cross ; and had 
 the order ' For Valour ' been instituted in those days, most 
 surely Ensign Wolseley would have added the magic letters 
 V.C., to the numerous other distinctions he is entitled to 
 bear. 
 
 An officer of the Soth Regiment, who, at the forcing of 
 Myat-toon's position, received a severe wound in the arm, 
 gives some interesting anecdotes of our hero at this time. 
 
 When Mr. Wolseley accompanied his regiment from 
 Rangoon to take part in the operations against Myat-toon, a 
 soldier, who was bathing with some comrades in the Irra- 
 waddy, was carried away jy the current. Seeing the man 
 
 * The Burmese War cost the Indian Government two millions of money, 
 and the great sacrifice of life was a high price to pay even for the fertile 
 province of Pegu. Between January, 1852, and May, 1853, 54 officers and 
 1,353 liuropean soldiers, and 2,000 Sepoys died from the effects of climate 
 and disease alone, exclusive of the large number who fell in action during 
 the military operations. The military and naval forces engaged in Bunnah 
 received a medal and six months' batta, together with some prize-money, 
 which was not distributed until ten years later. 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 P' 
 
 in imminent danger of drowning, young Wolseley plunged 
 into the stream, which ran with great velocity, but, notwith- 
 standing all his exertions, the unfortunate soldier perished. 
 
 In the severe fighting on the 19th of March, Ensign 
 Wolseley, says his brother officer, seeing his men hang back, 
 headed the advance-guarr", which consisted of only 3 or 4 
 men ; it was then that he fell into the pit as mentioned in 
 the preceding chapter, and to this circumstance he doubtless 
 owed his preservation from death. After Wolseley made 
 his retreat under a hot fire, and returned to his regiment, 
 his brother officer was severely wounded in the arm ; and 
 Wolseley bound up the wound, and attended him when, 
 owing to the heat of the sun and loss of blood, he became 
 faint. When Wolseley, in company with Taylor, headed 
 the second storming-party, and received his severe wound 
 in the leg, the officer in question, who had lent him the 
 only shirt he had besides the one on his back, mentally 
 ejaculated, ' There goes my change of linen !' for he never 
 expect.^d to see any more of either his friend or his garment, 
 a loss almost equally to be deplored in a campaign when 
 an officer's kit consisted of little moi;-^ than the towel and 
 bit of soap considered sufficient by Sir Charles Napier. 
 
 Wolseley and his friend, with the other wounded, remained 
 all night in the stockade, and, on the following morning, were 
 put into a canoe and escorted down the river to a place of 
 safety. The sailors prematurely set fire to the stockade, 
 and Sir John Cheape and others narrowly escaped death. 
 It was owing to his remembrance of this circumstance that 
 our hero, during his Ashantee campaign, issued an order 
 that no stockades or other entrenchments were to be fired 
 before instructions had been given by himself, or some 
 other responsible authority. 
 
 As it was apparent, on Ensign Wolseley's arrival at Ran- 
 goon, that his wound was of so serious a nature as to render 
 
WOLSELEY'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 
 
 21 
 
 his return home necessary, in May he embarked for England 
 in the Lady Joceyln, steamer. The voyage home was per- 
 formed without any noteworthy incident, beyond the cir- 
 cumstance that, during the four months of the passage, he 
 suffered greatly from his wound, and was only convalescent 
 and out of danger shortly before his arrival in England. 
 Though Ills absence from his native land had been brief, it 
 had been eventful, and on being released from a long period 
 of confinement and suffering, and treading once more the 
 turf of old England, his feelings were not inaptly described 
 in Wordsworth's Hnes : — 
 
 • 'Tis joy enough and pride 
 For one hour's perfect bliss, to tread the grass 
 Qi England once again !' 
 
 In the autumn of 1853, Ensign Wolseley proceeded to Dublin 
 to stay with his family, and, on having sufficiently recovered 
 his health, went to Paris, accompanied by a brother officer. 
 He did not rejoin his ^Id regiment, but was posted to a 
 lieutenancy, without purchase, in the 90th Light Infantry, 
 with which his name and fame are identified, although the 
 officers of the 80th have cause to remember with pride that 
 he made his debut in the arena of arms in their regiment. 
 
 
 
 "' \ 
 
Pi 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 The Crimean War. — Captain Wolseley proceeds to Sebastopol. — Work in 
 the Trenches. — The Bombardment of the gth to the 17th of April. — The 
 Attack vjn the Quarries. — Gallant Services of Captain Wolseley. — The 
 Assault of the i8th of June. — The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Bombard- 
 ments of Sebastopol. — The Affair of the 30th of August. — Captain 
 Wolseley is severely Wounded. — Service in the Quartermaster -General's 
 Department. — Return to England. 
 
 The winter of 1853 was a momentous period. Already 
 were audible the distant mutterings of the storm brewing 
 on the Turkish frontier, which was destined soon to break 
 over Europe, and deluge a remote corner of the Continent 
 with the blood of the bravest of three great Powers. 
 
 It was the eve of the Crimean War, a memorable contest 
 in which was broken the spell of a forty years' peace, and 
 which was destined to be the precursor of an era of conflict, 
 which there is too much reason to fear has not yet been 
 closed. A^^ithin the quarter of a century since passed, how 
 many and vast have been the changes that have occurred 
 and how stupendous the conflicts we have *vitnessed ! An 
 Empire has been founded, and a petty Kingdom has risen 
 to the rank of a great Power ; our ally of Crimean days, 
 whose boast it was that Europe could only be at peace when 
 she was satisfied, has expelled from her soil the dynasty of 
 her mightiest soldier, and, after having drunk at the hands 
 of her ancient foe of the bitter cup of defeat, spoliation 
 and dismemberment, which she undertook, • with a light 
 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 23 
 
 heart,' to force upon her neighbour, has risen Phoenix- 
 like from her ashes, under the segis of the same form of 
 government which produced a Hoche and a Dumouriez 
 to lead her armies to victory. 
 
 The combined British and French Expedition sailed from 
 Varna on the 3rd of September, 1854, and landed, without 
 meeting any opposition, at Old Fort, near Eupatoria, on the 
 14th of that month. The troops at this time numbered 
 58,000 men, of whom 25,000 were English. The latter 
 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, eying soon after the Alma, gave place to General 
 Canrobert. The fleet of war-ships and transports formed 
 the most mighty Armada the world had seen \ but, on the 
 element where Briton and Gaul had so often fiercely con- 
 tended, there was none to oppose them, and the laurels won 
 by our sailors weie gained on shore in the trenches before 
 Sebastopol, or at the bombardments of Kertch and Kinburn. 
 
 On the 19th of September, the Allied Army quitted their 
 encampment at Kalamita Bay, and, 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 Balaklava surrendered after the memorable 
 and much-discussed flank march, and the siege of Sebastopol 
 was undertaken. 
 
 On the loth of October, the first parallel, about 1,000 
 yards in extent, was traced at a distance of 1,350 yards from 
 the Russian works; and on the 17th of October, the whole 
 of the French and English batteries, the latter mounting 
 73 guns and mortars, assisted by the fleet, commenced 
 to bombard the Russian works. At this time the Mala- 
 khoff" had been reduced to a ruin, and the Redan was 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 completely silenced, but unfortunately, 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 Bala- 
 klava, and, on the 5th of November took place the desperate 
 struggle at Inkerman, the 'soldiers' battle' as it was called. 
 
 As it was now apparent that the siege would be prolonged, 
 probably throughout the winter, preparations were mode 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 Inkerman, 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 Lord- 
 ship 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 year. However, 
 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 nowhere, not even 
 to the Crimea, until they had first served in India; and, 
 yielding 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 pro- 
 hibitory order regarding service in the Crimea, that he and 
 a brother officer. Captain Barnston, had made all arrange- 
 ments to exchange into a corps before Sebastopol, when the 
 
WOLSELEY PROCEEDS TO THE CRIMEA. 25 
 
 I 
 
 orders arrived for immediate embarkation. He describes 
 how they were at church when the Colonel received tele- 
 graphic news of Inkerman, accompanied by the ])eremptory 
 orders of the Field-Marshal Commanding-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 Novem- 
 ber, 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 pro- 
 clivity of ' shooting round corners,' was the arm with which 
 the British soldier was marshalled for battle, only a small 
 portion, about twenty men of each company, were supplied 
 with the Minie rifles ; and, as the demand for these weapons 
 during the Crimean War was greater than the supply, the 
 90th 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 
 how infinitely superior was the native 'juzail ' to that anti- 
 quated, but, in the eyes of martinets of the old school, 
 infallible weapon. The 90th, accordingly, landed at Bala- 
 klava 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 
 
26 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \\ ; 
 
 m \ 
 
 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 mac- 
 adamize such a road, the working-party consisted at first of 
 400, and subsequently only of 150 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 stones, which were only procurable about three- 
 quarters of a mile 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 
 their first experience of service before Sebastopol. 
 
 Their 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 
 were in a position to receive reinforcements, while almost 
 surrounding the position of the Allies and blockading the 
 base of supplies at Balaklava.* Before the landing of these 
 reinforcements, the French Army mustered 39,450 men, 
 while the British, who held an extent of ground, including 
 the right and left attacks, of nine miles, numbered about 
 22,369 effectives, there being no less than 10,090 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 Can- 
 
 * In the last days of December, the Russians withdrew from the valley of 
 the Tchernaya, and abandoned the old Turkish redoubts, concentrating 
 their troops in Sebastopol. 
 
ARRIVAL BEFORE SEDASTOPOL. 
 
 27 
 
 vof 
 
 robert and Raglan to the drummer and private in the ranks. 
 Prince Menschikoff had under his orders, after the arrival 
 of the 4th Corps d'Arm^e and other reinforcements, an 
 army of 82,000 men, and though, according to what Fluellen 
 would call ' the true disciplines of the wars,' the investing 
 force should be double or treble that of the besieged, the 
 latter was more numerous, and possessed a more powerful 
 artillery. 
 
 The 90th arrived in the lines before Sebastopol on the 
 5th of December, and, on the following morning, went down 
 to the trenches. In those days staff officers did not come 
 up to the standard now exacted at Sandhurst, and Wolseley 
 recounts how when his regiment was ordered to the front, 
 no staff officer appeared to show them the way to the 
 trenches. However, they managed to find their way down, 
 and proceeding to the foremost rifle-pits, four or five com- 
 panies, including Wolseley's, at once became engaged with 
 the enemy, who opposed their rifles to the antiquated 
 British musket. Presently the Russians opened fire with shot 
 and shell, when the order came for the 90th to cease firing. 
 
 The first serious fighting that took place after our hero's 
 arrival before Sebastopol, was on the night of the nth 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. 
 
 Since his arrival before Sebastopol, Lieutenant Wolseley 
 had been employed with his regiment in the trenches, but 
 he was soon selected for the post of Acting-Engineer, the 
 number of officers of the Royal Engineers 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 Assis- 
 tant-Engineer on the 4th of January, 1855. On that day 
 he was employed in ' Gordon's Battery,' and the working- 
 
Ili 
 
 28 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 !'■ :i 
 
 III ' '• 
 
 party, consisting of only 31 men and 28 Sappers, ' finished 
 laying two platforms, rclaid the sleepers of a third, and 
 cleared out the drains in the third parallel.'* 
 
 On the I St of January, 1855, the effective of the British 
 army, according to returns furnished at the time to Lord 
 Raglan, numbered only 1,045 officers and 21,973 men. 
 The French army, meanwhile, had received considerable 
 reinforcements, and mustered at the same date about 67,000 
 of all arms. Their arrangements were also further advanced 
 than ours. Their batteries were armed, their trenches had ap- 
 proached to within 180 yards of the Flagstaff Bastion, and 
 they expected 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 con- 
 struction 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 Balaklava, where it was 
 stored, owing to the limited 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 the soil, which rendered 
 the construction of siege-works a task 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 the day's proceedings. Although skilled 
 labour was in great demand for the construction of wharves, 
 
 * By the courtesy of General Browne when Deputy Adjutant-General at 
 the Horse Guards, we have been enabled to make extracts from the original 
 reports of the Engineer officers of the right attack tliroughout the siege, 
 including those of Lord Wolseley. 
 
WOLSELEY ON DUTY AS AN ENGINEER. 29 
 
 hospitals, and storehouses at Balaklava, also for the road to 
 the front, and the hutting of the troops and horses, as well 
 as to carry on the siege and defensive works, yet the total 
 effective force of Engineers on the ist of January was only 
 28 officers and 395 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 
 ou the ground even with a pickaxe. The snow lay on the 
 plain from twelve to eighteen inches in depth, and the drifts 
 were in some places dangerous. Owing to the disappear- 
 ance of all fuel, even roots were eagerly grubbed up by the 
 starving soldiers, and sold at a high price. The appearance 
 of the camp was cold, dreary, and miserable ; and no 
 blazing fires could be 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 sufferings of 
 the troops on the exposed plateau of Sebastopol were much 
 aggravated ; and when a large supply of charcoal arrived at 
 Balaklava, as no means of transport was available other 
 than by manual labour, the Turks employed in the trenches 
 were withdrawn from the Engineers, and the siege-works in 
 consequence suffered. 
 
 During the latter half of January the British attacks had 
 been so feebly guarded, owing to sickness, that, according 
 to the official report, ' the covering party for the entire right 
 attack, upwards of a mile in extent, never had exceeded, 
 during this period of the siege, 350 men, and, on the night 
 of the 2 ist of January, it mustered only 290 men. The guards 
 for the other attacks were equally small.' According to Sir 
 John Jones, the eminent Engineer officer of the Peninsular 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 War, ' the guard of the trenches ought never to he less 
 than three-fourths of the garrison,* which mustered between 
 36,000 and 40,000 men. Such were the adverse circum- 
 stances under which this unparalleled siege was prosecuted ! 
 Fortunately the Russians were deficient in enterprise. 
 
 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 January, a French Division 
 relieved the Light and Second Divisions from the guard of 
 the extreme right flank, more adequate parties w irnished 
 for the protection of the batteries and the assist^ace of the 
 Engineers. 
 
 The duty in the trenchest was also very severe ; and the 
 enemy, by frequent sorties during the night, kept the troops 
 on duty constantly on the alert. 
 
 Lieutenant Wolseley, whose talent for sketching and for 
 topographical studies was well known, prepared for General 
 Harry Jones, R.E., who assumed charge of the Engineering 
 Department on the 8th January, a plan of the position of 
 Inkerman, including the trenches. It was required to be 
 done in water-colours ; but so intense was the c- ' that the 
 water froze on his brush, and he had to use cha to melt 
 
 the ice and keep the water from freezing. He succeeded in 
 completing the survey, and preparing the plan to the com- 
 plete satisfaction of the General. 
 
 At this period the weather was very severe and unfavour- 
 able for siege operations, so that little progress could be 
 made. The trenches were knee-deep in snow, which, when 
 a shower of rain came on, was converted into liquid mud, 
 
 * Between the i6th and the 21st of January, tlie number of workmen in 
 the right attack never exceeded 39. According to M. de Bazancourt's 
 ' L'Expddition de la Crimee' : ' The French employed daily 4,000 men on 
 the works, and sometimes the nuu.ber exceeded 6,000. 
 
 "f- In the month of January, Wolseley was on day duty in the trenches, on 
 the 4th, 14th, and 24th ; and on night duty on the 7th, loth, i6th, 20th, and 
 27th. 
 
 11' ■ 
 
THE STORY OF HIS PROMOTION. 
 
 31 
 
 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 connec- 
 tion with Lieutenant Wolseley's promotion to a captaincy. 
 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 ugc — 
 cancelled the promotion they themselves had authorized. 
 Considering this as a slur cast upon him, Wolseley at 
 once wrote expressing his intention to resign his commission 
 unless he was immediately reinstated ; a. .^' 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 77 th 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 promotion 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 rani >, the said authorities cancelled his pro- 
 motion, only to reii. \ate him as before mentioned, and so 
 ended this ' Comedy v Errors.' 
 
 The night of the nth February was very stormy, and so 
 inclement was the weather that no w^ork was done in the 
 left attack. Captain Wolseley,* who was in sole charge of 
 a party of men in his (the right) attack, was busily 
 employed, but on applying to the field officer on duty for a 
 
 * The day duty was generally from eight or nine a.m. to four or six p.m. ; 
 and the night duty from seven p.m. to four a.m. During the month of 
 February, Captain Wolseley was on duty in the trenches — day, 7th, 15th, 
 22nd ; night, 3rd, nth, i8th. The working-party on this night, the 7th of 
 February, which may be considered of an average stiength, was constituted 
 as follows : Line, first relief, 134 men ; second relief, 140 men. Sappers, 
 4 brigades, or 32 men. Turks, 52 men. 
 
i 
 
 J: 
 
 3? 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \\\\\ 
 
 larger number of men, his request was refused on the 
 ground of the inclemency of the weather. On the 13th 
 February, Captain H. C. Owen, R.E., arrived from England, 
 and was appointed to duty with the right attack. On the 
 first occasion of his proceeding to the trenches, which was 
 in company with Captain Wolseley, the gallant officer 
 proposed that they should proceed at once to trace out a 
 new battery, the work then in hand. Wolseley vainly tried 
 to dissuade 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 February, when Captain Wolseley was on 
 duty with Captain Craigie, R.E., the weather being more 
 favourable, the working-parties were increased to 400 nien, 
 and 48 Sappers ; and on the i8th and 22nd, when an 
 almost ecjual 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. 
 
 Early in March, upwards of 3,000 yards of parallel and 
 approach had been made in the right attack ; and, in the 
 left, upwards of 4,200 yards. All this had been done on 
 very rocky ground, with the enemy's works only 600 yards 
 distant at the nearest point. 
 
 Captain Craigie, the Engineer officer in charge of the 
 trenches on the 13th of ATarch, who had never once been 
 absent from his post, was killed in a somewhat singular 
 manner. Captain AVolseley, on relieving him, asked if any- 
 thing particular was going on. ' No,' said Craigie, ' matters 
 are much as usual.' And so, bidding each other ' good-night,* 
 
INCIDENTS OF DUTY IN THE TRENCHES, n 
 
 they parted, he to return to his quarters, and AVolseley to 
 take charge of the trenches. At this time an Artillery duel 
 was in progress, but the Russian practice was wild, and their 
 shells mostly burst short, causing the officers a..d men ijiuch 
 diversion. They were in the middle of their merriment, 
 when a sergeant arrived with the intelligence 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 Sajjper 
 from his pipe, when one of these erratic shells killed him 
 instantly. 
 
 On the morning of the 17th of March,* when Captain 
 Wolseley, accompanied by Captain King, R.E., went on 
 duty, it was discovered that the enemy had formed new 
 rifle-pits in front of the French on our right, which enfiladed 
 the British new right advance. As it was impossible to 
 employ the working-party t of 150 men, application was made 
 to the officers commanding the Royal Artillery and Naval 
 Brigade batteries, to open fire on these pits. The former 
 fired only a few shots, but the sailors made such good 
 practice with their eight-inch guns, that they knocked over the 
 parapet, and sent the occupants flying out of the pits. A 
 good day's work was then performed, under the directions 
 of Captains Wolseley and King. 
 
 The Russians^ continued to receive reinforcements, 
 while their supply of guns was practically inexhaustible ; their 
 fire on the right attack during the latter part of March, was 
 officially described as ' very heavy,' and among the casualties 
 was Major J. W. Gordon, second in command of the siege 
 
 * Captain Wolseley was on duty during this month ; day duty, lotli and 
 17th ; night duty, 13th, 19th, and 30th. 
 
 + The total number 01 men employed in the trenches at this time, was 
 2,100, from which were furnished the working-parties, as well as the guards 
 necessary for the defence of the batteries and parallels. 
 
 J The Russian infantry in tSebastopol, in April, numbered 36,600. 
 There were besides, near the town, 35,400 ; at Eupatoria, 34,600 ; and in 
 other parts 13,000. Total in the Crnnea, including 15,000 cavalry, and 
 8,000 artillery, 142,600 men. 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 m 
 
 operations, who was severely wounded on the night of the 
 22nd, when the Russians made a determined sortie, not in- 
 aptly styled ' Inkerman on a small scale,' but were repulsed. 
 During the early part of April, the Engineers were very busy 
 preparing for the bombardment, which had been decided on 
 by the Allied Commanders. On the 3rd, when Captain 
 Wolseley was on duty, the enemy kept up a heavy fire, one 
 of the casualties being Captain Bainbrigge, R.E., who was 
 killed by the explosion of a shell. At this time, Captains 
 Stanton and Armit, R.E., were respectively in charge of the 
 right and left attacks, Major Chapman being in command 
 of the whole, under Major General Jones, who notified, in 
 Cieneral 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 British batteries were now 
 armed with 20 thirteen-inch, and 16 ten-inch mortars, and 
 87 guns, giving a total of 123 pieces of ordnance — of vhich 
 49 were manned by the Naval Brigade, and 74 by the Royal 
 Artillery. The French, on their part, opened fire with 303 
 pieces on the left, and 50 on the right. 
 
 The morning of the 9th of April broke in thick fog and 
 drizzling rain, but shortly before half past five, the mist par- 
 tially rolled away, permitting the outlines of the Redan and 
 Malakhoff to be seen. Exactly an hour later, the first gun 
 was fired from the British batteries, and, in a few seconds, 
 the whole of both attacks, with the exception of one battery, 
 were in action ; shortly afterwards the French opened fire, 
 and the south side of Sebastopol, from the sea to Inker- 
 man, was encircled in what Prince Gortschakoff well called 
 a/iu d'€7ifc7: The Russians appeared to be taken by sur- 
 prise, but about six o'clock their batteries began to reply ; 
 
 ill 
 
't 
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF WOLSELEY. 
 
 35 
 
 ;o3 
 
 ler- 
 led 
 
 ir- 
 
 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 slippery. At dusk the fire on both sides ceased, with 
 the exception of an occasional shell from the mortars. On 
 the following day all our batteries opened fire at daylight, 
 the Russians replying with spirit. Though the fire of the 
 Mamelon was checked, and that of the Malakhoff Tower 
 slackened, 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, and 
 traverses of the British by the enemy's fire, and the Sappers 
 behaved very well in repairing the embrasures, and even re- 
 constructing them, under fire. 
 
 Lieutenant Graves, R.E.,* who, with Captains 0"'^n, R.E., 
 and AVolseley, was on duty, was wounded, and Wolseley him- 
 self had a narrow escape. The Russian fire had been very 
 heavy, and the Artillery officers reported an embrasure as 
 unserviceable. This, of cc urse, it was the duty of the En- 
 gineer officers to repair; but from the proximity and piecision 
 of fire of the Russian batteries, it was a service of extreme 
 hazard, for directly a man showed 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 time he was holding on to a hand- 
 spike, prizing up one sandbag to put another under it, and it 
 was, in racing parlance, * a near thing ' for him ; indeed, he 
 received a slight wound from the debris scattered by the 
 round shot, though he did not report himself as wounded, it 
 
 *This gallant young officer '-vas killed by a rifle bullet, on the iSth of 
 June, in the assault on the Redan. 
 
36 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 f 
 
 lil 
 
 being a point of honour among the Engineers not to leave 
 their post until disabled. 
 
 On the night of the 12th, Wolseley was again on duty, 
 when much was done in effecting 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 had been dis- 
 mounted or silenced. When Wolseley was next on duty, 
 the night of the 15th of April, the enemy was very active, 
 and Lieutenant-Colonel Tylden, R.E., in charge of the 
 right attack, reported : ' Captain Wolseley, Assistant- 
 Engineer, who 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 the enemy poured in.' Our 
 loss on this occasion was heavy, being 3 officers killed, and 
 I officer and 20 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 E. Stanton, R.E.,* who was sitting behind 
 the Engineer park giving orders to two Sappers standing at 
 attention before him. Suddenly a round shot took one 
 man's head off, and drove h's jaw-bone into the other man's 
 face, to which it adhered, bespattering the party with blood. 
 Men got into the way of considering these incidents as 
 almost commonplace, and scarcely noteworthy, but, though 
 such horrors bred a feeling of indifference to danger and 
 death, ft/: could lay claim to the possession of such imper- 
 turbable 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 indifferent in the 
 * Now General Sir Edward Stanton, K.C.M.G., C.B. 
 
 li >! 
 
IS 
 
 ,'as 
 
 er 
 'al 
 
 presence of seemingly certain death as this gallant sailor, 
 and gives the following instance, among others, of this 
 characteristic. He was walking one day during the bom- 
 bardment with Captain Peel, in rear of the line of batteries, 
 when a thirteen-inch shell, hurtling through the air, lit on the 
 entrance of a magazine and crushed it in. Just for a pass- 
 ing second, Wolseley stood still, paralyzed 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, with- 
 out 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 modest 
 opinion of his courage than other people who know him 
 well, and have seen him under fire. A distinguished 
 General officer of Engineers, who served in the trenches 
 with Captain Wolseley, perhaps on more occasions than 
 any other man, and therefore had more ample opportunities 
 of observmg his bearing under the most trying circum- 
 stances, declared to us that he considered him ' the bravest 
 man he ever knew.' He also mentioned that he was noted 
 for always turning 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 clue to a man's character. 
 
 After eight days' incessant firing, the second bombard- 
 ment ceased on the 17th of April, without any decisive 
 result having been achieved, and though the Mamelon and 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \k\ 
 
 M 
 
 Malakhoff suffered considerably, the guns destroyed, or 
 silenced, by day were replaced at night On our side, 
 26 pieces of ordnance were disabled, and our expenditure 
 of ammunition amounted to 47,854 rounds, of which up- 
 wards of 15,000 were shell."^ 
 
 On the 19th of April, the 77th Regiment, led by Colonel 
 Egerton, carried, by assault, the rifle-pits in advance of the 
 right attack, when Colonel Egerton, i officer, and 10 men 
 were killed, and 6 officers and 50 men were wounded. On 
 the iSth of May, Lord Raglan, accompanied by General 
 Jones and General de la Marmora, in command of the 
 newly-arrived Piedmontese Division of 17,000 men, in- 
 spected the works of the left attack; and, on the i8th, 
 when Captain Wolseley was on duty,t those of the right 
 attack. On the following day, General Canrobert resigned 
 the command of the French army to General Pelissier. 
 
 On the 6th of June, the third bombardment took place, 
 when the English batteries mounted 154 mortars and guns. 
 Of these, there were in the right attack 55 pieces, 22 of 
 which were manned by the Naval Brigade ; and 99 in the 
 left attack, of which 36 were worked by the sailors. The 
 whole fire of the right of the right attack was to be 
 directed on the Mamelon and the Malakhoff, whilst the left 
 of the right, and the left attack engaged the Redan and 
 Barrack Battery. The Russian works stood out in bold 
 relief under a cloudless sky, offering a strong contrast to 
 the dismal circumstances of the last bombardment. The 
 enemy replied vigorously at first, but about half-past four 
 
 * During the bombardment the Artillery lost 5 killed and 86 wounded ; 
 and the Naval Brigade, which suffered more severely, owing to their prac- 
 tice of not retiring behind the parapet after firing, lost 2 officers and 24 men 
 killed, and 6 officers and 92 wounded. 
 
 t During this month. Captain Wolseley was on duty : day, ist, 5th, 14th, 
 and i8th ; night, 25th, 28th, and 31st. On the three last occasions he was 
 the only Engineer officer with the working-parties, which numbered 150 
 men, and 20 Sappers. 
 
CAPTURE OF THE QUARRIES. 
 
 39 
 
 the Mamelon and Malakhoff were almost silenced, and at 
 dusk, when our fire, except 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 was delivered the memorable 
 assault on the Quarries by our troops, and that on the 
 Mamelon by our Allies. 
 
 All that dpy a heavy cannonade was kept up ; but, at six 
 o'clock, when the French and English assaulting columns 
 were formed in the trenches, it burst forth with renewed 
 intensity, the fire, for the hour that it lasted, being 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 could be seen plunging and cutting gaps in the ranks, 
 blowing the bodies of their victims into the air.' 
 
 At half-past six the FrencTi 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 renewed fire 
 from the British batteries, once more changed hands. 
 
 A few minutes after the French had attacked the Mame- 
 lon, the British columns advanced on the Quarries and the 
 Russian trench leading to the Karabelnaia Ravine. The 
 column consisted of detachments of the Light and Second 
 Divisions, who were supported at night by the 62nd Regi- 
 ment. The command of these troops was entrusted to 
 General Shirley, of the 88th, who was acting general officer 
 of the trenches ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, of Wol- 
 seley's regiment, the 90th, led the storming-party, and 
 remained in the Quarries all night in command of the 
 
 * During the day the Royal Artillery had 47 killed and wounded, and the 
 sailors 40 ; being the heaviest loss on one day during the siege. 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 troops. On the Engineer officers of the right attack, how- 
 ever, devolved, according to custom, the honourable and 
 deadly duty of ' showing the way ' to the storming column, 
 and also of forming the lodgment after the enemy's works 
 Were won, and the communication from the parallel in 
 our occupation, a trying and perilous task, as it had to 
 be completed in the open and under the enemy's fire. 
 Colonel Tylden, R.E., advised as to the attack and distribu- 
 tion of the troops, but the Engineer officers, who actually 
 accompanied the assaulting columns, were Captains Browne, 
 R.E.,* and Wolseley; and Lieutenants Elphinstone, R.E.,t 
 Lowry, R.E., and Anderson, 96th Regiment. Already one 
 officer of the corps, Captain Dawson, R.E., who had been 
 in charge of the engineering duties during the day, had 
 fallen, but he was not destined to be the only Engineer 
 officer sacrificed on the altar of duty in the memorable 
 struggle of the 7th of June. 
 
 The Quarries were carried with a rush, though the 
 Russians made three desperate attempts to retake them;): 
 during the night, and again soon after daylight on the 
 following morning, and it was in resisting these repeated 
 efforts on the part of the enemy that the army sustained its 
 chief loss. Among the officers who thus fell was Lieutenant 
 Lowry, R.E., who was killed by a round shot whilst gal- 
 lantly cheering on the men. Notwithstanding the frequency 
 of the endeavours of the Russians to regain possession of 
 the Quarries, and the interruptions to which these attacks 
 gave rise, the Engineers made a lodgment of gabions and 
 barrels, and also established the communication with their 
 advanced sap, which, says Lord Raglan, ' redounds to the 
 
 * Now Lieut.-General J. F. M. Browne, C.B. On the 24th of August 
 this officer was severely wounded in the shoulder by a rifle-bullet. 
 
 t Now Colonel Sir Howard Elphinstone, V.C, K.C. B., C.M.G. 
 
 j The Engineer officer in charge of the right attack says : ' The enemy 
 actually expelled us three times and removed some of our gabions, which 
 were immediately retaken.' 
 
WOLSELEY'S SERVICES ON yth OF JUNE. 41 
 
 credit of Colonel Tylden, and that of the officers and men 
 employed as the working-party ; and I cannot,' adds the 
 Field-Marshal, * miss the opportunity to express my appro- 
 bation of the conduct of the Sappers throughout the opera- 
 tions.' 
 
 Captain Browne, who was the senior Engineer officer 
 accompanying the assaulting column, after passing a high 
 encomium on the gallant young Lowry, proceeds : * I beg to 
 report most favourably on the conduct of Lieutenant Elphin- 
 stone, R.E., and of Captain Wolseley, 90th Regiment, 
 Assistant-Engineer, who was employed in forming the lodg- 
 ment and communication. Lieutenant Anderson, 96th 
 Regiment, Assistant-Engineer, was unfortunately wounded 
 in the leg early in the evening.' But the highest honour a 
 soldier can receive, next to the approval of his country and 
 his sovereign, was in reserve for Captain AVolseley, who was 
 specially mentioned in the despatch of the Field-Marshal 
 Commanding-in-Chief, as one of the officers 'who distin- 
 guished themselves on this occasion.' 
 
 The casualties on the 7th of June were proportionately 
 heavy as the result attained was glorious. 10 officers and 
 117 rank and file were killed, and 36 officers and 486 
 men were wounded, besides 18 missing. Of the 6 Engineer 
 officers engaged during the 6th and 7th of June, 2 were 
 killed and i 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 bombardment 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 experiences in the assault 
 of the Quarries. For twenty-four hours before the time 
 named for the attack on the Russian works, all the officers 
 
42 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 i!!;' 
 
 detailed for service were kept off duty, so as to be fresh for 
 the arduous work in store for them. Among them, of 
 course, was Wolseley ; but in the morning Ca[)tain 1 )awson, 
 who had gone on duty for the first time that day, was killed 
 l)y a round shot, and he was ordered to take his place. 
 AV^olseley was, therefore, all day hard at work as the only 
 Engineer officer of the right attack , and the bombardment 
 was in full j^rogrcss, retjuiring all his energies, l)esides en- 
 tailing that great mental wear which is incidental to the 
 performance of duties under such a terrific fire as raged on 
 that day. When evening came, and the hour fixed for 
 the assault arrived, most men would have had enough of it, 
 but not so Wolseley ; and though he had never (juitted the 
 trenches, when the hour struck — big with the fate of so 
 many gallant hearts throbbing with eager expectancy, while 
 they waited for the signal to (juit the protection of their 
 batteries to run the gauntlet of the open space i)loughed by 
 the death-dealing shells and bullets — Captain Wolseley took 
 his place with the small band of Engineer officers, whose 
 perilous duty it was to accompany the assaulting column. 
 
 There were two communications to be made — one be- 
 tween the parallel on the right and the Quarries, which he 
 was directed to carry out ; and the 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 800 men detailed as a working-party, 
 only 250 were actually available, the remainder being en- 
 gaged with the enemy. And so it was throughout this un- 
 paralleled 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 
 
WOLSELEY'S SERVICES ON 7th OF JUNE. 43 
 
 holds good of the relative value of the British soldier and 
 his Russian focman. 
 
 Wolselcy began working the lateral communication too 
 soon, and the enemy's fire was so hot that the party was 
 driven back with loss. Just then he was sent to take the 
 l)lace of poor Lowry, and proceeded to make the direct 
 communication on the open,* between • Egerton's rifle-pits ' 
 and the captured works. While so engaged, he lost one- 
 third of his working-party, and on the three occasions when 
 the enemy expelled our soldiers from the Quarries, only in 
 turn to be themselves driven out, he entered the Quarries 
 with the victorious column. Not often has more desperate 
 hand-to-hand fighting taken place than on that eventful 
 night, and ^Volseley's penchant for such work was amply 
 gratified. That the position was retained in the end was 
 l)crfectly marvellous, considering the persistent attacks made 
 by the Russians with overwhelming numbers. ]3etwccn 
 these assaults he busied himself with building up, on the 
 reverse side of the Quarries, a little parapet composed of 
 anything he could lay his hands on, among the chief ingre- 
 dients being the bodies of the fallen, friends or foes indis- 
 criminately, the latter thus affording in death the welcome 
 protection they would have denied while living. 
 
 Just before daybreak Wolseley saw a dense column of 
 Russians, * so long that he could not see the end of it,' 
 issue from out of their works with the object of making a 
 final dash 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 the night's fighting and hard work, 
 
 &. 
 
 * Gunner and Driver Thomas Arthur received the Victoria Cross for 
 ' carrying barrels of infantry ammunition for the 7th FusiUcrs several times 
 during the evening across the open.' On this very 'open,' Captain 
 Wolseley and the other Engineer officers and Sappers were engaged 
 throughout the night. 
 
 1;* i- 
 
 m 
 
[Ill 
 
 44 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 !|! 
 
 VA 
 
 > 
 
 Ml 
 
 that it was in vain the officers made the utmost eflbrts to 
 rouse them from their sleep to resist the enemy. British 
 officers have seldom failed to do their duty under the most 
 trying circumstances, and they did not belie this charac- 
 teristic of the race on this occasion. Finding their efforts 
 useless, the officers, to the number of 20, with some few 
 non-commissioned officers and men, certainly not more 
 than 60, opened fire, the former with their pistols, on the 
 advancing column ; at the same time the bugler sounded, 
 and the little band shouted and cheered to their utmost 
 capacity. Never did the famous British cheer stand in such 
 good stead to British throats as on this occasion. The 
 Russian soldiers, remembering the bloody repulses they had 
 already suffered, first wavered, and finally refused to ad- 
 vance. Wolseley saw the officers by turns imploring and 
 threatening them, but all in vain ; they could not be in- 
 duced to proceed, and the British officers redoubling their 
 efforts, the Russians gave up the task as hopeless and 
 retired, and so ended their last effort to regain the Quarries. 
 But it is the opinion of officers present, that had the Rus- 
 sians shown any enterprise they might have easily overcome 
 the only opposition that awaited them, as there was no force 
 in the Quarries capable of an effective resistance. 
 
 After his indefatigable exertions both by word of mouth 
 and example. Captain Wolseley completely lost his voice, 
 and could not speak above a low whisper ; and when he was 
 relieved in the morning, so overpowered was he with the 
 exertions of the past twenty-four hours, and the strain upon 
 his faculties, that he fell down from fatigue outside the 
 Quarries, and lay there among a number of dead bodio'?, 
 himself having the appearance of one numbc if le 
 
 dead. So thought an officer of his regiment ^ . g 
 
 by, found his friend lying on a heap 01 a v ed ith 
 blood. Though he had not reported imselt .vounded, 
 
 ^■' i 
 
 
 \l 
 
 
 lihii 
 
 
 1; ? : -^ 
 
 ' 
 
WOLSELEY IS WOUNDED. 
 
 45 
 
 Wolselcy had been hit on the thigh by a bullet from a 
 canister-shot, which tore his trousers, and caused consider- 
 able loss of blood. He received this wound just as he got 
 outside the parapet on his way to the Quarries to relieve 
 Lieutenant Lowry. His friend of the 90th roused him with 
 much difficulty, and assisted him to the camp at the Middle 
 Ravine, a distance, allowing for the zigzag road, of over two 
 miles. The kind Samaritan had almost to carry our hero, 
 who was so fatigued that he fell down many times, and had 
 to be roused up again, just as a man might who was intoxi- 
 cated. It must have been a relief to them both, as it was 
 a cause of thankfulness to Wolseley, when they met Major 
 (now (ieneral) Maxwell, who dismounted and lent him his 
 horse, on which, with assistance, he rode the remainder of 
 the way, often nearly tumbling off with fatigue. His 
 position was all the more trying, as he had completely lost 
 his voice, so that when he mustered up sufficient strength to 
 speak he was totally inaudible. And so concluded what 
 Wolseley himself emphatically declares was 'the hardest 
 day's work he ever did in his life.' 
 
 ' It may be said,' writes Major-General Sir Harry Jones, 
 'that until the 7th June, when the Quarries, Mamelon, and 
 "Ouvrages Blancs" had been captured and lodgments made 
 in them, the Allies had scarcely gained an advantage over 
 the enemy since October, 1854, a period of seven months.' 
 By the capture of these works the besiegers were placed in 
 a more favourable position for carrying on ulterior operations, 
 while every man in the Allied Armies was inspired with 
 increased spirit and energy, for they regarded these important 
 successes as only the prelude to the fall of the great strong- 
 hold that had so long defied their utmost efforts, and 
 attributed them chiefly to the substitution of Pelissier, 
 emphatically a fighting general, for the more easy-going 
 Canrobert. Considering the great strength of the enemy, it 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 iill 
 
 is surprising the want of energy they displayed. Their 
 numerical superiority rendered it necessary to be prepared 
 with strong reserves to repel an assault on the trenches by a 
 powerful column ; but to do this effectually would have been 
 a task of great difficulty, there being no cover for troops in 
 the immediate rear of the trenches, while the distance to the 
 nearest camp was too great to afford any hope that a body 
 of men could arrive in time to render immediate support. 
 As this circumstance necessitated a stronger guard than is 
 usual at an ordinary siege, the Engineers were unable to 
 obtain the complement of men necessary to carry on the 
 required works. 
 
 After the success of the 7th June, Lord Raglan and 
 General Pelissier determined to press on the siege with 
 redoubled energy, and preparations were made for a fourth 
 bombardment, and the assault of the enemy's works extend- 
 ing from the Redan to Careening Bay. Two days after the 
 capture of the Quarries Captain Wolseley was again on duty, 
 accompanied by Lieutenant Darrah, R.E. The Russian 
 fire during the day had been very heavy, and our loss was 
 3 officers and 7 rank and file killed, and 38 officers and 
 men wounded, a se/ere loss for what might be called an 
 'off day.'* 
 
 A good many casualties were also caused on the T2th, 
 when Captain Wolseley was on duty, ' by shells from a 2-gun 
 
 * Captain Wolseley says in his report, the original of which is lying before 
 us : 'I had a special working-party of 400 men, 50 of whom, with half 
 brigade ot Sappers, repaired the embrasures in the 21-gun battery ; 100 
 men, with a brigade of Sappers, revetted all the embrasures in Nos. 9, 12, 
 and 14 Batteries ; 50 men, with half brigade of Sappers, were employed 
 mending and placiiic in a fighting condition the old third parallel and left 
 advance ; the remaining 200 men, with a brigade of Sappers, were en- 
 gaged in the Quarries and the communication to them. T!iey completed a 
 rifle-screen overlooking the Woronzoff Ravine on our left. At two a.m., 
 the battery parties were relieved by 150 men from the guard of the trenches, 
 and the Quarry party by 50 men. Ail the batteries were placed in admir- 
 able repair, and our new lodgment considerably strengthened. The Russians 
 were found to be working outside the proper right of the Redan.' 
 
 1,1' \ 
 
WOLSELEY IN THE TRENCHES. 
 
 47 
 
 battery under the Garden batteries, which likewise annoyed 
 the parties in the Quarries during the forenoon,' so that they 
 had to be withdrawn. ' In the afternoon,' continues his 
 report, ' some of the enemy's riflemen cHmbed up among 
 the rocks on the opposite side of the Woronzoff Ravine 
 under the advanced trenches of the left attack, and caused 
 us some annoyance.' The working-parties of 400 men, 
 besides Sappers, employed on the night of the 14th of June, 
 ' worked well, but were annoyed by shells from the Garden 
 batteries, and grape and canister from the salient gun in the 
 Redan, which caused about ten casualties. The enemy were 
 heard working through the night inside the Redan.' During 
 this time, while our Engineers worked hard preparing for the 
 attack, which it was hoped and anticipated would decide 
 the fate of Sebastopol, the Russians were also busied 
 strengthening the Redan, large parties of troops being seen 
 bringing up gabions and pieces of timber. Between the 
 14th and 18th of June, our Engineers were employed 
 improving the lodgment in the Quarries. 
 
 At daylight on the morning of the 17th of June, the 
 British batteries* opened fire for the fourth general bombard- 
 ment of the defences of Sebastopol, the fleet co-operating 
 against the sea defences. 
 
 Our efforts were chiefly directed against the Redan and 
 its flanking works, although the British gunners afforded 
 powerful aid with the mortars of the right attack against 
 the Malakhoff Tower. But though the Redan presented a 
 shattered appearance 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 
 Wolseley, accompanied by Lieutenants (iraves and Murray, 
 both of whom fell in the assault on the Redan on the follow- 
 
 t 
 
 * In the right attack were mounted 62 pieces of ordnance ; and in the 
 left attacii 104. 
 
ii i 
 
 i 
 
 48 
 
 LIFE CF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 1:1! ii 
 
 ing day, went on duty with a working-party of 400 men and 
 12 Sappers.* 
 
 A heavy fire was kept up on the works from the mortars 
 during the night of the 17th, and at daylight all the guns 
 joined in the bombardment. The assault was fixed for the 
 1 8th of June, a singular choice, for though the anniversary 
 of Waterloo is a day the memories of which must always 
 exercise an inspiriting effect on British soldiers, the influence 
 must be correspondingly depressing, not to say exasperating, 
 to our Allies when acting in concert with us. 
 
 Before three a. m. Lord Raglan was at the signal pos" , 
 accompanied by the headquarter staff, Generals Jones 
 and Dacres, commanding the Engineers and Artillery ; 
 Colonel Warde, commanding Siege Train; and Captain 
 Lushington, R.N., commanding Naval Brigade. 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 one of the most 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. 
 
 No sooner had the three assaulting columns shown them- 
 selves beyond the trenches than they were assailed by a 
 murderous fire of grape and musketry, such as Lord Raglan 
 declared he had never witnessed before. 
 
 Both the British and French columns of attack were 
 
 •' The responsibility of tlie engineering duties, even upon an 'off day,' 
 devolving upon a young officer in his twenty-second year, may be gathered 
 from Wolseley's report of the day's work : ' 140 men and 2 vSappers, with 
 Major Catnpbell of the 46th Regiment, were employed carrying materials ; 
 120 men with Lieutenant Graves, 100 men and 2 Sappers with Lieutenant 
 Murray. All these parties were employed carrying materials to tiie places 
 assigned for them ; 20 men and 4 Sappers revetting embrasures in 21-gun 
 battery ; 20 men and 4 Sappers revetting embrasures in Nos. 9, 13, and 14 
 Batteries. These parties worked until two o'clock a.m., after which none 
 were employed. Tliere were three considerable fires in the town in the 
 rear of the Flagstaff Battery. The enemy were working all night at the 
 Redan, and seemed to be strengthening the abattis in its front.' 
 
THE ASSAULT OF THE \Wi OF JUNE. 49 
 
 driven back, our casualties being 21 officers, including 
 Major-General Sir John Campbell, and Colonels Shadforth 
 and Yea, and 244 men, killed; and 72 officers, including 
 Major General Sir William Eyre, Colonels (now Sir Daniel) 
 Lysons, Johnson, Gwilt, and Cobbe, Captain Peel, R.N., 
 and Mr. Midshipman Wood (now Sir Evelyn ^\'ood), and 
 1,097 men wounded. The Russian loss was 16 officers and 
 783 men killed, and 152 officers and 4,826 men wounded. 
 
 The Engineers suffered lieavily on this occasion. Three 
 officers, Captain Jesse and Lieutenants Graves and Murray, 
 were killed ; and Major-General Jones, Major Bourchier 
 (Brigade Major), and Colonel Tylden, Director of the right 
 attack, were wounded ; the latter officer was shot through 
 both legs and died from the effects of the wounds. Captain 
 AVolseley was near General Jones when he received his 
 wound. He was standing at the time in 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. AV'olseley 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 experienced. 
 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 i8th of June told severely 
 on the already failing health of Lord Raglan, and he expired 
 on the 28th of June, four days after the death of General 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Estcourt, his Adjutant-General. Thus, one by one, all the 
 chief actors in this tremendous drama, had been removed — 
 Nicholas, Menschikoff, St. Arnaud, and finally, Raglan, all 
 were gone. 
 
 Lord Raglan was succeeded in the command by Lieu- 
 tenant-General Simpson, his Chief of the Staff, although 
 there was present with the army Sir Colin Campbell, 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. But the ' seniority ' system, 
 which was the curse of our army, placing in the high'ist 
 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. 
 
 After the assault of the i8th June, Captain "Wolseley"' 
 and the other Engineer officers were employed in effecting 
 the necessary repairs to the parapets and platforms conse- 
 quent upon the damage they had sustained. 
 
 The enemy, on their side, guided by the genius of 
 Todleben, were busily employed in strengthening their works, 
 while large convoys were se»_n 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 com- 
 manders to prosecute the enterprise to a successful conclu- 
 sion never faltered, and, like Cato, their cry was ' Delenda 
 est Carthago.' 
 
 During the month of July, the efforts of the Engineers 
 were directed towards working up to the enemy's entrench- 
 ments, though, situated as they were between the two attacks 
 of the French, and exposed to heavy artillery fire on both 
 
 * During the month of June he was on duty as follows : day duty, 4th, 
 7th, i2lh, aist, and 28th ; night duty, 7tli, gtli, 14th, 17th, 23rd. and 26th. 
 
WOLSELEY AND GRAHAM. 
 
 51 
 
 flanks, also from the Garden, Maiakhoff, and intervening 
 batteries, including that of the ^.vedan, but little progress 
 cou'.a be made in their attack. 
 
 Captain Wolseley was on duty on the ist of July,* each 
 relief of the working-party numbering 400 men and 24 
 Sappers, and the works were carried on under a heavy fire, 
 the enemy shelling the Quarries and the new fourth parallel. 
 On the 8th of July, when he was on night duty in the 
 trenches, the working-party numbered 950 men, besides 20 
 Sappers ; on this occasion, Lieutenant Gerald Graham,t of 
 the Engineers, was severely wounded. He says in his 
 report, the original of which is lying before me : * Lieu- 
 tenant 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 62 nd Regiment, who commanded the party, withdrew 
 his men, telling the Sapper then in charge, that he con- 
 sidered it too dangerous for linesmen. The enemy kept up 
 a continual fire of shell and grape, and then a number of 
 light balls, which greatly interrupted our work." 
 
 AVolseley and his coadjutors in 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 
 
 * During this month Captain Wolseley was on day duty ist, 6th, 12th, 
 15th, and 22nd ; night duty, 3rd, 8th, 15th, igth, and 22nd. 
 
 t Thisofiicer, as Major-Cjcneral Graham, conmianded a brigade in Egypt, 
 under Sir Garnet Wolseley. 
 
 4—2 
 
 j-l 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELKY. 
 
 II 
 
 the trenches, from the fire of the Garden batteries and 
 Bastion du Mat. The casualties were heavy, owing to the 
 proximity of the British works to the Redan, from which 
 the enemy maintained a vertical fire from mortars, and 
 discharges of grape and grenades. As this cannonade con- 
 tinued day and night, causing great loss to our troops, and 
 hindering the prosecution of the engineering works, all our 
 batteries that bore upon the Redan opened fire on the loth 
 of July, which had the desired effect. 
 
 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 400 men, 
 with 24 Sappers. In conjunction with Major Stanton and 
 Lieutenant Somerville, he was on continuous 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 men 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 parapets 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 communi- 
 cations were made from the third parallel and the Quarries 
 to Battery No. 19. At this time, orders were issued by 
 
 w. 
 
ILLNESS OF IVOLSELEY. 
 
 53 
 
 General Simpson that the night-guard in the trenches of 
 the left attack was to be increased to 1,400 men, and in the 
 right attack to 2,400, under a General of the day, and three 
 field officers. Of this number 600 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 re- 
 mainder were to furnish working-parties during the day, 
 There was also to be special working-party of 400 men, 
 independently of the guard, who were to return to camp 
 at daybreak. 
 
 On the 22nd of July, Captain Wolseley was again on 
 duty for twenty-four hours.* There were no less than 1,050 
 men at work in the trenches under the orders of the Engi- 
 neer officers, besides 52 Sappers and 16 carpenters, and the 
 work was very heavy. During the day, the right attack kept 
 up a fire on the Redan for some hours with mortars, and a 
 shell from the enemy, falling among a heap of carcases 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 extinguished by earth being 
 shovelled over them. During the night also there was hot 
 work, and Wolseley's exertions, under constant fire from 
 grape and shell, were too much even for his constitution. 
 He had been suffering for some time from dysentery, but 
 with that devotion to duty which had characterized 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 pro- 
 longed duty of twenty-four hours, however, incapacitated 
 him for further exertion, and the medical authorities directed 
 
 * The officer commanding the Royal Engineers in his remarks on tlie 
 progress of the siege, says : ' The young ofticers of l'"ngineers, and of the 
 .Sappers lately joined from England, suffer very nmch from the heat. They 
 soon fall ill with fever. This makes the duly in the trenches very severe 
 upon those who are able to bear the fatigue.' 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 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 trenches. 
 
 Captain Wolseley was in charge of the trenches, with a 
 working-party of 400 men and 20 Sappers, on the night of the 
 T6th of August, and on the following morning, when the fifth 
 bombardment of Sebastopol commenced. He says : ' The 
 enemy appeared 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 shells from No. 13 Battery, 
 fire was opened this morning at daybreak from all our 
 batteries.' During the night there were 39 casualties in 
 the right attack. At this time the British batteries mounted 
 186 pieces of ordnance, of which 77 were in the right attack. 
 
 On the morning of the 19th, the Redan being much 
 damaged, and the Malakhoff almost silent, orders were 
 issued to cease firing.* 
 
 During the 21st of August, Captain Wolseley was on 
 duty with two reliefs of 300 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 much progress was made, though 
 under a brisk fire from the enemy. A sap was commenced 
 from the fifth parallel in advance upon the capitalt of the 
 Redan. Fifty-eight yards were executed without interrup- 
 tion from the enemy, and during the night of the 23rd, 
 Wolseley managed to execute about fourteen more yards, 
 
 " During the forty-eight hours of the bombardment the British batteries 
 expended 26,270 rounds of ammunition, the total weight being 81 tons. 
 
 t The capital is the centre line whicli divides a bastion into two equal 
 parts. 
 
 X .»i. 
 
r REP A RATIO XS FOR THE ASSAULT. 
 
 55 
 
 but under a heavy fire from the Redan. In consequence of 
 their proximity to this work, there were 52 casualties among 
 his men on this day. Captain Wolseley was on duty in the 
 trenches, with a working-party of 800 men from five a.m. to 
 seven p.m. on the 27th of August, when, under orders from 
 General Simpson, a heavy fire was opened by the batteries 
 of both attacks — 77 in the right and 120 in the left — on the 
 salient angle of the Redan. Of the effect of this fire, 
 Wolseley says in his report : * The salient of the Redan 
 was considerably 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 forward 
 with much energy, and the Engineer staff were worked to 
 the utmost, making up by their goodwill and indomitable 
 perseverance for their numerical inferiority. The time since 
 the repulse of the i8th of June had been utilized by the 
 Allies, and an incredible amount of work had been per- 
 formed. The French had established themselves close to 
 the crest of the counterscarp of the Malakhoff, the key of 
 the position, and scarcely less difficult was the task our 
 troops performed in their advance against the Redan. 
 
 During the month of August, the Russians, rendered 
 desperate by the sight of the iron ring whicii was 
 growing in strength day by day, made repeated efforts to 
 break through. Frequent sorties were made all through 
 the month, and the fighting in that confined and blood- 
 stained arena became fast 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 heroic deeds of our 
 gallant soldiers and sailors 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, 
 
 ^m 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 II 
 
 S:i 
 
 like Achilles in his ardour for the fight, was *• unpigcr^ 
 iracunduSy inexorabilis^ acer^ 
 
 On the night of the 30th August, an event occurred in 
 Wolseley'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 so long engaged. 
 At eight p.m., Wolseley, accomi)anied 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 before 
 daylight, and the endurance of his working-party of 400 
 men and 20 Sappers, would permit. The work progressed 
 as satisfactorily as could be expected, 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 idleness, he proceeded to make a sketch of the 
 ground in ordc to give his successor an idea of the topo- 
 graphy, so that he might carry on the work in hand. 
 Wolseley was thus 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 uncer- 
 tain moonlight. The sortie was made under circumstances 
 and at an hour to call for the exercise of that promptitude 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-officer in command, who could not be induced 
 to cover the working- party properly, notwithstanding the 
 repeated representations of Captain Wolseley, who begged 
 
SORTIE BY THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 57 
 
 him to take a rifle-pit that was annoying his men, and 
 showed how it might be done with most advantage. How- 
 ever, this officer would not do as he was requested, and as 
 the Russians kept firing volleys from it all night, Wolseley's 
 men had to work lying down. As a further consequence, 
 the front was not protected by sentries, so that a sortie or 
 surprise of some sort was just what might have been anti- 
 cipated. As we have seen, there was a sortie, and the sur- 
 prise was complete, but Wolseley was equal to the occasion. 
 The working-party, 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. AVolseley 
 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 recover- 
 ing his feet, Wolseley found there was nothing between 
 himself and the Russians but the gabions, which they were 
 pulling down with all celerity. Looking about him with 
 the intent of rallying his men, he found that he w,is alone ; 
 all had fled, the ofticers, recognising the futility of resistance 
 without their men, being the last to retire. Another 
 moment's hesitation on Wolseley'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 150 yards in 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.* 
 
 * The following is the official narrative of this affair : ' At about half- 
 jiast twelve a.m., a party of the enemy made an attack on the advance ujj 
 the little ravine from the fifth ]xirallcl. Tlie woricing-party retired in great 
 confusion, in spite of repeated attempts on (Jajjtain VVolseley's i)art to rally 
 ihem, and the Russians tlirew down about hfty gabions into the trench ; 
 tiiey then retreated, keeping up a tire of musketry, which caused consider- 
 
f 
 
 5« 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 The field-officer whose negligence had caused this unfor- 
 tunate business, now asked Captain ^Volseley, ' What was to 
 be done ?' 
 
 * I will do nothing/ replied Wolseley, * until you have 
 carried the riHe-pit I requested you to take before.* . 
 
 A gallant officer, Captain Pechell, of the 77th, who was 
 killed two nights later, was standing by, and, 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. 
 
 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, there- 
 fore, taking with him a strong party of men, recovered most 
 of these gabions, and was engaged in the task of putting ui> 
 and refilling them when he received his wound. He 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 himself hurled to the 
 ground with resistless force. The round shot had struck 
 the gabion, which was full of stones, and, scattering its 
 
 able loss. The guns also from the batteries below the Malakhofif 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 tiie trenches was very strong in the fifth parallel, and 
 there were abundance of men near the entrance to the sap ; but the attack 
 was so sudden, that unless the working-party themselves repulsed the enemy, 
 the mischief done to the trench could not be prevented. Captain 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 artillery-fire from the MaLakhoff 
 batteries, and also the incessant fire of musketry, as the enemy only re- 
 tired about 200 yards down the ravine. The casualties among the working- 
 party were very great, amounting to 12 out of 65, and these in a very short 
 space of time.' 
 
 '''WaMJ^ 
 
IVOLSELEV IS WOUNDED. 
 
 59 
 
 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,* 
 of the Naval Brigade, who, coming up, helped him to walk 
 towards the doctor's hut in the trenches. He just managed 
 to totter so far, and was laid down outside the hut in a 
 semi-unconscious state. 
 
 I'rince 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 the wounded officer, who, though 
 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, who fancied from his 
 appearance that his injuries were mortal, to turn his atten- 
 tion to Captain Wolseley, and from the nature of the wounds, 
 and the shock to the system their number and extent would 
 have caused in most cases, it seemed as if the surgeon had 
 only been a little premature in his rough 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 innumerable wounds caused 
 by the stones with which he had been struck. Sharp frag- 
 ments were embedded all over his face, and his left cheek 
 had been almost cut completely away. The doctor fancied, 
 after probing the wound, that his jawbone was shattered ; 
 
 * When Prince Victor again met Sir Garnet at a public dinner, after hib 
 return from the Gold Coast, he reminded him of the circumstances of their 
 last meeting. 
 
6o 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 r ,1 
 
 • 5 ■ .' -^ 
 
 but Wolseley made ^im pull out the substance in his mouih, 
 when a large stone came away. The surgeon then lifted up 
 and stitched the cheek. Both his eyes were completely 
 closed, and the injury to one of them was so serious that 
 the sight 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 tliat both limbs had now been injured, the 
 wound in the left thigh, received in Burmah, rendering him 
 slightly lame. 
 
 For many years afterwards the wound on the shin, received 
 on this 30th of August, caused him much suffering ; and, 
 Avhen 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, 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 
 AV'olseley was placed on a stretcher, and carried by four 
 soldiers to St. (ieorge's Monastery, situated on the sea- 
 coast not far from Balaklava, and there he passed some 
 weeks, the sight of both eyes being too much injured to 
 subject them to the light. vVhlle he was pent up in this 
 gloomy cell, meditating on the sad prospect of being totally 
 blind for the remamder of his d.iys, news arrived of the fall 
 of LSebastopol. The great Russian stronghold, which had 
 for so ma.iy weary months defied, the utmost efforts of 
 two Great Powers, was at length carried by assault on 
 the 8th of September, and Captain Wolseley had the ad- 
 ditional mortification of leeling that all his devotion and 
 suffering had not received the rewaid he most coveted 
 
 JH 
 
 J 'l.«i 
 
 ;^ ^;/^ 
 
WOLSELEY AND THE ROYAL ENGINEERS. 6i 
 
 — that of participating in the storm of the Russian strong- 
 hold.* 
 
 The Siege of Sebastopol stands in many respects without 
 example in the annals of war. The Russian works ex- 
 tended for nearly fifteen miles, while the besiegers' trenches 
 were no less than fifty-two miles in length, and comprised 
 109 batteries, armed with 806 pieces. The expenditure of 
 ammunition during the siege, during the 327 days the 
 batteries were open, amounted to about one and a half million 
 rounds. The Russians opposed to the Allies an army 
 numerically superior, intrenched behind formidable de- 
 fences, mounting no less than 1,100 cannon, and protected 
 by the guns of their fleet. 
 
 Immediately on learning the news of the fall of Sebastopol, 
 Captain Wolseley resigned his post of Assistr.nt-Engineer, 
 and his name was removed from the list from the 7th of 
 November. He had been ordered to England for the re- 
 covery of his health, and to seek the best medical advice 
 for his eyes, the sight of both of which it was at first feared 
 was permanently lost. 
 
 Sir Harry Jones, in a confidential Memorandum to the 
 Secretary of State for War, brought to his loraship's notice 
 the names of the officers whom he recommended for pro- 
 motion, among them being that of Captain Wolseley. 
 Throughout the siege the duties (-f the trenches fell with 
 great severity on the Engineer ofific?rs, 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 i : th^: r.ost advanced positions, direct- 
 ing the working-parties, ari .. '■:. is surprising that any of those, 
 
 • Our loss on the 8th of Scptpmber was 29 officers, and ^:^6 men killed ; 
 124 officers and 1,762 men wounded; and 175 missing. The French lost 
 145 ofticers and 1,489 men killed ; 254 officers and 4,259 men wounded ; 
 and 10 officers and 1,400 men missing. 
 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 who, like AVolseley, served continuously for many months, 
 escaped with their Hves. 
 
 The total number of non-commissioned officers and men 
 of the Royal Engineers employed throughout the siege, 
 amounted to only 935 ; of these 218 were killed or died,' 
 and 119 became non-effective from various causes, leaving 
 598 in the Crimea on the 9th of September. During 
 the same time, 69 officers of the Royal Engineers, and 19 
 other officers, acting as Assistant-Engineers, served with the 
 corps; of the former, 18 were killed or died (exclusive of 
 Lieutenant H. (>. Teesdale, who died of wounds received 
 at the Alma), and 14 were wounded, while 2 Assistant- 
 Engineers were killed, and 6 wounded.* 
 
 During the nine months Captain Wolseley served unin- 
 terruptedly before Sebastopol (with the exception of a week's 
 sick leave at Ealaklava), he was, perhaps, as 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 evinced by the fact that 
 of the 14 officers killed at the siege, 12 belonged to the 
 right attack, or were killed when doing duty there, t The 
 preceding pages show the nature of the duty performed by 
 Captain Wolseley during the siege. In the dreary winter of 
 1854-55, he, in common with every officer and man, suffered 
 from hunger and cold; but, though for weeks his diet was an 
 insufficient allowance of unwholesome biscuit and still more 
 unwholesome water, he cheerfully performed his tour of duty 
 in the trenches, and faced the Russian fire and the biting cold 
 of an Arctic winter, which proved fatal to so many gallant 
 
 * The total loss of the Britisli Army in the Crimea was 243 officers and 
 4,531 killed and died of '.vounds ; 577 officers and 10,800 men wounded ; 
 and 13 officers and 491 men niissint^. The Xaval Urigadc, out of 135 
 officers and 4,334 tnen ent^aged, lost , officers and 95 men ki'led ; and 38 
 officers and 437 men wounded. 
 
 f The reason is obvious why t!ie mortality in the right attack was greater 
 than in the left. The right attack was on the slope of the Redan, while a 
 ravine intcrveued between the liussian batteries and the left attack. 
 
 e£io^S 
 
 
WOLSELEY'S ESCAPES DURING THE SIEGE. 63 
 
 officers and men. While the army was perishing from want 
 and cold in the trenches, ship after ship arrived at Balaklava, 
 stowed with boots too small for use, and greatcoats that would 
 not button : and when officers, even at headquarters, wer> fain 
 to be thankful for mouldy biscuits, preserved meats and vege- 
 tables were rotting on the quays of Balaklava. Routine and 
 red-tapeism reigned supreme, and the world wondered at the 
 astounding display of mismanagement in every department of 
 our complicated military machine. The one satisfactory feature 
 was the valour and patience of our officers and soldiers, 
 who doggedly fought on, and never murmured when affairs 
 looked their blackest. 
 
 It was a point of honour among the EngUi .er officers 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 overwork, with the ex- 
 ception of a brief interval in July, remaiiicd at his post 
 until severe wounds incapacitated him for further duty. 
 Speaking of the officers 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.' 
 
 Captain AVolseley was wounded severely on the 30th of 
 August, and slightly on the loth of April, and 7th of June. 
 On the 15th of February his coat was pierced by a ball; on 
 the loth of April a round shot struck the embrasure at 
 which he was working, and cut his trousers ; and on the 
 7th of June a ball passed through his forage-cap from the 
 peak to the back, knocking it off his head. It may be said, 
 without exaggeration, that he bore a charmed life ; for, at 
 the termination of the siege, of three messes of four members 
 each to ^'-^ -ch he had belonged, he was the only officer 
 remaining m the Crimea, all the others being either killed 
 or forced to leave through wounds. 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Captain Wolseley was about to return to England for the 
 recovery of his health, when he was offered an appointment 
 in the Quartermaster-General's Department, which he re- 
 solved to accept. There was a great improvement in the 
 sight of one of his eyes, though, as he told us, he has never 
 recovered the sight of the other — as Wordsworth's naval 
 showman says of Nelson ; 
 
 • One eye he had, which, bright as ten, 
 Burn'd like a fire among his men.' 
 
 He was employed on the Quartermaster-General's staff, in 
 conjunction with two officers of the 90th Light Infantry, 
 Major Barnston (who died of v/ounds received at the Relief 
 of Lucknow, and of whom Wolseley speaks as ' the best 
 officer he ever knew '), and Captain Crealock, whose gallantry 
 on the disastrous 8th of September, and in the China 
 Campaign of i860, and skill as an accomplished artist, 
 have made his name famous. Captain Wolseley and Major 
 Barnston were attached, for surveying duties, to a French 
 army of 20,000 men and a small force of English cavalry, 
 which had taken up a position in the valley of the Belbec, 
 menacing the left flank of the Russians, who, after. the 
 fall of the south side of Sebastopol, occupied a line ex- 
 tending from the Star Fort to the extreme left on the 
 Mackenzie Heights. At this time the Allies had, in the 
 Crimea, an army of about 210,000 men, of which the 
 British portion numbered, on the i6th of October, 56,000,* 
 of whom only 4,500 were ineffective through wounds or 
 sickness. 
 
 * Tliis total was composed of 14 regiments of Cavalry, about 5.000 sabres ; 
 52 battalions of Infantry, about 33,000 bayonets ; and 14 batteries of 
 Artillery, and q companies of Sappers, about 9,000 men. The remaining 
 9,000 were made up of non-combatants, as Land Transport, Army Works, 
 and Medical Staff. This was exclusive of the Turkish Contingent of 
 20,000 men. Tliere were in the United Kingdom only 7 regiments of 
 ( "avalry, exclusive of the Household Brigade, and 8 regiments of Infantry, 
 besides 5 in the Mediterranean. 
 
 it' 
 
THE LAST DA YS IN THE CRIMEA. 
 
 ^5 
 
 While employed with the French corps d'armce in the 
 valley of the Belbec on surveying duties, Captain Wolseley 
 had many narrow escapes from capture. Every morning, 
 he and Major Barnston would leave the French camp, 
 either alone, or escorted by a few troopers, and many a hot 
 chase they had when the Russians, annoyed at seeing British 
 officers reconnoitring and sketching close up to their ad- 
 vanced posts, sent some of their hardest-riding Cossacks in 
 pursuit. When the French force fell back, and it became 
 too cold for surveying, Wolseley was appointed Deputy 
 Assistant-Quartermaster-General to the Light Division, then 
 under the command of Lord William Paulet. 
 
 Captain Wolseley remained in the Crimea until the con- 
 clusion of peace with Russia, when he assisted Colonel 
 Hallowell, at Balaklava, in despatching homewards the troops 
 of his division, a great portion of the army embarking at 
 Kasatch Bay, near Kamiesch, where the fleet lay. On 5th 
 of July, 1856, Marshal Pelissier, with his staff", sailed from 
 Kamiesch; and, on the 12th of July, Sir William Codring- 
 ton, commanding the British Army, having made over the 
 Dockyard of Sebastopol, and Port of Balaklava, to the 
 officer in command of the Russian troops, embarked on 
 board H.M.S. Algiers. After the departure of all the regi- 
 ments. Captain AVolseley 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? 
 
 IB 
 
 ...vs,' m 
 
 -wr 
 
 :ummii 
 
M^'M 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 
 Captain Wolseley proceeds on Service to India. — Wrecked at Banca. — 
 Arrival at Calcutta — Proceeds up-('ountry. — In Action near Cawnpore. — 
 March to Alunibagh. — The Relief of Lucknow. — Wolseley storms the 
 Mess-house. — Occupies the Motee Mahul,and effects Communication with 
 the Residency of lAicknow. — The Defence of Alumbagh. — Camjiaigning 
 in Oude. — Actions at Baree and Nawabgunge. — Service on the Nepaul 
 Frontier. 
 
 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 tele- 
 graphy. 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 intro- 
 duce it into our army. On his return to Aldershot, he was 
 attached to the staff of Lord William Paulet, then command- 
 ing a brigade at the camp, as ' galloper,' or extra aide-de- 
 camp, without, however, the extra pay. 
 
 In the beginning of February, 1857, 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 
 
 * Notwithstanding that he had been specially mentioned in despatches 
 by Lord Raglan, and recommended for jiromotion by Sir Harry Jones, 
 K.C. B., Wolseley did not receive the brevet-m.ajority to which he might 
 have been considered entitled for his meritorious services at the siege of 
 Sebastopol. The French Emperor nominated iiim a Knight of the Legion 
 of Honour, and the Sultan conferred on him the Fifth Class of the 
 Medjidie. 
 
WOLSELE V IS ORDERED. TO THE EAST. 67 
 
 a title after its sufferings in the Crimea. The regiment, how- 
 ever, 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 
 determination, 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 reliefs, so that the troops might 
 land in the cool season. 
 
 But 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 nowadays — habitually hated finality in 
 making up its mind to anything, and cared little for the ex- 
 pense and inconvenience it caused to officers who drew the 
 munificent pay of a grateful country. The present afforded 
 a notable instance of this lordly disregard of other people's 
 comfort ; for about three weeks after all had been settled, 
 the regiment received orders to hold itself in readiness to 
 proceed forthwith to China. 
 
 At this time the 90th was commanded by Colonel Camp- 
 bell, 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 witness the 
 90th on parade, as smart a corps as any in Her Majesty's 
 service. Captain Wolseley's company, like all the others, 
 numbered 100 non-commissioned officers and men, and he 
 had three subalterns, Lieutenants Hcrforc^ and Carter, and 
 
 5-2 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Ensign Haig. Of the entire strength of the regiment, 700 
 men, with head-(iuarters, embarked in the Himalaya^ under 
 command of Colonel Campbell, C.B. ; and Major IJarnston, 
 with the three remaining companies, under Captains Wosle- 
 ley, Guise, and Irby, sailed in the Transit^ whose history, 
 from her cradle to her grave, bore a singular resemblance to 
 that of another trooper, the ill-fated Megcera* 
 
 Besides 300 men of the 90th, the Transit embarked for 
 Hong Kong a detachment of the 59th Regiment and 200 
 men of the Medical Staff Corps, a body recently organized 
 for furnishing military hospitals with attendants. The whole 
 force was under the command of Licut.-Cobnel Stephen- 
 son, who had been appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to 
 the China Expedition, then fitting out under the command 
 of the late Major-General Hon. T. Ashburnham, C.B. The 
 troubles of the Transit commenced before she had lost sight 
 of land. Directly after quitting Spithead, a dense fog came 
 on, when Commander Chambers, her captain, brought-to in 
 the Solent. On weighing anchor the following day, he found 
 the ship making water so fast that he had to run back to 
 Si)ithead, flying the ensign ' Union down,' as a signal of 
 distress. The Transit managed to creep into Portsmouth 
 Harbour, and, discharging the troops into a hulk, hauled off 
 to the dockyard, nearly sinking before she could be pumped 
 
 * Lieutenant (now retired Captain) J. S. A. Herford, in his worl<, 'Stirring 
 TiM-.es under Canvas,' describes the ship in tlie following terms: 'The 
 Transit liad always been an unfortunate ship. Bought, if not literally on 
 the stocks, yet in an unfinished state, from a jDrivate company, she was 
 completed by the R'yal Navy authorities, by which ingenious plan, when- 
 ever anything aftcrwaids went wrong, the original builders and the finishers 
 were able to shift the blame on each other. She was continually breaking 
 down in her various voyages to and from the Crimea witli troops. Those 
 who were so unfortunate as to be embarked in her knew well enough that 
 something was certain to hai^jjwn in the course of the voyage. Yet tlie 
 authorities 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 w.ay — only to 
 China ! Tiie new engines were smaller, but more powerful, than the last 
 had been, and, to steady tlie ship and keep lier together, two 'arge iron 
 beams, running fore and aft, were added. To these beams \vc probably, 
 at a later period, owed our lives.' 
 
!lf 
 
 THE VOYAGE TO CHINA, 
 
 69 
 
 
 out and docked. It was then discovered that she had 
 knocked a hole in her bottom, which was probably occa- 
 sioned 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 pro- 
 ceeded on her long voyage. But it was only to encounter 
 further 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 moderat- 
 ing, the Transit put into Corunna, where Captain Wolsclcy 
 and the other officers proceeded ashore, and visited the 
 grave of one of England's bravest and best soldiers. Sir John 
 Moore. The rigging having been set up, the Transit pro- 
 ceeded once more to sea ; but on arriving at the Cape, on 
 May the 28th, it was discovered that she had sprung a leak 
 near her sternpost ; however, 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 time to keep the leak 
 under. When near St. Paul's, the island on which the 
 Megcera^ of evil memory, left her bones, the Transit encoun- 
 tered 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 described her condition to us : * For three days 
 and three nights the cyclone lasted. All our sails were 
 carried away, and the mainyard went to pieces. An enor- 
 mous 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 900 souls, and it was as 
 much as all hands could do, by constant pumping, to keep 
 her afloat.' But Providence destined the gallant hearts on 
 
70 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSEL.EY. 
 
 hoard the Transit to fight their country's battles in a groat 
 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 * tho 
 authorities' had so perversely sent them to the other side of 
 the world. By dint of hard pumping the leak was kept 
 under, ana 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 that city is em- 
 bosomed. Soon they were steaming rapidly through the 
 Straits of Banca, whose well-wooded shores and sandy coves 
 excited tlieir admiration, as we remember it did ours when 
 cruising in those seas. But their acquaintance was destined 
 to be not altogether of a pleasurable tinge, and our hero, like 
 everyone who has been much at sea, learnt the truth of the 
 saying of Juvenal, that on that unstable element a man is at 
 all times removed from death ' by four fingers' breadth or 
 seven at most' At ten o'clock on the morning of the lotli 
 of July, as the Transit was passing through the Straits, the 
 Island of Banca being on the starboard hand and Sumatra 
 on the i)ort 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 discipline 
 could effect among men whose lives were not passed, like 
 sailors, amid the perils incidental to a nautical profession, 
 but who suddenly found themselves confronted by a novel 
 danger. 
 
 'The majority of the troops,' says Captain Herford, 'were 
 on the main-deck at the mess-tables. On feeling the first 
 shock they i.atnrally rose e}i ifiasse, and were about to rush on 
 deck, when Major 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 
 
IVOLSELEY IS SlflP WRECKED. 
 
 71 
 
 you arc !" These few words, cominp; from an officer who 
 insi)ired confidence and was generally beloved, acted like 
 magic. The men, like so many children, obeyed and sat 
 down.' 
 
 The ship's company, meanwhile, lowered the boats, and 
 it was found, on taking soundings, that there was not less 
 than nine fathoms all round. In the meantime the ship 
 began to settle by the stern, and there was great danger of 
 her sliding off the rock and sinking in the deep water along- 
 side, 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 provisions and arms, the sailors lowered the remain- 
 ing 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 despatch, the Island of IJanca being 
 about two miles farther away. When this had been com- 
 pleted, the crew first proceeded to the mainland with what 
 provisions they could save, and, having deposited these on 
 the sandy beach, returned 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 provisions, so that officers and men 
 saved only their arms, each man taking with him also four 
 rounds of ammunition. This was the first time Wolseley 
 had suffered this misfortune, one of the most trying of the 
 
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 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 chances of active service ; but it was not destined to be the 
 last, for, not many months later, when the rebels defeated 
 General Windham and burned Cawnpore, he and his brother 
 officers lost the recond kit they had provided themselves 
 with in Calcutta : among his losses at Cawnpore were his 
 Legion of Honour and Crimean jMedal, which were after- 
 wards found on the body of a dead ' Pandy.' Again, during 
 his absence from England, on his Ashantee 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 passengers 
 of the Tratisit had landed was not without a certain his- 
 torical interest for soldiers and sailors, as, on examination, 
 there were found among the trees and brushwood the re- 
 mains of ditches and embankments, indicating that it w^as 
 at this spot the British constructed a fort during the Expe- 
 dition 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 -, when the Governor immediately despatched one 
 gunboat to Singapore to advise the authorities there, and 
 another to protect the wreck from the depredations of the 
 natives, who had commenced seizing all they could pick up. 
 As all the fresh provisions and live stock had been lost, the 
 shipwrecked people had to subsist on salt meat and biscuits; 
 a fare which was varied by the flesh of baboons, which they 
 
WOLSELEY PROCEEDS TO INDIA, 
 
 73 
 
 
 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, officers and men passed a not unpleasant Robinson 
 Crusoe sort of life for eight days ; and just when the sense 
 of novelty had worn off, and this mode of existence began 
 to pall. Her Majesty's gunboat Z>ove arrived from Singapore, 
 and brought some startling news, that altered the destination 
 of the 90th 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 inaugurat^J .•. vnovement by the 
 destruction of Meerut and the seizure 01 ^^elhi, while mas- 
 sacres were perpetrated throughout the land, coupled with 
 an urgent demand for the aid of everv European soldier to 
 
 O ■'1. 
 
 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 been despatched to Calcutta, and, at once proceeding 
 up-country, formed part of the reinforcements brou'^ht up 
 by Sir James Outram, when that most distinguished of 
 Indian Generals, fresh from his Persian triumphs, marched 
 to join Havelock, then battling against tremendous odds. 
 
 Two days after the arrival of the Do7'e, H.M.S. Adccon, 
 Captain Bates, steamed up to Banca, and embarked the three 
 companies of the 90th, 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 situa*^ion on one of the chief highways of commerce, 
 surely marks it out for a great future. On the 29th, H.M.S. 
 
 IS! 
 
 Hi 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \\ 
 
 Shannoti^ Captain William Peel, with Lord Elgin on board, 
 arrived from Hong Kong, and on the following day she and 
 H.M.S. Pearly Captain Sotheby, "embarked the 90th for Cal- 
 cutta, Captain Wolseley's company sailing in the latter ship. 
 
 The arrival of these reinforcements was most opportune. 
 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 detach- 
 ment proceeded in a river steamer to Chinsurah, and here 
 they remained for some weeks, during which the soldiers 
 received a new outfit, and exchanged their arms, which had 
 been d'^maged, for more serviceable weapons. The officers 
 ordered new outfits in Calcutta, and Captain Wolseley ex- 
 pended ;^ioo in restoring his lost kit ; but though they sent 
 in their claims for compensation for lost baggage, which, 
 according to the War Office Regulations, would be immedi- 
 ately honoured, three years elapsed before the expenses they 
 had incurred were refunded. 
 
 At length, all the arrangements for the transport of the 
 detachments being complete, on the 29th of August, Captain 
 Wolseley's company left Chinsurah by rail for the long jour- 
 ney up-country. The first halting-place was Raneegunge, 
 about 112 miles from Calcutta, and as the rail went no 
 further, the company started in bullock 'gharees' for Benares. 
 The detachment marched by companies, each ' bullock- 
 train' accommodating 80 men, and each ' gharee ' either 6 
 men, or 2 officers with their baggage, while 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 
 
 
THE MARCH UP-COUNTRY. 
 
 7S 
 
 
 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 the heat of the 
 day, which, at f'rst, was found to be very trying to unaccli- 
 matized soldiers. 
 
 After passing Dehree, burnt bungalows and devastated 
 villages afforded signs that they were approaching the scene of 
 operations, and, on the loth of September, Captain VVolseley 
 and his company crossed the Ganges in a paddle-boat worked 
 by manual, or rather pedal, labour, and proceeded to a palace 
 of the Rajah 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. Earthworks, mounted with guns, commanded 
 the town, and it was intimated to the inhabitcints 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 iroops by the 
 insane policy that dictated our military dispositions. 
 
 Proceeding by forced marches through Futtehpore, Cap- 
 tain Wolseley arrived, about the 27 th of September, at 
 Cawnpore — whose very name arouses sad memories in the 
 minds of everyone who was in India in that terrible year, 
 1857. Formerly one of the largest and finest military 
 stations in India, Cawnpore now presented a desolate ap- 
 pearance. On every side were burnt cantonments and bun- 
 galows, and Wolseley passed the entrenchment defended 
 
 I 
 
 
 =*, ,-:€- * 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 f \ 
 
 pi il 
 
 with such desperate tenacity 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 
 which 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 Qcth, and aroused in them, 
 as in every regiment, which on arriving up-country had 
 visited in succession these harrowing scenes, 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 insur- 
 gents were mustering in force at Sheo Raj pore, some miles 
 from Bhitoor, the residence of Nana Sahib. At midnight, 
 on the 17th of October, Brigadier Wilson,* of the 64th Regi- 
 ment, taking with him a field battery, a few Native horse 
 and 650 bayonets — made up of detachments of the Madras 
 Fusiliers and the 64th and 90th Regiments — carrying four 
 days' provisions, moved off rapidly towards Bhitoor. It 
 was the time of the Native Festival of the Uewalee, or 
 Feast of Lamps, and hopes were expressed of inflicting a 
 severe blow on the rebels. The force proceeded all night, 
 the 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 2 guns, a 9-pounder and a 24-pounder, in position. 
 The British column was marching along a hard ' pucka' t 
 road, when, the enemy beginning to open fire. Brigadier 
 AVilson deployed his force. Wolseley's company — which, 
 
 * This gallant officer fell on the 27th of November, when the Gwalior 
 troops attacked General Windham in his entrenchments at Cawnpore. 
 
 f Pucka is a word of very general use and many significations in Hin- 
 dostanee ; here it denotes ' permanent," as opposed to cutcha, raw or new. 
 
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FIRST BRUSH WITH THE REBELS. 
 
 77 
 
 with the detachment of Native cavalry, forir'ed the advanced 
 guard — was marching in rolumn of sections, when the round 
 shot and shell began to Ky down the road pretty freely. 
 One shot passed through hit.' files, and, bursting in front of 
 the other companies of the ooth, which were in rear and 
 in the act of deploying, killed and wounded seven men. 
 The cavalry thereupon turned und bolted, charging through 
 Wolseley's company. He now quickly threw his men into skir- 
 mishing order, and Major Barnston proposed to the Briga- 
 dier thai 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 
 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 attack, and halting his force, brought 
 up his battery anj opened fire on the enemy. This occu- 
 pied some '. luc; 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. 
 
 The T 9th of October was occupied in destroying Bhitoor, 
 the troops bivouacking that night in Nana Sahib's compound, 
 and the ' bawachee,' or cook, of Wolseley's mess used for 
 fuel the legs of the Nana's billiard-tables. On the following 
 day the column returned toCawnpore, having first d octroyed 
 Sheo Rajpore. 
 
 At this time, though Delhi had fallen, and a portion of 
 the army — which, at the time of the assault, numbered 
 10,000 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 
 
 Li: 
 
r : . 
 
 78 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY: 
 
 \ - % 
 
 had been accomplished beyond increasing the ''trength of 
 the garrison, and occupying the Furreed Buksh and Chuttur 
 Munzil I^alaces, and other buildings. The entire British 
 force in Lucknow only numbered 3,000 effectives, and the 
 rebel hordes were swelled to 3ome 70,000 fighting men. 
 
 On the day preceding his entry into Lucknow, Havelock 
 left at Alumbngh all his baggage and some 130 sick and 
 wounded, under a guard of 400 men, with some guns. 
 On the 3rd of October, a convoy of provisions from Cawn- 
 pore was thrown into Alumbagh, and, on the nth, orders 
 were issued that 500 men, under INIajor Barnston, including 
 the detachment of the 90th, with 4 guns, was to march to 
 Alumbagh with supplies. As they were to return in a few 
 days, the column was ordered to leave behind at Cawn- 
 pore all their iinpcdimenia, with which, however, neitlicr 
 Captain AVolseley nor any of his brother officers were des- 
 tined to be encumbered any farther. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 21st of October, 300 waggons, laden 
 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 milesj 
 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, 700 
 strong, with 2 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 dispositions. Major 
 Barnston advanced his small force, Captain Guise's company 
 forming the advanced guard ; ' but,' writes Captain Herford, 
 * Wolselcy, who followed, 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 
 
A SKIRMISH A'EAR ALUMBAGH. 
 
 79 
 
 battery had indeed been built, but the birds were flown ! 
 Nothing remained but to cross the river without the ex- 
 citement of performing the operation under fire, and this 
 Wt's a work of much difficulty and requiring considerable 
 time It took eight hours of hard work before the long train, 
 which covered nearly iwo 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 farther 
 on, the force halted under ;■ ' tope' of trees. Alumbagh was 
 only about eight miles dist.. , and the small column marched 
 on the following morning, Captain Wolseley's company form- 
 ing the rear-guard, which was destined to be the post of 
 honour. The force had just cleared two topes, and de- 
 bouched on a large plain, when the enemy opened firf. 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 opera- 
 tions of cavalry. The enemy's horse j^allcped up in a threat- 
 ening attitude, but Wolseley received th'-im 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, retreated, deserting two stockades they 
 had constructed. Soon after, the long convoy was passed in 
 safety into Alumbagh. 
 
 Alumbagh ('Garden of the World,' as it means in Pei- 
 sian) stands almost three miles due south of Lucknow, and 
 had been a favourite residence of one of the Queens of 
 Oude. At this time it consisted of a walled enclosure 500 
 yards square, having turreted buildings at the four corners, 
 in each of which were mounted 2 guns. Its defences were 
 further strengthened by an abattis of felled trees and a trench, 
 and the walls were loopholed, while a 32-pounder at the 
 
 ¥ 
 
 
8o 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 II 
 
 I; ' ■;■ 
 
 principal entrance commanded the road ; but the place 
 was 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 the beleaguered 
 garrison of which the maintenance of this post proved of 
 essential benefit, as it was the means of securing their com- 
 munications with Cawnpore. One set of ' kossids ' carried 
 correspondence, worded in French, but written in the Greek 
 character, from the Residency — a work of the greatest diffi- 
 culty and danger, and which only very large bribes could 
 induce natives to undertake — and another set performed 
 the comparatively safe task of conveying messages thence to 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 Major Barnston had received orders to return to Cawn- 
 pore three days after his arrival at Alumbagh ; but Colonel 
 Mclntyre, commanding at that post, requiring the aid of the 
 column to defend the post, obtained leave for them to remain 
 with him. The enemy had planted heavy guns within range 
 of the enclosure, and 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 
 expeditions for the supply of the immense herd of camels 
 and elephants. 
 
 So passed a short period of inactivity, until the 30th of 
 October, when Brigadier-General (the late Sir) Hope Grant 
 crossed the Ganges, with some 4,000 men. On the 4th of 
 November the road to Cawnpore being open, all the wag- 
 gons, 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, a semaphore communication 
 was opened with the Lucknow Residency from the roof 
 of the building in the centre of Alumbagh, and the first use 
 
■IP 
 
 THE ADVANCE ON LUCK NOW. 
 
 8l 
 
 to which it was put was to announce the arrival, on the 
 following day, of Mr. Kavanagh, who, disguised as a native, 
 had brought a message from Outram to Sir Colin Campbell. 
 It was a most gallant deed, and Kavanagh received the Vic- 
 toria Cross, was admitted into the Covenanted Service, and 
 awarded a grant of ;^2,ooo. 
 
 On the 1 2th of November, Sir Colin Campbell arrived at 
 Alumbagh with some additional troops, and, on the following 
 afternoon, the detachment of the 90th received the welcome 
 order to march out of Alumbagh, and join the 4th Brigade 
 camping outside, under the command of Brigadier Hon. 
 Adrian Hope, of the 93rd Highlanders. The brigade was 
 composed of the 53rd and the 93rd, and a battalion of about 
 600 men, made up of companies of the 90th, 84th, and 
 Madras Fusiliers, under the command of Major Barnston. 
 
 The Alumbagh garrison was relieved by the 75th Regi- 
 ment, which had seen much hard fighting and suffered 
 heavily at Delhi. The Commander-in-Chief had und^r his 
 command, for the proposed operations for the relief of the 
 Residency, only some 4,550 men and 32 guns. 
 
 On the 14th of November, about nine a.m,, the British army 
 started on its momentous mission of effecting the final relief 
 of our countrymen, the 4th Brigade bringing up the rear of 
 the main column. The Dilkhoosha and Martinit;re were 
 carried with small loss, and the latter was occupied by the 
 90th. Wolseley, on ascending to the roof, had presented to 
 him for the first time a fine view of the superb Eastern city 
 spread at his feet. 
 
 A little later, the 90th were directed to encamp in a toj^e 
 in rear of a mud wall, behind which the rebels had taken up 
 a position, and ihe men were about to dine, when a heavy 
 musketry-fire denoted that the rebels were making an 
 attempt, in great force, to retake the position. The battalion 
 were at once hurried off to support the 93rd Highlanders, 
 
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82 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
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 who were out skirmishing to their left, and, forming line, 
 advanced to where two heavy gun.-, 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 Pee! 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 plentifully, and a brass shell rolled 
 down and exploded quite close to Wolseley; round shot were 
 also fired from 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 Wolseley received orders 
 to * picket ' his company on the spot, the rest of the force 
 retiring. Sentries were placed on the canal bank, and 
 ^Volseley enjoined silence, as they were so close to the rebel 
 sentries posted on the opposite side, in front of Banks' house, 
 that their conversation could be heard. So passed the nighi, 
 which was dark and cold, for though the sun was overpower- 
 ingly hot during the day, the temperature fell very consider- 
 ably after nightfall. All the following day, during which the 
 troops remained stationary, waiting for a fresh supply of am- 
 munition. 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 continuous duty for thirty- 
 six hours, Wolseley was relieved, and he and his men enjoyed 
 a night's rest. 
 
 On the following morning (i6th of November) the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, having left all his baggage at Dilkhoosha, 
 
 i. 
 
A WARM DA Y'S WORK. 
 
 83 
 
 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. It was decided that Barnston's battalion was 
 to have the honour of being the first of the main body; but, 
 subsequently, this was changed, and Brigadier Hope arranged 
 that they were to follow the 93rd, the 53rd 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. 
 Captain Wolseley was directed to double across this open, 
 a run of about 300 yards, and occupy some ruined houses on 
 the other side. This he did amid a shower of shot and bullets. 
 After keeping up a musketry duel from behind the remains 
 of some walls scarcely breast-high, Wolseley advanced with 
 the intention of driving out the enemy. 
 
 Marching rapidly along a narrow lane, his company led 
 into the town. The enemy retired, keeping up a hot fus'l- 
 lade, and as they gave ground the guns were brought for- 
 ward, 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 the enemy's fire was so hot, that, 
 as he said, ' 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 mar- 
 vellous. Among those who particularly distinguished them- 
 selves were Sergeant Newman (now Quartermaster of the 
 90th), and another of Wolseley's sergeants, who, though 
 wounded by a musket-ball, which carried away his upper 
 lip, and passed clean through his face, refused to leave, and 
 remained till the close of the action. 
 
 C— 2 
 
84 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Wolseley was now ordered to protect the flank of Captain 
 Blunt's troop of Horse Artillery, which came into action in 
 brilliant style. While the rest of Major Barnston's battalion 
 advanced towards the Secundrabagh, he pushed past that 
 enclosure, and leaving 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 company bivouacked outside the Secundrabagh. 
 Thus he had his share of the hard fighting that rendered this 
 day the most memorable during the operations connected 
 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 the 
 climate, though he spoke cheerfully of his recovery to the last. 
 
 Meanwhile Sir Colin Campbell had been conducting the 
 main operations of the army with signal success. . he 
 enemy had fortified the Secundrabagh — a garden 120 yards 
 square, surrounded by a high wall of solid masonry, which 
 had been carefully loopholed. The artillery having effected 
 a breach, the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Sikhs stormed the 
 enclosure, and the rebels, mostly Sepoys of the regular 
 service, were slaughtered like rats in a barn. In the even- 
 ing, when the bayonet had completed its fatal work, the men 
 were employed in burying the dead in two large pits. Cap- 
 tain Wolseley, who was engaged on this unpleasant task, 
 mentions as a singular coincidence, that when counting the 
 corpses, as they were flung into the pits, it was found that 
 they numbered 1857 — the date of the year; this number 
 was exclusive of others who were killed outside when seek- 
 ing to make their escape. 
 
 ■ ! \ 
 
WOLSELEY STORMS THE MESS-HOUSE. 85 
 
 From the Secundrabagh, Sir Colin proceeded against the 
 Shah Nujeef, a tomb of one of the kings of Oude, and here 
 ensued the sternest struggle of the Relief. Lieutenant 
 Wynne and Ensign Powell, of the 9otn, were wounded, and 
 it was while bringing up the remainder of his battalion that 
 Major Barnston received his death-wound from a shell. 
 Peel now battered the place with his heavy guns, after which 
 the 93rd stormed it. On the morning of the 17th opera- 
 tions were resumed, and the services of Cajjtain Wolseley 
 during the day were of so marked a character, that he had 
 the coveted honour of seeing his name specially mentioned 
 in the Commander-in-Chief's despatch. This was in con- 
 nection with the attack on the 32nd Mess-house,'"' formerly 
 known as the Khoorsheyd Munzil ('Happy Palace'), a 
 building of considerable size and great strength, defended by 
 a ditch and loop-l:oled wall. 
 
 During the morning of the 17th, Sir Colin was engaged 
 in pressing bacV the enemy, and about noon Captain 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 determined to storm, and sent for Captain 
 Wolseley, whom he had known by repute in the Crimea. 
 The Commander-in Chief, addressing him, said that he had 
 selected him to command the storming-party, and that he 
 would be supported by a detachment ot the 53rd regiment, 
 and the battalion of detachments 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 described the work as being sur- 
 
 * The late Mr. Martin Gulibins, at this time l-'mancial Commissioner of 
 Lucknow, in his ' Mutinies in Oude,' describes tlie Mess-house in tlie fol- 
 lowing terms: ' Its structure is massive; all the windows on the ground- 
 floor are furnished with strong iron gratings, and it is surrounded by a moat, 
 passable only at the two entrances, of wiucli the principal immediately faces 
 us. All those windows are bricked-up inside tlie iron grating for three parts 
 of their height, and the masonry is most caieluily loopholed,' 
 
 m 
 
85 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 •11^^ 
 
 rounded by a ditch, about twelve feet broad and scarped 
 tt'ith 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 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, t Captain Peel, who was battering the Mess- 
 house with his heavy guns, was requested to cease firing ; 
 but just as Wolseley gave the order, * Double,' to his men, 
 Peel characteristically turned to Sir Colin Campbell, and 
 asked leave just to give 'one more broadside.' This favour 
 granted, Wolseley amid a hot fire from the neighbouring 
 buildings, outstripping his men with the fierce energy that 
 distinguished him in the assault of Myat-topn's position, ran 
 over the intervening space, and arriving under the garden 
 wall, halted to get breath, and then clambered over it. In- 
 side 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 gained the drawbridg^^, which was down, he called to 
 the bugler to sound the advance. 
 
 At this moment, the two most distinguished soldiers of 
 the British army of the present generation were brought 
 As Captain \\'olseley left the Mess-house, Lieu- 
 
 together 
 
 iSi 
 
 • We have been assured by an officer of the 90th, who accoiiipaniod 
 Wolbcley on this occasion, that the Conmiander-in-Cliief promised hini the 
 Victoria Cross before he dismissed him from his presence. While on this 
 subject of the Victoria Cross, we may mention init, during the Crimean 
 War, the late Sir W. Gordon, of ' Gordon's Battery,' ieco-nmeuded Captain 
 Wolic'ey fo- the distinction, for his conspicuous gallantry on the 7th of 
 June, and agaui on the joth of Aui;ust, on the occasion of his recciv.ng his 
 wound. 
 
 T by a singular coincidence h" was accompanied by Lieutenant F. 
 Roberts, of tlie I'-engal Artillery, Uepmy Assistant Quarttrmaster-General, 
 an officer who lin? cmce :u-t|uircd a woild-wide renown by his rcinariiuble 
 achievements in Af^hanistar^ 
 
IVOLSELEY ATTACK'S THE MO TEE MAHUL. ^^ 
 
 tenant (afterwards General Sir Frederick) Roberts appeared 
 on the scene. He wrote to the author : ' I took the flag of 
 the 2nd Punjaub Infantry, by Sir Cohn Campbell's orders^ 
 and placed it on the Mess-house, to show Havclock and 
 Outran! where we were. The enemy knocked the flag- 
 staff down three times, breaking the pole.'* 
 
 At this time Captain Irby came up with his company of 
 the 90th, 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. Irby succeeded in 
 occupying the Tara Kothie,t or observatory, without meet- 
 ing with any opposition, though during the latter part of the 
 day he had hard work in holding the position. 
 
 And now one more task remained — the occupation of the 
 Motee Mahul Palace, + situated on the banks of the Goomtee, 
 the last post which separated the besieged and their de- 
 liverers. While Irby held the Tara Kothie, Wolseley pro- 
 ceeded to the attack of the Motee Mahul, and the success 
 
 * Mr. Gubbins, who, in company with General Havelocic, witnessed this 
 exploit from their post of observation, the roof of the Chuttur Munzil Talace, 
 thus graphically describes it : 'It is now three o'clock, and if the enemy have 
 any men concealed in that massive pile, tlie 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 Shah Nujecf, and now are lost to view. 
 Presently a part of them are seen advancing in slcirmishing order. They 
 have reached the enclosing wall ; they are over it, through the shrubbery, 
 ;ind now the leading officer enters at the door which wo have been watch- 
 ing ; and while a larger body follow, rushing at a double up the building, 
 he rca]5pcars upon the roof, and presently a British ensign floats on the 
 right-hand tower of the Khoorsheyd Munzil. 
 
 * The building was indeed, as we supposed, abandoned, but the fire is so 
 heavy from the Tara Kotee and adjacent buildings that it is no easy work 
 that our noble fellows have to do. See! the ensign is struck down, and now 
 it is again raised and fixed more firmly than before. Hut again a shot strikes 
 it down, and probably the staff is damaged, for they have taken it down 
 through the garden to that group of officers — probably Sir Colin him:~elf and 
 staff — v.'hose caps are visible inside the enclosing compound wall. To the 
 light, this wall is lined by the captors of tliC Mess-house, and a heavy tire of 
 musketry, with occasional shot and shell, is directed from the Kaiser Bagh 
 upon them ; and now they cross the wall, enter the Tara Kotee cncloaure, 
 charge up its main avenue, and are hid from us by the trees." 
 
 + Tara means ' stars,' and Kothie, 'pucka,' or permanent building. 
 
 X Thiii Motee Mahul (' Pearl of Palaces'), like similar edifices, is enclosed 
 within a high wall, and is one of the most spacious and graceiul buildings 
 of its kind in Lucknow. Here the King of Oade was wunt to re^iule his 
 European guests. 
 
 
 'W 
 
ip 
 
 S3 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 
 E i 
 
 I 
 
 he achieved with only his comi)any forms one of the most 
 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 Mahul, 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 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, 
 W'olseley 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 loophole?. Wolseley had a particular 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 
 ofticer, 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, the late Mr. 
 Kavanagh, V.C., arrived on the scene and offered to guide 
 
 * Andrews, we may observe, still lives, and, for his services and wounds, 
 enjoys the magnificent jjension of eightpence per diem. Like the greater 
 portion of the 90th, of Crimean and Indian Mutiny days, he was a cocliney, 
 as the regiment recruited largely in the metrojiolis ; and, in tlie opinion of 
 Wolseley, your Londoner is peculiarly adajned for light infantry work, by 
 reason of his superior intelligence and general smartness. This incident of the 
 rescue of An hews formed the subject of a painting, which was exhibited in 
 t'ae Royal AcidLMuy Exhibition of ibdi. 
 
 \\\ 
 
IVOLSELEY FIRST MAN IN LUCK NO IV. 
 
 89 
 
 him to a place where an entrance could be effected. 
 Wolseley gladly closed with the proposal, and, leaving in- 
 junctions with his subalterns to get on as fast as they could 
 with the work in hand, accompanied Kavanagh on his 
 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 find 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 wriggling through an aper- 
 ture knocked in the wall. 
 
 Soon the hole was sufficiently enlarged for Wolseley and 
 all his men to make their way into a courtyard 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 then, all out of this great agglomeration of build- 
 ings, 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 
 M'ith his company, which nobly responded to the calls made 
 upon them by their chief, to force his way into the Resi- 
 dency 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 advanced post in the 
 Residency ; and, just at this time, a company of the regi- 
 
 * Kavanagh says of Wolseley, in his work, ' How I Won tlie Victoria 
 Cross': 'Captain Wolseley, who delighted in dash and danger, fell upon 
 tlie enemy as they tried to escape, and in half an hour he was seen on the 
 top of the inner buildings, waving the British banner.' 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ff 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
Iff! 
 
 90 
 
 LIFE OF LORD V/OLSELEY. 
 
 m; 
 
 ment 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 90th Light Infantry ! It was 
 a singular coincidence, and ^ terqite, qiiaierque beatuSy to 
 borrow a Virgilian phrase, was Captain Wolseley, in being 
 the undoubted claimant to the distinction of first effecting 
 a junction with the heroic garrison of the Lucknow Resi- 
 dency. 
 
 And now the three noble chiefs, Campbell, Outram, and 
 Havelock, at length met, and there was presented the group 
 delineated by the artist, Mr. 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 suc- 
 cessful assault of the English army, and now, on this memor- 
 able occasion, the * fickle jade ' again favoured her favourite 
 child j on his part, the young soldier eagerly seized each 
 opportunity for winning her favours as it was presented to 
 him, and, by his judgment 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 regiment immortal renown by their bearing through- 
 out those trying days in September, when Havelock forced 
 
 * The engraving of this painting, with the heads of Hope Grant, Mans- 
 field, Napier, Inglis, Greathed, Peel, Adrian Hope, Alison, Little, David 
 Russell, Hope Johnstone, Norman, Anson, Hodson, Frobyn, Watson, 
 Kavanagh, and other gallant soldiers, is well known to old Indians. The 
 pivinting itself fetched, on the 24th of April, 1875, at the Manley Hall Sale, 
 ^i,oi8. 
 
 hi 
 W 
 
 c 
 
 d: 
 hi 
 w 
 
 35 
 
 v;i 
 
 It*. 3 
 
 y 
 
WOLSELEY AND SIR COLIN CAMPBELL. 91 
 
 his way through the heart of Lucknow with only 2,600 men. 
 Wolseley now learnt, with sincere regret, of the death of 
 Colonel Campbell, who had expired of his wound 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 4,550 men, between the 14th and 
 25fh (.f November, was 10 officers and 112 men killed, and 
 35 officers (of whom 3 died) and 379 rank and file 
 v/ounded. 
 
 It will be alIo\ved that Wolseley had good reason to anti- 
 cipate the congratulations and thanks of the Commander- 
 in-Chief for his conduct, but what was his astonishment on 
 learning from his Brigadier, the Hon. Adrian Hope, that 
 Sir Colin v/as furious with him for having exceeded the 
 letter of instructions, in that when he was only ordered to 
 take the Mess-house, he actually, of his own motion, had 
 driven the enemy out of the Motee 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. 
 
 Captain Wolseley's company passed the night of the 17th 
 of November* in the Shah Nujeef, where the Commander- 
 in-Chief and his staff had taken up their quarters ; the 
 
 * Wolseley's adventures on this 17th November did not end when he 
 effected a junction with Captain Tinling's company of his regiment. Being 
 desirous of showing in a practical form his regard for his old comrades, he 
 had brought with him some tobacco, which he distributed among the officers 
 and men of this company, to whom it was a real godsend. But there was 
 stil' one desideratum which was requisite to make the gallant fellows happy, 
 and that was — rum. This also their thoughtful comrade had not forgotten, 
 but the liquor, being buli<y, 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 five men, 
 who volunteered to accompany him. At length, having secured the rum, 
 he slung it on a pole between two men, and commenced his return march. 
 Tt was pitch-dark as he passed through the Mess-house gardens, and sud- 
 denly, as he was proceeding along, himself leading the way, tie heard a 
 scream. Turning round, he found that one of the pole-bearers had been 
 run through the body by a Pandy, who was prowling about the grounds, 
 and whom he had himself just passed. In the dark Wolseley lost his way, 
 
02 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 % 
 
 building was commanded by the enemy, who still occupied 
 the Kaiser liagh, from which they kept up a cannonade, 
 but the Ikitish soldiers slept the sleep of the weary, having 
 learned to disregard such interruptions provided tliey were 
 not too personal. 
 
 After the warning he had received from his Brigadier, 
 Wolseley, on the 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.' IJe com- 
 menced by asking him what he meant by exceeding his 
 instructions ; that he had ordered him to take the Mess- 
 house, and how dared he attack the Motce Mahul? He 
 then told him that he was very angry with him on the 
 l)revious 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 could not be found. The ire of the old Chief 
 now began to cool, and his tone became half jocular. He 
 invited Wolseley by a gesticulation to pace up and down 
 with him, and, after warning him against the heinousness 
 of exceeding instructions, the veteran, who could not but 
 admire gallantry, such as he himself had displayed through- 
 
 and it was some hours before he gained the garden of the Furreed Buksh, 
 whore he was told his brother othcers were assembled, in a summer-house 
 in the centre of the 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. .Xs he was going away, 
 one of the number, Captain (now Sir Harry) Goodricke, called out : 'Why, 
 that's Wolseley.' He turned, and then recognised his old messmates, who 
 were so altered by privation and constant duty that, at fust, he actually did 
 not know them. 
 
