Lucknow - Indian Mutiny (1857-1858)
Lucknow
Indian Mutiny (1857-1858)
(Honour awarded in 1863)
News of an outbreak of mutiny at Meerut reached the Commander-in-Chief at Simla on 12th May 1857. After some delay, the available troops moved on to Delhi, which was in mutineer’s hands, and after three months siege the city was taken by storm. The operations at the siege of Lucknow from May 1857 to March 1858 involved, in succession, the defence of the residency, the reinforcement of the garrison, the relief and the withdrawal of women and children, and the siege and capture of the city.
On the 11th July 1857 the news reached London of the mutiny of the Indian sepoys at Meerut on Sunday, 10 May, and their capture of Delhi the following day. A telegram was at once dispatched to the Queen’s Bays, informing them that they were to proceed to Liverpool immediately en route for Canterbury, before embarking for India as part of the reinforcements. Nine troops embarked on the 25 July in the transports Blenheim and Monarch, with strength of 28 officers, 47 sergeants and 635 other ranks.
The voyage took four months and the Bays did not reach Calcutta until the 25 and 27 November. On arrival the Bays were informed that they were to go Allahabad with the utmost speed to join Hope Grants Cavalry Division in Sir Colin Campbell’s force. This meant a 500-mile journey, 400 miles of which entailed marching across India with their newly issued horses. Most of the men had probably never before been out of Britain, let alone seen service in the East, the Bays being one of the first British heavy cavalry regiments to serve in the East India Company’s forces, (see Seymour’s account of the march on the history link). From the end of January onwards the Bays were regularly employed in mopping-up operations, which characterized the later stages of the Mutiny, and in March they took part in the siege of Lucknow.
In February 1858 The Queen’s Bays were ordered to march north from Allahabad to form part of a force under the commander in chief, Sir Colin Campbell, which was to move to Lucknow. Since the recapture of Delhi, Lucknow, the ancient capital of Oudh, had become a centre of resistance for the mutineers. At the start of the Mutiny, the rebels had seized the city and besieged the British who were cooped up in the Residency. Havelock with a small force fought his way through to the beleaguered garrison, reaching them just in time, but both the beleaguered and the relievers then had to endure a second siege. In the autumn of 1857 Sir Colin Campbell, with a second relief column, managed to raise the siege, but had not sufficient strength to capture the town, and so retired with what remained of the garrison and its imprisoned Europeans. Now in February 1858 he was assembling a force of 20,000 men to march on Lucknow, which was held by 130,000 mutineers, many of who were regular sepoys, whilst others were followers of their hereditary chieftains.
The cavalry division was commanded by Hope Grant, a 9th Lancer, and consisted of two cavalry brigades; the first under Brigadier Little had the 9th Lancers, 2nd and 5th Punjab cavalry, Wale’s Sikh Horse and the 2nd Battalion Military Train; the 2nd Brigade under Campbell of the Queen’s Bays, had in addition to the Bays the 7th Hussars, 1st Punjab Cavalry and Hodson’s Horse with Barrow’s Volunteer Cavalry. The force moved on 1 March. The Bays joining the army on the 3rd, were attached to Sir James Outram’s column, composed of all arms, and given the task of forcing the crossings of the river Dilkoosha. On the 6th March two squadrons of Bays made a spirited charge under the command of Major Percy Smith suffering 9 casualties, Major Smith and two corporals were killed and 6 men wounded Seymour described the action; About 10am we came on bodies of cavalry and infantry of the enemy. Bays were ordered to the front to ‘charge and pursue’! Away we went as hard a possible Major Smith and I leading. We did not stop for three miles, cutting down, pursuing and cutting up the Pandies right up to Lucknow, and across the river. We were told the most gallant, smartest, though somewhat rash thing that has been done before Lucknow. Mr Russel (Times Correspondent) perhaps will tell you how many we cut down, though he had not been with us! Alas! However, we lost our best officer, shot dead alongside and within five yards of myself, the nearest of all, with some 15 men, to Lucknow. Poor Major Smith. The recall had just been sounded all over the place for us, and we had just been polishing off some 50 infantry that we had got in a body. He fell without a groan, and I and four of my troop tried to bring his body off, but their cavalry bore down on us in such numbers that it was impossible. We, however did manage to get his Helmut, sword, pistol and medals, which I cantered off with, the last but one to leave the spot; the remaining one being a corporal of my Troop, whose horse would not let him get up again-this poor fellow was cut into ribbons! I returned without a scratch, though my charger got a nasty sabre wound on his off foreleg, which will prevent my riding him for some time. The charge captured an elephant, and killed between sixty and seventy mutineers.
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Troop Banner Queen's Bays, Lucknow |
On the 16 March the mutineers were finally cleared out of Lucknow, but some 20,00 sepoys managed to escape and lived to fight another day. On the 15th March Sir Colin Campbell had despatched two cavalry brigades to chase the rebels fleeing from the city, but the cavalry scattered all over the countryside had little success; but more importantly they were not available on the 16 to block the retreat of the bodies of mutineers. With the capture of Lucknow and the dispersal of the rebel forces, operations were concerned with the pacification of the countryside and the elimination of the various separate bodies of mutineers.
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Indian Mutiny Veteran Courtesy of Chris Coogan |
The Queen’s Bays were attached during March to a column commanded by General Grant, and made up of 3,000 British and Sikh troops, the cavalry being the 7th Hussars, five squadrons of irregular horse and one squadron of the Queen’s Bays, with the task of dispersing and destroying a well equipped force of 20,000 mutineers gathered in the area between the rivers Goomtee and Ganges. Grant moved out on the road to Sitapur and engaged in a number of actions across Oudh, but in the middle of May the heat was such that even the hardened troops were dying in scores and Grant returned to Lucknow.
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The Queen's Bays Charging at Lucknow, Indian Mutiny 1858 |
During these operations the Bays squadron, commanded by Captain Hutchinson, was in action at Koorsee and was involved in an affair at Barree. On 13th June two squadrons of the Bays along with the 7th Hussars, Hodsons Horse and the 1st Sikh Horse attacked a body of 15,000 mutineers strongly entrenched at the river crossing 18 miles east of Lucknow at Nawabganj on the road to Fyzabad. After a twelve mile night march the enemy were surprised but fought back bravely. The action lasted for three hours. In this melee the 7th Hussars and Hodsons Horse were supported in their charge by the two Bays squadrons. The action was over by 8am. But 33 men of the British force had died of sunstroke, while by the end of the day 250 were in hospital.
Operations started again in September and on the 21st a squadron of Bays met the enemy at Dawah. The squadron engaged and dispersed the mutineers who put up a strong fight in hand to hand combat; in then charge on corporal and two troopers were killed and several men wounded. In October the Bays were transferred to Brigadier Sir George Baker’s column, and on the 8th of the month were engaged in a smart action at Jamo, for their part in this action two soldiers of the Bays Trumpeter Monaghan and Private Anderson were awarded the Victoria Cross for saving the life of their commanding officer. Four hundred and sixty four men of the Bays received the Indian Mutiny Medal with the Lucknow clasp and one hundred and ninety six received it without the clasp.
