Battle Honours of the British Army: From Tangier, 1662, to the Commencement of the Reign of King Edward VIINorman, Charles Boswell
History
Battle Honours of the British Army: From Tangier, 1662, to the Commencement of the Reign of King Edward VII
Norman, Charles Boswell
Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
Havelock lived just long enough to know that his services had been
appreciated at last, and that he had been gazetted a Major-General
for distinguished service in the field, and raised to the dignity
of a K.C.B. The baronetcy conferred upon him was not gazetted until
after his death. The final relief I deal with on p. 326. A dark
shadow was cast over that glorious achievement. Havelock was able
to drag his sorely stricken frame across the breastwork to welcome
Sir Colin Campbell and the relieving army, and then, worn out by
toil and anxiety, he sank into his grave. In a shady grove of trees
hard by the Alumbagh they made his humble tomb, and Campbell,
Outram, Inglis, Peel, and many a stout soldier who had followed
him in that stern march from Cawnpore, now followed his remains
to their last resting-place. So long as gallant deeds and noble
aspirations and spotless self-devotion are cherished in our midst,
so long will Havelock's lonely tomb, hard by the scenes of his
triumphs and of his death, be regarded as one of the most sacred
spots where England's soldiers lie.
RELIEF OF LUCKNOW BY SIR COLIN CAMPBELL, NOVEMBER, 1857.
No sooner was Delhi in our hands than General Wilson, as I have
shown on p. 312, despatched a small force towards Agra, where,
unfortunately, the civil and military authorities had not shown
themselves possessed of those qualities which have built up our
Indian Empire. Few indeed were the men that Wilson could spare, but
on the morning of September 21 Brigadier Greathed, Colonel of the
8th (King's), now the Liverpool Regiment, marched towards Agra at
the head of the little movable column. His force consisted of two
troops of horse and one battery of field artillery; the 9th Lancers
(300 strong); the 8th and 73rd Regiments, which, in consequence
of their heavy losses, only numbered 450 men; four squadrons of
the 21st, 22nd, and 25th Cavalry and of Hodson's Horse, the four
squadrons some 500 strong; and the 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry
(now the 56th and 57th Rifles). All told, the brigade numbered 800
cavalry, 1,650 infantry, 200 sappers, and 18 guns.
On the 10th of the following month Greathed reached Agra, where he
was attacked by the rebels. To their astonishment, these gentry
found they had a totally different stamp of men to deal with than
the Agra garrison, and Greathed, with the loss of but 13 killed and
54 wounded, drove them off, capturing thirteen guns. During the
short halt at Agra, General Hope Grant, Colonel of the 9th Lancers,
arrived in camp with some 300 British soldiers, convalescents
of the regiments at Delhi, and took over command. Pushing on to
Cawnpore, he found a wing of the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) and
some men of the regiments which had gone into Lucknow with Havelock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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