 An anmsing circumstance happened during the night. Wolseley heard 
 Lieutenant Carter raging and swearing at some one, and, on inquiring the 
 exc'ting cause of his subaltern's wrath, learned that, in the dark, some 
 ' beastly nigger ' had attempted to place one of the legs of a charpoy, or 
 light wooden bedstead, on his stomach. Lieutenant Carter naturally re- 
 sented this indignity, but the language in which ho couched his protest was 
 far from parliamentary, or coniplimentary to the native in question. After 
 a laugh at this slight contretemps the officers went to sleep. On awaking in 
 the morning, Carter's consternation may be imagined when he discovered 
 that the ' beastly nigger ' of the previous night was none other tlian His 
 Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, the lord of many legions. 
 
 OU| 
 
 tht 
 inll 
 
U'lTIIDI^AlVAL FROM LUCK NOW. 
 
 93 
 
 out his fifty years' service, ended by congratulating him on 
 the courage and ability he had disi)layed, and expressed his 
 intention to recommend iiim for proi'iotion. 
 
 Sir CoHn Campbell having resolved to withdraw from 
 ],ucknow, contrary to the advice of both Outram and Have- 
 lock, the 90th and other regiments were engaged in making 
 a direct road from that portion of the Residency where the 
 ladies and children had been confined, to the ground occu- 
 pied by the relieving force. In order to effect this, walls 
 and houses were broken down, and all ojien sjjaces between 
 Mjrtin's House and the Motee Mahul and Secundrabagh 
 were screened from fire by means of shutters, doors, and 
 anything that came to hand. In the evening, after being 
 thus engaged all day, Wolseley's company and the remainder 
 of the detachment were sent back, and i)laced on picket on 
 the side of the road close to the Shah Nujeef. On the 19th 
 commenced the withdrawal to Dilkhoosha of the ladies and 
 children, who numbered about 500, and sick and wounded 
 1,500 more. 
 
 The 90th pickets had received orders to wait till the 
 garrison had passed out, and cover the retreat as far as 
 Secundrabagh, a duty which the detachment performed 
 with i)erfect order and regularity. At midnight of the 
 22nd, leaving all lights still burning, Outram's soldiers 
 marched silently out of the post they had so long defended, 
 being followed by Hope's Brigade, which had been quartered 
 in the Motee Mahul, the 90th bringing up the rear, while 
 the sullen boom of the cannon told that the enemy, unaware 
 of what had happened, were still firing into the position 
 which was now unoccupied. On arriving at Secundrabagh, 
 the army continued its movement of retreat in the same 
 order towards Dilkhoosha, which was reached at half-past 
 three in the morning. At noon of the 23rd of November, 
 the detachment drew up in line opposite the Martiniere, 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 and the non-effectives, baggage, and ammunition, forming 
 an immense convoy, were passed through it.* 
 
 Early in the morning of the 24th of November, the de- 
 tachment paraded, and Sir Colin's General Order of the 
 previous day, complimenting the relieving army, was read to 
 the men ; and then, as they were about to rejoin the head- 
 quarters of the regiment, under the command of Colonel 
 Purnell, Brigadier Hope rode up, and addressed the officers 
 and men on leaving his brigade. This the gallant Brigadier 
 did in a graceful, manly speech, which was responded to by 
 three hearty cheers. The 90th was attached to Outram's 
 Division, which it was decided should remain at Alumbagh. 
 The object of this occupation was threefold, viz., to avoid 
 the appearance of having abandoned Oude ; to keep the 
 insurgents around Lucknow in check ; and to secure a 
 point on which our advance for the re-conquest of Oude 
 might be made. 
 
 The entire army halted at Alumbagh on the 26th of 
 November, and, on the following day, the Commander-in- 
 Chief commenced his niarch for Cawnpore with General 
 Grant's Division, and the whole of the sick and wounded, 
 and Lucknow refugees. 
 
 Sir James Outram took up a position about 1,500 yards 
 from Alumbagh on the vast plain which, smooth as a 
 billiard table, extends without a break to the Bunnee Bridge. 
 The Alumbagh enclosure was one of his outposts, as were 
 also the neighbouring villages, which were all fortified ; and, 
 at these posts, strongly occupied by our troops, desultory 
 fighting took place almost daily. The division — which 
 
 * Captain Wolseley was witness to a curious and suggestive scene that 
 happened on this night. Captain Magennis, of the 90th, was in charge of 
 some State prisoners of high rank, including the King of Oude's brother. 
 As they passed, Wolseley, whose company was the last picket in the direc- 
 tion of Lucknow, heard Magennis ask a sergeant where was his prisoner. 
 'Oh, siv, he wouldn't come on, and so I just shot him,' replied the non- 
 commissioned ofticer, who seemed to think it the most natural, as it was the 
 easiest, way of curing a fit of obstinacy. 
 
THE DEFENCE OF ALUMBAGH. 
 
 95 
 
 numbered only 4,400 men of all arms, inclusive of those at 
 ]iunnee — consisted of Her Majesty's 5th, 78th, 84th, and 
 90th Regiments, and Captain Brasyer's Ferozepore Regi- 
 ment of Sikhs, 800 strong, the whole being organized into 
 two brigades, under Colonels Hamilton (78th) and Stisted 
 (64lh). The artillery, under the command of Major Vin- 
 cent Eyre, included the batteries of Captain Maude (Royal 
 Artillery), and Captain Olpherts (Bengal Artillery), and 
 many guns of position, forming a total of about forty pieces. 
 The cavalry consisted of Major Robertson's battalion of 
 Military Train, which now acted as light horse, and some 
 of the 12th Native Irregulars, the whole numbering not 
 more than 250 sabres. But any deficiency of numbers was 
 made up by the gallantry of these veteran soldiers, the re- 
 markable capacity of the staff and other officers, and, more 
 than aught else, by the prestige attaching to the name of the 
 Commander, to which, doubtless, was due the fact that a 
 force of little more than 4,000 men was able successfully to 
 defend an open position against the attacks of 100,000 
 rebels, of whom half were trained soldiers — for this was the 
 number of armed men Outram, on one occasion, assured 
 Wolseley were assembled in Lucknow and its neighbour- 
 hood, according to reliable information he had received. 
 
 Outram did not think it beneath his dignity to seek to 
 make his sold'ors regard him with personal affection, as well 
 as with that respect which he inspired in the minds of every- 
 one who came within his influence ; rarely indeed has any 
 character afforded such an admixture of dignity and amia- 
 bility, of heroism and gentleness, ot a high and noble am- 
 bition and a yet loftier and purer self-sacrifice, of which his 
 whole life afforded many memorable instances.* Every 
 
 * Such high authorities as Lord Napier of Magdala, Lord Wolseley, and 
 the late Sir Vincent Eyre, are agreed as to Outram's distinction as a general. 
 Lord Napier once said of him : ' Of all those whose names are borne in the 
 annals of the history of India, or enshrined in the hearts of its people, there 
 
 I 
 
 yi 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \%i 
 
 'ma 
 
 officer and man of the 90th loved the General, who, in 
 return, showed his appreciation of their regard by numerous 
 acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. Among such traits, 
 VVolseley mentions that he would, when visiting the Alum- 
 bagh or other outposts, read out to the officer in command 
 any intelligence he had received from Cawnpore or Calcutta 
 in a sufficiently loud tone of voice for the men about to 
 hear the news. 
 
 Almost daily there was fighting at the outposts near 
 Alumbagh, but the enemy shrank from continuous and deter- 
 mined attacks in full force on the standing camp, and there 
 was no rebel, leader of sufficient enterprise to attempt to 
 repeat the tactics of Cawnpore. The camp had Alumbagh 
 in front, the small fort of Jellalahad to the right front, some 
 villages to the left front, and outposts at villages on the right 
 and left rear ; a strong detachment also was at Bunnee 
 Bridge, about eight miles on the road to Cawnpore, under 
 command of Colonel Fisher. 
 
 Wolselcy had not been long at Alumbagh when he was 
 sent for a week to do outpost duty at the old fort of Jellala- 
 bad, which was decidedly the pleasantest post in the position, 
 some ten miles in circumference, which Sir James Outram 
 undertook to defend with his small division. 
 
 In the middle of December, a convoy arrived from Cawn- 
 pore, 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 he 
 was called — and then besieged him in his intrenchments. 
 
 is none more noble, none more worluy of love, admiration, and gratitude 
 than Sir James Outram.' Sir Garnet VVolseley declared to the writer that 
 Outram was ' the finest soldier he ever served under ;' and Sir V. Eyre said, 
 ' As a commander in the field, he possessed a rare and most valuable com- 
 bination of pluck and caution, and he knew exactly the time for bringing 
 each quality into pUiy.' 
 
 mix 
 
ACTION OF THE 22nd DECEMBER. 
 
 97 
 
 Thus, for the second time, Wolseley 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 intended sur- 
 rounding his position, with the object of cutting off his 
 supplies and intercepting his communications with Bunnee. 
 He accordingly determined to anticipate them and strike a 
 blow, and, at 2.30 a.m., on the 22nd of December, a column 
 of 1,000 men and 2 guns marched out under his personal 
 command to attack the enemy, who had 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 them by surprise, and 
 cut off their retreat from Lucknow. 
 
 It was cold and rather dark when Captain Wolseley pro- 
 ceeded with his regiment, which formed the right column of 
 the attacking 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 command of Colonel Purnell, of the 90th, 
 charged the enemy in line, and, in spite of a heavy fire of 
 grape and nusketry, carried the position with a rush. The 
 left column, under Colonel Guy, of the 5th Fusiliers, 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 musketry. Olpherts now came into action with 
 his guns, and speedily dislodged the enemy, who, changing 
 their line of retreat, endeavoured to reach the city by the 
 Dilkhoosha. The Military Train, detached to make a flank 
 movement, followed them up so rapidly that they dispersed 
 their cavalry, and captured their 4 guns. Outram's arrange- 
 
 ill 
 
 
 V- -I 
 
 il 
 
 t 
 

 h?'« 
 
 m 
 
 Ml 
 
 /I ' 
 
 -I 
 
 n 
 
 98 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ments were rewarded with the success they merited ; the 
 surprise had been complete, and in the village were found 
 the children and women cooking their cJmpatties^ or oat- 
 cakes. The houses were fired after the non-combatants 
 were driven away, and the coluruu returned, the men carry- 
 ing vegetables and dragging or leading away all the livestock 
 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 re- 
 traced their steps to Lucknow. Before noon Outram 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 suppli'^s The journey 
 occupied three days, the force marching about fifteen miles 
 a day. The first night the escort halted at Bunnee, up to 
 which point there 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, Wolseley learnt with deep sorrow the 
 death of his friend. Major Barnston, who had been wounde 1 
 five weeks before. The escorL returned immediately to 
 Alumbagh with the convoy, and, on New Year's Day, there 
 were athletic sports. Sir James Outram and the officers sub- 
 scribing liberally for prizes for the men. 
 
 On the 1 2th of January, 1858, the rebels made a most 
 determined assault on the British position. As on the 
 previous occasion, he had received information from his 
 spies that the enemy would attack, and made the necessary 
 dispositions. At daybreak the troops breakfasted, and were 
 held in readiness for immediate service. About sunrise 
 large maspes of the enemy, calculated by Outram to amount 
 
 l\ 
 
REBEL ATTACKS ON ALUMBAGH. 
 
 99 
 
 *at the lowest estimate to 30,000 men,' were seen on the 
 left front, and they gradually surrounded the whole front 
 and flanks of the position, a distance of at least six miles. 
 As soon as their movements were sufficiently developed, 
 Outram marched his small army, decreased by the absence 
 on convoy duty of 530 men and 4 guns, in two brigades, the 
 right mustering 713 Europeans, and the left, with which was 
 Wolseley's company, 733 bayonets, with 100 of Brasyer's 
 Sikhs. Fighting 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 the fire of the guns, 
 finally withdrew, and returned to Lucknow or to their origi- 
 nal positions in the gardens and villages in front of the 
 British camp. 
 
 Again, only four days later, the rebels made a determined 
 attempt to overwhelm the small band of Englishmen, whom 
 it must have been most galling to them to see entrenched 
 within a few miles of the great stronghold of rebeldom. 
 
 Captain Wolseley was on picket at the left-front village, on 
 the morning of the i6th 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. After dark they assembled in 
 great strength, and, about eight o'clock, 'screwing their 
 courage to the sticking-place,' advanced to attack the village 
 to the inspiriting calls of many bugles, sounding the ' assem- 
 bly,' 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 gal- 
 lantry, and keep up his own failing heart. They occupied a 
 • tope ' 01 trees to the left of the village, and advanced into 
 the open ; but the guns and infantry reserved their fire. At 
 ^ length, when they had approached to within seventy yards of 
 
 7-2 
 
 ^ 
 
lOO 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I M : \ 
 
 the position, they were met by discharges of grape from the 
 battery, and a volley from Wolseley's company. Still they 
 hesitated, thus giving time to reload to their opponents, whom 
 they might have annihilated had they mustered only sufficient 
 pluck to charge at this critical moment when only loo 
 British bayonets intervened between them and the revenge 
 they thirsted for. That hesitancy of a moment was fatal. 
 A second volley of grape and rifle-bullets swept through their 
 ranks, when they broke and fled in the utmost confusion, 
 carrying away, according to custom, most of their killed 
 and wounded. 'After they had retired,' says Lieutenant 
 Herford, ' 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.* 
 
 The 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 determination, the Alumbagh garrison 
 would have been hard pressed. The Moulvie, Mansoob Ali, 
 and the Begum, Huzrut Mahul, 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 
 camp, and make simultaneous assaults from five or six dif- 
 
 his 
 
 v^. ?■ 
 
FINAL ROUT OF THE REBELS. 
 
 lor 
 
 ferent points, while demonstrations against the intermediate 
 portions of the wide-extended enceinte were to prevent a con- 
 centration of Outram's troops, and at the same time distract 
 his attention and embarrass his defensive operations. But 
 Outran! was not the man to wait quietly on the defensive. 
 
 He moved out with cavalry and guns, and attacking with 
 spirit, put them to the rout. Meantime some sharp fighting 
 took place at Alumbagh, where Wolseley was stationed. A 
 few shots struck the centre building, and at seven a.m. the 
 enemy came on at all points, lining every shrub and tree 
 where they could get cover. But they were deficient in 
 spirit, and dispersed under the musketry-fire and discharges 
 of grape. The rebel commanders confessed to the Durbar 
 that their losses were between 400 and 500 ; but their in- 
 tentions were praiseworthy and their preparations complete, 
 for Outram's spies reported that they had scaling-ladders all 
 ready for storming Alumbagh. 
 
 Sir James Outram went out with some cavalry and guns 
 on the 24th of February, and again, on the following day, 
 proceeded beyond Jellalabad, when he encountered and de- 
 feated the enemy, who had come out under the leadership 
 of the Begum. During the night the rebels attacked all 
 along the P'ritish front and left flank where Wolseley's 
 company was posted, and were bold enough to fire grape 
 from the ' tope ' of trees on the left-front picket, where the 
 fighting took place on the i6th of January. They, however, 
 soon retreated ; and this was the last time the Alumbagh 
 force, as such, received molestation from the enemy. 
 
 In the meantime, Sir Colin Campbell had been organizing 
 his ' grand army'* for the reconquest of Lucknow and Oude, 
 
 * On the 2nd of ^^arch the effective force consisted of: Artillery, 1,613 
 officers and men ; Engineers, 2,002; Cavalry, 3,613; Infantry, 11,940; 
 Total, 19,771. On tiie 5th of March it was joined by General Franks' 
 Division, numbering 5,893 men, the Goorkha portion of which, 3,000 bayo- 
 nets, joined the Nepaul Maharajah when he arrived before Lucknow with 
 his division, 9,000 strong. . , 
 
 ill 
 
Ilili 
 
 ii 
 
 f 
 
 ■ 4 • ] 
 
 1 J2 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 and on learning that Rose's and Whitlock's columns were 
 well on their march towards Jhansi, he pushed his troops 
 across the Ganges, and arrived at Buntara, about four miles 
 from Alumbagh, on the ist of March. On the followint^ 
 morning Sir Colin Campbell moved up from Buntara to 
 Dilkhoosha with General Lugard's Division and the cavalry, 
 commanded by Brigadier-General Hope Grant, who had been 
 carrying on operations against the rebels in Oude during 
 the month of P'ebruary. In the meantime, Jellalabad had 
 been formed into a commissariat depot on the largest scale, 
 there being attached to the advancing army no less than 
 T 6,000 camels, a siege-train park covering a square of 400 
 yards, with 12,000 oxen, and a following of 60,000 non- 
 combatants. 
 
 Since the Commander-in-Chief had evacuated Lucknow, 
 taking with him the women and children of the Residency, 
 the rebels had fortified the city with no little care and skill. 
 Behind the canal they had thrown up earthworks, while the 
 Martinierc, Secundrabagh, Shah Nujeef, Mess-house, and 
 Motee Mahul were fortified ; the Kaiser Bagh also was a 
 perfect citadel, and the streets and houses had been loop- 
 holed. 
 
 Between the 3rd and 4th of March the Third Division, 
 under General Walpole, came up to Alumbagh, and, at the 
 same time. Sir James Outram was directed to take com- 
 mand of the division, which the Commander-in Chief had 
 determined to detach across the Goomtee, to operate on 
 Lucknow from that side. And so the 90th was parted 
 from the (leneral, under whom they had served for many 
 months in the defence of Alumbagh.* Even after the seve- 
 
 * The garrison of Jellalabad, in Afghanistan, gained the title of 'illus- 
 trious ' from Lord EUenborougii for their gallant defence of a position pro- 
 tected 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 defeated them ; and Akbar Khan, in his 
 great eftbrt against the Jellalabad garrison, on the 7th of April, 1842, only 
 
THE ADVANCE ON LUC KNOW. 
 
 103 
 
 ranee of the connection that had been cemented on the 
 battle-field 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 90th a 
 liberal supply of newspapers and periodicals for the use of 
 the men. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 6th of March, the 90th left their old 
 camping-ground at Alumbagh, and started to join the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief at Diikhoosha. The night was very dark, and 
 the road bad, and, being encumbered with baggage and am- 
 munition, it was not until the morning, after a march of nearly 
 twelve hours, that they reached the camping-ground marked 
 out for them 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 de- 
 cided that the 90th should be brigaded with the 42nd, 93rd, 
 and 4th Punjaub Rifles, forming the 4th Brigade of the 
 2nd, or General Lugard's, Division, under the command of 
 their old Brigadier, the Hon. Adrian Hope. On the follow- 
 ing day, the whole regiment was sent on picket about five 
 p.m., with orders to line some of the walls surrounding the 
 
 Diikhoosha Park. 
 
 mustered 6,000 men to his standard, while Outram's foree was assailed by 
 30,000, including- sop.-.c of the finest regiments of the Sepoy army, and ex- 
 perienced artillerymf:n. Sir Vincent liyre, in a letter addressed some years 
 ago to the author, t'.ien employed on a memoir of Sir James Outram, says : 
 ' Outram's prolonged occupation of Alumbagh plain, comprising a frontage 
 of two miles and a circuit of seven, with a small army of occupation never 
 exceeding 3,500 men, within cannon-range of Lucknow, to hold in check an 
 enemy mustering 100,000 strong within tho walls, was a masterpiece of 
 cautious warfare, to which justice has never yet been done, because his 
 jjrecarious position there, in obedience to Sir Colin Campbell's conmiands, 
 has never up to this moment been properly understood.' Lord Napier of 
 Magdala also said : ' No achievement in the events of 1857 surpassed in 
 skill and resolution the maintenance of the position of Alumbagh with a 
 n\ere handful of troops against overwhelming numbers, well supplied with 
 artillery. There were no walls or ramparts, merely an open camp, protected 
 by a few well-selected intrenched outposts, and a scanty line of bayonets, 
 ever ready, day and night, to repel attack.' 'I'he Alumbagh force and its 
 heroic chief have never had justice rendered to them for their defence of this 
 position. 
 
 
 r if'- 
 
I04 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 During the morning of the 9th of March a heavy artillery 
 fire was maintained on the Martiniere, and General Lugard 
 received instructions to carry the position. The Comman- 
 der-in-Chiefs orders specified that ' the men employed in 
 the attack will use nothing but the bayonet. They are ab- 
 solutely forbidden to fire a shot till the position is won.' 
 At two o'clock the 42nd Highlanders and 4th Sikhs stormed 
 the Martiniere, with slight loss, the Qoth, which acted in 
 support, only losing one man from a discharge of grape. 
 The regiment passed the night of the 9th in the Martiniere, 
 and on the following day was divided into detachments, 
 which were placed on picket in different places. Captain 
 Wolseley was employed with his company (the I Company) 
 covering the pontoon bridge which had been thrown across 
 the Goomtee just beyond the enemy's first line of works. 
 
 Early on the morning of the nth, Wolseley 's company, 
 with two others of his regiment, was directed to cover some 
 Horse Artillery guns engaged in the open. AVhile thus em- 
 ployed a round shot carried away the end of an elephant's 
 trunk, when the poor beast, frantic with rage and pain, came 
 rushing down through the skirmishers. After this service, 
 AVolseley proceeded on picket in the open space in front of 
 the Secundrabagh,* where he remained all night. 
 
 On Sunday morning, the 14th of March, Kaiser Bagh, the 
 chief stronghold of Lucknow, was won. Vv^olseley's and the 
 two other detached companies of the 90th and the 53rd, 
 having been relieved by the 97th, were ordered to proceed 
 to the Kaiser Bagh in support. Passing up loopholed 
 streets, round by batteries, the guns of which still threat- 
 ened them, and over a bridge of loose planks, past burn- 
 
 * While under the enemy's fire, Wolseley was attracted by a curious- 
 looking projectile which dropped near him. Taking it up, he found that it 
 was a large cut-glass knob, which the native gunners, being hard pushed 
 for round shot, had doubtless broken off from one of the magnificent chan- 
 deliers of the Kaiser Bagh. This singular projectile he presented to Sir Hope 
 Grant, by whom it was used as a letter-weight. 
 
 II 
 
THE SACK OF THE KAISER BAGH. 
 
 lo; 
 
 ing timber, they reached the enclosure of the Kaiser Bagh, 
 where they found that the remainder of the 90th Regiment 
 were already established, they having rushed in by one entry 
 while the Sikhs and loth Foot effected an entrance by 
 another. The scene that presented itself to Captain Wolse- 
 ley's eyes within the building, or rather collection of palaces, 
 courts, and gardens, which for magnificence and costliness 
 of fittings enjoyed a reputation that was not belied by the 
 reality, baffles description. 
 
 The Kaiser Bagh was given up to plunder, and there 
 ensued a scene of vandalism and wilful destruction paral- 
 leled in those pages of Gibbon wherein he describes the 
 sack of Ctesiphon, in the year 627, by the Saracenic hordes 
 led by the ruthless Caliph Omar. Sikh and Briton vied with 
 each other, as with clubbed muskets they shivered to frag- 
 ments the costly glass chandeliers, battered to pieces the 
 statues and gilt furniture, and strewed the floor with the 
 mirrors they could not remove. Filled with the wanton 
 spirit of mischief they broke into atoms on the floor ' large 
 boxes of japanned work containing literally thousands of 
 cups and vessels of jade, of crystal, and of china.' Entering 
 the library, they tore into fragments the books, and lit their 
 pipes with the illuminated MSS. and coloured miniatures, 
 while boxes, swords, and pistols were shattered to pieces for 
 the jewels with which they were inlaid. In some instances 
 men sold for a few rupees, priceless jewels, believed to be 
 worthless on account of their size and bad setting ; and one 
 case is recorded of a soldier who, for ;^io, parted with some 
 jewels which were resold for;^7,5oo. Officers in many in- 
 stances were seized with the desire to grow rich, though 
 Wolseley was among the number of those who could con- 
 template the loot with Platonic indifference, and he did not 
 appropriate a gold mohur, or any article whatever. His 
 men secured their fair share of plunder, and one officer, 
 
io6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 u 
 
 \ ■■ i 
 
 who had a bundle of thirty Cashmere shawls, gave him, 
 unsolicited, one of great value ; however, he did not long 
 retain the gift, for while sleeping on it that night, he hurried 
 out on the occasion of an alarm, and upon his return the 
 shawl had been appropriated. On the following day, the 
 men of his company presented him with two large silver 
 bowls; but he was equally unfortunate with these mementoes, 
 for one night some thieves stole from the head of his bed 
 the box in which they were deposited. 
 
 After the capture of the Kaiser Bagh, Captain Wolseley's 
 company rejoined the headquarters of the regiment, which 
 was operating in the immediate neighbourhood. During 
 the day, the Mess-house, Tara Kothie, Motee Mahul, and 
 the Chuttur Munzil were rapidly occupied by our troops, 
 which occasionally met with opposition. The 90th assisted 
 in driving the enemy out of these strongly fortified positions, 
 and on the i6th was relieved by the 97th, when the regiment 
 returned to camp near the Dilkhoosha.* 
 
 After the capture of Lucknow, Sir Hope Grant was placed 
 in command of a division, called the ' Lucknow Field 
 Force ;' and, on the ist of April, the 90th, which was to 
 form part of the force, struck their tents at Dilkhoosha, and 
 marched into the city. They were quartered in a palace 
 called Zoor-Buksh, near the Kaiser Bagh. But Wolseley's 
 good fortune in always sharing in whatever fighting was in 
 progress, again favoured him, and he did not for any length 
 of time occupy his new quarters. A vacancy occurring on 
 Sir Hope Grant's Staff, by the return to England on sick- 
 leave of Lieutenant (now Major-General Sir Frederick) 
 Roberts, V.C., Colonel the Hon. William Pakenham (now 
 the Earl of Longford), an excellent officer, who succeeded 
 
 * The losses of Sir Colin Campbell's army between the 2nd and 21st of 
 Marcii inclusive, were 16 officers and iii of all ranks killed, 51 officers and 
 545 wounded, and 13 missing. 
 
WOLSELEY AND ROBERTS. 
 
 107 
 
 General Estcourt as Adjutant-General in the Crimea, and held 
 the same office for the royal troops in Bengal, recommended 
 Captain Wolseley, with whose services he was familiar, for 
 employment. Wolseley was, accordingly, appointed to the 
 charge of the Quartermaster-General's Department of the 
 Oude Division. It was a curious coincidence that thus, for 
 the second time, brought into connection these two distin- 
 guished and representative officers, whose deeds form a 
 proud page in the history of the British army. 
 
 Wolseley had not been many days in his new post, when, 
 on the nth of April, he accompanied Sir Hope Grant in an 
 expedition, or douVy to Baree, a village twenty-five miles from 
 Lucknow, on the Seetapore road, where Mansoob Ali, known 
 as ' the Fyzabad Moulvie,' who had displayed great ability 
 and energy in the defence of Lucknow, had taken up a 
 position with a strong body of rebels. 
 
 On the 13th of April, the column, 3,000 men of all arms, 
 came up with the enemy, some 6,000 infantry and 1,000 
 cavalry, who had taken up a strong position on the banks of 
 a stream, having hills on either side. As the General had 
 received intelligence of the close proximity of the rebels, 
 Captain Wolseley,* as Quartermaster-General of the force, 
 proceeded to reconnoitre their position, taking with him a 
 guide and an escort of Native cavalry. 
 
 It was three o'clock in the morning when he started, the 
 rest of the troops following soon after. About daybreak he 
 suddenly came upon the enemy's cavalry, which, led by the 
 redoubtable Moulvie in person, was seen charging down the 
 
 m 
 
 '^ I 
 
 * On Wolseley devolved the task of learning the roads, marking out the 
 camping ground, and securing the services of guides, Tiie following was 
 the method he adopted for acquiring trustworthy guides. In the evening he 
 would send out a ciiuprassie, or one of the Native jjolice, to the next village. 
 The first four men he encountered in it were asked if they knew the way to 
 such and such a place ; if they answered in the affirmative, they were imme- 
 diately seized and brought into camp. When the march was over they were 
 dismissed ; but woe to them if they misled the column ! 
 
io8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I i 
 
 road. Wolseley, who at this time was in advance with only 
 five troopers, galloped back to the advanced guard, consist- 
 ing of a squadron of the 7th Hussars, a detachment of 
 Wales' Puniaub Horse, 2 guns, and about 150 infantry, the 
 whole under Colonel Hagart. There was barely time to 
 unlimber the guns, and fire a round of grape into the enemy, 
 before the rebel horsemen were down upon them. Wolseley 
 had to draw his sword, and a sharp hand-to-hand affair 
 ensued. The enemy's cavalry charged the guns, but were 
 repulsed, and an attempt by the rebel horse to capture the 
 baggage was also repelled. 
 
 Wolseley was hard at work all day, which was a busy one 
 for all arms of the small force, and very trying, owing to the 
 excessive heat ; and he met with an accident which caused 
 him considerable inconvenience and pain. While jumping 
 over banks carrying orders, and seeing to the disposition of 
 the force, his sword tilted up, and struck his elbow-joint, in- 
 ducing the formation of a large abscess, which caused him 
 much suffering, though he refused to lay up, and continued 
 his duties with his arm in a sling. 
 
 The column visited various places, and, on the 23rd of 
 April, returned to Lucknow. On his arrival there Wolseley 
 was gratified to learn that he had been gazetted Brevet- 
 Major for his distinguished services during the Mutiny. 
 
 Sir Hope Grant now received orders from Lord Clyde to 
 make a dour to disperse a large rebel force. Leaving Luck- 
 now on the 27 th of April, the column visited Poorwah, Par- 
 than, Dhoundhea Keira, and other places, and at eleven p.m., 
 on the nth of May, proceeded on its march to Nuggur, over 
 a broken country. On the following day — after a killing 
 march of seven miles in the blazing sun, over ploughed 
 fields, standing crops, and brushwood, when many men suf- 
 fered from sunstroke — Sir Hope arrived about five o'clock 
 at Sirsee, where he was informed the rebel leaders, Bene 
 
CAMPAIGNING IN OUDE. 
 
 109 
 
 Madhoo and Shewrutten Singh, had assembled an army of 
 15,000 infantry, 1,600 cavalry, and 11 guns. 
 
 On his arrival at Sirsee, he found the enemy had taken 
 up a strong position along a nullah, with a jungle, containing 
 the village and fort of Towrie, in their rear. The rebels 
 opened fire about five o'clock, but, forming his column with 
 the cavalry and Horse Artillery covering his right flank, he 
 attacked with his infantry, under Brigadier (now Sir Alfred) 
 Horsford, w'«^h such vigour that they gave way, and were 
 driven into the jungle, leaving 2 guns in the hands of the 
 victors. Owing to their superior numbers, the enemy at one 
 time almost surrounded the small British force, but they 
 were defeated with considerable loss, Shewrutten Singh, the 
 rebel talookdar who held the neighbouring lands, being 
 among the killed. 
 
 On the following morning, 13th of May, the column re- 
 turned to Nuggur, and, proceeding by easy marches, en- 
 camped near the Maitini^re on the 21st of May. This dour 
 was attended with serious loss to our troops, for out of less 
 than 3,500 men, 32 died of sunstroke and 500 were sick, 
 being nearly one-sixth of the entire force.* But Sir Hope 
 was not disposed to allow even the hot weather that had set 
 in with unusual intensity to deter him from resuming active 
 operations, and learning that the enemy, under Bene Mad- 
 hoo, were threatening the Cawnpore road, he marched on 
 the 25th of May. Jessenda and Poorwah were visited, but 
 hearing that the enemy was in force at Nawabgunge Bara- 
 Bankee,t a village on the Fyzabad road, about eighteen 
 
 * Of this number the 90th lost 4 men, and 75 went into hospital. Since 
 the regiment left England, early in the preceding year, 13 officers had been 
 killed and 5 had died. In the Crimea the 90th lost 21 officers and 307 
 non-commissioned officers and men, killed, wounded, and missing. This 
 was exclusive of the large number who died from the effects of disease in 
 hospital. 
 
 t The ' big ' Nawabgunge, so called to distinguish it from the Nawab- 
 gunge on the Cawnpore road. 
 
:> .* 
 
 no 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 miles from Lucknow, Sir Hope, at eleven [).m. on the 12th 
 of June, marched across country with great rapidity, in order 
 to accomplish the distance of twelve miles in the darkness, 
 and save his men from the fearful effects of a forced march 
 in the hot sun. Major Wolseley had a busy time making 
 the necessary inquiries regarding the route, procurip^^ guides, 
 and seeing to the other arrangements of his department. 
 
 The enemy, who numbered 16,000 men, had taken up a 
 strong position on a large plateau, surrounded 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 inter- 
 pose between them and the jungle. The forced march 
 across country was made with the loss of several men from 
 heat apoplexy, and the jtoue bridge was reached about half 
 an hour before daybreak. 
 
 After a short rest, the troops fell in at daylight, and 
 having crossed the stream. Sir Hope advanced against the 
 centre of the position. Though the enemy had been sur- 
 prised by the celerity of the attack, they opened fire, and 
 tried to surround the force, but were repulsed by Johnson's 
 guns, supported by the Bays, while their nttack on the right 
 rear was met by the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade and Hod- 
 son's Horse, which had just crossed the stream. A severe 
 struggle ensued, and the enemy stood their ground well, but 
 were driven back, the Rifles attacking with the bayonet, and 
 Hodson's Horse charging over broken ground in gallant 
 style. Meanwhile Mackinnon's battery 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 Carleton's battery, they 
 withstood two charges of the 7th Hussars, led by Sir William 
 
THE ACTION OF NAIVABGUXGE. 
 
 II I 
 
 Russell, and left 125 dead round 2 guns they defended. 
 During the action lirigadier Horsford attacked the enemy 
 on the extreme left and captured 2 guns. 
 
 The action lasted three hours, and the troops were 
 thoroughly exhausted, having been under arms from ten 
 l).m. on the previous night, to nine a.m. on the morning of 
 the 13th, when the enemy finally quitted the field of battle, 
 on which they left 600 dead and 9 guns. The British loss 
 in kilLd and wounded was 67 ; and, in addition, 33 men 
 died from sunstroke, and 250 went into hospital. 
 
 In his despatch the General, who had before specially 
 mentioned the services of Major Wolseley during the action 
 at Baree, again highly commended him. 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, 
 AVolseley executed plans, which were forwarded 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 marked 
 moral effect upon the rebels, greatly dispiriting them and 
 their leaders, the column encamped on the large sandy 
 plain in rear of the village of Nawabgunge, where they 
 erected huts with straw-thatched roofs. 
 
 '^* 
 
 * Wolseley was in the habit 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 march- 
 ing and halting, and minute details of the towns and villages, their inhabit- 
 ants and capabilities. These particu.ars were transferred to a weekly report, 
 which was sent to the Quartermaster-General of the Army ; bu' it was so 
 injured by damp while kept in store, that some years after, upon his apply- 
 ing 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. 
 
112 
 
 LTFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 liij 
 
 Sir Hope Grant's energy was i 'tiring, and, thanks to a 
 strong constitution and spare habit of body, he, in common 
 with Major Wolseley, appeared to be exempt from the evil 
 effects of campaigning during the four monsoon months. 
 While his forces melted away under the fervent iieat, 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 Hamilton, his 
 Assistant Adjutant-Cieneral, dying while proceeding to Cal- 
 cutta 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 neces- 
 sary for a soldier whose fortune it was to fight his country's 
 battles in the four quarters of the globe. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of July Sir Hope Grant marched to Fyzabad, 
 to the assistance of Maun Singh, a powerful chief, who, 
 after being one of the mainsprmgs of the rebellion, had 
 deserted a failing cause, and was besieged by a large body 
 of the enemy at Shahgunge. But the rebels dispersed, and 
 Sir Hope pushed on to Ajudia, four miles lower down on 
 the Gogra, where his guns opened fire on a portion of the 
 fugitives as they were crossing the river. On the 9th of 
 August, the General having returned to Fyzabad, despatched 
 Brigadier Horsford towards Sultanpore to follow up the 
 rebels ; but learning thai they mustered 20,000 men, with 
 15 guns, he proceeded to his assistance with the main body 
 of his troops, and after an irksome march across cultivated 
 fields and through marshes, in which the guns sank to the 
 axle, joined the Brigadier on the 22nd August. 
 
 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 
 
WOLSELEY AND SIR HOPE GRANT. 
 
 113 
 
 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 29th 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. "^ - 
 
 The General entrusted all the arrangements for the pass- 
 age 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 the difficult opera- 
 tion of crossing a swiftly-flowing and broad stream (the 
 Goomtee at Sultanpore being 400 feet wide) was accom- 
 plished, in the face of a strong, rebel army, with a powerful 
 artillery, and with only three rafts made from dinghies, 
 was creditable to Major Wolseley, ' who,' says Sir Hope 
 Grant, ' as Deputy Assistant-Quartermaster-General, had 
 the superintendence of the arrangements for crossing 
 the river, and who performed them to my perfect satisfac- 
 tion.' 
 
 The country was now tolerably clear, and the force re- 
 mained at Sultanpore, further operations against the rebels 
 being deferred until the cold weather in October. The in- 
 terval was employed in throwing a bridge across the Goom- 
 tee, in which Wolseley gave his advice and assistance to 
 the Engineer officers. Sir Hope Grant marched on the 
 nth of October with a small colur n towards Tanda, but 
 returned to Sultanpore on the 23rd, proceeding thence 
 iigain to Kandoo Nuddee, where 4,000 of the enemy were 
 posted with several guns. But the rebels fled on the ap- 
 proach of the British force ; and a few days later the column 
 returned to Sultan[)ore. 
 
 The Lucknow Field Force was not allowed a lengthy 
 l^eriod of repose, and, on the 3rd of November, Sir Hope 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 marched to Amethie to operate against the rebel Rajah, in 
 conjunction with Lord Clyde ; and, accompanied by Major 
 AVolseley and his staff, reconnoitred the fort, which he 
 found to be of great strength and extent. However, the 
 Rajah surrendered on the folic ving day, and Sir Hope pro- 
 ceeded to Purseedapore on the nth of November, and, on 
 the following morning, took i)ossession of the strong fort of 
 Shunkerpore, belonging to Bene Madhoo, whom he had 
 defeated at Nawabgunge. Under instructions from Lord 
 Clyde, Sir Hope proceeded to Fyzabad, on the (iogra, 
 which he crossed before daylight on the 27 th of November, 
 and, under fire of his heavy guns, carried the enemy's posi- 
 tion. The cavalry and field-artillery went in pursuit, and six 
 guns were captured and brought into camp. 
 
 On the 3rd of December, the column, Avhich had re- 
 turned to Nawabgunge, marched in the direction of Bun- 
 kussia, and, whilst proceeding to reconnoitre, suddenly came 
 upon the main body of the Gondah Rajah's troops, about 
 4,000 men. The enemy opened fire from 3 guns, upon 
 which Sir Hope advanced and drove them through the 
 jungle, a distance of two miles, capturing 2 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- 
 scpore. Li order to prevent the enemy escaping to the 
 Goruckpore district, he marched to Dulhurree, close to the 
 Nepaul frontier, and then proceeded to Pushuroa. Dis- 
 posing two small columns, under Brigadiers Rowcroft and 
 Taylor, to cut off the escape of Bala Rao, who, with a force 
 of 6,000 men and 15 guns, had retreated to near Kunda- 
 kote, he moved forward to attack the rebel chief on the 4th 
 of January, 1859. 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 
 
END OF THE OUDE CAMPAIGN, 
 
 \\ 
 
 leaders (the Fyzabad Moulvie, the most able of them, having 
 fallen) could succeed in bringing their men to face our troops, 
 and they fled, leaving 15 guns in the hands of the victors. 
 After this they dispersed, most of them making their way 
 into Nepaul. . . 
 
 Sir Hope Grant, accompanied by MajorWolseley, marched 
 to Fyzabad, whence he proceeded by boat to Amorha, on 
 the opposite side of the Gogra. Here he received informa- 
 tion that 4,000 of the enemy had taken up a position near 
 Bunkussia, and another party of 1,800 had made for the 
 Gogra. The General, determined to give no rest to the 
 rebels, who were moving from Nepaul into the Terai, divided 
 his forces, sending one portion by Rampore 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, 
 he mnrched from Burgudwa, and arrived soon after sunrise 
 at the jungle covering the entrance to the Jerwah Pass. 
 Here he received information that the Nana and Bala Rao, 
 with 2,000 men and 2 guns, were at the mouth of the Pass, 
 and Mummoo Khan, with 500 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 en- 
 camp, sent Colonel Brasyer with his Sikhs against Mummoo 
 Khan, who, however, dispersed on his approach, and him- 
 self moved with the 7 th 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 
 Punjaubees, led by Wolseley, Biddulph, and Wilmot, three 
 officers of the divisional staff, climbed the hill to the left 
 and drove the enemy before them, and the remainder of the 
 regiment cleared the ridge on the right and captured the 
 
 8—2 
 
 UH 
 
m 
 
 ii6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 guns, but owing to the troops having marched twenty miles, 
 they were not able to overtake the retreating enemy. 
 
 Thus ended almost the last conflict of this great and 
 memorable struggle, which had lasted two years, as it was 
 on Sunday, the loth 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 beyond 
 the Nepaul frontier, the General, leaving some small columns 
 to meet any attempt on their part to break through, pro- 
 ceeded to Lucknow 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 
 INIutiny, Wolseley received the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 He was young to have attained so high a rank, for it was on 
 the twenty-sixth anniversary of his birth, that, in company 
 with his chief, he entered Lucknow, and, for a brief period, 
 enjoyed the 'blessings of peace.' He was novr employed 
 in laying out the new cantonments, those formerly in 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 
 wh :n this question of the new cantonments came up for 
 consideratio*- 
 
 Wolseley had only been established some five mouths in 
 his comfortable quarters in the fine old palace n;,ar Lucknow, 
 when he was once more offered a position on the 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 nominated 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 de- 
 sirous of appointing Colonel Wolseley to the head of the 
 
WOLSELEY AND THE CHINA WAR. 
 
 117 
 
 Quartermaster-General's Department, but Lord Clyde nomi- 
 nated the late Colonel Kenneth McKenzie, a most able and 
 distinguished officer, and Wolseley went as Deputy Assistant- 
 Quartermaster-General in charge of the Topographical De- 
 partment 
 
 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 he found himself once 
 more under orders. And what an eventful period in the 
 history of this country, and of her great Asiatic dependency, 
 as well as in his own life, had been those two years just con- 
 cluded ! 
 
 India has ever afforded the grandest field for the display 
 of those talents and qualities which have rendered 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 supe- 
 riority over natives which we share with all European nations ; 
 but we do not think we shall be guilty of self-laudation, if 
 we cnicfly attribute it to that peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, by which resistance and difficulties 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 38,000 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 distinguish our 
 countrymen and countrywomen received a more striking 
 illustration. Our women were heroines, and our incom- 
 parable rank and file nobly did their duty ; while as for the 
 officers throughout the long-drawn hardships, the dramatic 
 episodes, and the glorious trium^s of the Indian Mutiny, 
 we cannot do better than repeat the saying of that great 
 
■pp 
 
 Ii8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
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 leader who may be regarded as the type, as he was the 
 greatest representative, of the class. ' Brave,' would the 
 great Duke of Wellington impatiently say, when anyone 
 spoke in commendatory terms 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 congratulated in having been 
 actors in some of those historic scenes, the record of which 
 will never fade from the page of history. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 
 mm 
 
 THE CHINA WAR. 
 
 The Occupation of Chusan. — The Disembarkation at Peh-tang. — The 
 Action at Sinho. — 'Die Capture of tlie Taku l-'orts. — Tiie Advance on 
 Pekin. — Narrow Escape of Colonel Wolscley from Capture. — The Loot- 
 ing of the Summer Palace and Surrender of Pekin. — Colonel Wolseley's 
 Visit to Japan and Mission to Nankin. — Return to England. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley accompanied Sir Hope Grant to Cal- 
 cutta, and, with the other members of his staff, sailed on 
 the 26th of February, i860, in the Fivry Cross, one of Jar- 
 dine'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 disem- 
 barked and encamped at Kowloon, opposite Hong-Kong, 
 which Colonel Wolseley surveyed, the other officers of the 
 department, under Colonel Kenneth McKenzie, being en- 
 gaged in arranging for the reception of the British troops. 
 In a very short time, the required space was converted from 
 a rocky waste into a neat camp, with tents and lines for the 
 horses. 
 
 The first step was the joint occupation, by the British and 
 French forces, of the island of Chusan, which was accord- 
 ingly undertaken under instructions from the Home Govern- 
 ment, 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 
 
I 
 
 III 
 
 i! 
 
 120 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 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 commanders, with their staffs and a small guard, 
 landed and made an inspection of the town and its vicinity, 
 at which Wolseley, being in charge of the Quartermaster- 
 General's Department, was present with the General. 
 
 One thousand soldiers only were landed, there being great 
 difficulty in finding accommodation in the various yamuns, 
 or official residences, and 300 Marines 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 eastward of the 
 Chusan group, which, it was considered, might be suitable 
 for a military sanatorium. Wolseley 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^ which then sailed for Hong- 
 Kong. 
 
 One of the chief difficulties that had to be encountered 
 in the organization of the army destined to proceed to the 
 north of China, was that 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. 
 
 * See Colonel Wolseley's interesting work ' Narrative of the War with 
 China, in i860,' which was written daily while the operations were in 
 progress. 
 
1 1 VLSELE V A RRI VES A T THE SEA T OF WA R. 121 
 
 KT^ 
 
 ■ 
 
 The British army, of which the Divisional Commanders 
 were Sir Robert Napier and Sir John Michel, Brigadier 
 Pattle being in command of the cavalry, numbered about 
 14,000 men, and that of the French, under General Mon- 
 tauban, which mustered at Shanghai, about 7,000. The 
 fleet, under Admiral Sir James Hope, consisted of 70 ships 
 of war, including gunboats, and the hired transports num- 
 bered 120 sail. 
 
 On the 1 6th of June, the Grenada^ in which Colonel 
 Wolseley had embarked with the Commander-in-Chief, and 
 some troopships, pioceeded to sea, and put in at Shanghai, 
 where, at the earnest entreaty of the European residents and 
 Chinese authorities, some troops were landed to protect the 
 town against the 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. AVolseley 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 capabilities 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 
 Chefoo,* in the province of Shantung, and the British at 
 Talien-wan. 
 
 Sir Hope Grant, with his staff, remained on board the 
 Grenada^ in Victoria Bay, whence a small steamer daily went 
 
 * Chefoo and Talien-wan were fixed upon as the respective bases of 
 operations of the French and Englisli armies, because it was known that 
 along the coast near Takoo the ice in winter prevented all approach for 
 several months ; but there was deep water at these places, which were free 
 from ice all the year round. Colonel Wolseley visited Chefoo, and was 
 pleased with the order and regularity of the French camp near that town. 
 
LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 i.U 
 
 
 ' 1 
 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 
 ?■ -" 
 
 
 1-. * 
 
 ', 
 
 S ' 
 
 ^ - 
 
 i - 
 
 
 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 
 tlie Indian Navy steam-frigate Feroze^ and, after many con- 
 ferences, it was decided by Sir Hope Grant and General 
 ^[ontauban, that both armies should sail for Pehtang on 
 the 26th of July. Accordingly, on that day, the vast armada, 
 presenting a grand spectacle, weighed anchor, and started 
 with a fair wind for the general rendezvous, twenty miles 
 south of the Peiho ; and in the evening the French fleet of 
 33 sail hove in sight, passing round the Meatow Islands. 
 On Saturday, the 28th of July, the entire Expedition 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 disem- 
 barkation of the troops, and, on the ist of August, the 
 Indian Navy troopship Coromaiidel^ having on board Sir 
 James Hope and Sir Hope Grant, with his staff, including 
 Colonel Wolseley, led the way, followed by the gunboats, 
 with their decks crowded with men, each towing six launches, 
 full of troops. The French flotilla also put off at the same 
 time. 
 
 Soon after two o'clock, the gunboats anchored about 2,000 
 yards from the famous Taku forts, situated about three miles 
 from the mouth of the river, the passage of which they com- 
 mand. 
 
 It was decided by Generals Grant and Montauban that a 
 reconnoissance should be made in the direction of a cause- 
 way running towards Taku, and 400 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 before reaching a hard patch of 
 ground. ' Nearly every man,' says Mr. Bowlby, the Times 
 
THE LANDING AT P EH -TANG. 
 
 123 
 
 correspondent, 'was disembarrassed of his lower integuments, 
 and one gallant brigadier led on his men with no other 
 garment than his shirt.' The Tartars now retreated along 
 the causeway, and the rest of the force was disembarked 
 by five o'clock. * Never,' says Mr. ]Jowlby, ' did more hope- 
 less i)rospect 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 undrinkable, 
 and not a well or spring could be found. 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 
 brigades, and sank middle deep 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 night on the 
 causeway, and Colonel AV'olseley 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 consumed the pint he carried in his 
 water-bottle, but tliey 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 sayr. : 'The 
 noble-hearted come to the front, at once ready to help 
 others, and being themselves generous and jolly, make the 
 best jf 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. \\'e were a large party of 
 people, odds and ends of all sorts, including some who, in 
 the dark, could not make their way any farther 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 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF LOPD U'OLSELEY. 
 
 
 task had to be accomplished, and never did the weary tra- 
 veller in an arid desert hail a spring with greater joy than 
 we all did our Judge-Advocate-General's return with a small 
 barrel of water, after his trip there. Subsequently the in- 
 valuable Coolie corps* made their appearance with breakers 
 of a like nature, which supplied everyone.' 
 
 But Wolseley, in his published work, ornits to mention 
 that he accompanied Major VVilmot on his errand of mercy 
 — for such it really was, as many of the men were so fatigr 
 and overcome by thirst, that their tongues were hanging 
 of their mouths — and on their return from their long tramp 
 through the mud, laden with the precious liquid, the gallan*- 
 officers were cheered heartily by their comrades. 
 
 The night was as unpleasant a one as Colonel Wolseley 
 ever spent, even bearing in mind his Crimean and Indian 
 bivouacs. He had, of course, no bedding, and it was im- 
 possible 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 was occupied, but 'looting' was strictly prohibite'^, 
 and any men found indulging in the unlawful pursuit v 
 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 ditches j indeed, for the first week they 
 seemed to subsist on little else. Our military system also ap- 
 peared in favourable contrast to that of our allies, as regards 
 strictness of discipline and employment of the troops, for 
 
 * The Coolie coqDS, organized and led by Major Temple, of the Indian 
 army, consisted of 2,500 Chinamen, recruited at Canton and Hong-Kong. 
 
 a 
 
 rh;. 
 
RECOXNOrSSANCE OF THE TAKU FORTS. \2 
 
 vhile their oflRcers and men were sauntering about the town 
 with their hands in their pockets, our men, of all ranks an<l 
 arms of the service, were busily employed constructing 
 wooden wharves and piers, and improving the jirincipal 
 thoroughfares for the passage of guns. 
 
 The Allied (lenerals having decided on a reconnoissance 
 in force of the enemy's position, on the 3rd of August a 
 strong column, consisting of 1,000 French and as many 
 English, under the command of (General Collincau, moved 
 out along the raised causeway leading towards the Taku 
 Forts. Colonel ^Volscley was selected by Sir I' v^ne Grant 
 to accompany the force, and indeed throughout this war, 
 so highly did the General estimate his services, that when- 
 ever he decided to undertake some duty rec^uiring tact or 
 capacity, he would always inquire, ' Where's ^v'olseley ? 
 Send him.' And Wolseley, ever ready to undertake 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 army, and 
 whether there, or sweepi'\g round the flanks with a handful 
 of Native cavalry for ai escort, he carried his life in his 
 hand and narrowly escape ' captur -, which would have in- 
 volved torture or death lu the hands of the barbarous 
 enemy. On one occasion the fate that befell another 
 lamented officer of his department. Captain Brabazon, 
 would have been his, but for an accidental circumstance, 
 or rather should we say, 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- 
 hew them how we may.' 
 
 The Allied force started at four a.m., and, after a march 
 of about four miles, came upon the main body of the enemy, 
 who were waiting just beyond a bridge, about half a mile 
 
;t 
 
 126 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 farther 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 fire with two guns, and, 
 having forced them back, advanced, the French on the 
 right, and the English on the left, towards a large intrench- 
 ment about a mile distant. The force now halted, and 
 Brigadier Sutton sent Colonel Wolseley to Sir Hope Grant 
 to n.pprise him of the state of affairs, and reques. /einforce- 
 •nents if the enemy's position was to be forced. Wolseley 
 galloped back, and, having given the necessary information, 
 returned with 2 guns, and the Allied Generals immedi- 
 ately followed with a reinforcement, but the reconnoitring 
 party was r' eady on the return march to Pehtang, and the 
 day's proceedings ended somewhat abortively, the Tartars, 
 in their ignorance of the object sought to be attained, 
 claiming a victory, and sending flaming reports to Pekin. of 
 their having forced the white soldiers to retreat. 
 
 On the 9th of August, Colonel Wolseley was selected to 
 command a second reconnoitring party, consisting of 200 
 cavalry and 100 infantry, and Sir Hope gave him positive 
 instructions, before starting, on no account to bring on an 
 engagement. Proceeding along the causeway for two miles, 
 he placed his infantry in position in a ruined farmhouse, 
 usually held by a cavalry picket of the enemy, while he 
 moved off to reconnoitre with the cavalry, whose exposed 
 flank 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 sur- 
 veyed the whole of the enemy's position, and the line on 
 their flank 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 
 
 ' 
 
■i^ 
 
 WOLSELE V CONDUCTS A RECONNOISSANCE. 127 
 
 the enemy. Immediately on hi? arrival in camp, Wolseley 
 made a report of the survey he had completed, and having 
 that night executed a plan, he had copies struck off from a 
 steel plate of the size of a sheet of foolscap, and by ?n early 
 hour on the following morning these copies were in the 
 hands of every staff officer of both armies. 
 
 On Sunday, the 12th of August, the Allied Army began 
 its march towards the Taku 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 Napier's, 
 Division, should move out along the track reconnoitred on 
 the 9th, 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 ist Division and the French, 
 advancing along the causeway, should attack the enemy's 
 works in front. As the ground on the right was admi'-ably 
 adapted for the operations of cavalry, the w^hole of that arm 
 was attached 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 15 
 guns, and he expressed his admiration of the unflinching 
 fortitude with which the Tartar cavalry stood the iron hail 
 at 450 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 sabreurs, Fane and Probyn, supported 
 by a squadron of the ist Dragoon Guards. 
 
 In the meantime, the ist Division and the French, 
 moving along the causeway leading from Pehtang towards 
 the enemy's intrenched camp before the village of Sinho, 
 
 ^ 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 t 
 
 ;r 
 
 I'f. 
 
 deployed within 1,400 yards of these works, and, after a 
 brief artillery fire, the whole army advanced and occupied 
 ihe place. 
 
 Throughout this China War, our allies, notwithstanding 
 their gallantry, did not show to advantage, which was chiefly 
 due to the incapacity of General Cousin de Montauban, 
 who was a gasconading, self-opiniated man, without a particle 
 of military talent. At no time throughout the campaign did 
 the French Division muster more than 4,000 effectives, while 
 we had in China a well-appointed army numbering 19,000 
 men, of whom 14,000 were at the seat of war. Thus the 
 co-operation of the French was quite unnecessary; but 
 ].ord Palmerston, sacrificing military considerations to the 
 political requirements involved in the maintenance of the 
 e7itc?ite cordiaky accepted the proffered assistance of the 
 Emperor Napoleon. The campaign had not been inaugu- 
 rated many days before Montauban 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. ■**■ 
 
 From the Allied position, distant about two miles and a 
 half, was visible the large intrenchment around the village 
 of Tangku, having a long narrow causeway, with ditches, 
 leading from Sinno towards it. 
 
 Notwithstanding Sir Hope Grant's refusal to advance 
 upon the enemy's position until bridges had been thrown 
 across the canals which separated the roadway and village 
 from the open, firm ground to the south of the causeway, 
 IMontauban sallied out with his division ; but after two hours 
 
 * Wolsclcy was in the heart of the American (,'ontinent, conductincf his 
 Red River Expedition, in the autumn of tiie inemorable year 1870, when 
 lie received intelligence that the Count de I'alikao had been nominated 
 Minisler-at-War, thus receiving charge of tlie destinies of his country at a 
 most momentous crisis. Turning to his Oincors, ho exclaimed : ' Then it is 
 all over for poor France !' 
 
CAPTURE OF TANGKU. 
 
 129 
 
 spent in a purposeless cannonading, returned to Sinho, re 
 infectd. 
 
 On the following day Colonel Wolseley made a reconnais- 
 sance up the banks of the Peiho, which resulted in showing 
 that the enemy had retired to the southern bank of the 
 river, with the exception of the troops garrisoning 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 intrenchments. Our allies, 
 having taken up a position on our left, their left flank resting 
 upon the Tangku causeway, the whole line of artillery, con- 
 sisting of 12 French and 24 British guns, opened fire, under 
 which the infantry advanced and entered the enemy's in- 
 trenchments. About 45 guns, of various calibre, between 
 four and twenty-four pounders, of which 16 were bras? ''.nd 
 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, ai the enemy opened fire on 
 the escort. 
 
 Sir Hope Grant now busied himseK 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 question of the attack on the Taku Forts was one upon 
 which the British and French Commanders-in-Chief were 
 divided. Sir Hope Grant, who was strongly supported in his 
 views by Sir Robert Napier, proposed to operate against the 
 northern fort, which enfiladed those on the southern bank, 
 and was the key to the position ; but General Montauban 
 was loud in favour of crossing the river and assaulting the 
 southern forts. However, finding his colleague determined 
 to abide by his own judgment, Montauban made a formal 
 protest, and then acted in loyal concert with the British 
 
 9 
 
I30 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 General. During the halt at Tangku, the Engineers had 
 been busy constructing a road towards the forts, also bridges 
 or causeways over the canals, and batteries, which were 
 armed during the night of the 20th with 16 guns and 3 
 mortars. At daybreak on the following morning, 23 pieces 
 of ordnance, including 4 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 2,500 men.* 
 The French assaulting column, numbering 1,000 men, was 
 under the command of General Collineau, 
 
 About six o'clock a tremendous explosion took place in 
 the nearest fort ; half an hour later, a second explosion oc- 
 curred in the larger northern fort, and, by seven o'clock, 
 most of the enemy's guns had been dismounted. The field- 
 guns were advanced to within 500 yards of the fort, and 
 the fire of the works having been silenced, a breach was 
 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 a heavy musketry-fire from the enemy, who quitted 
 their cover on the troops forming up for the assault, our men 
 advanced straight to their front to'vards 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 
 
 * The assaulting column consisted of a wing of the 44th, under Colonel 
 MacMahon, and a wing of tlie 67th, under Colonel Thomas, the other wings 
 of these regiments acting as sujjports ; the Royal Marines, under Colonel 
 Oascoigne, and a detachment of tiie same corps carrying a pontoon bridge 
 for crossing the wet ditches, under Colonel Travcrsj and a company of 
 Royal Engineers under Major Graham, V.C. 
 
WOLSELE Y AT THE ASS A UIT OF TAKU. 131 
 
 111^ 
 
 ■Si 
 
 shot, passing through one of the metal pontoons of which it 
 was constructed, rendered it unserviceable. 
 
 The French, with great dash, escaladed the walls, and 
 almost simultaneously our men forced their way 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 Burslcm (67th). 
 
 In seeking to lay down the pontoon bridge, 15 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, 
 however, was a work of extreme difficulty, as owing 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 gallantry 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 trenches before Sebastopol — who, being almost the only 
 mounted officer, offered an easy mark to the Chinese match- 
 lockmen. 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 
 is a jingal-bal) 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 
 
 * Now Mijor-Gcncral Sir Gerald Graham, who commanded a brigade in 
 tlic Egyptian Expedition un jr Lord Wolaeley. 
 
 9-2 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 late Colonel) Hon. A. Anson, A.D.C., on reaching the 
 other side, which was covered with pointed bamboo stakes, 
 proceeded to swarm up a pole, to the summit of which the 
 rope drawing up the drawbridge 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 
 scarcely capable of sustaining any weight, but our men man- 
 aged to cross a few at a time. 
 
 The scene presented in the interior of the captured work 
 evinced the determination with which the garrison had held 
 the place, and among the dead, who were estimated tc 
 number about 2,000, was a (Jeneral and the officer com- 
 manding 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 losr- was 1 7 killed and 
 161 wounded, of whom 22 were officers. The French had 
 about 130 casualties. 
 
 AVithout loss of time, preparations were commenced to 
 attack the large northern fort, distant exactly t,ooo yards, 
 which had a raised causeway running towards it, with wet 
 ditches on either side. Colonel Wolseley proceeded, with a 
 small escort, under a heavy fir'", 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 ad- 
 vanced towards the north fort, the garrison, numbering 
 2,000 men, 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 
 
 'if 
 
SURRENDER OF THE FORTS. 
 
 133 
 
 as far as Tientsin. The day closed with a tremendous 
 storm of wind and rain, and soon the] roads by which the 
 troops had advanced were quite submerged. The camp 
 was flooded, and, under such depressing influences, Wol- 
 seley rode back a distance of five miles, to find the interior 
 of his tent a pond, with 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 a soldier's life. 
 
 The first phase of the war was completed by the capture 
 of the famous Taku Forts, which, though[taken by our sailors 
 in 1858, had, in the following year, successfully resisted a 
 naval force, under Admiral Sir James Hope, when convey- 
 ing the British Minister to Pekin, for the puri)ose of ex- 
 changing the ratification of the treaty concluded at Tient- 
 sin, 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 is in sophisms, could not argue 
 away in the lying proclamations it was in the habit of ad- 
 dressing to its many millions of subjects. 
 
 Sir James Hope pushed on to Tientsin on the 23rd of 
 August, and, so demoralized were the enemy, that the forts 
 at that place were occupied without a shot being fired. Two 
 days later Lord Elgin and Sir Hope Grant followed with 
 the troops, leaving a garrison at Taku and Sinho. Eight 
 days were wasted at Tientsin in negotiations with unac- 
 credited envoys, and at length it was decided to commence 
 the march towards Tungchow. Put 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, 
 
134 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and animals. It was Colonel Wolscley's duty to collect 
 information on these points, and the Topographical Depart- 
 ment, of which he had been in charge from the outset of 
 the camnaign, was, at this time, reorganized, his assistants 
 being Lieutenant Harrison, R.E., who had served at Alum- 
 bagh and Lucknow, and Mr. Robert Swinhoc, Interpreter 
 in the British Consular Service, who had hitherto been 
 acting in that capacity on Sir Robert Napier's staff. 
 
 Owing to the difficulty 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 AVolseley with his assistants, quitted Tientsin. 
 
 The French troops, about 3,000, left Tientsin on the 
 loth of September, and Sir John 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 immovable, owing to the flight of 
 the drivers with the mules and ponies.* Parties were sent 
 
 * During the night of tlie loth all the Chinese drivers of tlie carts of Lord 
 Elgin's and Sir Hope Orant's establishments had decamped, taking witli 
 them the whole of tiieir mules and ponies. W'olselcy alone retained his 
 drivers, and that he did so was owing to an amusing circumstance. While 
 riding out of Tientsin, he was conversing with the Ressaldar, or native com- 
 missioned ofticer, in command of his escort, and told him to impress upon 
 his men that unless he and they looked sliar))ly after the native drivers and 
 prevented them from deserting, they would be left beliind, and could not 
 pp:-*icipatc 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 Ijeen tied together by their tails, and then 
 made fast to the tent-pole ! Tliereafter this was done every night, and Wol- 
 seley arrived at l'(;kin with the carts and drivers and ])onies he 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 with a tciite d'abri. Be- 
 sides our three horses, picketed in a row, tliere were six luggage ponies 
 belonging to the carts, and the carts themselves, and in the grouj) 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." 
 
wo LSE LEY'S DUTIES ON THE SURVEY. 135 
 
 out into the country to try and recover the lost animals, or 
 procure others, but without success, and, at length, as no 
 other means of transport were available, several junks were 
 seized, into which the greater portion of the stores and lug- 
 gage was stowed. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley commenced his surveying duties im- 
 mediately upon quitting Tientsin ; he himself, accompanied 
 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 the Peiho, which is 
 fenced in with artificial dykes, is one vast level plain, 
 covered, as far as the eye could reach, with crops of maize 
 and millet ; and were it not for occasional brick-kilns and 
 watch-towers, an accurate survey of the road would have 
 been most arduous. As it was, Colonel Wolseley, in order 
 to insure accuracy, paced the road, and afterwards com- 
 pared the distances so noted with the revolutions of the 
 perambulator. 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 which may be found in the 
 survey maps of the road to Pekin executed by Colonel Wol- 
 seley and Lieutenant Harrison. On the nth he proceeded 
 on to Yangtsun, on the 12th to Nantsai, and on the 13th to 
 Ho-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 a mile and a 
 half of Chang-kia-wan, whence Lord Elgin, with an escort of 
 1,000 men, was to proceed to Tungchow, and, after signing 
 the Convention, to the capital for the purpose of ratifying 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 il 
 
 the 1858 Treaty. On tlie 17th of September, the British 
 force, with 1,000 French, marched to Matow, a distance of 
 twelve miles, and Wolseley resumed his survey of the road, 
 but encountered great difficulty in procuring information, as 
 the native villagers fled on the approach of their invaders, 
 and had to be chased and run down by the Sikh escort. 
 The following day, the i8th of September, was destined to 
 be a memorable one in the history of the campaign, and 
 before the sun went down, convinc'ng proofs were afforded 
 — though, indeed, none were required save to enlighten the 
 understanding and open the eyes of the diplomatists '*'■ — that 
 the Chinese Government and its Commissioners were acting 
 with their wonted duplicity and treachery. 
 
 The army marched at daylight on the iSth of September; 
 but Wolseley remained behind during the forenoon, having 
 obtained permission from Sir Hope Grant, on the previous 
 night, to halt at Matow, 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 Guntcr, of the King's Dra- 
 goon (juards, 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 'W'olseley, who had betaken 
 himself to the raised road, saw puffs of smoke in the air, 
 
 * Speaking of the simplicity displayed by the representatives of our 
 Foreign Oftice, Wolseley observes : * Military men are far less confiding 
 than civilians in dealingwith uncivilized nations. The little experience that 
 I have had 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 1 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 ofticers who fail in anything through rashness, or want of 
 caution. 
 
 1 
 
 111' 
 I- - 
 
AN ANXIOUS TIME. 
 
 137 
 
 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 oi)en plain their white tents were visible a 
 long way, and would doubtless draw upon them the obser- 
 vation 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 de- 
 spatch, he caused the tents to be struck and packed, him- 
 self and his officers assisting, and in a few minutes the party 
 were on their 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 fol- 
 lowers, but his soldier-servant and the corporal of Engineers 
 were on foot, and he could not desert them in the event of 
 an attack by the Tartar horse. He had made up his mind 
 to throw himself and his men in the first house they passed 
 on the road, and defend themselves to the last extremity 
 with the guns and pistols they could muster. But, at length, 
 he began to breathe more freely as he approached a village 
 containing the baggage in charge of 1 strong rear-guard ; 
 and, in a few minutes, he had the satisfaction of seeing in 
 safety, not only the personnel 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 
 
t , 
 
 m^ 
 
 138 
 
 /JFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 party galloped along the road, turned ofT to the left along 
 the bank of the Seau-ho (* Little River '), and proceeded to 
 the spot where Sir Hope Grant was resting under the shade 
 of some trees. 
 
 He now learnt that the Allies had encountered, and driven 
 from their position, a Chinese army of about 20,000 men, 
 which barred their progress towards Tungchow, and captured 
 74 guns, with but slight loss, iiut the elation conseciuent 
 upon this great success was dimmed by the consideration 
 that the enemy had in their hands many of our country- 
 men, and fears were entertained for their safety, which 
 proved but too well founded. Cai)tain Brabazon, Lieutenant 
 Anderson, Messrs. Bowlby and De Norman, and many of 
 the sowars and Frenchmen, died a cruel death, which 
 AVolseley was near sharing, as Sir Hope Grant had sent for 
 him to accompany Mr. Loch, of the Embassy, to proceed 
 to Tungchow, 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 of September, Colonel Wolseleyrode back to 
 Matow, and having completed the survey of the road be- 
 tween that village and Chang-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 Wolseley 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 : ' When we 
 had marched a mile, we found ourselves in presence of a 
 large army, their cavalry stretching away to the right as fnr 
 as we could see, and endeavouring to turn our left 
 their infantry strongly posted in the numen ' oi 
 
 trees and enclosures which lay between us u the * aI. 
 
 ' 1 
 
A NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 139 
 
 As soon as we came within range, they oi)cncd fire upon us 
 from hundreds of jingals and small field-pieces, to which 
 our allies replied with their rifled cannon. Sir Hope (Irant 
 rode forward towards the French for the puri)ose of examin- 
 ing the position, and having advanced beyond our line of 
 skirmishers, rode almost in amongst the Tartars, mistaking 
 them for the French. Upon turning hack to rejoin our 
 troops, the Tartar cavalry, seeing him and his 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 250 yards from our line, 
 saluting them well with canister, which sent them to the 
 right-about as briskly as they had advanced.' Soon after 
 the Tartar cavalry tried to outflank the Allies, upon which 
 our cavalry charged them ; and, says Wolseley, ' riding over 
 ponies and men, knocked both down like so many nine- 
 pins.' 
 
 Sir Hope Grant now moved in pursuit to the left, and 
 captured several camps, with tents standing, which were oU 
 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 captured all the camps which 
 lay near the Pa-le-cheaou* Bridge, over which they drove the 
 enemy at the point of the bayonet, with great slaughter. 
 Here General Paou, commanding the Tartar cavalry, re- 
 ceived his mortal wound. Towards evening, the French 
 encamped close to the canal upon the liritish right. Sir 
 Hope Grant, though within sight of Pekin, was unable to 
 push his advantage and compel the surrender of the capital, 
 as, relying upon the assurances of the diplomatists, he had - 
 
 * General Montauban took his title of Count de Palikao from this bridge, 
 whicli means ' 8 ie bridge,' so called because it is 8 le, or 2^ miles, along 
 the paved road from Tung-chow. 
 
ill Hi i. 
 
 ^1 
 
 ■ 
 
 140 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 \t 
 
 left his siege-guns at Tientsin. However, Sir Robert 
 Napier, to whom he had sent word after the action of the 
 1 8th, 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 Wolselcy was very busy survey- 
 ing 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 reported to be in position to the north of 
 the city. Proceeding ahiiost daily with a small party of 
 cavalry as an escort, he, and other staff officers, advanced 
 occasionally 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, 6,000 strong, crossed the 
 canal by the bridge of boats prepared for the purpose, and 
 encamped on the paved road leading to Pekin. Two days 
 later, the French having received the reinforcements for 
 which they had becii waiting, the combined army, number- 
 ing about 10,000 combatants, carrying three days' cooked 
 rations, and without tents, advanced in lines of contiguous 
 columns. After a march of between four and five miles, 
 our army bi/ouacked. Colonel Wolseley located himself 
 and assistants 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 Allied armies now advanced, the English 
 moving on the right into some abandoned intrenchments, 
 and thence advancing upon the main road leading to the 
 An-ting gate of the city, where Sir Hope Grant halted for 
 the night. 
 
RIDE TO THE SUMMER PALACE. 
 
 141 
 
 Meanwhile the French Division, accompanied by the 
 British cavalry, arrived about sunset at the central gate of 
 the Summer Palace, which is distant about six miles in a 
 north-westerly direction from Pekin. 
 
 At daybreak on the following morning, the 7th of 
 October, Sir Hope Grant, in order to apprise our cavalry 
 and the Freiich of his whereabouts, fired 2 guns, and 
 directed Colonel Wolseley to proceed with an escort of two 
 squadrons of cavalry, and ascertain their position. "Wolseley 
 took the road towards the Summer Palace, and proceeded 
 nearly due west for about a mile. He adopted the course 
 familiar to fox-hunters at home, and took ' casts ' in order to 
 come on the track of the French. At length he sighted, in 
 the distance, a sowar, who was on duty as a cavalry vedette. 
 Wolseley rode towards him, but the man, mistaking the 
 escort for the enemy, put spurs to his horse, and, notwith- 
 standing that Wolseley shouted to him to stop, the fellow 
 rode at full speed, and so the chase continued for a distance 
 of two miles. Following the fugitive, Wolseley entered the 
 parks and gardens of the Summer Palace — known as Yuen- 
 ming-yuen, or, ' Round and Brilliant Garden ' — which is 
 enclosed by high granite walls. General Montauban had 
 fixed his cam]) in a fine grove of trees near the grand en- 
 trance ; and Wolseley, after communicating with him and 
 Brigadier Battle, rode back to headquarters to report, 
 escorted by two sowars. 
 
 About noon. Lord Elgin and Sir Hope Grant, guided by 
 Colonel Wolseley, who had just time before starting to 
 snatch a hasty breakfast, rode over to Yuen-ming-yuen, for 
 the purpose of conferring with General Montauban. On 
 arrival, the Generals with their staffs proceeded into the 
 palace. It was a curious sight that met Wolseley's eyes as 
 he entered the i)alace, which for two hundred years had been 
 the most cherished abode of the dynasty of the Emperor 
 
 
B '*:fl 
 
 ii:. 
 
 \i- ''''■ 
 
 \k..l 
 
 142 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Hien-fung, who, among other titles, arrogated to himself 
 those of ' the Sacred Son of Heaven,' and ' the Governor 
 and Tranquillizer of the Universe.' 
 
 The grand entrance opened into a paved courtyard, 
 crossing which, the party of ' barbarians ' entered the Hall 
 of Audience, at the upper end of which, opposite the door, 
 was the Imperial throne. The chamber was highly coloured 
 and gilt, and the floor was of) polished marble ; an immense 
 picture, representing the surrounding palaces and gardens, 
 covered the upper portion of one wall, and the rosewood 
 throne, surrounded by an open-work balustrade, was a fine 
 piece of workmanship. Around the apartment were hand- 
 somely-carved sideboards and tables, on which were arranged 
 enamel and china vases, porcelain bowls, and large French 
 clocks. Passing through the gardens, the party of British 
 and French officers entered the suite of private rooms occu- 
 pied by the Emperor, which were filled with the rarest and 
 choicest articles of vertu of native and European manufac- 
 ture. When Wolseley entered, everything \Nas iti statu (jiio 
 as when the Emperor fled. ' His small cap, decorated with 
 the character of longevity embroidered upon it, lay upon his 
 bed ; his pipe and tobacco-pouch were upon a small table 
 close by. In all the adjoining rooms were immense ward- 
 robes filled with silks, satins, and fur coats. Cloaks covered 
 with the richest golden needlework, mandarin dresses edged 
 with ermine and sable, and marked with the representations 
 of the five-clawed dragons, showing that they were intended 
 for royalty, were stored in presses. The cushions upon the 
 chairs and sofas were covered with the finest yellow satin, 
 embroidered over with figures of dragons and flowers. 
 Yellow is the Imperial colour, and none but those of royal 
 birth are permitted to wear clothes made of it. Jade-stone 
 is of all precious articles the most highly prized in China, 
 some of it fetching immense prices. For centuries past the 
 
 -U? V 
 
THE LOOT OF THE SUMMER PALACE. 143 
 
 finest pieces have been purchased by the Emperors, and 
 stored up in Yuen-ming-yuen. In some rooms large chests 
 were filled with cups, vases, plates, etc., made of jade- 
 stone.' 
 
 The private apartments of the Emperor were surrounded 
 by those of his wives, retainers, eunuchs, and servants ; 
 these, in addition to the buildings, each stored with different 
 articles of use or luxury, made up a vast group of some 
 fifteen or twenty pavilions. One was full of furs, another of 
 silks, another of drawings, a series of 4,000, illustrating the 
 whole history of China, which, during the sack, the soldiers, 
 ignorant of their value, trod underfoot, and used as firing, 
 so that scarce 200 were saved. Then there was the Car- 
 riage Palace, in which were found two howitzers and two 
 magnificent coaches, presented by Lord Amherst to the 
 Emperor Taou-Kwang, in 1818, but which had never been 
 used ; also Lord Macartney's presents to the ' Brother of the 
 Sun and Moon,' during his embassy in 1793 ; and, lastly, in 
 his Majesty's private room, was found Lord Elgin's Treaty 
 of 1858, in its envelope. 
 
 Passing to the rear of the buildings, AVolseley took a 
 brief survey of the park, enclosed by a wall some twelve 
 miles in circumference. The walks and paths seemed end- 
 less, and led over marble bridges, canals, and fish-ponds, 
 upon some of which were mimic fleets of war-junks armed 
 with brass cannon, which afforded amusement to the 
 Emperor. 
 
 A Mixed Commission was nominated to divide the booty 
 between the soldiers of the two armies ; but the Trench 
 managed to secure more than their rightful share by looting.* 
 
 11 
 
 » ' If the reader will imagine,' says Wolscley, 'some 3,000 men let loose 
 into a citv composed only of Museums and Wardour Streets, he may have 
 some faiiit idea of what Vuen-ming-yuen looked like after it liad been about 
 twenty hours in the possession of the French. Officers and men seemed to 
 have been seized with a temporary insanity ; in body and soul tiey were 
 
iitf 
 
 1 I 
 
 \ 1 
 
 i 9i: 
 
 1 f 
 
 I ! 
 
 144 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 On the nth of October, a sale was held of the booty, which 
 realized 123,000 dollars (about ;^24,ooo sterling), a sum 
 which enabled each soldier to receive seventeen dollars 
 (;^3 I OS.), and the officers, who were divided into three 
 classes, and received one-third of the whole, were paid in 
 like proportion. But Sir Hope Grant declined to take his 
 share, throwing it into the common fund, an example which 
 was followed by the Generals of Division. 
 
 Wolseley returned with Sir Hope Grant to the British 
 camp before the Teh-shun gate, and on the 9th the French, 
 having burnt the Emperor's private residence to the ground, 
 quitted Yuen-ming-yuen and encamped to the British left, 
 opposite the An-ting gate of Pekin. On the following day 
 the Allied commanders drew up and forwarded a summons 
 to the Prince of Kung, demanding the surrender of the 
 An-ting gate by noon of the 13th of October, failing which 
 the city should be bombarded. A reconnaissance was made 
 of the northern face of the city defences, during which 
 Wolseley, and other officers of the staff, rode up to the edge 
 of the ditch, and a position was settled for the breaching 
 batteries, about 600 yards to th east of the An-ting gate. 
 
 On the night of the 12th all arrangements for opening fire 
 at noon of the following day were completed, and the bat- 
 teries were unmasked ; when at the last moment the resolu- 
 tion of Prince Kung gave way. The Allied troops marched 
 in, and soon the Union Jack and Tricolour were flying side 
 by side on the walls of the chief city of the most Dopulous 
 kingdom of the world. 
 
 A few days after the occupation of Pekin, Colonel 
 Wolseley, while engaged on a survey of the west wall, 
 
 absorbed in one pursuit, wb'-h was plunder, plunder. I stood by while one 
 of the regiments was suii|)o^ to be i)arailiiig; but although their "fall-in" 
 was sounded over and over a^ain, 1 do not believe there was au average of 
 ten men a company present.' 
 
RETURN TO THE COAST. 
 
 145 
 
 11 
 
 accompanied by his interpreter, Mr. Swinhoe, and an escort 
 of cavalry, encountered a party of Chinamen with five carts. 
 On examination, he found that each drt contained a cofifin, 
 with thj body of one of our countrymen who had been 
 captured on the i8th of September, and died of the cruel 
 treatment to which they had been subjected. The bodies 
 were interred with befitting ceremony in the Russian ceme- 
 tery, which General Ignatieff, the Russian Ambassador, 
 placed at the disposal of the British Commander. 
 
 Lord Elgin demanded as compensation the payment of 
 300,000 taels, about ;^i 00,000, which was paid on the 22nd 
 October, and in expiation of the foul crime his lordship 
 directed the destruction of the Palace of Yuen-ming-yuen, 
 which was acccordingly carried into effect by Sir John 
 Michel's Division. Colonel Wolseley was present during the 
 1 8th and 19th October, while the work of destruction was in 
 progress, and took the opportunity of inspecting the country 
 around the palaces, and that lying between them and the 
 neighbouring hills. He was among the last to quit the 
 heap of smouldering ashes that alone remained to mark the 
 site of the palace in which for centuries the Emperors of the 
 Mantchoo, or Ta-tsing, dynasty received the embassies of 
 some of the most powerful nations on earth. 
 
 The ratification and signature of the Treaty of Tientsin 
 took place on the 24th of October, Colonel Wolseley, in 
 consequence of rumours of treachery, having on the preced- 
 ing evening proceeded into the city and made a careful in- 
 spection of the Hall of Ceremonies, one of the six Imperial 
 Boards, the scene of the meeting. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley now proceeded to Tungchow, to super- 
 intend the transport, by boat, from thence to Tientsin, of the 
 sick and heavy stores. During his stay before Pekin, by 
 great diligence, and with the assistance of Lieutenant Harri- 
 son, he had managed to make surveys of the country around 
 
 10 
 
 I \ 
 
146 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELKY. 
 
 m 
 
 u 
 
 the capital, with the exception of the south side, which was 
 too distant from the camp to enable him to reconnoitre 
 there with a suitable force and return on the same aay. In 
 all other directions, however, the localities were closely 
 examined, and the beautifully executed maps he prepared 
 are, doubtless, to be found in the Quartermaster-General's 
 Department at the Horse Guards. In his history of the 
 campaign, where his own name nowhere appears, he states 
 that the maps were prepared ' under the superintendence of 
 Colonel Mackenzie ;' and merely adds : ' All the information 
 that could be obtained was collected, so that in the event of 
 any future operations being required in those regions, our 
 work will be much simplified.' The good work he had done 
 did not, however, escape the notice of those most compe- 
 tent to judge, and whose favourable opinion would be there- 
 fore all the more highly appreciated. The Commanding 
 General bestowed high praise upon him, and frequently 
 mentioned him in despatches. 
 
 On the 7th of November, the Second Division quitted 
 Pekin, Sir Hope Grant and the First Division marching on 
 the following day. Quitting Tungchow, the army proceeded 
 to Tientsin, where a garrison was left under Brigadier Stave- 
 ley. The embarkation was commenced about the middle of 
 November — the cavalry proceeding on to Taku, where they 
 embarked — and completed by the end of the month, and 
 very hard work it was for the officers of the Quartermaster- 
 General's Department and the gunboats, which day and night 
 were busy, amid very severe weather, conveying the troops to 
 the fleet. But the arduous duty was ])erformed with exem- 
 plary regularity, and without a hitch or accident of any kind, 
 though not a day too soon, for, on the 25th of November, 
 the mouth of the Peiho was completely frozen over near the 
 ctiy, and Colonel Wolseley and other officers walked across 
 the river. 
 
WOLSELEY'S TRIP TO JAPAN. 
 
 147 
 
 Wolseley accompanied Sir Hope Grant to Shanghai, where 
 they, and twelve other officers, hired a steamer, and made a 
 pleasure-trip to Japan, every important port of which interest- 
 ing country they visited. On their arrival at Yokohama, the 
 party rode to Yeddo, a distance of nine miles, and stayed at 
 the British Embassy ; and, finally, having obtained the per- 
 mission of the Japanese Government, proceeded on their 
 return voyage — this being only the second steamer to make 
 her appearance in those waters — through the famous Inland 
 Sea, the beautiful scenery of which has been described by 
 Oliphant and other writers. 
 
 With the departure of Sir Hope Grant for England, the 
 China War of i860 was 'a«; a tale that was told.'* As this 
 campaign was one of the shortest, so it was one of the most 
 ably conducted this country had hitherto waged. The more 
 recent Abyssinian, Ashantee and Egyptian Expeditions have 
 accustomed us to short and sharp campaigns, crowned with 
 brilliant success, for which we are indebted to the genius of 
 the commanders who led British soldiers across the mountain 
 passes of Abyssinia and the forests and deserts of the Gold 
 Coas*- and Egypt; but the Chinese War of i860 is not without 
 its lessons, and though not so romantic in its incidents, or 
 watched with such eager expectancy by tlie British public, 
 as were those memorable Ex[)editions, Sir Hope Grant 
 scarcely received adequate praise or reward for the great 
 success he achieved. The storm of the Taku Forts was a 
 gallant feat, and the advance upon and occupation of the 
 populous Chinese capital — the Kamballi of Marco Polo, 
 around which hung a halo of romance as the place whence 
 Kublai Khan issued his decrees to the ambassadors of 
 dependent nations — was a daring act for so small a force to 
 
 * The army engaged in this war received a medal, and those present at 
 the storm of the Taku Forts ru!>l the capture of l'el<in were awarded two 
 clasps. The tlianks of both Houses of I'arliamcnt were voted to Sir Hope 
 Grant and those who had served under his conuuand. 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 10- 
 
lint 
 
 '1 
 
 !] 
 
 148 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 execute. The distance traversed was limited in comparison 
 with that over which Sir Robert Napier and Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley advanced in 1868 and 1874, and there were no 
 natural obstacles to overcome, uut the country might have 
 been made impracticable had S.ang-ko-lin-sin adopted the tac- 
 tics of Napoleon in 181 2, while the population was enormous, 
 though happily unwarlike. The loss in all these campaigns 
 whether in the field of battle or on the march, was very 
 small, and the operations were conducted with extraordinary 
 rapidity and a masterly adaptation of means to ends. Not 
 only is the conduct of these 'little wars' fraught with weighty 
 lessons to students of the art military, but, in each case, the 
 incidents were full of interest to all Englishmen, and the 
 denoiienient was replete with tragic effect and grandeur. The 
 treacherous murder of our countrymen by Hien-fung, the 
 wholesale massacres of Theodore, and the sanguinary orgies 
 of Koffee Kalcalli, received a fitting expiation in the de- 
 struction, by the purifying agency of fire, of the Summer 
 Palace, with its priceless contents, of Magdala, left a 
 blackened rock, and of Coomassie, with its Golgotha of 
 decaying corpses. 
 
 In the month of January, 1861, Colonel Wolseley was 
 directed to proceed to Nankin, accompanied by an in- 
 terpreter, on a semi-diplomatic, semi-military mission, with 
 the object of reporting to the military authorities upon the 
 position and prospects of the Taipings,* who had now been 
 
 * The Taiping cause at that time was taken up by a small clique in 
 England, wlio appeared to tliink that, as these peo]3le were nominally 
 Christians, they were justified, in their iconoclastic zeal, in committing 
 wholesale nmrder and rapine. The real facts of the case were misrepre- 
 sented, from interested motives, by some of the merchants, and from 
 bigoted zeal by certain of the Protestant missionaries, who regarded these 
 rebels with favour because they expressed a determination to extirpate 
 idolatry, whether heathen or I'opish, from the face of the land. But their 
 religion was a mixture of blasphemy and barbarity, the chief head, ' Tien- 
 wan,' being a pro])h(:'t who lived at Nankin, in seclusior. with his 300 female 
 domestics and 68 wives, in a state of the most grovelling sensuality, until 
 he died by his own hand, some four years later. All who opposed the new 
 religionists were put to the sword, and entire provinces were desolated, the 
 
IVOLSELEY'S MISSION TO THE TAI PINGS. 149 
 
 eleven years in arms ; and also of notifying to the rebel 
 king our treaty with the Imperial Government, by which 
 the Yang-tze-Kiang was opened to foreign trade, and that 
 our merchants intended to send vessels up to Hankow im- 
 mediately, and our Government proposed establishing Con- 
 sulates there, and at Hu-Kau, and Ching-Kiang-foo. At 
 Nankin he was accommodated in a palace belonging to the 
 Chung-wan, or * Faithful King,' one of the eleven Taiping 
 Chiefs, and received daily a supply of fowl, eggs, and other 
 eatables, for which no money was required, it being the 
 avowed intention of the leaders to abolish the use of coin, 
 and reduce society to the patriarchal state ; actually, on 
 AVolseley's offering money to the wretched starving coolies 
 who carried his wearing apparel, they refused to accept it 
 if anyone was present, from dread of the executioner's 
 sword. 
 
 All communications between him and the Taiping au- 
 thorities were carried on through Tsan-wan, the cousin of 
 Tien-wan (the ' Heavenly King '), with whom he had great 
 influence. Wolseley used to stroll about the city uncjues- 
 tioned, visiting all that was worth seeing, including the 
 famous ' Porcelain Tower,' the old tombs of the ^Ming 
 dynasty, and the extensive field-works surrounding the 
 walls, thrown up by the Imperialists during their siege of 
 the city, extending over several years. The only annoyance 
 he suffered was caused by the crowds of idlers who followed 
 him about, much as a London mob tracks the footsteps of 
 any Eastern visitor, whos > peculiarity of dress attracts the 
 eye of the cockney gamin. But in China the hoi polloi. 
 
 rebel soldiers pillaging the cities they conquered, and recruiting their armies 
 by pressing into their service all males capable of bearing arms. Colonel 
 \\^olseley says that, knowing the imbecility and corruption of tiie Imperial 
 Government, he went lo Nankin strongly j^rejudiced in favour of the Tal- 
 pings, but he came away enlightened as to tlie real character of this mock 
 Cliristianity. 
 
ISO 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 5f 
 
 though perhai).s not more personal in their remarks, are 
 certainly less complimentary, and the opprobrious epithet 
 of *fan-qui' (foreign devil) was applied to Wolseley more 
 audibly than was at all agreeable. 
 
 ' Crowds of men and women,' he writes, ' came daily to 
 see us ; all were most good-humoured, and took consider- 
 able pleasure in examining our clothes, and watching us 
 eat. One evening a great procession carrying lanterns 
 visited us.' 
 
 Wolseley visited a new palace built by Tien-wan — which 
 was levelled to the ground by the Imperialists in 1864 — in 
 order to witness the ceremonies attendant upon the promul- 
 gation of a royal edict, and one which he saw was worded 
 in the most blasphemous language, the name of Tien-wan 
 being coupled with the Trinity, as he was declared to be the 
 brother and equal of Christ. 
 
 During Wolseley's stay at Nankin, the Yang-tse^ a fine 
 steamer belonging to Messrs. Dent and Co., arrived there 
 on its way to Hani )w, and Admiral Hope's squadron not 
 having yet appeared so far up the Yang-tze-Kiang, he gladly 
 availed himself of an invitation to proceed thither from a 
 member of the firm, who happened to be on board. On 
 the 28th of February, 1861, he quitted the city of Nankin, 
 and, after a pleasant trip up the Yang-tse-Kiang, which he 
 describes in detail in his Journal, arrived at Hankow at 
 four p.m. on the 5th of March. 
 
 Wolseley was received with the utmost consideration by 
 the Viceroy, Kwang-wan, and, on the occasion of his making 
 a state visit, was attended by the Commandant and a ' three- 
 button Mandarin,' who escorted him in his state barge. A 
 triumphal arch, covered with flags and coloured cloth, was 
 erected in his honour, and a vast crowd lined the river-front 
 of the city, along which he was carried in a sedan-chair, all 
 anxious to catch a glimpse of the 'foreign devil,' and only 
 
HIS REPORT ON THE T AIRINGS. 
 
 I5J 
 
 kept in order by the police, who freely used their whips of 
 twisted thongs. Colonel Wolseley quitted Hankow on the 
 loth of March, and reached Shanghai on the evening of 
 the 1 6th, when he bade adieu to the hospitable owner of 
 the Yafig-tsc^ having greatly enjoyed his trip. 
 
 When quitting Shanghai for his mission to Nankin, AVolseley 
 had been furnished with merely verbal instructions to gain all 
 the information practicable of the position and prospects of 
 the Taipings, considered from a military point of view. The 
 conclusion he arrived at from a close survey of their re- 
 sources, was most unfavourable to their eventual success. 
 In the opinions he formed he was not, however, supported 
 by British officials, who, it might be thought, from their 
 long residence in the country, and intimacy with the people 
 and their language, would have arrived at juster conclusions. 
 Thus, Consul Meadows, in a despatch to Lord John 
 Russell, dated 19th of February in this year, took a favour- 
 able view of the rebel power, stating : ' I entirely deny that 
 the Taipings have no regular government, and have no 
 claim to be considered a political power ;' and also ex- 
 pressed an opinion that to subjugate the Taipings it would 
 require on the part of the power which had just humiliated 
 the Imperial Government, and defeated and dispersed its 
 armies, 'a large fleet of steamers and some 20,000 troops 
 operating in three or four armies in the country under their 
 authority, extending 800 or 900 miles from north to south, 
 and 1,000 or 1,100 east and west.' Colonel Wolseley, in 
 his Report, took a far different view of the strength of the 
 Taipings, which turned out to be but weakness when, with 
 native troops alone. Colonel Gordon, in his brief campaign 
 of three months, completely shattered this power, which, to 
 the consular mind, appeared so formidable a milita^'y organ- 
 ization. 
 
 From Shanghai, Colonel Wolseley proceeded to Hong- 
 
i; 
 
 152 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELE V. 
 
 Kong, whence he embarked, the last of the hcadcjuarter 
 staff to leave the country, in one of the steamers of the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company, and landed in England 
 in May, 1861, after an absence of something over four years. 
 During that brief space in Wolsclcy's military career, in- 
 cidents had been crowded sufficient to make a lifetime 
 eventful. This country had emerged triumphant from one 
 of the most tremendous struggles in which she has been 
 engaged since, in the words of Thomas Campbell, Europe 
 
 ' T;iuKlit her proud barks tlio winding way to sliapc, 
 And braved tlie stormy spirit of tiie Cape.' 
 
 She had also humbled to the dust the pride and military 
 power of the most poi)ulous, and one of the most ancient, 
 empires in the world. By these achievements England had 
 regained her pride of place, for though her position as one 
 of the Great Towers can never be disputed, as long as she 
 wields the sceptre of the seas, her prestige and military 
 status had received a severe shock by the events of the 
 Crimean War. 
 
 During those four years, also, AVolseley had frequently 
 found himself face to face with Death in many of the varied 
 forms 'the lean abhorred monster' assumes in his battle 
 with life. He had encountered him amid the terrors of 
 the storm and shipwreck, when it seemed as if the sea was 
 to engulph the 'twice five hundred iron men,' who had 
 embarked in the ill-fated Transit He had met him in the 
 battlefield, and when struggling through the narrow streets 
 of Lucknow with matchlockmen aiming at him from ' tower 
 and turret and bartizan ;' and he had wrestled with him in 
 the form the Destroyer assumes, when he is in his fellest 
 mood — that of the pestilence which, even in the hour of 
 victory, dogs the footsteps of our armies in the East, and, 
 in the shape of cholera or heat apoplexy, carries off his 
 victims from among our bravest and most vigorous. From 
 
■P 
 
 HIS ARRIVAL LV ENGLAND. 
 
 »53 
 
 all these perils, by land and by sea, by battle, fire, and 
 wreck, he had been preserved to land once more in his 
 country, and we doubt not that on sighting the white cliffs 
 of his native land, he offered up heartfelt thanks to the 
 Providence that had watched over his safety during the 
 past four eventful years. 
 
 On his arrival in I'^ngland, Colo.iel Wolseley, who was 
 promoted for his services to a substantive majority, got his 
 long leave of eighteen months, and, after visiting his family, 
 proceeded in the autumn of 1861 to Paris, where he em- 
 ]>loyed his leisure in painting in oils and water-colours, for, 
 like some other officers of the British army, he added to his 
 professional acquirements the skill of an accomplished 
 artist. ^Volseley seemed, however, — like the * stormy petrel ' 
 of the ocean — to be the harbinger of wars and rumours of 
 wars, for, as on his return from Burmah, he had scarcely 
 set foot on the soil of his native land, than he found her 
 embroiled in a stupendous conflict with one of the most 
 powerful empires of the world, in the vortex of which he 
 was himself quickly drawn, so again, hardly had he landed 
 from service in the East, than there was every indication 
 that this country would be soon grappling in a life-and-death 
 struggle with the«greatest Republic of modern times. 
 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SERVICE IN CANADA. 
 
 TIic Trent Afifliir. — Colonel Wolscley embarks for Canada, and is employed 
 on Transport Duty. — His Visit to the Headquarters of Generals Lee 
 and Long^ltr(•et, and Inijiressions of the Confederate Armies. — Colonel 
 Wolseley's iServices 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 dusi, and new republics given to the Euro- 
 pean system ; when wars of the first magnitude are waged, 
 resulting in battles and sieges, wherein hundreds of thou- 
 sands of combatants are engaged — it has, perhaps, been 
 forgotten that, in 1861, this country was on the verge of 
 hostilities with the United States, then not long entered 
 upon that ' AVar of Secession ' which demonstrated the vast 
 resources of the Great Republic and the warlike spirit 
 which only slumbered within the breasts of her citizens, 
 Vv^ho, whether as Confederates or Federals, showed them- 
 selves no unworthy scions of th j Anglo-Saxon stock. 
 
 In the winter of 1861 nothing looked mora certain on 
 the political horizon than the embroilment of this country 
 in that momentous struggle, the issues of which would, in 
 that event, nave been far different from what history records. 
 At that time the destinies of England were still wielded by 
 the aged statesman. Lord Palmerston, who exhibited in this 
 crisis all the warlike spirit c.iid energy for which his name 
 was almost a synonym, until the Danish business, when 
 
ENGLAND ON THE BRINK OF WAR. 
 
 155 
 
 what Lord Derby called the ' meddle and muddle ' policy 
 of his Foreign Secretary, caused it to be associated with 
 something like pusillanimity. Stat via^::;ni nominis umbra 
 might have been written of his lordship after \kvsX fiasco. 
 
 The incident which nearly ])recipitated this country into 
 war was that known as the ' Trent Affair.' On the 8th of 
 November, Commodore "Wilkes, commanding the United 
 States ship-ofwar San Jacinto., boarded the British Mail 
 Company's steamshi[) Trent, on the high seas, and seized 
 Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Confederate Agents accre- 
 dited to the Courts of London and Paris. Though the act 
 was a clear violation of national rights and international 
 law, Commodore Wilkes was raised to the height of popur 
 larity among the rowdy writers of the American press, who 
 indulged in that species of ' tall ' talk expressively known as 
 'spread-eagleism;' and even an eminent statesman like 
 Everett, who had been Secretary of State to President Fill- 
 more, and previously Minister in England, gave Wilkes' 
 conduct the sanction of his approval. 
 
 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 rei)aration 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 inevitable. Our Government displayed the 
 utmost energy in the preparations they made to meet the 
 contingency, and the country waited with feverish anxiety 
 the reply to Lord Rus'-'^ll's ultimatum of the 30th of 
 November, addressed c- I 'A Lyons, requiring 'the 
 liberation of the four gentlemen and their delivery to your 
 lordship in order that they may again be placed under 
 British ))rotection, and a suitable apology for the aggression 
 which has been committed.' The dockyards resounded with 
 
 
"* 
 
 t 
 
 156 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 the din of workmen fitting vessels for sea, troops were 
 despatched to Canada with all possible despatch, and that 
 colony, with the loyalty for which it has ever been remark- 
 able, called out its militia and volunteers in readiness to 
 defend its borders from aggression. Happily, however, 
 wise counsels prevailed in the Lincoln Cabinet ; it was seen 
 by the American Government 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 Govern- 
 ment, recommending them to make the amende and release 
 the i)risoners ; and, finally, after an irritating delay, a 
 despatch, dated 2Lth of December, was received from Mr. 
 Seward, who, after arguing the case at most immoderate 
 length, stated that ' the four persons in question are now 
 held in military custody at Fort Warren, in the State of 
 Massachusetts. They will be cheerfully liberated. Your 
 lordship will please indicate a time and place for receiving 
 them.' This was done by placing them on board K.M.S. 
 Kinaldo^ Commander (now Admiral Sir William) Hewctt, 
 who was specially sent out to receive them ; and they arrived 
 at Southampton on the 29th of January, 1862, in the La 
 Plata, liut we are anticipating. 
 
 On the 17th of November, the day the news of the 
 Trent outrage reached London, a Cabinet Council was 
 held, and, on the following day, the War Office ordered the 
 despatch of troops and stores, and Special Service officers 
 were selected to prepare for the recei)tion of the troops 
 which were to be despatched in large swift steamers. Colonel 
 McKenzie was api)oin.ed Quartermaster-General, and he 
 immediately asked for the services of Colonel Wolseley, who 
 at this time was on leave, hunting in the county Cork. He 
 had just bought two horses, and had enjoyed one day's 
 
 7 
 
 (i;:iS!fe£*i=^sr-i= 
 
WOLSELEY EMBARKS FOR CANADA. 
 
 157 
 
 sport on each animal, when a telegram came from Colonel 
 McKenzie offering him employment on active service as 
 Assistant Quartermaster-General. Not many hours were 
 suffered to elapse before the hunters were given away, and 
 Wolseley was in London, Colonel McKenzie proposed to 
 the War Office that he, and the other selected officers, 
 should proceed to Canada by the next mail steamer ; but, 
 with singular obtuseness, it was directed that they should 
 embark in the Melbourne^ which was notorious during the 
 China War, where she had been employed as a transport, for 
 her slowness and a habit she had of breaking down. In vain 
 Colonel McKenzie, who knew from experience the steamer's 
 unst;aworthy qualities, pointed out that the c' ■'::ct 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 
 embai" ing in a swift mail steamer. It was all to no purpose ; 
 and the influences which were paramount when valuable 
 lives were embarked in the Transit^ and, more recentlj', in 
 the Megcera^ again prevailed. 
 
 The Melbourne sailed on the 7th of December with a 
 battery of artillery, 30,000 stand of arms, and about 900 
 tons of stores. Besides Colonels McKenzie and Wolseley, 
 she had on board Colonel Lysons* (selected to organize the 
 Canadian Militia), 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 
 
 * Tiie ground to be traversed by the troops proceeding to Quebec was 
 familiar to <„oionel (now Sir Oani-jl) Lysons, who, in 1843, when a young 
 otTicor in the Royal tScots, on the occasion of the wreck at ( 'ape C"hat, near 
 tiie mouth of the St. Lawrence, of the Premier, sailing transport, convey- 
 ing his regiment from Canada, volunteered to proceed on snow-siioes to 
 Quebec, a distance of 300 miles. This distance he actually accom]>lished 
 by walking and travelling in carts, within six days. A ship was started off 
 to the rescue immediately on his arrival, and was just in tune to embark the 
 troops before the river was frozen over. On the occasion of the wreck it was 
 mainly by his gallantry and devotion that the lives of some hundreds of men, 
 women, and children were saved. 
 
 I 
 
Il 
 
 t i 
 
 I 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 
 -'i 
 
 i 
 
 158 
 
 LIFE OF LORD U'OLSELEV. 
 
 of the troops. No sooner had the Melbourne sailed than 
 she showed her unseaworthy 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 impracticable, 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 experiences ; but still it 
 was a peculiarly hard fate that forced him and his shipmates 
 to pass the Christmas Day of 1861, coiled up on tables and 
 benches in the cuddy, while the ' green seas ' washed at 
 their sweet will under and over them, 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 
 HaUfax, 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 AVar 
 Office having determined to send to Canada 10,000 men 
 and 4 batteries of artillery. 
 
 From Halifax Colonel Wolseley and other officers pro- 
 ceeded, by a Cunard mail steamer, to Boston, on their 
 voyage to Montreal. It was feared that the Bo^jton people 
 would be uncivil, and the officers were warned that the 
 lower classes, in the excited state of 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 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 HIS DUTIES AS TRANSPORT OFFICER. 159 
 
 a cold journey during the depth of an inclement winter, 
 arrived at Montreal on a Sunday. On the following morn- 
 ing Colonel Wolseley started off on a journey of 300 
 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 Fusilier Guards and two batteries of 
 artillery, which arrived out in the Hibernian, were tran- 
 shipped 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 Mttle place, the troops 
 passed through at the rate of nearly 200 men a day. It was 
 his task to lodge, feed, and clothe them from the stores 
 placed under his charge, and then to start them off on their 
 long journey by rail. 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 induce- 
 ments were held out to them to forsake the flag of their 
 country, and during the transit they passed close to the 
 American frontier, at one place only a frozen river forming 
 the boundary. In the middle of March, on the completion 
 of his duties at Riviere du Loup, Wolseley returned to 
 Montreal, the headquarters of the army in the Dominion, 
 then under the command of Sir W. F. Williams (of Kars). 
 Soon after these events Colonel McKenzie proceeded to 
 England, and Wolseley acted for some months as Deputy 
 Quartermaster-General, until relieved by ("olonel Lysons."*^ 
 
 ■* Tliis officer, soon after his first arrival in Canada for the purpose of 
 organizing tlic Militia, had returned to England, upon the rejection by the 
 
 i 
 
 9: 
 
 .■y \ 
 
i6o 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 % 
 
 Colonel Wolscley went on leave in the latter part of 
 August, 1862, 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 induced him, instead of enjoy- 
 ing a little well-earned relaxation, to repair to the seat of war 
 then raging in its fiercest intensity between the Federal and 
 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 headquarters 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 un- 
 equalled 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, considerations of 
 danger were not likely to deter Wolseley from carrying out 
 any scheme on which he had set his heart, so he proceeded 
 to lay his plans, and procure letters of introduction to lead- 
 
 Opposition, led by the late Sir George Cartier, of the Govemment Militia 
 lii!!, a measure founded upon the sclicme elaborated by Colonel Lyons at 
 Quebec, and brought forward by the Ministry of !Sir John Macdonald, who 
 resigned upon failing to pass his Bill. 
 
 .>IW,%&44^ 
 
■■ 
 
 WOLSELEY RUNS THE BLOCKADE, 
 
 i6i 
 
 ing Southerners from sympathizers and correspondents. 
 Having first proceeded to New York, he left that city for 
 }3altimorc on the nth of September, and there made 
 arrangements, in conjunction with his friends, for crossing 
 the frontier by ' underground railway,' as the method by 
 which communication 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 messengers, who were 
 wont to ' run the blockade of the ''otomac,' when conveying 
 information between Richmond and the Northern States. 
 There was, however, a difficulty 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 sympathizers. ' Then there was the 
 inevitable portmanteau of civilized life, without which an 
 English gentleman, who has a regard for personal cleanli- 
 ness 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 Hon. 
 Frank Lawley, a brother of Lord Wenlock's, at that time 
 one of the Twics correspondents in America, a clever and 
 adventurous gentleman, and they 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 anyone seeking to 
 cross over into Dixie's Land. Though the Federal gunboats 
 patrolling the river were not as numerous as between July, 
 1863, when the battle of Gettysburg was fought, and April, 
 1865^ at the close of the War, on the other hand, at this 
 
 II 
 
 « 
 
\ 
 
 162 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 i 
 
 
 time, as Mr. Lawley observes, * there was no such organiza- 
 tion for running the blockade between Baltimore and Rich- 
 mond as was established during 1863, and as was available 
 for those rightly initiated into its mysteries until the spring 
 of 1865.' 
 
 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-east 
 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 illumined 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 English- 
 men had to smucrgle themselves from Baltimore to the 
 northern bank, every road and path leading to which 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 Seces- 
 sion sympathizer to another, and as bodies of patrolling 
 cavalry and infantry had at that time regular beats, and 
 
 I 
 
HIS EXPERIENCES CROSSING THE POTOMAC. 163 
 
 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 elude the patrols while pro- 
 ceeding from house to house. ' I travelled,' says Colonel 
 Wolseley,"**" ' about thirty miles a day, until I reached the 
 village from which I had arranged that my 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 different gentlemen's houses, where we were 
 entertained with patriarchal hospitality. It was interesting 
 in some instances to hear the history of these homesteads ; 
 many of them had been built before the Declaration of 
 Independence, and more than one was of brick imported 
 from England. All the proprietors boasted of their I'^nglish 
 •descent from good families, and seemed to attach far greater 
 importance 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. After many dis- 
 appointments, 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 ; though 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 determined 
 
 * See an article in Blackivood's Magazine for January, 1863, entitled ' A 
 Month's Visit to the Confederate Headquarters, by an English Officer.' This 
 is not the only article Colonel Wolseley has written in ' Old Ebony.' 
 
 II — 2 
 
 I 
 
liii 
 
 I 
 
 *»lj 
 
 'ti 
 
 
 164 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELF.Y. 
 
 that we should make for a si)Ot 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 favourable opportunity for steering 
 into the desire' 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 and rushes. Large 
 steamers and gun-vessels of various sizes kept passing and 
 re-j)assing all day ; but none of them seemed to notice our 
 litMc 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. When 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. He 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 7nilcs 
 at night. Several steamers jiassed 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 sight of their light, and 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
HIS EXPERIENCES CROSSING THE POTO.\fAC, 165 
 
 during that time the anxious fiice 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 he should feel alarmed for its safety, there- 
 fore, was not surprising. 
 
 ' As we approached the shore, the wind died away, so we 
 were obliged to punt the 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 neighbouring creek, would throw 
 a light along the waters in all directions ; once we all f:incied 
 that it was approaching nearer to us, and on another occa- 
 sion we thought we heard the sound of oars, and as there 
 was not a breath of wind to help us along, and punting is a 
 slow process, we felt far from comfort:ible. 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. I>awley thus describes the passage across the Potomac, 
 and an interview in the smuggler's cottage with a Federal 
 officer commanding a patrol, which, but for the presence of 
 
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 166 
 
 Z/Fi? OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 mind displayed by our hero, must have proved fatal to the 
 success of their undertaking, if not to their liberty : 
 
 ' We succeeded, one evening at nightfall, in making our 
 way to a cottage which looked down upon the broad and 
 tranquil 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 he 
 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. Meantime, we ad- 
 journed to a village some two or three miles distant, where, 
 what between heat and insects^ we passed an awful night. 
 At noon we were again at our friend's house, and covenanted 
 with a son of Hunt the fisherman, for twenty dollars a piece 
 in gold, that his father's boat would take us on beard that 
 night at ten o'clock, in an adjoining creek, and would land 
 us before daybreak on the Virginian shore. But the inter- 
 vening afternoon brought with it fresh adventures. We 
 were forbidden by our host to leave the house, because the 
 telescopes of the Federals in the neighbouring gunboat were 
 said to be constantly sweeping the shore, and v.'ould infallibly 
 detect the presence of strangers in the little hut. Shortly 
 after two o'clock we were horrified by the sight of a Federal 
 officer, in the well-known blue uniform of the United States 
 army, who was ascending on foot by a little path which led 
 to the house from the river. In his hand he carried a 
 revolver, and behind him followed 7 soldiers, who, with their 
 leader, had just got out of a boat. The consternation of our 
 host during the few seconds of suspci.se before the Federals 
 reached the house, was pitiable in the extreme. There was 
 scant time for consultation, and when the officer looked into 
 the hut and descried Colonel Wolseley and myself, he seemed 
 scarcely less disquieted than oui host. Having in previous 
 years shot canvas-backs and blue-wings on the Potomac, I 
 
T 
 
 mm^ 
 
 
 A CRITICAL MOMENT. 
 
 167 
 
 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 Washing- 
 ton. 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 r.t the neighbouring wharf, by which we might take 
 passage to \Vashington. We parted the best friends, in 
 spite of the whispered remonstrances of a sergeant, who 
 probably thought our a^. ~"ince suspicious, and remarked 
 that we had no guns with u. ' .ong 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 long the trajet seemed to us, as the fishing-boat tacked 
 hither and thither while casting it? nets, and approached un- 
 comfortably 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 had been subsequently caught in currying 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 have blamed the young gentleman who thus allowed 
 so distinguished a British officer as Colonel Wolseley 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 
 
t63 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 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 convey- 
 ance, 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 
 moiiths later, was the scene of 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. Wolseley says : 
 
 'All the carriages were crowded with passengers, of whom 
 a large proportion were the sick and wounded coming from 
 General Lcc's army at Winchester. They had been all day 
 on the railroad, and some of the poor fellows seemed quite 
 worn out with fatigue. My friend and I stood on what is 
 called the platform of the car, during the journey of two 
 hours and a ]\ilf, 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 whose 
 ■pale, haggard faces assumed 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 made by the crowds of men carrying the 
 canteens and calabashes of those whose disabled condition 
 prevented them from assisting themselves. The filth and 
 stench witliin 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, 
 
 
 J i 
 
WOLSKLE Y'S ARRIVAL A T RICHMO.\D. 169 
 
 
 husbands, and lovers. A military guard, with fixed bayonets, 
 was endeavouring to keep order and a clear passage for 
 those on crutches, or limping along with the aid of a stick 
 or the aim of some less severely wounded comrade.' 
 
 The two Englishmen drove off to the Spottiswood Hotel, 
 but were informed that there was not even one room vacant. 
 The same answer was given at the American ; but at the 
 Exchange they obtained a little double-bedded apartment up 
 four flights of stairs. Congress was sitting, so the best apart- 
 ments at most houses were engaged by the members of the 
 Legislature, and wounded men occupied almost all the other 
 available bedrooms. As Wolseley says, when black tea was 
 selling at sixteen dollars a pound, and everything else, except 
 bread and meat, was proportionately expensive, it may be 
 readily imagined that the fare was far from good. Four 
 dollars a day, however, for board and lodging, was not very 
 exorbitant; but no wire or spirits was procurable at any 
 hotel, the manufacture and sale of all intoxicating li(piors 
 having been prohibited by Government. 
 
 On this question of spirits as it concerns the health of 
 soldiers on active service. Colonel Wolseley has always enter- 
 tained opinions in consonance with those of Sir Wilfrid 
 Lawson. and, though no teetotaler, has ever been averse 
 from serving out spirits to troops in the field.* This view 
 he has studiously carried out in the campaigns which he 
 himself has conducted, and he attributes the health enjoyed 
 
 * He remarks: 'When the Confederate army was first enrolled, eacii 
 man received a daily ration of spirits ; but this jiractice has been long since 
 discontinued, and, strange to say, without causing any discontent amongst 
 the men — a practical refutation of the assertion that a certain amount of 
 stinuilants is absolutely necessary for soldiers, and that without it they 
 cannot endure the fatigues of active service. For what army in modern 
 times has made the long marches, day after day, that Jackson's corps of 
 " foot cavalry," as they are facetiously called, have accomplished? Doubtless 
 there are circumstances when an allowance of grog is very beneficial to 
 health — such as bivouacking in swampy places and during heavy rains ; but 
 in ordinary cases, and in hne weather, I am convinced that men will go 
 through as much continuous hard work without any stimulants whatever as 
 with them.' 
 
 ■'.'if 
 
 >',#;- 
 
I70 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \ \ 
 
 %(■ 
 
 II 
 
 d 
 
 r I 
 
 by the troops in the Red River and Ashantcc Expeditions^ 
 in no small degree, to the fact of their ab tention 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 Government, including Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State 
 ' for Foreign Affairs, and General Randolph, the Secretary at 
 War, who was most obliging in furnishing them with passes 
 to go wherever they pleased, and with 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 British officers. 
 
 One can scarcely realize the intensity of the passionate 
 fervour with which the gallant Southerners maintained the 
 unequal conflict with their gigantic opponent. Whatever 
 had been the original cause of the war, it was now, in the 
 oi)inion of Lord Russell, ' a contest for dominion on the 
 l)art of the North, and for independence on the part of the 
 South,' a conclusion which the Times endorsed on the ipth 
 of January, 1862, when it declared that the war was 'a 
 purely political quarrel ;' adding, ' that as the cause of Italy 
 against Austria is the cause of freedom, so also the cause of 
 the South gallantly defending itself against the cruel and 
 desolating invasion of the North, is the cause of freedom. '+ 
 
 * The same applies to the campaign in Egypt, where, under his instruc- 
 tions, only coiTee and a double allowance of tea were served out to his 
 troops, no spirits being allowed to either officers or men. 
 
 f Early in the struggle it was manifest that the Northern < tatesmen and 
 Congress would sacrilice principle to retain the seceding States, for on the 
 3rd of March, 1861, after the formation into a Confederacy of the six States 
 and the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, and on the day preceding the in- 
 stallation of Abraham I^incoln, President Ruchanan and the Congress 
 amended the Constitution in these tei'.is: 'That no amendment shall be 
 
HIS VISIT TO THE SEAT OF WAR, 
 
 171 
 
 
 At the time of Wolseley's arrival at Richmond, the Con- 
 federate army had just returned from the expedition into 
 Maryland, after having fought, on the 17th of September, 
 the sanguinp.ry bu*: inderjsive battle of Antietam, or Sharps- 
 burg ; and he meni ions as an interesting fact, that during a 
 conversation with General Lee, he assured him that through- 
 out the day he never had more than 35,000 men engaged ; 
 and with these he fought a drawn battle with McClellan's 
 host of 90,000 men. General Stonewall Jackson being en- 
 gaged in reducing Harper's Ferry with the remainder of 
 the Confederate army which had crossed the Potomac. 
 While at Richmond, Wolselcy visited the scene of the 
 seven days' desperate fighting wliich took place in its vicinity 
 in the previous June, when, in his opinion, Cieneral Lee 
 showed himself 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 cc verity of 
 the fighcmg there. The debris of all things pertaining to an 
 army, ,vhich lay strewn about 011 the ground camped on by 
 McClellan's troops, was immense. In many places the 
 blackened embers of flour-barrels, clothing-cases, and com- 
 
 made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give Congress power to 
 abolish or inti.rfore within any State witii the institutions thereof, including 
 that of persons held to labour or servitude by tlie laws of the said State." 
 Cordially hating slavery as we do, whetlier in its worst form, as we have 
 seen it on the east coast of Africa, or as a 'domestic institution,' as it ap- 
 peared in the Southern States, we cannot but rejoice that it was crushed out 
 once and for ever from the American Continent. Englishmen should re- 
 member, with humility and shame, that all the misery and bloodshed of this 
 great Civil War was the davuiosa hereditas bequcatlied by our ancestors to 
 our American colonies. Though slaves were first imported into An\erica by 
 the Spanish missionary, Las Casas (who was horrihed by the cruelty with 
 which the Aborigines were treated by the European settlers), it was in 1562, 
 long before the settlement of Virginia, that CJueen Eliziibeth founded a 
 company for its promotion, while Charles !I. made grants of lands to the 
 colonists in proportion to the number of th^ir slaves. William 111. gave 
 further encouragement to slavery; and fmally, in the reign ot George IJ., 
 free trade in slaves was declared. 
 
 '•H 
 
f'. 
 
 A 
 
 I 
 
 172 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 missariat stores covered large spaces, showing the haste 
 with which tlie general retreat was commenced, and the 
 great quantity of stores which it had been 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 on 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 a: Dr; ry's Bluff (or Fort Darling, as 
 it was called in the North), which was attacked by the 
 Monitor^ Galena^ and some other Federal ironclad gunboats, 
 when McClellan's army was on the peninsula. Captain Lee, 
 formerly of the Jnited States Navy (brother to General R. 
 Lee, and father to General Fitzhugh Lee), was in command 
 of the troops and position, and showed them round the 
 works, pointing out all the new improvements in guns, car- 
 riages, and projectiles. Wolseley also inspected the Rich- 
 mofid (or Merrunac, No. 2), and was astonished at the 
 success of the efforts of the Southerners in the art of ship- 
 building and the manufacture of gunpowder and other 
 munitions of war. 
 
 Having been furnished by the War Minister with letters 
 of introduction to General Lee, and the necessary passes, 
 Colonel AVolseley and his companion left Richmond by the 
 Virginia Central Railroad, and reached Staunton in the even- 
 ing. This place, owing to the war, was in a forlorn con- 
 dition ; no business wis doing, and Wolseley searched in 
 vain through a number of shops for such common domestic 
 utensils as a teapot or kettle of any description. Being the 
 railway terminus, and the commencement of the turnpike- 
 road line of communication with the army, Staunton had 
 become an entrepot for stores, waggons, and ambulances, 
 
EXPERIENCES OF TRAVEL. 
 
 173 
 
 and most of the best houses had been converted into 
 hospitals. 
 
 No other means of transport being available, they suc- 
 ceeded, with some difficulty, in getting permission to pro- 
 ceed in an ambulance cart, one of a train of thirteen 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. Not more 
 than five-and mty miles were made the first day, and a 
 halt was called for the night in a field a few miles short of 
 F^urrisonburg. The night was cold, with a heavy dew, but 
 thty soon lighted good fires, and, squatting around them, 
 made themselves tolerably comfortable. The waggon 
 would only admit of two sleeping in it, so one of theii party 
 of three had to lie on the ground with his feet to the fire in 
 correct bivouac fashion. 
 
 The following night the ambulance-train halted between 
 Mount Jackson and Woodstock, and, on the third night, at 
 Middletown, about thirteen miles from Winchester. It had 
 been raining all day, and the prospect of a bivouac was far 
 from agreeable, so Wolseley and his t>v'o companions — one 
 a Southerner — shouldered their baggage and marched for 
 the inn at the village. As usual, the place was crowded to 
 excess, so, tired, wet, and hungry, two of his companions, 
 one carrying a candle, sallied forth in search of a lodging 
 for the night, while Wolseley mounted sentry over their 
 traps. At length, an old vvoman consented to give them 
 shelter, and was most kind and attentive. 
 
 On the fourth day after leaving Winchester"* they arrived 
 
 * Wolseley remarks in his Journal : ' Every clay during our journey to 
 Winchester we passed batches of convalescents marching to join the army 
 many of wliom were totally unfit for any work, and also batclies of sick and 
 wounded going to the rear. It was an extremely painful sight to see such 
 numbers of weakly men struggling slowly home, many of them without 
 boots or shoes, and all indifferently clad ; but posts were established every 
 
 •.-'H' 
 
 i 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 at Staunton, and, having procured passes from the Provost- 
 Marshal, without which no one could have passed the guards 
 posted on all the roads, proceeded to General Lee's head- 
 quarters, which were close to the Martinsburg road, about 
 six miles from Winchester. Colonel Wolseley and his friend 
 presented their letter to the Adjutant-General, by whom 
 they were introduced to the famous Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Confederate forces, who received them with kind- 
 ness and the stately courtesy for which he was remarkable. 
 Of General Lee, and the impression he created in his mind, 
 Wolseley says : * He is a strongly-built man, about five feet 
 eleven in height, and apparently not more than fifty years of 
 age. His hair and beard are nearly white ; but his dark- 
 brown eyes still shine with all the brightness of youth, and 
 beam with a most pleasing expression. Indeed, his whole 
 face is kindly and benevolent in the highest degree. In 
 manner, though sufficiently conversible, he is slightly re- 
 served ; but he is a person that, wherever seen, whether in 
 a castle or a hovel, alone or in a crowd, must at once attract 
 attention as being a splendid specimen of an English gentle- 
 man, with one of the most rarely handsome faces I ever saw. 
 He had had a fall during the Maryland Expedition, from 
 which he was not yet recovered, and which still crippled his 
 right hand considerably. We sat with him for a long time 
 in his tent, conversing upon a variety of topics, the state of 
 
 seventeen miles along the road, containing commissariat supplies for pro- 
 visioning them. Into whatever camp you go, you are sure to see tents, 
 carts, horses, and guns all marked with the " U. S." Officers have declared 
 to me that they have seen whole regiments go into action with smooth-bore 
 muskets and without great-coats, and known them in the evening to be well 
 provided with everything — having changed their old muskets for rifles ! 
 '1 he Northern prisoners we passed on the road were well clothed in the 
 regular blue frock-coat and light-blue trousers, whilst their mounted guard 
 wore every variety — jackets or coats, it seemed to matter little to them ; and, 
 indeed, many rode along in their shirt-sleeves, as gay and happy as if they 
 were decked with gold and the richest trappings.' As General Lee said to 
 Wolseley, when alluding to the ragged uniforms of his soldiers : ' There is 
 one attitude in which I should never be ashamed for you to see my men — 
 that is to say, when they fight.' 
 
 I 
 
mmm 
 
 A T GENERA L LEE'S HEADQ UARTERS. 1 7 5 
 
 public afTairs being of course the leading one. You have 
 only to be in his society for a very brief period to be con- 
 vinced that whatever he says may be implicitly relied upon, 
 and that he is quite incapable of departing from the truth 
 under any circumstances.' 
 
 Wolscley, who had seen so many French and British 
 armies in the field, was greatly struck with the marked 
 absence of all the ' pomp and circumstance of glorious 
 war ' at General Lee's headquarters. ' They consisted,* he 
 says, ' of about seven or eight pole-tents, pitched with their 
 backs to a stake fence, upon a piece of ground so rocky that 
 it was unpleasant to ride over it — its only recommendation 
 being a little stream of good water which flowed close by 
 the General's tent. In front of the tents were some three or 
 four wheeled waggons, drawn up without any regularity. No 
 guard or sentries were to be seen in the vicinity, and no 
 crowd of aides-de-camp loitering about. A large farm-house 
 stands close by, which, in any other army, would have been 
 the General's residence ; but as no liberties are allowed to be 
 taken with personal property in Lee's army, he is particular 
 in setting a good example himself. His staff were crowded 
 together two or three in a tent : none are allowed to carry 
 more baggage than a small box each, and his own kit is but 
 very little larger. Everyone who approaches him does so 
 with marked respect, although there is none of that bowing 
 and flourishing of forage-caps which occurs in the presence 
 of European Generals ; and whilst all honour him and place 
 implicit faith in his courage and ability, those with whom he 
 is most intimate feel for him the affection of sons to a 
 father. Old General Scott was correct in saying that when 
 Lee joined the Southern cause, it was worth as much as the 
 accession of 20,000 men. Though his house on the 
 Pamunky river was burnt to the ground, and his residence 
 on the Arlington Heights not only gutted of its furniture, 
 
 1 ^^^K 
 
 1 ^^B 
 
 " ;1 
 
 I^B' 
 
 ~i5^ 
 
 f 
 
 
 *.;■■ 
 
 
I 
 
 
 
 ,* 
 
 
 p 
 
 % 
 
 M 
 
 W 
 
 If 
 
 K 
 
 •^ 
 
 176 
 
 ZZ/^^" OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 but even the very relics of George Wasliington were stolen 
 from it and j^aradecl in triumph in the saloons of New York 
 and Boston, he neither evinced any bitterness of feeling, nor 
 gave utterance to a single violent expression, but alluded to 
 many of his former friends and companions amongst the 
 Northerners in the kindest terms. He spoke as a man proud 
 of the victories won by his country, and confident of ultimate 
 success under the blessing of the Almighty, whom he glorified 
 for past successes, and whose aid he invoked for all future 
 operations. He regretted that his limited supply of tents 
 and available accommodation would prevent him from 
 putting us up, but he kindly placed at our disposal horses, 
 or a two-horsed waggon, if we preferred it, to drive about in.' 
 Upon leaving General Lee, they drove to Bunker's Hill, 
 six miles nearer Martinsburg, where that extraordinary raan, 
 General Stonewall Jackson, had his headquarters. With 
 him they passed a most pleasant hour, and were agreeably 
 surprised to find him very affable, having been led to expect 
 that he was silent and almost morose. Wolselcy's descrip- 
 tion of this noble soldier, whose loss, soon after, dealt an 
 irreparable blow to the Confederate cause, is graphic and 
 full of interest : * Dressed in his grey uniform, he looks 
 the hero that he is ; and his thin compressed lips and calm 
 glance, which meets yours unflinchingly, gave evidence of 
 that firmness and decision of character for which he is so 
 famous. He has a broad open forehead, from which the 
 hair is well brushed back ; a shapely nose, straight and long; 
 thin colourless cheeks, with only a very sniall allowance of 
 whisker ; a cleanly shaven upper lip and chin ; and a pair 
 of fine greyish-blue eyes, rather sunken, with overhanging 
 brows, which intensify the keenness of his gaze, but without 
 imparting 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 
 
■p 
 
 WOLSELE Y ON GENERA L J A CKSON. 1 77 
 
 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 developed in him ; and though his conversation 
 u 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 onmipresent 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 per- 
 fectly insensible to fatigue, and reckon on success as a 
 moral certainty. '■"■ 
 
 The army at Winchester v/as composed of two corps 
 d'armce under the command of Generals Jackson and Long- 
 street, 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 : ' 1 re- 
 marked that, however slovenly the dress of the men of any 
 
 * Wolseley thus analyzes the nature of the different feelings with which these 
 two remarkable soldiers inspired their devoted followers: 'Whilst Lee is 
 regarded in the light of the infallible Jove, a man to be reverenced, Jackson 
 is loved and adored with all that childlike and trustful affection which the 
 ancients are said to have lavished upon the particular deity presiding over 
 their affairs. The feeling of the soldiers for General Lee resembles that 
 which Wellington's troops entertained for him — namely, a fixed and un- 
 shakable faith in all he did, and a calm confidence of victory when serving 
 under him. But Jackson, like Napoleon, is idolized with that intense fervour 
 which, consisting of mingled personal attachment and devoted loyalty, causes 
 them to meet death for his sake, and bless him wlien dying.' 
 
 12 
 
Sk?* 
 
 178 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 particular company 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 hi.ve seen 
 many armies file past in all the pomp of bright clothing and 
 well-polished accoutrements ; but I never saw one composed 
 of finer men, or that looked more like 7uork, than that 
 portion of General Lee's army which I was fortunate enough 
 to see inspected.' 
 
 Wolseley saw but little of the Confederate cavalry, as 
 General vSteuar<- had left for his raid into Pennsylvania the 
 day he reached headcjuarters, and only returned a couple of 
 days before he commenced his homeward journey. He 
 remarked, however, 'that though their knowledge of drill 
 is limited, ail the men ride 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 nth of September, and had to 
 report himself at Montreal on the expira 'on 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 p pleasanter time than 
 when ' running the blockade,' with its attendant 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 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 in 
 the Crimea seven years before. His exertions on foot 
 
 i. 
 
 I 
 
 * 
 
 i 
 
'I 
 
 THE CAMP OF INSTRUCTION. 
 
 179 
 
 caused the wound to open afresh, and, under medical 
 advice, he was constrained to proceed to England Here 
 he placed himself under the eminent surgeon, Sir William 
 Fergusson. There was considerable exfoliation of the right 
 shin-bone, and he did not begin to mend until after Sir 
 William had cut out the part affected. Wolseley icturned 
 to Canada in the spring of 1863, and resumed his duties as 
 Assistant Quartermaster-General, under Colonel Lysons. 
 
 In the autumn of 1S65 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 
 organize the local forces, established a Camp of Instruction 
 for cadets, in order to test the efficiency of the training im- 
 parted 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 ap- 
 pointed I'im to command the first Camp of Instruction 
 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 Wol- 
 seley's orders, and quartermasters and sergeant-majors were 
 appointed permanently to battalions from among the dis- 
 charged non-commissioned officers resident 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. The cadets of the Toronto 
 school, and the schools west of Toronto, numbering 366, 
 were formed into the right battalion ; the cadets of the 
 Kingston school, and the English-speaking cadets of the 
 Montieal and Quebec schools. 334, composed the centre 
 
 12 — 2 
 
 .'if 
 
■' '1 1 
 
 i8o 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 battalion ; and the cadets of French-Canadian origin com- 
 posed the left battalion, 405 strong. 
 
 Ly utilizing the small barrack at La Prairie, Colonel Wol- 
 seley was enabled to place each battalion under canvas 
 during two weeks, and in quarters one week.* 
 
 The late Sir James Lindsay, then commanding the Mon- 
 treal Division, marched into La Prairie on the 4th of Oc- 
 tober, with the 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 Artillery 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 fi'lly corroborate Colonel Wol- 
 seley'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 fol- 
 lowing 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 cadets, among whom were three French-Canadian Members of 
 Parliament, and one Upper Canadian Member, also Lord Aylmer, and 
 several gentlemen holding tlie rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Sedentary 
 Militia, and officers who had served in the Regular Army, fell into the usual 
 routine of camp life with surjirising readiness ; and though their duties were 
 precisely the same as those performed i)y 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 ps 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 Military Schools which had been established 
 in the Province. 
 
 i 
 
THE FENIAN INVASION. 
 
 i8i 
 
 the experiment. It was a charge requiring unusually deli- 
 cate 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 night of the 31st 
 of May, the Fenian leader, ' General ' O'Neil, crossed the 
 Niagara river with about 1,200 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 intelligence of this daring act the whole 
 Dominion was thrown into a perfect fever of indignation 
 and patriotic ardour. The call to arms was responded to 
 by all classes, 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 service 14,000 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 20,000 men under arms. Not- 
 withstanding that the season of the year entailed heavy 
 sacrifices on those of the Volunteers who were business 
 men, all joined with eagerness ; and, ' experience has 
 shown,' wrote the Adjutant-General, ' that, in the event of 
 a regular invasion, 100,000 men, in addition to the Volun- 
 teer force, would eagerly come forward in forty-eight hours 
 to aid in defending the country.' 
 
 When the news of the Fenian invasion arrived at Mon- 
 treal, Colonel Wolseley, under orders from Sir John Michel, 
 started thence for Toronto, and joined a column of regular 
 troops, consisting of a battery of Artillery and the i6th and 
 
L 
 
 I? 2 
 
 LTFE OF LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 47th Regiments, under the command of Colonel Lowry, of 
 the 47th, which was about to start to attack the Fenians. 
 The column anived 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 different 
 must it have been had the inexperienced 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, 
 the 1 6th Regiment, and two battalions of Canadian Militia. 
 
 But there was no further attempt at invasion by the 
 Fenians, and when Wolseley's brigade was broken up, he 
 returned to Montreal. He had scarcely resumed his duties 
 when, in the autumn of this year (1866), he was placed in 
 command of a Camp of Observation, consisting of the i6th 
 E.egiment, two troops of Volunteer Cavalry, and three 
 battalions of Militia, at Thorold, near St. Catherine's, on 
 the Welland Canal, which the Fenians had expressed 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 organization, and Wolseley had very re- 
 sponsible 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 
 
 * At eight a.m. on the 2nd of June two battalions of Canadian Militia, the 
 •Hamilton' and 'Queen's Own' Volunteers, marching from Toronto, 
 attaci<cd the Fenians at Ridgeway, between Forts Cockbtirn and Erie ; but, 
 though tliere was no lack of entiiusiasm and gallantry, the commander was 
 inexperienced, and the ammunition failed. 'I'lie 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 tlie river, when many of them were captured by an 
 United States war-steamer. 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
THE 'SOLDIERS POCKET BOOK: 
 
 183 
 
 
 nearly all the Militia of Upper Canada passed through his 
 hands. Three battalions, of about 1,000 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 
 principal military centres, fully equipped, and in constant 
 readiness to turn out should their services be required. 
 Colonel Wolseley was sent to Toronto, where he organized 
 the Toronto Brigade; but in April, 1867, when matters 
 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 almost 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' term of service expired in the autumn of 
 1867, and, in September, Wolseley returned to the Dominion 
 as Deputy Quartermaster-General, being, as we were assured 
 by his predecessor, the youngest officer who was ever 
 nominated to fill that responsible post. He came home to 
 England, on two months' private leave, in 1868, and during 
 his stay occurred an important event in his life, his mar- 
 riage with Miss Erskine, who accompanied him on his 
 return to Canada. 
 
 In the following year was published his ' Soldier's Pocket 
 
 
 ■it; 
 
!!■ 
 
 i;> 
 
 184 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Book for Field Service,'* which is considered in the army a 
 standard authority. This invaluable 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 
 army, from the private v/ho wants information how to keep 
 his accoutrements clean or to cook a beafsteak, to the 
 ' non-combatant ' officer in search of 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 iiieciun, 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 estab- 
 lishment of an Intelligence Department, the most important 
 section of the Military Staff. 
 
 * The preface to tlic first edition of tlie 'Soldier's Pocket Book' was 
 written in Canada, and dated ' Montreal, March, 1869.' A second edition 
 of tliis work was issued in 1871, and a tliird and revised edition in 1875, 
 •ind a fourth in 1882. Woiscley is also the author of a 'Field Pocket 
 Book for the Auxiliary Forces,' a work of more recent date. 
 
 
 r 
 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 'i 1. 
 
 THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 
 
 The Red River Expedition. — The Organization of the Force, and Start for 
 Thunder Ray. — The Rond thence to the Sliebandowan ^."ikc. — Down the 
 I^ake, and across the ' Portages' to Fort Frances.- — Rrnning the Rapids 
 of the Winnipeg River to Fort Alexander. — Tiie Arrival at Fort Garry. — 
 Success of the Fxpedition. — Return of Sir Garnet Wolseley to ICngland, 
 
 Early in 1870, the troubles on the Red River became of 
 so pressing a nature that the Dominion Government, with 
 the consent of the Home Colonial Office, determined on 
 sending an expedition to restore the Queen's authority in 
 that Settlement. The consensus of public opinion in the 
 Colony pointed to Colonel Wolseley, who was exceedingly 
 popular among all classes of the Canadians, and in an 
 especial degree commanded the confidence of the Militia, 
 as the fittest officer to lead a combined force of Regulars 
 and Volunteers, and Major-General Hon. James Tindsay* 
 accordingly nominated him to the command of the Red 
 River Expedition. + After eighteen years' service. Colonel 
 
 * On the abolition of the divisional commands at Montreal and Toronto, 
 and the withdrawal of all British troops from the Dominion to Halifax, 
 General l^indsay had proceeded to iMigland, and at this time held the jiost 
 of Inspector-General of Reserve Forces at the Horse (iuards, only returning 
 to Ganada to organize and despatch the Red River I'orci', and to make the 
 necessary arrangements for handing over to the Dominion authorities the 
 Government military buildings and inatdriel of war. 
 
 t In writing this portion of the MeniDir we are indebted to the following 
 sources : The late Captain Huyshe's • The Red River ICxpedition ;' to a 
 'Narrative' published in Blackivood' a Mai^iizhw, written by Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley himself; to the private journal of Mr. M. H. Irvine, C.R, C.M.Ci., 
 in charge of the Control Department of the ICxpedition ; to that officer's 
 official 'Report on the Red River Expedition of 1870;' to Colonel Wol- 
 
M^H 
 
 
 i|. 
 
 186 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE Y 
 
 Wolseley found himself entrusted with supreme command, 
 thus, at length, being afforded the opportunity of achieving 
 distinction for which, as an ambitious soldier, confident in 
 his own capacity for independent command, he had long 
 been sighing. 
 
 The Red River Territory, the inhabited portion of which, 
 called the Red River Settlement, now forms a portion of 
 the province of Manitoba, is a large tract lying nearly in the 
 centre of IJritish North America, and receives its name from 
 the Red River. Fort Garry — which is situated close to 
 Winnipeg, the capital, on the left bank of the Red River, 
 where it is joined by the Assiniboine — is only sixty miles 
 from the United States frontier, and therefore is easily 
 accessible to citizens of the Republic desirous of fomenting 
 troubles, or to disloyal British subjects. Owing to its 
 geographical position, the Settlement is completely isolated 
 from the outside world, as the nearest railway station in 
 Canada is 900 miles distant, as 'the crow flies,' and the 
 railway system of the United States is also some hundreds 
 of miles to the southward.* The inhabited portion, or 
 Settlement, is merely the strip lying along the banks of the 
 Red River, and of its affluent, the Assiniboine ; its popula- 
 tion at the beginning of 1870, exclusive of Indians, numbered 
 about 15,000 souls, a large proportion of whom were French 
 ' half-breeds,' as the descendants of European fathers and 
 Indian mothers are called. 
 
 The Red River Territory had long been under the rule of 
 
 seley's ' Correspondence relative to the recent Expedition to tlie Red River 
 Settlement, with Journal of Operations' — both these latter being in the 
 Blue Book presented to the Houses of Parliament. Also to a Lecture de- 
 livered by Captain Huyshe at the Royal United Service Institution, on the 
 2oth of January, 1871 (which appears in No. 62, Vol. XV., of the Journal), 
 the first part of which, treating of the origin of the expedition and organiza- 
 tion of the force, was written by Colonel Wolseley. 
 
 * This was written nine years ago, since which vast changes have occurred 
 in these regions. 
 
 
THE DIFFICULTY ON THE RED RIVER. 187 
 
 the Hudson's Bay Company, which, in 1670, had received a 
 charter from Charles II., granting them sovereign rights over 
 a vast extent of country, the geographical limits of which 
 were not clearly defined. After many years of fruitless 
 negotiations between Canada and this great trading commu- 
 nity, a three-cornered arrangement was arrived at, England 
 acting as a sort of go-between, by which the vast territories, 
 officially known as Rupert's Land, together with all territorial 
 rights, were first transferred, on paper, to this country, and 
 then made over, by royal proclamation, to the Confederation 
 of the North American Provinces, which paid to the Hudson's 
 Bay Company the sum of ;^3oo,ooo, the transfer to take 
 effect from the ist of December, 1869. It appears that in 
 these negotiations the people of the Red River Settlement 
 were consulted by neither the Canadian statesmen nor the 
 directors of the Hudson's Bay Company sitting in London. 
 They, and the French half-breeds in particular, naturally 
 resented such cavalier treatment, and when, in 1869, the 
 Canadian Government sent thither a surveying party, some 
 eighteen half-breeds, under Louis Riel, compelled them to 
 quit the country. 
 
 The Dominion Government nominated to the post of 
 Lieutenant-Governor Mr. W. McDougall; but the people 
 refused to acknowledge him, and, on the 24th of November, 
 Riel took possession of Fort Garry, and assumed the Presi- 
 dency of the so-called 'Repu'olic of the North-West.' The 
 Canadian Government then sent Mr. Donald Smith to Fort 
 Garry as Special Commissioner, but his mission proved 
 abortive. Riel now conducted himself with great violence, 
 and, on the 4th of March, executed, after a sham court- 
 martial, a man named Thomas Scott, who formed one 
 of a party of loyal English and Scotch half-breeds, who 
 had attempted to effect the release of some sixty British 
 subjects illegally confined in Fort Garry. Scott's execu- 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 : 
 
 i 
 
 » 
 1 
 
 
 
 f 
 
1 88 
 
 LTFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 tion aroused a feeling of intense indignation throughout 
 Canada. 
 
 In the meantime, Colonel Wolseley had prepared an able 
 Report, in which he entered into minute details regarding 
 the composition, equipment, and organization of the force, 
 as well as its victualling, clothing, and transport. Equally 
 important with the question of the organization of the Expe- 
 ditionary Force, was the question of its leader ; and when v 
 was announced that Colonel AVolseley was to command, 
 there was a chorus of approval from the Canadian public 
 and press, and it was universally felt that the success of the 
 ex])edition was already assured. It was decided that the 
 force was to consist of 1,200 men, and that the Home 
 Government should bear one-fourth of the charges. The 
 Dominion Government were to raise two battalions of Militia, 
 each of which, as in the case of the 60th Rifles, was to 
 consist of seven companies of 50 men each, with the object 
 of making them more handy for boat service, with 3 officers 
 per company. 
 
 On the 4th of May, 1870, Colonel Wolseley left Montreal 
 for Toronto to organize the column. Thence he proceeded 
 to Collingwood, on the shores of Lake Huron, 94 miles dis- 
 tant from Toronto, accompanied by Mr. S. J. Dawson, the 
 able executive officer of the Public Works Department, 
 whose services had been placed at Colonel Wolseley's dis- 
 posal by the Canadian Government. 
 
 Almost insuperable were the difficulties involved in trans- 
 porting a large armed force, with all the jnatcriel of war, a 
 distance of 600 miles, through rivers and lakes, and over no 
 less than 47 ' portages ' — a word applied to the breaks in the 
 navigation between two lakes, or between a river and a lake 
 — across which everything had to be ' portaged,' or carried 
 on men's backs, a necessity which caused a most serious 
 addition to the labours of the route, as the portages varied 
 
 t 
 
THE ROUTE TO FORT GARRY. 
 
 189 
 
 in length from 20 yards to 1% mile. Of the entire dis- 
 tance of 600 miles, 48 only — that from Thunder Bay 
 to Lake Shebandowan — was by land transport, over a road 
 only partially constructed by Mr. Dawson. From Lake 
 Shebandowan to Lake of the Woods was a distance of 310 
 miles by rivers and lakes, with about 17 portages, and from 
 thence to Fort Garry was only about too miles in a straight 
 line by land ; but, says Wolseley, ' there was only a road 
 made for about 60 miles of that distance, the unmade portion 
 being laid OMt over most difficult swamps. If, therefore, the 
 troops could not advance by that route, as was subsequently 
 found to be the case, the only other way of reaching Manitoba 
 was via the Winnipeg River, the navigation of which was 
 known to be so difficult and dangerous that none but expe- 
 rienced guides ever attempted it. 'I'here weie aaout 30 
 portages in the extra 160 miles thus added to the total length 
 of the distance to be traversed.' 
 
 The distance to Fort Garry might thus have been shortened 
 by 160 miles, had it been possible to adopt the former route, 
 which struck off towards the fort from the north-west angle 
 of the Lake of the Woods ; but the wisdom of Wolseley's 
 adopting the route by Lake Winnipeg was amply proved 
 when, on his arrival at Fort Garry, Colonel Bolton, whom he 
 sent to inspect the direct road to the Lake of the Woods, 
 reported that the last 2>Z miles had not yet been cut, and 
 that there were such heavy morasses and thick woods, that 
 only a small body of men could get through.* Considering 
 all the enormous obstacles to the transport of stores and 
 
 * There was a second route to Fort Garry, employed by the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, who landed at York Factory in Hudson Bay, and ascended the 
 Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg. This had been made use of in tlie con- 
 veyance of small bodies of troops, which, on two occasions, under Colonel 
 Crofton and Major Seton, had been quartered at Fort Garry. Hut these 
 had never exceeded a few hundred men, and the whole resources of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company had been placed at their disposal. Again, the sea 
 off York Factory is only free from ice about six weeks in the year, and the 
 navigation of the Arctic Ocean is both difficult and dangerous. 
 
 Li 
 
 1 iV 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 warlike materiel^ Colonel Wolselcy exhibited throughout the 
 expedition a patience, energy, and forethought that stamj) 
 him as a true leader of men. Often during the long and 
 weary march the spirits of his officers and men were seriously 
 affected !)y the difficulties of the route ; more than once it 
 was anticipated by all that the expedition would have to be 
 abandoned ; but, as we were told by an officer who accom- 
 panied Colonel Wolselcy, and had the best opportunity of 
 daily judging of his temper and intentions throughout the 
 expedition, he alone never once lost heart, but was always 
 cheerful and confident, and bent on pushing on. 
 
 The country between Lake Superior and Red River was 
 known to be a wilderness of poor timber, lakes, rivers, and 
 rocks, and to be uninhabited except by wandering tribes of 
 Chippewa Indians. From Collingwood, on T>ake Huron, to 
 Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior,* whence this long journey 
 of 600 miles was to commence, was a further distance of 534 
 miles, the communication being through a broad channel 
 called St. Mary's River, about 50 miles in length, which 
 forms the boundary between the American State of Michigan 
 and British territory. There is a canal on the American 
 side, by which some rapids in the river can be avoided, but 
 the American authorities at first refused to allow the troops 
 and stores to pass through the canal. Everything had to be 
 landed on the Canadian side of the rapids, transported by 
 land across a three-mile * portage,' and re-embarked again at 
 the upper end on board a second steamer. Subsequently, 
 this unfriendly order was withdrawn, and a free passage was 
 allowed to all articles not contraband of war. 
 
 Colonel R. J. Fielden, of the 60th Rifles, second in 
 command of the expedition, was, meanwhile, engaged in 
 raising and organizing two battalions of Canadian Militia. 
 
 * The great lake system of America extends t,o85 milei in length from 
 Kingston on Lake Ontario to Fort William on Lake Superior, covering an 
 area of 80,000 square miles, or more than the superficies of Great Britain. 
 
 ,. ,-i;.U, 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE EXPEDITION. 191 
 
 The force* consisted of — ist battalion 6olh Rifles, 26 
 officers and 350 men, under Colonel Fielden ; ist, or 
 Ontario, Militia, 28 officers and 350 men, under T.ieut.- 
 Colonel Jarvis ; 2nd, or Quebec, Militia, 28 officers and 
 350 men, under Lieut. -Colonel Casault. Lieutenant Alleyne, 
 R.A., and 19 men, with 4 7-pounder bronze mountain 
 guns; I>ieutenant Heneage, R.A., and 19 men; Army 
 Service Corps, 12 men, and Army Hospital Corps, 8 men. 
 The total of all ranks was 1,214, with about 400 ToyageurSy 
 and 100 teamsters. The voyageurs were collected by Mr. 
 Dawson, but a large portion of them were found to be 
 utterly ignorant of the management of boats; about 100 
 of the number were Irroquois Indians, from villages near 
 Montreal, who were fully capable of navigating boats in 
 rapid water, and indeed without their services the expedition 
 could not have been conducted. Two hundred boats were 
 specially constructed under the directions of Mr. Dawson, 
 and were on an average from 25 to 32 feet long, from 6 to 7 
 broad, with a draught, when loaded, of 20 to 30 inches, and 
 a carrying capacity of from 2\ to 4 tons. Their crews, 
 as subsequently arranged, consisted of from 8 to 9 officers 
 and soldiers, and 2 voyageurs. The boats were fitted with 
 masts and sails, in addition to oars, and with arm-chests 
 for the rifles of the men and officers,! who were armed 
 with breech-loading carbines in lieu of swords. In addition 
 to this ' Boat Transport Corps ' was the Land Transport 
 
 * The staff officers of tlie force were : Chaplain Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, 
 and Lieut. V. C. Denison, Militia, orderly officers; Lieut. -Colonel liolton, 
 R.A., Deputy Assistant-Adjutant-General, and Major McLeod, of the 
 Militia, his assistant. Lieut. -Colonel J. C. McNeill, V.C. , 48th Regiment, 
 Military Secretary of the Governor-Cieneral, was, at his request, attached to 
 the staff. Surgeon-Major Young, M.D. , was principal medical officer, with 
 a staff of four assistant-surgeons. The chief control officer was Assistant- 
 Controller M. B. Irvine, a member of a Canadian family, assisted by 6 
 commissaries, and 3 officers of the lately dissolved Royal Canadian Rifles, 
 and I from the Militia, who were attached for transport duties. 
 
 t The luggage of officers, without distinction of rank, was restricted to 
 90 lb. , including cooking utensils, bedding, etc. , which were carried in two 
 waterproof bags. 
 
::i 
 
 .;! 
 
 If 
 
 \^-i 
 
 192 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 Corps, for the carriage of boats and stores from Thunder 
 Bay to Lake Shebandovvan, which consisted of 150 horses, 
 100 teamsters, a number of waggons and carts, and about 
 36 draughtsmen. 
 
 A multiphcity of articles had to be supplied for the 
 comfort of the men, such as waterproof kit-bags, mocassins, 
 cases of mosquito oil, and veils of fine black netting to 
 protect the face and head from the attacks of flies. The 
 utmost care and forethought were expended in the organiza • 
 tion of the little force, which required multitudinous details 
 for the different species of transport — by railway, steamer, 
 land-carriage, and boats. Colonel Wolseley looked to every- 
 thing himself, considering no detail too small to engage his 
 time and attention. 
 
 Between the 6th and 12th of May he was busily engaged 
 at Toronto in organizing the expedition, selecting horses, 
 and completing the two battalions of Militia. General 
 Lindsay furnished Colonel Wolseley with instructions for 
 his guidance, in which, however, ' the detail of the arrange- 
 ments for an advance of the force and transport of stores ' 
 were left to his discretion ; and, on the 14th of May, v>lxen 
 everything was ready for the start, Wolseley issued his 
 ' Standing Orders for the Red River Expeditionary Force,' 
 a lengthy and able paper, drawn up under <^hirty-four heads, 
 which completely and fully met every requirement as it 
 arose during the long march of 600 miles. 
 
 At noon of the same day two companies of the Ontario 
 Rifles left Toronto for the Sault St. Marie, under Coionel 
 Bolton, to complete the road across the portage, and get 
 the stores re-shipped on Lake Superior. Owing to tele- 
 graphic information from Ottawa respecting Fenian intentions 
 to annoy the expeditionary force. Colonel Wolseley, on the 
 1 6th, sent two more companies of the Ontario Rifles to join 
 Colonel Bolton's camp, and it is certain that had he not 
 
ARRIVAL AT THUNDER BAY. 
 
 193 
 
 :1 
 
 thus early taken steps to frustrate the purposes of those 
 doughty warriors, who soon afterwards made a raid on the 
 Huntingdon Border, an effort would have been made to 
 destroy the stores accumulated at the Sault, which, had it 
 been successful, would have probably deferred the enter- 
 prise for another year. On the 21st of May, Colonel 
 Wolseley, accompanied by his staff, with a company of the 
 60th Rifles, quitted Toronto amid the hearty good wishes of 
 all classes of the community ; the headquarters and four 
 more companies of the Rifles followed the same day, and the 
 expedition was now fairly started. 
 
 The Chicora, with Colonel Wolseley on board, having 
 landed the troops and military equipment at the Sault 
 St. Marie, and steamed over to the American side to pass 
 through the canal, again re-embarked the soldiers and 
 Colonel Wolseley at the upper end of the rapids, and, 
 steaming across the broad bosom of Lake Superior, anchored, 
 on the 25th of May, in Thunder Bay, off the end of the 
 road leading to Lake Shebandowan. On its shores, at the 
 mouth of the Kaministiquia River, is the Hudson's Bay 
 Company's post of Fort William, and, about four miles 
 farther on, was a small clearing with a few wooden huts and 
 tents, which marked the first stage of the march to Fort 
 Garry. The scenery was calculated to have a most de- 
 pressing effect on the spirits of officers and men, as a great 
 forest fire had recently raged over the country, destroying 
 all vegetation, and leaving only the tall, gaunt, and blackened 
 trunks of the huge trees to greet the eyes of visitors to this 
 desolate shore. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley immediately landed, and gave to the 
 spot the name of * Prince Arthur's Landing,' in honour of 
 his Royal Highness, who was then serving in Canada with 
 his regiment, the Rifle Brigade. The troops and camp 
 equipment were disembarked by means of a large ^ scow,' 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and by ten p.m. the work was completed, an earnest of 
 what was to follow. 
 
 The following anecdote, illustrative of Wolseley's readi- 
 ness of resource and unvarying cheerfulness and bonhomie^ 
 was told us by one of the heads of departments. On dis- 
 embarking, it was found that in the hurry of re-embarking 
 the military stores on the Lake Superior side of the Sault 
 St. Marie portage, though the tents and camp equipage 
 belonging to the 6oth Rifles and Headquarter Staff had been 
 brought, all the tent-poles had been left behind. The chief 
 Control officer had expected rn explosion of ill-humour at 
 the oversight ; but, on reporting the circumstance to 
 Colonel Wolseley with some trepidation, he was met with a 
 hearty laugh, and the query, ' You have not forgotten the 
 axes too ?' Receiving a reply in the negative, he promptly 
 added, pointing to the primeval forest around the landing- 
 place, * Tnen you can help yourself to as many tent-poles 
 as you require.' This cheery way of regarding a simple 
 omission had the best possible effect among the ofificers and 
 men, and encouraged them to exert themselves and merit 
 the confidence of a chief who only encountered difficulties 
 to overcome them. 
 
 Wolseley's experience as an old campaigner was of 
 essential service in a way that would never have entered 
 into the philosophy of a general officer of the Horse- 
 Guards type. His domestic arrangements, as regards kit 
 and cooking utensils, were identical with those of the other 
 officers of the force, and thus it happened that to Lieutenant 
 Riddell, of the 6oth Rifles, was relegated the duty of cook- 
 ing the dinner of the Commander. This young officer had 
 no personal knowledge of the most important of all the arts, 
 so that when he came to cook a piece of pork, all his 
 efforts ended in failure. The fire had gone out, and the 
 subaltern was abusing the pork for not boiling, when a 
 
 fe*r" 
 
 I 
 
ANECDOTES OF IVOLSELEV. 
 
 195 
 
 dens ex machind^ in the person of the Chief, made his 
 appearance. Equally at home making the pot boil, or 
 planning and executing an arduous military expedition, 
 Wolseley set to work, and, says Riddell, ' he showed me, 
 in the scientific manner of an old campaigner, how to dig 
 r trench in the ground, and with stones and sticks to 
 construct a fender over it, on which to place my cooking 
 utensils ; and the result was, that when dinner-time 
 approached a hard tough mass of over-boiled meat was 
 fished out of the pot, with the assistance of a forked stick, 
 and served up with tea and biscuit, as the midday repast of 
 the officers.' Later on, fresh bread and meat were issued 
 daily, officers and men having the same rations; and the 
 salt pork, which was sent out from England, was husbanded 
 for the line of march where live cattle could not be had. 
 
 Encouraged by the example of a leader who could turn 
 his hand to anything, officers and men cheerfully set to work 
 the day after their arrival, clearing roads, establishing the 
 depot for supplies, a hospital for the sick, and a redoubt to 
 repel an attack from the Fenians, who had openly expressed 
 their intention to destroy the depot when the troops had set 
 out on their long march for Fort Garry. , 
 
 Early on the morning following his arrival at Thunder 
 Bay, Colonel Wolseley, accompanied by Mr. Russell, the 
 engineer employed during the spring upon the construction 
 of the road to the Shebandowan Lake, started off on horse- 
 back to inspect its condition. He returned at noon of the 
 following day, having ridden and insi)ected the road as far 
 as it was practicable for teams, some thirty-one miles out of 
 the forty-four intended to be constructed, a footpath only 
 being designed for the remaining four miles. But there 
 still remained thirteen miles of road to be made to the lake, 
 over a hilly and thickly wooded country, a business involving 
 considerable time and trouble. When at Ottawa, in the 
 
 13—2 
 
 ■'■ i 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOI^SELEY. 
 
 % 
 
 r W\ 
 
 "- 1 
 
 ilMi 
 
 month of April, Colonel Wolsclcy had been positively 
 assured that the road would be open for traffic by the 25th 
 of May, and on this assurance his calculations had been 
 based. 
 
 Again, on Monday, 6th of June, he started at half-pasj: 
 four a.m., to make a second inspection of the road as far as 
 its limit at the Oskondagee Creek, some thirty-nine miles. 
 He says, * It poured with rain all Monday, Tuesday, and 
 yesterday, up to about four o'clock p.m. At the present 
 moment the road may be said to end at the Oskondagee 
 Creek, scvcnty-fivc feet wido, which is still unbridged. 
 For the last eight or nine miles before reaching that creek 
 the road is only a track, and is impassable for loaded 
 waggons in wet weather. My horse was tired out in going 
 over it at a walk.' Colonel "Wolseley camped for the night 
 on the bank of the Oskondagee Creek, which is the third 
 of the three rivers that had to be bridged between Thun- 
 der Bay and Shebandowan, the others being the Kaministi- 
 quia, twenty two miles from the camp, and the Matawan, 
 twenty-seven miles. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 7th, he crossed the creek on a temporary 
 raft, and walked to a hill which commanded a view of the 
 line of march. The scene was not reassuring, and Wolseley 
 describes the track a mile beyond the creek as ' execrable.' 
 He immediately had a strong gang of men turned on it, and 
 Colonel McNeill,* who procecoed a week later to inspect 
 the road, reported that rather more than four miles had 
 been cleared of timber, and a rough \ aggon-road formed ; 
 the remaining four miles to the lake had not been touched. 
 He reported also that owing to the recent heavy rains there 
 were places one and two miles in extent that would be im- 
 passable for horse transport for a week or ten days at least. 
 
 * Now Sir John McNeill, Equerry to the Queen, who served under Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley in Ashantee, and in Egypt on the staff of the Duke of 
 Connaught. 
 

 DIFFICULTIES OF THE ROAD. 
 
 197 
 
 d. 
 Ire 
 
 5t. 
 
 Added to this, the carts provided were found to be useless 
 for carrying supplies, and owing to the state of the roads the 
 horses could only drag loads of 1,000 pounds in each 
 wagJion. Matters looked very gloomy for the success of 
 the expedition, and those best qualified to judge laughed 
 at the idea of reaching Fort Garry, so as to return before 
 the winter set in. Under these adverse circumstances, 
 Colonel Wolseley preserved his equanimity, and spoke con- 
 fidently of ultimate success. 
 
 Directly after his first inspection of the road on the 26th 
 of May, on finding its condition and the progress made so 
 unsatisfactory, he turned his attention to another mode of 
 transport. On questioning Mr. Dawson on the feasibility of 
 passing boats up the Kaministiquia* and Matawan Rivers, 
 so as to relieve the land transi)ort, that gentleman did not 
 think the proposal practicable ; but Mr. Maclntyre, the 
 Hudson's Bay Company's officer at Fort William, thought 
 otherwise, and placed his voyageurs and guides at the com- 
 mander's disposal. Wolseley accordingly selected Captain 
 Young, of the 60th Rifles, an officer of energy and resource, 
 to make the attempt with thirty-four men and six boats. Cap- 
 tain Young left the camp early on the 4th of June, and, his 
 boat^s having been towed to Fort William, began to pull up 
 the Kaministiquia River, which falls into Thunder Bay at 
 that point. They poled and tracked along the river, or 
 marched by the side while the Indians took the boats up 
 the Rapids, or carried them across the portages, until, on 
 the 8th of June, he met Colonel Wolseley, who, after riding 
 over the road as far as Oskondagee Creek, descended the 
 rapids of the Kaministiquia River in a canoe, in ordc to see 
 what progress he had made. Wolseley was delighted to find 
 that his project to relieve the land transport was feasible, 
 
 * Tliis Inclinn word means, according to Sir John Richardson, ' tlic river 
 that runs far about.' 
 
jlpll 
 
 
 "iIiIF' :' 
 
 H ilSK'! !■; 
 
 m 
 
 
 198 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and, having directed Captain Young to proceed up to the 
 Kaministiquia Bridge — a structure 320 feet long and 18 
 broad, supported on eight arches — and continue the route 
 by boats as far as Matawan Bridge, he proceeded on his 
 journey to the camp by the river route. 
 
 After crossing four more portages, Captain Young arrived 
 at Kaministiquia Bridge on the loth of June, and, on the 
 1 2th, reached Matawan Bridge, with his men and stores in 
 perfect condition, thus conclusively proving, notwithstanding 
 the predictions of 'experienced' persons, that the water 
 route was practicable, and that the word ' impossible ' was 
 unknown in the vocabulary of the gallant Commander of 
 the Red River Expedition. Colonel Wolseley determined 
 to send the whole of his boats by this route, and to devote 
 his land transport to supplies, and Mr. Dawson acceded to 
 this arrangement. 
 
 In the meanwhile the troops continued to arrive at 
 Thunder Bay. Two companies of the 60th Rifles were 
 employed at Kaministiquia and Matawan Bridges, formmg 
 depots for stores, and the remainder of the force were busily 
 occupied turning Prince Arthur's Landing into a miniature 
 Balaclava, without its chaotic confusion. As the work pro- 
 gressed, more detachments of troops were sent from 
 Thunder Bay, those in advance proceeding towards Lake 
 Shebandowan. By the 19th of June there were thirty-five 
 days' rations for 1,500 men in depot, either at Kaministiquia 
 or Matawan Bridges, and Colonel Wolseley reported : 
 'When I have 100, or even 80 boats on the lake, and 
 provisions for 1,500 men for sixty days there, I shall move 
 off by detachments. I am still in hopes of being able to 
 leave Fort Frances for Fort Garry on the ist of August.' 
 
 On the 3rd of June, Wolseley despatched to the Matawan 
 Bridge the first four boats mounted on platforms set on the 
 wheels of waggons. On reaching the river the boats were 
 
HARDSHIPS OF THE EXPEDITION. 
 
 199 
 
 to 
 
 re 
 
 launched and moored — a wise precaution, which secured 
 them against the ravages of a fire which swept over the 
 country, destroying all the stores and huts. The weather 
 at this time was wretched in the extreme, and officers and 
 men worked daily in their wet clothes. Notwithstanding 
 this, and the hardships they endured, the health of the 
 camp was most satisfactory, a result due, doubtless, to 
 Colonel Wolseley having strictly prohibited the use of spirits, 
 which was an unknown luxury in the camp, save in the form 
 of ' medical comforts.' 
 
 On the 2ist of June, he rode over the whole road, three 
 miles in advance of the Oskondagee Creek, returning at 
 ten a.m. on the 23rd, having ridden that morning from the 
 Matawan Bridge, a distance of twenty-seven miles. He 
 says in his report, he found the road between the Matawan 
 and Oskondagee, at many places, 'even in fine weather, 
 practically impassable for waggons ;' and that ' no horse 
 transport in the world could stand having to get over such 
 places, as the horses would be knocked up in a few days.' 
 On his arrival he directed Mr. Dawson to employ all his 
 men to cut a branch road of one mile from the main road 
 to the river, at a point about four miles from the Matawan 
 Bridge, and settled the arrangements for the transport of 
 stores as follows : By horse teams from the camp to the 
 Matawan Bridge, a structure 216 feet long, supported on 
 five piers ; thence by boats two miles further along the road 
 to a point named Young's Landing, where the river leaves 
 the road ; thence by ox teams to Calderon's Landing, for a 
 distance of two miles up the road, and one mile along a 
 branch road then being cut to the river; thence up the 
 river to Oskondagee Creek by boats ; thence to the Dam 
 Site, a distance of five miles, by ox teams ; and finally, 
 thence up the river to McNeill's Bay on the Shebandowan 
 Lake, in flat-bottomed boats, a path for the troops being cut 
 
 ^^^^^1 
 
!i! I 
 
 Lj 
 
 I , 
 
 200 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 through the woods for this last four miles. The obstacles 
 to be overcome, even in this preliminary portion of the 
 route, seemed insurmountable ; but Wolseley was confident 
 and cheerful, and, though it was not till the first week in 
 July that the branch road to Calderon's Landing and the 
 road to the lJ)am Site were fit for traffic, he would reply to 
 all queries of when the start would be made : ' As soon as 
 I have 150 boats and two months' provisions at the lake.' 
 
 On the 29th of June, General Lindsay arrived at Prince 
 Arthur's Landing ; and, on the following day, accompanied 
 by Colonels Wolseley and McNeill, he rode over the whole 
 road as far as the Dam Site, and thence proceeded to the 
 Shebandowan Lake in a canoe, arriving at camp in the 
 evening of the 3rd of July, by the Kaministiquia River. At 
 daylight on the same day, under Colonel Wolseley's orders, 
 the headquarters of the 60th Rifles, under Colonel Feilden, 
 marched from Matawan ; and, on the following day, the 
 Ontario Rifles quitted the camp for the Kaministi(iuia 
 Bridge. 
 
 Another even more welcome visitor at Prince Arthur's 
 Landing than General Lindsay was Mrs. Wolseley, who 
 unexpectedly arrived in one of the transport steamers, 
 returning to Toronto after a brief visit of a few days. 
 
 Before finally quitting the camp for the front. Colonel 
 Wolseley drew up, in French and English, a ' Proclamation 
 to the loyal inhabitants of Manitoba,' which he entrusted 
 for delivery to Mr. Donald Smith, who had arrived at Fort 
 William on his way to succeed Mr. McTavish as Governor 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts. He also sent copies 
 of this Proclamation,* which was dated the ' 30th of June,' 
 
 * In this docume t he said : ' Our mission is one of peace, and the sole 
 object of the expedition is to secure Her Majesty's sovereign autiiority. 
 The force which 1 have tlie honour of commanding will enter your province, 
 representing no party, either in rehgion or jjohtics, and will afford equal 
 protection to the lives and property of all races and all creeds. The strictest 
 order and discipline will be maintained, and private property will be care- 
 
 
 m 
 
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE INDIANS. 201 
 
 il 
 it 
 
 to the Protestant and Roman Catholic Bishops, and to the 
 Hudson's Bay Company's officer at Fort Garry, and letters 
 requesting them to take measures for pushing on the road 
 from Fort Garry to the Lake of the Woods, although it was 
 well known that it could not be completed in time for the 
 use of the troops. This ruse de guerre of Colonel Wolseley's 
 succeeded admirably, for on his arrival at Fort Frances he 
 learned that Riel had placed armed men on the look-out in 
 the neighbourhood of the spot where he thought the dis- 
 embarkation on the shores of the Lake of the Woods would 
 take place. 
 
 While at Thunder Bay Colonel Wolseley had an oppor- 
 tunity of being introduced, for the first time, to the Red 
 Indian of Fenimore Cooper's novels, and very different he 
 found him from the ideal limned by that picturesciue, but 
 untrustworthy, writer. The party consisted of ' Black Stone,' 
 a Chippewa, or Ojibbeway chief, two of his tribe, and a 
 squaw — ugly, dirty, half-naked savages, who came ostensibly 
 to express their loyalty to the ' great mother,' but in reality 
 to get what they could, and report what was going on to 
 their tribe. Indeed, * Black Stone's ' sole claim to the 
 picturesqueness of garb, with which we are accustomed to 
 accredit the creations of the novelist, lay in his having ' tied 
 round his head a mink-skin, from which at the back stood 
 up a row of eagle's feathers, with here and there an ermine- 
 tail hanging from them,' while the influences on his condition 
 of advancing civilization were only discernible in the fact 
 that he boasted the possession of a piece of soap, with which 
 he was seen furtively smoothing his hair, i)rev;ous to being 
 ushered into the presence of the Chief of the ' pale-faces.* 
 
 fully protected. All supplies furnished by the inhabitants to the troops will 
 be duly paid for. Siiould anyone consider himself injured by any individual 
 attached to the force, his grievance shall be promptly inquired into. All 
 loyal people are earnestly invited to aid nie in carrying out the above- 
 mentioned objects.' 
 

 ^ ill! 
 
 202 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Colonel Wolsclcy received the Indians with great politeness, 
 and reassured them as to his intentions regarding their 
 lands, and they took their departure, thoroughly satisfied 
 with their reception and the presents they had received. 
 
 On the 5th of July, Colonel Wolseley moved his head- 
 quarters to the Matawan, which in the Indian tongue means 
 ' fork.' Starting at five a.m., he rode the distance of twenty- 
 seven miles, and, procuring a fresh horse at the bridge, went 
 up the road a further five miles, as far as the end of ' Brown's 
 Lane,' where the branch road meets the river. The weather 
 was simply frightful, the rain pouring all day in cataracts ; 
 but he cared nothing for this, and, on the following morning, 
 as appears by his Journal, was again in the saddle, ' showing 
 the working-party of the 60th K.ifles where they were to 
 work;' and in ihe afternoon 'rode off again to Brown's 
 Lane to see Captain Young off with the three boats to the 
 0?kondagee.' Thus daily he personally saw to the work of 
 making the roads passable for waggons, and it progressed 
 rapidly under his superintendence. The 60th Rifles moved 
 to Calderon's Landing, at the end of Brown's Lane, on the 
 8th of July, and for the nonce the gallant fellows were 
 turned into labourers. The costume of officers and men 
 did not belie the novel character thus assumed. The 
 only garments worn by all ranks of one of Her Majesty's 
 crack regiments were a flannel shirt, with breast-pocket for 
 handkerchief, and uniform trousers, with Canadian mocassins 
 and a felt helmet. What would Sir George Brown and 
 others of ' the old school ' have said on learning ' that the 
 officers, who have been going up and down the river with 
 boats, all wear the sleeves of their shirts tucked up, and 
 their arms are as black as negroes ; some have their shirts 
 open, with their breasts exposed. At night we all wear red 
 or blue nightcaps ? ' 
 
 The road to the Oskondagee Creek was still almost im- 
 
WOLSELEY IS ILL. 
 
 203 
 
 passable, and * for a few miles was nothing but a trark 
 through the woods,' 'The teams that took in the ammuni- 
 tion,' says Mr. Irvine, in his Journal, * have returned with 
 others along this road, with ninety shoes off sixty horses. 
 The teamsters state it was all the horses could do to drag 
 the empty waggons, the bed of the waggon being constantly 
 in the mud, and the horses' up to their bellies.' 
 
 For the past few days, owing to over-exertion, and being 
 constantly all day in wet clothes, Colonel \Volseley was very 
 unwell, suffering much from diarrhoea; but still, at four a.m. 
 on this T4th of July, he finally quitted his camp at the 
 Matawan Bridge, and rode to the camp at McNeill's Bay. 
 On the following evening he walked down to the wharf to 
 superintend the despatch of the first detachment of troops 
 in the boats on the Shebandowan Lake. Discarding the yet 
 unfinished road for the transport of stores, he had for some 
 time been employing the Irroquois Indians in taking up 
 boats and stores from Ward's Landing to McNeill's liay, a 
 distance of three miles, having no less than six rapids.* 
 
 The night of the 15th of July was signalised by a storm 
 
 of thunder, lightning, and rain of exceptional severity, even 
 
 after their experience of twenty-three days' rain since the ist 
 
 of June ; and the only accident that happened during the 
 
 expedition, and one that was nearly proving fatal to the 
 
 commander, occurred on this night. In the middle of the 
 
 storm, a tree close to where Colonel Wolselcy was sleei)ing, 
 
 fell and crushed a boat. The tempest, which raged over the 
 
 whole of Canada, was most destructive, great numbers of 
 
 men and cattle being killed. 
 
 * Infinite trouble and delay had been caused by the usclcssness of most 
 of the so-called voyai^eiirs, some of wliom had been jiickcd up indiscrimi- 
 nately from the streets of Toronto, and had never seen eillier a canoe or a 
 rapid. To guard against the fore being encumlx*red by these loafers, 
 Colonel Wolselcy, on the 14th of July, addressed a letter to Mr. Dawson, 
 directing that none but skilled voydi^rurs would be pernn'ticd to embark on 
 the boats. He says : ' Only two classes of men can be allowed in the boats, 
 viz., the soldiers constituting tlie Red River Force and the skilled 7vyai^v/trs 
 capable of managing boats and of instructing the soldiers how to do so.' 
 
 ! '\ 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 The morning of the lOlh of July broke bri^'ht and clear, 
 and when Colonel W^olseley arrived at McNeill's Bay at five 
 in the evening, it seemed hopeless to expect the fulfilment 
 of his determination, expressed long before, that the start 
 must be made on that day. Mr. Dawson, ill-assisted, had 
 done all that lay in the i)ower of one man ; the Irroquois 
 Indians and the soldiers had worked indefatigably, over- 
 coming the difficulties of the road and transport and fitting 
 out the boats with their gear \ but still much remained to be 
 done. \Volseley, however, was resolved to be as good as his 
 word, even if the men had to work till midnight, and, by 
 half-past eight p.m., the first three brigades of boats, seven- 
 teen in all, containing two companies of the Goth Rifies, 
 under Captains Young and Ward, also the detachments of 
 Royal Artillery* and Royal Engineers, the whole commanded 
 by (Colonel I'cilden, were ready moored in the bay. As 
 they moved off on their long journey of 560 miles, the 
 avant ganic of the Red River Force, the waters of that silent 
 and sequestered American lake resounded with rounds of 
 hearty British cheers, which were caught u[) and echoed 
 back no less warmly by their comrades, who watched the dip 
 of the oars until the shades of evening hid from their sight 
 the quick-retreating flotilla. 
 
 It must have been a proud and happy moment for the 
 Commander when, turning from the wharf, after the last 
 sound of oars had died away in the distance, he walked to 
 his tent ; and the extreme beauty of the evening, doubtless, 
 appeared to his sanguine mind a happy augury for the success 
 of the undertaking on which he had embarked. One pre- 
 sent gave expression to a pleasant bon mot, when, in the 
 words of the opening stanza of Virgil's famous epic, he ex- 
 claimed, ' Arma vinnhque cano^ which he rendered by a very 
 free transiativin into ' arms, men, and canoes.' 
 
 * Two guns were taken with this expedition, the other two being left in the 
 redoubt at 'I'hunder Bay. 
 
 K...U 
 
THE S T.i /: T ON LAKE SHEHANDO \VA N. 205 
 
 'I'hc whole force was divided into twenty-one brigades, 
 which were distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, the 
 brigades consisting of six boats, each of which carried, 
 besides the necessary stores, about nine officers and men, 
 and two voya^eurs. Of the total number of 150 boats, 
 31, constructed in Quebec, were 'carvel-built,' 16 being 
 rigged with ' sprits,' and the others with lug-sails ; the re- 
 maining 119 boats were 'clinker-built.'* All were fitted 
 with two masts, and six oars were generally used. The 
 boats and vflya<:^curs not reciuired for the conveyance of 
 troops were employed in forwarding a reserve of supplies 
 to Fort Frances, at the head of Rainy Lake. The brigades 
 of boats — lettered from A to X, omitting J, U, and W — 
 followed each other daily in (juick succession, the 60th 
 RiOes first, then the Ontario Rifles, and lastly the Q icbec 
 Rifles. 
 
 On the ist of August the last brigade had left; an ' n 
 the 3rd, Colonel McNeill, who had remained to superintend 
 the embarkation, quitted the bay called after him. On this 
 day the leading brigades had reached Bare Portage, 150 
 miles ahead, the others being scattered along the interme- 
 diate space ; but as arrangements had been made for com- 
 municating and sending either backwards or forwards, and 
 as Colonel Wolseley himself proceeded in a canoe well 
 manned by Indians, going from one detarhment to another, 
 as he considered necessary, all were well in hand, and under 
 his control for concentration at any time, should circum- 
 stances have required it.t 
 
 * A boat is said to be ' clinV.cr-Iniilt ' when the planks overlap each other, 
 and ' carvel-built ' when the pianks are all flush and smooth, th(! cdtjes being 
 laid close to each other, and caulked to render them water-tight, 'i'hc latter 
 were found to be stronger and more serviceable. 
 
 + l'"ew guides were forthcoming, but the officers commanding the boat 
 brigades had been furnished with maps, which, however, were far from 
 accurate. The boat with the Army Hospital and Army Staff Corps, under 
 Mr. Mellish, carried also the equipment of a field-hospital, consisting of 
 bell-tents for 36 men, a field-bakery for Port Frances, and medical comforts 
 
2o6 ' 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 The old Hudson's Bay canoe route was by Dog Lake, but 
 the new route, discovered by Mr. Dawson, which was that 
 now adopted, passed through Lakes Shebandowan and 
 Kashaboiwe ; then crossed, by < ne of the lowest passes, 
 the ' Height of Land ' — as is termed the watershed which, 
 rising gradually from Lake Superior to a height of nearly 
 I, coo feet, forms the line whence the streams diverge to 
 the west and north, or to the east — and, turning westward 
 into Lac-des-Mille-Lacs, there joined the old canoe route, 
 which it followed for the remainder of the way to the Red 
 River. 
 
 On Saturday, the 23rd of July, Colonel Wolseley, accom- 
 panied by Mr, Irvine, his soldier-servant and eight voyageurs 
 — six Irroquois and two French Canadians — making eleven 
 in all, quitted the camp at W?rd's Landing in a bark canoe ; 
 and, on its being equipped at McNeill's Bay for the voyage, 
 started at half-past four the same afternoon, having first seen 
 off two brigades of the Ontario Militia. The weather was 
 remarkably beautiful, and the light bark canoe quickly sped 
 over the nine miles that intervened between the point of 
 departure and the first camping-ground on the north shore 
 of the lake. The camp equipment consisted of a small 
 tent for the ofiicerij, and a bell-tent for the men ; and the 
 first camp was pitched just as it was growing dusk. 
 
 At 3.30 a.m. on the following morning the small camp 
 was astir, and, an hour later, after a frugal repast of hot tea, 
 pork, and biscuits— the Commander throughout the expedi- 
 tion having the same rations as the private soldier — the 
 party embarked, arriving a little before eight at the first 
 
 and stores. In addition to the minimun^ of sixty days' rations per man, 
 provisions sufticient to last the force until the 30th of September were 
 carried in the boats. The fresh-meat supply, which had been served out 
 hitherto, was, of course, discontinued ; but Colonel Wolseley arranged with 
 Mr. Dawscn to send on to Fort Frances, by the 1 jth of September, 20,000 
 rations complete. 
 
THE FIRST PORTAGE. 
 
 207 
 
 portage, the Kashaboiwe, where they found a block of four 
 brigades, which gave an earnest of what might be expected 
 in crossing the remaining portages. This one was a very 
 stiff one, nearly 1,500 yards in length, and the labour of 
 transporting the boats, stores, camp equipment, ammuni- 
 tion, and sixty days' provisions carried by the force, was 
 excessive.* 
 
 A little after eleven Colonel Wolseley was in his canoe, 
 paddling up the Kashaboiwe Lake, about nine miles in 
 length, and, before two, reached the head of the lake, which 
 is studded with beautifully-wooded islands. Between it and 
 the Lac-des-Mille-Lacs lies the high land forming the water- 
 shed between Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 Lac-des-Mille-Lacs discharging its waters into the former, 
 and the Kashaboiwe Lake into the latter. The intervening 
 space between these two lakes is about two and a half miles 
 wide, and Wolseley made one portage of about 1,90c yards, 
 by going up a small shallow creek, which, however, was so 
 
 * The following was the method adopted of crossing these portages : 
 'On the arrival at the portages,' says Wolseley, 'the boats were at once 
 drawn into the shore as close as possible, and unloaded, the stores belong- 
 ing to each boat being nut into a separate pile. These were covered over 
 with tarp.ulins, if the time was too late for work ; or if — as was always the 
 case with the leading detachment, consisting of three brigades — the road 
 over the portage had to be opened out, and rollers for the boat laid down 
 upon it. At other times the men began to carry over the stores without 
 delay, piling them in heaps, one for each boat, at the end of the toad. 
 After a little practice most of the soldiers soon learned to Ubc the conniicMi 
 portage-strap, their officers setting them the e.:ami)le by themselves carrying 
 heavy loads with it. As soon as all the stores were conveyed across the 
 portage, the boats were hauled ashore and draggi'd over, their keels resting 
 on small trees felled across the path to act as rollers. The laliour involved 
 by hauling a heavy " oat up a very steep incline, to a height of about lOo 
 feet, is no child's play. In each boat there was a strong jiainter and a 
 towing-line, by means of which and the leather portage-strap, ;. sort of man- 
 harness was formed when required, so that forty or fifty men could haul 
 together. Say the portage was a mile long (some were more), and that each 
 man had to make ten trips across it before all the stores of his brigade were 
 got over, he would have walked nineteen miles during the operation, being 
 heavily laden for ten miles of them. At some portages considerable en- 
 gineering ingenuity was required ; small streams had to be bridged and 
 marshy spots to be corduroyed over. By the time our men returned many 
 of them were exiiert axemen, and all were more or less skilled in the craft of 
 the voyai:;cur x\.\\(\ American woodsman.' 
 
 ■•' M 
 
■.«l 
 
 208 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 choked up with reeds, that all the men had to get out of the 
 boats into the water and pull them through. A paddle of 
 about half a mile brought the party to the camping-ground 
 for the night on the north shore of the Lac-des-Mille-Lacs, a 
 fine sheet of water about thirty miles long and six to ten 
 miles broad, and studded with innumerable islets, through 
 which even the guides have difficulty in steering their way, 
 so that often It is necessary to have recourse to the compass. 
 
 I'^arly on the 25th of July, the canoe was under weigh, 
 and, at one o'clock, the ' Baril ' portage, 350 yards long, 
 was reached, the distance from the ' Height of Land ' portage 
 being twenty miles, though owing to AVolseley having lost 
 his way — as did all the boats, that of the correspondent of 
 the Toronto Globe for two days — the actual distance traversed 
 was far greater. 
 
 After a vain search that afternoon, on the Baril Lake, 
 nine miles in length, for the Brule portage, they landed at 
 the south-western extremity of that lake. On the following 
 day they found the portage, which is 500 yards long, and 
 while the provisions and stores were being carried across, 
 the boats were taken, for half the distance, through a little 
 creek that runs between Lakes Baril and Windegoostigon 
 (an Indian name meaning ' a series of lakes '), which 
 Wolseley reached by proceeding along a narrow winding 
 stream, through a series of small lakes connected by rapids 
 and creeks, fringed with cedar and spruce, and covered 
 with white and golden-hued lilies, forming an enchanting 
 scene of secluded loveliness. 
 
 That afternoon they arrived at the * French ' portage, two 
 miles in length, over steep and rocky hills that would have 
 occupied the brigade three or four days to traverse ; but 
 fortunately the river, though long and winding, was found 
 to be navigable, with the exception of some falls, round 
 which the leading detachment of the 60th Rifles had cut a 
 
IVOLSELEY AS A BACKWOODSMAN. 
 
 209 
 
 is 
 
 d 
 a 
 
 new portage, 440 yards long, and very steep and rocky. 
 Colonel Wolseley sent his canoe by the stream, which from 
 the portage to the ' French Lake ' is quite twelve miles in 
 length, and walked two miles over the old path. 
 
 On the following day, they passed down a winding river, 
 about two miles in length, thick with reeds and water-lilies, 
 which led into Kaogassikok, or Pickerel Lake, some thirteen 
 miles long by two to four broad, at the western extremity of 
 which is the ' Pine ' portage, where they encamped. As 
 the portage was difficult to find, Colonel Wolseley, on the 
 following morning, returned in the canoe a considerable 
 distance to ' blaze ' the trees at every point, in order to 
 show the way to the brigades in rear \ and we have been 
 informed by a companion that the gallant Commander was 
 noted for the judgment he displayed, while passing the 
 islands, in selecting the trees to be blazed, and the dexterity 
 with which he would spring out of the canoe and wield his 
 hand-hatchet, leaving a mark in a prominent place that was 
 discernible a long way astern. 
 
 After crossing the Pine portage, 550 yards long, Wolseley 
 sailed over Dore Lake, about a mile across, to the ' Deux 
 Rivieres ' portage, where they found at work the three 
 leading brigades under Colonel Fcilden. This was a very 
 stiff portage, some 750 yards long, but Ignace — the 'boss,' 
 or leader, of the Irroquois, a splendid specimen of the Red 
 Indian, who had accompanied Sir George Simpson and Dr. 
 Rae in their Arctic explorations, and whose services through- 
 out the Expedition were beyond all praise — with ten of his 
 men, by five p.m., had made an excellent road, in one place 
 crossing a ravine, by cutting dawn and laying lengthwise 
 some huge pines, over which skids were placed on notches, 
 thus enabling the boats to be transported with ease."* 
 
 * 'In the centre of the portage,' says Lieutenant Riddell, ' was a high 
 rock Vip which a ladder of felled trees had been constructed, and at the 
 sides steps were cut for the men to carry their loads up. Had one of the 
 
 14 
 
VP-- 
 
 2IO 
 
 L/FE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 \ <lt-!i 
 
 ' I 
 
 V. 11 
 
 Wolseley proceeded ahead some distance, and then returned 
 and blazed the way, which was very tortuous and not easy 
 to find, being in one part rocky and shallow, and in 
 another, passing through a marshy creek, overgrown with 
 rushes and lilies. 
 
 The route, on the following day, was very intricate, owing 
 to the numerous long bays, but Colonel Wolseley blazed 
 trees at every point and turn. They sailed through Stur- 
 geon Lake, which is about sixteen miles long, and, passing 
 through Tanner's Lake — which empties itself into Lake La 
 Croix, through Sturgeon River, about eighteen miles m 
 length — soon reached the four heavy rapids, * about which,' 
 says Colonel Wolseley, ' we had heard such a gloomy 
 account at Ottawa from those who professed to know them 
 well. At the first we disembarked the men, when the boats 
 were taken down by the Irroquois. At the second rapid, 
 cargoes as well as men had to be taken out and portaged 
 over a distance of loo yards, the boats being then run safely 
 down by the Irroquois. The third and fourth rapids were 
 run with men and cargoes in the boats, the Irroquois steer- 
 ing the boats.' Colonel Wolseley left these men at the 
 rapids to navigate the boats of the succeeding brigades, and 
 nailed up a notice at the first rapid, directing all com- 
 manding officers to halt until Ignace arrived, and to act 
 precisely as he should direct them.* At six o'clock the 
 
 ropes snapped when hauling the boats up this ladder, the men at work 
 would, doubtless, have received very severe injuries, and the boat been 
 broken to a certainty.' 
 
 • In going over these rapids, four Indians generally rowed or paddled, 
 while two others, with large-sized paddles, steered, one in the bow, the post 
 of honour, and the other in the stern. ' With a rush,' says Riddell, ' and 
 pulled as hard as the strong arms at work were capable of, the boats entered 
 the rapids. The slightest mistake on the part of the steersman, and they 
 would have been smashed to pieces on the huge rocks that we passed nearer 
 than was pleasant. Everyone worked as for his life ; and the wild cries of 
 the Indians as they shouted directions to each other made those looking on 
 from the shore feel certain some accident was going to happen ; but the 
 cheers and laughter of the crews, as the boats were pulled into smooth water 
 at the foot of the rapids, soon dispelled the illusion. 
 
THE ROUTE TO FORT FRANCES. 
 
 211 
 
 died, 
 post 
 and 
 tered 
 they 
 earer 
 es of 
 g on 
 t the 
 vater 
 
 headquarters encamped below Portage de I'lsle, the last of 
 the rapids. 
 
 The following day they crossed Tanner's Lake, at the 
 outlet of which are Tanner's Rapids, where everything had 
 to be portaged a distance of 175 yards, and reached Island 
 portage, which is about eighty yards across. As the party 
 was strong in Indians, all hands set to work and soon made 
 the road and laid down the skids for the succeeding brigades 
 of boats. 
 
 On the 31st of July they followed the course from the 
 south-west extremity of Lac-la-Croix in a southerly direction 
 for six miles, into Lake Loon, then west, and *.hen north 
 into Lake Namekan, where it joined the old canoe route 
 again, thus avoiding all the dangerous rapids ; there were, 
 however, three portages, aggregating 634 yards. After the 
 gig and canoe were passed over the rapids, the party 
 encamped for the night. On the following day Colonel 
 Wolseley reached Bare portage, which consists really of 
 two portages, divided by a small pond, and all hands set to 
 work to make the road over them. On the arrival of the 
 leading brigades of boats, Wolseley started on his voyage up 
 the ' Rainy ' Lake, a fair stretch of water, fifty miles in 
 length, by about thirty to forty miles in breadth, and 
 encamped at eight p.m. The following day, owing to a 
 gale, they were compelled to encamp on an island at the 
 head of Rainy Lake, but the whole flotilla was under weigh 
 at four on the morning of the 4th of August, and descending 
 the Rainy River* for three miles, soon reached P'ort Frances, 
 
 * At the entrance to Rainy River Wolseley was hailed by a canoe, in 
 which was Lieutenant (now Lieut. -Colonel) Butlc.-, 69th Regiment, who had 
 arrived at Fort Frances that morning from Fort Garry. He had been sent 
 on a special mission from Canada by General Lindsay ; and, after visiting 
 the towns on the south shore of Lake Superior, to learn what prospect there 
 was of the threateaed Fenian irruption on the communications of the ex- 
 pedition, and passing through St. Paul's in Minnesota, he proceeded to the 
 lower fort, near Fort Garry, where he received a visit from Riel. On quitting 
 the Settlement, on the 24th of July, he went up the Winnipeg River, and 
 
 14—2 
 
li ;■ 
 
 2i: 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I 
 
 II I 
 
 '«ij 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 ' the half-way house ' to Fort Garry, the sight of which was 
 hailed with joy by every man in the force. During the 
 nineteen days that had elapsed since the first detachment 
 quitted McNeill's Bay, they had traversed 200 miles, having 
 taken their boats and stores over seventeen portages, at all 
 of which they had made good, practicable roads. 
 
 Fort Frances is not a military work, as its name would 
 imply, but a collection of wooden one-storied houses, 
 standing on the right bank of the Rainy River, immedi- 
 ately below the falls, which are twenty-two feet high. 
 
 • Two days after his arrival Colonel Wolseley gave a formal 
 interview, or * pow-wow,' to * Crooked Neck,' the i^rincipal 
 chief of a large body of Chippewa Indians, who had as- 
 sembled to see what they could get out of the ' pale- 
 faces,' and about a dozen of his principal followers. 
 
 * Crooked Neck ' made a very long speech, to which 
 Wolseley replied in brief terms to the effect that he was 
 sorry he had no provisions to give away, as he had only 
 sufficient for his own men, but that next year Government 
 would send him presents for helping them through. The 
 ceremony concluded, as it had begun, with hand-shaking 
 all round, and they were dismissed with a small present of 
 flour and pork. Colonel Wolseley also gave an interview to 
 another great chief, who presented a grotesque appearance, 
 with his painted face and parti-coloured raiment somewhat 
 similar to those worn by negro melodists. 
 
 ^^'hile at Fort Frances, Wolseley received letters from 
 Henry Price, the chief of the Salteux, or ' Swampy,' Indians, 
 full of loyalty, and breathing hatred towards Riel and his 
 party ; and from the Protestant bishop, and others, ex- 
 pressing ardent longings for his arrival, as affairs at the 
 
 brouglit much valunblc information concerninfj the position of affairs at 
 Fort Garry, which Kiel openly declared the Expeditionary Force would 
 never reach. 
 
THE START FROM FORT FRANCES. 
 
 213 
 
 Settlement were * in a serious and threatening state.' Dur- 
 ing his stay at Fort Frances, he took advantage of the 
 arrival of the brigades to weed out the many useless 
 voyageurs, who were sent back to Canada. 
 
 At daylight, on the loth of August, Colonel Wolseley, 
 after despatching the brigades, as they arrived in succession, 
 up to K Brigade, including the whole of the 60th Rifles 
 (the I Brigade of the Ontario Militia being left to garrison 
 Fort Frances), started in his birch canoe, carrying fourteen 
 days' provisions, for Fort Alexander, the route to which lay 
 through Rainy River, seventy-five miles long; Lake of the 
 Woods, seventy-two miles; and the River Winnipeg, a further 
 distance of 163 miles. 
 
 He was accompanied, as before, by Mr. Irvine and his 
 servant, with eight Indians, the gig keeping company, with 
 his two orderly officers and a crew of four soldiers and two 
 Indians. As they pushed off below the falls, near Fort 
 Frances, ' we were,' says Wolseley, ' twisted round for some 
 time in every direction, by the numerous whirlpools formed 
 by the falling of such a great body of water into a circular 
 basin, where it acquired a rotary motion. At one moment 
 the boat was going at the rate of about nine miles an hour, 
 the next it was perfectly stationary, having stopped without 
 any shock, but as suddenly as if it had struck a rock. In 
 some instances minutes elapsed ere the utmost exertion at 
 the oar, the whole crew pulling their best, could impart the 
 least motion to the boat. Then after some moments of 
 hard pulling, every muscle being strained to the utmost, the 
 boat was released so suddenly that it bounded forward as a 
 spring would which had been kept back by a rope that had 
 suddenly snapped.' The Rainy River, which forms the 
 frontier between British North America and the United 
 States, runs a distance of seventy miles from Fort Frances 
 to its embouchure into the Lake of the Woods, its breadth 
 
 ■s 
 
 X 
 
 I 
 
214 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 w 
 
 varying from 300 to 400 yards. The navigation is unbroken 
 except at two rapids, the ' Manitou ' and * Longsault,' thirty- 
 two and thirty-nine miles from Fort Frances ; and its banks 
 are well-wooded, with vistas of glade and forest. 
 
 The evening being fine and the moon nearly full, Colonel 
 Wolseley, instead of camping at night, determined to try the 
 plan adopted by the employes of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
 of lashing the canoe and gig together, and drifting down the 
 river, all hands turning in, except one man in each boat to 
 steer and keep watch. It was pleasant enough, though the 
 limited space cramped the legs, until the rain began to fall, 
 accompanied by a strong westerly wind, and as the boats 
 could make no progress and the night was dark * as a wolfs 
 mouth,' he decided to run them ashore. A miserable and 
 sleepless night was passed by the occupants of the canoe, 
 who cowered, as best they could, under their waterproofs ; 
 and at dawn, dripping with wet and stiff with cold, they were 
 glad to get out of their boat. After some hot tea the party 
 were under weigh, and made a stop for breakfast about two 
 miles from the mouth of Rainy River, at a small trading-post 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company, called * Hungry Hall,' from 
 the number of men who had, from time to time, nearly died 
 from starvation while quartered there, though it has since 
 received the less ill-omened name of Fort Louisa. 
 
 Just before his arrival here. Colonel Wolseley met a 
 small canoe, containing three Indians, who brought letters 
 from Rat portage, announcing the arrival there of six boats 
 purchased by the loyal Protestant laity and clergy of the 
 Red River Settlement of all sects, to help the expedition 
 down the Winnipeg River. The bearers of the letters were 
 at once utilized as guides, and handed over to the K Brigade 
 which came up at that moment. Favoured by a fair breeze, 
 which filled their sails, the canoe and gig soon passed along 
 the marshy banks on both sides of the mouth of the Rainy 
 
A LOST DA V. 
 
 215 
 
 River, from which the wild duck rose in numbers, into the 
 Lake of the Woods,* from the north-west angle of which lay 
 the direct road to Fort Garry, 115 miles *as the crow flies,' 
 but only eighty of which was passable for carts, the re- 
 mainder of the road lying through swamps. Soon they 
 encountered the full force of the gale that was blowing, 
 and some heavy seas that broke over the boats drove them, 
 soon after midday, to take shelter on an island, which 
 they named * Detention Island.' 
 
 The gale continued all that night and the following day ; 
 but at eight p.m., the wind having lulled, the K Brigade 
 started, and soon after a canoe arrived bringing mails with 
 Toronto papers to the 29th of July, and London papers of 
 the 15th July, containing the startling intelligence of the 
 outbreak of war between France and Prussia. During the 
 evening two of the large Red River boats arrived under Mr. 
 Sinclair, bringing letters from Colonel Feilden from Rat port- 
 age, at the entrance to the Winnipeg River, and from Bishop 
 Macrae, urging the necessity of at once despatching two 
 guns and 100 men to Red River. Colonel Wolseley had 
 been chafing all day at his enforced idleness, but to every 
 proposal to proceed the Indians had assured him that the 
 high sea on the lake would inevitably break the frail bark 
 canoe to pieces. He could, however, brook delay no longer, 
 so started in the gig in company with Captain Huyshe. 
 Having no guide, they steered by the stars, and after three 
 hours' hard pulling, made an island at one a.m., on which 
 they bivouacked for the night. Only four hours was allowed 
 for repose, and the gig was then under weigh steering N.N.W. 
 To the eastward lay a group of islands, through which an 
 opening to escape the rough sea was looked for in vain ; 
 and to the westward stretched an unbroken expanse of water, 
 
 * Lake of the Woods is about seventy-two miles long and nearly as many 
 broad, and is divided by clusters of islands into three distinct lakes. , 
 
2l6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ill . ! 
 
 with no land in sight. The whole of that day was passed 
 in threading an interminable labyrinth of islands, Colonel 
 Wolscley taking up his station in the bows of the boat, and 
 steering by compass, with tlie aid of Mr. Dawson's very in- 
 accurate chart. The usual halts were made for breakfast 
 and dinner, and when it was too dark to see, the party 
 bivouacked on an island. At four o'clock on the following 
 morning Colonel Wolscley was afloat again, hoping soon to 
 reach the Rat i)ortage, which he calculated was only about 
 ten miles distant. He steered north, but found himself in a 
 cul de sac ; then east, then west, trying every opening amongst 
 the innumerable islands, in the vain hope of making the 
 mouth of the Winnipeg River. It certainly was a very 
 awkward position for the Commander of the Expedition ; 
 but at length, after wandering about hopelessly in the laby- 
 rinth of islets and passages, at half-past three an Indian 
 encampment was sighted. 
 
 A present of a little tea and biscuit induced the father of 
 the family to embark in his canoe and act as guide, and at 
 eight p.m. on the 14th of August, after only one halt for 
 breakfast, the party in the gig arrived at Rat portage, faint 
 with hunger and fatigue. Here they learned that the canoe 
 and two Red River boats had arrived from l^etcntion Island 
 early that morning, and that the four remaining Red River 
 boats, in charge of the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, Presbyterian 
 minister, had gone on with the leading brigades, to ^--elp 
 them down the dangerous rapids of the Winnipeg River, 
 which could not have been traversed without accident but 
 for these boats and their skilled crews. 
 
 Rat portage, at the head of the Lake of the Woods, where 
 there is a Hudson's Bay Company's post, consists of three 
 portages, the Winnipeg River, which is here some three miles 
 broad, finding its way down to the lower level by three dis- 
 tinct waterfalls. The first is not much used. The second, 
 
 tet'- 
 
 II 
 
THE DESCENT OF THE WINNIPEG. 
 
 2!7 
 
 d, 
 
 close to it, is 300 yards long, and, as it is chiefly used for 
 canoes, Colonel Wolscley jiassed over it. Tiic tliird and 
 regular portage, which is three miles to the south of the 
 post, is 130 yards long, and as it is generally used for the 
 Company's boats, the brigades passed over it. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley remained at Rat portage during the 15th 
 of August, arranging for guides to be sent back to Fort 
 Frances to conduct the remaining brigades across the Fake 
 of the Woods, and also sent Lieutenant Butler, in a light 
 canoe, to Fort Alexander, at the moutli of the Winnipeg 
 River, to engage guides and send them up to Islington 
 Mission, where the most dangerous part of the river begins. 
 At sunset Colonel McNeill arrived in a canoe, having been 
 only twelve days coming from Shebandowan Lake, and re- 
 ported all well with the brigades in the rear, which he 
 had passed in succession, having ([uitted McNeill's Bay 
 two days after the despatch of the X Brigade. The mails 
 for Canada being made up and despatched on the i6th 
 of August, Colonel Wolseley, accompanied by Colonel 
 McNeill's canoe, and the gig with the two orderly officers, 
 quitted Rat portage to make the descent of the Winnipeg 
 River. ■**■ 
 
 Favoured by a fair breeze, the first ten miles, including- 
 ' Les Dalles ' Rapids, were run without any difficulty, and 
 tents were pitched for the night about twenty miles from the 
 Rat portage. The fine weather they had enjoyed since 
 their departure from Lake Shebandowan here deserted 
 them ; the night was rainy, with a cold raw fog, and the 
 start on the following morning was made amid rain and a 
 blustering head-wind, but, by dint of hard work at the oars, 
 
 * During its tortuous course of 163 miles, the Winnipeg River descends 
 350 feet by a succession of noble cataracts and rapids, uhicli jiresent scenery 
 of a singularly wild and picturesque character, and, at places, the river ex- 
 pands into large lakes, full of rocky islands, and bounded by precipitous 
 cliffs. 
 

 tn-v 
 
 2l8 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 they (luickly ran the intervening distance until the rapids, 
 called 'Grand Decharge,' were reached. Here the stores 
 were j)ortagcd, and the boats run down the rapids, with four 
 men rowing and the two Indians steering. 
 
 They now passed, in succession. Yellow Mud portage, 
 no yards long; a fall of six feet, which was run; Pine 
 portage, 240 yards long, very steep and slippery, which 
 took them an hour to cro :nd, a little farther on, Cave 
 Rapids, which were run. l three they passed Islington 
 Mission, an oasis in the sterile rocky scenery around, with 
 its fields of yellow corn and green pasturage, and, at ''>.35, 
 the little flotilla reached l)e I'lsle Rapids, which were shot 
 with full cargoes, though great excitement was caused as the 
 plunge was taken, the dexterous Indians guiding the canoe 
 with consummate skill amid the surging waters and boiling 
 eddies that appeared as if they would engulf the frail craft. 
 The party halted at the foot of the rapids for the night, 
 during which the rain came down with steady persistency, 
 and they were all glad to b-^ '>ff before five a.m., with rain 
 and a bleak cold wind as lling companions. At noon 
 
 they reached the * Chute a jacquot,' about twenty miles 
 below Islington Mission, a very pretty fall in a series of ter- 
 races, where they met two Hudson's Bay boats, carrying 
 supplies for the Company — enormous craft so strongly built 
 that when shooting rapids they are proof against the effects 
 of a bump on a rock. The half-breeds working them had 
 their families with them, and lived chiefly on ' pemican,' or 
 buffalo meat and fat, dried and then beaten together into a 
 mass, and pressed into bags made of buffalo-skin. 
 
 H.'^ving portaged the canoes and gig, with their cargoes, 
 the party had dinner at the far end of the portage, which is 
 150 yards across, and made their next halt at ' Trois Pointes 
 des Bois,' which consists of three portages close together, 
 round three very picturesque falls ; the portages were 306, 
 
A CRITICAL MOMENT. 
 
 219 
 
 iro, and sixty yards long respectively. Eight nules further 
 on lie 'Slave Falls,' and in a bay, 400 yards ') the right, is 
 the portage, 750 yards across, where the skids were laid for 
 the boats. The canoe portage is round a jutting ledge of 
 rock (juite close to the falls, and very dangerous except for 
 skilled boatmen well accjuainted with the locality. Colonel 
 Wolseley's Irroquois took his canoe by this portage, though 
 Colonel McNeill's Chippewas, more fearful or prudent, as 
 also the gig and all the boats, proceeded to the regular 
 portage, some 500 yards above. 
 
 Wolseley narrates in graphic terms his sensations on an 
 occasion when his coolness in tiie presence of danger was 
 put to almost as severe a test as any he encountered during 
 his adventurous career. He says : ' No length of time, nor 
 any amount of future adventures, can erase from my mind 
 the arrival at the Slave Falls. I was in a birch canoe manned 
 by Irroquois, one of whom acted as guide. The regular 
 portage for boats was several hundred yards from the falls, 
 and lay in a slack-water bay, reached without any danger as 
 long as the boats kept tolerably well in towards the bank on 
 that side. Our astonishment was great at fmding the guide 
 I ke the ranoe out into mid-stream, where the current ran 
 at an exciting pace, becoming swifter at every yard, until at 
 last, as we approached the vicinity of the falls, it was palpably 
 evident we were descending a steeply inclined plane. Con- 
 soling ourselves at first with the reflection that the guide 
 knew best what he was about, we sat motionless, but, let us 
 confess it, awe-stricken, as we swept into the narrow gully at 
 the end of which the great noisy roar of falling waters, and 
 the columns of spray that curled up like clouds into the air, 
 announced the position of the fall. We were close to the 
 brink. We appeared to have reached that point which exists 
 in most falls, whence the water seems to begin its run prepa- 
 ratory to a good jump over into the abyss below ; and we 
 
I 
 
 2 20 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 knew, from having watched many great cataracts for hours, 
 that it was a bourne from whence there was no return. 
 Quick as Hghtning the idea flashed across us that the Indians 
 had made a mistake, and that everything was over for us in 
 this world. In that infinitesimal fraction of time a glimpse 
 of the countenance of the sturdy bowman rather confirmed 
 this idea, his teeth appeared set, and there was an unusual 
 look in his eye. All creations of our own heated fancy ; for 
 in another second the canoe's head swept in towards the 
 rocks, and was turned nose up strer-m in tolerably slack 
 water, two of the paddlers jumping out and holding it firmly 
 there. All our poetical fancies were rudely dispersed by a 
 cheer and chorus of laughter from the Irroquois crew. The 
 breaking of a paddle in the hands of either bowman or steers- 
 man would have been fatal at that critical moment when we 
 turned sharply into the bank, the stern being allowed to 
 swing round in the heavy stream, and by so doing aid in 
 driving the bow inwards. Nothing could have saved us if 
 such an accident had occurred ; yet there were these Indians 
 chuckling over the danger they had just escaped by the exer- 
 tion of their greatest skill and of their utmost muscular 
 power. They had needlessly and willingly encoviUtered it, 
 for they could have gained the shore about 100 yards higher 
 up with comparative ease, and then lowered their canoes 
 through the slack-water pools in the rocks along the side, to 
 the place Lhey had only reached with extreme danger. There 
 was no use in arguing with them on the subject ; they had 
 confidence in themselves, and gloried in any danger which 
 they felt certain of overcoming.' It is not at all improbable, 
 however, that the Indians had a purpose in paddling so 
 perilously near the brink of these dr^ngerous falls, and that 
 it was done to test the courage of the young Commander, 
 whom every man among the ' pale-faces ' obeyed and trusted 
 so implicitly ; and truly the ingenuity of man could not have 
 
 
mrm 
 
 ARRIVAL AT FORT ALEXANDER. 
 
 221 
 
 i 
 
 
 devised a more crucial test. To sit calmly in the stern- 
 sheets of a canoe, which, carried away in the mighty vortex 
 of a current running like a sluice, was hurrying over a chasm 
 to, apparently, certain and immediate destruction, and 
 neither by word nor gesture to express a sign of fear, was an 
 ordeal of the most trying character. But it was triumphantly 
 endured, and if the Irroquois watched the countenance of 
 the British leader in order to note a change in its habitual 
 expression, they looked in vain, and he preserved the 
 stoicism of a Red Indian at the stake. 
 
 That night they encamped below the falls, and on the 
 following day the gig and canoes passed the Barriere portage, 
 the Otter Falls, and the Sept portages. These last are a 
 succession of seven heavy falls, and rapids, with sunken 
 rocks and whirlpools, nearly three miles long, at each of 
 which they had to go through the task of unloading, por- 
 taging, and reloading, thus causing excessive labour to the 
 soldiers with the heavy boats. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley was astir scon after three on the 
 following morning, raising the camp, as was his wont 
 throughout the expedition, by the cry of ' Fort Garry !' 
 shouted in cheery tones at the top of his voice. When 
 they started, an hour later, the prospect before them was 
 of a still more arduous day's work, as Colonel Wolseley 
 expressed his determination to reach Fort Alexander on the 
 20th of August, and it was known that nothing would turn 
 him from his purpose, when, as President Lincoln used to 
 say, he * put his foot down.' Crossing Lac de Bonnet, they 
 passed Calais du Bonnet portage, 145 yards long ; the 
 Second Bonnet, 100 yards long ; the Grand Bonnet, one of 
 the largest portages on the route, upwards of 1,300 yards in 
 length, and the Petit Bonnet. At one o'clock they were at 
 White Mud portage, 280 yards long; and an hour later 
 reached the two Silver Falls portage, respectively 200 and 
 
 i 
 
222 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 thirty yards in length. The falls are described as most 
 magnificent, the volume of water over the cascades being 
 enormous, and the scenery being, according to Wolseley, 
 ' the finest on the river.' Embarking again, a fu'-ther pull 
 of five miles, with two or three difficult rapids, brought them 
 to Pine portage, the last on the route to Fort Garry, which 
 is about 350 yards across. For the last time they embarked; 
 and, pulling over the reach of eight miles, broken by two 
 easily- run rapids, arrived, at 6.35 on the 20th of August, at 
 Fort Alexander, situated about two miles from the mouth 
 of the Winnipeg, whose rapids they had run and portages 
 surmounted without the loss of a single boat — a feat, 
 having regard to the dangers of its falls, eddies, currents, 
 and sunken rocks, which cannot be contemplated without 
 admiration at the skilful management of the crews and fore- 
 thought of the leader. 
 
 When expatiating on the dangers of the Winnipeg River, 
 the experienced crews of the Hudson'c Bay boats had stated 
 that it would take twenty days to get to Fort Alexander, 
 but the distance was accomplished by British soldiers in 
 exactly half that time. Whereas before the expedition, says 
 Wolseley, 'we found a general conviction stamped upon 
 the minds of every one of every class that we met, that the 
 British soldier was a fine brave fellow, who, as a fighting- 
 man, was equal to two of any other nation, but utterly 
 useless for any other purpose, such as carrying loads, 
 performing heavy bodily labour, or enduring great physical 
 fatigue, we now bear a very different reputation in those 
 parts, and have left behind us a character for every manly 
 virtue.' — — ,-- -- • - -^ 
 
 Colonel Wolseley was received at Fort Alexander by Mr. 
 Donald Smith, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
 and the soldiers who had preceded him gathered round the 
 top of the steps leading to the fort, and gave their leader 
 
THE RUN ACROSS LAKE WINNIPEG. 223 
 
 three ringing cheers. ' There was not a sick man,' he says, 
 • amongst those collected at Fort Alexander ; all looked 
 the picture of health and of soldier-like bearing. Up to the 
 20th of August it had rained upon thirteen days in that 
 month. The work had been incessant from daylight until 
 dark, but no murmur was heard.' 
 
 Sunday was a day of well-earned rest. Divine service 
 was held, at which the troops attended, though the 
 beneficial effect was rather marred by an unconscionably 
 long sermon, which drew from one of the men, who were 
 assembled under arms in the open air and greatly felt the 
 heat, the irreverent remark, that * it was worse than a long 
 portage.' At three p.m. on the following day !he advance 
 was sounded, and away down the ""/innipeg River, with a 
 fair wind, sailed the flotilla of about fifty boats. Colonel 
 Wolseley now quitted the canoe in which he had journeyed 
 from Shebandowan Lake, and led the van, accompanied by 
 Mr. Donald Smith, in one of the large Red River boats. 
 
 On arrival at the mouth of the Winnipeg River, the 
 flotilla stood out into Lake Winnipeg,* and proceeded to 
 Elk Island, twenty miles from Fort Alexander, where the 
 boats were drawn up on a fine sandy beach, * Fort Garry ' 
 was sounded at 3.30 on the following morning, and, thanks 
 to a favouring breeze and fine weather, the flotilla set sail, 
 presenting an imposing appearance as they sped — 
 
 ' Through seas where sail was never spread before. ' 
 
 A quick run was made across the southern portion of 
 Lake Winnipeg, to the mouth of the Red River; and, before 
 three, the flotilla was sailing up the centre of the three 
 channels by which it flows into Lake Winnipeg. Colonel 
 Wolseley sent his canoe ahead, with orders to keep a sharp 
 
 * Lake Winnipeg has an area of 9,000 square miles, and measures ^^64 
 miles, by an average width of 35. The name signifies, in the Chippewa 
 tongue, ' dirty water.' 
 
■A 
 
 224 
 
 L/FE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 ill 
 
 t : n 
 
 look-out, and report anything unusual or suspicious ; and he 
 himself led the boats, which followed in two lines imme- 
 diately astern of Colonel Feilden. At sunset the force 
 encamped on the right bank of the river, about eleven miles 
 below the Stone Fort (or Lower Fort Garry), and just 
 opposite the lodges of the Swampy Indians, whose chief, 
 Henry Prince, and a few of the tribe, in their full dress of 
 feathers and paint, paid a visit of ceremony to the British 
 Commander. After the usual compliments they were 
 dismissed with Colonel Wolseley's hearty thanks for their 
 loyalty, accompanied by a substantial present of pork and 
 flour, and every precaution was adopted to prevent the news 
 of the arrival of the flotilla from spreading. 
 
 It rained all that night, and the reveille sounded at 3.30, 
 when the men started after the usual cup of hot tea. The 
 flotilla continued its course up the river in the same order 
 as on the preceding day, and received a welcome from ^U 
 classes, the men cheering, the women waving their hand- 
 kerchiefs, and the bells of the churches, which are Protestant 
 below Fort Garry, ringing out a merry peal, while the 
 Indians turned out of their camps, and gave vent to their 
 joy by discharging their firearms. At eight o'clock the 
 flotilla reached Stone Fort, a square enclosure with large 
 circular bastions at each angle. No reliable information 
 could be obtained of Riel, though it v;as anticipated that he 
 would resist if he could get his followers to fight. The 
 boats were lightened of all superfluous stores ; and as 
 Colonel WoLseley was anxious to get to Fort Garry, if 
 possible, before dark, only a day's rations were taken. It 
 was necessary to advance with caution, and Captain 
 Wallace's company of the 60th was detached as an advance- 
 guard and flanking-party on the left bank of the river, which 
 is here sprinkled with white houses and neat farms. That 
 ofticer received orders to keep his main body on the 
 
THE ADVANCE ON FORT GARRY. 
 
 22s 
 
 ition 
 It he 
 I The 
 as 
 if 
 It 
 )tain 
 incc- 
 fhich 
 ^hat 
 the 
 
 road about a quarter of a mile in front of the boats, with 
 connecting files to the river's bank, and an advance-party of 
 one section of his company about 500 yards further ahead ; 
 two signal-men, with flags, to facilitate communication with 
 the boats, were also furnished to him. The distance 
 between the two forts being twenty-two miles by road, the 
 company v/as mounted on ponies and in country carts, and 
 had orders to stop all persons on their v;ay up the river, 
 but not to interfere with those going down the stream. 
 Lieutenant Butler was also detached on horseback up the 
 right bank, which is mostly covered with willows, with 
 orders to patrol along the road a little ahead of the boats, 
 and to show himself at intervals. The adoption of these 
 precautions was attended with perfect success, as it was 
 found that, as the troops advanced, the actual appearance 
 of the boats was the first intimation the people had of the 
 arrival of the expedition ; and it was afterwards ascertained 
 that Riel was kept so completely in the dark as to the 
 proximity of the British force, that though he, in company 
 with O'Donoghue, rode out late that night towards the 
 British pickets, for the purpose of verifying the rumours 
 that had come to his ears, he returned without having 
 ascertained any certain information. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley, embarking in the gig, led the flotilla ; 
 the boats, with the 2 seven-pounders mounted in the bows, 
 proceeded in the same order as before, and everything and 
 everybody was in readiness to give Riel a warm reception 
 in the event of his disputing the passage of the river. The 
 flotilla, without much difficulty, poled and tracked up the 
 Grand Rapids, which were child's play after those of the 
 Winnipeg River ; but as it was found impossible to reach 
 Fort Garry that night, the camp was pitched on the left 
 ba ik, about six miles below the fort by road, and eight 
 or nine by the river. Outlying pickets were thrown out on 
 
 15 
 
(. : 
 
 :' i 
 
 226 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 both sides of the river, and a chain of sentries posted, to 
 cut off all communication between the fort and the settle- 
 ments in rear of the force. It rained hard all night, with a 
 strong breeze from the north-west, and it was wretched work, 
 turning out on the following morning. * As we bent over 
 our fires at daybreak,' says Wolseley, * trying to get warmth 
 for our bodies, and sufficient heat to boil the kettles, 
 a more miserable-looking lot of objects it would be im- 
 possible to imagine. Everyone was wet through ; we were 
 cold and hungry ; our very enemies would have pitied our 
 plight' 
 
 The heavy rain having rendered the road ankle-deep in 
 black mud. Colonel Wolseley was obliged to abandon his 
 intention of marching on the fort, and before six a.m., 
 amid a torrent of rain, the troops, having struck their tents 
 and breakfaster^, embarked in their boats. Captain Wallace's 
 company, which had been on picket all night, again con- 
 tinued its march along the road on the flank, which in 
 places was a sheet of water, through which the men had to 
 wade. About eight o'clock the troops were disembarked at 
 Point Douglas, about two miles from the fort by land. The 
 soldiers, forming up in open column of companies, plodded 
 on cheerfully through the sea of mud, with the rain beating 
 in their faces. Colonel Wolseley and his staff mounted 
 some ponies brought by the country people. The 60th 
 Rifles led, throwing out skirmishers about 400 yards in 
 advance of the column ; then came the artillery, with the 
 2 guns limbered on to carts, followed by the Engineers, with 
 a company of Rifles as rear-guard. In this formation the 
 column, led by Wolseley and accompanied by a few loyal 
 inhabitants on horseback, who were useful as scouts and 
 guides, marched over the prairie in rear of the village of 
 Winnipeg, and advanced on the fort. At this point, 
 messengers who had been sent the previous night to 
 
OCCUPATION OF FORT GARRY. 
 
 227 
 
 to 
 at 
 
 Winnipeg, arrived with the assurance that Riel and his 
 gang were still inside the fort, and meant to fight. The 
 spirits of the men immediately rose at this announcement, 
 and, as they briskly approached the fort, all the appearances 
 pointed to the same conclusion : no flag was flying from the 
 flag-staff, the gate commanding the village and prairie was 
 closed, and there was a gun in position over the gateway, 
 and others in the embrasures bearing upon them. Not a 
 soul appeared to be stirring, and everything looked as if a 
 surprise was intended. The excitement increased momen- 
 tarily as the skirmishers quickened their pace. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley now sent Golonel McNeiH and Lieu- 
 tenant Denison round the fort to ascertain the state of 
 affairs, and presently th<b^, returned with the intelligence 
 that the southern gate was wide open, and the fort appeared 
 to be evacuated. The disappointment among all ranks was 
 keen and outspoken, for they had given Riel credit, after all 
 his bravado, for sufficient courage to try a passage of arms 
 with them, and to be thus deprived of the opportunity of 
 gaining a little honour at his expense was ' very hard lines ' 
 on men who, since the 21st of May, when Colonel Wolseley 
 and the advanced guard of the expedition quitted Toronto, 
 had sailed, and marched, and tugged at the oars, and 
 laboured over forty-seven portages, for a distance of 1,200 
 miles However, the eclat that would have surrounded the 
 expedition had Riel caused the expenditure of some powder, 
 with its concomitant of death and wounds, was denied to the 
 troops, and so thus was won a bloodless victory, but one 
 which, nevertheless, having regard to the difficulties over- 
 come, must ever be regarded as shedding an additional 
 lustre on the name of the British soldier. 
 
 Amid a continual downpour, the troops entered by the 
 southern gate, when the fort was found to be empty of its 
 late defenders — Riel, Lepine, and O'Donoghue having 
 
 I'?— 2 
 
i: » 
 
 ( 
 
 228 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 ridden off only a quarter of an hour before.* Some field- 
 guns, mounted on the bastions and over the gateway in the 
 fort, were nmv taken outside, the troops formed up in line 
 near them, the Union Jack was hoisted under a royal salute, 
 and three hearty cheers were given for the Queen, caught 
 up by the people who flocked to the spot, the soldiers 
 finishing by ' one cheer more ' for their Commander, under 
 whose leadership this great success had been achieved. 
 
 Thus, on Wednesday, the 24th of August, the British 
 flag once move waved over Fort Garry, 7vithin twenty-four 
 Iwurs of the time specified by Colonel Wclseley when he under- 
 took the conduct of the expeditio7i. Four years later he 
 displayed similar military punctuality in keeping his engage- 
 ments, when, to the day he designated before leaving Cape 
 Coast, his victorious army formed up in the main street of 
 Coomassie, to give three cheers for Her Majesty. It certainly 
 is a novel feature in warfare, and one that deserves to be 
 specially recorded, that in two expeditions, undertaken 
 under circumstances that seemed, in a peculiar degree, to 
 defy the exigencies of time, a General should months before- 
 hand point to the day in the almanack on which he would 
 be at his goal, and fulfil his engagement in spite of all the 
 difficulties of time, transport, weather, the accidents that 
 await all human undertakings, and the physical obstacles 
 
 * These three ringleaders made their escape to Pembina, in United 
 States territory. In 1873 Riel was elected by acclamation a Member for 
 Provencher in the Dominion House of Commons, and at the General Elec- 
 tion was re-elected by a majority of three to one. There was great excite- 
 ment at Ottawa when, on the 30th of March, 1874, h^ went to the clerk's 
 office, took the oath, and signed the Parliamentary roll, but then disaj)- 
 peared, A true bill was found against him on the charge of murder, and a 
 warrant of outlawry was issued by the tjueen's Bench, Manitoba, on the 
 15th of October, 1874, and the Government of Ontario offered a reward of 
 5,000 dollars for his apprehension. His ' Adjutant-General,' Lepine, who 
 presided over the mock court-martial that tried and sentenced to death the 
 loyal Canadian, Thomas Scott, and commanded the shooting-party, was 
 brought to trial at Winnipeg, and condemned to death on the loth of Oc- 
 tober, 1874, but the capital sentence was couunuted by Lord Dufferin. 
 
■^ 
 
 ESCAPE OF KIEL. 
 
 229 
 
 lec- 
 ite- 
 rk's 
 
 1 a 
 
 llu- 
 i of 
 who 
 
 the 
 was 
 
 Oc- 
 
 encountered in traversing regions untrod before by any but 
 travellers.* 
 
 As the men were in a miserable plight from the drenching 
 rain, accommodation was found for all in the buildings inside 
 the fort. So hurried had been the flight of * President ' 
 Riel, who refused to credit the approach of the troops until 
 he actually saw them marching round the village, that the 
 breakfast-table was laid, and the late Dictator of the Red 
 River and his Ministers had only half partaken of the viands 
 that more honest men were destined to enjoy. 
 
 Colonel Wolseley was only too glad that Riel had fled, a- 
 his capture would have complicated matters in the state of 
 Canadian Parliamentary parties ; no attempt was, therefore, 
 made to pursue and arrest the fugitives, though they might 
 easily have been captured. Indeed many of the inhabitants 
 offered voluntarily to capture Riel and his associates, if he 
 would only authorize them to do so; but to all these 
 applicants the same answer was made, ' Go to a magistrate 
 for a warrant, and when obtained, Mr. Smith will provide 
 the means for execution.' Wolseley had not been invested 
 by the Canadian Government with civil authority, and 
 though the most influential of the inhabitants requested 
 him to assume the reins of power, with equal good sense 
 and moderation he declined to do so ; but, pending the 
 arrival of the new Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Archibald, 
 handed over the conduct of civil affairs to Mr. Uonald 
 Smith, who, as Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was 
 the legal representative of the Government until the advent 
 of his successor. No arrests were made by the military, 
 and the three or four prisoners who were detained when the 
 troops marched into the fort, were released during the day, 
 there being no warrant out against them, and no sworn 
 
 * Since the above was written, as will appear further on in this narrative, 
 the subject of this memoir was equally punctual in his engagements in the 
 campaigns against Secocoeni and Arabi. 
 

 'fei 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 i . / 
 
 ill 
 '1 
 
 
 230 
 
 LIF£: OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 information. In fact no proper constables could be pro- 
 cured to execute warrants, and Colonel Wolseley, who 
 acted throughout these somewhat difficult and unfamiliar 
 circumstances with marked good sense and discretion, 
 positively refused to allow his soldiers to be converted into 
 policemen. 
 
 The position of affairs in the interval between the 22nd 
 of August, and the arrival of Mr. Archibald on the 2nd 
 of September, was one requiring delicate management, as 
 the reaction from the state of fear in which the settlers had 
 lived for the preceding ten months, to one of perfect 
 security, turned the heads of many of them, and there was 
 some trouble in keeping them in . proper restraint ; also, 
 though the rebel leaders had disappeared, many of their 
 adherents had merely retired to their homes, and loud 
 dissatisfaction was expressed by the loyally disposed at 
 these rebels being allowed to remain at large. Colonel 
 Wolseley took every precaution to keep the peace, by 
 patrolling Winnipeg and the neighbourhood of the fort 
 with armed parties of his soldiers, but though he could 
 have easily maintained order by proclaiming military law, 
 he considered it essential, for political reasons, to keep the 
 military element in the background, and make it appear 
 that law and order were maintained as in other Canadian 
 provinces. The difficulty of this task may be appreciated, 
 when it is remembered that all the former machinery of 
 government had disappeared, and even the few magistrates 
 who remained were either afraid or disinclined to act. 
 There was no law officer of any description, so that in 
 reality the revival of public confidence was due to the moral 
 effect produced by the presence of the troops, and by the 
 consciousness that they would be used at any moment, if 
 necessary, for the suppression of disturbance and the main- 
 tenance of order, i 
 
WOLSELE Y'S ABSTEMIOUSNESS. 
 
 231 
 
 Mr. Smith entertained Colonel Wolseley and the head- 
 quarter staff during their stay in Fort Garry right hospitably, 
 and, after their long abstinence, they all thoroughly enjoyed 
 the fine old port provided by the Hudson's Bay Company 
 for their Governor, with the exception of the Commander, 
 who touched not ont drop. When starting on this expedi- 
 tion, Wolseley had laid it down as his rule of conduct to 
 set an example of abstinence to hi., men : acting upon views 
 he had for years strongly entertained, as to the positive 
 injury to health caused by dram-drinking, even in modera- 
 tion, he would permit no liquor of any sort — except a small 
 quantity of brandy in each brigade of boats, as 'medical 
 comforts,' under the charge of the commanding officer — to 
 form part of the commissariat department. But he sanc- 
 tioned a liberal allowance of tea, which was freely taken by 
 officers and men twice and thrice a day, and though they 
 were constantly wet to the skin, and had to perform the 
 hardest work in damp clothes, the medical returns were 
 almost blank, and crime and any serious cases of sickoess 
 were alike unknown in the force. So scrupulously did 
 Colonel Wolseley set the example of abstemiousness to his 
 men, that when, on the return journey from Fort Garry, it 
 was proposed to him that a bottle of whisky he had taken 
 in his canoe as ' medical comforts,' should be broached 
 when starting on Lake Shebandowan, he replied, ' No, I 
 have promised it to Kane ' — his soldier servant of the 60th 
 Rifles — and to Kane it was ultimately handed over unopened, 
 after performing a journey of 2,400 miles. 
 
 On his arrival at Fort Garry,* the newly installed Governor 
 
 * Fort Garry, called also 'the Upper Fort,' is a rectangular edifice, 
 crowded with buildings, having an area of 200 V)y 85 yards. The original 
 fort, which was built about the year 1840, and was 100 yards in length, is 
 surrounded by a stone wall 10 feet high, with circular bastions pierced for 
 guns. Ten years later, when a detachment of the 6th Regiment was quar- 
 tered here, it was doubled in size, and surrounded by a wooden palisading 
 on a stone foundation. The fort stands at the angle formed by the junction 
 
 3 i{ 
 
ma 
 
 i.itii 
 
 
 '>7'7 
 
 23 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELKY. 
 
 placed at Colonel Wolseley's disposal the best and most 
 roomy apartment as a sleeping chamber ; and when Mr. 
 Irvine, his companion in the tent during the hard times of 
 the long march, was proceeding to put up for the night as 
 usual Wolseley, with the feelings of comradeship of a true 
 soldier, would not listen to this, but made his co/nfagNon de 
 voyage share his good luck, and place his mattress in a corner 
 of the room. Such small traits give the clue to the character 
 of a man, and, in our opinion, are not too trivial to be chro- 
 nicled by a biographer. 
 
 On the 28th of August, Colonel Wolseley issued an order* 
 recounting the labours imposed on the troops, and thanking 
 them for their ' unparalleled exertions' in surmounting them. 
 What these were, were recognised by a competent judge — 
 Mr. Archibald, the new Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, 
 who wrote to Colonel Wolseley : ' I can judge of the work 
 
 of the Assiniboinc and Red Rivers, and is icx> yards distant from the former. 
 'I'lie village of \Vinni])cg, about half a mile distant, was, in 1870, a collec- 
 tion of some fifty houses, forming one wide street. 
 
 * In this order lie said : ' You have endured excessive fatigue in the 
 ]ierformance of a service that, for its arduous nature, can bear comi)aiison 
 with any {previous military ex|iedition. In coming here from I'rince Artluu-'s 
 Landing you have traversed a distance of upwards of 600 miles. Your 
 labours jjegan with road-making and the construction of defensive works ; 
 then followed the arduous duty of takinj; the boats \x\) a height of 800 feet, 
 along 50 miles of river full of rapids, and where jiortages were numerous. 
 From the time you left Shebandowan Lake until Kort Garry was reached, 
 your labour at the oar has been incessant from daybreak to dark every day. 
 lH)rty-seven ]oortages were got over, entailing the unparalleled exertion of 
 carrying the boats, guns, annnunilion, stores, and provisions over a total 
 distance of ujnvards of seven miles. It may be said that the whole journey 
 has been made through a wilderness, where, as there were no supplies of 
 any sort whatever to be had, everything had to be taken with you in the 
 boats. I h.ave throughout viewed with pli-i^tu-o the manner in which ofticers 
 
 
 have vied with their men in ca 
 five days out of nim ty-f<" 
 Bay, and upon many mit 
 together. There 
 from anyone. It uc >. 
 
 endure more contii is labo; 
 on service have evei mcimi b 
 arising from exjjosure 10 i 
 annoyance caused by tiics. ' 
 
 loads. It has rained upon forty- 
 
 .iss<'tl since we landed at 'i'lmnder 
 
 11 has been wet tlirough for days 
 
 itest niurnmr of discontent heard 
 
 lied that no force has ever had to 
 
 ,nd ii luay be as truthfully said that no men 
 
 r behave-!, or more cheerful under the trials 
 
 leiuent wea'-her, excessive fatigue, and to the 
 
 IK' 
 
 itlv 
 
 
THE RETURN TO CANADA. 
 
 233 
 
 you have had to do all the better from having seen for myself 
 the physical obstacles that had to be met and overcome 
 — obstacles which, I assure you, exceed anything I could 
 have imagined. It is imi)ossible not to feel that the men 
 who have triumphed over such difficulties must not only 
 have themselves worked well, but also have been well led ; 
 and I should not be doing justice to my own feelings if I 
 were not, on my arrival here, to repeat the expressions of 
 admiration extorted from me as I passed along in view of 
 the difficulties you had to meet, and which you have so 
 triumphantly surmounted.' 
 
 On the following day, the Regular troops, being relieved 
 by the Ontario Militia, commenced to leave for Canada by the 
 Winnipeg River, Captain Buller's^companyof the 6othRifles, 
 guided by Mr. Monkman, proceeding by the road to the 
 north-west angle of Lake of the Woods, where they were to 
 exchange for boats the pack-horses that had formed their 
 means of transport. By the 3rd of September all the Regu- 
 lars had left Fort Garry on tiieir return to Canada. 
 
 Mr. Archibald was duly installed as Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Manitoba on the 6th of September, and on the loth 
 Colonel Wolseley started by the road between Fort Garry 
 and Lake of the Woods. The Militia regiments remained 
 in the territory ; the Ontario Rifles in Fort Garry, where 
 the two guns were also left ) and the Quebec Rifles at the 
 Stone Fort. 
 
 The troops performed in safety the return journey to 
 Prince Arthur's Landing, which was very arduous, as the 
 rapids of the Winnipeg had to be laboriously ' poled ' and 
 'tracked,' instead of 'run.' As they arrived at Tliunder 
 
 * Now Sir Rcdvers BuIIer, V.C. , K.C. M.G. , C. B. , who served under his 
 old chief in Ash;intee and l''gypt, and is acknow!c'dj;od to he one of the best 
 ofiicers in the army. During the Zulu War he and Sir ICvelyn Wood, 
 another of those so unworthily stigmatized as the 'Ashantee l"iing,' con- 
 fessedly came out as the heroes in a war that was the grive of so many 
 reputations. 
 

 
 ? 
 
 234 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Bay, they embarked for Collingvvood, whence they pro- 
 ceeded by train to Toronto and Montreal, where the last 
 detachment arrived on the 14th of October. General 
 Lindsay was enabled to report to the War Office, that 
 ' with the exception of one man left at Fort Garry, with 
 inflammation of the lungs, the Regular force returned to 
 Canada with no sick, and with no casualty by drowning, or 
 of any other description.' Truly a marvellous and unprece- 
 dented result in an arduous expedition, in which over 1,200 
 soldiers and 500 non-combatants were engaged. 
 
 On Wolseley's arrival at the north-west angle of Lake 
 of the Woods, he found a note from General Lindsay, say- 
 ing that he intended to embark for England on the ist of 
 October, and would be glad of his company. Wolseley 
 immediately pushed on for Prince Arthur's Landing in his 
 canoe, and on his arrival took ship to Collingwood. Hurry- 
 ing through Toronto, he proceeded to Montreal, where the 
 citizens entertained him at a banquet, and presented him 
 v.xch an address of welcome and congratulation.* 
 
 The citizens of Montreal, whose sentiments were echoed 
 by the inhabitants of Canada, were capable of forming a j ist 
 estimate of the arduous nature of the expedition brought 
 
 
 * In this address they said : ' In common with the entire people of 
 Canada, we hailed your appointment to the command of the expedition 
 with pleasure, and looked forward to your conduct of it with the mosl implicit 
 confidence — a confidence which has been more than justified by the result. 
 The difiticultics of leading a considerable body ot troops through an unin- 
 habited territory without roads, and re iioved from any sources of supply, 
 like that between Fort William and Fort Garry, were such as to tax the 
 utmost skill ; and that you have succeeded in overcoming them so success- 
 fully, without the loss of a single man, or any serious casualty, is the highest 
 tribute that could be paid to your character and abilities as a soldier. Thu 
 citizens of Montreal, who watched the progress of the expedition with the 
 most anxious concern, will ever remember your admirable management of 
 it with feelings of the n.irmest gratitude. We regret your departure from 
 Canada, where your conduct as a soldier, and your character as a citizen, 
 have won for you so many warm friends ; and, in bidding you farewell, we 
 can assure you that the citizens of Montreal will feel the deepest interest in 
 your future career, and will learn with the greatest gratification of your future 
 happiness and prosperity.' 
 

 COST OF THE EXPEDITION. 
 
 235 
 
 to so successful a conclusion, as well as the advantages 
 accruing to the Dominion ; but it was otherwise with the 
 people of this country. During the entire time occupied 
 by the expedition, the attention of England, as of the whole 
 civilized world, wa:^ riveted upon the tremendous drama 
 then enacting on the banks of the Rhine, and so it hap- 
 pened that the labours and endurance of the soldiers, and 
 the capacity and triumphant success of the leader of the 
 Expedition to the Red River, were passed over with scarce 
 one word of comment and eulogium on the part of the 
 Press. 
 
 A point that always tells with the British taxpayer should 
 not be omitted in summing up the successful features of 
 this expedition, and it was one that tended in no small 
 measure to consign it to oblivion. It has been generally 
 stated — and Captain Huyshe himself, in his published work, 
 repeats the error — that the cost of the expedition was about 
 ;^4oo,ooo. We have it from the authority of the commander, 
 however, that the entire sum expended was only ^{^80,000, 
 and as, according to the original agreement, the mother 
 country was to defray one quarter of the amount, it follows 
 that John Bull was only mulcted to the extent of ^20,000. 
 We know what a commotion vas made over the Abyssinian 
 bill of ^9,000,000, and for years after a committee of the 
 House of Commons was engaged inquiring into the items of 
 expenditure. Doubtless, therefore, John Bull, in the case 
 under consideration, somewhat illogically considered that 
 his rewards and approval should be meted out in propor- 
 tion to the expenditure and to the disturbance of his peace 
 of mind on the score of his contribution. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs. Wolseley proceeded to England in the 
 Scandinavian^ and on their arrival in London, in October, 
 1870, his appointment of Deputy Quartermaster-General 
 in Canada having been abolished with the withdrawal of all 
 
236 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ,. I 
 
 iiii 
 
 British troops from the Dominion, he was placed upon the 
 half-pay list of his rank. 
 
 Wolseley was not backward in expressing his sense of the 
 conduct of the troops committed to his charge, and, in his 
 final despatch of the 26th of September, after enumerating 
 the difficulties overcome, adds : ' We were launched out into 
 a desert of trees and water, carrying everything we required 
 with us, unable even to avail ourselves of the assistance 
 of horses or other draught cattle. Once cut adrift from 
 our base at Prince Arthur's Landing, 1 ntil we had forced 
 our way through the 600 miles of forests that separated 
 us from the inhabited country at the Red River, we were 
 beyond the reach of all assistance from the outside world, 
 and had to rely upon our own exertions solely to carry us 
 through. Except that we were armed with superior weapons, 
 the expedition might have been one of classic times, so 
 primitive was our mode of progression, and so little assisted 
 were we by modern appliances.'* 
 
 The success of the expedition was chiefly due to the 
 master-mind, who infused into his subordinates some of 
 his indomitable resolution and will, and who only encoun- 
 tered unforeseen difficulties to overcome them. A striking 
 instance of this fertility of resource was afforded by him 
 when, on finding the impossibility of utilizing the road to 
 Lake Shebandovvan for the transport of boats, he sent them 
 up the Kaministiquia River — a route that had been pro- 
 nounced impracticable. ' Had not this step been taken,' 
 
 * His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, in a general order to 
 the officers and men of the Red River force, expressed ' his entire satisfac- 
 tion at the manner in which they iiave performed the arduous duties which 
 were entailed upon them, by a journey of above 600 miles througli a country 
 destitute of supjMies, and which necessitated the heavy labour of carrying 
 boats, guns, aninmnition, stores, and provisions over no less than forty- 
 seven portajjes. Seldom have troops been called upon to endure more 
 continuous labour and fatigue, and never have officers and men bthaved 
 better or worked more cheerfully, during inclement weather and its conse- 
 ([uent hardships, and the successful result of the expedition shows the perfect 
 discipline and spirit of all engaged in it.' 
 
 % 
 
 '% 
 
GEN. LINDSA Y'S ESTIMA TE OF WOLSELE V. 237 
 
 writes General Lindsay, * the Regulars certainly would not 
 have returned this season.' No one outside the expe- 
 ditionary force knew better than the Lieutenant-General 
 commanding the troops in Canada, the nature and extent of 
 the obstacles so triumphantly overcome, and he says, in his 
 final despatch of the nth of October: 'The mainspring of 
 the whole movement was the Commander, Colonel Wolse- 
 ley, who has shown throughout great professional ability. 
 He has the faculty of organization and resource in difficulty. 
 He has served in many campaigns with distinction, and in 
 this expedition he has shown great aptitude for command. 
 His advance upon Fort Garry itself was conducted with skill 
 and prudence, and his proceedings there in abstaining from 
 all interference with civil affairs himself, seem to me to have 
 been eminently judicious. I hardly think it possible to over- 
 rate the advantage Her Majesty's Government and Canada 
 have derived from the employment upon this delicate as 
 well as arduous service, of an officer of Colonel Wolseley's 
 attainments, character, and discretion. I have esteemed 
 myself fortunate in having such an instrument in my hand 
 to carry out your orders with respect to the Red River 
 Expedition. I therefore confidently recommend Colonel 
 Wolseley to the gracious favour of Her Majesty.' Wolseley, 
 while at Fort Garry, had learned in a letter from his old 
 chief and friend, the late Sir Hope Grant, that his name 
 would be included among the Companions of the Bath 
 in the next Gazette^ a tardy acknowledgment for his many 
 and eminent services in four great wars ; and now, at the 
 bidding of his Sovereign, he ' rose up ' Sir Garnet Joseph 
 Wolseley, K.C.M.G. 
 
 On the ist of May, 187 1, after having been six months 
 on the half-pay list, Sir Garnet Wolseley was appointed 
 Assistant Adjutant-General, Discipline Branch, at the 
 Horse Guards. His staff-service hitherto had been all 
 

 i 
 
 238 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 passed in the Quartermaster-General's Department, which, 
 dealing with the movement and supply of troops, as well as 
 with other multifarious staff duties, was, according to the old 
 regime, the most important of the administrative branches of 
 the service. 
 
 In the following August the Duke of Wellington invited 
 officers to compete for a prize of jQioo, for the best Essay 
 on ' The System of Field Manoeuvres best adapted for 
 enabling our troops to meet a continental army.' The 
 competitors were required to send in their Essays before 
 the ist of March in the following year, and Colonel 
 E. B. Hamley, C.B., Commandant of the Staff College, and 
 the distinguished author of the ' Operations of War,' con- 
 sented to act as judge. Under the signature of ' Ubique,' 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley competed for this prize ; but he was not 
 sanguine of success, as, owing to his onerous office-work at 
 the Horse Guards, he was only able to give to the composi- 
 tion of the Essay such intervals of time as were snatched 
 from hi; official duties. But though this hastily-written 
 production of his pen did not carry off the prize, it was 
 regarded with so much favour by the judge, that it was 
 published by the desire of the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 It speaks not a little for Sir Garnet Wolseley's energy 
 and love of his profession that he, who had made his name 
 as a practical and successful soldier, should care to com- 
 pete with Staff College students and other officers who had 
 abundance of leisure. ''*■ This competition also affords an 
 instance of his generosity; for when selecting his staff for the 
 
 * At the request of the late Sir Hope Grant, commanding the Divisir :"! at 
 .Mdershot, he delivered a lecture at the Camp on the Red River Expedition, 
 
 vhich was never published, and the MS. was burnt at tlie Pantechnicon. 
 
 .gain overcoming his rooted dislike to lecturing, at the request of his old 
 commander and friend, in January, 1873, he read a paper before a large 
 military audience at Aldershot on ' Railways in time of War.' As this im- 
 jjortant subject could not be treated exhaustively in one lecture, iiwas his 
 intention to have delivered a second, but this resolve he was unable to carry 
 out, and the brochure has been printed in its incomplete form. 
 
WOLSELE Y AT THE A UTUMN MANCEUVRES. 239 
 
 ,r nt 
 tion, 
 
 nicon. 
 
 is old 
 large 
 is ini- 
 
 as his 
 carry 
 
 ! 
 
 Ashantee War, he offered the appointment of Military 
 Secretary to his successful rival, Lieutenant J. F. Maurice,* 
 R.A. (Instructor of Tactics and Organization at the Royal 
 Military College, Sandhurst); and on learning that, according 
 to * the rules of the service,' the officer filling this position 
 on a General's staff must not be under the rank of a 
 captain, he appointed him his private secretary, and in that 
 capacity the successful essayist conducted his chiefs official 
 correspondence with the Colonial Office in Ashantee. 
 
 During the autumn manoeuvres of 187 1, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Aldershot and Woolmer Forest, Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley held the post of Chief of the Staff to Sir Charles 
 Staveley ; and, in the following year, he served as Assistant 
 Adjutant-General on the staff of the Southern army, 
 commanded by Sir John Michel, who, remembering the 
 capacity Wolseley displayed in the China War and in 
 Canada, requested him to conduct the duties of that 
 department. Sir Garnet was a member of the Committee 
 for the Reorganization of the Army, presided over by 
 General McDougall, and also frequently wrote minutes on 
 various military questions at the request of the Duke of 
 Cambridge and Mr. Cardwell, then Secretary of State for 
 War. 
 
 But the name and services of Sir Garnet Wolseley would 
 have remained in comparative obscurity had not one of 
 those crises arisen which this country, with her vast colonies 
 and dependencies, has so frequently been called upon to 
 meet, and once again ' the hour brought forth the man.' 
 When we survey the situation of affairs on the (jold Coast 
 in the autumn of 1873, and the difficulties that appeared to 
 militate against a successful invasion of Ashantee, difficulties 
 as to climate, transport, and the limited time disposable for 
 
 * This able and gallant officer is closely identified with the fortunes of 
 Lord Wolseley, under whom he served in Ashantee, Cyprus, South Africa, 
 and Egypt. 
 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 military operations, we mL.y recall the anxiety with which 
 every patriotic heart regarded the success of the expedition 
 at the time it was despatched from these shores. We may 
 bring to mind the telegrams and despatches in which was 
 recounted the story of how these obstacles were manfully 
 met and overcome, how the invading host of savages was 
 rolled back across the stream over which the foot of a 
 white conqueror had never yet been set, and then how the 
 final advance on Coomassie was made with a handful of 
 men, battling ten to one against a fierce and cruel enemy, 
 who knew every tree and track of the forests surrounding 
 their capital. When we recall these achievements of that 
 small and daily diminishing band, achievements which equal 
 in disciplined valour the deeds of Pizarro and Cortez, who 
 fought in open country against an effeminate foe, and in a 
 comparatively healthy climate, we may congratulate our- 
 selves on possessing such soldiers, and 'lay the flattering 
 unction to our souls ' that while British officers volunteer in 
 hundreds to encounter the perils of battle and disease, and 
 the army can provide such a General to lead them to 
 victory, the country has no cause to lament the decay of the 
 spirit that led our fathers to conquer India and colonize so 
 large a portion of the globe. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ASHANTEE WAR. 
 
 to 
 
 SO 
 
 Preparations for the War. — Arrival at Cape Coast. — Operations South of 
 the I'rali. —The Action at Essaman. — Defence of Abrakrampa, and Re- 
 treat of the Ashantees. — Illness of Sir Garnet Wolseley. — Preparations for 
 crossing the I'rah. — The Advance into Ashantee. — IJattle of Amoaful. — 
 Action at Ordahsu. — Capture of Cooniassie. — Return to Cape Coast. — 
 Tiie Treaty of Fonimanah. — Sir Garnet Wolseley returns to England. — 
 The Welcome Home. 
 
 The Government of Mr. Gladstone, like others that had 
 preceded it, was averse from entering upon an Ashantee 
 War,* owing to the unpopularity attaching to such ex- 
 peditions in England, and the knowledge that, in the event 
 of failure, it was morally certain an adverse vote in 
 Parliament would place them on the Opposition benches. 
 But, though long-suffering, it was impossible that any 
 Government not utterly destitute of publ'c spirit could 
 tolerate the continued occupation of the Fantee Protectorate 
 and the practical blockade of the British forts by the 
 savage hordes of Koffee Kalkalli ; and, at length, the 
 receipt of the news of the action at Elmina on the 13th of 
 June, when Colonel Festing repelled the enemy, induced 
 the Ministry to resolve upon undertaking military operations. 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was named for the command, and the 
 Government wisely resolved to centre in his hands the 
 supreme direction of civil as well as military affairs. In 
 
 * A detailed account of the events preceding the war may be found in 
 ' Fantee and Asliantee,' by Captains Huyshe and Henry Brackenbury, 
 R.A. , and in the ' History of the Ashantee War,' by the latter officer, to 
 which we are greatly indebted in the preparation of the following pages. 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 accepting the honourable and arduous task of pacifying the 
 Gold Coast, Sir Garnet stipulated that he should not be 
 required to remain as Civil Governor after the close of 
 military operations ; but his only other request, that he 
 should be given an adcqua';e force of Europeans, was not 
 then complied with. 
 
 The Colonial Office, having also decided upon organizing 
 a subsidiary expedition to Coomassie from the Volta, under 
 the general control of Sir Garnet Wolseley, Commander 
 Glover, R.N.,* formerly Administrator at Lagos, was 
 appointed to the command. The chief object sought to 
 be attained was to cause a diversion in the rear of the 
 Ashantee army, and thereby to draw them from the 
 Protectorate ; and sanguine people, who were ignorant of 
 the resources of the Ashantee King, even hoped that it 
 might obviate the necessity of the despatch of any European 
 troops. 
 
 When it was known that the Government had resolved 
 upon an expedition to Coomassie, the Press was filled, as 
 at the time of the Abyssinian War, with dismal prognostica- 
 tions, and one ' experienced ' gentleman, in answer to a 
 letter from Sir Garnet Wolseley as to necessary articles of 
 outfit, replied that he would * strongly recommend that 
 every officer should take out his coffin.' ' One who was 
 there,' as usual at such times, also made his appearance in 
 print, and advocated a certain course, which others, who 
 had likewise passed 'half their lives on the Coast,' laughed 
 to scorn ; indeed, had the proposals suggested by this 
 multiplicity of counsellors been followed, anything but 
 wisdom would have been exhibited by the authorities, and 
 
 * It is a singular circumstance that this able and gallant officer, who was 
 thus thrown into such close relations with Sir Garnet Wolseley, received a 
 severe wound near Donabew, on the Irrawaddy, in the disastrous attack on 
 Myat-toon's position by Captain Loch, R. N., which led to Sir John Cheape's 
 successful expedition, when Ensign Wolseley was severely wounded leading 
 the storming-party, as already detailed. 
 
S/f! GARNET WOLSELEY'S INFORMANTS. 243 
 
 one of the few follies in the military preparations, under- 
 taken on the advice of old habitues of the Coast, was the 
 supply of rails to be laid from Cape Coast to the Prah. 
 Among other doleful prophecies. Sir Garnet was assured by 
 an ofticer who professed himself intimate with the country, 
 that 'every soldier would require a hammock, and every 
 hammock would recjuire six men to carry it ;' and he was 
 even given to understand that after crossing the Prah, he 
 would find a fine open country, though, as a matter of tact, 
 the whole route to Coomassie north of that river lies through 
 a dense forest. 
 
 The intelligence of the appointment of Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 to the command of the i)rojected expedition was received 
 by the country with approval, and he speedily gave tokens 
 of the wisdom of the selection in the infinite care and 
 patience he took in organizing the details of the under- 
 taking, as far as was possible at this early stage, and in 
 gaining information on all points from anyone who had it 
 to impart. He listened to all the gloomy vaticinations of 
 his numbe'-less correspondents and visitors, and answered 
 the former with courteous rejoinders of thanks, or dismissed 
 the latter with the assured smile of one who had visited 
 many climes and encountered too many difficulties to be 
 overcome with the terrors of travellers' stories. Though 
 fully alive to the extreme difficulties of the undertaking 
 u^'on which he was embarked, his confidence in his own 
 resources and in his ability to triumph over them never 
 deserted him. Before leaving this country, he informed his 
 friends that he would be back in England, if he returned 
 at all, by the ist of April, and he was even more than 
 usually punctual, for he landed at Portsmouth on the 21st 
 of March. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was inundated with hundreds of 
 applications from officers desirous of serving on the pesti- 
 
 16 — 2 
 
I 
 
 244 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 •rti 
 
 «|4. ,i 
 
 •II 
 
 
 lential "'Vest Coast, and many distinguished by their scientific 
 attainments resigned important and lucrative staff appoint- 
 ments to accompany him. In these days of competitive 
 examinations, when an officer cannot be promoted from the 
 junior regimental grades without * passing,' the language of 
 Ensign Northerton, or the Captain, in Swift's * Hamilton 
 Bawn.' does not represent the views of the profession : 
 
 'A scholard, wlicn just from his college broke loose, 
 Can hardly t(>]l how to cry bo to a i^oose ; 
 Your Novcds, and Blutarchs, and Onicrs, and stuff, 
 'F'ore George, they don't signiiy this pinch of snuff. 
 
 * To give a young gentleman right education. 
 The army's the only good school in the nation ; 
 My schoolmaster called me a dunce and a fool, 
 But at cuffs I was always the cock of the school.' 
 
 The difficulty with Sir Garnet Wolseley was to select 
 irom so many suitable candidates; but he quickly succeeded 
 in gathering round him an efficient staff of young, active, 
 and able officers."^ 
 
 Having digested all the information he could gather — the 
 most reliable being that culled from the pages of Bowdich 
 and Dupuis, who had visited Coomassie half a century 
 before, and from whose itineraries a map was prepared at 
 the Topographical Department of the War Office, which 
 was afterwards found to be curiously inaccurate — Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley laid before Her Majesty's Ministers a memorandum 
 embodying his views of the objects to be attained, and the 
 means necessary for their accomplishment. In this memo- 
 randum he proposed that two battalions of European troops, 
 
 * These were : Colonel J. C. McNeill, V.C, C.M.G., Chief of the Staff; 
 Major T. D. Baker, i8th Royal Irish, Assistant Adjutant-Genera". ; Captain 
 G. L. Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General ; 
 Captain R. H. Buller, 6oth Rifles, Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General ; 
 Deputy Controller M. B. Irvine, C.M.G., in charge of the Control Depart- 
 ment ; Captain H. Brackenbury, R.A. , Assistant Military Secretary ; Cap- 
 tain Hugh McCalmont, 7th Hussars, and Lieutenant Hon. A. Charteris, 
 Coldstream Guards, Aides-de-Camp ; Lieutenant J. F. Maurice, R.A. , 
 Private Secretary. Of the preceding. Colonel McNeill, Captains Huyshe, 
 Buller, and McCalmont, and Mr. Irvine, had served in the Red River 
 Expedition. 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 245 
 
 numbering each 29 officers and 654 men, with detachments 
 of other branches of the service, all specially selected for 
 the duty, should be despatched to Cape Coast in time to 
 commence operations on the ist of December. The 
 Government, however, influenced by the condition of the 
 Marines, who had already been despatched to the Coast, 
 and by the statements of the sickness that would decimate 
 European troops taking the field, decided that the troops 
 should be held in readiness for service, but that the question 
 of their despatch should be reserved until Sir Garnet had 
 reported to the (Government, after investigating the condition 
 of affairs on the spot. 
 
 From this date until his departure, Sir Garnet was fully 
 occupied in the personal supervision of the details connected 
 with the organization, transport, and fitting out of the force, 
 the first portion of which was to consist only of Native allies 
 and West India troops. He drew up memoranda and 
 indents for the supply of stores and materiel of war, and 
 decided upon the uniform and equipments of the Special 
 Service officers, and of the men of the European regiments 
 warned for duty, the important considerations of utility and 
 comfort being only considered.* 
 
 The time having arrived for his departure, Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley was invested with the local rank of Major-General, 
 and appointed Administrator of the Government of the 
 Gold Coast, wdth instructions as to his mission in the double 
 capacity from the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies, and Mr. Cardwell, Secretary of State for War. 
 The latter read much like the injunction addressed of old 
 by the Egyptian task-masters to the Israelites, to 'make 
 
 * Officers' kit was limited to fifty pounds, and their uniform, which was 
 made of grey homespun, consisted of tlie Xorfolii jacl<et, with pantaloons, 
 gaiters, shooting-boots, and corl< helmet with tlie Indian puggree ; their 
 arms were the Eicho sword-bayonet and revolver. The ranlc and file were 
 dressed in smock-frocks, trousers, long boots and helmets, and were armed 
 with short rifles and the Elcho sword-bayouct. 
 
II ^ 
 
 i 
 
 i i 
 
 :i- 
 
 1.1 
 
 246 
 
 LIFE OF LORD U'OLSELFY. 
 
 bricks without straw,' as beyond a handful of Marines, 
 Wolseley was given no European troops to enforce the 
 Masting treaty' insisted upon by Lord Kimbcrley. The 
 remainder of his troops consisted of a detachment of 
 Houssas, and a West India regiment ; and as for the 
 'allies,' ^o j)ompously paraded by his lordship, they were a 
 mere rabble, whose cowardice had already been proved. 
 Moreover, the whole responsibility of ultimately em.ploying 
 European troops, which ' nothing but a conviction of 
 necessity would induce Her Majesty's Government to 
 sanction,' was cast upon the Commander, who, nevertheless, 
 cheerfully took up the burden, confident in his own 
 resources, and animated by a single-minded deter. ■«iination 
 to do his duty to the best of his ability. 
 
 On the 12th of September Sir Garnet Wolseley sailed 
 from Liverpool for the Gold Coast, on board the West 
 African steamship Afnbriz, which also carried 27 Special 
 Service officers. He had always been singularly unfortunate 
 in the ships that had carried him to the scenes of his 
 labours, and the Ambriz was to be no exception. She had 
 been hastily prepared for sea, was badly found, had 
 insufficient acconimodation, and moreover, reeked with foul 
 smells arising from bilge-water. The ship touched at 
 Madeira and Sierra Leone, where Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 landed on the 27th of September, and assumed the command 
 of the land forces in the West African Settlements. As Sir 
 Garnet had decided to raise two regiments of natives, who 
 were to be placed under the command, respectively, of 
 Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., 90th Regiment, and Major 
 Baker Russell,* 13th Hussars, he despatched Captain 
 Furze and Lieutenant Saunders to enlist men at Bathurst, 
 on the Gambia, and Lieutenant Gordon was also left behind 
 
 * These two Special Service officers, who are so identified with Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, were now associated with him for the first time. 
 
 ■V !!i: 
 
ARRIVAL AT CAPE COAST. 
 
 247 
 
 at Sierra Leone. The Ambriz touched at Monrovia, in the 
 Ke[)iiblic of Liberia, and landing Commissary O'Connor at 
 Cape I'ahnas with instructions to enlist Kroomen as carriers, 
 cast anchor, on the 2nd of October, off Cape Coast, with its 
 never-ending sound of : 
 
 ' The league-long roller thundering on the reef.' 
 On the following day Sir Carnct landed under the usual 
 salutes, the paucity of troops being manifested by the fact 
 that the guard of honour of West India soldiers, after pre- 
 senting arms at the landing-place, proceeded ..t the double, 
 like stage 'supers,' to perform the same duty at (Govern- 
 ment House. On his arrival took place the ceremony of 
 investiture, which simply consisted of the reading of his 
 letter of appointment, followed by the usual swearing-in in 
 the presence of the Chief Justice. On making inquiries, Sir 
 Garnet found that the settlement was even more denuded 
 of troops than he had expected, as Captain Clo'-cr, on his 
 way to Accra, had taken with him the trained Iloussa 
 police. Thus the entire force of disciplined troops at his 
 disposal, scattered between Cape Coast, Elmina, Secondee, 
 Dixcove, Axim, Napoleon, Abbaye and Accroful, consisted 
 of 700 men of the 2nd West India Regiment, of whom 
 only 400 were available for service in the field, and scarcely 
 100 for the defence of Cape Coast itself. Besides these, 
 Captain Thompson, of the Queen's Bays, who had been 
 organizing the Fantee police, reported 10 men as the number 
 really available for general duty ! There, were, also, only 
 13 officers on duty with the 2nd West India Regiment, and 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley, who, while at Sierra Leone, had 
 written requesting the Government to send him 12 additional 
 Special Service officers, now urgently repeated his demand. 
 Notwithstanding this paucity of officers and men, he took 
 an encouraging view of affairs, and wrote to the Home 
 Government on the loth of October, that, with the fleet at 
 
248 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 ^uBm^Bmn 
 
 1, 
 
 
 'c 
 
 
 
 SilH^^I 
 
 3- 
 
 ^H 
 
 % 
 
 vH 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 :|W^H 
 
 i. 
 1 
 
 v'ii 
 
 ) 
 
 his back, from which to draw in the event of an emergency, 
 he was confident he could repulse any attack of the enemy. 
 That such might be made at any moment, appeared no 
 unlikely contingency, for the Ashantee army, nearly 40,000 
 strong, under their most redoubtable General, Amanquatia, 
 was known to be encamped at Mampon and Jooquah, 
 distant only a few hours' march, while well authenticated 
 reports stated that large reinforcements had marched from 
 Coomassie on their way to the Fantee territory. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, that, though Sir Garnet Wolscley 
 preserved his equanimity and spoke confidently to all 
 around him. Cape Coast was in a state of panic, and the 
 advent of a * fighting ' Governor was hailed with joy by the 
 population. 
 
 In order to inspire confidence, and induce the Fantccs to 
 exert themselves, the General, on the day succeeding his 
 landing, held a ' palaver ' or durbar of the * kings ' of the 
 Protectorate (as the petty chiefs of the West Coast are 
 called), which took place in a large marquee pitched in front 
 of Government House. The ' kings ' began to arrive soon 
 after three o'clock, and with the gravity becoming their 
 exalted station, and" the solemnity of the occasion, seated 
 themselves on stools, carried by their attendants, some of 
 whom also bore huge umbrellas, which denote the regal 
 state among these African communities, while others 
 carried .swords and canes, and beat tomtoms to herald the 
 approach of their potent masters. 
 
 On his arrival in the tent, he took his station upon a 
 small raised dais at one end, the B'-itish officers standing 
 behind and r.round him. The kings and chieis were now 
 ushered in, and came crowding and josding along like a 
 crowd of schoolboys, cr the members of the House of 
 Commons when called to the bar of the Lords to hear the 
 speech from the throne. Sir Garnet stood, while the kings 
 
WOLSELEY HOLDS A PALAVER. 
 
 249 
 
 in succession were introduced to him, and received the 
 conventional shake of the hand from the Queen's Repre- 
 sentative. The presentations over, Sir Garnet, still standing, 
 proceeded to address the crowded throng in an inspiriting 
 address ; each sentence, as it fell from his lips, being 
 translated into Fantee by a German interpreter. 
 
 At the termination of his speecn, which was received with 
 respectful and eager attention, the present of gin, customary 
 on these occasions, was made to each of the princes and 
 chiefs, and, after a second hand-shaking, they retired to 
 consult together, with instructions to return on the 6th. At 
 this second meeting, which was conducted under the same 
 formalities, they expressed their willingness to comply with 
 the terms offered, and their readiness to collect their men, 
 but with the indolence and cowardice that characterized 
 their coi.duct throughout the ensuing operations, they 
 delayed, from day to day, their departure from Cape Coast. 
 These indolent Fantees viewed life like Tennyson's ' mild- 
 eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters,' who said : 
 
 ' Let us alone ; Tin\c drivctli onward fast, 
 And in a little wliilc our lips are duniD. 
 Let us alone. Wiiat is that will last?' 
 
 At the request of the kings, ;he General appointed ofifirers 
 as Special Commissitjiicrs, wiih detailed instructions, to 
 assist them in collecting their men. Several kings not 
 having presented themselves. Sir Garnet wrote, re<|uesting 
 them to assemble their men at Dunquah. 
 
 Almost daily interviews took place between Sir Garnet 
 and s; r- e -^f these chiefs, whom ho strove to influence by 
 considem.ions of profit, as ' honour ' and ' patriotism ' were 
 unknown words in their vocabulary, to collect their men 
 and fight the Ashantees. Dcthinking him ot the prevailing 
 custom in this strange land, where the weaker sex belabour 
 any men who remain behind when the tril s turn out for 
 
■ 'i 
 
 V|{ 
 
 250 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE Y. 
 
 war, the General held a palaver of the ladies of Cape Coast 
 at Government House. They attended the unusual 
 summons in great numbers, all with elaborate coiffures, and 
 decked out in gold rings and fastenings for the ample 
 shawl which formed the sole covering of most of them ; and 
 the interview ended in their agreeing to take solemn 
 vengeance against any faint-hearted males who failed to 
 respond with alacrity to Sir Garnet's summons. 
 
 Nothing whatever had been done to prepare for the 
 expedition, but the General and his staff soon supplied all 
 deficiencies by their energy. The landing and storage of 
 supplies first engaged the attention of Sir Garnet ; ar .1 
 Cape Coast and Eimina, respectively under the command 
 of Colonels F. Festing, of the Royal Marines, and Evelyn 
 Wood, V.C, were placed in a position to resist any attacks 
 of the enemy. Suitable sanitary arrangements were set on 
 foot in Cape Coast, and a survey department was organized, 
 under Captain Huyshe, who left headquarters for the 
 advanced post, and made sketches of the road and of 
 the positions of Accroful and Dunquah. His , "3tant, 
 Lieutenant Hart, was engaged on the survey of the 
 country about Cape Coast, and other officers surveyed the 
 country between Eimina, Abbaye, and the Sweet River in 
 the direction of Cape Coast. Within a few days of 
 Wolseley's arrival, the entrenched outposts established at 
 Napoleon, Abbaye, and Accroful (about fifteen miles north- 
 east of Cape Coast), which were garrisoned by detachments 
 of the West India troops, and those at Yancoomassie and 
 Dunquah, held by Lieutenant Gordon and his armed 
 police and volunteers, were all placed in postal conununi- 
 cation with each other, and furnished with a week's sup- 
 plies. 
 
 As, in o''der to inspire confidence, it was above all things 
 necessary to act on the offensive, the preparations hitherto 
 
WOLSELEY TAKES THE OFFENSIVE. 251 
 
 made only having for their object the defence of the British 
 posts, the General instructed Captain R. H. Buller, Goth 
 Rifles, in charge of the Intelligence Department, to gather 
 all the information attainable regarding the positions and 
 strength of the enemy. It had been Sir Garnet's earnest 
 desire, since he landed on the Gold Coast, to prove to the 
 people that the Ashantees were not invincible in the bush, a 
 proposition which had come to be regarded as an article of 
 faith in West Africa, and was even held by some people 
 in England, who, while they allowed the superiority of 
 European soldiers in the open, and were not prepared to deny 
 that our officers could, u, 'er the same conditions, success- 
 fully lead native auxiliaries, yet would shake their heads 
 when anyone argued that even British soldiers could fight 
 and overcome, in the recesses of their own forests, the most 
 dreaded of all the tribes of African warriors. Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley resolved to take advantage of the first opportunity 
 of showing what even Native troops could do in the bush, 
 when properly handled and led, nor was this opportunity long 
 in offering itself. 
 
 Learning that the Ashantees were drawing most of their 
 supplies of food from Elmina, and the neighbouring sea- 
 coast villages of Amquana, Akimfoo, and Ampenee, whence 
 the supplies were conveyed inland through the village of 
 Essaman, about four miles to the north-west of Elmina, the 
 General directed Colonel Wood to write to the chiefs of 
 these places, summoning them before him to appear at 
 Elmina. The chiefs immediately sent off a messenger to 
 the Ashantee camp at Mampon, asking for instructions, and 
 were told to refuse compliance, as the Ashantees would 
 protect them, and the white men, though brave in the open, 
 dared not venture into the bush. Accordingly the Akimfoo 
 chief alone came into Elmina. No answer was vouchsafed 
 from Ampenee, and the Amquana chief sent word, * I have 
 
 ggfe— -^atg iaiaaatai ta^ffii 
 
II i 
 
 i 
 
 252 
 
 L/fE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 small-i)ox to-day, but will come to-morrow,' though, instead 
 of appearing, he betook himself to Mampon. I'inally the 
 chief of Essaman replied insolently, ' Come and fetch me ; 
 white man no dare go bush.' Sir Garnet resolved to un- 
 deceive these people, and as, to insure success, secrecy was 
 essential, he only took into his confidence Colonels McNeill 
 and Wood, Dr. Home, principal medical officer, and Mr. 
 Irvine. 
 
 Much, indeed everything, depended on a first success, 
 which would instil confidence into Europeans and Natives 
 alike, and he now made use of a ruse^ mention of which 
 may be found in his ' Soldier's Pocket Book.' In that little 
 work, speaking of newspaper corresjjondents, whom he 
 stigmatizes as ' those newly invented curses to armies, who 
 eat the rations of fighting men, and do no work at all,' he 
 propounds a method by which they may be made of great 
 utility in forwarding the plans of a General in the field. 
 'These gentlemen,' he says (p. 225), 'pandering to the 
 public craze for news, render concealment most diftlcult ; 
 but this very ardour for information a General can turn to 
 account, by spreading false news among the gentlemen of 
 the Press, and thus use them as a medium by wliich to 
 deceive the enemy.' Sir Garnet now proceeded to put into 
 practice this rust\ and announced at breakfast on the 12th 
 of October thc.t he had received bad news from Addah on 
 the Volta, where Captain Glover was in danger of being 
 surrounded, and that h.e intended to proceed to his aid ; 
 and immediately proceeded to Elmina in the Bittern, with 
 140 Honssas, who had just been recruited at Lagos, a 
 report having been allowed to spread that Colonel Wood 
 expected to be attacked. The Houssas were drilled in the 
 use of the Enfield during the two hours' voyage, and were 
 landed at Elmina, where Sir Garnet had a conference with 
 Colonel Wood, and, having imparted his plans to him 
 
 
THE ACTION AT ESS AM AN. 
 
 253 
 
 under the seal of secrecy, returned to Cape Coast the same 
 evening. 
 
 But as he could not take the field with the limited force 
 at his disposal, he determined to solicit the assistance of 
 Captain Fremantle, the senior naval officer, and, on the 
 1 2th of October, proceeded on board the Barracoufa, 
 ostensibly to return that officer's official visit. Captain 
 Fremantle, having received instructions from the Admiralty 
 which partially freed him from the restrictions as to the 
 employment of his sailors and Marines, imposed by Com- 
 modore Commerell before his departure for the Cape, 
 promised the General his hearty co-operation. The same 
 day 25c labourers and the necessary stores and cots pro- 
 ceeded to Elmina, and Captain Peile, of the Simoom, landed 
 with 40 seam on as a guard for Cape Coast. All the arrange- 
 ments being made ostensibly to proceed to the aid of 
 Captain Glover, on the evening of Plonday, the 13th of 
 October, the detachment of the 2nd West India Regiment 
 at Cape Coast was embarked on board the Decoy (an 
 appropriate name), expecting to sail for Accra ; and at 
 ten p.m. Sir Garnet and his staff embarked on board the 
 Barracouta, in whidi were also 15c men of the Royal 
 Marines. The two ships started about one a.m. on the 
 following morning, and, two hours later, the General and 
 Captain Fremantle landed at Elmina in the Barracouta^s 
 gig, and by half-past four the advanced guard moved off, 
 the main body following soon after five. On their arrival 
 at Elmina, Colonel Wood, who had posted a cordon of 
 police round the town so as to prevent all egress, was 
 placed in command of the column, the General accom- 
 panying it in order to show the Natives that, unlike pre- 
 ceding Governors, he held also the military command. 
 
 The force, accompanied by two chiefs and 20 guides, 
 consisted of 20 Marine Artillerymen, with i 7-pounder gun 
 
 _Li£a;^idUdUiiitt£a 
 
254 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and ^ rocket tube, 129 Marines, 29 seamen, 205 of the 2nd 
 West India Regiment, and 126 Houssas, besides 300 
 labourers. 
 
 The track from Elmina led through a swamp, knee-deep 
 for almost eighty yards, and, later, through a very narrow 
 bush-path, with high thick jungle on each side. After a 
 halt, about 2,000 yards from a hill behind v.-hich Essaman 
 was said to be, the Houssas were met by the enemy's 
 scouts, and when Sir Garnet arrived at the front, he found 
 them firing wildly into the bush, which was very dense. 
 
 Meanwhile, Captain Buller passed down the path leading ' 
 to Essaman, and advanced into the village, where a number 
 of armed men were collected. Captain Fremantle brought 
 the gun and rockets up to the path and opened fire, and 
 Colonel McNeill took some men into the bush to the left, 
 and began working round the flank of the village. A heavy 
 fire was opened by the enemy, and Captain Fremantle was 
 shot through the arm, a slug penetrated the leather case of 
 Captain Buller's prismatic compass, breaking the vane, and 
 Colonel McNeill* was badly wounded in the arm. In order 
 to clear the dense bush on the right, the General sent 
 Captain Crease with some Marines into the bush, and while 
 that officer cleared the hill on the right and protected the 
 flank with some of his men. Captain Brackenbury and 
 Lieutenant Charteris took the remainder into the village, 
 and pushing on to the far end, posted a guard. Mean- 
 while the Ashantees employed their usual flanking tactics, 
 and tried to turn the left of the West India Regiment, still 
 on the brow of the hill ; but the attack was repulsed, and 
 the troops advanced on the village by a road cut by the 
 axemen on the left. 
 
 At half-past eight the assembly was sounded, and the 
 
 * Colonel (now Major-General Sir J. C. ) McNeill's wound was very severe, 
 and necessitated his return to England. His loss was keenly felt by 
 Wolsoley, who applied for the services, as Chief of the Staff, of Colonel 
 (now Major-General Sir G. R.) Greaves. 
 
AfORAL EFFECT OF THE SUCCESS. 
 
 255 
 
 troops having breakfasted, marched off for Amquana, the 
 heat being terrific. Amquana, like Essaman, was fired, and 
 the column halted on the beach, the wounded being sent 
 back to Elmina under an escort. At two o'clock a detach- 
 ment of 150 West Indians, the Houssas, 12 blue jackets, 
 with rockets, and 20 Marines, marched for Akimfoo along 
 the beach, and met, half-way, the men of H.M. ships Argus 
 and Decoy. Akimfoo was reached at 3.30, and burnt, and 
 also Ampcwcc, half a mile further on. 
 
 The enemy opened fire from the bush behind the village, 
 to which the Marines and blue jackets replied ; but as it 
 was too late to attack, Sir Garnet ordered the assembly to 
 be sounded, and embarked on board H.M. 3. Decoy, which 
 steamed for Cape Coast Castle. The troops remained to 
 cover the embarkation of the men of the Argus and Decoy, 
 and then marched off, and picking up the Marines at Am- 
 quana, reached Elmina at eight p.m. 
 
 A more arduous day's work officers and men have seldom 
 performed. The General, with his staff and the white 
 troops, had been up all night, and had marched over 
 twenty-one miles under a tropical sun, through a dense 
 bush which prevented the circulation of a breath of air, 
 while there were no forest trees to give shade. Yet, strange 
 to say, there were only two cases of sunstroke ; and Dr. 
 Home reported : * The occasion has shown that Europeans 
 are quite equal to one very hard day's work in the bush, and 
 that marches of half the distance could be easily borne by 
 them.' 
 
 The moral effect created by this success was immense, 
 and, in Sir Garnet's opinion, it was the turning-point of the 
 war. It broke the spell regarding the invincibility of the 
 Ashantees in the bush, which had not only enchained the 
 cowardly inhabitants of the Protectorate, but was even 
 tacitly acknowledged by those pessimists who are to be 
 
256 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 found among all communities : and, while it instilled con- 
 fidence into every class, and taught officers and men that, 
 when properly commanded and led, European troops could 
 successfully compete with superior numbers in the densest 
 bush, it also struck a terror into the hearts of our enemies, 
 and shook the confidence of the Elmina people in their 
 boastful allies from Coomassie. 
 
 The practical effect of this victory was apparent. On the 
 following day, Amanquatia, the Commander-in-Chief, then 
 at Mampon, called a meeting of chiefs, who resolved on 
 retreat, though shortly before they had declared they would 
 never return to Ashantee until they had driven away the 
 Europeans.* 
 
 On the day Sir Garnet Wolseley started on his expedition 
 to Essaman, he had penned two most importnnt missives. 
 One was a summons to Koffee Kalkalli, in which he required 
 that potentate to withdraw all his troops into his own terri- 
 tory north of the Prah, by the 12th of November, to sur- 
 render all British subjects in his hands, and give guarantees 
 for the payment of compensation for losses, failing which he 
 was *to expect the full punishment his deeds have merited.' 
 
 To this Amanquatia replied, by claiming the people of 
 Assin, Denkera, Akim, and Wassaw, as vassals of his master 
 (though forty years before the then King of Ashantee had, 
 by treaty, renounced all claim to their allegiance), ending 
 
 * TIic experience gained by this hard day's fighting taught a valuable 
 lesFon to Sir (larnet Wolseley, and he says in his Report 10 the War Office: 
 ' 1 have been shown how little reliance can be placed on even the best Native 
 troops in this bush-fighting, where it is impossible to keep them under the 
 immediate control of European officers. One point stands prominently 
 from the experience of this day, viz. , that for fighting in the African bush 
 a very exceptionally large proportion of officers is required. Owing to the 
 dense cover, an officer can only exercise control over the men close to him, 
 and for this kind of work there should be, at least, one officer to every 
 twenty men. A small body of very highly disciphned troops, well supplied 
 with selected officers, would be of far greater service for warfare in this 
 country than a much larger number detailed for service in the ordinary tour 
 of duty.' 
 
DEMAND FOR EUROPEAN TROOPS. 257 
 
 of 
 
 with the amiable asseveration, ' There is no quarrel with you. 
 I send my love to you.' 
 
 The second letter Sir Garnet wrote, was to the Secretary 
 of State for War, calling ibr the immediate despatch to the 
 (lold Coast of the European troops,"**" whom, before his dc- 
 l)arturc, he had recjuested might be held in readiness to 
 join him. In this lengthy and able letter he gave an exhaus- 
 tive exposition of the reasons that inlluenced him in taking 
 a ste[) deprecated by the War Office and Ministry ; and, after 
 adducing the exi)ericnces of his predecessors, and the 
 reasons that militaied against success on their part, he in- 
 sisted on the ' possibility of undertaking a march of limited 
 duration into the interior,' under such conditions as he pro- 
 posed, and expressed his belief that ' the existing conditions 
 of health of the troops on the station, show that such an 
 expedition does not involve great risk.' He then, after 
 adducing statistical proof that ' while sickness is diminish- 
 ing throughout the whole Coast, it is far less in the camps 
 inland than in the barracks on the Coast,' concluded with 
 the opinions expressed in the report of Dr. Home, his 
 responsible adviser on sanitary questions. 
 
 Though this letter was written the day before the action at 
 Essaman, owing to no homeward-bound steamer calling at 
 Cape Coast between the 9th and 27 th of October, it was not 
 forwarded to England until the latter date ; by the same mail 
 Sir Garnet despatched a second letter, dated 24th of October, 
 ajjplying for an additional battalion of European troops. 
 Meanwhile, small detachments of recruits for Russell's 
 and Wood's Native regiments continued to arrive, and ulti- 
 mately the former was composed of six companies, con- 
 sisting respectively of Houssas, Sierra Leones, Mumfords, 
 "Winnebahs, Opobos, and Annamaboes ; and Wood's Regi- 
 
 ' Two battalions of Infantry, 650 men each ; detaclimcnt Royal Artillery, 
 60 ; detachment Royal Engineers, 40 ; Administrative Services, 50 ; total, 
 1,450 men. 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 LTFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ment, of four companies, viz., Cape Coast Volunteers, 
 Elminas, Kossoos, and Bonnys. The raw material thus 
 assembled seemed as unpromising as any ever raised for 
 active service ; but by dint of hard and unceasing toil, 
 Russell and his officers at Cape Coast, and Wood and his 
 coadjutors at Elmina, succeeded in instilling into the 
 puzzled heads of their recruits a knowledge of the elements 
 of drill, and eventually they proved serviceable and reliable 
 auxiliaries. Captain Rait, R.A., assisted by Lieutenant 
 Eardley Wilmot, had almost a harder task in making good 
 gunners of the Houssas ; but this difficulty also was sur- 
 mounted by a combination of energy, tact, and hard work. 
 
 Very unsatisfactory were the results as regards the 
 assembly at Dunquah, by the 2olh of October, of the 
 contingents from the Fantee and allied kings. If zeal and 
 energy on the part of the officers accredited to these chiefs, 
 or the employment of every argument addressed to their 
 patriotism, an unknown sentiment in the Fantee breast, or 
 their cupidity, which found a ready echo in every heart, could 
 have moved these cowardly chiefs and people — whom it 
 would seem as if the economy of nature had intended to 
 be slaves, so dead are they to every manly sentiment — then 
 some 50,000 fighting men, drawn from the entire confede- 
 racy, would have rallied round the standard of the British 
 General to expel the invader from their soil. Far different 
 was the result. The kings sent their men in driblets to 
 Dunquah, where the entire number only consisted of 500 men 
 and about 350 at Mansu, Napoleon, and Abrakrampa ; the 
 King of Annc.maboe, the only one who displayed courage in 
 the field, after much pressure from Captain Godwin, sent 287 
 men to Dunquah by the last week in October. Such were 'our 
 allies,' and such the burlesque soldiers with whom Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, in conjunction with a few hundred Native levies, 
 was expected to engage the disciplined and homogeneous 
 
THE MARCH TO ASS A YBOO. 
 
 259 
 
 Ashantcc hosts, and advance upon the capital of Koffee 
 Kalkalli. 
 
 While the Control Department were busy landing stores, 
 and sending them to the front, the Engineers were engaged 
 making the road to Mansu. 'I'he outposts at Napoleon and 
 Abbaye, and at Mansu, Dunquah and Accroful, on the main 
 road, were fortified and garrisoned, and Abrakrampa, a town 
 of 300 houses, was placed in a condition of defence. 
 
 On the 25th of October, in consequence of reliable infor- 
 mation that Amanquatia had broken up his camp at Mampon, 
 and intended retreating across the Prah in the direction of 
 Duncpiah, Sir Garnet Wolseley took immediate steps to 
 harass the retreating army, and strengthen the force on the 
 road, while the officers commanding the outposts on the main 
 road and at Abrakrampa, were warned of the new turn 
 affairs had taken. On the following day. Colonel Wood 
 madea reconnoissance from Elmina, and theGeneral marched 
 to Assayboo, ten miles from Cape Coast, at the junction of 
 the roads to Abrakrampa and Dunquah, with a force of 250 
 Marines and blue-jackets, underCaptain Fremantle, preceded 
 by TOO of Russell's Regiment, under their Commander, who 
 was directed to select a site for their encampment. After a 
 fearfully hot march, Assayboo was reached about nine p.m., 
 and the men bivouacked for the night ; the two small tents 
 with the force being occupied, one by Captain Fremantle 
 and some of his officers, and the other by the General and 
 his staff — Charteris, Brackenbury, Baker, and Irvine. 
 
 In this connection, as the Americans would say, an 
 amusing anecdote was told us, illustrative of Wolseley's 
 bonhomie and kind thought for his officers. During his 
 temporary absence one night on board the ship at Cape 
 Coast, two gentlemen, holding high positions on his staff, 
 slept in his room, and one of the General's servants, de- 
 sirous of currying favour with his master, went off to the 
 
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 260 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ship and reported the circumstance, adding that the matu- 
 tinal tubs had been left unemptied and the beds unmade. 
 * Of course you cleared up my room ?' asked the General. 
 ' No, sir,' was the reply. ' Then,' added the former to the 
 crestfallen domestic, in a tone which caused him to beat a 
 hasty retreat, * go ashore, and do so at once.' But revenons 
 d nos moictons. 
 
 On receipt of reports that the Ashantees were moving 
 past Abrakrampa, Sir Garnet sent orders to Colonel Festing 
 at Dunquah to march in the direction of Iscabio, while he 
 himself decided on moving on Abrakrampa, where he hoped 
 to be able to attack the flank of some one of the bodies of 
 Ashantees moving from Mampon towards Dunquah, 
 
 Colonel Festing, accordingly, marched early on the 27th 
 of October, with 12 officers and 700 men, and surprised the 
 enemy, who, to the number of about S,ooo, were encamped 
 about a mile from the village of Iscabio, and, having de- 
 stroyed their camp, returned to Dunquah, his casualties 
 being 5 men killed, and 5 officers, including himself and 
 Captain Godwin, and 42 men wounded. The General 
 proceeded on the same day to Abrakrampa, but the fatigued 
 condition of the men prevented his attempting the march 
 to Assanchi, 6 miles distant ; on the following day he ad- 
 vanced with his whole force on that point, hoping that 
 Colonel Festing, of whose success he was ignorant, would 
 co-operate from Dunquah. But on his arrival at Assanchi, 
 after a fatiguing march through a dense forest, or along a 
 road nearly knee-deep in watvr, the enemy were found to 
 have evacuated their camp ; and, as there was no sign of 
 Colonel Festing's column, the General returned to Abra- 
 krampa, officers and men being thoroughly exhausted with 
 the intense heat. As the path, owing to the overhanging 
 creepers and branches, prevented the use of a hammock. 
 Sir Garnet was obliged to walk almost the entire distance 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
OPERA TIONS A GA INS T THE EN EM Y. 261 
 
 of twelve miles, and suffered much from his wounded leg, 
 which still continued to trouble him if over-exerted. The 
 Marines, after this march, had 29 men on the sick-list, 
 suffering chiefly from foot-sores and weakness, due to ex- 
 posure to the sun. 
 
 Sir Garnet returned to Cape Coast on the 29th of Oc- 
 tober, with the Marines, and blue-jackets, and issued a 
 Proclamation to the native chiefs and people, apprising 
 them of recent events, and urging them to exert themselves 
 and strike the retreating enemy. But the call to arms fell 
 upon dulled ears and slavish hearts, and there was no re- 
 sponse to its stirring appeals. There can be no doubt that, 
 owing to the want of one )X -•■■ European regimeiits during 
 this critical period of the caiup lign, a splendid opportunity 
 was lost for striking a decisive blow and putting an end to 
 the war. 
 
 As the only course the General could adopt, in view of 
 his weakness, v/as to haiass the retreating columns of the 
 enemy, the garrisons at Abrakrampa and Dunquah were 
 strengthened. At this date Colonel "P'esting had under his 
 orders at Dunquah 100 of the 2nd West India Regiment, 
 2 guns, and 1,400 Native allies ; and Major Russell, at 
 Abrakrampa, 8 officers and 890 men, of whom 60 were 
 sailors and Marines, and 100 Houssas. The headquarters 
 of the 2nd West, under Colonel vVebber, left Cape Coast 
 for Mansu, thus denuding the seat of Government of troops, 
 the military duties being performed by the armed police. 
 On the same day (3rd of November) under orders from the 
 General, reconnoissances in force were made from Beulah, 
 Dunquah, and Abrakrampa, when the Native levies exhi- 
 bited their wonted cowardice, and the army sustained a sad 
 loss in the death of a gallant young officer. Lieutenant 
 Eardley Wilmot, R.A. 
 
 On the 4th of November the Ashantees made their long- 
 
 :i;!-',;ii 
 
262 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 threatened attack upon Abrakrampa, and it was of a very 
 determined character. On receipt of a despatch from 
 Major Russell, Sir Garnet made the necessary dispositions 
 for marching to his assistance, and sent orders by special 
 runners to the officers commanding at Beulah, Assayboo, 
 Accroful, and Dunquah, requesting them to act in co-opera- 
 tion. By nine a.m. on the 6th he was on his way with 22 
 officers and 303 seamen and Marines, and some rockets, 
 under Captain Rait, R.A. 
 
 The march was a most distressing one to the men, the 
 entire road between Cape Coast and Assayboo, a distance 
 of ten miles, being almost destitute of shade, and more 
 than 100 men fell out during the march, though only 32 were 
 unable to rejoin during the four hours' halt at Assayboo. 
 The General was eager to proceed, as he received here 
 a despatch from Russell of that morning's date, reporting 
 that the enemy were said to be advancing, and, about four 
 o'clock, the march was continued by way of Butteya:i 
 instead of the main road, the garrison of Assayboo, con- 
 sisting of 50 Marines, heading the column, which now num- 
 bered only 141 of the detachment landed in the morning. 
 On the way they were joined by a party of the 2nd West 
 Indians, and some Abruhs, under their king, by whom they 
 were guided into Abrakrampa. On their arrival at the 
 clearing in front of the position. Major Russell and other 
 officers came out to receive the General, and the place was 
 entered without any opposition from the enemy. Desultory 
 firing continued during the night, but no further attack was 
 made by the Ashantees, who were employed cutting the 
 bush close to the Assayboo road. Had the enemy exhibited 
 any enterprise they might easily have stormed the position, 
 as the cover under which the garrison had lain for forty- 
 eight hours was of the slightest description, but they feared 
 to cross the cleared ground, some 40 to 100 yards in width. 
 
RETURN TO CAPE COAST. 
 
 263 
 
 On the 7th, Colonel Wood marched from Beulah with 
 the Fantee levies, and Sir Garnet sent about 1,000 of them 
 into the bush, when they exhibited a ludicrous spectacle of 
 poltroonery. A crowd of officers assembled to watch these 
 warriors creeping out like whipped hounds under the leader- 
 ship of their chief, Attah, himself a despicable coward. 
 Sir Garnet had addressed the Fantees when starting, to 
 the effect that their conduct on the previous day had filled 
 him with displeasure, and that he would give them this last 
 chance of showing themselves fit to bear arms. To this they 
 replied in their usual vein of bravado ; but when it came to 
 the point, hundreds of them lay down at the edge of the 
 bush, which no persuasion or threat could induce them to 
 enter. The General would not allow his officers to enter 
 the forest with such curs, and this burlesque on the opera- 
 tions of war was brought to a conclusion b> their charging 
 them with sticks and umbrellas. 
 
 Sir Garnet sent in pursuit of the retreating Ashantees 
 those of the Native levies that could be collected together ; 
 but, on approaching the Ashantee rear, they showed the 
 usual cowardice, and fled in panic flight when there was no 
 pursuit. ■'^ On the same day (8th of November), the General 
 returned to Cape Coast, which he entered in a sort of 
 impromptu triumphal procession, the state chair of Aman- 
 
 i 
 
 * In his despatch to Mr. Cardwell, Sir Garnet says of these levies, who 
 were reported to him as being ' infinitely worse than useless ': ' You will thus 
 see that even the enemy's retreat cannot instil courage into these faint- 
 hearted Natives, and that they can neither be counted on to insure a victory 
 nor to complete a defeat. They were ordered to pursue the enemy, remain 
 in the field, and harass him in his retreat. The road was strewn with the 
 ddbris of the retreating army ; bodies of murdered slaves lay along the route ; 
 many prisoners were captured, the enemy's fire was silenced, and yet, such 
 is the co.vardice of these people, that they had to be driven into action, and 
 after a success they became a panic-stricken and disorderly rabble, ytill, 
 hopeless as the task appears of stirring these tribes to any exertions, I shall 
 not give up my efforts. Orders have been issued for the renewal of the 
 offensive movement, and for the use of every possible method to keep the 
 men at the front.' 
 
264 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I 
 
 quatia, together with a sacred cock, war-drums,* and other 
 spolia opima^ being carried in front of him, in order to 
 impress the Natives and inflame their minds with a proper 
 sense of patriotic ardour. Before leaving Abrakrampa, the 
 General issued orders to Major Russell as well as to Colonels 
 Festing and Webber, at Dunquah and Mansu, to harass the 
 retreating columns of the enemy. 
 
 A lull now occurred in the operations, and it was fortunate 
 indeed it happened just at this time, for the Director of the 
 complicated engine of war and politics on the Gold Coast 
 was stricken to the earth powerless as an infant. The ally 
 that had suddenly arisen to fight on the side of itie Ashantees 
 was more potent for evil than even the cowardly Natives 
 with whom the General was expected to effect their ex- 
 pulsion, and his plans, so far as he himself could have 
 carried them out, came perilously near being frustrated. 
 On the morning Sir Garnet quitted Abrakrampa, he felt 
 the heavy hand of the African fever — induced chiefly by 
 the trying exposure to the sun during the march up country 
 — weighing him down with a feeling of lassitude and feeble- 
 ness he in vain struggled to combat, and, on his arrival at 
 Cape Coast, the fever took a turn that alarmed his medical 
 advisers. He was first removed to the hospital hut at 
 Connor's Hill, but the heat there was so intense that Dr, 
 Home removed him to the hospital ship Simoom. The 
 ftver ran very high and caused great anxiety to Dr. Home,t 
 who, though ill himself, came off to the Sunoom three times 
 
 * These Ashantee war-drums were presented by the Headquarter Staff 
 to the Royal United Service Institution, and have been deposited in the 
 Museum, where they may be seen by visitors. 
 
 + Dr. Home wrote to us of thisattacit : ' Sir Garnet's illness was an attack 
 of "ardent fever," caused by exposure to the sun on the march cO the relief 
 of the beleaguered village of Abrakrampa, on the 6th of November, and in 
 the subsequent operations in connection with the affair. He had suffered 
 from a degree of sunstroke, or insolation, in Burmah, and, as you probably 
 know, a person who has once so suiTered is ever after very susceptible of the 
 3un. Sir Garnet's illness was very severe— dangerous — and Cape Coast was 
 very anxious and troubled indeed until his symptoms mitigated.' 
 
ILLNESS OF SIR GARNET IVOLSELEY. 265 
 
 in the twenty-rour hours to visit his patient, for whom he 
 entertained the feelings of an old brother officer and friend. 
 Not less devoted vas Lieutenant Maurice, who nursed his 
 chief day and night, and never quitted his side or took off 
 his clothes for neaiV a fortnight. 
 
 For two or three days a successful termination to the 
 expedition appeared to be imperilled, as the British General 
 lay bick of this fever, which has proved fatal to so many of 
 our best and bravest before and since this war ; and an 
 Ashantee Cassius night ha\e said of him, as did his Roman 
 namesake of Caesar : 
 
 ' When the fever fit vas on him I did mark 
 How he did shai^e ; 'tis true, this god did shake ; 
 And that same eye, wiiose bend doth awe tlie world, 
 Did lose its lustre ; I did hear him groan ; 
 "Aye," and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans 
 Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, 
 "Alas !" it cried : " Give me some drink, Titinius." ' 
 
 On the 2 1 St of November, Sir Garnet was sufficiently 
 recovered to return to Government House, and his advent 
 was hailed with joy by all classes, over whom a gloom had 
 been cast by his enforced withdrawal. 
 
 At this time sickness had wrought considerable havoc 
 among the Special Service officers who had come out in 
 the Amhriz, On the 15th of November, within six weeks 
 of their arrival in this country, of the staff of 10, 7 had 
 been rendered ineffective by sickness ; and, six days later, 
 out of 64 officers 29 had suffered, 01 whom 7 were in- 
 valided and I died. The proportion among the seamen 
 and Marines serving on shore was considerably less, only 
 18 per cent, being on the sick-list. The hospital-ship 
 Simoom had become so saturated with malarious fever, 
 owing to overcrowding and her unsuitability for tlie purpose, 
 that she was little better than a plague-ship. She was, 
 therefore, sent to St. Helena with 8 invalid officers. 
 
 Colonel Wood proceeded on the 22nd of November to 
 
 \ 
 
^m 
 
 266 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Mansu, to assume command of the advanced guard in the 
 operations south of the Prah ; and, on the 27 th, pushed on 
 to Faysowah with a small Native force, and came into 
 collision with the Ashantees, but was forced to retreat, as 
 the levies showed their usual unsteadiness. On the 5 th of 
 December the Ashantees crossed the Prah ; and, on his 
 scouts pushing on, the main Prahsu road was found 
 strewed with their dead and dying, disease and starvation 
 having decimated their ranks more than the sword. It is 
 estimated that, of t;ie 40,000 warriors who originally invaded 
 the Protectorate, at least one-half perished. The remainder 
 of Amanquatia's army was disbanded at Coomassie on the 
 22nd of December, and thus disastrously ended what we 
 hope may be regarded in history as ' the last Ashantee 
 invasion.'* 
 
 Renewed vigour was now displayed by all branches of the 
 force, and while the transport of supplies and ammunition 
 to the front engaged the attention of the Control, the 
 medical department were busy establishing hospitals at 
 Prahsu, Mansu, and Cape Coast, and the Engineers were 
 engagecl making the road to the Prah, and bridging the 
 intervening streams. Owing to the exertions of Major 
 Home, Lieutenant Bell, and their Sappers, the whole road 
 from Cape Coast to Prahsu was in good order by Christmas 
 
 * In reporting to the Secretary for War the retreat across the Prah of the 
 Ashantee Army, Sir Garnet Wolseley wrote on the 15th of December : ' The 
 first phase of this war has thus been brought to a most satisfactory conclu- 
 sion, without the assistance of any English troops, except the few Marines 
 and the few available blue-jackets /hom I found here on my arrival on the 
 2nd of October last. I submit that the happy change which has been since 
 that time effecied has been accomplished by the untiring exertions of the 
 few carefully selected staff and Special Service officers who landed with me 
 here at the beginning of October. In the second phase of this war, when 
 the campaign is opened in Ashantee territory beyond the Prah, by a brigade 
 of English troops, the operations may be more brilliant than those which 
 have resulted in forcing the enemy to retreat into their own country ; but I 
 feel assured that they cannot entail upon those engaged in them the hard 
 work, exposure, and privations that have been so cheerfully endured for the 
 last two and a half months by the small band of officers of whom 1 speak." 
 
TRANS POR T DIFFICUL TIES. 
 
 267 
 
 Day, when no less than 237 bridges of various sorts had 
 been constructed. The difficulty of constructing bridges for 
 crossing these small rivers and canals, and, indeed, of felling 
 the timber across the tracks, was greatly increased by the 
 size and hardness of the wood. Some of the trunks were 
 four or five feet in diameter, and being of mahogany and 
 iron- wood, tb', work of removing them was very heavy. 
 The Engini. also cleared the camping-grounds,* in each 
 of which hutsf were constructed to contain 400 European 
 soldiers, besides the huts of the garrison and of the Control 
 and Hospital DejDartments. 
 
 No means were overlooked to insure the health and 
 comfort of the European troops ; and the General himself 
 inquired into every detail of the Report:}: made to him on 
 these vital questions by the principal sanitary officer, 
 Surgeon-Major Gore, who, as well as Dr. Home, was 
 invalided before the march commenced. 
 
 As the question of transport was likely to prove the chief 
 difficulty in this expedition, the General, as soon as he 
 landed from the Simoom^ after his severe illness, turned his 
 attention to it, and sought to grapple with the obstacles that 
 lay in the way of organizing an efficient body of carriers. It 
 may safely be said that these were greater than perhaps any 
 Commander had before encountered, for here there was no 
 
 * These were : Inquabim, 7 miles from Cape Coast ; Accroful, 135 miles ; 
 Yancoomassie Fanti, 24! miles ; Mansu, 35J miles ; Sutah, 46 miles ; Yan- 
 coomassie Assin, 58J miles ; Barraco, 67J miles ; and Prahsu, 73^ miles. 
 
 t The huts each held 50 men, and were bailr wiln wattled sides and 
 thatched with palm-leaves ; they were sixty by seventeen feet, with a iieight 
 of five feet to the eaves. On each side was a mised ijuard-bed, made either 
 of split bamboos or palm-stalks, for the men to sleep upon. 
 
 + The supply ol rations was most liberal, and at daybreak, before starting 
 on the march (the pace of which was even regulated), the troops partook of 
 cocoa, biscuit, and quinine, and frequent halts were ordered, so as not to 
 cause undue fatigue. Detailed arrangements were also made for the trans- 
 port of the sick, who were carried by six bearers in the ordinary travelling 
 hammock of the country, slung on a bamboo. At each of the six stations 
 were thirty-five hammocks or cots, an average of tliirteen miles being fixed 
 as a day's journey, and with the column, in addition, were eighty-five cots, 
 with a suitable retinue of bearers. 
 
 Uitiijl 
 
Wl 
 
 V 
 
 :•' ''y,' 
 
 268 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 beast of burden of the size even of a goat, and everything 
 had to be transported on the backs of the most indolent race 
 in the world. However, the man who had conducted to a 
 successful conclusion the Red River Expedition, with its 
 manifold difficulties of transport by land and water, was not 
 likely to be foiled by the still more arduous problem now 
 presented for solution ; and though, at one time, the success 
 of the expedition was seriously imperilled, the task was 
 achieved. 
 
 Though a very large number of carriers was engaged by 
 the exertions of the staff and Special Service officers — 
 including a strong and willing brigade of women, and the 
 ' picaninni ' brigade of 400 boys and girls, who each carried 
 a half-load of twenty-five pounds — they melted away ; and 
 * handing carriers over to the Control Department,' wrote 
 the General, ' is like pouring water into a sieve ; they run 
 away after making a single journey.' Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
 recognising the extreme urgency of the question, ordered 
 that 3,000 of the native auxiliaries should be disarmed and 
 handed over to the Control for service as carriers, and, on 
 the loth of December, he informed the kings and chiefs at 
 Dunquah, that unless =;,ooo carriers were raised by the end 
 of the month, he would not land the European troops who 
 were daily expected. He also despatched Dr. O'Reilly to 
 Elmina, where 700 men were raised in ten days, and Dr. 
 Gouldsbury recruited with success in the windward ports ; 
 thus, by supplementing the transport with the disarmed 
 levies at Beulah, the unarmed men of the Abrah contingent, 
 and the women carriers, there were, on the 22nd of 
 December, when the department was placed in the hands of 
 the late Colonel G. P. Colley, 6,000 carriers working 
 between Cape Coast and the Prah. 
 
 Colonel Colley arrived at Cape Coast on the 17th of 
 December, and immediately placed his services at the 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE EUROPEAN TROOPS. 269 
 
 
 disposal of the General in any department they might be 
 most conducive to the public advantage. From his special 
 knowledge of army organization and administration Colonel 
 Coliey was peculiarly fitted to grapple with the transport 
 difficulty, and the General appointed him Director of 
 Transport, with 3 officers as assistants. Colonel Coliey 
 proceeded to Mansu on the 19th of December, and drew 
 up a memorandum which showed that he had thoroughly 
 mastered the question. 
 
 Between the 9th and 17th December the Himalaya^ 
 Tamar^ and Sarmatian arrived with the troops requisitioned 
 by S'- Garnet Wolseley \ also Brigadier-General Sir Archi- 
 bald Alison, Colonel G. R. Greaves, Chief of the Staff, 41 
 medical officers, and 10 Special Service officers.* The 
 arrival of the Himalaya^ on the 9th December, was the first 
 intimation received by Sir Garnet Wolselev that his demand 
 for the immediate despatch of European troops would be 
 complied wit?i by the Government. In Lord Kimberley's 
 despatch of the 6th of October, he was informed of the 
 desire of Her Majesty's Government ' to impress upon you 
 that they would be most reluctant to sanction any expedition 
 which would require that European troops should be sent 
 from this country to the Gold Coast. A satisfactory state 
 of things will be attained if you can procure an honourable 
 peace, or can inflict, in default of such peace, an effectual 
 chastisement on the Ashantee force.' Most officers, on 
 receipt of this half-hearted despatch, would have considered 
 that they had done enough in clearing the Protectorate, and 
 inflicting an * effectual chastisement ' on the Ashantees. 
 But if any doubts were entertained by Ministers as to the 
 
 * The following was the strength of the force : 2 batt. Rifle Urigade ; 
 2 batt. 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers and 42nd Highlanders, each 30 officers 
 and 450 men ; No. i Battery, 17th Brigade, Royal Artillery, 3 officers and 
 61 men ; 28th Company, Royal Engineers, 4 officers and 68 men ; Army 
 Service Corps, i officer and 12 men ; and Army Hospital Corps, 2 officers 
 and 54 men. On the 29th December the ist West India Regiment arrived 
 at Cape Coast from Jamaica with a strength of 24 officers and 554 men. 
 
Il 
 
 
 
 mX 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 270 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 desirability of loyally carrying out their agreement with 
 Wolseley regarding the despatch of the European troops, 
 on his responsibility, it was removed by the General's 
 exhaustive letter of the 13th of October, demanding their 
 instant embarkation. A Cabinet Council was held on the 
 17th of November, within a few hours of the receipt of the 
 despatch in Downing Street, and, on the 19th, two regiments 
 sailed from Portsmouth for the scene of hostilities, and the 
 42nd Highlanders followed on the 4th December in com- 
 pliance with Sir Garnet's letter written after the fight at 
 Essaman. 
 
 The Sarmatian brought a despatch from Lord Kimberley, 
 dated ;^4th of November, limiting the time of employment 
 of the European troops, at the very latest, to the end of 
 March, before which it would be * absolutely necessary ' to 
 withdraw them. This limit as to time would impose * a 
 corresponding limit upon the operations which it would be 
 prudent or i)ossible for him to attempt.' The decision on 
 this point was left to Sir Garnet's own judgment to determine, 
 but he was informed of the wishes of Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, These were : * That you should conclude a satis- 
 factory peace as soon as it can be obtained ; ihat you should 
 advance no further into the interior than may be indispens- 
 able for the attainment of such a peace ; and that after 
 concluding, if possible, a treaty with the King of Ashantee, 
 you should return with the least practicable delay to the 
 sea-coast, and send home the European troops.' With 
 respect to the relations of England with the Protectorate 
 aftei the war, the Government, considering the cowardly 
 conduct of the Fantee chiefs and people, held themselves 
 entirely free ' to place them on such a footing as the interests 
 of this country may seem to them to require.' 
 
 The European troops arrived rather inopportunely, for 
 they were too late to strike a decisive blow — which lay in 
 
IVOLSELEV'S FORECAST OF THE CAMPAIGN. 271 
 
 for 
 ly in 
 
 the General's power while the enemy were at Mampon, and 
 he held Mansu on their main line of retreat — and they were 
 too early for the march on Coomassie, the arrangements for 
 which were not yet completed. In a letter to the Secretary 
 for War, of the 15th of December, Sir Garnet said that it 
 would be impossible to have the several halting-stages, 
 including the depot at Prahsu, completed, and a sufficient 
 quantity of food and ammunition in the magazines at Prahsu, 
 before the 15th of January, when he expressed his intention 
 of crossing the Prah with the three European regiments, 
 and a force of Native troops ; and he concluded his letter 
 by the assurance of his * strong hope, bordering upon con- 
 viction, that in about six weeks from the date of our crossing 
 the Prah, I shall be able to embark the European troops, 
 having suffered but little loss from ihe effects of the climate.' 
 As the arrangements for the advance were incomplete. 
 Sir Garnet, after landing the Army Service Corps, and a 
 portion of the Royal Enginee::s, together with all the Staff 
 and Special Service officers, sent the steamers, with the 
 European troops, on a cruise. At this time he drew up a 
 memorandum for the information and guidance of the 
 soldiers and sailors about to take part in the operations 
 north of the Prah, of which 100 copies were printed for 
 distribution among the regiments. Nothing can be more 
 concise and complete than these orders, which were found 
 to meet every requirement and obviate every difficulty as 
 they arose during the advance upon Coomassie. One 
 innovation in the ordinary method of fighting was found 
 of especial service, that by which the * tactical unit ' was 
 changed, and it was enacted that 'every company will be 
 at once divided into four sections, and each section will be 
 placed under the command of an officer or non-commissioned 
 officer. These sections once told off are not on any account 
 to be broken up during the war.' As to the mode of 
 

 ■• ■ '11 
 
 
 It i--- 
 
 272 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 fighting to be adopted by these sections, Sir Garnet directed 
 that ' in action, as a general rule, three sections only of 
 each company will be extended, the fourth will form a 
 suppoic in rear of the centre of the company's skirmishing 
 line, ai.d at forty to eighty yards from it.' At the most 
 critical point in the action of Amoaful, on the 31st. of 
 January, these arrangements were found of the utmost vital 
 utility ; and Sir Archibald Alison, who commanded the 
 advance, under * one oi the heaviest fires he ever saw,' 
 declared that, notwithstanding the discipline and stubborn 
 valour of the Black Watch, ' without the admirable sectional 
 organization introduced by His Excellency, and thoroughly 
 carried out by the company officers, it would have been 
 impossible to prevent the men getting out of hand.' These 
 ' Notes,' as forming the best code of instructions for bush- 
 fighting, will be of value to any commander who may have 
 hereafter to encounter a barbarous enemy under similar 
 conditions. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley's plan for the invasion of Ashantee, 
 on the 15th of January, by several columns converging on 
 Coomassie, was, briefly stated, as follows : On the extreme 
 right. Captain Glover's force was to cross the Prah near 
 Assim, and to move upon Juabin. The main body, con- 
 sisting of the European troops and. Native levies, was to 
 advance from Prahsu by the main Coomassie road. As a 
 connecting link between these columns, a column composed 
 of Western Akims, under the command of Captain Butler, 
 was to cross at Prahsu Akim ; while, on the extreme left, a 
 force of Wassaws, Denkeras, and Commendahs, under the 
 command of Captains Dalrymple and Moore, 88th Regi- 
 ment, would advance on Coomassie by the Wassaw road. 
 Theorists on the art of war might object that Wolselcy, by 
 this plan of dividing his force, violated the first strategical 
 Drinciples ; but the sequel showed that he was right, and 
 
 
SIR GARNET AND CAPTAIN GLOVER. 27: 
 
 Litler, 
 ft, a 
 the 
 
 and 
 
 that he possessed one of the chief attributes of a general, 
 the power of estimating the strength of his adversary. 
 
 Had the General's movements on Coomassie been 
 dependent on those of the three other converging columns, 
 it is certain that the invasion of Ashantee would never 
 have taken place, or that the attempt, if made, must have 
 ended in failure. Captains Dalrymple and Butler failed to 
 move the chiefs and people to whom they were accredited, 
 and the latter gallant and able officer, who would have 
 succeeded in his task if success was possible, after number- 
 less delays, eventually persuaded 500 of the Western Akims 
 — whom Captain Glover described as 'the best fighting 
 men in the Protectorate' — to follow him a day's march 
 through a deserted and devastated country, but at night 
 their courage failed them, and they fled back across the 
 Prah. Glover, by his conduct, showed himself to be a man 
 of resource and capacity ; but the people he had to deal with 
 would have baffled the capacity of Caisar himself, either to 
 make them march or fight. The native kings and chiefs 
 assembled at Accra on the 13th of October, promised to 
 rally to Glover's standard with thousands of retainers within 
 a stipulated time ; but having ratified their oaths by accept- 
 ing the usual presents of gin and large subsidies in money, 
 they appeared to think they had fulfilled their share of the 
 engagement. 
 
 The arrangements for the invasion of Ashantee were 
 all planned, when, on Christmas Eve, to the dismay of Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley, a despatch, dated the 22nd of December, 
 was received from Captain Glover — who had written on the 
 14th, saying that he would cross the Prah on the isth of 
 January, with, 'at the lowest estimate, 16,000 effectives, 
 possibly 30,000 men, all told ' — in which he said : ' I 
 should be misleading your Excellency if I stated that I saw 
 any possibility of reaching the Prah before forty days, but I 
 
 18 
 
 l» :•■ I 
 
274 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 beg to assure you that no effort shall be left untried to carry 
 a force to the point indicated' Upon receipt of this 
 despatch Sir Garnet Wolseley determined to take upon 
 himself the responsibility of ordering Glover to cross the 
 Prah on the 15th of January, and march on Coomassie with 
 the Houssas and Yorubas, some 700 men ; and, accordingly, 
 the Chief of the Staff wrote, on Christmas Eve, to Captain 
 Glover to this effect. That officer, in his reply of 28th 
 December, promised compliance, but declined responsibility 
 for the result. 
 
 In meting out the praise so justly due to Captain 
 Glover for the energy and military skill he displayed 
 throughout those eventful months in West Africa, it should 
 be borne in mind that he thus formally declined to accept 
 the responsibility for the course he adopted, and that 
 Wolseley as formally accepted it. Had it not been for Sir 
 Garnet's posit've order? to Captain Glover to cross the 
 Prah on the 15th of January, it is certain he would not 
 have been on the northern bank of that river before the 
 date of the capture of Coomassie ; and then, as the General 
 plainly informed him, he might, as far as being of any 
 service in the prosecution of this Ashantee War was con- 
 cerned, have been ' operating on the Zanzibar coast of 
 Africa.' 
 
 Wolseley started for Prahsu on the 27 th of December, 
 and inspected the various camping stations on the road, and 
 saw that all was prepared for the small army that was soon 
 to follow. As far as Mansu, the fourth station, and thirty- 
 two miles distant from Cape Coast, the road passed through 
 low bush with little or no shelter from the blazing sun, but 
 from thence to the Prah the pathway lay through the forest, 
 the gigantic trees of which, festooned and encircled with 
 creepers, rose more than 200 feet above the head of the 
 passer-by, with a girth at the roots of between fifty and 
 
WOLSELEY'S ARRIVAL A T PRAHSU. 
 
 75 
 
 ninety feet. No colour lit up the infinite gradations of end- 
 less green which palled upon the jaded sight, the shades of 
 the primeval forest were never penetrated by the sun's lays, 
 and the silence was unbroken save by 
 
 ' The moving whisper of huge trees, that branch'd 
 And blos^om'd in the zenith.' 
 
 Sir Garnet's old wound in the leg, received in the Crimea, 
 had troubled him much since the march on the 28th of 
 October, from Abrakrampa to Assanchi, and he was com- 
 pelled to perform the journey to the Prah in a light 
 American buggy, which was found at Cape Coast. This 
 vehicle was left at Prahsu, and for the remainder of the 
 march between the river and Coomassie, except at those 
 frequent intervals when the nature of the road, or the 
 proximity of the enemy, required that he should walk. Sir 
 Garnet was borne by natives, seated in a wicker Madeira 
 chair, fixed between two bamboos, and carried by relays of 
 four bearers. On New Year's Day he arrived at Barraco — 
 the last station from Cape Coast, from which it is sixty-three 
 miles distant — where was stationed a detachment of the Naval 
 Brigade. That night, over the huge camp fire, replenished 
 by two or three entire trurks of trees, the sailors sang their 
 forecastle songs and made the forest ring with choruses 
 bawled out with stentorian lungs. There gathered on one 
 side of the fire the General \\ ith his staff and the officers of 
 the detachment, and, on the other, the sailors, who stepped 
 out in succession and gave a selection of songs, sentimental 
 and comic. 
 
 On his arrival at Prahsu on the 2nd of January, 1S74, 
 he found in garrison, 50 of Rait's Houssa Artillery (with 
 7 three-pounders, 2 howitzers, a Gatling gun, and 6 rocket- 
 troughs), 70 men of the 2nd West, and Wood's and 
 Russell's Native regiments, numbering 450 and 500 men 
 respectively, who had been engaged making a clearing and 
 
 18—2 
 
 
i' 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 ',: ,1 . -1 
 
 L.'k.':.j 
 
 276 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 cutting down acres of palm-leaves for thatching, and 
 thousands of poles for uprights for the huts. By the 15th 
 of January the camp at Prahsu was ready for the reception 
 of the European troops, with the necessary accommodation 
 for the stores and for thirty days' provisions for 3,520 fight- 
 ing men and 3,000 carriers. 
 
 During Sir Garnet's stay at Prahsu, a correspondence 
 took place between himself and the King of Ashantee. 
 Scarcely had he arrived at the camp than two messengers 
 from Coomassie made their appearance at Prahsu with two 
 letter./' from their master, dated the 25 th of November and 
 26th of December, which, like those that followed, were 
 signed by * the mark ' of Kofifee Kalkalli and some of his 
 ministers. As it was evident by the second epistle that the 
 insignificant affair at Faysowah had been magnified into a 
 great victory, the General wrote him a long letter, opening 
 his eyes as to the true state of affairs, and stating the terms 
 upon which a lasting peace could alone be concluded. The 
 Naval Brigade, 22 officers and 250 seamen and Marines, 
 which marched in on the 3rd of January, having left Cape 
 Coast on the 27th of December, was paraded before the 
 envoys, who were sent back to their master on the morning 
 of the 6th of January with Sir Garnet's letter. On the 
 12th, an Ashantee envoy, with a suite of 15 persons and 
 accompanied by Mr. Kuhne, a German missionary, arrived 
 near the Prah with a letter from the King,t dated 9th of 
 January, but Sir Garnet refused to see him, and reiterated 
 his ultimatum to the King. 
 
 * These letters were written in English, at the dictation of King Koffee, 
 by Dawson, a Fantee, who had been detained at Coomassie. 
 
 f I'"ron\ Mr. Kuhne it was gleaned that Amanquatia's army had reached 
 Coomassie on the 22nd of December, and Iiad been disbanded after defiling 
 past the King in the great square with wild shouts and gesticulations, each 
 chief dancing before the King as described by Bowdich in 1817. The King 
 had sent for the missionaries, in whose presence Sir Garnet Wolseley's letter 
 had been correctly interpreted to him by Dawson ; and, when despatching 
 Mr. Kulinc with Ills reply, he desired him to tell the British General of his 
 earnest wish for peace. 
 
 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT. 
 
 277 
 
 The 2nd West India Regiment marched into camp a 
 Prahsu, on the 4th of January, when the difficulties of 
 transport, owing to the desertion of the carriers, which had 
 been daily increasing, assumed such alarming proportions 
 that the success of the expedition was imperilled. The 
 number of troops fixed by Sir Garnet Wolsehy, for whom 
 transport was imperatively required, was 2,504 Europeans of 
 all ranks, and 1,050 Native levies, including 200 of the 2nd 
 West India Regiment.* 
 
 The ships, with the European troops, having returned to 
 Cape Coast, as directed, the Rifle Brigade was disembarked 
 on New Year's Day, and marched direct from the beach to 
 Inquabim, which was reached in three hours. They were 
 followed by the 42 nd Highlanders and a half-battalion of 
 the Fusiliers. 
 
 Colonel Colley expected a sufficient number of carriers to 
 provide transport for the three battalions of Europeans, 
 but, between the 31st of December and the 3rd of January, 
 the Natives deserted by hundreds, and Sir Archibald Alison 
 suspended the disembarkation of the second half-battalion 
 of the Fusiliers and the Royal Artillery, which was in pro- 
 gress. On learning the position of affairs, Sir Garnet 
 directed the re-embarkation of the Fusiliers, which had 
 proceeded as far as Accroful, though, to soften the disap- 
 pointment to many gallant men, the General arranged that 
 the headquarters and 100 men should accompany him into 
 
 * For these troops the number of carriers required, on the lowest scale, 
 was 3,500, being one carrier to every 3 European soldiers, and one to each 
 officer, besides 240 for the cots, and others for the ammunition and camp 
 equiiDmcnt, which brought up the total for one battalion to 654. It was 
 rouglily calculated that to supply one European battalion daily with pro- 
 visions 60 additional carriers wore required for every day's march, and be- 
 tween 400 and 500 to keep up the daily supply at Prahsu from Cape Coast. 
 206 carriers were only required for each of the Native regiments, as the rank 
 and file were their own carriers. In addition to this total, Colonel Colley 
 estimated that he would require for the transport of the supplies and am- 
 munition, and to carry back the sick and wounded, 5,000 local carriers, 
 divided equally between the north and south banks of the l*rah. 
 
278 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 Ashantee, an equal number of the 42nd being re-embarked. 
 Arrangements were made to employ Wood's Regiment as 
 carriers, as a temporary measure ; the Kroomen of the 
 Naval Brigade were also sent back to Mansu for loads, 
 and Russell's Regiment alone marched to the Prah to lead 
 the advance. The Highlanders and Rifle Brigade were 
 halted in their march up country, and Sir Garnet requested 
 the chief magistrate of Cape Coast to put in force the law 
 compelling the Natives to work. Only forty men were ob- 
 tained by these means; but 270 men, in the pay of the 
 merchants, were pressed by permission of their masters. 
 Sir Archibald Alison at Cape Coast continued his efforts by 
 doubling the allowance for rations, offering ^^50 to the 
 chiefs for every 500 able-bodied men they raised, and 
 * driving ' for carriers in the Elmina and the surrounding 
 villages ; while Sir Garnet issued a proclamation, that unless 
 the native kings assisted the army in this matter of transport, 
 he would re-embaik his whole force, and leave them to the 
 mercy of their enemies. Large additions were thus made 
 by these means to the number of carriers, and, at length, 
 Colonel Colley was enabled, on the 15th of January, to 
 report that the transport difficulty had been surmounted. 
 At that date he had collected 4,200 men and 1,250 
 women, ' local ' carriers, exclusive of the regimental carriers, 
 being 2,000 in excess of the numbers estimated as necessary 
 to maintain communication with Prahsu. Under these cir- 
 cumstances. Sir Garnet Wolseley decided that the passage 
 of the Prah, by European troops, should commence on the 
 20th of January, which was five days later than he originally 
 projected. 
 
 The monotony and inaction of camp life at the Prah were 
 beginning to tell on both European officers and men : twenty- 
 two of the Naval Brigade were on the sick-list, and of the 
 Staff, Major Baker, Mr. Irvine, Lieutenant Maurice, and the 
 
WOLSELEY CROSSES THE PRAH. 
 
 279 
 
 two aides-de-camp, Captain Lanyon and Lieutenant Hon. 
 H. L. Wood, were seized with fever, which carried off 
 Captain Huyshe. This accomplished and energetic officer 
 had been engaged up to the end of the year in surveying, 
 and had just rejoined headquarters. 
 
 The first entry into the enemy's country was made on the 
 5th of January, by Russell's Regiment, 500 strong, and the 
 scouts, which the General had placed under the command 
 of Lieutenant Lord Gifford, 24th Regiment, Adjutant of 
 Russell's Regiment. This young officer pushed on with 
 170 scouts to Ansah, and thence to the Foomoosu River, 
 meeting with no opposition. On the 12th of January he 
 occupied Accrofoomu, where he was joined by Russell's 
 Regiment and the rocket-party, together with Major Home 
 and the 28th Company of the Royal Engineers. The 2nd 
 West India and Wood's Regiments, and Rait's Artillery 
 followed on successive days; and on the i6th Lord 
 Gifford reached the foot of the Moinsey Hill, the crest 
 of which Major Russell occupied and fortified. On the 
 1 8th, Lord Gifford advanced to Quisah, the frontier town 
 in Ashantee proper, which was occupied by Russell's Regi- 
 ment. 
 
 In consequence of the enemy having thus evacuated the 
 entire country to the south of the Adansi Hills, Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley was gratified to find that the date he had origi- 
 nally fixed for reaching that point would not be departed 
 from. Early the same morning, the General with his Staff, 
 and the Naval Brigade under Captain Luxmoore,* crossed 
 the Prah, and Colonel McLeod, 42nd Highlanders, pushed 
 on to Quisah to take command of the advanced guard, now 
 consisting of Wood's and Russell's Regiments, Rait's Artil- 
 lery, and the headquarters of the 2nd West India Regiment, 
 
 * Captain Blake, of the Dniid, who hitherto commanded the Naval 
 Brigade with such credit to himself, died of dysentery. 
 
■' 
 
 HI 
 
 1! "yfffi 
 
 '■JfiHf 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 fjMe 
 
 >^^^^^^H 
 
 1 '■ 
 
 ! -..El 
 
 
 280 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 the whole forming what was generally known as the * Black 
 Brigade.' 
 
 The General took up his quarters on the night of the 20th 
 of January, at Essiaman in the old Assin village, situated on 
 a hill surrounded by a small clearing. On the morning of 
 the 2ist he proceeded, by an admirable road, to Accrofoomu, 
 where Major Home had constructed a work of the type of the 
 New Zealand pah. Here he rested for the night in the store- 
 shed, thatched with palm-leaves, a portion of the Naval 
 Brigade encamping outside in their tents, where they made 
 wattle-beds, well off the ground, of sticks gathered in the 
 adjoining forest. 
 
 Commodore W. N. W. Hewett, V.C., C.B., commanding 
 the squadron on the West Coast of Africa, arrived at Accro- 
 foomu late in the day, accompanied by his flag-lieutenant, 
 Lieutenant Rolfe, R.N., who, as his chief was present with 
 the force en amateur^ was placed on Sir Garnet's Staff, as 
 Naval aide-de-camp. Captain Hunt Grubbe, commanding 
 H. M.S. Tamar^ now assumed command of the Naval 
 Brigade. During the night, the Kroomcn of the Naval 
 Brigade, who, though of Herculean build, are abject 
 cowards, fancying that the Ashantees were upon them, fled 
 panic-stricken into the sleeping camp ; the sailors stood to 
 their arms with great promptness and presence of mind, but 
 some time elapsed before the General and the officers, who 
 all turned out, were able to restore order. 
 
 On the 22 nd, headquarters marched to Moinsey, and the 
 General proceeded to the summit of the steep Adansi Hill, 
 whence a fine view was had of the surrounding country. It 
 was with eager interest that every eye was turned northwards 
 to the promised land of conquest, which stretched in the 
 direction of Coomassie — a vista of hills, ridge upon ridge, all 
 covered with the dense African forest, and partially shrouded 
 by the mist which is never wholly dispelled by the sun. During 
 
NEGOTIATIONS WITH KING KOFFEE, 
 
 \%\ 
 
 the 23rd, the Rifle Brigade marched in, and envoys arrived 
 from King Koffee, with the remainder of the white pri- 
 soners,* and a letter, dated 21st of January, in which, after 
 promising acceptance of the British terms, he said : ' I beg 
 also you would stop the progress of the forces, and let us 
 go on with peaceful negotiation. I will make Amankwatia, 
 who has acted contrary to my instructions, pay the amount 
 your Excellency ask, if you can only keep patience and stop 
 the advancement of the forces.' But the wily savage made 
 a mistake when he calculated that Wolsclcy was to be taken 
 in by specious promises, even though he had given, as an 
 unwary general might have considered, a j^roof of his good 
 faith in releasing the European captives. The Fantec prisoners 
 were still retained, and Wolseley knew that these earnest and 
 repeated supplications for delay were only made by the King 
 to enable him to gather together his disbanded army for one 
 final effort to save his crown and carry in triumph to his 
 capital the soldier who, by defeating his armies and cross- 
 ing the Prah, hitherto held inviolate from the foot of a white 
 conqueror, had confuted the tradition which, for two centu- 
 ries, had enchained the popular imagination. Still a con- 
 siderable instalment of his original demand had been ob- 
 tained by the release of the white prisoners ; and the 
 General, while not abating one jot of his determination 
 to push on until his terms were satisfied in their entirety, 
 despatched to Her Majesty's Government the following 
 telegram :t ' King will pay indemnity I have demanded, 
 
 * These were M. Ronnet, a French merchant, and Mr. and Mrs. Ram- 
 scycr and their two children. 
 
 t This telegram was sent from Molnscy, at about six p.m. on thi; 23rd, 
 by the hands of a police-runner, who reached Trahsu, thirty-two and a half 
 miles distant, at daybreak next morning. Thence an ofi'icer was sent by 
 Colonel Festing to Barraco, the nearest telegrapli station, with orders to 
 repeat the despatch, which was in two ciphers, to llie Colonial and War 
 Offices. By lo. 30 the despatch had been repeated from Cape Coast ; and 
 the same evening the Sitrmatian sailed for Gibraltar, making the passage in 
 nine days. Thence it was telegraphed to London, so that news from the 
 
 II 
 
: 
 
 282 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 '^ 
 
 V\%. 
 
 amounting to jT^zoiO^ooo. He accepts the terms offered. 
 The white prisoners are all now with us. Shall halt a few 
 days at I ommanah, which is about thirty miles from Coo- 
 massie. Everything goes on well' 
 
 Owing to the rapid advance of the troops, who had out- 
 stripj)ed the transport, the halt at Fommanah was absolutely 
 essential for the formation of a depot of supplies by 
 Colonel Colley, now in charge of the line of communication 
 between the front and Cape Coast, and of all the posts on 
 the road. 
 
 The delay also effected a double purpose, * as it gave the 
 appearance to the King of Ashantee of his halting in com- 
 pliance with his request, so that every chance would be 
 given him for carrying out his promises.' That Sir Garnet 
 was not deceived by these promises, appears from the letter 
 he despatched on the 24th, in which he said : * I intend to 
 go to Coomassie. It is for your Majesty to decide whether 
 I go there as your friend or as your enemy.' If in the 
 former capacity, he demanded certain hostages, the Fantee 
 prisoners, and a portion of the indemnity. He then added : 
 * I shall then proceed to Coomassie with an escort of only 
 about 500 English soldiers, in order to make a treaty of 
 peace \vith your Majesty. The sooner I receive these 
 guarantees, the sooner will my armies halt ; and in order 
 to allow your Majesty to fulfil my demands without trouble, 
 I shall only advance very slowly with this army during the 
 next few days. An officer of rank has conferred with your 
 messengers, and I shall have much pleasure in conferring 
 with your Majesty personally when I arrive at Coomassie.' 
 
 On the 24th, headquarters, with the Rifle Brigade, 
 
 Adansi Hills was published in the metropolis in less than ten days. When 
 the telegram appeared in the daily papers on the morning of the 5th of 
 February it was pretty generally pronounced to be an electioneering hoax to 
 influence the fate of the Gladstone Ministry, then wavering in the balance. 
 
S/CA'NESS IN THE FORCE. 
 
 :83 
 
 followed Russell's Regiment to Fommanali, where Sir 
 Garnet and Staff occupied the ])alace of Cobbina Obbin, 
 the King of Adansi, ' a large building, consisting of several 
 open courts communicating with each other, and each 
 surrounded by rooms closed on three sides, but open on 
 the fourth into the court.' 
 
 Sir Garnet inspected the Rifles on the 25th of January, 
 when there appeared on parade 591 officers and men, out 
 of a total strength of 784, 77 having been left behind sick, 
 and 9 being in hospital at Fommnnah. On the same day, 
 the returns showed that in the Naval Brigade, 48 were sick 
 out of a total of 250; 38 were sick in the 23rd Fusiliers, 
 and 51 in the 42nd Highlanders. In consequence of thia 
 serious diminution in his fighting force, which included only 
 1,800 Europeans on shore, the General ordered that 10 
 officers and 200 rank and file of the Fusiliers should be 
 landed and proceed forthwith to Prahsu, and this reinforce- 
 ment was of the utmost service in keeping open the com- 
 munications when the force pushed on to Coomassie. 
 
 Meanwhile Lord Gifford had scouted as far as Insarfu, 
 and on receipt of information that the King of Adansi was 
 at Borborassie with 1,000 men, Colonel McLeod, having 
 received the General's permission to make a reconnoissance, 
 started on the 29th of January, with a small force, which 
 included the Naval Brigade. After a march of three hours 
 from Kiang Boassu, the column reached the village, out of 
 which the Ashantees were driven, though not without the 
 loss on our side of Captain Nicoll,* who was shot dead 
 while gallantly leading the advance of Russell's Regiment. 
 
 On this day headquarters arrived at Detchiasu, where 
 
 * On receipt of the news of the death of Cajjlain Nicoll, who left a 
 wife and family, a sum of ;^8o was subscribed at Sir Garnet W'olseley's 
 table, the General himself headinfj the subscription list with ^^20 ; and 
 when, some months later, the Company of Grocers in London placed at his 
 disposal a sum of £2^0 for the benefit of the sufferers by this war, he pre- 
 sented Captain NicuU's widow with half the amount. 
 
 
 % 
 
^ip 
 
 "I 
 
 i 
 
 284 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Sir Garnet received two letters from King Koffee, reiterating 
 his recjuest that the British forces should stay their advance 
 on his capital, to which he replied by repeating his demands 
 and concluded as follows : ' I halted four days at Fommanah 
 to please your Majesty. I cannot halt again until you have 
 complied with my terms.' 
 
 On the 30th of January the advanced guard, consisting 
 of Wood's and Russell's Regiments, moved from Insarfu to 
 Quarman, holding the passage of the Dansaboo stream, and 
 strongly intrenching themselves ; also headquarters, with 
 the Rifle Brigade, 42nd Highlanders, and Rail's Artillery, 
 moved to Insarfu ; and the Naval Brigade, 23rd Fusiliers, 
 with field hospitals and ammunition reserve, to Ahkan- 
 kuassie, three miles in the rear. The 2nd West India 
 Regiment also advanced a stage, and the ist West India 
 were ordered to the front from Essiaman. 
 
 The last day of January is memorable in the annals of the 
 Ashantee War, as that on which the treacherous African 
 monarch threw off the mask, and boldly staked his crown 
 and prestige for invincibility on the arbitrament of battle. 
 On that day the following was the position of the three 
 other columns, which, as Sir Garnet Wolseley so candidly 
 informed the King, would simultaneously invade his terri- 
 tories and converge upon his capital of Coomassie. Captain 
 Butler proceeded in November, 1873, on a special 
 mission to the Kings of Western Akim, to induce them to 
 march with all their fighting men upon the flank and rear of 
 the Ashantee army ; but though they crossed the Prah with 
 him and Captain Brabazon, on the 20th of January, tne 
 entire force, 1,400 strong, bolted panic-struck, on the 30th, 
 when, as he said, his junction with the main body at 
 Amoaful 'was only a question of some hours.' Captain 
 Butler joined headquarters at Agemmanu on the 7th of 
 February, during the return march from Coomassie ; but 
 
 ^ 
 
 ti 
 
 o 
 
MOVEMENTS OF THE SUPPORTING COLUMNS. 285 
 
 though he failed in the main object of his mission, he 
 created a valuable diversion by drawing away from the 
 enemy's main army at Amoaful, the whole fighting force 
 of Kokofoo, which assembled to bar his progress. 
 
 Even less was the measure of success that rewarded the 
 efforts of Captains Dalrymple and Moore, of the S8th Regi- 
 ment, who had been despatched on a mission to induce the 
 Kings of Wassaw and Denkera to invade Ashantee by the 
 Wassaw path, thus acting on the left flank of the main line 
 of advance. On the 24th of January, when the British 
 advance guard was at Fommanah, Captain Dalrymple had 
 succeeded, in three weeks, in assembling at Kotakee only 
 150 men, and was compelled to give up the attempt in despair 
 on the 30th of January. Though his mission collapsed even 
 more signally than Captain Butler's, it was not wholly barren 
 of results, for the King of Becquah, one of the tributaries of 
 Koffee Kalkalli, assembled his men on the left flank of the 
 invading army to oppose an advance. 
 
 But most important and successful, in every sense, was 
 the diversion created by Captain Glover, who, in accordance 
 with Sir Garnet Wolseley's orders, crossed the Prah on the 
 15th of January, with 740 Houssas and Yorubas. To do so — 
 as he said in his lecture at the United Service Institution on 
 the 17th of May, 1874 — 'he sacrificed clothes, provisions, 
 and everything, to get up the ammunition.* On the i6th of 
 January, the town of Abogoo was captured, and, on the 
 23rd, Lieutenant Barnard took Prahsu, and, on the 26th, 
 Odumassie — which commands the road in the rear from 
 Connomo to Juabin, and also that to Coomassie, from which 
 it is some 25 or 30 miles distant. Captain Glover joined 
 Barnard here, and, on the ist of February, despatched 
 Captain Sartorius across the Anoom river, to open com- 
 munication with Captain Butler's force, which he supposed 
 was operating between his own and the main army ; and 
 
286 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 *r-'; 
 
 this gallant officer, with only 130 men, advanced through 
 two large Ashantee camps, but; finding his rear cut off, 
 despatched 40 Houssas back to Captain Glover, who sent 
 Lieutenant Barnard to reinforce him with 150 men, when 
 the combined force routed the enemy, and rejoined Captain 
 Glover at Odumassie. To return to the movements of the 
 main army under Sir Garnet Wolseley. 
 
 Lord Gifford reconnoitred the Ashantee position beyond 
 Egginassie during the night of the 29th of January, and 
 Major Home continued cutting the road up to within 100 
 yards of that village. As Colonel McLeod reported that the 
 enemy in front were in great force, and it became evident 
 that a general action was imminent, Sir Garnet Wolseley, on 
 the 30th of January, issued his instructions* to the troops, 
 who were formed into four columns facing outwards, similar 
 to the four sides of a square. His design in adopting this 
 formation is thus expressed by himself when reporting the 
 successful result of his strategy : ' As the leading colr'^^^n 
 advanced northward the left column, according to orders 
 previously issued, cut a path diagonally to the left front, with 
 a view of protecting the left flank of the front column ; and 
 
 * 'The troops will advance to-morrow, at an hour which will be hereafter 
 decided, in the following order: 42nd Highlanders; Rait's gnns ; Naval 
 Brigade ; Rait's rockets ; 23rd Fioyal Welsh Fusiliers ; Rifle Brigade, 
 Wood's and Russell's Regiments, which are now in advance, will be drawn 
 up on the side of the road, and will, on the above column reaching ''em, 
 strike in between the 23rd Royrl Welsh Fusiliers and Rifle Brigade. Ou 
 approaching the enemy, the troops will be formed, the front line being 
 conmianded by Brigadier-General Sir A. Alison, the left flank by Colonel 
 McLeod, the right flank by Lieut. -Colonel Wood, V.C. , and the rear by 
 Lieut. -Colonel Warren, Rifle Brigade. The regimental reserve ammuni- 
 tion will be inside the square on the road, that of the Rifle Brigade being in 
 front of the battalion. Regiments must furnish a guard on their ammuni- 
 tion, and arrange for r."?ping their men supplied. The hammocks and 
 bearers will also be inside the square. Every man of the force will carry 
 one day's full ration of sausage and cheese. A reserve of supplies will be 
 formed at Insarfu. The main road will be cleared as far as jrassible with 
 the troops, by the Royal Engineers, who will cut roads on each side of, and 
 300 yarcls from, the main road. The 42nd Highlanders must be careful in 
 their advance to lean in upon the guns, so as not to leave them without 
 support.' 
 
WOLSELEY'S PLAN OF BATTLE. 
 
 287 
 
 as it moved along this path, the right column, closing up, cut 
 a path diagonally to the right to protect the right flank, 
 while the rear column extended, so as to gain touch of the 
 right and left columns, which were designed to follow the 
 flanks of the front column, and, should it be outflanked, to 
 face east and west outwards. My intention was to fight in 
 the form of a square, ■**■ and so oppose the invariable flanking 
 tactics of the enemy, which their superior numbers would 
 probably allow them to carry out against any line which i 
 could form.' The total force of all ranks and arms, num- 
 bered 134 ofiicers, 1,375 European soldiers, and 780 
 Natives. 
 
 At daybreak, on the 31st of January, the advance column, 
 commanded by Sir Archibald Alison, marched from the 
 camp at Insarfu, and at 7.30, Sir Garnet Wolseley moved 
 off with the detachment of the 23rd Fusiliers. Soon after 
 eight. Lord Gifford's scouts received the first shot from the 
 enemy, when they took the village of Egginassie with a rush. 
 The two advance companies of the Highlanders, under 
 Major Macpherson, now proceeded up the main road, and 
 the heavy fire they quickly drew upon themselves showed 
 that the Ashantees were in force ; whereupon they were re- 
 inforced by a third company. As the enemy began thus 
 early to resort to their favourite movement of turning his 
 flank, Sir Archibald ordered two companies of the High- 
 landers, under Major Baird, to proceed along a path to the 
 left, keeping three companies in reserve. On reaching a rise 
 in the ground, he saw that the enemy had taken up a strong 
 position in considerable force on a ridge beyond a low 
 swampy hollow, through which a sluggish stream flowed. 
 Major Baird at once attacked the ridge, which projected 
 
 * This formation of a square, with the sides facing outwards, is enjoined 
 by Veguiius, in his 'Maxims,' 1,500 years ago, as the best, where your 
 
 trooj'" r.rc superior in quality and morale to those of the enemy, 
 formation adopted by Lord Chelmsford at Ulundi. 
 
 It was the 
 

 
 
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 288 
 
 L/F£ OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 forward in the shape of a semicircle, on the left completely 
 enveloping the flank, and sweeping with its fire not only the 
 path descending into the swamp, along which Major 
 Macphcrson was endeavouring to force his way, but the 
 swamp itself, and the path on the other side. The fire at 
 this time was tremendous, and it was fortunate indeed that 
 the Ashantee arms and ammunition were of a wretched 
 description. Major Scott was now directed to advance with 
 two companies of the reserve, but still the enemy's fire could 
 not be reduced. The Brigadier-General reported at nine 
 o'clock to Sir Garnet Wolseley that he was ' heavily engaged 
 with a large force in his front and left flank j' that six com- 
 panies were in action, leaving only two in reserve, and that 
 he would ' like some support.' A little later he asked for 
 more surgeons at the front. Writing of this period of the 
 action, Sir Archibald says in his despatch: 'The peculiarities 
 of Ashantee warfare were now strongly developed. We 
 were in the midst of a semicircle of hostile fire, and we 
 hardly ever caught sight of a man. As company after 
 company of the 42nd descended, with their pipes, into the 
 ravine, they were almost immediately lost sight of in the 
 bush, and their position could only be judged of from the 
 sharp crack of their rifles, in contradistinction to the loud, 
 dull roar of the Ashantee musketry.' 
 
 After describing some of the difficulties incidental to 
 fighting with an unseen and numerous enemy in a dense 
 bush, he continues : ' All these difficulties were, however, 
 overcome by the wonderful coolness and discipline of the 
 men, and the admirable way in which they were handled by 
 the company ofiicers. The orders to all were to regard the 
 road as if the colours of the regiment were on it, and never 
 to lose their connection with it ; but without the admirable 
 sectional organization introduced by his Excellency, and 
 thoroughly carried out by the company officers, it would 
 
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 THE ACTION OF AMOAFUL. 
 
 289 
 
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 have been impossible to prevent the men getting out of 
 hand. The Ashantees stood admirably, and kept up one 
 of the heaviest fires I ever was under. While opposing our 
 front attack with immensely superior numbers, they kept 
 enveloping our left with a constant series of well-directed 
 flank attacks.' 
 
 At this time Major Baird, Major Home, and a great 
 number of men were wounded, and the Brigadier-General, 
 who had applied to Sir Garnet for support, owns that he 
 ' was getting very anxious as to the result,' when the two left 
 detached flank companies, which had themselves been 
 heavily engaged, most opportunely came in and joined the 
 reserve, having been unable to force their way through the 
 bush sufficiently quick to acconiMany the advance of the 
 main column. Sir Archibald at once pushed the remaining 
 reserve company into action, and, very shortly after, sent 
 one of the flank compani..s, which had just returned, also to 
 the front, and thus ttie 42nd had, at this time, seven 
 companies engaged, and one in reserve. But as the enemy 
 still ' held his ground stoutly in the front and left flank,' the 
 Brigadier-General applied to Sir Garnet for some of the 
 Rifle Brigade, as his men 'were getting tired from continuous 
 fighting,' and his 'loss in wounded was pretty severe.' Half 
 an hour later Sir Garnet received from him a second de- 
 spatch, dated 'ten a.m., in front of Amoaful,' to the effect 
 that the enemy held their ground steadily, and he had not 
 yet been able to carry the village ; and asking for a rein- 
 forcement of half a battalion of Rifles. 
 
 Sir Garnet immediately sent one company, but the 
 enemy could not have been driven out of their strong 
 position without very considerable loss, had it not been for 
 Major Rait, who brought his guns into action with equal 
 gallantry and judiciousness. Crossing the swamp and pro- 
 ceeding up the path under a hot fire, he quickly got one 
 
 19 
 
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 290 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \,--i 
 
 > 31 ■ 
 
 ;M 
 
 3 
 
 gun into action and fired fifteen rounds of case into the 
 dense masses of the Ashantees. The Highlanders now 
 carried the position with a rush ; and, after Rait had well 
 dosed the enemy, who had taken up a second position on a 
 ridge behind it, the gallant 42nd again advanced, and this 
 position also was carried. ' This,' said the Brigadier- 
 General, 'was the last serious stand of the enemy. The 
 breaking of their centre immediately diminished the severity 
 of their flank attacks, which sooii died away,' 
 
 Meanwhile, the flanking columns were not idle. Colonel 
 McLeod, on the left, with the right wing of the Naval 
 Brigade, under Captain Grubbe, R.N., and Russell's 
 Regiment, had been busy cutting a path into the bush in a 
 north-westerly direction and then north, according to the 
 plan laid down by the General. Captain Buckle, R.E., 
 encouraged his labourers both by word and example ; but 
 the fire they encountered while endeavouring to keep pace 
 with the rapid advance of the 42nd to the hollow on the 
 right, was very heavy, and that gallant officer fell mortally 
 wounded. At length a path was cut to the crest of the hill, 
 whence the rockets opened a destructive fire, and two 
 companies of Russell's Regiment advanced and drove the 
 Ashantees out of their camp. Colonel McLeod had cleared 
 his front, but, having lost touch ot the left of the front 
 column, now cut his way in a north-ea^>terly direction and 
 came into the main road in rear of the Highlanders, about 
 the same hour that the advance occupied Amoaful. *I 
 protected his left rear,' says Sir Garnet, ' by a detachment 
 of the Rifle Brigade; our left flank was now apparently 
 clear of the enemy.' 
 
 Colonel Wood, on the right, also advanced from Eggi- 
 nassie with the left wing of the Naval Brigade, under 
 Commander Luxmoore, R.N., and his own regiment, and 
 commenced cutting a path in a north-easterly direction; 
 
 
 ■'. ii 
 
A CRITICAL MOMENT. 
 
 291 
 
 but he encountered so heavy a fire that he directed his men 
 to lie down, when they engaged in a musketry duel with the 
 enemy. The two companies of Wood's Regiment, which had 
 been left behind to hold Egginassie, having pushed on into 
 the surrounding bush, were also engaged with the enemy, 
 who kept up a heavy fire at this point, among those 
 wounded being Colonel Wood himself. 
 
 When Sir Garnet arrived at Egginassie a little before 9. 30, 
 matters looked very serious, for the enemy had not given 
 way at any point, while they were making persistent attacks 
 with overwhelming numbers on both flanks of the village 
 itself. But the General was calm and confident, and would 
 not even allow the men he had with him to loophole the 
 houses, ' lest the mere fact of this being done should make 
 the troops consider that he thought it possible we might 
 have to fall back upon the village, and act upon the 
 defensive.' Urgent requests for reinforcements were received 
 from all sides, and the General, who stood in the village 
 personally superintending the movements, sent company 
 after company to support the hardly-pressed advance 
 colunm, and keep up the communication with the village. 
 At length the tide turned when the Highlanders had 
 passed the swamp, and though Colonel McLeod's column 
 was but little advanced beyond the hill to the west of Eggi- 
 nassie, and Colonel Wood's column was still scarcely 2 do 
 yards east from the village, the fire of the enemy began to 
 slacken. But so vastly superior in numbers were the enc ly 
 that they were enabled to break in upon the main road in 
 rear of the 42nd, while they engaged the British front and 
 flanks. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison, having driven the enemy from their 
 great camp, advanced upon the village of Amoaful, which was 
 ' rushed ' by the 42nd, after Rait's guns had searched it with 
 a few rounds ; and, soon after twelve, he reported to the 
 
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 292 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 General that all was quiet on his right and left. Colonel 
 McLeod's column now pushed across the swamp, but still 
 no advance was made on the right, Colonel Wood being 
 hotly engaged with the enemy ; and it was not until 1.45 
 that the Ashantees were driven off and all firing ceased in 
 the front, though they made heavy attacks in the rear.* 
 
 The action that was thus brought to a successful con- 
 clusion was hard fought, and the resistance encountered 
 from the enemy much greater than was anticipated. Until the 
 village of Amoaful was carried, says the Brigadier-General, 
 * the fighting was incessant ; indeed it is impossible to con- 
 ceive a more severe action than went on. The heavy loss 
 suffered by the 42nd is the best proof of this, nearly every 
 fourth man having been hit.' The loss of the enemy, he com- 
 puted at not less than between 2,000 and 3,000 in killed and 
 wounded. He adds, ' They stood admirably, came close up 
 to our men, and evidently fought to win ; but their final rout 
 was complete.' The great Chief Amanquatia was among 
 the killed, and the King of Mampon was wounded, while 
 many other chiefs bit the dust. Admirable skill was shown 
 in the position selected by Amanquatia, and the determina- 
 tion and generalship he displayed in the defence, fully bore 
 out his reputation as an able tactician and gallant soldier. 
 
 The brunt of the fighting was borne by the 42nd High- 
 landers, of whom the Brigadier-General says, ' Their steadi- 
 
 * The Ashantees showed remarkable enterprise on this eventful day, for 
 at 2.30 they attacked Colonel Colley while on his return to Insarfu, to bring 
 up the regimental baggage, and escort tlie wounded to that post, and, at 
 three o'clock, he reported that Quarman was 'warmly attacked.' On his 
 arrival with reinforcements the enemy were repulsed, when he passed on to 
 Insarfu, and, having collected the baggage and ammunition, which extended 
 nearly five miles in length, started on his return to Quarman, which the 
 Ashantees had again attacked, and fighting was continued on the road until 
 late in the evening. Colonel Colley, having brought the baggage into 
 Insarfu during the night, marched back to Quarman, and arrived at mid- 
 night at Amoaful, whither Sir Garnet had proceeded. At ten o'clock all the 
 companies on the road between it and Egginassie were called into Amoaful, 
 and Colonel Warren was left in command at Egginassie with four companies 
 of the Rifle Brigade. , 
 
BRITISH LOSS A T AMOAFUL. 
 
 J93 
 
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 ness and discipline, the admirable way in which they were 
 kept in hand by their ofificers, and the enthusiastic gallantry 
 with which every charge was executed, exceed all praise.' 
 Especial praise was due to Major Macpherson,* who, though 
 wounded three times, refused to quit the field until Amoaful 
 was carried ; and to Major Scott, who succeeded in com- 
 mand, and Major Baird, who died of his wounds at Sier'-a 
 Leone on his passage home. Others who distinguished 
 themselves were Major Home, R. E., and Captain Buckle, R. E.^ 
 who was killed ; Lord Gifford, Colonel McLeod, Captain 
 Rait, R.A., Captain Grubbe, R.N.,and Colonel Wood, both 
 of whom were wounded. Of the total force engaged, i 
 officer, 2 privates of the 42nd Highlanders, and one native 
 were killed, and 21 officers and 173 men were wounded; 
 of these, 9 officers and 104 men belonged to the Highlanders, 
 and 6 officers and 26 men to the Naval Brigade. 
 
 At daybreak on the ist of February, the road between 
 Insarfu and Amoaful was lined by the 42nd and Rifle 
 Brigade, and the convoy of ammunition and baggage was 
 brought to headquarters without opposition. At one o'clock 
 the town of Becquah was carried by Lord Gifford, who re- 
 ceived the Victoria Cross for his gallantry on this occasion 
 and throughout the operations north of the Prah, when ' he 
 daily carried his life in his hand.' 
 
 Sir Garnet having received the necessary supplies, deter- 
 mined to push on and give the enemy no time to rally. 
 Accordingly, at daybreak on the 2nd of February, the 
 whole force advanced from Amoaful, the advance guard, 
 under Colonel McLeod, consisting of Lord Gifford's 
 scouts, Russell's Regiment, detachments of Engineers and 
 Artillery, and one company of the Rifle Brigade. Two 
 days' rations were carried by the troops in their haver- 
 sacks, the regimental transports accompanying with a similar 
 
 * This gallant officer again commanded the 42th Regiment at Tel-el-Kebir. 
 
 •It 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ■^ 
 
 supply. The advance guard reached Aggemmamu at 12.40, 
 without any serious opposition, and, soon after, the main 
 body arrived, and halted. The General now pushed his 
 pickets down the road towards Coomassie, and sent Colonel 
 McLeod to scout Adwabin, which that officer occupied. In 
 the meantime. Colonel Colley, who had proceeded back to 
 Fommanah, found the small garrison hotly engaged with 
 the enemy, who succeeded in penetrating the southern side 
 of the village, but were repulsed with loss. During the 
 attack. Captain North, 47th Regiment, in command of the 
 post, was severely wounded. 
 
 The British force was now concentrated at Aggemmamu, 
 with four days' supplies, and as Colonel Colley undertook 
 that in five days' time a fresh convoy of provisions should 
 arrive at that place, Sir Garnet Wolseley determined to ad- 
 vance forthwith upon Coomassie, some fifteen miles distant. 
 It was a bold decision, as the enemy were known to be in 
 force in the front \ there was a river to be crossed, and his 
 little army had been greatly reduced by casualties and sick- 
 ness. ' Most generals,' says Colonel Wood, ' would have 
 hesitated in such a conjuncture ; but, with a happy audacity. 
 Sir Garnet pressed on, and the result proved the wisdom of 
 his decision.' As he determined, should he succeed in 
 fighting his way into Coomassie, to quit the town within 
 four or five days, whether he succeeded in making a treaty 
 with King Kofifee or not, he appealed to the men of the 
 European Brigade to make their four days' rations* last, if 
 necessary, for six days, and, as might be expected, they all 
 responded most willingly in the affirmative. Accordingly, 
 he issued orders tc the force to march at daybreak on the 
 following morning, each man carrying his greatcoat and a 
 day's biscuit in his haversack. 
 
 * Colonel Colley, who joined headquarters during the forenoon on the 
 line of march, brought 150 loads of provisions, thus completing the amount 
 to between five and six days' supplies for the whole force. 
 
mmmmfi 
 
 THE ADVANCE ON COOMASSIE. 
 
 295 
 
 Leaving his tents and baggage at Aggemmamu, which 
 had been strongly intrenched, Sir Garnet marched early on 
 the 3rd of February. On the arrival of the head of the 
 column at Advvabin, Colonel McLeod, with Lord Gifford's 
 scouts in front, moved with the advanced guard on the path 
 to the right of the main road to Coomassie. He soon 
 encountered the enemy, when a detachment of the Rifle 
 Brigade and Russell's Regiment drove them from the hill 
 on which they were posted. In this affair the Rifle Brigade 
 had six men placed hors de combat^ Russell's Regiment ten, 
 and the scouts eight. 
 
 Shortly before noon, two messengers, one bearing a white 
 flag, and the other a golden plate on his breast, the symbol 
 of his oflice, arrived with a letter from the King. The 
 column was on the line of march, and the messengers were 
 detained while Sir Garnet perused and replied to a letter 
 from King Koffee, in the handwriting of Dawson, express- 
 ing his willingness ' to meet your Excellency's demands, but 
 only your Excellency's very rapid movements puts me into 
 confusion.' There was also a private letter from Dawson, 
 petitioning him to halt, ' as no doubt we will all be killed, 
 if your Excellency do not stay.' But nothing could change 
 Sir Garnet's fixed determination to proceed to Coomassie. 
 As, however, the Ordah, a deep and wide river, was still a 
 considerable distance off, and it was evident that his troops 
 could not reach Coomassie that night, he wrote the follow- 
 ing brief reply to the King : 
 
 ' 12.10 a.m., February 3rd, 1P74. On the march. 
 
 ' You have deceived me so before, that I cannot halt 
 until the hostages are in my possession. If you send 
 them to me this evening, I will halt my army this side of 
 the river Ordah. As time presses, I will consent to accept 
 for to-day your mother and Prince Mensah. Both shall be 
 
296 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 i . 
 
 well treated by me. You can trust my word. Unless you 
 send them at once, my army shall march upon Coomassie.' 
 
 Sir Garnet continued his advance, and at three p.m. 
 reached the banks of the Ordah, where he halted. Rus- 
 sell's Regiment crossed the stream, which was fifty feet 
 wide and waist-deep, to act as a covering-party to the En- 
 gineers, who commenced to throw over a bridge. On a 
 clearing being made on the north bank, the remainder of 
 the advance-guard crossed the stream, the main body 
 bivouacking on the south bank, or cowering beneath the 
 meagre shelter afforded by hastily constructed huts of palm- 
 stems and plantain-leaves, from a deluge of rain which 
 never ceased throughout the night. Major Home and his 
 Engineers continued to work during the pitiless storm, 
 and by daybreak this indefatigable officer had completed 
 an excellent bridge. The night before the capture of 
 Coomassie must have reminded Sir Garnet Wolseley of 
 that preceding the occupation of Fort Garry, and his mind 
 was equally at ease as to the result of the operations of the 
 morrow. As the prisoners had not arrived, Sir Garnet 
 crossed the river with the main body of his little army. 
 
 Hardly had the advance commenced their march than 
 the enemy opened fire, and Colonel McLeod pushed some 
 of the Rifle Brigade and a 7-pounder, under Lieutenant 
 Saunders, R.A., to the front, Lieutenant Bell, R.E.,* being 
 engaged in clearing the bush on the left with his workmen. 
 The attack gradually developed itself into a general action, 
 and Sir Archibald Alison, who was engaged heavily on the 
 right with the remainder of the Rifle Brigade and Rait's 
 
 * This gallant officer was awarded the Victoria Cross ' for his distin- 
 guished bravery and zealous, resolute, and self-devoted conduct at the 
 battle of Ordahsu. By his example he made these men, his unarmed work- 
 ing-party of Fantee labourers, do what no European party was ever required 
 to do in warfare — namely, to work under fire in the face c'. the enemy with- 
 out a covering-party.' 
 
THE ACTION OF OR DA HSU. 
 
 297 
 
 .it's 
 
 ;tin- 
 the 
 irk- 
 ired 
 ith- 
 
 Houssa Artillery, reported that his * whole right flank and 
 rear were enveloped.* It was evident that the enemy were 
 in great force, and were attempting their favourite tactics of 
 surrounding their foe. Colonel McLeod, under cover of 
 a gun, steadily continued his advance along the main road 
 leading to Ordahsu, and at nine the village was carried 
 by the Rifles. But it was not without serious loss, 7 of 
 the 1 1 Houssas of Saunders' detachment being wounded, 
 also Lieutenant Wauchope (severely), and Lieutenant J^^yre 
 (mortally), while urging on the Opobo Company of Wood's 
 Regiment, of which he had been Adjutant throughout the 
 campaign. 
 
 The Ashantees, quickly recovering themselves, now attacked 
 the village of Ordahsu on both sides, and also made flank 
 attacks down the road, where Wood's and R-ussell's Regi- 
 ments, being unsteady, had been placed to guard commu- 
 nications. Sir Archibald, having pushed on the remainder 
 of the Rifles to support Colonel McLeod, soon after joined 
 him at Ordahsu, where the Rifles, Rait's guns, and the 
 detachment 23rd, were concentrated. According to the 
 Brigadier-General's request. Sir Garnet directed him to 
 move on, and proposed to take his place at Ordahsu with 
 the 42nd ; but, before the Highlanders had time to occupy 
 the village and relieve the advance-guard, the enemy attacked 
 in force in front, on both flanks, and in the right rear. The 
 General entered the village with the rear of the Highlanders, 
 and immediately made his dispositions to bring all the baggage 
 into the village, when he proposed, after leaving a strong 
 guard for its protection, to push on for Coomassie, with all 
 his available force, disregarding all flank and rear attacks. 
 
 At this time Ordahsu was encircled with a sheet of fire, 
 and the enemy advanced to the attack with astonishing 
 pertinacity and disregard of danger. They pushed boldly 
 into the heart of the village, and the revolvers of the Staff- 
 
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 298 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 officers were called into requisition. Had the weapons and 
 ammunition of the Ashantees been of a better description, 
 many officers, who are the ornaments of the British army, 
 would have fallen beneath the heavy fire, including the 
 Commander of the Expedition, who narrowly escaped with 
 his life. Sir Garnet VVolseley was sitting on a small native 
 stool, and all the Headquarter Staff were seated round him 
 on the ground ; the noise of the firing was at its height, 
 and Major Russell was in the act of leaning forward to say 
 something in his ear, v*'hen a slug struck him, and passing ob- 
 liquely through the puggree of his felt helmet, lodged between 
 it and the hatband. The General was knocked off his chair, 
 and both he and it rolled in the dust to the consternation 
 of the Staff. But quick as thought he was on his feet again, 
 and laughingly suggested that they should move into a 
 somewhat less exposed place. On examination, this slug — 
 which has been kept as an interesting memorial of a warm 
 day's work — was found to be a square piece of tin, about 
 the size of a dice, cut off from a bar. Had this projectile 
 struck him on a vital part, or even on any portion of his 
 helmet unprotected by ihe thick folds of an Indian pug- 
 gree, it is probable that England mi^ht have had cause to 
 mourn the death of a brilliant and successful soldier, who, 
 like Wolfe and Abercrombie, fell at the moment when 
 victory was about to reward his protracted efforts. For- 
 tunately he escaped with no more serious injury than a 
 severe headache for the remainder of the day. 
 
 Having completed his dispositions, about noon, Sir Garnet 
 issued the order for the advance. The 42nd, as being 
 fresher than the Rifle Brigade, who had been engaged in 
 the van since daybreak, were to lead the advance, under 
 cover of R ait's guns, and Colonel McLeod, who now took 
 command of his own regiment, was directed to disregard all 
 flank attacks and push on straight for Coomassie : while 
 
S//i GARNET IS WOUNDED. 
 
 299 
 
 the Rifle IJrigadc were to follow in support as soon as the 
 enemy were driven off from the village. Sir Archibald Alison 
 describes in telling language the advance of the Highlanders, 
 as Colonel McLeod rapidly passed the skirmishing com- 
 panies through each other at intervals of fifty paces : ' On 
 first debouching from the village, a tremendous fire was 
 opened on the head of the column from a well-planned and 
 strong ambuscade, six men being knocked over in an instant. 
 But the flank companies woiked steadily through the bush ; 
 the leading company in the path sprang forward with a 
 cheer ; the pipes struck up, and the ambuscade was at once 
 carried. Then followed one of the finest spectacles ever 
 seen in war. Without stop or stay the 42nd rushed on 
 cheering, their pipes playing, their officers to the front j 
 ambuscade after ambuscade was successfully carried, village 
 after village won in succession, till the whole Ashantees 
 broke, and fled in the wildest disorder down the pathway 
 on their front to Coomassie. The ground was covered with 
 traces of their flight, umbrellas, and war-chairs of their chiefs, 
 drums, muskets, killed and wovnded, covered the whole 
 way, and the bush on each side was trampled as if a torrent 
 had flowed through it. No pause took place until a village 
 about four miles from Coomassie was reached, when the 
 absolute exhaustion of the men rendered a short halt 
 necessary. So swift and unbroken was the advaiice of the 
 42nd, that neither Rail's guns nor the Rifle Brigade in 
 support were ever brought into action.' 
 
 Up to this time, the enemy, encouraged by the presence 
 of King Koffee, who was carried in his litter in rear, where 
 no bullets could reach his royal person, had been making 
 repeated attacks upon Ordahsu ; but, shortly before two, on 
 the General communicating to his soldiers a despatch from 
 Sir Archibald, reporting his capture of Karsi, a village four 
 miles from Coomassie, the loud cheers, raised by Europeans 
 
30O 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 r;vi 
 
 and Natives alike, struck a terror into the hearts of the 
 enemy, and they suddenly ceased firing. 
 
 The whole of the baggage having been now brought into 
 the village, after some severe skirmishing with the enemy, 
 who tried to cut the convoy off, our troops were drawn in 
 and all communications severed with the rear,* a step ren- 
 dered absolutely necessary owing to the available force 
 being diminished by losses to 1,000 Europeans and 400 
 Natives, who, being supplied with five days' rations, were 
 in a position to exist without connection with their base of 
 supplies. 
 
 Sir Garnet attended the funeral of the gallant young Eyre, 
 whose body was placed in a hastily dug grave, and, about 
 3.30, commenced his march on Coomassie with the whole 
 of his force. Crossing two streams, and a pestilential swamp 
 which surrounds the city, the General, mounted on a mule, 
 and escorted by Captain Somerset's t company of the Rifles, 
 at 6.15 arrived in the market-place, where he found the 
 42nd, and leading companies of the Rifle Brigade, which 
 had eiitered the city three-quarters of an hour before, drawn 
 up as on parade. Taking off his hat, he called for ' three 
 cheers for the Queen,' which were given with such true 
 British heartiness that the Natives fled in all directions; and 
 thus was brought to a close one of the most singular and 
 exciting episodes in the history of war. 
 
 Not less strange was the scene presented in the streets of 
 
 * Between this point and the Prali Sir Garnet Wolseley had established 
 eleven posts, each of which was garrisoned with between 60 and 100 men ; 
 Fommanah, which was the largest post north of the Prah, having a garrison 
 of 200 men. Thus at every advance his small force was weakened by 
 establishir.g these posts, while his sick and wounded had increased daily, 
 the carriers taking them back in one constant stream. Each jjost was for- 
 tified, the houses being loopholed, the ground cleared, and a parapet 
 thrown up, and the garrisons daily patrolled half-way on either side until 
 the patrols met. 
 
 t Captain Aylmer Somerset, an amiable and excellent man, died in the 
 summer of 1882, much iamentea by his brother oflficers and numerous 
 friends 
 
ARRIVAL AT COOMASSIE. 
 
 301 
 
 the 
 :)us 
 
 Coomassie, where the old motto, * Vre victis,' received the 
 most singular of commentaries. With the coolest effrontery, 
 the very men, with wacm our soldiers had been engaged 
 during the past four days in a fierce life-and-death struggle, 
 on meeting the advance guard, sauntered up to them with 
 arms in their hands, and offered them water, with the 
 remark, ' Thank you, thank you,' as if the whole thing had 
 been a theatrical performance, in wh'ch all had equally well 
 played their parts. The great main street of Coomassie,* 
 which was full of King Koffee's warriors, who passed in 
 front of the troops, carrying their arms and ammunition into 
 the bush, commands both the town and the palace, and the 
 Brigadier-General, on arrival, had thrown out pickets and 
 placed the artillery so that it could sweep the streets 
 ascending to the market-place. A party was at once sent 
 down to the palace, but the King and all other personages 
 of distinction had disappeared. 
 
 In the action of Ordahsu there were engaged 118 officers, 
 1,044 European soldiers and seamen, and 449 Natives ; of 
 this number Lieutenant Eyre and one man were killed, and 
 6 officers and 60 men wounded. The troops displayed, 
 during the twelve hours' arduous marching and fighting, 
 courage and endurance of a high order; though fainting 
 with thirst, water being scarce on the route, and having no 
 time to eat food, few if any of the force fell out, but all 
 pressed on in emulous eagerness for the goal of their exer- 
 tions. The enemy uid not suffer so heavily as at Amoaful, 
 which was owing to their resistance not being of so obsdnate 
 a character ; and, after the capture of Ordahsu, they chiefly 
 directed their energies to making fruitless flank attacks on 
 the troops defending the village. .— — — ,— 
 
 * Coomassie means ' the town under the tree ;' so called because its 
 founder sat under a broad tree, surrounded by liis warriors, wliiie he laid 
 out the plan for the future town. This great fetish tree, sinyulaiiy enou^li, 
 fell down on the day Sir Garnet \Vols( ley sent his ultimatum of the 2nd of 
 January to the King — an event which created a prodigious sensation among 
 the townspeople. 
 
 m 
 

 W 
 
 m 
 
 302 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 It was almost dark before steps could be taken to quarter 
 the troops, and Sir Garnet immediately issued stringent 
 orders for the protection of the inhabitants and the safety of 
 the town. The sc„ne presented in the streets of the Ashantee 
 capital was picturesque in the highest degree. The twilight 
 quickly faded into night, which was lit up by camp-fires and 
 torches, which threw a weird light on the crowds of Natives, 
 while the sky was reddened by conflagration, the acts of in- 
 cendiaries, principally Fantee prisoners, who took advantage 
 of the confusion to pillage the houses. Captain Baker, 
 Inspector-General of Police, and other officers, were engaged 
 all night in extinguishing the fires, and restraining the plun- 
 derers, one of whom, caught red-handed, was summarily 
 hanged, and several were flogged, which had the required 
 deterrent effect. After seeing that strong outlying pickets 
 were placed at all the main thoroughfares, Sir Garnet, with 
 some of his Staff, took up his quarters for the night in a 
 raised open recess, destitute alike of roof and front, which 
 opened into the market-place. 
 
 A signal military success had been achieved; but, as 
 political Chief of the Expedition, the laurels of the blood- 
 less campaign of diplomacy remained still unplucked. Sir 
 Garnet's chief anxiety now was to conclude a treaty of peace 
 with the King : so before retiring to rest that night, he 
 addressed to him a letter, offering the original terms, and 
 expressing his readiness to accept hostages of rank in place 
 of the queen-mother and heir. After an almost sleepless 
 night. Sir Garnet rose early, and issued to the troops a 
 ' Special General Order ' of thanks,"* and wrote his despatch 
 
 * ' Coomassie, February 5th, 1874. 
 
 ' Soldiers, Seamen, and Marines of this Expeditionary Force, 
 ' After five days' very hard fightinff, under trying conditions, your courage 
 and devotion have been rewarded with complete success. I thank you in 
 Her Majesty's name for your gallantry and good conduct throughout these 
 operations. 
 
 ' In the firrt phase of this war the Ashantee army was driven back from 
 
 
THE KING'S PALACE. 
 
 303 
 
 to the Secretary for War, on the operations since the action 
 of February 2nd. 
 
 Accompanied by his Staff, the General proceeded to the 
 King's palace, a huge building of irregular shape, in which 
 1,000 men might have been quartered. In one court was 
 found a quantity of enormous umbrellas of various materials, 
 including the state umbrella sent home to Her Majesty, and 
 numerous litters, covered with silks and velvets or the skins 
 of animals, in which the King was wont to be carried. In 
 rooms upstairs were numberless boxes filled with articles of 
 value and silks. As Sir Garnet Wolseley walked through 
 these courts and apartments, containing a museum of articles 
 from all countries, he must have been reminded of the scene 
 at the Summer Palace, near Pekin, though the abode of the 
 barbarous African monarch was a poor imitation of that 
 edifice with its priceless contents. There were other articles 
 in this palace that aroused feelings only of disgust and 
 horror, such as the great death-drum, surrounded with 
 human skulls and thigh-bones, and several stools ' covered 
 with clotted blood, standing out from them in huge thick 
 lumps, the blood of hundreds of victims.' As the flies rose 
 in dense crowds from their foul repast, Sir Garnet beat a 
 hasty retreat, and, after a brief survey of the King's bed- 
 chamber, with its heavy door, having many stamped plaques 
 
 :t' ■• /! I 
 
 less 
 a 
 tch 
 
 ii in 
 
 liese 
 
 rom 
 
 the Fan tee country into its own territory. Since then yju have penetrated 
 far through a dense forest, defended at many i)oints with the greatest obsti- 
 nacy. You have repeatedly defeated a very numerous and most courageous 
 enemy, fighting on his own ground, in well-selected positions. British 
 7 luck and the discipline common to Her Majesty's land and sea forces have 
 enabled you thus to overcome all difficulties ^nd to seize upon the enemy's 
 capital, which now lies at our mercy. All the people, both luiropcan and 
 Native, unjustly held captive by tha King of Ashantee, are now at liberty, 
 and you have proved to this cruel and barbarous people that I-lngland is 
 able to punish her enemies, no matter what their strength in numbers or 
 position. 
 
 ' Maintain on your return march to the coast the same admirable conduct 
 you have hitherto evinced, and I'.ngland may be .as justly proud of having 
 such so'diers, sailors, and marines as I am of having had the honour of 
 commanding you throughout this campaign.' 
 
.41 
 
 304 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 of gold, and the gorgeous four-post bedstead, quitted the 
 palace, over which he directed that a strong European guard 
 should be placed. 
 
 Another of the 'lions' of Coomassie will not soon be 
 forgotten by those who paid it a visit. Not far from the 
 market-place, and hidden from the road by a fringe of 
 rushes, was an open space, over an acre in extent, forming 
 a receptacle for decaying corpses. The whole town was 
 impregnated with the odour arising from the contents of 
 this charnel-house, in which were lying, in all the hideous 
 stages of decomposition, thousands of human bodies and 
 skeletons. It was said that daily fresh victims were added 
 to this Golgotha, and it must be a source of gratification to 
 the victorious General to reflect that by the blowc he in- 
 flicted in this shoit and sharp campaign, humanity has been 
 the gainer in the abrogation in Ashantee-land of many of 
 the so-called ' customs,' founded on the denial of the first 
 principles that regulate society even among the most un- 
 enlightened communities. 
 
 During the day Sir Garnet received messengers professing 
 to be sent by the King, with promises that he would come 
 in immediately, and the General despatched emissaries 
 urging him to meet him, when his palace would be placed 
 at his disposal ; but still there we e no signs of his appear- 
 ance, and, as it was evident that he was only carrying on his 
 policy of dissimulation, the messengers, who were found 
 collecting arms and ammunition, were arrested. 
 
 During the afternoon a terrible storm of wind and rain 
 swept over the city, and in the night, a second tornndo 
 raged with fearful violence, converting the market-place 
 into a pond. Major Russell reported that the bridge on 
 the Ordah river was about eighteen inches under water, and, 
 as it appeared that the rainy season was about to set in, the 
 General determined to evacuate Coomassie and retrace his 
 
 
EVACUATION OF COOMASSIE. 
 
 305 
 
 •:.!l 
 
 steps before the roads were rendered impassable. This de- 
 termination was adversely criticized at the time, but there 
 can be no doubt of its wisdom, for had he marched out and 
 burnt the royal mau;^oleum at Bantama, and fought an action 
 with his handful of men, his wounded might have been so 
 greatly increased as to have placed it beyond his power to 
 remove them back to Aggemmamu, there being no carriers 
 or hammocks sufficient for the purpose. He knew also that 
 the British soldier could battle against the insidious attacks 
 of fevers while under the excitement of battle or anticipated 
 conflict, but that when these influences had ceased he would 
 become in that African forest an easy prey to disease. 
 Acting under a sense of responsibility, from which his critics 
 were relieved, and remembering the earnest injunctions of 
 the Secretary for War, to avoid all unnecessary exposure of 
 the white troops, he decided in the afternoon of the 5 th of 
 February on the course he should adopt. A report was 
 circulated that, as the King had broken his promise, and 
 failed to come in to treat for peace, the army would ad- 
 vance in pursuit of him, and it was given out that all Ashan- 
 tees found in the town after six a.m. on the 6th of February, 
 would be shot, an announcement which effectually cleared 
 the town. Prize agents at once set to work to collect all 
 they could before the morning, when the return march was 
 to commence ; but unfortunately, as the number of carriers 
 placed at their disposal was but thirty, only a small propor- 
 tion of the valuables was removed.* Meanwhile, through 
 
 * ' By the light of two candles,' says an officer, ' tlie search began. In 
 one room were found tliose gold masks, whose object it is so difficult to 
 divine, made of pure gold hammered into shape. One of these, weighing 
 more than forty-one ounces, represents a ram's head, and the others the 
 faces of savage men, about half the size of life. Box after box was opened, 
 and its contents hastily examined, tlie more valuable ones being kept, and the 
 others left. Necklaces and bracelets of gold, Aggery beads, and coral orna- 
 ments of various descriptions, were heaped together in boxes and calabashes, 
 Silver plate, swords, gorgeous ammunition-belts, caps mounted in solid 
 
 ao 
 
1 
 
 I 
 
 306 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 the drenching downpour, the Engineers were hard at work 
 making preparations for destroying the palace and firing the 
 town, acts of retribution which the General determined to 
 adopt in order that he might leave behind, as he says, ' such 
 a mark of our power to punish as should deter from future 
 aggression a nation whom treaties do not bind.' 
 
 Soon after six a.m. the troops, headed by the Naval 
 Brigade, with the 42nd as the rearguard, marched off on 
 their return, and the great rise in the Soubang swamp, at 
 the entrance . of the town, showed what might be expected 
 at the rivers. The preparation of the eight mines at the 
 palace took longer than had been expected, and the rear of 
 the main body had moved off from Coomassie a full hour 
 before they were ready ; but at length the mines were ex- 
 ploded, and the palace was left in ruins. At the same time 
 the town was fired, and soon the thick thatched roofs of the 
 houses were burning furiously. As the dense masses of 
 smoke formed a funereal canopy over his capital, and the 
 flames leapt high into mid-air, King Koffee learned the full 
 extent of the defeat and humiliation that had befallen his 
 dynasty, and suffered at the hands of the British General an 
 adequate punishment for the manifold wrongs inflicted for 
 so many years on the subject-races of his Sovereign. 
 
 So quickly had the waters risen, that in one place that 
 was knee-deep, there was now a reach of 200 yards of water, 
 and the troops had to cross the deepest part by means of a 
 felled tree. The Brigadier-General, who was riding a mule, 
 was nearly drowned, the animal rolling over him. The 
 river Ordah was two feet above the bridge, and was still 
 
 gold, knives set in gold and silver, bags of gold-dust and nuggets, carved 
 stools mounted in silver, calabashes worked in silver and gold, silks em- 
 broidered and woven, were all passed in review. The sword presented by 
 Her Majesty to tlie King was found and carried off, and thousands of things 
 were left behind that would be worth fabulous sums in cabinets at home." 
 
THE RETURN MARCH. 
 
 307 
 
 lie, 
 still 
 
 rvcd 
 
 I em- 
 
 by 
 
 lings 
 
 rising. The carriers crossed with their bundles on their 
 heads, and the greater portion of the European troops pro- 
 ceeded by the bridge, which, however, gave way in the 
 evening, when the 42nd had to strip and ford, or swim 
 across, their clothes being carried by Natives. By dint of 
 great exertions the whole force, during the night, reached 
 Aggemmamu, where the General halted on the following 
 day with the 42nd, Rifle Brigade, and Rait's Artillery. The 
 remainder of the column continued the march for Cape 
 Coast, which they reached, on the 20th, without any note- 
 worthy inciden!,, when the 23rd Regiment embarked for 
 England, and the Naval Brigade proceeded on board their 
 respective ships. 
 
 While at Aggemmamu Sir Garnet Wolseley wrote de- 
 spatches to the Secretaries for War and the Colonies, which 
 were forwarded by special steamer to England, together 
 with the previously written despatch announcing the fall of 
 Coomassie. The bearer, his aide de-camp, Lieut. Hon. H. 
 J. L. Wood, who received promotion and the customary 
 grant of ^500, also conveyed the state umbrella of the 
 King of Ashantee, as a present from the troops to Her 
 Majesty, and a carved stool, from the King's palace, to the 
 Prince of Wales. 
 
 On the 8th of February Sir Garnet proceeded to Amoaful, 
 and on the loth arrived at Fommanah. The 42 nd and 
 Rifle Brigade continued their march for the coast, the latter 
 embarking on the 21st of February, and the Highlanders a 
 few days later. Sir Garnet halted at Fommanah with the 
 Native troops, with the double object of seeing the last 
 convoy of sick and wounded across the Adansi Hills, and 
 of negotiating wtth King Koffee, who had sent a messenger 
 to express his desire for peace, and his willingness to accede 
 to all the terms of the British Commander, coupled with a 
 
 20 — 2 
 
 i 
 
3o8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 request that he would order Captain Glover* to halt his 
 forces. 
 
 Sir Garnet agreed to waive the question of hostages, 'as 
 the Ashantee kingdom had been already so severely pun- 
 ished,' but required before arranging the terms of a treaty 
 of peace, that 5,000 ounces of gold-dust should be sent ' as 
 an earnest of his sincerity and as a first instalment of the 
 indemnity.' Cobbina Obbin, King of Adansi, sent mes- 
 sengers expressing his desire to migrate, with his whole 
 tribe, into British territcy south of the Prah, and, at Sir 
 Garnet's invitation, arrived, on the nth of February, at 
 Fommanah, where he was quartered in his own palace, the 
 only building left standing in the town. 
 
 On the morning of the 13th, messengers arrived from 
 King Koffee, bringing 1,040 ounces of gold, consisting of 
 gold-dust, large plaques with bosses in the centre, nuggets, 
 nails, bracelets, knobs, masks, bells, and ornaments of every 
 description, some entire and others broken up. They 
 declared that the King could not at the moment produce 
 
 * Captain Glover had been detained at Odumassie, only two marches 
 from C'oomassie, for want of spare ammunition and reinforcements, his 
 total efficient force on the 4th of February numbering only 262 Houssas 
 and an equal number of Yorubas, while he was encumbered with 60 sick 
 and wounded. On the 6th of Febmary he was joined by Lieutenant Moore, 
 R.N., with 2,000 Aquapims and Croboes, 3 guns, and some rockets ; and 
 on the 8th, having heard, meanwhile, rumours of the fall of Coomassie, he 
 started to join Sir Garnet Wolseley at the capital. On the same day the 
 King of Juabin sent in his submission to Captain Glover, who ordered him 
 to present himself to the British General at Coomassie. His halt at Odu- 
 massie had been of essential service to the main army, for, while they were 
 fighting on theOrdah,hehad held in check on the river Anoom the contingent 
 of the King of Juabin. On the loth he halted, agreeably to his instructions 
 that he was ' not to cross the Dah, nor to approach nearer Coomassie than 
 ten miles w'thout orders from the General ;' and Captain Sartorius, who 
 volunteered to take a letter to Sir Garnet Wolseley, proceeded, with 20 
 picked Houssas, from Akina to Coomassie, a distance of eighteen miles. 
 Passing through Coomassie, which he found deserted and smouldering, he 
 bivouacked at Amoaful, and rode into the British camp at Fommanah on 
 the i2th of February. Glover, finding that Captain Sartorius neither came 
 back to him nor wrote, crossed the Ordah on the nth, and entered Coo- 
 massie on the following day, when he learned that the King had accepted 
 Sir Garnet's terms. Proceeding on his return march, he arrived at Quarman 
 on the 14th. 
 
 \fW 
 
THE TREATY OF FOMMANAH. 
 
 309 
 
 're 
 
 ;cnt 
 
 ons 
 
 lan 
 
 ■ho 
 
 20 
 
 les. 
 
 he 
 
 on 
 
 me 
 
 00- 
 
 ted 
 
 lan 
 
 more, and as the General considered that the main point was 
 to obtain the treaty of peace, and that the money was 
 important chiefly as a proof of complete submission, he 
 accepted the gold, which was weighed out in the presence 
 of European officers and Natives, who recognised in the 
 scene an unqualified admission of defeat on the part of the 
 African potentate. This concluded. Sir Garnet placed in 
 thf^ hands of the envoys the draft of the instrument known 
 as the 'Treaty of Fommanah,''' to the provisions of which 
 they agreed after some demur. 
 
 The envoys returned to Coomassie with the draft treaty, 
 which was brought back to Cape Coast on the 13th of 
 March, duly ratified by the King. Sir Garnet, having 
 written to Captain Glovert desiring him to cross the Prah, 
 quitted Fommanah on the 14th of February, and arrived at 
 Cape Coast on the 19th. 
 
 The loot brought from Coomassie was sold by auction at 
 
 * By this treaty King Koffce agreed to the following summarized con- 
 ditions : 
 
 ' To pay the sum of 50,000 ounces of approved gold as indemnity. To 
 renounce all right or title to any tribute or homage from the Kings of Den- 
 kera, Assin, Akim, Adansi, and all pretensions of supremacy over Elmina. 
 To guarantee freedom of trade between Ashantee and Her Majesty's forts 
 on the coast, and to keep tlie road from C'oomassie to the river Prah open 
 and free from bush to a width of fifteen feet. To use his best endeavours 
 to check tiie practice of human sacrifice, with a view to hereafter putting an 
 end to it altogether.' 
 
 Sir Garnet wrote to Lord Kimberley that it was very doubtful whether 
 tlie balance of the indemnity would ever be obtained from the King ; ' but,' 
 he adds, ' as the payment of a few thousand pounds cannot be a matter of 
 relatively so great importance as the maintenance of peace, 1 have caused 
 the wording of this clause to be carefully so framed as to make it clear that 
 the money is only to be paid in such instalments and at such times as Her 
 Majesty may direct. The whole question of the money will thus be open 
 for solution in any way Her Majesty's Government may think ht.' He had 
 before, when forwarding to Lord Kimberley, from Prahsu, a co]>y of his letter 
 to the King, said, referring to the amount of his demand of 50,000 ounces : 
 ' Owing to the hmited information at my command as to the amount of gold 
 at his disposal, it is possible that during negotiations 1 may feel it necessary 
 to reduce it.' 
 
 t Captain Glover received this letter at Quarman, on the 14th of February, 
 and marched to the sea-coast with his force of 4,450 men, of whom 715 
 were disciplined troops, reaching Frahsu on the 17th, when the column was 
 broken up. 
 

 { f 
 
 \m i 
 
 
 
 310 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Cape C!oast, and reali/.txl nearly ^6,000, exclusive of the 
 gold ornaments received at Fommanah as part of the 
 indemnity, which were brought over to London, where they 
 were exhibited and re-sold by the purchasers, Messrs. 
 Garrard. The loot sold, at Cape Coast consisted chiefly of 
 the gold ornaments of the King's wives, and included two 
 of His Majesty's solid gold pipes, a curious silver coffee-pot 
 of George I.'s time, which Sir Garnet purchased, and an 
 ivory-hilted sword, bearing on one side of the blade the 
 following inscription : ' I'Yom Her Majesty Queen Victoria 
 to the King of Ashantee.' This weapon, which was left by 
 King KofTee in his bed-chamber when he made his hurried 
 exit from Coomassie, was purchased by the officers of the 
 Staff, and presented by them to their gallant Commander, 
 with the following inscription on the reverse of the blade : 
 ' ?Jajor-Gcneral Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, G.C.M.G., 
 K.C.B., from the officers of his Staff. Coomassie, 4th Feb- 
 ruary, 1874.' Doubtless the victor of Amoaful and Ordahsu 
 possesses no more valued souvenir of his distinguished 
 military career than this sword, to which a peculiar interest 
 must attach from the names of the original donor and reci- 
 pient, and the circumstances under which it changed hands. 
 On his arrival at Cape Coast, Sir Garnet occupied the 
 interval before his departure for England in a great variety 
 of matters that pressed for solution. Among important 
 papers he drew up a valuable Minute* in regard to the future 
 defence of the Gold Coast, upon which Her Majesty's 
 (xovernment have since acted. 
 
 '"' \\\ this paper he proposed that military posts, garrisoned by Houssa 
 police, should be maintained at I'rahsu and Mansu, in order to protect 
 Ashantee traders from the insults and exactions of the Fantees ; also that 
 a garrison of 300 armed police, 12 to be trained as gunners, under 4 Euro- 
 j)ean officers, should be maintained at Cape Coast. Addah, Quettah, and 
 Elmina should each be held by a garrison of 100 armed police, and Secondee, 
 Dixcove, and Akim, by 50 men at each post. These posts to be provisioned 
 for three months, and the total strength of the garrisons, including 25 men 
 at Annamaboe, to amount to 975 armed police, who might ultimately be 
 reduced to 800. 
 
LOSSES DURING THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 311 
 
 The troops rapidly left the country during the latter part 
 of February, and Wood's and Russell's Regiments and 
 Rait's Houssa Artillery were disbanded. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley proceeded to Accra in H.M.S. 
 Active^ and making over the temporary charge of affairs to 
 Colonel Maxwell,* C.B., commanding the ist West India 
 Regiment, sailed on the 4th o^ March in the Matiitobali^ a 
 name of happy augury, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 
 20th, Though the campaign, now so successfully closed, 
 had been short, some valuable lives had been sacrificed. Of 
 the original party of 30 Special Service officers, who had 
 accompanied Sir Garnet to Cape Coast, up to the date of 
 the entry into Coomassie, four — Captains Buckle, R.E.,and 
 Nicol, Hants Militia, and T^ieutenants Eyre, 90th Regiment, 
 and Wilmot, R.A. — had been killed: three — Captain 
 Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, and Lieutenants Hon. A. Charteris, 
 Coldstream Guards, and Townshend, i6th Regiment — had 
 died from the effects of climate ; and seven had been 
 wounded, while nearly all, including the General himself, 
 had been hit by slugs and had suffered more or less severely 
 from fever. The total of deaths among officers in this brief 
 war was 43 ;t while, in less than two months, no less than 
 71 per cent, of the European force suffered from sickness. 
 
 * Colonel Maxwell soon died from the effects of climate, and under tlir 
 new arrangements, by which the colony was made independent of the 
 Governor- in-Chief of Sierra Leone, Captain (now Sir George) Strahan, K.A. , 
 was nominated Governor, on the reconmicndation of Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
 whom he had accompanied out to the West Coast in the Ambriz. 
 
 f The following died of wounds or disease in Ashantee, or soon after 
 their return to England : Colonel Maxwell, Majors Baird and l"'arquharson, 
 42nd Regiment, and Saunders, R.A. Captains Thompson, Queen's liays ; 
 Butler, ist West India Regiment, and Hopkins, 2nd West India Regiment. 
 Lieutenants Dalgleish, Warner, and Cox, 2nd West India Regiment ; 
 Roper, Clough, Burke, Elderton, Huntingford, and Williams, ist West 
 India Regiment ; Gray, Royal Marines ; Johnstone, 23rd Regiment. Cap- 
 tain Blake, R. N. , Staff-Commander Prickett, Lieutenants Wells and 
 Hirtzel, and Sub-Lieutenants Mundy, Bradshaw, and Ficklin, Naval 
 Brigade. Commissaries Marsh and Marsden ; Assistant-Commissaries 
 Reid, Harrymount, and Burke. Surgeons- Major Burrows and Kelly ; 
 Surgeons Clarke, Bale, and M'Carthy. Lieutenant Dillon, Army Hospital 
 Corps. 
 
n 
 
 M$'' < I * » ' 
 
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 312 
 
 IJFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Several histories of the Ashantee War have been given to 
 the world, some being little more than the republication of 
 the letters of special correspondents, and of one it may be 
 said that the writer displays great presumption in laying 
 down what ' ought ' (o have been done. It is amusing to 
 read the dogmatic assertions of men, who 
 
 ' Never set a squadron in tlie field, 
 Nor the division of a battle knr>vv, 
 More than a spinster,' 
 
 but who criticize the movements of one jf the most accom- 
 plished and experienced soldiers of the age, and, filled with 
 the sense of their own heaven-born aptitude for the science 
 of war — a knowledge which the General acquired by laborious 
 study and hard service in many climes — lay down the law 
 on the art military with all the assurance of ignorant pre- 
 sumption. Such men think they have displayed great 
 critical acumen by inveighing against the General for show- 
 ing a want of prescience in not providing against the possi- 
 bility of such an unforeseen incident as the desertion of the 
 carriers, or for the hurried retreat from ' Dmassie, when the 
 heavy rains warned the Commander • 'he return might 
 be a matter of difficulty were it delayed tor the purpose of 
 accomplishing such an utterly useless measure, either from 
 a political or military point of view, as the destruction of 
 Bantam.\ Those sage critics who, before the campaign, 
 went about town with long faces and shaking heads, giving 
 vent to the gloomiest prognostications — ^just as occurred 
 when Lord Napier was organizing his Abyssinian Expedition 
 — were the same gentlemen who, after the first burst of 
 public exultation at the brilliant success achieved by Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley, began, in the press, in society, and at the 
 clubs, to pooh-pooh the difficulties that had been overcome, 
 and to decry anj- great merit in the General who had re- 
 turned after carrying out to the letter the programme he had 
 originally announced. 
 
RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 3n 
 
 A passage in Wolsclcy's * Narrative of the War in China 
 in i860 ' (Chapter VII.), bears with singular force on this 
 habit of non-military critics, of seeking to lessen the public 
 estimation of the s -rvices of a General if his successes have 
 been achieved without incurring *a heavy butcher's bill.' 
 * Non-combatants,' he says, ' are at all times anxious to push 
 on and make light of military precautions. After any suc- 
 cessful operation, it is easy to speak of the facility with which 
 it is accomplished, and, adducing the smallness of your 
 losses in proof thereof, to remaric, 'Oh, you might have 
 done it with half the number,' forgetting or ignoring the fact 
 that the rapid success was very much to be attributed to the 
 display of force, which ever carries with it great moral power 
 in war, and that the precautions taken were the means of 
 saving your soldiers' lives.' 
 
 Great permanent results may be expected to flow from 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley's military achievement on the Gold 
 Coast, and peace, which our Fantee Protectorate has not 
 known for fifty years, will no doubt be enjoyed by that dis- 
 tracted 1 nd. As time goes on it will be found that the 
 revolutioi social and political, that has been wrought by the 
 destructioh f the ascendency of the Ashantee monarchy, 
 will be far-reaching in its consetiuences ; and Fantee and 
 Ashantee alike will require no monument to remind them 
 of the debt of gratitude they owe to their liberator from 
 the deadliest and most debasing tyranny the world has 
 seen. 
 
 The Ashantee Campaign has been frequently likened to 
 the Abyssinian War, and the comparison obviously presents 
 itself to the mind, though the conditions under which such 
 striking successes have been achieved by two British Com- 
 manders, are as dissimilar as can well be. Though Lord 
 Napier had to march 400 miles before he could strike at his 
 savage enemy, and Sir Garnet Wolseley considerably less 
 
3H 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 than 200 miles, and though the engineering difficulties that 
 beset every mile of the advance were in both cases well- 
 nigh insuperable, yet the climatic conditions were greatly in 
 favour of the Indian General. Lord Napier's soldiers, 
 numbering 12,000 men, after passing the narrow belt of 
 low land near Massowah, marched over a succession of 
 stupendous passes and gorges, with grand scenery to enliven 
 the march, and the most braci*-,^ climate in the world to 
 strengthen the frame, so that every breath of mountain air 
 drunk in by the soldiers as they mounted higher and still 
 higher up the chain of hills, until they attained the plateau 
 in which was placed the stronghold of Theodore, was ex- 
 hilarating, and every step of the long and toilsome march 
 only invigorated their constitutions. 
 
 Far different was it with the small band — less than one- 
 (juarter the strength of Lord Napier's army, of whom only 
 2,000, owing to the want of transport, crossed the Prah into 
 the enemy's territory — which, under the leadership of Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley, assayed the task of restoring peace to the 
 British Protectorate, and curbing the pretensions of the 
 Ashantee monarch. The duty had to be performed in three 
 months, or not at all ; the transport with which the expedi- 
 tion would have to be conducted was limited to human 
 agency, for the first time, perhaps, in the history of war ; 
 and, lastly, all this had to be effected in the most deadly 
 climate in the world. European life on the Gold Coast, 
 under the most favourable conditions as to diet, housing, 
 and freedom from exposure, is held on so precarious a lease 
 that insurance offices refuse risks, or charge exorbitant rates; 
 but in this case, a military expedition had to march through 
 a dense forest, the miasma arising from whose fever-laden 
 glades and paths was even more fatal to health than the 
 tropical heat that struck the men to the earth in scores when 
 they made forced marches in the more open country south 
 
 
iden 
 
 THE ABYSSINIAN AND ASHANTEE WARS. 315 
 
 of the Prah, and the troops groped their way through the 
 dense forest and brushwood, in which, at times, they had to 
 march in Indian file, while the superiori<^y of breech-loading 
 arms was reduced to a minimum. As we have seen, the 
 loss in officers was exceptionally heavy, for they exposed 
 themselves freely, and suffered accordingly ; indeed, that 
 more officers did not succumb to the climate, was due to 
 the precautions taken by the medical staff, and to the strategic 
 skill of the General, by which, though the early part of the 
 war was conducted by small columns acting from outposts, 
 there were always supports ready to prevent the enemy from 
 cutting off detached parties. 
 
 The fighting at Ordahsu and, particularly, at Amoaful, 
 was very severe, and it is the opinion of those best qualified 
 to judge, that had the Ashantees been armed with tolerable 
 muskets and serviceable ammunition, the British force must 
 have been forced to retreat, when their numerical inferiority 
 might have precipitated a terrible disaster. 
 
 Critics describe the Ashantees depreci.^tingly as ' naked 
 savages ;' but that they were destitute of clothes was certainly 
 no disadvantage in a climate where the frame of the European 
 loses its elasticity so that any clothing is an aggravation of 
 suffering and a listless apathy steals over the mind even 
 of the most resolute and energetic. Again, writers have 
 spoken slightingly of the discipline of the Ashantees, but 
 the facts point to a different conclusion. Sir Garnet Wolse- 
 ley is of opinion that the discipline of the Ashantee army 
 that opposed him at Amoaful was ' perfect, death being the 
 punishment of any infraction.' A Staff officer, who watched 
 the march of a party of 150 Ashantees at Ordahsu, mistook 
 them for men of Wood's Regiment. He says : ' Their arms 
 were all sloped ; every man was closed up to what we call 
 fronting distance ; the pace was quite regular, though much 
 slower than our quick march, and except for that, and the 
 

 1 
 
 3i6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELE Y 
 
 fact that they were all talking, they moved as do our best 
 drilled soldiers.' 
 
 As regards cost, a comparison of the Expeditions of 1868 
 and 1873-4 is in favour of the latter. The British tax-payer 
 is not likely soon to forget the Abyssinian bill of mne millions 
 he was called upon to pay ; but, as gratitude is one of the 
 least common of virtues, he has probably not suffu iently 
 considered how greatly he is indebted to Sir Garnet Wolse- 
 ley who, when successive Governors and Ministries had 
 * muddled * the country into an Ashantee War, brought us out 
 of our difficulties at the very moderate charge of ^900,000 
 — a large portion of which was swallowed up by Captain 
 Glover's subsidiary expedition — being one-tenth the cost of 
 the Abyssinian War. Yet, though drawing this comparison, 
 we hope fairly, to Lord Napier's disadvantage, wj would be 
 the last to deny, in the latter case, the great risk incurred, 
 where failure would have been fatal to our interests and 
 prestige in the East, and the striking merit of the march to 
 Magdala, achieved by as high-minded, brave, and accom- 
 plished a soldier as any wearing Her Majesty's uniform. 
 
 The Nemesis that overtook King Koffee Kalkalli, and 
 wrought the destruction of the seat of his power, though its 
 visitation was of a less dramatic character than that which 
 induced the tyrant Thecdore, in an access of frenzied despair, 
 to take his own life, forms a striking episode of our Colonial 
 history. The result, in both cases alike, was complete and 
 crushing, and the flames that lit up the blackened rock of 
 Magdala and the sombre forests of Ashantee, read a lesson 
 to the savage tribes of East and West Africa, which they are 
 not soon likely to forget ; at the same time, also, the prowess 
 of our soldiers and the skill of their leaders testified to the 
 world that England was not so effete as her detractors, 
 domestic and foreign, chose to imagine, but that British 
 Generals and British soldiers, like their sires, could illustrate 
 
IVOLSELEV'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 
 
 317 
 
 the art of wai under conditions as novel as they were 
 difficult. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley, in his final despatch to Lord 
 Kimberley, says of the Ashantee Power, ' that no more 
 utterly atrocious Government has ever existed on the face 
 of the earth. Their capital was a charnel-house ; their re- 
 ligion a combination of cruelty and treachery ; their policy 
 the natural outcome of their religion.' And of the results 
 of the war he says : ' I believe that the main object of my 
 expedition has been perfectly secured. The territories of 
 the Gold Coast will not again be troubled with the warlike 
 ambition of this restless Power. I may add that the flag of 
 England from this moment will be received througl out 
 Western Africa with respectful awe, a trea'^^'cnt which has 
 been of late years by no means its invariable fate among the 
 savage tribes of this region.' That this end has been accom- 
 plished there can be no doubt, and that it has been effected 
 at so small a cost in iife and treasure, is due to the energy 
 and skill of Sir Garnet Wolseley, who has added a page to 
 our annals that may be read with pride by his countrymen, 
 and studied with advantage by the student of military 
 history. 
 
 The 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, which sailed from England 
 with a strength of 650 officers and men, landed at Ports- 
 mouth on the 20th of March, 503 strong, the difference re- 
 presenting the loss by death and sickness while on service 
 on the Gold Coast for three months. The 42nd Highlanders, 
 which sailed 687 strong, had, during their brief absence, 
 besides losses in action, upwards of six-tenths of their strength 
 in hospital, and landed from the Sarniatian on the 23rd of 
 March, to the number of 570 of all ranks. The last to 
 arrive at Portsmouth was the Rifle Brigade, who received 
 similar honours to those accorded to their brethren in arms. 
 The Rifles had landed at Cape Coast with a strength of t,^ 
 
318 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 officers and 652 men, of whom no less than 22 officers and 
 298 men had been admitted into hospital. On their re- 
 embarkation at Cape Coast, only 16 officers and 277 men 
 were returned fit for duty, owing to the marching being con- 
 tinuous since leaving Fommanah for Coomassie, on the 29th 
 of January, and they landed on the 26th of March with a 
 strength of 27 officers and 483 men. All three regiments 
 were inspected within a few days of their arrival, by H.R.H. 
 the Duke of Cambridge, who paid them a well-deserved 
 compliment on the state of efficiency in which they had 
 returned from active service.'^ 
 
 The Ma?iitobah arrived at Portsmouth en the 20th of 
 March, and, on the following morning. Sir Carnet Wolseley 
 landed, accompanied by his Staff and most of the Special 
 Service officers who had sailed with him in the Ambriz. At 
 his request, his arrival and time of landing had been kept 
 secret, so that, being in mufti, he was able to proceed by 
 the first train to London without having to pass through the 
 ordeal of a public reception or popular ovation. 
 
 On the following day, the General, having received the 
 commands of Her Majesty, who had already telegraphed 
 her congratulati'ms to him at Madeira, proceeded to Wind- 
 sor. On the 30th of March, the General and his little 
 army received a double honour — the public approval of 
 Her Majesty, as expressed by her reviewing the troops at 
 Windsor, in the presence of the Legislature, and a vote of 
 thanks from both Houses of Parliament, in which the two 
 leading statesmen of the age vied with each other in praising 
 the successful soldier. 
 
 * Lady Wolseley, as soon as intelligence arrived in London of the losses 
 incurred during the three days' fighting before (looniassie, wrote a letter to 
 the Times, on the ytli of March, initiating a subscription in aid ' of the 
 widows, children, and families, generally dependent on the brave soldiers 
 and sailors who have fallen in battle, or been victims to tlie climate in West 
 Africa ;' and headed the list by a subscription of fifty guineas from herself, 
 and a like sum from Sir Garnet Wolseley. 
 
 I 
 
RE VTE W AT J J 'INDSOR. 
 
 319 
 
 The review was held in the large open space between 
 Queen Anne's Ride and the Long Walk, and after the in- 
 si)ection was over, the troops were formed into a hollow 
 scjuare, when Sir Ciarnet, having dismounted, was invested 
 by the Queen with the insignia of the Grand Cross of the 
 Order of St. Michael and St. George, and of a Knight Com- 
 mander of the Bath. Sir Archibald Alison was then pre- 
 sented to Her Majesty, and also Lord (iifford, who was 
 decorated with the Victoria Cross. The Duke of Cambridge, 
 by command of the Queen, then expressed Her Majesty's 
 thanks to the assembled troops, for their gallant services 
 during the campaign ; after which the Queen took her 
 station beneath the royal standard, while her gallant soldiers 
 marched past, headed by their Commander. 
 
 The march-past over, the troops were formed in line, 
 with Sir Garnet Wolesley at their head. Slowly the long 
 line advanced to within about fifty yards of the royal car- 
 riage, when the troops were halted, and Sir Garnet repeated 
 the ceremony he so recently performed withir. the market- 
 place of Coomassie. Under far different surroundings, in the 
 presence of an assemblage as dissimilar as it is possible to 
 imagine, the successful General raised his hat in the air, and 
 calling for ' three cheers for the Queen,' received a response 
 given with true soldier-like heartiness and precision, the mul- 
 titude of spectators echoing this spontaneous ebullition of 
 loyalty. As the Queen drove away, once more the strains 
 of the 'National Anthem' burst forth, and the troops saluted. 
 And so ended one of the most interesting of the man) 
 reviews that have been held in the Royal Park of Wind- 
 sor.* 
 
 * Shortly after Her Majesty lield a review at Gosport of tlie sailors and 
 marines wlio had returned to this country ; and, as a s]:)ecial iiiarlc of lier 
 approval of their conduct, the Queen, at Windsor Castle, conferred with 
 her own hai i upon nine men of the Naval Brig; Je the medal for conspicuous 
 gallantry in the Ashantee War. 
 
 '-ilii; 
 

 m 
 
 %]' 
 
 320 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE Y. 
 
 Ill the evening of the 30th of March, the benches and 
 galleries of the Houses of Parliament were crowded, while 
 the leaders of the Government proposed, in fitting terms, 
 the vote of thanks to the gallant Ashantee army and its 
 skilful leader, for the ' exemplary skill with which he planned, 
 and the distinguished courage, energy, and perseverance with 
 which he conducted, the recent expedition into Ashantee, re- 
 sulting in the expulsion of the enemy's army from the British 
 Protectorate, the defeat, by Her Majesty's forces, of the army 
 of the King of Ashantee, and the capture and destruction of 
 Coomassie.' The Duke of Richmond and Lord Granville 
 having moved the vote of thanks in the Lords, the Duke of 
 Cambridge addressed the House, in his capacity of Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, and spoke of Wolseley as having always 
 displayed 'the true instincts of a soldier.' Very happily 
 conceived were the speeches in which Mr. Disraeli and Mr. 
 Gladstone moved the Viianks in the House of Commons. 
 
 The important question of rewards and honours to the 
 officers and men of the expedition now came up for con- 
 sideration, and it cannot be said that the Government erred 
 on the side of illiberality. Five officers received the Rib- 
 bon of the Bath, twenty-five the C.B., and five the C.M.G. 
 All field-officers and captains who had distinguished them- 
 selves received brevet promotion. As the amount realized 
 by the sale of loot was inconsiderable, the troops and sea- 
 men received a gratuity of thirty days' pay, in lieu of prize- 
 money. A medial was instituted for the Ashantee War, and 
 Her Majesty testified the great personal interest she takes 
 in all that concerns the interests of her soldiers, by making 
 certain suggestions in the design.* 
 
 * On one side is the head of the Queen, with the legend ' Victoria Ro- 
 gina.' On the reverse side is a representation of a struggle in the Ashantee 
 forest between some Native warriors in tiie foreground and a few British 
 soldiers, clad in the uniform adopted for the Ashantee Expedition, in the 
 background. There is a bar for 'Coomassie,' and another for 'Amoaful.' 
 The ribbon is black and yellow, colours selected in honour of the Duchess 
 of Edinburgh, us being those of the Russian national flag. 
 
 
HONOURS AND REWARDS. 
 
 52/ 
 
 iking 
 
 ria Ro- 
 ll an toe 
 British 
 [in the 
 loaful. ' 
 luchoiiS 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was offered the Grand Cross of the 
 Order 0/ the Bath, which, however, he declined, but accepted 
 the second grade. Though he held the local rank of Major- 
 General while employed on the Gold Coast, he was still 
 only a Brevet-Colonel in the army, his substantive rank being 
 ' Major half-pay, late 90th Regiment' ; he was now promoted 
 by Special General Order to the rank of Major-General,* 
 * for distinguished service in the field.' The Government, 
 interpreting the wishes of the country, and the precedent 
 usually followed in such cases, rewarded the successful 
 soldier, who had extricated them from a serious and most 
 perplexing difficulty, by the bestowal of something more 
 substantial than ribbons and crosses, and, on the 20th of 
 April, a motion was made in the House of Commons for the 
 bestowal of a grant of;^25,ooo. Mr. Disraeli also offered 
 him a baronetcy, which was respectfully declined. 
 
 Perhaps the value of the offer was lessened by the con- 
 sideration that at the time the Premier proposed an here- 
 ditary distinction to the victorious General, whose achieve- 
 ments he had described in picturesque terms, and of whose 
 skill in the conception and execution of his plan of cam- 
 paign Mr. Gladstone declared that history afforded no more 
 striking example — at this very time the cynical author of 
 ' Coningsby ' conferred baronetcies broadcast among his 
 followers and othe rs, who had * spent laborious days ' in 
 amassing large fortunes, which they expended in ' living at 
 home at ease,' reserving a portion, mayhap, for profuse ex- 
 
 ■ The following are the dates of Sir Garnet Wolseley's various commis- 
 sions in the army: Ensign 12th Foot, 12th of March, 1852; Ensign 80th 
 Foot, 13th of April, 1852 ; Lieutenant 8oth Foot, i6th of May, 1853 ; 
 Lieutenant 84th Foot, 27th of January, 1854 ; Lieutenant 90th Foot, 24th 
 of February, 1854 ; Captain 90th Foot, 26th of January, 1855 ; Brevet- 
 Major, 24th of March, 1858 ; Major (half-pay), 15th of February, 1861 ; 
 Major 90th Foot, 6th of August, 1861 ; Major (half-pay), 14th of January, 
 1862: Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, 26th of April, 1859; Brevet-Colonel, 
 5th of June, 1865; Major-General (local), 6th of September, 1873; Major- 
 General, March, 1874, ante-dated to 6th of March, 1868 ; Lieutenant-General, 
 25th of March, 1878 ; and General, i8th of November, 1882. 
 
 21 
 
M : 
 
 322 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 '*| 
 
 iii 
 
 penditure in contesting a seat when the Conservative i)arty 
 sat on the left hand of the Speaker. Such public spirit, or 
 that other form, which induces a Lord Mayor to lavish vast 
 sums in entertaining a foreign sovereign, may only receive 
 an adequate recognition in a baronetcy ; but if so, there is 
 nothing astonishing in the fact of a soldier, who had served 
 his country in all quarters of the globe, respectfully declining 
 the honour. 
 
 Not that there was any choice between the Conservative 
 and Liberal Governments, the ' ins ' and the ' outs,' in this 
 question of hereditary rewards ; for the latter, shortly before, 
 rendered desperate by their sudden exodus from office, had 
 signalized their exit by a perfect shower of baronetcies, 
 conferred on political supporters with a haste that had its 
 ludicrous, no less than its reprehensible, side. In the sauve 
 qui pent which followed their retreat from the Treasury 
 benches, a chosen few happily managed to find shelter from 
 the wreck of the Liberal cause within the portals of the 
 House of Lords, in the ' serene atmosphere ' of which they 
 will, doubtless, 'rest and be thankful.' But others were 
 made peers and baronets, such as drawing-room soldiers, 
 country gentlemen having the qualification of broad acres, 
 or political supporters who had contested successfully — or 
 unsuccessfully, as the case might be — vacant seats, and 
 whose large expenditure of private means, and admirable con- 
 sistency in voting according to the behests of the party * whip,' 
 called for some reward from their masters. But what ser- 
 vices had these honourable and right honourable gentlemen 
 rendered their country that they should be pitchforked into 
 peerages and baronetcies? Has England so greatly bene- 
 fited by the contentions of party and the haste of private 
 persons to amass fortunes that hereditary distinctions should 
 be lavished on political mediocrities and city mayors, while 
 soldiers like Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Scinde ; 
 
THE QUEFTION OF HEREDITARY HONOURS. 323 
 
 into 
 ene- 
 vate 
 )uld 
 hile 
 de; 
 
 Sir Henry Godwin, who gained the province of Pegu for 
 the British crown ; or Sir Hope Grant, who extorted an ad- 
 vantageous treaty for his country, should be suffered to pass 
 away without such acknowledgments ? 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley had no ambition other than to attain 
 eminence in his profession ; he was, before all things, a 
 soldier, and to the military art he was devoted, not for the 
 sake of the emoluments and honours usually attaching to 
 success, but from a sense of duty. Hence he was able to 
 refuse without a pang a baronetcy and the highest honours 
 of the Bath, and, by adopting this course, he showed his 
 wisdom in avoiding the acceptance of too many honours, 
 which would only tend to excite feelings of jealousy among 
 the less successful of his brothers-in-arms. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was not suffered to be any length of 
 time in England before he was subjected to a very severe 
 course of those public dinners, with the concomitant evil of 
 speech-making, to which all eminent naval and military 
 commanders are doomed on their return fresh from the 
 field of their glory. The first public banquet was given at 
 the Mansion House on the 31st of March, when he was 
 accompanied by his Staff, and by a large number of the 
 officers of the Ashantee army. It was the first occasion 
 since his return from the scene of his successes that Sir 
 Garnet had been afforded an opportunity of laying before 
 the nation his own views on some of the matters that 
 had engrossed the public attention during the past few 
 months. He spoke with a fluency of diction and an ease 
 of manner not frequently met with among officers of the 
 service, who are usually more at home wielding the sword 
 than when exhibiting their oratorical powers in the presence 
 of a critical audience. 
 
 Two City Companies, the Clothworkers and Grocers, 
 conferred their honorary freedom on Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
 
 21 — 2 
 
; 
 
 nil 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 m 
 
 324 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and entertained him at dinner, and the members of the 
 United Service Club gave him a banquet, at which were 
 present the Prince of AVales, the Duke of Cambridge, and 
 about 140 noblemen and gentlemen, including the Secre- 
 taries for War and First Lords of the Admiralty of Mr. 
 Gladstone's and Lord Beaconsfield's Administrations. The 
 Duke of Cambridge having proposed the health of the guest 
 of the evening, Sir Garnet made a speech, in which (not 
 having the fear of the reporters before his eyjs) he detailed 
 the considerations that had guided him in quitting Coo- 
 massie so hurriedly, and which have been already placed 
 before the reader when treating of that event. Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley was a guest at the annual banquet of the Royal 
 Academy, when he was honoured by having his health 
 proposed in the most flattering terms by the heir to the 
 throne. He was also feted by his countrymen at Dublin, 
 and received honorary degrees from the Universities on two 
 successive days, the i6th and 17th of June, the occasions 
 being those known as ' Commemoration ' at Oxford, and 
 ' Commencement ' at Cambridge. The undergraduates of 
 Cambridge cheered vociferously when Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 was introduced to the Chancellor (the Duke of Devon- 
 shire) ; and his reception was not less enthusiastic at Oxford. 
 The Corporation of the City of London, having shortly 
 after his return from Ashantee voted Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 the freedom, accompanied by a sword of honour,* the pre- 
 
 * This swr>rd is a beautiful specimen of the goldsmith's art, irrespective 
 of its intrinsic value. The handle, of massive and handsome design, is 
 formed of figures representing Wisdom and Truth, while recumbent figures 
 of Fame and Victory form the guard. The scabbard is enriched with the 
 arms and monogram of Sir Garnet Wolseley and of the city, with several 
 groups of figures, representing the triumph of Valour over Tyranny, Brit- 
 annia encouraging the Natives to energy and resistance, and trophies of 
 Ashantee instruments of warfare. The blade bears the following inscription, 
 .surrounded by an ornamental border : ' Presented by the Corporation of 
 London to Major-General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., 
 in recognition of his gallant services in the British army, and especially in 
 reference to the distinguished ability ai;d gallantry displayed by him in hik 
 
THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY. 
 
 m 
 
 sentation took place, on the 22 nd of October, at the Guild- 
 hall, and was conducted with all the ceremony usual on 
 the rare occasions when potent sovereigns and successful 
 generals have been similarly honoured. The list of the 
 latter includes some of the greatest soldiers this country 
 has produced — for the city authorities have ever jealously 
 guarded the admission into their Valhalla of heroes — and 
 reads almost like an epitome of our military history. The 
 roll commences before the time of Monk and Marlborough, 
 and, beginning with the first year of this century, includes 
 the following names : Sir Ralph Abercrombie, fresh from 
 his achievements in the West Indies, and just before he 
 embarked for that expedition to Egypt, destined to be fatal 
 to himself, but glorious to his country. Sir David liaird, 
 who, with General Harris and Colonel \V^ellesley, beat down 
 the power of Tippoo Sultan at Seringapatam, and wrested 
 Cape Colony from the Dutch. The Iron Duke and his 
 Lieutenants, Graham and Beresford, and others ; the bluff 
 old Bliichcr, called by his soldiers ' Marshal Forward ;' 
 Barclay de Tolly, and Platoff, the bold and remorseless 
 leader of the Don Cossacks ; and the Austrian General 
 Swartzenburg, the victor of Leipsic — a remarkable group, 
 the military representatives of the allied nations, whose 
 sovereigns visited the Prince Regent in 18 14. 
 
 Our Indian triumphs supplied some of the most noted re- 
 cipients of civic swords of honour. Among these were Nott, 
 Sale, and Pollock, the three veterans who upheld our honour 
 in Afghanistan after it had been dragged in the mire through 
 the incompetence of other commanders. Sir Charles Napier, 
 a year later, earned his sword for his marvellous campaign 
 in Scinde ; and then came Lord Gough, who retrieved his 
 
 command of the Expedition to the Gold Coast, by which he obtained 
 results conducive io peace, commerce, and civilization on the Continent of 
 Africa.' The whole of the work, executed in silver-gilt, enriched with fine 
 gold and enamel, is richly chased. 
 
Hi; 
 
 liHi 
 
 3s6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 laurels at Goojerat, and Lord 1 lardingc, the hero of Albucra 
 and Ferozeshur, where the sceptre of empire was nearly 
 wrested from our hands by the soldiers of the Khalsa ; and 
 Sir Harry Smith, the victor of Aliwal. Sir William Williams 
 was the next recipient for his defence of Kars, aided by 
 Lake and Teesdale; and then there appeared upon the 
 scene, to receive a reward he had earned by fifty years' 
 hard service in Spain, America, China, India, and the 
 Crimea, that fine veteran. Lord Clyde, who was quickly 
 succeeded by his brother-in-arms and ec^ual in fame, that 
 Bayard of the Indian army, sans peur et sans reJ>roc/u\ Sir 
 James Outram, both so soon to lie in the Abbey. Last on 
 this roll of glorious names was Lord Napier of Magdala, 
 the conqueror '^of Theodore, and the friend of Outram, 
 whose high opinion of his military talents has been fully 
 justified. And now there came into the city, to receive the 
 civic honours, a General, young in years when compared 
 with any of those who preceded him, but not unworthy to 
 enroll his name among theirs as that of a soldier who had 
 done the state some service on many fields and in varied 
 climes.* 
 
 Soon after Sir Garnet Wolseley's return from Ashantee, 
 he was appointed Inspector-General of the Auxiliary Forces, 
 in succession to his friend Lieutenant-General the Hon. Sir 
 James Lindsay. In February, 1875, ^e was called upon by 
 the Government to proceed to Natal, and assume temporarily 
 the direction of military and civil affairs. The colonists of 
 Natal were much excited by the outbreak of Langalibalele'st 
 tribe — a vexed question, the merit' '^'' tV" we would not 
 
 * During the jiresent century f<^ in'!'' 
 of the City of London, of whon 
 12 representatives of royalty, tl aainu, 
 
 travellers, judges, scholars, and i< • hants. 
 
 t Langalibalele was brought from Nat 
 1874, and was soon after removed to the \ 
 Colony, where he has been since detained. 
 
 eived the Freedom 
 
 ,uisl soldiers and sailors, 
 
 bei ^ eminent statesmen, 
 
 to Robben Island in August, 
 e on the mainland in the Ca^JC 
 
THE NATAL DIFFICULTY. 
 
 327 
 
 presume to discuss — and were irate at the efforts made by 
 Bishop Colenso* to obtain from the Colonial Office a re 
 versal of the sentence of banishment passed on that chiel, 
 who was accused of rebellion. Hence there was much sore- 
 ness towards the governing powers in this country, and con- 
 siderable tact and discretion were retjuired to manage the 
 colonists and remodel their institutions. Another object of 
 his mission, not inferior in importance to the political problem, 
 was to inquire into and report upon the (juestion of military 
 defence. The Zulu King, Cetewayo, was said to be restless 
 and ambitious, while his army of 40,000 men, well discii)lined 
 and fairly well armed, were spoken of as the bravest and 
 most athletic warriors in South Africvi, and as desirous of 
 ' washing their spears ' in the blood of the English colonists 
 across the Tugela. 
 
 * Bishop Colenso received as much abuse for his action in defending 
 Langalibalele as for his famous wori< on the Pentateuch. Mr. Walter 
 Macfarlane, Speaker of the Legislative Council, pddressing his constituents, 
 said of the Bishop : ' Me mns amuck, like a dmnken Malay, against every- 
 thing Colonial ; publishes a book in England, criticizing the (Government 
 and its acts ; through his access to the public press, he gets his incorrect, 
 one-sided views impressed on the people ; converts, it is said, Lord Carnar- 
 von to his views ; upsets the Governor on charges which are not first sub- 
 mitted to that othcer by the authorities in Downing Street for explanation 
 or refutation ; gets our whole Kafir policy altered, and takes or gets credit 
 to himself among the ignorant and unrellecting for being the only English 
 friend in South Africa of the much-injured Kafir.' 
 
'',[": ■! 
 
 i 
 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NATAL M I S S I O N. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley proceeds on a Special Mission to Natal. — Reception at 
 Durban and Maritzburg. — Natal Politics and Parties. — The Constitution 
 .\mendment Bill, — Triumph of Sir Garnet Wolseley's Policy. — His Pro- 
 gress through Natal. — Returns to England. — Is appointed High Commis- 
 sioner and Commander-in-Chief of Cyprus. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was personally disinclined to accept 
 the honourable, but not very grateful, task of reforming the 
 administration of Natal ; but in this instance, as throughout 
 his career, he never suffered his private wishes to stand in 
 the way -^f . , manifest duty, and he left England at four days' 
 notice. He could ill be spared from his important office at 
 the head of the Auxiliary Forces, with the position and re- 
 quirements of which he had become familiar, and it was 
 rather singular that the Government could not find a 
 Colonial ex-Governor, or a civilian of experience, to set 
 Natal affairs in order ; it was, however, considered desirable 
 that the Colony should be placed in a state of defence, so 
 that there might be no excuse for a repetition of the panic 
 into which the white colonists — who only numbered 17,000 
 as against 350,000 Natives — had been thrown by the recent 
 rebellion of Langalibalele, and Lord Carnarvon, instead of 
 applying for the services of a military officer for this special 
 duty, decided upon placing the supreme direction of civil 
 and military affairs in the hands of a man who had recently 
 been so successful in the dual capacity. 
 
S/7? GARNET SAILS FOR NATAL. 
 
 329 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley sailed in the Windsor Castle, in the 
 latter part of February, accompanied by Mr. Napier Broome 
 as Colonial Secretary, and the following Staff: Colonel 
 G. P. Colley, C.B., who had special experience of Natal 
 affairs between 1859-61 ; Major Butler, C.B. ; Major H. 
 Brackenbury,R. A., Military Secretary; and Lord Gifford,V.C., 
 aide-de-camp — all of whom had been tried in the hard 
 Ashantee school, and had certainly not been found wanting. 
 The Windsor Castle made the passage to Cape Town in 
 twenty-four and a half days, during which Sir Garnet and 
 his Staff were very comfortable, the ship being well found by 
 her owners, the Messrs. Donald Currie, differing greatly 
 from his experiences in his voyages to China, Canada, and 
 the Gold Coast. At Madeira Sir Garnet met the Channel 
 Squadron, under Rear- Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, when 
 the Agincourt saluted him with 17 guns. At the Cape, 
 Wolseley and his Staff were hospitably entertained by Sir 
 Henry and Lady Barkly, and drove to Constantia, which all 
 visitors to the Cape know so well, with its beautiful prospect 
 and delicious grapes, and rode 'round the Kloof,' not less 
 celebrated for its fine mountain and sea views. A few days 
 before Sir Garnet reached the Cape, the flying squadron 
 had arrived from Monte Video, under the command of 
 Admiral Randolph, who had received mstructions from the 
 Admiralty to conform to Wolseley's requirements, in the 
 event of the outbreak of a Kafir war, which was anticipated, 
 owing to the excited feelings of the Natives. In order to 
 give due effect to the importance of the Natal Mission, the 
 Admiral placed at the disposal of Sir Garnet H.M.S. JRalcii^liy 
 of 22 guns, Captain G. Tyron, C.B., who had superintended 
 the naval transport department in the Ashantee Expedition. 
 The Raleigh arrived at Durban on the 29th of March 
 (Easter Monday), and, on the following morning, AVolseley 
 landed, under the usual honours, while the inhabitants, 
 
il 
 T 
 ii 
 
 l\ 
 
 P 
 
 n!t= 
 
 m 
 
 330 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY 
 
 official and non-official, gave him a most enthusiastic recep- 
 tion. It was only a few days before his arrival, that the 
 colonists learned that the hero of Coomassie was coming to 
 them as Administrator, and the prospect threw all classes 
 into a fever of excitement. Sir Garnet Wolseley, in reply 
 to a highly encomiastic address of the mayor, declared that 
 his mission was to establish ' a firm Government that shall 
 guarantee perfect security to the white settler, both in life 
 and property, whilst the great Native population within your 
 province shall feel that their interests are not fc rgotten.' 
 
 ]J)uring his stay of two days at Durban, he entertained the 
 chief Colonial officials, and took advantage of his visit to 
 make the acquaintance of the principal inhabitants, and 
 discuss with them the political difficulties of the Colony. 
 Sir Garnet's position was all the more difficult as he was 
 superseding Sir Benjamin Pine, a Governor of considerable 
 experience and great popularity among the colonists, to 
 judge by the many addresses expressing regret at his 
 departure and approval of his policy. ■** But the Langali- 
 balele difficulty, about which public opinion was so greatly 
 excited, was soon placed in the fair way of settlement by the 
 course adopted by Mr. Molteno, Premier of the Cape 
 Ministry, who, in accordance with Lord Carnavon's desire, 
 agreed to introduce into Parliament a Bill for the release 
 from gaol of the chief, and his location at Robben Island, 
 so that he would cease to trouble Natal by his presence or 
 the intrigues of his followers. 
 
 * Public opinion in F^ngland, however, was almost unanimous against 
 tlie course ot the (Governor in the Langalibalele affair, and this notwith- 
 standing that Mr. (now Sir Theophilus) Shepstone, an able and distin- 
 guished statesman — who had unequalled C'olonial experience as guardian of 
 Native interests for a quarter of a century — came to England to lay before 
 Lord Carnarvon his view of the official case, in opposition to that of Bishop 
 Colenso. ' There was,' said the Times, ' practically only one conclusion. 
 Every one who considered the question, no matter what his jirepossessions, 
 ended by confessing that the colonists and their Government had been 
 painfully misled." 
 
THE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME. 
 
 331 
 
 On the I St of April, Sir Garnet Wolseley, with liis Staff 
 and Messrs. Napier Broome and Theoi)hilus Shepstone, 
 Secretary for Native Affairs, proceeded from Durban to the 
 capital, Pieter-Maritzburg, in a four-in-hand break, doing the 
 distance of fifty-four miles in a little over six hours, con- 
 sidered quite a feat, as the road was bad in places. 
 
 Sir Garnet was sworn in on the day of his arrival at 
 Maritzburg, and, on the following day, held an Executive 
 Council, when Mr. Napier Broome was appointed Colonial 
 Secretary, and Major Brackenbury, Clerk of the Council. 
 Colonel Colley was also nominated Acting-Treasurer and 
 Postrnaster-General, and Major Butler, Acting Protector of 
 Immigrants, both without salary, the holders of these offices 
 being given leave on full pay. To Lord Gifford were relegated 
 the duties of Master of the Household, a post of no small 
 importance in a mission where the exercise of tact and the 
 influence -^f social amenities were almost as necessary in 
 successfully carrying through the delicat;? work on hand, as 
 talent and firmness. Soon after, another aristocratic addition 
 was made to Sir Garnet's Staff in Lord Mandeville, eldest 
 son of the Duke of Manchester. 
 
 The points upon which new legislation was required, were 
 briefly : A sounder and fairer Native policy than that in 
 operation ; the security of life and property ; the promotion 
 of public works and immigration ; and, lastly, the amendment 
 of a Constitution which the elected members of the Legis- 
 lative Council themselves declared to be unworkable. This 
 was the crux o( Sir Garnet Wolseley's Mission, and it was 
 one that perhaps few men would have cared to undertake ; 
 failure, with which no man likes to have his name associated, 
 was almost assured^ and such an incident in a distinguished 
 career would be peculiarly galling to an ambitious man like 
 \\'olseley, who could say of his diplomatic missions to 
 Manitoba and Ashantee, no less than of his campaigns, 
 
 1^, i 
 
M- 1 
 
 m 
 
 332 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE K 
 
 Veni^ Vidi\ Vict. He was still young, with a great future 
 before him, and yet, without a thought of self-interest, he 
 undertook a mission in which non-success was anticipated 
 even by the Secretary of State, Lord Carnarvon, who was 
 prepared, if need be, to adopt the extreme course or pre- 
 senting a Bill to the House of Commons for forcing a new 
 Constitution upon the recalcitrant Council. 
 
 The Legislative Council — as inaugurated on the 24th of 
 March, 1857, since which seven Councils had been elected 
 — consisted of 20 members, 15 elected and 5 nominated, 
 the latter being the Colonial Secretary, the Secretary for 
 Native Affairs, the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, and the 
 Protector of Immigrants. These 5, with the Chief Justice 
 and the Commandant of the troops, form the Executive 
 Council, which sits under the Presidency of the Governor. 
 The 15 elected members of the Legislative Council repre- 
 sented, at this time, an electoral body of only 4,000 electors, 
 of whom less than half voted at a General Election — indeed, 
 at the last, for a contested election for the return of 2 
 members for the county of Klif-river, there were only 1 24 
 votes recorded. The elected members easily preponderated 
 in all divisions of the Council, and, in the previous Session, 
 they had gone so far as to reject the votes of the nominated 
 members, upon the passing of a Bill to amend and declare 
 the Constitution of the Colony, ui)on the ground that their 
 interest was remote and contingent. 
 
 But the chief obstacle to the system of responsible Govern- 
 ment, sought for by the colonists, lay in the existence of the 
 vast Native population, who would be governed and taxed 
 by a Council, chosen by 4,000 electors, whose interests were 
 diamet .ally opposed to those of the Kafirs. What the 
 Council was capable of was shown in previous years, by the 
 passing of a Protection Bill and a Census Bill, measures 
 which would doubtless have brought on a Kafir War, had 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 Z1>Z 
 
 not the Colonial Office disallowed them. On the other 
 hand, it was only just that the Imperial Government should 
 have a voice in the ill-considered legislation of these Coun- 
 cillors, as, in the event of an outbreak, the colonists would 
 call for British troops to repress a disturbance caused by such 
 measures as, for instance, that for 'utilizing Native locations.' 
 
 It is always a matter of difficulty to obtain a surrender of 
 power from those who possess it, and this was the task Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley undertook to accomplish. The European 
 colonists were divided into several separate interests.* I'here 
 was the sugar and coffee-growing interest on the coast, who 
 required a cheap and constant supi)ly of Coolie labour, and 
 appealed to the Legislative Council for funds to introduce 
 Natives from India. Then there was the up-country sheep- 
 farming interest, which objected to the application of funds 
 for the importation of Coolies, but clamoured for the intro- 
 duction of white immigrants, and the breaking-up of the 
 Native locations. There was also the trading interests of 
 the towns, who approved the promotion of railways ; and, 
 finally, what may be called the ' vested interests ' of the 
 Legislative Councillors themselves, who received 17s. 6d. 
 per day during the Session. Added to this, the Colony was 
 torn by discordant opinions — literally, '■ quot /lomincs, tot 
 sententia'' — on the Native Question, Responsible Govern- 
 ment Question, the Coolie Question, the White Immigration 
 Question, the Railway Question, the Land Question, and 
 last, but not least, the Church Question, with its rival Bishops 
 of Maritzburg and Natal. 
 
 To concede responsible government to a Colony thus cir- 
 cumstanced, would have been unwise ; and Lord Carnarvon, 
 
 ^' There were four napers in the Colony, one of whicli — the Natal Wit- 
 ?!ess, edited by a clever but violent councillor — went so far as to tall upon 
 the colonists to take up arms and fight for their liberties. 'Ihe other papers 
 were the Natal Mercury, a moderate and well-written organ, the Natal 
 Colonist, and Times of Natal. 
 
m 
 
 in 
 
 C I i 
 
 334 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEy. 
 
 so far from doing so, had resolved to increase the number 
 of nominated members in the Council, so as to secure the 
 balance of power in the hands of the Crown, as the ex-officio 
 members being united and permanent in their position, 
 would be able to control the acts of their colleagues. The 
 history of the past few years amply justified this course. 
 The Government, thwarted by the Council, were compelled 
 to enter into an alliance with the Coast members, the con- 
 sideration being the supply of Coolies, and so matters went 
 on in a discreditable, halting fashion. There were continual 
 dead-locks, supplies were withheld, and the Councillors 
 refused to argue questions, but ' decided in a caucus and 
 voted in silence.' The Council, in the previous Session, 
 themselves denounced the system as one which had failed 
 to meet the requirements of the Colony, or to secure its 
 good government, but whereas a minority clamoured for 
 responsible Government, the mission of Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 was in a contrary sense, namely, to strengthen the Executive, 
 and institute a new Native Policy, by which gradually the 
 influence of European magistrates would be substituted for 
 the power of the chiefs. 
 
 During the month of April, Sir Garnet went on a tour of 
 inspection to the coast, when Colonel Colley and Mr. Broome 
 managed affairs during his absence. He visited some of the 
 chief plantations, and while at Durban, besides transacting 
 business, held levees, and attended regattas, inspections, and 
 banquets, or gave balls and dinners in return. On the 23rd 
 of April, he returned to Maritzburg to prepare for the 
 Session, when a round of gaiety was instituted at Govern- 
 ment House, and one of the opposition papers stated that 
 the popular Governor was ' drowning the independence of 
 the country in sherry and champagne.* 
 
 On the 5th of May, Sir Garnet AVolseley opened the Session 
 of the Legislative Council, in a speech wherein he stated that 
 
 
S/K GARNET AND THE OPPOSITION. 
 
 335 
 
 a modification of the Council was necessary, in the sense of 
 ' increasing and assuring the power of the Executive,' which 
 was ' essential to the present safety and future progress of 
 the Colony.' When the Governor had left the Chamber, 
 one of the Councillors rose and called the speech an insult 
 to the Colony, and declared that it merited no reply at all. 
 A writer in the chief Maritzburg paper spoke of Lord Car- 
 narvon, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and Mr. Broome, as three 
 'howling humanitarian fanatics,' and at a large public 
 meeting it was resolved unanimously, that it was the duty of 
 the Government to turn every Kafir out of Natal. Such 
 were the amenities of the conflict upon which the new 
 Governor had entered, and such the views of the Opposition 
 in this Council and Colony. 
 
 In the following week the Constitution Amendment Bill, 
 for increasing the nominated members of the Council from 
 5 to 15, was brought in, and the debate on the second 
 reading, which lasted for three nights, was heated and acri- 
 monious, though conducted with considerable ability on both 
 sides. When passing through committee, the Government 
 had to submit to a compromise — which was only carried by 
 a majority of one, and that member was in such pr^ :a.ious 
 health that he had to be carried into the House — by which 
 the 10 aditional nominees were reduced to 8, who were 
 to be chosen from colonists of two years' standing, with a 
 ;^i,ooo property qualification, A few days later the third 
 reading was carried, and then the measure was sent home 
 for the Queen's signature before becoming law. At one 
 time, however, failure appeared so assured that Sir Garnet 
 prepared his despatch to the Secretary of State, announcing 
 his want of success. Much was due to the ability* of the 
 
 * The views of the (jovernor on the questions under consideration were 
 represented in one of the Natal papers, which was purchased for six 
 months, the leading articles being written by his staff, among whom were 
 writers of commanding literary attainments, such as Hrackenbury, Butler, 
 .ind Colley. 
 
 ^^J^-i^A 
 
 '^. ■' ^ 
 
336 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 Is ■} 
 
 Government advocates, Messrs. Broome and Gallwey (At- 
 torney-General), Colonel Colley, and Major Butler, who was 
 specially ready and amusing in debate ; also to the high 
 prestige attaching to the name of Sir Garnet, whose un- 
 bounded hospitality in entertaining the leading men and 
 legislators of both political parties was the theme of praise, 
 while his geniality and fascination of manner won all hearts. 
 During the Queen's birthday-week were held the Maritzburg 
 Races and Agricultural Show, to which Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 gave prizes, as he had done at Durban for the Regatta, and 
 also for essays on Colonial products. Altogether, what with 
 the round of balls, banquets, and garden-parties at Govern- 
 ment House, the ladies of the Colony will long remember 
 the brief administration of Sir Garnet Wolseley, with his 
 gay etitourage^ as the most brilliant in Colonial annals. 
 
 The Bill settled, the Governor, accompanied by Mr. 
 Shepstone, Major Brackenbury, and Lord Gifford, went on 
 an extended tour round the up-country districts and Native 
 locations, while Colonel Colley and Major Butler proceeded 
 on semi-official missions to the neighbouring states, the 
 former visiting the Transvaal Republic and the Portuguese 
 Settlement at Delagoa Bay, and Major Butler, the Orange 
 Free State, returning via the Diamond Fields and Basuto 
 Land. 
 
 According to the Natal mode of travelling. Sir Garnet 
 journeyed in a ' buck-waggon,' drawn by eighteen oxen ; 
 this vehicle, which carries the supplies and wtpedijnenta, 
 goes creaking along between ten or twelve miles a day ; but 
 it is the only mode of conveyance practicable in this country, 
 as those who have tried horses have found out to their cost. 
 The * buck-waggon ' is large and roomy, and, if the traveller 
 l)ossesses sufficient patience to bear the slowness of the rate 
 of progression, he can make himself comfortable at each 
 * out-span.' Sir Garnet took ponies with him, so that he was 
 
A TOUR THROUGH THE COLONY. 
 
 337 
 
 able to ride about the country while the waggon was wending 
 its way, and, the weather being perfect, the trip was most 
 enjoyable. Only one accident happened on the road, at the 
 Tugcla River, where the huge vehicle slid down the bank 
 and turned completely over, smashing the wine-cases and 
 crockery, but luckily breaking no bones. 
 
 The first part of the journey lay along the base of the 
 Drakensberg Mountains, and Sir Garnet proceeded to the 
 location of Langalibalele, the famous chief and rain-doctor, 
 the teterrima causa belli^ whose tribe had been broken up in 
 accordance with Lord Carnarvon's instructions, and person- 
 ally inquired into their condition and that of the neighbour- 
 ing Putili tribe, who had also been ' eaten-i.p ' — that is, de- 
 prived of their cattle — for alleged complicity in the rebel- 
 lion. Sir Garnet resolved to restore to them the value of 
 their property in ploughs and seed, as well as cattle and 
 sheep, and also decided to place in each location an Euro- 
 pean magistrate to whom the Kafirs could look for guidance, 
 advice, and protection, thus superseding the influence of 
 their chiefs, under whom progress was impossible. By 
 bringing the Natives into contact with civilizing agencies, 
 and by the construction of roads, the allotment of lands to 
 settlers, and the formation of townships, the Kafirs, it was 
 hoped, would be gradually reclaimed, while they would 
 experience new wants, which could only be satisfied by the 
 earnings of labour. But these changes had to be intro- 
 duced with tact, or a Native war would result \ and this was 
 the problem which required solution at the hand of Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley, who applied to the Home Government to 
 station in the Colony an entire regiment, instead of a wing, 
 with a battery of light mountain guns, and an increased 
 force of mounted police. The Ministry were fully alive 
 to the danger of the innovations about to be introduced, 
 and directed the Adventure troop-ship, returning from 
 
 22 
 
H 
 
 l 
 
 ! 
 1 ■ 
 
 :' ; 1 
 
 
 1 ^i' 
 
 
 j '■ ,1. 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 : 
 
 1 
 
 1' 
 
 
 H ! 
 
 338 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Japan, with a battalion of Marines, to call for orders at 
 Durban. 
 
 One of the most interesting sights witnessed during his 
 tour by the Governor was a Kafir war-dance performed, on 
 the 3rd of July, at Ollivier Hoek, by 550 warriors of the 
 Amangurana tribe, whose location lies between that of the 
 Putili and the Tugela River, The Kafirs, who were dressed 
 in wild and picturesque garb, were formed into seven com- 
 panies, and on the completion of the dance, with its accom- 
 paniment of singing, Mr. Shepstone addressed them in an 
 eloquent speech, which was greatly applauded, pointing out 
 the special honour paid them by the Queen in selecting as 
 her representative, one of her most redoubtable warriors. 
 On the conclusion of the address, writes an eye-witness, ' a 
 salute was given to the Supreme Chief, grand in its intensity 
 and effect.' 
 
 After six weeks of ' trekking ' and camping out, Sir Garnet 
 1 turned to Maritzburg, and immediately commenced pre- 
 paring for the Session of Council. About twenty-five Bills 
 were draughted, dealing with almost every question affecting 
 the welfare of the Colony. The principal measure was that 
 relating to the construction of a railway, for which fresh 
 taxes were raised, the Natives contributing ;^5 6,000 per 
 annum, instead of ;!^4i,ooo, by the raising of the hut-tax 
 from 7s. to 14s,, the marriage-tax being remitted. There 
 were also other measures dealing with the Natives ; the 
 Colonial estimates were prepared in a different and clearer 
 form ; a Committee on Public Departments, consisting of 
 Mr. Broome, Colonel Colley, and Major Brackenbury, drew 
 up a report full of practical recommendations for the facili- 
 tation of business ; and Major Butler prepared an able 
 report on European Immigration, by which the farms of 
 absentee and do-nothing proprietors were dealt with. Thus, 
 what with Committees and Commissions, added to the con- 
 
 iillii 
 
.9/A' GARNET RETURNS TO ENGLAND. 339 
 
 duct of the ordinary business of the Colony, Sir Garnet and 
 his ' brilliant Staff,' as the papers always called his officers, 
 were hard at work from seven in the morning till late in the 
 evening, and even the opponents of the recent reforms 
 recognised the devotion and energy of this talented band of 
 soldiers. At length, just five months from the date of his 
 arrival, the task was completed, and Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 handed over the conduct of affairs to Sir Henry Bulwer. 
 The Mayor of Durban gave a banquet in his honour on the 
 I St September, at which he made his farewell speech, con- 
 cluding with an eloquent peroration on the future of Natal. 
 
 Two days later, amid the regrets of the colonists,* Sir 
 Garnet sailed for England, accompanied by his Staff, ex- 
 cept Mr. Broome, the Colonial Secretary, and Colonel 
 CoUey, who proceeded to India to join his regiment. At 
 Cape Town a public ball was given in his honour, Admiral 
 Lambert and the officers of the Flying Squadron, which 
 had arrived the day before, being present. On the 4th of 
 October, the Windsor Castle^ decked from stem to stern 
 with flags, arrived at Plymouth, where Sir Garnet was re- 
 ceived with hearty cheers on landing. 
 
 He now resumed his duties at the War Office, but, in 
 November, 1876, was offered by Lord Salisbury, and ac- 
 cepted, a seat at the Council of India, where (as we were 
 informed by a colleague) his varied military experience was 
 of eminent service. During the past few years Sir Garnet 
 frequently presided at lectures on professional subjects, 
 delivered in the theatre of the Royal United Service Insti- 
 tution, when his remarks commanded the assent of the 
 
 * The Standard and Mail wrote : ' After all the bitter party-fights, Sir 
 Garnet leaves the Colony with the high personal reputation with which he 
 came, enhanced, and anything Iiighcr than this, in the way of praise, cannot 
 be advanced.' The ilAvtv/ry said he had 'gained the admiration, as well 
 as the affection, of the whole body of colonists.' On the day, of his depar- 
 ture he was overwhelmed with addresses and deputations, and the scene at 
 the banquet in his honour, at Durban, will long be remembered by those 
 present. 
 
 22 — 2 
 

 n 
 
 
 
 
 In 
 
 
 
 
 1 ■■> 
 
 I 
 
 
 • 
 
 III* 
 
 1 
 
 4 CilVf 
 
 
 340 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 majority of his auditors, owing to the strong common-sense 
 with which they were tinged. This was displayed, to take 
 two instances, in the discussion on Lieutenant Graves's paper 
 on ' Military Equipment,' when he spoke strongly against 
 the present dress and appointments of the British soldier ; 
 and at a lecture deiivered by Colonel Clivc, when he argued 
 against the proposed adoption of the Prussian system of 
 200 men to a company. Wolseley also wrote two articles 
 in the Nineteenth Century^ which received much attention. 
 The first, a comparison of the French army in 1870 and 
 1877, was an exhaustive and detailed survey of the military 
 condition of our neighbours ; and the second, on the British 
 army in 1854 and 1878, was an able and authoritative exposi- 
 tion of our resources and readiness to embark on a war in that 
 year, as compared with our position at the time of the Crimean 
 War. While taking a sanguine view of our military strength, 
 he warned the nation of the 'terrible risks it runs under the 
 present system of boy recruits,' which, he adds, * is a ques- 
 tion for the consideration of Ministers and Members of Par- 
 liament; our soldiers are helpless in the matter.' 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that Sir Garnet is an advocate for 
 battalions of 'boy' soldiers, though he prefers young soldiers, 
 when properly trained, to older men. After the Secocoeni 
 campaign in 1879, he wrote admiringly of the dash and gal- 
 lantry of his ' young soldiers,' and again in the same terms 
 in his Tel-el-Kebir despatch ; but in both cases, though the 
 bulk of his men were young soldiers, there was a leaven of 
 veterans, and in his Egyptian victory the average service of 
 the infantry was five years. The essence of the short-service 
 system advocated by Sir Garnet Wolseley and others of his 
 school, is the production of a reserve, and the full battalions 
 first on the roster for foreign service are composed of what 
 may be considered in these days seasoned soldiers. When 
 the new system is fully inaugurated these latter will be ample 
 
S//^ GARNET SAILS FOR CYPRUS. 
 
 341 
 
 to provide for our little wars, while in a great war the reserves 
 will bring up seventy battalions to a strength of i,ooo men 
 each, a result unattainable by the old method, by which we 
 had no reserve. 
 
 ^Vhen war between this country and Russia appeared im- 
 minent. Sir Garnet Wolscley was nominated Chief of the 
 Staff to Lord Napier of Magdala, Commander of the Expe- 
 ditionary Army, and, on the 28th of February, 1878, the 
 Press, in announcing the appointment, was unanimous in 
 expressions of approval. But the war-cloud, which, at one 
 time, looked so threatening, was fuially dispelled by the 
 labours of the Congress at Berlin ; and when, on the 8th of 
 July, the British public and the world were amazed by Lord 
 Beaconsfield's great coup — the Protectorate of the Turkish 
 Asiatic Empire, and the quasi annexation of Cyprus — the 
 announcement in both Houses of Parliament was coupled 
 with the intimation of Sir Garnet Wolscley's appointment as 
 * Her Majesty's High Commissioner and Commander-in- 
 Chief of this, the newest appanage to the British Crown. 
 
 On the following Saturday, the 15th of July, Sir Garnet* 
 left England for Cyprus, via Brindisi and Malta, accom- 
 panied by Colonels Brackenbury, Baker Russell, and Greaves, 
 who had all served under him in Ashantee ; also Colonels 
 Dormer and Maquay, R.E., and Captain McCalmont, 7th 
 Hussars (who had served as a volunteer in the Red River 
 Expedition) ; his second aide-de-camp being Lord Gifford, 
 who joined him from Ceylon. 
 
 ' Sir Garnet's Staff consisted of the followinjj officers : Colonel G. R. 
 Greaves, C. B., Chief of the Staff; Brevet Lieut. -Colonel Baker Russell, 
 C. B. , 13th Hussars, Military Secretary; Captains H. McCalmont, 7th 
 Hussars, and Lord Gifford, V.C. , 57th Regiment, Aides-de-Camp ; Colonel 
 Hon. J. C. Dormer, and Lieut. -Colonel H. Brackenbury, R.A. , Assistant- 
 Adjutant and Quartermaster-Generals, with Brevet-Major Hon. H. J. L, 
 Wood, i2th Lancers, and Captain R. C. Hare, 22nd Regiment, their 
 deputies; Colonel R. Biddulph, C. B., R.A. , to command Royal Artillery ; 
 Captain J. F. Maurice, R.A., Brigade-Major R.A.. ; Deputy Commissary- 
 General A. W. Downes, C. B. , Principal Commissariat Oflicer ; Deputy 
 Surgeon-General Sir A. D. Home, V.C, K.C.B. , Brincipal Medical Officer; 
 and Mr, Herbert, Colonial Office, Private Secretary, 
 
342 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 The task before him was great indeed, as government of 
 any sort, in our acceptation of the term, it may be said there 
 was none. Cyprus, like other dependencies of the Porte, 
 was only valued for what could be squeezed out of it, and 
 the most elementary requirements of a state had been 
 denied to it, so that the new Governor would have to begin 
 aO initio. But these conditions were just such as to call 
 forth the powers of a man of Wolseley's temperament and 
 boundless energy, and he was invested, by his instructions, 
 with plenary powers on all matters, civil and military. Look- 
 ing to his antecedents, great expectations were raised that 
 if allowed time and afforded full powers and sufficient means, 
 he would transform this fair island of the Levant — which in 
 turn has been possessed by Pha?nicians, Greeks, Romans, 
 Saracens, Venetians, and Turks — into what the mightiest 
 warrior of antiquity anticipated it would become in his 
 hands. In a remarkable passage of Arrian (vol. i. p. 99) 
 Alexander the Great says : 'And Cyprus, being in our hands, 
 we shall reign absolute sovereigns at sea, and an easy way 
 will be laid open for making a descent on Egypt.' 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley may, without flattery, be said to be 
 indispensable to his country, for whenever the War or 
 Colonial Offices have on hand some task of more than 
 ordmary difficulty or delicacy, he is called from the post he 
 may be filling, and despatched at a few days' notice to set 
 matters right. Whether it is to conduct a military expedi- 
 tion through the untrodden jjrairies and lonely lakes of 
 North America, or the gloomy forests of Ashantee, or 
 whether it is to undertake a difficult task of practical states- 
 manship in Natal or Cyprus, the Governmeni of the day, be 
 it Liberal or Conservative, call upon this veteran soldier, 
 who, mindful only of his country's weal, responds to the 
 appeal w'thout a moment's hesitation or thought of self- 
 seeking. 1 hough his caieer of unbroken, and almost un- 
 
 \\n\ 
 
LUCK AND CAPACITY. 
 
 343 
 
 of 
 or 
 
 tes- 
 , be 
 licr, 
 the 
 keif- 
 un- 
 
 paralleled success has drawn upon him the usual amount of 
 detraction from those who lack the qualities by which great- 
 ness is achieved, yet his countrymen appreciate his patriotism 
 and talents, like the Romans, who, says Cicero, after a time 
 ceased to applaud Cajsar, for * obstupefactis hominibus ipsa 
 admiratione compressus erat, et eo proetermissus, quia nihil 
 vulgare dignum Cnesare videri poterat.' 
 
 Critics who cannot gainsay Sir Garnet Wolseley's capacity, 
 and rivals who view his success with an unworthy feeling of 
 jealousy, speak of him as 'a very lucky man.' But truth 
 should compel them to own that he has forced his way to 
 the forefront of his profession by sheer hard work and good 
 service, without adventitious aid, or the exercise on his be- 
 half of interest or favouritism, and that he has chained 
 Fortune to his chariot-wheels by seizing every opportunity 
 to win her favours. It was no ' luck ' that induced him, 
 when all appeared lost, to volunteer to lead two storming- 
 parties in one day, in Burmah, or that led him, after storm- 
 ing the Mess-house, according to Lord Clyde's orders, to 
 break through the Motee Mahu', and be the first to make 
 an entrance into the Lucknow Residency. These deeds 
 were the result of courage and enterprise. Again, it was no 
 * luck ' that induced him, when suffering from wounds and 
 ill-health, to '.emain throiighout that dreary winter in the 
 trenches at Sebastopol, n here, as an officer writes to us, * he 
 showed the highest capacity as a military engineer in the 
 siege operations.' 
 
 Again, ' * i China,' writes one who served with him there, 
 ' he was oi; ui ■ :: eyes of the expedition in the Quarter- 
 master-Genen 1'? Department. This was his metier^ but it 
 is one thing to till an appointment, and another to fill it so 
 evidently well, that, young as he was, people ranked him 
 with the chiefs of the army.' 
 
 It was the reputation that is achieved by good sc ice, and 
 
'iili 
 
 344 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 not luck, that led to his selection for the command of the 
 Red River and Ashantee Expeditions, and all the success 
 was due to sheer capacity. When the former expedition, in 
 its earlier stage, was on the verge of failure, which, indeed, 
 was predicted even by the most sanguine, what wa*. the 
 quality that urged Wolseley to persevere? And was it luck, 
 or soldierly intuition, that induced him, in spite of the ad- 
 verse opinions of those best qualified to judge, ' to take his 
 boats up the Kaministiquia River, and thereby,' as General 
 Lindsay officially wrote, ' insured the success of the expe- 
 dition.' Again, when in the Ashantee Campaign, with the 
 aid of ' our allies ' and a handful of sailors and Marines, he 
 forced the enemy to cross the Prah, were his movements 
 guided by the genius of luck or of daring strategy? When, 
 Inter on, owing to the wholesale desertion of the carriers, he 
 found his forward movements paralyzed, and the success of 
 the expedition jeopardized, when he was forced to reduce 
 his already small force, and leave behind a battalion of white 
 troops and the detachment of European artillery, was i*- good 
 fortune, or was it by the exercise of energy and resolution, 
 that he overcame all difficulties and entered into Coomassie 
 in triumph, within twenty-four hours of the stipulated time ? 
 We submit that no amount of luck — which indeed is another 
 word for capacity — unless it were accompanied by judg- 
 ment, readiness of resource, and able generalship, would have 
 insured anything but a complete and ignominious failure. 
 
 The petty habit of depreciating a great success, which is 
 repellent to every generous mind, is due to that frame of 
 mind stigmatized by Thomas Carlyle, who says, * Show your 
 critics i. great, and they begin to, what they call, account for 
 him, and bring him out to be a iittle, man.' 
 
 In this record of Sir Garnet Wolseley's military career, 
 enough has appeared to enable the reader to form an opinion 
 of his character and professional qualifications; but we cannot 
 
S/R EVELYN WOOD ON WOLSELEY. 
 
 345 
 
 forbear quoting the eloquent words of a distinguished officer, 
 who has had the best opportunities of forming a judgment. 
 Colonel Evelyn Wood* said of him, at a lecture delivered before 
 a brilliant audience at the Royal United Service Institution : 
 * That the Ashantee Campaign did not end in failure, must 
 be in part attributed to the spirit which animated the forces, 
 and rendered them, like red-hot iron, fervent but pliable in 
 the hands of the master-workman, and in part to the direct- 
 ing power of the master-workman, of whom may be said, as 
 was said by Scott of Napoleon, " He was a sovereign among 
 soldiers." His means were limited by time and circum- 
 stances ; with a handful of men .le was required to accom- 
 plish a hitherto unattainable feat. In six months he had to 
 re-establish our reputation, lowered by successive humilia- 
 tions and failures, and to read a lesson in letters of fire to 
 the arrogant and bloodthirsty race who had defied us so long 
 by their weapons of distance, disease, and treachery. It is 
 true of Sir Garnet Wolseley, as was written of Pitt, " Few 
 men made fewer mistakes, nor left so few advantages unim- 
 proved." To all his other great qualities he joined that fire, 
 that spirit, that courage, which, giving vigour and direction to 
 his soldiers, bore down all resistance. In fine, our success 
 was due to the leader and his choice of able subordinates, 
 who all acknowledged their chief's superior military genius, 
 as they loyally supported him in everything ; and he im- 
 pressed on all his iron will and steadfast determination to 
 take Coomassie.' 
 
 All who have once been on his Staff again offer their ser- 
 vices when an opportunity presents itself, as witness the 
 names of Butler, Brackenbury, Gifford, Greaves, Colley, Wood, 
 Butler, Swaine, Stewart, Maurice, and Dormer. It must be 
 no ordinary man who can thus bind to him some of the 
 most distinguished officers of the service. One vvho knows 
 him well, and has served with him in the field, an officer of 
 * Now Major-General Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., G.C.B. 
 

 346 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY, 
 
 high rank, and a Knight of the Bath, writes to us thus : * I 
 have had the best opportunities of judging of the man, and 
 I say he is the most perfect character I have ever met ; no 
 one can see much of him without having for him a regard 
 which becomes perfect affection ; no one could be more 
 unspoilt by his rise ; I know no difference in him now from 
 the time when he was a v iry young captain — no franker, 
 more magnanimous, fearless man, morally and physically, I 
 think, ever lived.' 
 
 Other letters we have received from his old comrades in 
 arms, breathe the same feelinsi of affection and admiration. 
 Of one trait of character, his generous recognition of merit 
 in others, a brother officer of the 90th Regiment gives an 
 instance of which he was a witness. ' On entering Lucknow,' 
 he writes, * I well remember everyone saying, " Wolseley has 
 got the Victoria Cross !" They heard he had gained it by 
 storming the Mess-house. He said, " No, I was not the 
 
 first man in ; Bugler was !" The poor wounded bugler 
 
 was forgotten by others, but not by his own Captain.' 
 
 In the prime of life, yet ripe with a military experience 
 almost unrivalled in the British army ; blessed with an 
 equable temperament, and an iron constitution that seems 
 proof alike against the assaults of a Crimean winter, or the 
 torrid heats of the Gold Coast; gifted with sound judgment 
 and a thorough mastery of the art of war, theoretically as 
 culled from books, and practically as studied and illustrated 
 in all climes and under varied conditions ; possessing a 
 chivahic courage that has extorted the admiration of wit- 
 nesses, and a calm self-reliance, combined with that 
 attribute which is an unerring indication of the presence of 
 genius, a faculty for inspiring confidence in others — Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley seems to be specially fitted to lead the 
 armies of his country in a great national crisis, should any 
 such unhappily arise.* 
 
 This work, completeu to this point in 1878, was published in that year. 
 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF CYPRUS. 
 
 Occupation of Cyprus by the British Troops. — Condition of the Island and 
 its Inhabitants. — The Reforms introduced by .Sir (}arnct Wolseley. — His 
 Opinion of the Healtliiness of Cyprus. — Sir Garnet Wolseley recasts the 
 Administration of the Island. — Visit of some Members of the British 
 Government to Cyprus. — Sir Garnet Wo'.scley and the War in Afghan- 
 istan. — Condition and prospects of Cyprus. — Sir Garnet Wolseley returns 
 to England in May, 1879. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolsele7 arrived in Cyprus in H. M. S. 
 Himalaya^ on the 22nd July, 1879, and took over charge 
 of the island from Rear-Admiral Lord John Hay, who had 
 received possession from the acting Turkish Mutasscrif, or 
 Governor, Bessim Pasha, and Saniih Pasha, the bearer of 
 the Sultan's firman, the Governor, Achmed Pasha, being 
 under suspension for embezzlement. A force of some 
 10,000 men, including the Indian contingent brought to 
 Malta by Lord Beaconsfield, as a warning to Russia, under 
 Major-General Ross and Brigadier-Generals Macpherhon, 
 V.C, and Watson, V.C, was landed at the island under the 
 superintendence of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, who 
 officiated as Beachmaster. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley, who took up his residence at Nicosia 
 on the 30th July, held the supreme military as well as civil 
 control. The military duties were never very arduous, and 
 by the end of August the Indian troops had quitted the 
 island for Bombay ; but the civil and political work was 
 responsible and pressing, for the condition of the island 
 
348 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 disclosed a state of corruption and misrule only to be found 
 in other provinces under the rule of the Sultan of Turkey. 
 
 In undertaking the practical annexation of Cyprus,* and 
 wresting it from Turkish misgovernment, Lord Beaconsfield 
 was inspired by no Quixotic motives of benevolence. The 
 prime object was a military one. It was designed as a 
 ' place of arms,' and to complete the chain in our Mediter- 
 ranean fortresses, though to attain this object a vast sum 
 would have to be expended in fortifications and harbours. 
 
 The occupation of the island by the British was received 
 with very different feelings by the nationalities comprising its 
 population. While the official Turks, as the ruling class, 
 were discontented at the cessation of their privileges and 
 power to oppress, the lower order of Turks were gratified 
 that they would in future be exempted from the conscription, 
 and that there would be no more doubling of taxes on the 
 outbreak of war on the Continent .The Greeks, forming two- 
 thirds of the population, about 100,000 out of 144,000, hailed 
 Sir Garnet Wolselcy as a deliverer from the oppression ot 
 the Turks \ and the British flag, after consecration at the 
 convent of Nicosia, was hoisted in the presence of Sir Garnet 
 AVolseley and of the Christian classes of the community with 
 imposing ceremonial and amid hearty acclamations. But, 
 with the greed of their race, the Greeks sought to make all 
 the pecuniary gain possible out of their deliverers ; and so 
 exorbitant were the rents demanded for suitable residences 
 
 • Richard I. conquered Cyprus at the time of his expedition to Palestine, 
 and when the 'lurks dispossessed the Venetians of the island in the war of 
 1570-73, Queen Elizabetli contested the usurpation, though her government 
 took no military measures. It is also a curious circumstance that in the 
 central shield on the frieze at the west end of Queen Elizabeth's tomb, in 
 the north aisle of Hen'-y VI I. 's chapel in Westminster Abbey, is the 
 quartering of the arms of Cyprus, heraldically described as ' barry of ten, 
 argent and azure, over all a lion rampant gules, crowned or.' In the draw- 
 ings of the funeral procession of lilizabcth in the I5ritish Museum, made by 
 William Camden, Clarencieux King-at-Arms, may be seen an heraldic 
 banner containing the blazon of the arms of Cyprus, of which Elizabeth 
 was titular Queen. 
 
THE CONDITION OF CYPRUS. 
 
 349 
 
 for the headquarters staff, that the Chief Commissioner 
 established his camp at the convent, about two miles distant 
 from Nicosia. 
 
 The Turkish law-makers profess to be guided by that fine 
 axiom enunciated in Aristotle's ' Politics,' that * he who bids 
 the law to rule, bids God and the mind to rule ; but he who 
 bids a man to rule, sets up a beast, for desires and passion 
 turn the best men wrong, while law is mind purified of appe- 
 tite.' But these ime professions, while loudly proclaimed, 
 have no existence in the Sultan's dominions ; and though, 
 theoretically, the law is no respecter of persons, the evidence 
 of a Christian has no weight as against the statement of a 
 Mussulman. To remedy this cardinal defect, and make 
 equally admissible the evidence of any credible witness and 
 the establishment of proof on the evidence of one witness, 
 and to make other necessary enactments, vSir Garnet Wolseley 
 issued a proclamation, in thirty articles, defining the vast 
 changes to be introduced in the laws of Cyprus. 
 
 To each of the six districts into which Cyprus is divided. 
 Sir Garnet appointed a Commissioner and Assistant-Com- 
 missioner. The central district, which contains the capital 
 Nicosia, was placed under Colonel R. Biddulph, R.A., now 
 Chief Commissioner of the island ; and Captain L. V. Swaine, 
 Rifle Brigade, now Military Attache at Berlin, was appointed 
 Commissioner of the Famagousta district. 
 
 The natural resources of the island are great, and, in 
 ancient times, the great desert-like plain of Messaria, forming 
 two-thirds of Cyprus, in which Nicosia and Famagousta 
 are situated, was the chief cereal-producing portion of the 
 island. Water is to be had in abundance within a few feet 
 of the surface, and the one thing required to make this arid 
 plain renew its pristine fertility, is that the cattle-wheel and 
 other means of raising water should be applied, as in the 
 delta of Egypt. But three centuries of Turkish misrule 
 
Hi 
 
 350 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 and oppression have crushed all enterprise out of the 
 people. 
 
 At the time of our occupation the ruling Pasha extracted 
 all the money he could out of the poor islanders, and sent it 
 to Constantinople to minister to the luxuries of a dissolute 
 court, while nothing was expended on public works. 
 
 Most exaggerated ideas were prevalent in England of the 
 wealth and condition of Cyprus. But the country sacred 
 to the worship of the Paphian goddess was found to be 
 poverty-stricken ; the groves in which Adonis hunted, and 
 the bright waters by which he disported himself, had no 
 existence. Its mythical and historic fame, the legends of 
 its Assyrian settlers, Phoenician traders, and Crusading 
 visitors, combined to dazzle the judgment of the English 
 people, and the disenchantment was complete when the 
 army of occupation found, on landing, that the island was 
 denuded of trees except in places on the hills, and was bare 
 of verdure save where a few fertile spots were watered with 
 perennial springs. 
 
 In September Sir Garnet Wolseley made a tour of the 
 island in H.M.S. Raleigh^ with the object of visiting the 
 principal towns on the coast. Having elaborated his plans, 
 he announced, on the 27th September, at the public recep- 
 tion held on the first day of the Feast of Bairam, the ap- 
 pointment of a Legislative Council under his presidency. 
 He also nominated an Executive Council, which held its 
 first meeting on the loth October. These important steps 
 were taken in accordance with the Royal Order of Council 
 of the 14th September, which constituted Cyprus a Crown 
 colony, and defined the form of government and powers of 
 the Chief Commissioner, who was empowered, at his dis- 
 cretion, to act in opposition to the advice of the Executive 
 Council. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley appointed as members of the Legis- 
 
THE REFORMS INSTITUTED BY WOLSELEY. 351 
 
 lative Council three official members and three members 
 chosen by himself from the inhabitants of the island : the 
 first thus selected being a Turk, Mustapha Faid l-'.ffendi ; a 
 Greek merchant, Mr. Glykys ; and an Italian, Mr. Mattci. 
 The work before the Legislative Council was sufficiently 
 arduous, and embraced a conversion of tithes, a customs 
 tariff, the reorganization of the judicial system, including 
 the appointment of a Chief Justice and Puisne Judge; also 
 questions connected with the stamp duties, game licenses, 
 and other matters of administration and social order. 
 
 At the time of the British occupation of Cyprus there 
 was only one road, and that a bad one, between L,arnaca 
 and Nicosia. Such bridges as had been carried away by 
 storm were suffered to remain in ruins ; and what with 
 the extortion of their rulers, the ravages of the locusts, and 
 the uncertainty of the seasons, the Cypriotes were steeped 
 in poverty. Unhappily the means for improving the condi- 
 tion of the people were limited, as the British Parliament was 
 averse from affording pecuniary assistance to an island still 
 under the sovereignty of the Sultan, to whom, by the terms 
 of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, an annual subsidy was 
 due, based upon the average surplus revenue of the past 
 five years, which was only arrived at by the utter neglect of 
 expenditure on public works. 
 
 At the time of the occupation it was anticipated that 
 the exchange of the rule of the Englishman for that of the 
 Turk would bear fruit in the greater prosperity of the 
 people, and that the spectacle of a Turkish province 
 thriving under wise government would be an example to the 
 rulers of Turkey. On the whole this expectation has been 
 achieved ; but the great obstacle to its complete realization 
 is the fiscal stipulations, under which, out of a net revenue 
 of about ;!^i72,ooo, over ;^ 100,000 annually has to be 
 paid to the creditors of the Porte. Notwithstanding strict 
 
352 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 economy, a bare sufficiency remains for the ordinary ex- 
 penses of government. 
 
 The omission of any reference to the necessary expendi- 
 ture on public works was a great flaw in the Anglo-Turkish 
 Convention ; but another point was not taken into considera- 
 tion when regulating the amount of the tribute to the Sultan. 
 The published cost of government of a Turkish province 
 does not give an accurate account of the sum actually ex- 
 pended, or of what is necessary, because bribery and pecu- 
 lation in all departments of Turkish administration form, by 
 unwritten custom, a supplementary fund for the maintenance 
 of the cost of government. Thus the Justices of the Court 
 at Larnaca received salaries of ^24 a year, and as such a 
 sum was inadequate to maintain them in respectability and 
 independence, fees from suitors were openly accepted. Not 
 only judicial officers, but all Government officials — officers of 
 the Customs, Excise, and Police, as well as their subordi- 
 nates — received through bribes the necessary complement to 
 their fixed salary. It was, of course, the first duty of a 
 British Governor to end such an evil. The salaries of all 
 officials were raised, and in the courts of justice British 
 assessors were appointed, who took care that no fees were 
 received by the Cadi and his coadjutors. Hence the cost of 
 the administration of Cyprus largely exceeded the sum set 
 apart by the Convention with Turkey. 
 
 The revenue of the first year of the occupation of the 
 island compared unfavourably with that of the previous year. 
 Thanks to a bountiful harvest, the tithes of 1878 had been 
 sold for over ;^7o,ooo; whereas in 1879, owing to the 
 scarcity of rain, they did not reach ^50,000, and Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley was constrained to sanction the expendi- 
 ture of over ;^6,ooo in the distribution of seed-corn to the 
 people. 
 
 Soon after taking possession of the island the Indian 
 
ENGLISH OFFICERS AND TURKISH LA W. 353 
 
 the 
 ;'ear. 
 )een 
 
 the 
 
 Sir 
 Indi- 
 
 the 
 
 lian 
 
 troops were withdrawn, and by the end of November the 
 island was garrisoned by the 71st Regiment and two com- 
 panies of Sappers, who were all accommodated in huts. 
 One of Sir Garnet's first steps was to organize a police force, 
 at first numbering 500 men, under Major Grant, who, on his 
 returning to England in August, was succeeded by Colonel 
 Brackenbury, R.A., who completed the organization of the 
 corps. Though the Porte, in the Convention with England, 
 signed on the 4th June, 1878, divested itself of legislative 
 functions in Cyi)rus, Sir Garnet Wolseley — having, as law 
 adviser, first Sir Adrian Dingli, from Malta, then Mr. Cookson, 
 Consular Judge at Alexandria, and afterwards Sir L. Phillips 
 • — and his officers, acting as assessors to the native courts, 
 were called on to administer Turkish laws, and the industry 
 and patience they displayed in acquiring and dispensing 
 justice under such novel conditions were beyond all praise. 
 The establishment of a judiciary and of municipal govern 
 ment throughout the island occupied the Chief Commis- 
 sioner's thoughts, and engrossed his time equally with 
 the question of the destruction of the locusts* and the 
 planting of the island with trees to increase the rainfall, the 
 absence of which was, in a large measure, due to the im- 
 provident conduct of the Turkish rulers in cutting down the 
 forests. One of his first acts was to establish district dis. 
 pensaries throughout the island, where the poor could obtain 
 medical advice free of charge, and drugs at a cheap rate. 
 The work of the revenue survey of the island was put in 
 hand by November, and a reform was instituted in the col- 
 lection of tithes, formerly a source of great abuse, but which, 
 under the guidance of British District Commissioners, was 
 now effected without complaint or disturbance of order. 
 
 * These locusts are an annual plague, and since our occupation of the 
 island as much as ^^28,000 has been expended in one year in externiiualing 
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354 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Under Turkish rule tithes were either sold to rich farmers, 
 whose influence allowed them unlimited means of exaction, 
 or were collected in kind by Government officials equally 
 extortionate. The assessment upon the crops was now 
 made at a convenient time for the peasants, who were 
 permitted tsj j)ay the tithes later in the year, which was 
 found to work well, as the crops were not exposed to 
 damage while awaiting the call of the collector or the 
 farmer for the tithe, and the peasant was free to harvest his 
 fields at his own time. Under the hand of the new 
 Governor the police, or zaptiehs, who formerly ground down 
 the poor peasants, became only an object of fear to evil- 
 doers, and the villagers actually requested their presence. 
 By properly paying the native judges, and rigorously punish- 
 ing peculation or bribery, these evils weie banished from the 
 judgment-seat, and justice was impartially and promptly ad- 
 ministered. Also by his measures on the currency question 
 Sir Garnet V/olseley succeeded, during his year of office, in 
 introducing the English pounds and shillings, with the 
 Turkish piastre, thus placing, as he wrote, ' the currency of 
 Cyprus on a footing nearly equal to that of Great Britain.' 
 Finally, there was the land question. 
 
 One of his first steps was to appoint a Land Commission, 
 under the Presidency of Mr. W. Baring, brother of the 
 present Finance Minister in India, whose functions were, 
 briefly, to ascertain the law, as practically applied in the 
 island, relating to the different tenures of land, and to 
 determine the extent of the various classes of land held 
 under those tenures — u most complicated task, as, accord- 
 ing to Turkish laws, land is divided mainly into five kinds, 
 some of which — as wacouf, applied for religious uses, and 
 mulk, land held in fee-simple — comprise many subordinate 
 divisions. 
 
 The duties of the Chief Commissioner were thus multi- 
 
REFORMS iNS TITUTED B Y WOLSEL EV. 355 
 
 multi- 
 
 farious and novel, and would have tested the capacity of a 
 civilian administrator of the highest stamp. He had to work 
 with native officials brought up in the worst school of cor- 
 ruption and tyranny. A new administration had to be estab- 
 lished ; radical changes of a more or less experimental cha- 
 racter to be initiated. And he had to consider many con- 
 tending interests the treatment of which required tact and 
 consideration. Of course, where abuses and intrigue had 
 flourished from time immemorial, there were complaints, but 
 these were due either to disappointed adventurers who, at the 
 time of the British occupation, descended upon the island 
 like a cloud of its indigenous locusts ;* or to those inhabitants 
 having Hellenic aspirations, who thought that by villifying 
 British administration they ■. ' ' :^romote the annexation of 
 the island to Greece, as was done .n the case of the Ionian 
 Islands. But the people could not be brought to abet these 
 intriguers, and the obvious reply to those who wir-hed to sub- 
 stitute the rule of the King of the Hellenes for that of the 
 Queen of England was to point to the reforms carried into 
 effect with such striking results for their well-being. Such 
 were the reductions in the taxation, and the abolition of all 
 export duties ; the removal of the onerou= restrictions on the 
 wine trade, and the equalization and reduction of the tax for 
 military exemption. True, the expenditure was greater than 
 under the Turkish regime^ the total, exclusive of that on 
 public works and prisons, being ;!^72,73i against ;o 29,093 ; 
 
 * One example of the speculation mania will suffice. The morning after the 
 signature of the Anglo-Turkish Convention for the cession of Cyprus to E'.-g- 
 land, Mr. Zarify, the Sultan's private banker at Constantinople, despatched 
 to Larnaca by the Austrian Lloyd's packet one of his employ«5s with sealed 
 instructions, which he was not to open until he arrived in Cyprus. The 
 instructions proved to be an unlimited credil and authority to purchase every- 
 where all the assent could get hold of, whether houses, lands, or cattle. The 
 agent, with assistants, succeeded in buying property to the extent of 
 ;^4o,ooo, consisting of houses, shops, lands in town and country, cultivated 
 fields, cattle, v?tc., all of which were obtained at very low rates, owing to the 
 prevailing misery. Within four months this property was worth more than 
 ;^3oo,ooo, though there was soon a great and disastrous depreciation, due 
 to the greed of the sharp-witted financiers. 
 
 23—2 
 
 iiiliii 
 
556 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 } ' 
 
 Httiii ' 
 
 ^ir^lK't T 
 
 but, as we have shown, the Turkish officials were underpaid 
 and corrupt, and did little and defective work in return for 
 their salaries. The revenues and expenditure balanced, 
 however, during the one year of Sir Garnet's administration. 
 
 The Home Government appreciated the ability and devo- 
 tion displayed by the Chief Commissioner and his sub- 
 ordinates. Speaking in the House of Commons in May, 
 1879, Sir Stafford Northcote, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, expressed his opinion that ' those who had been 
 administering the island during the last twelve months had 
 done a work which would bear comparison with the achieve- 
 ments of many founders of states and legislators in bringing 
 about great reforms.' 
 
 Many visitors of note, including Sir Samuel Baker, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Brassey, Sir George Elliott, M.P., Sir Henry Hol- 
 land, M.P., and Lord Colville, came to Cyprus and received 
 a hospitable welcome at Government House. Much interest 
 was displayed by the people and Press of England in the 
 condition and prospects of our new dependency, the acqui- 
 sition of which was the subject of numberless questions in 
 Parliament and speeches out of it on the part of the Oppo- 
 sition in the House ot" Commons, from Mr. Gladstone 
 downwards, and specially afforded a fertile theme for the wit 
 and invective — that ' ornament of debate,' as Lord Beacons- 
 field once called it — of Sir William Harcourt. During the 
 recess, Mr. Smith, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and tiis 
 coadjutors, and Colonel Stanley, the Secretary of State for 
 War, paid Cyprus a visit, to see for themselves the condition 
 of the island, and the advance it had made during the few 
 months it had been under the new administration. 
 
 They visited the monastery camp near Nicosia, where Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley had established his seat of government, 
 owing to the exorbitant rents asked by the speculators, who 
 had bought up all the valuable house property in the island ; 
 
THE CLIMATE OF CYPRUS. 
 
 357 
 
 few 
 
 re Sir 
 ment, 
 i, who 
 land ; 
 
 and thence proceeded to the military camp at Mathiati, 
 seventeen miles distant, situated among the slopes of the 
 southern hills, and, returning to Larnaca, proceeded round 
 the island, visiting Famagousta, Kyrenia, Papho, and Limas- 
 soL The inspection much gratified them, and Sir Garnet 
 WoJseley, writing to us on the 6th November, 1878, from 
 Larnaca, says : ' I have just returned from a trip round the 
 island, in H.M.S, Huna/aya^ with the Secretary of State for 
 War and the First Lord of the Admiralty, both of whom are 
 very much pleased with all they saw.' 
 
 Much was said in the Press and Parliament, at the time 
 of our occupation of Cyprus, of its unhealthiness and the 
 sickness among our troops. The island had, from the earliest 
 times, an unenviable notoriety for its heat ; and Martial 
 writes : ' Infamem nimio calore CypmmJ But the fever pre- 
 vailing in 1878, an unusually unhealthy year, v/as due to two 
 causer, — one temporary, and the other preventible by more 
 care. The soldiers were kept in the plains and exposed to 
 the heat of the sun, and, owing to the hasty manner in 
 which they were despatched from England, were quartered 
 in * bell-tents,' which were of limited capacity and afforded 
 no protection from the sun. The Indian troops were pro- 
 vided with pal-tents, which are of much thicker texture, and 
 every way more suited for a torrid :iimate than the bell- 
 tents, which were found adequate for autumn manoeuvres on 
 Salisbury Plain. By the 24th August all the Indian troops, 
 except some Bombay and Madras Sappers, had left the 
 island on their return to India, and Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 retained a sufficient number of pal-tents to accommodate 
 their European brethren-in arms until huts were erected in 
 healthy sites. That the island does not deserve all the 
 opprobrium that has been heaped upon it, is shown by the 
 medical returns of the troops stationed there the first year 
 of our occupation, and from the fact of the authorities 
 
 ^tf»i 
 
 
 i '9 
 
358 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 having selected i; as a sanitarium for the sick troops during 
 the recent operations in Egypt. For the last two years, of all 
 the numerous stations where we have garrisons, Cyprus has 
 been the healthiest for our men. The armv annual returns 
 prove this conclusively. The following was the opinion ex- 
 pressed to us by Sir Garnet Wolseley, writing from Cyprus 
 during the winter of 1878 : ' We are now enjoying delightful 
 weather, so much so that anyone arriving heie now for the 
 first time would be astonished to learn that the island had 
 ever at any season proved unhealthy. All round the Medi- 
 terranean sea, fever at certain seasons is prevalent, especially 
 in the eastern portions. We had a bad type of fever at Malta, 
 and why anyone should wonder that our men, living in bell- 
 tents under the piercingly scorching sun of summer in 
 Cyprus, should have suffered, seems strange to me.' Early 
 in the following year he wrote : ' The fever of Cyprus, of a 
 malarious type, is not to be met with at any elevation above 
 5,000 feet over sea-level ; and before the hot weather sets in 
 this summer, I shall have the huts erected in the mountains, 
 about 5,500 feet above the sea. If I had known of this 
 place in July last, we should, I feel convinced, have avoided 
 all the sickness we had in the summer and autumn. There 
 are now in the island 944 of all ranks, of whom only 32 are 
 on the sick-list, which is under 3I per cent., a rate lovcer 
 than we have even in England.' 
 
 Of the good results of his administratijon he wrote : ' In 
 some districts there was a considerable amount of crime 
 before our occupation ; now I do not believe we have a pos- 
 session where there is less crime than in Cyprus. I feel and 
 know that our administration of justice suits the people, and 
 gives general satisfaction. Technically, from a lawyer's point 
 of view, it may not be everything it might be, but I assert 
 that the people have had substantial justice administered to 
 them ; and this has been effected without any call upon the 
 
 (ill 
 
iwpr^^ 
 
 WOLSELEY ON THE AFGHAN WAR. 359 
 
 Imperial treasury. Everything prvjniises a good, fair average 
 harvest this ycD/*. We shall have no more tithe-farming, and 
 I hope to collect al? the taxes in future in money, instead of 
 in kind, and to do so in a manner that will be agreeable to 
 the people. I am now planting 20,000 eucalyptus trees of 
 one and two years old each. Even supposing half of them 
 die, I shall have made a good start towards replenishing the 
 island with timber. It is a mistake, however, to imagine 
 that no forests still exist ; we have a good deal of timber in 
 the FAountains, and I have stopped the cutting of trees 
 everywhere. I am giving employment on the roads to all 
 those who formerly earned a livelihood by forest-work ; and 
 as I have taken off all import-duty on wood and timber, I 
 hope to give our forests some years of rest. The people are 
 easily governed, and are a quiet and orderly lot. Turks and 
 Christians live together on amicable terms.' 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley had been highly gratified by his 
 appointment to the government of Cyprus, and the task of 
 carving order and good government out of chaos and mal- 
 administration was one suited to an energetic temperament, 
 to whom difficulties only acted as an incentive to fresh 
 exertion. Had his country remained at peace he would 
 have been content to have continued the task until perfect 
 success had crowned his efforts, and Cyprus was as well 
 governed as Mauritius, or Ceylon, or any other Crown 
 Colony. But in the latter part of 1878, a few months after 
 h*s arrival, the Indian Government was embroiled in a war 
 with Shere Ali, Ameer of Afghanistan, and, by the ist No- 
 vember, our armies were in motion for the invasion of that 
 country from three different points. The soldier-diplomatist 
 ruling in Cyprus at this time was ' a statesman if you 
 will, but a soldier above all,' and was anxious to 1 le in the 
 thick of the fray ; his eager, heroic nature, to whom war, 
 with all its turmoil and excitement and soul-stirring inci- 
 
 I 
 
 ni. 
 
i .'. y 
 
 te. 
 
 360 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 dents, was as a second nature, panted to exchange the 
 labours tf the administrator for the risks and responsi- 
 bilities of the General. He wrote to us on the 6th No- 
 vember with characteristic enthusiasm : ' All our thoughts 
 here are now turned to the Afghan frontier, and I long to 
 be in the saddle leading our men through these passes 
 which former wars have made so familiar to us in history. 
 I like being the Governor of a new place like Cyprus during 
 peace, but when " the blast of war blows in our ears," I 
 long to run to the sound, and take my fair share of its 
 dangers and excitements.' But he was denied the oppor- 
 tunity, ard for nearly two years the war continued in 
 Afghanistan without his participating in its chequered 
 history of victory and defeat, though another sphere of 
 activity opened to him before Sir Frederick Roberts's crown- 
 ing achievement — the march from Cabul to Candahar and 
 the victory of the ist September, 1880 — ended the war. 
 Then once again Sir Garnet Wolseley was in the saddle, 
 cheering on British troops to victory. 
 
 The Eastern proverb has it, ' Everything will come to him 
 who waits ;' and though Sir Garnet Wolseley fretted at his 
 enforced inaction while the Afghan War was in progress, the 
 disaster of Isandhvhana gave him the required opportunity, 
 and the demand made in the Press for the appointment of 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley to the supreme military com.mand in 
 South Africa was at length favourably responded to by the 
 Government. As usual, there were some unworthy comments 
 on the appointment of * our only General,' as his detractors 
 sneeringly styled one whose uniform success in war they 
 attributed to * luck ;' but Sir Garnet Wolseley had the wisdom 
 to treat such remarks with contempt, agreeing with Hudibras, 
 who says : 
 
 • that man is sure to lose 
 
 That fouls his hand with dirty foes ; 
 For where no honour's to oe gain'd, 
 It's thrown away in being maintain'd.' 
 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SERVICES iN ZULULAND AND THE TRANSVAAL. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley is appointed to the Chief Political and Military Com- 
 mand in Natal and the Transvaal. — Arrival in Ziiluland — Pursuit and 
 Capture of Cetewayo. — The Settlement of Zuluiand. — Departure of Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley for the Transvaal. — His Reeeption at Pretoria and 
 the other Towns of the Transvaal. — Declaration of British Policy with 
 respect to the Country and its Effect on the Boers. — The Campaign 
 against Secocoeni. — Capture of the Chief's Stronghold on the 28th 
 November, 1879. — Sir Garnet Wolseley and the Boers. — His opinion on 
 the Basuto question. — Return to England of Sir Garnet Wolseley. 
 
 On the 21st May, 1879, Sir Garnet Wolseley landed in 
 England, having been summoned from Cyprus by the Govern- 
 ment to proceed to South Africa, to undertake the conduct 
 of military operations from the hands of Lord Chelmsford. 
 The war with the Zulu King was still dragging its slow length 
 along, and the unsepultured bones of our brave officers and 
 men yet whitened the plain under the fatal hill of Isan- 
 dlwhana. That disastrous encounter was fought on the 22nd 
 January. By the end of May there were at the seat of war 
 in South Africa, as appears by a Ministerial statement in 
 Parliament, 19,959 British troojDS, and 4,453 colonial troops, 
 in addition to 850 seamen and marines — over 25,000 men in 
 all, being a larger army than Lord Clyde undertook to capture 
 Lucknow and reconquer Oude. 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere, in vindicating his conduct in sending an 
 ultimatum to Cetewayo involving this country in war with 
 the Zulu monarch, invoked the opinion of Sir Garnet 
 AVolseley on the military danger to Natal by the Zulu 
 despotism on its borders, while on the political question he 
 
 -i^.i ■■ 
 
362 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 fi, 
 
 
 r '..w 
 
 l"t:;' 
 
 , ' ; I 
 
 1. "»' ;suis^' »'■ '¥'■- 
 
 
 quoted tlie sanction given to his measures by Sir Henry 
 Buhver, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and Mr. Brownlee, Com- 
 missioner for Native Affairs to the Cape Colony. It was quite 
 true that Sir Garnet Wolseley declared that the Zulus were 
 * a great danger to our colony, and to all South Africa ;' but 
 he was of this opinion three years before, and while warning 
 the Government to be prepared, did not advise that we should 
 go to war and precipitate the very danger we were anxious 
 to guard against, being satisfied that a policy of firmness and 
 preparedness would >vard off hostilities. The Government 
 had been in fault in neglecting to take the military measures 
 of defence recommended by Sir Garnet Wolseley when in 
 Natal, and then in going to war with an insufficient force ; 
 Sir Garnet having, in a memorandum on the invasion of 
 Zululand, expressed an opinion that 20,000 men would be 
 necessary to subjugate Cetewayo's forces, an estimate that 
 was borne out by the result. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was appointed * Commander-in-Chief 
 of the forces in South Africa, and High Commissioner for 
 Natal, the Transvaal, and the neighbouring countries,' Sir 
 Henry Buhver and Sir Owen Lanyon being placed under 
 his orders, and Sir Bartle Frere remaining Governor of the 
 Cape Colony. On the 21st May, Sir Garnet arrived from 
 Cyprus, having travelled via Paris and Brindisi; and on Mon- 
 day, the 26th May, statements were made in both Houses of 
 Parliament, in his presence, announcing his appointment; 
 that in the Upper House being made by Lord Beacoiisfield. 
 A sense of relief was felt by all classes of his countrymen 
 when the appointment was made known, and Punch gave 
 expression to this feeling in some verses on the similarity be- 
 tween his name and that of the great Duke of Wellington : 
 
 ' When Wolseley's mentioned, Wellesley's brought to mind ; 
 Two men, two names, of answerable kind : 
 Called to the front, like Wellesley, good at need, 
 Go, Wolseley, and like Wellesley, greatly speed.' 
 
ARRIVAL IN NATAL. 
 
 363 
 
 On the 29th May Sir Garnet, accompanied by his staff, 
 left London to assume his important functions. At Pad- 
 dington numerous friends assembled to bid him farewell ; 
 and he was accompanied as far as Didcot Junction by Sir 
 Michael Hicks-Beach, the Colonial Secretary. Travelling 
 all night, he arrived at Dartmouth at four a.m., and, on the 
 following morning, embarked on board Donald Currie and 
 Co.'s ship Edinburgh Castle^ which arrived at Cape Town 
 on the 23rd June, after a pleasant voyage. The first news 
 that greeted Sir Garnet and his fellow-passengers as the 
 ship cast anchor was the death of the Prince Imperial, 
 which, with the attendant circumstances, created a painful 
 impression en all on board. Sir Garnet landed at Cape 
 Town, where he was the guest of Sir Bartle Frere ; and on 
 the following day, Tuesday, 24th June, sailed in the Dun- 
 keld for Durban, putting in at Port Elizabeth for news. 
 
 To a man of the eager temperament of oir Garnet the 
 days and hours occupied on the voyage from England had 
 appeared interminably long, and it was au inexpressible 
 relief when he found himself nearing the goal of his antici- 
 pated triumphs ; for the possibility of failure never entered 
 into his philosophy. But he was destined to suffer the dis- 
 appointments that had awaited all connected with this 
 lamentable South African War, though in his case, at least, 
 they were none of his making. 
 
 Amid the hearty cheers of his fellow-passengers and a 
 display of bunting from all the snips in harbour, he landed 
 at Durban at six a.m. on the 28th June, and after greeting 
 many familiar faces among the crowd awaiting him, and 
 receiving and replying to an address from the mayor and 
 corporation, started at nine o'clock, by special train, for 
 Maritzburg, where he was obliged to proceed in order to be 
 sworn in according to the terms of his patent. There was 
 a break in the line, and the remaining distance of 35 miles, 
 
 
3^4 
 
 LIFE OF LORD VVOLSELEY, 
 
 
 ( !• 
 
 ■ : 
 ■!!■ 
 
 i, '■' 
 
 l,rs 
 
 ir!) 
 
 
 IfWI 
 
 over a break-neck road, was traversed in carriages at a hand- 
 gallop, so that Sir Garnet arrived an hour before he was 
 expected. At Maritzburg he was received by the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor, Sir Henry Bulwcr, Major-General Clifford, 
 commanding the line of communications, and other officers, 
 and duly installed as Governor — the first the colony had 
 received. Sir Garnet would have at once struck across 
 country by Rorke's Drift and joined the army in the field 
 near (Jlundi, but his horses, purchased at the Cape, had not 
 arrived, and he came to the resolution to return to Durban 
 and proceed by ship to Port Durnford, on the coast of 
 Zululand, near which were the headquarters of the First, 
 or General Crealock's, Division. 
 
 After a visit to the hospital, where he spoke a kind word 
 to the wounded — among whom was Major Hackett, of the 
 90th Regiment, who lost the sight of both eyes at Kambula 
 — and making arrangements for raising a corps of 4000 
 carriers for General Crealock's column, and to assist in 
 landing stores, forage, and ammunition at Port Durnford, 
 he installed Sir Henry Bulwer as his locum tenens^ and at 
 six a.m.. on ihe ist July, left for Durban. The driver of 
 the train, who bet he would do the distance of 37 miles in 
 one hour and 20 minutes, won his wager by three minutes ; 
 a feat, owing to the curves and ascents, described by one 
 who was present, and had seen war in many climes, as so 
 perilous that ' he did not think anyone alive was ever in 
 greater danger.' 
 
 Sir Garnet at once embarked on board H.M.S. Shah 
 Captain Bradshaw, which arrived off Port Durnford on the 
 following morning. Captain Bradshaw considered that the 
 surf was too high to render a landing possible, and Sir 
 Garnet was constrained to put off the attempt. On the 
 following morning matters had scarcely improved ; but the 
 Commander-in-Chief would brook no further delay, and 
 
 *a 
 
END OF THE ZULU WAR. 
 
 36s 
 
 V, and 
 
 made the attempt in a surf l)oat. But it was impracticable, 
 and after running considerable danger, the party had to 
 return to the Shah^ which proceeded back to Durban, where 
 she arrived at 2.30 p.m., on the 4th July, the day Lord 
 Chelmsford fought his decisive action at Ulundi. On the 
 following morning Sir Garnet proceeded by train and on 
 horseback to Fort Pearson, on the Lower Tugela, where he 
 remained for the night. Here he received intelligence of 
 Lord Chelmsford's victory. On the following day he rode 
 to Fort Chelmsford, halting by the way at Fort Crealock, 
 and on the afternoon of the 7 th reached the camp of the 
 First Division at Port Durnford. 
 
 On his arrival Sir Garnet Wolseley telegraphed to the 
 Home Government that * the war was over,' and directed 
 the return to England of the reinforcements on their way, 
 and a large portion of the troops in the field. For this 
 action he was taken to task by critics, who called it * preci- 
 pitate;' but, as has happened throughout his career, his 
 military intuition was not at fault, and he took a juster 
 measure of the requirements of the situation than his 
 censors. Sir Garnet issued a final order, dated iSth July, 
 cordially acknowledging the success achieved by his prede- 
 cessor; and thus the more active phase of the Zulu diffi- 
 culty was terminated. Meanwhile Lord Chelmsford, imme- 
 diately after the battle of Ulundi, instead of following up 
 the beaten Zulu army, and effecting the capture of the King, 
 fell back with the Second Division to Entonjanini, 10 miles 
 from Ulundi, where wood and grass were abundant. On 
 the 15th his lordship arrived with the Flying Column at St. 
 Paul's Mission Station, where he was met by Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, who reviewed the Division under its gallant leader, 
 Sir Evelyn Wood, and conferred the Victoria Cross on 
 Major Chard, R.E., the hero of Rorke's Drift. 
 
 On the 19th July Sir Garnet Wolseley held a great meet- 
 
366 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ing of Zulu chiefs, 20 of whom attended, including Dabule- 
 mai?>?5, who commanded at Rorke's Drift ; Somapo, the King's 
 father-in-law ; Magwende, and other influential leaders, whom 
 he addressed at length on the setdcment of the country, 
 inviting their opinions, which were given, and the important 
 question of the reorganization of the country discussed. 
 After inspecting, on the 21st July, the Naval Brigade, under 
 Captain Campbell and Commander Brackenbury, which re- 
 embarked on board ship. Sir Garnet Wolseley, accompanied 
 by his staff, including Brigadier-General Pomeroy Colley, who 
 had joined him from Simla, where he was military secretary 
 to lyord T.ytton, Viceroy of India, left the ist Division, 
 encamped at Fort Durnford, for Maritzburg. During the 
 next few days all the senior officers of the army proceeded 
 on leave to England, including Lord Chelmsford, Major- 
 Generals Newdigatc, Crealock, Marshall, and Sir Evelyn 
 Wood, and Colonels Buller and Drury-Lowe. At Maritzburg 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley remained till the 30th July, transacting 
 important business as Governor, and then returned, vi& 
 Rorke's Drift, into Zululand, having elaborated his measures 
 for effecting the capture of Cetewayo, as no confidence could 
 be felt among eithei Europeans or natives until he was a 
 prisoner. . With this object he organized two small columns, 
 under Brigadier-General Clarke, 57th Regiment, and Colonel 
 Baker Russell,* 13th Hussars, an officer of whom Sir Garnet 
 entertained a high opinion, which was justified by subsequent 
 events. 
 
 Escorted by a troop of the ist Dragoon Guards, Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, after crossing the Tugela at Rorke's Drift, visited 
 the battle-field of Isandhvhana, where so many of England's 
 sons fell a victim to their gallantry and the incapacity of 
 the General who left them in small force and unlaagered 
 
 * This officer had served with him in Ashantee and Cyprus, as had also 
 other members of Iiis staff— Colonel Brackenbury, R.A. , .\l.xjor3 Wood and 
 McCalmont, Lord Gilford, and Captain Maurice, R.A. 
 
■mpuiiiiiji 
 
 THE PURSUIT OF CETFAVAYO. 
 
 367 
 
 ];irnct 
 isited 
 and's 
 ity of 
 igcred 
 
 to defend a vast camp, and bear the brunt of the attack 
 of the whole 7ai1u army while he was decoyed away by 
 a wily foe. All the bodies of our dead had been buried, 
 but some native corpses still lay festering where they fell ; 
 other memorials of the fatal 22nd January were plentiful in 
 the books, soldiers' pocket-ledgers, and Bibles lying about, 
 with ammunition-boxes, boot and horse brushes, the latter 
 numerous on the site occupied by the Artillery camp. 
 
 On the loth August Sir Garnet reached Ulundi, where 
 he was joined on the afternoon of the following day by the 
 column under Brigadier-General Clarke.* In his [)lan for 
 capturing the Zulu King, and completing the work only 
 partially achieved at Ulundi, Sir Garnet provided for the 
 safety of the western and southern borders of Natal and the 
 Transvaal by stationing the 21st, 24th, and 58th Regiments 
 at Landsmann's Drift, Utrecht, and Koppie Allen respec- 
 tively, while Brigadier-General Clarke reoccupied Ulundi, a 
 strong entrenched camp being thrown up at Entonjanini, ten 
 miles distant, with a garrison of 400 men, and Colonel Baker 
 Russell, with a flying column, entered the Intabankulu 
 valley, in order to prevent Cetewayo from breaking away 
 into the difficult country between Ulundi and Luneburg. 
 In co-operation the Swazies were to descend from the north, 
 under Captain McLeod, and Burghers from Utrecht, and 
 Oham's friendly Zulus, under Colonel George Villiers, from 
 the west, so that the escape of the Zulu King would be 
 impossible. At Ulundi Sir Garnet received messengers from 
 Cetewayo, who offered to submit and pay taxes, provided his 
 
 * f'larlso's column consisted of 2 ninf^-pounders, a hiittory of Gatlin^s, 
 2 troops of Lonsdale's Horse, Barrow's Mounted Infantry, 57th KcK'- 
 meiit, 3rd Battalion 6oth Ritles, 5 ronipanies 8oth Ret^ntni'nt, and the 
 4th Native C'ontingcnt. The conunr.nieation between Ulunch and the sea 
 was maintained by small posts at St. Paul's and Kwamau;wasa, the Qoth 
 Lit,dit Infantry anil a body of Artillery holdimj Port Durnford. Baker 
 Russell's tlyinp column consisted of a squadron ist Dragoon (Juards, a 
 battery of Artillery, 6 companies of 94th Regiment, 400 irregular 'javalry, 
 nnd 2(X) Native Horse. 
 
368 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 position was recognised ; but they were told that uncon- 
 ditional submission would be exacted. 
 
 On the 1 2 th August, the cavalry captured, in a donga 
 eight miles beyond Ulundi, the two seven-pounder guns lost 
 at Isandlwhana. Stores of gunpowder and arms were also 
 found by reconnoitring parties, and the effect of these 
 vigorous movemcnis was soon apparent in the submission of 
 Umnyana, the Prime Minister ; Tyingwayo, who commanded 
 the Zulu army engaged with Sir Evelyn Wood at Kambula; 
 Sirayo, whose raid into Natal was the ostensible cause of 
 the war, and other important chiefs. 
 
 The pursuit of Cetewayo was now taken up under Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley's orders, and there was no rest for the King 
 or the flying columns. For sixteen days these detachments 
 of cavalry and natives followed closely in his footsteps, until, 
 on the 28th August, he was captured on the confines of the 
 Ngome Forest. In this pr.rsuit Major Barrow and his 
 second in command. Lord Gifford, aide-de-camp of Sir 
 Garnet VVolseley, were specially prominent. Captains Her- 
 bert Stewart and Barton also commanded small columns ; but 
 the capture of the Zulu King was actually accomplished by 
 Major Marter, of the King's Dragoon Guards. 
 
 On the morning of the 14th, Major Barrow reached the 
 kraal which Cetewayo had left the previous afternoon, and 
 continued the pursuit the same day vvith 120 picked men, 
 arriving at the kraal where the King had slept on the previous 
 night. On the following morning, as soon as the moon rose, 
 he reached the kraal where the fugitive monarch had been 
 during that night, and searched the neighbourhood, sending 
 Lord Gifford, with the mounted natives and Natal Police, to 
 seek for the tracks of the King. The people were friendly, 
 furnishing guides and supplies, but no reward could induce 
 his immediate attendants to deliver him up, his prestige 
 being great, notwithstanding that he was defeated a.nd a 
 
THE CAPTURE OF CETEWAYO. 
 
 369 
 
 fugitive. From the 15th, Lord Gifford, with Jantze, the 
 Natal chief, and his 25 Cafires, 6 Mounted Infantry, 
 and 7 Colonial Volunteers, was never quite off the track, 
 more than once passing close to Cetewayo's hiding-place ; 
 but on the 27 th he obtained certain information which 
 enabled him to proceed to the very kraal in which Cetewayo 
 proposed sleeping on the following night. To obtain this 
 information he had recourse to a ruse. Two of Umnyana's 
 men who had been taken by Lord Gifford, being blind- 
 folded, were led some distance apart, and a volley fired 
 between them. Each man thought the other had been shot, 
 and told all he knew about the King. On this information a 
 rapid march was made by Lord Gifford, who, on the night of 
 the 27th, travellecj over, as he said, the most difficult country 
 he had ever seen. At times it appeared an impossible task for 
 the horses to keep their feet; but at daybreak he arrived within 
 sight of the King's kraal. Lord Gifford now unsaddled, and 
 sending the horses back a short distance, kept well out of 
 sight behind a ridge, while he sent tw^o Caffres to recon- 
 noitre the kraal. Having ascertained that it was occupied, 
 Lord Gifford determined to remain quietly on the watch till 
 nightfall, when he intended surrounding the kraal and 
 securing the King. Meanwhile a party of the King's Dragoon 
 Guards, under Major Marter, and eight men of Lonsdale's 
 Horse, under Lieutenant VVerge, arrived on the hill over- 
 looking the kraal on the opposite side. Without loss of time 
 Major Marter descended to effect the capture of the King. 
 The kraal, along its north side, by which Major Marter ap- 
 proached, is bordered by steep and rocky ground, rising in 
 one place to a sheer precipice. All the ground is thickly 
 wooded and rugged, and the descent from the summit of the 
 hill to the level of the kraal occupied an hour and a quarter, 
 during which two horses were killed and one of the troopers 
 broke his arm, Cetewayo's scouts, on seeing the movement, 
 
 24 
 
■ll 
 
 IC' 
 
 B 
 
 370 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Pi'* 
 
 " ; J 
 
 rushed back to warn the King ; but some of Barton's Native 
 Contingent, accompanying the Dragoons, followed so quickly 
 on their heels, that the kraal was surrounded before the 
 occupants could escape. On the arrival of the Dragoons, 
 Cetewayo came out of his hut and surrendered to Major 
 Marter, conducting himself with great dignity and compo- 
 sure, as, indeed, he has done during the whole time he has 
 been a captive. 
 
 Fortune was hard upon Lord GifTord, who had followed 
 up the King with unwavering pertinacity -, but the gallant 
 officer received the encomiums of his chief, who sen* him to 
 England with his despatches announcing the conclusion of 
 the war.* Cetewayo was removed to the camp at Ulundi, 
 where he arrived under escort on the morning of the 31st 
 August. On the same day Sir Garnet Wolseley, without 
 seeing the ex-King, sent him off to Port Durnford, whence 
 the steamship Natal conveyed him to Cape Town. The 
 capture of the dreaded Zulu monarch created a great im- 
 pression among the native races of South Africa. Usibebe, 
 the most important chief still holding out, and all others of 
 note, gave in their submission to the authority of the Queen, 
 and English prestige was raised immensely until the humili- 
 ating events in the Transvaal lost all the ground that was 
 gained. 
 
 On Monday, the ist September, the anniversary of the day 
 in 1873 when Cetewayo was crowned King by Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone, and on the same spot, Sir Garnet Wolseley held 
 a great meeting of chiefs, when he announced the dismem- 
 berment of the kingdom and his arrangements for its future 
 government, f Of the thirteen chiefs selected by him to rule 
 
 • In accordance with custom, Lord Gifford received the reduced sum of 
 _^300 for bringing home the despatches, and Major Marter was promoted 
 to the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 
 t These, briefly, included the appointment of a Resident in Zululand, the 
 abolition of the practice of witchcraft, the taking of life except after fair 
 trial, the maintenance of a standing army, and the purchase of rifles. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT OF ZULU LAND. 
 
 371 
 
 land, the 
 \fter fair 
 
 the territories into which Zululand was to be divided, there 
 were present seven, including John Dunn, Cetewayo's English 
 friend and adviser, who had rendered good service to the 
 British cause throughout the war, the other six having mis- 
 taken the way. or, owing to bodily infirmity, were represented 
 by their councillors. Before procuring the signature to the 
 terms, which were signed by Sir Garnet Wolesley and by 
 each chief concerned, in duplicate, all but John Dunn sign- 
 ing with a cross, his Excellency described briefly the nature 
 and grounds of the settlement he had determined upon. 
 He warned them not to stir up trouble, and said that as sales 
 or pretended sales of land had been in the past a fertile 
 source of dispute, in future no land must be parted with to 
 white people. The only chief who refused to sign the agree- 
 ment, on the ground that the extent of the territory assigned 
 tu hirn was too limited, was Umnyana, the late Prime 
 Minister, and accordingly Sir Garnet informed him that the 
 district should be given to another, which was done. On 
 the following day the two chiefs who had mistaken the day 
 of meeting signed the terms ; and a few days later, on the 
 march from Ulundi, Seketwayo signed ; and at Conference 
 Hill, on the 8th and 9th, Oham, the King's brother, and 
 Taku, attested in due form, as did also Ulube, the Basuto 
 chief, to whom was allotted Sirayo's territory. 
 
 As the Home Government would not permit annexation, 
 and the restoration of Cetewayo was at this time out of the 
 question, the settlement effected by Sir Garnet Wolseley was 
 probably the best that could be made ; and when we con- 
 sider the state of anarchy to which the country was reduced 
 by the war and the deportation of the King, the wonder is 
 not that there has been occasional fighting and bloodshed, 
 but that the settlement has worked fiiirly well. 
 
 Having arranged for the appointment of a Resident and 
 three Commissioners, under the presidency of Colonel Hon. 
 
 24 — 2 
 
 li 
 
 ■. 
 
 iM 
 
 1, 
 
Ui \ 
 
 372 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 *1 
 
 George Villiers, to settle the boundaries of the thirteen inde- 
 pendent chiefs, Sir Garnet Wolseley marched from Ulundi 
 on the 4th September, Brigadier- General Clarke's column 
 moving into Natal, and Colonel Baker Russell proceeding to 
 compel the submission of the semi-independent tribes in- 
 habiting the north-west corner of Zululand and the disputed 
 territory there bordering on the Transvaal. This was com- 
 pleted without fighting, and by the end of the month all the 
 British troops had quitted Zululand, Colonel Baker Russell 
 proceeding to Leydenburg, in the Transvaal, the Natal native 
 levies and irregular bodies of European horse enlisted during 
 the protracted operations against the Zulu King being dis- 
 banded. With a general order to the troops on the capture 
 of Cetewayo, and the surrender of Manyanyoba, who had 
 caused some trouble on the Zulu border of the Transvaal, 
 the Zulu War was at an end. 
 
 On his arrival at Utrecht, in the Transvaal, on the loth 
 September, Sir Garnet Wolseley received an address of 
 welcome from the inhabitants, to whom he made a concilia- 
 tory reply, and inspected the 24th Regiment, conferring the 
 V.C. on Major Bromhead, of Rorke's Drift fame. On the 
 13th he was at Wakkerstroom, and he also visited Standerton 
 and Heidelberg, and on the 27th arrived at Pretoria. Here 
 and elsewhere on the road, when addressing gatherings of 
 Boers, he stated to them that the act of annexation was 
 irrevocable ; and at Standerton, on the Vaal river, he told 
 the people that the sun would cease to shine, and the Vaal 
 would flow backwards through the Drakenburg, before the 
 British would withdraw from their country. He promised 
 that everything should be done to satisfy their just require- 
 ments, short of independence ; but the Boer Committee, 
 numbering seventy members, who assembled near Heidel- 
 burg, under the chairmanship of Mr. Pretorius,"* replied by 
 
 * Mr. Pretorius wrote in temperate terms to Sir Garnet Wolseley, calling 
 attention to the fact that these representatives of the people had been 
 
WOLSELEY IN THE TRANSVAAL. 
 
 31Z 
 
 a resolution declaring that nothing could satisfy them but the 
 retrocession of their country, and a mass meeting was called 
 for the 9th November. Mr. Joubert, one of the Boer dele- 
 gates to England, a man of great influence and wealth, who 
 later on played so important a part, visited Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, by invitation, at Standerton, and reiterated that 
 nothing short of independence would satisfy the people, and 
 that copnpromise or conciliation was out of the question ; to 
 which Sir Garnet replied that he was prepared to listen to 
 the wishes and aspirations of the Boers, but he declined to 
 enter upon the question of annexation. 
 
 At this time there were in the Transvaal 5 battalions of 
 infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, and the ist Dragoon 
 Guards ; but 2 battalions of foot and a battery were under 
 orders to leave the country later in the year, and the remain- 
 ing battery of artillery was to be divided between the Trans- 
 vaal and Natal. On the 29th September Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 was sworn in as Governor of the Transvaal, the Government 
 of v.'hich had been administered under his orders by Colonel 
 Sir Owen Lanyon, who, in the latter part of 1878, had suc- 
 ceeded Sir Theophilus Shepstone. Sir Owen Lanyon had 
 been very successful as administratcr of Griqualand West ; 
 but from various causes, chief of which was his having to 
 carry out the odious task of enforcing the collection of taxes 
 in arrears, he became very unpopular with the Boers. 
 
 On the 29th September* Sir Garnet Wolseley issued a 
 
 recognised by her Majesty's Government upon occasions when delegates 
 were sent home by the Boers, and had olficinl deahngs with Sir Bartle 
 Frere. He begged, therefore, that Sir Garnet Wolseley would favour him 
 with a signification of the British Government's intentions in regard to the 
 unanswered memorial jiraying for the restoration of the country to the 
 Dutch. He added that the people's committee was stated by Sir Bartle 
 Frere to comprise gentlemen of the highest repute in the country, and their 
 memorial was forwarded by his Excellency as ' deserving the earnest con- 
 sideration of her Majesty's Government.' This consideration the com- 
 mittee understood the memorial had been receiving, and the decision had 
 now been long anxiously awaited, 
 
 * On the same day, in consequence of the massacre of the Cavagnari 
 Mission and the renewal of the war in Afghanistan, his Chief of the Staff, 
 
 ■'■"'fll 
 
in 
 
 .'■fv,:,; 
 
 m 
 
 
 374 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 proclamation to the people, which was published in the 
 Transvaal Gazette^ announcing ' that it is the will and deter- 
 mination of her Majesty's Government that the Transvaal 
 territory shall be, and shall continue to be, for ever an 
 integral part of her Majesty's dominions in South Africa.' 
 
 On the 3rd October Sir Garnet Wolseley issued a procla- 
 mation constituting an Executive Council for the Transvaal, 
 to consist of five official and three non-official members, to 
 be appointed by the Governor or Administrator, whose duty 
 it would be to advise the Government ; and one of the first 
 matters the Government intended to submit to them was a 
 scheme for the constitution of a Legislative council. But 
 other matters of more immediate moment engrossed the 
 attention of Sir Garnet Wolseley. 
 
 A chief of Basuto origin, Secocoeni by name, — inhabiting 
 a district about 120 miles north of Pretoria as the crow flies, 
 and 200 by the road, through Middelburg, lying between the 
 Olifant and Steel Poort rivers, — was in arms, and refused to 
 acknowledge British authority, being satisfied of his ability 
 to defy any force sent against him in his stronghold situated 
 in the Lulu Mountains. And he had good cause for his 
 opinion, as he had not only defeated a Zulu army, but in 
 1878 compelled 3,000 Boers, under President Burgess, 
 assisted by Swazies, to retire from his country ; and, finally, 
 in November, 1878, Colonel Rowlands, V.C, with a 
 British force, consisting of 6 guns, 450 men of the 13th 
 Regiment, 430 cavalry, under such leaders as Carrington 
 and Redvers Buller, failed to compel the submission of 
 Secocoeni, owing to the drought and want of forage, and 
 retired harassed by the victorious chief, who had 5,000 
 fighting men under his command, besides levies from the 
 
 Sir George CoUey, left for India to resume his duties on the Viceroy's staff; 
 whence he returned to South Africa as Sir Garnet's successor, and lost his 
 life in seeking to coerce the Boers, whose powers of resistance, like so many 
 others, he underrated. 
 
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST SECOCOENI. 375 
 
 neighbouring chiefs. Sir Owen Lanyon, a few months 
 before, had assembled a force of 2,000 men, including 700 
 Mounted Volunteers, to compel the submission of the Basuto 
 Chief; but Sir Garnet Wolseley, considering the force too 
 weak, and desirous of settling one difficulty at a time, 
 directed him to refrain from undertaking hostilities. To 
 this redoubtable warrior Sir Garnet now turned his attention ; 
 and before commencing military operations which, owing to 
 the difficult nature of the country and the strength of the 
 mountain fastness to be attacked, promised to be hazardous, 
 despatched Major Clarke, R. A., who had been Commissioner 
 of the northern portion of the Transvaal since our acquisi- 
 tion in April, 1877, with an ultimatum demanding his sub- 
 mission, also the payment of a fine of 2.500 heid of cattle, 
 and consent on his part to receive a military force in his 
 territory, warning him that Cetewayo's fate would be his 
 unless he recognised the authority of the Queen, and paid 
 taxes to her representatives. 
 
 Meantime the Boers, finding their demands unheeded, 
 began to give trouble ; and in October a large body made a 
 threatening demonstration against British rule at Middel- 
 burg, and being refused permission to purchase ammunition 
 seized it, leaving payment on the counter with, the store- 
 keeper. 
 
 According to the local law of the Transvaal, which Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone's proclamation of 12th April, 1877, 
 expressly maintained unimpaired, no person was allowed to 
 purchase ammunition without a permit signed by a justice 
 of the peace. This provision was originally directed against 
 the natives, whom the Boers were unwilling to supply with 
 the means of waging war upon the small European minority. 
 But since the British occupation of the country it was turned 
 against the malcontent Boers themselves. Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, after his proclamation of the 29th September, 
 
 I 
 
 III 
 
>?■ 
 
 
 376 
 
 L/FE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I 
 
 
 %j t; 
 
 found that one of the principal difficulties with which the 
 British administrative authorities had to deal was the refusal 
 of the Boers to pay taxes, which were difficult to enforce 
 over a wide a d sparsely peopled tract of country. He 
 accordingly gave orders tha' .lO permit for the purchase of 
 ammunition should be granted to any applicant who was 
 unable to produce his receipt for taxes. As the Boers who 
 assembled at Middelburg to make a threatening demonstra- 
 tion against the jurisdiction of the British courts, were 
 banded together by a resolution not to pay anything to the 
 ' usurping ' Government, nor in any other way to recognise 
 its rights, they held no permits and were accordingly refused 
 ammunition by the storekeepers. Thereupon they proceeded 
 to seize it, and committed other riotous acts, but dispersed 
 on the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley, though similar acts of 
 violence were repeated at Potchefstroom. 
 
 Negotiations having failed with Secocoeni, who relied on 
 the strength of his mountain fastness. Sir Garnet, having 
 completed his preparations for attacking that chief, and 
 received the report of Colonel Harrison, R.E., who had 
 made a close reconnoissance of the Basuto stronghold, 
 resolved at once to take the field. The troops, numbering 
 about 1,400 British infantrj', 400 Colonial Horse, and 10,000 
 natives, were placed under the immediate command of 
 Colonel Baker Russell. The attacking force, styled the 
 Transvaal Field Force, was divided into two columns — the 
 Eastern, under Major Bushman, 9th Lancers ; and the 
 Western, which the General accompanied, under Colonel 
 Baker Russell.* Sir Garnet Wolseley, leaving Sir Owen 
 
 * The Western Column consisted of 2 seven-pounder guns, manned by men 
 ot th.- 80th Regiment, and 2 Kriipp guns, manned by Colonial Volunteers, 
 under Captain Knox, R.A., who had organized the artillery ; Ferreira's 
 Horse, 100 strong ; Transvaal Mounted Rifles, 116 men ; Border Horse, 
 100 ; and 34 Mounted Infantry : the whole under Major Carrington, 24th 
 Regiment, an officer of approved gallantry, who had been carrying on suc- 
 cessful border warfare with Secocoeni, harrying his country and carrying off 
 his cattle. The infantry was 6 companies of the 2nd battalion 21st Regi- 
 
SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AND SECOCOENL yiy 
 
 of 
 
 the 
 
 the 
 
 the 
 
 )nel 
 
 off 
 egi- 
 
 Lanyon in charge at Pretoria, took his departure for the 
 front, and encamped at Fort Weber on the 28th October. 
 Before starting for the campaign from Pretoria, he had 
 written to the Secretary of State for War, to the Duke of 
 Cambridge, and to many others, giving in detail the whole 
 of his plans for bringing it to a rapid conclusion. In each 
 and all of his letters, he fixed the dates when his troops 
 would be at certain places and in named positions, winding 
 up, to each of his correspondents, with the assurance that 
 he would take his afternoon tea in Secocoeni's house on the 
 28th November. These arrangements were literally fulfilled^ 
 and the afternoon of the 28th November saw him in Seco- 
 coeni's mansion. 
 
 At Fort Weber Sir Garnet Wolseley found that the 
 supplies he had ordered had not been collected, thus 
 disarranging his plans. He accordingly changed his base 
 from Fort Weber to Fort Olifant, on the river of the 
 same name, distant about twenty- four miles from Seco- 
 coeni's town. The line of supply, therefore, had to be 
 taken by the bush veldt road from Pretoria. In this brief 
 campaign — as before, in the Red River, and Ashantee, and 
 later in Egypt — the supply departments, whether commis- 
 sariat or transport, were the weak points of military organiza- 
 tion, as it ever has been in our defective system. The plan 
 
 ment and 6 companies of the 94th Rerjiment ; also 21 men of the Royal 
 Engineers. The natives with the column were the Rustenburg levies, 500 
 men ; Mapoch's Caffres, 600 ; and 700 men from Zoutspanberg. The 
 Eastern or Leydenburg Column, which was ordered to concentrate at Fort 
 Burgers, was commanded by Major Bushman, 9th Lancers (Major Creagh, 
 80th Regiment, having fallen ill), with Captain Yeatman Biggs, R.A. , as 
 staff officer. It consisted of 94 men of the 80th Regiment; 170 men of the 
 94th Regiment ; the Leydenburg Mounted Rifles, 40 men ; Captain Eckers- 
 ley's natives, 250 strong, and about 10,000 Swazies. The Headquarter Staff 
 consisted of Colonel Brackenbury, R.A., Chief of the Staff since the depar- 
 ture of Brigadier-General Colley ; Mr. Herbert, Private Secretary ; Major 
 McCalmont, 7th Hussars, and Lieutenant Creagh, R.A. , aides-de-camp ; 
 Surgeon-Major Jackson ; and Captain Maurice, R.A. , Camp Commandant. 
 Captain Stewart, 3rd Dragoon Guards, was staff officer to Colonel Baker 
 Russell, and Captain Eraser, 6oth Rifles, orderly officer. 
 
 \ 
 
 ir-Fi 
 
378 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 I'l 
 
 m 
 
 
 of operations was for the cavalry, under Major Carrington, 
 to push forward on the night of the 23rd and seize a small 
 hill commanding Secocoeni's water supply, about three miles 
 from the town. This position, called the Water Koppie, 
 was to be strongly entrenched. Two days later the main 
 body of infantry from Fort Albert Edward, by Mapeshlela's 
 Drift, on the Olifant river, were to advance to support the 
 force holding the Water Koppie. The Eastern Column, 
 marching from Leydenburg, and due at Fort Burgers on the 
 23id November, was directed to advance simultaneously 
 along the south-eastern base of the Lulu Mountains, halting 
 about five miles from the mountain spur at the rear of 
 Secocoeni's town, upon which, and his stronghold, called 
 the Fighting Koppie, a combined attack was then to be 
 made. 
 
 When all was ready Sir Garnet marched, on the 21st 
 November, from Fort Weber, reaching Fort Olifant on 
 the following day. On the 23rd he crossed the Olifant 
 river, and recrossing it at Fort Albert Edward, established 
 his headquarters there. The same day an advance column 
 captured and burnt the kraal of Umgirane, one of Seco- 
 coeni's chiefs, and a post was established near there, called, 
 from its distance south of Fort Albert Edward, the * Seven- 
 mile Post.' Thence a reconnoissance was made up the 
 valley towards Secocoeni's town and the Fighting Koppie, or 
 citadel, 600 yards distant from it. This natural fortress is of 
 singular formation and strength. Formed of huge boulders 
 and rocks, covered with trees and brushwood, and honey- 
 combed with galleries and caves and passages, it rose out 
 of the plain to a height of about 150 feet ; and if garrisoned 
 by a handful of well-armed and determined men could 
 have defied an army unprovided with siege artillery as long 
 as food and water held out. 
 
 The force garrisoning the ' Seven-mile Post ' — now the ad- 
 
 il 
 
THE START FOR THE FRONT. 
 
 379 
 
 vanced position — numbering 1,140 Europeans and natives,* 
 was further strengthened on the 24th ; and the same night 
 150 men of the 21st and 94th Regiments, conveyed in 
 mule-waggons, one company from each of these regiments 
 on foot, 20 men of the Royal Engineers, and 300 Colonial 
 Cavalry and Mounted Infantry, the whole under Major 
 Carrington, started from the ' Seven-mile Post,' and seized 
 the Water Koppie, some seventeen miles up the valley, and 
 within three miles of the town and citadel of the Basuto 
 chieftain, who, seemingly confident of repelling an assault 
 on his virgin fortress, made no effort to take the offensive. 
 Here a fortified post was established, which was named 
 Fort Alexandra. 
 
 On the 26th Sir Garnet Wolseley set out from Fort 
 Albert Edward with the main body of his force and a 
 convoy ; and, after a short halt at the ' Seven-mile Post ' to 
 make inquiries, pushed on to the front. The road, or 
 track, was very bad, being partly covered with dense bush, 
 and very narrow, and commanded by rocky and wooded 
 hills. During the night a heavy storm of rain broke upon 
 the weary column, which continued doggedly to plod on 
 across swollen rivers and heavy mealie fields, where they 
 bivouacked as best they could. f If the night was wet and 
 
 * It was from this koppie, or hill, that Colonel Rowlands was compelled 
 to retire in his unsuccessful expedition in the previous year. 
 
 f Dr. W. H. Russell, the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, says : 
 ' The wind howled, the 'ightning flashed, the thunder rolled incessantly, 
 the rain poured down in torrents, and at each side of us there was a dense 
 forest of bush, wherein a concealed enemy could hide and start out, or pour 
 in a volley at any moment, and get away to the hills before any attempt 
 could be made to punish them. It was impossible to throw out Hankers or 
 cover the advance ; and such a inarch could and would only have been 
 made in face of such an enemy as the Caffre. About midnight Sir Garnet 
 came to the spot where Colonel Russell was enjoying his bivouac without a 
 fire ; and all that night and the following morning and the whole of the day 
 up to 3.30 the march went on, full of delays and ups and downs — waggons 
 sticking, oxen falling, mules dropping, and the cries of the drivers and the 
 crack of the cruel whips rang for ever through the valley. The oxen were 
 sixteen hours in yoke without food or water. The men of the 21st must 
 have been under arms for twenty-four hours continuously, and those of the 
 94th nearly as long, and the rearguard were especially harassed by frequent 
 
38o 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 li 
 
 l^r 
 
 miserable, the day was equally trying, for the heat was ex- 
 cessive, as it was the height of summer. Sir Garnet Wol- 
 seley pushed on in advance of the main column, and, on 
 the morning of the 27th, arrived at Fort Alexandra, twenty- 
 four miles distant from Fort Albert Edward. Here a small 
 force of natives was left in garrison, and the whole force 
 advanced up the valley in order to take up their positions 
 for the capture of Secocoeni's town, which extended a mile 
 and a half in length, and the assault on the Fighting Koppie 
 at its base. 
 
 As soon as the main column had arrived Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, accompanied by Baker Russell and his staff, rode 
 over to the Eastern Column, commanded by Major Bush- 
 man, occupying a position some miles on the further side 
 of the Lulu range of mountains. This column consisted of 
 260 men of the 80th and 94th Regiments, 40 Colonial 
 Horsemen, 250 natives of Eckersley's contingent, and some 
 10,00c Swazies — fine, athletic warriors, who presented a very 
 picturesque appearance with their head-dress of glossy 
 plumes, their heavy kirtles of leopard and wild-cat skin, 
 and the roll of leopard or other fur around their foreheads. 
 
 By the plan of attack elaborated by Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 Major Bushman was directed to lead his foice up the 
 eastern slope of Secocoeni's mountain during the night of 
 
 halts ; in fact, the storm nearly frustrated the whole movement for twenty- 
 four hours, and tested the endurance of the troops to the uttermost. The 
 test was bravely encountered, and I am bound to say, after all I have 
 written in a sense which might be taken as adverse to the efficiency of the 
 army out here, that the 2^st and 94th behaved in the most creditable 
 manner, and marched with the utmost spirit, cheerfulness, and steadiness, 
 notwithstanding the evident exhaustion and fatigue of many of them before 
 they came into camp. If their clothes were in rags and of many colours, 
 tlieir rifles were clean : but 1 confess that I felt some uneasiness as to their 
 fitness for action the following day, as 1 saw them late on the 27th straggling 
 on towards their camping ground. Sir Garnet Wolseley, however, had no 
 fears on the subject ; he is all for young soldiers, as the world knows, and 
 he certainly can show reasons for the faitii that is in him as far as the troops 
 of Russell's little force went." 
 
mmm^ 
 
 THE PLAN OF ATTACK. 
 
 381 
 
 the 27th, in readiness to attack by four a.m. on the following 
 morning. The main body was divided into three separate 
 columns. Major Carrington, with the Border Horse and 
 the Transvaal Mounted Rifles, 161 strong; the Mounted 
 Infantry, 34 strong ; and the Zoutspanberg natives, under 
 Captain Dahl, was entrusted with the left, or northern 
 attack; Colonel Murray, 94th Regiment, with the 21st and 
 94th Regiments, and the artillery, commanded the centre 
 attack : and Commandant Ferreira, with his two troops of 
 horse, Mapoch's natives, and a company of Rustenberg 
 natives, was to make the right, or southern attack. The 
 three attacking columns were to be in position at four a.m. 
 
 By the night of the 27th Sir Garnet Wolseley was in 
 readiness to carry out, and did carry out, the programme 
 he had marked out for himself when planning the campaign 
 at Pretoria ; displaying, as in his Ashantee and Egyptian 
 combinations, a mathematical exactitude in carrying into 
 effect the complicated operations of war.* Here, as on a 
 larger scale in Egypt, he had changed his base of operations 
 from Fort Weber to Fort Albert Edward on the Olifant, 
 requiring a change of the line of supply from Pretoria. 
 
 Though the column had performed an arduous march 
 from the night of the 26th to the afternoon of the 27 th, and 
 had suffered considerably from the inclement weather and 
 fatigue duties of the previous days, nevertheless by 2.30 a.m. 
 on the 28th November not a tent was standing, and half an 
 
 * On this point Dr. Russell says : ' On the evening of November 27th 
 Colonel Russell's force was massed on the plain, within a mile and a half of 
 the enemy's towns, which was to be attacked on the day indicated by Sir 
 Garnet some time previously. Now that was by no means so easily 
 accomplished as one might suppose who knows what money has been 
 spent on the war. When Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived at Fort Weber on 
 the 28th October he found, to his disgust, that, instead of two months' 
 supplies for 1,900 Europeans, 1,200 natives, and 475 horses being stored 
 there, as he had been led to believe by Assistant Commissary-General 
 Philips, there were only 5 slaughter oxen, 5200 lb. preserved meat, 21 
 days' rations of bread, and 3 days' rations for horses. He had to buy 
 slaughter cattle, send to Marabastad, seventy miles off, for Indian corn, and 
 to order the forage ration to be reduced.' 
 
 
382 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 .Si!;; 
 
 ;r. I 
 
 if'. 
 
 hour later everyone was at his post ready for an attack that 
 promised some desperate fighting. The moon was visible at 
 intervals in a cloudy sky when the whole force was put in 
 motion, and Sir Garnet Wolseley accompanied the troops 
 out of the laager to a level piece of ground in front of the 
 Fighting Koppie, where he and his staff dismounted. Before 
 four the entire force had taken up its several positions, and 
 were waiting in silence and darkness for the signal to begin. 
 
 This was given, at 4.15, by the discharge of a shell at the 
 Fighting Koppie, when the scene w£?s lit up, as if by magic, 
 by musketry-fire from the enemy, who yelled and blew their 
 war-horns, as though to evoke their courage iind strike terror 
 into their foes. The bullets whistled round the battery and 
 over the head of Sir Garnet, who, with his staff, had taken 
 up his station within 800 yards of the citadel. The 21st and 
 94th Regiments were directed to make no reply, as, before 
 attacking the Fighting Koppie the plan of operations re- 
 quired that the town at the base of the hills should be cap- 
 tured. To effect this, Major Carrington and Commandant 
 Ferreira led their men into action from two opposite points. 
 
 The latter fired his first shot at 4.25, when, having waited 
 in vain for Mapoch's men, who never joined him throughout 
 the day, he charged the schanzes, or stone breastworks, with 
 his handful of 80 dismounted troopers, and fought his 
 way gradually from rock to rock and bush to bush, upward 
 and forward, to a point commanding Secocoeni's town, which 
 occupied the base and upper steeps of the mountain-side. 
 Having reached this point at 6.20, he commenced a brisk 
 fire on the masses of the enemy, and, at 7.30, when dense 
 bodies of Swazies showing above on the sky-line an- 
 nounced to him that aid was at hand, his men descended 
 and burnt a part of the town. These martial allies, who 
 had declined Major Bushman's invitation to march from the 
 rendezvous at the time agreed on, and were one and a half 
 
 t !tl 
 
THE ATTACK ON THE KRAAL. 
 
 383 
 
 hours behind time, did good service when their leaders, 
 Captains Macleod and Randolph Campbell induced them to 
 move. Through some misunderstanding. Major Bushman 
 did not bring the detachments of the 80th and 94th Regi- 
 ments into action, but kept them on the top of the ridge, 
 spectators of the fighting. The Swazies now swarmed down 
 on the enemy, and a terrible hand-to-hand fight ensued, in 
 which the assegai and musket-stock did its sanguinary but 
 silent work. Hundreds died here struggling on the narrow 
 ledges, and dragging one another over the precipices ; among 
 those who were killed being Captain Campbell, a soldier of 
 fortune, and described by Sir Garnet, as ' one of the bravest 
 and most recklessly daring men that ever lived.' 
 
 In the meantime Major Carrington did equally good work 
 with his column, consisting of the Border Horse, Mounted 
 Infantry, under Lieutenant O'Grady (04th Regiment), and 
 Transvaal Mounted Rifles, under Captain Macaulay, formerly 
 an officer of the 9th Lancers — in all 200 men, with 300 
 Rustenburg natives. As usual, the latter left the fighting 
 mostly to their white allies, who, advancing from the north 
 along the ridge near Secocoeni's town, were hard pressed by 
 supf rior forces until the timely arrival, about 6.20, of the 
 Swazi left wing enabled them, after some severe fighting, to 
 descend towards the central part of the town, to which they 
 set fire. The losses were considerable, and the few officers 
 of the column freelv exposed themselves, as is essential 
 when leading irregular troops into action. Captain Macaulay 
 was killed, and Captain Maurice, Camp Commandant, who 
 had volunteered his services, and Lieutenant O'Grady were 
 wounded. By eight o'clock the enemy had been driven by 
 Ferreira out of their posts on the south of the town, and 
 by Carrington on the north, and the Swazies were at work 
 about the higher ridges of the mountain. 
 
 The time had now arrived for attacking the citadel, the 
 
I 
 
 384 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Fighting Koppie, hitherto impregnable to black and white 
 foes alike. Sir Garnet Wolseley determined to trust to the 
 bayonet to effect this object, and, accordingly, the British 
 infantry was called into requisition. The centre column, 
 commanded by Colonel Murray (94th Regiment), consisting 
 of the 2 1 St and 94th Regiments, was to be supported by 
 Carrington and Ferreira, who had led their men into the 
 valley after the arrival of the Swazies. The attack was made 
 on the centre by the regular troops, on the south-east by 
 Carrington's dismounted men, and on the west by Ferreira's 
 irregulars, who were supported by a company of the 94th. 
 The guns had been shelling the Koppie for nearly four 
 hours, and whenever a puff of smoke appeared, a dozen 
 bullets were fired in response from the infantry, the range 
 being litde more than 600 yards, at which Colonel Baker 
 Russell's horse was killed under him. But it was uncon- 
 genial work for Sir Garnet Wolseley, and a feeling of relief 
 pervaded every officer and man of the little army when the 
 orrler was given that the Fighting Koppie must be carried by 
 assault. The signal was to be two rockets, the first to pre- 
 pare, the second to advance. 
 
 The scene at this time, with mountain, valley, and forest 
 lit up by the sun's rays, was picturesque, and formed a 
 panorama of extraordinary beauty and interest — the town, 
 having a frontage of one and a half mile, k^ flames, the yells 
 and blowing of horns on the hills as the mui ierous conflict 
 still raged, the shells hurtling overhead, and the sharp 
 crackle of musketry from the orderly lines encircling the 
 grim-looking Koppie, red-coats, dismounted horsemen, and 
 dense masses of Swazies, all waiting to rush upon the works, 
 swarming with men, and spitting forth fire from every cave 
 and cranny. 
 
 The first rocket was fired, and then the second, and as 
 the thin column of smoke ascended into the sc-ene sky, Sir 
 
^^"^B 
 
 "C^ 
 
 S TOR HI OF THE FIGHTING KG P PIE. 
 
 385 
 
 d forest 
 rmed a 
 2 town, 
 le yells 
 
 onflict 
 sharp 
 
 ng the 
 and 
 
 works, 
 
 y cave 
 
 :n 
 
 Garnet Wolseley's eye flashed with the light of battle, while, 
 in a voice calm as if making an ordinary observation, he 
 exclaimed : ■ Mark the time. I make it 9.45.' In an instant 
 the quick rattle of musketry was stilled, and a ringing cheer 
 rent the air as the British infantry started to its feet and 
 made straight for the hitherto impregnable fortress of 
 boulders and rocks and caves, within whose confines many 
 hundreds of desperate men awaited their onset. It was a 
 thrilling moment, and the inspiriting siglit held as if spell- 
 bound the Swazies, who had begun to regard with contempt 
 their red-coated allies, who had done nothing as yet but fire 
 on the Koppie at long range, or line the crest of the ridge 
 while they descended and engaged in close conflict. 
 
 Seeing them standing and making no sign. Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley rode up to them, and, pointing towards the 
 Koppie, exclaimed in ringing tones : ' Come on, you fellows ; 
 come on. Is there no one to make them understand ?' 
 But though they did not understand the homely English, no 
 interpreter was required to explain ' the eloquent gesture of 
 the outstretched hand and the language of the kindling eye ;' 
 and in an instant the dense mass, brandishing their assegais, 
 gave the required response. Like Hector, 
 
 ' Through all his host, inspiring force, he flies, 
 And bids anew the martial thunder rise !' 
 
 Little wonder the savages displayed such enthusiasm 
 when the British Commander-in-Chief and Governor of 
 Natal and the Transvaal himself led them in the deadly 
 charge, right up to the base of the rocks. Then ensued 
 the race between Briton and native for the goal which 
 was to bring death or glory to the competitors. Led 
 by Baker Russell, Anstruther and Ha/.elrigg, by Carrington 
 and Ferreira, by Brackenbury, McCalmont, Stewart and other 
 members of the staff, and by their own officers, the 21st and 
 >, volunteers and Swazies, all ran with 
 
 94th Regime 
 
 eyes 
 
 25 
 
 
tt 
 
 w 
 
 i 
 
 ' m 
 
 IS-'- 
 
 i 
 
 i,l 
 
 386 
 
 LIJ'E OF LORD UOLSELEV. 
 
 fixed on the beetling crags of the Koppie, only eager to be 
 first at the death. Opinions differed as to whether it was a 
 white or a black man who first set foot on the goal that 
 formed their honourable emulation. The Swazies, in their 
 costume of feathers and skins, and armed only with the 
 stabbing assegai, had the advantage of the British soldier, 
 and ran like greyhounds slipped from the leash ; but, never- 
 theless, Sir Garnet Wolseley, who intently watched the scene, 
 was of opinion that the latter was first on the rocks. 
 
 Having regard to the picturesqueness of the surroundings, 
 the diversity in the actors, and the attendant circumstances, 
 the scene was one that never could be effaced from the 
 memory of the spectators. The encircling hills, the burnini. 
 town, the rush of the stormers, the wild cheer and the skirl 
 of the pipes of the Scots Fusiliers, answered by the blare of 
 the war-horn, and the defiant yell of the Basutos in the brief 
 interval ere the whole array of regulars, volunteers ancl 
 Caffres were in their midst, must have formed a picture such 
 as a De Neuville or Gerome would have longed to paint.* 
 
 The Basutos were quickly driven into the caves and clefts, 
 whence they kept up a biting fire which caused some loss. 
 The light spare savages excelled with the rifle, but had no 
 chance at close quarters with the powerful Swazies. 
 
 * In a speech made by Sir Garnet Wolseley, at a public banquet given in 
 his honour by the inhabitants of Pretoria, he said : ' In the action we lost 
 heavily ; but the number of dead is far less than I had contemplated or 
 anticipated. I am p;lad to say the Basutos were very bad shots — nearly as 
 bad as the Zulus. 'I'here was one j^eculiar feature in the engagement. For 
 some time past we have fought in South Africa only on the defensive, 
 especially in Zululand. We waited behind our slight intrenchments oi 
 waggon -laagers, for the rush of the enemy — they the assailing, we the de- 
 fending party. Attacking parties are naturally expected to lose much more 
 than tiiose who act on the defensive, and accordingly I made arrangements 
 for a considerable number of wounded. My arrangements were, I am glad 
 to say, not wanted so much as 1 expected they would be. Sixty white men 
 killed and wounded, and about 500 natives, constituted our loss. In the 
 operations the white men were greatly assisted by the natives. The large 
 force of Swazies discharged the duties for which they were employed to mv 
 entire .satisfaction.' Sir Garnet Wolseley has since informed us that the loss 
 of the Swazies in killed and wounded was subsequently ascertained to be 
 1,000 men. 
 
BRITISH LOSSES. 
 
 387 
 
 ;r to be 
 it was a 
 )al that 
 n their 
 rith the 
 soldier, 
 , never- 
 3 scene, 
 
 Hidings, 
 stances, 
 om the 
 burning 
 ;he skirl 
 blare of 
 :he brief 
 ers ancl 
 ire such 
 mint.* 
 
 clefts, 
 
 lie loss. 
 
 lad no 
 
 given in 
 m we lost 
 lated or 
 nearly as 
 ent. For 
 defensive, 
 iments or 
 the de- 
 luch more 
 ngements 
 am glad 
 ,vhite men 
 In the 
 The large 
 yed to my 
 t the loss 
 cd to be 
 
 Our loss during the day was 3 officers and 7 European 
 non commissioned officers and men killed, and 6 officers 
 and 43 non-commissioned officers and men wounded. The 
 officers killed were Captain Lawrell, 4th Hussars, Staff 
 officer to Colonel Baker Russell ; Captain Macaulay,* late 
 1 2th Lancers, commanding the Transvaal Mounted Rifles, 
 and Captain Randolph Campbell. The officers wounded 
 were Captains Willoughby and Gordon, 21st Regiment; 
 Captain Beeton, Rustenburg Native Contingent (severely) ; 
 Lieutenants O'Grady, 94th Regiment, commanding Mounted 
 Infantry, and Dewar, King's Dragoons, attached to Mounted 
 Infantry (both severely); and Captain Maurice, R.A., acting 
 
 * ' Captain Macaulay," writes one who knew him well, ' had all the pluck 
 and adventure which spread the fame of l^ngland across the world. He 
 was singularly cool ancl daring in fight, and no body of irregular horse were 
 better in hand than his motley corps of half-breeds. He was some time at 
 the gold-fields before the annexation, and was returned by that constituency 
 as a member of the Volksmad of the South African Republic. He will be 
 mourned, not only in South Africa, but in many parts of Australia, especially 
 in (Queensland, where he lived some years and had many friends.' There 
 were many narrow esaipes when storming the Koppie. The enemy stood 
 their ground among the rocks and schanzes until our men were very close 
 upon them. One Basuto crouched behind a tree until Mr. Herbert, of the 
 Colonial Otilice, Sir Garnet's private secretary, who was storming witli I'"er- 
 reira's men, was within 12 yards of him, when he then threw his assegai, 
 which passed over Herbert's shoulder and bent itself in the ground. The 
 following was the manner of Captain Lawrell's death. When Colonel 
 P>aker Russell, leading the infantry charge, went straight up the Koppie, he 
 was accompanied by Captain Brackenbury, R.A., Captain Lawrell, and a 
 number of his staff. As Captain Tawrell mounted the rocks, a shot from a 
 cave struck him in the throat and killed him. He toppled over backwards, 
 and fell down the rocks some twenty feet. l']ion the other side, an almost 
 similar shot struck a troop-sergeant-major of I'erreira's Horse. The ball 
 passed in at the throat and out at the back of the head. 'I'wo men of the 
 94th Regiment, serving with th*^ Mounted Infantry, Privates Fitzpatrick 
 and Flawn, received the V.C. for their gallant conduct in assisting Lieu- 
 tenant Dewar, who was wounded in the groin and lay helpless, during the 
 fighting at Secocoeni's town. ' Some of our natives were helping him down 
 the mountain, when, seeing about 40 of the enemy approaching, they de- 
 serted the officer and ran. F'itzpatrick and Flawn were near, and rushed to 
 his assistance, barely saving him from the assegais of the enemy. They 
 drove the enemy back by the fire from their rifles, and then took turns to 
 support the wounded oflficer and to hold the hovering enemy in check 
 with a rifle. When one was exhausted with the fatigue of bearing the help- 
 less body, the other took his place, releasing his comrade to maintain the 
 fire upon the enemy. Thus step by step Lieutenant Dewar was rescued by 
 the gallantry of two men from an overwhelming force." 
 
 25—2 
 
 ,H 
 
388 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ^\ 
 
 W-1 
 
 Si 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Staff officer to Major Carrington, who was in the thick of 
 the fighting with his commanding officer, and received a 
 bullet-wound through the shoulder. The loss of the Swazies, 
 as subsequently ascertained was i,ooo, most of them being 
 killed. But they considered themselves repaid by being 
 permitted to retain the cattle they had captured, which 
 forms the chief source of wealth among the natives of South 
 Africa. As to the Basutos^ the tribe was almost exterminated, 
 and Secocoeni, as he looked around him, found that all his 
 chief warriors had fallen in obeying his behests. 
 
 ■ Round the battlements and round the plain, 
 Kor many a chief he look'd, but looli'd in vain.' 
 
 The s/)o/ia opitna that fell to the victorious Swazies was 
 not limited to the cattle, of which thousands were captured, 
 but they took possession of the Basuto women. Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, however, sternly ordered that these should be set 
 tree, and that, if necessary, force should be used to prevent 
 this cruel appropriation of the spoils of victory. 
 
 Within fifteen minutes — a mauvais quart d'heiirc for 
 the Basutos — of the time Sir Garnet Wolseley gave the 
 signal for the charge, the Fighting Koppie had changed 
 hands, thus foreshadowing in its fate, mode of capture, 
 and time occupied in the assault, the storming of the 
 lines of Tel-el-Kebir. But though the position was prac- 
 tically won, within its cavernous bowels a large body of 
 Basutos had taken refuge with several hundred of their 
 women and children. Hence they kept up a desultory fire 
 on our men, stationed on the rocks above them and forming 
 a cordon at the base, and only surrendered on the ist De- 
 cember, impelled by the jangs of hunger and thirst, and the 
 intolerable stench arising from the dead bodies in the caves. 
 
 Meanwhile, at four a.m. on the 30th November, Ferreira 
 proceeded with his men up the mountain to effect the cap- 
 ture of Secocoeni, who had taken refuge in a cave some 
 
SURRENDER OF SECOCOENI. 
 
 389 
 
 hick of 
 eived a 
 Swazies, 
 n being 
 y being 
 1, which 
 Df South 
 ninated, 
 It all his 
 
 zies was 
 aptured, 
 r Garnet 
 Id be set 
 I prevent 
 
 eiii'c for 
 ^ave the 
 changed 
 capture, 
 
 of the 
 as prac- 
 body of 
 of their 
 tory fire 
 forming 
 
 I St De- 
 and the 
 le caves. 
 Ferreira 
 the cap- 
 {Q some 
 
 distance up the ravine beyond his town. Sir (larnet 
 A\'olseley essayed to accompany the force, but the old wound 
 in the leg he had received in the Crimea prevented him 
 from ascending precipitous paths, and he had to return to 
 the plain. Ferreira was joined higher up the mountain by 
 two companies of the 21st and 94th Regiments and some 
 natives ; and after a tiresome ascent under a scorching 
 sun, at eleven o'clock the party reached the mountain-top 
 and burnt a kraal. The cave, in which the chief lay hid 
 with some 600 followers, was discovered and blockaded ; 
 and ultimately, on the morning of the 2nd December, Seco- 
 coeni, ill and with his followers suffering from want of food 
 and water, surrendered to Major Clarke, R.A. 
 
 The conduct of officers and men throughout the day was 
 most exemplary, and there was no failure anywhere, all 
 ranks being animated by the example of their leader and his 
 able lieutenant, Colonel Baker Russell. A word of special 
 praise is due to the services rendered by Colonel Bracken- 
 bury, R. A., Chief of the Staft', and Captain Herbert Stewart,* 
 
 * An officer who was present throughout the campaign, says : ' After the 
 Water Koppie had been occupied on the 2Sth, Captain Stewart, having ac- 
 companied the advanced guard, started in quest of the eastern column, 
 tailing with him an escort of I'erreira's Horse. The eastern column had 
 orders to advance from Fort Burgers, and occupy a position some five or 
 seven miles on the eastern side of the mountain, accordingly as water might 
 be found. This column arrived in position the same morning, and 
 made a fort, called Fort Cleorge, at a distance of five miles from the 
 eastern base of Secocoeni's mountain, and at about the same distance from 
 I'ort Alexandra. Captain Stewart, having ridden round the northern spur of 
 the mountains bounding Secocoeni's valley on the east, on his way to this 
 colunm, passed its patrol, though the two bodies thus crossing were unseen 
 one by the other, owing to the wooded and hilly nature of the ground. Thus 
 the movements of the two colunms advancing against Sccocoeni, though they 
 had been without the means of exchanging comnumications fcr eight 
 days, had so precisely conformed to calculation that they occupied their re- 
 spective bases of attack within a few hours of each other.' On the 27th, 
 Captain J. C. MacGregor, R.!*',. (who was killed in the campaign with the 
 Boers), with a signalling party of the Royal Engineers and g4th Regiment, 
 supported by 100 of the Zoutspanberg levies, established a heliograph 
 station upon a neck or ridge to the cast of Port Alexandra, near the Water 
 Koppie, and secured communications by flashing signals with Major Bush- 
 man's column at Fort George. 
 
 P 
 
 
Wlm 
 
 390 
 
 LIFE OF LORD U'OLSELEV. 
 
 I I 
 
 3rd Dragoon Guards, Staff officer to Colonel Russell. This 
 officer displayed untiring energy and a singular tact in deal- 
 ing '"«th men such as formed the component parts of this 
 heterogeneous force, which marked him out as a capable 
 soldier. These qualities received even more conspicuous 
 illustration in the Egy})tian campaign. 
 
 On the 4th December Sir Garnet Wolseley, accompanied 
 by an escort of Border Horse, and taking Secocoeni with 
 him, set out for Pretoria, where his i)resence was urgently re- 
 quired to deal with the Boers. The 94th Regiment remained 
 in the valley, garrisoning a post on the Lulu Mountains, 
 until the submission of the remaining chiefs and adherents 
 of the Basuto chief. Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived at Pre- 
 toria* on the 9th December, with his captive, who was the 
 second great African potentae that he had captured within 
 six months. The rival of Cetewayo and his companion in 
 misfortune, the fate of Secocoeni was more tragic than that 
 of the Zulu King. Released, like the latter, he returned 
 to his native country and sought to revive his influence. 
 But though he could rebuild his desolated kraal, his prestige 
 had vanished, and he was murdered by Mampoer, an in- 
 fluential rival chief, who has since found an asylum with 
 Mapoch, the chief who co-operated with us in the attack 
 on Secocoeiii's stronghold. 
 
 On his arrival at Pretoria, Sir Gainet Wolseley found that 
 the Boers, though much impressed by the striking success 
 
 * A more pleasant event in Sir Garnet Wolseley's administration of 
 affairs in Natal and the Transvaal tlian wars and political troubles was the 
 opening of telegraphic conmmnication between England and South Africa 
 by the comiiletion of the line between .Aden and Zanzibar. On the 25th 
 December, 1879, the Queen telegraphed to him from Windsor Castle, con- 
 gratulating him and the Colonies under his government ' on this happy 
 event ;' and two days later he replied from Pretoria, expressing his 'sincere 
 thanks to her Majesty for her gracious telegram of the 25th, received that 
 afternoon." Another incident that occurred during .Sir Garnet Wolseley's 
 administration was the visit of the ex-lCmjiress luigenie to South Africa for 
 the jnirpose of making a mournful insiiection of the scene of the death of 
 her son. .Sir Garnet Wolseley received the unhappy consort of Kapolcon 
 III. on her landing at Durban on the 23rd April. 
 
f 
 
 WOLSE LEY'S DEALINGS WITH THE BOERS, 391 
 
 achieved against the powerful chief who had so long defied 
 their armies, were as irreconcilable as ever. For many 
 reasons, they had hoped and anticipated that success would 
 reward their efforts to obtain independence without having 
 recourse to arms. Besides the encouragement given to 
 them to persevere in passive resistance, by their friends 
 in the British Parliament and Press, they had hopes of a 
 reversal of the policy of annexation from the words of a 
 covering despatch to the IJritish Colonial Secretary of State, 
 addressed by Sir Bartle Prere in the preceding April, when 
 he received the Boer committee.* Sir Bartle Prere showed 
 this covering despatch to five members of the Committee, 
 who drew encouragement from the passage in which he said 
 that in his opinion, ' their representationj: are worthy of our 
 earnest consideration.' Whatever Sir Bartle Prere meant by 
 these words, they were interpreted by the recalcitrant Boers 
 to recommend the restitution of their independence, and 
 greatly increased the difficulties under which Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley now laboured, as showing that the annexation was 
 not irreversible. Thus the people were in a state of passive 
 rebellion already, and in June Mr. Piet Joubert, afterwards 
 Commander-in-Chief at Laing's Nek, refused to take the 
 
 • 
 
 ■ This was after tlic third mass meeting held by the Boer leaders to lay 
 their grievances liefore their rulers, On a previous occasion — in iMarch and 
 April, 1879, at the time Colonel Lanyon became Administrator — some 
 5,000 or 6,000 Boers assembled to receive and consider the answer brought 
 by Kruger and Joubert, the delegates composing the two deputations to 
 lingland. Colonel Lanyon's reply to the deputation was not conciliatory 
 in form or substance. It was then proposed that they should take up arms ; 
 but as Sir Rxrtle Frere was coming to the Transvaal, it was decided to 
 await his arrival. .Sir Bartle was at first, and until his visit to the Transvaal, 
 under the belief that the Boer agitation was partial, and thought to allay it 
 by argument and the offer of a constitution similar to that at the Cape ; 
 but the Boer C'omniittee would listen to no comjiromise, and finally, finding 
 that the malcontents represented ' the very great majority of the Boer popu- 
 lation of the Transvaal." he consented to forward a memorial, and supp<jrt 
 it with a letter to Lord Carnarvon, giving it as his opinion that it ' demanded 
 the most serious attention of her Majesty's Government. Then followetl 
 the lull which Sir Garnet Wolseley, acting under instructions from the Homo 
 Government, dispelled by his uncompromising language. 
 
 ; P 
 
 ili'' 
 
II 
 
 392 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 I 
 
 oath of allcgianre and pay arrears of taxes due from him ; 
 and other lioers of wealth and position followed his lead. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley clearly perceived the storm that was 
 brewing, and, uw the 29th October, addressed the following 
 words to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Colonial Secretary : 
 • I am compelled to recognise the continuance of grave dis- 
 content. I am informed on all sides that it is the intention 
 of the Boers to fight for independence. . . . There is no 
 doubt, I think, that the people are incited to discontent and 
 rebellion by ambitious agitators ; but I am compelled also 
 to allow that the timid and wavering, who are awed into 
 taking sides against us, are comparatively a small party, and 
 that the main body of the Dutch population are disaffected 
 to our rule.' The result amply vindicated Sir Garnet Wolse- 
 ley's judgment, but his views were not shared by experienced 
 politicians and Press writers,* who were of opinion that the 
 protests and threats of the Boers would end in their doing 
 nothing. 
 
 On the loth December, the day after Sir Garnet Wolseley's 
 return to Pretoria, the Boers, openly displaying the flag of 
 the South African Republic, assembled in camp at Dorn- 
 fontein, a place on the main road from Pretoria to Potchef- 
 stroom, and about equidistant between those places and 
 Heidelberg. Here were gathered 3,000 men, and 510 
 waggons — thcadult male population of the country beingabout 
 8,000 — and resolutions were adopted, demanding that the 
 Vice-President, Mr. Paul Kruger, should, in the absence of 
 Mr. Burgers, the President at the time of the annexation in 
 1877, convoke the Volksraad^ asserting their independence 
 and their determination to ' sacrifice their lives and shed 
 their blood for it ;' and requiring the National Committee, 
 
 * TliL" Times correspondent at Pretoria, writing on the i5tii December, 
 after the great Boer deinonstration held in that montli at Heidelberg, says : 
 ' The party which jirofesses to desire fighting is very small, and if any fight- 
 ing was probable, would grow smaller still." 
 
P«PI 
 
 UOLSELEV'S DEALINGS WITH THE DOERS. 393 
 
 as soon as possible, to take the necessary steps for the 
 recovery of independence. Mr. I'retorius, an ex-president 
 and chairman of the meeting, sent a coi)y of these resolu- 
 tions under his own signature to Sir Garnet Wolseley, with a 
 re(|uest that they might be communicated to the Home 
 (iovernment. To this demand Sir (iarnct made reply by 
 causing the arrest of Pretorius and IJok, the secretary, on a 
 charge of high treason. The former was brought to trial, 
 but the proceedings were discontinued after lasting three 
 days. 
 
 Sir Garnet had taken ample military precaution to guard 
 against a rising. As early as the middle of November he 
 had constructed redoubts at Wakkcrstroom and Standerton, 
 each for defence by two companies ; and at Heidelberg and 
 Middelburg for one company ; three months' su[)plies of 
 everything for their garrisons being kept in each fort. In 
 readiness for the Boers resorting to arms, after their meet 
 ing on the loth December, he concentrated at Pretoria a 
 force, consisting of the 80th Regiment, seven companies of 
 the 4th Regiment, six companies of the 58th Regiment, and 
 a squadron of the King's Dragoon Guards. Thus overawed, 
 the Volkstein^ the Boer organ in Pretoria, strongly urged 
 on the farmers not to give Sir Garnet Wolseley any excuse 
 to attack them, but quietly to disperse and await the de- 
 parture of his Excellency and the troops, meanwhile per 
 sisting in the attitude of passive resistance and refusal to 
 pay taxes. This advice the Boers followed, with what success 
 is well known. 
 
 Early in 1880 Sir Garnet Wolseley promulgated the new 
 constitution, which had been promised three years before. 
 By it, besides the Executive Council he had already 
 announced, — which was to consist of the Governor, or 
 Administrator, and four leading members of the Ciovernment, 
 with three non-ofificial members nominated by the Governor, 
 
 ■w^. 
 
iv 
 
 394 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELE V. 
 
 lii 
 
 — the Legislative Counci wis constituted, to consist of the 
 Executive Council, the Chief Justice, and six nominated 
 members. This constitution, which was framed by Sir 
 Michael Hicks-Beach upon lines recommended by Sir Bartle 
 l"'rere, was a sham ; as not only were the members of both 
 the Executive and Legislative Councils removable at the 
 Covernor's })leasurc, but power was reserved to the 
 Governor to act without consulting, or in opposition to, 
 the Council, if he judged it expedient ; and questions 
 affecting the revenue could only be proposed in the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly with the Governor's permission. Moreover, 
 any legislation the Council might pass could always be 
 disallowed or repealed by the Queen's authority. The only 
 apology for this constitution is that it was temporary ; but 
 much of the odium attaching to it fell upon Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, though it will be seen he was not responsible for 
 its conditions. 
 
 At this time Mr. Pretoriuswas in frequent correspondence 
 with Sir Garne^, and promised to join his Government a 
 little later on, when the cou.itry had quieted down, as Mr. 
 Pretorius then thought it would in a short time. 
 
 That the hostilities which broke out in December, 
 1880, did not occur at this time, was due to the fact of 
 the presence of Sir Garnet "W^olseley and the large force 
 of trooi)s still remaining in the country, and also to the ap- 
 prehended ciiange of Ministry in England, which actually 
 took place in the following spring. The Boers had sym- 
 pathizers in the Radical Press and Parliament, among the 
 most able and consistent being Mr. Leonard Courtney, now 
 Under-Secretary for the Colonies. Mr. Gladstone also, in 
 his Midlothian addresses, expressed bis disapproval of the 
 policy of annexation, thereby encouraging the Boers to 
 hope, if he came into power, that the question of their 
 independence might be reconsidered. In this hope it was 
 
U OLSELEY ON THE BASUTO QUESTION. 395 
 
 determined to wait and endeavour to influence the Cape 
 Parliament against agreeing to any step in furtherance 
 of South African Confederation. Kruger and Joubert 
 proceeded to Cape Town on this errand in the spring of 
 1 880. In the meanti.pe the elections took place at home, 
 and the Liberals came into office. Advantage of the 
 change of Ministry was immediately taken by the delegates 
 to memoralize Mr. Gladstone; but the answer of the Liberal 
 Government, dated June 8th, gave the final blow to the 
 hopes which alone had induced the Boers to refrain so long 
 from open rebellion. It was in these terms — * Our judgment 
 is that the Queen cannot be advised to relincjuish the 
 Transvaal.' Doubtless, in time, the whole question would 
 have been examined, and the wishes of the people conceded; 
 but the Afghan, Irish, and other (questions of domestic interest, 
 were considered more pressing, and the Boers, finding their 
 aspirations unsatisfied, took up arms. The unwisdom of 
 reducing the garrisons of the Transvaal, a country as large 
 as France, to two weak regiments of infantry, the 58th and 
 94th, without any cavalry, while matters still remained un- 
 settled, bore its legitimate fruits ; and when the troops were 
 handled in a maimer that betrayed extraordinary military 
 incompetence, a succession of disasters ensued, happily 
 without parallel in our recent military history. 
 
 Before leaving South African questions, we may refer to 
 one in which Sir Garnet Wolseley offered advice equally 
 creditable to his sagacity and sense of justice. We refer to 
 the Basuto question, whit^. was so unwisely raised by the 
 Cape Government during the time he was administering the 
 affairs of the Transvaal, and which appears to be still un- 
 settled after the expenditure of much money and many 
 valuable lives. The Basutos, who became British subjects in 
 1869, had enlisted under our banners in the hostilities against 
 the Baphuti chief. Moirosi — whose mountain was carried by 
 

 396 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 assault on the 20th November, 1879 — and during the Zuki 
 War, when, specially at Isandlwhana, they served with great 
 gallantry. But when hostilities were over, Mr. Sprigg, the 
 Prime Minister of the Cape Government, who had borne 
 testimony to the loyalty of the paramount chief, Letsea, 
 brought in a measurr, called the Peace Preservation Act, 
 enforcing their disarmament ; and in a speech in the House 
 of Assembly, on the ist June, gave as his reason for its 
 introduction, his fear that these arms would be used to make 
 war against the colony.* Sir Garnet Wolseley indignantly 
 protested against this treatment of loyal allies after the 
 danger that had called for their services had passed away. 
 On the loth March he wrote to the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies : ' That the Cape Colony is endeavouring to 
 take the arms from its natives, regardless of whether they 
 had or had not been previously loyal, is a species of news 
 that soon spreads far and wide beyond our frontiers, and is 
 calculated to raise the bitterest of feelings against our rule. 
 . . . This disarmament policy will array against us the 
 native sentiment in every part of South Africa ; and should 
 it result in a Basuto war, every native, from the Zambesi to 
 Cape Agulhas, will feel that every shot fired in it against us 
 has been fired in his interests.' 
 
 Two and a half years have passed since Sir Garnet 
 A\'olseley wrote this warning, during which the Cape Ministry 
 have failed to enforce their policy, though large armed forces 
 have been in the field, and much blood and treasure have 
 been expended. By the last news, General Gordon — 
 
 "^ Of course there was some question of annexation concerned, and the 
 (,>uothin,t; district of Basutoland, occupied l)y Moirosi's tribe, was to be 
 annexed, notwitiistanding the strong protest of Mr. (iriffith, the Govern- 
 ment Agent, wlio said that 'to cut it off and dispose of it in any otiier way 
 would, in my opinion, be acting most unjustly to the Hasutos, and would 
 entirely shake their confidence in the British (lovernnient. ... I fail to see 
 why the Rasutos, who have staunchly supported us, should be punished for 
 the acts of the rel)el chief .Moirosi and his followers, who have paid the 
 penalty of their crimes with their lives,' 
 
mi^fmm. 
 
 IVOLSELEY RETURNS TO ENGLAND. 
 
 397 
 
 ' Chinese Gordon,' the friend of subject races and a man ot 
 chivalric honour — who had been called in to settle the 
 Basuto difficulty, has resigned, as he does not approve the 
 course pursued towards Masupha, the chief who has success- 
 fully resisted the disarming policy of the Colonial Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Early in April Sir Garnet Wolseley quitted Pretoria on 
 his return to England, Colonel Bellairs being left in com- 
 mand of the tT*oops on the departure of General Clifford, 
 and Sir Owen Lanyon, Administrator, under the orders of 
 Sir George Colley, the new Governor of Natal, who had 
 resigned his position on the Indian Viceroy's staff, and 
 came out from England with instructions that the Transvaal 
 was to be retained. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley rode the distance of 350 miles from 
 Pretoria to Maritzburg in three days, accompanied by Major 
 Herbert Stewart, now his Chief of the Staff. He arrived at 
 Maritzburg on the 8th April, and on the following day he 
 and Sir Henry Bulwer, the retiring Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Natal, were entertained at dinner, when he exjiressed a hope 
 that the colony would soon be confederated with the Cape. 
 Sir Garnet proceeded to Cirahamstown, where he received a 
 hearty reception, and, after a brief stay at Cape Town, sailed 
 thence for England on the 4th May, accompanied by his 
 staff, in the Royal Mail steamer Comcay Cast'c. On the 
 25th May, 1880, the ship cast anchor in Plymouth Sound, 
 and receiving the inevitable address from the mayor, he 
 proceeded to London the same day, having successfully 
 accomplished the mission with which he had been entrusted. 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley received no reward for his services, 
 and surely the pacification of Zululand and the restora- 
 tion of the prestige of our arms in South Africa by his 
 victory over Secocoeni may be regarded as such. True, he 
 was gazetted a G.C.B., in common with Lord Chelmsford; 
 
 If 
 
I 
 
 \, 
 
 >;! 
 
 39S 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSKLF.Y. 
 
 but this honour he had declined on his return from 
 Ashantee, and he might well have anticipated that the local 
 rank of (ieneral, conferred on him on leaving for South 
 Africa, should be made substantive ; but this was denied, 
 from motives that do not bear consideration.* Sir Garnet, 
 however, did not look for reward as an incentive to serve 
 his country, and bore this treatment in dignified silence; 
 but he had friends who were more outspoken. 
 
 ■^ Sir (liirnc't Wolselc) w.is too pl;iiii-s]ioken to plL'p.so tlie HorM- Guards, 
 who resent anytliing like independence ; but liis position was too assured, 
 and the opinion iu;ld of liis services by his countrymen too high, for those in 
 authf)rity to do more than retard the advancement whicli he ultimately 
 wrung from them. At the Newspaper i'ress Fund Dinner in June, 1880, 
 lie spoke his mind in a way that gave great offence at tlie Horse Guards. 
 He said : ' To the Press generally the British army now looks with the 
 greatest anxiety and the greatest interest ; for the rising men of the army 
 feel that it is only the power of the Press which can bring useful light to bear 
 upon the dark parts of our military system, which they believe not to be in 
 unison with the sj)irit of the age o" with modern military science. You 
 alone have sufficient power to enable us to correct ai d reform what we 
 believe to be wrong, and to remove from the pntli of ])i ogress those great 
 boulders of prejudice and superstition which now impede the way. You 
 alone can enable us to put new wheels to the military coach, which by its 
 creaking tells us of its jiresent dangerous condition, and which is only with 
 difficulty maintained in an upright position at all.' Again, at a banquet at 
 the Mansion House he said : ' He was surprised when the shortcomings of 
 the army were attributed t(i the short-service system by those who remem- 
 bered how an army raised under the long-service system totally disappeared 
 in a few months under the walls of Sebastopol. He contended that the 
 short-service system hnd mnde the army popular, and in consecjuence of it 
 we were now in a position to obtain any number of recruits we might re- 
 quire. If the system were intelligently carried out it would create a reserve 
 which would prevent such catastrophes .as occurred in 1855. At the same 
 time he believed, with many rising soldiers, that the army needed many 
 refo' -J ; and he trusted that the required changes might be effected within 
 no distant time, so that the army might be brought to such a state of effi 
 ciency as would make it worthy cf the '}ueon who? it served, and tlie nation 
 for whose protection it existed. ' 
 
CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 THE KGVPTIAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 1' 
 
 fcir (Idrnot Wolselt-y as Quartcrmaster-Ciencral. — Attcmlb the German 
 Autumn Military Manoeuvres. — Is appointed Adjutant-General. — Nomi- 
 nation of Sir Garnet Wolseley to tlie Command of the Expedition to 
 I'.gypt. — He proceeds to .Mexandria. — Change of the HioC of Operation.^ 
 to Ismailia.— Transport Difficulties. — Advance of Sir Garnet from 
 Ismailia. — The .Action at Tel-el-Mahuta. — Capture of Mahsameh. — The 
 Action at Kassassin on the 28th August. — Preparations for the final 
 Advance. 'I'he Action of the 9th September. — The Night March on the 
 r2th September.— The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir. — The Surrender of Cairo. 
 — Operations of the Cavalry. — Sir Garnet Wolseley in Cairo. — Return to 
 England. — ( .'onclusion. 
 
 On his return from South Africa, Sir Garnet Wolseley was 
 nominated Quartermaster-General, and assumed the duties 
 of his office on the ist July, 1880. He had not long been 
 installed when, on the 28th July, news arrived in England 
 of the disaster at Maiwand, involving a recommencement ol 
 hostilities in Afghanistan. Sir Garnet was at Freshwater, in 
 the Isle of Wight, and posted up to Eondon on the following 
 da). Public opinion in England pointed to him as the best 
 man to retrieve the disaster, and even in India the Times 
 correspondent at Calcutta telegraphed that the news of his 
 appointment ' would be hailed with delight by soldiers and 
 civilians alike from one end of the country to the other.' 
 But his time had not yet come, and indeed, as the event 
 l)rovcd, there was no occasion for his services, as the Indian 
 ( iovernment had at their disposal, in Sir Frederick Roberts, 
 a General competent to deal with the crisis and rehabilitate 
 the tarnished honour of his country. 
 
 
 t 
 
 
y 
 
 400 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Instead of the stern realities of war, Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 found himself nominated for the duty of attending the Ger- 
 man Autumn Military Manccuvres. It was a high honour 
 to represent the British army at the great school of modern 
 war; though at a time when his country was engaged in active 
 hostilities, to be a spectator of mimic warfare, even though 
 some of the most accomplished soldiers of the age were the 
 exponents, was a duty scarcely congenial to one who was 
 conscious of his own capacity for demonstrating the teach- 
 ings of war. 'J'he manceuvres commenced, on the loth 
 September, with the parade of the 3rd, or Brandenburg 
 Army Corps, before the Emperor William, and were con- 
 tinued with the manuiuvring of this and the Guard Corps. 
 Sir Garnet was treated with special honour by the German 
 Emperor and Crown Prince, and attracted much interest 
 among the Generals, including Count von Moltke and Prince 
 Frederick Charles, who commanded the Brandenburg Corps 
 in the terrible battle of Thionville, after Bazaine's retreat 
 from Metz, when 62,000 Prussian soldiers repulsed the whole 
 army of the Rhine, mustering 1 25,000 men, losing one-fourtli 
 of their number. 
 
 Early in the present year Sir Garnet Wolseley was appointed 
 Adjutant-General in succession to Sir Charles Ellice. With 
 the causes or with the results of the war m Egypt we will 
 not deal in this work, as Sir Garnet Wolseley's mission to 
 that country was purely military. His task was to defeat 
 and disperse the forces under Arabi Pasha in rebellion 
 against the authority of the Khedive Tewfik, and to restore 
 that prince to the throne. It was a task, having regard to 
 the climate, time of the year, and difficult nature of the 
 country in which operations would be conducted, that was 
 calculated to test his claims to be regarded as a great 
 (General. It was so recognised at the time of his appoint- 
 ment j and when a delay occurred before the final advance 
 
m«l 
 
 BONAPARTE AND WOLSELEY IN EGYPT. 401 
 
 from Kassassin, hostile and ignorant critics who had pre- 
 dicted a lengthened campaign, or even failure, pointed to 
 the approaching verification of their prophecies. It is, there- 
 fore, only just that when success crowned Wolseley's strategy, 
 a full arid unstinted measure of credit should be accorded 
 to him. 
 
 These croakers, whose wish in some instances was father 
 to the thought, had some grounds for their vaticinations in 
 the previous history of the Egyptian army. They might 
 have drawn attention to the prowess of the Egyptian con- 
 tingent engaged in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828, when 
 they were decimated in the gallant resistance they offered to 
 the passage of the Danube by the army of General Paskie- 
 vitch ; and again when the Soudanee regiments displayed 
 heroic devotion when fighting against enormous odds during 
 the Abyssinian War, as related in a recent work written by 
 an American officer in the Khedive's service. The readers 
 of Palgrave's ' Travels in Central Arabia ' know what deeds 
 were performed by Ibrahim Pasha's Egyptian soldiers against 
 the Wahabees of Derryah, who overran the countries of 
 Asia from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, and conquered 
 even the sacred places of Mecca and Medina ; and bul for 
 the English at Acre, in 1840, Mehemet Ali, the father of the 
 same great General, would have dictated terms to the Sultan 
 himself at Stamboul. Let, then, our English General and 
 his brave soldiers wear the laurels they have well earned, and 
 if foreign critics, envious of their glory, chose to impute to 
 British gold the victories achieved by British valour and the 
 genius of a British General, it were a disgrace to any of our 
 countrymen to write or say aught to give them encourage- 
 ment in such an unworthy course. History tells a different 
 tale. 
 
 Bonaparte himself, though assisted by such soldiers as 
 Kleber, Lannes, Berthier, Dessaix, Davoust, Marmont, and 
 
 26 
 
402 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 V. 
 
 \vU 
 
 
 Murat, did not achieve a more rapid and striking success in 
 his memorable expedition in 1798 than did "Wolseley in 
 1882, and the difficulties encountered by the latter w^re far 
 greater. Bonaparte was opposed by an army of Arabs and 
 Mamelukes, armed with scimitars and Marge pistols from 
 London,' as he wrote to the Directory ; whereas the British 
 General was required to combat a vastly superior force of 
 disciplined troops, probably not less than 60,000, armed with 
 Remington rifles and Krupp guns. The hardships endured 
 by Wolseley's soldiers in the march across the desert from 
 Ismailia to Cairo were much greater than those suffered by 
 Napoleon's army of 25,000 men in their march between the 
 6th and 23rd July through the fertile Delta from Alexandria 
 to Cairo. By any test that may be applied the campaign of 
 1882 exceeds in brilliancy that of 1798. Wolseley's losses, 
 reduced to a minimum by his able strategy and rapid advance, 
 were greater than those incurred by Bonaparte, and the ac- 
 tions of Tel-el-Mahuta, Kassassin, and Tel-el-Kebir were 
 more sanguinary than those of El-Rahmanyeh, Chobra Keit, 
 and the Pyramids, in the lust of which Bonaparte lost 30 killed 
 and 120 wounded to Wolseley's 60 and 400 respectively. 
 
 The political results of the campaign of 1882, which 
 have given us the command of the road to India and pre- 
 dominance in Egypt, exceed those attained by the French in 
 1798, which were of a transitory character, unless the future 
 has in store for us such defeats as Nelson and Abercromby 
 inflicted on the invaders of Egypt at the Nile and Alexandria, 
 and expulsion from that country. As for the financial results, 
 Europe had no business relations with Egypt in 1798, while 
 now she is Egypt's creditor for one hundred millions of debt, 
 besides all the vast amount of capital invested in commercial 
 undertakings, rescued by the British General's victories from 
 total loss. The lapse of years and the halo surrounding a 
 mighty name should not prevent us from instituting a just 
 
WOLSELEY'S DEPARTURE FOR EGYPT. 403 
 
 & 
 
 comparison between the deeds of a countryman and those 
 even of the greatest master of the art of war. 
 
 On the nth June took place the massacres at Alexandria, 
 followed by others scarcely less sanguinary at Tantah and 
 elsewhere ; and, in that month, Admiral Sir Beauchamp Sey- 
 mour, having in vain warned Arabi Pasha and the Govern- 
 ment of which, though only Minister at War, he was virtually 
 the head, that further strengthening the defences of Alex- 
 andria would involve the bombardment of the forts, eflcctually 
 carried his threat into execution. This was followed, two 
 days later, by the landing of some seamen and marines from 
 the fleet, who were reinforced on the i8th July by the ist 
 South Staffordshire (38th Regiment), and 3rd King's Royal 
 Rifles (60th Rifles) from Malta, and on the 24th by a battery 
 of Garrison Artillery and half battalion of the ist Sussex 
 (35th Regiment) from Malta, and the 2nd Cornwall (46th 
 Regiment) from Gibraltar, their places being taken by other 
 troops from England. Sir Archibald Alison assumed com- 
 mand of all the land forces at Alexandria, which he retained 
 until the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley. It was not until 
 the 25th July, when a vote of credit was taken by the 
 Government, that this country was committed to a war with 
 Egypt. On the following day the reserves were called out 
 by proclamation, and on the 29th the French Chamber of 
 Deputies refused the vote of credit proposed by M. Frcycinet 
 to enable his Government to take part in the expedition to 
 which England was now irrevocably committed. No one 
 experienced a greater sense of relief on hearing of this step 
 than the British Commander-in-Chief, who witnessed in 
 China the disastrous results of co-operating with a French 
 army commanded by the incompetent Count Montauban de 
 Palikao. His hands would now be free to act as he thought 
 proper, without consulting with allied generals, or being 
 hampered with considerations for the susceptibilities of a 
 
 26 — 2 
 
 M 
 
 i h 
 
 U 
 
 Jh 
 
 * 1 
 
 ^ w 
 
 !|K 
 
 if 
 
 . jr 
 
404 
 
 LTFE OF LORD WOLSFJ.EY. 
 
 proud nation. The dangers of co-operation were not, how- 
 ever, finally dispelled until Italy declined the offer of our 
 Government, and the Sultan, after an extraordinary display 
 of vacillation and mendacity, first declined the proposal to 
 send his troops to l'>gypt to coerce Arabi as the mandatory 
 of Euroi)e, and when the war was practically over accepted 
 the offer of our Government to despatch a division to act in 
 virtual subordination to the British General. 
 
 ]iefore leaving England Sir Garnet Wolsclcy himself saw 
 to the proper appointment, in all its branches, of the army 
 entrusted to his command, and the arrangements for their 
 embarkation and disposition. Not only tliis, but he pre- 
 pared his i)lan of campaign, from which he deviated in no 
 particular, but carried it out to the letter, and even to the 
 day he fixed before his departure, thus reducing the con- 
 duct of military operations in a country 3,000 miles distant, 
 to the precision of a mathematical ])roblem. The troops 
 despatched to Egypt from this country and the Mediter- 
 ranean before his departure from England numbered 1,010 
 officers and 21,200 non-commissioned ofificers and men, 
 with 54 guns and 5,600 horses; and reinforcements, including 
 depots and drafts to Cyprus, were subse([ucntly sent out or 
 prepared for despatch to the number of 280 officers and 
 10,800 men. To carry this large army, including all the 
 stores, provisions and material (about 41,000 tons up to 
 30th September), a fleet of transports was employed having 
 an aggregate burthen of 147,000 tons. Besides these troops, 
 the Indian contingent, including the reserve at Aden, con- 
 sisted of 7,270* ofificers and men, which included two 
 British regimei.ts, the ist Scaforth Highlanders and ist 
 Manchester, and two batteries of artillery. The three native 
 cavalry regiments had each a strength of 550 of all ranks, 
 
 * This was exclusive of camp followers, 3,500 men. Also 1,700 horses. 
 840 ponies, and nearly 5,000 mules for the guns and transport. 
 
^ 
 
 men, 
 
 THE nRITISir EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 405 
 
 and the native infantry of 822. The grand total of the 
 ICgyptian expedition was 40,560 officers and men, being the 
 largest, as it was certainly the best ecjuipped, army ever 
 despatched by this country. 
 
 The one department in which the expedition was de- 
 fective, as so often happens in our wars, great or little, 
 was the land transport ; only 500 pack animals being sent 
 from iMigland. The defect, due to the system by which the 
 land transport service is not maintained at a serviceable 
 strength, was sought to be remedied during the campaign, 
 and thousands of mules from Spain, America, and else- 
 where, were purchased, but they arrived when the war was 
 over. I^'rom Ismailia, whence Sir (larnet intended to 
 advance on Cairo, there is a railway* to the capital ; but the 
 enemy succeeded in removing most of the railway plant and 
 all the engines, except one that was broken down, so that until 
 this defect was remedied by the arrival of four engines from 
 England and some inferior ones from Alexandria, he had to 
 fall back on the few pack animals in his possession and the 
 Sweet Water Canal ; the Indian contingent alone being sui)- 
 plied with sufficient transport, due to the system in force in 
 that service. 
 
 When all was ready and the Commander-in-Chief was 
 about to sail from England, the success of the expedition 
 
 ♦ The railway from Ismailia, which Sir Garnet Wolseley adopted as his 
 base, proceeds -n one direction to Suez, 55 miles distant, with the Fresh 
 Water Canal runninj,' parallel and close to if the whole way ; and in the 
 other to Cairo, 85 miles. The first station from Ismailia is Nefiche, 2i miles, 
 where the Fresh WaterCanal bifurcates, one branch to Ismailia, and the other, 
 passing through two locks, follows the line of the Maritime Canal, to Suez. 
 After leaving Nefiche, the first station on the line (which runs parallel 10 the 
 Sweet Water Canal), after passing Magfar, is Mahs.mieh, 14 miles, where are 
 irrigating sluices, and at Kassassin, the next station, is a lock. Then follow 
 in succession the stations of Tel-el-Kebir, Abd-el-Hamed, ami Zagazig, an 
 important place with a pofmlation of 35,000 souls. Here the Fresh Wat^r 
 Canal, which divides 8 miles from Tel-el-Kebir, is met again, the other 
 branch going off to Belbeis, and thence to Cairo. The railway station after 
 Zagazig is Burden, 7 miles distant, and then comes Belbeis, 6 miles, Shebeen- 
 el-Kanater, 174 miles ; Kalioob, 12 miles; and Cairo, 10 miles. 
 
 i ■ 
 
 i-l 
 
4o6 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 m 
 
 I'm 
 
 w 
 
 was jeopardized by his illness. In Ashantee Sir Garnet 
 Wolselcy suffered from the fever so prevalent on the West 
 Coast of Africa ; and now, at this critical time, he was again 
 prostrated with this fever, which recurred at a later period 
 when he was at Cairo. Sir (jarnct, accompanied by Sir 
 John Adye, chief of the staff, and his divisional and brigade 
 generals, proceeded, on the 28th July, to Osborne, to take 
 leave of the Queen, and on the following day he was seized 
 with illness, A\hich temporarily incapacitated him work 
 
 at the War Office. On the evening of the 31st Ju^, feeling 
 slightly better, he insisted on transacting business of imi)ort- 
 ance at his own house in connection with his command. 
 On the following day the IVince of Wales called on him to 
 inquire after his health and take leave. 
 
 Sir Garnet had intended proceeding to Alexandria, viil 
 Brindisi and Cyprus, there to inspect the depots, but his 
 state of health debarred him from undertaking so fatiguing a 
 journey. He resolved, therefore, to proceed to his destina- 
 tion by sea, and embarked in the Calabria^ which conveyed 
 two squadrons of the 2nd Life Guards and Hors Guards. 
 Sir Garnet drove to the Albert Docks in a broi t, and 
 his appearance as he walked on board, muffled up as though 
 it was the dei)th of winter, indicated at once his weak state 
 of health and the strength of the patriotic resolution that 
 animated him. On the ship arriving at Gibraltar, Lord 
 Napier of Magdala went on board to visit Sir Garnet, with 
 whom he had campaigned at the relief and capture of 
 Lucknow, under Sir James Outram at the defence of the 
 Alumbagh position, and in China. By this time Sir Garnet 
 had quite recovered from the fever, and was daily gaining 
 strength, so that when the Calabria cast anchor at Alexan- 
 dria, on the night of the 15th August, he was restored to 
 his ordinary health. 
 
 On the following morning he held a conference with 
 
Sl/a GARNETS PLAN OF CAMPAIGN, 407 
 
 Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, Sir John Adye, who had 
 preceded him on the loth August, and the other generals. 
 He then landed, and, in company with Sir E. Malet, visited 
 the Khedive, and in the afternoon accompanied by the 
 Duke of Connaught and Clenerals Sir Archibald Alison and 
 Ciraham and a large staff,* inspected the British lines at 
 Ramleh, and made a more lengthened examination of the 
 positions of the enemy. He was dressed in the blue tunic 
 he wore throughout the campaign, with brown boots, 
 gauntlets, large black goggles, and the solar topee of India. 
 On the following day, the 17th August, ilie Khedive re- 
 turned the visit of the British Commander-in-Chief on board 
 H.M. despatch-vessel Salamis^\s\\\Q}cv he had made his head- 
 (juarters. 
 
 Sir Garnet issued a proclamation in Arabic to the inhabi- 
 tants, declaring it to be the mission of the British army 
 to re-establish the authority of the Khedive, inviting the 
 people to furnish sui)plies, which would be paid for, and 
 promising that the persons and property of those peaceably 
 disposed would be respected. 
 
 Before leaving England, Sir Garnet had arranged his plan 
 of campaign, the lief feature of which was the removal of 
 the base of operai, ns fron. Alexandria to Ismailia ; but 
 beyond apprizing H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief, the 
 Secretary for War, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, he 
 
 !l 
 
 with 
 
 * Sir Garnet Wolseley's personal staff consisted of : Military Secretary, 
 Major L. V. Swaine, Rifle Brigade ; Private Secretary, Major A. C. Y. Fitz- 
 george, nth Hussars ; Aides-de-Camp, Lieutenant Wyatt Rawson, R.N., 
 Captain F. M. Wardrop, 3rd Dragoon Guards, and Lieutenants E. S. F. 
 Childers, R.E. , A. G. Creagh, R.H.A. , and J. Adye, R.A. ; Medical Officer, 
 Brigade-Surgeon R. W. Jackson, C. B. Of these officers, Major Swaine had 
 served under him in Cyprus as Commissioner; Lieutenant Rawson in 
 Ashantee, and was wounded at Amoaml ; and Lieutenant Creagh, and Dr. 
 Jackson in South Africa, on his personal staff. It has been asserted that 
 Sir Garnet gave little opportunity for the exercise of new talen*. but as a 
 matter of fact, in the Egyptian campaign, out of 140 staff appointments, 
 including those of the Indian Contingent, only 17 officers had been with 
 him in Ashantee. 
 
4o8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE^. 
 
 'fM 
 
 Si;:* 
 
 kept his plans to himself: and when, on the 17th August, he 
 issued instructions for the embarkation of the ist, or General 
 Willis's, Division,* giving out that the forts at Aboukir were 
 his destination, no one was in his confidence except Sir John 
 Adye, even the divisional and brigade commanders being in 
 the dark. Alexandria was full of Arabi's spies, and, in making 
 the newspaper correspondents the medium for misleading 
 the enemy, Sir Garnet only repeated the stratagem he had 
 adopted in Ashantee with such success ind which is recom- 
 mended in the following passage in hi? * Soldiers' Pocket- 
 book,' written in 187 1 : 'Without saying so directly, you can 
 lead your army to believe anything ; and, as a rule, in all 
 civilized nations, what is believed by the army will very soon 
 ^ .^ credited by the enemy, having reached him by means of 
 spies, or through the medium of those newly-invented curses 
 to armies — I mean newspaper correspondents.' Sir Garnet 
 was very severe on ' travelling gentlemen, newspaper corre- 
 spondents, and all that race of drones who,' he declared, 
 ' are an encumbrance to an army \ they eat up the rations of 
 fighting men, and do no work at all.' Further on he writes, 
 * Ar English general of the present day is in the most un- 
 fortunate position in this respect, being sunounded by news- 
 paper correspondents, who, pandering to the public craze 
 for "news,'' render concealment most difficult.' But Sir 
 Garnet throughout his career has made excellent use of 
 these * drones ;' and in the present campaign he established 
 a press-censorship, under Colonel Hon. Paul Methuen, which 
 
 * The ist Brigade of the 1st Division was commanded by H.R.H. the 
 Duke of Connaiighl, and consisted of 2nd Hattalion (irenadier Ciuards, and 
 Battalion Coldstream Guaras, and ist Battalion Scots Guards. The and 
 Brigade, commanded by Major-General G. Graham, V.C, C. B., consisted 
 of 2nd Battalion Royal Irish (late i8th Regiment), ist Battalion West Kent 
 (late 50th Regiment), 2nd Battalion York and Lancaster(late84lli Regiment), 
 and isv. Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (late 87th Regiment). Thedivisional 
 troops were two squadrons 19th Hussars, and Battalion Duke of Cornwall's 
 Light Infantry (late 46ih Regiment), A and D Batteries 1st Brigade Royal 
 Artillery, and 24th Company Royal Engineers. 
 
SEIZURE OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 409 
 
 worked remarkably well, and supplied the English public 
 with news without enlightening the enemy on material points 
 such as the numbers and disposition of his troops. 
 
 On the 1 8th July, the 1st Division embarked and sailed 
 on the evening of the following day, the transport agents 
 being supplied vvith sealed orders, which were only opened 
 after the ships were under weigh. The whole armada, consist- 
 ing of twenty-six ships of war and transports, with Sir (larnet 
 Wolseley in the despatch-vessel Salamis^ anchored off the 
 Aboukir forts at 3.30 p.m. ; the ships of war had their top- 
 masts struck in readiness for action, but at about 10.30, in 
 the darkness of night, the fleet silently got under weigh, and 
 steamed full speed for Port Said. On the following morn- 
 ing, Rear-Admiral Hoskins at Port Said, acting under orders 
 from Sir Beauchamp Seymour, effected the seizure of the 
 Maritime Canal. Commander I'Mwards with boats of the 
 scjuadron seized the portion between Port Said and Ismailia, 
 Captains Fairfax and Fitzroy occupying these places with 
 seamen and marines ; and, at the same time, Rear-Admiral 
 Sir William Hewett, commanding at Suez, sent H.M.S. 
 Seagull and Mos//info, under Captain Hastings, with 200 of 
 the Seaforth Highlanders under Major Kelsey, into the lower 
 portion of the canal, and, after a skirmish, in which the 
 enemy suffered great slaughter from the shell-firc of the 
 ships, Shalouf was occupied, which gave the British the 
 command of the Fresh Water Canal. The imi)ortant 
 operation of seizing the canal throughout its length of 
 99 miles was completed by the British navy between 
 three and eight a.m. of Sunday, the 20th August, when Sir 
 Garnet arrived at Port Said with the ist Division. 
 
 No operation could have been more rapidly and effectively 
 performed, and the greatest credit was due to Admirals 
 Hoskins and Hewett, and their subordinates, Captain 
 Hastings, at Shalouf ; Captain I'airfax, who occupied Port 
 
L/ f^ 
 
 410 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Hi' 1 
 
 
 %. 
 
 ■'J '■ 
 
 
 ' '''^ .■ 
 
 |:: 
 
 ' '.'f''< 
 
 -tv,; 
 
 ■ !;■! •■■' 
 
 iv . 
 
 ■^f 
 
 
 Said, and disarmed the garrison ; Commander Edwards, who 
 seized the upper portion of the canal and the telegraph 
 station at Kantara; and Captain Fitzroy at Ismailia. 
 'I'his latter officer had a specially difficult and delicate 
 task to perform. Landing with 565 seamen and marines 
 from the Orion, Coquette, and Carysfort, he seized the 
 town of Ismailia, the proposed base of operations, being 
 ably seconded by Captain Stephenson, of the Carysfort, 
 Commanders Moore and Kane (who was wounded when 
 seizing th(; railway and locks), and Major Fraser, R.E., 
 whose ])rofcssional assistance in entrenching the advanced 
 position was of great service. Arabi had strong guards 
 in Ismailia and the Arab town, as well as 2,000 men, 
 with 6 guns, in camp at Nefichc, and during the day he 
 sent 3,000 more men towards Nefiche from Tel-cl-Kebir 
 to re-occupy the town, upon which the ships bombarded the 
 railway station, destroying the camp and wrecking tvo of 
 the trains, and compelled the enemy to withdraw. At 
 10,30 p.m. the same night, (leneral (jraham, commanding 
 the 2nd Brigade, arrived with the advanced gua"d of the 
 army, and, assuming command, reinforced the different 
 positions in the town ; and, at eight a.m. on the following 
 morning, the 21st August, he occupied Nefiche with two 
 battalions. Meanwhile the canal was closed against the 
 admission of all vessels, except British ships of war and 
 transports, which proceeded as rapidly as possible to Ismailia, 
 where the troops were cjuickly landed. 
 
 Oa the 2 1 St August Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived at 
 Ismailia. He soon found that he would be compelled to 
 advance beyond Nefiche before his i)reparations were com- 
 plete, owing to the gradual, but continuous, fall of water in the 
 Sweet Water Canal, which denoted that it had been damiiied. 
 It was, as he wrote, of * paramount importance ' that he 
 should ' secure possession of that part of the water-supply 
 
THE ACTION AT EL- MAG FAR. 
 
 411 
 
 of the desert lying l)ct\vcen Ismailia and the first cultivated 
 portion of the Delta;' and accordingly, although his cavalry 
 and artillery horses had been less than two days ashore after 
 a long voyage, and he was averse from ' placing the strain 
 of a forward movement upon the recent and partially organ- 
 ized supply service,' he determined to push forward with 
 such of his available cavalry and artillery as had been 
 landed, to a point in the neighbourhood of Tel-el-Mahuta, 
 about nine miles west from Ismailia. 
 
 At four a.m. on the 24th August, Sir (larnet Wolseley 
 marched from Ismailia with the Household Cavalry, under 
 (leneral Drury-Lowe, and accompanied by Colonel Harrison, 
 R.E., assistant to Ceneral Karle, commanding the lines of 
 communication; Colonel W. F. Ikitler, C.B., and Major 
 J. F. Maurice, R.A., respectively Assistant and Deputy- 
 Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-Genciai ; Major 
 L. V. Swainc, Military vSecretary, and his four aides- 
 de-camp. At daybreak the Commandor-in-C'hief arrived 
 at Nefichc, whence General Graham marched in sujjport 
 with his infantry, consisting of the Royal Marines and 
 York and Lancaster Regiment, and the Mounted Infantry. 
 Following the general line of the railway, Sir Garnet arrived 
 at 7.30 a.m., on the north side of the canal, at a point mid- 
 way between ICl-Magfar and the village of Tel-el-Mahuta, 
 where the enemy had constructed his first dam across 
 the canal. A little skirmish took place, the Household 
 Cavalry delivering their first charge in the camjjaign, and 
 from this point the enemy could be observed in force, about 
 one and a half mile farther ahead, his vedettes holding a 
 line, about 2,000 yards in front, extending across the canal 
 and lining the crest of a ridge which curved round to the 
 British right fiank. The canal and railway, which are carried 
 through deep cuttings at Tel-el-Mahuta, were strongly 
 entrenched and held in force, and communication was kept 
 
412 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 across the canal by a dam, and across the railway by an em- 
 bankment, hut in rear the latter was at work bringing up 
 reinforcements from Tel-el-Kebir. 
 
 The enemy was in great force, consisting, as afterwards 
 ascertained, of a regiment of cavalry, nine battalions of infantry 
 (7,000 men) and 12 guns, with a large body of Bedouins ; 
 while the British General had with him only three squadrons of 
 cavalry, less than 1,000 infantry, 34 Mounted Infantry, and 
 2 guns of N Battery A Brigade R.H.A., which only arrived 
 at nine o'clock, the men and horses being much exhausted 
 with bringing the guns through t'.ie heavy sand. Sir Garnet 
 sent Lieutenant Adye to bring up the Duke of Cornwall's 
 Light Infantry from Nefiche, and the brigade of Guards, and 
 the remainder of the N Battery, and A Battery of 1st 
 Brigade, as soon as they could be pushed on from Ismailia, 
 and Colonel Harrison went back to organize the supply 
 arrangements. The enemy opened a heavy artillery fire, and 
 his infantry advanced in regular attack formation, halting 
 and forming a line of shelter trenches, about 1,000 yards 
 from the British position, and within 900 yards of the dam 
 on the left, held by the York and Lancaster Regiment. 
 But this gallant corps and the Marines maiiitained their 
 ground with great sp-nt, while nothing could exceed the 
 stubborn determination with which the detachment of Horse 
 Artillery, under Lieutenant Hickman, posted on a line of 
 sand-hillocks, replied to the overwhelming fire of the 
 Egyptian gunners. 
 
 * The enemy's guns,' writes the General, * were served with 
 considerable skill, the shells bursting well among us.' The 
 first shell went ,1 few yards over the head of Sir Garnet, who 
 had dismounted, breaking the leg of a horse, on which he 
 ordered all the horses to be led behind the hill. The shells 
 fell thickly around, but fortunately they were fitted with 
 percussion-fuzes, and sank deep in the soft sand before 
 
THE ENEMY DRIVEN BACK. 
 
 413 
 
 r an em- 
 ging up 
 
 :ervvards 
 infantry 
 douins ; 
 drons of 
 try, and 
 
 arrived 
 ;hausted 
 
 Garnet 
 )rnwairs 
 rds, and 
 
 of 1st 
 smailia, 
 
 supply 
 ire, and 
 
 halting 
 
 > yards 
 le dam 
 giment. 
 d their 
 ied the 
 Horse 
 
 line of 
 
 of the 
 
 id with 
 The 
 et, who 
 lich he 
 ; shells 
 d with 
 before 
 
 exploding, so that few splinters flew about; and the shrapnel 
 were equally harmless, owing to the time-fuzes being badly 
 cut. While the guns and infantry were actively engaged, the 
 Household Cavalry and Mounted Infantry moved forward 
 at right angles on the extreme right to check the enemy's 
 advance on that side, but the horses were in no condition 
 to charge. The latter most useful corps particularly dis- 
 tinguished itself, under the command of Captain Hallam 
 Parr (who, as also Lord Melgund, was wounded), and again 
 demonstrated its great utility in war.* 
 
 The heat was excessive and told especially on the gunners, 
 who had to run up the guns each time they recoiled through 
 the heavy sands ; but nerved by the encouraging messages 
 sent to them by Sir Garnet Wolseley, and later in the day 
 assisted by some of the Marine Artillery, they nobly stuck 
 to their work. The position at this time was undoubtedly 
 such as to cause anxiety, but the Commander had perfect 
 confidence in his men, and they justified his good opinion. 
 Most, if not all, of them had never before been under fire, 
 but the calm cheerfulness of their General never more self- 
 possessed than amid the turmoil of battle, reassured them 
 that all was right. 
 
 At noon a serious danger arose, the enemy having placed 
 4 guns completely taking the front of the position in flank, 
 
 * Sir Garnet Wolseley has always been an advocate for the employment of 
 Mounted Infantry. In the last edition of his 'Soldiers' Pocket-book,' com- 
 pleted just before his departure for Egypt, he expresses an opinion that they 
 ought to form a component part of an army. Regarding his views as to artil- 
 lery, Sir Garnet, whose experience of shell-fire is only eejuailed by those who 
 like him had served in the trenches of Sebastopol througiiout the siege, has 
 always been of opinion that their effect is more moral than material. He 
 says : ' An immoderate number of guns with any force is most embarrassing, 
 for any guns that cannot be brought into action are most injurious in tiieir 
 effects upon the result, as they block up the roads and hamper every mov;"- 
 ment.' At Gravelotte, out of every hundred casualities, only si.\ were caused 
 by artillery. 'Campaigns,' he says, 'can be carried out without cavalry or 
 artillery, but nothing serious can be effected without iho aid of men fighting 
 on foot.' 
 
: ^- m ' ■ 
 
 iiu*i^». i 
 
 414 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 and exposing the force to a cross fire ; but at this time a 
 ])arty of sailors from H.M.S. Orion, under Lieutenant King- 
 Harman, opportunely arrived with 2 Catlings, and aided by 
 one of the 2 guns met this new attack. 
 
 At one p.m. the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry arrived 
 from Ncfiche>and at 3.30 the Household Cavalry and Mounted 
 Infantry, under General Lowe, again moved forward on the 
 extreme right, forcing the enemy to partially withdraw his 
 attack on that flank. Soon after five, the enemy again ad- 
 vanced his left, pushing 4 guns over the ridge, but at this 
 time Sir Baker Russell arrived with 350 men of the 4th and 
 7th Dragoon Cuards, and the remaining guns of N Battery, 
 and 2 guns of N Battery 2nd Brigade R. A. ; at six, the Duke 
 of Connaught aj^peared on the scene with the Brigade of 
 Guards, which, leaving Ismailia at 1.30 p.m., suffered severely 
 from the great heat of the desert march. It was too late to 
 make an offensive movement, which Sir Garnet resolved to 
 defer till the morrow, but he spent the last two hours of day- 
 light by riding round all the positions and thanking the 
 troops of all arms for their exertions. 
 
 The army bivouacked on the ground, and Sir Garnet rode 
 back to Ismailia, which he quitted at 3 a.m. on the following 
 morning, the 25th August, accompanied by Sir John Adye 
 and the headquarter staff, and the remaining squadron of 
 the Household Cavalry, which had just been landed. The 
 Commander-in-Chief had given orders to General Willis for 
 a general advance at daybreak, and on his arrival at 5.30, 
 found that the whole of the ist Division, with the cavalry, 
 8 guns, and the 3rd Battalion King's Royal Rifles, had 
 (juitted their bivouac and were advancing on the enemy's 
 position. 
 
 - Pushing on he joined them, when the advance was con- 
 tinued in the following order : The cavalry and Mounted 
 Infantry on the extreme right on the sand-hillocks, then the 
 
 
SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AT MAHSAMEH. 415 
 
 his time a 
 lant King- 
 l aided by 
 
 try arrived 
 i Mounted 
 ird on the 
 hdraw his 
 
 again ad- 
 t)ut at this 
 e 4th and 
 ^ Battery, 
 
 the Duke 
 Brigade of 
 d severely 
 00 late to 
 ^solved to 
 rs of day- 
 iking the 
 
 rnet rode 
 following 
 hn Adye 
 adron of 
 The 
 ^Villis for 
 at 5.30, 
 cavalry, 
 cs, had 
 enemy's 
 
 vas con- 
 lounted 
 hen the 
 
 artillery towards the high ground between Ramses and 
 Mahsameh Stations, and the infantry on the left in echelon 
 from the right upon Mahuta, the (iuards leading. Sir Ciar- 
 net's plan was to pivot on his left at the dam captured the 
 day before, about half-way between Magfarand Mahuta, and 
 swing round his right so as to take the enemy's position in 
 flank and drive him into the canal, sending the cavalry com- 
 pletely round his position to occupy the railway. The enemy, 
 however, did not await the onset, but abandoned his earth- 
 works at Mahuta, and retired along the canal-bank and the 
 railway line towards Mahsameh, using also the trains for 
 assisting the movement. 
 
 At 6.25 the guns came into action, and as it was of the 
 utmost importance to secure some engines, Sir (iarnet di- 
 rected the cavalry to push forward with that object. But 
 the horses were in bad condition after their long voyage and 
 rapid and fatiguing march of the previous day, and as Sir 
 Garnet observed, ' there was not at this time in the whole 
 cavalry brigade a troop that could gallop.' They, however 
 succeeded, notwithstanding considerable resistance, in getting 
 into the rear of the enemy, and capturing Mahsameh with 
 its extensive camp, 7 Krupp guns, vast quantities of ammuni- 
 tion and supplies, and seventy-five railway carriages laden with 
 provisions. The enemy, who were commanded by Rashid 
 Pasha, fled along the railway and canal banks, throwing 
 away their arms with every appearance of demoralization, 
 and among those captured was Mahmoud Fehmy Pasha, 
 Arabi's chief engineer. 
 
 The results of the two days' operations were such as to 
 satisfy the Commander-in-Chief, being the capture of the 
 strong entrenched position on which 7,000 peasants had 
 been compelled to labour, the clearance of the canal for more 
 than half the distance between Ismailia and the Delta, thus 
 securing the water-supply, the capture of the railway line for 
 
i I 
 
 416 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 a distance of 20 miles from the base, and the seizure of an 
 important strategic position. All this was accomplished by 
 troops most of whom had never before been in action, march- 
 ing over a desert without roads and under a blazing sun. 
 Owing to the advance being made before the railway or 
 telegrai)h lines had been repaired, or the canal cleared of its 
 obstruction, or any regular system of transport organized, 
 the men were without tents and suffered severe privations 
 as regards food, which they bore with cheerfulness. The 
 British loss was slight, 5 killed and 25 wounded, among the 
 latter. Major Bibby, 7th Dragoon Guards, and Captain Parr 
 and Lord Melgund of the Mounted Infantry, and there were 
 forty-eight sunstrokes in the ranks. 
 
 On the following day Sir Garnet occupied Kassassin Lock, 
 two and a half miles west of Mahsameh ; and having placed 
 in command of this advanced post General Graham, an 
 officer in whom he had every confidence, which later events 
 fully justified, he returned to Ismailia, to push on, with all 
 the energy and administrative ability of which he was pos- 
 sessed, the organization of the transi)ort department, which 
 offered no ordinary difficulties. But with his experience in 
 the Red River and Ashantee Expeditions, his energy, and 
 power of infusing his spirit into his own subordinates, these 
 difficulties were vigorously combated until success rewarded 
 his efforts. When the removal of the locomotive engines by 
 the enemy threw difficulties not wholly unexpected in his 
 path, the Navy — under the leadership of his two old friends 
 and comrades in arms, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who served 
 with him in the second Burmese War, and Sir William Hewett, 
 in the Crimea and Ashantee — zealously co-operated with the 
 sister service. Captain Rawson, R.N., the naval officer in 
 charge of the disembarkation, assisted by Captain Bracken- 
 bury, R.N., worked with untiring energy in co-operation with 
 Sir Owen Lanyon, commandant of the base of operations, 
 
PREPARATIONS AT THE BASE. 
 
 417 
 
 under Major-General Earle, in supreme charge of the lines 
 of communication, his assistants being Majors Sartorius 
 and McGregor, who distributed and forwarded from Ismailia 
 the stores as they were landed from the ships. From Ismailia 
 there was a service of mules towing pontoons filled with 
 stores ; and the Navy organized in the Fresh Water Canal 
 a service of steam-launches towing ships' boats, which were of 
 assistance also in bringing back from the front the sick and 
 wounded. A tramway was constructed from the beach to 
 the railway station, but there was a deficiency of labourers, 
 and for a considerable time over 1,800 soldiers, chiefiy 
 Guardsmen, were engaged in the irksome and uncongenial 
 work of common navvies, while their more fortunate com- 
 rades were fighting at the front. No blame for this deficiency 
 of transport was attributable to Commissary-General Morris, 
 but it was due to political causes, as the Government wished 
 to avoid any expenditure recjuiring a Parliamentary vote, in 
 order to obviate the necessity of entering into inconvenient 
 explanations of policy. 
 
 When the press and public at home grumbled at the so- 
 called delay at Ismailia, it was not known that it was expected 
 by the sagacious Commander-in-Chief before he left England. 
 The prime object was to seize the canal and railway with the 
 rolling-stock. This was accomplished by the actions of the 
 24th and 25th August, and between that date and the 29th, 
 the advantages gained by those successes were in course of 
 development, so that events followed their normal and 
 antici[)ated course. 
 
 Much delay and inconvenience was caused until the 
 arrival of the railway plant from Alexandria and England, 
 the former being old, and in bad repair; but by the first week 
 in September there were in use seven engines, including four 
 sent from England in the Canadian^ and abundance of rolling- 
 stock, including the seventy-five carriages captured at Mah- 
 
 27 
 
 
4i8 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOT.SEI.EY. 
 
 sfimeh on the 25th August. The tonnage of the railway plant 
 sent from Kngland was 1 5,500, the administrative staff consist 
 ing of the 8th company of Sai)pcrs and Major Wallace, R. K., 
 and Captain Scott, R.lv (both of whom had great experience 
 in this dei)artment in India and served under Sir Frederick 
 Roberts in Afghanistan), and Lieutenant Willcock, R.E., all 
 of whom did special good service. 
 
 After the successful action of the 25th August had placed 
 Kassassin Lock in the hands of Sir Garnet Wolseley, he re- 
 turned to Ismailia, leaving General (Jraham in comma.id 
 with a force* of 1,728 infantry, 127 cavalry and Mour ted 
 Infantry, and 2 guns. In rear, at Mahsameh, four and tl ree- 
 (juarter miles distant, General Drury-Lowc was stationed 
 with the Household Cavalry, 7th Dragoon Guards, the four 
 remaining guns of N Battery, and a battalion of the Royal 
 Marines. The brigade of Guards, under the Duke of Con- 
 naught, was stationed at Tel-el-Mahuta, where General 
 Willis had his headquarters. 
 
 About 9.30 on the morning of the 28th August, the 
 enemy's cavalry appeared in force on the left of General 
 Graham's position, when he turned his troops out and hclio- 
 graphed to General Drury-Lowe, who brought his cavalry 
 within two or three miles of the camp, but as the enemy, 
 about 3 p.m., appeared to be retiring, and the men were 
 suffering much from the heat, the cavalry and other troops re- 
 turned to their camps. An hour and a half later, however, the 
 enemy advanced in great force, estimated at 1,000 cavalry and 
 8,000 infantry, suj^porting the attack with a heavy fire from 
 T 2 guns. General Graham's position astride the canal, with a 
 ridge within range which he was too weak to occupy, was not 
 easily defensible, but it was determined by the necessity for 
 
 ^ This force consisted of N Battery A Brisjade R.M.A. , 40 officers and 
 men ;ind 2puns ; 4tli Dra.fi[oon Cluards, 15 of all ranks ; ytli I)ra2;oon (Jiiards, 
 42 ; Mounted Infantry, yu ; and Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 
 611 ; 2ad Battalion York and Lancaster, 690 ; Marine Artillery, 427. 
 
THE CA VALRY CHARGE AT KA SSA SS/N. 4 1 9 
 
 ay ])lant 
 r consist 
 :e, R.K., 
 pcricnce 
 rcdcrick 
 R.E., all 
 
 d placed 
 y, he re- 
 nin mn. id 
 Mom tod 
 nd tl rec- 
 stationcd 
 the four 
 le Royal 
 ; of Con- 
 General 
 
 List, the 
 
 General 
 
 nd helio- 
 
 cavalry 
 
 enemy, 
 
 icn were 
 
 rooi)s re- 
 
 ever, the 
 
 airy and 
 
 ire from 
 
 il, with a 
 
 was not 
 
 ;ssity for 
 
 ficers and 
 jii (jtinrds, 
 t Infantry, 
 27. 
 
 holding the lock. That veteran soldier made his dispositions 
 with skill, placing; his infantry in irregular <V//Mv/, right thrown 
 back, the Marine Artillery on the south of the canal, the 1 )uke 
 of Cornwall's in the centre, and the York and Lancaster on the 
 right. The troop of 7th I )ragoon ( luards were on the Hank and 
 the 2 guns under Lieutenant Parsons on the ridge. Owing, 
 however, to the latter being only supplied with the ammuni- 
 tion in their limbers, they had soon to cease firing ; but the 
 fire was gallantly taken up by a captured Krupj) gun, manned 
 by Marine Artillery under Captain Tucker, who maintained 
 an unetpial duel with the enemy's artillery throughout the 
 action. The Mounted Infantry and detachment of 4th 
 Dragoon Guards acted as infantry, and did gallant service. 
 Lieutenants Pigott and F.dwards of the Mounted Infantry 
 being wounded. General Graham again heliographed to 
 General Lowe for assistance, and despatched Lieutenant 
 Pirie, 4th Dragoon Guards, with a rc(iuest to send forward 
 the Royal Marines, and * bring round his cavalry under 
 cover of the hill and fall upon the left flank of the enemy's 
 skirmishers and roll up his line.' How brilliantly this order 
 was executed is well known. General (iraham gave the 
 order to his whole line to advance on the enemy at 6.45, 
 about the time of the expected cavalry charge, which was 
 executed about an hour later by the fitful light of the moon. 
 After a few rounds from the guns, the Household Cavalry, 
 under Colonel Ewart, and 7th Dragoon Guards — the whole 
 gallantly led by the Brigadier, Sir Baker Russell, who gave 
 the order, ' Now we have them — charge !' — guided by the 
 Hash of the rifles of the hostile infantiy, which continued 
 to advance, charged through and utterly scattered the 
 enemy, capturing 7 or 9 guns, which they were unable to 
 secure, owing to the darkness. General Graham had already, 
 unaided, compelled the retirement of the enemy, but this 
 brilliant charge completed their discomfiture. On hearing 
 
 27 — 2 
 
420 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 of it at 8. 1 5, he ordered his infantry to fall bark, and all the 
 troops returned to camp, where the Marines had arrived 
 an hour before. The loss sustained by Oaham's Brigade 
 was one officer, Surgeon-Major Shaw, and 7 men killed ; 
 5 officers and 66 men wounded. The Cavalry ]irigade 
 had one officer — Lieutenant Gribhle, 3rd Dragoon Guards, 
 orderly officer to Sir Baker Russell — and 6 men killed, and 
 one officer, Major Townshend, 2nd Life Guards, and 18 men 
 wounded. Thirty horses were killed and wounded, and 
 Sir Baker Russell had his charger shot under him. The 
 enemy fought with great determination, probably ins])ired 
 by the presen'^e of Arabi, who was present on the field, 
 and brought \iy} reinforcements about 8 p.m., evidently in 
 the expectation of overwhelming the British. 
 
 Generals Drury-Lowe and Graham are somewhat at vari- 
 ance in their accounts as to the enemy being in retreat 
 before the cavalry-charge was made, but as one conversant 
 with the incidents remarked to us, both were right, for the 
 main portion of the enemy opposed to Graham were actually 
 in retreat ; but there was another portion detached to the 
 flank, which were unbroken at the time of the cavalry charge, 
 by which they were effectually dispersed. 
 
 On the following day, the 29th August, Brigadier-General 
 Wilkinson marched in with a portion of the cavalry of th( 
 Indian Contingent, which had made the distance of eighty- 
 three miles from Suez in four days.* Reconnoissances were 
 
 
 * Tlie cavalry consisted of two troops of the 2nd Bencfal Cavnlry, under 
 Captain Martin, two of the 6tli Rcnqal Cavalry, under C'olonel Upperton. 
 and tliree of the 13th Beni^al Lancers, under Colonel Macnasjhten. The 
 Indian Brigade, completely equipped, with transport, supj^lies for five days, 
 and ambulance corps, left Suez at 2 a.tn. on the morning of Thnrsdav 
 28tli August. On arriving at the edge of the desert an unavo *■ 
 
 occurred, as Admiral Hewett, at the last moment, thougl ' it u' 
 Suez should be protected only by the small force n*" it^vh" 
 the purpose. But overnight the Tenasscrim arriv He: 
 
 Cavalry, and the column struck camp at i a.m. 01 ^511. nan a 
 
 withotU incident to Shaiouf, eleven miles distant. C aturda\ le column 
 was again on the march by 5 a.m., and Gennafeh, seventeen 1 aes distant, 
 
CONCENTRATION AT THE FRONT. 
 
 421 
 
 id all the 
 I arrived 
 s Brigade 
 n killed ; 
 
 Brigade 
 1 Guards, 
 illed, and 
 d 1 8 men 
 JeJ, and 
 m. The 
 
 inspired 
 the field, 
 dently in 
 
 t at vari- 
 n retreat 
 Dnvcrsant 
 ;, for the 
 ; actually 
 d to the 
 y charge, 
 
 General 
 •y of the 
 f eighty- 
 ices were 
 
 ilry, under 
 Upperton. 
 iten. The 
 five days, 
 Thnr-flav 
 
 lan il 
 lO coUuan 
 - distant, 
 
 almost daily undertaken by these fine troops in the direction 
 of Tcl-el-Kebir, where Arabi had thrown up strong defensive 
 works. The troops at Kassassin now consisted of the whole 
 of the ist Brigade of cavalry, seven troops of Indian cavalry, 
 five battalions of infantry, and five batteries of artillery. 
 
 The Highland Brigade,''*' consisting of four battalions, under 
 Sir Archibald Alison, with Sir Edward Ilamlcy command- 
 ing the 2nd Division, arrived from Alexandria at Ismailia 
 on the ist September, but were kept on board ship until 
 their services were required at the front. On the same 
 day Colonel Redvers Buller arrived from England to take 
 charge of the Intelligence Department,t of which Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Tulloch had been so efficient a head, and con- 
 ducted reconnoissanccs of the enemy's lines at Tel-el-Kebir. 
 
 On the morning of the 2nd September, Sir (iarnet Wolseley, 
 accompanied by Sir Beauchamp Seymour, Admiral Hoskins, 
 the Duke of Teck, and other officers, started from Ismailia 
 for the front, proceeding as far as Tel-el-AIahuta in a steam- 
 launch, and the remainder of the journey in a train. The 
 
 was reached early in the day. Next day the distance covered was thirty 
 milLS, the march being unbrolscn at SorapL'iim, and tiic troops readied 
 Ismailia at i p.m. in pcrlect condition, and on Tuesday arrived at 
 Kassassin. 
 
 * 1st Battalion Royal Highlanders (late 42nd), 2nd Battalion Highland 
 Light Infantry (late 74ih), ibt Hatlalion Gordon Highlanders (late 75lh), and 
 ist l5.ittalion Cameron Higiilaiiders (late 79:11). 
 
 t The ofticers of the Intelligence Ucpartment were among the most capable 
 in the army. C'olonel (now ^ir Redverb) Hullers name is a household word, 
 not only in England, but in South Ainca, where he and Sir Evel)n Wood were 
 confessedly the heroes of the Zulu War. 'In this campaign,' says Sir Garnet, 
 'he displayed his usual and thorough-going soldier-like qualities. ' Uf Colonel 
 Tulloch, 691I1 Regiment, he says : ' No man could evince more untiring zeal 
 for the public service than he has done since his arrival in Egypt some months 
 ago." Of Major Ardagh, R. E. , wiio also did good service at Alexandria, he 
 says : ' In addition to his regular duties he rendered valuable assistance in the 
 organization of our railway system from lamaHia to Kassassin. Always will- 
 ing to undertake any service, no matter how difficult or trying, he had proved 
 himself to be a most excellent ofticer in the field.' Major Hart, East Surrey 
 Regiment, the other ofticer of the Intelligence Ucpartment, assisted in 
 pioneering General GraUam's brigade on the evenilul night of the 12th 
 September. 
 
I 
 
 422 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 party reached Kassassin at 1.30, and Sir Garnet, after a 
 hasty inspection, left again at three, taking in the train 
 some wounded prisoners. The engine, one of those from 
 Alexandria, was in a wretched condition, and, after many 
 halts, finally broke down within two miles of the camp at 
 Mahuta. All the generals, admirals, and their staffs had 
 to trudge on foot through the desert until horses arrived 
 from the (iuards' camp, and would have afforded a fine haul to 
 any roving body of Bedouins, parties of whom had been seen 
 provvling about, and had killed a European soldier. The 
 remainder of the distance to Ismailia was performed in a 
 steam-launch. 
 
 Beyond an expedition on the 6th, by General Graham, 
 along the south bank of the canal in the direction of Mah- 
 sameh, against these bands of marauding Bedouins, and 
 reconnoissances towards Tel-el- Kebir, no military operations 
 were undertaken at Kassassin until Saturday, the 9th Sep- 
 tember, when the enemy tried to force the Commander-in- 
 Chiefs hand by taking the offensive. 
 
 On the morning -^f the previous day a reconnoissance was 
 made by the three arms towards Tel-el-Kebir, when the 
 Mounted Infantr)* bore the brunt of the skirmishing. 
 Arabi replied by a reconnoissance in force on the 9th, 
 and the affair almost assumed the proportions of a general 
 action. Lieutenant-General Willis was now in command of 
 the troops at Kassassin, and his dispositions for preventing 
 a surprise were certainly not such as might have been 
 expected from an officer of his experience and reputation as 
 an Aldershot strategist. 
 
 At 4 a.m, that morning Lieutenant-Colonel Penning- 
 
 * The Mounted Infanrry was now conimanded by Captain R. C. 
 Lawrence, 5tii Dragoon Guards, son of General R. C Lawrence, C B. ,.,of 
 the Indian army, and nepiiew of the late Lord Lawrence and Sir Henry 
 Lawrence. The gallant officer was a worthy successor of Captain Hallam 
 Parr and Lieutenant Pigott, wlio liad both been wounded, and, hke them, 
 he received the high approval of his commander. 
 
ACTION OF THE c^jii SEPTEMBER. 
 
 423 
 
 ■t, after a 
 ;he train 
 3se from 
 ;er many 
 camp at 
 taffs had 
 i arrived 
 e haul to 
 een seen 
 2r. The 
 led in a 
 
 Graham, 
 of Mah- 
 ins, and 
 aerations 
 9th Sep- 
 inder-in- 
 
 mce was 
 hen the 
 mishing. 
 the 9th, 
 general 
 mand of 
 eventing 
 ^•e been 
 .ation as 
 
 'enning- 
 
 in R. C. 
 . CB..,of 
 Sir Henry 
 n Hallani 
 line them, 
 
 ton left cami) with two pickets, about 60 men, of the 
 13th Bengal Lancers, and found himself in presence of a 
 force of three squadrons of cavalry and some infantry. 
 Pennington Hrst dismounted his men to keep the enemy in 
 check while Colonel Macnaghten, commanding the regi- 
 ment, galloped back to cam[) to bring up the rest of his 
 men, and then, finding that they still advanced, made a 
 gallant charge on the cavalry, killing 10 of them. 
 
 Meantime the enemy, commanded by Ali Fehmi Pasha, 
 Arabi being present on the field, advanced in great force 
 from Tel-el-Kebir, a detachment from Salahieh co-oi)erating 
 on the Piank. The enemy's force was seventeen battalions 
 of infantry, several squadrons of cavalry, and a few thousand 
 of Bedouins, with about 30 guns, and an easy victory was 
 anticipated, as Arabi thought General Willis had only a weak 
 advanced guard. The British camp was soon astir, and all 
 arms had a hot day's work. The Household Cavalry charged 
 the detachment from Salahieh and captured a gun ; and tv.'o 
 companies of the Marines, under Captains Wardell and 
 Coffin, captured 2 guns in gallant style. The battalion had 
 25 men wounded, of whom several died. Other regiments 
 that distinguished themselves were the York and Lancaster, 
 the King's Rifles, which had 2 killed and 28 wounded, and 
 the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. The Naval Brigade 
 worked a forty-pounder in a railway truck, and Lieutenant 
 Purvis, R.N., in command, was wounded in the foot, which 
 had to be amputated. Major Hart, East Surrey Regiment, 
 of the Staff — brother of Major Hart, WC, R. I-'.., aide-de- 
 camp to Cieneral Graham — did excellent service on this day, 
 and was wounded in the arm. _ 
 
 'i'he enemy could effect nothing, though their shells at 
 one time fell within the camp, and at length the steady fire 
 of the infantry and two batteries of artillery compelled them 
 to give ground, and they retreated in some confusion towards 
 
 m 
 
424 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 !^Hl 
 
 tHil 
 
 Tel-cl-Kebir. General Graham followed until Arabi, having 
 arrived within one and three-qnarter miles of his works, drew 
 up, and our army also halted, when the two remained sur- 
 veying each other, the artillery only exchanging an occasional 
 shell. About 10.45 Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived from 
 Ismailia, and, having carefully surveyed the position, de- 
 cided to withdraw his troops into camp. 
 
 Much disap[)ointmcnt was felt among the eager young 
 spirits in the camp, and even among those more experienced 
 in war, at this step of the Commander-in-Chief "^Phe Times 
 correspondent wrote : ' It is understood that more than one 
 distinguished officer in the field on Saturday was anxious t( 
 push right into the works with the rebel troops;' adding that 
 ' if an advance had then been ordered, it seems to be gener- 
 ally believed that Arabi's troops would have made no stand.' 
 But this was whut Sir Garnet Wolseley wished that they 
 should do. As he says, ' My desire was to fight him de- 
 cisively where he was in the open desert, before he could 
 retire to take up fresh positions more difficult of access in 
 the cultivated country in his rear, which is practically im- 
 passable to a regular army, being irrigated and cut up in 
 every direction by deep canals.' it was because this object 
 could only be effected by a surprise that the Commander-in- 
 Chief held his hand, and decided not to strike the blow 
 until it could be made crushing and decisive. Many of the 
 newspaper correspondents, and a section of the London and 
 foreign press, inveighed against Sir Garnet Wolseley for 
 want of enterprise and judgment in not following up the 
 success of the 9th September ; but looking at the results of 
 abstention from pushing his advantage, probably in no 
 action of his military career did he display in so remarkable a 
 manner the self-restraint and judgment which are among the 
 chief attributes of a really great commander. It was true 
 military genius that showed him, after a rapid glance at the 
 
ii 
 
 THE EVE OF THE BATTLE. 
 
 425 
 
 situaticn, that the time had not yet come for the final 
 advance. His carefully elaborated plans for following up 
 the victory on which he surely counted, could not be put 
 into execution so certainly and effectually as if he waited 
 for all his reinforcements, including the Highland Brigade, 
 and struck his blow at such an early hour of the day that 
 time would be given for the pursuit, and for following up 
 the advantages of the victory, chief among which were the 
 seizure of Zagazig and the rescue of Cairo from the fate of 
 Alexandria.* 
 
 The troops in the rear were now moved up to the front. 
 The Guards arrived from Mahuta, and the Highland Brigade, 
 under Sir Archibald Alison, from Ismailia ; also the re- 
 mainder of the Indian Contingent, commanded by Sir 
 Herbert Macpherson, consisting of a battery of seven- 
 pounders (screw guns), the ist Battalion Seaforth High- 
 landers (72nd Regiment)^ and detachments of the 7th Native 
 Infantry, 28th Punjaubees, and 29th Belooches.f The first 
 day's march of the troops from Ismailia was eight miles ; the 
 second, after a bivouac in the desert under a blistering sun 
 until 4 p.m., nine miles; and on the third day eight miles, 
 which brought the column to the camp at Kassassin. The 
 troops left in garrison at Ismailia were the Sussex and Man- 
 chester Regiments, and some Native Infantry. 
 
 All was now ready for the great blow which was to make 
 or mar the success of the Egyptian Expedition, atid on which 
 the reputation of Sir Garnet "\\'olselt;y was staked. Were he 
 
 * On this point (icnoral Drury-Lowe said, in reply to an address in 
 England : ' Bt-fore I Iclt the ship in uliich 1 sailed from England, I knew 
 that my duty witii the cavalry was to get to Cairo ; that was all planned by 
 Sir Garnet W'olseley heiore ue left Engl.md.' 
 
 f The infantry of the Indian Contingent was eonimanded by Brigadier- 
 General O. \'. Tanner, Bombay Staff Curjjs, w ho did such good service at 
 Khelat-i-tlhilzye, duiing the recent Afglian War. 'I'lie oflieer comtnanuing 
 the cavalry, Brigadier-General W'i.kinson, also held a command in the 
 Candahar division ; and the services of Sir Herbert Macpherson at Cabul 
 and in the march thence to Candahar are historical. 
 
 I'i 
 
426 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 V ■ 
 
 to fiiil, tlie wiseacres wlio always say, ' I told you !' the arm- 
 chair critics who censured his strategy, and the numerous 
 mediocrities who, after the manner of their kind, view with 
 jealousy the success of one they could not hope to rival, 
 would join in a chorus of condemnation ; and the fickle 
 public, who only judge by results, would hurl from his pedes- 
 tal the commander generally acknowledged to be the most 
 enterprising and able in the army. All this was staked on 
 the hazard of the die ; but nevertheless Sir Garnet, having, 
 with characteristic self-reliance, matured his plans un- 
 aided, awaited with perfect confidence the result. While 
 anxiety was depicted on the faces of those in high command, 
 and it was generally agreed that the formidable works, behind 
 which was entrenched a numerically superior army with a 
 powerful artillery, could only be carried after desperate 
 fightnig and heavy loss, the leader, on whom would fall the 
 responsibility for the loss of every life sacrificed by false 
 strategy or defective arrangements, was never more calm. 
 His face was the best augury of success, for no one who 
 doubted the result of the imi)ending movement could feign 
 the cheerfulness which was : ^)parent to every eye. 
 
 On Monday, the i ithSeptember,SirGarnetWolseley recon- 
 noitred the ground in front of the enemy's works, and at day- 
 light of the following day, accompanied by all the Generals 
 and Brigadiers, rode out of cam}), and having inspected 
 the enemy's position, explained to them his intended mode 
 of attack, and gave to each one a sketch showing the forma- 
 tion in which it was to be effected. The enemy's position 
 was a strong one, and extended from a point on the canal 
 one and a half miles east of the railway-station of Tel-el- 
 Kebir, a distance, almost due north, of three and a iialf 
 miles. Between the camp at Kassassin and the enemy's 
 lines extended the insert, affording no cover of any kind. 
 The general character of the ground over which the army 
 
THE PLACE OF ATTACK. 
 
 427 
 
 '&' 
 
 kind, 
 army 
 
 had to advance was that of gently undulating and rounded 
 slopes, rising gradually to an open plateau about ninety feet 
 above the valley through which runs the railway and canal. 
 ' To have marched over the plateau,' says Sir Garnet, ' ui)on 
 the enemy's position by daylight, our troops would have had 
 to advance over a glacis-like slope in full view of the enemy, 
 and under the fire of his well-served artillery, for about five 
 miles. Such an operation would have entailed enormous 
 losses from an enemy with men and guns well protected by 
 entrenchments from any artillery fire we could have brought 
 to bear upon them. To have turned the enemy's position 
 either by the right or left was an ojjeration that would have 
 entailed a very wide turning movement, and therefore a 
 long, difficult, and fatiguing march ; and, what is of more 
 importance, it would not have accomplished the object I had 
 in view, namely, to grapj)le with the enemy at such close 
 quarters that he should not be able to shake himself free 
 from our clutches except by a general fight of all his army.' 
 
 The General's plan was, briefiy, to make a night march 
 and carry the position at dawn at the point of the bayonet. 
 A plan apparently so full of difficulty and danger could 
 never have been entertained save by an original mind ; 
 nevertheless, it was the least hazardous, if it could be done 
 as a surprise. An assault after a bombardment afforded a 
 doubtful chance of success, and would be accompanied by 
 heavy loss, while a flank attack would be fatiguing in such 
 a climate \ moreover, both these methods afforded the great 
 disadvantage of prolonging the war, which, as we have seen, 
 Sir Garnet wished to finish at one blow. 
 
 Though a close and ardent student of the art of war, he 
 was not a slavish adherent of precedent. Such men never 
 can attain to the position of the real masters of the art, that 
 bright and gifted band whose names illustrate the history 
 of the world by achievements which less original minds 
 
 ¥\ 
 
428 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 can neither conceive nor carry out. Sir Ciarnet Wolseley, 
 in maturing his plans for a great coup like thf battle of 
 the 13th September, brought to his aid the resources of a 
 daring mind, vast experience, and a nice adaptation of 
 means to end. Only a highly disciplined enemy could 
 have withstood a bayonet-charge at early morning, when 
 suddenly waked out of sleep, and having made the dis- 
 covery that Arabi withdrew his pickets and outposts after 
 midnight, he turned his knowledge to account. A surprise 
 was, on the whole, the best way of capturing his formid- 
 able works, whicli extended line behind line, and would 
 have required an enormous expenditure of life to attack 
 by any other method. That there was a surprise has been 
 denied by some, but Arabi himself acknowledged to his 
 conqueror that the first he knew of an attack was the 
 firing, and that the surprise was complete and absolute. 
 
 To conduct to a successful issue such a difficult opera- 
 tion as that on which he had embarked, required a rare 
 combination of fortune and good management. Sir Garnet's 
 star was in the ascendant when Arabi, having (it is said) 
 received information from his spies that -an attack was 
 intended on the night of the 12th, actually sent out his 
 vedettes to reconnoitre shortly before midnight, when they 
 returned with the intelligence that the British army had not 
 quitted its encampment, the fires in which were brightly 
 burning. Lulled into a sense of false security by this report, 
 which was true at that hour, Arabi suffered his troops, who 
 were fatigued, having been on the qui vivc^ to turn in 
 shortly after midnight, at the very time that his skilful op- 
 ponent had begun the march that was to shatter his army 
 and bring irremediable ruin on his cause. 
 
 The force at the disposal of Arabi consisted of 59 
 guns, distributed along the line of works, twenty-four 
 battalions of infantry (about 20,000 men), and three regi- 
 
DISPOSITION OF THE TROOPS. 
 
 429 
 
 regi- 
 
 ments of cavalry, together with about 6,000 Bedouins, 
 besides a force of about 5,000 men, with 24 guns, at 
 Salahieh. To defeat this large army and storm a double 
 line of intrenchments, with redoubts, the British General 
 could only place in line about 11,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, 
 and 60 guns.* This force was disposed in the following order : 
 on the extreme right marched the Cavalry Brigade, under 
 General Drury-Lowe, consisting of the Household Cavalry, 
 4th and 7th Dragoon Guards, Mounted Infantry, 2nd and 6th 
 Regiments of Bengal Cavalry, and T3th Bengal Lancers, with 
 two batteries of Horse Artillery. General Drury-Lowe's 
 orders were to sweep round the northern extremity of the 
 enemy's works after they had been captured, and charge the 
 broken masses as they attempted to escape. 
 
 Next to the cavalry, and forming the right of the 
 infantry, which was directed to move in line of columns 
 of half battalions, was the ist, or General AVillis's, Division, 
 of which the 2nd, or Graham's, Brigade, was in the front 
 line. The regiments of this brigade were in the following 
 order from the right : ist Royal Irish (i8th Regiment), 
 2nd York and Lancaster (84th Regiment), ist Royal Irish 
 Fusiliers (87th Regiment), and Royal Marine Light Infantry. 
 In support was the Brigade of Guards, under the Duke 
 of Connaught. Next in line to Graham's Brigade, and 
 covering a front of 1,200 yards, were massed seven 
 batteries of artillery, 42 guns, under Brigadier-General 
 Goodenough. Then came the 2nd, or Sir Edward Hamley's, 
 Division, with the magnificent Highland Brigade leading, 
 under Sir Archibald Alison. The Brigade consisted, in the 
 order named, from the right, of the ist Royal TT' :;hlanders 
 (42nd Regiment), ist Gordon Highlanders (75th Regiment), 
 ist Cameron Highlanders (79th Regiment), and 2nd High- 
 
 ■* Tlie official returns fIiow tliat iho entire force at Sir Garnet Wolseley's 
 disposal on the 13th Sopteniber was 12,277 infantry, 2,785 cavalry, 60 
 guns, and 214 men of the Naval Brigade with 6 Gatlings. 
 
» 
 
 430 
 
 /JF/: OF LORD UVLSFLFV. 
 
 land Light Infantry (74th Regiment). In support of the 
 Highlanders were the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry 
 (46th Regiment) and the 3rd Royal Rifles, brigaded under 
 Colonel Ashburnham. 
 
 Across the canal — along which moved the Naval Brigade, 
 214 men, with 6 Ciatlings, under Captain Fitzroy — marched 
 the Indian Contingent, consisting of a Mountain Battery, 
 a squadron of the 13th Bengal Lancers, ist Battalion Sea- 
 forth Highlanders (72nd Regiment) and 2 companies of 
 the 2nd Battalion (78th Regiment), detachments of the 
 7th ]]engal Native Infantry, 20th Punjaubees, and 29th 
 Beloochees, under Major-General Sir Herbert Macpherson, 
 who received orders to march one hour after the leading 
 brigades, as an earlier advance would have given the alarm 
 to the enemy, owing to the number of villages in the culti- 
 vated land south of the canal. Sir Garnet Wolseley, whose 
 escort throughout the campaign was a company of Royal 
 Marines, under Captain Heathcote, himself marched in 
 rear of the 2nd Division, with the Royal Marine Artillery 
 and a squadron of the 19th Hussars, forming the reserve, 
 and maintained telegraphic communication with the Indian 
 Contingent throughout the night by means of an insulated 
 wire through Kassassin. 
 
 To pilot the two leading brigades, officers of great and 
 acknowledged capacity were told off. Brigadier-General 
 Goodenough performed this duty for the Artillery Division 
 under his command. Colonel Buller — so well known as 
 a leader of irregular horse, or chief of the Intelligence 
 Department of an army in the field — Major Hart, and 
 Captain W. H. Holbech, Brigade-Major, directed the march 
 of Graham's Brigade; and Lieutenant Wyatt Rawson, 
 R.N., Naval aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, 
 whose knowledge of the stars had been called into requisi- 
 tion during the Arctic expedition under Sir George Nares, 
 
and 
 neral 
 
 vision 
 
 n as 
 
 cnce 
 
 and 
 
 larch 
 
 ■wson, 
 !hief, 
 [uisi- 
 ares. 
 
 THE START FROM A' ASSASSIN: 
 
 431 
 
 l)iloted the Highlanders. This noble young seaman, not 
 satisfied with this duty, was among the first in the enemy's 
 works, and sacrificed his life for his country, in whose cause 
 he had already bled in Ashantce. 
 
 The operation on which Sir Garnet Wolseley had now 
 embarked was difficult and hazardous as any in the range of 
 warfare. To conduct, in the darkness of night, the simul- 
 taneous advance of an army whose front covered nearly four 
 miles of ground, was no easy feat of administrative and 
 tactical skill. The distance to be traversed from the camp 
 at Kassassin was about seven and a half miles, and no tree 
 or landmark of any description — beyond a line of telegraph 
 poles placed by the Engineers along the first portion of the 
 route — pointed out the way over the trackless desert and 
 low sandy hillocks which intervened between the British 
 camp and the Egyptian lines. To regulate the march of 
 the extended lines of the three arms so that at a given 
 moment — for a delay of even five minutes might be fatal to 
 success — the combined assault of the Infantry Brigades 
 could be made, was a task that offered a crucial test of 
 the capacity of the Commander who elaborated the i)lan to 
 its minutest detail. 
 
 At 6.15 on the evening of the 12th September, all tents 
 were struck, and, with the regimental baggage, were collected 
 along the line of railway for transmission after the antici- 
 ])ated victory. All bugle and trumpet calls were forbidden, 
 and, an hour later, when darkness had fallen on the busy 
 scene, the corps and batteries marched out of Kassassin in 
 perfect order, and took up their regulated positions on a 
 range of sand-hills, about two miles from the camp, in 
 which the fires were left burning. Brigadicr-CJeneral 
 Nugent, R.E., with the ist West Kent (50th Regimer^t) 
 and 19th Hussars, was left in command of the camp, 
 to cover the rear of the army and protect that position 
 
 
 '\ \ 
 
 !■■ 1 
 
 i-"^^ 
 
432 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 witli all its stores and depots from the enemy's force at 
 Salahieh, which, as mentioned, numbered 5,000 men and 
 24 guns. 
 
 On arriving at the regulated positions, a halt was called, 
 and the men lay down on the bare sand and snatched what 
 sleep they could. It was a weird and solemn scene, without 
 even the moon's silvery light to cheer the ranks of the 
 soldiery. No fires were iJcrmitted ; even smoking was pro- 
 hibited ; and silence was enjoined in the ranks stretching in 
 endless line along the star-lit desert. Under such circum- 
 stances a man's reflections would be turned inward, and 
 thoughts of home must have filled the hearts of the gallant 
 array awaiting the signal which was to change this scene of 
 ghostly silence and grim darkness for the stirring incidents 
 of the battle and the garish light of day. 
 
 ' All heaven and earth arc still — thonq:h not in sleep, 
 But l)nMiii!es.s, as we gnjw when feeling most ; 
 And silen', as we stand in thoughts too deep.' 
 
 So passed the night, and at 1.30 the army rose from the 
 ground and started for the march that was to place them in 
 l)Osition to storm the enemy's works at daylight. 
 
 The formation of the Highland Brigade, which numbered 
 3,000 bayonets, was in half-battalions, formed with two 
 companies in front and two in rear, at dei)loying intervals, 
 the lines being about fifty yards behind each other. The 
 supporting brigade, 1,500 yards in rear, was formed in 
 line of quarter-columns ; and in order to maintain touch 
 with the Highlanders, a company of the Rifles was extended 
 between in files about fifteen yards apart. The formation of 
 General Willis's Division, which was about three-quarters of 
 a mile to the right of the 2nd Division, was somewhat 
 different, each half battalion of the leading brigade being 
 formed in a column of companies, thus presenting the 
 appearance of a line of eight columns, each four companies 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE NIGHT MARCH. 433 
 
 
 ipanies 
 
 deep. Before the march was bc^^un connecting files were 
 put between the battalions and brigades, and between the 
 first and second lines. 
 
 The difficulty of so large a body of men, marching with 
 such an extended front, keeping touch, now became ai)parent, 
 but the arrangements of the Commander-in-Chief met all 
 obstacles, and his staff officers, as able a body of men as 
 ever served any leader, intelligently carried out the instruc- 
 tions of their chief. At one time one of the brigades was 
 diverging from the line, but at the critical moment Sir 
 Garnet appeared through the darkness, and the difficulty was 
 overcome and touch was maintained. As the night advanced 
 the men were occasionally halted, when some lay down and 
 rested, though all were glad to be on the move again, as the 
 cold night air chilled to the bone, and the condition of 
 expectancy was not conducive to rest. The final halt 
 before the rush at the enemy was made at four o'clock. 
 
 Meanwhile, at midnight of the 12th, the Cavalry Division, 
 under General Drury-Lowe, commenced its march so as to 
 get on the left flank and rear of the enemy's lines at the 
 moment of the assault, the 2nd Brigade, consisting of the 
 three Indian cavalry regiments, leading, followed by the 
 I St Brigade, formed of the Household Cavalry, the 4th 
 and 7th Dragoon Guards, and Mounted Infantry, The 
 march was first to the north, and then they bore to the 
 west, and at two a.m. the Cavalry Division halted about 
 three miles short of the enemy's extreme left flank. After 
 a rest of two hours, during which the men lay on the sand 
 holding their horses by the bridle, they advanced in 
 squadron columns until the time for action arrived. 
 
 To return to the movements of the main column. 
 
 The great difficulties of a night march by an army 
 covering so large a front was strikingly illustrated by an 
 incident mentioned by Sir Edward Hanfley, in an article 
 
 28 
 
 
 % 
 
434 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 in the Nineteenth Century. Soon after the Highland Brigade, 
 after a brief halt, resumed the march, tliere was a rumour 
 that horsemen were in front. 'I'he centre battalions halted, 
 while the wings moved on until they faced each other at a 
 distance of fifty yards, and the companies of the wmgs were 
 thrown into disorder. Fortunately, it was discovered before 
 a fatal collision took place, as there was no telling in the 
 darkness whether they were friends or foes. 
 
 Sir (larnet, in his plan of attack, determined to assault 
 about five a.m., just when the first streaks of dawn began ^o 
 appear. Ikit three-cjuarters of an hour before this, occurred 
 a circumstance that, on after-consideration, must have 
 exercised a powerful influence on the minds of the supersti- 
 tious Orientals slumbering behind the earthworks of Tel-el- 
 Kcbir, who were about to experience so fearful an awaken- 
 ing, and which nearly had a disastrous effect on the fortunes 
 of this war, so full of dramatic incidents and telling situa- 
 tions. 
 
 Frequently through the night the General consulted his 
 watch, and at 4.15, to his surprise, saw what appeared faint 
 streaks of dawn in the east behind the backs of the ad- 
 vancing army, liy observation it had been ascertained that 
 five was the hour the ' rosy-fingered ' Goddess of Day first 
 showed above the horizon ; so if this was daybreak, his 
 chances of success in assaulting the enemy's works, which 
 were yet some distance ahead, would be materially lessened 
 by the miscalculation. But as this phenomenal light con- 
 tinued at the same intensity it soon became apparent that 
 there was no real cause for anxiety at its appearance, which 
 was due to the presence of the great comet, which appeared 
 for the first time this night, as though to denote (so might 
 the superstitious read it) that the stars in their courses 
 fought for the favourite of Fortune who led the white 
 soldiers from over the sea. As Byron apostrophized the 
 
THE FINAL HALT. 
 
 435 
 
 might 
 
 stars on the banks of Lake Lcman, so might Arabi and his 
 fcllow-ronspiralors or patriots (as we, according to oui 
 divergent views of the justice or wickedness of the cause 
 he championed, choose to dub the leaders of this national 
 movement) address these heavenly lights on this night, so 
 big with the fate of tiieir country ; — 
 
 'If ill yotir l)rit,'ht leaves we would rend the fate 
 Of men and empires — 'tis to be forgiven 
 'I'liat in our aspirations to be great, 
 Our destinirs o'erleap tlieir mortal state 
 And elaim a kindred with you." 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief was reassured, and the great 
 array of men, and horses, and guns continued its march 
 with mechanical precision ; and as the hand of his watch 
 pointed to the hour of five, and the dawn began to break, 
 every man and gun was in its allotted ])lace, and the 
 leading brigades of each division came under the enemy's 
 fire within a few minutes of one another.'"* 
 
 * An officer, speakincr with authority, thus explains the causi of this 
 difference, whicii lay in the movements preceding the attack: 'Neither 
 briq;ade had precisely carried out the Oiii^inal conciiption of Sir (iarnet. His 
 intention had been to attack in a series of short lines, with a series of sup- 
 jiorting short lines behind them. Hut he had not the ojjportunity of train- 
 ing his army according to his own ideas. The only form of attack which 
 had been known and practised beforehand was either what is called the 
 Aldershot formation for attack, or the old English continuous line. Accord- 
 ingly, one brigade took for granted that its business was to form line and so 
 attack; and the other, after an impossible attempt to advance in a continuous 
 line and an inevitable relapse into company columns of fours, had under fire 
 adopted as the one formation the " Aklershot formation of attack." The 
 successive changes had delayed the advance of the right brigade, and hence 
 a disparity of rime in the actual moment of attack, which gave opportunity to 
 the inu.rvoning batteries to bring an effective and close fire upon the lines of 
 the enemy at the moment of the attack (if (Jeneral Graham's Brigade. We 
 have now the clear evidence of independent observers who have recently 
 crossed the ground, that the shells of as many as thirty cartridges are to be 
 seen in heaps where the Egyptians stood to fire against General (iraham's 
 Brigade, while not more than five or six mark the rounds that were fired 
 against the Highland Brigade. Moreover, the tracks of the artillery-wheels 
 show clearly where the several batteries came into action, and it is evident 
 that Colonel Schiviher's two batteries were directing their fire in the first 
 instance precisely upon the part of the line which the 2nd Brigade attacked. 
 But though men now know that at the actual moment when theassaidt com- 
 menced the Highland Brigade was consideralily nearer than the 2nd Brigade, 
 it is pretty clear that the whole of the 2nd Biigade had crossed the enemy's 
 lines and commenced to advance before the whole of the Highland Brigade 
 had done so.' 
 
 28—2 
 
 III 
 
 1:> 
 
436 
 
 LTFE OF LORD JVOLSELEY. 
 
 One who was present, describing the wonderful precision 
 with which this uifficult movement was effected, says : * The 
 evidence of Sir Archibald Alison, and of the officers who 
 were with him, is clear that the attack was delivered at the 
 most happy moment that coui'd have been chosen ; for, as 
 they say, had the attack been any earlier, there would not 
 have been light enough to follow it up within the works, 
 and had it been later, the troops would have been exposed 
 to severe fire before attacking.' But to effect this precision 
 of movement required a very nice calculation of the time 
 required for the march across the desert, and pre-supposed 
 high intelligence on the part of the staff and regimental 
 officers concerned. 
 
 J'he orders v/ere that the leading brigades were not to fire 
 a shot, but were to carry the entrenchments by the bayonet. 
 Nothing finer than the elan with which these orders were 
 executed is to be found in the history of war. Like the 
 contending hosts before Troy : — 
 
 ' Rank on rank tlio tliiok battalion^ throne^, 
 Chief urij'd on chief, and man lirovo man pJong. 
 Far o'er the plains in dreadful order bright, 
 The steely arms reflect a beamy light.' 
 
 JusL when the stars began to pale, but before daylight 
 had broken, a few shots were heard, followed by a bugle 
 sounded in the enemy's lines. ' In a minute or two,' 
 says the commander cf the 2nd Division, ' the vrhole 
 extent of entrenchm' .its in our front, hitherto unseen 
 and unknown of, poured forth a stream of rifle-fire.' The 
 Highland Brigade, who had not even loaded their rifles, 
 inst^:.' y advanced to the charge with levelled beyone':s, and 
 so murderous was the fire with which they were met, that, 
 though they had only a narrow strip of 150 yards to cross, 
 200 men were shot down, the Highland Light Infantry alone 
 losing 5 officers and 60 men before gaining the ditch, six 
 
STORM OF THE ENEMY'S LINES. 
 
 437 
 
 feet wide and four feet deep, beyond which rose the para[)et, 
 four feet high. The first line was cjuickly into the ditcli, 
 and engaged in a liand-to-hand struggle with the enemy on 
 the parapet, ' behind which, on either flank, was an elevated 
 battery armed with guns, enclosed throughout by its own 
 separate parapet, and a ditch ten feet deep.' The Highland 
 Light Infantry found themselves opposed to a 4-gun battery, 
 and the Royal Highlanders to one mounted with 6 guns, 
 almost enclosed by an entrenchment, and forming the highest 
 point of the position. The centre battalions, meanwhile, 
 pushed on through the outer entrenchments, a distance of 
 200 or 300 yards, into the centre of the works. 
 
 The Highland Light Infantry were at one time com[)elled 
 to recoil from the battery on the left flank opposed to 
 them ; but soon Colonel Ashburnham's Brigade came up, 
 and the whole carried the work with a rush, and joined 
 thcii' comrades of the cenfe, who were assembled on a low- 
 hill 300 yards within the outer line. The division now ad- 
 vanced against the second or inner line, and, entering by a 
 gap in the entrenchment, took the defenders in reverse at 
 all points. The Egyptians were shot down in hundreds as 
 they fled, and a battery of artillery coming up opportunely, 
 assisted in cutting up the fleeing foe. Pushing on, Arabi's 
 camp was captured by a party led by Sir Archibald Alison 
 on foot, and also the railway station with 100 carriages; and 
 by 6.30 "the last shot was fned hy the Highlanders — one 
 hour and twenty-five minutes after the first. 
 
 in that time, says Sir E. Hamley, 'The Highland Brigade 
 had captured two miles of wc.ks and batteries, piercing the 
 enemy's centre, and lo. seni-vT their whole system of defence, 
 and finished by taking .he ..mp and railway station.' The 
 division lost 258 men kil^jd and wounded,* of whom 23 
 
 * The followinq- wop.' the casualties in tlic Highland Brigade; Royal 
 Highlaiulers, 2 otlicers — Lit-'Uciiant Graham-Siiiiiiig andJ.C McNeill — 
 and 7 niea killed, 6 officerii ^including Lieutenant Park wlio died) and 37 
 
 tif! 
 
43^ 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 \vcro officers, and their leader claims for them that they bore 
 the brunt of the fighting, as evidenced by their losses. 
 
 Meanwhile, equally gallant and successful was the 2nd 
 ]5rigade of the ist Division, which advanced, says General 
 (iraham, 'under what appeared to be an utterly over- 
 whelming fire of musketry and artillery.' The brigade 
 came under fire when distant between 800 and 1,200 
 yards. Its formation was in echelon of half battalions from 
 the right, which placed the Royal Irish (rSth Regiment) 
 in advance. Thus 'they were,' says an officer of the regi- 
 ment, who was wounded, ' the first corps over the trenches,' 
 and received the honour of a special mention from Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley in his official telegram announcing the 
 victory. 'About fifty yards in rear of these trenches,' says 
 the same ofilcer, 'between the front of the i8th and 84th 
 (York and Lancaster Regiments) stood an elevated redoubt, 
 which was taken conjointly by these two corps.' Not less 
 dashing was the advance of the Irish Fusiliers (87th Regi- 
 ment) and the Royal Marines.* This latter corps, which 
 had taken a })rominent part in every action of the war, 
 advanced, says Colonel Howard S. Jones, in attack forma- 
 tion at the ' double,' taking up the ' quick ' once or twice 
 to let the men get their breath, and it was not until the 
 fighting line was within some 150 yards of the enemy that 
 he ordered the battalion to halt, fix bayonets, and open 
 
 men wounded, and 4 missing. Gordon Ilis^lilanders, i officer — Lieutenant 
 H. (j. Brooks — and 5 men ivilled, and i of'ticer iind 29 men woimded, and 
 4 mis^inc^. Highland Light Lifantry, 3 ofi'icers — Major Colviile nnd Lieu- 
 tenants D. S. Kays and L. Sonierveil — and 14 men killed, and 5 ofticers and 
 
 52 men wounded, and n missing. Cameron Highlanders, 13 men killed, 
 and 3 officers and 46 men wounded. 
 
 * The following were the losses of this brigade : Royal Irish Fusiliers, 
 2 men killed, 34 woi ided, and 3 missing. Yo;k and I r.ncaster, 12 men 
 wounded, 'i'he Royal Irish, i ofTicer, Captain C. N.Jones, and i man killed 
 and 2 officers and 17 men wounded. Koy.d Mamies, 2 oll'icers— Major 
 H. H. Strong and Captain J. C. Wardell — and 3 m.en killed, i officer and 
 
 53 men wounded. 
 
SERVICES OF THE ARTILLERY 
 
 439 
 
 Cl ill 
 
 fire, the supports to reinforce it, and the whole to advance 
 by rushes. By thus keeping the line in movement the T'e 
 of the enemy was to a great extent diverted. 
 
 The Guards, who supported the 2nd Brigade, were sub- 
 jected to a heavy shell-fire, and had they been only five 
 minutes later in })assing over a slight elevation on which 
 the enemy's guns were trained, at a range of 2,000 yards, 
 their loss would have been very considerable. As it was, 
 they escaped with the loss of only i man killed and 20 
 wounded, besides 3 officers, of whom one, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Balfour, died of his wounds after his arrival in 
 England. 
 
 The nature of the attack left little for the artillery to 
 effect. The division of seven batteries, ndcr Brigadier- 
 General Goodenough, stationed between Alison's and 
 Graham's Brigades, deployed into one line, and after the 
 entrenchments had been penetrated, some of the batteries 
 inh.cted heavy loss upon the enemy. N. Battery 2nd 
 Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Brancker, 
 did special good service. Assisted by the Royal High- 
 landers, the artillerymen levelled the parapet in one spot 
 and the guns were brought within the enemy's lines, opening 
 fire on the retreating Egyptians with shrapnel and canister ; 
 they limbered up and came into action every 300 or 400 
 yards, and enfilading the line of entrenchments, drove the 
 enemy out of some redoubts. Bushing on to the top of 
 a hillock, Colonel Brancker again brought his guns into 
 action, and opened fire on the railway station in which 
 three trains were standing, with enL'ines attached. As the 
 first was starting off, a shell from the battery, fired at a 
 range of about 1,400 yards, blew up the fore [)ortion of the 
 train, which apjjarently contained ammunition. Soon after, 
 the 13th Bengal Lancers, under Colonel Macnaghten, entered 
 the station and seized the remaining trains, the enemy fleeing 
 
440 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELKY. 
 
 along the railway and canal.* The Infantry Brigades, sup- 
 ported by the Guards and Ashburnham's Brigade, advanced 
 rapidly through the enemy's works, and took possession of 
 the vast camp, the Highlanders, following the 13th Bengal 
 Lancers, occupying the railway station, which contained 
 much stores and ammunition. 
 
 On the extreme left, the Indian Contingent, numbering, 
 with a squadron of cavalry and a company of Madras 
 Sappers, about 1,500 men, with 6 seven-pounder screw- 
 guns, conduced to the succes;s of the day by its steadiness 
 and admirable marching-powers. Their advance along the 
 south side of the canal was held back so as to ensure the 
 success of the intended surprise by the main column. 
 Crossing the Fresh Water Canal by pontoon bridges, they 
 took up their prescribed position on the south bank, and 
 soon after three a.m. the troops and long train of mules, 
 carrying ammunition and stores, commenced the march in 
 perfect order. Heading the column were two companies of 
 the Highlanders, while the Naval Brigade, under Macpher- 
 son's orders, acted in support on the northern bank of the 
 canal. As dawn broke, the enemy opened fire from his 
 
 * The following is an account given by an ofilcer of Anbi's army of 
 the battle of Tel-el-Kcbir : ' On thi" i2ih we v<ere informed that a general 
 attack would be made that night. We were all under arms and at 
 our posts shortly after sunset. Dining the night scouts were sent out 
 with orders to fire in the air as a signal if any body ot troops were ap- 
 proaching. They three times reported all (juiet. We had given up all 
 expectations of attack ; we were tired, and the officers were beginning to 
 lie down, when three scouts were sent out as a last reconnoissance. We 
 had e.xpccied that the attack would begin at about 2,000 yards. Our guns 
 were sighted for this range. Arabi e.xhorted his ofiticers to wait ten 
 minutes for tlic lesult of this last reconnoissance ; but hardly had he left 
 the cam|^ when they heard the signal. Instead of 2,0(io yards, they must 
 have been 200 yards off. We fireil, but most of our shots must have gone 
 over their heads. Almost at the same moment, it seemed so (|uick, they 
 v/ere scrambling over us — first over our right, then rolling over ail down 
 the line like a wave. We never expected war like this. Our soldiers 
 stood fire at a distance very well. On the 5th August many were killed, 
 antl they were not afraid of shells ; but these men came close up to us, 
 and the only way to save life was to run awav. The native soldier has 
 never exercised this close way of fighting. No soldiers but the linglish 
 couid fight like that.' 
 
THE IXDIAN CONTINGENT IN ACTION. \\\ 
 
 of 
 
 ner.il 
 
 at 
 
 out 
 
 ap- 
 
 F) all 
 
 1,' to 
 
 We 
 
 {runs 
 
 ten 
 
 left 
 
 mist 
 
 tlicy 
 )\\ /'. 
 lers 
 
 Ufd, 
 us, 
 has 
 lish 
 
 redoubts, and a shell ex[)loded in the midst of the General's 
 staff, hurling Captain Melliss to the ground. At this time 
 the infantry, with the Highlanders extended in line leading, 
 was advanc ing along an excavated roadway lying along 
 the base of the causeway by the side of the canal. On 
 the left the mountain battery shelled a native village, 
 occupied by Arabs, who were driven out ; and the Naval 
 Brigade poured a hot fire into some of the enemy's works 
 near the canal. Soon the column reached a battery con- 
 sisting of 4 seven-pounders, outside the causeway, and the 
 General directed the Seaforth Highlanders to storm the 
 work. This was gallantly done, lieutenant Iiurn-Mur- 
 doch, R.E., being the first man in. Pushing on, the 
 Highlanders, supi)orted by the Native Infantry, captured 
 a second battery of S Krupp guns, which was abandoned. 
 Two redoubts or batteries on the north side of the canal, 
 ajjparently covered from the main attack by the intervening 
 hill, were shelled, also the retreating Egyptians on the same 
 side of the canal, the Naval liriiiade affording valuable 
 assistance with their Gatlings. The contingent then con- 
 tinued its advance, and cleared the fields on the left of the 
 causeway; and Arabi's camp was shelled at a range of 
 about 1,200 yards, as also by artillery from the main attack 
 which came over the hill, until the infantry marched down 
 and took possession of the cariip. The s(juadron of 
 6th Bengal Cavalry did good service at this time in pur- 
 .suing the enemy through the village of Tel-el-Kebir. 
 
 Sir Herbert Macpherson's dispositions were completely 
 successful, and the Commander-in-Chief attributed the small 
 loss sustained by the contingent — \ man killed and 3 wounded 
 in the Highlanders — to his ' excellent arrangements.' 
 These might have been anticipated from an officer having 
 the vast and varied experience of General Macpherson, 
 who served as Adjutant of the 78th Highlanders, under 
 
 (f , 
 
 r 
 
44' 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOI^SELEY. 
 
 General Havclock, al the Relief of Liicknow, and was the 
 right hand of Sir Frederick Roberts from the time of his 
 advance on Cabul to the battle of Candahar. As Sir 
 Garnet said of him at the conclusion of the war ; ' He is a 
 pillar of strength in any army with which he serves. His 
 varied e.\|)erience of war, and the confidence he inspires 
 in all under his command, mark him out as a divisional 
 leader to whom the honour of our arms and the lives of her 
 Majesty's soldiers can at all times be safely entrusted.' 
 
 Sir Garnet "Wolseley arrived on the bridge over the canal 
 at 'i'el-el-Kebir almost at the same time as Sir Herbert Mac- 
 l)herson, to whom he gave instructions to proceed with the 
 Indian Contingent to Zagazig, twenty-five miles distant from 
 the camp at Kassassin. Accompanied only by his staff and 
 about 30 men of the 6th I^engal Cavalry, about four p.m. 
 he rode into this large and important town, the principal 
 cotton centre of the Delta. No resistance was offered, and 
 the small party pushed on to the railway station, and their 
 temerity was rewarded by the capture of .Ive trains filled 
 with soldiers, which were on the })oint of steaming out of 
 the station — one was actually leaving, but Lieutenant Burn- 
 Murdoch, R.E.,'^ threatened the driver with his revolver. 
 The soldiers leaped from the trains, and throwing away their 
 arms, made good their escape. 
 
 The telegraph was now put into action and communica- 
 tions opened with Cairo, announcing the capture of Tel- 
 el-Kebir, the total defeat of the army, and the occupation of 
 Zagazig by her Majesty's troops in force en route for Cairo. 
 Within an hour a telegram was received from Ali Rouby Pasha 
 and his colleagues, announcing, in the name of the nation, the 
 
 '' This young ot'ticer afiVjids a proof of the truth of the saying tliat 
 ' adventures are to the adventurous.' He served with distinction in the 
 Afghan War, under Sir I-Yederiek Robeils, and was wounded in aetion at 
 Cabul, in December, 1879, on wliich occasion his conduct was mentioned 
 in desijatclies as ' most gallant.' 
 
CAPTURE OF ZAGAZIG. 
 
 443 
 
 entire submission of the arniv to the will of the Khedive, and 
 entreating that further hostiHties might cease. The remainder 
 of the squadron of cavalry, with the infantry and mule 
 battery, arrived at Zagazig by six p.m., having no supi)lies* but 
 what they carried in their haversacks, the Highlanders and 
 artillerymen having made a march which, considering the 
 distance traversed and the climate, and that they fought a 
 battle on th( way, has seldom been equalled by liritish 
 troops. The feat was even greater than any performed by 
 the Seaforth Highlanders duriiv the memorable march they 
 made, under Sir Frederick Roberts's command, from Cabul 
 to Candahar, two years before. In his rei)ort. General 
 Macpherson drew special attention to the iwx. that not a 
 man of the infantry fell out or had to be carried during the 
 day, probably an unprecedented circumstance in a forced 
 march of over twenty-five miles under a tropical sun. 
 
 'J1ie advance on Zagazig was a bold stroke, and equalled 
 in dash anything of the sort chronicled of the famous 
 Prussian Uhlans in the Franco-German War. But the action 
 of the Cavalry Division was another instance in this })rief but 
 memorable campaign equalling if not surpassing it in daring, 
 and the inception of both alike was due to the master-mind 
 who infused into his subordinates the eager spirit that 
 animated him. But we must follow the course of events 
 in their proper sequence. 
 
 As Sir Garnet Wolseley rode through the con(|uered 
 position, a redoubt on the extreme left, near the canal, which 
 had not yet been captured, continued its fire, enfilading the 
 works. Colonel Schreiber, R. A., ordered up a battery and soon 
 silenced the work and blew up the magazine. The Cavalry 
 
 * A grciit impression was created anionij the natives of Zagazig bj- tlie 
 punctilious honesty of .Sir 11. Macpherson ami his staff. At tlie r.ulway station 
 ihcy came upon a great tind in llie sliai)e ol wine, beer and provisions, and the 
 (jeneral directed every ofilicer who partoolv of tiiose luxuries to in.scril)e in a 
 book his ncme and the amount appropriat(>d, with the view of future pay- 
 ment. 
 
 M 
 
 
 I! 
 
 &y 
 
 t 
 
 !i 
 
 i:i 
 
44+ 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELK V. 
 
 Division on the extreme right swept round the nortliern 
 extremity of the enemy's lines and charged them as 
 they endeavoured to escape. A\'ith praiseworthy humanity 
 General Drury-l.ovve ordered that those of the fugitives who 
 threw down their arms and begged for mercy should be un- 
 molested, and suffered to go free, as to make them prisoners 
 would have prevented him from pushing on to Cairo. Hut 
 no less than 1,500 of Arabi's soldiers died for the faith, 
 the free exercise of which, they were given to understand, 
 was menaced, and having fought the good fight, 
 
 ' In lilysiaii valleys dwell, 
 Resting weary limbs at last on beds of Asphodel.' 
 
 Within thirty-five minutes of the first shot being fired, the 
 British Hag flew over the entrenchments of Tel-el-Kebir, and 
 the victorious Commander, riding through the enemy's camp 
 and works, which lay line within line, met his Generals on the 
 bridge over the canal and concerted measures for making the 
 victory decisive. While Sir Herbert Macphcrson was directed 
 to push on to Zagazig, whither the Highland Brigade followed 
 him on the following day. General Drury-Lowe received 
 instructions to make a forced march to Belbeis and thence 
 to Cairo, to save the city from experiencing the fate of 
 Alexandria. 
 
 In the very hour of his triumph, and amid the hu"ry of 
 giving the necessary orders for pushing his great success, 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley did not forget one who was dying in 
 faithfully carrying out his instructions. Lieutenant \\'yatt 
 Rawson, R.N., Lis Naval aide-de-camp, who had pioneered 
 the Highland Brigade during the night march, with ' mar- 
 vellous accuracy,' as Sir Edward Hamley said, was shot 
 through the body while scaling the entrenchments among 
 the foremost, and Sir Garnet rode back some miles to see 
 his faithful friend and follower for the last time. Entering 
 the tent where the wounded young officer lay, he knelt by 
 
WOLSELE 1 ' A ND W YA TT KA 1 1 'SO.V. 
 
 445 
 
 I' 
 
 his side, and takini; his hand, strove to rhccr him, though 
 he himself was much affected, for he knew there was no ho[)e. 
 The dying man asked, with a proud satisfaction lighting up 
 his features, racked with pain: 'General, did T not lead 
 them straight?' It was the old spirit that flamed up in the 
 dying Nelson when, amid the throes of dissolution, he 
 summoned up sufficient strength to thank God he had done 
 his duty. ' Yes,' was the reply — as the leader pressed the 
 hand of the subordinate who had sacrificed his life, with 
 all its hopes of distinction, just as they were on the point 
 of realization, and even the happiness of those nearest and 
 dearest to him, in fulfilling his orders^' I knew you were 
 well to the front all the time, old fellow.' He spoke these 
 words cheerfully, but he knew his friend was mortally 
 wounded,* and before leaving i)romised to telegrajjh to his 
 wife. 
 
 A\'hi1e the Indian Contingent and cavalry pushed on to 
 Zaga/jg and Cairo respectively, Sir Clarnct Wolseley oc- 
 cupied the camp with the rest of the army. There was 
 ami)le accommodation, and Arabi's tent was specially 
 luxurious ; and it may be mentioned as an interesting cir- 
 cumstance, that one of the .ar[)ets found therein, and 
 appropriated by the Duke of Connaught, was used by Her 
 Majesty the Queen, who stood ui)on it when decorating the 
 officers and men at Windsor Castle on their return from Egypt. 
 
 * Lieutenant Wyatt Rawson died on the mornintjof tlu; 21st .September, 
 on board the C<!r//i<ri;e, liosjiital ship, as slie was enterinsj Malta harbour. 
 He (litl not h'vt! toi<now tliat the AdniiraUy, witli eonimendable prcimptitude, 
 had ]iromoted iiiin to ( "ommander. Tlie (jticeii wrote a letter to tin; widow, 
 expres^inij her sympathy, and Sir (jarnet spoke in the following terms of his 
 late Naval aide-de-eamp: ' During the many journeys I made by night, I 
 found him of great use in directing our niaich correctly, through his know- 
 ledge of the stars. On the 13th instant I conseciuently selected him to con- 
 duct the Highland 15rigade during the night to the portion of the enemy's 
 woiks where I explained to liim I wished them to storm. This duty he 
 performed with the utmost coolness and success, btu lost his life in its 
 execution.' Sir Ciarnet keenly felt the death of Lieutenant Rawson, for 
 whose services he had specially ajijilied to the .\dmiralty, and wrote of him : 
 ' Xo man more gallant fell on that occasion.' 
 
 Wl 
 
 
 m 
 
 I ■ 
 
 
446 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELRY. 
 
 I^arly on the following niornin<^ telegraphic communication 
 was established with Zagazig, and Sirdarnet, on ascertaining 
 that tlie line was open to Cairo, resolved to proceed thither 
 without delay. Accomi)anied by the Duke of Connaught, 
 and escorted by a com[)any of Ciuards and one of Marines, 
 he was on the platform ready to start at noon, but owing to 
 a slight accident on the line, did not leave the station of 
 Tel-cl-Kebir until five p.m. In conse([uencc of the line being 
 blocked by artillcr)-, infantry, and stores, Zaga/.ig was only 
 reached at 9.30, and as it was not deemed advisable to go 
 any further in thedark, the Commander-in-Chief and the 1 )uke 
 of Connaught, with their staffs, [)assed the night in great 
 discomfort at the deserted railway station. At 5.30 on the 
 following morning (the 15th of Sei)tember) the journey was 
 resumed, and at seven, on reaching the im])ortant junction 
 at Benha, a deputation was found awaiting the Commander- 
 in-Chief from Cairo, announcing that Arabi had surrendered, 
 and that the notables of the capital were expecting his advent 
 with eagerness. After partaking of some refreshm^'nt, which 
 was freely brought by the inhabitants, who took care to 
 make their deliverers pay handsomely for the same. Sir 
 Ciarnet jtrocceded to Cairo, where he arrived at ten a.m., 
 and was received by a great crowd, who thronged to see 
 the Ceneral who had defeated their hero and scattered his 
 boasted battalions to the winds witli an ease and rapidity 
 that savoured of magic. 
 
 On the previous day the cavalry had secured the surrender 
 of the capital and some 8,000 troops in garrison. General 
 Drury-l.owe, without drawing bridle, marched rapidly with 
 the whole of his cavalry and Mounted Infantry, and Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel liorradaile's battery of Horse Artillery, and 
 l)ushing the pursuit along the canal, by the side of which 
 arms and munitions of war were thickly strewed, arrived that 
 evening at I5ell)eis, twenty-five miles distant from Kassassin. 
 
VS«»^ 
 
 THE MARCH OF 7 UK CAVALRY. 
 
 447 
 
 After exchanging a few shots, the railway station here was 
 occupied, and it was found that Aral)i had only passed 
 through a (juarter of an hour before ; and indeed, soon after 
 their arrival, a telegraphic message was received from him 
 from the next station, asking what troops had reached 
 I>elheis. The town was retjuisitioned for food, but little 
 was obtained, and on the morning of the i^lh, after a 
 cheerless bivouac, the division was again on the march by 
 the south bank of the canal. A halt of two hours was 
 made at Syriakus, and (Icneral Drury-l^owe then pushed on 
 for Cairo, which he desired to approach by the desert near 
 the barracks of Abbassyeh. 
 
 On nearing Cairo he formed his small division into two 
 lines, as its strength was reduced to a portion of the 
 Indian Cavalry, 4th Dragoon Cuards, and Mounted Infantry, 
 the Household Cavalry, 7th Dragoon Cuards, and guns 
 being in the rear, unable to keep up through the heavy sand. 
 The advance was made in two lines, cchcUoncd from the right, 
 and each line itself in cchcUon of regiments from the right. 
 The Mounted Infantry led, being thus the right corps of the 
 first line. In order to make the force look stronger, the 
 rear rank was i)Ut intcj the same line as tlie front rank — 
 a formation called ' rank entire' — and at 4.45 the cavalry 
 halted about a mile from the great barracks of Abbassyeh, 
 when General Lowe sent in a flag of truce, under Colonel 
 Herbert Stewart,* 3rd Dragoon Cuards, demanding the 
 surrender of the barracks and citadel with its garrison. The 
 view of Cairo from the point presented to the trooi)s, who, 
 by their rapid march, had saved it from fire and rapine, was 
 one of extraordinary beauty. The city, with its palaces and 
 mosques interspersed among gardens, the graceful minarets 
 
 * Colonel Stmvart was one of ihoso oft'icors whose selection displayed Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley's reniarkiiblc discriniinition. 1 le had served under him in 
 South Africa, and his services dunni^ the present war at Kassassin and 
 Cairo, as Assistant Adjutant-( Icneral to the Cavalry division, fully justified 
 the good opinion formed of him by Sir Garnet. 
 
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448 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELE V. 
 
 m 
 
 soaring into the bright cloudless sky, and the heavy battle- 
 ments of the citadel frowning on the fair landscape at its feet, 
 is unsurpassed in the East. Titus's address to his soldiers 
 before Jerusalem, in Milman's noble poem, rise to the mind 
 as descriptive of the scene on this evening, so fateful for 
 Cairo. 
 
 ' There bright and sumptuous palace?;, 
 With cool and verdant gardens interspersed ; 
 There towers of war, that frown massy strength — 
 While over all hangs the rich purple eve.' 
 
 While Colonel Stewart was occupied settling the terms 
 with some representatives of the enemy, the sun set, and the 
 cavalry soldiers lay down, bridle in hand, quite exhausted 
 with the great heat, and half famished, having had nothing 
 to eat the whole day. Terms of surrender were at length 
 arranged with the Egyptian generals, and, soon after, the 
 Prefect of Cairo arrived and surrendered the citadel and 
 town. About 10.30 Arabi Pasha and Toulba, who com- 
 manded the Egyptian troops garrisoning Alexandria at the 
 time of its bombardment, were brought by the Prefect, and 
 gave up their swords to General Drury-Lowe, who, through- 
 out the difficult negotiations, had displayed equal tact 
 and firmness. That night the extraordinary .spectacle was 
 witnessed of a strong garrison of horse, foot, and artillery 
 laying down their arms to a handful of exhausted troopers, 
 a d surrendering a citadel of great strength, mounted with 
 heavy guns. 
 
 At 9 p.m., a detachment of 150 troopers of the 4th 
 Dragoon Guards and Mounted Infantry, under Captains 
 Lawrence (commanding the latter) and Darley (4th Dragoon 
 Guards), piloted by Captain Watson, R.E., of the Intel- 
 ligence Department, the only British officer with the cavalry 
 who spoke Arabic, quitted Abbassyeh, and, threading 
 their way past the tombs of the Caliphs, drew up before 
 the citadel, without passing through the city c attracting 
 the notice of the people. On arriving at a point opposite the 
 
iii 
 
 THE SURRENDER OF THE CITADEL. 
 
 449 
 
 great gate of Sultan Hussein's mosque, the little band tran- 
 quilly awaited the surrender of the garrison of 6,000 men, 
 and of the vast citadel whose battlements, biistling with 
 guns, frowned defiance upon them. Presently the com- 
 mandant, Yusuf Ali Bey, presented himself, and after a few 
 words exchanged with the British officer, gave directions for 
 the evacuation of the fortress. Then took place the astonish- 
 ing spectacle — not the first of the kind in our island story — 
 of an army surrendering to a handful of Englishmen, around 
 whose brows shone the reflected might of the resistless array 
 that won the entrenchments of Tel-el-Kebir. For two hours 
 the long line of disciplined troops, sullen and silent, defiled 
 out of the fortress before the conquerors ; and at 12.30 the 
 last scene in the surrena- *" the I^gyplian capital was 
 consummated Dy the British c-c ^ps, weary and famished 
 after forty-eight hours passed in the saddle, marching in 
 tlirough the gate, and taking possession of the citadel. 
 Before midnight, the rebellion had collapsed by the surrender 
 of Arabi Pasha, that famous subject of the Khedive, i\\Q.fons 
 et ongo of the war. A more detailed account of the services 
 of the several Brigades of the Cavalry Division will be not 
 inappropriate at this point of the narrative. 
 
 At the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, the Cavalry Division, com- 
 manded by General Drury-Lowe, was divided into two 
 Brigades. The Indian Cavalry Brigade, under Brigadier- 
 General Wilkinson, forming the first line, consisted of the 
 2nd and 6th Bengal Cavalry and 13th Bengal Lancers ; and 
 the second line, composed of the Heavy Brigade, under Sir 
 Baker Russell, consisted of the three scjuadrons Household 
 Cavalry and the 4th and 7th Dragoon (iuards. Immediately 
 after the result of the action was made known to (ieneral 
 Drury-Lowe, he pushed forward the Indian Brigade and the 
 Mounted Infantry, which seized the lock a few miles above 
 Tcl-cl-Kebir; and after a halt of half an hour. General VVilkin- 
 
 29 
 
 Iti 
 
 t -' 
 
450 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELEY. 
 
 son started for Belbeis, sixteen miles distant, by the north bank 
 of the Sweet Water Canal. Crowds of fugitives were passed, 
 who offered no resistance, but threw away their arms ; and 
 it was not until within about six miles of Beibeis that shots 
 were exchanged with a body consisting of some hundreds 
 of infantry and cavalry, who were dispersed after a smart 
 skirmish. About noon the Indian Cavalry and Mounted 
 Infantry entered Belbeis, distant twenty-five miles from 
 Kassassin by the route north of Tel-el-Kebir. On his 
 arrival General \\'ilkinson opened the lock-gates, and let 
 the water into the lower part of the canal. About five p.m. 
 General Lowe arrived with the 4th Dragoon Guards, and 
 at 4.30 on the following morning, he marched with that 
 regiment and the Mounted Infantry ; the 2nd Bengal Cavalry 
 and five troops of the 13th Bengal Lancers taking the route 
 by the south, or desert, bank of the canal. On reaching 
 Syriakus Lock, about twelve miles from Cairo, General Lowe 
 halted for two hours, when Brigadier-General Wilkinson not 
 having arrived, he set out on his march with the 4th Dragoon 
 Guards and Mounted Infantry, and diverging to his left, 
 reached Abbassyeh Barracks, about three and a half miles 
 from Cairo, at 4.30 p.n . 
 
 Meanwhile, shortly after General Lowe left Belbeis, General 
 Wilkinson marched with the 6th Bengal Cavalry, one troop 
 13th Bengal Lancers, and some Mounted Infantry, and 
 keeping straight along the Sweet Water Canal, arrived during 
 the night of the 14th at the railway bridge, some few miles 
 short of the station. At daybreak on the 15th, under in- 
 structions from General Drury-Lowe, who had arranged for 
 their surrender, he occupied the railway station and telegraph 
 office, and remained in possession until ordered by (ieneral 
 Lowe to move out to the Abbassyeh Barracks, a detachment 
 of the 4th Dragoon Guards afterwards re-occupying the rail- 
 way station. The Heavy Cavalry Brigade, with the guns, 
 
THE SERVICES OF THE CAVALRY. 
 
 451 
 
 rth bank 
 : passed, 
 ns ; and 
 lat shots 
 lundreds 
 a smart 
 vlounted 
 es from 
 On his 
 and let 
 five p.m. 
 irds, and 
 ,vith that 
 I Cavalry 
 the route 
 reaching 
 ;ral Lowe 
 nson not 
 Dragoon 
 his left, 
 lalf miles 
 
 General 
 ne troop 
 ry, and 
 I during 
 "ew miles 
 ndcr in- 
 nged for 
 legraph 
 Cieneral 
 achment 
 the rail- 
 le guns, 
 
 e 
 
 did not arrive at Abbassyeh until the 15th, marching in the 
 desert sand being very trying for the stalwart troopers and 
 their heavy horses. 
 
 The gallant services rendered by the Household Cavalry 
 at the ever-memorable charge of Kassassin on the 28th 
 August have been the theme of many pens, and with their 
 dramatic surroundings will form a brilliant page in con- 
 temporaneous military history. The 4th Dragoon (iuards 
 rendered not less distinguished service, and, as we have 
 seen, was the only regiment of Ikitish Cavalry (excluding 
 the Mounted Infantry) that possessed the staying power to 
 hold its own with the Indian Cavalry, which was quite at 
 home in the heated sand of the Egyptian desert. The 19th 
 Hussars, as Divisional Cavalry, were split up throughout 
 the campaign, providing escorts and holding the line ot 
 communications. On the 13th September a portion of the 
 regiment was placed, under Brigadier-General Nugent, R.E., 
 in charge of the camp, and a squadron, under Major Taylor, 
 formed, with the battalion of Royal Marine Artillery, the 
 Reserve, under Sir Garnet Wolseley's personal command. 
 The services of the 7th Dragoon Guards were of a more 
 active description, but nevertheless, this gallant regiment 
 did not play so conspicuous a part as some of its officers 
 could have wished.* 
 
 * Every regiment of the Cavalry Division, British and Native, has re- 
 ceived a meed of praise except the 7th Dragoon Guards. The Household 
 Caval.y has been belauded for the brilliant charge at Kassassin, in which 
 the 7th participated ; and the 4th Dragoon Guards, led by that popular 
 officer, Major Denne, has received the equally well-merited praises of the 
 Duke of Cambridge, as the first cavalry regiment to enter Cairo, an honour 
 it shared with the Mounted Infantry. Nevertheless this gallant regiment 
 (the old ' Black Horse ) did well, as the following brief record of its services, 
 supplied to us by the able and indefatigable Adjutant, Captain de Burgh, will 
 show : ' On the 28th August, on the third occasion of our turning out from 
 our camp at Mahsameh, judging, from the heavy artillery-fire over the camp 
 at Kassassin, that the small force there was heavily attacked, about half an 
 hour before sunset we left the camp in the following order : I'irst line, four 
 .scjuadrons 7th Dragoon Guards, followed by N Battery A Brigade koyal 
 Horse Artillery, and with three squadrons Household Cavalry in support. 
 On attaining the crest of the ridge over Kassassin, the sun went down ; and 
 
 29—2 
 
' 
 
 452 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 4 
 
 1 A 
 
 >t 
 
 Captain (now Brevet-Major) R. C. T.awrence (5th 
 Dragoon (lUards), who commanded the Mounted Infantry 
 from the ist of September, gives us the following account of 
 the movements of this force, which formed the advanced 
 guard of the Cavalry J3ivision, and, with a detachment of 
 the 4th Dragoon (luards, received the surrender of the 
 citadel. 'At the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, the Mounted 
 Infantry, under my command, consisted of 6 ofiticers, besides 
 myself, and 130 non-commissioned officers and men, divided 
 into four troops. At one a.m. on the 13th September, the 
 Cavalry and Mounted Infantry, with a battery of Royal 
 Horse Artillery, left Kassassin. Striking off into the desert 
 at once, and making a considerable detour^ we halted about 
 two miles from, arid opposite, the left flank of the enemy's 
 ])Osition at Tel-el-Kebir. Dismounting, we lay down, and 
 tried to rest beside our horses. We must have been here 
 for at least an hour and a half At daybreak we mounted 
 and moved on rapidly, and the Horse Artillery, taking up a 
 
 slioitly the enemy perceived tlie cavalry in the moonlight advancing, and 
 turned their guns on us at once. An order was sent to the 7th to open out 
 from l)oih flanks to enable the Royal Horse Artillery to come into 
 action ; this they did, supiJorted on tlie left by the fire of a dismounted 
 troop of the 7th. When General Lowe sent an order to charge tlie guns, 
 the 1 1 ousehold Cavalry came up in the interval made by the 7th for the 
 Royal Horse Artillery to come into action. Thus the enemy was attacked 
 with a line formed by the Household Cavalry in the centre, one squadron 
 7th on their right, tvosquac'rons 7th on their left, while the fourth squadron 
 remained as escort to the Royal Horse Artillery. F'rom their central posi- 
 tio'\ tlie Hoi'sehold Cavalry got among the enemy's guns. The casualties 
 of the 7th were T ieutcnant Gribble (3rd Dragoon Guards), attnched to the 
 7th, killed (his bo'^y was found on the 9th September), 3 men wounded, and 
 3 horses killed. 
 
 ' At Tel-el-Kebir, on the 13th, the 7th were engaged in the pursuit of the 
 enemy, and pushed on to Cairo, via Belbeis, with the Household Cavalry 
 and N Battery A Brigade Royal Horse Artillery. We bivouacked in the 
 desert, nine miles east of Belbeis, on the night of the 13th, and about four- 
 teen miles east of Cairo on that of the 14th, where two squadrons were left 
 in escort to the battery on the morning of the 15th. The remaining two 
 .squadrons with the Household Cavalry (three squadrons), conmianded by 
 Sir Baker Russell, marched into Cairo at nine a.m. on the istii, the two 
 other squadrons marching in about two hours later, having been delayed 
 by a portion of the road having to be repaired to enable the guns to 
 tra%'erse it.' 
 
SERVICJCS OF THE MOUNTED INFANTRY. 453 
 
 -e (5th 
 [nfantry 
 "ount of 
 Ivanced 
 nent of 
 
 of the 
 lounted 
 
 besides 
 divided 
 ber, the 
 f Royal 
 e desert 
 d about 
 enemy's 
 wn, and 
 en here 
 nounted 
 mg up a 
 
 icing, and 
 ) open out 
 onie into 
 isnicunted 
 
 the guns, 
 :Ii for the 
 s attacked 
 
 squadron 
 
 squadron 
 ritral posi- 
 
 casualties 
 ed to the 
 ided, and 
 
 uit of the 
 i Cavalry 
 .ed in the 
 )out four- 
 wiTc left 
 iiiing two 
 anded by 
 , the two 
 n delayed 
 ! guns to 
 
 position on so-uc rising ground to our left front, came i ito 
 action. During this time we heard the incessant ratt v of 
 musketry, and owing to the partial darkness, could see the 
 Hashes of shells bunting in the air. ^V e now ])assed in front 
 of a work on the enemy's extreme left, out of which they ran 
 on seeing us approaching, and soon came upon hundreds of 
 Egyptians, many badly wounded, who were walking slowly 
 ■across the desert away from us, or in the direction of El 
 Menair. Those we overlook threw down their arms, l)Ut 
 many of those in the distance turned round and fired shots 
 at us. General Lowe sent me off to look after these latter, 
 and I dismounted a couple of troops, who fired two or 
 three volleys, and thus stopped this firing on the part of 
 fugitives. 
 
 ' General Lowe now moved with the British Cavalry, under 
 Sir Baker Russell, close up to the rear of Tel-el-Kebir, taking 
 away one troop of my Mounted Infantry. I went on with 
 the rest, and together with the advanced parties of the 
 2nd and 13th Bengal Cavalry, the whole under General 
 Wilkinson, seized the first work (Abu Hamed, I think). 
 We then pushed on along the north-west side of the canal, 
 as it branches towards Cair-'*, liding sometimes in sections 
 along the bank, sometimes \\\ column of troops along the 
 open ground between the canal and cultivation. ^Ve could 
 see numbers of fugitives retreating along through the high 
 growth of millet and cotton covering this irrigated land. 
 About one and a half mile short of Belbeis about 150 of the 
 enemy made a short stand behind some heaps of sand on 
 the desert, or opposite, side of the canal, and opened a sharp 
 fire on the advanced parties. These dismounted under cover 
 of our bank (both sides of the canal had a high hank here, 
 with a path between it and the water-side), and I pushed the 
 Mounted Infantry under this cover. We replied briskly to 
 their fire, knocking over a lot of them, and In about ten 
 
454 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELRY. 
 
 
 ^%. 
 
 
 4 
 
 %■ 
 
 i- 
 
 i; 
 
 \f 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 \ 
 
 \ '« 
 
 , 
 
 \ 
 
 f '\' 
 
 -f 
 
 minutes the rest bolted. About 1.30 p.m. we reached 
 Belbeis, and the Mounted Infantry were established in and 
 about the lock-keeper's house. 
 
 ' About five or six p.m., General Lowe joined us with the 
 4th Dragoon Guards. I sent a picket to take charge of the 
 rrilway station, and about one a.m. (T4th) was awakened 
 by Colonel Herbert Stewart, with orders to send back three 
 trustworthy men with a message to Colonel Ewart to bring 
 up some guns to join us. At five a.m. we all crossed at the 
 lock to the desert side of the canal, and advanced on Cairo, 
 delivering the Khedive's proclamation at the villages on the 
 way. After going about fifteen miles, we halted for about 
 fifteen minutes, and then continued our march. At Syriakus 
 General Lowe bought large supplies of bread and coarse 
 forage for the troops from the villagers, and we halted in the 
 shade for an hour. We then turned sharp to our left across 
 the irrigated land — here about a mile broad — and skirting 
 outside Birket-el-Hadj (I think), we advanced on Ahbassyeh. 
 About five miles from Cairo, near the ruins of Heliopolis, a 
 flag of truce was sent in, demanding the surrender of the 
 city, under Colonel Stewart, whose escort was a detachment 
 of the Mounted Infantry and 4th Dragoon Ciuards (I think), 
 the two Egyptian officers who had accompanied us the whole 
 way going with us. We then moved slowly on till within 
 one mile of Abbassyeh.' 
 
 Captain Lawrence, the senior cavalry officer cf the party 
 that took possession of the citadel, fully recognised the 
 dangers of the situation, and is of opinion that had a single 
 shot been fired on either side, the whole of his small detach- 
 ment must have been massacred. Indeed, it is manifest that 
 nothing but good management and the bold face he and 
 Captains Watson and Darley put on matters, averted a 
 catastrophe. He writes to us as follows of the events of 
 that night : * At nine p.m. we left Abbassyeh, and making a 
 
SERVICES OF THE MOUNTED INFANTRY. 455 
 
 circuit by the desert road, arrived before the citadel at 10.30, 
 under the guidance of Captain Watson and an Egyptian 
 officer, Hussein Bey, who was sent to communicate to the 
 Governor the order to march out. My men were so utterly 
 exhausted that they lay down at the heads of their horses, 
 and when the time came to take possession of the citadel, 
 some of them had to be kicked up before they could be 
 aroused. "> formed in an open space (between the main 
 gate and archway, leading through an interior line of wall) 
 facing inwards, the 4th Dragoon Guards, two squadrons (in 
 single rank), under Captain Darley, and the Mounted 
 Infantry (81 men), 
 
 ' The Egyptian troops (about 6,000 or 7,000) formed by 
 battalions in the inner barrack-yard, and were marched out 
 by a smaller gate in the lower part of the citadel near the 
 mosque of Sultan Hassan, and leading more directly into 
 the native town. This was done to avoid any confusion or 
 possible danger that might have arisen from their passing 
 our men, it being improbable that they would have quietly 
 submitted to be turned out had they known our numbers. 
 On the completion of the evacuation, we proceeded to lock 
 the gates and place guards over them, two from the Mounted 
 Infantry and one from the 4th Dragoon Guards. I now 
 found that the prisoners had been let loose by the departing 
 Egyptians. Having broken into an armourer's workshop, 
 they had seized a nu nber of tools and began knocking off 
 their shackles, they bci»ig mostly fastened in couples by long 
 fetters. With the assistance of two dragoons I drove them 
 back into their prison, and Captain Watson told them that 
 anyone attempting to escape would be shot. I considered 
 this necessary, as some of them had gained possession of 
 arms which the troops had left lying about. Having get as 
 many of them as I could see into the two prisons, I placed 
 a guard of the 4th Dragoon Guards on each, and the prisoners 
 
 III 
 
 iSi 
 
 ilii 
 

 456 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 IF 
 { , 
 
 gave no further trouble, though they appeared to continue 
 knocking off their shackles all night.* Watson and the 
 Egyptian officer now left for Abbassyeh, and I locked the 
 last gate. 
 
 * It was quite dark when we arrived, so that there were 
 many nooks and corners that had to be explored. I therefore 
 got a lantern, and went round and about the whole place. 
 In some places I found stragglers from the Egyptian regi- 
 ments, whom I turned out by the nearest gate ; in others, a 
 few prisoners whom I confined with the rest. None of these 
 made any show of opposition, but all were ready to go in 
 any direction I pointed out to them (with a revolver). As 
 soon as the Egyptian troops had moved out, the Mounted 
 Infantry picketed their horses in the open way before referred 
 to, just inside the main gate, and I sent the 4th Dragoon 
 Guards into the inner yard. We found a large dirty room with 
 divans round it, apparently some officer's quarters, inside the 
 inner yard, and here the officers lay down. About three a.m. 
 I woke up Lieutenant Hore, ist Stafford Regiment (3^th), 
 one of my officers, who relieved me in patrolling for one 
 hour. I then called Lieutenant Harrison, nth Hussars 
 (attached to 4th Dragoon Guards), to do the same for one 
 hour, and got up again myself at five a.m. At six I saw Ali 
 Bey about rations for the troops, and he sent for an Egyptian 
 police official (zaptieh), who got me rations on requisition. 
 This man told me he knew of Midshipman de Chair's where- 
 abouts in the town, so I sent him off at once to bring him 
 in, thinking it would be safer to do so. About eight or 
 nine a.m. young De Chair arrived, looking well and glad to 
 get back to friends and countrymen. About half-past nine 
 
 * ' During the night,' says Captain Lawrence, ' one of the prisoners tried 
 to escape, but was shot, and, I beheve, mortally wounded, by one of my 
 sentries. 1 handed him ovor to a (Juards' doctor next morning. Two 
 other prisoners shackled together were, I believe, injured in trying to escapt; 
 by jumping a wall, but neither was killed. Some of the prisoners appeared 
 to be of the cut-throat class, and others were harmless political offenders.' 
 
DECISIVENESS OF THE VICTORY. 
 
 457 
 
 
 or ten a.m. on the following morning (the 15th September), 
 the Duke of Connaught arrived with the Scots (luards and 
 relieved me at the citadel, and I marched out to the Kasr- 
 el-Nil Barracks.' 
 
 During the succeeding few days, the (luards arrived *"rom 
 Benha; also the Highlanders, who had been halted at 
 Belbeis after quilting Zagazig, and the Artillery, (ieneral 
 Graham's Brigade and the Indian Contingent. 
 
 If the capture of the lines of Tel-el-Kebir was a re- 
 markable feat of war, even more extraordinary was the 
 manner in which the fruits of that victory were reaped by 
 the successful General, to whom, in his capacity for correctly 
 estimating the real strength of an enemy, might be api)lied 
 the words pronounced by the Roman historian on Hannibal : 
 * Bene ausns van a coutemnere.^ 
 
 The cavalry had fought an action and made the distance 
 of sixty-five miles in two days,* and if 'he credit of storming 
 the entrenchments of Tel-el-Kebir, and capturing 59 guns 
 and vast quantities of military stores and supplies of all 
 sorts, belongs almost exclusively to the infantry, to the 
 mounted branch of the service is due the honour of a 
 forced march rarely equalled, whether we regard the place 
 and circumstances under which it was made, or the vast 
 interests subserved by its accomplishment. The events of 
 the past forty-eight hours were indeed startling in the 
 rapidity of the incidents and the dramatic character of the 
 denouement. Whether we regard the skill of the General, 
 who placed his men in front of the lines of the enemy at 
 the exact moment of time, neither sooner nor later, that 
 was essential for success, or the gallantry of the troops, 
 we, as a nation, may echo the words of their leader : ' I 
 
 * One troop of (lie 6th Bengal Cavalry, which only loft Ismailia on the 
 evening of the 12th, were present at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on the 13th, 
 and were at Cairo on the following day, eighty-five miles from Ismailia, 
 not a horse or man having fallen out. 
 
458 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 do not believe that at any previous period of our military 
 history has the Ikitish infantry distinguished itself more 
 than upon this occasion. I have heard it said of our 
 present infantry regiments that the men are too young, 
 and their training for manoeuvring ana for fighting and 
 their powers of endurance are not sufficient for the 
 requirements of modern war. After a trial of an ex- 
 ceptionally severe kind, both in movement and attack, I 
 can say emphatically that I never wish to have under my 
 orders better infantry battalions than those whom I am 
 proud to have commanded at Tel-el-Kebir.' 
 
 The critics who disagree with Sir Garnet Wolseley in his 
 estimate of the young soldiers who now compose the major 
 portion of the British army, and contemptuously dub them 
 ' immature boys,' forget that the average service of the victors 
 of Tel-el-Kebir was five years, while that of the vanquished 
 at Majuba Hill was seven years. With the Reserve, that 
 essential and integral part of the short-service system, it 
 will always be possible in war-time to place any battalion 
 in an efficient condition by adding as many reserve men as 
 are necessary to take the places of the recruits. It must be 
 considered a good test of the efficiency of the new system, 
 of which Sir Garnet has been so warm an advocate, that, 
 including the troops on their way to Egypt, 41,000 men 
 were equipped for service without embodying a single 
 battalion of Militia, and with the aid of less than one- 
 fifth of the Reserves, and Mr. Childers has stated that 
 'twice that number of efficient soldiers could be des- 
 patched from this country, leaving an ample force at home, 
 within a month of the expedition being approved by 
 Parliament ; and this without its being necessary to 
 embody more than half the Militia, or to obtain any aid 
 from India.' This is certainly a gratifying state of things, 
 and compares favourably with the condition of the army 
 
RETROSPECT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 459 
 
 at the time of the Crimean War, or even ten years 
 
 ago. 
 
 To achieve this great victory,* the losses, though con- 
 
 * The following are chief among the officers who condncerl to this great 
 success, with the terms in which they are spoken of by llie Coniniancler-:n- 
 C!hief: — Sir John Adye, towhom.hesays, ' I was indebted, from the beginning 
 to the termination of this war, for the cordial, loyal, and eflicient assistance I 
 have at all times received from him. His ability as an administrator is well 
 known to you, and the highest praise 1 can give him is to say that his soldier- 
 like (jualities are fully on a par with his administrative capacity.' Sir Archi- 
 bald Alison, ' whose services rendered at Alexandria previous to my arrival 
 are already well known to you. No one could have led iiis brigade more 
 gallantly or with greater skill than he did on the i3tii inst., when he showed 
 it the way into the enemy's intrenchments. He is both zealous and capable. ' 
 (jeneral Graham, ' to whose lot fell the brunt of the lighting throughout the 
 campaign, and it could not have buen in bettt-r hands. To that coolness 
 and gallantry in action for which he has always been well known, he adds 
 the power of leading and commanding others." Gener.d Drury-Lowe, ' who 
 commanded the Cavalry Division with great skill and success throughout 
 the campaign, and I have great pleasure in strongly recommending him to 
 your favourable consideration. His pursuit of the enemy and occupation of 
 Cairo the day after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir is worthy of every praise. I 
 believe the preservation of the city is owing to the splendid forced march 
 nade by the cavalry on that occasion.' Brigadier-General Dormer, the 
 officer second in rank belonging to the Head-Quarter Staff. ' He has had 
 long and varied experience on the Staff. He thoroughly understands our 
 army systf ni in all its phases, and adds great tact and judgment to his other 
 many high military qualities.' .Sir Baker Russell, 'whose soldier-like 
 qualities are so well known that it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon 
 them. He is a born cavalry leader. ' Colonel Rollo Gillespie, 'who is a 
 first-rate Staff-officer.' Colonel Herbert Stewart, 'one of the best Staff- 
 officers I have ever known, and one whom I feel it will be in the interest of 
 the army to promote.' Colonel H. S. Jones, commanding the Marines, who 
 did his duty at all times with zeal and ability.' Brigadier-Cienerals Wilkinson 
 and Tanner and Colonels Gerard and Pennington, of the Indian Contingent, 
 also rendered good services, and were strongly recommended by Sir Herbert 
 Macpherson. Other excellent officers, favourably mentioned in the despatches 
 were Colonels Stockwell, Maurice. Swauie, Ewart, Richardson, Wdson, 
 Stevenson, Macpherson (who led his regiment, the 42nd, at Amoaful as 
 . well as at Tel-el-Kebir), Ciregorie, Tuson, and Graham, and Major Denne, 
 wno commanded the 4th Dragoon Guards at Tel-el-Kebir and on the march 
 to Cairo. 
 
 The Railway and Intelligence Departments have already been referred to 
 in the preceding pages ; and we have also spoken of the services rendered 
 by Sir Herbert Macpherson, General Earle, Colonels Buller and Butler, Sir 
 Owen Lanyon, and the naval officers engaged in the occupation of the Suez 
 Canal, and the services they and the navy generally rendered to the army, of 
 which Sir Garnet Wolseley spoke in no stmted terms. Finally, of the rank 
 and file the Commander-in-Chief wrote : ' It only remains for n.e to add 
 how much 1 feci indebted to the non-comir.issioned officers and rank and 
 file, who have borne the trying hatdships of this desert campaign without a 
 murmur, and in the most uncomplaining spirit. Their valour in action and 
 
460 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 , l_ .:.ji- . 
 
 siderable, were not near so numerous as Sir Garnet Wolseley 
 anticipated. The casualties were 9 officers and 48 men 
 killed, 27 officers (of whom 3 died) and 353 men wounded, 
 and 22 men missing — giving a grand total of 459 of all 
 ranks. 
 
 To his despatch of the 24th September, eulogizing those 
 officers who had done good work during the campaign, 
 objection has been taken that every officer holding a pro- 
 minent position, or commanding a corps or battalion, has 
 been praised ; but in pursuing this course the Commander- 
 in-Chief only followed precedent. AH had done well, and 
 therefore all received the meed of approval. But while 
 none had fallen below what was expected of them, it is not 
 difficult to read between the lines of the despatch, and 
 detect the names of those officers who displayed singular 
 capacity, or seized opportunities of distinction as they arose. 
 These are the men to whom the country will look in future 
 emergencies, and hence this despatch possesses a national 
 interest. Such are, in an exceptional degree, Generals Sir 
 John Adye, Sir Archibald Alison, Sir Gerald (iraham, Sir 
 D. Drury-Lowe, Sir Evelyn Wood, and Sir ^ierbert Mac- 
 l)herson ; and Colonels Sir Baker Russell, Stewart, Buller, 
 Gillespie, Butler, Maurice, and others. The war did not afford 
 much opportunity for the display of exceptional talent, for the 
 reason that so perfectly were its contingencies ])rovided for 
 by the Commander-in-Chief, that the ultimate issues were 
 not left to chance, or to the interposition of a deus ex macliina 
 in the shape of a general or staff-officer. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley has always recommended himself to 
 the favour of the English public by the economy with which 
 he has conducted the expeditions under his command, un- 
 like some distinguished commanders, who have displayed a 
 
 discipline in quarters have sliown them to be worthy successors of those 
 gallant soldiers who, in former days, raised the reputation of England to i- 
 very high position among nations.' 
 
THE EGYPTIAN IV AR BILL. 
 
 461 
 
 If to 
 I'hich 
 un- 
 fed a 
 
 I those 
 to .'» 
 
 lordly indifference to financial considerations. As we have 
 seen, the entire charge for the Red River Expedition was 
 ;;^8o,ooo, and of this John Bull only paid out of his pocket 
 one-fourth. The Ashantee War was conducted at a cost of 
 ;!{,9oo,ooo. Even more remarkable is the economy dis- 
 played in the conduct of the Egyptian Campaign. When we 
 consider that 33,000 men proceeded to the seat of war 
 U}) to the 14th September, and that 41,000 were desjjatched 
 from this country and India, the English taxpayer must 
 have regarded with feelings of dismay the fiscal prospects 
 before him. But having regard to the vast European 
 and Asiatic interests that have been safe -guarded — on the 
 one hand our road to India and the far East, and on the 
 other the re-establishment of the prestige of this country 
 throughout the world as a power that will do more than 
 bluster and talk when its vital interests are concerned — the 
 actual cost to the nation of the expedition down to the 
 1st of October, when the state of war was succeeded by an 
 armed occupation, has been only ;^3, 360,000.* This is 
 exclusive of the charge for the Indian Contingent, which 
 was estimated at ;;^ 1,880,000, but has only reached 
 ;;^ 1, 140,000. Thus the total cost of the war has been 
 ;,{^4, 5 00,000, exactly half of that of the Abyssinian Expedi- 
 tion, though the number of troops landed in one case was 
 only 12,000, and in the other 33,000. 'I'his economy in 
 expenditure, which forms so striking a feature in the expe- 
 ditions conducted by the subject of this memoir, is, of 
 course, chiefly due to the rapidity with which he has con- 
 
 * The vote of credit taken on 25th July was for ^^2, 300, 000: War Office, 
 ;^900,ooo; Admiralty, including Transport, ^1,400,000. This vote on 
 account is thus increased by only /'i,o6o,ooo, made up l>y War Oftke 
 charges ;^75o,ooo, and Admiralty ^^lo.ooo. The charge for the Indian 
 Contingent, borne in the first instance by the Indian Government, will be 
 adjusted at a later date between it and the Home Government. 
 
 I'lom the ist October the extra charge for the pay and maintenance of 
 the ,\rmy of Occupation — in the above account are included only the special 
 allowanres, and the whole extra charge connected with the war — will be 
 bene entirely, or cniefiy, by the ligyptiau li^xchetjuer. 
 
rn^rn 
 
 462 
 
 L/F/t OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ducted the military operations — seven weeks from the date 
 of the vote of credit, and four weeks to the day from his 
 landing at Alexandria ; but it is also owing to the intimate 
 knowledge he possesses of the requirements of war as waged 
 in the four q^iarters of the globe, and his unequalled mastery 
 of the administrative details of the several departments of 
 the complicated military machine in l^all Mall. 
 
 The British Government instituted a medal in honour of 
 the Egyptian War, to be granted to all troops who served in 
 that country between July i6th and September 14th, with 
 clasps for Alexandria and Tel-el-Kebir, The decorations 
 and rewards to officers were conferred in accordance with 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley's recommendations, and it cannot be 
 said that they were given on an illiberal scale. The officers 
 of the army received one G.CB., ten K.C.B.'s, and fifty-six 
 C.B.'s ; also one K.C.S.L, one K.C.M.Ci., and two C.M.G.'s. 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley was created a peer, with the title of 
 Lord Wolseley of Cairo, and a pension, and was pr<^moted to 
 the rank of General, ' for distinguished service in the field ;' 
 Sir Archibald Alison was Uiade a Lieutenant-General, and 
 Brigadier-General Hon. J. Dormer, Dei)uty-Adjutant-General, 
 a Major-Gencral, In the combatant branch sixty-two Majors 
 were promoted to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonels, and forty-three 
 Captains to Brevet-Majorities. Eighteen officers in the 
 non-combatant branches received promotion ; and Brigade- 
 Surgeon R. W. Jackson, C.B., who served on Sir Garnet's 
 Staff as medical attendant in South Africa as well as in 
 Egypt, was knighted. Seven officers were made Aides-de- 
 Camp to the Queen, with the rank of Colonel ; and three 
 — Brigadier-General Goodenough, R.A., Colonel Stockwell, 
 C.B., Seaforth Highlanders (who had served with his regi. 
 ment in Afghanistan, under Sir Frederick Roberts, and com- 
 manded it, on the death of Colonel Brownlow, at the battle 
 of Candahar), and Colonel 1). Macpherson, C.B., Royal 
 
REIVARDS TO THE ARMY. 
 
 463 
 
 he date 
 rom his 
 intimate 
 s waged 
 mastery 
 lents of 
 
 )nour of 
 
 ervod in 
 
 .th, with 
 
 orations 
 
 ice with 
 
 nnot be 
 
 ! officers 
 
 fifty-six 
 
 I.M.G.'s. 
 
 title of 
 
 loted to 
 
 e field ;' 
 
 ral, and 
 
 eneral, 
 
 Majors 
 
 ty-three 
 
 in the 
 
 Jrigade- 
 
 arnet's 
 
 as in 
 
 des-de- 
 
 \ three 
 
 ckvvell, 
 
 is regi- 
 
 d com- 
 
 ; battle 
 
 Royal 
 
 Highlanders (who had commanded the regiment at Amoa- 
 ful) — were awarded a distinguished-service pension. The 
 prodigality with which rewards were given in this and recent 
 campaigns affords a contrast to the niggardliness of a 
 previous generation. Lord Wolseley's early career offers a 
 case in point. After serving in the Burmese War, where he 
 headed a storming party and was severely wounded ; and 
 throughout the siege of Sebastopol, where he was again 
 severely wounded, and was as often under fire in the trenches 
 as any officer in the British army, and was specially men- 
 tioned in despatches by Lord Raglan — for these services 
 he received neither promotion, nor brevet, nor any other 
 reward. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley * received at the hands of the Khedive 
 the Grand Cross of the Turkish Order of the Osmanieh ; 
 and a distribution was made of the five different grades of 
 this Order and of the Medjidie to every officer of rank, and 
 to one field-officer, one captain, and one subaltern of each 
 corps and battery. His Highness also followed the example 
 of the British Government, and instituted a medal for the 
 Egyptian Campaign, in silver for the officers, and copper for 
 the men. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley, on his arrival at Cairo on the 15th 
 September, in company \vl*^h the Duke of Connaught, took 
 up his quarters, with his Staff, in the Abdeen Palace, which 
 was placed at his disposal by the Khedive. One of his 
 first acts was to issue a general order to his troops in the 
 following terms : ' The General Commanding-in-Chief con- 
 gratulates the army upon the brilliant success which has 
 crowned its efforts in the campaign terminated on the 14th 
 
 * The nolal)les of ('.liro have recently presented Lords Wolseley and 
 Alcester with magnificent swords, subscribed by, and presented in the name 
 of, the nation. 'I'he value of these weapons, which are of ancient manu- 
 facture, and were worn by famous .Sultans of Turkey, is stated to be ^^3, 500. 
 'I'he notables have also presented General Drury-Lowe with a costly pair of 
 pistols. 
 
 II 
 
464 
 
 LIFE or LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 inst. by the surrender of the citadel of Cairo and of Arab! 
 Pasha, the chief rebel against the authority of his Highness 
 the Khedive. In twenty-five days the army has effected a 
 disembarkation at Ismailia ; has traversed the desert to 
 Zagazig ; has occupied the capital of Egypt ; and has for- 
 tunately def.,'ated the enemy four times — on August 24th, at 
 Magfar ; on the 25th, at Tel-el-Mahouta ; on September 9th, 
 at Kassassin ; and, finally, on September 13th, at Tel-el- 
 Kebir — where, after an arduous night-march, it inflicted 
 upon him an overwhelming defeat, storming a strongly en- 
 trenched position at the point of the bayonet, and rapturing 
 ;tll his guns, about sixty in number. In recapitulating the 
 events which have marked this short and decisive camj)aign, 
 the General Commanding in-Chief feels proud to place upon 
 record the fact that these military achievements are to be 
 attributed to the high military courage and noble devotion 
 to duty which have animated all ranks under his command. 
 Called upon to show discipline under exceptional privations, 
 to give ])roof of fortitude in extreme toil, and to show con- 
 tempt of danger in battle, general officers, officers, non-com- 
 missioned officers, and men of the army, have responded 
 with alacrity, adding another chapter to the long roll of 
 ]]ritish victories.' 
 
 In spite of the complete overthrow of Arabi and the cause 
 he represented, the lower orders of Cairo were insolent in 
 their bearing, and, on the 23rd, Sir Garnet directed the whole 
 Cavalry Division* to march through the city to impress on 
 the ])eople the reality of the change of masters. Mean- 
 while the effects of the great victory achieved at Tel-el- 
 Kebir were becoming apparent in the surrender of the 
 fortified places on the coast, and the submission of the 
 
 * Tlie loss of troop-horses during the ]£gyptian Campaign was excep- 
 tionally heavy, considering its brief cluration. Tiie Household Cavalry lost 
 90 horses, being 30 per sciuadrf)n ; the 7th Dragoon Cuards lost 72 ; the 
 19th Hussars, 50; tlie 1 1(Mse Artillery, 96; and the 4th Dragoon Guards, 
 wiiich marched over 70 miles in 48 hours, without uusaildiing, 267 horses. 
 
COMPLETE SUBMISSION OE EGYPT. 
 
 465 
 
 |xcep- 
 
 lost 
 
 J; the 
 
 lards, 
 
 ses. 
 
 rebel chiefs who, lately the servile tools of Arabi, now 
 cringed at the feet of the Khedive. The conduct of the 
 notables and priests was as subservient to the triumphant 
 Khedive as it had lately been to the Colonel of Infantry 
 who had usurped his functions, and of whom they now pro- 
 fessed, in words applied by his quondam sycophants to 
 Sejanus, commander of the Praetorian Ouard of Tiberius, 
 * Nunquam^ mihi credis^ amavi hunc hoininem.^ 
 
 The forts at Aboukir were evacuated and occupied, but 
 Abdelal, the commander in Arabi's interest at Damietta, re- 
 fused to surrender, and Sir Evelyn Wood proceeded with 
 some troops to attack the forts, which the fleet was directed 
 to bombard. However, Abdelal discovered the hopeless- 
 ness of resistance when his men refused to obey him and 
 deserted in great numbers, and, on the 23rd September, he 
 surrendered himself to the British General at Kafr-el-Battikh, 
 a station five miles from Damietta, and by noon the forts 
 and city were occupied by British troops. The services of 
 Sir Evelyn Wood and the 4th Brigade should not be over- 
 looked in this brief retrospect of the Egyptian War, for not 
 only did they receive the surrender of Damietta and the 
 large force entrenched behind the lines at Kafr-Dowar, but 
 they kept at bay, and prevented from swelling the ranks of 
 Arabi, probably not less than 30,000 of his best troops. 
 
 On the 25th September the Khedive, accompanied by Sir 
 E. Malet and his ministers, arrived at Cairo from Alexandria. 
 Preparations were made on a grand scale for his reception. 
 The streets, which were densely crowded, were lined with 
 troops, and, on his alighting at the station, a salute was fired, 
 and the band of the Grenadier Guards i:)layed ' God save 
 the Queen.' Sir Garnet Wolseley and the Duke of Con- 
 naught received his Highness, who, having warmly expressed 
 his thanks to the General who had restored him to the throne, 
 entered his carriage in company with the I'rince, Sir Garnet 
 
 30 
 
466 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 ^f 
 
 i At 
 
 and Sir E. Malet, and drove to the Ismailia Palace, where he 
 decorated Sir Garnet with the Grand Cross of the Osmanieh. 
 How different were the circumstances under which, on the 
 1 2th of July, he quitted his capital, with Arabi sitting in the 
 carriage by his side to protect him from the very people 
 who now cheered and illuminated in his honour ! 
 
 On the following day the Khedive held a reception of 
 British officers, the Diplomatic body, and natives — the latter 
 crowding in numbers greater than was ever known before, some 
 4,000 being present. Sir Garnet was unable to be present 
 owing to his being laid up with illness, caused by catching 
 cold when visiting the Pyramids ; but, under the watchful 
 care of his friend and medical attendant. Dr. Jackson, he 
 was able to resume his duties in a few days, and, on ist 
 October, reviewed his magnificent army of 18,000 men and 
 60 guns, in presence of the Khedive. The Abdeen Square, 
 in which the review was held, had been the arena of a far 
 different scene when, on the 9th October in the preceding 
 year, Arabi — who now witnessed the stirring military spectacle 
 from a window in his prison-house in the square — with 4,000 
 men, enforced his own terms on Tewfik, besieged in the 
 palace whence his wife and family were now watching the 
 march of the soldiers who had replaced him on the throne. 
 
 The troops, now that they were no longer kept up by the 
 excitement of active service, began to suffer from the effects 
 of the hardships they had undergone, and the unhealthy 
 climate.* The greater portion of the force was necessarily 
 
 * The entries into hospital from the time of the landing at Ismailia to the 
 25th October, a few days after Sir Garnet quitted Cairo, were, out of a 
 total of 25,092 officers and men, 462 wounded and 7,038 sick. The follow- 
 ing is a list of the military ofiicers killed and died from wounds and the 
 climate in the Egyptian Expedition : Colonel Heasley, 87th ; Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Balfour, Grenadier Guards ; Major Strong, Captain Wardell, and 
 Lieutenants C^oke, Hickman, Colvin, Marshall, and Parkinson, Royal 
 Marines ; Major Colville and Lieutenants Kays and Somervell, 74th ; 
 Captain Baynes and Lieutenant Brooks, 75th ; Lieutenant Bayly, 2nd 
 Dragoon Guards (attached to 7th Dragoon Guards) ; Lieutenant Gribble, 
 3rd Dragoon Guards ; Lieutenant Weyland, ist Life Guards ; Captain Jones, 
 
1 
 
 GENERAL ORDER BY SIR GARNET. 
 
 »g 
 
 jia to the 
 
 lout of a 
 
 Ic follow- 
 
 land the 
 
 putenant- 
 
 Icll, and 
 
 Royal 
 
 |1, 74th; 
 
 ,'ly, 2nd 
 
 [Ciribblc. 
 
 in Jones, 
 
 467 
 
 encamped around Cairo, on sandy soil, with dust-storms all 
 day, and fogs from the river at night. The Abbassyeh aid 
 Abdeen Barracks were found in such a condition of inde- 
 scribable filth that, until they were cleansed, a process which 
 took some weeks, they could not be occupied. With the 
 exception of the Guards, which encamped in front of the 
 Abdeen Barracks, and occupied the citadel, the infantry 
 were stationed in the Island of Boolak, and the cavalry and 
 artillery at Abbassyeh. 
 
 As Her Majesty's Government decided to reduce the 
 army of occupation to 12,000 men, the expeditionary force 
 was broken up ; and on the 4th of October, Sir Garnet 
 issued the following general order to the troops : ' The 
 army in Egypt being broken up, and about to separate, the 
 Commander-in-Chief wishes to thank all ranks for the 
 manner in which they have done their duty during the 
 war. After the crowning success of Tel-el-Kebir, he 
 had the pleasure of thanking them for their endurance, 
 courage, and gallantry in the field. To these high military 
 virtues the troops have since added steadiness of conduct in 
 garrison, have maintained the character of the distinguished 
 regiments to which they belong, and shown the people of 
 Cairo that Her Majesty's soldiers, British and Indian, are 
 as conspicuous for their good behaviour in camp and quar- 
 ters as they had already proved themselves gallant troops 
 before the enemy. Her Majesty has every reason to be 
 proud of the soldiers who have served in Egypt, and in her 
 name and on her behalf he thanks them for their valour and 
 discipline. For himself. Sir (iarnet Wolseley begs to assure 
 them that he will ever remember and prize to the utmost the 
 
 88th ; Lieutenant Howa|tI-Vyse, 6oth Rifles ; Lieutenants McNeill, Graham- 
 Stirling, and Park, 42nd ; Lieutenant I'irie, 92nd ; Captain Doyle, 2nd 
 Dragoon Guards (A. D.C. to Sir H. Macpherson); Lieutenant Peters, nth ; 
 and Surgeon-Major Shaw, Army Medical Department. 
 
 30—2 
 
468 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEV. 
 
 fact that he had the honour and good fortune to command 
 them in this short campaign.' With reference to the disci- 
 pline, steadiness and good conduct of the army under his 
 command, it should be noted that this was the first occasion 
 in which a British general was called upon to maintain 
 discipline in an army in the field without recourse to the 
 lash. As regards their good conduct in quarters, Sir Garnet 
 has since stated that, during his stay in Cairo, which ex- 
 tended over six weeks, he did not see a single drunken 
 soldier — truly a remarkable testimony to the sobriety ""d 
 discipline of the army under his control. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief, during his stay, was busy review- 
 ing brigades and regiments, inspecting hospitals, visiting the 
 unequalled moscjues and edifices of this famous Oriental city, 
 and attending fetes and banquets in his honour. Of these, the 
 entertainment given on the 17th of October, by the Sheikh-i- 
 Bikri, carried off the palm for interest, and the scene re- 
 sembled the dcscrintions we read of the fetes that rendered 
 
 1. 
 
 memorable the reign over Baghdad of * the good Caliph 
 Haroun-al-Raschid.' The narrow lanes leading to the 
 Sheikh's palace, which those who have visited this most 
 picturesque of Eastern cities will remember, were convei ted 
 into long arcades, ablaze with lights, and spanned by tri- 
 umphal arches, and the old palace, with its courtyard and 
 gardens, was illuminated with Oriental taste and profusion. 
 
 The only contretemps that happened during Sir Garnet's 
 stay in Cairo was the great fire at the railway station, sup- 
 posed to be the work of incendiaries, when a vast amount 
 of ammunition and stores was destroyed. 
 
 One other occurrence is worthy of chronicle, and that was 
 the grand parade, on the 5th of October, of the British troops, 
 in honour of the * holy carpet,' annually sent to decorate the 
 Kaaba at Mecca, held in the presence of the Khedive and 
 the principal British officers. Much discussion arose in the 
 
S/J^ GARNET QUIl'S EGYPT. 
 
 469 
 
 til ma ml 
 e disci- 
 dcr his 
 ccasion 
 laintiiin 
 to the 
 Garnet 
 lich ex- 
 Irunken 
 ety ""d 
 
 rcvievv- 
 ting the 
 ital city, 
 lese, the 
 )heikh-i- 
 :ene re- 
 ^ndered 
 Caliph 
 to the 
 is most 
 nvei ted 
 by tri- 
 ird and 
 us ion. 
 larnet's 
 3n, sup- 
 amount 
 
 lat was 
 troops, 
 
 rate the 
 ve and 
 
 I in the 
 
 Press, and questions were asked in the House of Commons, 
 regarding the salute given by British, troops on that oc- 
 casion ; but, as explained in a memorandum by Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, the honour had not been paid to the carpet, but 
 to the howdah, or litter, which is supposed to represent the 
 Sultan, and received the same salute as is paid to the 
 (Queen's colours. 
 
 On the loth of October, Sir Garnet Wolseley reviewed 
 the Guards' J3rigade, now reduced to 1,400 bayonets; after 
 which he addressed a few words to the Duke of Connaught 
 and the Colonels of the three battalions. On the following 
 day, he received a farewell visit from the Khedive, who reite- 
 rated his unbounded thanks ; and at eleven p.m. the same 
 night, left for Alexandria, on his return to England. All 
 the Egyptian ministers, the Duke of Connaught, and the 
 British Generals and Staff were present at the station to 
 see him off, and as the train moved out, the august assemblage 
 gave 'Three cheers for Sir Garnet.' 
 
 On arriving near the lines of Kafr-Dowar, on the following 
 morning, the Commander-in-Chief got out of the railway 
 carriage and examined the formidable works constructed 
 with such labour by Arabi. On the fol'-Owing day he in- 
 spected the four regiments composing the garrison of Alex- 
 andria, and, on the 21st of October, sailed in H.M.'s despatch 
 vessel, I?'is, for Trieste, nine weeks and two days after landing 
 at that port with the arduous Egyptian military problem to 
 solve. 
 
 It was truly a wonderful retrospect, to look back at the 
 relative positions of Arabi and the Khedive then and now, 
 and to consider the vast change that had come over the 
 political world, not only of Cairo and Constantinople, but of 
 London and Paris, and of every Court in Europe; for it is 
 certain that the consequences of the victory of Tel-el-Kebir 
 will exercise a momentous, and perhaps permanent, change 
 
470 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 
 in the relations of the Great Powers as regards the Eastern 
 Question, no less than on the well-being of the Egyptian 
 people. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolselcy was received with special honour by 
 the Austrian military authorities at Trieste, and a large crowd 
 assembled to s^c him depart, a special carriage being placed 
 at his dispo.sul by the railway company. Travelling direct 
 to Paris, he landed in England on Saturday, the 28th of 
 October. He received an enthusiastic reception at Dover, 
 where he was met by Lady Wolseley and his daughter, and 
 was presented with an address by the Mayor and Corpora- 
 tion. In his reply he expressed his pleasure on being thus 
 greeted on his return home, and added, ' I hope the time 
 may never come when I shall have the vanity and self- 
 conceit to make me blind to the fact that for this honour I 
 am indebted to the valour, the endurance, and the high 
 state of discipline of that army of which I have recently had 
 the command in Egypt.' On alighting at Charing C'ross 
 Railway Station, the successful soldier received the con- 
 gratulations of numerous friends, including the Duke of 
 Cambridge and Mr. Gladstone, and great crowds of his 
 countrymen assembled to welcome him. In obedience to 
 the Queen's command, Sir Garnet left London on the follow- 
 ing day for Balmoral^ and, after a most gratifying reception 
 by Her Majesty, returned to town, receiving both going and 
 coming a popular ovation at Perth, Aberdeen, and other 
 places where he was recognised. Immediately on arriving in 
 town, on the ist November, he proceeded to the War Office 
 and resumed his duties as Adjutant-General of the forces 
 from that date. 
 
 The thanks of the Legislature have always been regarded 
 as among the most coveted distinctions conferred on a suc- 
 cessful Commander, and Sir Garnet Wolseley and his brave 
 army had no cause to complain of the terms in which, on the 
 
THE THANKS OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 471 
 
 ing in 
 
 arded 
 suc- 
 brave 
 11 the 
 
 26th of October, the leaders of the great parties in the State 
 conveyed their appreciation of their services to him and his 
 army. Lord Clranville gave a concise sketch of the cam- 
 paign, and Lord SaUsbury enlarged on Sir Garnet's 'peculiar 
 and characteristic genius — namely, a vast and most accurate 
 knowledge of detail' — while the Duke of Cambridge ex[)osed 
 the fallacy, if it required exposing, that attributed delay to 
 him in advancing from Ismailia after seizing the Sweet Water 
 Canal. 
 
 But Mr. Gladstone's speech in the Lower House was, as 
 might be anticipated, the most complete exposition of the 
 war, and the most eloquent panegyric of the Commander. 
 In describing the change of base, he spoke of his possessing 
 the virtue * of keeping his own counsel, thus throwing off 
 the scent the prying eyes which do so much to entertain the 
 public, and sometimes to perplex or even disturb the action 
 of a General.' In speaking of his wise determination to 
 delay his final attack when, on the 9th September, he could 
 have made it ' with a moral assurance of victory,' the Prime 
 Minister said : ' There are some victories which are nothing 
 more than the commencement and the inauguration of pro- 
 longed struggles. There are other victories which in them- 
 selves at once assure the consummation of the great work 
 which the General has in hand ; and it was the wise delay 
 of Sir Garnet Wolseley, and his determination, whatever 
 storm of criticism might come upon him, not to stir and not 
 to touch the enemy till he could effectually crush him, and 
 attain at once the objects of the war, — it was that quality 
 which caused Sir Garnet Wolseley to wait until he had such 
 a force at his command, until he was able to throw forward 
 right and left such a strength of cavalry for the purpose ot 
 surrounding the defeated enemy that he might perform that 
 great operation 1 will describe in the single phrase of con- 
 verting a victory into a conquest.' That phrase, ' converting 
 
472 
 
 LIFE OF LORD IVOLSELE V. 
 
 a victory into a conciuest,' conveys with epigrammatic terse- 
 ness the feature that places this campaign among the most 
 remarkable in modern times. Finally, Mr. (iladstone dwelt 
 on the great characteristic of the assault on Tel-el Kebir, — 
 that it was effected with a smaller loss of life than could 
 have been anticipated, considering the strength of the works 
 and the numerical superiority of the enemy. In the words 
 of Shakespeare, from whom an apt quotation can be drawn 
 for any and every contingency of thought and action, * A 
 victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full 
 numbers.' Dwelling on this happy circumstance, one for 
 which many households in the United Kingdom will bless 
 *the achiever' with more heartiness than for any of the other 
 military qualities he displayed, the orator added : ' Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley will feel the consolation in his life and in 
 his death that the fulness of those numbers was not owing to 
 accident or to the weakne[;s of the enemy, but to a deliberate 
 and well-laid combination — a skilful comparison of means to 
 ends, a judicious arrangement of every step of his measures, 
 and the realir^ation in actual experience of all that he had 
 l)lanned.'* 
 
 A sword of honour was voted to Sir Garnet Wolseley by the 
 
 * A noteworthy feature in this campaign — to which we drew attention in 
 a professional journal on the formation of the Staff of the Expeditionary 
 AtiHy, and to which reference has been made by Lord Wolseley in a speecii 
 .since his return to this country — was the selection of officers of the Royal 
 Artillery and Royal Engineers for high conmiands and important posts on 
 the Staff. It has never been the custom in the British army, though it is 
 common enough in India and in all Continental armies, for officers of these 
 branches of the service to command divisions and brigades ; but in the ex- 
 ])edition to Egypt Sir John Adye, the second in command, and Sir E, 
 Hamley, commanding a division, were artillerymen, and General Graham, 
 who commanded what Lord Wolseley termed ' the fighting brigade,' as it 
 bore the brunt of the work, belonged to the corps of Engineers. Moreover, 
 of 25 officers on the Headquarter Staff, 12 were in the Artillery or ICngineers. 
 In India some of the most successful commanders of armies belonged to 
 the 'scientific' corps, including Sir George Pollock, Sir John Whish, Sir 
 Archdale Wilson, Lord Najiier of Magdala, and Sir Ered'Tick Roberts ; 
 and had the rule that obtained until lately in the British service regulated 
 that of France, the great Napoleon himself would never have risen beyond 
 the grade of Divisional General of Artillery. 
 
WOLSELEY AND REGIMENTAL OEFICERS. 473 
 
 Corporation of London — the second he had received from 
 the same body; and dinners and receptions were given in his 
 honour by the Duke of Cambridge, the Prime Minister, and 
 the Secretaries for War and India. He was also entertained 
 at a banquet by the members of the United Service Club, 
 at which were present the Prince of Wales and the Dukes 
 of Edinburgh, Connaught, and Cambridge. When replying 
 to the toast of his health, he took the opportunity to explain 
 that he had been misunderstood in the views attributed to 
 him regarding our regimental system, since the publication 
 of his article in the Nineteenth Century ; and added, ' that 
 but for the regimental officers, and the way the men were 
 led by them, the success of Tel-el-Kebir could never have 
 been achieved, and that it was his knowledge of and faith in 
 the regimental officers and their men that induced him to 
 plan such an attack.' That an opinion should have been 
 generally entertained that one who gained his first steps on 
 the ladder of fiinie in Burmah and India by his services as 
 a regimental officer, could have been capable of maligning 
 the class, was due to the malevolence of his detractors ; for 
 his published ' Soldier's Pocket-Pook ' is witness that it had 
 no claim to credence. In this work he writes : * The issue 
 of every fight depends upon the infantry, and their conduct 
 depends upon the company officers, who, of all others, are 
 the most important men in any army. At that final mo- 
 ment of actual conflict the result is in their hands. Drawn 
 from the gentry of England, their courage has never been 
 impugned, even by the most Radical of newspapers. Hence, 
 in a great measure, our unvarying success in infantry and 
 cavalry charges.' That under the old system of purchase 
 there were officers who bought a commission in the army 
 without any intention of remaining in it as a profession, but 
 merely as a passport to society, or a gentlemanly way of passing 
 a few years until coming into the family estate, and that some 
 
474 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 such even yet exist, especially in the Household troops, we 
 fancy few will have the temerity to deny. 
 
 A fitting sequel to the Egyptian campaign was the review^ 
 on the 1 8th November, of the troops who had returned 
 from the scat of war. Londoners will not soon forget the 
 brilliant spectacle, and, indeed, no military pageant at once 
 so interesting and splendid as the triumphal procession 
 through the streets of 8,000 men of all arms and branches 
 of the service, and 36 guns, has been seen in the metropo- 
 lis in this generation, if ever.* The scene — as Her Majesty, 
 accompanied by the Princes of her house and the Com- 
 mander who had illustrated her reign by his martial deeds, 
 and now for the last time commanded the soldiers who had 
 so faithfully obeyed his behests, arrived on the parade-ground 
 at the Horse Guards, when the fog lifted as though by magic, 
 like the curtain at a theatrical performance — was one never to 
 be forgotten ; but in interest it was eclipsed by the procession 
 through the crowded streets of the soldiers who had swarmed 
 over the ramparts of Tel-el-Kebir, and compelled the sur- 
 render of Cairo.t So much has been said of the immaturi'/ 
 
 * The only scene of a similar character witnessed in this century was in 
 1814, when the Prince Regent, accompanied by the allied Sovereigns, 
 reviewed, in Hyde Park, a portion of the troops who had served at Water- 
 loo, including the Household Cavalry, who formed f-^ conspicuous a 
 feature of the display of 1882. 
 
 f The following general order to the trooj^s was issued by command of 
 the Queen after the review : ' His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal 
 Commanding-in-Chief has received the Queen's conmiand to convey to 
 General Sir Garnet Wolseley, G.C. B. , G.C.M.G. , and the officers, non- 
 commissioned officers, and men of all branches of the expeditionary forrj, 
 Her Majesty's admiration of their conduct during the recent campaign, in 
 which she has great satisfaction in feeling that her son, Major-General his 
 Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, took an active 
 part. The gallantry displayed by the well -organized contingent of her 
 Indian army and by the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery, as well as by her 
 sailors and Marines, lias not failed to attract Her Majesty's attention. The 
 troops of all ranks, in the face of obstacles of no ordinary character, have 
 shown a marked devotion to duty. For a time without shelter in the desert, 
 under a burning sun, in a climate proverbially adverse to Europeans, their 
 courage and discipline were nobly maintained throughout, and to this, 
 under brave and experienced leaders, may be attributed the success which 
 has distinguished this campaign. The defeat of the enemy in every en- 
 gagement, including the brilliant cavalry charge at Kassassin, culminated 
 
S/R GARNET RAISED TO THE TEE RAGE. 47 S 
 
 of our soldiers, that no little surprise was evinced by the 
 spectators of the stately show at the stalwart appear- 
 ance of the men whose years apparently averaged from 
 twenty-one to twenty-se^'en — an age than which Count von 
 Moltke wrote, ' I could not desire anything better,' for 
 such a battalion ' has sufficient age for stamina.' The crowd 
 who came to see what manner of men were they who had 
 overrun the land of the Pharaohs in a few weeks, went 
 away satisfied that the soldiers for whose maintenance 
 they paid taxes had not deteriorated in physique from the 
 standard of those who, twenty-six years before, received an 
 equally enthusiastic welcome from their countrymen on their 
 return from the Crimea. The campaign served the useful 
 purpose of testing the efficiency of the army under the new 
 system of short-service soldiers, and it must be allowed by 
 all candid critics that, on the whole, it came well out of the 
 ordeal. 
 
 On the 20th of November, Sir Garnet Wolseley was 
 created a Peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of 
 ' Lord Wolseley of Cairo, and of Wolseley in the county of 
 Stafford,' the ancestral seat of the family; thus, though the 
 surname, so well known to his countrymen, has not been 
 merged in the title — the familiar j)refix, ' Sir Garnet,' has 
 ceased to be borne by him. On the 22nd, his lordship 
 proceeded to AVindsor, ' kissed hands ' on being raised to 
 the peerage, and, in company with about 350 officers and 
 men of all ranks of the army and navy, who had served in 
 Egypt, including the detachment of the Indian Contingent, 
 
 in the action of Tel-el-Kel)ir, in which, of'cr an arduous night-march, his 
 position was carried at tlie p<jint of tiie bayonet, iiis yuns were captured, 
 and his whole army, notwithstanding its great numerical superiority, was 
 completely dispersed. It is, therefore, with the greatest gratification that 
 His Royal Highness conveys Her Majesty's welcome to the troops whom 
 it washer pleasure to review on the i8th instant, and His Royal Highness, 
 at the same tiUiC, has to express Her Majesty's thanks to the entire force 
 for the brave and exemplary conduct displayed by all, individually and 
 collectively, during the campaign.' 
 
476 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 received, at the hands of Her Majesty, the Egyptian War 
 Medal, the massed bands of the 2nd Life Guards and 
 Coldstreams playing * See the conquering Hero comes,' 
 as the Sovereign pinned the medal on his breast. On this 
 occasion the Queen addressed the recipients of the medals 
 in the following terms : ' I have summoned you here to-day, 
 to confer upon you the well-earned medals commemorative 
 of the short and brilliant, although arduous, campaign, in 
 which all have done their duty with courageous and un- 
 daunted devotion. Tell your comrades that I thank them 
 heartily for the gallant services they have rendered to their 
 Queen and country, and that I am proud of my soldiers 
 and sailors, who have added fresh glories to the victories 
 won by their predecessors.' 
 
 A distinguished officer who has served on his Staff, writes 
 to us of the characteristics of Lord Wolseley : '" VVhat I ob- 
 served chiefly was his extraordinary power of imparting con- 
 fidence to all around him, and also the influence that he 
 can exercise to win over the most cantankerous of mortals. I 
 have known old colonels more than once, who had never before 
 seen him, who were jealous of his success, and whose bristles 
 were all up, come out after an interview with their prejudices 
 shaken, and added to his devoted admirers. His power and 
 rapidity of doing business is also, as you no doubt know well, 
 one of his greatest traits. When another man would be 
 fussy and solemn, he will be chatty and amusing, and even 
 renders the most dry of official details interesting by his re- 
 marks. Official document after official document may come 
 under his notice with a * Yes,' or a ' No,' or an ' All 
 right ' for an answer ; but no sooner is a knotty point 
 raised than he seems to grasp at once the bearings of the 
 case without an effort. His freedom from any sort of pre- 
 judice is also remarkable in a profession which is full of it. 
 
 ' In South Africa, taken generally, what I noticed chiefly 
 
REMINISCENCES OF LORD WOLSELEY. 477 
 
 was the change that came over the soldiers after his arrival. 
 It is not too much to say, that in the Zulu War great portions 
 of the army were really almost demoralized, and the very 
 name of a Zulu wa^ enough to make them rush behind the 
 nearest waggon. The same men, but a month or two after- 
 wards, thought themselves individually equal to 50 natives, 
 and in the operations against Secocoeni exhibited this in a 
 marked degree. Lord Wolseley's determination was also 
 very great. Upon one occasion he determined to ride to 
 Newcastle from Prajtoria ; he used troopers only. He left 
 Proitoria at seven a.m., and reached Heidelburg, fifty-six miles, 
 a little before one p.m. Pushing on from here, he was caught 
 in a violent thunderstorm, arrivingat the next stage, McHatty's, 
 eighteen miles, drenched through and through. Although the 
 storm had not ceased, he endeavoured to push on from here, 
 with a result that he 'ost his way in the veldt, and was 
 wandering in rain and darkness until two a.m. the following 
 day. At six a.m. he was away again with a very similar day to 
 follow, determined to arrive at Newcastle as he had arranged. 
 I attribute the rising of the Boers, in the winter of 1880, very 
 much to the influence of his absence. During the whole 
 time he was at Proetoria he held them comfortably in check. 
 Their chances of success were great, and the position would 
 have been awkward had they risen when Sir Garnet was en 
 route to Secccoeni, but his influence was quite sufficient to 
 restrain them. 
 
 * In Egypt, the day that struck me most, or rather where 
 his individuality had the greatest play, apart from Tel-el- 
 Kebir, was the 24th August. Starting in the morning to 
 make a small reconnoissance, he came upcn the Egyptians 
 in considerable strength. As their numbers developed and 
 their guns came into play, as their irregulars threatened our 
 flank, and their main body formed up, apparently to come on, 
 I believe that nine men out of ten would have thought how 
 
478 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 to retire judiciously. I remember so well his expression at 
 the time when things looked worst : *' I shall turn their left 
 flank and roll them into the canal." The late arrival of rein- 
 forcements, owing to the heat of the march, prevented his 
 doing this on that day eventually ; but I shall never forget the 
 sublime confidence of the man under the circumstances, a 
 confidence that had a great influence — in my opinion, the 
 very greatest — on the course of the campaign.' 
 
 As has been said of him, the three chief characteristics of 
 Lord Wolseley are — ' dash, discretion, and foresight.' A 
 singular similarity may be traced in the successes he has 
 achieved — the same careful elaboration of plan, with a rai)id 
 execution that gives no time for rallying or a i)rolonged resist- 
 ance. Thus it was in the brief campaign against Secocoeni, 
 when the night-march preceded the attack at daybreak. The 
 advance onCoomassie affords an even more striking instance, 
 and a passage in his despatch of the 13th of February, 1874, 
 summing up the results of the war, might almost have been 
 written of the recent campaign. ' Our success,' he writes, 
 ' does not lie merely in our having defeated the enemy's 
 army and occupied his capital, but in our having thoroughly 
 established in this kingdom a wholesome fear of the British 
 power, and a knowledge of the advantages of an alliance 
 with Her Majesty.' 
 
 Remarkable as have been the achievements of Lord Wol- 
 seley's career, his last was the most striking of all. Military 
 opinion is unanimous that the conception and execution of 
 the plan for the capture of the lines of Tei-el-Kebir stamp 
 the originator as a soldier of genius. Such competent critics 
 as Baker Pasha and Colonel von Hagenau, the German 
 officer attached to the Headquarters of the British Army in 
 Egypt, who have studied the ground marched and fought 
 over, have expressed an opinion that the method of attack 
 adopted was at once the most bloodless for the assailants, 
 
MERITS OF IVOLSE LEY'S STRATEGY. 479 
 
 and the most certain to be decisive that could have been 
 delivered.* The plan was not less unique than daring, and 
 the ability with which it was carried into execution proclaimed 
 the hand of the master-workman skilled in the use of the 
 tools placed at his disposal. The very completeness of the 
 success has tended to lessen the credit due to the Com- 
 mander, and the writers who spoke despondingly of the 
 difficulties of the campaign are the same men who later 
 wrote disparagingly of its merits. 
 
 Had Lord Wolseley carried the lines of Tel-el-Kebirafter a 
 sanguinary struggle, the measure of his success and the great- 
 ness of the victory would, in the eyes of such critics, have 
 been guaged by the extent of his losses. But in this instance, 
 as throughout his career, his object was to effect his purpose 
 with as little effusion of blood as ])ossible, and he was suc- 
 cessful where a general of inferior skill would have suffered 
 heavy loss. Had the surprise not been complete, and the 
 arrangements perfect, the intrenchments could not have 
 been carried without great slaughter ; and indeed the issue 
 was doubtful in the opinion of many experienced officers, 
 and no one anticipated success without a heavy casualty- 
 roll. The selection of the plan of attack was only deter- 
 mined after much careful consideration, and on observing 
 several days in succession that the enemy's outposts 
 •were withdrawn during the night, and only posted after 
 
 * An officer who traversed the field writes : ' I think the more we inquire 
 into tlic conditions under which Sir Garnet Wolseley was obliged to act, 
 the more his admirable tactical foresight will strike us, and the greater will 
 be our admiration for his exceeding skill, both as a cautious, careful leader, 
 and a bold and rapid strategist. What he wanted, above ail things, to 
 effect was the complete destruction of Arabi's army, involving the safety 
 of Cairo, and the utter collapse of all defensi\e schemes at Kafr D var, 
 Aljoukir, and Damietta. I declare to you, as 1 rode over the deseii, and 
 tried to conjure up the night-march, the silent, fireless bivouac, the advance 
 in tlie early hours ere dawn, and then the terrible rush on the startled 
 enemy, I was filled with a sort of awe at the audacity and wonder at the 
 success of the enterprise. Did any General before this, in all your reading, 
 think of diiecting the march of his army on the enemy by the stars of 
 lieaven ?' 
 
48o 
 
 UFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 
 daybreak. From his great experience of warfare with 
 many and varied nationalities, he knew that a sudden 
 attack at night on an unprepared army, even if made by 
 a small body of men, offered a favourable opportunity for 
 delivering a blow. But this blow, to be decisive, must 
 be struck at dawn ; and his familiarity with the difficulties 
 attending a night-march, taught him that even the best 
 troops are liable to fall into confusion or suffer from a 
 sudden panic. Leaving nothing to chance, he therefore 
 decided to assault with two columns, so that in the event of 
 failure on the part of one, the other should not be thrown 
 into confusion. Hence Graham's and Alison's Brigades 
 made cfistinct attacks, and the Artillery force of 42 guns 
 planted between them afforded yet another chance of suc- 
 cess, a third string to his bow, as in the event of both 
 columns being driven back, with their supports and reserves, 
 the fire of the massed guns, concentrated on a single spot, 
 might give time for the infantry to rally and clear a way for 
 a fresh advance. His plans were, in fact, based on the 
 assumption that if even a small force made its way within 
 the intrenchments, the blow could be followed up and suc- 
 cess achieved. The flanks of the main attack were well 
 watched by the Indian Contingent on the left, to complete 
 the security of the movement, and, being fresher than their 
 comrades, to march on Zagazig ; and by the Cavalry Divi- 
 sion on the right, which was kept well in hand, to pursue 
 the flying columns, or, in the event of defeat, to cover the 
 retreat or threaten the enemy's rear. Every eventuality 
 was, in short, provided for, and nothing was left to chance. 
 Like the great Trojan chief, 
 
 ' His piercing eyes through .ill the battle stray. ' 
 
 And, finally, when victory rewarded the skilful tactician, its 
 fruits were fully reaped. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 481 
 
 The Press of Europe presented the most astonishing 
 spectacle of perplexity after the victory, which, indeed, they 
 had proi)hesied would be a failure, or, at least, that it would 
 not be achieved without great losses and a prolonged cam- 
 paign. The majority of the Press — German, French, Russian, 
 Italian, and Spanish — had indulged in diatribes at what they 
 considered the supineness and faulty strategy of the Com- 
 mander ; and great was their surprise when it resulted in a 
 brilliant victory, and still more when the blow was followed 
 up with a vigour unsurpassed in the annals of war. Their 
 endeavours to account for this surprising success did credit 
 to their ingenuity, if not to their intelligence or ingenuous- 
 ness ; and their inventive faculty was displayed in the French 
 story of Arabi having been bribed, and in the canard of 
 the importation of 2,000 bloodhounds, gravely set afloat by 
 the Italian Press. 
 
 The Egyptian campaign was replete with startling incidents 
 and telling situations. What could be more picturesque than 
 the moonlight charge of the ponderous Household Cavalry? 
 It will ever be a proud memory in the history of that corps 
 d' elite, how they burst like an avalanche on the astonished 
 Egyptians, sweeping all before them, and convertini; a retreat 
 into a rout. Then the midnight march of the army, guided 
 alone by the stars. Can any episode recorded in war appeal 
 more powerfully to the imagination? The vast mass of 14,000 
 men, with 60 guns, covering a front of four miles, moved 
 across the desert, silent and resolute, straight upon the in- 
 trenchmcnts behind which lay an army double their strength, 
 and their spring was like that of the tiger on its prey, so close 
 and deadly was it. Finally, could anything be more dramatic 
 than the scene presented at Cairo on the night of the T4th 
 September, when 6,000 men, the garrison of a strong citadel, 
 defiled out of its gates by torchlight before a handful of 
 hungry and weary British Dragoons? As General Drury- 
 
 3» 
 
482 
 
 LIFE OF LORD WOLSELEY. 
 
 Lowe said, the forced march of his cavalry — of which the 
 consequences were this event, and the surrender of Arabi, 
 with the attendant results of finishing the war, and perform- 
 ing for civilization the priceless service of saving a city whose 
 architectural beauties are among the most valued possessions 
 of art — was planned before the army embarked for Egypt 
 by the master-mind who directed the operations of one of 
 the most rapid and brilliant of modern wars. 
 
 The eulcgium passed on Cinna, the conqueror of Sylla, 
 may be applied with equal justice to Wolseley, ' Perfecisse 
 qua a tiiillo nisi fortissimo^ perfici posscfii.^ Only an accom- 
 plished master of the art of war could have gained the 
 victories over man and the forces of Nature, achieved by 
 Lord Wolseley in his campaigns in the Red River, Ashantee, 
 South Africa and Egypt. 
 
 5-T 
 
 THE END. 
 
 lill.l.ING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD AND LONDON. 
 « G.C.^ Co. 
 
^hich the 
 3f Arabi, 
 perform - 
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 )ssessions 
 or Egypt 
 Df one of 
 
 of Sylla, 
 Perfecisse 
 n accom- 
 ined the 
 ieved by 
 ^shantee, 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^0.